I turned expecting to see Luke or Pete but found small Clementine standing there scared. It took us both a second to realize who it was standing in front of us. She rushed into my arm and I hugged her tight. I stepped away looking her over checking to see if she was okay.
"Oh thank God you got out of there! Are you alright? What happened? How did you get in here? Did anyone see you?" I asked words mashing together in a worried spew. She smiled and gave a small laugh at my panicked reaction to seeing her. I was kneeling down so we were at eye level and both of my hands were on her thin shoulders. With a smile she just hugged me again. Resting her head on my shoulder. I was so relieved, I didn't think a person could be so worried, so frightened for someone else. It was strange and foreign to care about someone so much, and it took its toll on me. I didn't understand why people traveled in big groups because, caring this much about more than one person would tear people apart when those people died. And in this world you had to realize that everyone would die. It was easier in the long run if you did that.
"There was a hole in the side of the shed, and a accuses plane under the house. That's how I got in." She said finally pulling away from my grasp.
"I found some bandages and a needle and some pur-por," She stuttered trying to come up with the word she was looking for holding her hand over her arm like she was pouring something on her wound.
"Peroxide?" I asked and she nodded and handed me the bottle. I looked it over and nodded. "Yeah this is hydrogen peroxide, good stuff too." I said handing her the bottle back.
"The girl, Sarah helped me get it." She said looking over her shoulder to the hall. The name had only come up briefly before when Carlos scolded a young girl, this must have been his daughter.
"Good thinking we need to close your wound as soon as possible, but its to dangers to do it here." I said looking around the room again. They'd notice if I was gone.
"I can do it." The young girl sighed stuffing the peroxide away and casting a short glance down at her arm.
"What? No! You're just a-" I cut myself off bitting my bottom lip as I saw the deep red still bleeding through Clementines once white sleeve. I looked back to her amber eyes and they held no fear, she knew what she had to do.
"Scar its okay, I can do it. Christa taught me, remember?" I gave her a small chuckle recalling the memories.
"How could I forget? I was the one she taught you on." She winced as she traced the scar on my collarbone.
"I'm sorry," She muttered meeting bringing her amber eyes my bold blue ones. I smiled trying to ease her concern.
"Don't be, you saved my life. Even if it took some time." She reflected my smile, her small features glowing with a warmth that I saw all to little in her. Sometimes it was hard to remember she was just a little girl trying to survive this world the same as the rest of us. People had fallen back into the perilous version of man where survival was all that mattered. Fight the dead, fear the living.
My thoughts were cut off by the sounds of footsteps heading up the stair followed by muffled conversation of familiar voices. Clementine gasped and we both turned to face the door, someone was going to find her. I scanned the room fast and my eyes landed on the closet to the left.
"Quick, hide in there." I whispered ushering Clem to the closet. Without complained she jumped inside and I closed it behind her firmly, now waiting in the center of the room for whoever was headed this way. In a matter of seconds Pete walked in.
"Were were wondering if you'd like to come down and give your option on a few things. Give the other side to this story." He said but I barely heard him over my racing heart as it thumped in my ears over and over. I nodded my head quick,
"Sure," I croaked in a tight voice before walking to the door. I cast a quick glance at the closet before shutting the door to the room behind me. I saw aa pair of frightened amber eyes staring back at me through the slits in the door. She'd be okay. I told myself before following Pete out of the room and downstairs back into the kitchen. Inside the others were still gathered. Carlos was missing but that was it. Rebeca and Alvin sat at a table together, Luke leaned against the counter closest to the sink and Nick sat himself on a stool near the door. Pete walked in behind me and looked over his group with warning.
"Now if you have any questions for Scarlett now would be the time to ask them?" He said taking up a stand beside me arms crossed firmly over his chest. The group remained silent.
"What happened after you clear the woods?" I asked looking for my own answers now, hoping to buy Clementine some time.
"We just kept going, got as far as we could until we found this place after a couple of days." Said Pete, he seemed to be the only one willing to answer me.
After a painstaking had an hour the group had managed to ask me a whole of five questions two of which I refused to answer. These people didn't need to know anything about me, escaped that I wouldn't kill them. Pete looked more frustrated than angry and everyone else came off tired. Another tense quiet had begun to gloom over the kitchen once more, until the shrill screaming brought everyone out of a haze. It was coming from the shed. I had never been so scared in all my life. I froze, I had no idea how long but the second Luke through the door open I was out of it. Racing toward the shed a million different things playing through my mind. When I reached the doors the screaming grew louder as did the moan from a walked.
