The Walking Dead: Clementine and a dog named Sam
Chapter 11: a new day
A quick author's note to my readers: I looked back on my voting poll on my profile and I certainly was surprised to see everyone likes the game more than the TV show. Me personally, enjoys the show, the games, and the comics. If you have not voted yet, be sure to leave your votes on what you like more. But before that, here is chapter 11, folks. I also did a reference to the show in this chapter. See if you can guess what it is.
Clementine awoke when she felt something nudge her stomach, and she only assumed it was someone in her group trying to wake her up. She opened her eyes to see Troy standing over her, showing no emotion across his face as he held his assault in his hands. "Don't kick me." she told him. "It's rude."
"Get up." Troy ordered, for once, speaking a normal tone. "Bill's going to have a word." he aimed his gun towards her slightly to prove he was not messing around.
Clementine obeyed his command and get out of her man-made bed and began making her way towards the others whom were all standing near the security shutters, and to her relief, Sam was there too, and he seem to be behaving himself by just sitting down. Nick and Pete were not accounted for, possibly already put to work, and neither was Mike or that girl.
Clementine stood next to Sarah as the security shutters opened, revealing Carver with Tavia and a henchman guarding the area, armed with Ak-47s. She merely watched as Carver spoke up to each and every one of them.
"There's been increased walker activity along the fence so be mindful when outside the walls. The herd's moved a little closer as of this morning, but that doesn't necessarily mean we'll be hit." Carver assured them, but to them, the herd was the last thing they needed to be worried about when being trapped in this camp. "Know we're monitoring the situation. Now..." he closed his eyes for a moment and took in a deep breath. "There are some folks might be sore about what happened...at how things went. Well, that's all in the past now...Some of you are new to our community. Some of you are members who went astray. But know that you can redemption here...Forgiveness...By proving your worth through what will undoubtedly be hard work."
Carver shifted his attention over towards Reggie, whom dared not do anything to ruin his chances of being let back into the group. "Reggie, you're nearly back in." Carver told him, and this caused him to smile slightly for a moment. "Keep following the path, and we'll welcome you back with open arms."
"How'd you sleep?" Sarah asked Clementine in a low voice, but that was not quite enough to keep Carver from hearing, but nevertheless, he continued speaking.
Clementine did not want Sarah to get any punishment at all, fearing of what Carver might do to her if she is caught speaking over him. She quickly whispered towards her in a yelling tone. "Sarah, quiet! Remember, be good."
Sarah quickly realized to what she meant when speaking about being good. She did not want to get herself or anyone else in trouble, and zipped her lips, merely keeping nodding in response.
"Now, each of you has different assignments this morning." Carlos continued, staring towards Sarah for a moment to make sure she did not speak over him anymore. "It's time to get to work. Clementine, you're with Bonnie. Nick and Pete are already working outside the fence. Kenny, you're with Mike, Troy will take you there. Carlos, you're working on some of the injured this morning. Sarah, Sarita, you two are going to help Reggie. The dog stays here, for now, at least until I can find something useful for him. Rebecca, as for you, we need to talk in my office. Any questions?"
The only one who needed to ask a question was Sarita, whom raised her hand for permission to speak.
"Yes?" Carver inquired, folding his arms together for a moment as he waited for her question.
"Where is our friend Matthew?" Sarita inquired, realizing he was not present with the rest of them.
"Ah, you mean the Asian fellow." Carver knew whom she was referring to, and made an excuse for now. "You don't need to worry about him. He and I had a little "chat last night. Now, no more questions. You all know your duties. Get to work."
Everyone dispersed out of the yard, not wanting to make Carver angry for disobeying his orders. Before Clementine left, she knelt down to Sam's height and stroked him for a moment, knowing she was not going to see him for a while. "Stay here, boy, okay."
Sam merely woofed in response.
Clementine had to make this quick before she got herself into trouble, and made her way over towards the exit of the yard where Tavia was waiting for her. "You're working in the armory. Follow me."
