The dictator's child- Howe's Hardware.
So this is the second chapter of this story, but before that I would like to thank you all for the feedback I got just on the first chapter :)
But enough talk let's get right into the story.
So Clementine went with carver and his body guards to a truck not far from where they had found her, close to the truck there was another guard, armed with the same type of AK-47, guarding the truck, his name was Johnny.
"Johnny get the engine running, we're going back to Howe's." Carver ordered approaching Johnny.
"Sure thing Bill, did you guys find anything back at the city?" He asked
Carver shook his head "City's completely overrun, there's dead around every corner." Carver said "But we did found something more rare and important than some food or weapons." He said before turning to Clementine with an amused smile "We found the future of our community."
Johnny looked at Clem confused "Her?"
"Yes her!" Carver snapped at Johnny for questioning him "This here is Clementine and she agreed on becoming a member of our community." Carver informed.
Johnny understood and gave Clementine a little wave (Which Clementine shyly waved back.
Carver noticed this "Johnny get a move on, I wanna get to Howe's before dawn!" Carver said,
Johnny nodded and turned the keys of the truck, the truck's engine came back to life "Everybody get in!" Carver ordered.
Johnny got on the wheel, Carver got into the front seat, Clementine got into the front seat right next to Carver (She got into the truck with a little bit of help offered by Tavia), both Troy and Tavia got into the back seat.
When Johnny realized they were all in, he started moving the truck.
On the trip towards Howe's, Clementine was thinking about her decision, not just her decision on Accepting Carver's proposition, but her decision on leaving the group back in Atlanta, She had Lee, but she missed her parents, she just wanted to see them or at least know how were they, that's when she encounter the Stranger on her walkie, Clementine was always told not to trust strangers but her parents weren't there, so when the Stranger told her that they were with him in Savannah she completely ignored the 'Not talking to strangers rule', and with that the Strangers got her trust and got his hands on her.
The Stranger was the owner of a car that Clem and her group found, it was full of supplies, food and water (This is were she got her Brooklyn hoodie), Clem was the only one who refused to take any of it, but then the owner found the group, but rather then just killing them he decided he just wanted to take Clem, and raise her as his own, so he lied to Clem and when she finally realized that it was all a lie, it was already too late, the man had already taken her and held her at the Marsh house hotel (a place were Clem's parents had stayed with her that one time she went to Savannah, before the world went to shit) the rest it's already known, Lee got bit and died saving Clem, and now she was on a truck with people that she didn't know towards a community that she knew nothing about it.
So much happen and so much changed in Clem's life in that particular day, she lost her group, she lost her parents, she lost her guardian and now she was at the mercy of other strangers (and the day wasn't over yet).
She was scared, she was sad (her eyes were puffy red from crying), she was hungry, she was thirsty, her clothes and face were still covered in blood, but worst yet she was tired, tired of this day.
Carver seemed to notice her tiredness, he lifted his arm and put his hand on her shoulder, giving it a careful and friendly squeeze "Rest your eyes honey, i'll wake you up when we arrive" Carver said.
And Clem did just that, she leaned closer to Carver and used the left side of his torso as a pillow, before slowly closing her eyes and drifting to sleep (Hopping that this was all just a really bad nightmare).
2 hours later
Clementine felt someone shaking her and calling her name, when she opened her eyes she saw Carver.
"Uh?" Clementine asked, still a little bit tired.
"we've arrived." Carver said to Clem.
They all got out of the truck, and that's when Clem finally saw for the first time the community.
Howe's hardware was your typical hardware store (You know the type were you buy your constructive tools) the first thing that Clem noticed was the big shelves, and in those shelves there were tons of caned goods (peaches, beans, mushrooms, corn and more) they had tons of weapons on those shelves, there was firearms and close range weapons too (knifes, hammers, axes) Clem was impressed, she had never seen so much food in her entire life, and she was relief too, at least now she knew that Carver wasn't lying about the food, but Clem saw that the place was pretty well guarded, there were guards everywhere all armed with the same AK-47 (Some of them noticed Clem's arrival and offered her a tiny small and a small wave, there were amused that a little girl was joining the community).
But before Carver could introduce her to the community, he needed to have a talk with her "Troy, warn everybody about my arrival, and tell them that we have someone new and young on the community" Carver ordered.
"Sure Bill, what are you going to do with her?" Troy asked glancing over Clem (with a grumpy expression)
"I'm gonna have a talk with her at my office, I need to know what happened" Carver said.
With that said Carver took Clementine's hand and they went to his office (which had stairs).
When they finally got up the stairs, Carver opened the door revealing his office, it was a pretty simple office, there was a desk, a couple chairs, a PA system and a bowl with apples (that could be either real or not), but the think that made the office special was a big glass window, there you could see Howe's at his best, you could see those shelves with the supplies but up there they looked way more extent, you could see all the workers, Clem could imagine Carver sitting the office chair, eating an apple while looking trough the window and making sure that everyone was doing his job.
