The town in the distant horizon reminded Clementine hauntingly of Savannah, wiping flecks of melting snow from her eyes as she squinted through the white haze to see the church in the town. It was similar to the one that dominated the skyline of Savannah and Clementine couldn't help but feel as if history was about to repeat itself, yet strangely there was no adrenaline coursing through her veins here. Back in Savannah she was a naive 8 year old excited to see her parents yet equally as fearful of horrors the large city would contain.
Now she was a hardened 11 year old, with nothing to look forward to anymore and really what was there to lose now?
Kenny?
The baby?
Kenny was all she had left, they had a history and if Kenny died then truly there would be no going back, her last living link to Lee would be erased.
The baby was the only surviving relic of the cabin group. Yet she expected them to die, Kenny wasn't thinking straight and his wound looked infected and as for the baby... it was just a baby! Now that Rebecca was gone how were they meant to find it food? Stop it from crying to draw the walkers? The temperature was reaching dangerously low levels that made Clementine's hands turn blue, the baby couldn't survive in these conditions.
Fighting hard against the blizzard that pushed her back, hugging her blue jacket that Bonnie had given her, she wished now she had gloves and a scarf rather than just her old cap which couldn't cover her stinging ears, her teeth chattered as melted snow spilled into her worn shoes, with the water soaking through her socks this sent new shivers shooting up her spine.
"Just keep going, I can't disappoint Lee" she thought to herself as she lowered her head and used her cap to drill her way through the excruciating cold. Her nose began to run but she barely cared, she placed one foot in front of the other as her shoes sank deep into the snow with a squelchy crunch. She didn't dare look up as this would allow the viscous winds to slap at her face, she simply store down into the endless white earth, and it seemed to go on and on and on...
Finally (numb all over as the snow was now clinging to her jacket rather than melt) she could faintly see the outline of a building's shadow in the weak sunlight, looking up she found herself standing in front of the giant church that had dominated the outline of the town, the snow was now burying the cracked gravel that were once roads as the gales funnelled down the streets. Looking up for the first time in a while she saw Kenny tearing his way through the worsening blizzard.
"WALKERS!" He suddenly bellowed through the gales this earned Clementine's utmost attention as her head snapped to the side and sure enough the familiar cluster of rotting corpses sagged through the snow emerging from the corroded doors and distant clumps of pine trees "FUCK! WHY CAN'T THEY JUST GIVE US A FUCKING MINUTE!" She heard Kenny exclaim in rage she had to agree with him on that point.
Kenny turned and ran straight for the church door that stood ajar, as walkers were closing in from all sides, seeing no other alternative Clementine followed him into the freezing church, she entered just in time to see Kenny crush a walker's skull that was already lurking inside the church. Turning back to her he instructed "CLOSE THE DOOR!"
Wasting no time Clementine, used her numb palms to close the large wooden doors of the church, Kenny had already put down the squealing baby onto the church floor as he used both hands to lift a pew (that was thankfully not bolted to the floor) on one side, Clementine grabbed the other and using all of her remaining strength lifted it as Kenny did.
"Easy... easy..." he panted, his face shone with sweat and Clementine understood that his previous gunshot wound on his torso wasn't getting any better. Yet he held out long enough as he and Clementine placed the heavy pew in front of the church doors, after that he collapsed onto the stone floor, wheezing and coughing blood.
Clementine was exhausted, cold and miserable, she had to drag as much pews as she could to cover the large doors to the church, she had totalled three, although the moaning of the dead could still be heard as the walkers crashed themselves into the door, yet so far Clementine's barricade was holding up against them. They were safe, but that barricade would not hold out in the long term.
After she regained her breath she inspected the interior of the church with a simple sweeping gaze the large stained glass windows remained intact depicting in lavish blue's and yellow's the scenes of the last supper and pentecost. Yet despite this the rest of the church was bare and cold, the grey and brownish surfaces of stone had layers of dust building up on them. The decorations at the altar had long since been picked clean.
After a quick inspection she finally decided to check on Kenny, he was sat perched up against the wall. His face pale from either the temperature or the blood loss he had endured, Rebecca's son was still cradled in his lap, it was gurgling as Kenny smiled down at it, hearing Clementine approach he looked up his smile faded from his face. Clementine could only stare back at him, her expression fearful.
"I'm sorry darlin' I shouldn't have said those things to ya" he apologised shamefully his wide brown iris tingling with regret, Clementine felt her lips twitch upwards from the sides, despite everything that had happened Kenny was still here
"Don't worry about it" she mused, Kenny warm expression melted the cold hostility between them it was fitting that the snow on Clementine's jacket was also starting to melt in the warmer (yet still freezing) air of the church.
"It's kind of you to say that, but fuck..." he paused as his eyes rolled around the church before he spoke again "Were so fucked Clementine everyone's gone and... I don't know what to do anymore" he confessed as a loud sigh escaped from in-between his lips as he lay his head backwards on the cold church wall.
