The Walking Dead: Clementine and a dog named Sam
Chapter 6: an old friend
Hey, everyone, I found out today that Episode 3: In Harms Way is announced to be released in May, and this is good because it will be much earlier than before. I look forward to it, and for those who own the game, I'm sure you are, too.
"You see him?" Luke inquired; merely watching as the figure up ahead was making their way towards them.
"Yeah." Clementine replied, unsure what to do at this very moment.
"Just play it cool." Luke instructed, showing no emotion on his face as he dared not take his eyes off of the figure. "And you do the talking."
"What?! Why me?" Clementine asked, not sure if she was going to be able to handle this.
"Because I don't want to get in a fight." Luke explained, turning his attention towards Clementine for a moment. "You really think he'd shoot a little girl? Just don't make any sudden moves. And don't piss him off. And don't tell him anything." he paused for a second, unsure if Clementine was going to remember all this. "You know, on second thought, maybe I should do the talking."
"What should I say?" Clementine inquired, not knowing what to say if the figure up ahead began asking questions.
"I don't know. Ask him for directions." Luke suggested, watching as the man was not too far away now, but the good thing was he stopped moving, and froze in his steps.
The man finally said something to them; raising his voice so they could hear him from the distance he was standing in. "Well, who are you?"
"Well, who's asking?" Luke replied, somewhat asking him the same question.
"I am." the man replied, not answering his question.
"Wanna help me out here?" Luke requested, already running out of things to say to the stranger blocking their way.
Clementine spoken up after keeping silent during their little conversation. She asked the first question that popped into her mind. "We're a little lost."
"Lost, huh?" the man replied, believing her lie, but at the same time, not seeming to realize Luke had his right hand to his pistol holster, preparing to pull out his Glock 17.
Everyone stood quiet for a moment, all three of them unsure what to say. Clementine merely stood there, Luke still prepared to pull out his Glock 17, and as for the stranger, he still stood where he was.
Before long, the man continued marching towards them, finally getting close enough to reveal he was carrying an M14 rifle, a similar weapon to the Winchester Model 70 some of the cabin survivors owned.
The man stopped in his steps yet again, seeming neutral at the moment since he did hot have his weapon aimed at them. "Huh. You don't look like assholes. Are you assholes? No offence or anything. But you know how it is out here. You run into a lot of assholes."
"I'm not an asshole." Clementine assured, showing a slightly annoyed face since she did not like to swear.
"Are you calling ME an asshole?" Luke inquired, taking note of how Clementine said, "asshole" instead of, "assholes".
The man chuckled slightly as he continued walking towards them, finally realizing that these two strangers were not bad and seemed friendly. He walked close to them, now standing only a few feet away from them.
Luke and Clementine could now see the man in clear view. He looked like an Asian-American, he looked around in his late twenties, and he had a small black moustache and wore a grey and black jacket with his hood over his head, and wore dark brownish cargo pants.
The man seemed friendly...For now, at least. He now seems to trust them enough to approach them and spoke in a friendly tone. "You folks headed north like everyone else?"
""Everyone else?"" Luke queried, wondering what he meant by "everyone else". He suspected that he and Clementine was not the only people who have come across this bridge.
"I see at least one group a day move through here." the man replied, keeping his weapon holstered from them. "You all look the same. It's like a great migration of the dazed and confused."
When the man had mentioned about groups coming through here often, it gave her hope that Christa might have passed through here. "Have you seen someone named Christa?"
"Christa? Maybe." he answered, but was not one-hundred percent sure.
Clementine's face brightened and her eyes widened slightly, gaining some hope that Christa was alive. "Really?!"
"Nah, I mean, a lot of people come through here. I don't know." the man admitted as he examined the two, noticing the blood and dirt smeared across different parts of their bodies. "I got to say, you two look like shit. If you need food, I've got some canned food in that station back there."
"Well, that's, uh, awful nice of you." Luke admitted, placing his hands to his hips, but suspecting the man was going to want something in return. "What's the catch?"
