Duck was running as fast as he could, trying to ignore the sharp pain he felt in his wounded leg. The shooting had stopped long ago, he ran out of ammo, and even thought that the men chasing him were out of ammo too, but he doubted it, they were carrying Ak-47s, even after several shots, he must still have some bullets left.
He didn't kill the walkers he encountered while running away, he pushed them back or simply dodged them, trying to buy a little more time.
A few footsteps approached quickly behind him. Duck turned around, just in time to get his arms in front of his face, and defend himself from a punch that the man tried to throw at him.
The impact was strong enough for Duck to fall to the ground, and soon, strong hands were wrapped around his neck, pressing him down.
Duck looked deep into the eyes of the man strangling him, a blond guy with glasses, apparently middle-aged and with a scruffy beard.
He struggled on, punching the man in the face and kicking him in the stomach as hard as he could, until the grip on his throat weakened.
Duck punched the side of the man's face while pushing him aside with his lower body. The boy took his knife and stabbed the man in the neck, then drove his knife into his temple, killing him for good.
He gasped in relief, but more rushing footsteps approached from beside him. Duck turned his head to the side, not being fast enough to dodge a kick to the face.
He fell back, accidentally dropping his knife, feeling a sharp pain in his nose and blood trickle from his mouth.
- You son of a bitch!
He heard another man shout, kicking him once more, this time in the stomach, and the man began to kick him further.
Duck felt the air leave his lungs, but he didn't stand still as he was getting beaten. Ignoring the pain in his leg, he kicks the man's knee, hard enough to bring him to his knees.
Seizing the opportunity, Duck stands up, leaning on his good leg, and punches the man in the face, who falls to the side.
The boy goes for his knife on the ground, but feels his leg being grabbed and pulled back, causing him to fall to the ground once again.
The man crawls over Duck's body, and the boy tries to punch him, but he grabs his hand and, with a few movements, breaks two of his fingers.
Duck screams in pain, and begins to struggle with his legs. The man acquires an annoyed face and crawls some more, looking deep into Duck's eyes as he takes the knife from the boy.
Realizing this, Duck headbutts the man in the nose, feeling a few drops of blood drip onto his forehead. With his free hand, he sticks one of his fingers into the man's eye, piercing his eyeball and pushing him backwards.
The man lets out a sharp cry of pain, falling backwards and feeling Duck move away from him.
The boy takes his knife, and advances on the man's body to kill him, but a shot prevents him from continuing, hitting the ground a few inches from his foot.
He looks to the side in fright, observing the people who approached with guns pointed in his direction, with the exception of only one man.
- Troy, will you please explain what the fuck is going on?
The man said, approaching the man named Troy with an unfriendly expression on his face.
Duck stared at him for a moment, the man had partially gray hair, with expression marks all over his face... well, what was left.
He had a huge scar on the left side of his face, a wide and deep cut, from his neck to the end of his forehead, it was amazing to think that someone had survived something like that, he had certainly been between life and death when he suffered that cut.
Troy- S-sir, I... we were questioning a group of people and...
The man Troy began to speak, his tone shaky and hesitant, afraid of the man in front of him, who didn't seem to believe a word he was saying.
- And then you played tough and started a fucking gunfight, yeah, we could hear it from the camp. You never seem to listen to me, do you? Instead of coming in pointing your guns at whoever, leave some boys hiding around, and go at them, peacefully, goddammit!
The man said angrily, controlling his tone of voice so that he didn't speak louder than he did. Then his brown eyes focused on Duck, who felt a shiver run through his body as he felt the man's analytical gaze on him.
He looked at him as if he were analyzing a commodity, from top to bottom, as if measuring its value.
His eyes focused on the dead man on the ground a few steps away, and then back to Troy, watching the blood dripping from his nose and wounded eye, sighing heavily, looking strangely at Troy, who was startled by the look.
Troy- He killed Oliver, back at his camp, we came after him to capture him and...
- Nah shut up, shut up, shut the fuck up!
