The Light at the End of the Tunnel

Disclaimer: I don't own Walking Dead or any of its characters. All rights go to Skybound, AMC, and Robert Kirkman himself.

Chapter 3: New Faces Pt. II

Author Note: Hey guys, I'm back with another chapter! As of now I'm on a huge Walking Dead binge so I wanna get in as many chapters as I can. So, I hope you all enjoy this chapter since it's mainly Clem, Carl, and Daryl.

Update: ALTERNATE VERSION OF STORY ON WATTPAD MRSHYGUY45 user/MRSHYGUY45

IMPORTANT! PLEASE READ BEFORE READING CHAPTER: So, after thinking long and hard, I decided to make a few changes to the story.

Clementine and Carl will follow their comic/game ages, so as of now they just turned 10.

I will have this story be a mix of the TV Show and the comic book.

This story starts during the Season 3 episode 'Hounded' but I will not do every episode in Season 3. I will do time skips and fill in what happened since.

This story will be broken down into different books. I don't know how many, but as of now I'm planning three. Of course, all of them will still be Clementine x Carl. Hell, maybe they won't even be main characters in one of the books, maybe just side characters.

Yes, I will be introducing characters from the video games as well. Both Season Two and New Frontier. So, maybe there'll be a competition to see who'll get Clem's heart between two teens ;).

Anyway, that's all. What do you think of the changes? Like them? Hate them? Have any suggestions? Tell me!

Clementine was surprised about how this prison was set up. One cell block was for the sick, others were for living, and there was a library and a kitchen too! This had to be the safest place she's been to. Even though she just met some of these people, she felt safe. Safer than she's ever felt before.

Noticing the look on her face, Hershel chuckled. "Like what you see? It took us a while but we finally got this place figured out. This was all Rick's idea too." Clementine stared up at him, surprised. Rick did all this?

"Where are the rest of your people?" She asks.

The old man pointed straight ahead and Clementine spotted a few people circled in a group. "They're right there. Follow me."

As they got closer to the group, Clementine couldn't help but look on in confusion at a certain person. Why does he look so familiar? He had short, black hair and was Korean. But the only Korean person she met was Glenn when she was just a child, but he left the group. Wasn't he dead?

"Everyone, this is Clementine." He introduced her to the group, all eyes on her. "Daryl found her while on a run and now she'll be staying with us. Don't worry, she can't harm a fly, right?" He smiled down at her, making Clem chuckle.

A teen girl with blonde hair smiled at her while cradling a baby in her arms. "That's a beautiful name you got there, Clementine. I'm Beth."

Another woman with brown hair spoke up as well with a small smile. "I'm Maggie." Clem picked up a southern accent from her.

However, the Korean man only stared at her in awe. Clem noticed this and stared back, her eyes just as wide.

No way…

"Glenn?" She gasped out, stepping closer to the Korean man, who did the same. Everyone exchanged confused glances at each other. How did these two possibly know each other?

"Clem?" He asks back before being tackled with a hug. Glenn smiled with tears in the corner of his eyes. "Wow, it's been a while. Look at you, you've grown." He patted the girl on the head, making her laugh. His smile soon dropped. "Hey, where's Lee? Kenny? Lily?"

Hershel shot him a careful look, his eyes averting to the little girl in his arms. Glenn cursed under his breath, realization hitting him and he felt so stupid. "Oh, Clem, I'm so sorry. I shouldn't have asked."

Clem looked up at him with a frown, "It's okay. It wasn't your fault."

Maggie, having enough of this confusion, took a step forward. "How is it that you two know each other?"

Glenn smiled at the group in front of him with Clem right by his side. "Well, before I met with Merle and the others, I stayed in Macon for a bit. I found a group and we hid in a drug store before I met Clementine. She was with her group and a guy named Lee was looking after her. He was a good guy. Anyway, I ended up being trapped before he saved me and the drug store got overrun by walkers. We found a motor inn but I had to get back to Atlanta to find my friends."

Then Hershel took a step forward, "Kenny was with you, right?"

Clementine nodded, "Yeah, actually, after the drug store, he stayed with us for a while but when we were in Atlanta, we got separated. I don't know what happened to him."

Maggie faced her father with a shocked look on her face. "Wait, didn't you say Kenny was the one who killed Shaun while we were out?"

The old man nodded and sighed, looking at the ground. "But it wasn't his fault, though. He was trying to save his son. I would've done the same thing."

