Clementine woke up slowly. Her sleepy eyes scanned the room and focused on AJ. The boy had a much calmer expression on his face.

He looked better already, he would be brand new in no time.

She stood up slowly, picking up the machete at her side as she did so, and looking out the window. It was still dark, but it was possible to see the few rays of light slowly taking the place of the darkness.

It was still dawn; everyone must have been asleep at that hour.

Clementine took the gun from under her pillow and placed it at her waist, rising cautiously so as not to make noise and wake AJ.

She picked up her hat and backpack, walked towards the door, and silently left the room.

The girl walked down the dark hallway, and soon reached the courtyard, where some materials were scattered about.

Clementine entered the main building, without having to worry about the noise, since everyone was sleeping in the dorms.

She went up the stairs and walked to Violet's office, taking the bow and arrow that belonged to Marlon before.

The girl walked back to the courtyard after that, at a brisk pace, for it wouldn't be long before the sun came up.

She looked around and walked towards the cemetery, making sure no one was there.

The girl climbed the branch of a tree in the corner and jumped over the wall, grunting softly in pain as she landed. It wasn't too high to do much damage, but it was high enough to hurt if someone landed the wrong way.

She looked around the forest and walked forward.

That was a great time to look for Lilly's camp, they shouldn't be too far from there. At least, she hoped so.

The girl walked to the spot where she was attacked and surrendered, looking around, trying to figure out which way they might have gone.

"... I saw them walking in that direction, the day Marlon died..." She thought, looking at the supposed place.

She started walking down the small hidden dirt path, holding the bow tightly in her hand.

She walked slightly crouched, and somewhat slower than she normally would, taking care that in case there was someone in that forest, she wouldn't be spotted easily.

She didn't know how long she had walked, but the sun was already rising over the horizon, and it wouldn't be long before people started to wake up.

She hoped to find where they were before that happened. However, if people did wake up, and she came across some of them in the forest, that would also benefit her. She had several ways to make a person spit out information.

After some more walking, she was almost giving up looking for their camp. As she was about to turn around to go back to the school, she spotted some zombies further ahead.

It was a small horde walking aimlessly through the forest, but it wasn't this that caught her attention, but the people who were covered in guts, who were silently killing the zombies, passing themselves off as one of them and attacking them from behind.

Clementine crouched behind a tree and stared at them, surprised that they knew this trick, it was a clever tactic to get rid of zombies.

There weren't many people, she counted only three.

"Groups of three, maybe a little over a dozen people in their camp? Depends on how many groups they send... I guess I'll go ask" The girl thought, watching for the best route to approach them.

She walked to the right, crouching and in a silent manner, her steps being covered by the sounds of the zombies' footsteps, and the people killing them.

Once she was in position, she waited until they had eliminated some more of the walker.

She looked around once more, making sure that there was no one else from their group around. Then, she took a deep breath, and walked crouched towards them.

Her eyes focused on a woman further back, short hair, short stature. She had her back to her, walking slowly towards the next zombie.

Clementine took the machete from her back and stabbed at the back of the woman's head, grabbing her body before it fell to the ground, and focusing her eyes on her next target.

There were only a few zombies now, the place was littered with bodies scattered around.

The girl approached the man, who had just killed another one of the zombies.

The man tried to turn away, perhaps to check on his partner, but Clementine stabbed her machete into his neck, grabbing his body and dragging him to the ground.

The man looked at her with wide, desperate, frightened eyes, and Clementine couldn't help but think about the hypocrisy of it.

Sophie and Minnie must have felt the same way when they were sold.

Her eyes then focused on the last man, who was killing the last zombie in there.

Clementine removed the machete from the neck of the man she had just killed and stood up, walking calmly towards the man in front of her.

- Okay, I think this is it. Man, I swear, Lilly is heartless for telling us to do this shit so soon. The horde wouldn't even reach our base so soon.

The man said, and that was all the proof Clementine needed.

She came up behind him and stabbed her machete into the back of his knee.

The girl put her free hand over the man's mouth, muffling the scream he gave as he fell toward the ground.

- Really? How about you tell me where Lilly is? So I can talk to her, and who knows, maybe lessen your workload, "permanent vacation".

Clementine said softly in his ear, a cold, threatening tone. She felt his body tremble at hearing her voice. She pushed the man forward, and grabbed the rifle he carried on his back, as well as the combat knife he was holding.

- What... what? Why?

The man asked, somewhat despairing at the sight of Clementine pointing her machete at his eye.

- This is how it's going to be... I'm going to ask you some questions, and you're going to answer them. If you lie, or make any funny moves, your body will get a little taste of my machete blade until you tell me what I want to know.

She threatened, putting her foot over the man's mouth and stabbing him in the knee, a guarantee that he wouldn't run away.

As his scream was muffled by her foot, Clementine looked around once more. That wasn't a good place for her to interrogate, the other people in that guy's group might know where he was.

Her eyes fell on the weapons of the other people lying on the ground, she could put the rifles on her back with no problem, and the knives could stay in her backpack.

She stopped stepping over the man's mouth and knelt on his chest, checking his pockets and finding two rounds of rifle ammo.

Clementine stared at those magazines for a while, it was a lot of ammo.

"They make their own bullets? Geez, why would a community like that try to kidnap children?" She thought, somewhat incredulously.

Only something really big would make such an independent community reach such a low level.

"They must be desperate... not for food, or supplies, they're not after that... they're desperate for people... But why?" she thought, taking the rope she had in her backpack and tying both the guy's hands and feet.

