"You ready up there!"

"Yeah!" yelled Clementine as she looked down at Patty from her perch up on the small catwalk surrounding the billboard.

"All right, hang tight!" Clem actually did clutch the railing tightly as she watched Patty head through an opening in the fence surrounding a dusty lot. A free-standing square of red roofing in front of a small building suggested this was once a gas station. But the various trailers, bundles of long pipes and massive spools of wire made it clear it had become something else by the time of the outbreak. It hardly mattered what though as all Clem and Patty were concerned with was the yellow piece of construction equipment with a mechanical arm attached to a giant metal shovel parked in the back.

"All right," crackled Patty's voice over the radio. "Keep an eye out, this thing is loud and slow, so I can't exactly drive out of here in it if something comes running, assuming it even works at all."

"Got it." Clem briefly looked down as Patty climbed into the backhoe's cab then fixed her eyes on the horizon. A loud mechanical churning filled the air as Clem carefully scanned for threats. She slowly turned her head past the road, carefully eyed the door of an old building across the street, watched an open warehouse for signs of movement, and kept turning in place until she found herself staring out an empty field peppered by short, blooming trees.

The engine suddenly got much louder and Clem turned back to the lot in time to watch the backhoe slowly roll forward a few feet. It stopped, then the mechanical arm on the front began to extend, producing a series of loud whirs with every inch it pivoted. The large metal scoop moved down to the ground, then back up, then down, then left, and so forth until Patty finally seemed to figure out the controls. The scoop sliced into the ground and, after a lot more awkward short movements, eventually pulled out a pile of dirt.

Clem headed for the ladder as she heard the engine shut off. Climbing down in a hurry and racing over to Patty as she emerged from the backhoe, she saw a big smile on the woman's face that matched her own.

"It works?" asked an excited Clem as she looked down at the big hole.

"It works!" cheered Patty as she looked at the vehicle. "Surprised all it needed was a little routine maintenance. When Sin asked us to find one of these things I didn't think we'd actually find one, let alone on the first day."

"So now what?" asked Clem. "Should we drive it back?"

"It would take hours with how slow it moves and use up tons of diesel we don't have on hand," said Patty as she walked over to a long flat trailer. "But, we unhook one of our semis, drive it back, hitch it to this thing, drive the backhoe onto it, then when can haul it back to the farm."

"That sounds… complicated," said Clem.

"Not really, it's just going to be a time-consuming hassle," said Patty as she looked at the trailer's hitch. "Seeing as it's past noon and backhoes probably aren't high up on the apocalyptic wish list, we could come back tomorrow and figure it out. For now I'd rather just get back to the farm, in case something did hear us just now and is on its way."

"Sounds good to me."

The pair radioed Devlin and Jet with an update before grabbing their bikes. Clem pedaled down the road a bit, then stopped to look over her shoulder at the billboard she had used as a lookout. Faded orange letters spelling 'Osage' was all that remained of whatever was originally posted on it. They were barely visible through the crude red ones that spelled out their message: DEAD DON'T EAT DEAD, SMELL LIKE THE DEAD. Satisfied they had done enough for today, the pair took off down the interstate and started pedaling north.

This was the first day Clem could remember in a long time where it felt warm out, and the cool air blowing past her face actually felt refreshing for once. It was a sunny day and everywhere Clem looked she could see signs of spring. Small budding flowers poking out of the dirt, tiny little green leaves on the ends of tree branches, and even the air had a certain faint fragrance that hadn't been there yesterday, almost like freshly cut grass.

Reaching the edge of town, Clem found herself slowing down as they approached an intersection. She didn't expect anything from the town itself except the abandoned buildings they passed earlier that looked like all the other buildings they had seen in dozens of small towns. But the intersection itself offered something interesting in the form of odd looking graffiti written out on the pavement in front of each road. Rolling to a stop, Clem found herself pondering their meaning all over again.

"Yo." Clem looked up to find Patty circling her bike. "I told you, some kid probably did that before shit hit the fan. Some wannabe tagger getting all cryptic with his lettering."

"I know, but I still kind of want to know what it says," admitted Clem as she studied the symbols. The road ahead and to her left were both marked with angular shapes that resembled a square with an eye and a giant open mouth was ready to eat two slices of pizza that each had a pepperoni on the center of them. Looking over her shoulder at the road they came in on, there were six squares in a row, some missing sides, some with dots in the middle, but no two were the same. Past them was the number twenty, the only symbol Clem recognized.

"Why don't you take a picture?" suggested Patty as she pedaled onto the road leading southwest. "Then you can solve the mysteries of bad street art back home."

