A/N: 160 reviews! Thanks a bunch guys, and this is your last chance to vote in the poll if you haven't already.
Obsessed naruhina fangirl- Thanks for the review and I agree with you on all of those shipping's. The Cluke and Nuke shipping's really confuse me as well (I haven't watched criminal minds but I've heard good things about it) still it annoys me that everyone thinks Nick and Luke are gay because their close friends. I'm not homophobic but everybody seems obsessed with making two close male friends lovers. There is a massive difference between a bromance and romance, and I hope to portray a bromance between Nick and Luke.
I am running low on ideas but I still have a few on backup, so... if you were writing the episodes (if it came down too it) which 3 characters would you kill off? (I know these are coming off as questions more than discussions but it's all that's mind right now)
XXXWOLFLOVERXXX- Thanks for your reviews and as you now know what I have planned It will be great to hear from you how well I execute what I have coming up. and as for your question I'm not a massive fan of Clem/Sarah but beats "Cluke" any day. and as for Carver or Troy offering Clem a "deal" it may be possible in a world of no taboo's like you said... but Troy and Carver would really have to lose it before they resorted to the rape of an 11 year old (that sounded really dark didn't it?)
apathy- Yep, I reckon we need a hot headed Kenny and Sarah and Nick scenes, are quickly turning into my favourite bits to write.
Night-Chan-DragonEyes- Thanks for your review! and it will be great to write about some Luke and Clem as a little sister, big brother dynamic.
Rebloxic- Yep, Sarah's gotta cut that hair. And as for your question... I don't think either of them are at Wellington but they are both out there somewhere, defiantly alive. Christa's tough as is Lilly I reckon they could both hold their own.
and finally AquaDestinysEmbrace thank you as always!
"GET UP!" Came the roar of Troy through the morning air. Clementine had to rub her eyes, her body was starting to get used to these rude awakenings every morning. She didn't like it, but she could adapt to these conditions and not shrivel up and die... and speaking of adapting...
"COME ON GET YOUR LOUSY ASSES UP!" Troy was bellowing as he clanked open the shutter as Clementine leapt from her bunk and shivered as her breath came out as fog and goosebumps spread up her bare arm. Causing her old scar to prickle uncomfortably, rubbing her arms together and trying to keep herself warm she walked towards Troy.
"COME ON Y'ALL GOT A LOT OF WORK TO DO TODAY!" Troy pleasantly informed them.
"Were gonna freeze up and die if we don't get some more layers on! See how we work for y'all then" Luke (of all people) snapped back at Troy. His face was still dark as Clementine knew he was affected by the previous night.
"Hey! No one was fucking speaking to you!" Troy shouted back, as Luke's face crumpled in a silent rage as another guard walked in and began to inform the group of who would be working with who today. Stephanie and Jane were also back with the group, Jane looked the same as always but Stephanie's gaze remained trained to the floor which made Clementine slightly concerned...
"Shel and Stephanie your collecting salvage again, Luke you're back by the barricade with Vince, Clementine you're with Mike by the northern expansion..." Clementine could already sense another dull day lying ahead of her, however before they set off Vince muttered to the group "Okay me and Luke are with Russell today. I'll try and convince him"
"You fucking better, we don't seem to have an alternative here" Kenny muttered back, before they were ushered to their posts.
"Okay get to work!" A badly shaven man snapped at Mike and Clementine the second they stepped outside to work on the sloppy wooden barricade there. Sighing Clementine struggled to lift a heavy piece of wood from her side.
"Hurry the hell up!" The man shouted at her, as she clenched her teeth together and held the plank near to the gap as Mike hammered it into place, doing so they worked on the second plank and the third... covering the gaps present in the barricade as they work seemed to zap up all their time and energy, well it certainly seemed to zap at Clementine's energy as she struggled to lift the large planks that only grew heavier...
"Jesus fucking Christ! Do I have to whip you to do this!?" The man screamed from behind her ear, causing her to jump and drop the plank as the man clenched his eyes in a rage and raised a palm to strike Clementine...
"Hey! That's enough!" Mike shouted wrapping his own strong hand around the man's wrist as the man shot a look of loathing at Mike as he tugged his hand free and muttered "You people... I don't know why I don't just kill the pair of you"
Clementine was hardly surprised by the threat and Mike didn't seem too scared by it either, instead he growled back "Hey man, do you think any of us enjoyed doing what we did!?"