"Soil coming up!"
Clementine was startled when a bag of soil suddenly dropped out of nowhere, landing only a couple of feet away from her. She looked up to see it was the girl she met the previous night, and by the looks of it, this was her job in this community.
"God damn this thing." Troy growled, annoyed that this incident had happened again.
"Oh, shit..." the girl cursed, looking down below to see how bad the soil had broken, and by the looks of it, it did not look good at all.
"Clementine!"
Clementine took that as her cue to go and followed the older woman out of the yard, taking one more look at Sam who merely sat there with his tongue out and watching his new master leave. He was unable to follow her when the security shutters were shut by Troy, leaving him trapped in there all on his own.
While Clementine continued to follow Tavia to her new work post, she looked down one of the former shopping isle to see two girls standing there. Both of them seemed to be Caucasian-American, and it was highly possible that they could be related.
The older woman looked around in her early twenties. She had dark brown hair tied in a ponytail; she wore a blue jacket with dark bluish jeans. As the younger girl, she looked around the same age as Sarah, she had medium sized dark brown long hair, and she wore a light brown long sleeve shirt and grey pants.
"Who is this?" the girl inquired.
"She's one of the new people." the older man answered. "She was with Carlos and Sarah and-"
"Ugh. Sarah?" the girl sighed, interrupting her older sister from speaking as she folded her arms together and shifted herself around. "I wish she had stayed gone."
"She's had a hard time, Becca." the older woman told her little sister, watching as Clementine walked past them both.
"So have we." Becca reminded her, still keeping her arms crossed together as she looked away from Clementine. "We're not sitting on the ground like babies."
Clementine ignored the other girl and continued following Tavia to her new work post. Tavia stopped at a metal door and opened it up for Clementine. "Go on inside. Bonnie's waiting."
The young girl marched into the small room where a sign on the wall had "Pro Power Tools" hung up on the wall. She could not believe that out of all the people who work in this place, she got stuck with the woman she felt sorry for when believing her so-called sob story about her having a family and needing food.
Bonnie sat in a lawn chair and gestured her hand to another lawn chair facing opposite of her, offering her a seat. "Hey...I guess you're starting your day with me." once Clementine sat down, Bonnie shower her a big box of bullets and handed her ammo clips. "We're loading magazines."
The duo each picked up a magazine and began reloading clips together. Bonnie had to admit she was impressed that someone of Clementine's age could know how to do this. Heck, Becca was older and even she struggled to do this once. "That's it, you got it."
Bonnie and Clementine continued to reload the magazine clips in silence for a moment or so. She had to admit that she did like Clementine as a friend, and did feel somewhat guilty for lying to her when they first met. "I suppose I owe you an apology...I wasn't truthful when I came across ya'll at the lodge...and I was shown a kindness I never would have expected from a group of strangers...But...now folks are dead...and I can't help but feel I'm to blame. But the plan was for no-one to get hurt. I truly believe that was the intent. At least it was mine going into it."
"Carver's the one who pulled the trigger." Clementine told her as she continued reloading magazines with bullets. "He's to blame."
"Yeah, but...I surely didn't help matters." Bonnie admitted. "I thought if I was the one that found everyone, I could control it. Keep everyone safe...but ain't how it went."
Clementine stared at her for a moment with a slight sad expression across her face, realizing that Bonnie was not all that bad unlike the many members of Carver's camp like Carver, Troy and many more.
"I apologize." Bonnie apologized. "Which don't account for much, but it's all I can offer right now."
Clementine did not answer, but Bonnie could tell by her face that she had forgiven her. The two continued the rest of their work until Bonnie had spoken up once again. "How was your first night in the yard? I know it ain't so comfortable...But it's safe...Which is more than I can say about a lot of places out there."
"You mean my first night in prison?" Clementine queried.
"It ain't a prison." Bonnie quickly responded, hoping to assure Clementine that this community was a great place to be in. "More of a...work release."
