AN: This first part may seem a bit anti-climactic, but it's not just to stall this from ending, I promise lol. It's… well, just see for yourself. Please don't forget to review! They're always appreciated :)
I never understood what a concentration camp was. My dad tried to explain how it was some horrible, unbelievably evil place where millions of people had died. But it never made sense to me, and I always asked this question whenever I thought of it: why were people getting killed? What did they do to deserve it?
At this point, Mom would usually tear me away from the conversation, scolding Dad for scaring me with stuff about World War Two.
This happened three times, and I never got a straight answer out of him.
But then I think back to what a certain history professor once told me, and I figure that that's as good of an answer that I'll ever get here.
"Clem," Lee told me, eyes downcast as we kept moving in the RV… as Lilly sat with her hands bound a few feet away from us, "people… don't always make sense."
Maybe that sentence applies to the situation we're in right now. We're getting pushed around and exploited by an angry, dangerous man who pretty much shows no remorse for anything he does, but nobody can figure out why. Maybe it's just that he enjoys other people's suffering, or maybe… maybe he's scared. Scared that if he doesn't continue to go on the destructive path that he's set himself on, that everyone will up and turn against him – including those close to him. Maybe Sandro is just so far gone that there's no hope in hell of him making things right, so he continues to torment his prisoners.
These thoughts cloud my mind as I watch people start to prepare in this community centre; either mentally or physically as they pull out various everyday items to use in order to take this place over. When's the last time you've heard of a revolution involving sticks and rope?
"Hey," Jane greets me, sitting down beside me as I smile softly towards her. "You doing alright over here?"
"Shouldn't I be asking you that?" I respond, glancing down towards her severed fingers. "I can't believe I tried to bargain with a guy like that… I'm so sorry, Jane."
"You did what you had to – like you always do," she brushes it off, leaning her head back and sighing as Lilly tries her best to communicate with Dominic. She has limited success, of course. "I told you Clem, you're a survivor. That was a smart thing that you did, and we're lucky that it's you he asked and not anyone else. You're gonna be faced with shitty situations where you have to make a choice that some people will hate you for, but we need people like that. You're gonna outlast us all…"
"Don't talk like that, Jane…"
"It's the truth," she acknowledges quietly, shrugging her shoulders. "With the way that the rest of u are going, trying to fight each other all the time, one of these days we're gonna screw up. Fire off a shot when we're not supposed to, or pick on the wrong person and get a knife to the face. But I don't think that's gonna happen to you."
"Gee, that makes me feel so much better."
"That's what I'm here for."
Rolling my eyes, I playfully smirk at the woman as we watch Lilly practically pulling her hair out.
"Should we maybe go help her?" I ask as Lilly places her hands on her hips impatiently. Wow, she's even intimidating Dominic, and he's gotta be the biggest man I've ever seen!
"Nah," Jane chuckles as she watches the exchange, "it's a hell of a lot more fun just to watch them. At least she's not bitching at us for once."
"You're still angry at her?" I question with a tinge of sadness, as I recall all that's happened with the three of us over the past month or so. "After everything that's happened? Everything we've been through?"
Pausing for a moment, Jane disappears into her own little world – as if she's looking back on everything and deciding on whether or not Lilly's become a lost cause. I still haven't given up on her, on either of them actually, but Jane… I can't tell what she's thinking.
"That's up for debate," she finally admits, not going into any more detail as she rubs her hand over her face. Sometimes it's easy to forget that Jane's been through just as much hell as the rest of us. Losing her entire family and having to leave her own sister behind, travelling all the way down from Washington by herself, losing all of her close friends that she met along the way, to this… All that trouble, and all Jane got was two chopped fingers.
"I still can't get over Luke…" she mentions to me suddenly, causing me to look over at her saddened expression. "It's stupid, right? I mean, we only knew each other for a little while, but…"
"You loved him," I conclude as she shrugs her shoulders. Huh, I would've expected her to flat-out deny that she had any real feelings for the guy.
"Can't tell, really. There was some chemistry for sure, but… I don't know. The way I just left him out on that ice… it felt like I let him down in the worst kind of way."
"It was gonna happen either way, Jane," I say with a sigh, not liking to relive those awful couple of days. Everything went to hell so quickly. "Luke was gone no matter what we tried to do. But… you saved me, remember?"
"…yeah, I guess," she agrees solemnly, still looking torn about not trying to come over to the guy. Clearly the wounds haven't fully healed up yet. "Anyway, enough of my sob stories. I guess we've gotta get ready for this, don't we?"
Smirking, I stand up with Jane as we start to wander over towards Lilly, Dominic and Mikael, who are all set and ready to go. The room is dark and quiet, as there are only light, pumped-up whispers going on between friends. This is the moment we've been waiting for! The time to strike is now!