"No catch. I've got plenty." the man reassured them, making himself looking even friendlier to the two.
"Well alright then, then. Thank you." Luke thanked, smiling across his face as he was glad not everyone in this world was bad, and there was still some good people out there.
"Hey, no problem. Nice running into friendly face out here." the man replied, feeling the same ways as Luke: meeting someone friendly for once in this day and age. "Like I said, I've got food and supplies back in the station. And if you want..."
The man's expression changed from a friendly one into a shocked one when he spotted something on the other side of the bridge come running towards them. "What the fuck, man?"
Clementine and Luke turned around to see what the trouble was. They were both shocked to see Nick running straight towards them with his rifle in his hands, and Pete seemed to be chasing him, but due to his old age, he could not keep up with his nephew.
"What the hell is he doing?" Luke wondered, annoyed and confused since he clearly made it to the entire cabin group not to cross the bridge until they lit the fire.
Nick had a worried in expression on his face. By the looks of it from everyone's point of view, he must have mistaken the man to be an enemy. He aimed his rifle towards him, completely ignoring his uncle shouting at him.
"Nick! God-dammit, stop!" Pete ordered, yelling as loud as he could while panting, needing to stop to catch his breath.
Clementine and Luke watched in shock as the man raised his M14 up towards Nick, mistaking him for an enemy, too. One of them was going to shoot soon unless someone did something, and fast.
"No, no, no, no! He's wi-he's with us!" Luke quickly assured him, raising his hands in the air to prove they were not enemies. He quickly spun around as he waved his hands in the air, trying to signal for him to stop. "Nick! No!"
"Put it down!" the man ordered, preparing to pull the trigger on this man.
Clementine would only think of one idea she could do to save everyone and that was too put herself on the line. She quickly ran towards the man, blocking Nick's aim from him so he would not dare shoot. "Nick! NO!"
"What are you doing?!" the man inquired, shocked that this little girl was trying to defend him even though they had only just met moments ago.
"Just put down your gun!" Clementine ordered, not wanting one of them to fire before it was too late.
"Not until he puts his gun down!" the man refused, closing one eye for a better line of a shot.
While they were aiming, Luke ran closer to Luke as fast as he could, despite the fact he had almost fallen off not too long ago. He finally got close enough for Nick to hear him. "Nick! Don't shoot! He's cool!"
"Cool?" Nick replied, somewhat shocked that Luke was saying this, but he did not have the time to think about it was his gun was suddenly snatched out from his hands. "Pete, what are you doing!?"
"You can't just aim at anyone you want!" Pete answered, holding his hands and the rifle in the air for surrender, shouting out to the man Clementine was standing by. "Hey, it's okay! We're with those two!"
The man half-closed his eyes as he looked back down towards Clementine, slowly raising his M14 down. "Is it true? Is he with you?"
"Yes, everyone over there is!" Clementine quickly assured him. "Nick's just a little paranoid. He's okay, I promise."
The man seemed unsure for a moment, but eventually, he too holstered his M14 back to his stomach and began walking towards the three men. Luke, Nick, and Pete moved back around the handcar, hoping that they were not trying to double-cross him.
Pete was the first to speak up, and offered his sincere apologizes for his nephew's behaviours. "I'm so sorry about that. My nephew's just a bit of a fucking idiot sometimes."
"Fuck you, Pete." Nick replied, acting hostile to his own uncle, still angry that his uncle always tried to give him a hard time.
"What if you shot?" Pete asked, pointing out all of the consequences that could have happened if Nick was too fire. "What if Carver is still after us? That shot would have rang out for miles."
"Alright, I get it. I'm sorry." Nick apologized, sighing as he turned away from the others.
"Are we cool?" Luke inquired to the man, hoping he would still be the friendly stranger they met not too long ago.
The man thought about for a moment, thinking these three strangers were just like sick people out there, but then again, they had a little girl with them, and that seemed reason enough for him. "Yeah, we're cool. Just don't let that happen again."