Clem removed a camera from her bike's saddlebag and snapped a quick picture of the bigger piece of graffiti. She waited a few seconds until she could see it developing, then tucked it and the camera back into the bag with the others photos she had taken today. Then she hopped on her bike and pedaled after Patty as fast as she could, wind whipping at the edges of her leather jacket.

The pair biked past a mile or so of suburbs, then gas stations and small shops begin to appear along the sides of the road, until eventually old brick buildings emerged on the horizon, marking the edge of downtown. An old one-story brick building with a big RV parked beside it caught the pair's attention. Patty and Clem rode right to the back of the Brave, hopped off their bikes, and set them in place on the rack.

Moving around to the front, Clem eyed the now lifeless neon sign reading 'Simple Simon's' before pushing past the glass doors. The interior was largely empty, like Clem had seen earlier, but one notable difference was the sight of a large green table slowly sliding its way out of a back room on its side. Approaching the would be escapee furniture, Clem and Patty found the source of its movement.

"Figured you two would be done by now," said Patty with a smile.

"Figured you two would be back sooner," retorted Devlin with a smile.

"Clem had to stop and admire some street art," said Patty.

"What is this thing?" asked Clem. "It doesn't look like a normal table."

"It's a ping pong table," said Jet with a smile.

"These people have a killer employee's lounge," said Devlin as he looked over his shoulder. "My place desperately needs some entertainment and there's a whole bunch of stuff back there I wouldn't mind taking home."

"But this is the only one that folds up," said Jet. "And it's still pretty heavy."

"Clem, hold the door open for us," said Patty as she maneuvered closer to Devlin. "I'll help with the heavy lifting." Working together to move the ping pong table outside, Clem thought it was a shame they were nearly done with their scouting trip. Biking across open country roads and picking up a few assorted luxuries for their home had been a very welcome break from the slow and tedious process of personally watering their entire field by hand and checking every seedling to see if anything had changed from the previous day, every day. And that was just one of many tasks that needed doing with each new day on a farm.

Managing to fit the ping pong table inside the Brave, everyone filed in and maneuvered past the various boxes and bags of assorted goods to reach their seats. Gazing out the windshield, Clem eyed rustic multi-storied buildings that made up the heart of downtown Pawhuska. They only took up a couple of blocks and looked much older than anything else in town, but Clem couldn't help wondering what the story behind them was, or what Pawhuska was like before the outbreak. But before long, they disappeared from sight and they were well on their way back to their secluded farm.

The barrier of trees that surrounded their home had thickened slightly as their emerging leaves slowly created a more effective shroud from the outside world. Rolling across the worn path leading through the woods, past the three budding saplings rooted alongside the main road, and up to chainlink fence surrounding the house and driveway, Clem let out a little sigh of disappointment.

Devlin got out to open the gate while Jet picked up a box Clem could see was full of paints, brushes and what looked like a long board sticking out of the top. Clem grabbed a couple of bags of goods herself, then headed out of the Brave as soon as she heard the familiar squeak of the parking brake. She went into the house and left one bag in the kitchen and the other bag in the living room while Jet carried his box up to his room. Moving back outside, Clem found her eyes landing on the storm shelter tucked behind Devlin's guest house.

She never actually had gotten a good look at it since moving in, and she suddenly wanted to rectify it. It was just a small cement slab near a corner of the fence, and approaching it she discovered a metal door built into it. Opening it and peering inside, Clem was disappointed to see it was just a single tiny room with four white walls. She kind of hoped it would look like a basement; instead it looked like a cell in an underground prison.

"Get that end would you?" Hearing Patty's voice behind her, Clem closed the hatch and ran back around to the front of the guest house where she found Devlin and Patty carrying the ping pong table forward.

"Here, I'll get the door," said Clem as she darted ahead. Following the pair inside, Clem though the guest house looked much more quaint than the main one, being a one-story building with a cozy fireplace like their home in Spokeston. Watching the two set-up the ping pong table in the middle of the spacious but sparsely decorated living room, it made her think about the many games she and Sarah dragged home over their first summer together.
"Oh, you guys got the ping pong table set-up," said Jet as he hurried inside. "Can I go first?"

"Sure," said Devlin. "Let me—"

"Actually I was hoping I could go first," interjected Patty suddenly.

"Really?" asked Clem, surprised by how badly she wanted to play ping pong.

"I mean, please?" begged Patty as she clasped her hands together. "Maybe just go with Clem to see if Sarah needs any help in the field and give me some time to play with Devlin?"

