A/N: Well, here we are. This chapter is more aggressive and violent than previous chapters, but it's here and shit hits the fan. HARD. You have been warned, now please enjoy!
Disclaimer: I don't own the Walking Dead Game.
It Just Happened
Daisyfan5534
Chapter 12
"MPH!" Clementine's muffled scream echoed through the room as the man stabbed her arm with the x-acto knife. She was doing everything she could to hold back tears. The man then harshly grabbed her face, holding it still before he used the knife to slice her cheek, causing Clementine to scream through the duct tape, again. It wasn't as deep as the stab, but it still hurt like hell.
The man pushed her face before moving on Rodney. Clementine closed her eyes, letting the tears fall from her face. The pain from her arm was excruciating, and one of her tears ended up going into the cut on her cheek, adding to her pain.
She was terrified, and Rodney's muffled screams from the man torturing him wasn't helping. Before she knew it, the man was done torturing the five of them, and left the room for them to wallow in their pain.
Clementine pulled hard on the bounds on her wrists, the tape barely budging. She had to use the pocket knife. The twelve-year-old reached her hands towards the back pocket of her jeans, slowly pulling the knife through the chair bars. She finally took the knife in her hand, getting a firm grip on it.
"I got it, man. I'll make them talk."
The five turned their heads to the door, watching a different man walk in the room. He pulled out a pistol as he walked around the circle of injured kids, dragging the barrel across their chests. He was looking for something, and he was going to use the weapon to get what he wanted.
The man stopped in front of Rodney, ripping the duct tape off of his face. After the teen cursed in pain the man finally spoke. "You seem to be the leader of the breakfast club."
Clementine flipped the blade out, and started cutting the tape on her wrists.
"Please, we're just kids! We didn't know this place had people in it!" Rodney exclaimed.
"I'm not letting you kids go." the man told him
"Then let them go, you can keep me!"
"We would, but we need all five of you. Where did you guys come from?"
"We?"
"Answer the question. It'll save you and your friends a lot of trouble."
"We're just trying to survive, we are on our own."
"I'm serious, kid. Trust me, it can only worse from here. In about forty-eight hours, there will be four of you locked up, while the rest of us enjoy eating lucky number five."
Cannibals. Of course they had to be cannibals on top of being psychos.
"You're all sick fucks!" Rodney exclaimed.
"Maybe, but it's what we have to do to survive." the man responded.
"Just let us go, we'll never come back!" Rodney continued to plead.
"I know, but I have a job to do. Now, where did you kids come from?"
"Like do we have a group?"
"Yes."
"No, we don't, it's just us. We're on our own."
The man pressed the gun against Rodney's knee. "I will shoot you if you don't tell me the truth. The twins will be next, and I'll save the ladies for last. After all, they are the best."
"I swear, that's the truth!"
"One last chance, kid. I'll count backwards from ten. Ten. Nine. Eight…"
The tape on Clem's wrists broke. She pulled the tape off as the man leaned closer to Rodney, putting the pressure on the gun to his knee as he continued to count down.
"Four. Three… Two… On- MPH!"
Clementine jumped on his back, kicking the gun out of his hand and covering his mouth with her hand as she began to stab him. The man tried to throw her off, but Clementine slowly wore him down. With three more stabs to the chest, he fell to the floor dead. Clementine had to stab his head once she got off of him, so he couldn't turn.
She stood up, finally taking the duct tape off of her face and moving her hand over the cut, trying to wipe some of the blood off, while getting the flashbacks of her attacking the man who almost killed Luke back in the cabin out of her mind.
"Clem."
She turned to Rodney, before rushing over to him and her friends. "I'll get you guys out." Clementine said as she reached for the tape on Rodney's wrists.
"No, don't!" he responded.
"What?"
"Listen, we can't fight them on our own! We need help! You need to let my dad and the others know where we are!"
"I'm not leaving you guys!" Clementine told him.
"You don't have to! Go to the roof and use the fireworks we found earlier to alert the others where we are! Rodney responded.
"They're going to figure out that I'm gone!" She added.
"Hide the body in the freezer, remove your chair, grab a backpack, and go. They'll just think they miscounted or something." he said.
Clementine looked at him, unsure of the plan. She couldn't just leave them for the men to torture them.
"Clem, please! We'll be fine, just go!"
Then again, they do need extra help. Right now she's their only hope.
Clementine gave Rodney one last look of worry, before grabbing her chair and pulled it away from the circle. Rodney and Andie moved closer together, making it look like there was only four of them. Clementine helped them a little bit before running towards the body. She grabbed the dead man's arm and dragged him to the freezer they were held in earlier. Because the man fell backwards, and on top of Clementine, the blood from his chest didn't reach the floor, so there would be no suspicion.
The bags were right next to the freezer. Clementine searched through the bags and found the one with the fireworks in them. She put the backpack on, and walked back to her friends picking up the gun off the floor.
"Rodney, are you absolutely fucking sure?" Clementine said to him.
"We can't risk everybody. How much ammo is in the gun?" He asked.
"One."
"Use it wisely, then."
"The roof though?"
"The trees are too tall, they won't see it if it's from the ground." He told her. "Clem, I know you can do this!"
She sighed before picking up the piece of duct tape the man ripped off of Rodney's face.
"Sorry about this, Rod." She put the tape back over his mouth, making it look like their group was untouched, minus the light stabbings from earlier.
With that done, Clementine ran.
It was getting late. The sun had just set and Luke finally made it back to his house. He remembered that Clementine told him that she'd be with Rodney today, so there was a good chance that she's already inside.
