Author's Note: I'm going to be changing the story picture every-time I make another chapter. Updates will typically be on Saturdays, a little after noon. Thank you guys for reviewing; I hadn't decided on a story to focus on but, I think I'll devote more time to this one and "Behind the wall" So long as you guys enjoy them. This story is going to get kinda dark later on in future chapters; so, look forward to that.
Clementine stood in front of the gate leading into the now darkening yard; her unsuspecting friends were gathered around the fire, most likely deciding on how they will escape. She held her red switch-blade gently in her right hand, running her fingers across it. Troy pulled the gate up and stared at her with a frown.
"Well, you got your job. So go do it." He told her, tilting his head briefly in the direction of the group.
"What if they attack me after... after I do it..." She asked.
"I've got you covered. Just get it done already." He urged her quietly.
She took a deep breath before flipping the knife open and sliding it into her right coat pocket as she approached the group. She stared at Kenny as she made her way around the chairs and towards him. Part of her felt wrong; he is the only other person alive who remembers Lee, and to her, that was special. She shook her head and remembered what Lee told her long ago,
"Don't trust anyone... you've got so much more growing up to do... people will see how small you are... and try to take advantage of you..."
"Cause we all know what happened this morning! I don't know what that sonuvabitch is gonna do next!" Kenny stated quite loudly.
"So you wanna ring the dinner bell for a herd of walkers to show up? How is that better?" Mike retorted.
"Because this place will be fuckin' chaos when that thing hits. No one'll be paying any attention to us." Kenny responded.
"He can't manipulate me... I won't let him..." She whispered as she neared Kenny and stood beside him, trying to appear casual.
The old fisherman turned and eyed the girl standing beside him. "Everything alright, Clem?" He asked, looking at her with concern.
"Yeah. I'm fine." She assured him.
"Good. We were just going over-ARGH!" Kenny let out as he felt cold metal pierce his ribs then quickly exit.
He fell back, chair and all; grabbing at his right lung desperately and in pain. She had successfully made contact with the lung, having turned the knife horizontal.
"OH MY GOD! KENNY! NO!" Sarita screeched, jumping up from her seat and lunging to Kenny's aid.
"What in the hell?!" Mike yelled.
"Jesus Christ! Somebody! Help!" Rebecca exclaimed.
In the blink of an eye, everyone was up and panicking. Clementine bolted off towards the gate that Troy was now opening, Carver beside him, his arms crossed; a pleased look on his face. Clementine felt her heart racing as she advanced away from her former friends. Suddenly she felt and arm wrap it's self around her neck; she squirmed as a reactionary reflex before remembering she had the knife. She attempted to jab backwards but, her attacker grabbed her hand, stopping the knife, and kicked the back of her right knee, causing her to now be forced onto her knees. She gasped and ached in pain, having her back curled in an arch.
"Ahh...! Let. Me. GO!" Clementine demanded, repeatedly hitting and pulling on the arm wrapped around her throat.
Clementine stopped moving when she felt the cold of her own knife poke her neck.
"Cut it out or I'll cut out your fucking throat." A female voice whispered in her ear. "Stay back! Or I sever her head!" The woman threatened Carver and his people. At this point, she figured out who was pinning her, Jane.
Carver simply walked into the pen slowly and calmly, grinning as he approached, his revolver in his right hand.
"No. No. No. No. Please! HELP! He's dying! Oh god! NO!" Sarita pleaded, her hands and abdomen beginning to become stained in blood as she tried to stop the excessive bleeding.
Rebecca and Mike stood watching the entire ordeal on edge. Mike stepped forward,
"We need Carlos! Troy go get him before-"
"Afraid we have a hostage situation on our hands here, Mike. Won't be able to get medical attention to beardy for a long while." Troy replied.
Carver stood a mere ten feet in front of Jan and Clementine; his raised a brow and slightly tilted his head up as a way of telling her he was listening.
