Thanks to gaara king of the sand for the help.


Molly had never thought taking care of Clementine would be so hard. She would definitely make sure to keep a closer eye on the girl from now on. She didn't want her wandering off.

Molly glanced to the backseat to see the child was just starting to stir. They had been driving for about an hour and the young girl had fallen asleep about twenty minutes into the ride. Molly had been hoping she would sleep a little longer.

"Molly?" The child called in a half-asleep voice.

Molly held back a sigh, "Hey… How'd you sleep?"

"Okay." Clementine said, rubbing sleep out of her eyes. "Where are we going?"

"I don't know yet, kid." Molly said.

"Oh…" Clementine replied.

"Yeah. Try to sleep some more, Clem." Molly said to the girl.

"Okay." The child rested her body in the seat. Closing her eyes, she went back to sleep. Molly continued to drive in silence.


They were developing a schedule. Wake up, eat, and start moving again. Molly was glad to have a vehicle for the time being, however, she knew it wouldn't be long before it ran out of gas. Molly quickly glanced over to the gas meter and let out a sigh; it was nearly empty. She knew they'd be walking soon.

"Damn it…" Molly swore.

Clementine frowned at the naughty word. "What's wrong?"

"We're almost out of gas." Molly explained.

"Can't we find some more?" Clementine asked.

"That's probably a shot in the dark." Molly said.

"Oh…" Clementine said soberly.

"Well, we'll be on foot tomorrow, but for now let's take a break." Molly stated. "We'll get you some food and call it a night."

"Okay." Clementine said.

The two stopped and Molly looked through their supply bag. They were doing well with all the supplies they had on them, for now, but Molly knew they could go through fast.

Molly used her knife to open up a can, offering the food to the child who accepted it.

"Thank you." Clementine said.

"No problem." Molly responded, working on opening another can.

Once she had opened the can, the two started to eat in silence.

"You know what… I'm going to teach you how to hunt." Molly suddenly said.

"What?"

Molly simply repeated herself, "I'm going to teach you how to hunt."

"I… R-Really?" Clementine stammered in surprise.

"Yep." Molly said.

"You mean like hunting animals?" Clementine asked, eyes wide.

"Exactly." Molly confirmed.

Clementine looked down with a frown, "I don't want to hurt any animals."

"Well, you don't have much of a choice, Clem." Molly said. "This is what we have to do now."

Clementine lowered her head even more and started to whimper a bit.

Molly sighed, "Clementine… Stop it."

The child didn't stop. Instead, she began to cry.

Molly sat there for a moment, awkwardly watching the girl cry and not knowing what to do. She had to calm the child down, she didn't want any unnecessary attention. "It's alright, Clem…" Molly said in a gentle voice.

The child continued to cry. Molly slowly moved closer to the girl, wrapping an arm around her. "Shh… It's okay, Clem. Don't cry…"

"I don't want to hurt any animals." Clementine sobbed.

"Okay… You won't have to." Molly said quickly, wanting the child to stop crying. "Just calm down."

"P-Promise?" Clementine asked.

"I promise." Molly said. She would hold off on the hunting lesson for now. She had a lot to teach the child but the girl clearly wasn't emotionally prepared to handle certain things at the moment. She'd wait a few days…


After two days Molly decided it was time for Clementine to learn to hunt. It was now or never. She knew the child didn't want to, but she needed to know how to take care of herself and once she knew how to hunt Molly could check that one thing off her list of things to learn.

"Alright, Clem… I hope you're ready." Molly said to the young girl.

Clementine raised a brow at the woman who was holding her hand. "For what?"

"To learn how to hunt." Molly answered.

Clementine's eyes widened and she quickly shook her head. "No…"

"Come on, Clem…" Molly said. "This is how the world works now. You need to learn this."

"B-But… But I don't want to." Clementine whined. "You said I didn't have to."

"I know kid… But if you don't learn, you'll die." Molly said. She knew it was harsh, but it was the truth.

Clementine gasped at that.

"We're going to run out of food eventually… And if we get separated… well, you need to know how to take care of yourself." Molly told the girl.

"O-Okay…" Clementine said reluctantly.

"Alright… Good." Molly said, still walking forward.

"W-What do we do first?" Clementine questioned.

"We'll start with something easy." Molly said.

Clementine frowned, "This isn't going to be easy…" She argued.

"It will be sooner or later." Molly replied.

