AN: WOOHOO! Fifty reviews after seven chapters! This is unreal, guys, seriously! Thank you for all the feedback on this – I love how this story's drawing so much controversy! It makes reading and writing this so much fun :) This one's going to be a bit short, but I just want to lighten up the situation a bit. Sarah and Clem's friendship must be further explored! It shall be so!

Btw, the song that I mention in this chapter is from the second last Harry Potter movie! I'd recommend checking it out; I think it fits in well with the whole theme of this game :)

The walk back home is slow, cold and quiet, as I follow alongside Luke as Lee trudges along behind us. Every once in a while I turn my head around to see if he's keeping up, but all I see is a broken shell of a man. He never looks up as he walks, instead choosing to keep a low profile and study the footprints that we leave behind in the snow. Lee's shivering, but I'm not sure if it's from the cold or from what he just did, but either way he can't stop himself from doing it. The one time that I asked him if he was alright, he just shrugged and continued staring at the ground. Luke seemed to take notice.

"What happened back there?" Luke asks, turning to me as we see our camp in the distance. "Y'all were gone for a long time, and then Lilly and Mike showed up at Wellington and went on about how we couldn't find you or… him. Then she said something about you guys getting kidnapped at some camp, so we shot some of 'em to get you guys out of there. But Clem, he seems pretty shaken up. What went down?"

Glancing behind me again, I notice that Lee's fallen behind a little bit.

"Are you okay to keep going?" I ask him as we both wait for the big guy to catch up. "Wellington's not that far away now."

Looking between the two of us, Lee mutters something incoherently and brushes past us, walking down the hill at a snail's pace. Grimacing, I turn to Luke and shake my head. Now's not the time to have this conversation.

"Looks to me like he's shell-shocked," Luke says worriedly, patting my shoulder comfortingly. "Come on, we can talk more once we get back."

….

"What the fuck were you doing out there?!" Kenny yells angrily almost as soon as Lee walks through the gate. "Do you have any idea how much trouble you caused for us? We all thought you died, for fuck's sake! Don't just walk away from me, Lee! Where… Clem, what the hell's he doing?"

"Just leave him be for now," I mention quietly, all of us watching as he slips into his tent without a word. Taking a sharp intake of breath, I rub my tired eyes lazily and walk into my tent to see Sarah. I don't feel like talking to anyone else right now.

"Oh hey, you're back!" Sarah smiles, clearly unaware that I was in any sort of trouble. "I know we're a little bit old for it, but there's this really old playground that I found yesterday! Wanna go check it out?"

"Umm… alright, sure," I agree, hesitant at first since I suddenly don't really have the energy to do anything at the moment. Eddie's death is still heavy on my mind, and I can't help but feel sick to my stomach when thinking about Lee. But Sarah's just so… happy! It's kind of infectious, and if it weren't for all of this drama going on, then I probably would've been bouncing off the walls. Playgrounds used to be one of my favourite things to visit as a kid.

Before stepping outside again, I put my pistol in my pants pocket and sigh. Back in the day, if you had ever brought a gun to a playground you would've gotten arrested on sight. Now, you can't even go outside without one.

"We're going out for a bit," I try to inform the others, but they seem to be engaged in their own conversation. It looked to me like more of a fight than a conversation, but thankfully nobody's started throwing any punches… or snapped anyone's neck. Sigh…

"So what do you propose we do then?" Luke asks, exasperated as he places his hands upon his hips. "We ain't soldiers here! This is a good setup we've got going! There's no reason to go off and risk all of it just because you think they're gonna come kill us all!"

"Three weeks ago I specifically heard you say how stupid it was to try and come to Wellington," Kenny points out accusingly, his beard getting more ruffled by the minute, "And now you're so keen on staying but not doing a damn thing to defend it?"

"I'm focusing on the now, Kenny. We made it, yeah! You were right, and I was wrong – I get it! But we're not killing machines, okay? We're people!" Luke exclaims, glancing down at Sarah and I as we walk beside him. "Oh, hey there, guys. Don't mind us, we're just having a little spat."