"I promise you, he won't do that again." Pete promised, handing Nick back his rifle, to which he snatched from his uncle's hands. "What the hell did you do that for?"
"I thought they were in trouble. He was waving his arms!" Nick explained, but at the same time, feeling guilty that he could have just harmed an innocent man, or even worse, accidently hit Clementine or Luke since he was a bad shot.
"Like I said, it's cool. Just don't let it happen again." the man replied, seeming friendly again as he looked towards Clementine and smiled, realizing she may have just saved his life. "Thanks for that. I'm Matthew, by the way."
"I'm Clementine." Clementine introduced herself.
"Nice to meet." Matthew smiled, looking up where he could see a few others were making their way down the bridge, and a dog, too. "They all with you?"
"Yeah, that's all of us." Clementine assured, hoping that would not get into another situation like that again.
"Well, like I said, I got plenty of food." Matthew repeated, turning himself around as he began to lead everyone towards the small station at the end of the bridge. "Follow me."
The rest of the group followed Matthew down the bridge until they had reached the station that Matthew had mentioned he had food in. Everyone seemed to have taken a liking to him, all except for Carlos and Rebecca, who were concerned to why he was being so kind.
When they arrived, Matthew turned his attention to the others when they finally made their way across. "If all of you want to wait here, I'll get some food for all of you. I got plenty, really."
"Well, that is kind of you." Carlos admitted, folding his arms together as he eyed his daughter standing next to him. "Is it just you out here?"
"Nah, there's another three of us in that ski-lodge back there." Matthew replied, gesturing his arm over to the ski lodge behind him in their view. "I could ask them to let you guys stay if you need a place to stay."
The others thought about this offer for a moment. There was still a chance Carver was after them, but then again, they needed a place to stay for a while, especially since Rebecca was growing quite weak from her growing pregnancy.
Since Carlos was practically the main leader out of them all, he spoke for everyone here. "We'll see if the others are okay with it first."
"That's good by me." Matthew agreed, turning towards the station wagon to go and get those canned food he mentioned. "I'll be back in a minute."
As soon as Matthew went into the station wagon, everyone decided to settle down for a while. Rebecca sat down on a log, needing to rest for a moment with Sarah sitting beside her. Carlos needed a word with Pete and Luke, so he lead them a couple of feet away so talk privately. Nick sat down on a wooden bench just outside the station, needing to think things over.
While they were waiting for a couple of moments, Alvin, who had both of his hands in his pockets, called up to Clementine, needing a favour from her. "Hey, Clem, do you mind going to check on that Matthew going, see what he's going? Rebecca really needs that food."
"Alvin, I told you, I'm fine." Rebecca reassured him, placing both her hands onto her pregnant tummy.
"Sure." Clementine agreed, wanting to help the couple out.
"Thanks Clem." Alvin thanked, sitting himself down beside his wife, still with his hands in his pockets.
Clementine made her way over to the station while everyone else talked little ways. Before she went inside, she talked to Nick for a moment, knowing what he had a good heart and meant well, but could be stupid sometimes.
"I'm sure they're talking about me right now. "Pete, your nephew is becoming a danger to the group!"." Nick said, trying to mimic Carlos in a fake Spanish accent. "So, is that guy cool? I swear, it looked like he was holding you guys up. I thought he was with Carver."
"He seems nice." Clementine replied, wanting to scold Nick for his actions moments ago, but found it was not the best time to do it. "You should really think before you act, Nick."
"I know." he admitted, sighing as he looked towards the ground, a hint of regret in his voice. "If Alvin is in front of me, he takes that shot...I think I am starting to lose it...You know what, I'm going to go talk to them."
Clementine merely watched as Nick stood up and began making his way over to where Carlos and Pete. She then proceeded to the station, checking on Matthew's progress to see if he got the food yet.