"I'm leaving, she's coming with me. Get out of my way and let me pass or I'll-"
A gunshot went off. Jane fell back. Clementine felt her neck receive a slight cut; she gasped as she fell back with the woman. Carver began lowering his gun. Mike and Rebecca stared in horror, unable to speak; the sounds of Sarita weeping were all that was audible. Clementine pushed Jane's arm off of her and grabbed her knife before running past Carver and turning to face the rest of the group, covering her cut with her left index in middle fingers.
"Traitor! I knew we couldn't trust you back at the cabin! You, you... you BITCH!" Rebecca snarled.
"Like you were so trustworthy to Alvin?" Clementine replied cruelly and sarcastically while attempting to catch her breath.
Rebecca opened her mouth, as if about to speak but, held her tongue, shutting her eyes with grief. Carver put away his gun, "What a mess... nice work, Clem."
"CLE-EM!" Kenny called out in pain. "Clem... Clem come here...!" He called out once more.
Clementine looked up at Carver; he shrugged. She took a deep breath before slowly advancing towards Kenny. Glares from Mike and Rebecca making her uneasy as she walked. Sarita sat beside Kenny, watching him, tears flowing down her face. Kenny laid on the cold floor, hands to his sides, staring up at the night-sky, blood everywhere. Clementine stared down at him, uncertain.
"...Why did you... do this...?" Kenny asked calmly, almost without emotion.
She didn't answer him.
"I, Clem... this..." He told her, unable to think of what to say next.
She began feeling guilty, holding her left wrist with her right hand while looking down at him. "How does it feel?" She inquired quietly.
"...In a sense, peaceful but, also... god... I'm really scared, Clem..." He answered before coughing up more blood.
"...Because you don't want to die?" She asked.
"No, it's not that... I want to remember Duck and Katjaa. In a few minutes, I'll be gone... along with my memories of them... It'll all just wither away." He told her, as a set of tears making their way down his face.
Clementine shook slightly, trying not to cry with him.
"...Just leave me to my thoughts... I want to remember my boy while I still can; his dumb little face..." Kenny told her, shutting his eyes.
She turned back to Carver, walking towards him, her head bowed downward.
"You monster!" Sarita yelled as Clementine left the pen.
"I hope you rot in hell you psycho-bitch!" Mike added.
The next morning...
She sat on her knees alone in Carver's chair behind his desk, staring out into the warehouse. She watched various people move boxes in and out of the room below. She sighed, she didn't know if she did the right thing killing Kenny. He used to try to force Lee to do things he didn't want to but, the memory she could remember the best was him smashing Larry's head in a rushed scenario. He at-least had a reason for doing that, who knows if Larry would have made it. Then there was Jane, she didn't know enough to tell if she deserved to die. The more she thought about it, the less she wanted to. She turned herself around and scooted up to Carver's desk. She pulled the drawer open and found a small, odd looking gun, along with a few blank sheets of paper and pencils. She took one of each and laid a sheet down onto the desk while pointing her pencil, unsure what to draw.
"Hey." A female voice called from the door.
She looked up to see Bonnie standing by the door, arms crossed, a nasty glare focused on her. "I heard about what you did. You killed your friend, Kenny... Just why? Why would you do that?"
"I don't think you have any room to talk, Bonnie. Remember Alvin and Walter?" Clementine retorted with a cold grin, also returning the glare.
"You killed to get in here. I hope you can understand that, that's NOT how we do things inside these walls." Bonnie persisted.
"You're right; you get to stay because you keep your mouth shut and kill and do pretty much anything, when told to... because you're scared."
"I am NOT a mindless drone!" Bonnie yelled.
"BONNIE!" Carver yelled from the hall just outside.
Bonnie flinched, almost startled. She turned to face Carver.
"Get the fuck outta my office. NOW!" He ordered.
"Right, sorry Bill... I'll just be going now..." Bonnie apologized as she quickly brushed past him.
Carver entered and slammed his door shut. "Sorry bout that. Some don't know their place yet. In time, they will understand better."
"Do you think I did the right thing?" Clementine asked directly.