His daughter shot him an angry look for a split second before frowning. When she first heard the news of her brother's "accident", she was devastated. If she would've been home at the time, she'd be able to save her brother and have a chance to speak with him again. But if he did live, she knew he'd most likely parish when their family's farm burnt down.

"How long have you been on your own?" Beth asks in both interest and concern.

Clem looked at the infant for a moment. "For a few weeks, I guess." She replies, gazing up back at the group in front of her. Beth exchanged a shocked look with Maggie and Hershel. "When our camp was being raided, my friend told me to run and I did. Ever since then, I've been on my own."

The group shared more shocked looks with each other. All except Daryl, who stood in the doorway and smiled proudly at Clementine, were in disbelief that someone as young as her can take care of herself in a world like this.

"Girl's tough as nails." Daryl proudly announced from his spot in the doorway. "Believe it or not, she can take care of herself a lot better than some of y'all." He finished with a small laugh. "She even saved my life. This lil' ass kicker good with a gun too."

"Well, that's all we need to know." Hershel smiles at the young girl.

Maggie mirrored her Dad's expression before handing Clementine a bowl of oatmeal. "You hungry?"

"Very." She sighs out in relief, finally getting the chance to fill her stomach again. As soon as she was handed her bowl, she chowed down like there was no tomorrow. Maggie then gave everyone else their bowl.

Carl then walked in, his head low as he took a seat next to Clementine. There was a short, awkward silence as the group watched the boy eat for a second. Nobody wanted to bring up what happened a few days ago, let alone mentioning Rick's behavior recently. Ever since Lori's death, both Rick and Carl showed change in their behavior. Carl's been quiet and Rick's been acting…different like he was a whole new person.

As he picked at his oatmeal, he stole a few glances at the girl next to him. At one point, their eyes met and Carl couldn't help but smile at her. Clementine, with a mouth full of oatmeal, smiled back. Daryl chuckled from his spot on the steps, but no one heard him.

"Everybody okay?"

Rick walked in the room, looking exhausted. Bags were under his eyes and even some stained blood was on his neck and shirt.

"…Yeah, we are." Maggie responds after another short silence.

Hershel nodded his head and examined the sheriff. "What about you? You look exhausted."

Rick looked at the old farmer before looking down at his son. "Cleared out the boiler block."

"How many were there?" Daryl asked.

"I don't know. A dozen…two dozen?" Rick says honestly, arms placed on his hips. "I have to get back. Just wanted to check on Carl…" His eyes then landed on Clementine. "…and our new guest. So, can we trust her?"

"Of course." Daryl was the first to reply and rather quickly. "She saved my life, not to mention all the shit she's been through. She's good in my book." Clem flashed a small smile towards Daryl, who nodded.

Hershel nodded in agreement. "I vouch for her."

"Me too." Maggie agrees.

"Yeah, she's cool." A large, African-American says next to Daryl. Clem hadn't even noticed him till now.

Beth nodded.

"I've known her since all of this started." Glenn says with a goofy grin on his face. "After seeing what her old group did for mine, I trust her with my life."

"Carl?" Rick waited for his son's saying, eyebrow risen.

Said boy looked up at his Dad before looking at the girl next to him. "She's cool." He gave a nod at her.

Rick laughed a little before placing his hand on top of Clementine's head. "Well, since everyone trusts you, so do I. Welcome to the group, Clementine."

Clementine smiled. "Thank you."

As she looked up at her new group's leader, she finally felt safe once again. Sure, she didn't feel entirely safe, it wasn't like Lee was right next to her. No, but at least she finally met some familiar faces in her group. Not to mention she knew them since everything first started. If everything falls in the right direction, maybe she didn't have to worry about anything bad like walkers or raiders like last time.

Rick then made his way towards Daryl, a serious expression on his face. "Everyone have a gun and a knife?"

The sudden question made Clementine confused. What's going on?

"Yeah." Daryl nods his head. "Kinda runnin' low on ammo though."

Glenn stood up from his seat. "Maggie and I were planning on making a run this afternoon. Found a phone book with some places we can hit, look for bullets and formula." Rick looked back at the Korean man with a thankful look on his face.

"We cleared out the generator room. Axel's there trying to fix it in case of emergency." Daryl adds. "We're gonna sweep the lower levels as well."

Rick nodded. "Good. Good."

With that, the sheriff made a beeline to the door. Hershel called out his name, but his only response was the door slamming shut. The old farmer grumbled under his breath with Carl looking over his shoulder at the door.

"Clem." Daryl called out to the young girl. "You and Carl are with me clearing the lower levels." He then turned to Oscar. "Oscar, go meet Axel in the generator room to see if he's okay." Oscar nods. "You got your gun on ya?"