"Clementine!" I shouted tugging on the chains that kept the door firmly in place. There was scuffling and more shouting. I began banging on the door with my fist. Wooden splinters digging into my hands. Luke came up behind me fumbling with the key as he tried to get it in the lock.
"Get this god damn door open!" I shouted my voice crack and was at a loss of all strength. Seconds later he pulled the door open and there at the back of the shed Clementine stood over a dead walker. She pulled the hammer out of the walkers head with some struggled and stumbled around to face everyone. She dropped the weapon to the ground and held her arm staring at the shocked wave of faces.
She found my eyes in the crowd and made her way to me fast wrapping her arms around my core. I knew she was holding back tears and held her close to my chest as I let out a breath I hadn't realized I was holding.
"I'm so sorry," I mumbled into her hair "This is might fault, god I'm so sorry," I confessed before Clem shook her head and pulled away from my hug.
"Are you alright?" Carlos asked and now her eyes flared with anger.
"The shed should've been safe." Luke said in disbelief.
"I'm still, not, bitten!" Said said turned to face them. "I never was. And you left me out here to die." She said voice teeming with angry it spilled out with her words. I felt at blame.
"You patched yourself up?" Luke asked looking at the girls arm.
"Where'd you get that stuff?" Nick asked
"Did she steal from us?" Rebecca shouted fast that sneaky tone of angry coming back to her voice. It made my skin crawl. How dare they get mad at her for this. She did this to survive. I opened my mouth ready to snarl a justifying remake but was cut off by Pete.
"This doesn't change a thing. She hadn't done anything to us." I was glad to hear a voice of reason.
"I did. I took stuff and I'm sorry. I really am."
"Don't be sorry Clem." I said, "You did what you had to." I told her putting both hands on either of her shoulders.
"And you think you can trust them?" Rebecca snapped
"Goddamit, don't even start! Any of you would have done the same thing if you were half as tough as this little girl. So just save it." Pete said before anyone could say otherwise.
"Bring her in and I'll take a look at her arm." Carlos said as he turned toward the house. The others began to fall in line behind him until it was just me, Clem and Luke. His face held all kinds of guilt and as I walked with my arms around Clementine he stopped and asked,
"You hungry?" We stopped and I looked down at her to see if she'd answer. She had nothing to say and took one of my hands and kept going toward the house.
Once in the house Carlos kept his promise and took care of Clementines arm, I stood beside her watching Carlos closely and watching the others in the room as well. Pete, Luke and Nick were standing around the kitchen I hardly glance at Pete mostly because I trusted him. I couldn't say the same for anyone else but Clem.
"Scarlett, would you mind stepping into the hall with me?" Pete asked catching me off guard. I looked at him surprised then nodded toward Clem.
"It'll just be for a second." He pushed. Carlos nodded.
"I'm almost finished here anyway," Sighing I followed Pete to the hall watching Clem until she was blocked from my sight by the door.
"Are you okay?" He asked me putting one hand on my shoulder. My eyes darted to met his fast confused by his question.
"Of course, I am. Clem's the one I'm worried about." I said looking back toward the kitchen.
"Your hands haven't stopped shaking since we got in, that makes me think something off." I looked down at my quivering hands and balled them into fists at my sides.
"I'm fine," Pete looked down at me with disbelief.
"Remember what I said about my bullshit detector?" I nodded smiling a little in confusion.
"Well that 'I'm fine' spiel you're giving me is as fine as bullshit as any." I looked down at the floor and saw my still shaking hands hadn't changed. Nick pushed through the kitchen door and walked into a room not far from where I stood, Luke right on his heels. Pete looked at the boys with suspicious concur but looked back to me.
"I know you're worried about the girl I don't blame you, but you gotta relax. She's safe now, you both are. If you keep working at this rate you're going to burn yourself out." He said and I glance up at his kind eyes.
" I can try." He nodded with approval,
"Good." He sighed and looked around the small living room of the cabin. The dark blanket of the night had fallen over the windows and appeared to catch his eyes.
