Before I start, I would just like to apologize for the delay, I've been really busy lately.
But now I'm back and I bring y'all the third chapter of this story.
Chapter 3- Life at Howes.
It was morning time at Howes and Clementine felt someone kicking her lightly in the stomach.
She opened her eyes and saw Troy looking down at her (grumpy like always).
Clementine rubbed her eyes "what... What's going on?" Clementine.
"What's going on, is that Bill wants to have a word with everybody in the Pen. And that includes you." Troy informed
Clementine nodded and got up, she saw a small group of people reunited, so she guessed that must be where she needed to go.
She joined the group and saw the Pen dwellers.
There were two southern young adults one wearing a cap, (that reminded her of Kenny) an elder woman standing right next to him (possibly his mother) another southern man just a lot older, an Hispanic man with a squared shirt, a teen with glasses standing right next to the Hispanic man, a big Black guy and a pretty Black woman.
Upfront there was Carver eyeing everyone alongside some other guards (armed to their teeth). When the leader noticed that everybody was awake he started speaking.
"Morning folks." He greeted "Before I assemble all of you to your respective jobs, let me say that I'm proud of all of you." Carver said with a smile "You all have been doing your jobs pretty well, if y'all keep working, you'll be out of the Pen and greeted into our community with open arms" He said.
Carver continued to talk about how good they have been, Clem was listening to everything Carver said, Clementine was honestly starting to take a liking to Carver, he was a strong person, he was smart and he knew how to run a group (it sort of reminded her of Lee).
"What's your name?" Clementine hears someone whispering to her (while Carver was still speaking) Clem looked up to see the teen with glasses smiling at her.
"My name is Clementine." She said.
"I'm Sarah." She said "How old are you?" She asked.
"I'm 9" She said.
"I'm 13, my father is right next to Pete." She said pointing her finger at the Hispanic man, who was standing right next to the southern older guy "My father's name is..."
"CARLOS!" Carver shouted when he realized that Sarah was speaking.
"Yes Bill?" Carlos asked with a hint of concern in his voice (he had an Hispanic accent).
"So I'm speaking about how all of you are ready to get out of the Pen, and your daughter is speaking in the back." He started "I'm sure you can agree that's not very polite.", Carver said lifting a brow.
"I'm sorry Bill, sweetie apologize to mister Carver" Carlos said to his daughter.
"I'm sorry... Sir." Sarah said looking down (embarrassed about the situation).
But Carver wasn't mad anymore "It's okay Sarah, we'll chalk up as a lesson learner" he said "Besides I'm guessing that most of you are curious about our new member." Carver said pointing his finger at Clementine.
All eyes landed on her (some were smiling at her, others have a suspicious look) "This here is Clementine, the last survivor of Savannah and the future of our beloved community." Carver praised "Yesterday Clementine told me everything about her, and let me tell y'all to not underestimate her, she has have been through more then all of us." Carver said with a serious look on his face "She's going to work for our community and help it grow, ain't that right Clementine?" Carver asked.
"Yes... Sir." Clementine said.
"Please call me Bill." He said "But anyway, it's time for y'all to get to work, Carlos you go to the pharmacy, Luke, Nick, Pete and Alvin y'all go to the expansion, the rest go to the green house." , Carver said before turning to Clementine "Clementine, you follow Tavia."
She nodded before following the woman.
"Where are we going?" Clementine asked.
"To the Armory sweetie." Tavia said giving her a friendly smile.
"What do you think of Bill?"
"Bill is a great leader, he keeps us safe and feed and he only askes us to help him on making this a better community, sure he can look angry and dangerous sometimes, but as long as you stay on his good side, you'll be fine." Tavia said.
"Am I on his good side?" Clementine asked.
"Bill likes you Clementine, he has very high expectations to you, make sure you don't disappoint him." Tavia said.
"I'll try not to." She said.
They finally got into the armory, inside there was guns, tools and a man.
It was a half bald man with a slight Indian accent.
Tavia talked to the man for a minute before heading out and leaving Clem and the man alone.
The man approach her with a friendly smile "Hi there, you must be Clementine, I'm Reggie." He said introducing himself.
"Hi... What are we going to do?" Clementine asked.
