A place to call home
Chapter 4: finding supplies
Hey, everyone, here's the next chapter. I noticed a couple of guest reviews regarding questions and since they're guests, I can't respond to them in Private Messaging, but I will answer them here. Carver and his people are still tracking the group, but I will not say if they will make an appearance or not. And glad you all like the different story where Carver and his group never showed up.
That's it for that author's note. Here's chapter 4, enjoy.
"So, where's this pharmacy?" Luke inquired as he, Kenny, and Clementine walked away from the ski lodge entrance.
"'Bout a half a mile up this way," Kenny responded, taking the lead. "There should still be a shit ton of medical supplies, and some food if we're extra lucky. We should be on the lookout."
"Right." Clementine agreed as she felt her back pocket for a moment to make certain she had her Glock 17 with her just in case. She walked in the middle between Luke and Kenny as they lead the way.
Before long, the three of them noticed a medium-sized brick building coming up their way. It had to be the store due to the sign that stood almost before them.
"This must be it," Kenny pointed out. He got out another type of rifle that he'd brought, a .22 caliber, and led the way once again. "I'll go in first, make sure we're in the clear."
("Okay.")
("Are you sure?")
("Maybe we should go back.")
("...")
"Are you sure that's a good idea?" Clementine inquired, not wanting to lose Kenny again after being reunited with him for a short time. "Shouldn't we all go in together?"
"I'll be fine, darlin'," Kenny gave her a small smile. "I'll go in first, but we should all stay close, for good measure."
"Sounds good," Luke agreed.
"Okay." Clementine nodded in agreement and followed both men towards the store, but she and Luke slowed down slightly for Kenny to lead the way.
Luckily, the entrance door was unlocked, so the three of them entered easily. Kenny pointed his firearm all around just to make sure no walkers or people suddenly popped out.
"Look around," he practically ordered. "Make sure nothin' will make the jump on us."
Clementine nodded and took out her Glock 17 and carefully surveyed the store for any lurkers. She searched down a couple of isles and so far she found nothing. As Clementine went around the next corner, her foot came into contact with something and before she knew it, she felt down onto her stomach and panicked.
A walker trapped underneath an isle grabbed onto her ankle and attempted to bite her. She tried to break free with her free foot, but it would not let go. Her gun had slid over a few feet away and she tried to reach it, to no avail.
("LUKE!")
("KENNY!")
("HELP!")
("...")
"HELP!" she screamed, struggling to keep the walker from biting her.
Luke heard her and immediately ran to her aid. "SHIT! CLEMENTINE!" he yelled. He grabbed her hands and tried to pull her free from the walker.
Kenny heard this and ran after Luke. Clementine's golden eyes paid attention to the gun that had fallen, and Kenny followed them. He quickly picked up the gun and shot the walker point blank.
Luke helped Clementine to her feet and placed his hands on her shoulders. "Are you okay?"
Clementine panted a few times, obviously shock up from her near death experience. How many times was she going to come close to death? She certainly was lucky, but her luck might not last forever. "Yeah...I'm...I'm okay...Thanks..."
Luke took out his machete and began to look under the rest of the isles for any more lurkers.
Kenny smiled and patted Clementine gently on the shoulder, glad that she was safe.
Clementine smiled back and walked away, heading into the pharmacy (which luckily wasn't locked). She was pleasantly surprised to see lots of medical supplies that could be extremely useful. She walked over, and one of the first things she saw were painkillers that could be given to Rebecca. She announced this to Kenny and Luke.
"Guys, there's some pain killers here. And bandages, peroxide, and all other medical stuff." Clementine informed them whilst she looked around for something to carry them in. However, as she looked around, it brought back further memories. The pharmacy they were in during the time all this began. Lee's family owned it, but they all died.
"Great work, Clem," Kenny praised, giving her a smile and a single nod. He looked around and noticed a couple of large paper bags. "We can carry 'em in these bags." With that, he grabbed the bags and brought them over to Clem, distributing them to her.
"And I found some food," Luke called, checking the expiration dates on some cans and looking satisfied.
("We should hurry.")