After they entered the office, Carver sited on his chair and ordered Clem to take a seat.
"Before we can talk Clementine, I need to ask you this, are all of your group members dead?" Carver asked.
Clem thought about that for a moment, she knew Lee was dead, and she knew that Christa and Omid might be alive as for Kenny and Ben, Clem knew in her heart that they were most surely dead, so she just lowered her head and said "I don't know… I just don't know."
Carver understood, but he then picked an apple from the bowl "Do you want one honey?" Carver asked.
Clementine lifted her head and saw the apple on the leader's hand (The last time she had ate an apple was given by Lee back at the Mooter inn) she was pretty hungry, so she nodded with her head, with that Carver gave Clementine the apple "Thank you" She said with a tiny smile before giving a bite to the apple.
"Your welcome honey." Carver said with a warm smile.
After a little while Clem finally finished the apple "So Clementine, I'd like to welcome you to the community." Carver started "Here everyone as a role and a job to do, they start from zero and they slowly rise from that level with their hard work and dedication to the community." He continued "But before I can truly welcome you in I need to know something first."
"What is it?" Clem asked.
"I need to know everything about you, I want to know what happened to your group, to you parents and to that Lee guy you were crying about, and please make sure you tell me the truth and only the truth." Carver said.
Clementine didn't really wanted to talk about what happened, but if that was what it takes to be accepted into the community then she really had no choice.
Clementine decided to start with the day she first met Lee.
"My parents went to Savannah about three month ago and left me with a babysitter… They never came back" Clementine started ""Then I heard my babysitter screaming, so I grabbed some food and hid inside my tree house for a few days." Clementine told Carver.
"That's smart." Carver praised, he knew that the girl was smart just by looking at her.
"Then I meet Lee." Clem continued "He took care of me, he taught me how to shoot a gun, he told me to stay away from city's." She said.
"He sounds like a smart guy, it's a shame I can't met him, he would probably be really useful in the community." Carver commented "What happened next?"
"We found other people and formed a group, we even found a place to stay, at some mooter inn." Clementine said.
"What happened next" Carver asked.
"A lot happened." Clem started "We stayed at that mooter inn for three month, at first things were fine, but then food started to disappear and to top it all two members of my group were always fighting" Clementine said (Clearly referring to Kenny and Lilly) "We had to leave the Mooter inn because cannibals tried to eat us and we were attack by bandits" She continued "After that we decided to go to Savannah in hopes to find a boat… we lost so many people on the way." Clementine said trying to hold back the tears.
Carver noticed that "You must be tired darling, just skip to the end."
"In the end Lee was bitten, when I was kidnapped by some stranger who said he had my parents… I had to shoot Lee so he wouldn't turn" She said before burring her face on her hands and began to cry.
Carver understood that, the lost of her guardian must at really affected her, but at the same time he was amazed at the girl's story, she had been to so much, from cannibals to bandits to having to shoot her own guardian, she was going to be the perfect subject, He was going to train her to be the future leader if something happened to him.
Carver had heard enough, he picked up the talkie and called Tavia "Tavia, get in here and get our new worker to the pen, and bring some clean clothes of her size."
"Got it Bill." Tavia said on the Talkie.
After a few minutes Tavia entered the office with a few new clothes, Clementine could see it was some jeans, some pink All Star shoes and a pink shirt (basically the season's 2 clothes)
"Thank you Tavia, now would you kindly take Clementine to the bathroom so she can change from those dirty clothes?" Carver asked (Although it was an order)
"Sure Bill" Tavia said before taking Clem's hand and taking her to the bathroom so she could change
After a few minutes, Clementine came out of the bathroom with her new clothes, everything fitted her (well maybe the shirt was a bit big) then she took her to the pen, which was separated with a big metal gate (Troy was there too),
The pen itself didn't had a roof, it was cold and the only warmer unit was a fire, and there were "beds" too, although they looked pretty uncomfortable, they were people there too, but they were all sleeping.
"Make sure you keep yourself inside the pen, Bill will know if your messing around.
"And make sure you go to sleep, because it ain't gonna be much rest for you tomorrow, you'll be working hard" Troy said, before shutting the gate and leaving Clementine alone.
Clem immediately went to bed and laid on it on her back, she quickly found out that it wasn't very different from the floor, but she didn't care, she slowly closed her eyes and went to sleep.
She knew that by tomorrow her life was never going to be the same.
And that was the second chapter ladies and gentleman, I hope you like it.
I wanna thank y'all again for the reviews (it really helps me), if there's something y'all don't like about the story, please tell me so I can change for the better (I never get angry or offended with any kind of criticism)
And for those who are curious about Christa and Omid, let me tell y'all that I already have something planned for them (although it might not be something you expect).
;)