A/N: I can't thank you guys enough for the continued support!
obsessed naruhina fangirl: Thanks (as always) for your great reviews, and as for the choices I felt like the one's in episode 1 weren't that important (other than the Christa scenario and Pete and Nick) but that can be forgiven as it was Clem-centric episode, I really enjoyed episode 1. In episode 2 the choices felt like they would hold a lot more impact, in fact the whole episode was very Nick-centric with a sprinkling of Luke and Kenny at the side. But either way the hostage situation and character development were perfected, making it my favourite episode of the season.
In episode 3 it felt like a bit of a drag, and they sorta ruined Carver's character (although he made a great villain still) and wasted the 400 days characters. However other than that I loved the whole group planning and dynamic in episode 3 and the ending was brilliant. The episode was very Sarah-centric and helped build on her character further, I was pumped to how the choices in Episode 3 would affect episode 4.
Episode 4 started out masterfully with the decision you made whether to cut off Sarita's arm or not was done brilliantly. However after Nick and Sarah's deaths the episode went downhill fast. Completely throwing away two characters that the previous two episodes focused on and making Kenny and Luke very dislikeable (compared to what they were in episode 2) and really the choices in this episode didn't matter. Rebecca still dies and Arvo still robs you...
The choices do not match those made in season 1. (Carley and Doug and the meat locker...)
Anyway those pictures you sent were hilarious, Carlos' made me laugh the most, I'm sad I killed him off now... Must. Protect. Daughter.
However while browsing around I found another picture I'll think you'll like which sums up one of the key relationships I'm planning to develop in this story.
Kids by Conoyura, (I couldn't get the link up as it keeps deleting but you should find the picture if you type that in)
The Benevolent Scriber- Thanks for your review and opinions, you'll find out this chapter that the situation with Carlos' was more than met the eye initially. But the rest of your opinions were pretty damn valid and you gave a solid argument on why the group should try and overthrow the camp. I'll defiantly take your views in consideration as the opinion of the reader means a lot to me.
And the rest of you, AquaDestinyEmbrace and Rebloxic especially thanks for the continued support!
"Now see here" Carver began as he gestured to Carlos' mangled body beneath him as several people store in horror. Clementine found it strange that everybody in this community was now crammed into this tiny space as she gazed at them all. With the expectations of her and Sarah (and beforehand Becca) nobody here seemed to be under the age of 16. Grizzled adults made up the majority of Carver's camp and there must have been 50 to 40 people here altogether.
Yet Carver could speak above them all and seemed to lead them and bind them as one group.
"Carlos here was our only doctor here people, I don't think you realise how valuable he was too us, with my child on the way and with all the injuries we suffered after last night..." he shook his head sadly as Rebecca's hands flew defensively over her bump at these words.
"So you're probably all wondering why our beloved doctor is lying as dead as a dodo" he asked the large group as he scanned a sea of faces, a cold breeze ruffled the hairs of many observing the scene silently, but finally Luke spoke up.
"Jesus Bill what the fuck have you done!?" He snarled with hate towards the older man who only smiled back at him.
"Believe it or not but this tragedy had nothing to do with me Luke, ah no, you see, Carlos' death was the result of three major screw up's by these three people" he indicated the hysterical Sarah, the beaten Nick and the other Asian man who looked rigid as Carver approached him, Clementine noticed that Carver's large hands were balling into fists.
"Firstly Vince here was supposed to bring Carlos inside nearly half an hour ago to treat some of the injured we had waiting, but Vince here couldn't do that and as a result rather than staying safely inside he was out here, henceforth when the breach occurred Carlos was here, resulting in his death. Vince do you want to explain yourself to the group?" Carver asked with in a horrible honeyed fashion, in other words... the calm before a violent storm.
"He wouldn't leave his daughter" The man called Vince stated in a cracked voice as he looked up at Carver, just in time to see his leaders knuckles soar towards him.
"INVALID ANSWER!" Carver roared as his knuckles connected with Vince's face, a horrible cracking sound re-vibrated around the camp as Bonnie gasped aloud and charged forward, Stephanie had to hold her back as she cawed out desperately "Vinnnncceeeee!"
"You'll only make it worse!" Stephanie tried to tell her as a few other nameless faces tried to tug Bonnie back by the shoulders, "BILL STOP THIS!" Bonnie screamed as Carver second punch caused Vince's head to snap to the side horribly as blood leaked in a torrent from his mouth. Oddly enough upon Bonnie's request Carver's grip went slack, panting and flecked with dollops of Vince's blood he looked up at the rest of his group.
