Clementine groaned as she opened her eyes, finding herself staring at darkness. She had a horrible throbbing pain in her head and her ears were ringing. As she tried to move her arms, she discovered there was something on top of her. There was also a thick heat in the air coming from all directions that was causing Clem to sweat. As she struggled to sit up, the ringing in Clem's ears faded and was replaced with a low roar that seemed to be surrounding her.
Pushing on whatever was covering her, Clem saw a small ray of light shine in from the sides. Summoning as much strength as she could, Clem managed to toss the heavy object aside. The girl found herself blinded by a sudden overabundance of bright light and everything appeared blurry. Clem's head felt dizzy and she had trouble seeing, but after a few seconds her vision cleared and Clem saw where all the light was coming from.
"Oh God…" A red hot blaze had consumed the entire wall bordering the backdoor, black smoke filled the room, and the fire burned so intensely it practically roared at Clementine, like a mad hell beast mocking the poor girl. Looking down, Clem saw the object she had just thrown off was the entire back door. Spotting her radio a few inches away, the girl grabbed it and tried hurrying out of the room, but felt a sharp pain as she put weight on left foot.
The girl stumbled but maintained her balance. The pain was sudden, but not overwhelming, leading Clem to think she had a sprained ankle when whatever set the house on the fire and knocked her out. She limped out of the dining room and back into the foyer, doing her best to avoid applying too much pressure to her bad ankle. Heading for the front door, Clem couldn't see anything but black smoke through the windows.
Opening the door, the girl discovered the entire front yard was burning now, the weeds and dried grass all ignited as a part of a raging wildfire that was spreading to the walls of the house; and in the distance, walkers were pouring in. Clementine watched in disbelief as a lone walker stumbled over the smoldering hedges and into the flickering orange haze that was now the yard, just to stand back up, burning from head to toe now like a living torch, blissfully unaware of the flames consuming his clothes and flesh.
Following a loud moaning with her eyes, Clem watched as walker marched out of the burning grass and right towards the door. She scurried backwards as the walker crossed into the house. The flames enveloping its charred and blackened body began to spread to the wallpaper as it lurched towards the dining room, chasing after the bang from earlier or perhaps the roar of the fire as it willing walked into the smoldering blaze.
Panic gripping her now, Clem hurried back to the front door in time to see more flaming walkers moving right towards the house, appearing to her like a burning army of the damned ready to seize this place. Her foot was still bothering her as she marched forward on the path, surrounded by flames and the eerie cries of the living dead.
The heat was intense and it was everywhere, like walking through an oven. Sweat was beading down Clementine's face as the black smoke caused her eyes to water. The respirator spared the girl from having to breathe those horrid fumes but the blinding blaze of the flames and the smoke made it impossible to see the end of the path, forcing Clem to hobble forward on the curvy stone walkway and pray that it would end before she was overwhelmed by the fire.
Suddenly, a flaming beast lunged out of the blaze and right at Clementine, forcing the girl to dodge to the left. She felt an intense burning coming from the side of the path and weaved back to the center in time to see her attacker had been a single walker that had collapsed onto the walkway and likely was never even aiming at her.
Forcing herself to hobble faster, Clementine weaved past another couple of burning bodies content to march towards their own doom. The girl turned her head to slip past one of the walkers without running into it, the fire enshrouding it almost like a protective forcefield whose intense heat burned the uncovered skin on Clem's face. A few more steps forward and Clem finally saw it, the end of the path cutting through the walls of flames that used to be the hedges.
She moved faster, forcing herself to endure the pain in her foot, to keep her eyes open despite the blinding smoke, to shut out the burning heat enveloping her more and more with every passing step. Forcing herself into a jog, Clementine stumbled past the flaming hedges as fast as she could and ran head first into something coming up the path.
The walker was knocked off balance from Clementine bumping into it while Clem herself found herself rebounding several steps backwards. A sudden and overwhelming heat scorched the girl from behind and she stumbled forward in a panic, flailing about as she tossed her backpack and tomahawk aside as she could feel melted plastic dripping down her back.