He opened the front door and walked in, seeing that the living room was empty. Luke was hoping to see Clem on the couch reading a book with the little light they had left in the day, but she wasn't there. He didn't think much of it, but Clementine usually greets him if she gets home before he does. Even if she was in another room, the house was small enough to hear the front door open and close. Clementine would call out to him, letting him know where she was.
Luke walked through the house, checking each room and the backyard to find the little girl, but came up short. After the inspection, Luke went to the kitchen to go through their rations as he waited for Clementine to come home so she can help him decide on what they should eat. However the longer he waited, the more he felt like something was wrong. Clementine should be home by now. Luke sighed, setting down a can of soup before heading out the front door and back towards Don's house.
Luke only left work a half hour ago, but somehow in that time span half the town surrounded Don's porch, hounding him with questions. The leader was trying to calm everyone down, but things only got worse. Luke was confused and tried to push through the crowd to ask him what the problem was.
"How do you not know? One of them is your son!"
"Losing one of them is one thing, but five?"
"How can we trust you?"
"Everyone please calm down!" Donald yelled.
"What's going on?" Luke asked aloud.
"Mr. Wayne here, lost five kids!" One of one of the men told him. "And Clementine is one of them."
"Is this true?" Luke turned his attention to Donald. Clementine was missing, and he was pissed.
"Yes." Donald sighed. "My own son, Rodney, along with Clementine, Andie, Tad, and Tyrone are missing. I don't know where they are, and that is my own fault. However I trust my son is doing everything he can to bring everyone home safely. I'm doing everything in my power to help insure that."
Groans emerged from the crowd as they begun to disperse.
"Donald Wayne!" An elderly voice called. "You better bring home my Andie, or there will be hell to pay." The anger in Molly's voice was enough to scare him. She watched as she hobbled back to her home, leaving him and Luke.
Don sighed as he sat down on the porch with his head in his hand. "If you're going to say something, Luke, just do it. I know you're pissed with me too."
"I am."
"Look, I'm sorry about Clementine."
"I know, but I'm not going to give you any more shit than you've already got." Luke told him. "I'm not going to rest until she's home safe, and that means helping you in any way that I can."
"Thank you." Donald stood up. "Come inside."
Luke followed him into the house, taking a seat with him at the kitchen table as Don turned on a lantern and placed a map down.
"Rodney said they'd check something out in the city. He's still in Olympia." Donald mentioned.
"And so is Clem and the rest." Luke added.
"But he said nothing on what they were going to check out. I just know that he and the group took bikes."
"That means they could be anywhere."
Ever since he listened to the tape, Donald's been meaning to get Luke alone to talk about it and his relationship with Clementine. While he did talk to Clem the week she and Luke arrived as a precaution, and she assured him that she and Luke were nothing more than friends, the tape suggested some heavy things. Considering that he found the tape by a pile of broken ones, only gave him confirmation that something happened in that shack.
However, now is not the best time considering that five children are missing.
As the minutes pass, the two discuss the possible locations where the kids would be. Hell, they were tempted to go check the walker pit to see if they fell in, but they ruled it out as unlikely and they didn't want to see their torn corpses if they did.
"Is there a possibility that they're just lost?" Luke asked.
"I feel like Rodney would know the city like the back of his hand, but with the divorce and him moving to Texas… Fuck, even if he didn't know, I'm sure Andie, Clementine, and the twins would have remembered the way back." Donald sighed. "I can't remember the last time I said 'I love you' to him."
"They're smart kids, I'm sure they're fine." Luke assured him, but he desperately wished he knew where Clementine was and he hoped that she was alive and safe.
"Fuck. Fuck. Fuck." Clementine pushed on the door to the roof. It took her long enough to get there by sneaking around and avoiding capture, only to find that the door was locked. "No, come on. Please open."
She huffed quietly in defeat, coming to terms that the door won't budge. Clementine descended down the stairs slowly and crept to the door to the top floor. She glanced inside, seeing no one around the entrance. Clementine saw a conveniently placed couch by the wall and made a beeline for it, using it as cover.
"Alright… Find the keys…" she muttered under her breath.
Clem thought about where the keys would be. There would be no reason for any of the cannibals here to actually go to the roof, not to mention that the keys to the roof would be with someone like a top doctor or a security guard. However those bodies are probably long gone, but there should be spare keys somewhere.
She remembered going to work with her mom. They went into the hospital break room and there was a locked cabinet with keys inside them.
Clementine has never been so thankful that her mom was a doctor; she knew where to go. It was a long shot, but she didn't have any other option. She peeked out from behind her cover and looked down the hall, seeing the words 'STAFF LOUNGE' in big letters on the door.
A smile crept across her face as she started to move, but she quickly went back behind her cover, hearing voices coming from down the opposite hall.
"How the hell do you miscount?"
"I fucking swear there were five of them. One of them must of escaped."
"Or you're just fucking stupid. Boss man ain't giving you shit tomorrow."
"Screw Allen, I'm starving!"
"Well you should have counted better."
"Even Carson is getting fed over me, and he's fucking losing it."
"I'm with you there. The man won't stop talking to rocks, it's no wonder Allen gave him the 'important' job of guarding the keys."
"A fucking useless job. Who knows, maybe I'll convince him to split his share with me."
"Ha! Good luck with that."
Clementine watched them walk past her and down another corridor before sighed in relief and annoyance. Of course someone is guarding the keys, but at least that person isn't sane. There's a chance she could sneak by him and get the keys undetected.
The tween got a good look around the area making sure it was clear before booking it to the staff lounge. Clementine opened the door quietly and entered the room seeing a man sitting on a couch with his back to her, talking to a few rocks in front of him. The man didn't even notice her enter, or he did and he just didn't care.