"We're loading magazines." he said "you just grab the bullet and slide it right into the magazine." Reggie explained, demonstrating how to do it.
Clementine tried it, and successfully did it (it wasn't hard).
"Very good" Reggie praised.
After a while on filling magazines Reggie decided to speak a little.
"So I heard you were alone when they found you." Reggie said.
"I don't want to talk about it." Clementine said remembering that horrible day (which was yesterday).
"I'm sorry Clementine, I know it's hard to lose the people you love the most. But you're safe here I know it may look like a prison, but we have food, water, electricity and beds, while people are losing their lives outside, we are safe in here, people want a safe place and Bill is making it happen." Reggie explained.
Clementine smiled at the idea of a safe place "I like him."
"Who?" Reggie asked
"Bill, he's nice and he reminds me of someone I loved." She explained (clearly referring to Lee).
"I like Bill too, although he can be a little hard on people." Reggie explained.
Then suddenly the walkie talkie of Reggie buzzed.
He picked it up "Reggie you there?"
"Yes what is it Tavia?" Reggie asked.
"Bring Clementine to the expansion, we have work for her" Tavia said.
"Coming right now." Reggie said before shutting the radio "They need you at the expansion, I'll lead you there."
Clementine followed Reggie to the expansion which was located on the outside of the community, the expansion was basically the place around the outside of the community where they built the fences in order to keep the walkers out.
When they arrived Reggie grabbed a bucket full of nails and passed it over to Clementine "Now your job is simple, you just follow the cables and give the nails to the workers"
Clementine nodded understanding her job "Hey Troy Clementine is just gonna bring some nails to the workers." Reggie said.
"Alright. You just follow them cables." Troy ordered Clementine.
Clementine did has told and started following the cables, she saw the so called fences, they looked better than the ones at the motor inn but they still looked pretty fragile.
She followed the cables until she encountered four adults (one of them was an older guy). The same older guy saw Clementine approaching and offered her a smile "Hey there you must be Clementine." He greeted.
"Hi... I brought some nails." She said offering the bucket full of nails.
The man accepted the bucket "Thanks we were in the need of those, name's Pete by the way." He introduced himself "And those are Luke, Alvin and my nephew Nick"
They all waved at her except Nick who didn't even looked at Clementine.
Pete noticed that "Don't take it at heart kid, Nick was always hard to please like his Mom, but he always means well." Pete assured Clem.
Clementine nodded before Troy's voice could be heard "Hey, enough chit chat! Clementine you've got work at the Green House, so get to it!" Troy ordered.
Clementine quickly got out but before she noticed a comic book store, without a second tought she entered the comic shop.
Inside there were shelves full of comics, from DC comics, Marvel comics, Fable comics, and even some weird comics called "The Walking Dead".
But what caught Clementine's attention was a collection of comics called "Super Dinosaur", she frowned at the books, they reminded her of her friend Duck, an energetic boy, always moving, always talking and always causing trouble (Duck died after being bitten by a walker) she also remembered on the first night, Duck was talking about this comic (something about a T-Rex with a machine gun).
Clementine took the first issue so she could read it later and discover what the fuss was all about.
But then she heard Troy calling her "Clementine come out where I can see you, right now!" Troy screamed.
Clementine quickly exited the comic shop, to see an angry Troy looking at her "What the hell were you doing in there? That area is off limits!"
"I was looking at comics" She said showing Troy the comic.
But Troy was having none of it "You think just because you're new here, that you can just do whatever the fuck you want!? The fact that you're in Bill's good side, it isn't going to stop me from punishing you!" Troy said.
But before things got any more ugly, someone came to the rescue.
"Back off Troy!" Said a bald man with a beard, wearing a trucker hat, the man had a muscular body, he was wearing a soldier costume with a bullet proof vest and a dog tag with his name and info (he was armed with the same AK-47).
Troy glared at the girl's defender "This ain't none of your business George!"
But George stood on his feet "You think I'm just gonna stand here and watch you bully a little girl? I don't think so Troy, not while I'm here!"
"Hey nobody is bullying anyone! She was on an area that was off limits, plus she's not doing what she's supposed to do" Troy tried to justify.
