My face feels as though it's melting off. No seriously, the fire's burning so intensely above me that it literally feels like I'm sitting in a volcano. Thank god that these plants are up high enough, otherwise I'd be a roasted marshmallow at this point.
Mmm… marshmallows…
Unfortunately I don't have any of those – instead, sweat trickles down my skin as I continuously cough violently while crawling my way forward. I will not die in a burning field! Dominic didn't just die for something as simple as this… he died for the cause, and I'll be damned if I don't at least shoot some of these guards before my time is up. I can't let his death be in vain.
"AHH! OH MY GOD! AHHHHHHHHHHH!" screams a shrieking voice, as I hear their body get incinerated by the fire. He must've fallen into it somehow, but I just hope it wasn't one of the prisoners. I don't really know what happened after I started crawling underneath here. Trust me, if there was another way around then I'd surely take it. But the only other choice would be to climb over one of the fences, and I'd rather not get eaten by walkers today. Or any day, for that matter.
I can't stop, otherwise I'll undoubtedly catch fire and die, so I keep trudging forward as the smoke starts to cloud my vision. Mom always told me to get low if there was ever a fire – stop, drop and roll or something like that. I'll do the drop part, but the other two steps don't really apply in this situation. My throat's dry and it hurts as I cough again, but at last I can finally see the exit.
It's just that I'm finding it increasingly difficult to move – the energy from my body is just vanishing as the heat intensifies. Maybe I should just take a nap right here…
"CLEMENTINE?!" I hear a muffled voice calling out to me. Whether it's friend or foe I'm not entirely sure, since both Sandro and Corvo both know my name as well and could just be calling to trick me. But I have to take a chance. I yell out in pain as some embers scorch my face, but I quickly wipe them away as I try to hurry. Another stunt like this and I won't live to see our wish fulfilled.
I clutch pieces of grass to pull myself forwards, and I almost make it to the exit…
…when I feel a slight burning sensation coming from the top of my head.
No! This can't be happening! I scream out in pain as once again I get too close to the flames, but I manage to make it out of there just in time as I roll over to safety. My hat scorches part of my ear as I hiss out, but then I immediately toss the hat off and start to panic. The damn thing's on fire!
"No, no, no, no, no, no, no, no!" I repeat over and over, stomping on the thing and trying my best to put out the small flame that's formed on it. Jane rushes over as soon as she sees me, but I'm too concentrated on this to pay her much mind. Once it finally goes out, I swear under my breath and cringe as part of the hat is burned and ruined. Blowing on it a few times, I reluctantly place it back on my head and turn to face Jane with a serious expression.
"Jesus, Clem! What the hell were you thinking?!" she scolds, a disapproving look on her face as she places her hands on my shoulders. "You don't need to prove yourself by burning alive!"
"Dominic's dead…" I tell her simply as she steadily looks downward. "They killed him, Jane. Shot him twice in the chest without warning. Where's Sandro?"
"Clem, I know that look. Personal revenge is gonna get you killed," she warns, her words not changing my mind at all.
"I need to find him. Where is he?"
"He's… he's probably in his office, but that's not important right now!" she tells me, wincing as she notices the burn marks on my face. Right now though, I barely feel any of them. There's just too much blood pumping through my veins. "Look, we need to go and help Lilly and Mikael – they're over by one of the watchtowers, and they're pinned down."
"Let's go then," I respond, not having any time to lose as we quickly jog our way over there. Jane's bleeding from a cut on her neck, but thankfully it's nothing too serious. The cuts on her face have reopened slightly, and to be honest I've never seen her look worse. "What happened to you?"
"One of those assholes got the jump on me; tried to slice my neck open with a knife," she explains, making a cutting motion across the baseline of her neck. "I put him down, but he almost got me good. Lilly's fine as far as I know, but Mikael got shot in the arm."
"What about the rest of the camp?" I ask, not liking where this is going as she shakes her head.