Clementine shook her head. "I doubt it."

Molly didn't offer a response.

Clementine started to speak, "What should I-"

Molly suddenly stopped walking, putting a hand out in front of the girl to stop her. She raised her other hand and point upwards. "There."

"What?" Clementine asked.

"In the tree." Molly simply said.

Clementine followed her finger, gaze falling on a lone bird that was sat on a tree branch. Clementine gulped.

Molly released the child's hand. Grabbing her gun, she held it in front of Clementine. "Here."

Clementine frowned, her little body starting to tremble at the thought of shooting that poor bird.

"Go on, take it." Molly urged her to take the gun.

Clementine swallowed a lump in her throat before accepting the weapon into her unsteady little hands. "N-Now w-what?" She stammered. She knew what the woman wanted her to do, but she didn't want to do it.

"Shoot it." Molly said.

Clementine felt her heart drop. She shakily raised the gun up, aiming towards the bird. She couldn't stop her hands from shaking.

"Go ahead, Clem." Molly said.

Clementine moved her fingers to the trigger, her body shaking even more.

"Clementine…?" Molly called.

"I can't do it!" Clementine cried, lowering the gun.

Molly sighed, taking the weapon from the weeping child's hands. They'd just have to try again tomorrow.


The next day they made a similar routine, Clementine knew immediately that Molly was expecting her to make a shot today. The child still didn't want to. The bird was back again, much to their surprise, Clementine assume it must have been familiar with the tree to want to stay there. She was trembling again as the woman handed her the gun.

Molly gave a nod, saying nothing else.

Clementine knew what Molly want hinting for her to do. She raised the gun, heart pounding. Her fingers trembled and sweat dripped down her temple until finally, she pulled the trigger. The first shot was a clean miss.

"Try again." Molly ordered.

Clementine swallowed and pulled the trigger one more, missing again.

"Again." Molly said.

Clementine hesitated. Before she could pull the trigger for a third time the bird took off."

"It got away." The child said.

"That's what you wanted to happen." Molly said knowingly.

"...Yeah." Clementine admit.

Molly took the gun, "We'll try again tomorrow."

Clementine sighed but nodded.

"Come on, let's get some food." Molly said, offering the girl her hand.

Clementine nodded, taking the woman's hand.


For the next few days, Molly would take Clementine back to the tree, where they would find the bird on the branch as if waiting for their arrival. Molly would hand Clementine the gun and the child would miss each shot she fired.

Molly was frustrated, but she couldn't be angry at the girl. She was still learning.

"Alright, we're done. We still have to conserve ammo." Molly said. She would only let Clementine have three shots a day and it seemed the bird knew that because after about three shots the bird would fly away.

They made sure to camp a bit away from their practice spot, just in case the sound drew walkers.

Clementine found herself feeling curious on why the bird continued to return. And so, early in the morning, while Molly was still asleep, her childish curiosity led her to make her way to their training spot and up the tree.

She was surprised to find tiny little eggs inside a nest. The girl carefully made her way down from the tree and back to her and Molly's campsite.

Molly had woken up by time the girl had arrived and immediately scolded the child. Clementine however, seemed eager to show her something.

Seeing the child's excitement, Molly couldn't refuse. She allowed the nine-year-old to take her hand and lead her to their training spot.

Clementine pointed toward the tree. "There's baby birds up there."

"What?"

"They're still in the eggs. There's three of them." Clementine explained.

"How do you know?" Molly asked the girl.

"I saw." Clementine said.

"You climbed up there?" Molly questioned.

Clementine nodded.

"That's dangerous, Clem." Molly said.

"I… I know… I just wanted to know why the bird kept coming back."

Molly was curious as well. The woman effortlessly made her way up the branches and saw the child was telling the truth. There were baby birds in the tree.

Molly carefully climbed down, "Well, I'll be damned."

"Swear." Clementine said.

"Get over it." Molly rolled her eyes before giving the child a playful grin.

"I don't have to shoot it, do I?" Clementine asked.

Molly paused, "…I'll think about it."

Clementine pouted at that. Molly gave her a pat on the head.

"Come on, let's get you some breakfast." Molly said.

"Okay…" Clementine said.


"Do I have to hold the gun?" Clementine complained.

"Just in case... We never know what might happen." Molly said.

"Okay..." Clementine said.

After breakfast Clementine had begged to go see if the mama bird had returned. Molly agreed. The two went to the spot but, upon arriving they noticed the bird was nowhere to be seen.