"We get to Wellington, I know we can get there Kenny" she found herself motivating him.
"We almost froze to death out there how the fuck are we gonna get all the way to Michigan?" he enquired with a leer.
Clementine wanted to smack him or give him some motivating speech about how they shouldn't give up as people that had died wanted them to go on. But Clementine couldn't say it because she could not longer believe her own words. Wellington was a fantasy, a destination at the end of a rainbow, somewhere never to be reached. There was no way a baby, a wounded man and a little girl were going to make it that far.
In the silence that hovered of them Kenny piped up "Well, if you can me and Duck could use some supplies" Clementine looked down upon the baby in his arms which was drifting into a slumber, Clementine could feel Kenny's eyes resting upon her and awaiting some sort of response.
"That's a nice name" she eventually said.
"I know it ain't my kid Clem, but it's the only hope I have in this shitty world, with Sarita gone and Duck and Kajtaa... I just wanted just one little part of the past back if that makes any sense" he explained to her. Clementine found herself agreeing with him before he even finished that sentence.
"I would do anything to go back and see Lee again, or Carley, or Omid, Christa and Luke, Nick, Sarah and Rebecca... I miss them all" her last words came out as a whisper.
To Clementine dismay, there was nothing in the church, no food, no blankets, not even a pile of scarp to scavenge. The building was striped bare, which explained the lack of walkers within it as no former survivor would stop in a empty building for a long period of time. She even resorted to Jane's method of searching the corpse of the walker Kenny had killed earlier yet she found nothing on it. Kenny had already fallen asleep with the baby in his arms so Clementine didn't have to break the disappointing news to him.
Her eyes weary, and with her stomach rumbling and crippling her with hunger pains the only thing that Clementine could do was lie on the floor to the church, curled up into a tiny ball as the blizzard raged outside, the deathly black night had fallen and Clementine needed some well needed rest, yet that was hard when her hunger kept her awake.
She soon found herself sobbing silently as each face of the dead passed through her mind, from the recently deceased like Nick and Sarah to the blurrier memoires of Carley or Kajtaa she prayed in her head "Please let me see them again, Please" she felt as hollow as the church she resided in as she drifted off into a trouble fuelled sleep, those that had died because of her and the ever present grief she had for Lee warped her dreams into nightmares.
Clementine awoke to a loud crashing, she looked up and saw the stain glass window at the front of the church had been shattered as large shards spilt on the floor, alarmed she heard the banging on the church doors was louder than ever as she stood up straight.
"Ken...!" she began to alert him but she saw he was already alert. Heaving in front of the altar as his hand was outstretched, his body tense. Clementine could only hazard a guess what he had threw but he had knowing his temper.
"What's wrong?" she asked running up to him, but she already knew the answer as she gazed sadly upon the bundle on the pew nearby, it wasn't moving, it had gone completely still.
"Oh no" Clementine murmured feeling yet another blow to her already weak stomach.
"Duck's gone" Kenny sobbed, he turned to face her. Kenny was deathly pale now, the blood from his eye and the wound on torso were burning a bright crimson colour, his remaining eye was sunken, he was breathing heavily as open tears ran down his clammy cheeks. His voice reduced to a broken, grovelly mess.
As Clementine let this sink in she heard the door behind her burst open, the wind and a large horde of walkers were already stumbling towards them.
"WE HAVE TO GO!" She yelled taking his hand into her smaller one yet when she tried to move him he remained rooted to the spot.
His next words haunted Clementine, making her bones quiver.
"It's over Clementine"
She couldn't reply the walkers were drawing nearer, she could only stand there in shock until she saw Kenny step forward and that was when she found her voice.
"Don't do this Kenny, you're all I have left" she was crying openly now her grief couldn't be put into words.
"Just Go Clem, I want to go out fighting these fuckers"
She wanted to scream, to slap him to his senses, yet the nearest walker was mere meters away, she didn't even get to say her last words to him, she simply ducked under his arm and headed towards the opening that the shattered window provided. She heard a few gunshots to see Kenny already swarmed by 3 or 4 walkers as he used the last of his bullets to coat the church walls a ruby red.
"FOR SARTIA...!" He bellowed.
He fought on but Clem's world collapsed when he saw the first walker bite his wrist.
"KAJTAA!" He screamed, as flecks of blood flew from his mouth.
The horde was now beginning to obscure him from view, as they hissed and ripped away Kenny's flesh... the man that had survived so much...
"LEE!" He shouted through his blood drenched teeth as he fell to the floor, the walkers ripping veins from his neck as they pulled his entrails out onto the empty floor, yet despite all of this he still had one last death cry.
"DUUUUUUUCCCCKKKK!"
The heartbreaking cry was cut short as Kenny choked on his own blood and the dead moved in, ripping him to shreds as they devoured Clementine's last friend. There was no one left, no going back now.
With a heart to heavy to move she had to tear her eyes away from Kenny's gory end and leapt out of the window into a freezing cold night.
She was now completely and utterly alone.