The girl stood up and took the guns from the other two people. Neither of them had a pistol, only knives in good condition and rifles.

Sarah was not joking when she said they had heavy weaponry.

Clementine looked at the other man and started to pull him with the rope, dragging him along the floor.

- What are you going to do to me?!

He asked, almost shouting, maybe in desperation, or fear... maybe it could have been anger.

- I already told you what I would do, and shut up, you don't want to attract a horde in this state, do you?

She said, making a mental map of where she would go to get back to school.

- You have no idea what you've gotten yourself into, girl! When the others see the others dead, they will come after you! All of you!

he shouted again, ignoring what the girl had said.

Clementine rolled her eyes.

- Tell me something I don't know...

she said in a low tone, looking up into the treetops.

It was dawn, people must have woken up by now. She sighed, this had taken longer than she thought, but at least she had gotten some more weapons, and possibly some information.

- There are too many of us! You don't stand a chance! Let me go now and I'll convince them not to kill your friends!

The man said again, and Clementine let go of the rope, stopping walking.

She turned and walked over to him. The people in his group might start looking for him at any moment, she didn't have to take him any further than that.

- Where are you staying, hm? Where is your base?

She asked, placing the machete gently on the other knee of the man, who looked at her startled, and hesitant of what she would do.

- You can forget it! You don't...

He tried to say, but a high-pitched scream came out of his mouth and echoed through the trees. Clementine stared at the machete, stabbed into his knee. Blood was coming out in some abundance.

- Where is your base?

She asked again, pulling the machete back and walking to the man's feet, removing his shoes. They might come in handy for Mitch, since he was the biggest in the school.

- I-I won't say...

He tried again, and Clementine severed all the toes from one of his feet.

The man screamed in pain and agony, and the girl looked at all the blood dripping from the man's severed toes.

- Ok, let's change the question a little, why are you kidnapping children?

she asked again, placing her machete gently on the side of his other foot.

- Because... because they need it! We are at war with another community, we need more people!

He said amidst his groans of pain, and Clementine stared at him intensely.

"Kidnapping children to use as soldiers? Holy shit, Sarah..." She thought, sighing heavily as she thought about the girl's decision.

But in a way, Clementine couldn't judge Sarah. She said that they had saved her life, plus they had food, and even electricity.

It was too good a life to be traded for the hard one on the road, if Clementine had been in her place a few years ago, she probably would have accepted too.

Especially with AJ to take care of.

- Exactly how many people do you have here? And how many in the community as a whole?

she asked again, looking coldly at the man's desperation.

- I-I don't know the total number in Delta! We are forced to kidnap survivors all the time! Twenty-four, we have twenty-four people here!

he said, and Clementine lifted her body slightly upward.

Her eyes focused on the three people approaching with weapons in hand, probably looking for her, after having seen the bodies of the other two people.

The man tried to shout for help as soon as he heard the distant voices of his companions, but Clementine was quicker and stabbed her machete into his neck.

She drew her blade quickly and walked away slowly, wiping the blood on her machete fast and picking up her bow.

A few zombies approached the trio further ahead, probably attracted by the man's cries of pain.

The trio became distracted dealing with the zombies, and Clementine ran back to the school.

(...)

- She's back!

Willy's voice made Clementine look at him with an arched eyebrow, it even seemed that he never left that spot, he always stood there watching.

Tenn opened the gates, and stared at her with a mixture of relief and curiosity as he saw the weapons she carried, and the blood that stained her hand.

- Clem? Where have you been?! We were worried, AJ almost got out of bed to look for you! Louis had to convince him to stay down and...

Violet said worriedly, stopping when she saw the guns, and the blood on Clementine, who was walking calmly toward them.

Clementine took one of the rifles from her back and handed it to Violet, who took the gun in surprise.

- I was doing a job. I must say it went quite smoothly.

She said, taking the other rifles from her back and placing them on the table beside her.

She placed her backpack on the table, and took out the three combat knives, along with the six magazines of rifle ammo she had taken from the bodies she had killed.

It wasn't many weapons, but it was enough, rifles were pretty destructible.

Besides, they didn't have many people who could shoot rifles, or who at least knew how to shoot a gun, since most, if not all, had never shot.

- Where did you get this from?

Mitch asked, surprised and impressed, even amazed by the weapons, taking one of the rifles and analyzing it in his hands, surprised that it was heavier than he had thought.

- From some people I met on the way. The group they belong to, Delta, is at war with another community, apparently a pretty big one, they kidnap survivors and force them to fight in this war.

She said, placing the bow on the table, next to one of the rifles, and turning around, watching the incredulous looks from the others.

- Holy shit, Sophie and Minnie were forced to be soldiers...

Violet said, almost in a whisper, a distant look on her face.

- I couldn't find out where their camp was around here. There wasn't time, but I found out that, here, there are twenty-four people, well, twenty-one now.

She said, staring for a while at her bloodstained hand.

Violet and Louis looked at each other for a moment, surprised.

- Badass...

Willy's voice caught her attention, and she looked up at the boy, who was staring at her in a rather intense way.

Perhaps a little impressed.

- Twenty-one people... holy shit.

Louis said in a whisper, arms crossed and a thoughtful look on his face.

- If we take them by surprise, this number won't matter much. Now that we have some weapons, killing them has become a little easier. We will discuss this later, I will clean up and check on AJ. Don't play with those guns, we need all the bullets we can get.

Clementine said, walking toward the dorms.