The girl opened her eyes slowly, feeling the numbness in her body slowly recede and the pain take over, spreading slowly.
Clementine turns around quickly and begins to cough heavily, spitting out some water in the process.
Her head was spinning, and her body was heavy.
Looking around, the girl stands up with some difficulty, feeling a chill run through her aching body.
Memories of past events raced through her mind, and the girl's eyes widened, feeling despair rise in her chest as she looked back.
She had fallen into the river and ended up in an unknown place. It was already morning, and she didn't know how long she had been carried downstream before she ended up on that bank.
The image of Lee being surrounded by the herd fixed itself in her mind, and the girl felt her throat close up at the thought.
Ignoring the state of her body, she walked along the shore in desperation, with angry thoughts racing through her mind, wondering what to do.
The girl began to breathe heavily, pacing back and forth as she ran her hands nervously through her hair.
" Calm down... breathe... just breathe... he's okay... Lee is okay..."
The girl stopped moving and closed her eyes tightly, taking a few deep breaths in order to calm herself down.
"Ok... he... he must have made it out of there, he... he must have thrown himself into the river... yeah, he must have done that... I just have to follow the shore..."
The girl opened her eyes and turned around.
A sigh of agony escaped her lips. Lee must have managed to escape, but how would she find him?
Which way would she go.
"Calm down...remember what he always says."
She placed her hand on her chest and took a few more deep breaths. Despite her attempts, she wasn't having much success in calming down, and worry was growing deeper and deeper inside her.
-... He must be looking for me right now... I just have to stay close to the river... it's the only base the two of us have to find each other... okay.
She said to herself, lowering her head and looking at her body.
Her backpack was still on her back, great.
She took off her backpack and put it on the ground, opening it and checking to see if there was anything salvageable left in it.
Her flashlight was soaked, as were the few batteries she had.
"It doesn't work... dang it."
The girl sighed in exhaustion as she saw that the flashlight was gone.
The few books she had in there were also soaked, but, maybe there was still hope for them. Her water bottle was intact, great.
She still had her scissors, some tape, bandages, which were not wet due to being in their package, a little box with a needle with thread for sutures, a rope, and some clothes, although they were wet. At least she didn't lose much.
Getting up, she puts her hand on her waist in order to get her gun, but rolls her eyes and sighs once more when she sees that her pistol was no longer there.
"The current must have carried it away"
Placing her hand on the back of her waist, she reaches for her knife, and stares at the blade for some time. Checking her pockets, she sighs as she sees that she still had some bullets with her.
Trying to be positive, her situation could be much worse.
Or at least that's what she was trying to convince herself.
Removing the hat from her head, she runs her hand through her wet hair once more, trying to get her thoughts in order.
Looking around, she walks a little to her left, up the small hill over the river. The current must have taken her by a few others, perhaps, she didn't recognize anything of her surroundings.
Walking upstream, the girl shivered as she felt a cold wind crash against her body, but at the same time, more memories and thoughts appeared through her mind.
The girl stopped walking and had a distant expression on her face.
That herd could still be in the forest. It could still be in the same place where they had split up.
Going back that way was dangerous. Entering the forest was dangerous... everything there was dangerous.
The girl sighed and bowed her head, putting one of her hands over her face.
Maybe she could follow the river, eventually she would stay out of the forest, or she would reach a point where it would allow her to get back to the highway.
Sighing, the girl turns around and walks downstream. Without a map, or anything she could use to orient herself, the river was her only point of location.
The girl walked down the bank for some time, hugging her own body and looking around endlessly.
It was a completely different feeling walking through an unknown place without Lee by her side.
It seemed that at any moment a runner would appear from some corner she wasn't paying attention to and attack her.
She felt as if the forest was going to crush her. She never felt that way with Lee right beside her, he was always aware of his surroundings, and often saw things she didn't.
So walking through that place, alone, made her feel so small... or maybe she was just seeing the real size of things.