"At least half of us are dead – they fired at us the second we burst through the door. Not all of them… were shot in the head," she mentions, looking down at me as the both of us realize what that means. God damn it… we didn't really take into account that people would come back as walkers.
Such as the man who got burned alive, who's slowly standing up while still roasting. The smell is absolutely disgusting as he stumbles along.
"Don't worry about him! We've gotta move!" Jane bellows over the gunfire as we move closer. But the both of us gasp in shock and hide behind one of the prison walls as we see another horrible sight – some of the prisoners who had fallen first have turned, and they're eating the bodies of other fallen soldiers. One of the guards scream in terror as he desperately tries to crawl away from a walker, but he's been shot multiple times in the leg and isn't fast enough. His pleas for mercy rock our eardrums as his stomach is torn open.
Frowning, Jane shakes her head and rubs her face in horror.
"You never get used to seeing that…" she mutters as I widen my eyes in shock. I quickly tell her to duck as I pull out my pistol and shoot an approaching walker right in the face; causing it to double over and land right beside Jane. "Holy shit… Thanks for the save."
Nodding my head, I then remember that I still have that guard's assault rifle strapped across my back, so I tear it off and give it to Jane as she raises an eyebrow.
"I don't want to know how you got this, do I?"
"Not really," I tell her simply, following her as we work our way towards the watchtower that she was talking about. We cut across the courtyard; stopping every so often when we see a walker roll past, until we get a little ways away from our destination.
There's a guy with a sniper rifle up in the tower, and he's looking through the scope to pick off any potential targets. The blast from his gun is super loud, and it's attracting a shit-ton of walkers towards this place as they try clawing their way through the fence.
"Can't stay out in the open… we'll draw his fire straight to us," Jane remarks, clutching her rifle against her chest as I hold onto my pistol for dear life. I've still got that police baton in my pocket as well in case I need it, but a pistol would be much more effective. "How should we play this?"
As the firing slows down a little bit, I poke my head out for just a moment in order to see what exactly is happening out here. There are quite a few dead bodies on the ground – most of them friendly – but you can see a handful of prisoners laying on their stomachs against the hill, barely protected from the guard's sniper. And they're lead by…
"Lilly!" I exclaim quietly, pointing over to the hill as I see her with a pistol and trying to keep to the ground as best she can. "She's trapped over there! We've got to – "
The guard's bullet crashes into the brick right beside my head, so I quickly hide behind the wall and gasp in relief – I was this close to getting shot in the brain. Jane's got her arm planted across my chest in shock, but she quickly recovers and cocks her rifle back.
"Toss out your gun," she advises, "We need to draw his fire on us."
"He'll kill you if you go out there!" I protest, not wanting her to get hurt even more than she already has.
"All I need is one shot from him, that's it. We need the distraction – don't worry, I know what I'm doing."
Closing my eyes tightly, I nod as she prepares to sprint out of cover on my signal. This is a crazy, stupid plan, but it's the only one we've got. Sometimes the stupid plan is the best plan.
Counting to three in my head, I toss my pistol out in the open as the gun goes off, giving Jane enough time to sprint out and fire several arrays of bullets at him. I can hear something connect, but everything's quiet as she hides behind one of those electric transformers.
"Did you get him?!" I call out, hearing Jane mumble that she thinks so. There are some more walkers coming towards us, so I take a leap of faith and rush out to retrieve my gun; ducking my head as another bullet goes whizzing by. I don't actually see it, but I can sure as hell hear that somebody's shooting.
"Oh my god…" I breathe out, glaring at Jane as she tries shooting at some of the walkers. "Jesus, Jane! I thought you said he was dead!"
"He is!" I hear Lilly reply, making me sigh in relief as I see her and the remnants of our camp follow closely behind her. There are only about twenty of us left, but the majority of us now have guns. The problem is that a lot of these people haven't had to use one in quite some time, so we have to be prepared for the worst.
