Coming into consciousness Clementine opened her eyes to find herself in a bedroom with her laying on the bottom bunk of a bunk bed. A second one was on the opposite side next to the second bunk was a desk. Looking around to survey the room for any way out she recounted the events of the train station.

It started off fine for the most part with them encountering a walker outside the train station which was quickly killed by Rohit. After that they were about to enter but were drawn to Aj looking at a tire swing, confusing it for a trap, Kenny told him that he used to swing Duck on a swing like it all the time, AJ got curious about Kenny's son since he rarely talks about him, but he dropped it shortly after. It saddened Clementine every time when Kenny talked about Duck, obviously missing him very much.

After prying the door open Lee walked in securing the perimeter of the building, he found two walkers who were tied to a chair a bottle of poison near them, it didn't take a detective to know they committed suicide together instead of just surviving. AJ asked why they did that and she answered the question by "That they wanted to leave the world together." Then AJ asked if its bad to commit suicide, this sparked some bad memories for Kenny which was noticed by the other adults, attempting to avoid the question Rohit peeped through a hole leading into another room behind a security door and concluded that AJ could fit through Lee instead wanted to kill the walkers so that they can get in.

AJ wanted to go with Lee's way so Clementine drove a knife through the couples heads, getting the key to the security door. Rohit entered the room checking the room to see if there were any walkers or any people inside.

Instead they found a bedroom in the other room filled with shelves that had cans in them, some empty and some full. Unfortunately they were past expired causing AJ to swear, who got told off by Kenny and Rohit.

They continued searching the room and found a crib, which gave the answer to why they gave up. Kenny gave the dead walkers a sympathetic look before continuing. Aj pointed out a trapdoor under the bed, Lee moved the bed aside and opened the trapdoor revealing a crawlspace stocked with jars of food to last them for months.

Suddenly a grenade was set off inside the crawlspace, causing Lee to close the trapdoor and for them to run out of the room, an explosion echoed through the room but fortunately the group managed to escape just in time with Lee shielding AJ.

The situation grew dire when the explosion attracted walkers from the surrounding forests. The group ran out of the train station to the jeep killing some walkers along the way while AJ stood behind Lee.

They made it to the jeep but it quickly turned into chaos when the walkers smashed the windows causing the jeep to topple down a hill causing it to crash into the ground.

The surrounding walkers were closing in on the jeep. Suddenly arrows were shot at the walkers killing most of them that was the last thing Clementine saw before she blacked out.

Rubbing her temple Clementine felt bandages wrapped around her head, the people who had taken them were at least generous to patch her up, but the question is why? Clementine pushed away that thought and focused on finding the others.

Suddenly the door opened revealing to be Lee who had a grateful expression.

"Lee!" Clementine exclaimed and ran forwards to embrace him, a hug returned shortly.

"Hey sweet pea." Lee said, pulling back but still holding onto her daughter figure. "How are you feeling?"

"A little dizzy but I'm okay. Where's AJ?" Clementine asked, she hoped that her boy was okay safe from harm.

"He's okay Rohit's with him, Kenny's actually outside talking to the leader of this place."

"Where are we?"

"That's what Kenny's trying to find out. There appears to be no adults here but just kids."

"Really?"

"Yeah it took us by surprise as well." Lee said as he and Clementine exited the room and into a large wooden hallway

"...hi." An unknown voice said. The pair turned to where the sound came from in the hallways, there stood a young dark skinned boy around AJ's age who was wearing a white dirty sleeved shirt underneath a blue torn t-shirt, he had brown dirty jeans and ankle high orange boots he also had a dark brown hair shaved to his head and a burn scar on the side of face and amber eyes.

The boy nervously fidgeted, nervous about coming closer. "It's alright we ain't gonna hurt ya." Lee assured as he knelt down to the boy's eye level. "What's your name?"

"T-t-tennessee." The boy nervously stammered, stepping back from the adult.

"You don't have to worry about him, he is nervous about seeing an adult for the first time since forever." An unknown teenage voice said.

The person who said that sentence stepped from the shadows of the hallway revealing himself to be a blonde teenager, he was wearing a striped red t-shirt underneath a black and white jacket molted with dirt, it had an E letter right side outlined by yellow he also had ankle red sneakers and pale blue eyes.

"Names Marlon. You can call this guy Tenn, it's what we call him." The teen said gesturing to Tenn with a hand motion.

"Nice to meet you." Clementine said.

"Likewise, come on i'll show you guys around." Marlon said walking off into the hallways, Tenn hastily following suit, soon after Lee and Clementine followed suit.

Clementine exited the dorms and was shocked and amazed by the place, the location of where they were was a courtyard with several benches scattered across it on across and left of the dorms was a large building 2 stories high.

Kenny was outside leaning on the walls of the dorms observing the kids who were passing by but occasionally glancing at the adult he smiled in relief when he saw the four come outside. "Hey darling, how are you feeling?"

"A little bit dizzy but I'll be fine." Clementine assured.

"So you guys have been surviving out there for a while huh?" Marlon asked.

"Yeah we've been on the road for a while now." Lee answered.

"I take it you all know how to handle yourself pretty well."

"Yeah we do what we do to survive." Clementine said as they began to trek through the courtyard.

As Clementine looked around the courtyard she kept receiving weird stares, mostly at Lee and Kenny which went unnoticed by them as they chatted with Marlon.

Suddenly the nervous child whizzed past her and stopped near a bench to blow a whistle, the teenage girl looked up and was stunned at what she saw.

Sat atop the walls was a teen that looked like Clementine's age, she had short blonde hair going past her head, a pale skin tone and emerald green eyes. She was wearing a dark blue undershirt, underneath a dark green t-shirt underneath a dark grey vest with pockets on the left side was pink button resembling a rainbow, she also had matching dirt torn trousers, with two boots, one was ankle high with purple laces while the other appeared to be torn but held together by duct tape.

'Holy shit…..she's beautiful." Clementine mused, she had never experienced thoughts or this sensational warmth in her chest, after all the emotions she had experienced in her traumatic survival she had never experienced anything like this bundle of emotions.

"Clem!"

Clementine was pulled out of her thoughts by Lee's deep tone. "Yeah?"

"You alright?" Kenny asked.

"Y-yeah I'm fine." Clementine hoaxes, but couldn't escape the examining stares from her guardians.

"Well in case you didn't hear me before, we had trouble getting you and your boy out of the wreckage but your dad helped us a lot." Marlon said.

"I'm not her dad, but I have been looking after her ever since she was little." Lee explained, smiling as he wrapped an arm around his daughter figure receiving a smile in return.

"Oh I can respect that."

"Speaking off the jeep… was it totalled?"

"Afraid so, can't fix it unless we can get our hands on some spare parts." Kenny explained.

"Fuck."

"Had to work fast, Marlon said. I don't know what would've happened if we didn't see the smoke…

As Marlon rambled, Lee took notice of a boy coming closer staring at him weirdly, the boy was wearing a grey t-shirt underneath a dirty brown vest, he also had dark blue jeans, brown hair and olive eyes.

"Uhhhh hi there." Lee greeted drawing the attention of the others to the boy.

Suddenly the boy whizzed past Lee to somewhere in the courtyard much to the surprise of the adults and the teenager. "What's his problem?" Kenny asked.

"Like I said, we haven't seen adults since forever."

"What is this place?" Clementine asked.

"As you could probably tell, it's a school." Marlon said he faced the group. "But now it's whatever we want it to be."

"If this is a school, then where are all the teachers?" Lee asked, weirded out how they have come to a school with no adults before they arrived.

"Ditched us on the first day when everything went to shit." Marlon said, receiving some somewhat shocked but unsurprised faces.

"Why am I not surprised." The teenage girl said with annoyance in her tone as she recalled the many times she had seen other people do that sort of thing.

"You're not surprised?" Marlon asked, shocked by their reaction.

"We've seen a lot of people do that over the years." Lee answered with an unchanged tone. "This seemed like another cowardly act to save their own skins."

"Well I'm glad I haven't seen what you saw, but you won't be able to see that from here, got a system in place." The teen explained as he put his hands on his hips. "Allow me to make it formal: welcome to Ericsson's Boarding School For Troubled Youth, you and your and boy and perhaps you...it feels like you may fit that. Marlon said, gesturing to Clementine and Kenny.

"Hey, Clem won't cause any trouble not unless it's for a good reason."Lee defended. "...Kenny and AJ are just like that." The adult received a glare from the eye patched adult.

"Yeah well your boy has been a little bit of a terror, but that friend of yours has been keeping him in line."

Suddenly a voice yelled out to the group. "Yo! Marlon! We got walkers on the fence!" The brown haired boy said from before.

"Shit. I got to take care of this." The leader began walking over to the boy. "Knowing Willy it's probably two grandma walkers and an angry squirrel, you guys got bigger fish. Your friend and the kid are inside...think they're with Louis.

"Louis?" Kenny asked.

"Oh right, just listen for the music, you'll find him." He began to run off to where the boy was on top of the wall.

"Music?" Lee said, receiving a shrug from Clementine and Kenny.

The trio began to walk over to the building, unbeknownst to the adults, Clementine looked over her shoulder to take a quick look at the blonde girl on the walls who seemed to be giving the same amazed stare. Looking back one more time she entered the building.

'Holy shit…she's hot as fuck.'

When the blonde saw the teenage girl, she was stunned by how intimating and how stunning she was, as she watched her retreating form going into the building, she felt a warmth fill her chest, she hadn't felt this way in awhile ever since…...well, the blond looked down not wanting to think of her.

Hey, Vi, you seen Rosie?" She suddenly hears Marlon holler from below, pulling her from thoughts.

"Nope." she responds plainly, in a softer shout than Marlon's.

"Well, shit." Marlon murmurs to himself, "Think you can lend a hand clearing a path?" he asks.

"Sure. Give me a sec." she said, beginning her descent.

"The guys hunting party should be coming back any minute. Gotta clear the way." he said, pointing a thumb to the gate before propping his hands on his hips as Violet comes to stand before him.

