A/N: Okay, onto discussions!
obsessed naruhina fangirl: Thanks for the review and as always I give my opinion on the topic you raised. This time it being Jane.
I loved Jane, she was my favourite character in Episode 3 by a mile (mainly due to the whole shooting Troy in the dick thing) In episode 4 she maintained the cool persona she had in episode 3 and I liked that we got to learn more about her and I think (despite the damage she could have inflicted on Clementine by making her leave Sarah behind) she generally wanted to help Clementine.
And then... "that" scene came up. Luke and Jane were two characters I'd never in a million years see doing that, it felt very out of character and uncomfortable. It made me despise them after that, Jane not as much as Luke though, as Luke's reaction to Nick's death ticked me off. "Shit, Shit" is all you have to say when your best friend of 20 years dies? So in this story I want to avoid that route that destroyed Jane and Luke's character. Despite me disliking her by the end of episode 4 I still wanted to go with her, so I had mixed feelings on Jane. Although she did try and help Sarah at the observation deck scene it didn't seem like she gave it her all. So yeah...
To summarise at first I thought Jane was an improved Molly, after episode 4 she's like a cheap ripoff.
leafs nation- Thanks for the review!
XXXWOLFLOVERXXX- I hate Arvo too, but he seems interesting to write about, sure his a coward, but he seemed against attacking the group when they had a baby...
Rebloxic- I'm a Pisces myself, so I thought I add it in somewhere and that's a really interesting suggestion about Christa, maybe Arvo just wanted to help some wounded woman he met in the woods (e.g Christa) but you never know.
Night-Chan DragonEyes- Don't worry there be more of Clem and the group this chapter but I'm glad you're finding the Nick/Sarah scenes awesome.
P.S There's a new poll on my profile, vote for your favourite character!
The world seemed to freeze for a second as Nick charged at the large man, shooting up from his hiding place (and with a war cry of a bellow) he stretched his arms and dug the shard of glass into the man's shoulder, near to his neck.
The large man nearly grunted, as Nick clung onto the shard as the man threw him off the shard with an easy lunge to her left, Nick crashed for the floor, as he went down to the floor, he tried wildly grasping for the gun that the man was holding, he clung at it for a second...
BAM!
Sarah screamed as the bullet tore through Nick's shoulder and with a shout of agony he fell to the floor, the man's face was a picture of rage as he tugged his gun from one of Nick's limp bloodstained figures and aimed directly at the top of Nick's cap...
Sarah didn't know how she did it. She wasn't being brave, it all honesty she was terrified, all she knew is that she had too stop this man from shooting Nick. She had to do something. She couldn't let Nick die like Carlos that was the only thing she knew at that moment.
She ran forward screaming herself as her arms flailed wildly in front of her "NOOOOOOOOO!" she wailed as the man turned confusedly towards her, her hand clutched around the body of the long rifle he was carrying. With a grunt and muttering a curse in Russian he turned to Sarah and shook her thin fingers from his rifle and with a growing rage building inside of him the large man swung the butt of his rifle at Sarah's face, with a crack and a scream of pain Sarah fell to the floor in a bloody heap.
However this distraction had done it, Nick watched through silts of eyes as Sarah tried to tackle the man and while he was turned away Nick had stood on his feet again... using both arms (and not covering his shoulder wound) he charged at the man just before the man could turn back to him and from where the glass shard was stuck in the man shoulder, Nick pulled it out with squelch before with a swoosh he stabbed the man in the neck.
The large man choked as blood dribbled from his mouth, but Nick wasn't done. In a frenzy he pulled the shard in and out of the man's neck littering it with holes as blood soaked the floor and his shoes, even as the man collapsed gurgling and gasping for oxygen as he drowned in his own blood Nick continued to stab at him, every part of his body felt numb as stab, after stab after stab occurred...
Finally when the man was completely still and his neck was a shredded mess, Nick felt a flare of pain rush up his left arm as blood rained from his shoulder. Clenching his teeth in agony, he pressed down hard on his shoulder wound to stop the blood flow as he looked up to where Sarah was watching him, sobbing silently, a large gash that tore a jagged hole in the left side of her cheek... that man had hit her hard indeed as she whimpered and moaned in agony...
For what felt like hours... (but was probably only a few seconds) Nick panted deeply, the adrenaline rush dying as quickly as it had come, as he realised he was as drenched in his own sweat as he was blood... soaking and shivering and aching all over. He lifted his head backwards and sighed, what happened next seemed to happen without him thinking about it, he extended the now red glass shard towards a still staring Sarah.
"Use it" he rasped.
