Thanks to gaara king of the sand for the help.


Right before they left Molly made sure to do one final sweep of the house.

"How's that? You warm?" Molly asked the girl in front of her.

Clementine smiled. "Yeah." The child was now wearing a large sweater that Molly had found, over her regular outfit. It wasn't a jacket, but it was better than nothing.

"Good." Molly said. "Are you ready?"

"Yeah." Clementine replied, taking the woman's hand.

They stepped outside. Molly let out a sigh. She was somewhat happy to be leaving that suicide-scene house behind.

"Let's go." Molly said.

The child nodded and the two took off.

Molly figured she was doing well with Clementine so far. The girl was well fed, she was warm, and most importantly she was alive. Considering the circumstances, Molly had to pat herself on the back.

She made sure to keep the girl close to her. She wasn't going to risk the child wandering off.


After a long trek, they finally made it out of Savannah. It took several hours, considering they were on foot.

Clementine tried her best not to complain, but as it became colder she couldn't help it. "It's really freezing."

"I know you're cold, kid." Molly sighed. "I'm going to try to find you a coat." And some clean clothes. She had gotten the child cleaned up the best she could but the girl's clothes were still stained with blood and muck.

"Okay." Clementine said, shivering a bit.

Molly looked to the girl, "We can stop for a bit."

"We don't have to." Clementine shook her head. She didn't want to be a burden.

"It's only going to get colder." Molly replied.

"Okay… How long are we stopping?" Clementine asked.

"We might as well just stop for the night." Molly said.

Clementine frowned. "But it's not nighttime yet."

"I know."

"So why aren't we just taking a break?" Clementine asked in confusion.

"Well… If you're cold now, imagine how cold you'd be if we keep going. The later it gets the colder it becomes." Molly said. "If we stop now we can make a fire and get a meal cooking. I don't know about you, but I'm hungry."

Clementine gave an understanding nod. "Well, I am a little hungry." The child admits.

"I bet you're tired too." Molly said

Clementine shook her head. "Not too much. Maybe just a bit."

Molly shrugged in response. She knew Clementine was probably exhausted and putting on a tough act.

"What do you say?" Molly asked. "Do you want to stop?"

Clementine was surprised that Molly was giving her a choice. The only other person who seemed to care about her opinion was Lee. Everyone else just ignored her because she was a little kid.

Knowing Molly cared what she thought made Clementine feel happy.

"Umm…We can stop." The child said.

"Alright." Molly said.

And so they stopped. Molly built a fire and Clementine scooted close to the fire in order to get warm.

While the child warmed herself by the fire, Molly dug through her bag for a couple cans, opening them up with a knife. Molly took a seat beside the child before handing her a can.

"Eat up." She said.

"Thanks." Clementine said accepting the food and started to eat. Once she had finished, she placed the can down.

The girl soon felt tired, even more so than she had been. Not too long later, the child drifted off just as Molly had expected her to.


The next morning, they gathered which supplies they had. For the next few days they travelled to get further and further away from Savannah. Molly didn't know where they were going to go, but she knew Savannah wasn't safe. They still had a good amount of supplies, but Molly knew that it wouldn't be long before they started to run low. She would have to do some more scavenging soon.

Clementine was slowly, but surely getting used to life on the move. It was nothing like the motor inn. When they were at the motor inn she had nothing to worry about. Now they were constantly on the move, right after breakfast they were out and about.

Adventures looked so neat and exciting on the television, but living it was a completely different story. Clementine used to want to travel all over, but it's actually hard and scary.

"You okay?" Molly looked down to the girl.

"Yeah." Clementine said.

"Still tired?" Molly asked.

"No. I'm fine." Clementine said a little too quickly, but Molly didn't jump down her throat.

"Okay." Molly said. "Let's get moving."

Clementine nodded.


"Where are we going?" Clementine asked.

"I don't know." Molly said honestly.

"Really?" Clementine raised a brow.

"Yeah... You know, you never plan trips into details. You never know what might change." Molly said.

They only started walking twenty minutes ago, but Clementine was already getting a bit tired. However, she wasn't going to complain. She didn't want to be treated like a little kid.

"Okay..." Clementine replied. She sounded a bit nervous. She was worried that something bad would happen.

"Whatever happens I'll protect you." Molly said, picking up on the girl's suddenly nervousness. "And I won't leave you alone."

"Thank you..." Clementine said.


It took them about an hour to reach a parking lot.

They both looked around. Molly knew parking lots weren't the safest, but she imagined she could find quite a bit of supplies as she immediately noticed several abandoned cars in the parking lot. The area was relatively quiet. In fact, it was eerie quiet. After what seemed like an eternity little Clementine spoke, "We're at the zoo..." She said, pointing to a sign.

"Yeah..." Molly said. She wondered how many of the animals were still alive, if any. Molly remembered going to the zoo a couple times with her sister. Her sister, Maya, would get so excited to see the animals, the elephants were always her favorite. Molly on the other hand, prefer the lions.

"Molly?" Clementine called, pulling her out of her thoughts.

"Yeah?"

"What's wrong?" Clementine asked, noting the woman's glum expression.

"Nothing Clem. Don't worry." Molly assured the child.

Molly looked at the cars. She could probably scavenge some supplies from them. She'd just have to be careful.

"Stay close." She said to Clementine.

"Okay..." Clementine said.

Molly started scavenging through car after car.

She kept her guard up, in case any geeks jumped out. Fortunately, there hadn't been too many geeks and she easily handled the few she came in contact with.

While she was distracted with scavenging, she hardly felt Clementine tugging on her sleeve.

"Can I help?" The child asked.

"I got it..." She didn't want the kid looking in the cars without her.

Clementine looked a bit disappointed at that. "Can I do anything?"