"Just us?" she questions, thinking back to the substantial amount of walkers she saw earlier.

"No, I was hoping to find Rosie before they start coming up, if we're lucky maybe even get Louis off his ass. I was also thinking to ask the new people if they would be willing to tag along."

"Did you catch their names yet?" Violet asks.

"Clementine, Lee and Kenny think the other two are Rohit and AJ." he supplies.

Nodding her head with this new information Violet ambled to the gate, grasping separate bars and looking out. "Well, we're gonna need the help. I saw a shit ton of those assholes come through a while ago."

"Well, fuck. Okay, sit tight. I'll be back in a bit." Marlon said before walking to the main building, whistling for his dog along the way.

While she waits at the gate she hears the distinct sounds of expectorating. Angling her head up to the watchtower she sees Willy leaning and spitting over the rail of the tower.

"What are you doing?" She wearily questions, not particularly invested in a conversation.

"Tryin' to see if I can hit a walker. Watch this." He replies, calling up some phlegm and spitting an impressive few feet.

"Gross." She mutters, rolling her eyes and facing out towards the forest.

Hearing approaching footsteps she throws a glance over her shoulder to see Marlon walking up.

"Rosie! Where the hell is she?" Marlon shouts, still unaware of the location of his dog.

Louis, Clementine, Lee, Kenny and Rohit emerge from the school a second later and make their way to the front gate. As they near, Marlon directs a question to Louis.

"You got your weapons?" As a wordless response Clementine and the adults pulled out their respective weapons.

"Good. We're gonna need you to put it to use." Marlon continues, "We've got a hunting party out there trying to get back inside. Need our help to clear the way. Seems to be a few more than usual these last couple days."

Reflexively, Violet sarcastically remarks, "It's almost like something drew their attention. Something like... I don't know...an explosion. Or a car crash." she said, glancing at the newcomers from the corner of her eyes.

"Vi…" Marlon lightly reproached, wanting a nice introduction, but not surprised at Violet's people skills.

"What? Just saying. There's gotta be some explanation." she defends.

"Hey do you think we wanted this to happen!?" Kenny asked, anger in his tone, but the anger quickly dispersed when Rohit put a hand on his shoulder and shook his head at Kenny.

"Look, we didn't know any of that was gonna happen. Sorry if it caused you guys problems." Clementine sincerely said, defending their own actions with a sure voice.

Feeling her guilt nip, her gaze drops from Clementine's face to the floor. Before a tense atmosphere has the chance to form, Louis's jocund nature intervenes. Feigning a clearing of his throat he begins as Violet turns back to the gate.

"Hello Clementine. I'm Violet. Nice to meet you." he intones sarcastically, to an extent stopping the tension brought by Violet's less-than-warm welcoming.

"What he said." She said plainly, turning her head enough to throw it over her shoulder. Before they have the chance to dwell in the lingering tension, Willy's yell gains the group's attention.

"All right, boys and girls. They're starting to fill in!" He informs them emphasizing his words with a finger pointing to three flames in the distance.

"Come on." Violet said, pushing the gate open and walking out.

"Be careful out there." Marlon tells her, grabbing an arrow from his quiver and nocking it before running out after the blonde.

"Don't mind Violet." she hears from behind as Louis comes to stand before her. "She uh... grows on you. I promise." he finishes swinging a unique wooden weapon onto his shoulder.

Clementine let the confused interest show on her face and Louis, noticing her expression affably supplies, "Oh this? It's a chair leg. I call it "Chairles." With a self-satisfied smirk he turns around to slowly stroll out the gate.

The four looked at each other confused at the boy's quirky humour. Clementine shakes her head before following the group of kids out. With Rohit closing the gate behind them as they begin to help out they turned around when AJ's voice catches her attention.

"Lemme help!" He hurriedly shouts jogging up to the gate.

Kenny bends down to his level, giving him instruction, "I need you to watch our backs. Call out from inside if you see anything. Got it?"

With a disappointed look AJ shakes his head, "Okay…"

"See you on the other side." Clementine addresses AJ.

Turning to walk off Clementine immediately catches sight of a walker and pulls out her knife. Before she's able to close the distance she sees Violet swing a meat cleaver, embedding it in its head and kicking off its torso to dislodge her weapon before running off. Following the girl's lead, Clementine makes her way to a couple of walkers in front of her, dispatching them in quick succession.

As the second walker drops she hears Louis shout to her, "Whoa! Nice one, Clementine!" Looking in the direction of his voice she sees him standing a little ways ahead of her.

"Could use a little more finesse, though. Watch and learn." Turning his back to her, he cups a hand over his mouth and yells out to a nearby walker to get its attention.

"Hey! Over here! Follow me!" The walker groaned as it changed its course, now going in the direction of Louis.

Before the walker gets within reach of the boy, Louis cuts a rope strung up on the tree he was standing near. With a sonorous thud, a massive boulder comes crashing down, splashing guts and blood over the surrounding forest floor.

"And that's how you school a walker." He proudly boasts to Clementine, "There's a whole bunch of traps laying around this area for these asshats. They're all marked, so keep a lookout!" he informs her, running off to swing at another walker with Chairles. Taking a second to glance at the canopy above she sees an impressive amount of boulders suspended from the trees.

'A little overkill, but still...pretty impres--Log trap! Whaa… ' Lee mused

Walking up to a marked tree she waits a couple of seconds for a walker to stand under the rock. Cutting the rope sends it whipping into the air, before the satisfyingly reverberant pound shakes the earth at her feet. Lee does admit that using the trap was more fun than she thought it would be, but when she thinks of the poor sod who'll have to reset all the traps, he can't bring himself to use more than the one.

"Clem! Maneuver sixty four!" Rohit called out to her as he drew both of his katana's from his sheaths. Clementine smirked before running over to Rohit, he bent down for the teenager to run up on his back and jumped off, in midair she drew her revolvers and headshotted twelve walkers. The adult ran forwards and sliced five walkers decapitating three.

"That's how you school a walker." Rohit said, smirking at a surprised Louis.

Clementine landed with ease after all, she's had to do much experience over the years along with the others. Making quick work of the various walkers around her with Rohit's help, she looks around as she pulls her knife from an eye socket. At the same time, she and Marlon take notice of the three torches and look back at each other.

"Looks like they made it back in one piece. C'mon, we'll meet 'em halfway." He orders before sprinting along.

With a nod Clementine runs further into the forest, trying to clear the way as best she could. Exemplifying her unique erudition with precise jabs and a gracious form, she easily dispatches the handful of walkers. On either side of her she can see both Violet and Louis swinging, also making their way through the walker infested forest.

"Yo! Over here!" Marlon yells to them across a small, wooden bridge, gaining the attention of the trio. The teens jog over to Marlon just as another three teens come to a stop in front of them, torches billowing in the wind.

"Nice timing. We're not gonna be able to hold them off much longer." Violet said in greeting to the joining group.

"No kidding. Where'd all these walkers come from?" the redheaded girl in the new coming party questions, a hare slung over her shoulder, but stopping when she saw the adults completely in shock.

"We can talk when we're back inside the gates. Keep an eye out for stragglers." Marlon orders, turning back to the school, the rest of the group following along, the red head recovering from her shock but getting a distance away from the adults

On her walk back she kept an attentive ear open for any groans or gurgles. Clementine takes cautionary glances, first to her right then to her left. As she examined her left she saw she was walking alongside Violet, who in turn notices Clementine. They don't say anything for a few more steps and she watches as the other girl's face becomes faintly considerate, slightly squinting her eyes before looking forward.

"You know, you're not half bad. Considering the circumstances and all…" Violet said, turning to give Clementine a dainty smile before returning her gaze ahead.

'... Cute… '

"Thanks." Clementine responds, sending a timid smile of her own, failing to understand why her heart leapt and quickened as if ready for a fight and her stomach suddenly felt burdened with indistinguishable swirls and nervous flutters.

"Let's finish these guys off. We don't need them attracting more walkers back to the school." she said, running off to kill another walker with a chop to the forehead, kicking the twice-dead corpse to the floor.

Clementine takes this as her cue to get back into the action and walks over to the first walker she sees, crawling towards her with an arrow lodged in its lower back. After quickly stabbing it in its forehead she rises to see one of the boys from the hunting party shoot an arrow into a walker sitting against a tree. As the boy bends over to retrieve his arrows, he doesn't take notice of the walker shambling towards him.

The walker took him by surprise, struggling to get it off of him. Suddenly it was shot right through the head, the boy looked at where the gunshot came from, the shooter revealed to be Kenny. "You're welcome." The eye patched adult then ran off to take down more walkers.

On instinct Clementine runs to the remaining walker through its cheek. Not hitting the killing blow, the walker swings around, it's arms lashing out and striking a hard blow across her jaw. Its attention now on her, the walker grabs her wrist while she struggles against its strength. Suddenly, an impetuous brown mass throws itself at the walker, tackling it to the floor and knocking Clementine off kilter. When she finds her balance, she feels a chill run up her spine as she sees a massive dog squeeze the walkers head in its jaws until it explodes. She takes cautious steps back, her shaking hand holding her knife up to the dog as it approached with a growl.

"Good girl!" She hears somewhere off to the side, the voice also grabbing the attention of the animal in front of her. She watches as Marlon runs up to pet its head, "Shh, shh. Hey, hey, it's all right, girl. It's alright. Hey, I see you and Rosie are making friends." he said, looking at her with a smile.

Lowering her knife Clementine lets out a breath, "Had a bad experience with a dog once."

"Well, Rosie here can help you get over it. She's as cuddly as they come. Except when she's mauling walkers, that is." he reassured her, patting Rosie's massive head.

She hears the heavy panting of someone behind her and turning to look, she sees the boy from earlier. Scratching the back of his head and looking substantially shaken he addresses the adult who saved him, "That walker came out of nowhere, thanks". Kenny sends him a smile in acknowledgement as Marlon yells over the group, "All right, fun's over. Let's get inside--I'm fuckin' starving."