He was so invested in talking to the rocks, it made Clementine feel sorry for him. She's ran into people who lost all humanity and don't care who they hurt, but she's never seen someone who has lost their mind to the point where they talk to inanimate objects.
Clementine looked towards the wall straight ahead, seeing a cabinet with keys to every room on this floor, including the roof. She slowly eased her way over to the wall, noticing that the man had a shotgun leaning up against the chair he was sitting in. Clem only had a pocket knife to defend herself. She had to be stealthy, which was easy considering he was talking to the rocks pretty loud and it was getting weird.
"Brock, my man. How are you?... I'm doing fine, thanks for asking… I missed you. When was the last time we got to be alone?... Oh yeah, that's right!"
Clementine had no clue what was going through his head, and frankly she didn't want to know. She slowly opened the cabinet door and took the keys to the roof. Now she could get out of there.
"Who's there?"
Clementine got down, moving to a spot behind the couch the man was sitting in. Not the best hiding spot in the world, but he won't see her. As messed up as it sounds, her key to getting out of here and to avoid more people in the halls was to play to his mental state. Something she really didn't want to do.
"Carson?" Clementine lowered her voice, hoping he took the bait.
"Brock?"
He did.
"Yeah, it's me." She said.
"You know, I always thought your voice would be different." Carson responded to the rock
"That's not the point. I wanted to tell you that the other guys are going to leave you out of dinner tomorrow." Clementine knew that wasn't true, but he didn't know that.
"No they're not."
"It's true. They think you're crazy."
"I'm not crazy!"
"I know you're not, Carson."
"You're the only one who understands me, Brock."
"That's beside the point. The next mistake that happens, they're going to blame it on you!"
"They wouldn't do that."
"They would and they are, I think one of the guys miscounted on the people who got captured today. He's going to blame it all on you."
"So this is all a game?"
"They're playing you!" Clementine was running out of things to say. "Go talk to them and let them know that you don't take shit from anybody!"
"Oh I'll talk to them. Thanks, Brock."
Clementine heard the man stand up and the reloading of a shotgun. Was he going to? She watched him storm out of the room with the shotgun in hand. Clementine stood up and approached the door. As soon as she touched the knob, she could hear shouts and gunfire.
What she did was messed up and that was going to stay with her. Sure they were going to eat her and her friends, but she just convinced a man to go kill his buddies, even though that's not what she intended for him to do.
Clementine regained her focus, she now had access to the roof. The tween opened the door slightly, making sure the coast was clear before running to the stairwell. Thankfully no one saw her, mainly because of the bloody distraction going on now.
She ran up the last flight of stairs, stopping at the door to the roof. Clementine shoved the keys into the lock and turned before pushing on the door. It flew open, almost causing Clementine to lose her footing and face plant on the rooftop, but she regained her balance as she ran to the middle of the roof.
Luke's brain hurt. He was tired and worried sick. Clementine was out there somewhere, and he had no clue where. Don was in the same position. He was worried about his son. So far, they've been able to cross out neighborhoods and some main places in the town, but they haven't narrowed down to anything.
"I could use a drink." Donald said aloud as he stood up. "Do you want any?"
"What do you got?" Luke asked.
"Whiskey."
"Yes, please."
Luke sighed as he leaned back in his chair, pressing his hands to his face. "If I was a teenager, where would I go?" he asked himself. He used to jump rooftops when he was a teen, maybe a bit older, but he couldn't imagine that they would do something like that. Besides all the fun stuff that would attract any teenager would be hard to do because of the way the world is now.
A mug was placed in front of Luke as Don sat back down.
"Hope you don't mind drinking from a coffee mug. My wife took all the glasses in our divorce." Don said as he took a sip.
"It's fine." Luke assured him as he took a drink.
"She used to call me 'Donny' when we were still together. I remember Rodney's first grade teacher calling us, saying that Rodney couldn't spell the word 'daddy,' he practically refused to spell it that way." Don told Luke. "Turns out Rodney thought it was spelt 'Donny' thanks to my ex-wife."
Luke chuckled. "I've been teaching Clem how to do math and how to read. She kind of forgot how after living in this world for so long. The kid was in first grade when it all started; I think she mentioned to me that her folks held her back a year. I don't know, something with the cut-off date." Luke smiled to himself. "I found one of those practice math books on our way here, and I gave it to her for her to do. It wasn't until I asked her to count when I found out that the kid completely forgot the number two."
"Really?" Don asked.
"Yeah. Don't tell her I told you that; she'll probably kill me."
Don nodded before holding his mug towards Luke. "To us finding the kids."
"To us finding the kids." Luke cheers as he clanked his mug with Don's before they both drank the whiskey.
After they set their drinks down, they heard noises from outside. Luke and Donald almost tuned it out, but they haven't heard a sound like that in a long time. It sounded like… fireworks? The two looked at each other before running outside, they barely saw fireworks in the distance over the treeline.
"Luke, boost me up!" Don said as he gestured to the roof of his house.
BOOM! BOOM! BOOM!
Clementine was doing her best to keep her fear at a minimum. It was so fucking loud. Despite the fireworks going off, Clementine was preparing herself for when someone tries to come up to the roof to stop the fireworks. She was armed with a gun, with one bullet, and a pocket knife. Clementine's just hoping she doesn't die.
The door to the roof swung open, a man pulled his gun on her, and Clementine shot him. His body collapsed on the ground, the door getting caught on his legs. She ran towards the body, kicking his gun away. It was a shotgun, so it would knock her on her ass if she tried to use it. Clementine hid behind the door as she pulled her knife out, getting ready for the next person to come and stop the fireworks.
