Thanks to gaara king of the sand for the help.
Molly kept a close eye on Clementine for the next few days, making sure the child was okay, while tending to her cold. Eventually the girl started to feel better and after about a week, she had made a full recovery.
Molly had no plans to leave the cabin anytime soon. With the cold weather, she knew it was best to stay put, besides who knew when they would find a shelter like this one again.
Days grew shorter and shorter and the weather grew colder and colder.
When the weather was not too cold they would hunt for rabbits or go fetch wood or water. Each time they left the cabin Molly made sure they were warmly bundled up.
Whenever they caught something during their hunt Molly would allow it to freeze by keeping it in the shade.
They had a good set up for the winter. Molly just hoped it would stay good.
Once the snow had all melted and the weather had become more moderate, Molly decided it was time to get a move on. Molly allowed them to stay at the cabin for another week, so she and Clementine could relax, before they left the cabin behind, much to Clementine's disappointment.
"Why did we have to leave the cabin?" Clementine asked.
"We couldn't stay there forever, Clem." Molly replied. Fortunately, they still had a good amount of supplies left, but Molly knew it could go fast.
"Why not?" Clementine asked. "It was safe there."
"It was also secluded, which was a good thing and a bad thing." Molly said.
"What makes it bad?" Clementine asked.
"We'd have to travel quite a distance to get supplies." Molly responded.
"Can't we hunt?" Clementine questioned.
Molly was a bit surprised to hear her ask that, remembering how she never wanted to hurt an animal before and just the thought of doing so would make her cry. "That's a lot harder when it's colder, with the animals being hidden."
"Oh…" Clementine frowned, realizing she was right.
"Yeah…" Molly muttered.
"So… Where will we go now?" Clementine asked.
"I don't know… We'll figure something out." Molly said.
"What about supplies?" Clementine wondered.
"We have enough for a while… We'll manage." Molly replied.
"Okay…" Clementine sighed.
"Try not to worry too much." Molly said.
Clementine only nodded in response, but she knew it was too hard not to worry.
The winter came and went. Spring was now at hand. The weather had was no longer cold as it had been in the winter, but of course, mother nature had plenty of surprises.
It had been such a clear day, so Molly was completely taken aback when it had started raining. She had seen not a cloud in the sky to indicate that it would rain.
Clementine sighed as she felt a wet droplet hit her face "I hate the rain."
Molly chuckled, "In a few months you'll probably be complaining about it being too hot."
"Only if it's really hot." Clementine said.
Molly nodded, "Figured."
The rain pour become harder. The hard rain and blowing wind was enough to put out the fire.
Try as she might, Molly could not get the fire re-lit. The woman groaned, "Looks like we won't be cooking tonight."
"I miss the cabin... At least it had a fire place." Clementine complained.
"Yeah, well, you know it's dangerous to stay in one place too long." Molly said. "It was good for the winter, but to be honest, I'm glad the winter is over."
"It wasn't too bad. The cold made the geeks slow." Clementine said. She had picked up on Molly's term for the undead and was now using it herself.
"That's probably the only good thing about the winter. I've always hated it..." Molly said.
"Even when you were a kid?" Clementine asked.
Molly gave a nod, "My sister and I would try to play in the snow, but she'd always end up with a cold and it wasn't fun playing alone... It's stupid, but I kinda hated the snow for "making" my sister sick."
Clementine smiled, "You sound like a good sister."
"I tried to be." Molly said. She just hoped she could do a better job taking care of Clementine. She wouldn't fail this time.
Molly took a seat beside the girl and the two did their best to ignore the rain.
Clementine suddenly furrowed her brows together. She asked, "Molly... Why do you call them Geeks?"
"Ever been to a circus?" Molly asked back.
"Yeah, when I was younger." Clementine replied.
"You know the Geeks from the circus?" Molly asked.
Clementine looked confused, "Like the clowns?"
Molly shook her head, "No. You know the guys who go around biting heads off of chickens and stuff."
Clementine cringed at that.
"Uh... Nevermind... Just forget it." Molly said, noticing the girl's reaction.
"Okay..." Clementine said. She didn't know if she could forget that.
"You hungry?" Molly asked after several moments of silence.
Clementine was quiet for a minute before saying, "Kind of..."
"We got cold soup." Molly said.