"You're not the only one." Lee remarks out loud as the group trudged towards the gate. As they walk back, Marlon strikes up a conversation, "How'd it go out there?"

"How do you think it went?" the boy grumbles in a surly tone.

"Be nice, Aasim." the redhead reprimands.

"The safe zone's nearly dry--I could barely find enough for tonight. We're gonna have to scout out further if we want food for the winter." Aasim states, airing his grievance.

Marlon glances to her before looking forward, "We'll talk about it later."

Coming to stand in Marlon's way, Aasim continues, "Bullshit, we should talk about this right now--

Roughly shoulder checking his way through him, Marlon heatedly responds, "I said later, dammit." Earning a suspicious look from the adults.

Before Clementine can have a proper thought on their conversation, Louis jogs up between her and Violet. "Still standing, I see." he said to her before directing his next words to Violet, "I'd call that a B-plus performance there, Vi. You've done better." he said with a lopsided smirk.

Not turning his way Violet uncrosses an arm to flip him off, "Fuck off."

In a show of mock hurt, Louis places a hand over his heart. "B-minus then. Now, Clem here? That was a solid A. A-plus even." he compliments, making Clementine blush and look away with a bashful smile.

When she brings her face back from the floor, out of the corner of her eyes she catches Louis bump Violet with a friendly elbow. "Don't be jealous, Vi. Be better." he jokes.

Clementine looks over to Violet with a friendly smile, "Um, you kicked ass, Violet. A-plus."

Upon hearing her words a small, diffident smile works its way onto Violet's lips, her face a shade pink as she turns her head away.

'So cute.'

"I know." Violet softly responds to her compliment.

"You're both delusional." Louis says shaking his head.

After they arrived back inside the school, Lee suggested they could get to know about the school kids. Aj and Clementine complied, walking around to make their acquaintances while the adults chatted about what they're going to do next.

First Clementine and AJ went to the southern girl, Ruby. Her attire consisted of a red undershirt underneath a green vest sleeved t shirt she also had ribbed blue jeans with red sneakers, she also had ginger hair styled in a low bun and pale blue eyes. She nearly touched him on the back but Rohit stopped her before she could touch him, explaining that he gets defensive when people sneak up on him.

They chatted for a bit with AJ introducing himself and Ruby apologising for her actions.

Next was the boy who argued with Marlon. Aasim. His attire consisted of a red t-shirt underneath a striped torn jacket with a hoodie, he wore light blue jeans scraped with dirt he also had black hair and orange eyes. They stryked up a conversation with him while he was writing in his diary or as he called it 'history book' Clementine asked why he argued back with Marlon and it turned out Marlon was pushing the safe zone making them get less food. Before Clementine could push on the subject any more AJ was reading what Aasim was cataloguing, but Clementine made him give it back to respect his privacy. Before they left, Aasim asked how long had the duo known the adults, to which Clementine responded, when everything went to shit.

They then went over to where Louis was who was chatting with a dark skinned teenager stirring something in a black pot his attire consisted of a buttoned up orange shirt underneath a striped fur jacket, he also wore dirt torn light blue jeans and had black curly hair and amber eyes.

Louis explained that Omar provided food for the children but can be grumpy for a whole week if the flavour was out of place and food was almost ready so Clementine and Aj made off, but before that Omar asked have the adults eaten anything, to which Clementine said not since 4 days ago an answer that shocked Omar and Louis.

Next was two boys chilling over by the bench. Willy and Mitch. The latter's attire consisted of an orange t-shirt scraped with dirt underneath a light blue jacket, he also wore torn light blue jeans and red sneakers he also had neck length dark brown hair and light blue eyes.

Clementine stryked up a conversation with them while Mitch was sharpening a knife to which AJ noticed, causing the rebel to do a cool trick with it but swerved after it was done then Clementine had to warn him not to swear in front of her boy to which he understood, just as she was about to leave to talk to the rest of the kids, Mitch asked does Rohit know how to sharpen a blade to which she said that Rohit is an expert on daggers and weapons receiving an impressed reaction.

Then they finally made their way over to Tennessee….. and Violet, the girl who made Clementine's heartbeat pick up twice.

"Hey, guys." Ignoring the way her stomach flipped or how her cheeks burned.

"What is this?" AJ asks, looking at the wooden crosses staked in the dirt.

"Our graveyard." Violet tells the young boy before looking back to Tenn.

"You guys still do that?" Clementine asks, no hint of callousness in her voice, just curiosity.

"Kinda sorta." Violet responds, reticent though not necessarily wanting to lie to Clementine.

"So who's buried here?" Clementine asks, voice heedful as she knowingly tiptoed around a sensitive subject.

"Nobody, really. This is where we buried Tenn's sisters' belongings. Minnie and Sophie. Twins. Lost 'em both about a year ago." Violet replies, turning her head to watch Tenn set his bouquet down on Sophie's grave. AJ also examines Tenn's actions, confusion plain as he turns to Violet for clarification. She gives him an understanding look before answering his unvoiced question.

"Paying respects." her soft voice tells him, returning her sad eyes to Tenn.

AJ looks to Clementine before asking, "Should we do that too? Maybe?" voice sounding unsure.

Violet looks over to Clementine and when their eyes meet she sees the question in her amber orbs. Violet gives her a small smile, and when the girl returns the smirk she looks down, feeling nervousness crawl into her stomach.

'… Her eyes are beautiful. Beautiful and intimidating as hell. Even when she's not glaring.' Clementine mused

"Yeah, I think that'd be a very nice thing to do, AJ. C'mon." Clementine said encouragingly to the young boy.

When he comes to stand before the graves Violet smiles kindly, handing him her gifted posy. She and Clementine watch as AJ squats beside Tenn to place his flowers on the grave. Violet feels a scenic smile tug at the corners of her mouth, heart warming at the sight of the two boys.

'How is she so much more beautiful when she smiles.'

"Thank you." Tenn said to the other boy, moved by AJ's consideration. Grinning as he stands, AJ makes his way back to Clementine's side. When Clementine looks back to her, Violet gives her a thankful smile and head nod and with a departing wave of their own, Clementine and AJ walked back to the courtyard.

"Now, now, I insist. I will be but a moment. Try not to miss me too much, please." Louis said before walking off to grab her a bowl of dinner.

She rolls her eyes and smiles, fondly watching his retreating form. Before returning her gaze forward she instinctively does a small sweep of the camp, course faltering as it passes over Violet. She quickly turns forward in her seat, trying to decipher the warm flutter the sight of the other girl gave her.

"Ladies and gentlemen, dinner is served." Louis loudly announces his presence as he put Clementine's food in front of her.

"Thanks." Clementine chuckles with a grateful smile before picking up her spoon. "Man. Can't remember the last time we had a hot meal. This is really good." Rohit comments who sat at one end of the table, amazed by the great taste. With the way AJ and Kenny gulped down his bowl, he would guess they agreed.

When Louis and AJ let out separate belches, Ruby makes a vocalized complaint, "Ugh, come on."

Agreeing with the country girl, Lee looks to AJ, "Hey, slow it up, AJ. You're gonna choke." he scolds plainly.

AJ makes a face at this, but nonetheless grabs his spoon to eat the rest of his meal at a civil pace. Clementine catches Ruby nodding in approval at this, "Just because everything else died, doesn't mean manners did. I'll say goodnight." she said pleasantly, slipping off the table to go to sleep.

"Goodnight!" AJ responds before looking into his empty bowl. "Clem?"

Clementine leans over to see his clean bowl and lets out a small huff of breath, "I'm sorry, buddy. I'm sure they shared as much as they could."

Rohit was about to give the rest of his food but Louis cut him off. "AJ, heads up!" Louis said passing what was left of his food to AJ, "I'm full kiddo. You can have the rest."

"You sure?" Rohit asks, not wanting to impose anymore than they had to.

"You bet." he said with a kind smile that reached his twinkling eyes. Touched by the boy's generosity, she gives him a sincerely grateful smile before looking down to finish her own meal.

"I'm all done." AJ said a couple minutes later, gaining Clementine's attention. Looking back to her polished meal Clementine nods, "Mhmm. Me, too."

"Now what?" AJ asks, voice shining with a hope they could stay up a little longer.

Before Clementine has a chance to answer him, Louis stands, "I'll tell you what," he says, flipping his chair around. "Time for something… very important." he said dramatically, holding a deck of cards in the air and pointing at it.

As Brody walked past she scoffed, "Oh, god, goodnight". But she suddenly ran off when he locked eyes with Lee, who cast a suspicious gaze to her retreating form.

"Violet! It's time!" he calls out, beckoning the blonde girl to their table.

Grabbing Clementine's dirty bowl and putting it to the side, Marlon asks, "What's the game tonight, Lou?"

Louis adopts a satirically gravelly voice to respond, "War." He shuffles the cards as he continues his embellishes, "The oldest game around. A game played by man and beast alike. The only game there is."

Not familiar with much in the way of card games Clementine feels lost for a moment. "I don't know the game." "The only card game I've played was before everything went to shit." Kenny said, sat next to Clementine.

"Don't worry, you'll pick it up as we go." Louis lightly said, still shuffling the cards.

"It's easy. Everyone gets a stack of cards, everyone flips one over. Highest card wins." Violet supplies, pushing the stacked dirty dishes further to the edge.

'Pretty.'

"And the winner gets to ask Clem or the adults a question." Louis jumps in, his coy smirk dropping when he sees Rohit and Kenny send him a quirked eyebrow.

"What? I want to get to know you guys. We all do." he defends, looking around the table for support and receiving affirmative nods from both Marlon and Violet.

"And what if we win?" Lee asks, wanting to know the rules before they start.

"Then you get to ask us one. It's only fair." Louis answers.

"Wait, what about AJ?" Rohit asked as he moved up to sit next to Kenny, looking at his vacated spot beside her.