"If you really want to go first, sure," shrugged Jet before turning to Clem, who only shrugged in response. The pair headed back outside, briefly hearing the sound of a ball bouncing across a table before moving out of earshot. Clem and Jet maneuvered around the fences and crossed the field, taking care not to step on any of the small sprouts now poking out of every mound. There they found Sarah on her knees digging a hole next to a droopy little green plant.

"I thought we finished all the planting like two weeks ago," said Jet.

"We did," said Sarah as she kept digging.

"Is this a bean sprout?" asked Clem as she knelt down for a better look. "It's like a little vine, that's—"

"A problem." Clem watched as Sarah reached over to grab a long wooden stick lying in the dirt beside her. She planted it in the hole, then carefully tugged on the sprout until the end of it wrapped around the base of the pole.

"I thought you were going to just let the beans grow on the corn stalks," said Jet.

"I was, but I didn't think about how corn takes a lot longer to grow than beans," rambled Sarah, anger buried in her voice as she crawled over to the next bean sprout. "So now, I got to put these poles out for them or they'll just grow into tangled messes on the ground and we won't get many beans."

As Sarah started digging her next hole, Clem looked over to see a series of bean poles running across the entire length of the field. "Did you do all these by yourself?"

"I've been doing it since right after you left," answered a weary Sarah.

"Granddad would have—"

"He's watching Omid while finishing his plans for the irrigation trench," said Sarah without looking up. "Anthony helped me with most of them, but he saw something near the fence a few minutes ago and went to see what it was."

"Saw something? Did—"

"It was definitely an animal, probably a deer," said Sarah. "He kept saying he wanted to hunt it so I told him to just take my rifle; hopefully it won't come back and eat all our sprouts while we're sleeping."

Noticing there were only a few plants left between Sarah and the end of the fence, Clem knelt down and started digging a hole in front of the plant closest to Sarah, and Jet followed her lead and started digging by the one nearest to Clem.

"Good news," announced Clem as she dug. "Patty and I found a backhoe, and it works. She said we just have to unhook one of the semi-trucks and use it to bring it back. Then we can get started on Sin's irrigation trench."

"Great, that will only take a few weeks, or months, assuming it works," grumbled Sarah as she dug in the dirt with her fingers. "In the mean time, we'll just have to keep doing it a couple of watering cans at a time."

"I thought the rainwater collectors were finished?" Looking up, Clem saw a dozen barrels stacked on top of another fourteen barrels stacked on a tall and very long wood bench Sin had built with Devlin's help. This rainwater collector was much more complicated than the one Clem had seen at Shaffer's, and looking at the thick web of piping connecting the barrels to each other and the barn's newly installed gutters, Clem realized she wasn't entirely sure how to get water out of it. "I mean, does Sin or Devlin need to add something else or—"

"It hasn't rained since they finished it a few days ago," reminded Sarah, sounding irritated as she planted a beanpole. "And if it doesn't rain soon we'll have to start carrying water all the way from the lake."

Looking past Sarah, Clem saw the small circular pond in the corner of the field, or more precisely, what's left of it. A couple of weeks of taking water out of it a few cans at a time had caused it to shrink to about half its original size. Clem wasn't sure how much longer before it would be gone entirely.

"And we're using up a lot of bottled water," added Sarah without looking up. "Before long, we'll need to start fetching and boiling water for us too."

Now Clem was worried the pond would be gone even sooner, and she started thinking back to how they had to boil water constantly when living in the cabin and how time-consuming it was just to keep three people hydrated.

"Well…" said Jet, trying to sound optimistic. "Um, Devlin brought back a ping pong table. Maybe we could play it when we're done here?"

"I've got to finish this, then give all the beans more water, and take down the laundry and—"

"I'll take care of this," volunteered Jet. "I'll finish planting the bean poles and then water them. All I got to do is wrap the sprouts around the poles, right?"

Sarah stopped digging for a second, then nodded.

"And I can get the laundry," added Clem. "Then I'll make lunch. You haven't eaten yet right?"

Sarah weakly shook her head.

"Okay, so why don't you rest until lunch?" suggested Clem. "You could look at the photos I took in town and even take a shower in the Brave."

"Devlin and I found some fresh shampoo in Pawhuska," added Jet. "We made sure to leave a bottle in your RV's bathroom."

Sarah looked down at the dirt, then stood up. "Thanks…" she said in a weak voice, her eyes still aimed at the dirt.

"It's no problem," assured Clem as she stood up. "Come on, the shower in the Brave doesn't work real good, but the water's still hot." Clem gently wrapped an arm around Sarah's waist. She gave Sarah a little nudge, and the pair started moving forward while Jet worked to finish the beanpoles.