"We can eat it cold?" Clementine asked.
"Yeah. Won't taste the best, but it's food." Molly shrugged.
"Alright." Clementine said.
Molly opened up a can of chicken noddle soup before offering it to the child.
Clementine started eating the soup.
The two ate in silence. They were both chilled to the bone and wet from the rain. Molly just hoped little Clementine didn't get sick again.
Clementine yawned as she finished eating.
"You tired, kiddo?" Molly questioned.
"Yeah." Clementine said, laying down.
The child tried her best to fall asleep, ignoring the uncomfortableness of her wet clothes.
Eventually Clementine had fallen asleep.
The rain persists with no sign of it lifting.
Molly just hoped it would let up soon, which at the moment seemed unlikely.
She listened out, hearing nothing but the rain and wind. The animals must have all taken shelter.
With a huff, Molly decided to try to get some rest herself.
Laying down beside Clementine, she closed her eyes, and moments later she drifted off.
Three days of travel had left them completely exhausted.
They stumbled upon a neighborhood with several house lined up, however upon searching the houses they found they were all ransacked.
Molly saw no point of staying in an empty and cold house, and so they moved on. An hour passed and Molly was just about ready to just stop for the day, discouraged about not finding anything useful.
As they walked along, they suddenly noticed a large building about fifty meters down. It was some kind of institutional facility. Judging from the fencing, Molly assumed it was a prison.
"Is that a jail?" Clementine asked, as if reading her guardian's mind.
"Looks like it." Molly said. "Come on." She started walking forward.
"Wait!" Clementine quickly ran to catch up with her. "We can't stay here.
"Why not? It's better than sleeping in the rain." Molly said.
"It's a jail. Where the bad people go…" Clementine reminded.
Molly stopped, letting out a sigh, she turned to Clementine, kneeling in front of the child. "You know I'll protect you, right?"
Clementine looked down with a frown. "What if it's dangerous?"
Molly knew Clementine had a fair point. "Everything's dangerous, Clem..."
Clementine frowned. "I know, but-
Molly stopped her. "Just stay close to me and everything will be fine."
"What about the Geeks… This place could be full of them!" Clementine said.
"We'll handle them… Geeks aren't a problem…" Molly said. "People would be what we have to worry about."
"The bad people…?" Clementine asked.
"Exactly…" Molly said.
Clementine swallowed. There were probably a lot of bad people in there. It was a jail afterall.
"Keep close to me. Don't leave my side for a second." Molly said in a firm voice.
"Okay..." Clementine said.
Molly stood up and took the child's hand. "Let's go."
Clementine nodded.
The two started to approach the prison. Clementine was nervous, she had never been so close to a prison before.
The got closer, nearing the fence when suddenly two shots rang out.
"That's close enough, you assholes!" Yelled a voice.
Molly frowned, yanking Clementine down.
Clementine looked to the woman with fear in her eyes. "W-What's happening?"
"It's okay… Just stay down." Molly said.
Clementine nodded, staying low. She was terrified. She knew coming to a jail was a bad idea.
Molly tried to catch a look at whoever was shooting at them, but it was hard to figure it out.
"Hey!" Another voice called.
Molly looked to her side to see a man, holding a gun. He was a few feet away, also crouched low.
"Get over here! I'll cover you!" The guy ordered.
Molly looked down at Clementine, the child's eyes were wide with fear.
"Come on." Molly took the girl's hand and quickly broke into a run towards the stranger.
As he said, he covered her as she ran.
Molly could hear a series a swears and insults as the man quickly stopped shooting and ushered her into the building.
Once they were inside, Molly took a moment to catch her breath. "What the hell is going on?
"This is our side. That's their side. We go over there and they won't hesitate to pull the trigger." The man explained.
"Why?" Clementine asked, looking worried.
"This is their turf, so to speak. They were here first." The man responded.
"What do you mean?" Clementine asked.
"They're the prisoners." The man said.
Molly raised a brow, "How did they get out of their cells?"
"We uh… We let them out…" The man said.
"Why the fuck would you do that?"
"Swear…" Clementine said.
"We didn't think anything bad would happen. It felt inhumane to keep them locked up like animals." The man replied.
"That's fucking stupid." Molly said.
Clementine frowned, "Swear."
Molly ignored the child. "They're criminals. They're in here for a reason."