"Where's Sandro?" I repeat myself as Mikael, Jane and two other prisoners kill a couple more walkers. "None of this will matter if he escapes!"
Looking down at me, Lilly sighs before nodding and yelling for everyone to pull back; gasping as one of the prisoners gets the chomp on by a walker that snuck up the side.
"Shit! They're everywhere!" Lilly remarks, shooting both the victim and the monster before sprinting closer to the office buildings with the rest of us. "Stay close to each other! We'll keep each other safe, just trust me!"
As we're moving, a few of our fellow escapees pass by me and apologize for the way they acted, saying how it wasn't right of them to treat me that way. I just quietly tell them not to worry about it – I've got a lot of things on my mind right now, but dealing with how people feel about me isn't one of them.
Ending this nightmare and finally getting the justice we've been looking for, however, is.
There's no way that Sandro and Corvo can come out of this alive… If it's not me who pulls the trigger, then fine, whatever. I don't care either way, as long as before they die the two of them realize how much they hurt us. Assholes like those two probably won't really care who they've hurt, since they lost all sense of morality and kindness probably a long time ago, but hopefully their deaths can give these prisoners some closure at least.
Sandro's main office building is straight ahead, and with a little luck he'll still be inside. There aren't a whole lot of guards left alive, as their prison crumbles around them and burns as the flames from the crops bun brighter and bigger. This place is a war-torn, ravaged mess – no place stays safe forever, no matter how fortified it is. The bigger they are, the harder they fall, especially when you're living with walkers outside your door.
"This bastard's mine…" Mikael hisses, shooting one of the guard's in the head while holding his injured arm downwards. It looks really painful, and he lets out a grunt after he fires his weapon. "Shit… are we almost done here? I need medical attention…"
"Just hang in there," Lilly commands as we press onwards; our group looking incredibly terrifying and dangerous as we push towards the door. Jane, Lilly and I lead the charge at the front, while Mikael stands in behind us as the rest of the camp watches our backs. We're like an army all on our own here, and we've just about won the war.
At least, I hope we have. Lilly carefully opens the front doors of the office and orders for two other rebels to come in with us. The rest of the camp waits outside with their weapons raised.
Here we come, Sandro.
…..
The main hall is just as creepy as I remember it being, except this time there are several bullet holes in the roof that must've come from outside. Colin's bloodstain in still visible on the carpet, but I don't say anything about that fact – everyone else just assumes that something got in here earlier, anyways.
It's way too quiet in here… Perfect spot for an ambush, as Lilly motions for us to stay close to either hall. Jane, Mikael and I hang on the left wall, while Lilly and two of the rebels stay on the right. We've all got our guns out for any special surprises that might come our way, but we tiptoe to the front and pray that we don't suffer a barrage of gunfire.
We head in through to the pool table room – empty. Nothing in here except for a blood splatter on the hardwood floor. Deciding that we should check this room out anyways, Jane quickly searches the closets, the desk and even the broken fridge for any signs of activity. Why has nobody come out to meet us yet?
"Looks pretty fresh," Lilly comments darkly, scrunching up her nose as she looks at the pool of blood. "Whoever got hurt did so recently. Think they might've packed up and left?"
"He'd be more of a coward than I thought, then," Jane comments, checking the hallway to make sure it's clear.
"There is no way that El Diablo left his prison in such disarray," Mikael disagrees, shaking his head. "I don't believe it – Sandro was dead loyal to ruling this place. He'd guard it even to his last breath."
"Guys…" I remark, noticing that the blood trail leads right under the door and into the main planning room where I had negotiated with Sandro earlier. It appears as though it's pretty dark inside, since there's only a small dimmer of light piercing underneath the doorway, but it's still enough for us to see. Lilly nods as I carefully and quietly open the door, fully expecting someone to be waiting to shoot on the other side.
When no shots are fired, I grow even more confused. Where are the rest of the guards?