("Are you sure they're not expired?")
("Looks like things are looking well.")
("...")
"Looks like thing's are beginning to look up." Clementine admitted, grabbing anything useful and throwing them into the bags, but at the same time, she did not want to carry too much that would slow her down.
"Here, let me take it," Kenny offered, removing one bag from Clementine's arms. Luke came in carrying his own paper bag that was a little bit smaller.
"Thank you." she thanked before taking another bag and filling it up with much more supplies.
After a couple of minutes, the trio had filled up at least six bags, carrying two each. Half of them were filled with medical supplies whilst the other half was filled with food. They had plenty of canned food at the ski lodge, of course, but hearing the same thing every day would make you go off your food a little.
Before it was time to leave, Clementine walked towards the shop counter and noticed a puzzle book that was filled with puzzles such as crosswords, word searches, and other various puzzles.
(Grab a puzzle book)
(Leave puzzle book)
She decided to grab one of them and placed it inside her jacket. "Guess it's something to do for a while."
"Clem, you comin'?" Luke called, and Clementine quickly walked to the store exit, puzzle book now in her jacket.
"Oh, just wait until they see all the supplies we were able to get!" Kenny blurted out, grinning in satisfaction. Once again, he led the way out of the store, but stayed close to Clementine and Luke.
Clementine nodded in agreement as the trio continued their walk.
It didn't take very long to get back to the ski lodge, and they all got there unscathed. Nick and Sarah were having a light conversation in the living room, Alvin and Rebecca were still upstairs, and Carlos and Walter were in the kitchen, so Sarita was the first to greet them.
"Kenny, Clem, Luke, you're all back!" Sarita greeted, hugging her boyfriend for a second that was followed by a kiss on the cheek. She leaned back and smiled when seeing their bags. "Wow, looks like you all made some progress. What did you get?"
"A lot of stuff," Kenny replied, going over to one of the cafeteria tables and placing the bags down. He focused his attention to Carlos. "A lot of medical supplies in here."
Carlos' interest picked up when he heard the mention of medical supplies. He made his way over towards the tables and searched inside the bags and was surprised to see the amount of supplies they found. "Wow, painkillers, bandages, peroxide, and food too. Well done, guys, you all did well."
Carlos took some painkillers to give to Rebecca after the amount of time it took her to give birth without any proper medical supplies. He was able to deliver the baby and stitch Rebecca up, but that did not mean he intended her to suffer.
Clementine decided to head to the living room area for now to get near the fire and warm up.
(Give puzzle book to Sarah and Nick)
(Keep puzzle book)
She sat down on the armchair and took out her puzzle book. "Hey, any of you guys interested in puzzles? I found a puzzle book in case anyone was bored."
"I like puzzles!" Sarah exclaimed with a big smile. "Dad and I used to do them all the time!"
For a moment, Nick looked sad, but no one in the room seemed to notice. Pete used to do crosswords in the Sunday paper before all this. He changed his expression quickly before anyone could become concerned. "Huh? Yeah. Yeah, I like 'em, too." He offered a weary smile.
"Well, knock yourselves out." Clementine said as she placed the book onto coffee table, but then she realized she had not brought a pen or pencil. "Oh, shoot. I forget to get a pen."
"Here, I got one," Nick announced, taking a pen out of his pocket and holding it up for the girls to see.
("I'm going to talk to Kenny.")
("I'm going to talk to Walter.")
("I'm going to sit here for a while.")
"You guys enjoy playing. I'm going to talk to Kenny." Clementine informed the two as she stood up and decided to go and help Kenny out who was going outside with Luke to make some progress on boarding up the windows.
She briefly watched as Sarah opened up to the first page and started a word search, and then turned to go outside. Kenny and Luke immediately noticed her on arrival.
"Hey Clem," Kenny greeted.
"Hey Kenny, hey Luke." Clementine greeted the two older men whilst they were hammering some blank of wood down. "Do you guys need any help?"
"If you could hammer down the lower part of this board for us, that'd be great," Luke gave the little girl a smile. "Kenny and I can get the upper parts."
