Sometimes I like my peace and quiet – nobody around to bother me, and I can take some time to think and sort things out in my life. Usually I'd do it whenever I was feeling sad or depressed about somebody dying, but lately it's been for a different reason.
I'm starting to wonder what I'm even doing here. Why am I still at the Houston Space Station? It's not as if I have any real reason to stay – I don't have any real friends here, and it sure seems like they've got things pretty well at hand around this place. If the electricity doesn't prove that, then their plentiful food, water and medical supplies surely do.
I'm sitting alone in the cafeteria, twirling a dry bowl of cereal around as I try to figure out my life. Most of the others have left hours ago to do their own thing, while I've been sitting alone at this table. James asked if I'd like to join him and Debbie to sort through medical equipment, but I politely declined the offer. I still don't think that Debbie's too fond of me being around here, but she at least tolerates my presence.
That's more than I can say for others in the past.
"Thought that I'd find you here," Bo remarks, taking me out of my stupor as he sits on the other end of the table facing towards me. "Had to ask around, but I'm glad to see people didn't lie. You're not easy to track down, you know."
"What do you want?" I ask, not bothering to hide my annoyance that he's talking nonsense. Either tell me what you need, or get out.
Stretching out his back, Bo yawns before placing his hand in his chin and drumming his fingers along the table; not answering me at first as he stares at nothing in particular. What the hell is this guy's problem? Seriously! It's as if he's purposely trying to piss me off!
Huffing in annoyance, I stand up and bring my cereal bowl with me; not wanting to be bothered unless it's absolutely necessary. This guy's just wasting my time.
"You haven't heard me out yet."
"Well, you haven't given me a reason to stay!" I retort, narrowing my eyes at him as he shakes his head in wonder. Angrily, I toss the bowl onto a nearby counter and go storming up to the moron. I slam my hands on the table and loom over him with a glare. "What the hell do you want, Bo?! You've bugged me enough over the last three days!"
"I've wanted to see how much you can endure," he says with a shrug of his shoulders, playing it off like nothing as he too stands up. "It was going well up until this point, I'd say."
"What are you even talking about?!" I demand, exasperated and getting really tired of his constant riddles. "Endure what? Is it your annoying voice, or your constant nagging? Or maybe it's a bit of both!"
"I've got a proposition for you," he interrupts, placing a dirty hand over my mouth that I immediately brush away. "So, do me a favour and stop talking for a moment? You're usually pretty good at doing that, so it shouldn't be a problem."
"This better be good…" I warn, not in the mood for his games as I cross my arms stubbornly. I've got to say, out of everyone that I've met here, Bo has gotta be the strangest out of all of them. James told me that he doesn't often interact with the others or talk very much, but to me it seems as if I can't get him to shut his yapper! I should rip off a piece of duct tape and strap it over his mouth!
If only I actually had some duct tape.
"I wasn't lying when I told you that you're what we need around here. You're different, Clementine; a whole lot different from the other kids around here, and definitely different from most of the adults. You've got a fire inside of you, but you've also got the heart," he praises, motioning for me to follow him as he makes his way up the stairs. We end up going back up to the upper walkway, bank a left and head out through the emergency exit. Bo quickly turns the alarm off as we leave.
"Why are we up on the roof?" I question as my hat almost blows away with the wind.
Reaching behind an air vent, Bo pulls out an imposing-looking sniper rifle and slowly walks back over to me. I just stare at him as if he's crazy.
"I need to see you shoot," he states, cutting me off as I'm about to protest. "It won't matter how small you are if your life's on the line. When it comes down to it, you've got to be ready for anything."
"Why are you doing this?" I ask, sighing as we make our way over to the edge of the roof. "I mean… well, I'm not even sure what I mean! Why do you keep saying that I'm better prepared than all of those people?"
"Tell me something, Clementine. How many places have you been to that have lasted out here? I'm not talking for a few months, I'm saying real, long-term stuff," he questions, and he gets his answer as my eyes lower to the ground. Putting a hand upon my shoulder, Bo places the rifle in front of me while being careful not to drop it down three stories to the ground below. "I don't want to see this place fall as much as the next guy, but…"
"They always do… eventually…"
"You know what it's like out there," he nods, pointing to the ruined city as I stare out at various ruined buildings. This place looks like hell compared to the Space Station. "What's gonna happen when the dead come knocking at our door? You think that James and his heart medication are going to stop a herd of walkers from mauling these people to bits? No, that's not how the world works anymore. We can't be idealistic around here, otherwise we're all going to end up dead."
As a demonstration of how to use the rifle, Bo goes slow as he shows me the proper form. Where your elbow is positioned, where to find the most comfortable position for your hands to go, how to look into the scope, everything. As soon as he finishes with the first steps, he turns his head towards me for a moment.