I open the door fully as all six of us step inside. This place smells foul, and if the toppled chairs and flipped desk are any indication, there was a struggle occurring in here.
My suspicions are confirmed when I see Sandro propped up in the corner; his eyeball blown out by a gunshot and various pieces of his left arm torn off. He actually manages to chuckle as he sees us approach.
"Heh… Looks like I'm caught in a trap…" he wheezes, blood pouring down his cheek as I gaze upon his grotesque frame. "I should have figured… you'd squirm out of our deal, Clementino…"
"Just kill him and be done with it," Lilly spits, as Jane aims her rifle dangerously close to Sandro's head. She lowers it before firing one round into his leg as he wretches about painfully.
"Jane! Just kill him already!"
"Not yet…" Jane growls lowly, contradicting herself over that whole personal revenge thing. Right now, I can't exactly say that I blame her.
"I want some answers," I tell him as he bleeds onto the floor. He doesn't have a whole lot of time left. "Who did this to you? None of our guys came in here until now."
He groans out once before steadying his breathing and smirking at Jane.
"I suppose… I deserved that…" he chuckles humourlessly before turning his attention to me. "Corvo… the fucking prick! I called him… a friend, urgh! Fifteen motherfucking years, and he betrays me… Took off in the truck with my guards… And left me for you. I'd wring his neck myself if I could…"
"Where did he go?" Jane asks, holding the rifle back towards his face. The next shot will probably be deadly. "Tell me right now, or I'll draw this out even longer. You don't need your fingers, do you?"
Nobody's holding her back, so Jane pulls her knife out of its holster and jabs it straight into Sandro's hand; causing him to howl out of pain as she twirls the blade around.
"How does it feel?! Huh?! HOW DOES THAT FUCKING FEEL?!"
Having seen enough of this, Mikael steps forward, pushes me out of the way and fires directly into Sandro's skull. Finally, his reign of terror over these people has come to an end.
I haven't seen Jane this angry in a long while.
"You fucking idiot…" she snarls, pulling the knife out of his hand and stepping forward; slowly going crazy with rage. "How the hell are we supposed to find Corvo and them now, huh?! They could be out there in the fucking desert waiting for us to let our guards down! Did you ever stop to think that maybe I was trying to help us out?!"
"I will not stand by why you take on fucking revenge!" Mikael roars as I try to separate Jane from him. It doesn't matter if she took that a little far; I won't let her get hurt by Mikael… even if it means putting myself in danger. He shoots me a glare before yelling again. "You are still taking her side? Even after what you just witnessed?! That wasn't justice! That was torture!"
"What do you think he's been doing to you for the last five years?" Lilly questions, her hand grazing her pistol at her side as the two other rebels seem a little bit anxious. "Just put your gun down, Mikael. We're on the same side, remember?"
"I don't think so – not anymore," he spits, the bullet in his arm giving us the advantage if things go screwy. "I should've known that you pig-headed Americans would cause nothing but trouble around here! You think that you know everything, but you don't! We've suffered in these walls for much longer than you, so don't you dare think that you've saved our lives! We saved our own! Half of this fucking camp is DEAD THANKS TO YOU!"
"Jane… run," I tell her as two of the rebels aim their weapons towards us. They can shoot about as well as Nick could, which really doesn't say much, but from this distance they could shoot to kill. "Put your guns down! There's no sense in fighting each other! That's just what Sandro would've wanted!"
"You stay out of this, Clementino!" Mikael mocks, making me glare at him as he draws his weapon and aims it towards Jane. "You fucking ignorant piece of shit! I stood up for you in the community centre, and this is what happens?! You three came in here just to get revenge on a man that you've known for less than a fucking month! No… If there is a god, let him be my witness. I do not sin in a room full of sinners! If anyone will have done wrong today, it will have been you three!"
