"Move, come on. Go ahead!" Clementine ushered the trio to move forward.
"W-why? What do you need us-"
"Just hurry up and move forward. I don't trust you, y'all need to be in front so I can keep an eye on you at all times." Although her shotgun was lowered, it had been cocked already. If any of them were to make a dumb decision and try to attack her, she wouldn't break a sweat in killing them.
Reluctantly, the foreigners took point and began their trip to the river. Clementine still thought it was a bad idea, a mistake. Why was she doing this? Well, Sarah talked her into it or you could say, she talked herself into it. It was very confusing to her. "Just keep moving, I'll tell y'all where to go. Do y'all understand?"
"Yes, yes, we understand. Just please don't shoot us." Edouard fearfully replied.
"Well, don't do anything stupid and you'll be fine."
The "group" trailed through the woods with Clementine keeping an eye out for any scavengers that may have been in the area.
They were definitely going to be back at some point especially that bald guy with the goatee. He was really the one doing all firefighting with her, engaging in combat and shooting up her house. That man had some nerve thinking he could just come in, ransack through her prized possessions and just walk out unharmed which, unfortunately did happen.
As for the other kid, the only one who made it out with him; seemed very scared to even be there in the first place. Clementine didn't feel too much animosity toward the teen but he shouldn't have been there in the first place. For his sake, he better find some new friends to survive with otherwise he was going to end up dead. Just like his other two friends.
What caught her attention though was the brand mark on their skin. That circular burn with a strange symbol in the inside of it. The other two, the old man and the lady had it. Maybe it was an initiation thing or something stupid like that.
Clem thought it to be ridiculous. Why brand yourself with some petty mark yhat don't mean anything or even benefit anything? This was about survival not roleplaying or whatever the hell they were doing.
The group had been walking for a while, it already took her a couple of hours until she came across these foreigners. By the time she met them, the sun was setting and now; here comes the darkness.
Fortunately, Clementine took a flashlight with her. Thought that it would come in handy but to her dissatisfaction, she needed to get up front to actually see something. With the foreigners blocking her view, the flashlight would practically be useless.
"S-so... umm..." Edouard hesitated.
"You wanna be quiet?" Theodore said, his voice hushed and giving him a pointed look.
"I just wanna ask her a simple question!" He loudly whispered in which Clementine suppress a scoff.
"Well, you better hope that that 'simple question' does not get us killed in the process!"
Edouard shook his head. In all honesty, he wasn't sure if he should ask this question but he was curious. "Uhh..."
"You wanna spit it out? What do you want?" The child abruptly spoke causing the man to slightly flinch.
"Oh-uh-" The man cleared his throat and Clem rolled her eyes. "W-what is your name?"
How did these people manage to survive this long? Possibly they didn't and they had more people in their group before she showed up.
"Why do you wanna know?"
"I-I-It's just that that I'm curious."
Theodore slapped a hand onto his face. "We're gonna die." He muttered so quietly he wasn't sure if he heard it himself.
"Doesn't matter, 'cause once I bring all of you to the river we ain't never seeing each other again."
Edouard nodded, accepting her answer. "Okay, well thank you miss."
Clementine frowned, rolling her eyes. "Whatever."
"H-how long have you been alone for?"
"Ohmonseigneur." Theodore quietly exclaimed at Berthe's unbelievably stupid question. Here they were, being led by what obviously looked and sounded like a psychotic child and his friends were interrogating her and asking questions. They all saw her have a conversation with herself a couple of hours ago or however long it's been, this child was mentally ill. It didn't take a psychiatrist to figure that out.
"I dunno. Two years, I think." The new fledged teen answered.
Edouard and Berthe both looked at each other with horrid expressions. "Two years?" The girl mouthed to which he merely shrugged, not knowing what to say. "B-but where are your parents? Doesn't somebody-"
"I think you should shut the hell up right now if you don't wanna get whacked." The teen stopped walking and turned to face the woman.
Everyone stopped moving, all three of them looking down at the child. Edouard took note of the bandage on the teen's eye but said nothing.
"Done with the questioning? Okay!" Clementine was about to continue before she stopped herself. "Oh wait, you know what? You guys can be in front." She tossed the flashlight over to Edouard who almost dropped it. "Come on, start fucking moving." Swallowing down their reluctance, the trio took point and continued down the path. "What about y'all?"
"Sorry?"
"Where are y'all from? Since you're so keen on interviewing me, I wanna interview you now. Where are you from?"
