Ellie's POV
"Could it really be? I mean… for real?"
"We'll have to wait and see for ourselves, but… Christ, Bo, I can't even begin to describe…" the doctor exhales, rubbing his hands through his hair (you know, if he actually had any) before smiling jubilantly over at me. James looks as thrilled as a kid on Christmas.
And it sickens me. It makes me want to projectile vomit all over his pretty, white lab coat.
Crossly frowning and trying to avoid eye contact, lest they try to toss my ass in solitary confinement next, I resist the urge to shake off Bo's mechanical hand as he places it gently upon my shoulder. It's cold and lifeless, which is so unlike the man it belongs to. Bo's always been a gentle soul, but what's always been surprising is how he can channel all of that energy into getting shit done and being pretty intimidating all the same. Lately, all I can see is the robotic side of the man – I should start calling him the "Tin Man" from now on.
I can't leave the lab. That's pretty much an unspoken rule placed on me now, even though nobody's specifically told me what it is I'm supposed to be doing here. But I can put the pieces together here… I'm not stupid. They want to find out more about me; suddenly so interested in learning about me when it`s fucking convenient for them.
Am I jealous? No, not by a long shot. Annoyed is probably the better word for this bullshit. Annoyed and frightened. I've officially just become the lab rat for Bo, James and whoever else wants to poke around me and check to see what makes me tick.
However, that's not my biggest worry. I can handle these bozos shooting needles into my arms and using whatever means they have at their disposal. I'm tough, I'll live. Endure and survive, remember?
But is that really gonna be the same case for Clementine?
"I figured you wouldn't want to be hounded by everyone outside, so it's just James and I here, alright?" Bo explains, as if that's supposed to make me feel better somehow. Really though, it just makes me want to kick him right in the balls. "Just relax – we're not going to do anything too strenuous… err, nothing too stressful," he corrects himself when I have no idea what he's talking about. Taking his hand off of me, he follows James over to a different area of the space station that I never was allowed in beforehand. It's just a little ways past the big rocket that I used to be able to play in as a child when Riley was still around. Nowadays though? I hardly even spare the hunk of metal a passing glance. Wouldn't feel right to dick around inside of the thing without my best friend to back me up.
Some nights can really get to me about that; about Riley, and why she had to leave us like that. Why didn't Clem just tell me about how it really happened the first time around? Wouldn't that have made things so much easier? Didn't I of all people have the right to know what actually happened that day? First my mom, then my best friend… what else could she be holding out on me?
It really makes me wonder, and I can't shake the feeling that my trusted friend might not be so trustworthy after all. With all the shit she's done, it's not difficult to see why.
Doesn't mean that I'm not gonna try to bust her out of this joint, though.
"Never thought that I'd have to use this thing again," James comments as he blows some of the dust off of some big, old machine – clearly made back before the dead were walking around. Calmly ushering me to have a step inside as he slides back the metal casing, I pensively turn back towards Bo for some form of reassurance, but the most I can get out of him is a simple nod.
I'm not really sure what exactly I was expecting when I had first walked in here, but I can tell you that it definitely wasn't this shit. I was fucking terrified; trembling in my own skin when I heard the rowdy crowd of people behind me demanding that I basically be placed on a noose and hung from the rafters so that they could all suck the blood out of my veins. Somehow, these morons seemed to think that sucking my blood through a fucking straw would manage to save their sorry asses. I'd probably laugh if they ended up just jabbing themselves in the wrists, the idiots…
Stepping up to the machine, I swing my legs over to the side as I climb up; laying flat on my back as I stiffly place my arms at my side. My head is surrounded by a huge circular device that basically looks like a jumbo, mechanical donut, and I jump a little bit as James flicks a switch and it whirs to life.
"We're just gonna take a blood sample, and then I'll give you a sedative," he explains, thanking Bo as he hands the doctor (or scientist, I can never remember) a sterilized needle. Flicking it a few times with his fingers, I gulp as James heads over to me and frowns apologetically. "This might sting a little bit – just try to think of something else," he tells me as I wince; feeling the sharp object dig into the top of my hand as he pulls the top of the syringe. I feel queasy as I watch my blood work its way to the top of the prickly little thing, but almost as soon as it does, he finishes collecting the crimson liquid and carefully places the sample on a desk nearby. "Bo, would you…?" he cuts himself off, seeing that the bald-headed cancer patient is already at my side with yet another needle at the ready.