"Sure thing." Clementine agreed, picking up an extra hammer on the ground before she began to nail down the bottom part of the boards.
Clem secretly hoped that the noise of the hammering wouldn't attract walkers, but somehow this place reminded her of how things were before. It seemed as though the walkers or any type of bandit were a million miles away.
Clementine got too deep into her thoughts that she accidentally hammered her thumb. She yelped out in pain and clutched onto her thumb, hoping it would ease the pain. "Oh, ow! Shoot!"
"What's wrong?" Kenny asked in concern. He bent down and took a look at her thumb. "Damn, that looked like it hurt. You all right?"
Clementine groaned a little and slowly took her hand from her thumb. She was able to wiggle her thumb slightly, but it was now left swollen slightly from the injury. "I don't think it's broken, I think it's just bruised and a little swollen. I'll be okay."
"I'll be back," Luke said, walking into the ski lodge. He returned a minute later with a small bandage and wrapped it around Clementine's thumb. Clementine gave him a grateful look.
"Thanks Luke." she smiled, now feeling the pain ease in her thumb. She picked up her hammer in her other hand and continued her work. It was now a little difficult to hammer since most people were right handed, but she could cope with using her other hand.
For about an hour, the three continued on with their outside work, and luckily there wasn't a scuffle one between Kenny and Luke. Soon, they were all done, and it was time to go back inside.
"I think we're prepared enough for this storm now," Kenny told Walter, who looked content with the boarded up windows.
"When will it arrive?" Sarita asked.
"Not sure, but the temperature seems to be lowering," Walter replied.
("Is it enough?")
("It's going to be tough.")
("We'll be safe.")
("...")
"We'll be safe." Clementine reassured, confident this place was strong enough to protect them from the storm. "As long as we have shelter and a fire, we'll make it through this."
(?) They will remember that.
Everyone present agreed with her statement and could not help but smile. Each of them trusted Clementine and some of them had to admit that she acted more of an adult and a leader than any of them did.
"You're right, Clementine, it's good to think positive," Walter nodded at her. "I'm gonna go start dinner now. Maybe we can have something different tonight since we have some more variety."
"Finally," Kenny agreed.
Clementine decided to go and help Walter pick something for dinner tonight. She followed Walter into the kitchen and spoke up when the older man began searching through the bags they found. "May I help the chef tonight?"
"But of course!" Walter replied pleasantly, sorting through the cans. "What sounds better to you, Clem? The beef stew or the vegetable curry?"
"Wow, they both sound good." Clementine admitted, placing her hand to her chin to think this one over. She liked both options and wished they could choose both, but they had to save as much food as they could. Regardless of how much they had, it would all run out in the end.
("Beef stew.")
("Vegetable curry.")
"Hmmm, well as I much as I like the vegetable curry, I think I'm going to choose the beef stew." Clementine answered.
"Well then, beef stew it is!" Walter exclaimed as he opened the large can. Clementine kind of admired how strong he was after losing Matthew, but then again, maybe he was used to loss, like she was at that point.
She watched as Walter prepared the now-clean pot for the meal to be cooked in. "Clementine, would you mind setting the tables?"
"Sure thing." Clementine agreed, picking up four bows at a time and walking over towards the tables to set them down. She returned a couple of times to get more bowls and place them back at the table. At one part, she had to remember how many people there was to get the right amount of food. There was herself, Kenny, Sarita, Walter, Luke, Nick, Carlos, Sarah, Alvin and Rebecca. That was ten of them all together.
"That's good for right now, Clem, thank you," Walter gave the eleven-year-old a grateful glance after she was finished. "Why don't you check on your friends until dinner's ready?"
Clementine nodded and headed out into the living room to check on the others.
Meanwhile, Carlos had returned after attending to Rebecca and now he let the husband and wife rest for a while. He sat down on the couch in the living room with his daughter and Nick, who were both working on puzzle together. It did surprise him slightly since Sarah and Nick did not interact much.
"Hi, Dad!" Sarah chirped when she saw him. She flipped through the pages of the puzzle book. "Look at all these cool puzzles Nick and I are doing! It's really fun."
