Season Three: Episode 5 -Too Far Gone- Help Thy Neighbor

A/N- Thank you so much yet again for the support, we sure do appreciate it. Anyway, we have another decision to make at the end of this chapter, so prepare yourselves and enjoy :)

Clem stepped back and looked up to find Hazen panting from his efforts. "I'm still here..."

It took a moment to recognize him, but Clementine knew it. His hair was disheveled and he had dark bags under his eyes. He looked terrible to say the least, but the fact that he had come back in the nick of time to save her, she was very thankful. She gave him a smile and nod. "It's about time you came back."

Hazen gave a sigh and the laziest of smirks. God, he looked tired, must have been up all night when he ran off. "Um... yeah. It's uh..." He looked over at the other members of the group with an unreadable expression. "...a good thing I guess."

Brooke and Lucas finished off the last of the walkers in the area, and Michael and Dusty turned to find that the recent absentee of their company had returned. Hazen tossed aside the branch he used as a weapon and hopped over the fallen tree. He and Clem approached the others, ready to learn what was next for them. Dusty was the first to speak. "Everyone good? No injuries? No bites?" Normal enough for him to direct that last bit towards Hazen himself.

But the old teen replied. "No... nah... I'm, I'm not bit." He ran a hand through his hair. "Not yet at least."

"You were out all night man. Do you mind if I check you for bites anyway? Just to be sure." Dusty crossed his arms in concern. It looked like he too noticed how tired the guy was. "Won't take long."

His gaze then went from the burned man to a disgruntled Michael and then back to him. "...You don't believe me?"

"It's not like that. Just let me check you over, you might have a scratch and not even know about it." Dusty retorted much more firmly, not giving any leeway for this part. "If you need some privacy..." His eyes wandered over to Brooke and wondered if he'd be embarrassed in taking his shirt off in front of her.

"No." He stated flatly as he began to unbutton his stained and worn white collared shirt. "I don't."

Brooke nonchalantly looked away anyhow and decided to check the clip in her sidearm instead. Lucas and Michael had a conversation between themselves while looking up into the sky, diagnosing the clouds. Clem watched wide-eyed when Hazen revealed his toned torso, which had thin but raised hypertrophic scarring across his chest and stomach. On his skin, they were red but they looked aged, maybe the cuts were a year old or so. She counted two cuts across his chest, and one across his stomach. It looked like the cut Kenny had gotten from his fight with Jane so long ago.

Dusty addressed the aged scars as he searched for bites. "How'd this happen Hazen?"

"A guy tried to kill me." He replied simply. "I got cut up, but uh... my sister shot him."

Dusty sighed, with an apologetic look on his face, sorry that he brought it up. He checked his ankles and any other suspicious bloodstains on his body. "Alright, looks like you're clean, but you look like you can use some sleep."

He nodded at that silently while Clementine asked the questions she was curious about. "Are you okay Hazen? Where did you go last night? What did you do?"

The old teen looked at her as he put his shirt back on and buttoned back up. "I was out there." He pointed towards the direction of the outpost." "Doing stuff, and... things. I wanted to think."

"Sounds like you were thinking all night." Dusty quipped as he turned back to the others, signaling that they needed to discuss the next matter. "Okay. What do we got?"

"The storm of the year at the very least." Lucas pointed upwards toward the sky. "There's some ugly super-cells rotating up there, see the clouds?" They all looked up at the darkening sky. "We might have to uh... batten down the hatches, so they say."

Michael agreed with his father while he put his knife away and crossed his arms. "Meaning we have to hold up in that lighthouse until the storm is over. It'll be safest for us in there."

"You don't think it this could be from a hurricane or maybe even a tornado? Do you?" Brooke anxiously asked, bracing herself for the worst news. "Can we be safe from that?"

"I doubt this is a twister Brooke, but you know..." Dusty clasped a hand on her shoulder. "nothing's impossible... but what we can expect is water and walkers." He looked back at the agitated waves behind lighthouse. "They'll be drawn to the coast, like the ones that were already here."

Clementine felt a raindrop fall on her nose. It felt cold on her skin which gave her a shiver. She wiped it away and looked up again, seeing the first drops begin to fall.