"Oh, so she's not doing her work?" George sarcastically said "How about we talk about your shit job?"
"What the hell do you mean?" Troy asked confused.
"Your job is supposed to be protecting the workers from walkers, but instead you're chasing little girls." George said.
Troy was about to protest, but he then realized that George was right and there was really no point on arguing,
"Nothing to say now?" George teased "Now get the fuck back to work before I call Bill and explain him how much of a shit job you've been doing." George threatened.
Troy glared at the man one last time, before heading back to work.
"Are you alright?" George asked.
"Yes, thank you." Clementine thanked her savior.
"No problem, that guy's an asshole" He said. "Name's George by the way."
"My name is Clementine."
"What were you doing in there?" He asked.
"I was just looking at comics" She said showing the comic to him.
George smiled "Well then, if I were you I would keep that comic, but don't go in there, that area is off limits, you could get hurt." George explained "But anyway, you have work at the green house, I'm here to escort you there." George informed her.
"What's the green house?" Clementine asked.
"It´s a place where we grow fresh fruits and vegetables." George explained.
Clementine liked the idea of fresh food "I like that, can we go there?" Clementine asked.
"Sure Clem just follow me" George said.
George took Clementine up to the roof, where the green house was located, it was a small house, kind of like a dog's house, although it was made out of glass.
Inside there were people working, Clem recognized them has the PEN dwellers, they were cutting fruits and leafs from the plants (there were various vases with fruit plants, mostly berries).
One of the workers saw Clementine entering, she walked to her with a friendly smile "Hello darling, you must be Clementine right?" The woman asked.
"Yes." Clementine said.
"George I'll take it from here you can go." The woman said to George.
George got out of the house leaving Clementine alone with the workers.
"Before we start darling, I need to introduce myself; I'm Marie, Nick´s mother." Marie introduce herself "Have you meet him yet?" She asked.
"Yes, he looked kind of grumpy thought." Clementine explained.
"Well that's him alright, I have to admit I'm like that sometimes too." She joked "But anyway these are Rebeca, Alvin´s wife" she introduced Clementine to the woman who waved back "And I think you've already have meet Sarah" She pointed to the young teen who didn't waved back and looked like she was embarrassed about something (probably of what took place in the morning) "Now I«'m going to explain what you have to do, first pick up those scissors." Marie said pointing at the scissors. Clem picked them up "Now what you need to do is cut the fruit from the branches, and put them in the basket, if there´s any dead branches you cut those too for decomposition." Marie explained "Do you understand?" She asked.
Clementine nodded and started doing as told, the job was easy plus Clementine was happy that she was going to be able to eat fresh fruit (she was tired of only eating canned food). After a while Clementine was able to do half of her work, but then she noticed that Sarah looked nervous and wasn't doing that good of a job. With that Clementine stopped her work and went on to help Sarah.
"Here let me help you" Clementine said to the teen. Sarah looked at her while Clementine demonstrated how to d it, after a while (like 2 hours) Sarah was able to finish her work, with a help of Clementine "This isn't hard Sarah" Clementine said.
"I know I just want to do a good job, I don't want to be in trouble." She explained.
"I'm sorry for what appended in the mourning." Clementine apologized.
"No it was my fault, I shouldn't have talked." Sarah said "Where are your parents, I didn't saw them back at the PEN?" Sarah asked.
Clementine frowned at that "They're dead."
"Oh, I'm sorry, I'm sorry for being mean." Sarah sadly said.
"It's OK you didn't know." Clementine said.
"It must be SO scary not having parent around. I don't know what I would do without my dad" Sarah told.
"It is kind of scary." Clementine agreed.
They didn't talked for a few second, then Sarah broke the silence "We're friends, right?" Sarah asked.
"Uh?" Clementine asked confused.
"We could be friends right? I mean I don't have anyone of my age in here, I mean sure I have my dad, but he's never been good at playing games with me, plus I need someone closer to my age." Sarah explained "So can we be friends?"
Clementine thought about it for a moment, but since she knew that she would be in this community for a good while she decided to accept Sarah's offer "Sure we can be friends" Clementine said.
"Great!" Sarah said with a big smile "Now let's pinky swear." She said extending her pinky finger "The Pinky swear is forever." She explained.