"Didn't they do those in prisons?" Clementine clashed, being able to outsmart Bonnie just with her own words.
"I...probably. I don't know..." Bonnie admitted. "I never been to prison. Don't tell no-one. Trying to keep a tough reputation. Well once, I did see this one prison when we were on the run. I think it was being run by some sheriff guy. I didn't see much. All I saw was him, some guy with a crossbow and a kid with a sheriff hat."
Bonnie picked up another magazine and began reloading it while she and Clementine continued to make conversation between them both. "I was supposed to go...when Luke and Carlos and all them left, I was planning on leaving too. When Luke approached me about it, I-I thought he was crazy. I mean, we're safe here. We got power. We got food. And Bill, he...he wasn't always like this."
"They never mentioned you." Clementine admitted.
"No? Hm. Not even Luke?" Bonnie inquired, sounding somewhat surprised that her old friends never mentioned her to the young girl.
Clementine merely shook her head in response.
"Well, I'm-that's to be expected, ain't it? You don't know me, do ya? What are they going to say?" Bonnie asked Clementine, chuckling slightly during mid-sentence. ""Bonnie ain't here?"" she trick to mimic Luke in a deep voice. "You wouldn't know what he was talking about."
"I guess that could be it." Clementine admitted.
Bonnie continued to explain why she did not go with them while she set down a now fully-reloaded magazine. "I justified not going by telling myself it's easier to try and change something that's broken than start all over. Take this situation with the herd...that's the type of thing that rips a community apart. He keeps things in line...he's got a lot of this stuff figured out. I don't know...I guess I just wanted to be somewhere comfortable for a while."
"Nobody's safe here with Carver around." Clementine told her, knowing there was no way in Hell that Carver was someone you want to stay with.
"You're safe if you stay on his good side." Bonnie countered her sentence with her own.
"I would if I knew where it was." Clementine mumbled.
"I mean, it ain't easy keeping a group this big fed and protected." Bonnie admitted. "I don't envy that position. Figure that would make anyone a little stressed. I'm not defending what he did. That was...I'm alive because of him. That's just a fact. And there's something to that."
Clementine could not believe what she was hearing. Carver a good man? Being held her against your will was not the kind of place you would want to be in. Was Bonnie scared of Carver just like Reggie, or was she just plain stupid? "He killed Walter!"
"Only to protect his own people." Bonnie quickly responded. "Kenny could have killed us all."
"But he didn't." Clementine reminded.
"Bill overreacted. He was in the heat of the moment and he overreacted." Bonnie explained as she picked up more magazines to continue the rest of their work. "Luke had ideas about how things should go, but they didn't line up with that Bill was thinking...they butted heads, and Rebecca started showing, and that only made things worse...Maybe Luke was right about him...I wish he was around, but...I just hope he's safe."
A static voice had spoken up on the radio resting on the table they were working at. By the sound of the voice, it must be Tavia on the other end. "Hey Bonnie, is that girl down there? I need to come get her."
Bonnie picked up the radio and held her finger against the button to communicate. "Yeah, she's here."
"Okay, I'll be right over." Tavia turned off her radio on her end.
Bonnie noticed a slightly nervous expression across Clementine's face, and assured her that everything was going to be fine. "I'm sure it's fine." she only just remembered that she had a gift for the young girl. "Oh, almost forgot. I grabbed this for ya."
Bonnie got up from her working position and picked something up on the other end of the room. She returned seconds later, holding a small cerulean ski jacket with a rainbow strip around the middle that looked like it would fit her size. She gave Clementine the jacket to which she accepted, and smiled while placing her hand against her hip. "Huh? What do you think?"
Clementine examined the jacket she wore at the moment. She had to admit it did look a little silly, but was very grateful for it, knowing it would keep her warm in the cold weathers.
"I found it at the lodge y'all were at. Think it might be for skiing." Bonnie suggested, examining the jacket around Clementine. "Had to wait for no-one to be around to get it to you."