Clementine looked around, confusion written on her face.

Out of the quiet, they suddenly heard a rustling in the leaves. Molly was quickly put on guard.

"Stay quiet and don't move." Molly said in a stern voice to Clementine, who nodded.

Molly peered around the tree and scanned the area, seeing nothing.

Again they heard the rustling coming closer, Molly focused on the sound just in time to notice a fox coming out of the thicket, she quickly noticed it was carrying something in its mouth.

Clementine noticed the fox as well, her eyes grew wide as she noticed what was in the animal's mouth. It was a bird… The mama bird.

Anger and pain coursed through her.

She raised the gun with shaking hands and the world around her had suddenly stopped. She didn't hear anything; it wasn't until the fox had hit the ground that she realized she had shot it.

Molly looked to the girl in surprise.

Clementine was panting, as she calmed down a bit. "I… I shot it."

"Yeah, you did." Molly said.

"I didn't want to kill it." Clementine whimpered, eyes filling with tears.

"I know…" Molly walked toward the child and pulled her into a hug, taking the weapon from her. "It's alright, Clem. You did good."

"W-What's going to happen to the baby birds?" Clementine asked.

Molly couldn't lie to the girl, but she couldn't say exactly what she was thinking either so instead she muttered, "I don't know, Clem. I don't know."


Molly brought the fox back to their camp, despite Clementine's weak protest.

"W-What are you going to do with it?" Clementine asked.

"Cook it." Molly replied.

Clementine didn't say anything, she moved a bit away, quietly crying to herself.

Molly didn't know what to do. She just continued to focus on the fox, skinning it and doing what she needed to in order to make it consumable.

Clementine hadn't stopped crying, not even when Molly had started to cook the animal.

Molly felt bad for the child, but she knew that hunting was important for survival; Clementine would understand sooner or later.

Eventually the child had ended up crying herself to sleep.


Morning came and Clementine awoke with a moan. She sat up and spotted Molly, sitting by the fire.

"Hey there, kiddo." Molly said.

"Hey." Clementine said.

"You hungry?" Molly asked her.

"Y-Yeah." Clementine confirmed.

Molly offered the child some food which happened to be some fox meat, Clementine realized that, but she didn't complain she did however look a bit confused when she noticed eggs on the side of her plate.

Clementine ate the food, making a face as she tried one of the eggs. It had been so long since she had eggs, she wondered where Molly had gotten them from.

"It taste weird..." Clementine mumbled.

"Don't be picky kid." Molly said.

"Okay..." Clementine nodded.

"Hurry up and eat." Molly said. "We're going to get moving when you're done."


They left the area after that, Molly thought about holding off on the hunting again, but Clementine told her she was ready. She wanted to learn how to survive and Molly agreed.

Molly spent the next two weeks teaching the girl how to stay quiet as not to startled her catch, and soon enough Clementine was able to sneak up on an animal and pull the trigger without hesitation.

"You're a pretty fast learner, kid." Molly commented.

"Thanks." Clementine smiled.

"Yeah. But don't get cocky. You're not the badest cat in the alley yet." Molly said.

Clementine looked puzzled, "What?"

"You still have more to learn." Molly said.

"I do?" Clementine asked.

"You need to learn the most important things..." Molly told her.

"Like what?" Clementine wondered.

"Well… for one… I'm going to teach you how to protect yourself." Molly explained.

"But you can protect me." Clementine argued.

Molly shook her head. "And what happens if I can't be there to hide you? You need to learn this." Molly said. "I'm going to teach you how to fight and well...stuff."

"Stuff?" Clementine repeated. "What more am I going to learn?"

"Only what you need to learn." Molly replied. "You'll might be surprised by how much you already know. All I'm going to do is teach you skills you need to survive."

"Okay." Clementine nodded. "What's our next lesson?"

Molly motioned towards a nearby river, "Fishing."

"Okay. That's easy." Clementine claimed.

"Is that so?" Molly asked. "What do you do then?"

"Use a fishing rod." Clementine said.

"Do we have a fishing rod?" Molly asked the child.

"Umm... No." Clementine frowned.

"Right..." Molly nodded.

"What do we do then?" Clementine inquired.

Molly smirked, "We're going to make a rod, from scratch."

Clementine furrowed her brows at that causing Molly to chuckle. The kid had a lot to learn.