Hearing the gun go off only makes me charge forward even faster…
With the grappling hook in one hand, I raise it up high to strike down with the fury of a god, but he unfortunately turns around just as I'm about to end his miserable existence. I do manage to knock the rifle off balance and down the hill out of his reach, but he's still got two arms while I only have one.
I don't care about how grotesque the man looks like now; as far as I'm concerned, it's just that the monster has just been unmasked. Nate's personality hasn't changed – he's a deranged, psychopathic killer who I intend to put down for good. He smacks me across the face as his fist connects, but I knee him in the stomach and cause him to double over.
He slices my stomach with a knife that I didn't know he had, but the pain is nullified as the rage consumes my very being. The monster within me has sprung loose, and I'm not holding him back as I punch him right in the burned-up part of his face multiple times. Even though Nate's in extraordinary pain, he manages to cut me on the cheek – just barely missing my eyeball and taking me out of commission for good. Grabbing his wrist after he does it, I slam his arm down while placing my foot firmly near the elbow. With a sickening crack, I lurch it backwards and break his arm as he contorts in sheer agony.
But I'm not finished with him yet.
As gruesomely as I can manage, I roughly take my fingers to the burned part of his head and dig as his nerves send pulses of pain and hurt throughout his body.
"FUCK YOU!" I bellow as he cringes bellow my weight on top of him. "YOU ASKED FOR THIS SHIT! FUCK YOU!"
I only slow down my assault when I look down towards the frozen part of the lake… and notice that a small chunk of the ice has cracked through, and glancing hard enough I can faintly make out a small blood splatter.
Clementine…
With a mighty war cry, I pull my hand out of his face and reach for the grappling hook; my fingers all bloody and messed up.
"Rot in hell, you son of a bitch… You'll never hurt anyone ever again…" I mutter before taking the hook and slamming it down hard into his neck. Nate gurgles and struggles to breathe as the blood pours out of his throat and mouth, and for one second I see an emotion play across his good eye: fear. He was afraid of dying after all – maybe it was because he didn't know what would happen to him after due to his actions, or because he was a complete coward who talked a big game but always hid behind others when things got screwy.
I don't know, nor do I care.
Yanking the hook out, I leave Nate's corpse to rot and sprint down the hill towards the lake; ignoring my own safety as I rush out onto the ice. She better not be…
Bending down towards the hole, I feel the ice shift underneath me, but I plunge my head down into the frozen water without delay. At first, I don't see anything – nothing but dark, murky water with some seaweed and other aquatic plants down below.
But then I get a closer look – Clementine!
Submerging my entire body into the freezing lake, I use my legs to kick myself down so that I can reach her. I may only have one arm, but that's never stopped me before! Grabbing a hold of my girl's waist, panic erupts within me as I see that her eyes are closed and there's blood pouring out of her. If there were any sharks living in the Great Lakes, then we'd both be snacks in no time.
Luckily Clem's pretty light to carry, so somehow I manage to kick my way to the surface; gasping for air as I break through to the air. I'm freezing, but my health isn't important right now.
Clem's not breathing!
"God damn it, sweet pea… come on! Come on!" I chant as I flip the girl onto her back and proceed to perform CPR on her. With a few puffs of air to her mouth, I go back to pushing up and down on her sternum. If there is such a thing as miracles, please… I need one right now!
Again and again I do the CPR – not willing or able to give up on the last ray of sunshine that I have in my cloudy, dreary world. I will not lose Clementine! I WILL NOT LOSE MY LAST ANCHOR! CLEMENTINE WILL NOT DIE! I WON'T ALLOW IT TO HAPPEN! SHE –
Cough… cough… splutter… cough… wheeze…
Ahh, there you go. Told ya!
"Oh thank god… Clementine…" I whisper as a few shaky sobs escape my throat. I cradle this precious child in my arms as if she's my own flesh and blood; unwilling to let go as I feel her shudder against my chest.
"Guuuhhh… Ughhhh…." she mumbles incoherently, making me hold her in my arm to examine the poor kid. Her face is a deathly pale colour, and there's a big blood splatter directly below her right shoulder. Lifting the collar of her shirt down slightly, she screams unintelligibly as I whisper that she's going to be fine. I just hope that I'm not lying though – she's had a bullet ripped right through her, and blood is still smearing everywhere.
Immediately tearing a piece of her jacket off (which strangely doesn't look like hers), I whisper to her soothingly as I place the fabric firmly over the wound; causing her to whimper out slowly.
"I know it hurts, sweet pea… But I'm gonna fix you up, alright?" I say to her as her eyes go wide, clutching onto my jacket for some form of warmth. Unfortunately for the both of us, I'm soaked now too. And if we don't find someplace warm soon, then none of what I'm trying to do will even matter. Wrapping the piece of her jacket around her shoulder and tying it tightly, I decide that that'll have to do for now. She's clutching onto her fake foot, which is worrisome in itself…
But that also means that I'm going to have to carry her with one arm.