"There aren't any second chances when it comes to this kind of stuff. You need to make every shot count," he instructs as I nod in hesitation. Once he sees that I'm serious, he shuts one eye and looks through the scope again. "Come to Papa, you son of a bitch…"
The shot roars through the sky; racking my ear drums as the buzzing starts to die down. The walker that he was aiming for falls in a bloody heap, as a couple more of its buddies come to see where the party's at.
"They make for good target practice sometimes," Bo comments before handing the gun over to me. I nervously grasp the thing in my arms, but thankfully this isn't the heaviest sniper rifle there is. Honestly, the only differences between this thing and Lilly's old hunting rifle are the weight, the scope and the kick.
Sigh… Lilly… Even remembering her name saddens me. I wonder how they're doing, or if they're even still alive?
"Hey, snap out of it. You've got a lethal weapon in your hands," he reminds me, setting me up as I kneel on one knee overlooking the city of Houston. "Just take it easy, alright? You'll have to adjust for the range, so aim the gun a little bit higher when taking out targets from this distance. That's it… Just make sure that you remember to breathe. It's not like in the movies, kid."
"No kidding."
"See where those two lines meet in the middle of your scope? That's your crosshair," Bo informs me as I nod in confirmation. "That's where your bullet's going to travel. Alright, how's about you go for one of the closer ones down there for your first try? Just line it up like I showed you."
Taking a deep breath, I put all of my focus into what I'm doing. The beauty of being up on the roof is that there are hardly any distractions, save for the occasional calling of birds or the wind as it gusts by. Other than that, however, things are perfectly peaceful up here –
Wait a minute… What the hell?!
"That's where I was!" I call out suddenly, ignoring Bo as he rolls his eyes when I put the gun down. I point over to the giant hole in the ground that used to be a road, and I still can't believe that I managed to survive that. "I got trapped by walkers in the subway tunnel, but then all of these cars just came crashing down on top of them!"
"Whoa, hold on a second. You were inside of that place?" he asks as his face whitens when I nod. "Oh boy…"
"What is it?"
"That, uh… we kind of were responsible for collapsing the road out there," he admits sheepishly, scratching the back of his neck. "Sorry about that…"
"Are you kidding me?! I almost died in there! Why would you do something like that?!" I demand, disbelief boiling in my veins as he tries to explain himself.
"Well to be fair, we had no idea that anybody was down there. Those tunnels have been abandoned for at least a year now," he justifies himself, although I'm still more than a little bit miffed about the whole thing. "People kept worrying about the walkers crossing the street near our front door, and we've got a map of all the streets and underground passages around Houston, so we decided to do something about it. The road was weak enough as it was, so all it took was a well-placed grenade for the structure to collapse. Now the walkers will have trouble reaching us from that side, see? No problems."
"How about you check to make sure there's nobody down below next time before you go blowing things up? I'd appreciate it, thanks," I tell him sarcastically, grabbing the rifle again and setting myself up.
True to Bo's word, there are some walkers that are a bit closer up than the ones that he was firing at. They're just wandering out on the street with no real intention of going anywhere, so they should be pretty easy pickings, right?
Wrong, apparently, as I take my first shot that blows off a walker's leg and alerts his buddies to come out and play.
"Crap…" I mutter, reloading the weapon and aiming again.
"It just takes some getting used to. You'll get the hang of it," he encourages, narrowing his vision as he looks at the one I hit. "Most people don't score a direct hit on their first try, so that's pretty impressive at least."
"It's not the head though," I remind him, realizing that body shots don't matter when you're dealing with walkers. With people it's a different story, but it's best just to always aim for the head regardless.
"No, it's not. Just keep practicing."
…
This goes on for another fifteen minutes or so, with a lot of empty bullet shells and quite a few dead bodies lining the street. I averaged about two shots per walker, which isn't perfect but Bo assured me that he's got more than enough bullets for this thing. Overall for my first day with a sniper rifle, I'd say I didn't do too shabby.
It still needs some work, though, and we both know it.
Still though, I've got some unanswered questions that I really need to ask Bo. There's a whole lot about what he's teaching me this stuff for that I don't fully understand. I mean, sure it's important to know how to use different guns, but why now? And more importantly, why would he bother to teach me of all people?
Deciding that we should break for lunch, Bo comes back with a couple of apples for the two of us, courtesy of the kitchen down on the main level. They're shiny and red, and for some reason they bring me back to our days at the motor-inn when Lee was forced to hand out the food rations. Never before had I been so happy to have food stuffed in my belly.
My new mentor, if you could call him that, takes a bite out of his apple as I sit cross-legged beside him.
"About a year and a half ago, I was living in a shack out in Arkansas – me and a couple buddies of mine," he recalls, looking rather saddened about the fact. I'm going to assume they didn't make it. "Wouldn't have even dreamed that a place like this could still actually exist, let alone that they'd be taking in newcomers. My friends and I came down here a few months later, but…"
"But… what?" I ask, wondering why he would cut himself off like that.