When she was inside, Clementine observed the small station from the inside. It had a small bunk bed with empty cans scattered across the floor. She turned to the right where Matthew was searching the inside of the trunk. "Matthew."
"Hey, looks like I was wrong." Matthew admitted, holding up two canned foods in his hands for her to see, revealing he did not have a lot left. "I only got two cans left."
"I guess you can give it to someone else." Clementine assured, wanting to give the food to those who needed it, especially Rebecca.
"Sorry, but if you guys do come up, I'm sure my partner and the rest of the group are willing to give some supplies." Matthew offered, looking to one of the cans for a moment where he raised a grin, seeing a resemblance between the girl on the tin. "She kind of looks like you."
Clementine merely stared in response, showing a normal face.
"Well, since it's your group, I'll let you decide." Matthew said, handing her both cans of food over to the young girl. He knelt down and picked up his M14, making his way back outside.
After he was gone, the door opened for a second time. Clementine looked towards the door to see it was Alvin, who walked inside to check for food for his wife. He sighed as he studied the station, surprised of how bad it looked. "Man, and I thought we had it bad. Look at this dump."
He approached Clementine, who stared at him, holding both cans of food in her hands. "Guess there's not a lot of food left. Can't imagine what would have happened if Nick shot that guy. I mean, yeah, there are a lot of crazy people out there, but that doesn't give him any excuse to start aiming guns at strangers."
"He was trying to help us. He thought he could have been with Carver." Clementine reassured, feeling somewhat sympathy for Nick since he seemed to have a bit of a temper, and tends to panic easily.
"Yeah, but someone could have died." Alvin countered. "I ain't no judge, but that would have been straight up murder in my book. I mean, you ever known anyone who would have done a thing like that?"
"Lots of people. Especially this woman who was in our group once." Clementine answered, remembering back to the day Lilly had shot Carley in cold blood, suspected her to be the traitor in their group. "It happens all the time now."
"It's fucking crazy. Pardon my French." Alvin apologized, not wanting to swear in front of Clementine due to her being only a little girl. He accepted one of the cans into his hands, smiling across his face as he showed the can to Clementine. "That's funny. She looks just like you."
"Matthew said the same thing." Clementine replied, smiling slightly across her face.
"Hey, Clem, there's not a lot of food, and Rebecca well...she's eating for two. You think we can keep this just between us?" Alvin requested, wanting to give all of the food for his wife so she could keep up her strength. "I hate to even say it, you know, but...And I'd never go against the group. But I've got to put Bec and the baby first. You understand, right?"
Clementine thought about his request while he was talking, but it did not feel right for two reasons: the group should decide on who gets the food, and Alvin was so worried about feeding a child that was most likely not even his.
She was about to say not, but decided to let him have the food this time for Rebecca and her unborn baby's sake. "Rebecca can have it. I won't say anything."
"Thanks, Clementine." he thanked, turning back towards the exit of the station. However, he stopped when he could see something on the distance out from the window. "The hell is that?"
Clementine walked beside him to see what was wrong. She gasped silently as the sight of multiple walkers could be seen crossing the bridge. "Walkers."
Alvin panicked slightly as he quickly departed from the inside of the station, joining the others outside, and they seemed to notice the situation as well. "We got a problem here."
"Yeah, we saw it." Luke replied, moving towards the older man with the others trailing behind him.
"Let's go." Matthew ordered, beckoning for them to follow him.
The members of the former cabin group followed Matthew up to the mountain, running as fast as they could to avoid the walkers that were pursing them. Hopefully, they could lose them on the way up and save themselves whatever ammunition they had left.
After a few minutes or running through the woods, Matthew had leaded everyone all the way to the ski lodge. It took all of them a few minutes to catch their breaths back while they followed Matthew towards the entrance to the ski lodge.
"You all mind staying here while I let everyone know we got company?" Matthew requested, turning back to the others as they finally caught up. "I shouldn't be long."
"We'll wait." Carlos replied, kneeling down towards the ground to rest for a moment.