"Ow!" I complain, feeling the force of the second one much more strongly than the first for some reason as Bo takes it out of the side of my neck. "What the fuck, Bo?! What the hell… are you doing to me…?"
"Must not have as steady of a hand as I thought… sorry about that," he apologizes, though quickly retaining his previous stare as he too places the needle back onto the side table. "That's gonna put you to sleep – make it count, 'cause I'm pretty sure that's one of the only agents James has around this place. Meds are pretty hard to come by," Bo tells me, with the effects already slowly starting to be felt as I lean my head back slightly. Seeing this reaction, Bo instinctively raises the back of my head with his prosthetic limb and uses his other arm to adjust a small pillow underneath my head. "Sleep tight, Ellie. We'll talk again after all of this is over," he mentions, turning back towards his bespectacled friend as my eyelids start to flutter like butterflies.
There's some more chatter going on between them, I'm sure of it, but I can't really make out what the dialogue is all about. Not to sound self-centred or anything, but I've got a feeling that it's got something to do with me… and whatever they're trying to do. Is this some sort of medical bay that they never told me about? I must've passed by this thing a billion times beforehand without even giving it any thought, yet here I am – lying down and putting my fate in its hands. It's kind of scary to think about actually, let alone to be caught in the middle of the rotating donuts surrounding my head.
I hope Clementine's okay though, even though she pretty much lied straight to my face. The way she was dragged off like that, I wouldn't be surprised if they had hurt her somehow. But they wouldn't kill her, right? She's too important for that – after all, wasn't she one of the people who helped kick-start this place to begin with?
Yeah… that's right. They wouldn't even dare to try and hurt Clementine. They've got to have at least some self-control.
Besides, I'm pretty sure Lilly and Jane would rip their balls off and string them on the rocket if they even touched a hair on her head.
Suddenly finding myself unable to think clearly any longer, and realizing that the drugs Bo just put into me must be kicking into overdrive, I take one last big breath before rolling my head back and shutting my eyes. You know, this machine is actually kind of peaceful now that I'm….
Lilly's POV
"It's not you we have the problem with!" Emily implores from the other side of the door, trying to get me to come out of the dining room. Keeping my shoulder onto the door as to not let her or any of those other traitorous fucks out there come inside to collect us, I watch as Jane drags yet another steel chair across the floor and sets it up against one of the other entrances. "Come on, guys! We didn't want this either! Just come out of there so we can all just… just sit and talk!"
"Yeah, I don't think so," I mumble under my breath, thanking Jane as she lines the chair up against the door that I'm holding closed. My arm was getting tired.
"Well," she remarks, wiping her hands together to get the wood shavings off of her palms, "looks like she's had it. All that's left to do is…" Jane cuts herself off, turning her head towards the back as I nod and give them all the middle finger, even though none of them can see me doing it. A big "fuck you" isn't enough – I'd need about a thousand more in order to even try and get the message across.
Knowing that almost nobody around is going to be sympathetic to us or Clementine, and realizing that we've just become two hunks of meat in an ocean of hungry sharks, it hurts to see that we're officially on our own now, for the most part.
But fuck me if I didn't admit that the girl we had both come to know didn't deserve at least a little bit of this. Clem's been a busy little bee over the years, apparently.
A part of me is still pissed about her keeping a massive secret like that under wraps. And it doesn't help that she also killed Zayne that night - yes, unfortunately that I can actually believe. But… it's Clementine! I had promised her way back at Houston Hills that I wouldn't leave her again, no matter what might've come barreling our way. I'd be a bit of a hypocrite if I was just to turn tail and run away now, wouldn't I?
Thankful that the guards had only taken the weapons that they could see, I pull a pistol out of my jacket pocket and slide the magazine out; grunting as I realize that there are only three bullets left inside. "So much for doing this the easy way…" I murmur, seeing that Jane doesn't even have a gun at all. "Are you just gonna try and knife every person you see? I don't think that's gonna help too much."