Clementine knew about the pinky swear, at first grade she had a friend that did the same with her, so Clementine just smiled and crossed Sarah's Pinky finger with her own.
Now they were officially friend (until the undead would take them apart).
But right after that, Rebecca noticed someone approaching the greenhouse "Bill is coming." She announced, she then looked at Clem's work "Clementine you only have done half of your plants" She said sounding like a little nervous.
"I was just helping Sarah. With her work." She said.
But before anyone could say anything else, Bill entered the greenhouse "Howdy folks." He greeted with a smile "I'm just checking on your works."
Bill looked at the plants and was happy that they all had their fruits picked out. Until he saw Clementine's plants and realized that she only had done half of her work.
Bill's expression changed from happy to confused "Clementine." He called.
"Yes?" She asked.
"What happened here? I gave you plenty of time to finish your work, but you only did half of it." He said. "What happened?" He asked again.
"Bill come on she was just..." Marie tried to justify.
But Bill stopped her by lifting his hand "Marie I'm asking Clementine, I'm pretty sure that she can talk by herself." He said in a from voice "Now I'll ask you again Clementine. What happened here?" Bill said getting a little annoyed.
"Sarah needed help so I went to help her." Clementine explained.
Bill's expression calmed a little, but he still kept a firm posture. He knew that Sarah has autism and that she had difficulty on doing her work when someone screamed or when she was under pressure, Bill had talked with Carlos about training Sarah on how to use a gun, how to use a knife and other survival techniques, but Carlos always refused to teach Sarah he always said that he would always be there to protect her daughter, Bill didn't like to see Carlos refusing to traine Sarah, he knew if Carlos died Sarah would never be able to survive out there, and she would never be able to truly help the community.
But then Bill finds an even younger little girl alone on the outside of a city full of walkers, who
can shoot a gun and has lost everything and everyone, but now she's a member of the community and Bill knew that if he trained her, she would be perfect future leader and maybe she could teach Sarah on how to survive, Bill was gonna make that happen even if he has to treat her like her own daughter.
"Did she asked for your help?" He asked Clementine.
"No but she looked like she was having trouble with the job, so I went to help her." Clementine explained.
"See folks, this is what I meant in the morning." He said "Clementine here, sacrificed her own work in order to help the ones in trouble." He said proudly "That's a quality that only a good leader has."
Clementine smiled at the complements that she received, Clementine knew that Bill was not a bad person, according to Reggie, Bill can get hard on people, but in a way Lee could get hard on people too and Clementine learned that everything that Lee did was in order to protect her and the rest of the group, but Bill had an entire community to take care of, and everything that he does it's always to benefit the community.
Clementine was starting to admire Bill for those reasons.
But then Bill went back to a firm expression, clearly telling that he wasn't done and that he had something negative to talk about "But even though you're intentions were good, you still didn't finished your work, and for that I can't let you leave." He said.
Clementine and the rest of the PEN dwellers, were confused and concerned about what Bill had said, what did he meant by not letting her leave?
Bill realized that they didn't understood what he meant by that so he sighted and continued speaking "What I meant by it, was that y'all go back to the PEN and get some dinner, while Clementine stays here and finishes her own work, after that she can go back to the PEN and get dinner herself." He explained.
This calmed the dwellers, whenever Bill gets mad, it's like a thunderstorm at first it seems calm before exploding in a thunder (or in Bill's case, exploding in rage), but Bill was fair and she knew that Clementine meant well by helping Sarah, but she still had to finish her work.
The PEN dwellers started to leave the greenhouse, except Rebecca and Clementine.
Rebecca refused to leave Clementine "Wait Bill, let me help Clementine with her work, it'll be much faster with two doing it." Rebecca said wanting to help Clementine with her work.
Bill though about it for a moment, before coming with a decision "Alright Rebecca, you can stay and help Clementine." He said before leaving.
So Clementine and Rebecca were left alone in order to finish the job.
"Don't be mad at Bill Clementine he always means well." Rebecca said.
"I know, I didn't finish my plants so I obviously have to finish them." Clementine assured.
Rebecca smiled at the little girl's understanding "I'm glad you understand, Bill really is a good leader and a good person in general, even if it doesn't show."