"I can see that," I frown, folding my arms over my chest as I huff out a sigh of annoyance. "Can you guys ever agree on anything? It's the same problem every day."

"Better than just blindly going along with one person's opinion…" Lilly mumbles before turning to Kenny, "Look, I hear what you're saying, but forcing people to fight isn't going to do anything. They'll toss you out for even trying that, Kenny. Use your head – we need people to be on our side!"

"Ha! More like your side!" Kenny accuses, "People here actually trust you! Everyone thinks that I'm the fucking bad guy who's in way over his head, and just has a few screws loose because of my eye! No matter what, I can't do right by you people!"

"You've got a pretty shitty track record there, Kenny. It's no wonder that they don't like you that much…"

"Are you always going to go back to the same pointless argument?! Jesus! It's like you people just don't give a damn anymore!"

"GUYS!" I interrupt, slightly grabbing their attention. "Fight this out amongst yourselves, but Sarah and I are going out. We'll be back later today. Come on, Sarah. Let's go."

"Clem, wait!"

Turning around with a curious expression, I notice that everyone (including Bonnie, Mike and Jane) have stopped talking, and all have serious expressions on their faces. Uh oh.

"We need to know," Lilly sighs, glancing over at Lee's tent, "Something's wrong with him – Lee looked like someone punched him in the gut when he got here. We know they had him at their camp, but… do you know what happened?"

"He…" I shudder, tormented by graphic images of Lee and Eddie in the ring, while all of the camp jeering them on. "He'll tell you when he's ready."

"Clementine, this is serious," Kenny orders, trying to get me to spill the beans. "You need to tell us, 'cause he sure as shit ain't talking to anyone except you."

Damn it! Why are these people so stubborn?!

"Just… I don't want to talk about it right now, okay?" I ask, letting off a defeated and broken expression. I'm not lying – I'm honestly not ready to deal with that right now.

When they say nothing, I slowly walk away with Sarah right on my tail. We travel through the camp, ignoring the occasional stares of men and women as we pass them by. Many of them are the same people who offered to help us move Arvo last night, so I'm able to recognize a few faces. No names, though – I don't know any of them.

Somebody must have fixed up a radio nearby, because we both can hear the soft sound of music playing as it drifts towards our ears. It makes me smile sadly as it goes on, as if a little piece of our past lives managed to remain even through all of this darkness. I recognize the song, too: "O' Children", by Nick Cave. My mom used to play it on her old tape recorder that she'd bring up from the basement to put me to sleep – it would work every time.

Sarah links arms with me as we walk along; almost knowing that I'm not feeling that great. God, Sarah's such a good friend… always there when you need her most. She and Duck probably would've gotten along great…

"It's over here, through the trees," Sarah informs me, leading us down a little dirt path that cuts to the right just before you get to the lake. Looking closely enough, you can see a pair of canoes out on Lake Michigan probably doing the same thing that Kenny and I did.

"Watch your head," she tells me right as I'm about to get a face-full of pine leaves. Those things sting, too! "Here it is! I found it a little while back, but I didn't know if you'd think it was lame or something."

The place isn't very big, and parts of it certainly don't look that safe for children to play on, but… this is magical. Everything's covered in snow, but it only makes everything look more pristine and innocent. There's a swing set for three people that sits right next to an old see-saw, and then of course you've got the rusty, broken down slide with – wait, is that a captain's wheel up there?! Hell yeah! This is wicked! I haven't been so excited to go on a playground in… well, ever!

"We've gotta try this stuff out," I smirk, attempting to race Sarah to the top of the playground (though she obviously beats me due to my foot). She helps me climb up the small set of stairs, and I almost slip due to the snow. When Sarah actually does slip trying to prevent me from falling, that's when the child-like laughter really begins.

"Oww! Aha, Clem! That hurt a lot more than I thought it would!"

