There was a horrible pounding. Two knocks, each loud enough that Clem could actually feel them in her ears; then an eerie silence, which made Clem sick to her stomach. She looked around for the source of the terrible noise, but all she could see was darkness. Two more booming knocks, even louder this time. Was it the door? Was there someone trying to get in? Clem wanted to spring off the couch, but she felt shackled in place by terror. Two more knocks. They sounded so close now that whatever was coming had to be in the room with her. Panic shot through the girl's veins like a bolt of lighting as a thunderous crashing shook the room.

Clementine rolled off the couch and onto the hard floor with a painful thud. Her head suddenly felt very heavy, but she forced herself to her feet and started running. Everything seemed like a blur and she didn't know where she was going, but her every instinct told her to run. She nearly fell racing through the kitchen and threw the back door open so fast she tripped down the steps and onto the grass. She was about to make a break for the RV, but then her mind cleared enough to remember why she couldn't.

"Sarah! Omid!" Clem scurried to the backdoor on all fours, only to find Sarah standing over her.

"Clementine!" she said. "What are you doing? What's wrong?"

"We have to go!" blathered Clem.

"Why?" asked Sarah as she helped Clem to her feet.

"That noise, didn't you hear it?"

"I just heard you rolling off the couch and running away," said Sarah. "You must have been having a nightmare."

"No, it… it was…" Looking around, Clem realized it was morning now, instead of dark like she thought it was a minute ago. "You… you're sure you didn't hear anything?"

"Just you." Sarah placed her hands on Clem's shoulders. "Why don't you go lie down for a minute."

"I… I…" With the sense of panic gone and her adrenaline fading, Clem suddenly felt something else rising in her stomach.

"Clem, come on. I'll—" Clem turned her head and puked into the grass. "Clem!" A horrible pain gripped Clem's stomach, forcing her to her knees as she became sick again. Her head was pounding and palms were sweating as she felt another horrible urge wash over her. "Clementine, what's wrong?"

"I… I think I'm dying." Clementine didn't die, but for the next few hours she wish she had, or at the very least wish she hadn't drunk as much as she had last night. Even after Sarah helped her into bed and brought her a bucket in case she was sick again, she couldn't get a moment's rest.

Her head was throbbing, like someone was inside it banging a hammer against the side of her skull. Everything sounded louder for some reason. Even making every effort to be quiet, Sarah's occasional trips through the bedroom to collect something created noise that irritated Clem to no end. And the first time Clem heard Omid cry actually hurt, causing the pounding in the girl's head to reach all new heights.

Everything smelled more potent too, and not in a good way. The blanket Sarah had provided Clem with seemed to have a faint mildew smell she never noticed until today. And the stench of the bucket was so awful she had to push it away, which made it awkward the next time she had to throw up.

Clem's stomach also felt like it was churning, as if she had swallowed a washing machine. Between it and the overwhelming nausea, Clem found it hard to even drink water. She was so miserable that even Sarah's best efforts to comfort her did nothing to make her feel better.

But after a few hours of tossing and turning in a desperate attempt to find any position that was less painful, the misery plaguing her body finally seemed to fade. A few more hours of sweating under the covers and the throbbing in Clem's head became a manageable splitting headache instead.

Somewhere around going from thinking she was dying to merely feeling sicker than she ever remembered before, Clem decided to get out of bed. It was already late in the afternoon now, and staggering into the bathroom Clem discovered her toothbrush was gone. Returning to the living room, she noticed a lot of things were missing.

Heading outside, Clem found her eyes had trouble adjusting to the bright light. After blinking a few times, she managed to bear the blinding afternoon sun long enough to notice the door to the RV was open, along with several of the storage compartments lining the side of the vehicle. Taking a closer look, Clementine found a lot of the items missing from the house stuffed in the compartments running across the side of the RV.

"Clem?" Turning around, Clem found Sarah standing at the RV's door. "How do you feel?"

"Awful," said Clem. "Which is better than I felt this morning."

"Is there anything I can get you?" Sarah approached Clem and placed her hand on the younger girl's forehead. "You feel a little warm."

"I think I'll be okay," said Clem. "What about you? You don't feel sick?"

"I had a bad headache this morning, and my stomach kinda hurt, but I feel okay now. Still, I don't think we should drink that stuff again."

"Or, maybe we just shouldn't drink so much next time," chuckled a nervous Clem. "Have you see my toothbrush?"

"It's in the Brave, in the bathroom."

"You've been packing while I was sick," realized Clem.

"Yeah, you said you wanted to be alone so I thought I'd go ahead and get a start on it."

Clem eyed one of the storage bins. "It looks like more than a head start."

Sarah shrugged. "Well, you were sick all morning."

