Episode 2: The Perils Ahead- Let's Go Shopping
Clementine didn't know how long it had been since they couldn't really tell the time nowadays, but it had been a while before they reached the large mall Michael had been talking about earlier. She had hoped everyone back in the Bed n' Breakfast would hold out okay until they all got back.
The group of three stealthy ducked behind a low brick wall which bordered the parking lot and observed from afar. "See any walkers?" Kenny whispered to the two of them. Clementine silently volunteered to check, and she peeked over the wall and glanced around, before quickly ducking once again "Well?" Kenny asked.
"There are some walkers wandering around, but not many." She replied. "I think we can sneak past them."
"Good... Good. This'll run smoothly then." Michael muttered.
"So Mikey, mind runnin' us through the details?"
Michael scowled at Kenny. "Don't call me Mikey. Only my dad got to call me Mikey or Mike, and you ain't him."
"Whatever. Just tell us about the fuckin' mall."
"Fine. When me and my dad came through here, we lured a bunch into a shop and shut them in there." He explained.
"And how do we know we're not going to end up in that shop?" Kenny scoffed.
"Trust me, you'll know. We left sign, warning any survivors that might get curious."
"Alright kid, where you headin'?" The one-eyed man asked him.
"I going to the gun store to get myself a gun. Then I'm heading over to the hardware store to grab a weapon for Clem." He stated.
"Make sure you find some weapons for the rest of us. Anything useful, as much as you can carry." Kenny reminded him as he announced his own task. "That'll me to go find some medicine and food then."
"Fine by me. There are several pharmacies and grocery stores dotted around. Can't miss 'em." Michael turned towards Clementine. "If you want to go with Kenny, I don't mind. Come find me anytime if you want." He stated, turning away. "I'll meet up with you both later." He told them as he departed.
Clementine watched him go before turning towards Kenny. "You know, Clem, I'd rally like it if you came with me but... You know what Maree said, Mikey might need ya. If you do go with him, you could always come find me when you're done." He suggested. "Ain't no trouble at all."
[Go with Kenny]
[Go with Michael]
"I'm going to go over to the gun store with Michael." She decided.
"Alright. I'm heading to the grocery store first, so come find me at one of the pharmacies later." Clementine nodded. "You better get going if you want to catch up to him." Kenny informed her.
"I'll see you soon, Kenny." Clementine departed, quickly running across the car park and avoiding the small amount of walkers scattered around the area. Michael was by the front entrance, staring through the cracked glass doors when Clementine caught up to him. He turned to face her and smiled warmly.
"Hey Clem." He greeted. "Glad to have you on board. Lets go shopping." He joked, pushing the doors open and heading inside. There were blood smears on the ground, along with a couple of lifeless bodies. That was the first thing Clementine noticed before taking in the huge mall, with it's many floors and large glass dome roof.
"Gun store's this way." Michael told her, beckoning her over to the far corner of the ground fall. "Ah shit." He cursed when he spotted that the shutter door of the shop was open. Michael groaned. "There's gotta be something left..." He muttered under his breathe, running towards the store and heading inside, with Clementine following close behind.
Scanning their surroundings, they realized that the shelves were empty, each one striped bare. Michael knelt and checked the floor for any leftover bullets but found nothing. "Damn. Kenny's gonna be pissed if the same has happened to the other stores..."
"There must be something here, we have to keep looking." Clementine told him encouragingly.
Michael nodded. "Yeah, you're right." He agreed, walking over to the counter and hopping over, only to land uneasily on the other side. Clementine raised an eyebrow, while Michael scratched the back of his head awkwardly. "That played out better in my head." He conceded, turning towards the door behind the counter and twisting the knob. "Jackpot!" He exclaimed.
"What is it?" Clementine asked him.
"The doors locked." He replied.
"And that's a good thing because...?"
"It means that no one has gotten in there yet, there could be some weapons inside. I just need to get it open."
"Maybe you could force it open?" Clementine suggested.
"Too much noise." He replied bluntly. "I'm going to focus on the door, you have a look around, see if the keys are here. I saw a dead body on the way in, maybe it was an employee. You should check that out."
"I'm on it." Clem affirmed.
Clementine followed a blood trail leading from behind the desk towards the dead body of a woman, who was slumped against a shelf in the corner of the room. She walked up to her and examined her clothing. She seemed like an ordinary survivor, and wasn't likely to be an employee, since her corpse was fresh.
Clementines paused before lifting her gun and pistol-whipped the woman. When she showed no signs of movement, she put her gun away and patted down the body's pockets. "Nothing..." She muttered glumly. After taking another sweep of the small area around them, she noticed something on the ground that shimmered in the light of day.
(o) Pick up object.
Clementine wasn't really sure what it was, it was some sort of little hook. There was a small box lying next to it with several almost identical objects within it, except the other little hooks were different shapes.
"Find anything?" Michael called over to her. Clementine stood up and walked over to him, noticing that the teenager was knelt down by the door and fiddling with the knob.
"Found these." She responded simply, holding out the box to him.
Michael stood up and nurtured what was left of his right hand before taking hold of Clementine's find. "Oh shit. We got something better than keys."
"What are they?" Clementine questioned, slightly puzzled.
"Lock picks. You know, what secret agents use in those spy movies."
"...I've never watched spy movies." Clem was never really big on TV anyway.
"Oh, well..." Michael trailed off for a moment. "They're cool. I watched a few before this whole thing started."
"Do you know how to use them?" She questioned as Michael took two picks out of the box.
"Not really, but it can't be that hard, right?" Michael shrugged as the fourteen year old knelt down and inserted one of the lock picks into the keyhole. "Who carries lock picks around nowadays, anyway?" He wondered.