Closing his eyes and letting out a large sigh, Bo rubs his face tiredly before taking another bite out of his apple. What could've went wrong? And why does look… bitter about it?
"We weren't exactly the nicest people around, let me put it that way. We stole to survive; raided camps when the survivors were asleep and killed people who got in our way. There wasn't any real reason to be doing it other than the fact that we were a bunch of lazy assholes, and I felt like shit for doing it… But then we came here," he cuts off, almost assuming that I would know what this all means. "We were bandits, Clem. Nothing but a bunch of low-life ruffians, but I didn't know what this place could be capable of doing. I hadn't even taken a step before my friends were all gunned down by some marksman they hired up here. I managed to take him out, and the others never suspected a thing about me."
"You… you killed someone to get this spot?" I conclude, widening my eyes as he slowly nods his head. I'm still very confused. "Why would you tell me this?"
"Because I can tell that you've had to do some of the same things," he notices with a stern look. "None of these people have had to do the shit we pulled out there, so nobody would understand. Sometimes if it means your life is in the balance, then you have to do what you can to survive. We can't hesitate when it comes to the hard decisions out here."
Thinking this over for a little bit, I realize that Bo's kind of got a point. Everybody seemed kind of afraid of me when I came in for the first few days, and pretty much shivered the second that they saw I had a gun on me.
It's almost as if they're all living in some kind of delusional world – a world with no weapons or walkers, and where society hadn't changed a bit. They probably think of the Space Station as some kind of refuge from the dangers of the outside world, but if what Bo is implying about their unwillingness to kill walkers is any indication, these people are in trouble.
"James has good intentions, there's no denying that fact. But losing his wife… that hit him hard. He's so traumatized about it that he flat-out refuses to use guns. It's going to be the death of him if he doesn't change," Bo explains, as I start to get the picture of what this all means. "You're the next generation, Clementine. We need people like you at the helm to take charge and lead people to safety. If you can set an example for these people, then you'll end up saving hundreds if not thousands of lives out here."
"But I'm not a leader! I'm a kid! Nobody's going to listen to me!"
"They will if you prove yourself – give it enough time, and they'll come to see you as what you can be. You've got the potential for greatness here, Clem," he elaborates, eyeing the street wearily to check if anything else is popping out. "But also… there's something else about this place that you should probably know."
"Which is?" I ask, wondering just how many secrets this Space Station could be hiding from me. I've got a whole different perspective now than when I first arrived here.
"Well, here's the thing. We… fuck, get down!" he hisses, hiding behind a small sheet of metal as he occasionally looks over. He doesn't look nervous, but you can tell that something's really got him on edge right now.
As I poke my head up, I try to get a glimpse of what's going on out there. They're not walkers, but there are some people out in the street that are scavenging for whatever loot they can find.
"Bandits…" I whisper, looking over at Bo as he nods. "What should we do? Can we take them from here?"
"That's up to you, chief. Make your own choice, and be confident with it," Bo instructs me, as I realize now what he's trying to do. By forcing me to do what I feel is best, he's trying to develop my leadership skills. Whether this is the best time to be doing it is up for debate, but I nod and pick the rifle back up.
Checking to make sure I have enough bullets, I place the strap across my tired shoulders and struggle to hold the thing in place.
"I'll try shooting one of them and see if the rest will scatter," I tell Bo, to which he nods his head in agreement.
"Sounds good. Whenever you're ready."
Three bandits become five bandits… then six… then seven. Seven of these guys are looting the corpses to see if there's anything useful, but it doesn't seem like they're having much success.
Lining up a bearded, beanie-wearing bandit with piercings in his lip, I once again take a deep breath before pulling the trigger.
The effect is almost immediate. The man goes down from a gunshot to the chest, no doubt killing him as his friends pull out their guns and look every which way in a vain attempt to see who's shooting at them. Discouragingly, they haven't all taken off like I thought they would, so I turn towards Bo as he nods.
Shoot 'em again.
I cripple the second bandit by shooting him directly in the hip, but I immediately duck as they point up at us in the crow's nest (that's what Bo's been calling it). Gunshots ding off the roof as I crawl my way to safety, hoping that somehow they didn't just kill Bo in the process. I shriek as a bullet goes whizzing by my head and I duck for cover, but thankfully I've somehow managed to make it to the exit door.
"Downstairs, quickly!" Bo hurries me, appearing near the doorway as he snatches the rifle from my grasp. I pull out my trusty pistol and swiftly follow him downstairs. "You did good up there, kid! Prime shooting! But they're gonna be on our asses any minute now! We can't let them touch our people!"