"You're really packing all the encyclopedias?" asked Clem as she looked at the books stacked inside.

"Well, yeah, you kinda need them all if you want to look something up."

"It's just, I thought you read them all already?"

"I didn't read them all, I just skimmed them and stopped on the stuff that I thought was interesting. If we're going to be alone and we need to know something, then we'll need them."

"Yeah, I guess, I'm just worried because they take up a lot of space."

"We have tons of space on the Brave."

"You're sure?"

"Who's the one who's been packing all morning?" Clem turned away in embarrassment as Sarah crossed her arms and smirked.

"I'm sorry, I—"

"It's fine Clem," assured Sarah with a smile.

"You still think you're useless?" asked Clem.

"What?"

"Last night, you said you feel useless because I usually get things."

"I did? I don't remember that," said Sarah. "After we drank that stuff, everything just got kinda fuzzy. Did I say anything else?"

"Well, you gave me this bracelet." Clem held up her wrist to reveal the multicolored beads and heart pendant wrapped around it.

"Oh yeah, I sorta forgot that too. Did anything else happen?"

"Um…" Clementine tensed up. "No, we just talked about how it's scary moving."

"Yeah, it is. But now that I got most of the stuff in the Brave, it's… it's not too bad. It's like we're taking our house with us. I guess that's why they call them mobile homes."

"I'll help you get what's left into the RV." Clem turned towards the house, but felt Sarah's hand on her shoulder stopping her.

"I can handle it, why don't you just rest? Or you know what? You should take a shower in the Brave. That'll make you feel better."

"Wouldn't that waste a lot of water?"

"The manual says you can save water if you turn the shower on for a second, just long enough to get wet, then do the same thing to rinse off when you're done."

"You sure that's a good idea? It hasn't rained for a long time, so it's been a while since we refilled the tank."

"It's fine, besides, you stink." Clem crossed her arms, but Sarah only raised an eyebrow in response. "You do."

Clementine sighed. "Okay. I'll go take a bath."

"I put all our clean clothes in the bedroom drawers. Your hat's there too." Stepping into the Brave, Clem found it oddly comforting. They had used the vehicle for storage for so long Clem forgot how roomy it really was. Just behind the driver seat and across from the door was a large sofa. Beside the sofa was a small kitchen, complete with fridge, oven, microwave and even a kitchen sink.

Across from the sofa and kitchen were a tiny dining table and two small seats. Clem noticed Sarah had set their travel chess set on that table, probably because it was a perfect place to play it. Running along the edges of the ceiling were wooden cupboards and a TV over the driver and passenger seat. Heading down the hall, Clem passed the closet they store most of their food and water in and right up to the door at the very end.

The bedroom was fairly spacious for an RV. A large two person bed took up most of the room, more wooden cupboards lined the ceiling and a couple of small dressers bookended each side of the bed. Clem dug through one of the dressers and removed a familiar shirt and pair of jeans. Turning around, she spotted Omid's crib in the corner nearest the door. Sitting inside was the little tyke himself, who was happily pawing his stuffed elephant.

"Hey there OJ," said Clem in a sweet voice as she knelt down. "I hope you had a better morning than me." Omid made a face, then crawled away from Clem. "What's wrong?" Omid only whimpered softly in response. "What did I…" Clem cupped her hand in front of her mouth and breathed out. "Ugh." Her breath reeked of whiskey. "I'm sorry OJ, I… I really should stop talking until after I brush my teeth."

Omid babbled something in response, which Clem interpreted as him agreeing with her. She made a beeline for the door next to the closet, hurried into the bathroom and parked herself right in front of the sink. Clem grabbed her toothbrush and applied a liberal dose of toothpaste to it, reasoning she'd need a lot to wash away her horrible breath. After some hard brushing, Clem got a quick sip of water from the sink and spit, hopefully cleaning out most of that terrible smell.

Clem then headed into the shower. Normally she and Sarah limited baths to just a clean rag dabbed in water, but after spending a morning throwing up, an actual shower seemed called for. Sarah had said the water heater on the Brave used propane, which they didn't have, or know how to get, which meant the water was cold. But even a cold burst of water was refreshing and a little soap made the girl feel like new again.

While getting dressed, Clementine discovered the notebook she had taken from the woman was still in her jeans pocket. Just seeing it again filled Clem with regret, so she tossed it into the nearest drawer to force it out of mind. Returning to the bedroom, Clementine retrieved her hat from the dresser and found her hair tie sitting under it, no doubt left by Sarah. After pulling her hair up into a bun and tying it off, Clem donned her hat, adjusted the bracelet Sarah had given her, then headed back outside to find the older girl sitting on the Brave's bottom step, Omid wriggling in her arms.