Everything around her was dangerous, however, so was Lee, and that made the true extent of things covered up by him. It caused some of the dangers to be smothered.
After walking for some time, the girl felt her body freeze for a few moments, and quickly, she ducked as she saw a runner ahead, standing looking at the water gently flowing down the river.
She had the courage to face a runner, she had done it several times before, but always with Lee by her side to help her in case something happened.
Now there, alone, the disfigured face of that runner looked different. It looked more macabre. More frightening, and without her realizing it, it seemed even more dangerous than she had always seen it.
Swallowing hard, the girl started to back away slowly, trying not to make any noise and not to attract that thing.
As soon as she turned around, however, the girl's eyes widened in fright as she saw a zombie dangerously close to her.
In reflex, the girl put her arm forward, preventing the zombie from grabbing her, and she began to struggle to get away from that body.
The zombie threw its weight onto the girl, who let out a low groan as she felt her back slam into the ground.
Gritting her teeth, the girl manages to grab the knife that was at her waist and quickly stabs it in the zombie's eye, at the same time stepping to the side and pushing the zombie's body to the ground.
The girl looks at the corpse of what had once been a man with wide eyes, and breathing heavily, feeling the adrenaline slowly leaving her body.
Pulling out the knife again, she stands up, and once more, widens her eyes.
Looking forward with some hesitation, Clementine feels her throat close again, and her heart begins to beat even faster as she sees the runner a few meters ahead of her, looking at her deeply.
In the blink of an eye, the creature began to run towards Clementine, who turned and ran into the forest as fast as she could, feeling the despair in her chest increase as she heard the rushing footsteps of the runner chasing her.
That creature was much faster than she was, not to mention that it didn't get tired. The girl then began to use the trees themselves as a means to slow the runner down, running almost in a zigzag pattern.
It wasn't the most efficient way to lose him, but it bought her time. If she ran in a straight line with that thing chasing her, she would be grabbed in no time.
Gasping for breath, the girl's nervous eyes focused on a fallen log further ahead, with two huge rocks around it.
Looking over her shoulder for a few moments, Clementine runs towards the hollow log and enters it, crawling as fast as she can away from the arms of the runner.
The creature follows her, and also tries to enter the hollow log, but, as she would expect, is unable to due to its size.
Clementine crawls to the other end of the log, and continues running through the forest.
However, the more she ran, the more lost she became. As she looked around, everything seemed to be the same, just a sea of trees surrounding her, it wasn't hard for her to get lost from the path leading to the river.
Grumbling softly, the girl feels despair rise up in her chest once more as she sees the runner chasing her again.
The girl turns and begins to run away from the runner, dodging the occasional zombie she meets along the way, too slow to be of much danger.
Focusing her eyes on a zombie further ahead, the girl used a large tree nearby as an obstacle, and went around the zombie, grabbing it from behind.
Using all the strength she could, she pushes the zombie across the runner, knocking them both to the ground, and buying a little more time.
Turning around, she returns to running aimlessly through the forest, but it wasn't long before she heard the runner's footsteps approaching again.
After some time, already panting, the girl comes across a long-abandoned camp, with a rusty old van parked just in front of two destroyed tents.
The girl jumps over the trunk lying on the ground, which had probably served as a bench for some family on vacation a long time ago.
However, she couldn't run very far after she jumped down the log, as she felt her shirt being grabbed from behind, and she was pulled violently, falling backwards off the log, opening a wide cut on her arm from one of the metal parts of the destroyed tent.
Crying out in fright mixed with pain, the girl holds the shoulders of the runner who was forcing himself against her harder and harder, trying to bite her.
Standing like that, face to face with a runner trying to bite her... she had been through similar situations before, but Lee always appeared and got her out of there.
This time, he wasn't around.
And she was not like him. Constantly she saw Lee coming face to face with some runner, fighting only with his axe, and getting into physical disputes with more than one of those things, but she couldn't do the same, and every second she stayed in that situation, the stronger the runner pulled her.
