I'm back! Sorry for such a long wait for this to come back, but life happened, plus a ton of writers block on the other story I'm working on. I know many of you want to see what happens next, so here it is. :)

The Way Back

The next morning, Jeff woke to find Clementine already packing up what she knew they would need for the next leg of the journey. Working fast, they gathered everything they could find and saw as useful, before walking out of the cabin for the last time and heading out.

"Where to?" Jeff asked.

"I think it would be better to head toward the river and work our way upstream," Clementine said. "Somewhere, I'm sure we'll find our way back to the camp we had the day you were shot by those bandits."

"Alright then," Jeff replied, as they started walking.

After several minutes of walking, they found the camp where Clementine found Sam the dog. As they looked around, Jeff found the dog's remains.

"Clem!" he called.

"What's up?" she asked.

Jeff gestured with his hand and Clementine gasped when she saw the carcass.

"Sam," she said, closing her eyes. "I hated doing this to him."

"I would say it wasn't your fault," Jeff replied. "But you told me it started because you took food away from him, so…"

Clementine just stared at the corpse, thinking back to that day.

"I learned the hard way to never take food from a starving dog," she finally said. "Never making that mistake again."

"Easy to do, since we rarely come across dogs anymore," Jeff replied.

No more words were exchanged as they carefully removed to dog's body from the tent spikes he had landed on and found a place to bury him in a shallow grave. After Clementine made one last apology and goodbye, they moved on.

That evening, they had found a way across the river and came across what was left of their old campsite. Seeing that it was getting dark, they decided to rest there.

"Seems like just yesterday we were here," Clementine said.

"It was a day we'd both like to forget," Jeff replied.

"Yeah," Clementine said, as she set her bag down.

"I remember finally snapping you out of the guilt you had been holding onto from that close call with that girl, at the rest stop," Jeff said.

"I'm glad you did," Clementine replied. "I don't even want to think about would've happened, if you hadn't."

Jeff nodded in agreement, before also setting his bag down and setting up camp. After some light dinner and conversation, they fell asleep, dreaming of better days ahead. The next morning, they quickly set off again, in the direction of the last big event to happen in their time as a team: the old rest stop.

One month later:

The sun had only just begun to rise as Jeff and Clementine made their way through the woods. The search for the kids was beginning to wear them down, as they had found few clues to help them stay on the right path. Finally, they reached a clearing and found another familiar site.

"I can't believe it's still standing," Jeff said.

"It's made of mostly brick and stone," Clementine replied. "It's gonna take a long time for that to fall, naturally."

Before them was the rest stop they were looking for, which looked almost exactly like it did that day, many years before. Drawing their weapons, they cautiously moved toward the restroom doors. After opening the men's restroom door and finding nothing, they decided to check the room where it all happened. They both felt a bit of anxiety as they each took a side of the door, remembering that there may be a familiar-looking walker inside. Cautiously, Jeff opened the door and crept inside, with his long-time friend following him. Looking around, they find what they were expecting: the girl who had held Clementine's own gun against her.

"She looks like she's been dead a long time," Clementine said. "Must've taken a while for her to either bleed out or die of infection."

"Looks like her death was by infection," Jeff replied. "I don't see enough blood stains for her to have bled out. Either way, she had it coming… but I wish it didn't have to be that way."

"Judging by the look of her body, she did turn," Clementine observed. "I'm guessing we have our kidnapper to thank for her final death."

Silence fell in the room, as the pair thought back to that day, several years ago. After several minutes, Jeff spoke.

"Come on, Clem," he said. "It's time to move on. AJ and Abby are still waiting for us to save them."

Clementine nodded as she followed him out the door.

"You know where our mystery person is leading us next, right?" Jeff asked, as they walked.

Clementine gave a slight nod, before turning her focus to the path ahead.

"Savannah."

(dramatic music faintly heard) We're getting back to where everything went wrong for Clementine, which means there's not much left to cover... or is there? To find out, follow this story (if you haven't already). I'm going to go back to my other story, to write out the next chatper, which is short, then I'll return to this and not leave again, until it's completed! Until then, take care! :)