Looking over, Clem was unsettled by Sarah's appearance. She was practically covered in a thin layer of dirt from head to toe, her jeans were threadbare at the knees, her shoes and gloves caked in mud, her hair a frayed mess, and looking at her face, Clem thought she saw bags around her eyes. She was also missing her glasses, but that's because she had started leaving them in the house when working so as not to risk breaking them.

"If you need anything else from us," said Clem. "You can just ask us."

Sarah didn't respond right away, which Clem found concerning. "It's just a lot harder than I thought," she eventually said in a whisper. "And I knew it would be really hard."

"It's okay, we're getting better at it," said Clem.

"If we just didn't have to water them so much," said Sarah with a deep sigh. "Or if it would just rain already so we could take a break, and then we'd have water from the barrels for a couple of days to make it easier."

"At least it's getting warmer," said Clem as she looked up at the sky.

"Yeah, that's something else I'm worried about. Right now it's okay, but it's not even April yet and it's already getting kind of hot. By the time we get to May, we're going to be burning up in that field, and every day."

Clem tensed up upon hearing that. Picking oranges in November was already hot work; she wasn't looking forward to doing that in the middle of summer. Climbing over the wooden fence the pair immediately ran into the chainlink fence. They headed through the nearest gate, arriving outside the guest house just in time to watch Patty come marching out. She moved quickly, almost stomping the grass as she hurried towards the main house only to stop halfway and pull a cigarette from her jacket pocket.

"Are you okay?"

"Jesus," said Patty as she spun around, almost dropping her cigarette. "You two scared the hell out of me."

"Sorry," said Sarah.

"It's just, you looked upset," said Clem.

"I'm fine," she insisted in a tone of voice that made it clear she wasn't.

Clem looked at Patty, then over to the door of the guest house. "Did Devlin do something to you?"

"Jesus, Clem, it's nothing like that," insisted an agitated Patty as she lit her cigarette.

"If he did something like Anthony did then—"

"He didn't do anything!" announced Patty before taking a long drag off her cigarette. "That's… that's kind of the problem actually."

"What does that mean?" asked Sarah.

"It means… I like him, and want to be more than just a friend," blurted out Patty as she looked away from the pair.

"You mean like a girlfriend?"

Patty exhaled a big puff of smoke as she sighed. "Yeah, and he just told me he doesn't like me like that… he's gay."

"Gay?"

"It means he doesn't want a girlfriend," explained a disappointed Patty. "He'd only want a boyfriend."

"Oh, so that means—"

"It was never going to happen," lamented Patty. "And a minute ago when I was in his house I… I was coming on pretty strong and not getting the hints, so he finally just had to tell me and… God this is humiliating." Clem watched as Patty's face turned bright red as she turned away. "God, I feel so stupid now for nipping into the gas station for condoms earlier."

"I thought you just had to use the bathroom there?" asked Clem.

"What are condoms?" asked Sarah.

"And why did you get them?" said Clem.

Patty let out an agonized groan. "Why'd I say that out loud?"

"Just tell us," insisted Clem. "We always end up hearing about this stuff eventually."

Patty took another drag off her cigarette. "They're these plastic sock things a guy puts his dick in before sex."

"Ew!" said Clem as she found her mind imagining what that would look like despite her every effort to get it to stop. "Why would they do that?"

"Does it stop you from getting pregnant?" asked Sarah.

"Um… yeah," confirmed a surprised Patty. "Omid's great an all, but we really don't need another baby right now."

"How'd you know that?" Clem asked Sarah.

"Well when I was reading about sex in the encyclopedia, it said that a guy's thing will—"

"You know what, I don't want to know," insisted Clem, thinking she had already heard enough for one day.

Patty dropped her cigarette on the ground and stomped it out. "I guess there goes my only chance of getting laid."

"Lay—"

"Sex, I meant having sex," clarified Patty. "Which is not happening now."

"I don't even know why you want to," said Clem. "Everything I hear about sex just makes it sound grosser and grosser."

"You'll understand when you're older," said Patty with a shrug.

"Yeah, just like how I'll understand tampons." Clem looked over at Sarah, but the tired look in her eyes made it clear she didn't feel like explaining.

"Typical, there's one eligible bachelor here and he's gay," griped Patty.

"What about Anthony?"

"Ugh…" Patty rolled her eyes.

"He's a jerk," said Clem.

"He's been a lot nicer lately," argued Sarah.