"What about him? Looks like he made a friend." Marlon said as he turns around to see AJ climb onto the table Tenn was drawing at. "C'mon, you can take your eyes off of him for one card game. I'll bet you both could use a break from each other." Marlon said with a smooth voice, trying to win them over to the idea.

"I'm not sure…"Kenny trailed off.

"Come on Kenny we can leave AJ just for one minute and besides it's about time he gets to make friends his age. Lee said from across the table sitting next to Violet who was nervously eyeing the adult.

"Yeah, maybe. This is his first time around anyone his own age. Sometimes he acts more like an adult than a kid." she comments, turning around to direct a smile at AJ. "It's nice to see him act like a little boy again." she finishes, turning back to the group and resting her arms on the tabletop.

"Louis, if you would?"

Louis flipped a card over first then the others at the tables collectively followed, the cards revealed different types but Violets was the highest.

"Way to go me." Violet boasted with a smile that made Clementine's heart flutter but the smile quickly dispersed as she looked at AJ. "So about AJ… where is his mother? You do seem like his dad?" Violet said as she faced Lee.

"I'm not his dad, but he is like a son to me." Lee answered, not minding the question, he usually got this almost every time they come across people they traded with.

"Hell, he's like the son we never had." Kenny said.

"As for AJ's mother and father... what happened to them is the same thing that happened to everyone else's parents." Rohit explained.

"They were good people for the most part." Clementine said. "For the most part."

Getting the answer to the her question, Violet flipped her cards with the others following shortly revealing Lee to be the top.

"Would you look at that." Lee said a smile on his lips as he thought of a question. "Have you guys ever met anyone out there that's famous?"

"Nope." Violet answered.

"Too bad. You think a movie star or something would show up." Louis said.

"They had like millions of dollars they probably living in a bunker with butlers and water beds out the ass." Violet said.

"Fair point, but you never know." Rohit said.

"We met a guy who was a baseball player. Like for money."

"Javier Garcia." Kenny said. "He was a good friend."

"What happened to him?" Marlon said.

"Oh he's alive, he's just living in a community at Richmond." Lee explained.

"Thats cool, I used to love baseball. Was he good at it." Louis asked.

"Dunno never got a chance to play with him, but he was very good at smashing walker heads with a bat." Rohit said as he recounted the times when Javier killed walkers back two years ago.

Lee flipped the cards the others collectively followed and the highest one appears to be Violet.

"Victory Violet." Violet boasted. "Here is something that's been bugging me about you." Violet faced Kenny. "Why do you have an eyepatch." When Violet asked that question Kennys expression became dark while the adults and Clementine looked at him wearily. "Is it to make you cool or is there something wrong with it?"

When Kenny didn't answer that question instead of being lost in thoughts of trauma so Rohit answered it for him. "Long story short, it got destroyed by a complete psychopath, fucker got his just deserts though." Rohit said as he was reminded of the memories of him.

"Oh….I'm sorry, I didn't-"

"It's okay, kid, you didn't know." Kenny said, cutting off Violet's apology.

To avoid the tension rising, Violet flipped his cards, the others collectively following the action. And the highest one was revealed to be Rohit.

"Have you guys had any incidents?" Rohit asked, wanting to know if Ericsson's was truly a safe place.

"Uh….well we had some walkers break in but nothing else." Marlon nervously said.

"You guys had any encounters with people before us?"

"No...no of-of course not...we never had any incidents!" Marlon stuttered, obviously hiding something causing the adults to throw a quirked eyebrow at him.

Regardless they moved on with the game, with Louis having the highest one.

"I am the greatest card player of all time." Louis boasted.

"Just ask your damn question!" Violet said, annoyed already by Louis's boasting.

"Ever….actually never mind."

"What. Ask it?" Clementine urged.

"It's not a fun question."

"Ask."

"Have you….lost someone you loved?" Louis asked. Upon hearing that Kennys eye widened as he recounted bad memories. Unable to to answer or be reminded he got up and walked to the dorms.

The adults and Clementine watched as Kenny walked away from them to the dorms, looking at him with a sad and sympathetic look, but they glared at Louis when they faced him.

"What I was just curious."

"To answer your question." Rohit said in a cold tone. "Yes, Kenny was the only one among us who had lost everything. His son, Wife and Girlfriend. End of story. I'm going to turn in for the night." He got up from the bench and began to follow Kenny.

"Yeah me too." Lee said as he followed Rohit. "Clem get AJ to bed."

"Sure." Clementine also got up from the bench and walked over to AJ, Marlon and Violet glared at Louis. "What you wanted me to ask." Louis defended

"Lets go AJ." Clementine said. Aj nervously looked at her and back to his newfound friend.

"Uh, Goodnight!" AJ said as he began to follow Clementine.

"Goodnight AJ!" Tenn said and went back to his drawings.

As Clementine and AJ walked over to the dorms, Marlon caught up to them. "Long day huh." As he began to walk alongside the pair.

"Yup real long."

"I hope you know that Louis didn't mean any harm for your friend, he's just the world's biggest dumbass. He's my best friend so I can legally call him that.

"Well… shit." Louis mutter beside her, turning back with a heartbroken expression to nuzzle his chin into his folded arms. Feeling immensely guilty for causing the four of them obvious discomfort, Violet sighs, directing her head to the table

"Hey, Vi, come look! I'm almost done." Tenn's voice calls from behind, causing her head to tilt up in surprise to look across the grounds to the boy. She pushes herself up with a soft sigh, walking towards Tenn. She comes to a stop behind him and peeks over his shoulder to see what drawing the boy had begot.

"Wow. You're getting really good, bud. Who's that supposed to be?" she asks, letting a puff of laughter escape alongside her impressed grin.

"It's one of the guys from the beginning. That older boy, Stuart. See? And that's supposed to be the walker that bit him." he points to his creation and looks up to see Violet turn her head in confusion.

Tenn explains, "When I was coming out of your room, I- I saw his name on the wall for some reason. I don't really even notice the graffiti anymore, but…I dunno. I felt kinda bad no one really thinks about him anymore." Tenn tells her crestfallen, looking back down to scribble berries onto a shrubbery near Stuart's knees. With his words, her face falls into a somber look of reflection.

"That's really nice, Tenn. I'm sure he'd love it." she said softly, watching him for a few minutes as he put details down wherever he felt needed them.

A lot of the graffiti in her hallway was left by Stuart. Anarchy mostly, but also a few signatures here and there. With a reminiscent smile she recalls the boys contumacious attitude and likewise taciturn temperament. Before he had last went out hunting he had made an effulgent gibe at Louis, pointing out how difficult it must be for a rich boy to wait for his meal. Saying he would bring his haul back on a silver platter to make Louis feel more at home. Releasing a deep breath from her nose, Violet stops the thoughts of the dolorous transpiring that came next and raises a hand to Tenn's shoulder.

"Okay. C'mon, Tenn. Let's turn in for the night." Violet said, turning around and walking to the building, trusting him to follow.

As they made their ways up the schools front steps Tenn grabs Violets attention, "Hey, Vi, do you know where there are any pencils or colors? I haven't had any green in a while and I wanted to try to make this drawing a little better." he says fiddling with the edge of his notebook as they pushed through the front door. At his query, her mind snaps to the first place she can think of to find art supplies.

'Sophie's box should still be in there somewhere.'

"Uh, maybe. I think there might be some stuff up in Sophie and Minnie's room. I can go look. If you want." Violet tries not to make her awkwardness known when she responds, wanting to appease the boy with anything she could give. If he had picked up on her hesitation, he wouldn't have shown it.

"Really?" he asks hopefully.

"Really." she said with an easy smile, "Just wait up in my room for me, okay? I'll go get it".

"You mean like Tenn?" AJ questions, squirming onto the creaking wooden chair until he is settled.

"Yeah, like Tenn." Clementine responds with a giddy smile, extremely happy to see AJ happy and playing with a boy his own age.

"Huh. I like to do pictures, too." he said as he picks up a red-colored-pencil.

Smiling at AJ's back, Clementine doesn't hear the approaching boots. Only when the doorknob is being turned does she startle, heart rate soaring as her survival instincts kick in. She turns her body to view the intruder, and it is only when her eyes take in the sight of Violet, that she tries to calm her panicked heart. In an attempt to stop the adrenaline from the small jump-scare, she takes a calming breath, hoping for her nerves to recede.

Violet swears softly as she notices the room's occupants, "Oh. Shit. I- I didn't know Marlon set you up in this room." Entering the room and closing the door behind her she continued, "I just wanted to grab something. From the closet." she said, pointing towards her destination.

"Where the hell is it?" Violet questions herself out loud, casting her eyes around the small closet. As Violet turns away from her unsuccessful search, her eyes land on the colorful box on the desk. "Oh." she said simply.

"What?" Clementine asks, looking to the girl. As she raises a hand to gesture towards the box, Clementine understands.

"That's what I was looking for. It belonged to Sophie." When Violet meets Clementines eyes, it is only for a few seconds, looking away with a slight dust of pink touching her cheeks.

"Uh… Tenn's sister. He was asking for more art supplies and stuff, so I was going to…" she softly trails, folding her arms over her chest as she stepped towards the desk.

"Oh! Sorry, we didn't know…" Clementine hurriedly apologized, hoping they haven't been unintentionally inconsiderate.

"No, no, it's fine. Don't worry about it. Honestly, it's just been sitting here for the past year and no one's touched it." she said with a careless wave of her arm, walking closer to the door.

"If AJ wants to play with it it's… it's fine." Violet tells her in an subdued voice.

Not needing to think on the subject, Clementine turns to address AJ, "You should probably give the box back. It doesn't belong to us."

AJ's face falls, but nods in acquiescence as Violet approached him.

"Thanks, buddy. It's just that Tenn wanted it, since it was his sister's and all." Violet offers with a thankful smile.

"It's Okay." AJ sighs, letting his head fall again in disappointment.