Or the weaker her arms got, and the blood dripping from her cut wasn't helping.
Running her restless eyes around, the girl sees a sawed-off shotgun in a box inside the van.
It wasn't such a heavy weapon that she couldn't lift it, although she knew the recoil was incredibly strong for a relatively small weapon.
She hoped it was loaded.
Grabbing her knife, the girl plunged her blade into the runner's mouth, unfortunately, it wasn't deep enough to kill him, but it was enough to keep him from biting her.
Using the little strength she had left, the girl pushed the runner aside with her legs and got away from him as fast as she could.
Crawling with some difficulty, the girl picked up the sawed-off shotgun and turned to the runner, pointing the gun in its direction.
The creature ran at her, although it couldn't bite her, the runner could still hurt her, scratch her in some way and infect her.
Out of options, the girl squeezed the trigger, feeling her arms numb from the strong kick of the gun, and seeing half the runner's head explode.
Clementine continues to stare at the runner's body on the ground, panting, pained, and relieved.
She lowered the gun and groaned in pain. Only now noticing how wide the cut was on her forearm. Almost across its entire length.
Much blood dripped from her wound, and she was thankful that she had paid attention to her mother when she nursed the wounds of others back at the motel.
Besides the occasional books that she and Lee found lying around.
A cut like that, needed to be cleaned, stitched, and covered with bandages.
"Crap..."
The girl took the backpack off her back amid a groan of pain and picked up her water bottle, drinking some before pouring water over her wound.
Gritting her teeth and trying not to scream in pain, the girl takes the rest of the items she needs to stitch her arm.
She had never really done a suture on herself, but she had already sutured Lee once.
The girl walked over to the body of the runner and picked up her knife, wiping it on her clothes soon after.
Running her eyes around the place, it didn't look like she would find much there. The tents were destroyed to the point where there were mostly just metal parts left.
The boxes in front of her were open and torn apart, with rotten food scattered on the floor.
A garbage can was lying beside the tree in front of her, and there didn't seem to be anything useful there.
Sighing, she walked back to the vehicle and sat down near the entrance, placing the items she needed right beside it.
- Okay... just make it quick, I can't stay here any longer... this is gonna suck...
The girl muttered softly, taking a few deep breaths before piercing her arm.
The girl bit down hard on her lower lip, preventing a cry of pain from escaping her throat, while at the same time making her lip bleed from the force with which she had bitten it.
Ignoring that metallic taste in her mouth, the girl grits her teeth as she begins to move the needle down her arm, occasionally letting out a few gasps of pain.
She didn't have the luxury of making noise, not there, not in that situation.
Luckily, the dense forest muffled some of the noise of the gunshot, making it difficult to pinpoint the exact location of the source for the runners, but like it or not, the forest had gotten even more dangerous.
Surely there were zombies around, closer to there.
After a few agonizing minutes, the girl bites the line and finishes suturing her arm. Looking away, the girl takes her bandages from the package and wraps them around her arm.
A sigh of relief escapes her lips, but this feeling doesn't last long.
She was lost in an unknown forest. The last memory she had of Lee was when he was being surrounded by a herd, she had no idea how to find him...
Looking around, the forest seemed to have grown more intense.
Her troubles came back with everything against her.
And for the first time in a long time, she was truly frightened.
But at the same time, she was angry with herself.
Only now did she realize how dependent she had become on Lee. Only now did she realize how much she was leaving all the responsibility on his back.
No wonder he always looked so tired, she was the reason he was like that.
She was getting in his way, and she hadn't even realized it.
"I have to stop depending on him so much... otherwise, either I will die when he is not around, or he will die because of me."
The girl put her things back in her backpack and took the clothes inside, they were still a little damp, but it was better than continuing to wear those.
Looking around, Clementine got into the van and changed her clothes, throwing the dirty ones into the back of the van, too battered to wear again.