Carlos smiled lightly. It was a rare time that Sarah ever got to do anything interesting, and it made him happy to see her happy. He was glad that Nick was able to entertain her.
Nick turned around for a moment and gave Carlos a nod to which the doctor returned to him. He turned around and continued helping the young teenager with the puzzle back for a while.
"It looks fun, Sarah." Carlos admitted as he leaned back and folded his arms together. He felt like he could drift off to sleep for a while, but he still was worried about letting her out of his sights, even despite the fact people he knew were inside and it's not like Sarah would just run away.
Since Carlos was in the armchair and Nick and Sarah were together on the couch, Clementine sat down on the ground near the fire, sitting in Indian-style. She smiled when seeing Nick and Sarah work together on a puzzle. It was nice to see everyone was going well. "Hey, guys. We're having beef stew for dinner."
"Nice change from beans," Nick replied, crossing off another letter and handing the book back to Sarah.
"I bet it'll be good," Sarah added, smiling at her younger friend.
"Beef stew is one of my favorite dinners." Carlos agreed before a yawn followed out from his mouth.
The doors to the ski lodge opened and in walked Kenny and Sarita after they went to turn on the wind turbine when the ski lodge was beginning to get dark, but the wind was quiet tonight. Nevertheless, they were going to keep an eye out occasionally to make sure the previous night's events did not happen.
Kenny and Sarita had only took one rifle with them when they left the ski lodge, but when they came back, they now had two rifles with them.
"Did anyone own a rifle?" Sarita asked, turning towards everyone present for an answer.
Most of them shook their heads. Luke had a Glock 17 and a machete, Nick had his rifle in his room, Clementine was too small for one, Sarah did not use guns, and Walter had a Glock 17.
"It's mine." Carlos announced as he stood up and approached the duo. "A lurker had almost got me last night and knocked off my gun, and I didn't have the time to retrieve it." he explained whilst accepting the gun into his hand that he went to place with the other weapons.
"We may need to turn it off again in case the wind picks up again," Kenny spoke up, referring to the wind turbine. "Should be a quiet night, though." He and Sarita walked off to the kitchen.
Clementine looked outside and saw that it was beginning to snow lightly.
In the past, she loved it when it snowed but nowadays, it was the kind of thing that could kill you if you got too cold. But she was in the ski lodge where it was nice and warm, and safe and sound.
For the first time in a very long time, Clementine felt safe and secure. She was around good people that she could trust, she was in a nice and warm shelter, and for once, she wasn't starving.
Since the baby had been born, Alvin had come downstairs and the first thing he did was talk to Carlos. "Hey Carlos, can Rebecca eat something now? I heard dinner was almost done."
"She can eat, but not too much." Carlos answered whilst folding his arms together. "Give her half a plate of dinner."
"I'll let Walter know." Clementine said as she got up and proceeded towards the kitchen where Walter was cooking dinner. "Walter, can you give Rebecca only half a plate? Carlos said that's all she can eat for now."
"I'll do that," Walter noted as he continued to stir the pot of beef stew. Clementine's mouth watered, it smelled absolutely delicious. She was getting hungry and hoped that dinner would be ready soon.
"I'm hungry," Sarah told everyone as she walked into the kitchen. She would probably do some more puzzles with Nick later.
"Dinner won't be long, sweetie." Carlos assured but he could not blame her. He too was pretty hungry.
Whilst he was cooking, Clementine decided to make conversation between them. "For someone who use to be a teacher, you're a great cook."
"Why thank you, Clementine," Walter accepted the compliment. "I took a cooking class in high school. Many years ago now."
("Sounds fun.")
("Was it tough?")
("How long exactly?")
("...")
"That sounds like fun." Clementine admitted. She always wanted to learn how to cook at a young age and her mother had promised to teach her when she grew up. "I always wanted to learn how to cook."
(?) Walter will remember that.
Walter smiled lightly. "That's remarkable, not many children I know are willing to learn."
"I liked school a lot. I got through my first grade easy." Clementine admitted.