"I'll admit, he's been some what better behaved ever since we laid down the law with him. But I don't like him like that and I doubt that'll ever change… kind of like how Devlin won't ever like me like that," said Patty with a hint of sadness.

"I'm sorry Devlin was the only person here you were in love with," spoke a sympathetic Clem.

"I… I wasn't in love with him," spoke Patty, sounding surprised. "I mean don't get me wrong, he's really handsome, and brave, and he's got those big strong arms I just want to…" Patty trailed off suddenly as her face got a little redder. "But I wasn't in love with Devlin, he was just a good looking guy I wanted to hook up with. It's probably good I found out now he's not interested before I actually did fall in love with him or something."

"Huh? It's good you weren't in love?" asked Sarah. "I don't understand."

"Me neither," said Clem. "You tried to explain being in love once and—"

"And I didn't do a very good job," recalled Patty. "Look, you ask a dozen people what it's like to be in love and you'll probably get a dozen different answers. Some people will even tell you it's just a bunch of crap and it doesn't exist. All I'll say this time is if you fall in love with someone, it changes things between you and them."

"Like what?" asked Clem. "What changes?"

"Like… um…" mumbled Patty as she was forced to say more. "You can love lots of people, but when you're in love with someone, suddenly almost everything they say and do is a big deal, you just hang onto their every word and don't even want to take your eyes off them if you can help it, it's like… they become the center of your whole world.

"And that's where things can go wrong, because if the person who's at the center of your entire world doesn't love you back, then it hurts. And if you find out someone is in love with you, but you don't love them like that, it gets hard to be around them because you know they want something you can't give them.

"I mean, I wasn't even in love with Devlin and now it's going to be awkward between us because of what I said, at least for a little while. You tell someone you're in love with them, and you want to be with only them for the rest of your life, and they tell you they don't feel the same way about you... it can get ugly, real ugly."

"You make it sound like falling in love sound is a bad thing," noted Sarah, her voice even more downcast then from a minute ago.

"Well, like I told Clem, I had kind of a bad experience once, so maybe I'm biased."

"How do people even fall in love?" asked Clem. "Can't they, like, choose not to be in love with someone?"

"I honestly have no idea," confessed Patty. "I don't think it's something you can just turn off though. I mean, I can't stop finding Devlin sexy, but I can keep my hands to myself. In my own admittedly bitter experience, self-control goes out the window once you're in love. As for how it happens, I heard it just hits you one day, like a bolt of lightning, but I don't know if I believe…" Looking up, Patty's eyes suddenly fell on Sarah. "Are… are you okay Sarah? I'm not bothering you by talking about all this stuff am I?"

"No… I'm just tired," mumbled Sarah as she started shuffling towards the driveway. Patty watched as Sarah slowly stepped into the Brave, then looked back at Clem.

"I think Sarah is mad at herself because she thinks she messed up, and she's definitely tired spending all morning trying to fix it," informed Clem. "I said I'd make her something to eat while she rested."

"I'll help; it'll give me an excuse to hide from Devlin for a little while." Patty went with Clem to the food trailer, picking out their favorites from whichever cans they could reach without climbing over the top of their bounty of stored food. Carrying everything back to the picnic table in the center of the yard, Clem passed by the back door to the main house just in time to watch it swing open.

"Kem-men!" yelled Omid as he came hurrying out as fast as his short legs could move him.

"OJ—I mean Omid!" Clem dropped her bag on the grass, knelt down and wrapped both arms around her favorite little boy.

"Chai-yo!"

"Huh?"

"It's Thai for cheers," explained Sin, hiding a grin as he closed the door. "I know I probably shouldn't teach him another language while he's still learning English, but I noticed a noise he was making wasn't far off from—"

"Chai-yo!" repeated Omid, sounding excited.

"I just had to keep repeating it until he said it," concluded Sin.

"Chai-yo!" said Clem back as she smiled at Omid.

Mixing up a beef stew and spooning out some corn into a bowl wasn't exciting, but Clem didn't mind. Devlin emerged from the guest house before long to join in the meal, much to Patty's embarrassment, and Jet returned from the field next, and then finally Sarah arrived. Sitting down to eat, Clem noticed she had her glasses on now and was in clean clothes, but still had a glum expression on her face as she began to eat.

"Sah-rah chai-yo!" said Omid as he waved at her from his high chair.

"Did... did he just say something in Thai?" asked a very confused Jet.

"Just that one word," assured Sin, amused by his grandson's shock.

"Sin said it means cheers." Looking at Sarah, Clem noticed her eyes looked a little red. "Have… have you been crying?" she whispered.

"Huh? No," assured Sarah before chewing another bite of stew. "The water in the Brave ran out right as was shampooing my hair."