"Got a better plan then? I'd rather do this quietly than anything else."
I had originally considered just setting the entire complex ablaze right before we had shut ourselves in here, grabbing the kids and high-tailing it out to somewhere safe, but the more that I think about it, the worse that idea seems. This place is far too big for that to work smoothly, and as pissed as I am at these guys, I don't really have a death wish on any of them. Weird, I know, but it's true. And the death toll would be massive in a blaze like that, believe me.
Placing the gun in the back of my jeans and covering it up with my leather jacket, I frown in thought as Jane arches an eyebrow. "What is it?" she questions, still acting uneasy around me after my confession back at the carnival.
"This might take some time and planning," I admit, realizing that this isn't gonna be easy, "but we might just be able to spring her out of this joint… with minimal casualties. All she's gonna have to do is play along…"
Looking even more confused than before, Jane sheaths her weapon again as I lead her out the back; ignoring a nasty look from Racheal and Katie as I whisper my plan into her ear.
Jane's concerned frown only grows deeper as I relay the idea into her brain.
Kazuki's POV
Taking the shovel in both of my hands – one grasping the handle while the other grasps the base – I shove it as hard as I can into the soft dirt below. Dig, dig, dig. This is literally all I've been doing for the entire afternoon. The sun's been beating down on my shoulders, the flies have been attacking my face, and sweat's been dripping into my eyes. I wasn't built for this particular kind of manual labour, and Marcus, Alden and Scott all know it.
But I don't complain. After all, I don't really have the energy to even if I wanted to say something. My fingers ache, my legs are bruised, and my feet are starting to swell in my shoes, all to dig a few graves for some of the people whose families they've left behind.
You wanna know the weird part, though? I don't feel much. I knew several of the victims – Paul, Joey, Garcia, Martine… every one of them killed by the bandits who had gotten into the space centre.
I don't grieve for the dead, not anymore. What's the point of crying over people who won't hear you anyway? They don't care… they can't. So why should I? Especially when a dear friend of mine is getting caged up like an animal inside?
"Fuck, man… that fucking smell…" Alden breaks the ever-growing silence, raising the collar of his shirt up to his nose as he turns back to the rotting pile of corpses behind us. They've been getting baked by the sun out her over the past couple of days, same as us.
Marcus, only taking a look up from his work for a brief second before keeping his head down, says to him, "Ain't nothing you haven't smelled before, big guy. Did you want me to go get your mommy so she can make it all better? Or would you rather just get this done so we can all go back inside?"
"I think I'd rather stay out here…" Scott replies in earnest, wiping his forehead with his shirt sleeve as I nod my head. Hard to argue with him on that one. "Things are way too tense inside right now. I mean, did you see the look that Lilly was giving everyone? It was almost enough to freeze hell right over…"
"Clem's wasn't much better. I could hear her howling in there earlier – howling. Not even for her own life, though," Alden adds, making my skin crawl as I try to tune out what they're saying. "They had to threaten to fill her room with gasoline just so that she would calm down a little. Scary shit, huh?"
Keeping to myself, I dig the future grave down deep and toss the dirt over my shoulder, almost hitting Marcus in the face with the shovel as I focus on nothing but my task.
"Uh… Kaz?"
"I don't want to talk right now," I cut Scott off before he can really get a word in. Throwing the dirt around like a madwoman, I feel my muscles clench tightly as my shoulders work double-time. Marcus sputters as some of the dirt gets into his mouth, and I put Alden onto his ass as he gets a face-full of the metal shovel.
"Jesus, Kazuki! Can you give me a warning next time?" he whines, shutting up when I give him a dirty look – no apologies whatsoever. "Alright, alright! Just…" he sighs, rubbing his face painfully as I stick the shovel back in the dirt, "we need to look out for one another, that's all. You saw how fast those guys turned on them; how quickly they blamed Clem for everything that's wrong with this place. How long do you think we'll have before somebody starts pointing fingers at us for something?"
Always wanting to make the situation lighter, Marcus chuckles and pats Alden on the shoulder; whistling for Scott to help him move one of the covered bodies into the first hole. "There ain't one thing wrong with us, though – we're fucking angels! Halos all around!" he announces, flapping his hands behind his back to signify a pair of wings as even I can't suppress a tiny smirk from forming upon my lips. Nothing ever seems to put the guy down in the dumps, no matter what might be going on around him. I wish that I could say the same.