"I know… But we made a deal. We'd let them out if they help us out…" The man said. "We're all survivors, we figured we could all work together, make this work. But things went bad. They took most of the supplies, we tried to force them to share, but they turned against us."
"Did you really expect prisoner to share with you?" Molly scoffed. "Once again, these aren't your friendly neighbors, they're criminals. You know, murders, thieves, and rapist."
"What's a rapist?" Clementine asked her guardian.
The two adults looked down to the child.
Molly frowned before shaking her head. "It's… Nothing, Clem."
"But I want know." Clementine protested.
"Don't worry about it." Molly said, causing the child to pout.
"How long has this been going on?" Molly asked.
"A few weeks now… They've taken out a lot of our people. Been lost on both sides." The man said. "Maybe you should get out of here while you have the chance."
Molly shook her head.
"It's not safe. And it's only been getting worse…" The man said.
"Worse in what way?" Molly asked, although she had some idea of what he meant, considering those people were taking shots at her, when she clearly had a child with her.
"We get too close to their side, they'll shoot." The man said. "Sometimes they come through, just taking random shots. We've been lucky not to lose anyone else the past few days."
"Damn…" Molly said.
"Problem is… They out number us." The man said.
"Why haven't you left?" Molly asked.
"We would if we could…" The man said. "You see what they do. We get too close to the fence and they shoot. They think this shit is a game."
"So… What started this feud between you guys? I mean, you did free them after all, they couldn't have been all too mad about that." Molly said.
"We got here and took out quite a few biters. We figured this could be a good spot to setting down. We checked the place out and found the prisoners, the surviving prisoners at least. They were still locked in their cells… We let them out and things were good for a while. They work fine with us… And we kept our distance when we didn't need anything done…" The man paused for a moment.
"What changed?" Molly urge him to go on.
"Stuff started to go missing. Food, water, weapons, and ammunition started disappearing. We didn't really notice at first because there was a lot when we first got here… but after a while we figured it out. We confronted the prisoners and a fight broke out. Things got violent, shots were fire, both verbally and literally." The man explained. "And things just escalated from there."
"You said they were stealing supplies; how much do you have now?" Molly inquired.
"Not much. The prisoners took almost everything. We have only a week's worth of food left and eleven gallons of water, we've been trying to save up…" The man said.
Molly quirked a brow, "Where are all the Guards that ran the prison?"
"They took them out first. When I say things got violent, I mean really violent. They killed all the guards and took off with the supplies." The man said.
"That's horrible…" Clementine said.
"Yeah, kid… It is." The man agreed.
"Molly, what are we going to do?" Clementine asked.
"You said you have a group?" Molly asked.
"Yeah. My wife and kids… A few others." The man said.
"Where are they?" Molly asked.
"In the cafeteria, they can lock down that area if they have to. It's the safest spot with all this shit going on." The man replied. "I can take you there if you like."
"Sure…" Molly said.
"Alright…" The man said. "Follow me… And uh… stay on your guard, never know what can happen around here."
The two nodded. Molly took Clementine's hand in her own, and the two followed the man down the hall.
"Name's Todd, by the way." The man spoke.
"I'm Molly. This is Clementine." Molly said.
"Nice to meet you two." Todd said. "And thanks for not killing me."
"Thanks for helping us." Molly said. "I was honestly confused out of my mind. I had no clue why we were being shot at."
"They most likely thought you were with us…" Todd said. "Sorry about that."
"It's fine…" Molly said.
"It's not fine. This shouldn't be happening." Todd said, frowning. "You could've die because of us. A child could've die because of us."
"But we didn't. We're okay." Clementine said.
"This time…" Todd said. "Who know what they'll do next."
"Molly will figure something out. She always has a plan, right Molly?" Clementine said.
When Molly didn't answer, Clementine looked to her guardian, "Molly?"
Molly was silent for a while, a serious expression on her face.
Clementine watched the woman for a moment, studying her facial features.
"What are you thinking?" Clementine asked the woman.
"This is a nice spot. It's a good set up. Good defense, supplies…" Molly said. "It would be a good place to stay…"
"But it's not safe." The man pointed out.
"That's the problem. Which means we got to make it safe." Molly said.
"How?" Clementine asked.
"We're going to have to get rid of those prisoners." Was Molly response.