"Oh, so—"

"I couldn't get it all off with just a towel, and I couldn't find a bottled water in the closet without opening my eyes, so…" Sarah trailed off as she ate another bite.

"I'm sorry," said Clem, feeling guilty for ever suggesting a shower.

"I should have known better, I knew the tank was almost empty," lamented Sarah, the tiniest hint of anger in her voice. "I had to waste half a bottle of water to clean out my eyes and they still hurt."

"I'm… I'm really sorry," repeated Clem.

The rest of the meal passed with little conversation and before long the group started cleaning up the table. Clem went to grab Omid when she noticed he had moved from a moment ago when he took him out of his high chair. Looking around, she saw the tiny boy standing in front of the fence. At first she thought he wanted to go out, but then she noticed he was looking at something off in the distance.

"What is it?" asked Clem as she knelt down beside him.

"Pah-sah."

"You see a possum?" said Clem as she looked out at the woods. "Where do you…" Clem suddenly saw it moving out from the edge of the forest. It was furry and walked on four legs, but it was much too tall to be a possum.

"Guys, come look," urged Clem in a careful whisper. Everyone gathered around while Clem watched as the deer grew nearer. "Sarah, is that what you saw earlier?"

"I think so," said Sarah. "It's a lot smaller than that one we saw back in Sumac, and it doesn't have horns."

"It's a doe; a female," informed Devlin. "And probably a young one."

"I'm surprised we haven't seen more animals out here," said Jet. "There's no walkers to chase them off around here."

"Winter only recently ended," reminded Sin. "They'll probably become more active as it gets warmer."

"Pah-sah, paw-sah!" chanted Omid as he tugged on the chainlink.

"Deer," said Clem as she knelt down to look Omid more closely in the eyes. "Can you say deer? Deer? Duh-ear?"

"Duh… deer." Clem's heart skipped a beat as she heard Omid say that.

"That's right, deer," said Clem, barely able to contain her pride.

"Look at the deer," encouraged Sarah, joy suddenly returning to her voice. Clem gently tilted Omid's head back towards the deer and he stared right at her.

"Chia-yo deer!" The deer noticed Omid's call, stopping in her tracks.

"Oh no, he's going to scare it off," realized Sarah.

"It probably wouldn't have come over here anyway," reasoned Sin. "It's not like it has any reason to think we'd be friendly to it."

"Oh!" Jet ran back to the picnic table and grabbed the big bowl sitting in the center. He ran up to the fence and heaved it forward without letting go, causing bits of corn to go flying over the top and into the grass on the other side.

"Why'd you do that?" asked an irritated Sin. "You just wasted—"

"It was almost empty and we got tons more," declared Patty in a harsh tone without looking away from the deer. "Now be quiet so Omid can enjoy this."

Everyone remained still and, after a tense pause, the deer started moving forward again a few careful steps at a time.

"Deer! Deer!" Omid's chanting seemed to stall the deer, but not scare her. Moving ahead several steps, she tilted her head down and started licking up loose corn kernels from the ground, prompting a surprised gasp from Omid.

"Deer…" he said again, sounding awestruck as the deer followed a sloppy trail of kernels closer towards the fence.

"It's coming this way," whispered Sarah as she and Clem watched the hungry animal inch ever closer. Clem realized if the deer held up her head, she would about as tall as Clementine. Watching the deer comb what little grass there was for more corn suddenly made Clem wish she had more on hand to give her.

"Deer…" Omid moved his tiny hands through the links in the fence, trying to touch her.

"Come on," urged Sarah in a quiet but inviting voice as she saw the deer nearing the fence. "Just a few more feet and—"

The left side of the deer's head exploded into a gruesome display of blood, bits of fur, and pieces of skull as a deafening bang rang out across the area. Clem grabbed hold of a screaming Omid, clasping one hand over his eyes as the deer collapsed onto the dirt.

"Finally," said Anthony as rushed up to examine the deer's body. "Clean in the head; perfect." Turning his head, Anthony saw everyone else staring at him through the fence. "Shit, did I miss lunch?"

"Jesus Anthony, you could have hit us!" yelled Patty.

"I saw you guys," assured Anthony as he knelt down to examine his kill. "I lined myself up with the fence and aimed a little to the right so the bullet wouldn't even be moving in the house's direction; no chance I could have hit any of you as long as you were on that side of the chainlink."

"You could have warned us though," scolded Clem as she cradled a whimpering Omid. "You scared him half to death."

"A warning would have scared off our next meal here off," said Anthony as he threw the rifle over his shoulder.