"BUT YOU STILL DID IT!" The man suddenly exploded, shooting daggers at Mike as they store each other down. Clementine tensed and slowly grabbed a hammer from the tool box from behind her, just in case the scene turned ugly. The badly shaven man had a rifle on him but it hung limply by his side... however Clementine wasn't one who took chances.
"Carver fucking made us! You know his trying to divide the community man! Great a grip! His the bad guy and not us!" Mike tried explaining to the man. Thankfully Mike was naturally laid back and hard to anger, but Clementine could tell (that with his muscles) that once he did get angry, the consequences would be severe for whoever pissed him off. She felt assured that Mike could handle the situation... however that didn't prevent her from dropping her hammer.
"Yeah! But you still took valued those personal possessions over people's lives! Whatever Carver made you do... you still physically killed them! You executed people! You murdered people close to me! Do-you-have-any-idea..." the man was growling, his teeth gnashing so hard against each other Clementine expected blood to leak from his mouth. The situation seemed to tense as Mike muttered "Man, we are sorry, but fuck... Carver is the crazy motherfucker here..."
The man's face sunk in rage, Clementine knew now was the time to speak up.
"His right Mike, we did value our personal possessions over those people's lives" she looked up at the 12 walkers hanging from the wall as Mike followed her gaze. The bad tempered man looked up at the bodies for a few seconds, before flashes of pain and anger swept across his face, He blinked hard and snapped his gaze away from the bodies of people he once cared about, he didn't know what to say now that the girl had admitted her mistake.
"We did it because we did want to protect our personal possessions, that's true. But Luke didn't" she explained to the man who was now staring at her (she hated the way people stared at her, but she carried on anyhow) "He cared about your lives more than his personal possessions and that was a massive sacrifice for him too make, so you can hate us. But don't think there aren't at least some of us who want to help you here" she concluded as she turned away from the man pretending to get back to work.
She knew she had made an impression on him, as he remained silent for a few minutes, he finally seemed to find his lost voice.
"I wish I could help... but..." he looked up to the bodies above him and sighed sadly "There's no point" he murmured.
"You gotta help us fight against Carver! His fucking crazy, come on man, do you want more of your friends to die?" Mike demanded to know of him. The man no longer looked angry, but lost and hopeless as he muttered to the floor "There are 42 of us left in this community you know? About 15 of you are in that pen and Carver has about 10 people who would die for him. That leaves exactly 21 of us around the community" He explained to them as he headed towards the door.
"Carver caught Luke's group when they tried to escape, he had you kill a quarter of us for rebelling. If that rebellion failed why should this one succeed? I want that crazy fuck dead but... there's no way it will ever happen" The man concluded on a sombre note as she crouched by the wall and held his head in his hands. And mumbled into his open hands "Get back to work..."
"You can't just give up!" Mike bellowed.
"JUST FUCKING WORK!" The man exploded once again at them, before he returned to his crouched position on the floor.
"Fine, be a dick" Mike muttered to himself before he returned to Clementine as they continued the exhausting process of working on the barricade "Nice speech back there kid, I bet you could run for congress if this whole end of the world thing hadn't occurred" Mike mused to her as she lifted another plank.
"Thanks" she said as she handed the plank to him, as he easily lifted the thing over his head.
"Speaking of jobs, were you a body-builder before all this?" she asked, she never got to know Mike that well at all during their first time together, and so far he had kept quite too himself this time as well. Yet he was friendly enough and Clementine was truly intrigued to learn more about him.
He smiled down at her and said "Nah, I was a fire-fighter though" he informed her as Clementine's eyes lit up at this new information, as she suddenly pictured Mike in a fireman's uniform.
"That's pretty cool" she muttered impressed, she could now easily imagine Mike in a fireman's uniform now. He did seem like a gentlemen and knew how to keep calm in such dire situations. As they continued to work he decided that Clementine's interest in his personal life had earned a returned friendly question "What about you kid... what did you like to do before all this?" he asked of her.
Clementine racked her brains "Well... I went to school and I liked to draw, I lived with my parents and that was it really" Clementine told him, remembering her former 8 year old self as smiled... oh how she wished she could go back to such peaceful times...
They continued to work on, until Clementine asked another burning question as she looked up at Mike.