"Taking a break?" asked Clem as she sat down beside Sarah.

"No," answered Sarah, sounding a little melancholy. "It's all done. I put the last of our stuff in the Brave while you were in the shower."

"Really, all of it?" Sarah nodded. "You got our guns?"

"The rifle you found and your pistol are in a high up cupboard inside. I put your knife and tomahawk there too, along with my machete. I wanted to make sure Omid couldn't reach any of them."

"That's smart. What about the CD player, and—"

"It's all inside, along with the CD's, the markers, pencils, a few books and our photo album. I put the rest of the books in the storage bins. If we need the space we can throw them away later."

"What about our tools? Like the tin snips and—"

"I put all that in the storage bin closest to the door. I figured we'd only need them when we go out. Except our radios, they're inside."

"Is that where you put the rain coats with the gross stuff on them?"

"Yeah, they're hanging in a closet inside. I thought we wouldn't want to go outside without them."

"And you cleaned out the fridge and—"

"Every cupboard and every drawer. Any food, water, batteries, bandages, medicines or anything else useful, along with all Omid's baby stuff. And I stacked all the stuff we collect rain with and put them in the same bin with the tube and funnel we put out when it rains for the Brave. And our pots and pans and utensils are in the kitchen, the tray with the carrot tops is in the cupboard. I didn't want it sliding around while we're diving, so let's only put it out when we're parked."

"What about the diesel I found?"

"Bin closest to the gas tank, with the other stuff we found for the Brave."

"And I saw you got our toothbrushes," said Clem.

"And the soap, shampoo, hair brushes, floss, my tampons."

"When are you going to tell me what you need those for?"

"When you're older," said Sarah.

"I'm older from the last time you said that," reasoned Clem.

"Older than that."

Clem rolled her eyes in response. "And you got the whiskey?"

"Yeah," nodded Sarah.

"Where'd you put it?"

Sarah turned to Clem and made a face. "It's put up."

"Where?" Sarah just looked at Clem. "I'm not going to drink any more."

"Then you don't need to know where I put it," reasoned a sly Sarah. "At least not until your next birthday."

"Thanks again for that." Clem looked back at the tiny one bedroom house with a chimney they had called home for so long. "So, if you got everything, I guess we're ready to leave."

"I guess…"

"What's wrong?"

"It's just…" Sarah sighed. "It's just… strange. Leaving here."

"We couldn't stay here forever. You know that."

"Yeah, but we stayed here for so long I kinda forgot that for a while." Clementine looked at the familiar house they had called home for so many months, the afternoon sun bathing it in a warm orange glow. Staring at it, it finally dawned on Clem; after today, they'd probably never see this place again. "For a while, I guess I was just hoping things would stay the same forever, even though I knew it was impossible."

"I know, me too," admitted Clem. "But, we'll be okay. We got the Brave. And the raincoats let us get past walkers. All we got to do is find another place like this one, where's there's a store or something people haven't taken stuff from, and it'll be good again."

"If we find one," said Sarah. "And if we don't find somewhere bad first."

"We'll be careful, like we planned," said Clem. "We'll go west for a while, away from the coast and where Shaffer's was. Then once we're far enough away, we'll head south through Georgia and down to Florida, so we can keep warm for the winter. We'll only go near small towns, and only ones that don't look like they have people living in them. We'll find food, and we'll keep going."

"For how long?" asked Sarah. "Forever?"

"Well, not forever, just—"

"Just how long?" asked a shaken Sarah.

"Sarah, I don't know," said Clem. "I'm only nine, I mean ten. I—"

"I'm sorry," said Sarah. "It's all just a lot to take in. And I shouldn't expect you to have all the answers. I'm just…"

"Scared." Sarah nodded. "I am too Sarah, but we won't have to be on the move forever. We'll find somewhere safe someday."

"How can you be sure?"

"Well…" Clem thought to herself for a moment. "Because look at us."

"Us?"

"We're just two girls trying to take care of a baby, and we're doing pretty good," reasoned Clem. "There has to be lots of people out there that are way older and smarter than us, and they're probably doing way better. There's probably safe places out there already, maybe even places where things are normal again."

"You… you really think so?"

"Yeah. I mean, it's been over a year since everything changed. Things have to have gotten better at least somewhere, we… just gotta find it." Clem watched as a smile started to creep across Sarah's face. "And until we find it, we'll just keep doing what we did here. We'll find somewhere with food and stay, and move somewhere else when we run out."

"When you say it like that, it actually sounds good," said Sarah.

"It will be good," smiled Clem. "And we'll have each other, and OJ."

"Do you like that Omid?" asked Sarah in a sweet voice as she looked down at the baby in her arms. "Does that sound good to you?" Omid babbled softly in response.