"Do you even know how to butcher a deer?" asked a dubious Sin.

"Hell yeah, my first summer job was working as a butcher's assistant during hunting season," said Anthony as he stood up. "Guy told me I was a natural."

"You serious?" asked an eager Devlin. "So, we're gonna have meat for the next few meals?"

"Probably safer we just eat as much as we can tonight," said Anthony. "It's warm out, we got no way to cool the meat down, and I never really paid that close attention to how the whole aging thing worked, just the cutting them up so you don't spill their stomach and shit part."

"Still, did you have to shoot it right then?" asked Jet. "Omid was looking right at her." Looking at Omid, Clem saw a lot of unhappiness still lingering in his big sad eyes, but the initial panic had passed and he was beginning to settle. "You could have waited until after we went in or—"

"Look, you can all remind me what an asshole I am later if you want, but if you don't want this to go to waste, I should get to work; we wait too long and bacteria's gonna spoil it," explained Anthony. "Now I need some big kitchen bags, and some rope, and the biggest and sharpest knives we got, oh and some gloves and a load of paper towels. We can probably hang it in the shed in the yard and let it cool off in the shade while the blood drains—buckets, almost forgot that."

"I'll… I'll get the rope and buckets," announced Patty, almost as if she only realized what she was doing mid-sentence.

"I'll grab the towels and some gloves," said Jet as he ran off.

"I've been using some large serrated blades to cut boards; they were sharpened just two days ago," said Sin as he headed into the house.

"And I'll help you carry the deer." Devlin hurried over to the gate while Clem watched Omid move as close to the deer as the fence would allow him. The deer was lying lifelessly on her side, her eye now a gaping hole, blood pooling around her head. Staring at her, Clem suddenly felt panic shoot up her spine as it felt like a hand had just tried to strangle her lungs. Gripping her chest and taking a couple of quick breaths, Clem hastily looked away from the deer.

"Deer!" cried Omid, as if he expected her to respond. "Deer? Geh-buh deer! Geh-buh! Deer!" Omid banged his hands on the chainlink and looked on the verge of crying as Devlin approached the corpse. He gave Clem a look at sympathy, then made a slight motion with his head.

"Come on, it's okay," lied Clem as she picked up Omid and turned away from the fence. "She'll be okay later, right Sarah?" Sarah was gone, and the door to the house had been left open.

Clem stepped inside, passing Sin as he hurried back outside. Searching the living room, she found Sarah sitting on the big couch they had put in the middle of the room in front of the fireplace.

"Are… are you okay?" No answer, which felt like an answer in itself. "I know, that was… scary, and sad. But, we'll get to eat meat tonight, and she… she didn't suffer, and you said you were worried about her eating all our—"

"You think I don't know all that!" barked Sarah as she spun around, startling Clem and scaring Omid, who started crying again. "No I… I'm sorry, I'm so sorry Omid." Clem watched as Sarah's already miserable face was further twisted by a sudden swell of guilt as she stood up and hurried over to Omid. "I didn't mean to raise my voice, I'm sorry." Clem carefully passed Omid to Sarah, who tried to beat back her tears as she cradled Omid.

"It's okay," whispered Clem. "It's—"

"It's just…" Sarah bit her lip to stop her voice from getting any louder. "It wasn't just the deer," she said, making every effort to be quiet. "It's just… everything, and when I was finally not thinking about it for a minute, Anthony shot that deer and—"

"It's okay," assured Clem as she moved in close, putting one arm around Sarah while using her other hand to gently stroke the back of Omid's head. The three of them remained in each other's embrace for quite a while, Clem content to stay with Sarah and Omid for as long as it took for them to calm down.

"I… I had a nightmare last night," Sarah whispered suddenly.

"About… about what?" asked Clem, afraid to what the answer would be.

"I went outside, and all our sprouts were dead because they dried up in the sun."

"And?"

"That's it, that was the whole dream."

It took Clem a moment to process what Sarah said. It didn't sound that scary initially, but listening closely, Clem could hear Sarah was breathing a little harder now.

"You know if you need help with growing food or anything else, I—"

"You can't," sighed Sarah.

"I can't?" repeated Clem.

"I mean, there's stuff you can't help me with. No one here really knows much about farming, not even Sin. I've been reading everything I can about growing crops for over a month now, so if there's something I can't figure out or don't understand… there's no one here I could ask who would know more about it than I already do. If… if I make a mistake, then I'm the only one who can fix it. And… and if I make too many mistakes then—"

"It's fine Sarah," insisted Clem suddenly.

