Clem and I sat side by side on an old log we had rolled over to our tree house. The sky was dark and starry, and everything was silent except for the crickets chirping, and the crackling of our very, very bad fire.
"This is a very pathetic fire." I joked as I roasted a can of beans over the embers.
"Well that's what you get for letting me light it." She laughed as I passed her the can. She took a spoonful and passed it back to me. The beans were sort of cold. I took a spoonful and shoved it in my mouth. The fire wasn't giving off much heat.
"I'm going to get more wood and hopefully this fire won't be a complete joke after all."
"Don't be too long." A look of concern crossed her face.
"Yeah yeah. I got my bow, and you've got your gun. Give me a shout if you need anything. And try not to be scared." I winked and walked off into the woods.
It was dark so I flipped my flashlight on. I checked behind trees for anything I could use. Surprisingly, there was no good sized sticks or wood. I was stuck gathering the puny skinny twigs hidden under leaves. I searched under piles of leaves and grass.
As I was walking back to our campfire, I heard a scream and a gunshot. I immediately dropped the twigs and ran.
"CLEM!" I screamed at the top of my lungs.
Oh my god. Oh my fucking god. I pulled out my pistol and bolted to where I had left the girl. I knew I shouldn't have left her. As I was running, I heard two more gun shots. I had to hurry. When I finally made it, I saw Clem standing beside the trunk of our tree house. Her gun was out and there were three walkers laying on the ground. I sighed a breath of relief.
"Oh my god are you okay?"
She was shaking and fell into my arms. I wrapped both of my arms around her and held her in a tight hug.
"I shouldn't have left." I said feeling guilty.
Her arms wrapped around me.
"It's okay. You needed to."
No, it wasn't okay. I should have been there protecting her.
"Let's just get inside to safety. We can forget that can of beans."
The can had fallen over and spilled into the dirt. Not worth anything now. Clem nodded.
"Alright you know how to do this." I held out my hands to boost her up into the tree, and she grabbed my hand to pull me up. I flicked on my flash light on and closed the opening we used to get up.
"Tomorrow we make a ladder for this thing. You're hard to pull up!"
"Is that a fat joke?" I teased
"Oh please. Like we could ever get fat with our limited supply of food."
She did have a point. I mean, who knew how long we even had until our cans of food and chips ran out. We'd be left with only apples, and we can't just live off of apples. We're going to have to go out and hunt at some point. I just really didn't want to leave her alone again. That was a mistake I will never make again.
"Alright, I guess we could try to make a ladder, maybe make this place a bit safer too."
"How on earth could we make this safer?"
"We'll figure it out. Maybe safe enough so we can roast food in peace."
"Maybe we could find marshmallows or something. I used to looove marshmallows!"
"I've never had them before." I laughed. I wonder if she knew how cute she was when she got excited.
"But I GUESS we can be on the lookout for them." Her eyes lit up. Okay it's official. Clementine is cute. Especially when she's happy. Even I can't escape the truth.
"Wait, I almost forgot." I pulled an apple out of my bag, that I had packed away earlier and handed it to her. She took it from me and bit into the shiny red fruit.
"God it's been forever since I had any fresh fruit! I was getting awfully tired of the gross dried fruits."
"Same here. Those are pretty gross!" I threw my bag onto the couch and took a bite out of my apple. It was the sweetest thing I've tasted. It was a good thing we had an unlimited supply of those now. I could get used to eating apples all the time.
"My mom used to say that an apple a day keeps the doctor away." Said Clem.
"And what's that supposed to mean?"
"I don't know I guess it means that if we eat apples we won't get sick?"
"I seriously doubt that."
"Yeah me too. " We laughed. I loved how I could talk to her about anything and we could always find something to laugh about. I don't know what it was about her. Even if we didn't have a home, with her I felt at home. We finished off our apples and headed upstairs.
I sat down on the mattress and reclined on the pillows.
"Maybe we should take watch duties. Just in case."