Glancing over to Violet, she sees the girls guilty frown before she went on, "You can finish your drawing though. I don't mind." she tells AJ, lifting his spirits as he turns around to finish his drawing.

Her kind words to AJ adds a flutter to her still quickened heart, Clementine turns to give Violet an appreciative smile. The girl returns the gesture, her own much more shy, before she turned away.

Looking at the dresser holding her hat, Violet lightly observes, "Huh! I see you're um… settling in." she smiles, flicking her minty eyes from her face to her baseball cap.

"Yeah." Clementine said, turning her body to put her full attention on the girl before her, "Is that okay?" she asks, hoping Violet isn't upset by their uninvited intrusion.

Clementine watches as Violet's face falls, pain evident, "Sure. I guess." she said before starting to walk towards her bunk bed on the left side of the room. The girls dreamy, far off voice sounds more so like she's talking to herself than with Clementine.

"I always liked this room.", she began gently, "Sophie had, like, paintings and shit on the walls. Lots of color." Violet's head fell before she continued, turning around so her back no longer faced Clementine, but still not lifting her head to reach her eyes, "And Minerva… she was really musical. Not like Louis, though… she had actual talent." Violet said, shaking her head lightly.

Not expecting the quip, she is unable to stop the chuckle that bubbled up. When Violet hears the sound, her head lifts to look at Clementine and she quirks an eyebrow, unsuccessfully suppressing a smirk.

'Pretty.'

Letting herself fall back to lean onto the beds ladder, Violet goes on, "She had the most amazing voice. Real Bluesy. Marlon always joked that he would scavenge a guitar and the two of them would tour the country."

She looks to Clementine with a reminiscent smile, before she again falls into desolation. Clementine feels her own face fall as she watches the girl once again take on an air of despondency, her seemingly innate disposition.

"That was a long time ago. After they… afterwards, Brody and Tenn took down all the paintings. And that was the end of it."

Crossing her arms, Violet hunches over, "I shouldn't have even brought it up. It's not a good memory. Guess I just lost my train of thought."

"Well, they sound like they were great friends." Clementine said taking a couple steps closer to the girl.

Uncrossing her arms Violet replies, "Yeah, Sophie was a good friend. And Minnie…" she hesitated, a smile flashing onto her face as she grabbed hold of a rung of the ladder, pulling her head closer.

"Uh… We were close. Me and her." she said in a demure tone, looking to Clementine for only a second, before her eyes again fell to the floor.

Understanding her unspoken meaning Clementine digests the information before asking, "What exactly happened to them? Sophie and Minerva?" she asked, finishing her question as she sat on AJ's bed.

"They went scavenging with Marlon and Brody out past the safe zone. Didn't make it back. It happens." Violet explains, letting go of the rung to sit at the edge of Clementine's bed, leaning her lithe frame against the ladders side rail.

"Honestly, I just miss having someone around to talk to. There's just… so many dudes. This place can get a little too Bro-town for my liking sometimes." Violet said, letting a short chuckle escape. The small noise raising Clementine's pulse, as the corners of her mouth unconsciously turn upward.

"And I'm not exactly like… a people person. You know?" she said, arms and head moving in uneven gestures as she tries to find the right words to say. "I know I sometimes have a habit… have a habit of being a little bit too harsh".

"You come off all right. I thought you were pretty cool." Clementine tells her, wanting to assure she didn't in the least feel put off by the less-than-warm welcoming.

An invading moonbeam perfectly shines upon her face as she turns her head up in slight surprise. Clementine feels her stomach drop, swirling into a warm puddle, as she's struck by the adorably taking girl in front of her. Leaning casually against the ladder with her hair mussed from the long day, Violet effortlessly emanated a quirky charm.

'Woah… '

"Oh. Um. Thanks. I guess." she stumbles out nervously before looking up to Clementine, "You were pretty cool, too. Out there against those walkers." Violet compliments with a small smile. The conversation then falls into a comfortable lull, the girls sit in the quiet for only a few second, smiling at each other.

"Hey, Clem. I'm an artist now." AJ said, breaking the spell. The two girls' moment transfixed came to an end, as they both shared a look before standing to walk behind the boy to look at what had been drawn.

"Not bad, kiddo." Clementine compliments, standing over his left shoulder. When she looks to Violet with a smile, the other girls eyes flick away, "I should be getting back." she said, walking up to the desk to retrieve the art supplies.

"Thanks again for the box. You're pretty cool, AJ." she tells him while shutting the lid of the box and making to grab it. With a final, departing smile, Violet makes her way to the door, "See ya."

"Yeah. See ya." Clementine responds as the door clicks shut behind Violet's retreating form.

Clementine stares at the door Violet had just left through, heart pounding and eyebrows crinkling in contemplation. Thinking back to how the moonlight perfectly reflected the other girls emerald eyes, she couldn't stop imagining the girls pale face, how her sharp jawline and sandy hair looked so, so soft.

'I- woah… Violet's so beautiful and amazing. This place might not be so bad.'

Lee and Rohit walked through the halls of the dorms to find Kenny, Marlon said they could sleep in the teachers lounge so that was they first place to start.

Arriving outside of the room, Rohit twisted the door knob to open it revealing it to be Kenny leaning onto a desk next to the bunks beds.

"Hey, you okay?" Rohit asked with a cautious tone having a feeling of what's it going to lead up to.

With a sigh, Kenny faced his friends. "I'm fine, I was just….thinking about some things."

"Louis didn't mean it, I hope you know that." Lee assured him, hoping that Kenny would not be mad at the comedic kid.

"Yeah...I know." Surprisingly putting aside the trauma from his past. "But we need to be careful."

"Why?"

"Ain't it obvious that kid Marlon is hiding something."

"What do you mean by that?" Lee asked.

"Didn't you notice? Marlon seemed really anxious when I asked him if he had any encounters with adults before us."

"Exactly meaning that is something going on here and we gotta find out what."

"Kenny, paranoia ain't gonna help us." Lee warned.

"It's my job to be paranoid, we have AJ and Clementine right in this place, do you want the same thing happening to him again two years ago!?"

"Of course not! And if there is something he's hiding, I don't want it to be a repeat of St John Dairy." Lee said, as soon as he said that Rohit gagged and shuddered.

"I do not want that happening again."As he recounted the inhumane things that happened there. "If we are going to find out what Marlon is hiding then we need to follow one rule. Don't make them suspicious of us."

"You know, I've been thinkin'..." Brody started casually as the three girls Lee and AJ walked to the fishing shack, "I wish we could go on a road trip together."

Upon hearing Brody's voice, Violet can't stop the small amount of irritation that bubbles into her chest and feels a scowl form on her face, "Road trip? Why bother? It's not like there's anything worth seeing anymore." she said in her usual drawl, trying to keep her personal arising animosity out of her voice as best she could.

Ostensibly unperturbed, Brody continues in a jolly intonation, "Oh, C'mon. I'm sure there's plenty of stuff to see. Maybe Clem, Rohit, Lee or Kenny could show us around. You're able to get a jeep working and you know how to drive!" she goes on, wearing an expressive smile, her excited voice stoking her ire.

"Barely." Violet naturally supplies, not even having to try to be pessimistic.

"C'mon, Vi!" Brody hushes her looking back with a glance.

Clementine joins the girls' conversation, "You sure you trust my driving? I promise I usually don't crash." she responds with a cheeky grin.

"Oh, right on second thought…" Brody plays along, looking up in thought.

"Yeah, I think Clem just totaled the last working jeep in the world. So much for your road trip." Violet adds.

"Not precisely the last jeep and besides Kenny can fix it he just needs spare parts which would be a very low possibility.

Hearing the conversation between them four, AJ joins to ask, "Are we going to the jeep?"

"No, buddy. It's broken." Rohit answers, looking down to the boy next to him.

"Good. I'm sick of the jeep." AJ said, voicing his contempt for the vehicle.

Walking ahead of the rest of their group, Brody walks up to the rusty blue pickup abandoned by the shack.

"I wish this old rust bucket was still working. We could just jump in and start driving." With one hand she caresses the side of the truck's bed, "We could take turns sitting in the back -- it'd be like driving one of those cars with the top that goes down!"

"Perhaps Kenny could take a look, he knows how to work and fix cars better than any of us." Rohit said.

"We'd run out of gas eventually." Violet said, patience for the pointless thought exercise dissipating with each syllable Brody spouted.

She turns around then to address Violet, "But still. It's fun to imagine isn't it?" offering her optimism to her.

Rolling her eyes with a sigh, Violet uncrosses her arms and faces away from the palavering girl to stand closer to the rivers bank.

"Where would you go, Clem? If you could drive anywhere you wanted? If gas wasn't an issue." Brody continues, directing the question to Clementine.

"Or a busted carburetor, or flat tires, or the transmission--" she sarcastically lists off the top of her head.

Throwing her an unimpressed look Brody monotones, "Buzzkill."

Clementine calmly waits for the girls to finish before giving her answer. "I'd drive down to the coastline. Maybe park on the beach and go swimming." she said with a small smile.

"That'd be an absolute dream. You could spend every day in the sun…"

At this point just wanting Brody to stop talking, Violet sarcastically antagonizes her further, "And die of skin cancer. Fun." she looks over to send an overly sweet smile.

"We're all gonna die. I'll take skin cancer over turning into a walker any day. I've lived here my entire life. Heck, I'd say I know every inch of these woods. I'd kind of like to unknow it." Brody tells them.

"No use in dreaming about what could be. We've got shit to do." she said placing a hand to her hip, wishing they could finally be done with this idiotic conversation and begin their duties.

Looking disappointed Brody agrees, "Yeah, I guess we should get to work on those fish. We've got some spears inside the shack. C'mon." Brody said leading the way to the shack.

Knowing a bad idea when she sees one, Violet informs the three, "You go ahead. I'll stay out here."