And that's about the time that my hope is immediately shattered, burned alive and chopped up into tiny, little pieces before getting swallowed by a goat.
The doors are thrust open as we all look to see Sandro standing there with two of his cronies; wearing a smirk that flattens our spirits.
"Evening, ladies and gentlemen," he starts off, placing his hands in his jacket pocket as one of the prisoners step forward. He's not really a smart fellow by any means, and he's so pumped up full of rage and energy that he simply charges forward with a shiv that he must've snagged somehow. He lifts it above his head, swipes downwards and is met with a swift knee to the stomach courtesy of Sandro.
He's tripped off his own two feet and has his wrist stomped on painfully as the guy tries to reach for the fallen shiv.
"Allow me, amigo," Sandro hisses, twirling the weapon around in his fingers before stabbing the guy repeatedly in the chest; getting blood all over his face and causing us to watch in discomfort. We'd try to gang up on him now, but the guards have their assault rifles trained right on us, as if they're daring us to try and take him down.
Once he's finished, Sandro wiped the blood out of his eyes before turning towards me and smiling.
"It hasn't even been twenty-four hours, and you have already broken the contract, Clementino."
"Don't blame one guy for the rest of us," I respond, trying my best to be brave in a room full of watchful eyes. So far, I'm faltering. "We haven't started anything! That was the deal!"
"Hmm… so you say," he ponders, glancing carefully at Mikael holding a rope, who quickly puts it behind his back. "Despite this obvious sham you've created, I was just coming to make sure that our agreement was still intact. I trust the living arrangements are more to your liking?"
Nobody responds, so Sandro simply shrugs as he wanders around the community centre; not daring to go into the middle of the crowd for obvious reasons.
"Yes… this should make you all feel much more comfortable, indeed. That is, after all, what you wanted, is it not?"
Once he notices Jane standing beside me, he smirks sinisterly and walks over towards her.
"Glad to see that your recovery has gone so smoothly," he taunts, causing me to hold Jane's hand to try and prevent her from clawing the man's eyes out. She probably wishes that she had Etrius' sword right about now… His eyes trace over to me as he nods. "Our arrangement shall continue, my young friend. Here's to another period of shared prosperity! Hopefully we can continue to negotiate fruitfully, Clementino."
Sandro and the guards begin their departure as the rest of us look on. I've never felt more humiliated in my entire life. What do you think that speech makes me look like in front of all of these people now?!
"Get some rest, all of you," Sandro commands, clutching the doors as he starts to leave. "It shall be a long day of work for us all. Wouldn't want to fall behind…"
Once the doors shut with a loud bang, the silence that's leftover in the room is deafening. All at once, the eyes of every prisoner in the camp fall upon me, making me feel smaller than I did when I was eight years old. All I want to do now is find a hole that I can dig myself into.
A handful of them come forward yelling; blaming me for all of their problems.
"Clementino?! What the fuck?! Sandro has a fucking pet name for this little shit!"
"She is a double agent, is what she is! She claims to help with this revolution, but on the side has tea with a dictator!"
"She has probably told him EVERYTHING! Why else would Sandro come in here?!"
"Please…" I beg, my whimpers not getting heard over the roar of the crowd. Lilly and Jane stand in front of me, trying their best to protect me from the onslaught of angry rebels. "I didn't… I just wanted to help…"
"All she has done is made things worse! We will be stuck in here forever because of this little shit!"
"She tried to HELP you assholes!" Lilly contradicts, punching a man in the face as he tries to grab hold of me. Dominic and Mikael have also thankfully come to my aid. "Quit blaming other people for your problems! We wouldn't all be here together if it wasn't for Clem! You come near her, and we'll put you into the fucking ground!"
Dominic cracks his knuckles before picking up two fully grown men and tossing them into the crowd. One of them gets knocked unconscious before hitting the floor.
"Colin was with you in the fucking office! I saw the both of you go in there!" one of the women bark at me, making me believe that she must've been close to the prisoner. "He never came outside! Only you! Why?!"
"Sandro killed him…" I admit, causing the roars to only get louder as I try to hide my eyes with my hat. "He took a pool cue, and he slaughtered the man as he was walking out the door. I thought he was going to kill me too…"
"MAYBE WE'D HAVE BEEN BETTER OFF IF HE HAD!"
"YEAH!"
So this was Sandro's goal for coming in here – he wanted to make it seem as if he and our were on the level with each other, and supporting each other's best interests while forgetting about the rest of them! He wanted me to seem like a traitor in their eyes, and he figured that I would cave after seeing them this upset.
Well, he sure as hell wasn't wrong…
All I wanted was for things to be better, but all that I've ended up doing is making things so much worse and hostile around here. The entire camp wants me dead except for four other people, and now those guards are probably waiting outside for one of us to start shit up again, effectively ending the revolt and violating the contract. Then we'll just be back where we started before.
