The cold, wind penetrated Clementine's face as she layed on the mattress. Carlos was still patching up her face, using the only supplies available. The group was huddled around the fire pit, debating whether or not to leave. Hushed, angry whispers going back n' forth, Kenny being the prime instigator.
He, Mike, Sarita and Rebecca were dead set on leaving while Luke and Nick insisted on waiting a bit longer.
"Did you see what that asshole just did!? We ain't gonna fucking wait," Mike angrily spurted.
"Listen, guys! There ain't nothin' out there, no foo-"
"It doesn't fuckin' matter!" Kenny snapped at Luke. "We have the chance, Bonnie's helpin' us and I ain't gonna let that sonuvabitch harm her again!"
"And what if we need supplies, y'know food? what if we get hungry?"
"We'll do whatever we have to!"
"Then that's not much of a plan."
"Plan or no plan, we ain't gonna stay in here any longer." Kenny looked over at Carlos who was walking over, a slight frown on his face. "Is she alright?"
The doctor let out an exhale he didn't know he was holding in. He solemnly explained to the group that the orbital was crushed. "I... don't think there's much hope for the eye. I got her as stable as I could, cleaned it, got some of the swelling down. Bandaged it, as best as I could but until she wakes up, we won't know if there's any damage to the brain."
Kenny's heart dropped. Damage to the brain?
"Jesus-fuck!" Mike muttered under his breath.
"I'm surprised she held out as long as she did, Carver was gonna kill her," Jane blurted out.
"Y'all see what ah'm talkin' about?" Luke said. "What if she does have a brain injury, do y'all honestly think she's gonna make it through that herd!?"
Kenny didn't have anything to rebuttal him with. As much as he hated to admit it, the kid was right. If the child did have a brain injury, who knows what would happen if they were in the herd. What if she passed out? Had some kind of seizure? It'd be a death sentence for the kid.
"I'll. Be. Fine." Came the husked yet small feminine voice behind them. She saw the expressions given by everyone around the group, surprised and concerned.
"You all right, darlin'?" Kenny walked over to the child, glancing toward the blood patch on the bandage wrapped around her eye.
"A-as good... as I can be," She stuttered out.
The man knelt down to her level, giving her a hug to which Clementine happily returned. It lasted a few seconds before it ended.
"You are one tough kid," Mike said with an approving smile.
"I don't really feel like it," she replied.
"You got your ass beaten in front of everybody. If that isn't tough, ah don't know what is," Nick said.
Even though it was a compliment, the child couldn't help but feel her anger blare up. She recalled the first punch that was thrown at her, Carver standing over her thinking he's a strong leader. A charlatan, that's what he was, a fucking charlatan. Prescribing himself to be a leader, she hated the fact that he was able beat her even though she was powerless to do anything; guards holding their weapons up like the damn yes-men that they were.
One by one, she was visualizing their deaths; long, gorey and unbearably painful. Every ounce of her being, yearned for their suffering. Carver, Troy, Tavia... Bonnie. As if she wasn't angry enough. The redhead brought her and her entire group here - not to mention getting others killed in the process. Walter... Alvin. And she has the audacity to ask for forgiveness. When shit hits the fan, that's when she finally does something.
It took me losing my eye for her to finally do something... my eye!
"You alright, darlin'?" Kenny asked, bringing her out of her thoughts.
She gave a scowl at the man. "Didn't I tell you I was?" She snapped. The child hadn't realize that she was seething, glaring at the ground and breathing really slowly through her nose.
The man was taken aback. "Ah was only askin'."
"Which is why it annoyed me, you already asked me that."
The fire of the pit popping was the only thing that was heard, no one said anything. They didn't dare blame the child for her behavior, especially after what she went through. Everyone understood.
"Alright. So, what do we do now?" Luke finally asked.
"We leave," Clementine simply said.
"Like now, now?"
"Yes!"
"Alright, so where do we meet up?" Kenny interrupted. "'Case things get squirrelly and we have to make a break for it, we need a place we could meet up."
Everyone established the meeting place at a civil war site, the next thing they discussed was initiating the plan to which everyone was reluctant to let Clementine go.
"Clem, you sure you wanna do this?" Kenny gently asked.
"I'll be fine." The child said not only to Kenny, but to everyone.
Once Mike was done pulling Clementine up to the rooftop, she gave one glance toward the approaching herd before she ran to the skylight.
She let herself into Carver's office, checking if it was clear before she entered. Using the crates to drop down to the floor, she examined through the drawers, finding a tiny, ancient looking pistol. Perfect... She thought, grinning to herself - almost maniacally. She turned and eagerly walked over to the microphone. She fiddled around with it for a moment, loaded the disc into a record player and the hardware store started blaring a loud commercial throughout the store.