Matthew nodded in agreement as he looked towards Nick standing next to Carlos, and shot him a glare for a moment before resuming his way back towards the ski lodge.
After he was gone out from everyone else's sight, Rebecca caught up to Carlos, Nick and Pete, panting slightly as she was desperate to get inside, needing to rest after walking for five days none stop. "Well? What are we waiting for?"
"We need to wait until he sees if his group is okay with us staying." Carlos answered, keeping a close eye on the cabin, obviously not seeming too trust-worthy of them. "I don't like this though."
"You don't like this?" Rebecca repeated, placing both of her hands upon her hips. "We've been on the road for five days. My back is killing me."
Alvin caught up to the others and began to study the ski lodge Matthew had walked into. The entire place was nail up tight with boards, leaving only a couple of windows exposed to see through. "They sure got this place locked-up tight."
While they were waiting, Clementine rested her arms against a wooden railing with Sam sitting beside her, looking over into the distance towards the way they came; having the feeling something was wrong. She was soon companied by Luke, who had the same feeling as her that they may be hunted and tracked without them knowing.
"Well, it'd be good to know if anybody's actually back there." Luke admitted, looking towards the top of a small tower nearby. "Could probably get a better view from up top. You'd have an easier time getting up there. You feel like taking a look? It'll be just like climbing a tree house. You know, just a really tall treehouse. Made of steel."
"What am I, a monkey?" Clementine inquired, glaring towards him with her eyes half-closed.
"Hey, you said it. Not me." Luke countered before he leaned up from the wooden railing, making his way over to the small tower.
Clementine knelt down to Sam before following suit and petted his head a couple of times, much to the dog's enjoyment. "I'll be back soon, boy. Just got to go and climb that tower like a monkey, okay?"
Sam woofed in response before rubbing his head against her shoulder.
"Just stay here with the others." Clementine instructed, standing back up the full height as she followed Luke towards the tower. She approached the ladder and looked up, seeing it was quite high, and looked a little difficult to climb.
"Just take it slow, and I'll catch you if you fall." Luke assured her, but was not being one-hundred percent honest. "Probably."
("That's reassuring.") Clementine thought to herself, rolling her eyeballs around for a moment as she placed her hands upon the ladders.
"Got a good grip?" Luke inquired, moving closer towards the ladders just in case.
"Yeah." she replied as she began climbing up the ladders, trying her best not to look down and keep focused on climbing up.
Luke watched as she continued climbing up the steps, and decided to speak up to her in a assuring tone that this was nothing compared to what he use to do. "When I was a kid we used to jump rooftops downtown. Now that was fun."
"That sounds stupid." Clementine admitted, already half-way up the small tower.
"Yeah, yeah, it was." Luke admitted. "The trick was to not look down though."
As Clementine almost reached the top of the tower, she suddenly cried out in panic as her left foot had slipped, almost losing her grip. She clutched on for dear life, closing her eyes as tight as she could.
"Whoa, whoa, whoa. You're fine." Luke soothed, holding both of his arms up, preparing to catch her if she had fallen. "Just look at me, okay? You're fine...Alright, just-just slow down. Just for a second, okay? Got your grip?"
Clementine merely nodded her head in response, still with her eyes closed as she froze in her position. She took a couple of breaths as she looked up and took a couple of breaths before making her way up the tower.
After a few more terrifying climbing seconds, Clementine finally made it to the top of the tower, finally feeling safe. She stood up as she looked beyond the valley, the only thing keeping her company was a black bird perched on the railing. "Made it."
"See anything?" Luke inquired, raising his voice a little louder for Clementine to hear him.
Clementine raised her binoculars back over her eyes, looking back into the distance, back the way they came. She spotted the bridge they had crossed over (and almost died on) on. "I can see the bridge! Wait, I see something!"
Near the end of the bridge, a light had emerged from the woods. There were multiple thoughts to what it could be racing around Clementine's mind. Could it be Carver and his men? Or maybe it was just other people passing through?