How is this better?
"CLEM!" Jane yells over the crowd as she gets my attention. She's trying her best to hold back a mob, and it won't be long before they get super pissed and just storm towards me. "Take Dom and get out of here!"
"What?! No! What about you guys?!" I argue back, not really understanding why…
…until it clicks.
Oh Jane, you sneaky devil. As soon as it dawns on my face, Jane nods as I climb onto Dominic's shoulders. He really doesn't mind, I don't think, as he wades through the masses as if he's going through a row of bushes. I'm sure that he doesn't understand what's going on, but he obliges as I kindly ask him to lift me up to one of the windows.
"WHERE DO YOU THINK YOU'RE GOING?!" asks one of the angry mob members, before Lilly orders everyone to shut up. Thank god that her time at the air force base paid off, since she can boss people around like nobody's business.
"Not that any of you deserve it, but they're going to help you out!" Lilly explains more quietly as everyone starts to hush up. Wouldn't want anyone outside to catch wind of what's actually going on. "Once they get out there, we need to create a distraction. Anyone got some ideas?"
"It may be old-fashioned, but… a chant might work," Mikael suggests, getting shrugs from everyone else as I climb through the window. They must not have really thought about locking it first. Dominic follows in right behind me, as I give one last wave to the crowd.
"I'm sorry…" I tell them, though nobody seems to really give a damn about my apology at this point. To be honest, I'd probably be pretty pissed too if I was in their shoes.
"Be careful," Lilly warns as I nod to her and jump downwards.
…..
I land on the roof with a soft thud as Dominic practically flops beside me. The guy certainly isn't very graceful on his feet, is he? I shush him as he quickly nods and creeps his head over the rooftop alongside me. So far, we can see that there's a guard in all three of the watchtowers, with two sitting right outside the community centre doors (just as we had suspected). We can see Sandro's office building over to the right, and the fields are straight ahead of us.
That's where we want to head first.
"You ready, Dom?" I ask, smiling as he shrugs his shoulders in response. I can't get enough of this guy! "Okay… we're going to have to be really quiet, okay? Let's sneak over there as quickly as we can, and then we'll get to work. Do you have the matches?"
When he gives me a weird look, I swipe against my finger to illustrate the process. After a little while, the big guy finally understands as he gives me a thumbs up. I giggle slightly as I shake my head and start the descent down one of the water pipes connected to the roof. This is extremely dangerous, and I have to stop to catch my breath as the pipe shakes, but I slowly continue as Dom looks on worriedly. At least he's not a chatterbox, otherwise we both probably would be in big doo-doo. But the man hardly speaks at all!
As I stop to catch my breath and wait for Dominic to begin climbing down, I can't help but feel torn. Yeah, I want to break out of this hell as much as the next person… but what's going to happen next? Even if this actually works, people are gonna die, and the prisoners who I wanted to call friends now probably hate me just as much as Sandro. Will they just cast me aside once their freedom is restored? Will they leave me out to dry on the fence as the walkers pick at my bones?
Oh, ha ha. Very funny, Jane. Now I get it – make choices that some people might hate you for. If that wasn't predicting this sort of thing, then I don't know what was.
And why the hell do they always send the twelve year old girl out on all of the stealth missions?! Jesus, I should start charging people for this stuff!
The chilly night air surrounds us as Dominic lands beside me, more loudly than I would've liked. Just like crossing the street, we look both ways to make sure that no oncoming traffic is headed our way – meaning guards. Listening carefully enough, you can hear the howls and groans of the walkers on the other side of the fence behind us, and occasionally the muffled conversation of some guards in the distance. But so far, we've been pretty lucky as we silently make our way across the path.
Fortunately for the both of us, there isn't anybody left in the prisons, so we quickly jog inside and search the desks for stuff we could take.
"Anything you can use, just put it in your pockets," I tell him, placing a small police baton in my pocket to clarify for him. There's not a whole lot for me to take, but… wow. This pistol should come in handy, even though it probably doesn't have a whole lot of bullets left inside of it.
Dominic grabs a baseball bat that was sitting underneath the counter, which is definitely his preferred weapon of choice. Guns are quick for me, and I can shoot with the best of them, but Dominic's never used one in his life. Not that he's ever really had to, since he could crush a man's head in with his fists if he was feeling really angry, but a bat will do just fine for the mountain man.
"Aye carumba… Can you believe this shit? Forced out into the cold, and for what? It's not as if they're going to try anything now," we hear one of the guards remark from outside, causing us both to hide in the corner. I've got my pistol out, but that's only for an emergency.
Besides, I think Dominic wants a crack at the guards for their shitty treatment of him after all of these years.
"Keep up talk like that, and they'll have you working the fields with the rest of them," his buddy replies sternly. "I'm going to do another lap of the office buildings. You stick around and make sure nobody tries to escape."