"C'mon I got to take watch and we got more to talk about." I obediently followed him outside looking through the window of the kitchen as Clementine as we passed. She was pulling up a chair to the table and dining into a bowl of food that had been brought to her by Luke. He sat across from her and smiled at Pete and myself as he caught sight of us in the window. Pete glanced around that side of the house then continued to walked down the porch. He cradled his rifle in one arm and it made me think of my lost weapon. It was so hard to come by gun and ammunition anymore.
"You know how to handle a rifle?" He asked, my eyes shot up to meet his and I felt a small hint of a smile.
"Sure do, had a nice one before we were attacked," I said frowning at the memory as I stroked my bruised cheek.
"Well, we've got some good rifles and a couple of handguns here." He informed, I nodded. I'd need one of those guns whenever Clem and I decided to take off. It was just plain stupid to go out there unarmed.
"So long as you're staying you're welcome to use them." There it was, the if you're staying talk. This was why Pete wanted to talk, he wanted me to stay. I knew that, but I couldn't, big groups like this were dangers. They drew attention and the more people there were the more people you had to worry about.
"Clem and I will move on once she's feeling up to it." I said simply playing with the frayed stand on the end of my shirt.
"Any chance you'll stay? You'd be a valuable asset to this group." He said looking out to the still tree line. "Level headed and you call people on their shit, there's too much tip-toeing around everything anymore. You're not afraid to make the tough calls and you fight like hell when you know something's wrong. I want you and Clementine to stay with us." He said as if showering it in compliments made the statement any less hard.
"This group seems to take care of itself pretty well, I think you'll be fine without any conflict Clementine and myself bring."
"If this is about what happened at Carvers-" He said out of the blue, something I never wanted to talk about again.
"It's not." My voice took on a biting edge, Pete should have known to tread lightly on this subject.
"Then what the hell is it?" He took on his own angry edge, frustrated with my stubborn need to keep going.
"When you're with people you get attached, I can't do that. Caring for people gets you killed, or it gets them killed."
"Caring for people is what keeps you sane in times like these. You can't lose that because you're afraid of people dying."
"I care for Clementine so much it actually scares me." I said crossing my arms over my chest. My voice did not waver or show any signs of emotion. "I scares me because I'm so worried for her all the time, its slowly driving me nuts because I know I can't always protect her. So being in a group where you care about everyone like that, would probably kill me."
"Give it a shot, maybe it won't." He said looking over the brightly lit house.
"A couple days that's all I'm asking." He sighed and adjusted the rifle in his arms. "Better get inside, this place is gonna draw some attention if we don't get these lights dimmed." He said walked toward the main door. "You comin' ?" His hand resting on the door nob as I remained leaning against the wooden railing.
"I'm just going to stand out here for a bit, I won't run off I promise." I said flashing him a smile.
"Alright, get inside and get your rest soon." He opened the door and I thought that was the last of our conversation. "You've done good kid, you've been through hell and back. You should be proud of yourself."
"Thanks." I said before he shut the door and went back inside leaving me to my thoughts. I had half a mind to rush into the kitchen and make sure Clementine was fine but Petes words weighed heavy on me. He wanted us to stay, he had saved my life more than once and was probably the only person beside Clementine I trusted.
I watched the stars dance around in the cool night sky, now that the thick swarm of clouds had move on it became a nice night. Leaning on the railing with my forearms I shut my eye and thought about everything Pete had just said. He wanted us to stay and a part of me wanted to stay too. But I couldn't, I knew the danger that lingers around this place and everyone in it. It was also mentioned that they had found it a few days after escaping Carvers which means it wasn't to far from the hardware store and that was dangerous terrier. I heard the door click open again and excepted Pete come to drag me inside, or Clem just looking for me. To my surprise it was neither and I was greeted by a still new voice.
"I was wondering if you were still out here," Luke said as he made his way further down the deck to where I stood. I forced a smile in greeting but felt no desire to talk. He stood next to me awkwardly trying to form a conversation.
"I was talking with Clementine a few minutest ago," He said peaking my interest. "From what she told me, sounds that girl's been though hell and back."
"That's not much of an exaggeration." I said standing up so I gained a little hight from my previous slouching position.
"She told me about a man, Lee. Said he saved her but that he died, just like her parents." I looked down at the peeling wooden of the porch.
"In all honesty, I probably don't know much more than you but, yeah that's what happened," I said with a sigh as I ran a hand through my ever tangled hair.
"I can't even imagine what's she's been through, I mean she's just a kid. Lord, this world is a real fucking mess isn't it?"
"No kidding. We've all lost so much its hard to remember a time when things weren't so broken."