"It's cool. I like it." Clementine smiled.
"I'm glad." Bonnie agreed with a slight smile across her face. "I thought it was cute, but I didn't know what you would think. You better watch yourself. I think some folks might be jealous of that cool jacket of yours."
The door had opened from the outside, revealing it to be Tavia whom had arrived to collect Clementine. She noticed the new jacket across his Clementine, and had to admit she did not like it. "Oh, there you are. What's with the ugly jacket?"
"Tavia!" Bonnie sighed.
"What?" Tavia inquired, wanting to know what she did wrong exactly.
"Never mind. I'll see you later, Clementine." Bonnie bidden the young girl farewell, and proceeded to continue reloading the rest of the magazine clips on her own.
"Come on." Tavia ordered, marching out of the workshop.
Tavia escorted Clementine to the roof of the community center and got there via the fire escape staircase. She opened up the fire exit with Clementine close beside her. "Follow me, come on."
Clementine followed Tavia into a small greenhouse on the roof of their community, revealing there to be multiple berries growing on plants. She had to admit this place looked great, and would be perfect if only it was run by a better leader.
"Stay in her for a minute, I'm going to radio down and find out what you're doing. Don't touch anything." Tavia ordered as she closed the wooden door behind her.
After she was alone, Clementine walked around the greenhouse to get to the look around of the place. She looked down and was relieved to see Sarah sitting in the corner of the greenhouse, cradling herself in her arms that were around her knees. "Hey..." Clementine greeted. "You okay? You want a hug?"
"...I'm scared, Clementine." Sarah admitted, unable to take all the suffering and pain that happened in this place. "I think Carver is going to punish us. He brought us here to make us suffer."
"If Carver wanted to do that, he would have done it already." Clementine assured. "Don't worry, all we need to do is play ball for now and soon we're going to figure a way out of here."
"Thanks...For trying to help..." Sarah thanked, happy that she had a friend like Clementine to help take care of her lie they were sisters. "I just don't know why people have to be so mean. Even when I'm really mad, I still don't want to hurt anyone...I saw Matthew...Carver had hurt him..."
"Is he okay?" Clementine inquired with a hint of worry in her voice.
"...I don't know." Sarah admitted.
The door had opened again for a second time, and both girls were relieved to see it was a friendly face: it was Reggie. He stood by the entrance to the greenhouse for a moment when Tavia gave him a warning. "Don't mess this up."
"Yeah, I get it." Reggie assured.
"Reggie's in charge here, okay?" Tavia told both of the girls; wanting to make sure they did not step out of line and were free to run amok. "Listen to him carefully."
"Yep. No problem, Tavia." Reggie reassured, merely watching as Tavia closed the door behind her. He shifted his attention back towards the two girls, hoping he could place his trust into them both. "Okay, we got to do a good job, guys. The camp is counting on us. Come on, I'll show you what to do. It's super easy."
Both girls followed him over towards two separate tables with plants with berries attached to them, pairs of shears, and baskets for the berries. It was up to Reggie to make sure they did a good job. "Pick up a pair of those shears."
The duo obeyed his order and both picked up their tools.
"Okay, so we're picking these berries, right? Just pick them, put them in the basket. Simple." Reggie instructed in a friendly tone. "While you're at it, if you see any dead branches, take those shears and cut them off, and stack them neatly for composting. Got it?"
Clementine nodded in agreement and made her way over towards her work station. Sarah did not nod, but she did understand her duty and began her job.
Reggie made his way over towards Clementine. He did place his trust with this job to Clementine, but as for Sarah, he had some concerns for her. "Hey, so...is she going to be okay? I've known Sarah for a while now, and I know how nervous she can get with things. I just don't want her messing up this job."
"I'll take care of her." Clementine assured, wanting to help Reggie get back into Carver's group as soon as possible. "You don't have to worry."
