A/N: Yes! Past 100 reviews! Cheers guys! 200 plus reviews for Chapter 40 is my next aim, but still the 100 review is an amazing point to reach.

Obsessed naruhina fangirl- Thanks for the long reviews and onto the discussion, thanks for bringing the scar to my attention because I admittedly forgot about it, but now that they are all in the nude it's not like Clementine can hide it. So yeah I reckon the truth about the shed will come out and having the 400 days characters ask about it would also provoke Kenny's interest leading too further conflict and more plot routes to take. I also thought it was odd the bite was never mentioned again (say if you sided against the cabin group in favour of Kenny, you could bring up the dog bite as a key argument... but Telltale left it out... which was odd)

Also about Christa, I imagine she would be bitter after the baby's death and snappy, yet show occasional moments of warmth towards Clementine. If Carver lasted longer I don't think Christa would have showed up, in my books she is defiantly not dead as I can imagine her wondering around somewhere. Probably still heading to Wellington rather than near to Carver's camp.

Night-Chan-DragonEyes- I'm glad you love this story and thanks for the review! Feel free to leave more!

XXXWOLFLOVERXXX- Yep Carver is pretty fucked up and I wanted Carver to start to take his punishments too far. I tried to grasp his character at the beginning of the last chapter but the more the group turns against him (e.g more people in the pen) the more tyrant-like I'll reckon he will get. Then again with his baby now with him he may calm down and try to play it clever. I'm still try to decide whether to make Carver become a full on screaming maniac, or a sinister, clever manipulator. (P.S give Grizzly adams a cap and I would see a striking resemblance to Kenny)

and finally AquaDestinysEmbrace thanks (as always) for your review!

In the dead of night the temperatures reached ghostly cold lows, as the faint and eerie whoosh of the wind was the only thing (other than Nick's faint breathing) that Sarah could hear as she lay awake, tears occasionally spilling from her wide open eyes as she gazed at the pitch black night in front of her. She shivered as bad memories came to the surface, her father's death wouldn't leave her mind's eye as she found that it prevented her from sleeping.

Would she ever sleep again?

She couldn't, through her fuzzy vision blurs of white shot through the jet black night. Reaching out Sarah realised these white blurs were snow. Snow that (in her world) fell in large perfect circular blobs, or beautiful patterned snowflakes, not irregular and tiny shaped irregular shards which hurt her fingers and made them tingle. Pulling her blue hands back to her similar coloured shirt, she felt herself shiver as she tried to close her eyes and sleep... sobbing and shaking in equal measure...

"Sarah!" Her father was calling to her, his warm smile on his face as she realized she wasn't cold and sobbing anymore, she was warm and in a field of sunflowers, from behind her father emerged her mother, with a platter of chocolate chip cookies that Sarah adored as she shook them at her daughter "Come on bumble bee!" that was her mother's nickname for her daughter, as Sarah's face spilt into a large goofy smile.

Her parents were here, they were beckoning her forward, she could barely believe it as happy tears rained down her face and she ran towards the two almost golden shaded figures of her parents, "MUMMY! DADDY!" She screamed in happiness, her gut fit to burst as she was ready to crash into them as she closed her eyes ready to feel their comforting arms around her skinny frame.

Instead she flew through the air and hit the hard bed of flowers around her, puzzled she looked in alarm when she heard her mother scream... she was re-watching the scene in which she had been killed... as she backed away from her mother trembling from head to foot she bumped into someone and she turned around.

"HELP ME SARAAAAAAHHHH!" Her father bellowed as the walkers fell on him again, as his fresh screams lingered in her ears causing her to shake her head, as more disembodied voices flew across the field of sunflowers, in which the sky was turning black and the sunflowers were dying, curling up to grey prune's of curled up grass.

"WhAt tHe heLL iS wROnG wITH YoU!?" Came Becca's warped insult as Sarah crammed her hands over her ears...

Gunshots and screams echoed through the air, which Sarah couldn't block out, and the final most chilling voice stood high above the rest of the horrors.

"YoU'Re NeVer cOmInG bAcK...!" came Clementine's voice, as the world began to spin and the walker face of her mother popped up in her vision as she finished Clementine's sentence...

"...bUMbLE bEE!"

"AHHHHH!" Sarah screamed punching the air (feebly) where her mother's face had been a few seconds ago, yet the only thing looking back at her were a pair of bright blue eyes through the pitch black of the night.

