Hello kind readers, reviewers and followers! I should start by firstly apologizing for the lack of updates. My only excuses are that I was away for a week, had my prom and then suffered a severe mental block about writing. I simply couldn't bring myself to look at what I had written and edit it, or even write a new chapter. I was extremely unmotivated. I'm terribly sorry and I will try to keep the updates regular and often from now on!

So now Travis and Marceline have been split from Clem, what will become of our characters? Let's continue!

The dark night sky had settled above us and we were still no closer to finding Clementine.

We walked back towards the river, hoping that she had returned to the water to find us somewhere near there.

"Do you think she's okay?" I worried.

"Clem's smart, she knows what she's doing," Travis assured me.

"I hope she's thought to go to the river. We'll be able to see her better if she's there."

"Yeah," he agreed. "Do... do you think we should tell her about Christa?"

"I'd like to focus on finding her first," I sighed. "But eventually she should know. I imagine she's already guessed."

Travis nodded and we continued our walking. I hoped we would find her quickly.

As we got closer to where the trees cleared, the river came into sight and Travis' hand suddenly flew out and grabbed my wrist. "Marce, look."

I stopped walking and squinted my eyes, noticing the lights Travis was talking about.

"Survivors?" He asked.

"Or bandits," I muttered.

We crept closer, peeking around the trees to avoid being seen.

There were two men. Despite the two lanterns that were on the floor near where they sat, I couldn't really see their faces given the direction of lighting on them, but I could hear their hushed voices.

"You think they got away?"

I looked at Travis in confusion. Were they talking about their group?

"I don't fuckin' care what happened to them," the other man replied. "They might have drowned or got bit by roamers. I'm just glad we got supplies."

The other man nodded his head, leaning over to his side and moving a bag into sight. I narrowed my eyes.

"That's Clem's bag," I whispered, rage filling inside of me. "They've been with her. I'm gonna f-"

Travis threw a hand over my mouth and I pushed it away in surprise.

"Will you shut up?" He snapped. "You're gonna get us seen and we're never gonna find her if we're dead."

"No shit," I returned, though I knew he was right. "Sorry."

Travis ignored the apology. One of the bandits shifted from where he sat, allowing the light to illuminate his face, revealing the identity.

"It's them."

"The bandits from earlier," Travis noticed too. "They haven't been with Clem, she left her bag at the fire, remember?"

"We should get it back."

"No, we should leave it now," he said. "You're not thinkin' clearly, Marceline. They have weapons and we have fuck all, they'd kill us before we even stepped near them."

I thought about what he said and sighed in defeat. "So what do we do, genius?" I wondered.

He bit his lip. "I guess we go back another way. Get back on the road to finding Clem. If we keep going north, maybe we'll find her? She knew where we were headed."

"Yeah, but would she have thought to go there alone and weaponless?"

Travis pulled a face of irritation. "I don't know what you want me to say, Marceline."

I rolled my eyes and began to walk away, leaving the bandits and Travis behind. He was annoying me.

I didn't know what to think of the situation. We had to find Clementine, but would she have thought to go away without us? I'd not left her alone since Savannah- she never had to be. I knew that annoyed Christa, because she thought Clem needed to learn how to look after herself. I stared at the ground as I walked, thinking about that. Maybe I had tried to protect the little girl too much, though she wasn't as much of a little girl anymore as she was when we first met.

"I'm getting flashbacks of the train to Savannah."

I turned my head to the side, seeing Travis by my side. He had a partial smile on his face.

"Really?" I asked, folding my arms and not holding back with my harshness. "Because when I remember that walk I went on, I recall us running away from walkers in a race to get everyone safe. It's not a fond memory."

Travis' smile faded and we fell silent. I didn't want to talk any more. I wanted to find Clementine.

The following morning, I jumped awake from the fright of a nightmare.

Travis looked over at me, his face showing concern, though he didn't ask. He didn't need to.

I sat up and brushed some of the dirt from the floor off my face and out of my hair. Sleeping on the ground was never appealing.

"No sign of any walkers," Travis informed me. "But we should get moving to find Clem now."

"That sounds like a sensible idea."

I stood up, my bones cracking as I moved from lying uncomfortably. I would have thought I'd be used to it after all this time.

I took a brief look at Travis. His bitten arm was bandaged with the supplies from my drugstore-backpack and I'd given him painkillers so it wasn't as bad. The scar across his eye looked more painful than before because it wasn't bandaged, and I began to fear it would get infected.

"How are your injuries?" I asked.

"I'm coping," he replied, casting me a little smile to make me feel better. If I'd been more careful, he wouldn't have gotten those injuries and we wouldn't have lost Clementine.

The woods all seemed the same to me. I didn't even know if we were traveling in the right direction, since we were relying on instinct. I couldn't tell the difference from one place to the next.

"I'm starving," I complained.

"Me too," Travis sighed.

"I think I'll collapse if I don't eat soon."

"We can hunt now," he suggested.

"With what?"

He shrugged, then waved his hands in front of him. "Guess I'll have to use these."

"You want to kill an innocent creature with your bare hands? It's bad enough using weapons. Plus, you only have one capable hand right now."

"What other choice do we have, Marcey?"

He was right. Travis edged away, his eyes scanning the area around us. I did the same, keeping my senses alert to find food. It wasn't easy.

"Marce," Travis said. "There's a camp set up here."

I peeked around the trees and spotted the camp. It had one single tent, which seemed to be in a suitable condition for sleeping. There wasn't anything else set up besides a fire, which now was burning out into smoke.

"Shall we go look?"

I shrugged. "There might be someone there. We can't steal from them."

"I know," he whispered. "But it's worth a check. They might have enough supplies to give us something."

I knew Clementine would be disappointed in me, so would Lee and my parents, but I stepped out from around the trees and approached the tent with Travis.

The tent was unzipped, and I slowly moved back the opening to see whether anyone was inside.

"Empty of people," Travis confirmed. "Not empty of food."

I grinned. "Really?!"

Travis nodded and climbed into the tent while I held the doorway open. He held up a can of food, a beaming smile on his face. I'd not seen him this happy for a long time.

"They've got loads here," he stated. "I doubt they'll even notice one can is gone, right?"

"Yeah," I agreed, my hunger outweighing my desire to make good choices. "One can won't make a-"

Something pressed against my back and there was a feint clicking sound. I knew that noise well enough to identify its source- a gun.

If you could be so kind and spare a minute, I'd be so thankful if you would leave a little review. It's lovely to be reassured that I'm writing something people enjoy, and when I do something people don't like then it's good to hear that too. See you next chapter!