We take the steps two at a time before rushing past some kids who try to follow us; thinking that this is a game or something. When I shake my head and show them my pistol, they immediately go wide-eyed and run in the opposite direction; probably going to tell on me for shoving a gun in their face.
Great, what are they gonna do? Ground me?
….
"WHERE THE FUCK ARE Y'ALL BASTARDS?! I'LL SKIN YOU ALIVE!" the bandit roars, furiously looking around to avenge his fallen comrades. Looks like I really did it this time…
They may have been able to get inside, but there's no way that they're getting out. This is our fault that we're getting put at risk like this for shooting at them in the first place, but bandits mean trouble, and to Bo it was clear that they'd end up trying to break in here anyways.
Speaking of which, he's trying his best to sneak around with a knife in the hopes of catching one of these guys by surprise. It actually kind of amazes me how deadly this guy can be – he hides really well and can quickly become a killing machine if the need arises. Maybe that's from his time spent as a bandit himself, since he probably knows how people like these act, but who knows I guess.
"Well, well! What have we got here?" one of the men say in a cocky voice, grabbing a woman from behind and holding a gun up to her head. "I think you'll make a nice touch to this mission, wouldn't ya say? I'm sure they'd be willing to bargain for ya!"
Inching my way closer, I realize that the woman is actually Debbie, and that James has rushed out of his office to practically beg them to release her.
Meanwhile, Bo has silently slit the throat of a smaller bandit; silencing him and stuffing the body into the closet before anybody notices. He's got to show me how to sneak up on people sometime. As for me, I aim my pistol and try to get a good angle on the man who's dangerously close to killing James' girlfriend.
"Come now, let's talk about this. There's no need for anything rash," James attempts, trying to cool down the situation before it escalates any further.
"You hand this place over on a nice, shiny silver platter, and then MAYBE I'll be willing to listen to reason," he fumes, trying to look as intimidating as possible as two more of his buddies are killed without his knowledge. There's just two of them left now.
I'm hiding behind one of the fallen cabinets that the bandits pushed over earlier, and James looks at me briefly through the corner of his eye. I point one finger up to him, indicating that this'll be over before he even knows it.
I hold the familiar gun in my hands, shoot the bandit holding Debbie right in the head, and come out of hiding as Bo knocks the other one to his knees. He's about to execute the guy so that he can join his followers, but James interrupts the process.
"No! There's no more need for it! He's finished," James shakes his head, motioning for two others to come into the room to subdue him. "Macy, Graham, you know where to take him."
The bandit looks around in fear, probably scared shitless about wherever it is that he's going. Bo says nothing but looks sombre as he places the knife back in his pocket, as James rushes over to Debbie's side.
"Are you alright?" he asks, repeating himself when she doesn't give an answer straight away. When she nods while breathing heavily, James breathes out a sigh of relief. "Thank god… I thought that I'd lost you, Deb."
"You've always been a big, old softie, haven't ya?" she jokes, kissing him on the nose as I awkwardly stand to the side.
Almost as if on cue, James finally notices me and pats me in the shoulder in appreciation.
"Thank you, Clem. That was way too close for comfort," he acknowledges with a smile to which I return. It was nothing, really.
"James…" Bo mutters, gesturing towards me as the whole room goes silent. Debbie's widening her eyes in shock, but the doctor seems to understand what the man is getting at. "I think it's time we let her in. She deserves it after all that, don't you think?"
"…I suppose you're right. We can't exactly keep her in the dark forever on this," James agrees, which just puzzles me even further. What the hell are they talking about now? And why are they saying it all hushed, as if it's some top-secret organization or something along those lines?
Debbie seems to relent after a few seconds, and that's pretty much all the confirmation that they need. Punching a code into the wall, it opens up a door that I had never even noticed before, and the three of them invite me inside.
"This is our inner council, Clementine. We've decided to let you in," James explains, motioning for me to sit in one of the chairs facing a large monitor. This is almost like a board room of some kind. "You might want to sit down for this, Clem. It's going to be a lot to take in."
As a few more people pile into the room and sit in the chairs, the screen comes to life – even though it's got a little bit of static near the bottom of it.
That's not what really intrigues me though, as the first thing that I notice is a symbol of a small bug with wings and a glowing tail popping up on the screen.
What does a firefly have to do with anything?
AN: And so it begins – Clementine's starting to learn how to become a leader, use new weapons and try new tactics that would make Lee proud (at least, I hope that's the case).
If you can figure out what the significance is of that last line in this chapter, then you get an imaginary cookie from me! If it doesn't make sense to you, well… you get a cookie for reading this anyways XD All will be revealed in due time my friends, don't worry! Please drop a review and I'll see you in the next chapter!
PS: Yeah, I know you guys like Jilly – don't try lying to me :) Well, you're not the only one – that's all I'll say!