Shakily she took the sticky shard of glass from his fingers as she twirled it in her own.
"You need to learn to kill Walkers Sarah, this can be your first" he panted as he gestured at the back of the man's placid forehead, the smooth unbroken skin spreading across his scalp reminded Sarah of fields of untouched snow... and she had... leave her mark in it.
A crimson red stamp.
"I can't... I'm not strong enough... my face hurts..." she whined as Nick silenced her.
"Sarah... if you don't start here, where do we start?" he asked of her as she couldn't answer and he ploughed on "Look, I don't really care what shape your in, you could be in worse shape when you kill walkers in future. I can talk about it all you want but until you actually start taking action and killing walkers it won't mean shit. You have to do this Sarah" he begged of her as Nick noticed the man's finger twitch.
"You better hurry" he added.
Sarah was panicking now, not only had she witnessed Nick murder someone brutally right in front of her, now she was being asked to finish the job... she felt dirty... and it was scary. Yet as she looked back at Nick's serious eyes she knew there was no way she could whine any more, she couldn't get him to do this for her. With a sigh she looked down on at the back of the man's head and raised her shaking hands as she prepared (for the first time) to actually stab something.
"Come on Sarah, you can do it" Were Nick's whispered words of encouragement as Sarah's gut seemed to burn as she inhaled and plunged the shard into the man's head.
She gasped as the glass shard burst through the man's brains, as he truly died. She opened her eyes a creak as she gazed upon the gory sight, as she expected something dramatic to happen or expected it to be a great challenge as she stabbed someone for the first time.
Nothing happened.
Puzzled she pulled the shard out of his head, although this was harder, nothing world shattering occurred as a thin trickle of blood rolled down the back of the man's head. Even looking at the gory wound didn't make Sarah flinch as hard as she though it would. She had killed a walker.
She had killed a walker. Yet nothing had changed, the world hadn't shattered as Sarah imagined it would, a weird numb feeling overtook her body as she gazed back at Nick.
"That's it?" she said, the whole lead up to facing walker for the first time felt very anti-climatic indeed.
"They'll be harder when their moving and actually standing up, well at least we know you can stab something. how do you feel?" he asked of her.
Sarah had to pause for a moment as she racked her brains to find an answer, how did she feel? Empty? How could she tell Nick she felt empty? After a few more seconds of thinking she came up with the most honest answer.
"I feel weird, I expected it to be so much harder... but now I've killed a walker... it doesn't feel any different to what I felt like before" she told him as he nodded curtly "Well... you'll get used too it, thanks for helping me back then" he said as he referred to the fight a few minutes back.
"I just didn't want to get you killed... I just wanted to throw the gun away so no one would get hurt" she stated as she gazed at Nick and then at the man below him. "Was... he a bad man Nick? Because... when you killed him... that was scary" she stuttered as Nick rested an hand on her shoulder.
"He was, I know it's scary but that man would have killed us. We had to kill him to survive, I don't like killing or stealing from these people... but fuck... I wanna get back to Luke and the others and I'm sure you want to get back do to" she nodded at his words, as Nick smiled and said "Okay, you've done good today Sarah" she beamed back at him and muttered a timid "Thanks"
"Well this guy had a lot of stuff on him" with his single hand Nick picked up the large rifle the man had been carrying and found a smaller pistol from his trouser pocket which he handed to Sarah "It's got 6 bullets, this is yours and use it only if you have too" Nick emphasised the last words as Sarah pocketed it nervously. As she did Nick checked the backpack on the man's back, peering inside his eyes lightened up...
"There's food and more meds in here, with bottled water!" he slung the backpack on his back as he continued to hold his bleeding wound.
"Are you going be okay?" Sarah asked.
"Fine, we'll patch ourselves up once were away from here, we don't want to linger around before any more of them show up" he stated as Sarah nodded in agreement "Can you hold the meds by the way? I've kinda got my hands full" Nick said as he gestured to his one hand that was still covering his bullet wound, with the rifle also juggled in that hand, sliding between his fingers...
"Sure, I'll can do it" Sarah said and although the bin-bag was heavy, she found herself doing something useful for once.
She had killed a walker and was now helping carry supplies, she didn't feel different.
But she knew, (as they managed to flee the civil war site without encountering any angry Russians) she was starting to act different.
"GEEEEEET UP!" Came Troy's mocking sing song voice through the shutter as Clementine groaned and pulled Eddie's jacket further over her shoulders as she braced herself for another dull day. Now it was morning the awkwardness of staring at everyone bare was much more apparent. Especially Kenny who she had known for a while... it felt very strange indeed.