She looked at her new clothes.
A short-sleeved purple blouse, with dark jeans and a pair of sneakers. A gray jacket she held in her hand.
She picked up her backpack and stepped out of the vehicle, and as she did, she was startled slightly when she heard a noise coming from beside her.
Turning suddenly, the girl takes the unloaded shotgun and points it at the two men ahead, who, as soon as they saw her, were slightly startled and raised their arms.
- Whoa, wait! Don't shoot.
One of the men said. He looked young, a little under thirty, maybe. He had straight brown hair, and a small beard still growing on his face.
The other man was older, with white hair and a small black beard, and somewhat advanced expression marks.
- I don't want any trouble...
The girl said, taking a few steps back, pointing the gun at the two men while holding her jacket with her bandaged arm.
- Neither do we. We heard a shot... we don't find many people around here...
The younger man said, alternating his gaze between her and the body of the nearby runner.
- Are you... are you alone?
He asked, and Clementine looked around, thinking of some way to escape from there. She was in a rather... complicated situation.
She was tired, she didn't have much strength from what she had been through, her gun was out of bullets, and there were two of them...
- Look, we don't want your group to think that we are hurting you, we don't want any problems either, we just came to check the shot. We live nearby, and this shot could cause us problems.
The older man said, and the girl sighed.
-... I'm with someone... I'm on my way to meet him.
She said, looking around. She didn't even know where she was, she would have to find that river again.
-... You're hurt.
The old man said.
-... You were attacked by this thing, right? Were you bitten?
The younger man asked, a somewhat shocked, even agitated expression.
- If I had been bitten, I would have shot myself, not him.
The girl answered, walking slowly away with slow steps as she talked.
- Okay. Look, I'm Luke, and this here is , we don't want to hurt you, we would have if we wanted to, but do you... do you know where to find this other person?
The man named Luke asked, and Clementine arched an eyebrow.
Although she didn't want to admit it, it was true, if they had wanted to hurt her, they would have done it by now.
However, they might want something with her, or with her group... they might as well be together with those three men from last night.
-... We got separated... I fell in the river... I'm trying to find him.
The girl answered, feeling her body getting a little weaker. At least she took care of her wound.
- Ok... look, you don't look so good... like I said, we live nearby, we have a doctor, if it's really not a bite, he can take a look at you, we can help you.
Luke said, and the girl arched an eyebrow.
- awfully nice of you ... but I'm going to say no ... I have to find him.
Clementine said, feeling the gun get a little heavier.
- I understand, okay, but you're in no shape to go out there alone... especially being a little girl.
Luke argued.
- There are runners through these woods, and you got hurt killing one, what are you going to do when you find more?
The older one, Pete, said, taking a few steps forward.
-... What if I'm really bit? You'll put yourselves in danger for nothing.
The girl said, wary of the "good intentions" of two strangers.
- Well, if that's the case, we'll let you go, or we'll shoot you, if you're really infected, we'll know... and I'm not willing to leave a little girl alone in the forest, especially when she's hurt.
Pete said, holding a crossbow with one hand and putting the other at his waist, looking at the girl with a soft expression.
Honestly, the girl didn't want to go, didn't trust those people, and desperately wanted to find Lee again.
It was distressing not being sure what happened to him... although she was aware that depending on what really happened to him, that feeling would only get worse.
Honestly, she didn't know what she would do if Lee had died... she didn't even want to think about that possibility.
- We can give you some food... and when you get better, you can leave if you want... you are in bad shape.
Luke insisted, and the girl sighed.
As it was, she would die to the next runner she met.
She reluctantly lowered her gun.
-... I hope you don't try anything...
She said, walking slowly and wearily towards the two of them.
- Don't worry... what could we possibly gain by hurting a little girl?
Pete said.
Clementine looked at him for a moment.
If they hurt her, and Lee happened to be alive and found out, they would die.
So, that warning was for their own good, although no other bandits listened to her warnings.