"Back up!" One of the other teenagers screamed out, interrupting them. He bore a scruffy jacket with a large red letter reading 'E' on the front, his hair was shaved on either side and was accompanied by an unmissable blonde mullet. Another girl stood near him, she had short blond hair that parted in equal measure, covering her ears on both sides, looking just as… if not even sterner than the former. Both, again… looked to be around her age.
Clementine could feel her frustration bubbling to the surface, so much so that she felt like pressing the knife even further into Louis' neck until it started slicing down into the marrow of his bone. He made her look like an idiot, put AJ in harm's way… and now there were two more people who had arrived, presumably his friends. Their pistols were trained on her head, she was outnumbered, outgunned. It was over. Anything she did now would only serve towards putting AJ in danger yet again.
Cursing under her breath, Clementine shot Louis a poisonous glance before she finally released him, getting off him, she took a few steps back before aggressively throwing her knife to the side. Scowling in pure anger at the strangers as AJ ran towards her, clutching her side as he hid behind her and watched on, hoping they weren't in even more trouble now.
Louis rubbed the front of his neck with a small wince before attempting to get back on to his feet, however, the mulleted boy unexpectedly diverted his attention off Clem and stormed straight over towards the boy in question. "You stupid fucking MORON!" He yelled out as he forcefully tugged Louis upwards by the sleeve rather aggressively as he 'helped' him to his feet.
"I told you, I TOLD you to stop screwing around alone in the woods with your head up your fucking ass!" He continued his tirade as he got in Louis' face.
"Relax, Marlon," Louis spoke calmly as he tugged his arm away from the other boy's grip, beginning to dust himself off. "You guys didn't have to go jumping in. I had it under control."
"Not what it looked like from over here." The blonde haired teenager shot him an irritated frown, still keeping her gun trained on Clementine as Marlon continued to reprimand Louis.
"Pull this stunt again and next time we won't jump in. I'm sick of you not following simple as shit instructions." Marlon threatened, his voice lowered this time, only for the sake of not drawing any more freaks to the area. Now deciding it was time to focus his attention on the two intruders, he took a few steps forward, directly facing them as he decided to start the questioning.
"Let's just cut to the chase. What the hell is your business around here?" Marlon spoke, trying his hardest to repress just how annoyed he felt at the current predicament Louis had pulled them into.
Clementine slanted her eyes in response, whoever this guy was he obviously had a bad temper, which explained the nerve he seemed to have on him. "We were just passing through when I got caught in your trap, I asked him to cut me down so I could give his stuff back and leave…. But your friend had a different idea." The last sentence burning with callous as her eyes burned over to the other boy.
Marlon seemed to follow her glance over to Louis, oddly enough giving him a similar look to the one Clementine had. Muttering a few profanities as he averted his gaze back to the girl.
"Well, like you probably just found out, he's an idiot…"
Yeah, I'm aware. Clementine felt like spitting back, but the sight of their weapons alone was enough to get her to hold her tongue and think twice. She glanced over to AJ who was still holding on to her, looking up with an uncertain and frightened gaze.
"So, are you and the kid with anyone else then?" He broke the silence by asking yet again another question.
"No, we're not, " Clementine admitted, and even if it wasn't true she'd still say the same. With how paranoid this bunch looked it was obvious that they wouldn't be comfortable with potentially being jumped by strangers. Right now her only goal was to convince them to let her go, this whole situation reaffirming her on why she decided to keep away from people in the first place.
"Yeah, I don't trust that." The blonde girl spoke up, seemingly unfazed by the other girl's claims, taking a step forward as she stood beside Marlon now, directing her words at him. "She was close enough to get stuck in one of the traps, she might even already know about the school."
"You never trust anything, Violet." Louis decided to butt in, calling out to her as he was taking the opportunity to repack the dug up bag and assort his supplies, the ones that had almost been taken.
Violet deadpanned straight towards the boy, his nonchalant and careless attitude beginning to piss her off. "I don't know if you've heard of it before but it's a thing called common sense, it's why I've never been flattened out with a knife up against my throat."
"So in other words, you've never had any fun before? Tell me something I don't know." He zipped up the bag, slinging it over his shoulder before stepping back over to his companions. "Listen, I, on the other hand, think she's telling the truth."
Violet's head swung forward, almost as if she was confused with what she considered to be his sheer stupidity. "Are you dense? If she's with a group and we leave her out here, first thing they'll do is try and follow us back. We've been over this before."
Marlon shot his gaze over to Louis, even though this whole shitshow was his fault he was willing to hear him out. "She almost killed you."