Fuck.
As gingerly as I can possibly manage, I slowly lift her up onto my shoulder and cringe as she elicits small shrieks of pain. Clem can't talk, but I certainly understand her anyways.
"We're gonna make it through this," I whisper desperately to her, stumbling as the pain from Nate's blows start taking their toll. "You and me – we'll survive this shit together, I promise."
There's determination somewhere within my bones – I have only to reach out and grasp it for myself.
…It's just that in this kind of situation…so bleak…so helpless… I'm fighting against nearly impossible odds. Where the hell am I even going? Crossing the ice to get away from the walker who used to be called Nate, and for what? To delay the inevitable and just cause the both of us more pain and misery?
There's no way for me to travel back to Wellington, even if there really was a way of doing it. My ATV ran out of gas a while back, and there's no way that Clem would be able to stay on Nate's motorcycle without falling off the back. No – this is the only way now. I have to survive… for her sake, I'll find something.
Clementine must've been on a really loose section of ice, since I haven't really had any problems since we left. Nate fell into the opening in the ice where Clementine had previously fallen, and I haven't looked back. At least the blizzard's sort of started to clear up. It's not completely fine out here, but at least I can sort of see.
"Urgh…" I grunt, having to stop for a moment as the pain in my stomach intensifies. With no extra hand to support myself (due to me having to hold onto the hook), I suck in a big intake of air and push forward; a small splash of red seeping onto my jacket. Nate got me good, it seems.
As for the twelve year old on my shoulder, she's still in a tremendous amount of pain – it makes me look like a sissy compared to what she's going through. Prosthetic ripped off, struck by a bullet, starting to get a case of hypothermia… no kid should ever have to go through something like that. Once I find someplace safe for us, I'm going to try and do better by her. I won't let her down like I did before – that's a promise. I'd never do anything (intentionally) to hurt Clementine.
"Looks… like a winner," I remark, losing energy by the minute as I spot a decently-sized grocery store in the distance. Adjusting her so that she's better situated on my shoulder, I internally sigh in slight content. We might be okay after all. "We're almost there, sweet pea. Just a bit more of a push."
But unfortunately for me, I'm quickly losing strength and feeling in my limbs. With each step, my legs become weaker; as the combination of carrying another person for a few miles, along with getting cut up with a knife, the cold and the fact that I haven't eaten anything in quite a while. Spots threaten to cloud my vision as I force myself to keep going.
After what feels like forever, we finally make it to the shore, and I drop her gently for a break; taking off my jacket and wrapping her tiny frame inside of it. I've got a sweater underneath this, so I'm not quite as chilly as I ought to be (though it's still soaked). However, lifting the bottom of my sweater up and placing my hand on my stomach… reveals red. A lot of red.
"Shit…" I murmur, shaking my head as my fingers sting my sternum. That might require stitches, and I don't think Clem's packing any. In fact, looking over at her, I don't think Clem's got anything at all. How the hell did she survive out here? I managed to track her canoe and follow Nate's motorcycle tracks fairly easily, but when I drove to her campsite, there wasn't any sign of her having cooked something. Was she going to starve herself?
Groans can be heard nearby, indicating walkers, so I poke my head up above the bank of the lake to scout out the situation.
How did I not notice these guys before?
There's got to be twenty-five of them at least out on the road out there! They don't notice me yet, but they will soon enough – the walker guts washed off when I dove to rescue Clementine. I'll have to do this all over again. But what about her…
"I'll be right back, okay?" I tell her, wiping a loose strand of hair out of her face. "No matter what happens, don't try to move, understand? Stay out of sight, and you'll be fine."
She nods her shivering body once, indicating that she agrees. Under normal circumstances, she probably would've argued for the two of us to go together, but there's no way that she'd make it two feet without becoming a walker snack.
God, I hope this goes smoothly.
Glancing side to side, I see two options: left or right. Yeah, I know, not very descriptive choices here, but both sides look potentially dangerous. Eenie, meanie, miney, moe…
Left it is.
My footprints crunch in the snow as I sneak up behind a walker and snuff its life out; trying to not attract the attention of his buddy nearby. Quickly smearing some of this nasty shit onto my clothes, I freeze in place as the female walker looks behind straight at me. I've never really stared for too long at a walker before, since most of the time I prefer to just have them killed before they can eat me.
But a walker… Its eyes actually aren't that different from a human's, with the exception that they're glazed over and milky white. The rest of the face though – completely different. Its skin has peeled away in strips, dried blood stains line their chests and ripped clothing, and their hair has deteriorated rapidly. It's so weird to think of them as being people once, but I can still see the resemblance.