"My guardian Lee sometimes got mad at people that tried to hurt my old group, but it was always for the best." Clementine explained "I see a lot of Lee on Bill." Clementine compared.
"Bill really is a good leader, plus he's kinda cute." Rebecca giggled "Don't tell Alvin I said that."
"Uh... Okay." She said not understanding what she meant by that.
They both finished the plants a lot faster together, after they finished the duo went to the PEN.
At the PEN the rest of the dwellers were already eating, So Clementine and Rebecca grabbed some food too (The food was basic canned food and some fresh berries for dessert).
After they all ate, the PEN dwellers were all reunited close to the fire (that was illuminating the night), sitting on chairs.
Well everyone except Clementine.
Clementine was laying on one of the "beds" and reading the Super Dinosaur comic.
After a while, one of the dwellers saw Clementine all alone reading that comic.
So he got up from the chair and approach Clementine "Hey are you alright?" Asked the dweller.
Clementine looked up and saw Luke smiling down at her.
"Yes I'm alright. Why do you ask?" Clementine asked confused.
"I saw you there all by yourself, I just wanted to know if you want to join us by the fire?" Luke said.
"That would be... Nice." Clementine said.
If she was going to stay at Howe's, she needed to make sure she has friends.
She placed the comic on the bed, she sat on a garden chair alongside the rest of the PEN dwellers.
"You must be Clementine." Carlos said.
"And you must be Sarah's dad." Clementine said.
"Where are you're parents?" Carlos asked.
Clementine's smile turned into a frown "They're dead." She simply said.
Clementine received some simpatetic looks from the dwellers, but she also received a suspicious look from Nick.
"Then how are you alive?" He asked.
"Other people took care of me." She explained "One person in particular, taught me on how to survive." She said.
"What do you mean by that?" Nick asked confused.
"His name was Lee, he was the man that taught me on how to survive, he told me to keep my hair short, he told me to stay out of cities and he also taught me how to shoot a gun."
That last part caught everyone by surprise.
"You know how to shoot a gun." Luke asked surprised.
"I don't believe that." Nick said.
Pete turned to his nephew "Why not? She looks like a better shooter than you." Pete said smirking to his nephew.
"What the hell do you mean by that?"
"I'm talking about that time where we went hunting together for the first time, and you almost ended up gut shooting me." Pete said.
"Come on Uncle Pete, don't tell that shit." Nick said getting embarrassed with the memory.
Marie smiled "I sure do remember that, Nick didn't spoke a word to you for over a week."
"Come on mom not you too." Nick said getting more embarrassed.
Clementine realized that there was a story behind those words "Can I hear the story?" Clementine asked, getting more curious.
All eyes landed on her, and she could hear a few snores and some silent chuckles "Well it all started when I took Nick to hunt, he was about eleven years old that time." Pete started "Suddenly we came across this beautiful 13-point buck. Just standin' there on the ridge line. The boy takes the riffle… lines up the shot just like I taught him… then I hear him start whinin'." Pete continued. " He turns to me and he says "I can't do it. I can't shoot it. Uncle Pete. Please don't make me shoot it.""
The way Pete told that part, while mimicking Nick's voice was received with chuckles from everybody, except Nick.
Pete then continues the story "Anyway. So I go to grab the gun out his hand before this big buck runs off, when BANG. The gun fires. Boy nearly gut shoot me. And of course the buck gets away."
Nick had enough of that "Why the hell are you telling her this for?" Nick asked grumpily.
"Well because, first of all she asked me too and second of all it's just so she understands that your attitude against her and everybody, it ain't nothing personal." Pete said.
"Why are you always trying to embarrass me?"
"Well you're doing a pretty god job by yourself." Pete said, starting to lose his patience.
Nick had enough of that, he got up from his chair and he started walking towards the beds.
Pete didn't approved that attitude "So you're just leaving us again?"
"I'm tired and I got work to do tomorrow!" Nick replied angrily.
Pete sighted at nick's attitude, since he was a kid, nick always acted this way, when somebody was criticism him or when he was faced with a big problem, he always runs away from his problems like a kid.