"Calm down! It's me Nick!" he was hissing to her, upon seeing that she was indeed back in the observation deck, she blinked rapidly as her rapid breathing slowed slightly. "Nick?" she asked wearily as he nodded, he continued to watch over her as she calmed down slightly. Sarah noted she was sweating through her layers of clothes as she felt sick to the stomach, she felt like throwing up and was close too... maybe this was due to the lack of food and drink that her caused her weak stomach either way (in a nutshell) she felt awful.

"I'm sorry if I woke you up Nick, I just had a scary dream" She told him, as she crouched up slowly, trying to keep her world level as her held still felt dizzy and her stomach was still unsettled. She sat up and closed her eyes tight, trying hard to maintain a sense of calm that had been so hard to attain lately.

"I wasn't asleep either" Nick told her through the gloom as she opened her eyes once again, as Nick came to crouch next to her by where she was leaning against the wall. In all truth she tensed up a little having him this close to her, she didn't know him all to well and he could get angry very easily which frightened her. As she pressed her knees up to her chest she felt Nick's eyes on her as she gulped.

"Look... I know what's it like" he began awkwardly "It's barely been 12 hours since Carlos died, you don't have to be ashamed of having a nightmare Sarah, It's the same with most people" he told her which made her feel slightly better as she thought that the crushing impact of her father's death was something only she could feel.

"Why don't you sleep?" Sarah asked curiously.

"Pete" came the deadpan response.

"Oh..." she said trailing off awkwardly finding it very difficult to find something to say, she was like this in most situations as she couldn't sprout out words that made you feel better like Clementine could. The only things that came to mind were upbeat childish phrases, although muttering a "It will all be okay..." right now felt out of place and she felt like she would anger Nick.

Instead she found herself weakly muttering "I liked Pete... it was sad when..." she trailed off at that point.

"Yeah, Peter Joseph Randall, the nicest meanest old bastard who ever lived" Nick told her, reciting the earlier toast he had given his uncle when he and Clementine were trapped in that damp cellar.

"Randall was Pete's last name? I never knew that" Sarah noted.

"I don't even now your last name" Nick commented back at her.

"It's Larson with a capital L, my dad always told me to write it that way, what about yours?" she asked in a feverish manner, the breathless child-like tone to her voice returning as she tried to cast the most recent nightmare and bad memories away and instead wanting to learn more about this man who she had seen so much of, but knew so little about.

"It's Duran" he responded warmly.

"Nick Duran, Nick Duran, Nick Duran" she kept repeating to see how it sounded on her tongue, it felt pretty natural to her as she smiled yet she'd stick to calling him "Nick".

"So what's your favourite colour?" she quizzed.

"Blue, yours?"

"Yellow" she mused, so she had learnt that his full name was Nick Duran and that his favourite colour was blue. Well she was starting to feel more comfortable around him already, she knew a last name and colour wasn't much but it was better than just an angry, towering, stranger with the label of "Nick" attached to him.

"Okay what's your star sign?" she inquired, Nick was finding this question/answer session a welcome break from the usual rants of Carver and his own self pitying thoughts, he thought back to his birth-date as he remembered which star sign that should have fallen under...

"Pisces" he finally responded.

"Oh wow! Me too!" she chimed as they shared a smile.

"Why ask that though, what's my star sign gonna tell you about me?" He decided to ask her, as her eyes (for one of the only times) shone with a blazing confidence.

"I used to have a book back at the cabin all about the star signs! I wanted to ask everyone their star signs... but then we had to leave..." she trailed off sadly, to stop this conversation from ending up in dangerous waters, Nick quickly swooped in with "... Well what did the part about Pisces say?"

"Well it said we were mysterious and alluring people... whatever that means" Sarah said with a dismissive wave of her hand as Nick didn't bother to explain to her, what "alluring" meant. Was he mysterious? No. Was his alluring? No. Star signs were clearly bullshit, but he wouldn't voice his opinion as for the first time Sarah looked like she was enjoying a conversation and he wasn't going to puncture a hole in it because of a personality mix up.

Yet it seemed like the conversation was heading to darker topics anyway as Sarah gazed out to the pitch black night "Nick... you know that Pete always wanted me to go those group meetings, but my dad would never let me" she mumbled as he slowly muttered "yeah" a bit uncertainly unsure of where this was going. Although he did ask Pete once why Sarah wasn't allowed to their meetings.