As a team, the duo pick up the first corpse – Martine, I believe – and start to carry her gently over to my hole. Seeing's how I'm the first one to finish digging, I accept a hand from Alden and pull myself out as I spot Kelly slowly trudging towards us. Boy, has she seen better days.
"You should wait for the friends and family before you bury them," she chastises lightly, although seeming to enjoy our company over that of inside the building. I guess she just needed some space to get away from it all, too. I had jumped at the chance to get outside, even though I wasn't aware of how physically taxing this was all going to be. "It's just the right thing to do."
Carefully lowering the legs into the pit as Scott tries to do the same with the upper body, Marcus nods his head out of respect and lifts the younger man back to the surface. Wiping his hands on his jeans in order to try and get the stench and grime away, he joins the rest of us in staring at Martine's unmoving corpse. "For sure," he agrees, turning towards Kelly as Alden and I both roll our eyes. "You alright there, Kelly? It looked like you took it pretty hard," he comforts, constantly trying to be a ladies man and get with the first girl who'll actually say yes. He's got some stones for trying, I'll give him that much, but the guy's pretty oblivious. The poor guy just seems to think that his charming personality will win everyone over.
It even worked on me for a while, though I doubt that that was the intention…
Shrugging, Kelly (probably without even realizing it) allows him to wrap an arm around her shoulders as a light breeze rolls in from the sky. This is one of the few places around with a whole bunch of natural greenspace, making it the perfect location to have this sort of funeral procession.
"Is anyone really?" she fires back, raising a valid point as I lower my gaze to the ground. "I tried to get back into the office so that I could work and take my mind off of it, but James locked the door and I haven't seen him all day. Emily's trying to talk some sense into Lilly and Jane, and I don't know what the hell's going on with Racheal and Katie…"
"Probably trying to convince everyone to leave again…" Scott bitterly adds in, getting a surprised look from Kelly as she widens her eyes.
"You too, huh?"
"Yep. Took me a whole afternoon to try and avoid them about it. Katie's pretty persistent when she wants to be."
"Where would we even go, though?" I ask, not having had any of this mentioned to me before. By the puzzled look on Marcus and Alden's faces, I'm guessing that they're in the same boat. "We've all been living here for years – it's all I know anymore. And I sure as hell am not going back to Tracy's camp! That mall was creepy as hell, and it smelled like rat piss!"
With all eyes turning towards Kelly once again, she finds it high time to speak up as she clears her throat and laying it on us. "Some fucking fantasy land that she saw on Jake's old map," she sighs, knowing that that's still a touchy subject for Scott to suggest. "Racheal was trying to sell me on it beforehand – It'll be better there, she said! Nothing good can come from sticking around this craphole, she said!"
"What was she saying about it, though?" I interrupt, wanting her to get to the point already.
Knowing that she went off track for a second, Kelly corrects herself and nods her head. "Right… well, she wasn't being too specific with the details. All she told me was that it was some safe haven out in Virginia – apparently somewhere that has it even better than over here," she tells us, still not making a whole lot of sense to me. "I think she said it was… Alexandria, or something? Yeah, that's what it was."
Bo's POV
I can't contain my excitement right now. Every ten seconds or so, whenever I stare off at the sleeping child just a few feet away from us, I can't help but either laugh, smile or silently cry. Usually, it's all of the above at the same time.
All those years, I had thought James was crazy. I only went along with it because the two of us had become rather close friends in our short time together, and I didn't want to spit on all that he and his team had been working on when they had all accepted me as one of their own. Occasionally I would joke about his "Mission for Glorious Nation of Houston", as Borat likely would've put it; mocking his vain attempts to find a reliable cure that could save all mankind.
But this right here – this has started to make me a believer. I know that James can be up to the task, having witnessed his medical and scientific expertise for myself many times over at St. Mary's hospital. I don't think I'd be there if he hadn't believed in me; in the cause. I'm still able to breathe (albeit painfully at times) because of this man. If anyone can take full advantage of this gift, it's James.