"Ahh!" Clementine called out in pain as she felt the fire spread up her back and to the raincoat's hood, forcing her to quickly throw it off before she was burned along with it. Tossing the raincoat onto the road, Clementine watched as the fires claimed the rest of it shortly after she was free from the flaming garment.
Before the girl could even breathe, she heard a hissing sound and turned to find the walker from before lunging at her. Clem instinctively pulled her gun and fire, nailing it between the eyes as it fell forward and onto the girl, pinning her to pavement. Looking at those disgusting jagged teeth mere inches away from her face, Clementine took great care in pushing the walker off, fearful that even cutting herself on its teeth might mean her own death.
Free from the corpse, Clem stood up and saw burning walkers marching towards her from the flaming house. Spinning around, she saw more not far down the road, and quick checks left and right revealed even more closing in. Without her raincoat concealing her scent, they'd find her with ease once they were close enough, and Clem wasn't sure if she had enough bullets to shoot all of them.
With nowhere to run, Clem holstered her gun and knelt down in front of the walker she just killed. She pulled her bayonet and plunged it deep into the walker's belly, slicing it open like a stuffed turkey. The girl then greedily grabbed at the walker's innards and hastily smeared them across her body as fast as she could, her skin crawling as she felt that sick substance bleed through her charred clothes.
Seeing a pair of burning walkers lurching in from behind, Clementine scurried away on all fours as they lunged at the dead walker's corpse. The flames from their body quickly spread to the dead walker as Clem hurried away. Grabbing her backpack and tomahawk off the street, Clem spotted more walkers closing in on the burning ones, bumping into them as they lunged at the now gone sound of the gunshot and set themselves on fire.
Not interested in watching walkers foolishly cook themselves to death, Clem started limping away as quickly as she could. Her foot was throbbing, she still felt lightheaded, and bits of her skin on her face and back still felt like they were burning, but Clem couldn't stop now. Only after putting some distance between herself and the free roaming bonfire growing behind her did Clementine think to reach for her radio.
"Sarah?" Clem waited for an answer, but didn't receive one. "Sarah, are you there? Please, say something." When Clem let go of the talk button, she noticed there was no familiar electronic click like there normally was when she used her radio. Clem checked the power switch; it was still switched on. She then tried the volume knob and the dial to change channels; nothing.
"Dammit." Clem wasn't sure why her radio suddenly stopped working, but it couldn't have picked a worse time. Limping forward, her ankle was hurt more with every step, and she had a long walk ahead of her. As Clem made her way forward as quickly as she could with a bad foot, she heard an ominous crack from above. Looking up, the girl saw the clouds that had so graciously given her shade earlier had now turned dark and foreboding.
"Oh come on…" Clem grumbled to herself as she heard another thunder crack. She forced herself to move faster, clenching her teeth as the pain in her ankle grew worse. As she moved, something cold and small tapped the girl on the shoulder, and then she heard the gentle patter of a light shower begin. Very little rain seemed to actually be landing on Clementine, but the girl figured that was going to change soon and started eyeing the area for somewhere safe to wait out the storm.
But then she spotted the railroad tracks just ahead and thought she'd be safer away from the streets where walkers were more likely lurking. The girl hobbled forward, eager to take cover in the trees, when she heard a couple of loud pops in quick succession. They weren't thunderclaps, and three more sounded soon after; they were gunshots.
Hearing another gunshot, Clementine limped over to the nearest stalled car. With some difficulty, she climbed onto the hood and then on top of the cab just in time to hear another gunshot. They were fairly close, and Clem couldn't rule out the possibility that Sarah was the one making them. After a quick check to make sure there weren't any walkers in the immediate area, Clem sat down, grateful to get off her feet even for just a second, and then removed her binoculars.