He interrupted him, apparently more annoyed than before, and put his finger in front of Troy's face.
- What you mean, basically, is that you fucked up the simple task I gave you, killed two of our people because of your incompetence, and were almost killed by a boy.
He practically spat in Troy's face as he said those words, and then sighed again, putting one of his hands on his waist and the other in his hair.
He then turned to Duck once more.
- I don't know if the boy is really good, or if you're just completely useless. But fuck this.
He walked towards Duck, who felt intimidated by the man's presence, but didn't show it and stood his ground, looking him straight in the eye.
The man stopped a few centimeters away from Duck, face to face, looking him intensely in the eye. The boy felt uncomfortable, and his instincts were screaming at him to get out of there, but he did not.
After a few moments, the man smiled, which surprised Duck, it was not a smile laden with ridicule or superiority, it was an amused smile.
Duck was confused, but put that smile aside when he felt a strong punch to his cheek, causing his body to fall to the side.
He recovered quickly, looking at the blood dripping from his mouth. The boy made an angry expression and stood up quickly, trying to return the punch to the man, but his arms were grabbed by two pairs of hands, preventing him from moving.
Looking at the man, Duck became even more confused and annoyed to see that his smile had widened.
-Take the boy to the van, and as soon as the other van arrives you can take him to our community. Bring the rest of the group, if that imbecile back there hasn't killed them.
The man said, turning and walking away from Duck, who seemed to want to stare at him.
Troy- What? But... Bill...
Troy tried to say as the man stepped in front of him, but fell silent after "Bill" punched him in the mouth, falling backwards on impact.
- Troy, if I were you I would shut up. The boy killed two of our people, and almost killed you too if we hadn't stopped him, in a short time, he proved to be more valuable and useful than you.
He said with the same irritated tone, not looking at Troy, just walking towards some specific point.
-...-
Clementine muttered softly as she felt that sharp pain on the side of her head, she felt her whole body numb, she had probably been in that position for hours.
She lifted her head and opened her eyes slowly, getting used to the brightness of the place and trying to recognize the trees around her, to recognize where she was.
She stood up slowly, groaning a little in pain as she did so, looking down at her body and checking to see if she was hurt anywhere else, letting out a relieved sigh when she saw that she was apparently okay.
Her hands went to her hat, relieved to know that it was still on her head, then she reached for the machete on her back, and her heart quickened at not feeling the handle of the blade in its sheath.
"No!"
She thought, despairing and looking around, searching for the machete on the banks of that river.
She started walking downstream, trying to ignore the pain and dizziness spreading through her body, until her golden eyes focused on a blade stuck in some bushes not far from there.
She ran to the spot, almost falling over due to the dizziness, and picked up the machete with a relieved look on her face, feeling her heart calm down as she put the blade back into its sheath.
The girl looked around once more, not recognizing that place, until flashes of memory flashed through her mind, and she cursed softly at the situation she was in.
"I don't know how far the river current took me, but if I'm correct, I'll just go upstream, following the bank, and I'll make it to the camp... if there's anyone alive up there."
She thought, rolling her eyes at the possibility that everyone had been killed, or captured. The girl wasn't too affected by this, she saw this possibility as just an inconvenience.
She liked Ben, but they had never been close, and after he confessed that he was the reason the bandits had attacked the motor inn, she no longer trusted him.
Omid was fun, but they weren't very close either. She felt a little bad for Crista, for always treating her so cold, but she learned to let it go.
And she didn't mind what happened to Carley, in fact, she was even grateful that they were away from each other.
Her thoughts soon fell on Duck, and a worried feeling rose in her chest. She trusted the boy's abilities, and hoped that he was all right, he could take care of himself, but she couldn't help but worry, they had both become very close in the last few years.
But she had learned not to worry too much about situations she couldn't control, the event of the day before was something she couldn't do anything about, even if she wanted to, the same thing with Duck.
Trying to ignore those thoughts, the girl starts walking along the river bank again, observing the forest as she walked.
