Chapter 12 - All alone now
A/N Well I am back… a bit late and I am sorry… but I didn't have the time and I was actually out of my city in vacation and I didn't know the fifth episode came out. NOW YOU KNOW WHY I HATE TELLTALE! Anyhow… I hated that episode for the simple fact that Luke died and so I wasn't in the mood to write it in details… NO DAMN NO… and I also kind of changed the action but it isn't really AU to say so… I don't know… You can judge if you want. A bit spoily for episode 5 of Walking Dead but I guess I just spoiled a lot for the Luke thingy I just said… sorry. Anyhow it will start to make sense why Adeline started to get a bit more friendly in this chapter as I am going to repeatedly remind parts that I skipped from episode 5 in the future chapters…
I will let you read now…
"God… God, God, God! It's so damn cold!" Her hands wouldn't listen to her anymore…"DAMMIT DAMMIT! FUCK, FUCK, FUCK! SHUT UP ADELINE!" Her teeth wouldn't stop moving and she simply didn't know what to do.
There is no one now that doesn't understand the faces of death. They also understand that surviving depends on the cards that we have been dealt with. Some of us face a bloody battle till our own demise, but some of us simply face oblivion… that is what I was thinking as I was pulling Luke out of those freezing cold water. That was what I was thinking as I looked at his calm pale face… that look only made me imagine how peaceful would it be if I simply remained there stuck in his arms until the next summer, simply drowning or freezing to death… what would it be like simply floating in a damned frozen lake forever? But no! SURRENDER IS UNACCEPTABLE!
Staring at the bunch of walkers she couldn't think of her own libs not answering to her commands. She tried to scream after the others but her voice wouldn't come to live so she simply watched the group running away from them. Looking down Luke wasn't breathing… so she had to work fast. Managing to unclench her fingers from her arm she started pushing at his chest.
"Like in those first aid courses Adeline… like you learned there…" Though in those courses there were no immediate walkers coming towards you.
She started pushing at his chest… and after counting to three she pushed her lips to him, forcing the air in her lungs to invade his… she did that again and again and again…
"Come on Luke! I can't wait for your dumb ass to move… fucking BREATH!"
1…2…3 and breath
"Please don't do this to me!"
Her tears started rolling on her frozen cheeks, painfully pinching her face. Yet it didn't hurt… or it was a funny kind of hurt. In the end she pulled her gun out and started shooting the walkers. They fell one after another until her pistol sounded empty. One last attempt at Luke and she was gone. But this time he took a deep breath of air and started coughing.
"What is happ-happening? " His eyes were open wide surveying the place until they fell on to the woman relieved to see him conscious and alive.
"Dammit Luke… let's go…you lazy ass." Her hand grabbed his but as she went up she slipped on to the ice tumbling down on to her knees. Squinting at the pain she managed to pull the man after her and they ran in to the woods. The way towards the small cabin was too long and it look like the ice was thin and cracked from the others stomping on it. Running between the trees aimlessly Adeline could feel as if her whole body was being stabbed by thousands of small needles. Her legs would only move because of her sheer will, even Luke at some point was barely limping his way after her… but they needed to reach a safe place.
"Adeline! Where are the others?"
"I… I don't know… maybe at the cabin… where that little Russian kid… pointed to."
"Where are we going then? Let's go back."
"If you want a date with the walkers… go back."
"At least stop… I can't feel… I can't feel anything."
With a late reaction her legs stopped and she simply fell on to her knees, her hands wrapping around her waist.
"We need to start a fire!"
"I think… I have some mat-matches… in the back-backpa..." She didn't need to continue as Luke grabbed her backpack and threw it contents on to the snow underneath them. All of the draws were destroyed by the water, all the paper crumbled, the lines drawn erased. In the end a box of matches landed between the wet papers.
"It is soaked."
"Fuck! Of course it is…" Now the painful feeling on the surface of her skin faded and turned into a foreboding kind of numbness. "Luke… I have… I have." She was fumbling with the smaller pockets of the bag and after a couple of seconds she retrieved a lighter.