Another man came out, and Clementine jumped on his back, stabbing him in the chest. The man swung the child off his back and onto the roof. Clementine grunted as she stood up, quickly dodging the man who tried to punch her. He pulled the knife out of his chest and threw it off the roof, leaving her with no weapons.
As the next firework flew out of its pack, Clementine noticed that it didn't go as high as it should have.
"Duck!" she shielded her face while the man turned to look at the ball of light before it exploded. Clem heard him cry in pain, and decided to use that to her advantage. She ran up to him, kneeing him in his crotch so he'd hunch over, then she punched him in the face.
"You little bitch!"
The struggle went on until the fireworks finally stopped, then the man managed to knock out Clementine's legs from underneath her. He got on top of her, doing anything to try and subdue her.
"Fucking hold still! I'll make this quick!" He exclaimed.
Clementine thought back to those four days in the house where Luke trained her. She remembered one of the things he taught her, and how he made her practice it over and over again. This was the perfect time to execute it.
She looked over the man, seeing the edge of the roof a few yards away. She had a plan ready. Clementine wrapped her legs around his waist, while one arm wrapped around his head and her other one wrapped around his arm before tucking her head into his shoulder. Once he was under her control reached for the bottom of his shirt, pulling it to the neck hole. She bunched up the fabric so it fit in her hand, then used her other hand to grab the shirt as well. With a breath, she placed her foot in the pocket of his leg where it met his hip before swinging her left arm over the man's head and began to choke him. Clementine tucked her head into the crook of his neck so he couldn't really hit her or do anything to get her to let go.
She heard his desperate breaths for air as he struggled and felt him slow down, so Clementine released her choke hold on him and gave one final push on him as he got up. He was so weak due to lack of oxygen, all he had to do was take a couple steps back and he fell off the roof.
Clem backed away from the edge, worrying that she'll fall off, too. As she stood up, an arm wrapped around her body and a wet rag was shoved in her face. She struggled in the hold only for him to force her down onto her knees.
"Come on, kid." The guy behind her said. His voice was so calm, yet so strong. "Just relax."
Relax? How can she relax knowing that this could be it? She breathed in a sweet smell, and she felt her body become weak and her eyes became heavy.
"Atta girl… Just relax."
Clementine's struggling slowed down to the point to where she can barely fight. What was happening? What was that stuff? Her eyes closed and she couldn't open them back up, they felt so heavy and she was getting dizzy.
"That's right, there you go."
Then against her will, she fell into unconsciousness.
"I found it!"
"Toss it up!"
Luke threw a compass up towards Don who was on the roof. The leader told Luke to find the compass while he kept an eye on the fireworks. It wasn't long after the fireworks stopped when Luke found it.
Don flipped open the top case and aligned it with the direction where the fireworks came from. It was difficult to see, but the light of the moon would have to do.
"Northeast." he said as he climbed down from the roof.
The two ran back inside and to the table with the map on it.
"Clem hates fireworks and those draw attention. She and the others wouldn't have any reason to light them off unless something was wrong." Luke mentioned.
"We've been looking at this all wrong. We got to line it up with I-5." Don said as he turned the map.
"I-5?" Luke repeated.
"It's a highway that runs north and south." Don explained. "It'll be easier to know where they are if we line the map up."
Don placed the compass down on the map right next to their where the farm was on the map before picking up a marker and drawing a dotted line from his farm in the same direction the fireworks came from.
"They have to be somewhere over here!" Don exclaimed. "Come on, what's going to draw the attention of a bunch of teenagers?"
"Hospital!" Luke pointed to the spot on the map, just a couple hairs away from the dotted line. "It's the only big thing over there!"
"Yeah, that's got to be it!" Don circled the hospital with the marker. "Alright, we gather up a few more men, take the truck, and go over there. We leave at dawn."
Something was eating Luke. Clementine and the others wouldn't light off fireworks unless they had to. It was a signal that they needed help. Clem knows how to avoid walkers, and lighting off fireworks would just draw unwanted attention. That only left him with one explanation to why they would. "I don't think we're alone in this town." Luke said aloud.
"I'm afraid that you're right." Donald respond, understanding what he meant.
Luke placed his head in his hand, praying that Clementine was okay and that he taught her well enough so she could make it.
"Twenty-eight, twenty-nine, thirty." Luke released his hold on Clementine's feet after she finished her sit-ups.
Clementine rested on the floor, absolutely exhausted from the push-ups and sit-ups. She was getting mad, that was the third time Luke pinned her down on the bed today and the third time he forced her to do thirty of each. This was pointless.
Luke let the child catch her breath, seeing that she was tired. Once she regained her strength back, Clementine sat up, but she didn't get off the floor.
"Come on, kid. Let's go again." he said to her.
"I can't do it." she told him.
"Yes, you can. You just-"
"No, Luke! I can't do it! I can't fucking do it!" Clementine ran off, leaving him alone.
Luke sighed, waiting for a minute before he left the training room to look for Clementine. She didn't go very far, he found her in the bedroom curled up on the bed with her face in a pillow.
"Clem?"
"Just leave me alone, Luke." she said, the pillow muffling her voice.
Luke didn't listen, instead he sat on the bed next to her. "You're getting better, Clem." he assured her.
"I can't even hit you." she told him.
"You want to hit me? Alright, go ahead." Luke said, hoping that her being able to let out some anger would make her feel better.
Clementine turned her head towards him and without second thought, she sat up and punched his arm before laying back down.
"I will say that you do hit hard." Luke said, rubbing his arm.