"Not now, kid..." Molly said.

Clementine released her sleeve and pouted.

The child let out a sigh, she wanted to help with something.

She looked to the sign again, spotting the zoo's entrance not far. She could go in there and get some supplies, right? They sold food at the zoo. Maybe there was still some left.

Clementine looked over to Molly, who was still busy searching through the truck of a car, before she made up her mind. The child headed in the direction of the entrance.


Molly continued to search through the cars. She was making good on finding supplies. She even managed to find some clothes for Clementine and a decent coat. It would definitely keep the child warm. With all the supplies they had gathered, they were now packed tight.

Through her searched, she didn't notice a creature slowly creeping up on her.

Molly was surprised, when she suddenly felt a hand grab her from behind. She quickly fought the creature off of her, shoving it backwards.

Her strong shove caused the geek to bump into a car, which to her horror, set an alarm up.

Molly decided they had to get out of there fast.

The woman quickly looked down, expected to see Clementine beside her, but the child was nowhere to be seen.


The smell was so strong. It took all the child's willpower not to throw up.

Clementine wrinkled her nose and started coughing.

It smelt horrible. Clementine covered her nose, not wanting to breath in the stench. Slowly, the child continued walking through the area. There were several bodies on the ground. Blood all over the place.

She noticed a couple walkers but she managed to avoid them. She read the signs, looking for the food area. She eventually navigated to the area, and to her disappointment found no food. There was a vending machine that had been tipped over, and Clementine wasn't strong enough to lift it back up.

She sighed, ready to return to Molly when she suddenly heard a noise from behind her. Clementine whipped around and her eyes grew wide. Panic quickly struck her.


Molly immediately broke out into a sprint, heading for the inside of the zoo. She hoped Clementine was inside, if not, she wouldn't know where to look.

Molly stopped for a moment. The stench was so strong. It was the smell of feces and rotting corpses.

It didn't seem like any of the animals in the enclosures had survived. Nor did the workers, some of which were tore apart by the hungry animals. She forced herself to keep going. She had to find Clementine. Who knew what would happen to the child.

Molly pushed herself through every geek that came her way, killing them without hesitation.

She moved quickly, hoping she would find Clementine before anything bad happened to the child.


Clementine felt her heart pounding as she looked into the large animal's eyes. Here she was, standing face to face with a lion.

She was terrified. The only thing running through her mind was she was going to die.

Somehow the animal had managed to sneak up on her. He was far too close for her to be able to shoot him. She didn't want to provoke him to attack her. Not like her body would respond to her anyway, she was frozen in fear.


With every second that passed Molly became more anxious. She could only imagine that Clementine was scared, surrounded by walkers.

The thought only made her pick up her pace.

Soon enough she found the little girl.

The child was backed into a corner but she wasn't alone.

Right in front of the girl stood a blood thirsty lion. It must have escape its enclosure somehow.

Clementine spotted Molly, locking eyes with the woman.

"Don't run." Molly mouthed.

As much as the woman didn't want to use her gun, she didn't have much of a choice, Clementine was trapped by a deadly animal.

Grabbing her weapon, she immediately shot the animal, twice.

The lion let out a yelp and fell.

Clementine stood still, shaking like a leaf.

Molly approached the child. "Are you hurt?"

"N-No..." Clementine stuttered fearfully.

Molly looked the trembling child over, searching for wounds. She found none. "What did I tell you about wandering off?"

"I'm sorry. I didn't think that there'd be animals here..." Clementine said, lowering her head.

"That doesn't matter Clem. You could've died." Molly replied, keeping her voice strict.

The nine-year-old started to whimper and whimpers turned into sobs.

Molly frowned. She didn't mean to make the child cry; however, she wasn't going to coddle her. Not this time. "Stop."

Clementine looked up, a bit surprised at the stern tone in which her new guardian spoke in.

"Don't cry." Molly said. "Don't start crying, because it's your fault."

"I'm s-sorry…" Clementine whimpered.

Molly nodded. She couldn't be nice to the child if she was going to put herself in danger. Molly needed the girl to listen to her. "You should be. You need to listen to me from now on."

"Okay..." Clementine said with a sniffled. She managed to hold back tears, not wanting to disappoint Molly further. She wiped the tears that had escaped from her cheeks.

"Good. Now let's get the fuck out of here." Molly said. Those gunshots would probably draw geeks.

"Swear..." Clementine mumbled.

Molly rolled her eyes, offering the child her hand.


"It smells horrible…" Clementine commented.

"Yeah...I know. Come on...We gotta keep moving." Molly tugged the child forward.

They got closer and closer to the exit of the zoo, when a noise reached Molly's ear. A loud, blaring noise. The alarm. It was still going off. With all that was going on Molly had forgotten about it. She had wondered why the geeks hadn't paid attention to the gunshot sounds. They were out in the parking lot. Molly was sure that damned alarm would attract every geek within a mile.

Clementine once again froze in fear as she noticed all the walkers roaming in the parking lot. There was no way they could just walk pass them.

"Come on." Molly said. "Don't worry."

Clementine swallowed, but did as the woman said.

Molly checked her pistol, making sure it was loaded, then felt for the clips in her pocket. She was going to make sure to protect Clementine with her life.

Molly held the child's hand, looking for an escape route. "Get in." She pointed to a nearby car.

"W-What?" Clementine stammered.

"Get in." Molly repeated.

"That?" The girl raised a brow.

"We don't have anything else." Molly replied.

Molly tossed the supplies she had in the back before she climbed into the car as Clementine clamored into the passenger seat. Molly was glad when she found the key, under the seat.

She shoved the key into the ignition. With a frantic pumping of the accelerator, the car engine roared to lift.

The vehicle burst through the parking lot, and away from the undead creatures who tried in vain to catch up.