"I want her to come to these meetings too son, but we have to respect Carlos' opinion. She's his responsibility and not our's"

Well hadn't times changed. Nick was now Sarah's responsibility and like hell he was going to let her die. As he continued to stare at Sarah she blurted out her next words as if she had been bottling them up for a long time.

"Surely Pete knew what was wrong with me then. Did he tell you? Please tell me what's wrong with me Nick, I want to know, no one tells me anything not even my dad would tell me"

Nick blinked back at her in surprise as her gaze pierced right through him, it was true that Pete had once told him that "The girl is autistic Nick, for the love of God keep your mouth shut about it, Carlos doesn't want everyone here knowing"

"Autistic, as in... what? She can't leave the cabin?" Nick spat back at him, he was in a bad mood that morning as they went to collect the fish from the fish traps.

"Autistic as in Autism Nick. She has difficulty speaking to people and adapting to the shit we live in now. But I still think it's wrong that Carlos' coddles her too much, it's not like she can't function she just has problems like the rest of us..."

"There's nothing wrong with you Sarah" was his instant reply.

"I know that's not true, please just tell me, I want to know!" Sarah demanded of him.

For a long while Nick thought hard about it, was she better off knowing she had autism and dealing with the problem? Well he didn't know shit about the disorder Sarah had. She acted childish sure... and had problems speaking to people and panicked easily... but the more he thought about it he realised maybe it was best for her not to know. He couldn't just break the news to Sarah that she had autism and that treat it as if she had cancer... as if she could physically fight her disease, but this wasn't a physical disease it was a mental one. In fact it wasn't even a "disease" it was a "disorder"...

He realised that autism may have caused Sarah problems... but as Pete had once wisely said...

"it's not like she can't function she just has problems like the rest of us..."

For all he knew, Nick himself could have had autism judging by how socially awkward he was. Based off this he tried to imagine himself in Sarah's shoes. How would he react if he knew he had autism? Well... it would be a bit of shock and something that would make him wary of himself... make him wonder whether he was going to be locked in a padded room or something...

No, he couldn't tell Sarah. Her autism was not the problem. It was Carlos rigid sheltering that had done the damage to the girl. Although Carlos had meant well, Sarah's lack of experience of the horrors awaiting her in this world is what caused her frightened reactions, just like a child. In fact seeing as this whole apocalypse had started 2 to 3 years ago, Sarah would have been 13 or 12 when this started. Still a child. She hadn't grown up learning survival skills that other kids (Clementine being a star example) had done.

With this in mind, he finally spoke...

"Look, the only thing that's wrong with you Sarah is the fact your father kept you inside so much" he said as Sarah watched him curiously "Your father did everything he could too protect you... but because of that you don't know what it's like to kill a walker, to find food, or shoot a gun. Loads of other people have learned that by now and you haven't. That's why sometimes people... say horrible things about you. But that doesn't mean you're a horrible person." he quickly rushed on the that last sentence after Sarah's face dropped upon learning that people said horrible things about her.

"But... why can't people just be nice? Why does everyone have to be mean to survive?" she asked of Nick, of the whole world around her as a few more tears fell from her eyes.

"That's... just the way it is" Nick told her sadly.

"Clementine told me she'd teach me how to shoot a gun" She decided to add, feeling defensive after Nick's analysis of her.

"Really? I'm sorry Sarah but you wouldn't know how to shoot for shit" Nick told her harshly.

"I would!" she snapped, feeling defensive.

"Okay, how would you shoot?" he asked.

"Well I'd hold my gun like this... and then... Clem taught me not to lock my shoulders and aim through the nuzzle... and then shoot" she explained.

"Aren't you forgetting something?" Nick asked dryly.

"What?" Sarah inquired.

"Pulling the trigger" he said as he bent his second longest finger and made a faint pop that was meant to resemble the noise of gunfire, Sarah didn't say anything as Nick sighed "Have you ever shot anything before Sarah?"

"Well... No..." she begun.

"Well then you can't shoot for shit..." Nick started telling her the facts.

"But...!" Sarah shouted to interrupt him but he held his hand up to pause her.

"I said you can't shoot for shit, but you will learn how to shoot. We'll find ourselves a gun if we can and we'll get you some proper shooting lessons, same way Pete used to take me hunting. I was younger than you when I was shooting buck's, admittedly I'm not the best shooter in the world but I can teach you the basics and we'll see if you have a good aim..." he told her.