Brooke stated to the group. "How long will the storm be? Will we have have enough supplies to ride this out?"

"I don't know, it could be a few hours, or a day or two, it depends how big the storm system is." Lucas then got a serious look on his face. "I want to make sure that Leanne's group is okay." He surprisingly declared to them all.

"Who?" Michael asked with a quirked eyebrow. He had clearly not been filled in on the situation with the bridge survivors.

Clementine decided to fill the rest of them in. "There's a group of people that have set up camp under a covered bridge. That bag we got baby supplies from belonged to them."

(?) They all took note of that.

"They have a baby with them too?" Dusty inquired from her.

But Lucas was the one to respond next. "No. There's a woman there named Rachel, she's very late in her pregnancy." Lucas informed him.

Michael's eyes widened. "Shit." He cursed, reminded of his mother. He took a deep breath and then sighed. "We should get them to come here not let them ride out the storm on some shitty bridge."

Lucas nodded in agreement. "That's what I was thinking."

"So it's Clem and Lucas that know where this place is, then that means we don't got anytime to lose if we wanna help these people." Dusty declared to all of them. "I'll go with them, and the rest of ya get everything prepped for this storm."

Brooke looked alarmed at the news. "We're splitting up again? Couldn't just Lucas bring those people over here?"

"This land will be crawling with the dead, it'll be dangerous going it alone." Michael reminded her. "I know for a fact that Clem can be very persuasive, and Dusty's the leader, so he should go too."

"But-!" Yet Brooke was interrupted.

And as rare as it seems Hazen chimed in. "Shut it. It's settled." He sighed again and rubbed his face, trying to wake himself up more.

Brooke furrowed her brow at the old teen, yet she stayed silent. However Lucas seemed satisfied, almost relieved. "Great, we should be back in an hour or two at most. Let's get going!" He motioned for the burned man and the little girl to follow him as he gave a comforting pat on his son's shoulder and turned heel.

Clementine then felt that her hand was being encompassed by a larger one, and she looked up to see Hazen. He gave her a comforting squeeze before letting go, and he muttered under his breathe. "Clementine...I'm so sorry."

[It's okay.]

[For what?]

She quirked an eyebrow at him, confused as to what he was apologizing for. "For what, Hazen?"

"...For everything. I wanted you to know that." He whispered to her as he gave one last glare aimed at Michael, but then he turned and walked away back towards the lighthouse with Brooke. Hopefully to get some sleep maybe. His words still really confused her though.

Michael was next to approach Clem, now that these two could talk privately. "Clem... please tell me you're thinking what I'm thinking."

Clem decided to guess for the sake of guessing. "That the pregnant woman with the baby has your mom's name?"

(?) Michael will remember that.

The fourteen year old's eyebrows arched. "Yeah... you listened, right. But not just that, okay?" He paused, curious as to see if Clem knew what he meant but got fed up. "I'm saying we need to kick Hazen outta the group."

"What?" Clem wasn't really surprised but she didn't expect Michael to bring this up now. "No, we can't do that to him, he just saved my life."

"Clem, if you look at us as a group, who's the odd man out, huh?" Michael attempted to convince her. "You heard what he did, it's inexcusable. Nothing can justify those actions... I won't have it, so as soon as you guys get back, I'm telling everyone Hazen's secret and then they can all decide for themselves."

She adjusted her hat and leered at her fellow peer. "You can't still be angry that Helga died, Michael. It's not healthy." It looked like she had hit a nerve because Michael looked livid.

"You know what else is not healthy? Eating human meat, and he just let an innocent baby get devoured too!" He seethed at her. He thought she was her friend, why was she so against him about this? "...If Kenny was here now, do you really think he'd let what Hazen has done so far just slide?"

Now that was one of the worst things he could have said to Clementine. "Don't talk about him. You didn't know Kenny like I did."

Things were getting out of hand now, but Michael decided to follow that up with something really unexpected. "Look, Clem, I know Kenny was your last link to your friend Lee, but he wasn't Lee, he never would be like him. You can't cling to something like that forever and eventually you have to move on. I've tried to move on from my mom... From Rosie... Maybe you should do the same with Lee and Kenny."