"Weakness! Incompetence! Vince displayed both of these qualities today! He couldn't get those under his supervision to work! It won't be forgiven! But I wouldn't dream of killing someone whose perfectly capable of work and we need as many numbers as we can get! So as a result, Vince you'll be sentenced to the pen until you behaviour is reformed!" Carver barked with loathing towards Vince who was now crumpled into a heap on the floor, he didn't even moan at his verdict. No doubt in his mind he was just happy to be alive.
"Now somebody get him the hell outta here!" Carver snapped to his group, Mike and Kenny emerged from the crowd and as one they dragged Vince by the shoulders and placed him by Bonnie as the rest of the group cleared way for their injured comrade. "Are you alright?" Bonnie kept asking Vince rapidly he tried to stand up striaght again "I'm fine Bonnie... I'm... fine..." he muttered while holding his head in his hands.
"So you'll spare Vince because he can work, but you can't do the same for Becca?" came a hiss of hatred from Shel. Who had steeped forward with silent fury lined on all of her features, Carver let out another grin "Ah Shel you see... how do I put this... but I never liked Becca anyway" he said giving her a taunting smile as Shel bloated like a frog, ready to pop...
and she did, in that second she slapped Carver hard across the mouth, the smack echoing throughout the camp as some people watched in awe. Clementine heard Kenny mutter "Where are the cheerleaders for this?" as he gazed at the sullen and shocked faces of the watching population. No doubt everyone (including Clementine) was fearing what was going to happen to Shel in these few seconds following the slap. As Shel stood tall and unwavering Carver slowly wiped a trickle of blood from his mouth using his index finger.
"Feisty girl" he muttered before he swung his fist and with another CRACK, Shel found herself on the floor, dazed and bruised.
"Jesus Bill you can't hit a woman, that's just wrong!" A young black man behind Clementine shouted in outrage and what Bill had done.
"Be quiet Russell!" he snapped before he turned back to where Shel shot daggers at him from below "Pen for you too" he grunted.
"I'll go there gladly" she said calmly as she stood up and marched over to where the others were bent over Vince, as Stephanie stared at her friend in awe inspecting the bruise on the side of her face.
"Shel..." she began.
"Save it" she assured her friend as gently as she could. However as she did she glared at the floor, her whole body shaking in rage, as disgruntled mumbles began to spread across the population of the compound like wildfire, it's reach and intensity growing by the second.
"QUIET!" Carver boomed in his loudest, most powerful voice which blew out the wildfire of disgruntlement in an instant as the 40 plus people were silent once again. With the fire of rebellion truly extinguished for now, Carver continued to ramble.
"Okay now for fuck up number two, Sarah here was originally the one to get caught by the walkers when they first broke through, but Carlos had to be a hero and push her out of the way. Hence he got tangled up with the walkers and did you think that she would bother to save her daddy?" he turned to Sarah as Clementine felt her breath get thicker...
"No, she simply ran and cried like a baby in the corner as she watched her daddy get eaten alive! What was worse is that she had a hammer in her hand. She could have killed at least one walker and saved her daddy and our doctor, but no this cowardly excuse for a girl has had a string of screw up's lately and this is her final straw!" he now bent down to where Sarah's head was held in place by Troy she tried to thrash and twist and turn to avoid his gaze but it was pointless.
"Maybe now that you're daddy's dead because of you, you'll learn to become a functioning member of society" he growled at her, even though she was gagged, Sarah's screaming and sobbing was very audible. Making even the hardest and most grizzled survivors in Carver's group shuffle a little uncomfortably.
"Now..." he went on walking away from Sarah as if he was on a causal stroll "You'll be glad to know Vince shot the three walkers, but by this point our beloved doctor was dead, thanks to his negligence, and Sarah's habit of being a pansy. Yet despite these traits this barricade was the strongest around the store. That's why I sent Carlos to work here, even for a little while so I could ensure he could be safe here and yet... thanks to a certain someone, our doctor is still dead despite my best efforts" at this point he turned to where Nick was still bent over on the floor. Clementine couldn't take it any more. If Carver pulled out his gun she was running forward to save him no matter what.
"The last and the greatest fuck up, all thanks to Nick here" Carver hissed cruelly as he grabbed Nick by the scruff of the neck and pulled him upwards, his face was a mess of swollen wounds, no doubt inflicted by an earlier beating by Carver. Nick looked petrified as through his puffy eyes he tried desperately to search for any familiar, friendly faces.