Another gunshot and Clementine found herself looking a few hundred yards down the road at a streetlight with walkers crowded around the bottom of it. More were gathering around and swatting at something above their heads. Looking up, Clem could see someone was climbing the streetlight with great haste, arms and legs wrapped around the pole as they desperately tried to scale it. Whoever they were aimed a pistol down and fired into the crowd of walkers a couple of times before resuming their climb.
Focusing on the person's head, Clem could swear it was Patty clinging to the streetlight for dear life, the woman's mess of untamed red hair being a dead giveaway. She was far out of the walkers' reach, but she seemed to be struggling to maintain her grip on the metal pole. Clem watched as the woman holstered her gun and tried to remove something from her pocket with only one hand, only for it to slip out of her grip.
Following the object with her binoculars, it plummeted onto the ground and a mess of small metal pieces came spilling out. Clem realized it must have been the box of bullets she had given Patty for the tire change. Not wanting to risk encountering the woman, and wanting even less to encounter the walkers trying to eat her, Clem thought this was a good time to leave.
She carefully stepped off the car, grimacing as she was forced to walk on her bad foot again, and limped the short distance to the railroad tracks. Clem was eager to get out of sight, but stepping off the road, she heard something in the back of her mind telling her to stop. The girl turned and stepped back into the road. Using her binoculars, she looked out at Patty again.
The woman seemed barely able to cling to streetlight as more walkers gathered around on the ground, stretching out their arms in a desperate attempt to grab something far out of their reach, at least for the moment. Clem couldn't stand to watch this sorry sight reach its inevitable conclusion, but she also felt powerless to stop it. Then she spotted Patty moving her gun closer to her own head, and that's when Clem's hands moved without her even thinking.
Clem dropped her binoculars, drew her gun in a flash and fire three shots in quick succession at the walkers gathered around the streetlight. It took a second for Clem to realize what she had done, unsure if she had even hit any of the walkers at this distance. But the noise of the gunshots was enough to get their attention. Clem watched as the corpses started shuffling away from the streetlight and started moving in her direction.
Coming to her senses, Clem decided to fire off another couple of quick shots to ensure they moved away from Patty and started limping along the railroad tracks before firing off a final shot that would hopefully give the woman the chance she needed to escape. Clementine had a good couple of hundred yards head start and her clothes were still fairly soaked in gore despite the light shower, she only hoped that would be enough.
A few minutes down the tracks, Clem regretted what she did, finding it harder to keep moving on a bad ankle at more than a hobble while knowing those walkers were drawing closer. She could hear them in the distance, their sloppy shuffle and low moans growing louder every few seconds. Looking ahead, Clem spotted walker not far down the tracks blocking her way. She pulled her gun and moved over to the side, hoping she was still sufficiently coated in walker guts to go unnoticed.
Clem kept her gun aimed at the walker's head, anticipating an attack as she inched further away, but it kept walking. Clementine was about to breathe a sigh of relief, but then she felt a sudden swell of cool drops falling on her shoulders. The shower suddenly grew more intense and Clem found herself being soaked in a heavy downpour.
The girl tried to pick up the pace, but her shoe slipped on the wet metal of the tracks and the girl fell right into a puddle. After adding 'being coated in mud' to her list of problems, Clem sat up and noticed the walker that had shuffled past her had stopped moving now. As the rain keep pouring down on her, Clem tried to stand up, but then she heard a loud hissing sound.
Looking over her shoulder, she saw the walker was moving towards her, letting out a low growl as it lurched forward. Looking down at her shirt, Clem realized there was nothing left of the walker smell to conceal her and tried to force herself to keep moving, but the second she applied pressure to her bad ankle she came tumbling right back down.
The walker kept moving forward, closing the gap faster than Clem could crawl away. Seeing no choice, Clem pulled her gun and shot the walker, striking it in the head with deadly accuracy. The walker fell dead, and Clem could see more behind it lumbering onto the tracks, a lot more. The girl tried one last time to stand, but it was hopeless, she couldn't even maintain her balance for more than a few seconds before the pain became too great, and her legs were wobbling from how tired they both were.