"For what?" I asked "Not like the infected can just climb up here. Besides, I closed the hatch. There's no getting in here."
"Fine." She paused. "If you won't watch, I will. "
"No Clem, you haven't slept in days. You need this sleep. I'll keep you safe alright?" She nodded slowly. I stood up off the mattress and headed for the ladder going down.
"I'll just sleep on the couch downstairs. You need the mattress and I-"
"Can you just stay here with me please?" I lifted my eyebrow and grinned
"You want me to stay? What, are you scared?" I teased.
"No just- just stay. Please Ellie?"
"Fine!" I laughed.
"Thank you!" Her lips formed into a smile. Did I ever mention that she has an amazing smile? Clem took off her hat and jumped down onto the old mattress. I laid down beside her. I pulled the blanket up over her and turned away.
"Hey you need some too." She pulled some over me and I felt her breath on my back. I turned over to face her. Her big hazel eyes met mine. My cheeks heated up. She also has very pretty eyes. She curled into me and I wrapped my arm around her.
After a while of just staring at her, her breaths got short and steady as she drifted to sleep. I nuzzled her closer. When she was asleep, she looked so tiny and fragile. She was vulnerable like a small child. Her body was warm and fit perfectly into mine. I rested my head on hers and closed my eyes. How was I lucky enough to end up with someone like her? As I got lost in my thoughts I drifted off to sleep.
"Ellie! Ellie wake up!" My eyes burst open and I saw Clem leaning over me. The bright light of the morning blinded my eyes.
"Hm? What's wrong? What happened?"
"Just listen!" I heard the faint sounds of a clicker coming from under us.
"Oh shit how'd it get in here?"
"It's not in here its outside idiot! I already checked downstairs."
"Must've heard the gunshots last night."
"Sorry I drew it to us."
"Don't apologize. You needed to protect yourself when I failed to-"
"Failed to protect me?" She asked. "I can protect myself."
"No. I want to be the one to protect you alright?"
She shook her head and smirked.
"Righhht. Whatever you say!"
I jumped out of bed and climbed down the ladder to downstairs. Clem followed after me. I grabbed the bow and arrow I had left in my bag. I gestured my hand for Clem to stay put, and I opened the door to the apple tree. The unstable bridge wobbled under my feet, I had to hold on to the rope railings to keep steady. The clicker was standing beside the old log we sat on last night.
Ugly fucker I thought to myself as I drew my bow. I aimed right for the back of its mushroomy head. I let the arrow fly and it implanted right in the back of the skull, and it made a loud crunch noise. The body fell to the ground. I scrunched my nose in disgust as some sort of liquid spewed from the arrow wound. I stared for a minute, shook my head, and walked back inside.
"Did you get it?" Clem asked eagerly.
"Yeah. Just got to get my arrow back now."
I opened the hatch heading outside and jumped out. I landed in a pile of leaves with a loud thud, and Clem followed after me. I walked over to the motionless clicker and kicked it to make sure it was dead, and ripped my arrow out.
"What should we do with the body?"
"I don't know. Move it maybe?"
"I really don't wanna touch that thing."
"And you think I do?" I bent down and grabbed under its arms.
"You grab its feet and help me move it over there behind those bushes."
She hesitantly walked over and grabbed where I told her, and we lifted the body. Fuck this thing is heavy.
We walked over to the bushes and threw it behind.
"Well that takes care of that. Let's go cook up some breakfast." I started walking infront of her back to the tree.
"Wait." She said."
I paused.
"What?"
"I just wanted to say, thank you for saving me back at Tommy's. You could have left me to find Joel. But you didn't. I don't know why, but you didn't. Thank you for taking me with you."
I looked her in the eyes, and pulled her into my arms.
"I'm glad I saved you. As much as I want Joel here, I'm glad I saved you. I don't know where I'd be right now without you."
"With Joel maybe."
My grip around her tightened.
"Honestly, I'd probably dead." I held her there for what felt like forever, until she pulled away and grabbed my hand.
"Let's go get that breakfast."