"Good...Good. Because I'm awful at that stuff." Reggie admitted. "Look, Bill's had it out for me ever since I helped those guys escape, so I got to concentrate on my work." he raised up his one hand and patted Clementine on the hat a couple of times, but took a step back when he noticed Clementine did not seem to like that. "That was awkward. I won't do that again. I'm going to go work now."
After he was gone, Clementine and Sarah began their jobs and collected the berries into the basket while cutting off any dead branches. Both of them were doing o good job for now, and hopefully this would be enough to help Reggie increase his chances into getting back into Carver's group.
Fifteen-minutes had passed or so, and both Clementine and Sarah had almost finished their jobs. Reggie came over to both of them and a smile rose on his face. He watched for a few seconds as both of them finished their jobs, and this made him so relieved. "Good job, girls." his smile soon dropped when he looked out the window of the greenhouse, seeing Carver marching his way over towards them. "Oh, shit."
"Oh, no..." Sarah gasped.
"It's alright, girls, he most likely just once to check on us." Reggie assured them both. "Just don't do anything stupid and only speak if spoken to."
Carver entered the greenhouse through the same way they came in, and entered with a slight grin on his face. "Just checking in...See how the new girls are working out."
"Oh, they are both doing a good job." Reggie assured, deep down, he was extremely fearful of what would have happened if neither of them finished their job in time. "They both finished picking the berries and cut off any dead branches and stacked them for composting."
"Hmm, good job, Reggie." Carver praised him. "I see you have proven your loyalty to me. You kept things quiet last night and got this job done in time. I think it's time we let you back into our group."
Reggie could not be happier to be welcomed back into Carver's group after weeks and weeks of proving his loyalty to Carver after his mistakes in the past, he was finally welcomed back in. "Oh, thanks Bill!"
"Don't think this doesn't mean you don't have to do any more work, Reggie." Carver warned, but Reggie did still keep his enthusiasm expression.
"Yeah, of course." Reggie assured.
"Alright, then head downstairs and meet up with Hank and Vince, tell them I sent ya and that you're back in the group now." Carver ordered, looking over Reggie's shoulders to see Clementine and Sarah merely watching in silence. "I'll talk to our girls here."
"Sure thing, Bill, and thanks." Reggie thanked him as he exited the greenhouse and made his way over towards the fire exit back downstairs, but not before thanking the two whom were responsible. "Thanks for the help, girls."
After he was gone, Clementine and Sarah were now trapped alone with Carver, and hopefully he would not do anything to them that would cost them dearly. They did nothing wrong for now, and intended to keep it that way. "Well, girls, looks like you got Reggie back into the group. It's going to be a while before it's time for the two to be out of the yard, but understand one thing: I do not tolerate weakness...Incompetence...It puts us all at risk. You be sure to think about that the next time you're asked to do something. Understand?"
Both girls nodded in response.
"Good. Now, Clementine, you head downstairs, Bonnie's got some stuff for you to do." Carver ordered with a grin across his face. "As for you Sarah, we need to have a little talk."
Sarah gulped in fear, shaking slightly as she knew she was going to be left all alone with Carver without protection whatsoever.
Clementine did not wish to leave her best friend alone, but she did not have any say at that matter. After she was gone, Carver placed his hand upon Sarah's shoulder, causing her to become even more nervous. "Just relax, Sarah, you are not in any trouble. We just need to have a little talk."
Clementine was able to find her way back to the area Pro Power Tools workshop was located. She walked into the area to find Bonnie filling up a bucket with the word "Howes" labeled across the side. "Oh, hey." Bonnie greeted, standing up to full height and carrying the bucket over towards Clementine. "So they want you to run some supplies out to the guys working at the expansion. Real simple. Just take this over to them."
Clementine accepted the bucket into her hands, and was relieved to feel it was not as heavy as she thought it would be.
"That jacket looks real nice." Bonnie admitted as she folded her arms together. "I don't know what Tavia's talking about...Just take this stuff out to those guys and come straight back. Think you can handle that?"