Clementine didn't say anything, she was still upset over the fact that she can't defend herself.
"Kid, it's okay."
"I'm trying, Luke. I really am, but…"
"I know it's hard, but you'll get the hang of it." Luke thought to himself for a bit then he got an idea. "Alright, let's try something else."
Luke stood up and walked out of the room. Clementine sat up again wondering what he meant. He soon came back with one hand behind his back.
"Show me your hands." he said as he walked in front of her.
Clementine held her arms out in front of her with a confused look on her face as she stood up. Luke brought them closer together before quickly pulling a zip tie from behind his back, wrapping it around her wrists.
As soon as she saw the zip tie, Clementine tried to pull away. However Luke already threaded the end through the locking mechanism, giving him a free hand to hold her wrists together while he tightened the tie.
"What are you? Let me go! Stop!" She yelled as she tried to pull away from Luke. "Ow!"
"Sorry, didn't mean for it to be that tight." Luke apologized as he let her go.
"What the fuck, Luke?" Clementine pulled on her bounds, hoping they would break even though she knew they wouldn't.
"Wait here, I'll be back." Luke said as he started to leave.
"No, you asshole! Fucking untie me!" she yelled as she pushed him the best she could, considering her hands were tied.
Luke turned to her, taking ahold of her shoulders and walking her back. "Just stay here." he said to her.
The bed reached the back of her knees, forcing her to sit down. Once she did, Luke pulled the bill of her hat over her eyes.
"I left a few things downstairs; I'll get them and come back, promise." he said before leaving the room.
Clementine fixed her hat while Luke went down stairs. She looked at her wrists, pulling at the zip tie keeping them together. When Luke tied her up with the zip ties after her suicide attempt, he'd use two to made makeshift handcuffs so it wouldn't hurt her; she was confused to why he'd use only one now.
A new idea came to her head and she brought the plastic to her mouth, trying to chew through it. The plastic was hard, but if Luke wasn't going to untie her, she had to do it herself.
"Clem?" Luke called as he came back into the room, seeing her try to free herself. "You're going to break your teeth if you do that."
The child sent him a glare before moving her hands away from her mouth. Luke sat next to her placing more zip ties and a pair of scissors on the bed. Clementine immediately reached for the scissors, but Luke grabbed her wrists and held them above her head as he grabbed the item she was reaching for.
"You think those fuckers would leave these around so you can get yourself free?" Luke asked, showing the scissors to her.
"Please, just cut them off." She responded as she tried to pull her hands out of Luke's hold.
The tone of her voice was so begging. Here she was, her hands bound together, completely defenseless at his mercy. She was so used to it being some sick bastard, that she was acting on instinct. Clementine's just scared.
Luke let go of her hands, letting her bring them back down. "Clem, I'm sorry if I'm scaring you, but you have to trust me. I'm not going to hurt you."
"I know, just…" She held her hands out to him. "Can you get them off?"
"I'll do you one better." Luke said placing the scissors down and picking up a zip tie.
Clementine shifted as she slightly recoiled herself from him, worrying that he'd use it on her. Instead he slid the end through the locking mechanism a little bit before putting his hands inside, using his mouth to pull on the end to tighten the zip tie around his wrists.
"Why'd you do that?" Clementine asked him.
"When I was in college, there was a program that would help women learn to protect themselves in bad situations, like if they were being kidnapped or someone was trying to rape them. They needed male volunteers to help out, so I signed up."
"Did you do it to impress a girl?"
"You really think that low of me?"
Clementine glared at him, wanting him to be honest.
"I didn't, Clem. Truth is, Nick and I knew someone our junior year. She was great, wanted to own a bakery and sell cupcakes and things like that. The three of us were good friends, Nick had a bit of a crush on her, if I recall. We got an apartment off-campus for the new year, and we lived together." Luke started. "She came home really late one night from the library. We tried talking to her, but she didn't say anything to us. Nick and I knew something was up; she wasn't sleeping, she didn't eat, she let her grades slip. Then a couple months later we came back from visiting our folks over the weekend and we found her lying on the bathroom floor."
"What happened?" Clementine asked.
"We called 9-1-1. When the medics showed up, they said she was already dead. Nick and I were distraught, we had no clue what happened, until we found a note in her room." Luke paused for a moment. "Turns out that night she came home late, some piece of shit raped her, and from that rape, she got pregnant. She was raised in a christian family, always thought that abortion was wrong, but she didn't want his baby. So she took a bunch of pills and committed suicide."
"I'm sorry, Luke." Clementine said.
He gave a quick sigh. "I felt like there was more we could have done, but she wouldn't even talk to us. Anyway it was about… I want to say three weeks after she committed suicide when I heard about the program, and I just thought that even though I couldn't save her, I could at least help save someone else."
Clementine felt like shit. He almost had to go through with that again. She had no clue what to say to him.
"The program was fun, even though I was occasionally used as a punching bag and test dummy. The instructor told us to act like it was actually happening, like we were supposed to hurt them. Obviously we weren't allowed to, but you get the idea."
"So what about these?" Clementine motioned to the ties on her wrists.
"This was one of the first classes. Just watch." Luke took the end of his zip tie in his mouth and pulled, making it as tight as possible. He then raised his arms over his head before swinging them down against his stomach. There was a quiet snap and Luke looked to his hands seeing that they were free. He showed his free hands to Clementine who was just amazed.
"How'd you?" Clementine was at a loss for words.
"I'll teach you, don't worry." he told her. "So the first thing you want to do is to make it as tight as possible."
"Do I have to?" she asked as she took the end in her mouth.
