Doug sat on the makeshift cot in his and Clementine's shared room. The room was small but had two beds one for him and one for Clem and it sure beat sleeping in trees and old cars so he couldn't complain too much. The room was plain and had peeling off yellow walls and an old motivational poster of a cat in a tree and the bed sheets were an awful shade of off-white.
"So what do you think Clem?" Doug asked.
"It's nice," Clem replied as she unpacked her bag, a coloured page caught Doug's eye.
"What's that Clementine?" he asked gesturing toward the piece of paper. Clem smiled sadly and presented it to him, it was a picture of Kenny, Katjaa, and Duck. "Oh Clementine, it's a pretty picture." he said sadly, "I miss them too." he said softly,
"Yeah," Clementine said, "I miss Lee too." Clementine said looking at her feet, "Doug?" Clementine asked timidly, "Can I have a hug?"
Doug smiled and sighed, "Only if you have to Clem," he said light heatedly, "I mean honestly putting up with you kid and I might need a hug." Doug grinned and held out his arms, "Now come here kid."
Clementine practically threw herself at Doug and buried her head in his chest, "It's okay kid, I'm here don't worry." Doug said as he rubbed soothing circles on her back.
Doug pressed his lips to Clementines head and made quite a little shushing noises, "It's okay," he said soothingly, "it's going to be okay." it took Clem a minute to calm down "hey kid," Doug asked cautiously "are you ready for dinner or do you want me to bring you something? Doug asked still rubbing her back.
"I'm okay," Clem's voice was muffled and her face was still buried in Doug's chest.
"Well if you're sure kid," Doug said uncertainty, "now come on kid Charice said the dining hall was just down the hall." he said lifting her up and swivelling her around so that she sat on his back.
The mess hall was large and rather dark, there is about thirty or forty people in a line to receive the food. Doug and Clementine made their way across the room and assimilated themselves into the line.
"So what do you think we having for dinner Clem?" Doug asked, "I'm hoping for some biscuits."
Clementine scrunched her face up in thought, "I don't know," she said uncertainly, "maybe Soup?" her response was more of a question than an answer.
Doug smiled as they move down the line, "Yeah soup and biscuits sound delicious." he said stomach for emphasis, "I don't know though I might start missing street rat." Clementine made a face and Doug laughed, "I'm just kidding."
Before Doug and Clementine knew it they were at the front of the line they held out their trays and were given an expired juice box, a small bowl of soup of undetermined nature, and a sandwich.
Doug stared at the food, "Eh it's still better than we've been eating that's for sure." he said, "C'mon Clem lets go find somewhere to sit." he said giddily.
Doug and Clem we're early so they were able to easily find their own table, "So what work do you think Mr Henry's going to give us to do tomorrow?" Clem asked eating her sandwich.
"I don't know, you're probably going to go to a sweatshop and ill be stuck with manual labor." Doug said nonchalantly.
"What's a sweatshop?" Clementine asked looking rather confused.
"Sometimes I forget you're ten, a sweatshop is a bit like a school room but you're shoved more closely together and it's mostly women and children and you work with sewing machines actually pretty horrific because of how tight the quarters are and you only make like ten cents a day."
"Oh, do you really think I'll be working in a sweatshop?" Clementine asked frightened.
"Probably not," Doug said digging into his cold soup, "after the apocalypses I don't think they even exist anymore." he said giving her a reassuring smile.
"Oh, then why did you say it?" Clementine asked looking at Doug curiously.
Doug sighed, "I was making a joke." he said pressing his forearms to the table.
"That doesn't seem like something to joke about." Clementine said looking at Doug disapprovingly.
"You're absolutely right," Doug said, "but since it's the zombie apocalypse now sweatshops don't exist so its okay to make jokes about them."
"No I think that its still wrong." Clementine said glaring at him.
"Okay, okay your correct." Doug said giving in to the angry child.
Clementine grinned in victory and dug into the last of the food. Mr. Henry came through the back door of the mess hall and give a warm smile to all the attendees as he made his way to the front mess hall.
"Children," Mr Henry said loudly, "I hope y'all are enjoying your stay," he said smiling as he scanned the near empty mess hall,"now tomorrow we start giving out duties." he said smiling and clapping his hands, "all healthy fit men and women please come to my compound tomorrow. All children, pregnant women, people missing limbs or just plain unfit to work report here at the mess hall." he continued shifting his wait from one foot to the other, "Now y'all enjoy your dinner." Mr Henry smiled and waved as he walked back out of the mess hall.
"Well, I guess you get off lucky no work for you." Doug said happily, "Hey maybe they'll give you some art supplies and you can draw me a picture!"
"Yeah!" Clem said happily her feet swinging in anticipation underneath the table. "This place is great!"
emilyrose727 asked: Is this going to involve season two at all?
Definitely right now in the time line we're in '400 days' territory so expect the cabin group (relatively) soon!