"Sounds easy to me." Clementine smiled.
"Alight then, come on, I'll show you the way." Bonnie said, beckoning for her to follow her over towards another fire exit. She held the door open for Clementine and called out to the guard above. "Hey Troy! Clem's just going to take them boys some nails."
"All right." Troy called in return.
"Go on, see you soon." Bonnie said, closing the door behind her.
"All right, kid, get that stuff over to them boys." Troy ordered from where he was standing above. "Just follow the cables."
Clementine obeyed and began following the cables across the ground, but was nervous when she could hear walkers banging on the wooden fence on the opposite side. She continued walking, nevertheless, until she was inside the store. The second she was inside, she already encountered trouble that she sure did not want to get involved.
Inside, Kenny and Mike were arguing with each other that caused both of them to get into a fight. The two continued wrestling with each other while Pete tried to get in between them both and separate them before they attracted unwanted attention.
"I ain't nobody's laborer. Fuck that!" Kenny swore as he held up his left arm against Mike's neck. "Let them do this shit themselves if it's so goddamn important."
"Guys, break it up!" Pete ordered, attempting to push them both apart, but it was no use. "You're going to attract the guards."
"Like I give a fuck." Kenny did not seem too affected by the fact if there were any guards around the area.
"Get your fucking hands off me, man." Mike shouted.
Kenny shoved him back even more when he tried to get free. "You ain't going to force me to do this bullshit."
"I said get your hands off me!" Mike ordered a second time.
"Or what? You going to go tell on me?" Kenny inquired.
Clementine merely watched as both men continued arguing with each other about the situation they were in. She set the bucket down and ran over towards them, standing only a couple of feet away.
"I'm trying to help you, asshole." Mike assured, but that as not enough to convince Kenny to let him go anytime soon.
"Yeah, this is a real help!" Kenny sarcastically yet seriously replied. "Why don't you just worry about yourself?"
"Get off me!" Mike demanded.
"Kenny, let him go!" Pete ordered.
"You're one of them, ain't ya?" Kenny asked, suspecting Mike to be no different than the other members of Carver's community.
"Guys, stop it!" Clementine demanded, attempted to help Pete separate the fight between them. She and Pete each grabbed onto Kenny's arms and dragged him back, allowing Mike enough time to get up.
When Mike was free, he leaned up but the wooden board behind him dropped down, exposing the window and revealing multiple walkers banging on the window outside, and it sure did not look like it was going to hold for long. For a place that was supposed to be safe, they sure did not do a good job securing this area. Enough force from all the walkers caused the glass the shatter into pieces, and the walkers began to invade from the outside.
"Shit!" Mike jumped out of the way just in time; a second later he would have been a goner.
"Fuck!" Kenny swore. "Grab something!"
Mike and Pete moved out of harm's way as they were unarmed and were unable to do anything. Kenny, however, armed himself with a hammer. Clementine got separated from the adults and had to do something quick before she was devoured into pieces. She picked up a blank of wood and clobbered the closest walker towards her a couple of times, but it did not stop him, and she was soon trapped in a corner.
Before realizing she was doomed, Clementine looked to her right and noticed a small gap through a collapsed isle that looked big enough for her to fit through. She dropped the wood and squeeze inside, desperate to escape. She continued moving through the gap, but the walker behind her soon gave chase, attempting to grab her. Eventfully, her luck ran out when three sharp objects sticking out of the isle (presumed to hold shelves up) blocked her way.
She placed both of her hands against the wall and pushed herself up against the isle, attempting to make enough room for her to squeeze through. With a groan and a quick yet hard push, the isle moved back just for a second, and she quickly jumped out of there. The walker pursing her was killed when the isle fell back down and one of the sharp objects stabbed him in the side of his head.
Clementine was about to make haste to escape, but she was cut off by three more walkers. She noticed a sledgehammer by her feet and would be more than enough to kill a walker if only she had the strength to lift it up that high. Nevertheless, she grabbed the sledgehammer, and tried to pulverize the walker, but she had only managed to hit it in its legs and knocked it down, losing her weapon in the process.