"How'd you sleep?" Kenny asked as Clementine averted her eyes as stared at a spot on the ground as she muttered back "Fine, this jacket helped" she said pointing at it, as Kenny nodded. She noticed her shadow still over her, she dared to look up to see he was gazing at her arm. She suddenly realised that the bright red jagged scar on her arm stood out like a sore thumb. Sam had really bitten deep if the scar was taking this long to heal, since Carver had pulled the bandages off last night. The wound was cleaned but was still dark red and raw to the touch.
Sensitive about her wound she quickly shoved it out of sight in the robes of the over-large jacket draped around her.
"Clem, that scar... they didn't bother to stitch it up for you?" he asked, a dangerous tone in his voice. Clementine knew instantly that this would lead to inner group conflict.
"Something she wanted to avoid at all costs.
"It's nothing Kenny, it's over just drop it" She told him firmly.
"Clem, that scar isn't gonna heal anytime soon..." he began shooting daggers at Luke, however before he could rant the shutter opened and Troy entered lugging a cartload of rags with him.
"Bill's got some uniforms for you!" he shouted, Clementine noticed that he gaze was averted, something an argument seeking Kenny picked up on in an instant.
"What's a matter Troy? You seemed comfortable laughing at us when we were nude last night" Kenny commented as Troy shot a glare to the sky above him and rustled the rifle in his hands "Shut the fuck up! Bill's been kind enough to give you folks clothes so I'd suggest you'd put the on! All expect for the pregnant bitch, she's off for the next few weeks!" and with that in mind he turned away and closed the shutter.
"Hey come back Troy! Wanna laugh at us again! Are you uncomfortable with us! Uncomfortable with this!?" he shouted and that this point he grabbed his... parts and made a very crude gesture in Troy's direction.
"Kenny! Not in front of Clem!" Sarita gasped, her palms planting themselves over Clementine's eyes.
"Dude... gross..." Wyatt moaned, as Shel and Vince were already slapping on the clothes and handing out the wrinkled rags to the rest of the inmates in the pen.
"Their mechanic uniforms" Bonnie noted, slipping into the greasy blue jumpsuit as as she rolled down the sleeves that were too big for her "Well at least we can all be identified now, it's like sticking labels on cows to the slaughter" Kenny muttered angrily putting his own uniform on as Bonnie handed one that had crudely cut sleeves and and legs and was noticeably smaller than the rest, towards Clementine.
"Looks like Carver wanted to make this one for you" Bonnie told her as she slipped into the itchy jumpsuit, due to the fact her sleeves were cut exposing by her arms, Clementine's scar stood out as clearly as ever, as she tried to hold it by folding her one arm over the other. The scar still throbbed in pain to her dismay.
"Well my first night in the pen, at least it can only get better" Vince told Shel as he put on his uniform.
"Are sure about that Vince, no more nude ladies for you to stare at?" Shel reminded him with a raised eyebrow as he chuckled lightly, as he did Luke helped Rebecca into her uniform even though she wasn't working there was no doubt she was still required to wear it as there was a spare uniform for her.
"How are you Rebecca?" Clementine decided to ask as the woman climbed back into her bed as she tried to rest "I'm fine baby girl, I was just thinking about Alvin and that poor woman I saw last night" she said raising Clementine's interest as Luke explained to her.
"Rebecca's been telling me about some woman she saw last night who jumped from the roof" Luke told her sadly.
"I was sitting over there by the barricade... I just had to get out that stuffy bed and I was thinking about Alvin and just gazing out there, when I hear someone sobbing so I look up and see this woman. Just standing on the edge of the roof, she just stood there sobbing for about twenty minutes and I just watched, in silence waiting to see what would happen. before she finally jumped with a rope around her neck..." she paused here as she sighed and massaged her eyelids.
A suicide, why would somehow commit suicide?" Kenny asked, as Clementine turned around to see everyone was silently listening in on what Rebecca had seen and said as Rebecca muttered "Well stop and think about it, maybe that woman just felt a little guilty after what happened to us last night..." she trailed off there as Kenny looked at her blankly.
"And?" he inquired.
"God you are thick, and Grizzly Adams it means that people here aren't happy with what Bill's doing. That woman must have felt guilty herself, or stressed, or whatever. All I know is whatever problems she had, what Bill did to us last night drove her over the edge and she killed herself. Meaning, that were not the only one's who disagree with Bill"
The second these words left her mouth for the group to soak in the shutter opened again, as Tavia stepped in "Before you get to work Bill wants a word with you all, so all of you other than Rebecca, haul your asses to the expansion" she ordered as the group looked at each other.
Wondering what was too come of this.