He began advancing towards the chair he had tried to use to intimidate Clementine before and knelt beside it. "What? Killing Kenneth? I have reports of him assaulting his fellow workers and what not... I don't think we have a right or wrong thing to do anymore. We have the easy and hard thing now. You think I feel good about getting rid of Reggie? Or Ken?" He reasoned.
"I guess that makes sense." She replied with a smile.
"Of course it does." He returned the smile. "The herd ended up making contact with our walls. We've sustained minor damages but, nothing too bad."
"What about the loading bay door?" She inquired.
"Stan fixed it late last night. We managed to keep those bastards out with a bit of creativity." He answered. "Also, just so you know, we caught Luke this morning."
"Really?"
"Yeah, he's in the pen now. He wasn't very happy about it either."
Noon that day...
Clementine stood by the entrance to the pen, just off to the side where she won't be seen. She began eaves dropping on the others. Sarah, Luke, and Carlos were the only ones outside and not currently working.
"Why would she do that?" Sarah asked.
"Because she's a very bad person, Sarah. This is why I told you to stay away from her before." Carlos answered.
"Maybe... maybe she had a good reason." Sarah suggested.
"From what I've heard, it wasn't in self-defense. And now she's out of the pen." Carlos told her.
"I thought she was my friend..." Sarah stated.
"Evidently not." Carlos added.
"It'll be alright, Sarah." Luke assured her.
Clementine walked to where she could see the others and be seen. She rested her hand on the gate and just stared at them. Sarah was the first to notice her; at first she looked delighted but it faded as her father shook his head at her. They all tried their best to ignore her.
"So, now you know what it's like to be locked away like some animal." Clementine taunted. "Doesn't feel too good, huh? You know-I've been giving you guys and Bill some thought lately..."
"Go on, I'm listening." Luke told her in an agitated tone as he began approaching the gate.
"You've both, locked me up. You've both, forced me to work for you. You've both, threatened me. For me, there's only one small difference, Bill knows when it's time to do the hard thing."
Luke appeared frustrated as he glared at her, standing just mere feet from the gate.
"Nick shot at me, nobody thought, 'maybe this guy shouldn't be given a gun' until he ended up getting someone killed. Besides, I don't know the full story of what happened before I met you guys but, I know you've killed and stole on your way out... It's just common survival to bring you back; you might have started your own group and come back to hurt everyone who lives here. The other option would have been to kill you." She reasoned.
"We let you stay with us, and you ended up betraying and killing one of us. I wonder who's pitching all that to you?" Luke retorted, turning and walking off in the opposite direction.
"Kenny got two of us killed back at the lodge. Killing him will keep him from doing it again!" She added, not receiving a response, just a cold shoulder.
She shrugged; no longer concerned with any of them. People entered and left her life all the time now. She simply walked off in the direction of the armory. She knew her life would be different now. She no longer had to live on edge all the time, she was safe now; that's all Lee ever wanted,
"Always be safe..."
She smiled at the thought as she turned down a shelf, bumping into someone who was leaning against it.
"Hey! Watch it!" An older girl with dark brown hair, cut just at her shoulders barked, shoving her onto the floor.
Clementine hit the ground with a light thud and sat up, rubbing at her lower back. "Ow... It was an accident..."
"Maybe if you weren't wearing that stupid hat, you might be able to see better." The girl taunted before snatching her hat off of her head.
Clementine instantly bolted up when the girl took her hat, "Hey! Give that back! Or I'll..."
The girl raised it above her head, out of her reach, "Or you'll what? You gonna hit me? Try it; see how far you get."
Clementine glared at the girl before approaching and staring up at her. "I don't want to hurt you. Just give it back."
The girl grinned and swung a smack across her face. Clementine fell to the ground yet again; holding her left cheek in pain. "Urgh...!" She complained, her left eye watering and also red. Clementine looked up at the girl,
"Only the strong... survive..." She told the girl as she rose from the ground once more; her chest rising and falling rapidly. She clenched her fists and spread her legs in a defensive position. Determination and rage boiling inside of her.