The man sighed which didn't go unnoticed by the teen. "France, w-we're from France."
"Ah, France." The teen nodded. At least, they aren't Russian. "So you guys like bread? What about that really long... bread thing? whatever it's called."
"A baguette."
"What?" Clem frowned at Theodore.
"It's called a baguette." He simply answered.
Then an image came into her mind and she gasped. "Oh! Wait-wait-wait, do you guys like mimes? You guys have mimes right?" She couldn't help but chuckle.
As time passed, Clementine noticed that they were nearing the lake. They had passed the turnoff that would take them to the cabin which would take them about twenty minutes to get to it. From the cabin to the lake it would probably take an hour, at least to Clementine's calculations.
She wasn't certain, she didn't know. The teen didn't care enough about math anyway, she hated it.
They mainly continued the trip in silence. The Frenchies would only ask which path they needed to take when they were confused but other than that, it was quiet.
"It's just up here." Edouard looked back at her. "Over there." She pointed at the path leading out of the woods. They could faintly hear the river flowing. It was already dark out, the sun died hours ago. It must've been around midnight at least.
They made it out of the clearing. Edouard who had the flashlight, shined it at the stream taking it in.
"This is it?" Berthe asked.
"Uh huh. There's plenty of food here, you just gotta fish it out. Gut it and eat it." Clementine sighed. "Welp, I'm outta here." She turned to leave.
"Woah-wait-what?" Edouard turned away from the river. "You're leaving?"
"Uh yeah." She turned around. "I'm leaving. I said I was gonna get you here and I did so now we're done."
"But, wait where-where will you go?" Berthe worriedly asked, stepping forward.
"Frankly, I ain't any of your business."
"But don't you have a group? Or somebody who takes care of you?"
"I don't need nobody to take care of me! I'm perfectly capable of handling myself." She then eyed the flashlight she handed to Edouard. "Also, you can keep that. I don't need that either."
"It's pretty dark in there, you... sure you won't need it?"
"Yeah, I'm pretty positive." Clementine promptly replied getting irritated. What is it with these people? This woman was bothering her, why was she so concerned for her anyway? As if she has any right to be, she didn't know her, they weren't friends; Clementine decided to do them a favor and that was it.
The man sighed before nodding. "Okay. Thanks again miss."
The teen shrugged her shoulders. "Whatever." Came her blunt reply before she turned to head off.
As Berthe watched the child turn to leave, the build-up of anxiety in her chest was getting increasingly difficult to keep in.
She didn't want to let the child go especially at this time of night. If it wasn't for the flashlight she had, it would've been close to pitch black. The tall trees, the large patches of grass? It was terrifying having to stroll through the woods at night but this was a child. She was alone and had been for two years. It was what she told them.
Berthe wondered what happened. The child must've had someone who took care of her. Someone must've shown her how to use guns. She couldn't have been alone all this time.
What got her utmost attention was the bandage covering her eye. The girl shuttered to think what was under it, hopefully, it was just for show and her eye was perfectly fine. As stupid as it sounded but she just picture somebody hurting a child to the point where she would lose her eye.
The girl has had her fair share of conflict. Edouard and Theodore both had, but they never came across somebody who would harm or kill a child.
As she watched the child enter the woods disappearing further into the dark, she turned around at both of the men and began speaking in French. "We can't just let her go."
"Well, what are we supposed to do? That girl is insane." Theodore said.
"She is still just a kid!"
"One that could kill us."
"So you're saying that we should just leave her alone? Let her wander off into the woods?"
"That's perfectly fine with me. As long she stays away from us, I don't care where she goes." Theodore began looking around the dirt for sticks, anything to start a fire with.
"She helped us get here, you're acting like she is-like some sort of... maniacal killer."
Theodore scoffed, staring at her with an bewildered expression. "Because she is!"
"As if you know everything." Berthe snarked.
"I know danger when I see it."
Edouard sighed. "It doesn't matter now, she has already taken off."
"She must know the area, right? We might be able to come across her again." Berthe said, hopeful to which Theodore shook his head and went back to starting a fire.
"I don't know, maybe. Look, I'm sure she'll be fine. She's been surviving for two years." Edouard said, coming over to lay a reassuring hand on his friend's shoulder. "She'll be okay". He offered a smile before continuing. " But... I must admit... she scared the hell out of me."
Berthe chuckled. "Yeah, I hope so."