"It's smart, when you think about it. You can have access to any locked door without any trouble." Clementine commented. "I knew a someone a long time ago who even used a nail file to pick a lock."
Michael fiddled with two lock picks. "Wasn't smart enough to save her." He stated, glancing over at the dead body. "Walker probably got the jump on her while she was messing around with the lock..." He murmured.
It took several tries and failed attempts, but some time later, Michael let out a triumphant cry and pushed the door open. "I got it!" He declared, putting the lock picks back into the little box. "Here you go, Clem. You found them, so you should keep them. They might come in handy."
"Thanks." She replied gratefully, taking the box and tucking it into her pocket. Michael led the way into the back room.
The room was a mess, just like the main part of the store. Michael sighed. "I should have known it was to good to be true..."
"There are still some guns leftover." Clementine commented, pointing at the far shelves "Just not that many."
"I'm gonna go grab one." He stated, wandering over to the shelf Clementine had pointed at. While he was searching, Clementine walked over to the nearest shelf and examined it.
(o) Pick up clip.
There was a magazine full of bullets on the lower compartment of the shelf. Clementine scooped it up and walked over to Michael, who was busy checking a glock pistol. "Empty." He grunted.
"Not anymore, here I found a clip." Clementine told him whilst holding out her find.
"Thanks Clem." He said gratefully, taking the clip and inserting it into the glock. "Alright, one down. Nothing much else we can take from here, no more ammo... other guns we have will just have to do. So, let's head over to the hardware store and get you something to bash walkers with." He ordered, leading her out of the back room as he tucked his new gun into his waistband "Maybe we'll get lucky there."
The hardware store wasn't much different. There were bits and pieces lying around, which was something at least. "A lot can change in a year..." Michael muttered as he walked over to the shelves and searched for anything valuable. "So... I don't know much about you, Clem."
She replied remembering their time they had in the RV. "I guess I don't know enough about you either."
"Well, we know bits and pieces." He paused. "So, how'd Kenny lose his eye?" He asked, walking over to the counter and checking the desk.
"He didn't lose it, he just can't see out of it." She corrected him.
"Okay, how come he can't see out of that eye anymore?"
"There was this man, his name was Carver. He ran this camp, and he kept me, Kenny, and the rest of our group as prisoners. We were trying to escape... We stole a couple of walkie-talkies to make a plan and leave that place, but Carver found out..." She explained.
"What did he do?"
"He was going to punish us. I was the one who took the radios, he might have hurt me, but Kenny didn't want that to happen so he took the blame... And he ended up being beaten with the same walkie-talkie." The traumatic was already playing out in Clementine's memory. "...He would've died if one of Carver's guards hadn't stopped him."
"Did he ever get revenge?" Michael asked.
"Yeah. He crushed Carver's face with a crowbar. And I saw him do it."
(?) Michael will remember that.
"Damn. I don't think I could watch that." He murmured. "Maybe I could, I don't know..." He said, reaching under the counter and picking up a watch. "Hmph." he grunted, staring at the device. He put it to his ear and listened. "Still works." He commented, talking to himself. "I might keep this."
He proceeded to wrap the watch around his left wrist and tightened it. He then moved away from the counter and looked at the shelves. "Hey, look what I found." He spotted, waving her over.
Clementine joined him and watched as he opened up a red tool box "There's some tools left over." He commented, showing the inside to her. There were three tools within it, a screwdriver, a hammer and a spanner. "Take your pick."
[Take hammer]
[Take screwdriver]
[Take spanner]
Clementine picked up the screwdriver and clutched the handle. "I'll take this."
"Not exactly what I would've gone for, but okay." He replied, reaching in a taking out the hammer. "I'll take this as a back up to my knife." He stated, closing the tool box and placing it back on the shelf.
"Let's go find Kenny." He suggested, leading her out of the hardware store, only to spot a lone walker wandering aimlessly around the shops. Michael paused and drew his hammer. "You take him out, I'll have you back."
Clementine took out the screwdriver and slowly approached the walker, with Michael following close behind. Another moaning walker came into view, and Michael went over to dispose of it.
Clementine tapped the walker closet to her, and the undead creature turned around and reached out towards her. As soon as it did so, she kicked it in the knee, causing it's leg to buckle and collapse to the ground. As the walker struggled to get up, Clementine stabbed it in the back of the head, killing it instantly.
Michael let out a grunt of effort as he drove the claw of his hammer into the other walkers skull, putting it down. He proceeded to lift his left arm and wipe the sweat from his fore head. "That was a cool trick. I might try that sometime." He commented on her technique.
"I showed Dusty too, it really works too." Clementine appreciated the praise as she tucked her screwdriver away.
"I think I might explore a few more shops, but you can go and find Kenny if you want." Michael responded as he looked off towards a different direction.
"Yeah, I'll do that."
Michael checked his new watch. "I'll meet you two downstairs by the entrance in about half an hour. Y'know, if you can keep track of time." He stated, covering his watch with his sleeve. "Thanks for coming with me, by the way. It was nice to have you around."
"You're welcome. Thanks for finding me a weapon." She told him gratefully.
"No problem." He replied with a smirk.
"I'll see you later, Michael."
"See ya in a bit."
The two went there separate ways. As Clementine walked alongside the several stores, she wondered what Kenny had been up to. And for that matter, what was Michael up to right now? She was sure to find out soon enough, for they can only move onward...
A/N- We sincerely appreciate it if you've still been awaiting updates to this story. They will happen until this season is complete, don't worry. So, stay tuned for the dramatic sequence that will unfold in this series saga of The Walking Dead. And tell us your thoughts and review as such. :)
Thank you. And check out the stories of TWDGamerKenny'sBro as well. Until next time...