Turning away from the girls she looks back to the river, listening as the door creaked and clicked shut. With a minute to try to compose herself, she takes a deep breath and ruminates on her behavior for a minute. She's sensible enough to realize when she's being a bitch, but this doesn't stop her from bristling in the girls presence. Violet's naturally mordacious personality has been grating against the other girls incessant need to talk, and she's been steadily garnering more resentment towards Brody this past year. She can barely find it in her to talk to the girl most days, and this evening seems especially grating. Why is it so easy for Brody to keep trying to talk, when her discomfort with her is so obvious?

'Fuck. Blood boiling, bitch. Okay, just... calm down… '

"You okay?" Violet was pulled out of her thoughts as Rohit stood next to her.

"Yeah. Just thinking a lot of Brody."

"Well if there is anything that you don't like about her, tell her that way she could change." Rohit suggested.

Violet calms down slightly thanks to Rohit's advice, but is still decidedly annoyed and knows that she won't be relaxed until she's back in camp. Resigned to her afternoon of agitation Violet calls to the girls to hurry them along, wanting to get this over with.

"Hey! What the hell is taking you two so long." Violet gruffly shouts.

Seconds later, Brody leaves the shack, spears in hand.

"Here ya go, you two." she said as she reaches Violet's side to extend the two handles to both them.

"Thanks." she mutters, plucking the spears out Brody's grasp and placing them near a slab of stone near the river.

She tries to focus on the spear and her grip position, the patterns of the swimming fish and waters current, her breathing, still hands. But the only thing she can focus on are the slowly receding footfalls, her focus leaving with each thud of Brody's boots. The footsteps are long gone and her focus has dissipated by the time a fish swims in front of her. With a thrust Violet goes to spear the fish, missing.

"Shit."

"Well this harder than i thought it would be." Rohit said as he tried to jab the fish swimming in the currents.

"Can I join you two?" she hears someone sound out from behind her.

Looking up to Clementine's voice, she sees the girl with a small grin hanging off the corner of her mouth. "Sure." she said, moving to show Clementine where the fish tend to group.

"Hey, check out these guys over here." Rohit nods to the river.

Clementine leans over to see, "They're swimming against the current."

"Guess they don't realize it makes them easier targets." Violet said, pointing to a fish that was self evidently, an idiot.

"I wanna try." she hears AJ pipe up from somewhere to her side.

"Take a spear. Go nuts." Violet said, prompting Clementine to smile and hand the boy an oversized spear.

"Go ahead and try. They're not running." Violet said to Clementine as the girl comes to stand near.

"Take your time buddy." Rohit advised, hoping that AJ will get enough food.

As the two girls fish, Violet looks over to Clementine holding the spear next to her. Looking at the supple frame and flexing forearms caused a lusty stir of warmth within her, a flutter subtly impeding the rhythm of her heart.

'She's really fucking cute. Okay, no big deal just… say something.'

Striking up a conversation has never been Violet's forte, especially when she tends to be tongue tied around beautiful girls. But, seeing as this girl has been patient and kind in the face of Violet's enmity, it seems best to start with an olive branch.

"Hey, um, sorry if I was weird last night… about the whole room thing. Seeing someone else in there… Uh, it was harder than I expected".

With a self abasing chuckle she tries to explain, "You'd think I'd be less sentimental by now." she finishes, frowning at her shifting reflection in the ripples.

"I understand. There are people I still miss, too. It never really gets easier." Clementine said with an understanding empathy in her voice, comment ringing with personal experience.

'She… That's- yes.'

"Yeah, it really doesn't." she said with a hung head. "I just… I don't know what the problem is between us. With Brody… I don't know why it's like this. Why is it so weird? I can never relax around her. It just keeps getting worse." Violet opens, spilling her thought out to a patiently listening Clementine.

"Maybe because she never said sorry. About Sophie and Minnie and not being able to save them." she said in her low voice, trying to look Violet in the eye.

"She tell you that?" Violet quietly questions, the familiar guilt rapping at her heart.

"More or less. She wants to talk about it, you know."

"I just… I feel guilty about the whole thing." she finally admits, feeling her heart drop further as her frown deepened. It may be the other girls genuine nature, but something about her tells Violet she can trust her; a scary thought to have or dwell upon, so she instead continues with her train of thought.

"Why?"

"I was supposed to be out with the twins that day. I wanted to work in the greenhouse so I asked Brody to cover for me. But then… I didn't even get to say goodbye. I… I wanted to talk to Brody, to tell her I didn't blame her for what happened. But every time I tried, I was reminded of who we lost. It was easier to just not talk about it." she lets out, her emotions seep into each word as a damn breaks, powerless to stop the flow. And she lets it, she pours her heart out to the girl next to her and the adult on her left and the spontaneous out-pour seemingly stuns the other girl into silence.

"If you want to put it to rest I suggest you go and talk to her about it, its not healthy bottling up all your emotions like that, so you might wanna do it tonight or something might happen that could take her life and you will never get the chance to say it to her. We've seen it happen more than once." Rohit said, receiving a nod from Clementine.

Taking resolve in Rohits words she decided she would do just that, but however they have gotten a lot of fish so they have to go back to the school. "We should get going."

After they reconvene with Brody, they set off to see if the others had any luck with their traps. As they walk Violet is no longer uncomfortably agitated, more so resigned to her guilt. She can't change her past actions, but she can sure as fuck change her current choices.

'Gran always did say we'd go to Arizona one day.'

"The Grand Canyon." Violet said, breaking the silence that surrounded the group.

"What?" Brody questions the uncontextualized location.

"That's where I'd go if we took a road trip. Start driving until we hit the Grand Canyon." she clarifies, keeping her face forward.

"Yeah. That would be cool." Brody said, her natural southern drawl softer than usual.

Feeling a modicum of guilt ebb away at the sound of the mellowed voice, Violet smiles to herself.

'Damn, he was right. Thanks, Rohit.'

"Hey, you slow pokes coming?" she throws over her shoulder to the two lagging girls.

"Yeah, we're right behind you."

"So what do we do? Eat rocks?" Louis quips with an unhappy frown.

"You can't eat rocks." AJ says, thinking Louis silly as to entertain such a thing.

"I'm aware" Louis flatly tells him, moving his coat to prop his hands on his hip.

"Will Marlon kick us out if we don't find food?" AJ worriedly asks, looking at Kenny.

"Of course not buddy." Kenny assured him.

"Well, let's not find out." Clementine said, producing a map from her back pocket and examining the only viable option they have.

"The train station. It's not too far from here." Rohit announces to the group as he points to the spot on the map.

Having been staying quiet since Brody's panic attack, Violet jumps in, "Maybe, but it's outside the safe zone." she said, pointing out the obvious risk they will be running.

"There was food in there when we passed through. It's worth a look." Lee said to the reserved girl, pointing out the obvious benefits they stand to gain.

"You sure there was food?" Violet asks her, searching for truth in her word, a reason to feel confident in entrusting Clementine.

With as much certainty she can muster, Clementine assures the blonde, "Positive. Yeah, some of it was destroyed in the explosion, but there has to be something left. There was so much there."

"It's worth a shot, there should be some remaining to share among the entire school.

Waiting for a beat, "Or we could starve." she adds to drive her argument home, and looking at the three shifting adults in front of her, the persuasive technique was working.

Violet looks to Louis with reluctance and Louis looks to Violet with a shrug. Clementine sees the onus shifting and looks to Violet for her confirmation.

With everyone looking to her the pale teen rolls her eyes and relents with a resigned, "Fine. Let's go." before starting off into the forest, everyone else following suit.

The group walks in silence for a minute or so before Louis clears his throat, "So, seeing as we're gonna be walking for a bit, who's up for a friendly little game of I Spy?"

"Count us out that game is for kids." Rohit said, with Lee and Kenny agreeing.

While Violet groans beside him, AJ perks up at the mention of game, "Ooh, can I play? Me and Clem always used to play that. She said I was really good at it."

"Of course, kiddo. I'd even wager you're better than ol' Vi here." Louis jovially jests, knocking his shoulder together with the blonde.

As she's jostled she looks about to respond before sending a glance to AJ and closing her mouth. She looks to Louis and settles for, "Oh, I don't doubt AJ could beat us. But at least I'd be able to present him with a challenge. AJ here caught a fish faster than I could, I'm pretty sure he can take you on." looking back to AJ, she directs the rest of her words to him with a kind smile.

"Louis is just salty he lost our last game." She tells him conspiratorially, putting a hand up to block her mouth from Louis's sight.

"I heard that!"

AJ giggles at the two teens and Clementine feels her heart swoop.

"Okay, how's about this. I spy with my little eye something… purple." Louis said, grinning the whole time.

"Really?" Violet drawls, being the only thing with purple in the woods.

"What? We're just warming up." Louis chuckles.

"Violet's jacket!" AJ softly shouts, exclaiming his findings with excitement.

"Nice one, AJ. You, my dude, are a regular sleuth." Louis said with an impressed tone. "You're up, little man. What do you see?"

"Hmm. Uh, I spy… with my little eye… something… brown." he said astutely facing forward, away from his object of description.

"Ooh, that's a tough one. Clem was right, you are good at this game." Louis said tapping his chin and surveying his surroundings.

"He's the best. Always beats me." Clementine proudly said, always eager to talk about how amazing AJ is.

"Hmm. Is it that tree?" Louis asks, pointing to a random tree ahead of him.

Grinning, AJ smugly replies, "Nope." he said, popping the 'p'.

"Is it that tree?" Louis asks again, pointing to another random tree next to them.

"Uh uh."

"Hmm. Is it that tree?" Louis said, pointing to another tree.

Clementine giggles and watches as Violet shakes her head, slowing her pace to slightly fall behind Louis and AJ, coming to walk closer to her.

"I'm am not going to stand next to that the whole way there." Violet said as she falls in step beside her.

"What? Not a fan of redundancy?" Clementine asks, smiling at the girl next to her.

"More like not a fan of stupidity." she responds, looking over with a small smile.

"Well in that case, I'm not sure you're talking to the right person." Clementine jokes, causing both girls to let out soft giggles.