"Yeah, you do. It'll make it easier to break. Be careful though, I'm not a dentist." Luke said.
Clementine tightened the zip tie around her wrists, slightly wincing as she did so. It hurt so much.
Once she was done she looked towards Luke, wanting to know what to do next.
"Okay, now this is the hard part." he said as he moved closer to her, taking her arms into his hands. "So what you're going to do is raise your arms above your head, then bring them back down so the zip tie meets your stomach. If you do it hard enough, it'll break."
"Is there anything else I should know?" she asked.
"This is probably going to knock the wind out of you." Luke informed her. "Go whenever you're ready."
Clementine took a deep breath as she lifted her arms above her head and slammed her bound wrists against her stomach. She gasped, coughing and wheezing after the blow knocked the wind out of her. Luke was right. While she was regaining the air she lost, she felt less pressure on her wrists.
"You alright?" Luke asked.
She looked at her wrists, seeing that the zip tie was gone, completely broken on the floor in front of her. She was free. Clementine rubbed her wrists, trying to get the feeling back into her hands.
"I'm fine." she breathed.
"Good job, kid." Luke praised. "I'll teach you another one."
"Is this one going to hurt?"
"No, this one's simple." Luke said as he grabbed another zip tie. "Put your fists together."
Clementine did as he asked, only for him to turn them. "Make sure they're like this, like you're holding a bucket."
"Okay…"
"Remember how I said that the assholes are stupid?" He asked.
"Yeah."
"Well, all they're going to worry about is making sure that you're tied up, but they won't care how you're tied up."
"What do you mean?"
"If some dumbass is tying you up, hold your hands out like this." Luke tied the zip tie around her wrists, making sure her hands stay in a bucket position. "Once he's done, you can get out of it pretty easily."
"How?"
"Turn your wrists so that your palms are facing each other. There will be slack so you can shimmy your hands out." Luke explained. "It'll take a bit longer, but you'll get out."
Clementine listened to Luke's instructions, doing what he said. She turned her wrists and began moving her hands back and forth, until she managed to slip her hands out.
"That method works for behind your back, too. Might take a bit longer, but it's the same process." Luke told her. "You trust me, right?"
Clementine nodded.
"You know how I said that I had to act like I was trying to hurt them when I volunteered? Would you be willing to try that?" he asked.
"What are you going to do?" she asked back.
"I'm just going to tie you up. You just have to get out of it." Luke informed her. "You don't have to do it if you don't want to, I just figured you'd want to try it out with your adrenalin pumping."
"Okay, let's do it." Clementine said.
"You sure?" he asked.
"Yeah." she responded.
Luke picked up a zip tie as he quickly took ahold of Clementine's arm, pulling her off the bed. Once she was on her feet, Luke pushed her back up against the wall. He placed a hand on her shoulder and she grabbed it, pushing it off of her as she tried attack him. Clementine barely hit him before he grabbed her wrists and pinned her up against the wall.
"That was cute." Luke said sarcastically as he turned her over. "Hands behind your back."
Clementine did as she was told, making sure her hands were in the position Luke showed her earlier. She felt the stupid zip tie secure her wrists together, then Luke pulled her off the wall and gave her a shove so she'd fall on the bed. Clementine sat up, giving him a glare.
"I'm going to turn my back now." Luke announced as he did so.
Clementine turned her wrists and started to slide them out. It was more difficult now that her hands were behind her back, but she managed to pull them out. Once she was free, she jumped onto Luke's back which caught him by surprise. He felt her arm wrap around his neck, choking him.
"Whoa, kid! That's enough!" Luke exclaimed best he could with the arm around his neck.
Clementine hopped off of him, hearing him cough to get air back in his lungs.
"Sorry, I didn't-"
"No, it's fine. I just didn't expect that." Luke told her. "That was actually pretty good. Nice job, kid."
"Are you okay?" she asked.
"Yeah, I'm fine. I wasn't too aggressive with you, was I?" he responded as he rubbed his neck.
Clementine shook her head.
"Alright good. That reminded me that I wanted to teach you something else."
"Do I have to be tied up again?" Clementine asked.
"No, this doesn't require any zip ties." he told her. "I need you to get on the bed."
Clementine went back to the bed and sat down. Luke sat next to her placing his hands on her shoulders as he leaned her back. "You're going to have to lay down for this." he said as he got on top of her, using his forearms to prop himself up.
The child was half-expecting Luke to cradle her head, mostly because he did that a few weeks ago when they were in the exact position when David forced them to… Clementine became slightly uncomfortable from remembering that moment.
"Hey." Luke said, noticing her expression change. "We can stop if you want to." He could tell she was thinking about that moment in the shack. To be honest, so was he. Kind of hard to forget the position you were in when you hurt a little girl.
"I'm fine…" she assured him. "I trust you."
"Okay." Luke took a deep breath, getting that nightmare out of his head. "Wrap your legs around my waist."
Clementine did so, waiting for her next instructions.
"Now take this arm and wrap it around my head, then take your other arm and wrap it around mine." he said as he moved her arms. "Tuck your head into my shoulder and hold on tight."
She followed his instructions before he tried to move.
"See? I can't do much. I can't hit you, I can't really move. You are in control, Clementine. I'm not." Luke said as he continued to try and move in her hold.
"Okay, now what?" she asked.
"You see the bottom of my shirt?" he asked.
Clementine looked up from Luke's shoulder. "Yeah."
"Grab it and pull it up to the neck hole."
"Okay…" she was confused on why he wanted her to do this, but she did it anyway.
"Take shirt in your hand."
Clementine took the whole chunk of fabric in her hand.