Clementine nods and placed her gun on the table. Hershel and Glenn exchanged a worried glance with Carl eyeing the worn out Glock.

"Atta girl. We'll meet at your cell in 5 minutes."

She stared down at the picture of Lee she picked up from the drug store some time ago. Before every run and every nap, she'd look at the picture of her long gone guardian, hoping he was watching protecting her in some shape or form. Sometimes she'd think he did protect her even in death. If all hope seemed gone, she always thought Lee came down and made her see the bright side of things again. Like when Daryl saved her and let her in the group.

Smiling down at the photo one last time, she put it back in her backpack and zipped it shut.

"You ready?" Came Daryl's voice from behind her.

"Yeah, let's go." She gave the redneck a nod and followed him through the halls with Carl closely behind. Clementine picked up on how quiet he's been lately. Despite only knowing him for an hour, she's growing worried about him. She didn't want the only friend her age being depressed.

Daryl looked back at the girl as he led them through the dark hallway. "Nice first day, huh? Not even a full day and you're already tasked with a big job. Congrats."

"It's nothing, really." She says. "I've dealt with bigger things than this."

Remembering the stories she told him, the youngest Dixon brother frowned. "Yeah. Right."

When they turned the corner of the hall, they heard a small clanging coming from a locked metal door. Daryl readied his crossbow and Clementine gripped her pistol from her waist. Carl, however, only stood there, looking down at the killed walker in front of his feet.

"Daryl…" Clem warned the redneck, motioning to the door in front of them.

"Don't worry." He reassures her, pressing lightly at the metal door. It closed ever so slightly before slowly barely opening. "Looks like they ain't got much fight. It's probably just one or two of 'em. They ain't going nowhere. We'll take care of them on the way back."

They stepped away from the door with Daryl whistling to Carl to pick up the pace.

"You know, my mom, she liked her wine." Daryl started the conversation between the three of them. "She liked to smoke in bed. Virginia Slims."

"Some Mom she sounds like." Clementine comments, making a disgruntled face.

Daryl laughed a little. "Yeah, she wasn't the greatest. Anyway, I was playing out with the kids in the neighborhood. I could do that with Merle gone. They had bikes, I didn't. We heard sirens getting louder. So they jumped on their bikes, ran after it, you know, hoping to see something worth seeing."

"Like what?" Clem asks.

"A dead body, burning house, any of those things. Well, at least they got to see two things." He sighs out after peeking inside an empty closet. "I ran after them, but I couldn't keep up. I ran around the corner and saw my friends looking at me. Hell, I saw everybody looking at me. Fire trucks everywhere. People from the neighborhood. It was my house they were there for. It was my mom in bed, burnt down to nothing."

Clementine's eyes went wide. "Down to nothing? Like, not even a trace of her?"

Daryl shook his head. "Nothin' but ash. You know, she was just gone. Erased. Nothing left of her…people said it was better that way." He scoffed to himself. "Just made it seem like it wasn't real, you know?"

Carl lifted his head. "I shot my mom." He says, mostly to Clementine. Both the redneck and girl look at him. "She was out. Hadn't turned yet. I ended it. It was real" By now, both boys had their heads down for a moment, most likely grieving each other's loses.

"I didn't even get to see my parents when all this started." Clem began, looking down at the ground. "They left me with my babysitter, Sandra. When she turned, I hid in my treehouse until Lee found me." Daryl and Carl looked at her, interested at her story. "I wanted to find my parents so I can know what happened to them. When we reached Savannah, it was already too late. They turned. I didn't even get a chance to say goodbye."

"I'm sorry, darlin'." Daryl mumbles, giving Clementine a quick pat on the shoulder.

"Sorry about your Mom." Clem turned her head to Carl.

The son of Rick nodded. "Sorry about yours."

"Come on."

"Slippers?" Clem asked herself as she picked up a pair of worn out slippers from a prison cell. "Who'd wanna wear these dirty old things?"

Daryl rose his eyebrow. "You'd be surprised."

The familiar sound of growling came from behind them. Without even hesitating, all three shot at the walker. It dropped dead with two bullet holes in its head and an arrow through its eye socket.

"This asshole probably came from the cell at the end." Daryl points out as they walk closer to the walker. Then he noticed something sticking out of his throat. It looked like the handle of a knife. "The hell?" He pulled it out of the walker's throat, blood spurting from the open wound.

"What's wrong?" Clementine asks, peeking over Daryl's shoulder to see the knife.