Louis wasn't going to bother justifying how she wasn't close to killing him, that'd be another hour-long argument. Instead, he just focused on the nitty-gritty. "I'm not saying we let her go. Before you guys butted in we were making a deal to bring her back. Y'know, in exchange for the whole misunderstanding?"
"You- what?!" Marlon spat out, his brows furrowing as frustration began to wash over his face again. Without even consulting me first?
Clementine had been standing there for what felt like an eternity, dumbfounded by the back and forth going on between these kids. For a moment there it felt like being right back at the Motor Inn. Seeing this many people her age in one place… she never ever thought that'd even be possible. It crossed her mind that maybe Louis' story about their group being only kids was starting to at least add up.
No. It was stupid… this was stupid. She needed to get away from these people… before they drew her onto another sinking ship of a group. "We weren't making any deal. Just let us go our own way, we have better things to do than follow you around."
Marlon's gaze fell to the ground, his eyes darting around as he tried to clear his head. Everyone's well being back home was his responsibility, rest assured he'd be having a serious fucking talk with Louis when they got back, but right now… there was no choice. "Group or no group, I'm not taking any chances again." He spoke to no one in particular, before swapping his gaze to the thief in question.
"I'm sorry, but we're gonna have to take you guys back until we're certain your story adds up." He reached into his pocket, throwing the other boy some materials which he caught.
"Louis, you're the one that fucked up, so you deal with her on the walk back. Blindfold and tie her up."
"Fine by me." Louis caught the rope and pieces of fabric with ease, now diverting his attention to the girl with the ballcap and the kid.
You're fucking kidding me. Clementine mentally cursed as she lowered her hands, instinctively placing her hand out towards AJ, signalling him to keep back as she took stance. She only just got out of one trap, and there was no way she'd let them get into another one. Her actions were quickly halted by a small tug on her jacket from behind, a meek yet scared voice addressing her.
"Please…." AJ just couldn't bear to see her fight again, to get hurt. She'd already gotten strung up in that trap because of him. "Don't... fight anymore."
"Don't give me an excuse to throw down again, because this time I won't go easy on ya, " Louis spoke with a tinge of wit, mostly joking, perhaps trying to cover up how foolish he looked in front of the rest, he began to approach Clementine with the rope and the blindfold in hand. "Seriously though, just listen to the little guy. Make this easy."
It was inevitable, the amount of time they'd spent on the road by themselves. Clementine always made it her first instinct to adapt to her surroundings, never let anything catch her off guard. She knew it all by now, at least she thought she did. Things had been… tough, on the road. But they'd stayed safe, enough for Clementine to get reckless… she'd slipped up and dropped her guard, and now they were left with no other choice.
"I'm sorry… AJ." She softly stammered out as she tried to hold it together, signing out. They were going to be led to god knows where by a bunch of strangers who for all she knew could've been a bunch of psychos, and there was nothing she could do to stop it.
She failed him.
Heeding the boys request she looked down, scowling at her feet. The anger directed mostly at herself now, the girl holding out both of her hands. Louis raised his eyebrow in surprise, almost reluctant to get too close lest she attack him again. With caution, he slowly began to wrap the rope around her hands, tying her wrists together, weaving through a few extra knots for good measure… She was crafty, and he wasn't going to rule out the possibility that she'd try to escape. Finally, he moved behind her, shielding the black piece of fabric over her eyes as he tied it to her head, ensuring that there were no peeking spots.
Louis then began to move over to the kid, before he felt a hand on his shoulder, stopping him.
"Not him. Just the blindfold." Marlon ordered, feeling it wasn't really necessary to be restraining the kid too. As far as he was concerned the dangerous one was the girl. Besides, if they couldn't even watch over one little damn kid, they probably deserved to get found. Louis shrugged as he obliged, tying the second piece of fabric around the boys head. "All good."
"Alright. Let's move." Marlon placed a hand over the boy's shoulder, guiding him onwards. "C'mon kid, up the front with me."
All Clementine could do was hear their footsteps slowly trudge onwards, before feeling what was surely Louis' hand on her shoulder as he began to guide her forward, only resisting the urge to shrug it off, otherwise, she'd be walking into a tree. "My bag." Was the first thing that came to her mind as he started leading her off, fearing they might leave it.
"Yeah. We got it." Louis honestly hadn't been paying attention, nothing in there he needed anyway. "Violet?" He gestured his head over to the bag on the floor.
The teenage girl slowly trailed behind them, her pistol still drawn as she slanted her eyes at Louis' request. They'd already saved his hide and gone out of their way for him enough. Now he was asking her to play the courier?
"You do it." Violet spat back.