"Hey Mike... what happened to your ear?" she inquired gazing the scar on his face and part of his ear that had been torn off, Mike grinned once again and answered.
"Well I'll just say this..." Mike pointed to his ear "Was a close call. Never travelled with a group after it. I was by myself for a while until I stumbled onto this place, just to my damn luck" he informed her as he gazed out at the empty car park before he looked back the community "It's a shame though, we could build something good here, people just have a lack of faith" he commented on the situation as Clementine nodded.
"We can still beat Carver, it will just take some time" She told Mike. Carver may have crushed the community's spirit. But she would never give him the satisfaction of crushing her's.
Russell was never one to believe in stupid plans.
So the second he was left alone with Vince and Luke, his old friend had practically pounced on him "Okay Russ, you know it's fucked up here... you're the only of us out the pen now... " he began to babble as Luke looked over at them sadly before carrying on with his work. Russell watched as his old friend went on... and on... and on... and eventually Russell's patience snapped.
"Vince" he finally responded annoyed "I don't want to get involved in some stupid plan you have. I know Bill's fucking crazy alright! But what the fuck can we do about it!" He exclaimed to Vince, as Russell watched his friend's face fall. Before Vince was up on the defence again as he ran his fingers through the wild greasy black strands of his messy hair, he paced around for a full minute before finally turning to Russell again.
"We have to do something!" He shouted exasperated to the sulky young man.
"Vince, you're not listening! Bill will kill you! and if I get involved I'll just suffer the same fate as you!" He roared to the Asian man as Vince's eyes narrowed in frustration.
"Russ! He'll kill us all eventually whether you're in the pen or not!" Vince roared trying his hardest to make Russell see sense.
"Vince... look... there's nothing you can do! Did you see what Bill made you do! Everyone was so convinced that rebellion was going to work and it fucking didn't! So why the hell do you think that by having me help your shitty little pen group, that will somehow lead to the a rebellion that will work!?" He asked of a man he once saw as a wise leader.
He also once saw the world as a much brighter place, until Steve and his group had horrified him to the core by killing and stealing.
His experience with Nate only hardened his shell, watching Nate kill the old couple and he just did nothing about it.
After he fled from Nate, he made his way to his grandmother's house. He had held onto the faint hope they were alive, but the final childish rays of optimism was vanquished when he found his family as walkers...
Then he came across Vince and the group. But by this point he could only snap at people. Afraid to grow attached to anyone after what he had been through, he wanted to stay alive and not die pointlessly. Becca's death had only made him distance himself further from his former group, he knew that everyone would die eventually.
There was simply no point in hoping for better anymore. He had grown up a long time ago.
This was his mind-set, he wasn't going to change it, as he store down Vince. The Asian man felt complied to do anything to get him react... to get him to see sense...
"Are just going too stand around and do nothing Russell? Just like you did when you watched Nate kill that old couple?"
Russell had gotten close to Vince, he entrusted the leader of their small group and therefore been able to confide in him some of his experiences in the past. The fact that Vince had blown this back in his face only made Russell dive further into his shell as he hissed hatefully from Vince from inside the safety of his little "Shell"
"Fuck. Your. Rebellion" Russell snarled to Vince.
Vince's face fell, things weren't looking good, as Russell's mind was firmly set.
For now.
"AHHHHHHH WHAT THE FUCK!?"
Sarah could only beam as she eyes remained closed as she heard Nick scramble to get to the bathroom. She heard him swear as he (no doubt) gazed at his reflection. She couldn't hold back the laughter, she giggled using her hand to muffle the sounds (it failed) as a furious Nick stormed into the room,Sarah's act was up as she got up from the bed.
"What the hell did you do Sarah!?" Nick exclaimed at her, as Sarah could only giggle harder at the face he was pulling.
"I gave your a haircut" she responded innocently.
"You cut off my mullet! Do you know how long I spent growing that thing!?" he demanded of her, as she only found herself laughing harder.
"It was ugly" she told him.
"So! You don't just cut my hair without permission!" he sternly told her.
"Well it looks better now anyway" she argued with humour laced in her voice.
Nick's eyes seemed to pop out of his head as he suddenly found himself horrified at Sarah's haircut "And what the hell have you done with your own hair!?" he asked in horror.