The man grabbed some of the more dried branches and placed them in a barrel nearby. The ground was too wet. Also fumbling with some of the dried pieces of paper he threw a small crumbled ball in Adeline's lap. All of her extremities felt swollen and stiff so she clumsily attempted to light the crumble. With each attempt from which the lighter didn't light she could feel her fingers more numb and useless. In the end she closed her eyes as the light from the small fire started warming her. The small flame lit the papers and those fell in to the small mess of branches Luke managed to gather.
"Thanks God."
The man was staring at the flames dancing as she wrapped her arms to get warmer. Even if with that small flame barely staying lit a wave of relief washed over Adeline but she couldn't say the same thing about Luke. She bumped his shoulder lightly with her own making her way in to his arms. He looked sadly into her eyes quickly looking back to the flames.
"Hey… what's wrong?"
"Besides the fact that we almost froze to death?"
"Yup… besides that…" Their bodies were still trembling hard but her skin started to feel better and she could see some of the blood coloring the man's skin.
"How could the others just leave us to die there? "Adeline's body trebled unnatural as a shock split her spine. Luke slowly slid a hand up her back to guide her down on to a patch of dirt under a tree. He leaned on the bark with Adeline leaning on to his chest.
"I… I don't know Luke… maybe they thought we were death."
"Fuck… we might just be… We... should… we should look for them."
"I barely can breathe Luke… I am not moving any time soon."
"Neither am I… try not-not to fall asleep."
"Easier said than done…"
"Hey… like back when we were after Carver… let's just talk to one another… "
"I remember where that led to."
"Would it be that bad if it happened again?"
"You are such an ass… Jane… Bonnie… A regular Casanova like Mike said."
"Hey…"
"I don't need your excuses… ok? It's just the two of us left… and it's still your birthday so I would like to avoid the drama… rain check?"
"Good for me."
Looking down at her bare feet which she tucked them as hard as she could under or around Luke she could see her knees slightly bleeding and small patches of bruises and yellowish spots appearing the length of her legs… so these are the frostbites? She could have lived without them.
The man's warm hands were slowly caressing her back sliding their way on her waist. Trying to look up the woman saw that Luke fell asleep. Pressing her index finger to his neck she could feel his slow yet rhythmic pulse… With a content smile on her face she tucked herself in his arms and shortly fell asleep as well.
Normally they would be much more attentive not to be so vulnerable in the position they were in but walking for days and almost drowning in a frozen lake could suck all the energy out of a person.
"Adeline! ADELINE!"
Opening her eyes the woman couldn't believe what she was seeing. "Bonnie! How did you find us? "
"What are you talking about?! You need to help him?"
"Help who?"
What was happening? Adeline couldn't answer this question until she heard the cracking of ice. Turning her gaze she could see Luke staring at her screaming for her not to come any closer. "ADELINE GO! Go help him!" This wasn't right… this wasn't her… this was Clementine! She was already at safety… next to Kenny running her way to them.
Her feet half frozen ran the course of the lake even leaving two or three holes behind as she cracked the ice. Her teeth were clenched as she saw the man fall, half of his body in to the water yet she was still too far to do anything.
"NO! Clem NO!"
"Clem just go! You're light. You can do it!"
"STOP tellin' het that! Clem! LOOK at me!"
Adeline didn't catch the rest as she slipped and fell on to her knees. Her blood started tainting the white ice but pulling herself together she raised her gaze only to see Clementine falling in to the water and no Luke to be seen. Getting up she ran next to Bonnie.
"Adeline!?" With her unable to clench her fingers the woman only managed to slap Bonnie across her face. The red-haired turned her gaze in complete and utter shock. "What?"
"WHY AREN'T YOU DOING SOMETHING?" And with that the woman made a quick swan dive in to the freezing waters.
Adeline felt her entire body freeze in an instance. Opening her eyes she was still in Luke's arm. Unclenching herself from him she raised her body up rubbing her nose to dissipate the image in her mind… Luke's eyes looking through her as death clawed at him was just too reminiscent to Tom's eyes when she was looking at his lurker self. Now she realized she was breathing hard and after holding her breath she managed to calm her wrecked mind.