Luke was used to this type of attitude coming from Nick, that never had stopped their friendship, they have been friends for 10 years, and Luke knew Nick's good side.
Marie was mad, but not at Nick, she was mad at Pete, she never liked when Pete acted like if he was Nick's father, in fact since she was a little girl Pete always acted like he was the man of the house, and like he was in charge of everything, Pete was a good brother, Marie couldn't deny that, but she always hated his lecturing.
Pete noticed Marie's scowl "Nick needs to understand, that people are not going to care, what he thinks if he doesn't care about the truth, and if he doesn't stop with the attitude, people are going to start not giving a shit about him. He needs to grow up Marie."
But Marie just kept scowling at him before speaking "How the hell is he gonna learn if you are always criticism and always giving him a hard time!?" She said before getting up "And one more thing that you need to learn. You are NOT Nick's father, so stop acting like it!" Marie said before heading off to bed as well.
There was a moment of silent before, Pete continued the story "So anyway, after the incident with the rifle, I took Nick home and went to hunt again, I eventually found the same buck, I shot it right on the neck and brought it home so that Marie could cook it and store it, and just like Marie said, Nick didn't spoke to me for a whole week. Sometimes you need to do everything in order to get the best, even if that means that you'll need to hurt a loved one." Pete told. "Nick's father was never very present and when he was he was always a real piece of shit, and Marie was not a bad mother but she was always spoiling him, so it was up to me to educate him, I couldn't just be nice uncle Pete" Pete explained
Clementine understood what Pete meant by it, when Duck was bitten, Kenny became blind with delusion and denial, the entire moter inn group knew that Duck was going to die, but Kenny was sure that in Savannah things would be better, and that the doctors there would be able to cure him. that's when the group found a train that lead straight to Savannah, but Duck was getting worst by the second, when the time came Lee was able to convince Kenny that there was no saving Duck, even thought it hurts, Kenny needed to understand that Duck was going to die and then turn, and possibly kill someone from the group, so with that Kenny stopped the train and Lee finished Duck before he could turn (although his wife Katjaa killed herself that day).
After the story Pete yawn and said "Well I guess we should all hit the hay, we've got a lot of work to do tomorrow.
So with that everybody got up and took off to the beds, everybody except Luke and Clementine who were still sitting on the chairs.
"Nick isn't a bad guy, i've known him for ten years, so I know his good side very well." Luke said "This one time me and Nick decided to open a business after we had a case of beer." Luke told Clementine.
"What happened next?" Clementine asked.
"After two months we were flat out broke, but we didn't care, we were having fun. Now it fells like a life time ago." Luke said leaning back on his chair remembering the good memories. "But anyway I think we should get some sleep, because we ain't gonna get much rest tomorrow."
So with that Clementine went to bed, she read the rest of the comic before drifting off to sleep.
400 days later.
It's been almost a year since the apocalypse started, almost a year since the world had gone to shit, while out of there the world was falling apart, the life at Howes was the safest and the strongest.
Howes was still the same.
Clementine and the PEN dwellers all got out of the PEN they were moved to rooms with far more comfortable beds with blankets, and they were now protected by roofs from the rain.
Food was still not a big problem at Howes, there was still a lot of canned goods and thanks to the green house they had lots of fresh food.
Luckily the community was got attacked by any looters or unannounced outsiders, but Bill was prepared in case they get attacked.
Inside people were respected each other, they were all like a big family and like so they had to protect each other like equals, but the one who only looked for himself was Troy, let's just say that Troy was hated by every one on the community (including Carver), he was always grumpy and always scowling at everyone, plus he was lazy, they always tried to convince Bill to kick him out of the community, but Bill always says that for all his downsides, Troy was still a valuable member of this community.
Now let's talk about Clementine:
Clementine Bill's favorite worker, and for good reasons, Clementine always did her job when told, she always looked after others and always helped with problems, plus she really lifted up the morality on the community.
Clem also became friend with most of the community (Including Sarah, George, Luke, Johnny, Alvin, Tavia and Reggie), but even tough that she had all those friends, she never forgot about her old group, and she never forgot about Lee.
It's just a matter of time before Bill could train her to become a true leader.