After a while, she found a small dirt path, along with some junk thrown around and a long dead body leaning against a fallen tree trunk.
She started to follow the dirt path, looking around, attentive to any noise and any movement she saw.
But the dizziness and pain in her head made this more difficult than she had thought, and she felt as if she was close to passing out.
After walking for some time, her eyes focused on an abandoned campground ahead, with a van parked right in front of a torn up tent. She approached the place with slow and cautious steps, even though it was abandoned, there might still be some lost walkers there.
The girl took the machete on her back and entered the camp, searching the place with her eyes for something useful, until she decided to go towards the van and look inside, looking for some water bottle, bandages, mainly, her head was throbbing, and blood dripped from her wound.
She found nothing she could use, only some books, comic books, and a family photo, which she just ignored.
Turning around, she walked to the middle of the camp, until she discovered a body tied to a tree a few steps away.
She approached the corpse that was still "alive", with a pocket knife attached to its arm. Putting her machete away again, she quickly takes the knife and kills the hiker, removing the small blade from the rotting skull and wiping it on his old clothes and putting it in her pocket.
Her eyes then fall on the can of beans, right next to the walker's feet, seemingly, intact.
"Please God, let it be edible."
She thought, crouching down and picking the can up off the ground, turning around and propping herself up on the tree trunk, on the opposite side of where the walker was.
She thought about opening the can with her newest knife, but she had just removed it from a zombie's body, it was too risky, even though she had cleaned it.
The girl takes the machete, and with some difficulty, and after some annoyed swearing, she manages to open the can, sighing with relief to see that the beans were still good.
After having her small meal, she stood up again and walked back down the dirt road, but her head was throbbing more and more.
She had to fix that cut; from the pain, it wasn't looking so good.
A noise echoed next to her, she turned around, watching some bushes moving not far from where she was standing.
The girl picked up the machete on her back and started walking slowly down the road, wanting to get away from whatever that thing in the bushes was.
A walker came out of the forest and slowly approached Clementine, who rolled her eyes in irritation.
Sighing tiredly, she walked towards the walker, kicking him in the leg and killing him soon after.
The girl turned around again, walking back to the dirt road, until her eyes focused on two more zombies approaching in front of her.
She didn't worry, she had dealt with more than one walker before.
A few more bushes moved, and a few more dead ones came out of the forest, which made the girl slightly apprehensive about their sudden appearance.
She turned around, trying to go back the way she came, but her eyes widened when she saw the hand of a walker almost grabbing her.
Out of reflex, she takes a few steps back, knocking the walker out with a kick to the leg and killing him.
Another undead approached from her side, and the girl just put her leg in front of it as she dodged the walker, causing him to fall rolling down the small hill just behind her.
However, she didn't expect a walker to literally jump on her.
Clementine put her machete in front of her body to protect herself, but the walker's weight, along with the impact of his jump, made her lose her balance and fall backwards, rolling down the small hill behind her, feeling her body crash against some rocks as she fell, until she stopped at the end of the hill when her back hit a tree.
Everything blurred, the noise became muffled, and her whole body ached.
A few moments passed before she was able to recover, and quickly, she threw her body to the side as she saw another walker roll down the hill.
Her eyes looked around, focusing on the machete embedded in the body of the undead ahead.
She walked over to its blade, limping slightly as she did so, and pulled the machete from that dead body.
She turned around, watching more and more walkers roll down the hill. Sighing heavily, she walked as fast as she could away from there.
She didn't know how long she had walked, but she felt like she would pass out at any moment, her body begging for a rest, no longer able to move.
The girl propped herself up on a huge rock, watching her surroundings, relieved not to see any zombies, but worried that she wouldn't be able to stay awake.
Clementine tried to keep her eyes open as long as she could, but every second her body seemed to force her eyes closed, as if forcing her to accept the darkness that wanted to take over her gaze.
And after a while of fighting her own body, she closes her eyes, Not being able to stay awake anymore.