"I taught middle school, sixth grade mainly," Walter replied. He glanced at Kenny and Sarita, and then Luke and Nick. "You should have seen all the cliques going at war with one another then."
"I bet it was tough to keep people behaved and stop them from getting into trouble." Clementine stated whilst she turned towards Kenny for a moment. She decided to confess something with Walter and hoped he would not tell Kenny about it. "Back when Kenny and I were in Macon, Kenny and this other woman Lilly always use to fight all the time, trying to argue about leadership and what was best for the group."
"Really?" Walter raised his eyebrows. "Sounds like a dictatorship to me."
("I guess.")
("A what?")
("It was worse.")
("...")
When Clementine looked confused, Walter continued. "A dictatorship is when one person has all the power over a community."
"Oh." she nodded to assure him she understood, but before long, Clementine decided she wasted enough of Walter's time and decided to leave him with the cooking. "I'll guess I'll talk to you later, Walter."
"Good to talk to you, Clem," Walter nodded as she walked off.
After a little while had passed, dinner was ready. Clementine and Kenny helped Walter set dinner down onto the tables before everyone joined around the table. Everyone joined around the table with the exception of Alvin and Rebecca. Walter gave a plate of dinner for Rebecca to Alvin since she was too weak at the moment to get up and come down the stairs to join them.
"Okay, y'all, we need to talk," Kenny announced.
"About what?" Carlos asked whilst folding his arms together.
"We need to make a plan," Kenny explained. "We can't stay in this ski lodge forever.
"Where else can we go?" Clementine inquired, but she had the feeling she already knew the answer.
"But we have to stay until that cold passes, right?" Sarita asked, not willing to go out into the cold weather of Carolina.
"We should stay until Rebecca's up for travelling," Luke agreed. "She needs a few days' rest, at least."
"I'm not sayin' we HAVE to leave right this second," Kenny retorted. "I still say that we go north, get to Wellington."
"Wellington?" Carlos repeated, thinking back to the previous night when he heard Kenny mention this place to Luke and Nick, but he did not ask what it was. "What is this Wellington?"
"Christa and I were heading there." Clementine answered to the doctor as everyone took a seat on a table. This time, both groups were mixed. Clementine, Kenny, Luke, Carlos and Sarah sat on one table together. Nick, Walter, and Sarita sat on the other table.
"Supposed to be a big camp near Michigan," Kenny repeated his words from the previous night. "Supposed to be cold as fuck, so the walkers will freeze."
"Still sounds like bullshit," Nick muttered as he ate another spoonful of beef stew, although he wasn't heard this time.
"How did you hear of this Wellington?" Carlos inquired just after he took a sip of water.
("I think we should head there.")
("I think we should stay here.")
("We should do what's best for the group.")
("...")
Clementine decided to stay out of this conversation and began to eat her food. She sat in between Sarah and Luke as they continued to eat into their dinner that tasted delicious.
"Sarita found a map blowin' in the wind a couple weeks back, before we made it here," Kenny responded. "It led from nearly this point all the way to Wellington. There were sketches of a big camp, looked safe enough."
Clementine glanced up at Kenny. Oddly enough, this was a bit similar to how she and Christa had found out about Wellington.
"Hmm, and how big is this camp?" Carlos asked yet another question when his interests perk. If this camp was safe and strong, it could be a good place to keep his daughter safe with the rest of their friends.
"Big enough to be a neighborhood community, I suppose," Kenny shrugged. "Hell if I know for sure."
"Well, I suppose we don't have anywhere else to go at this point." Carlos admitted, unsure on an alternative place to go to except for Wellington. He and the rest of the group did not really have a plan when Carver returned, other than to head north towards the mountains where they thought it would be safe.
Before long, dinner was over, and most of the group had retired to bed for the night. Clementine bade Kenny and Sarita goodnight and retreated upstairs to her bedroom. She wondered how many more nights she would be able to sleep in this comfortable bed before the group would move on to Wellington.
That brings us to the end of this chapter, folks. With both groups together as one and with all of their supplies, they're plans are to head to Wellington. Does it truly exist? Is it really a place where they can live in peace? Keep your updates open for the next chapter.