"Well you're not a bad shooter, you shot that guy on the bridge..."

"Yeah, thanks for bringing that up Sarah" he snapped angrily causing her too flinch.

"Sorry" she squeaked after a few seconds of uneasy silence in which he accepted with a "No... I... I didn't mean to snap at you. Yeah I shot the guy on the bridge but I couldn't shoot some walkers to save Pete" he muttered sadly remembering his frantic shots that had killed the walkers around Pete too little, too late.

"I need some glasses first to see what I'm was aiming at" She said addressing another problem to try and sway the conversation elsewhere.

"Don't worry about that now, as long as you can shoot and not drop the gun in a panic... it will be a step in the right direction" he reassured her, as she rubbed her growling stomach.

"We have to try and find food tomorrow, and we can go drink from the river" Sarah suggested as Nick nodded.

"Yeah, we got plenty of supplies though" he said patting the black bin bag next to him that was filled to the brim with meds they so desperately needed if they were to get back into Carver's community.

Back to their friends.

"Well it's been nice talkin' let's just try and get some sleep" Nick said yawning as he lay on the floor "It might be hard, but we'll need it" he told Sarah as she lay down on the cold floor as well.

"Night" she called out to him.

"Night" he grunted back.

Sarah didn't sleep easily, yet she managed too, feeling comfortable that a man she was growing fond of was nearby and she knew that finding the meds and Nick's promises to her were a step into a scary future, yet one she was willing to dive into to try and get out of the endless trauma she had endured recently.

And as for Nick, he also slept... he never thought he or Sarah didn't have much in common, yet they were getting on very well. Autism or not, too Nick her autism was irrelevant to him. For all he knew he had autism too, hell everyone had problems in this world, he had serious anger issues and was a serious screw up... yet he would fight on.

He would ensure Sarah would too.

...

Nick awoke to an unwelcome noise that morning, not off Sarah's good morning, but of harsh foreign voices cutting through the cold morning air, he could hear a group of them ascending the wooden staircase.

"Shit! Sarah get up!" he hissed, as Sarah's eyes fluttered open, but there was no time, Nick grabbed her from under the armpits and shoved her behind a small counter as Nick himself ducked behind it, just in time, as he watched a group of 6 or 7 armed, rugged looking men and one cold faced blonde woman crowded around the observation deck.

"Are they friendly?" Sarah asked in fear.

"I- don't think so" Nick whispered back, as the both of them stayed as still as statue scared to even breathe in case it would attract attention.

"Oni zdes'?" came a rough male voice, Nick peered over the counter to see a pale faced bespectacled teenager with a leg-brace nodding vigorously at the man who had just spoken.

"They sound Russian" Sarah whispered to Nick as he remained silent, watching them carefully.

The man stepped forward and out of Nick's range of vision, but a second later there were a few gasps all round, before the man that had stepped out of Nick vision returned to it. Red faced and holding the teenager by his neck.

"Chertov lzhets ARVO ! YA ub'yu tebya na meste!" He bellowed, in English murderous bellows were scary, In Russian they were horrifying as Nick couldn't grasp what they saying at all, other than that they were mad at the teenager. He knew the man had checked inside the bin for the meds...

The meds... the bag was next to him as he realised who he and Sarah had stolen from now.

The rugged man seemed to calm down as he released the petrified boy who was babbling "Mne ochen' zhal' ! YA klyanus', chto oni byli zdes!"

"Nayti ikh , libo" the rugged man instructed coldly, after this everyone seemed to scurry off. No doubt looking for the meds and to Nick's horror the rugged man remained pacing around the observation deck as the teenage boy with the leg brace scurried off. His cold blue eyes surveyed the deck, his gun at the ready, before Nick heard his creaky footprints enter the room he and Sarah were in...

Nick could feel him getting closer... the guy was huge. He had to be 6 foot 5 or more in height and very well built and no doubt a killing machine, Sarah started to panic as she clutched Nick's arm tightly. He knew there was no way to negotiate to this man, he didn't know a word of Russian and this Russian man didn't sound like he knew English. The language barrier prevented peace.

The man would shoot them on sight and take back his group's meds.

The man was seconds away from spotting them...

Nick took a deep breath and with his glass shard digging into his palm, he took action...