"I wonder how long until he can talk?" said Clem. "He's already so big. And it's like he gets bigger every day."

"We should keep track." Sarah turned to Clem. "Here, you help him stand for a second, and I'll mark how tall he is on the door."

"Okay." Sarah carefully passed Omid to Clem, who helped the chubby baby stand near the edge of the door. "Just stand still for a second, okay?" Clementine carefully held Omid under his armpits as Sarah returned with a few markers in hand.

"And there." Sarah drew a black line on the door right above Omid's head, then wrote the date above it. "I should do one for you too."

"Me?"

"Yeah, you're still growing too." Clem took Omid into her arms and stood up, placing her back to the door frame. "We'll use a different color for you." Sarah swapped a red marker into her hand and drew another line on the door frame. "Could you do one for me?" suggested Sarah.

"Sure." Sarah took Omid and Clem took a blue marker. Clem moved up a step so she could reach above Sarah's head, then left a third mark with a date. Stepping back, the pair admired their freshly made height chart.

"You're catching up with me," noted Sarah. "When we first met, you came up to about my chin, now you're just shorter than my nose. I bet you end up being taller than me."

"Yeah right," scoffed Clem.

"I bet you will, and I wouldn't be surprised if Omid ended up taller than both of us."

"I don't know. You never met his dad; he was pretty short actually."

"I guess we'll find out." Sarah turned back towards the house, bracing Omid against her chest. "Say goodbye Omid." Sarah gently grasped the baby's chubby hand and helped him wave at the house. "Say bye-bye."

"Bah-bah," babbled Omid.

"He said it!" squealed Sarah.

"He says that all the time," reminded Clem.

"Oh you're just being negative," insisted Sarah as she headed inside.

"Negative?" repeated Clementine as she closed the door. "A minute ago I had to tell you things will be okay. How am I negative?"

"I mean about Omid." Clem carefully took the baby boy from Sarah. "You're always like that when he does something great."

"I was just saying, he says bah-bah all the time."

"Bah-bah," repeated Omid.

"See?"

"Babies need positive reinforcement," insisted Sarah as she sat down in the driver's seat.

"I am positive with OJ," said Clem as she sat down in the passenger's seat. "But I'm not going to pretend he talked when he didn't."

Sarah put the key in the ignition, but hesitated to turn it.

"What's wrong?" asked Clem.

"I just hope it starts," said Sarah. "Last time I started it was over a month ago."

"You did all the stuff the manual said you should do, right?"

"Yeah, I just hope I didn't forget something or make a mistake." Sarah turned the key and a churning noise echoed from the engine. Clementine's chest tightened as it sounded like the engine was struggling to start, but then that churning turned into a loud roaring and she could feel the vibrations from the motor, which prompted Omid to start fidgeting in Clem's arms.

"It's okay, it's okay," assured Clem in a soothing voice. "It's just the engine." Omid settled as Sarah took the parking brake off. "See? It's okay. And my breath doesn't stink now. Everything's fine."

The Brave moved forward slightly, then stopped, then forward, then stopped again.

"Sorry, it's been so long since I drove this," said Sarah as she carefully maneuvered the vehicle towards the road. The Brave lurched onto the street and with great caution inched towards the nearest intersection.

"You know where you're going, right?" asked Clem.

"Yeah, this road coming up on the left leads out of Spokeston and to a small highway that runs along the South Carolina and Georgia state borders."

"What's Spokeston?" asked Clem.

"Spokeston, South Carolina," said Sarah. "It's where we've been living for these last six months. How do you not know that?"

"It's not like the town's name was ever important," shrugged Clem. "How do you do know that?"

"I saw it on some of the mail lying around the house when we first moved in," said Sarah as she pivoted the Brave around a corner. "And it is important because that's how I found this place on the road atlas, which is how I know we're not going back towards Shaffer's or Savannah right now."

"That's good, I don't even want to go near those places again." Clementine looked out on the long worn road cutting through a thick forest in front of her and took a deep breath. "Here… here we go," she said.

"Wait, we can't leave yet." Sarah took her hands off the wheel.

"Why not?" Sarah pulled a CD case off the dashboard and stuck a disc into the Brave's player.

"We gotta have some music for the road."

Clem smirked, until she heard what Sarah picked. "Wait, is this one of those Floyd CD's?"

"Yeah."

"Oh come on Sarah."

"I'm driving, so I get to pick the music," argued Sarah.

"That's not fair, I can't even drive," said Clem.

"You're right, we'll take turns." Clem breathed a sigh of relief. "Since I packed everything, I get to go first." Clem grimaced at Sarah, but the older girl only shot Clem a smug smile in response.