Clementine's breathe hitched, she was almost ready to slap him. How dare he? "Yeah? Then maybe you should take your own advice Michael, move on with Hazen." Now that sounded more like an order that a friendly piece of advice, then again Clem meant to say it like that.

(?) Michael will remember that.

Michael's face formed that of stoic expression along with a grimace. He sighed as more thunder echoed above them, with light raindrops beginning to fall on their heads and shoulders. "Fine... if you won't help-" He walked towards her and intentionally pushed past her shoulder rather hard. "-then you're not my friend."

A brief moment of silence ensued as the little girl looked at the ground, her thoughts racing a mile a minute. Did Michael have the right to do this? "Clem come on!" She snapped out of her short trance and finally noticed that Lucas and Dusty were waiting for her on the path by the forest tree line. She looked back to see Brooke, Michael, and Hazen by the lighthouse front door. They would be back soon, and they'd have to deal with this shitty mess.

But first thing's first as they so say.

And Clementine sprinted, finding new energy towards the two men waiting for her. She quickly joined them and Lucas led the small pack with their destination being that covered bridge...

*Thunder*

The wet crunch of leaves crackled in the air as well as the loud splashes from raindrops upon impact. It was apparent that the storm was picking up, so they had to hurry for the sake of time and safety. Only a few stray biters stood in their way along the path to the river where the bridge sat which was lucky for them. Specifically Lucas's hopes were high in bringing these people back with them.

"So there's just three of them?" Dusty inquired from either of them as they all made sure they didn't trip over some tree roots. "And one of them is pregnant?"

"Yeah." Lucas informed him. "Two women and a man. They weren't too trusting of us the first time we met, but at least we're on a first-name basis. In any case though, I think we're just going to have to appeal to the safety of the baby again."

"And tell them about this storm." Clem added smartly. She remembered long ago when she got separated from Christa, how fast and ruthless that river was when she fell in, if that was anything like this, then a lighthouse would undoubtedly be safer than a bridge that sits above the actual river.

Dusty pried further. "Their names then? What are they?"

"Leanne is their leader, the tough blonde one. Rachel is the pregnant one, and Zach their medic is Rachel's brother. They're tight-knit, I know that." Lucas debriefed him the rest of his knowledge of them. "The guy we got the baby supplies from was Rachel's husband Chris, walkers got him. And that's how we met them."

Clementine stated to them. "It's only been a day, I'm sure they'll remember us." And holy crap, Clem realized how long ago yesterday really felt like.

"Shh shh." Lucas put up a hand to motion the other two to stop. They were on the outskirts of the trees, just behind the last bit of cover they had until they were out in the open. In their close sight stood the aged red bridge, it's frontal image gave it the appearance of a short tunnel to the other side with old cars blocking the entrance.

From the sound of it, Dusty, Clem, and Lucas could already hear the rushing of the water from where they were standing. The watershed did come from the south, so the river would go north and into the Great Lake. But the riverbed was so narrow for the amount of downpour that had already collected upriver, that it made the waterway beneath the bridge extremely hazardous, perhaps even life-threatening. Rushing with rapids and jagged rocks sticking out of it.

But from what Clementine could tell, Lucas stopped them because he stealthily pointed towards the entrance, they could barely hear it over the rain, but from what they could tell they heard yelling coming from the bridge, loud yelling.

Screaming, crying, hollering... from different types of voices. There was definitely more than three people in there.

*Click*

"Ya'll in the eye of this shitstorm now..."

The three of them cautiously turned around to find a masked man wielding a pump-action shotgun. His brown eyes were the only things visible through his black balaclava and he wore mechanic's jumpsuit with what looked like bullet-proof vest. Dusty was about to reach for his pistol when-!

*pumps*

"Uh-uh! Don't be stupid, boy!" He aimed the barrel right at Dusty's forehead. But he was also far enough away that none of them could lunge at him. The bandit then had his gaze fall on Clementine. "W-what's this?" He looked surprised by her presence. "Can't remember the last time I saw a little girl." Clem decided to stay silent at the man's words.

"What's your name friend?" Lucas calmly asked the man. "We don't want no trouble."

