Hello readers! Candybar for the wait. I got pretty far ahead in a rough draft, and then completely scrapped it and did this. So without farther ado, to the story!
Clementine woke up on a hard wooden surface. This was most definitely not where she had fallen asleep. That was back at the Motor Inn... but this... this almost seemed familiar. Then it hit her. The tree house! Wait... how did she fall asleep in the Motor Inn and wake up here? Scooting across the rough wooden floor, she nervously edged open the wooden door and peeked out. Nothing. No people, no walkers, nothing. Staying alert, as she had learned from the past experiences. She slowly crawled out of the tree house and onto the small wooden ledge ringing it and looked around carefully. Nothing was disturbed. None of her mother's carefully kept flowers were trampled, there was no broken glass sliding door.
Where am I? Where's Lee and everyone else? Gather all of her courage, she slowly climbed out of the tree house. When her feet made contact with the cold hard dirt, she immediately scrambled to find somewhere to hide. Ducking behind a trashcan, she waited. No moans, no shouts, nothing. It was like this place was completely deserted. Clementine peeked around the trashcan, and seeing that the coast was clear, ran over the little patio that led to the glass door. She tried the handle, with no luck. Mom always kept a key under the rug. Said it was for emergencies only. I guess this counts as an emergency. Clementine lifted the rug, and began probing around with her hand. Her fingers brushed something cold and metallic. Success! Grabbing the key, she slid it into the lock and tried the knob again. It opened.
The inside of the house was cold and dark. There was barely any sunlight streaming in through the windows. Bumping into a table, she let out a squeal. Nice job Clem. You just alerted every bloodthirsty table in the neighborhood. Grinning at her own joke, she peeked into the kitchen. The floor was spotless, as if someone had come in and cleaned the entire floor. There were no dead/undead babysitters either, so that was a plus. She began to rummage through the drawers. Everything, knives, matches, even the walkie talkies were still sitting there, right where they should be. Growing more curious by the second, she quietly stepped out into the hall. The pictures were hanging perfectly straight on the wall, except for the one picture that would never hang perfectly straight and that annoyed her mother to no end.
Something was off though, there was a lingering sense of dread and fear, as if a walker would spring out of a closet or from behind a couch and grab her. Luckily, that didn't happen. Unluckily, something else did.
First was Lee's voice going "Get up Clem. It's already noon." and then Carley's voice "Wake up sleepyhead, you can't just sleep the day away!" Clementine was thrown back into harsh reality, as someone rolled her out of one of the beds and onto the floor. Opening her eyes, she saw a giggling Carley and a smiling Lee. Mumbling something along the lines of "Go away!", she brushed some hair out of her eyes and slowly got up. Upset with the sudden end of the first good dream she had this month, she glared at both of them. Feeling her glare, Carley was the first one to break the silence. "Food's short again kid. Me and Lee saved some of ours for you though." This kind gesture brightened her mood greatly, and a smile spread across her face. Lately, food had been scarce in the Motor Inn, so Lee or another group member would usually save part of their rations to give to her.
Muttering her thanks, she grabbed her trademark hat off of a cheap wooden nightstand. Clementine and the hat were unseperable, except for when the crazy lady... Jolene … stalked her, thinking that she could fill the void left by losing her own daughter. Jolene had somehow managed to steal Clem's hat right under their noses, and Lee had promised to get it back (which he did). Jolene had met her end at a bullet fired by Lee, but in his defense, the lady was pointing a crossbow at him.
After this incident, which had clearly shaken Lee, Carley had given Clem a gun and taught her how to shoot. She could now hit most targets out to 50 yards if she was lucky. More then a few times it had been Clem's aim and sixth sense (honed by various walkers jumping out of bathrooms to attack her) that had saved members of the group. A few months ago, a strange man named Mark had joined them. Back then, they had enough food for everyone. Now times were tougher. Lee had told her that the walkers were running out of food just like them, and were leaving the cities. Lee and Carley were like parents to her, but just until she found her real parents. There was obviously something going on between them, even a little girl could see that.
Then again, she was a little girl who was surviving something that an entire military hadn't (she took pride in that). Caught in her own thoughts, she didn't hear an arrow impact the makeshift wall around the Motor Inn that they had made, but she did notice the scream of pain from Mark as he collapsed off the roof of the RV with an arrow wound in his leg spurting blood. Katjaa screamed and Carley immediately pulled her gun, aiming in the general direction the shot had come from. She was about to pull her own gun when Lee grabbed her shoulder.
"Better get inside Clem. We'll help Mark." Clem began to protest before a gunshot cut her off, and Lilly, who was on the balcony on the second floor cursed and ducked back into one of the rooms. Lee rushed her into a room as Carley and Lilly both shot back at the unknown threat/s. Lee guided her into the room and then shut the door. Gunshots could be heard outside.
Sorry for the long wait in updating the story. My power has been off for a while because of snowstorms and I haven't had time to write. I am now back, so expect more delays in the near future.