"What is it?" Luke inquired a hint of worry in his voice as soon as Clementine mentioned she saw something.
"A light-" Clementine stopped in mid-sentence when yet another light had emerged from the woods. "Wait, there's another. Luke! Luke?"
Clementine placed her binoculars down and turned around to see Luke had run over towards the others. She watched as he joined the group who were now standing on the other side of Matthew and three other people standing with him. "Figures."
Being even more cautious this time now that Luke was no longer here to catch her if she slipped. She carefully got back into a climbing position and carefully climbed back down the tower, praying she would not slip and fall.
As she got near the bottom, a conversation between both groups could be heard nearby, and by the sounds of it, they seemed to be talking like civilized people...For now, at least. Clementine jumped from the ladders and made her way over to the others.
"Look, we won't be a problem. We'll only be here for the night." Carlos assured them, speaking for everyone as he kept his arm around Sarah to protect her if things got bad.
"That's fine with us." a man who looked in his middle fifties, wearing a red and grey sweater, with bluish jeans replied, obviously he seemed to be calm.
"Ya'll better not be thieves or murders." the man with a Winchester Model 70 threatened, sounding a little like he did not trust them since they were just complete strangers.
("That voice!") Clementine thought to herself, moving past the through her grip in make sure her mind was not playing tricks on her.
"Fuck you!" Nick swore, getting irritated with this older man's attitude, feeling his temper rise.
"Everyone just calm down, please." Luke requested, sensing the situation was about to get out of side like it did on the bridge.
Clementine moved in between Luke and Nick to see the ski lodge group, and what she saw next surprised her, leaving her to wonder if this was real or not. She stood there shocked as the man with the rifle looked towards her just for a second, but then kept his attention on her as he lowered his rifle, his mouth hanging down in shock.
A huge smiled raised on Clementine's face as she stood only a couple of feet away from him, feeling too surprised and happy to move. She was told by Christa and Omid he had died, but here he was, standing right in front of her. "Kenny?!"
Luke arched an eyebrow as he eyed Clementine, a little puzzled to how she knew this man. "Wait, you know this guy?"
Kenny stood there as he looked down towards the younger girl, his eyes as wide as they could go. He now had a fully grown beard across his face, matching with his mustache, but he still wore the same hat he always wore ever since he first met them. "...Clementine?"
Without saying anything, Clementine ran towards him and embraced Kenny in a hug, closing her eyes as she moved her arms around his torso. Kenny returned the hug to her, moving his right hand upon her head, him too closing his eyes.
The two ended the hug moments later and moved a step back. They both smiled towards one and other as Kenny knelt down to Clementine's height, placing his right hand upon her shoulder.
"I'll take that as a yes." the man with the sweater assumed, smiling as he placed both of his hands near his hips.
Kenny took his hand off from her shoulder and looked over Clementine's shoulder, seeing the rest of the group merely watching. "These people with you?"
Clementine nodded her head a couple of times in response, still feeling too happy to speak.
"We can talk inside." Kenny declared, pointing his thump on his right hand backwards over his shoulder.
"Great. I just started dinner." the man with the sweater said.
Carlos looked towards the other group for a moment with his arms crossed together, now beginning to trust them since Clementine knew one of them. His daughter looked happy enough, but he still had a couple of doubts. "Are you sure you don't mind?"
"It's going to storm soon." the man warned, offering them shelter for the night. "Please, come in."
Kenny's group leaded the other survivors around the cabin towards the man entrance inside. While they were walking, Clementine and Kenny looked towards one and other, smiling as they could not be happier now that they were finally reunited with each other. Maybe everything was going to be okay after all, and maybe there was still hope in this world.
Clementine and her friend Kenny have been reunited, ladies and gentleman. And as you can see in this story, Matthew was never shot by Nick, meaning he now has a longer role in this story. Let us see what will happen next in chapter 7.