"At least the snow broke your fall," I giggle, offering a hand as she takes it and stands back up. "Okay, are you going to be the captain, or should I?"

"You can. I've never liked going on the ocean," she jokes, earning a playful shove from me as I take the wheel. "Where are we setting sail first, captain?"

"Argh!" I yell out like a pirate, closing one eye and pretending that I have a peg leg instead of a prosthetic. Hey, at least some good came out of it getting chopped off I suppose. "We set sail for… umm, how about… New York?"

"Pirates don't go to New York!" Sarah complains, looking out of the playground telescope they have on this thing.

"I'm the captain on this here ship!" I command in a cartoonish voice, twirling the wheel around in my hands. "And we're going to New York! Statue of Liberty, straight ahead!"

"You're going to hit it!" Sarah jokes, dramatically taking the other side of the wheel as if we're about to crash. "To the right, captain! We've got huge waves coming on the side of the boat! We're doomed!"

For added effect, she then goes down the slide and lays in the snow; arms spread wide and tongue playfully hanging out the side of her mouth.

"Sarah overboard!" I call out, abandoning the wheel to dive into the ocean and pull her to safety. "You're a lot heavier than I remember!"

"Hey!"

"You can't talk, Sarah," I remind her, a smirk playing upon my lips, "You're drowning, remember?"

"Oh yeah," she says, immediately closing her eyes and rolling her head back. "Can I at least breathe?"

"I guess…" I rub my chin thoughtfully, until my gaze lands on the other stuff around this playground. "But I can't drag you to the swings, so… crap…"

"What is it?" Sarah asks, lifting her body up to see what I'm frowning at. Once she sees it, Sarah intakes a sharp breath and her eyes go wide again.

Thankfully, this walker doesn't seem to have any legs left, as the poor thing must've had them eaten off after getting caught by a group of them. Still, one of us needs to do the right thing and put her down, but I don't think that Sarah really wants to do it.

"Give me a minute, alright?" I tell the older girl, to which she sadly nods her head and goes back up to the playground. Once she's out of my view, I trudge over to the walker slowly while taking out a hammer that Luke had given to me a while back.

Looking down, I can't help but feel bad for it. I mean, I know that a walker isn't human anymore, and that it's nothing but a hungry, flesh-decaying mass. But even in death, she looks so… sad. Like she had nothing left to live for as she was torn apart by the same monster that she's now become.

"I'm sorry this happened to you…" I murmur quietly, before the hammer at her head and smashing down three times. It's disgusting, and the rancid smell of death fills my nostrils as I pull the hammer out, but it's necessary.

Not wanting to touch it any more than I have to, I walk back over to find Sarah sitting with her legs dangling over the railings of the playground. Her head is down, and it looks like she's really depressed.

"It's never going to stop, is it?" she asks me quietly as I sit down beside her. "This, I mean. My dad always told me that things would get better, but…"

"We can't worry about the things we can't control," I tell her, quoting Lee from over two years ago when we were separated from everyone else. "People are going to die no matter what we do. It's hard, but as long as we stick together then we'll be safe."

"Promise?"

"Promise."

Sighing deeply, I take Sarah's hand and try to brighten the mood a little bit; practically dragging her over to the see-saw. You should see how her mood flips once we both take a few turns of bouncing up and down on this thing. It's as if she's a whole other person!

You know, for the first time, I'm seeing Sarah in a whole new light. She's not just some terrified, useless, defenseless little girl. Sarah is our group's last ray of humanity and purity – she's there to remind us of what kind of people we actually are, and not the survivor, kill all the walkers type of people that we appear to be.

"Clementine?" she asks me suddenly.

"What's up?"

"We're… we're friends, right? We can be best friends?"

Looking into her dark eyes, I see a mixture of hope and need. She's not asking me to be her best friend. What she's really asking is if I'll ever abandon her for someone else, since I'm pretty much the only friend around her age that she's got.

We're practically sisters now.

"Definitely," I nod, smiling as we do a pinky swear across the see-saw, "Best friends for life."