"I'm warning you one last time, asshole," Jane says, her voice chilling me to the bone. This is the Jane that fought with Kenny a while back, and definitely not the same person I've come to know since. Then again, none of us are the same as before. "Back off, right fucking now! I swear to god I'll – "
She's cut off by the sound of one of the rebels' guns going off, smashing against one of the picture frames as everybody immediately finds a place to take cover from. Lilly takes out the guy who fired first, and just barely escapes danger as she ducks from a shot by Mikael. Jane pulls me to the floor as the other rebel fires his rifle towards us, but thankfully he doesn't know how to use it properly as bullets go spraying all over the place.
"FUCKING AMERICAN SHITSTAINS!" Mikael roars, cursing as his weapon runs out of bullets. He pulls out a knife and covers behind the door in the hallway; waiting for an opening. "TRAIDORES! AYUDANOS! AYUDANOS!"
"What's he saying?!" I ask, as Jane widens her eyes in shock.
"I'm pretty sure he's calling for help! Shit!" she snarls, shooting the other rebel twice in the chest as he collapses against the wall; his blood staining the wallpaper behind him. "LILLY! WE'VE GOTTA BOLT!"
It's difficult to hear, but someone from outside must've heard Mikael, since they're going to be here any minute now. Lilly manages to clip Mikael right on the shoulder, but nobody can get a clear enough shot to kill him. There's only one way out now… through the back and over the fence.
Crap.
Thinking quickly, Lilly orders us to move as she grabs a fire iron that was still in the fireplace and chucks it across the room; lighting the curtain ablaze. Jane grabs the other fire iron and closes the door behind us as she jams the door handle with the metal rod.
"YOU WILL BURN FOR THIS!" we hear Mikael yell; his voice muffled by the door as I shut my eyes tightly. "THERE IS NOWHERE FOR YOU FUCKERS TO HIDE! YOU SHALL GET YOURS YET! I SWEAR IT! I SWEAR IT ON MY – AGGGGHHHHHH!"
All three of us stand there with heavy breaths, looking downwards and trying to justify ourselves for what just happened in there. It went from trying to save the whole camp and finally giving them their freedom… to this. Mikael is burning alive inside the office building no doubt, if that last shriek of his was any indication.
"What have we done…" I whimper, unable to believe the atrocity we just committed.
"We… we had to," Lilly keeps telling herself, as Jane kicks the ground in anger and self-loathing. "We had to… There was no other choice…"
"They're dead because of us!" I argue, but Lilly seems to be lost in her own little world. "We're no better than Carver or Sandro or any of them! How can you say that we had to do that?!"
"They would've killed us if we stood by…" Jane tries to reason, but I haven't even begun talking to her yet. She's half the reason this happened in the first place!
But I bite my tongue and slam my tiny fist against the metal door, wiping my eyes as Lilly motions for us to hurry. We can't stay here… not after all of this. Even if those rebels do escape and come out unharmed, they certainly won't be throwing a party for us. They'd probably rather execute us instead.
Jane gives me a boost as I climb over the only part of the fence that doesn't have barbed wire at the top of it, as my two companions follow suit. Taking one last look at the burning prison, my gut wrenches as the flames are visible inside the window. We've destroyed this place; burned it to ashes and left them with the pieces.
As we make our way through the desert and try our best to avoid the walkers, I can't help but ask myself this question.
How the hell are we supposed to come back from this?
AN: I bet you were expecting them to come out of this like heroes, weren't you lol? Well, Jane and Lilly certainly aren't heroes, and neither is Clem half the time – they're survivors. They can't and won't save everybody, regardless of how noble their intentions might be.
I know that this seems like a shitty situation, and you were probably wanting for everything to turn out just fine for Clem. But that's not how things work in this world, unfortunately, and this is a test for the three of them – how much can they take, and can they come back from all of the horrible stuff they've been forced to do? That's what this story's about – Jane, Lilly and Clem, and how they adapt together in this shitty situation.
Anyways, enough of my rant. Hopefully you enjoyed that, even though it was a bit bittersweet. I'll have the next one up when I get the time!