"Nah, I'm positive you're smarter than Louis. You have to be." she said with an easy smile.

'Damn, that's a beautiful smile.'

Letting out a humored huff Clementine asks, "What makes you so sure?"

Violet looks to the floor with a shy shrug, "Well, I mean. It's not too hard to be smarter than that dork." she says nodding her head to the teen still pointing at trees.

"But, I know for a fact you're a genius because you helped me with something I've been struggling with for about a year in, like, half an hour." she continues with an open expression.

"Thank you, by the way. The two of you really didn't have to do that. I know I probably made you uncomfortable with all of my personal shit yesterday, and I'm sorry. But, I really appreciate you helping me with Brody." Violet's melodic voice wavers as she nervously lets Clementine know what was on her mind.

"You don't have to thank us." Rohit said smiling.

Clementine understandingly smiles at Violet before responding, "It was no problem, really. Anytime. I mean it."

They each smile into each other's eyes, familiarity, trust, and understanding slowly building between them. Clementine can't stop herself from getting absorbed in the girl's pale eyes. The emerald green of her eyes seemed to shift to silver as the light randomly broke through the canopy to touch her face. Eventually, Violet's attention gets taken away by AJ telling her to look for something red.

'Sweet Jesus, she's fucking breathtaking. She--I… I'm attracted to her. Holy fuck, I'm attracted to her.'

Clementine doesn't know what to do with this new understanding. She had barely understood what Javi was talking about when he'd said Gabe had a crush on her. She eventually understood, but she still felt embarrassed when she caught the boy staring; that's not what she was feeling now. She thought Gabe was a sweet boy, a cute face, but ultimately too young and confused for Clementine to look at him as anything more than a friend around her age. Violet, however, inspires emotions she can't describe, but enjoys the rush nonetheless. Pulse rushing, heat rising, stomach swirling. She likes the feelings Violet inspires within her, she's never experienced anything like it before. Growing up in this world, she never really had time to think about her sexuality, always surviving, always moving. She's sure she likes boys, she thought Louis was charming when she first saw him, afterall. Likewise she admits Gabe was kind of cute, maybe a little too innocent. But she also acknowledges Violet is really pretty, and is capable of making her heart do weird things. Clementine is almost positive, which means she likes girls. Something she has no experience in, and doesn't know how to navigate. It would be better if he heard some advice from Kenny, Lee or Rohit about it but afraid of how they would react to Clementine's sexuality.

'Cool… cool, cool, cool, cool, cool. Okay, okay don't panic, Clementine, you got this. Just… get to know her. Yeah, just talk to her. Mhmm, or maybe later? Later's good.'

They've only been walking for 20 minutes or so, but it was already getting dark. As the suns trip across the sky drew to an end so did their game of I Spy.

"Aw, man. I was winning." AJ says, pouting his lips.

"Oh, ho you are good! I concede, good sir you've bested me this day. I'll make sure not to take it as easy on you next time, now that I know you're a pro." Louis said leaning over to giving AJ a low five.

"And just in time too, we're almost there, look." Clementine tells them, pointing to the train station coming up.

As they near the area the sounds of groans and gurgling is clear, and grows with every step they take. Crouching their way over to stand behind a large boulder Clementine motions to the overrun location with her head, "There. That's where the food is. Lot more walkers than last time, though." she says, the gears in her mind already turning as she surveyed the surrounding area. The place looks like a suicide run.

"We're gonna die."

"Took y'all a while." Ruby greeted as they finally made it back from the perilous food run.

Trudging across the courtyard and placing the duffel bags on the table's surface, Louis unveils their bounty with a histrionic flair.

"How poor are they that have not the patience." he parodied in a proud voice.

Violet listens as everyone comes over to offer their praise. They'd brought back a hefty haul and it looked like they wouldn't have to worry about starving for the next few days. After the initial elated reaction the only person whom expressed their disapproval was Brody, as was to be expected. Violet knew she would have a problem with venturing past the safe zone. Though surprised that he was displeased about then going with the adults. The fleeting thought that it could just as easily have been her with the panic attacks and aversions crosses her mind. As Brody continues to bicker with Kenny who was in front of Clementine, she prods Louis with her elbow while nodding in the direction of the stew.

As they make their way over, Louis strikes up a conversation, "Man, Brody is losing it. Poor Clem."

Looking back at the two girls, she sees Marlon joining the fray, "Yeah. She seemed really freaked out when we found that cigarette. She's just scared." Violet said as Louis hands her a bowl.

"Yeah, I know. But still. We just brought back the biggest haul the school's ever seen. She could, maybe… not yell at Clementine and be grateful that we risked our lives to ensure our continual survival. Just saying, that'd be cool."

"Well, neuroses usually aren't reasonable. Just… let her calm down. You know what happened this time last year." Violet softly supplies, voice tapering off towards the end.

"Fuck. Yeah. Right, okay." Louis mutters, eyes downcast in remembrance.

When they come to sit at the table with Tenn, Lee, Rohit and AJ they are both silent, a year away in their minds. Violet's not sure if it's the time of the year or the days events, but either way, she can't stop the feeling of dread that loomed over her. Today just feels… off. She can't explain it, the best thing she can think of is that the anniversary is coming up. It's scary how fresh the pain feels, as if she had blinked and a year had passed. When Clementine and Kenny finally makes her way over, Louis grabs her attention.

"Don't sweat it, Clem." he said with a supportive smile.

"Ever since we lost Sophie and Minnie, Brody's been freaked out by anything that happens past the safe zone. She'll be alright eventually." Violet explains, not wanting Clementine to feel guilty when she had done nothing wrong.

Startling both girls, Aasim speaks up from behind, "Still, we should make sure this is a one-time thing. We can take Rosie out in the morning, see if she catches a scent. You know, just in case." he responsibly reasons before walking to his seat to enjoy his meal.

"I agree, we don't that guys group could come here." Rohit supported.

Having lost her appetite, Violet announces, "I'm gonna go clean up." wanting to retire from the long day and let sleep relieve her of the sorrow for a brief reprieve.

Not stopping her movements she faintly hears Louis also announce his departure. As she walks to dispose of her dish her mind is occupied with the thoughts she has mostly kept at bay for the last few months. The torrent of repressed sadness unexpectedly hits her, and Violet feels the pressure in her chest increase with every breath. As she places her bowl on the table, she feels a hand touch her shoulder. Looking back she sees Louis, eyes crinkled with an understanding smile, thin-lipped as to almost resemble a grimace.

"I'm good. I'm just tired. Gonna turn in for the night." Violet evenly responds as she crosses her arms and hunches to look at the floor, already feeling her weary eyes burn.

"Okay." he said, uncharacteristically soft, "Just know I'm here if you ever need to talk to somebody, okay?" he said, ducking his head to try to catch her eye.

With her nod, he gives her a kind smile, "Goodnight, Vi." he said as he walked off.

She watches him go with a sigh, slowly walking to the steps that will take her to her dorm. Walking into the dim hallway she adeptly makes her way, not raising her head from the floor; no longer relying solely on sight to make the rote route to her room. Clicking the door shut behind her she pulls herself up the ladder to fall face first onto her mattress. She's tired, both physically and mentally. As she reflects on the days events, it wasn't any more or less hard than she usually worked. She was accustomed to labor and aching muscles, it's never bothered her that much. The deeply personal conversations held with Clementine and Rohit, however, were continuously running through her mind, exhausting her. Tonight she felt as if she'd been run over by a truck, muscles whining in protest. It was always the mental fights that seeped the majority of one's strength, and tonight Violet can admit that she has lost. She relents to the fact that tonight she'll have those same nightmares, and as her heavy lids droop, she has one last conscious thought.

'This fucking sucks.'

"What's that?" AJ asks, also awoken by the ominous sounds reverberating throughout their room.

"Shhh." she directs, trying to get a better listen.

The sound of an indistinguishable argument again echos from the pipes, at once startling and confusing her. "What the hell?" Clementine said aloud to no one as she listens to the voices for a few more seconds.

"There's voices in the pipes." AJ deduces, sitting in bed with his legs crossed.

"I think someone's in trouble." she says, worry touching her heart.

"Is it us?" AJ asks, he too growing nervous.

"No, no, no. Not right now, but we should help them."

"If it's a monster we should kill it." he said matter-of-factly.

"I don't think it is." she informs him, "You got your pistol and knife?"

"Uh-huh." he said, pulling the handgun with the silencer and the dagger out as proof.

"I'll be right back. Stay safe." Clementine said before heading out the door to find the source of the noise.

She walked through the moonlit hallway and followed the voices. Walking towards the source eventually leads her to stand at the basement entrance. She places her ear against the cold metal and is sure the voices are coming from behind the door. When she tries the handle she finds the door locked.

'Damn, locks from both sides. Fucking inconvenient building plans, this isn't even practical.'

As luck would have it, she notices an evacuation map pasted to the right of the door showing another entrance to the basement just outside. Following the guide to the cellar door out in the courtyard, Clementine walks to the metal doors. Bending down she picks up the padlock keeping her out, yanking on it a couple times. Looking around she spots a brick laying a few feet away and goes to retrieve it. With two hits the lock easily breaks, allowing her to lift it from the latch and heave open the heavy doors. With the voices no longer muffled she can make out the two distinct voices of Marlon and Brody. Stepping down into the basement, Clementine takes a steadying breath.

'Okay. Now, what the fuck is going on.'

"What the hell is going on?" Violet shouts as she and Tenn finally rush into the courtyard. As Marlon acknowledges her she sees a splatter of red across his face, the lightning illuminating his hysterical features. At the sight she feels her heart lurch as adrenaline floods her system, mind racing.

"Look at her hands! She's covered in Brody's blood!" Marlon snarled, thrusting an accusing finger at Clementine.

Hearing this Violet's stomach plummets, churning with repulsion at the news. Violet looks to Clementine, watching as the girls horrified face angled down to her own bloody hands.

'Fuck.'

"Jesus Christ, Clem."

"What did you do?"