"That's Carol's knife." He points out, cleaning the blade on the walker's shirt.

Clem looked at Carl for an answer.

"Carol's a part of the group too." Carl says. "When we were cleaning this place out, she went missing. Hopefully this is a sign that she's still here somewhere."

Daryl held the knife firmly in his hand, thinking of Carol and hoping she was okay. "Ya'll go on back. We done for today."

"Are you sure?" Clementine asked with a shrug directed at Carl.

Daryl nodded. "Definitely. Go on."

They left the redneck to leave him with his thoughts, Clem looking over her shoulder looking worried. Daryl must've cared for her…a lot it seemed. She wondered what she was to him. Family? Friend? Girlfriend?

She made a face at herself for the last one.

"What'd you think?"

"What?"

Carl gave her a friendly smile. "What'd you think of the group? It's nice to know you remember a few faces. By the way, how do you know Hershel and Glenn?" He asks while opening the door leading back to one of the cell blocks.

"My old group stayed at his farm when everything first started." Clementine explains, sharing a quick glance with the boy. "He fixed Lee's leg after he was injured in a car crash. Then, his son died when walkers broke the gate. He kicked us all off. I thought I'd never see him again."

"Hershel took care of me too." Carl admits. "When I got shot, he fixed me up."

Clem stopped walking and looked at Carl with a shocked expression. "You were shot?"

He nods. "Yeah, it wasn't fatal though. After that, we stayed with him for a while before walkers tore everything apart." He looked back at Clementine as they continued their walk. "How'd you meet Glenn?"

"He was with another group when my group went in a drug store. He saved our lives."

"I think I remember him telling us about that group. I think he mentioned someone named Lily?"

Clementine nodded. "Yeah, she was the 'leader' I guess. What a mess she was. Anyway, after that we stayed at a Motor Inn and that's when Glenn decided to leave." A small smiled curved her lips. "It's happy to see him and Hershel again."

Carl mirrored her expression. "I bet it is."

When the two reached Clementine's cell, Carl stood and watched from the doorway as Clem sat on her bunk.

"How's your first day here?" Carl asks in a joking manner.

"Could've been worse." She admits, chuckling at him. "Thanks again, for showing me around."

Carl smiles again. "No problem. You know, it's glad to have someone my age to talk to for once."

"I know. Feels great." She responds.

A short silence fell amongst the two for a brief moment. Carl continued to watch Clementine as she rummaged through her bag, pulling out various items. He watched her pull out a lighter, a pocketknife, some bullets for her pistol, and a few bandages. He was impressed by how well she came prepared.

"I think you're gonna like it here." He blurts out.

"I already do." She responds quickly, surprising the boy.

Carl laughed.

"Welcome home."

New Frontier Thoughts: I'm not a fan of the new Walking Dead game. I was excited for it because I thought I'd play as Clementine throughout most of the game. I'm okay with two playable characters, it worked with Tales from the Borderlands. But the fact that you only play her through flashbacks and your choices don't even matter in said flashbacks disappoint me.

I can't connect with Javier at all, him or his family. He just seems like an ordinary Joe-Schmo, Gabe is...I don't even know at this point he's either annoying or a pussy. I don't even know why people pair him up with Clem! Unless something triggers Gabe and he mans up, I don't see him getting with Clem. Maybe as friends, but nothing further than that.

Like they're totally opposite from each other! First of all, Clementine will most likely not date anyone at this point because she's afraid if she got too close with someone, they'll end up dying like Lee. Plus she's way out of his league. Gabe can't even hold his own let alone dating someone who's 10x tougher than him.

I don't like how people pair them up because Elanor simply suggested "Maybe they'll hit it off?" If she never said that, nobody will pair the two up. If Telltale does pair them up, that's forced and stupid as hell! XD

Anyway, Clementine is also way OOC in this game. I mean sure she's a lot tougher now which is good, but what if you raise her to be a good/caring person like Lee who'll try to talk his way out of things instead of shooting first and asking questions later. That further proves Clem x Gabe doesn't make sense!

Granted there are a few cool and shocking moments in the game. I'm not gonna spoil it, but if you've played the game you know exactly what I'm talking about.

I'm sorry but, I can't connect with any of these characters besides Clementine. I'm leaving AJ out because he's only a baby and I'd do everything in my power to keep him safe.

Should you buy this game? I don't know. If you love Walking Dead and wanna see something new Telltale delivers, go ahead. If you wanna play it for story and the characters,, I wouldn't recommend it.