The sound of leaves and branches cracking under their feet was a common thing. As they rushed through the woods, narrowly avoiding trees and other obstacles.

"Lee, I'm getting tired, I can't keep up!" Clementine was running besides Lee, but her energy eventually ran out, and she began to stray behind him.

"You can't let her stray behind Lee, carry the girl!" Edward, one of their many companions, yelled out the recommendation, as he took out as many walkers as he could, from behind and in front of him.

"Here Clem, grab tight, and don't look back!" Clementine buried her face in Lee's back as they ran from the horde, throughout the woods.

After what seemed a eternity, they ran out into the road, with no sights of walkers.

"Jesus, Clementine, how old are you?"

She looked at Edward, staying behind Lee the whole time.

"I.. I'm 8."

"Well, you ran pretty fast back there. Hopefully you won't have to do that again."

"We have to try to meet up with the others, let's go down the road." Lee put Clem down, and told her to stay close at his side at all times.

"I recommend we head back to the farm, before it gets dark, they should be back by then."

Edward looked towards Clem.

"What do you think we should do Clem?"

"They're our friends. We can't just leave out there, we need to find them and bring them back to the farm," She replied.

"Well, you heard the lady. Off to look then."

"Wait, they're over there!"

The rest of their group slowly approached them, clearly exhausted.

"Jesus, glad you guys made it out of that place in one piece," Exclaimed Kenny, who was followed by the rest of the group.

"We really shouldn't stick around complimenting each other while the horde is not far, we should get going, now," replied Chet, who had assumed the role as the leader of the scavenging group. He wasn't much of a leader, but he wanted the best for everyone.

" Who are you to say that? Your damn trigger finger nearly got us all killed!" Kenny Exclaimed, holding his family nearby.

"My trigger finger saved our asses, we would be walker food if we didn't shoot our way out! Sometimes you only see the bad side of things, Kenny, you need to learn to see the damn good side on things."

"I think he's right, she stopped the monsters from getting to us," added Clem.

"Clementine, please," retorted Kenny.

"Maybe we should stop arguing and get our way back to the farm, we got what we needed for, so let's go," said Edward.

The group got on the pick up truck Hershel lent them, and they started their drive back.

"So, Lee, you never told me, where did you find Clementine?" Asked Edward.

Lee looked at Clem, who was in a deep sleep, against his shoulder.

"I found her in her house, she was hiding in her tree house by herself. Her babysitter was supposed to take care of her but she didn't make it. We've been together ever since."

"I really hope it stays like that, we as adults can barely handle our asses, but the kids? They're like gold, and we gotta protect them at all costs," added Kenny.

"Where are her parents?" Asked Chet.

"I think she mentioned they were on vacation in Savannah when it all started. She wants to look for them, so we plan on heading down there."

"Damn right we are, we're gonna get us a boat and get the hell off the mainland."

Lee nodded in response, and remained quiet the rest of the way. They decided to go on a supply run into town for some medicine that was required at the farm, and got caught by walkers in the process, which led to them eventually running into the woods.

"We got what you asked for," said Lee, as he handed over the duffel bag to Hershel.

"Katjaa told me about what happened during the supply run,"

Lee simply stared back.

"And what did she say?"

"That walkers started to come in, and that you had to shoot your way out,"

"Well she's not lying, that's how it happened,"

"What bothered me is that instead of leaving your girl here with us, you decided to take her, knowing how risky it is out there,"

"I asked her if she wanted to stay here, and she didn't want to. I'm not going to make her do something that she doesn't want to," he replied.

"You're going to have to one day, Lee. She's in danger when she's out there. Consider this. We can start tomorrow. You can help Shawn on the fence, and she can stay here with the girls, get to know them a bit more, what do you say?"

Lee was annoyed at the fact that he was trying to tell him what to do with Clementine.

" I'll try. I'm not guaranteeing anything though."

"Understandable. Go get some rest."

As Lee opened the barn doors, he turned around and saw Clementine just sitting on her makeshift bed.

"Why are you still up?"

"I thought maybe something was going on,"

"Nothing is going on, I was just doing some things with Hershel, that's all."

"I.. I.. I just don't feel really safe when you're not around."

Lee sat down next to her and hugged her.

"Why's that?"

"You've helped me and protected me me more then anyone else here, and I feel more safe with you,"

"Well, I can tell you that I will protect you from any dangers that might be around. I won't let anything happen to you, Sweet Pea. Now, we have a big day tomorrow, so try to get some sleep." He put her to sleep, and he also eventually drifted off.

The next morning, Clementine was already up, and helping Katjaa with some things. As soon as Lee got up, he was approached by Hershel once again.

" Any time you go out again, the girl stays here, for everyone's sake."

"This bastard..." Thought Lee.

"Well, I didn't ask her directly, but she just said that she doesn't feel safe when I'm not around. So wherever I go, she goes. Period." Lee was getting annoyed, Hershel seemed to keep bothering him about the same ordeal.

Hershel put down his pitchfork and looked at Lee.

" Hmph. You know, you should try to be less of an asshole next time."

"If being an asshole is deciding what's safe for my girl, then nothings changing."

There was a quick moment of silence. Suddenly they could hear a loud scream, coming from the fence.

"What the hell?" Lee ran out the barn and towards the fence. The front wheel of the tractor had crushed Shawn's leg, leaving him incapacitated, while a couple of walkers were trying to tear down the fence.

"Duck, what happened?!"

"The tractor turned on and crushed his leg!"

Lee ran towards Duck and pulled him off a walker that had grabbed him. Kenny ran and helped him off.

"I got it, thanks Lee."

"Help!" Shawn yelled out. As soon as Lee got close, the walkers broke through and began to devour Shawn. Hershel arrived too late, only managing to kill the walkers.

"Lee, what's going to happen?" Clem seemed frightened and afraid at Hershel's reaction.

"Get out. Get the fuck out, and never come back," he growled.

The rest of the group returned to the entrance of the barn where Kenny's pick up truck was parked.

"Well, you heard the man. We're off now. We make a pretty good team, we should stick together until this mess gets sorted out," said Kenny, who started to pack their things.

"Will it ever? Things seem pretty messed up back in the cities, and there's no signs of it getting better," added Edward, who started to put his things on the truck also.

"Maybe we just need to wait a bit longer," said Clem.

"Hopefully you're right, Clem. But Kenny's right, we'll have better chances at surviving this thing if we all stick together. So where are we off to?"

"We had our plan to go back to Fort Lauderdale, but things don't seem good," added Katjaa.

"Me and Clem planned on heading towards Macon, my family has a business there, maybe we can find help. Plus, it might not be too bad there," added Lee.

"Well, since no one has any better idea, Macon it is. Everyone, hop on." The crew boarded the truck, giving the farm one last look.

"Look man, I appreciate what you did for Duck back there, one of the damn monsters had em, and you helped him there." said Kenny.

"It's the least I could do,"

"If we had saved Shawn maybe things would have been different," added Katjaa.

"Kat, the boy had a tractor wheel on his leg and a bunch of walkers on him. We weren't gonna be able to do much,"

Clem just looked out into the horizon, seeing the farm dissappear along the countryside. Another place she could have called home, gone in seconds.