Once that lovely lady turns away from me, I start to slowly drag away my catch back towards the safe cover of the bank. Or at least, it's safe for now. Who knows how long it'll be before they get over here and munch on us.
Coughing and wheezing for air as I drag him over, I realize that I'm not quite as strong as I used to be. I'm not old per say, as I'm pretty sure at this point I'm forty years old. But the stress of living in the apocalypse is taking its toll.
I wonder how long I've really got left? Without getting torn apart by walkers or shot at, I mean.
"I'm, uh… I'm gonna put some walker guts on you, okay?" I tell her, surprised and slightly concerned that she hasn't reacted in any way to this. Maybe she's getting sick. "Here comes the fun part…"
Taking the hook, I drive it right at the walker's chest and pull down harshly; the sound of its flesh ripping open causing me to gag slightly. This never gets any easier, does it?
Repeating this process twice more, Clementine shudders as I start spreading the nasty stuff all over her face, hands and clothes. The stench alone would topple the biggest man around upon first smelling it, but we've grown accustomed to having to do shit that we really wouldn't want to.
"Just think of it as sunscreen," I remark jokingly, "Are you ready to move?"
One shaky breath from her, and I take it as acceptance. It wasn't really a yes or no question – we need to break into that grocery store. Loblaws… I used to drive past one of these places every time I'd come home from work. They were pretty nice stores back in the day.
There's also a Tim Horton's not too far down the street. Man, we must be closer to Canada than I had thought we were…
"Here we go…" I whisper, forcing Clementine to her feet and leaning heavily on my shoulder in order to not attract too much unwanted attention to ourselves. I don't want to risk getting caught because of having to carry this pain-ridden girl into the grocery store. I know that it hurts, but it's only crossing the street.
We've been through worse shit before.
"Ugh… god damn it…" I hiss, the pain in my stomach becoming more evident as we walk forward. We get about halfway through this small herd, when almost all of them turn towards the two of us.
Shit… they've smelled the blood on me…
"We've gotta run, Clem…" I whisper urgently, even though I know full well that she can barely even walk. "I'll take out the one coming up in front of us, then we sprint to the entrance, got it? Clem?"
Clementine isn't responding at all, which worries the shit out of me. She can't be dying! We're so close – please, I can't lose you now!
Forgetting about our stupid disguise, I take out the walker in front of us with my trusty, old grappling hook. In one sweeping motion, I pull it out of its skull, scoop Clementine back onto my shoulder and sprint ahead; dropping her in pain as we reach the front door. She slams her head against the glass door, which knocks her completely unconscious as I swear under my breath. The stomach wound is pounding, but I've got to get this door open before they reach us.
Something appears to stacked against the front door of the grocery store; probably to keep these guys out. I push all my weight against it, but it only moves a little bit.
Like a tidal wave about to crash into the shore, the walkers clamber along towards us, while I frantically push against the big, metal frame.
They're almost completely on top of us when…
"Yes!" I shout in victory, dragging Clementine ungracefully by her leg and into the grocery store… but a couple of the walkers have fallen in behind us.
Okay, just like Molly would do…
I kick the first one directly in the knee as it stumbles downwards, and I kill the second one before it can reach Clementine – who's spread out unconscious on the dirty ground.
Killing the first guy before it can get back up, I immediately rush to the doorway, chop off three undead hands and forcibly shove the door closed again; huffing as I struggle to hold this thing in place.
It seems that there were numerous old boxes of soup holding that door shut, but it's too heavy for me to just drag it back with my foot.
"One… two… three!" I let go of the door for a brief second before going behind the boxes and shoving it against the door, shaking my head in wonder as two of the monsters get their heads caught inside.
"Don't these things ever quit?!" I wonder aloud, ending both of their lives and shutting the rest of them out for good.
The windows are only tinted from the outside, so I can see their gangly forms banging their undead limbs in a desperate attempt to eat their food, but they won't get it.
At least not today.
Huffing in utter exhaustion, I sink to the floor and hold my hands over my eyes to rest for just a moment. That was indeed a close call. Hopefully those will happen a lot less often.
Nate… the bastard's finally out of the picture, but it seems that it was far too late. Too many people died needless deaths over that asshole – people that we'll never see again.
Kenny, wherever you are, I hope you're somewhat satisfied.
AN: Alright, I think that I'm going to go with two more chapters before the epilogue.
But I need to ask you guys this: how would you feel if I gave you three endings? I've got it all figured out and everything, but I can't decide on one that would be enough to satisfy myself or the readers. Personally, I'd love to do three, since not only would you guys be able to pick your favourite, most plausible one, but it would be sort of like episode 5. Don't worry – it's got nothing to do with that episode obviously, since they've already left Wellington at this point. I mean just the fact that it has multiple endings.
Please let me know in the reviews, thanks guys!