"You see Nick here is an incompetent lousy, good for nothing human being, the barricade that collapsed was the one he had been working on and he did a shitty job people! Nails not hammered in properly, all planks of wood were loose..." Carver shook his head as he gave Nick a look of hatred so intense it chilled Clementine down right to very bone... Carver would kill him. He was going too...
"I want to kill you so badly... you have no idea how much I despise people like you... weak people..." Carver was breathing down Nick's ear. Clementine couldn't do this... she had to help.
"Stop!" she yelled rushing forward "It wasn't Nick's fault! He was just tired! We all are and you put us in the pen... the beds are uncomfortable..." Clementine began to explain but Carver cut her off with a wave of his hand.
"Oh but it was Clem, it was all Nick's fault. Like you said you were all tired but only he fucked up, well him and Sarah, seeing as their already in the pen I can't send them back there" Carver stated coldly reaching for the gun on his holster...
"NO! We had a deal Carver!" Clementine reminded him, it was only then she realised she was a lone voice as 40 plus audience watching her. She felt a red flush creep up her neck gazing upon many astonished faces.
"It's Bill, Clem and who said I was going to kill them? I'm still with agreeing to your promise. I'm keeping them alive, but alas I can't have them in my community they way they are. So I've devised a logical conclusion that will suit us both fine" Carver said as he looked back at Nick and Sarah.
"They have 10 minutes to pack whatever they have and get the hell outta here"
There was a disbelieving silence.
"It's an exile, it's not killing them it's having them in the outside world. All they have to do is find bag loads of supplies to prove their worth as true survivors. Clearly no one else can help them, so they have to help themselves and if they try to sneak back without these supplies they'll be shot on site, I think that's fair, don't you Clem?" he asked mockingly.
Clementine vision went red, she wanted to slap Carver, to punch him, to shoot him on the spot as causally as she had shot walkers in the past. An exile for a beaten Nick and catatonic Sarah was as good as a death sentence. The two wouldn't last five minutes in the walker infested woods and if they survived walkers they were bandits all around...
"That's killing them!" Clementine roared, losing it she charged forwards but in that second Troy let Sarah fall into a heap to the floor, as he lunged forwards and whacked the butt of his gun against Clementine's face. Clementine felt herself fly a few inches off the ground before she hit the tarmac violently, with stars in her vision and her cheek stinging in agony. This was something she hoped to avoid this time round, still at least her (and most likely many other's) perception on Troy being an asshole were solidified.
"You little shit" he snarled to Clementine who glared back up at him.
At this point Sarah lost the plot, "DADDY!" she screamed as she bolted upwards, she whizzed through the dense crowd like a bullet, in the process however she tripped over Vince's ankle and went flying to the floor, he rose tinted lenses slipped from her nose and clattered onto the floor. Lifting herself up (with a large graze now present on her leg) Sarah frantically ran forwards, her foot snapping her glasses clean in half after she stomped on them. Unaware of this as she simply trying to get away from the whole scene frantically) she pushed and shoved her way to freedom and ran off howling to the sky...
"She's gone back to pen" a female voice informed the group after a tense silence.
"Well then go fetch her, she and Nick have ten minutes, I'll be waiting for them by the south hanger door" Carver concluded as he turned away and began to walk towards the compound.
"You're a liar Carver! You've killed them! You're going to wish you hadn't done this!" Clementine found herself shouting at Carver, who simply laughed in his deep voice.
"I haven't killed them Clem, if they can bring back the supplies, they're alive and well, try to have a bit more faith in your friends" he mocked, before he made his departure, with his lapdog Troy tailing his every move however he did bark out some last second instructions...
"EVERYONE BACK TO WORK! YOU GUYS IN THE PEN I'LL GIVE YOU TIME TO GET YOUR FRIENDS READY AND THEN YOU'LL GET BACK TO WORK!" He commanded the word "work" was hammered into their brains so much that many simply dispersed the scene as if nothing major had happened. Although they did speak curiously amongst themselves.
"C'mon" Luke said gently prying Nick from the floor and helping the taller man lean onto his shoulders, to his surprise he was helped by none other than Shel, who helped pry up the taller man with a look of determination in her eyes "Let's get him moving" she told Luke sternly who simply nodded. As they dragged Nick along and back to the pen, Luke asked him "It ain't your fault okay Nick? Look you're gonna be fine man, I mean you've got..."
"Just let me die" Nick groaned in a cracked, raw voice.
Luke shared a concerned glance with Clementine who was walking behind them (as Bonnie had helped Clementine to her feet) right now Clementine's heavy gut was making her squirm more than the slash on her cheek.
No matter what it would take, she had to get Nick and Sarah back to this community alive.