Trying to stand up she realized her feet were numb. With her hand by her thighs she managed to make the blood flow through them. After a while both of her knees screamed in protest and she saw that when she slipped on to the ice she managed to scrape them, pretty badly. Crawling her way towards the content of her backpack she managed to find the bandages and the bottle of iodine. The white fabric was pretty wet but keeping it close to the fire it dried pretty quickly. After patching her knees she raised from the ground. For a few seconds she felt like a broken doll, making a few steps her limbs felt as if it weren't hers but after the blood managed to flow through them she was pretty good. By that time Luke woke up as well.
"Well… In the end we have some luck… "
"What do you mean?"
"There were really big chances for us to be eaten in our sleep…"
"Point taken… we are lucky… I guess… I am still freezing but I guess it could be worse. "
"You ok?"
The image of his empty eyes came back in her mind and after a mental slap she nodded. "As ok as I can be."
"We should go and look for the others…"
"Yup… "Grabbing some of the stuff that could be salvaged and throwing them in the backpack Adeline nodded in the direction they should take.
After half an hour or so they managed to reach the house where they both hoped the others were. At the entrance they could see small signs of struggle… some blood in the snow, car tracks… footsteps leaving the place.
"Luke… it seems empty… "
"Let's look inside… maybe… I don't know…JANE! CLEMENTINE! ANYONE!"
"If you continue screaming you'll have a whole bunch of walkers… stop it."
"This is… just… They wouldn't just leave… would they?"
"Looks like they did. "
Crouching next to the small blood spotted snow Adeline could make up the little girl's shape in the white surface of the ground. Also judging from the hurried steps around the car marks…
"They either split or somebody found them."
"Why would they split up?"
"It looks here like Clementine got shot or stabbed..."
"What? By who?"
"Well I don't know… ask the spot in the snow… it didn't want to tell me who did it…"
"Ok… ok I get it… Why would they split up?"
"Judging by those footsteps… the Russian boy and two other people left on foot… Maybe the boy had backup?"
"Let's look inside… maybe we'll find something there."
In the house a wave of heat hit them both as the fire was still flickering in the fireplace. The group left in a hurry.
"I will go at the top level you search through here." Adeline nodded as the man made his way up. Searching around she could see small splatters of blood… somebody was beaten down and from the rope around the stairs tied too… Arvo could be a safe bet… that would only mean there were no Russian buddies… or maybe they came later? There would at least be a bit of more struggles around if they came… not just Clementine wounded in the snow… Before Luke could come back she found a small can of chilly on the ground in the corner of the room.
"There is no one up stairs either…"
"Did you find anything at least…?"
"No… it was picked clean… I found this pair of jeans… they are for man…but… "
"Don't worry… I don't really care about fashion at this moment. Adeline grabbed the pants giving Luke the can. "Maybe you could prepare it while I get dressed?"
"Yeah… no problem. "
Hearing her unzip, Luke couldn't stop a small peak and he was thoroughly rewarded for it as he saw her well build thighs and her round behind beautifully shaped by her black boxers. When he raised his gaze he could see a bit of her stomach under the raised shirt. Leaving the can next to the fire he went closer and raising the thin fabric up he saw the huge bruise on her abdomen. She quickly covered it up.
"That is not an ordinary bruise."
"It's nothing…"
"Did you hurt yourself just now?" He was battling her hands as he tried to take another look. Shortly he stranded her by the wall and managed to raise her hands above her head with and inspect the purplish patch on her stomach. She squinted as he pressed his fingers on to her flesh.
"I am no doctor… but this is not a bruise…"
"I am ok…just let me go." She was pulling at her hands as her feet tangled themselves in the jeans she was trying to put on before. Her thighs were moving to get her feet free slowly brushing by Luke making him realize just how he stranded her. Getting all red he let go. The woman quickly got her jeans up.
"You are not ok… "
"I have been having this since we left from Carver…"
"If that is true it is even worse… people die from internal hemorrhage, Del."
"People die from everything Luke."
"Why didn't you tell me…?"
"And what could you have done?" With that she shut him up. Pulling at the edges of the pants she realized those were too big… so going to her backpack and grabbing a thin piece of an elastic band she made a small bum behind to keep the jeans from falling off her waist. "Let's eat Luke… "
"We should… go search the woods maybe we can find the others…"
"They are gone… and you know it… we are on our own."