"Really? Well, sorry friend..." He mocked him. "You found trouble."

Dusty tried to quell the hostility. "You by yourself, or with a group? We can work something out." He put his hands up in a sign of surrender. He then deduced by looking back at the bridge. "Your boss in there?"

The bandit looked from his hostages to the shelter that was the covered structure. "Yeah. Yeah, my boss is in there, what of it? Think you can talk him down?"

"What is it that you want?" Clementine inquired from the shotgun wielding man, who looked oddly at her.

But the man motioned for all of them to stand up which they complied. "Ya'll friends with these fuckers that hunkered down here?"

"No, not friends." Lucas covered for them. "More like neighbors, we got a camp not far from here-!"

But he was rudely interrupted by the bandit. "Shut up, shut up, shut the fuck up." He paused as he ordered them to keep their arms up and walk towards the bridge. "Save that shit for the boss man, it don't matter if you tell me." He gritted through his teeth clearly exasperated by bringing back three people, and not one of them being that bald piece of crap Chris.

It was relatively awkward to climb over the cars. It was like a bad shot from the Dukes of Hazard sliding across the hood, although they managed, all three of them. But the bandit that had captured them continued to keep his guarding position towards the entrance while two more men approached them and forced their new guests to kneel down in the middle of the bridge, right on the pavement.

Lucas was the first one to spot fellow survivors Rachel and Zach by a close makeshift tent, both bound by their hands and kneeling as well. Dusty motioned for Clem to assess their situation. Inside the bridge, they counted five other bandits with guns, rifles and shotguns mostly. All of their faces were covered except for two: from their voices Clem could tell they were a man's and a woman's. From what Dusty could see, the unmasked man was towering over who he assumed to be Leanne, on the road taking a beating.

"You see what happens when you fuck with the wrong people?!" The unmasked bandit kicked into Leanne's stomach hard enough to make her yelp in pain and roll over. "Did you really think ya'll could just run away from that shit of a mess you put us all in?! No! You dumb bitch!"

"F-fuck you... Crane..." Leanne coughed as a bead of blood dripped down from the edge of her lips. Her eyes were full of contempt as she looked up at the man beating her. "You must not *cough* have anything better to do..."

"Son of a bitch..." Lucas whispered under his breathe, looking around for some sort idea. Dusty decided to stay quiet and wait for the perfect opportunity, and Clem followed his example as she watched and waited.

The bandit leader, Crane, had a mountain-man burly black beard, and he really didn't need a mask with the hair he had covering his face. He also had a red flannel shirt along with a bullet-proof vest as well. With a silver six-shot revolver strapped to his waist, he looked menacing to say the least. He then picked up Leanne's head and pulled her up by her blonde hair. "You never bite the hand that feeds you, or you get put down..."

"Boss!" A bandit on Dusty's right exclaimed to his superior. "Ted brought us some company."

Crane turned his head at the new information and finally took note of Dusty, Clem, and Lucas. He took one glance at them and shrugged them off like they were no threat and instead gave an order. "Lieutenant! Give'em the interview!"

The unmasked woman bandit they all noticed earlier complied, albeit reluctantly they noticed. "Fine. But you listen to me, I am not some goddamn Nazi, Crane. These guys used to be our people."

Crane then glared at her second in command. "Is that insubordination I hear?"

She grunted in response and shook her head which had very short brown hair. "No." She simply stated. The 'bandit lieutenant' as her title so deemed her walked up to the three of them and aimed her rifle at them. Meanwhile, Clementine had her eyes staring at the pavement until the woman over them began asking questions. "Who are you?" She demanded to know.

But when Clementine finally looked up and met the woman's face with hers, her heart nearly stopped. She didn't know what to say or how to say it, but the little girl remembered and knew this was definitely her...

[Address Lilly]

[Keep Quiet]

A/N- Alright, I told you guys 'not yet' when Lucas was reintroduced. Now Clem must make the choice of reconnecting with an old old friend/companion from her past, or maybe risk something else...

What do you think of Clem's relationships with Michael and Hazen?

So review the Vote! And await an epic chapter in the next one! Stay tuned! :)