Crawling along the tracks as fast as she could, it became obvious Clementine couldn't outrun the incoming mob of walkers while not even being able to run. Seeing the crowd gradually grow closer, Clem rolled onto her back, sat up, and took hold of her gun.
They were about thirty feet away now, and Clem did her best to steady her shaking hands as she focused on the walker nearest to her. Clementine weighed the chance of missing at this distance against how much time she would have left to shoot all of them if she waited for them to get closer first, then pulled the trigger. A bullet grazed the nearest walker's temple which caused it to stumble, but didn't kill it. "God dammit…"
Clem removed her tomahawk from her shoulder, adjusted her aim, breathed out, and squeezed the trigger. This time, the shot ripped through the walker's head and it collapsed onto the ground, causing the one behind it to trip and fall. Knowing an easy target when she sees it, Clem fired again and killed the downed walker.
Suddenly, there was a rustling to her left and Clem turned in place to see another walker moving in from the trees. She took aim and fired again, killing it. Turning back to the group of walkers, she saw they were closing in fast, and there was still six left. Clem breathed in and out, then lined up her sights with the nearest walker.
She pulled the trigger and before that walker even hit the ground she aimed at the next one and fired, making two. She shifted her sights to the one on her right that was closing in and dropped it, then two more to the left of it with incredible speed. Before Clem could drop the last walker, she heard a growling coming from the right.
"Shit!" A walker lunged forward and grabbed Clem's arm with both hands. It dragged her hand to its mouth just as Clem pulled her bayonet with her free hand. She thrust the blade upward, plunging the knife through the walker's jaw from behind its chin. Clem's arm trembled as she pushed against the knife, desperate to keep the walker's jaw shut as it tried to open it wide enough to bite her arm. Twisting her other hand slightly in the walker's grip, Clementine managed to aim the gun at its head and fired.
The walker fell dead and Clementine fell on her side, dropping her gun. Opening her eyes, she saw the final walker from the group was closing in now, arms stretched out in front of it and its low moaning turning to a vicious hissing as it closed in on its prey. Clementine scooped up her gun and pulled the trigger, only for it to click.
"No!" Clem held out her hands in desperation as the walker lunged forward, then collapsed like a sack of bricks as a deafening shot tore off the top of its head.
"Clementine!" Clem looked over her shoulder to see someone standing in the distance silhouetted against a pair of headlights.
"Sarah!" Clem holstered her gun and retrieved her bayonet and tomahawk as her friend raced to her side.
"Come on!" Sarah threw her rifle over her shoulder and helped Clem off the ground.
"I sprained my ankle," said Clem.
"Just lean on me." Clementine hobbled along while leaning on Sarah, her shoe becoming soaked as she was forced to hop through puddles forming in between the tracks. Closing in on the Brave, Clem gasped as she saw another walker moving in from their left.
"Sarah, there's—" Clem nearly lost her balance as Sarah let go of Clem, pulled her pistol, and shot the walker in the head. Before the younger girl could fall over, she felt her friend's strong embrace again as she was guided through the rain and back to the Brave's door. Clem hopped up the stairs while Sarah slammed the door shut. The older girl raced into the driver's seat while the younger one collapsed onto the floor.
Clem lay there, breathing deep, too exhausted to get up as she felt the familiar rumble of the Brave starting to move. She briefly entertained just falling asleep there, but then she spotted something out of the corner of her eye. Sitting next to the couch was a red plastic bin; crawling over to it, Clem pulled open the lids and found her stash of goods undisturbed.
Seeing the space she left before, Clem slipped her backpack off. The girl neatly stacked the pill bottles inside, then set the CD player, book and CD all on top of the things she packed before to fill out the top of the container. The pen she slipped into the handbag, thinking it and the gun were both gifts to Chilton. The bottle of wine was tricky, requiring a little rearranging. Then finally, she placed the football inside, completing her collection. Before Clem could appreciate her neatly arranged gift basket, she heard the familiar click of the parking brake.
"Are you okay?" Sarah raced over to Clem and started examining her. "You didn't get bitten did you?"