"You've lost people?" I nodded, he was trying to get an explanation out of me, he wouldn't get one.
"Like you said this world is fucked up. I don't think anyone's got this far without a loss."
"Yeah, that- that's true." It was quiet again and my thoughts started to swarm around death and loss, this was the last thing I needed. "I'm sorry for when things got so out of hand earlier, I just kinda panicked when I saw that bite on her arm. I didn't know what to do, and everything with the shed; that wasn't right."
"No it wasn't but, in times like these, we have no choice. I respect how you all look out so closely for one another, that kind of care it's all too rare these days."
"Thank you, I'm glad you understand." It was quiet again and I couldn't think of anything to say. I had told him what he was looking to hear and it wasn't total lies.
"Clem told me you're probably going to be moving on soon but you're welcome to stay. Take it easy while you both heal up, maybe you'll even make some friends." I laughed and nodded giving him a false sense of hope that he would no doubt give to Pete.
"So were you at Carves from the beginning?" I asked changing the subject.
"No. Pete, Nick, his mom and I ended up there a maybe six months after the outbreak. What about you? I don't ever recall seeing you there, were you new or am I just a total jackass for not ever talking to you?" I laughed at this poor attempted to make a joke.
"I wasn't there long, couple weeks, month maybe. I was mostly worked with Pete going out on supplies runs. I wasn't around much."
"Still," He said with a smile. "I'm a little bit of an ass." I laughed again and reflected his smile weakly. I turned at the sound of knocking and saw Pete at the living room window he waved for us back in and with a shrugged we did just that. I looked around and saw Rebecca storm out of the kitchen, glaring at me as she passed.
"Scarlett, you and Clem can take the couches tonight if that's alright." Pete said as he pointed to the kitchen where Clem still was.
"That's more than enough, thank you." I said and with a smile Pete started up the stairs.
"Turn in soon, the morning will come faster than you know it." He called as he fell out of sight. I made my way into the kitchen were Clem sat alone at a table still picking away at a bowl of food.
"Hey, how you feeling?" I asked as I took the seat beside her with my best smile.
"Good." She said between bites. Colour had retuned to her face and her eyes were clear and alert.
"Are you okay?" She asked, I cocked my head to the side with a questioning smile on my face. She swallowed a mouth full and put down her spoon before she continued. "You were cut too," She said casting a worried look at my sown up arm. I laughed dusting a peace of dirt of the girls hat. She was fatally injured and locked in a shed, but she remember my scratch and was worried about me.
"Hows the food?" I asked looking down at the soggy mess of brown in the bowl before the girl. She shrugged her shoulders with a distasteful look.
"Better than weasel." She went back to eating spoon full of the slop as I rested my head on my arm on the table. I was tired and now that everything was winding down it became over whelming. My limbs wanting nothing more than to stay stationary forever and my eyes just wanted to fall shut.
"Are we going to stay here?" She asked in a small peep between bites.
"Do you want to?" She shrugged and looked past me at the wall as if thinking on it further.
"I don't know, some of the people are really nice. But some are, not." I bet I could figure out who. "How do you know Pete? Everyone keeps mentioning this Carver guy." My stomach twisted at the name but Clementine asked this question so innocently it would be wrong to deny her answers.
"I met Pete when I stumbled upon this huge group in a old wear house. The group was lead by a man named Willam Carver. He seemed nice at first, very hospitable toward me. He gave me a place in his so-called 'community' I had a room and a job, a sense of normal. But not to long after I got there I started to see that things were bad. Real bad. Pete and I were friends at this point and when I told him about these horrible things I knew were going on he told me he knew too, and that he and a few others were trying to get out."
"You couldn't just leave?"
"No, he wouldn't let us. But Pete told me about his plan, I knew my part and kept my head low until we left."
"So how come only Pete recognizes you? If you were at this place with all the others why hadn't you met them before?"
"I knew of them, I wasn't really sure who they were, though. I recognized the faces from passing them but I had never really stopped and had a conversation with anyone." Clem pushed the empty bowl aside and sat back in her chair thinking long and hard on what I had said.
"What sorta of bad things were happening there?" There it was, the one question I didn't think I could answer for her. She didn't need to know what went on there, she would never seen the building or any of its horrors.
"Just bad things." I was quiet for a little while before I pushed the memories aside and stood up.
"Come on kiddo, we better get some sleep."