"Whatever… it's not as if they'd have anywhere to run."
Holding my breath, I try to remain calm and quiet as we hear the guard sigh right outside the doorway.
Unfortunately, Dominic's a big guy, so when he tries leaning back against the desk, it creaks and slowly alerts the attention of the security man.
"Huh?" he questions, holding his rifle out in front of him as he bursts through the doorway; his flashlight glancing every which way except for us. The man takes some careful steps forward without noticing us, so I motion for Dominic to slowly tread behind him. Thankfully he understands, so he tiptoes forward as I silently move to close the door behind us. Nobody needs to be alerted by us for this sort of thing…
As soon as the guard is satisfied that he's checked out what he's supposed to, he turns around with a curt nod – only to be met by a 300 pound, almost seven feet tall bald man with a baseball bat. Dominic makes short work of the man as he slams the bat across his head; smashing it against his face until his skull cracks open like an egg. I had to shut the door a little more loudly than I would've liked because of the guy's screams, and I thought for sure that somebody would've heard him, but there's something… occupying them.
Oh boy, we've gotta hear this!
The security guard looks like Carver after Kenny smashed his face in, but I try not to look at his head as I pat the guy down for weapons and ammo. Inside his pocket is another pistol and some rounds, so I take those and sling the assault rifle over my back. I certainly am not strong enough to use it properly, but I bet that someone else could.
Dom and I scurry out of the prison and shut the door firmly behind us, hoping that nobody will find the body until much later. Moving closer towards the fields, the both of us look to see that a whole bunch of the guards have gathered near the community centre doors. It's faint, but you can hear something going on behind those walls.
And it's probably one of the funniest things that I've ever heard in my long, twelve year life.
"I DON'T KNOW BUT I'VE BEEN TOLD!"
"SANDRO SUCKS A BAG OF BALLS!"
"I DON'T KNOW BUT I'VE BEEN TOLD!"
"THE GUARDS AROUND HERE'VE GOT NO SOULS!"
"SOUND OFF!"
"JACKASS!"
"SOUND OFF!"
"DICKHEAD!"
I have to hold my hand over my mouth to keep me from bursting out in laughter as we sprint undetected into the fields; crouching down below the tobacco plants and various other crops that they grow in this place. Only Lilly could've come up with a chant like that, and she and Jane are probably dying of laughter inside there despite the seriousness of what we're about to do.
My heart pounds against my chest as we make our way down the rows, not stopping until we get to the very last vegetable plant. We settle ourselves down, pull out the box of matches and look towards each other.
"Ready, big guy?" I ask, smirking as he nods at me with eagerness.
"Clementine… is… friend," he remarks towards me, making my heart swell with pride. We sure have come a long way, haven't we?
"You're my friend too, Dominic," I reply, backing up as I light the match. I carefully hold it up against the first plant, and grin in victory as it catches fire. Thank god it doesn't rain that much over here!
The deed is done now, though, as the both of us duck after hearing a gunshot come our way. That's the reaction we had expected, but unfortunately for us, the only way for us to get to freedom is to crawl back under the plants and rush back the way we came. Hopefully we won't get burned alive trying to do it, as the flame's already caught onto some of the other tobacco plants at this prison. It may be a big waste of food, but it's the only way that we're going to get the guards to split up and get our friends out of the community centre.
I gasp in worry as Dominic takes a bullet to the chest, but he tries to assure me that he's fine even though I can see the blood running down his shirt.
"God damn it, Dom! You're not fine! Just run for it!" I tell him, but the stubborn man won't hear any of it. He's set in his ways, but he starts to realize that something's not right… when he takes another bullet to the chest.
Dominic collapses to his knees as I shoot and kill the bastard who did this to him.
Even a man as big and strong as the mountain who saved me in prison can fall, and as he tries his best to close up the bullet holes in his chest, I heart-breakingly realize that his time is running out.
"I'm sorry, big guy…" I apologize, croaking out as I rush to his side. Dominic tiredly smiles towards me and grunts, coughing up blood as I force him to lay on his back. "This should never have happened to you…"
"This… my… home…" he splutters, grabbing my hand and giving it a firm grip. "Goodbye… friend… Clementine…"
"…Goodbye…" I repeat, raising a pistol up woefully as he accepts his predicament and smiles. This should never have been his home – Dominic should never have had to live in a place like this all his life.
But bad things happen to everyone, no matter who you are.
Firing the bullet into his brain, I turn my head back towards the prison and glare; my face visible from the light as my eyes burn as intensely as the flames. I see the community centre doors being flung open as a stampede breaks outside, and I hear the gunshots… so many gunshots…
Strengthening my resolve, I make sure that I'm low enough to the ground before crawling my way back to the enemy lines.
We will not be stopped, we will not be silent, and we will not fail.
We've come too far to back off now.