"Let go of my head and grab the shirt with your other hand as well." Luke continued. "Underhand, Clem."
"What?"
"See how your left hand is grabbing my shirt from the top? Put your right hand underneath my shirt and grab it."
She corrected her hand before letting Luke continue.
"You know what it means to tap out, right?" he asked.
"Yeah." she responded.
"So if I tap your shoulder or arm, you let go of me. Got it?"
"Got it."
"Good. Now this is the important part. Put your foot right here." Luke tapped his hand on his leg, showing her where to put it. He had to move her foot slightly to get it in the right spot. "Okay, now push on my leg."
She did as told, putting distance in between her and Luke. "Then what you're going to do, is take your left arm and bring it around my head." he said as he moved her arm. "Then pull me down, and you're going to choke me."
"Choke you?" Clementine moved her arm back around Luke's head. "I don't want to choke you."
"You seemed pretty fine doing it earlier." Luke mentioned.
"I thought we were still going."
"Yeah, I probably should have been clearer on what we were doing."
"Still, I don't want to choke you."
"Clem, trust me. You'll be in this position more than you know. If someone is trying to pin you down, you'll want to know how to do this." Luke told her. "Just do it, and do it as if I'm trying to hurt you."
Clementine sighed, before bringing her arm over Luke's head and pulling him down. She held him down, tightening her hold on him, doing what he asked. Luke tapped on her shoulder, and she immediately let go of his shirt. He sat up, sucking in air as he did, trying to get his breath back.
"Are you okay?" Clementine asked as she propped herself up on her arms.
"Yeah, I'm fine. It's just been a while since I had to do it, you know." Luke explained. "Also when you're choking me, tuck your head in the crook of my neck, so I can't hit you and try to get you to let go."
"Okay." She said.
"Alright, now let's go again."
"Again?"
"You have do this until it's second nature." Luke told her. "Unless you want to go back to zip ties."
Clementine laid back down, not wanting to go back to that.
"I'm going to try and fight, okay? So you got to be quick." Luke said as he lowered himself on top of her.
The kid nodded, ready for him to start.
"And go."
Clementine immediately immobilized Luke, making sure he couldn't move his arm or his head before grabbing the bottom of his shirt and pulling it up so she can take it in her hold. Luke tried to pull her off, and that was when she lifted her arm over his head and pulled him down. She buried her face into the crook of his neck like he told her as she tightened her hold on him. Clementine could feel him try to pull her off, but that only made her pull on him harder.
Luke finally tapped her shoulder, letting her know that she had to let go.
"Not bad, kid." he said with a smile. He couldn't have been happier knowing that Clementine was learning to protect herself.
"Your face is all red." She pointed out as she sat up.
"It's nothing you need to worry about. It's normal when someone is choking you." Luke told her. "Come on, let's go again."
He made her practice that choke hold for at least a half an hour, making sure she knew it like the back of her hand. It was getting annoying to do it so much, but she knew that it would save her. Clementine finally felt more confident in protecting herself.
She remembered how harsh Luke was with her that day, it was almost scary. She also forgot how strong he was compared to her. Despite his way of teaching her how to protect herself, she was glad he did it that way. Clementine probably would have sunk back into depression over the fact that she couldn't defend herself, if he hadn't done what he did. Sure there were better ways of getting the point across, but Luke knew that the only way to stop her from being upset was to piss her off. He was able to teach her self-defense, which helped when she was on the roof. However, that didn't matter now.
"Wake her up." That calm and strong voice sounded so distant.
Clementine's senses were slowly coming back to her. Her head hurt, she could feel it pulsate through her skull and her arms had no feeling in them.
She felt a hand repeatedly pat her face. Clementine moved her head away after a few hits, forcing her eyes open as she did so. The hand patting her took a hold of her face, keeping her head still.
Clementine was more alert of the situation, now. Her hands were tied above her head, dangling against a pillar so her feet didn't touch the ground. There was also a gag tied around her head, and she only knew that because she could taste the cloth in her mouth. She had no clue what was going on or what was going to happen, but she knew she was fucked.
"Teach her a lesson. I'll tell them to fetch the other kid." The voice told the man who had her face in his hand.
"My pleasure." the man responded before shoving her head to the side.
Clementine only had a second to react before the bastard began punching her. His blows didn't stop, and this added to her headache from before. She could feel her nose break and the blood pouring down to her mouth. The hits would occasionally miss, hitting her arms instead, not that it didn't hurt any less. She wanted nothing more than to just fall unconscious and hope these men don't end up killing her, the pain was so much. Clementine was never beaten down like this before. There was the occasional slap or hit when she and Luke encountered bad people, but there was absolutely no mercy here.
"That's enough." The voice was back. "Go take watch, I'll take it from here."
The man in front of Clementine gave her one last punch to the face before trading spots with the owner of that chilling voice. His hand tilted the child's chin up, forcing her to look at him with her weak eyes. His hair was dark brown with a matching stubble chin and what surprised her the most were his eyes.
"Would you look at that? Last time I saw eyes like those, I looked in a mirror." his calm voice said to her. His eyes were just like hers; pure gold, as Luke would tell her. God, she hoped Luke would find her.
Clementine pulled her head out of his hand only for him to pull her back.
"Don't be shy now. I will say, I am jealous; they look better on you." The man withdrew a small knife from his pocket, placing the tip of the blade on her stomach. "I want to know what's behind those eyes that caused you to kill ten of our men. Granted six of them were shot up by saneless person and we killed him, but you, my dear, needed a distraction, didn't you?"
"I didn't… I didn't mean…" Clementine tried to speak through her gag, though her words turned to dust from being beaten, or that might have been the dusty taste on the cloth.