"No," assured Clem in a weak voice as she peeled her respirator off, happy to finally breathe normally again.
"You said you sprained your ankle, let me see it." Clem rolled up her pant leg. "What's this?" Sarah removed a pink pistol from Clem's ankle holster.
"Oops, wrong leg." Sarah removed the gun's magazine. "It's not loaded. I forgot I even had that." Clem pulled up her other pant leg.
"You ankle is swollen," reported a concerned Sarah as she set the gun aside. "What happened?"
"There was an explosion… I think," reported Clem.
"You think?" asked Sarah as she tossed her raincoat aside, which was actually just wet instead of smeared with dried blood thanks to the rain.
"I was talking to you on the radio, and suddenly this door just blows up and hits me, and I passed out," recalled Clem. "When I woke up, my ankle hurt and everything was on fire. Then my raincoat got burnt up, and the radio stopped working, and then it started raining, and I ran out of bullets…" Clementine suddenly turned to Sarah and saw the myriad of emotions swirling around in those big brown eyes of hers. "I'm okay now Sarah, because of you. It's okay."
"I hope so," spoke a dismayed Sarah.
"How did you find me?"
"After I heard that explosion, and I couldn't talk to you on the radio, I drove down the tracks and found the stuff you left. I figured maybe if I waited long enough, you might come back, but then I started hearing gunshots and I thought you could be in trouble and…" Sarah bit her lip. "I almost lost you."
"You saved me."
"This time…"
"I'm okay now," insisted a weary Clem. "And we did it."
Sarah looked at the collection of goods and sighed. "It wasn't worth it."
"Sarah, we're going to get to live in paradise," spoke a surprised Clem. "I had to do this, so you and OJ could live somewhere good, where you could be happy."
Clementine felt Sarah's hand sliding under her hat and stroking her hair. "Why do you always do this?" she whispered in a concerned voice.
"Do what?" asked a confused Clem.
"Act like you're not important?" said Sarah. "I mean, why were you still carrying stuff back if you were hurt? Why didn't you just ditch your backpack so you wouldn't have to carry as much?"
"I… I guess I just didn't think of it," admitted Clem.
"You should have," spoke Sarah. "You should think about yourself a lot more Clem. Whatever you brought back, it was nothing compared to you."
"It's not just the stuff, it's—"
"It's not paradise if you're not there Clem, not for me, and not for Omid." Clem was shocked by the sudden change in Sarah's voice. "I know we have to dangerous stuff to get by, but you're more important to Omid and me than some island. I don't want you taking chances we don't need to anymore. I… I can't lose you… I'd wouldn't know what to…" Tears started streaking down Sarah's face as Clem felt the older girl's hands move to her cheeks.
"I'm… I'm sorry Sarah," spoke a dismayed Clementine as Sarah's pained sobs stung at her heart. "I… I just want you to be happy."
"You make me happy," sobbed Sarah. "Why you don't realize that?"
"I do, I really do," assured Clem as she grasped Sarah's hands with her own, gently squeezing them. "And I was being really careful this time, because I didn't want to take any chances. Everything was going fine, and then suddenly the house I was in just blew up and everything was on fire. It was just, bad fucking luck."
"I'm sorry," croaked Sarah. "You're the one who almost died, and I'm acting like you did something wrong. I'm so sorry."
"You don't have to be sorry Sarah. You saved my life, and you care about me, and that's why I like being with you," professed a tearful Clem as she moved her hands to Sarah's shoulders. "But it's over now. We're okay, and we got what we needed, and we won't have to do stuff like this anymore," promised Clem as she moved in close and wrapped her arms around Sarah.
"I love you," whispered Clem as she clung to Sarah. "I love you… I love you so much…"
"I love you too," said Sarah as she embraced Clem. "And I'm so glad you're okay."
"You're not going to have worry about me anymore Sarah. And we're not going to have to worry about OJ being okay either," promised Clem. "We're going to be together in paradise, forever."