Clementine continued backing away from the two walkers and ran into the next room, but tripped over and got her foot tangled in a power cable. Knowing she had not time to untangle her foot, she picked up a screwdriver and aimed it just in time when the walker came collapsing down towards her. She impaled the walker in its mouth, but it did not yet stop him and it continued to try and bite her. Clementine turned the screwdriver upwards and impaled it through the walker's mouth to its brain, killing it at long last. The walker collapsed motionlessly on top of her, trapping Clementine down. She was helpless as the third walker marched his way into the room, and without her screwdriver, she would not be able to kill it. The walker suddenly collapsed down when an arrow had been fired into the back of its head, and it landed down to the right of Clementine.
As she tried to push the dead corpse off of her, her savior had appeared and yanked the walker off of him, but it was not who she wished to by saved by. "Get up!" Troy ordered, watching as Clementine go to her feet under her own strength. "Get out of there, come on! Make me save you ass. Jesus."
Clementine was escorted back into the same room where all of the walkers had been killed, and to her relief, Kenny, Pete, and Mike were all here and accounted for.
"Oh, thank God, you're okay." Kenny spoke to Clementine, worried for her safety in this place.
"All right, enough mushy shit." Troy told them, not seeming too affected by the situation of walkers breaking into their community. "You get back inside right fucking now. I'm sure they got shit for you to do in there. Now! Think I'm fucking around?" he asked Clementine, whom walked back to the exit of the work area. "Now I got to sit down here and babysit you assholes. Can't do a simple fucking patch job without me here cracking the whip?"
Outside, Clementine felt so relieved to be alive right now. She cheated death so many times, and was always able to get up and walk away. The walker that ambushed her in the drugstore, the walker that grabbed onto her foot during the escape from the drugstore, the Save-Lot Bandits when they were held hostage, the walker that almost got her when she was trapped in the cage but luckily had a gun, when she was trapped against the horde of walkers in Savannah, the three bandits that ambushed her and Christa. She always seemed to be the lucky one all the time.
Clementine felt nervous when walking past the wooden fence when walkers continued banging on the fence from the other side. She shifted her attention over towards one of the stores when hearing a door open, but in a split-second, whoever opened it grabbed Clementine and held their hand over her mouth to prevent her from screaming. It all happened so fast, she did not even get the chance to see who it was.
After a few seconds of struggling, Clementine bit into her attackers' hand and this finally caused them to let go. She swiftly jumped around to see the figure shaking their hand to ease the pain. "Aaargh! Stop! Hey! It's me!"
Clementine gasped to see someone she did not expect to see ever again. "Luke?"
"Yes!" Luke gasped, kneeling down to her height while examining his hand to make sure she did not leave any fatal injuries. "Man...bit the hell out of me. Think you drew blood. Come all this way...This is-this is the welcome I get."
Clementine felt like she wanted to hit Luke for scaring her like that, but instead, she embraced him in a hug to which he returned. "I was worried. We all were."
"Aw, it's good to see you too, kid." Luke admitted with a smile across his face, but he did have to make this quick before any guards arrived. "All right, listen, we ain't got much time, okay? I followed y'all here best I could. Haven't had a night's rest since y'all got nabbed and...well, this is the first chance I got to talk to somebody. They're everywhere, okay? They got guards. Watching everything." he shushed Clementine (despite the fact she had not said anything) when he thought he heard something. "Shh-Sh. Shh."
Someone outside had walked past, but fortunately whoever it was did not come inside.
Luke stood up back to full height and debriefed Clementine on a current situation and a reason to why they needed to get out of here as soon as possible. "There's a herd of lurkers just south of us. It's bigger than I ever seen around these parts."
"Carver mentioned that. Said he hopes it passes us." Clementine replied.