Through the window, she caught a glance of Bonnie running toward the gates of the pen. You'll get yours. She chuckled at the thought of getting to hurt her
Carver, Tavia and two other yes-men, Clementine didn't realize were caught into her sights and suddenly, she felt her anger blare up again.
The four of them went off in separate directions. A yes-men who was slightly bigger out of the three, ran toward the stairs of the office.
She looked toward the floor lamp over by the right corner of the room that was facing the bloody, worn out office chair. She shoved it to the ground, breaking it and making the room nearly pitch black; the only light source came from the moon and a few lights outside the office.
Clementine quickly hid behind a white board, covering the broken lamp and chair. The door was shoved open, slamming against the wall. The man ran toward the p.a. system but Clementine shot him before he could.
He fell to the ground, letting out a shriek of agony. Both of his hands were gripping his wound. Clementine spotted a revolver laying near the man. She walked over, picked up the pistol and turned to stare at the groaning man on the floor.
The child felt no remorse for what she did, anger was the only thing she felt and suddenly she felt a new feeling. The feeling of... thrill? Excitement? Whatever it was, it made her feel good, satisfied, alive even! Not wanting to wait around longer, she climbed back up the crates and out of the skylight; leaving the man to bleed to death.
As soon as Clementine made her way back onto the roof, the sound of a door opening got her edge. She quickly turned, pointed the gun and fired two shots.
She soon realized that the person she shot was Tavia and the woman fell to the ground like a cow getting a cattle shot. The child saw the AK holstered around her back. The attack was completely unexpected, obviously the woman had no idea what her. You died too quick.
Clementine unstrapped the AK and attempted to lift the heavy weapon. Although, she was able to pick it up, it took up most of her energy to keep it balanced. It's useless. She dropped it to the ground and continued her way to the stockroom.
"Wanna run away with this... dog shit crew of crippled fucks, then fucking fine!" Carver ranted as he held the pen group at gun point. Luke saw Clementine climbing along the edges of the large hardware shelves.
She dropped and kicked him on the back of the head. The impact of the fall made her slightly nauseous, legs trembling and head strained. She heard Luke yell something at the man but was too focused on trying to regain her balance.
"You alright?" Came the voice of Kenny.
"I'm... o-okay." Clementine looked at Carver. He was now the one being held at gunpoint.
"Come on, Luke. This ain't none of your business."
Your not gonna get outta this one... not this time. Her grip tightened around the revolver and a look fell onto her features like a child finding a new toy to play with. She strolled past Kenny.
Carver was running his mouth as usual but the child wasn't having it. She pointed the weapon and fired two shots into his knees. He let out a grunt of pain but it didn't satisfy her. She wanted to hear him scream, she had to hear him scream!
She looked around for the nearest weapon she could find and her eyes layed upon the hatchet on the table.
"Clem?" Luke furrowed.
She walked over to the hatchet, everyone's eyes following her. She picked up the hatchet with her left hand. Now she was armed with a pistol and a menacing hatchet. "Go... go on." The child gestured toward outside. A few of them exchanged a look, Jane walked over to the gate and opened it; the cold breeze of the outside air flooding in.
Mike and Bonnie followed after her then Nick and Carlos and Sarah.
The hispanic man stopped and looked back at the child. "Clementine, we have to go."
"Then go." The child looked at him, her cold eyes locking onto his. "There's nothing keeping you here."
"Look at you, this is what makes you strong, Clementine," Carver abruptly said. Even when your down, you're still talking. He turned toward the group. "This girl has been through-"
Another shot was fired and he let out another grunt of agony as his left elbow spat blood. The group stared wide eyed at the girl, she fired another shot into him.
"Clem!" Luke shouted in a scolding manner.
"What?"
"He's had enough, let's just go, alright?"
"And he gets to live!? After everything he's done!"
"Y'all just gonna let her do this!?" Luke asked when no one other than him objected.
"Yes!" Rebecca answered.
"There ain't one part of that sonuvabitch that ah don't hate, but that does not make this right!" Luke turned back at Clementine. "Ah don't want nothin' to do with this!"
She shrugged her shoulders at him. "Then run away, like you did at the lodge."
Luke went silent after that.
"Clementine, we must go. We don't have time-"
"You know what? You're right, we don't!" Clementine snapped, she spotted the herd of walkers that were drawing closer. Dinner time.
Carver seemed to notice and if she wasn't mistaken; she might've saw a bit of fear in his eyes. He went to grab his revolver stuck in his gun holster but was stopped when Kenny kicked him in the face. He snatched the pistol from his holster and now Carver was completely unarmed; he was left at the mercy of Clementine.
"Now." She stood in front of him, he could see the newfound sadism beginning to brew behind the girl's eyes and he suddenly felt scared... but not of her. "You get know what it feels like to be helpless."
One way or another, she was going to hear him scream...