"Oh, I'm sure you didn't mean for him to kill his own." He said, understanding what she meant. "However, there was a guy in the freezer, another on the roof, and one you sent freefalling. You showed no mercy, no hesitation."
She was the one who showed no mercy? This man told someone to wail on her. Clementine will admit that the first guy she killed was stabbed a lot, but the other two most likely would have killed her.
"What's your name, kid? Where are you and your group from?" he asked. "Who knows? Maybe I'll be able to spare you."
Clementine narrowed her eyes at him. "F-Fuck you!" she spat through her gag.
"My name's Allen." he said as he placed a hand over her mouth to muffle her cry in pain when he stabbed her outer thigh, leaving the blade in her leg. "You can redeem yourself, my dear. Just answer my questions."
Like hell she'll give him that. Give him the directions to the farm, to Luke? Over her dead body. Clementine bit his hand, causing him to rip his flesh from her mouth and backhand her across the face.
"I take that as a no, then." Allen's voice remained calm, but she could hear the venom on his tongue. He took a harsh grip on her face, turning her head towards the door now hearing scuffling and shouts from down the hall. "Guess you'll just have to be a pawn."
The scuffling and shouts grew closer to the room. Clementine was forced to watch two men drag someone into the room. The person thrashed in their hold, soon making eye contact with her. It was Rodney. His thrashing stopped for a second, seeing how badly she looked.
"You pieces of shit! The hell did you do to her?!" He exclaimed as the men dragged him to a pillar in front of Clementine.
Allen turned her head for her as the men dragged and tied Rodney to the pillar, just like she was with his hands above his head. Clementine felt Allen pull the gag out of her mouth.
"I'll let you two talk." he told them before reaching for his knife in Clem's leg. "And I'd like my knife back."
Allen ripped it out of her leg, causing her to shout.
"Fuck…" she whispered to herself as he walked away, motioning the other men to follow him.
"Fucking hell, Clem." was all Rodney could say to her. "What did they do?"
She was exhausted. All she wanted was to rest.
"I mean they knocked the shit out of me dragging me up here too, but damn…"
"I… I did it." Clementine managed to say. "The fireworks… I…"
"I know, I know." Rodney cut her off, she sounded so weak. "We heard them from downstairs, right when they found the body in the freezer."
Silence fell between the two, not knowing what to say to each other.
"I'll get us out, I'll get us all out! I swear!" Rodney assured her. They didn't know what was going to happen, but that was all Rodney could do for her.
It wasn't long after he said that when Allen and his goons walked back over. The man took Clementine's head in his hand again, keeping her head in place despite her attempts to get out of his hold.
"She's pretty, ain't she?" Allen asked Rodney.
"Just let her go! You've done enough to her!" Rodney yelled back.
"The worst has yet to come, now tell me where your camp is." Allen demanded.
"Like I've said a thousand times, the five of us are on our own!"
"The fireworks beg to differ."
"We wanted to bring walkers here, so you'd be distracted and we could escape."
"That's a smart idea; it's a shame that I don't believe you, though." Allen said as he let go of Clementine's face and slowly dragged his hand down the side of her body to her hips. Clementine finally realized what he meant when he said that she'd be a pawn.
"Get your fucking hands off her!" Rodney yelled.
"If you tell me where your camp is, I'll spare her from being raped." Allen said as he began rubbing her hip.
"You wouldn't…" Rodney was in disbelief.
Clementine felt the hand go under her layers of clothes, dragging across her stomach before the hand began rubbing that part of her body. She felt so uncomfortable, and she knew that it was going to get worse.
"I-I'll be okay, Rodney. I'll be okay." she told him.
"No objections?" Allen looked around the room, waiting for someone to speak up. "Alright then."
The man moved closer to Clementine. She felt his lips meet her neck, giving her chills as the kisses continued to move up to her jawline and her cheek. Clementine wanted nothing more than to pass out and for him to just be done with her.
"Wait!" Rodney's voice met her ears.
Clementine felt Allen's body move away from her as he looked at the teen.
"Rodney, don't…" she tried to say, but the words wouldn't come out.
"I'll tell you, just don't hurt her." Rodney ignored Clementine's pleas.
"See? All it takes is a little bit of motivation to get what you want." Allen announced to his goons.
"I'll tell you, on one condition." Rodney added, watching the man turn his attention back to him, wondering what he could want. "You let me tend to her wounds."
Allen thought over the offer for a second before his mouth turned into a small smile. "Fair trade. Cut him loose." he said to his men.
The man pulled out his knife, cutting the rope dangling Clementine in the air. She collapsed to the floor beneath her, having exhausted all her energy to save herself from hitting the floor. The impact was so numb on her body, it barely felt like anything.
Clementine heard Rodney run over to her, kneeling as he pulled her into his lap and began untying her sore wrists. She was so done, so exhausted, just about ready to fall into unconsciousness. Rodney's arms wrapped around her as if he was trying to protect her from these pieces of shit.
"I'm sorry, I'm so sorry." Rodney whispered to her.
She wanted to respond to him, but her words turned into a grunt and she finally let the darkness consume her.
A/N: This was shorter than the other chapters, but here you go! This is it! Until next time! Have a fantastic day! Also, I released a one-shot: Fallen, you should check it out!
PLEASE READ: This story's rating will be changed to M by the time it's updated with Chapter 13. There is more information about this on my profile if you like to know more about this change. If you like the story please follow and favorite it so you know when it gets updated in the future. If you don't have an account please check the M rated section every now and then to see if this story gets updated. Thank you!
Okay, bye.