"Can't, need both my hands in case she pulls a shifty. And as you can see I'm already carrying one, you're not… so."
"Just do it, and cut the squabble," Marlon called out from the front, not bothering to turn his head around.
Mumbling under her breath Violet let out a sigh through gritted teeth, stomping over to the mystery girl's bag. Before unwillingly slinging it over her shoulder.
Clementine wasn't comfortable with this, this feeling of vulnerability was something she hadn't experienced since…
Regardless, she just had to hope they were keeping their word. Her vision was cut off, and her hands were useless… if walkers showed up things were surely going to get dicey. With every step she tried not to stumble, attempting to compensate for the uneven terrain they were walking on. And to top it all off, she had that asshole right behind her… starting to talk again.
"Well, if you ask me, in hindsight I think things ended up turning out for the best." He spoke to the new girl cheerfully, his tone only serving to come off as annoying and condescending to Clem. She opted not to give him the satisfaction of a response.
"Still mad over the trap thing, right?" He asked, not willing to let up on annoying her. Anything was better than awkward silence the whole way back. And Marlon was too far ahead to hear them anyway.
Luckily enough for him, that was enough to strike a nerve with Clementine.
"What do you think? You left me there to hang and drew a fucking walker towards me!" Of course she was pissed off, more so for what he put AJ through. "All for some sick joke."
"Well I feel kinda bad about it now, if that helps." That part was the truth at least, but thinking about almost losing his mp3 player to a thief, it really didn't sit well with him. It still didn't excuse him for taking it that far just to prove a point, but there was nothing he could do to change it now.
"Think of it like this, you spend hours setting up a trap thinking you'll catch nothing, weeks go by… then when you finally do... Gotta say, it actually feels pretty rewarding. Since I figured we caught a thief, I thought you deserved to hang there a little longer, not that I still do, but… makes sense, right?"
"No, it doesn't. It just makes you an asshole." She tried her best to stop her fists from balling up in her binds, but to little avail.
"Never said I was a saint. Not like you're one to talk after almost dicing me up. I'd say we're even." Louis scoffed in return.
"I wouldn't." Clementine snarled, before a brief moment of silence clouded the air as they continued to walk.
"So I think I caught the kid's name was AJ? I gave you mine already, so you gotta have a name too, then?" He spoke, brow raised, the question serving as an invitation of sorts. However, just as he was expecting, silence filled the air.
"Alright, I'll just have to keep guessing the whole way there. You look like a Stacey… maybe Emma, Charlotte?"
Clementine's brow furrowed under the blindfold, feeling a mixture and of anger and sheer embarrassment. His attempts to force a name out of her were cringe-worthy at best, the worst part is that he wouldn't stop for a good half minute or so, listing all these names that were just way off the mark. He was either bored and going out of his way to annoy her, or something was seriously wrong with him. She was betting on the first.
"It's Clementine! Now can you just stop talking?" The girl tilted her head behind her as they walked, practically begging him.
"Okay… that one I wouldn't have guessed. Well, Clementine… when we get there you'll see I wasn't lying about this place."
Roughly half an hour had passed, and the cold chill that accompanied the outside began to dissipate as Clem was seemingly led indoors, hearing chatter about using some kind of back passage. The first thing she heard was the creak of what sounded like a rusty gate, before a door opened, walking down various sets of stairs until she was ultimately led into some kind of room.
It felt humid, like it hadn't been used in a while. That explained the odd smell and dust, she sniffled as her nose twitched in response. Her blindfold was pulled off but her hands were kept bound as she was led in.
Marlon waved off Louis and Violet, from here on out the decision on where to take this was up to him. "Alright, stay put here and don't fuck around. I'll be back soon."
"But-" It was too late. Before Clementine could even respond or enquire about AJ, the door was slammed, followed by the click of a key twisting the lock. It was no different from having the blindfold on, pitch black, with not much room to move around. She placed her hands up against the wall, trying to see if there was anything she could use… but it was just cold hard cement. Doubling back she scoured the wall until her hands found the doorknob, trying her hardest to give it a twist. Nothing.
"Dammit." She muttered, her back finding the wall, sliding down into a sitting position as she cuddled her legs. It was like she was right back to square one, that helpless eight-year-old little girl that didn't know any better… getting everyone around her hurt. She promised herself she'd do anything to never let herself feel like that ever again… but just like that, things had gone horribly wrong. All she could think about is where they might've taken AJ… if they were treating him right, what they had planned to do with him. It wasn't like before… no one was coming to save her this time.