"Well... like this walkers won't be able to grab it. Same reason for you and your mullet, Clementine taught me that a short haircut was the smartest one" her wise words finally seemed to soothe Nick, as the humorous argument drew to a close as he sighed and looked back at his reflection in the bathroom mirror once again.
"Well... I suppose as long as were safe" he muttered readjusting the cap on his head as the red thing covered every strand of his jet black hair.
They spent the next couple of minutes checking through all of their supplies. However just before they could tuck into their breakfast a dreaded banging on the door froze the pair in their tracks.
"I heard voices coming from in here!" A man bellowed in a deep voice.
"And it's barricaded! Reckon anyone could be inside?" A woman asked.
"Most likely... HEY! WE KNOW YOU'RE IN THERE!" The same man with the deep voice shouted as he banged on the door again causing dust to fall from the celling. Nick felt his stomach turn to lead, how had such a humorous situation turned to a matter of life or death in mere minute?
"Fuck! We can't even have a laugh anymore!" he thought angrily to himself as another bang at the door caused Sarah to clutch onto Nick nervously. The cheeky aura around her gone as pure terror replaced it as she looked up at Nick.
"What are we going to do now!?" she asked of him.
Nick licked his lips nervously, reaching for his rifle he trained it onto the door for a few seconds, thinking maybe he could shoot them all. But that was far too risky... looking up he saw the skylight remained open and knew that was their best and only bet.
"Up here Sarah go! I'll boost you!" he exclaimed as the bangs grew louder and the poor excuse of the wooden barricade was starting to come loose, as Sarah lifted herself to the roof of the trailer, her supplies (along with the heavy bags of meds) with her. She placed these to one side as she gazed back into the dark gloom of the trailer they had hidden in for the past day. She extended her hand into the darkness "Come on Nick" she hissed as she felt a large hand wrap around her own small one. with all of her strength she tugged him up...
He was still too heavy for her, but Nick used his lanky legs to propel himself up the wall of the trailer, his head peered through the skylight as he used his arms to push himself too the roof. Relived Sarah stood up on the roof...
"HEY!" One of the bandits bellowed from below them seeing the form of a standing Sarah on the roof. She could barely had time to react as they trained their rifles on her, before Nick pushed her forward as the first bullet whizzed past her head.
"RUN!" He bellowed, as their cover was blown. With this in mind Sarah ran as she had never ran before in her life, as the curses of the bandits below her only increased her fear of them as more loud gunshots rang through the morning air, she was terrified one of these bullets would tear through her flesh. But they never did as she ran shakily forward, terrified to fall to the ground below, where she would be shot to pieces. Wiping sweat from her forehead she ran and jumped uneasily over the trailers trying to put as much space between herself and these bandits as possible.
Leaping over the space between the two trailers she spotted the fence leading away from the trailer park, gaining a large lead on the bandits, she threw the bag of meds over the fence and jumped over the thing itself and out of the dreaded trailer park. For a few seconds she never felt so free as she soared through the air, the pink morning sky above her and the lush pine forest beneath her feet. But this only lasted for a few seconds as she hit the floor with both feet.
The force of the fall caused her ankles to tingle in pain slightly, gritting her teeth Sarah quickly located the bag of meds and scooped it up from next to her before she heard a bellow of pain from behind her.
Nick.
In her haste she had forgotten about him, but just as her blood turned to ice as she feared the worst, the man she had grown closer to over the past couple of days also fell from the trailer and too the safe outside. (Well it wasn't safe, but it was away from those bandits) yet she knew something was off. Nick landed face first into the dry soil with a dull "THUMP" panicked she went to check on him.
"Are you alright?" she asked alarmed as he lifted his face. It was bruised but that wasn't the problem, his army patterned trousers were splashed with a crimson hole by the kneecap as Nick struggled to lift himself to his feet.
"This hurts... so bad" he muttered before (with a heavy sigh) he fell to the floor and muttered "I can't walk Sarah, you have to leave me" there was a pleading in his tone and she gazed into his sad blue ore's. He had been shot in the knee, there was no way he could move now and even if she could, they'd be moving at such a slow pace... the bandits would catch up to them.
In fact... they were approaching now. Every second counted and Sarah knew she had only mere seconds to either leave Nick behind or get him moving.
She breathed in deep, trying hard not to panic as her fear overwhelmed her, she was terrified of dying.
But she would not leave Nick behind. No matter what.