"What's going on out here!?" Rohit demanded as he, Lee and Kenny ran outside of the dorms seeing the group crowding around the leader and Clementine

As the various kids reacted to the conjecture of the incident with fear and confusion, Marlon exploits the situation, shoving AJ and grabbing the young boys handgun. As thunder claps and lighting illuminates their stricken faces, Marlon's eyes dart around while he holds the pistol above his head. He surveys the frightened crowd with frantic eyes, before trying to salvage the predicament, seeking personal indemnification.

"We saved their lives when anyone else would've kept walking! We fed them, we kept them warm! And this is how they thank us?! Guns being pulled and murder!" Marlon inveighed, beginning to haphazardly wave the pistol at the gathered crowd of kids.

"Well, FUCK. THEM." he vituperated, aiming the gun at Clementine.

"DON'T YOU POINT THAT AT HER!!" Lee yelled as he stood in front of his daughter figure pulling out his gun.

"You shoot me and what do you offer up to your raider friends when they come knocking?" Clementine shouts above the rainfall and various outcries.

"What the hell is she talking about?" Aasim questions.

"He won't do it because he needs us alive." Clementine announces, face contorting into a angered frown.

"Shut up." Marlon sibilated, grasping the gun with two hands.

"You don't get to talk!" Rohit yelled. "Clem what do you mean, what did you find out?"

"Brody told me: Marlon was going to give me and AJ up to raiders in exchange for safety. The same way he gave up Sophie and Minnie!" Clementine told the surrounding kids, hoping to sway minds with facts.

At this Violet's breath leaves her, feeling nausea overtake her body she bows her head and attempts to control her breathing.

'What?'

"Raiders?"

"Oh my God."

"YOU WERE GOING TO DO WHAT!!!???" Kenny yelled.

Marlon jostles the gun is his hand, "Shut the fuck up, Clementine!"

"Let her talk!" Aasim shouts.

Clementine looks to the boy before continuing, "Brody told me the truth, and that's when Marlon killed her."

The thunder does nothing to drown out the deafening confessions of the night. Violet directs a murderous glare at Marlon as the rest of the school looks at him with accusatory eyes.

Marlon looks to the faces waiting for an explanation and begins pacing before starting on a forceful diatribe, "Aw, come the fuck on! They only met up with these 'raiders' because Clem insisted they go out there. Quite the coincidence, isn't it." he said with a smile, stopping to again level the gun at Clementine, "Shame I don't believe in those."

"Think about how scared we all were when the adults left." he continues, resuming his pacing. "I pulled us out of that fear. I gave us all courage again. Who are y'all gonna believe, huh? Johnny-come-latelys and their little fucking lunatic? Or me? Your friend?" He finishes his acrimonious speech by aiming his gun at Clementine, becoming increasingly untethered with each bilious outburst.

Violet swims through confusion, anger, and hurt while subjected to the argument, her forlorn gaze directed to the floor. It's only Clementine's scared voice that draws Violet's head back up, "Violet, you have to believe me."

When she looks into her golden eyes she no longer sees a raging fire, just molten embers. They plead with Violet's heart, trying to convey a silent message. Violet freezes on the spot, fear clouding her acumen and rendering her impotent.

Her attention is taken away by Marlon, "You don't. You met her like two days ago!"

'But... I- I don't fucking know.'

"I don't know you, Clem. Not really. I'm sorry." she quietly said, feeling her gut wrenching as Clementine's face shows shock and disbelief.

"This isn't like you. I know you're not weak." she beseeched, trying to get through to her.

"Don't let her get in your head. Hey, what would Minnie want you to do? She was my friend, too. So was Brody." He said in a threatening voice looking back to Clementine.

"Clem, I... Violet begins, unsure with how to proceed. "Shit."

"We'll all feel safer once I pull this trigger."

"If you were there that day the raiders came… He would have abandoned you, too." Clementine invokes imploringly, desperate for Violet's aid.

'No sh-she… she's absolutely right.'

Looking up to glare at Marlon, Violet steps away from the crowd and goes to stand between Clementine,Lee and the gun. Pulling out her own weapon as she stares him down, Marlon lets out a soft chuckle, "Violet being difficult. Why am I not surprised?"

"Put the gun down. Now. We're gonna do this the right way." She forcefully states watching as his hand that held the gun trembled.

"Give me the gun or I will have to take it from you!" Rohit yelled.

"Stand down, Marlon. Be reasonable." Aasim calmly said as the group slowly advances as if carefully approaching a wild animal.

"You don't get it. You- you don't understand at all, do you?" Marlon's wavering voice begins, taking steps back while waving the gun.

"I'm trying to protect you!" his mercurial shift to hysterical shouting is punctuated by a clap of thunder along with Rosie's continuous barks. "All of you! Every fuckin' one of you!" he bleated, waving the gun indiscriminately at his friends.

"He's lying to you. He can't--or won't--protect you. Look at what happened to Brody. To Sophie, Minerva." Clementine said stepping a few steps to Marlon. "You suck at protection." Clementine roasts, pointing to Marlon.

"Shut your fucking mouth!" Marlon quickly shouts, swerving to again aim his gun at Clementine.

"I made the right call. I saved the lives of everyone in this fucking school! If they came back… I'd do it again!" He admits with a voice dripping in venom.

'Motherfucker.'

"SO YOU WERE GOING TO GIVE AWAY CLEM AND AJ!!!"

"Excuse me?"

"I didn't realize we were so fucking expendable."

"You're a dick."

"You told me they died."

Marlon looks in the direction of the various obloquy with a horrified expression, "I had to save the rest of you, okay?"

"You gave my sisters away." Tenn said as he approached Marlon, beginning to cry as he continues, "Why would you do something like that? I trusted you, Marlon. THEY trusted you!" he questioned, his entire body emanating sadness.

"He was in a tight spot. He did the wrong thing, but he thought it was for the right reason. But that doesn't mean he shouldn't have to pay for it." Clementine said, defusing the situation as much as she could.

"Don't defend this son of a bitch, Clem." Kenny warned.

As he turns to listen to Clementine and Kenny his face is plastered with guilt. Lowering the gun he turns back to Tenn, "I wanted to get them. Stage some kind of rescue. Honest, Tenn. I just couldn't. I was… I was too afraid."

"You killed Brody because she knew?" Tenn asks him.

The softly uttered question seems to strike the broken boy as he dropped his face, posture following suit. He closes his eyes as tears well up, blinking them away to join the raindrops rolling down his face.

"Mhmm. I didn't mean to. I didn't want this. I wanted to save all of you. Sophie, Minerva." he cries out, "I didn't want to hurt them."

"We can still fix this, Marlon." Clementine calmly supplies, again stepping out towards Marlon, "It's going to be okay. We can make this right."

"Are you serious!?" Kenny

"We'll help you." Louis solemnly promises, also stepping forward, "We're all family here. The only one any of us has left."

With the fight having been removed from him, Marlon numbly stands for a few seconds before letting the gun slip from his grasp and clatter to the floor. As soon as she sees the gun laying at his feet Lee goes to retrieve it, before stepping back in place beside Louis.

"I know I betrayed you. All of you. Just let me leave. You'll never have to see me again. Just let me become… a bad memory." he begged.

"If you really think we're just gonna let you walk out of here, you're wrong. You can stay. But I think it's only right he be kept as a prisoner." Clementine says, directing the last part as a census to the surrounding crowd.

"What?"

"Are you fucking kidding me."

"He fucking murdered Brody, Clem."

"Why would we give this fucker a chance!?"

As Kenny voices his concerns along with the others Clementine looks to Louis for support. He gives her nods of affirmation and turns to address the group.

"Guys. I- I think she's right. We can't just let him leave. But we can't let him stay and walk free after he… I think the right thing to do is to hold him as a temporary prisoner in the basement until we can come to an agreement."

"I second that motion." Aasim said immediately, wanting the most responsible course decided.

"Me too, we will figure out what to do with him tomorrow. End of story!"

Violet watches Marlon as the group deliberates, watching his shoulders gently shift, his gasps between sobs shaking his broken frame. With his head permanently bowed to the floor she couldn't see the expression written on his face, though sight was unnecessary to know it was filled with self-abasing hatred.

'Motherfucker.'

"Vi? What about you? What do you think?" Louis asks, crossing his arms over his chest as he stood in front of Marlon.

"Fuck him." is the first thing she can think to say.

"Vi. I know, okay? Just--"

"No. He fucking MURDERED Brody. He gave the twins away. I honestly don't give a shit about what happens to him, all I know is I don't want to look at his fucking face." she said, crossing her arms and hunching over to look at the floor

"Okay. That's your vote. So... " Louis said unsure of what to do from here.

"So, we lock him down in the basement. First thing tomorrow morning we'll have a funeral for Brody. And then we can hold another vote, once we've all had a night to sleep and think about it." Clementine outlines, stirring nods of approval from a few of the kids.

"Okay, then it's settled. Everyone try to get some sleep, we'll go lock him up."

"I'll help you." Louis said, Kenny grabbed Marlon roughly and dragged him to the basement pushing him in here.

As the crowd dissipated, Clementine came before her to place a hand on her tense shoulder.

"Are you okay?" she asks softly.

"No. Is that okay?" Violet sadly asks, angling her head to look at the girl in front of her.

"Of course it's okay. I- I'm here if you need to talk, or… whatever." Clementine said with a small smile, removing her hand.

Returning the gesture with a sad smile of her own, Violet uncrosses her arms, "Thanks. I'm, uh, I'm pretty tired, so I'm gonna head off. I can drop AJ off in your room if you want." she said, nodding to the school.

"Yeah, actually. That would be okay, I appreciate it." Lee said.

"Of course."

Before she passes Clementine she puts a hand of her own upon the girls strong shoulder, "Please be careful." she says, looking to the cellar startled when the screams came out of it.

"It appears Kennys already working on him." Rohit said.

Clementine looks to her crush, "Goodnight."

"Goodnight."