New people have joined the community (6 to be exact):
These new people were Bonnie, a southern ginger with a history of drug use (although she has been clean for quite a while) and was separated from her other group after she accidentally had killed one of her group members, second there's Russel, an Afro American who separated himself from his previous group, third there's wyatt he's your typical hippie who was separated from his friend, fourth there's Vince a former convicted fella, who escaped prison after the prison bus was over run with walkers, and last but not least there's Shel and her sister Becca, who ran away from their previous group when Shel was almost forced to kill her friend.
All of them chose to join the community, they weren't forced to do anything.
Today Clementine was going on her first run for supplies, Carver knew that she was ready although Luke didn't approved, that's another thing that has been happening on the community, sometimes Bill and Luke fought on how to run the community, while Carver says that everybody have to work in order to get a good stay at the community, and that everyone in the community should learn the basics of survival (and that includes knowing on how to shoot a gun), while Luke was nothing but a good guy, he didn't like the fact that Carver was taking Clementine on a supply run, and that he was making workers work more hours a week.
But in order for the community to survive it needs a strong leader, and not some "good guy", because on the apocalypse, the good guys are always the ones who either die first or the ones that cause the death of others.
So Clem was inside the truck with Carver, Luke, Tavia and George.
"Where are we going?" Clementine asked.
"To the gas station a few miles from here, we're gonna see if we can find some weapons, fuel and food" Carver informed.
Clementine nodded, but Luke still didn't liked the fact that she was here. "I can't believe that brought her with us, I mean what if something happens to her?"
Carver let out a frustrated sight, he was clearly sick of hearing Luke's nagging "Luke this ain't up to debate, if Clementine is going to become a valuable member of our community then she needs to learn to do things like this."
"She's still to young to go on supply runs." Luke continued.
"Better sooner than never." Carver simply said.
Luke was about to protest again but Clementine stopped him "I can do this Luke don't worry about me."
Carver was pleased with her answer, and Luke realized that there was no point on continuing.
After an hour or so they arrived at the gas station. It was a typical small gas station, with a store, 2 bathrooms and fuel tanks.
"Alright folks, Luke go see if you can extract some fuel, George and Tavia you two go search the shop." He then turned to Clementine. "And you go search the woman's bathroom while I go search the man's bathroom."
"Okay." Clementine said.
"And remember to always have your gun ready" Carver remembered her.
Clementine nodded before opening the bathroom's door with a gun on her hand.
But when she opened the door, the first thing that she saw was a dead body sat against the wall with dried blood all over it. The body it appeared to be of a teenager, the body was shoot on the belly and then on the head and it seems like the body has stayed there for a while, the skin was decaying, there were flies flying on the body and even some maggots and the smell was horrible, the body probably had been there for months.
But then Clementine turned her head to her left and saw something that she did not expected.
It was two more bodies, they appeared to be a couple (male and female), the female had a swollen belly so she must have been pregnant, and the man was alongside her with his left hand on top of her right hand and a gun on his right hand.
But this scenery wasn't what shocked Clementine, what shocked her was who those bodies were.
They were the bodies of Christa and Omid.
When she realized who they were, she dropped down on her knees and started sobbing, then those sobs turned into cries.
Clementine at that moment she couldn't fell more guilty, Lee had told her to find Christa and Omid, and she ignored that rule.
Outside the bathroom Carver could hear Clementine's cries. He quickly entered the woman's bathroom "Clementine, what's the matter honey?" Carver asked before knelling down and embracing the little girl on a hug as she sobbed on his chest. He then saw the bodies of the couple and realized what was going on "Who are they honey?"
"They're… Christa and… Omid" She said between her sobs.
Clementine had talked about them in many occasions, Carver always wondered were they were now, and now he had an idea of what happened. Christa was probably shoot by that teenager and her death was probably too much for Omid and he committed suicide.
After a while Clem managed to calm herself a little, Bill buried the bodies of the couple and told the rest of the group to get in the truck (They managed to get some gallons of fuel, an empty handgun and rifle, and some canned stuff).
On the way back to Howes nobody said anything, and Clementine never let go of Bill.
Once again I apologize for the big delay, I'll try to write the next chapters faster.
Stay put for the next chapter folks.
And if you can please leave a review.