Luke peaked open the door slightly, just enough for him to peak outside to check if anyone was now, and to his relief, no-one was around. He walked back over towards Clementine, knowing he had to get everyone out of here. "Yeah, I heard folks talking about that, but that ain't so, okay? It's going to hit this place. I know it is...I don't know when, but it's coming and it's going to be soon. See, I've been looking for places to...to get y'all free...but haven't been able to find anything yet. They plugged up all the holes we used when we got out."
Clementine was listening to everything he was saying, but did notice he did not seem his old-self. She could not put a finger on why he seemed different, but it was also something she could not notice. "Are you feeling okay?"
"No...No, I mean...yeah, yes, sorry. I-I just could use some sleep, you now?" Luke answered a little too quickly for Clementine to believe him or not. "Hard to rest when you think a lurker's about to get the jump on you at any, any moment, but yeah. Yeah. I'm fine, okay? Don't worry about me."
"This plan...It seems dangerous." Clementine admitted, nervously rubbing her hands together.
"Well the whole situation's dangerous, but, well, we're in it now...It's what we got. " Luke reminded her, pacing up and down the room to help him think in his current state. "We just...We just need a plan...you know, a way to get you and...and everyone..." he fell silent again, looking like he was on the verge on passing out from lack of sleep.
Clementine turned towards the exit when someone had passed yet again, but her luck lasted when no-one had yet decided to come inside and investigate. She had to make this quick now. "Luke..."
"Oh, sorry, sorry." Luke dazed out from his tired state and hurried back over towards Clementine. "Shit...okay. Troy ain't going to like you being late." he knelt down to Clementine's height while quickly discussing their plan. "Listen, Clem, I need you to meet me here tomorrow, about this time, because I-I need you to get me one of those radios, okay? Do you think you can do that? Just-just one of those walkie talkies. I just need to be able to tell y'all what's going on with them guards...you know, I'll figure out the schedule their patrols are on. I mean, they're-they're all over the place but I can keep an eye on them for y'all from out here. Look, we ain't going to be able to shoot out way out of here so we got to be careful. W-we just got to be smart, okay? We got a plan. That radio is crucial to that."
"Where do I get one?" Clementine inquired, having yet to learn the layout of this place and where everything was located.
"I think they keep them in the stockroom. I ain't completely sure, though." Luke admitted towards Clementine, whom crossed her arms together and nodded in agreement to every sentence he said. "Just...keep your eyes out for the charging station. They put most of them back on there at night. Remember, you meet me here tomorrow. I'll try and be here around this time, but if I ain't...just wait as long as you can, because I really need one of those radios. Just let everybody know I'm all right, okay? I'm worried that, uh-"
"Clementine!" a familiar voice shouted outside of the store, startling them both and leaving them worried that someone could have been listening the entire time if he knew she was in there. "Get out where I can see ya!"
Luke felt somewhat relieve when Troy had not mentioned his name, meaning he did not know he was in there. "Go on! Get out of here."
Clementine obeyed his request and made her way outside while Luke went to go and hide just in case Troy decided to take a look around inside. She walked outside onto the walkway where Troy was waiting for her, armed with his AK-47.
"The hell were you doing?" he inquired. "Huh? Answer me!"
"I was hiding from walkers." Clementine answered with the only thing she could think of to say.
"Don't get in there, you hear me?" Troy told her in a harsh tone. "That is off fucking limits to you." he shrugged it off and told her that he she needed to be somewhere. "Bill radioed. Wants a word with you up in his office, so get on up there. Now."
Clementine obeyed and practically ran back inside the building, secretly praying that Luke could keep himself out of harm's way. If he were to be discovered hiding out in that store, than all hope for them to escape this place would soon be lost.
Chapter 11 is written, published, and readable for your entertainment, folks. As you can see, Sarah was never smacked by her dad in this story that did not cause her to struggle with the work, and this caused Reggie to live and he is now back in Carver's camp, just like he wanted. Luke has returned, folks, and let us hope Clementine can get a radio to him in time.