It wasn't long before the minutes started to slip by her mind, shifting into what she perceived to be at least an hour, although she couldn't be sure, the only thing she was certain of was that this felt like an eternity. Just as she began to start thinking that she'd been tricked… that they'd just lock her in here and let her starve away… the door yet again clicked open. Clementine squinting her eyes at the small flame of light seemingly coming from a lantern someone was holding. It was Marlon again.
His shoulder pressed up on the side of the door frame, it was obvious to assume he'd heavily discussed this with the others. It took some time on all fronts, but eventually, they agreed on a way to approach this, and it was rather simple. All it required was a bit of honesty.
"Where's AJ? I want to see him." Clementine croaked out, eyes still squinted as she sat there.
"We'll get to that after I make one thing really clear. In case you already haven't noticed, the one that calls the shots around here is me. And I don't give a damn about what Louis thinks. If you're getting out of here, it'll be because I think it's safe." The ruggedly dressed teen enforced, his eyes locked on to the girl in question."Now I'm gonna ask you some things. If I think you're feeding me a load of horse shit, I swear on my dead mother you're gonna regret it. Just a warning: If you thought I was angry before, you ain't seen a fucking thing yet."
Clementine's eyes didn't leave Marlon's, his face partly obscured by the shade, what little she could see aided by the illumination from that lantern. He wasn't bluffing, at least she didn't think so. She averted her gaze to her hands, having no other option but to indulge him.
"Fine." She murmured out.
"Who's the kid to you?" He spoke firmly in an attempt to be direct.
Really? This is what she was going to have to be subjected to? The last thing she wanted was some stranger prying into her life with these heavy questions she wanted no part of delving into. "Does it matter? I'm looking after him, simple as that."
"I'm trying to figure out just what type of person you are, so yeah, it does."
She huffed out an annoyed breath, looking up towards the boy with the odd haircut. "I promised someone I'd look after him. Okay?" At this point, she wasn't sure if it was even a promise… it was just what was expected, the right thing to do.
Marlon carefully studied her, picking apart her responses and thinking them over as he analysed the information. "Okay, so where are they? You did have a group, right? "
Don't start with this now. "A group?"
"You promised someone you'd look after him and the kid doesn't look that old. They still with us?"
"No." She finally answered after a brief pause.
"I'm gonna need more than that."
This was too much, this was just opening up a whole heap of hurt that she just kept bottled up inside. Never intent on letting it out again. It was the same old story, she'd find a place... There'd be people she'd grow to like, to trust. Then one by one, things would always find a way to go downhill… and she'd watch them all… all dwindle down until there was no one left. She was sick of history repeating itself, wanting no part of that pain anymore, it just never worked out… no matter how many times she tried to make it work.
"Take a fucking guess." She spoke with a tinge of frustration, frowning at him now as silence followed shortly after.
He squinted his eyes, as much as he'd like to pry even further, her past wasn't important enough to warrant it. Besides, it was already obvious enough. After thinking it over, he decided to ask his final question.
"The day before you ran into the trap, what were you two doing?"
There was some obvious apprehension as Clementine thought hardly about her answer, deciding to just come out and say it. The longer she took to answer would just make him even more suspicious. "We were fishing, mostly. Other than that, just looking for a place to spend the night."
Marlon stopped, for a moment. Looking behind his shoulder as if giving some sort of signal. It lasted for a brief moment before he looked back towards the girl sitting down. Without a word, he took a step back. "Wait, I-" The door slammed shut as she was cut off, sending a cold tingle down her spine before darkness yet again consumed the room. Clementine's eyes widened in confusion, was that his way of calling her a liar? She balled up her fists as she got to her feet, absolutely fuming.
"I answered your stupid questions!" She bellowed at the door, raising her foot as it collided against it, sending a shockwave of soreness up her leg, but she didn't care. Not anymore. Clem booted the door, again… and again, as hard as she could, before she finally let out a pained shriek.
Clementine was beginning to accept that her fate was sealed as soon as she got caught in that trap, now she was here, alone. Having exhausted all her other options, the cold hard truth was that she couldn't get out of it this time. Her only hope was that they would at least show AJ a sliver of mercy for her mistakes. Please, just don't hurt him. She repeated over and over in her mind, trying to convince herself that it was a fact.
The girl slumped backwards, still panting from her outburst, sliding down the wall as she assumed her position in defeat. There she sat, squeezing her eyes shut and tucking away her face into her knees, the room once again falling silent.
Author's Notes: Just wanted to throw a big thanks out there for all those that reviewed, I was surprised to see the relatively positive reception towards how Louis was introduced. Since he does come off as a bit of a snarky asshole I'm glad he was still somewhat likeable for people. Now we're starting to see some of the other boarding school characters come into the field of play, so we'll see how that progresses next chapter : )