"You don't—"

"I know we started a farm this year in case we needed time to get it right next year," reminded Clem. "And I also know I won't be mad at you if something goes wrong. Okay? Whatever happens, we would know you did your best and none of us would blame you. Okay?"

"I… I know you guys wouldn't." The way Sarah said that implied there was someone else that would blame her. "I'm… I'm going to take him upstairs," said Sarah as she adjusted her grip on a now softly whimpering Omid. "He could probably use a nap."

"So you could," suggested Clem.

"It's the middle of the day, I can't—"

"Is there anything else wrong with the field?" asked Clem. "Do you need to do anything that you haven't already told us to do before?"

"Not right now, but—"

"Then you can take a nap right now," concluded Clem. "It's okay, we can handle everything else. Just rest for a while."

"I… thanks Clementine." Sarah moved in close, gently kissing Clem's cheek, which Clem was happy to return in kind.

"Love you," whispered Sarah.

"You too," whispered Clem.

"Muh-boo," mumbled Omid.

The rest of the day was uneventful, with everyone working wherever they were needed. Anthony tended to the deer, Patty worked on unhooking one of the semis from its trailer, Sin went to survey the area between the lake and the farm, Devlin and Jet worked in the field, while Clem just wandered from one minor task to the other.

She brought in the laundry and then unpacked the things they brought back from Pawhuska. She put some new books on the shelf in the living room. They had to throw out most of their fiction books when they left Tulsa to make room for all the ones Sarah used in her research, but Jet had picked up some new ones today. Looking at the titles, Clem was looking forward to reading something new, as soon as she had time for a book that is.

She also unpacked some new silverware, dishes, cups, and other basic items their kitchen was needing. Heading into the modest dining room they really haven't used that much, she carefully laid out a linen on top of the table, then set a tall blue vase on top. She didn't have anything to put in it yet, but she figured one of the flowers Sarah planted would be perfect, as soon as they bloomed. With each little addition, the house looked a little less bare and felt more like a home.

By sundown, Anthony had readied three plates full of strips and chunks of dark red meat. Clem had never cooked any meat that wasn't fish and felt out of her element. Luckily, Anthony and Devlin both seemed more than eager to help man the two grills overloaded with meat. Discussing how long cooked meat remains safe to eat without refrigeration, the group agreed they weren't really sure and should just eat as much as they could tonight in case the leftovers were no good tomorrow morning.

When it came time to eat it felt like Thanksgiving. Because they had so much and couldn't really save it for later, everyone was free to eat to their heart's content, and so they did. The fresh meat was better tasting than any Clem could ever remember trying, even the freshest fish she had tried. She sampled all the differently seasoned strips, tried them with barbecue sauce and other condiments, and just couldn't stop herself from taking more.

Cutting off pieces and feeding them to Omid made Clem feel uneasy though. He clearly loved the meat, always asking for more every time he'd finish chewing a piece. But knowing how upset he got when the deer was shot, it seemed almost dishonest to feed it to him if he had no idea what he was eating. Spearing another small piece with her fork, Clem held it up and watched as Omid reached out for it. She thought about saying 'deer' while pointing at the meat, to tell Omid the truth and see if he understood; then Clem gave him the piece because she was finding this upsetting herself the more she thought about it and didn't want to upset Omid any more today.

The only one not eating was Sarah, because she wasn't at the table. Clem figured she must have come down at some point since Omid was here, but Patty said she brought Omid down and that Sarah was still in her bedroom. As the others finished their meals, so full they couldn't eat anymore, Clem took the remaining pieces and carefully piled them onto a clean plate. She grabbed a glass of tea and a fresh set of utensils, then took them upstairs.

Coming into the bedroom while announcing room service had arrived was met with little fanfare. Sarah's face was buried in a book and several more were lying around her on the bed. Clem offered the meal to Sarah, who took one look at the meat, then turned away, saying she was grateful but that the others could have it. Noticing a grimace on Sarah's face as she turned back to her book, Clem pondered what was wrong. Was she so upset by the deer's death she didn't want to eat its meat now? Did she feel her mistakes made her unworthy of this meal? Had Sarah discovered some new problem with the farm that she didn't know how to solve yet?

Seeing her weary and slightly blood-shot eyes darting back and forth at a frantic pace as she read as fast as she could, Clementine felt her concern only growing more desperate. She thought about just asking Sarah what's wrong, but decided against it, afraid whatever was bothering Sarah was something Clem was incapable of helping her with and asking would just remind Sarah of that fact and make her more upset. So instead, Clem left Sarah to be in peace, and hoped none of them had nightmares tonight.