This has been a nice distraction for the good doctor, too. Putting all of his attention on this has pulled him away from the total clusterfuck that's going on everywhere else in this place. What a mess… that couldn't have gone any worse than it did. Little did I know how divided this would make us all – how it would distance us all as far as possible. The buzz is on in force, and it's all anyone can talk about. I've heard it all now, too: Ellie's bites, Clem's imprisonment, Alexandria – of whom we've actually made contact with – along with a few still mourning over the people we lost.
Without a captain to guide this ship, we're all going to sink. I know this, and was trying to prepare myself for when it finally started to happen. But things have become much more complicated than that now – maybe we won't even need a captain now. Maybe we can get things back to the way they used to be even more quickly than I had imagined.
Well, "normal" being a relative term, anyways. We've still got a long ways to go before that comes to pass.
Patting my real hand on James' shoulder, I hear him sigh in content as he looks at the initial readings in complete wonder. "Isn't it incredible?" he marvels as I try to make heads or tails of what those numbers and words mean. "Her numbers are off the charts. It's… it's like nothing I've ever seen before! Her white blood cells are actually multiplying and overtaking the bacteria coming from the bite!"
"You got all of that from a computer screen?" I wonder, finding it pretty impressive when he shakes his head and leads me over to a microscope that he's set up over on a nearby table. Ellie's blood sample has been spread out evenly on a small petri dish, and I close one eye as I try to examine it closely for myself.
Whoa… that's pretty kick-ass! It's not as heavy duty of a microscope as James would like, I'm sure, but you can still see some of the results. Clumps of red and black are colliding into one another like bumper cars, but as far as I can tell, the red is definitely overtaking the black in some of the places. There are even some sections where the black and red are simply joining together into cool, little balls of blood.
"I'll need the full MRI scan of her brain in order to be proof-positive, but damn, Bo… this could be it! We might be able to save everyone!" he exclaims as I step away from the microscope with a frown that goes unnoticed by him. "Project Rebirth could be back online!"
"Everyone who's left, that is…"
Pausing at my deflating tone, James pushes up the brim of his glasses as he turns back towards the computer screen; waiting for the little icon to turn green so that we'll know the MRI has completed. "…the important thing is the continuation of our species," he mentions, with me sensing a dark undertone to the conversation as I walk back over to him. "That's what we have to focus on – that's the primary objective, remember?"
Knowing that it's never this simple with him, I turn his chair around so that he's facing me directly. "What aren't you telling me here?" I ponder, knowing that he hasn't let me in on everything.
Blinking a couple of times, the doctor/scientist stiffens in his seat as I see the faintest bit of sadness cross his eyes. "We can't let our own personal feelings get in the way," he mentions, not even needing to say the words as I start to get what he's going on about. "Why do you think they never let doctors work on their own friends and family members?"
"But isn't there another way? There has to be!" I stutter, not wanting it to come to this as I prance back and forth. "I mean… fuck, man… does she really have to die?"
With his face betraying him, and clearly harboring his own secret hesitations about the process himself, James gulps before nodding slightly. "Yes," he answers in affirmation. "In order for the procedure to work, and for a cure to be widely distributed, I'm going to need quite a few strands of brain tissue. Most of the frontal lobe will have to be… dissected," he admits while adjusting his lab coat. "If she truly is immune, then there's no way that Ellie will survive the procedure."
Glancing over at the child, still fast asleep in her own little world as the MRI comes to a close, I feel nothing but sympathy for her. So young, and yet she has to go through something like this… for a bunch of strangers, no less, many of whom probably don't even deserve it.
And she doesn't even have a clue.
Jane's POV
"No. Absolutely not."
"Listen up, Miles," Lilly snarls, looking more like a puma than a woman at this point as the man tries to hold his ground, "you're going to march straight into Clementine's room, and you're going to feed her a decent meal. Decent. No piles of shit, no weeks-old corn, nothing that will cause her to feel ill. A proper fucking meal, or I'll ring your head in so hard that you won't be able to wake up in the morning."
Watching him squirm under her intimidating glare like this is possibly the funniest thing I've seen all day, but I keep my smile hidden under a blanket of indifference. In order for this plan to work, I need to maintain my guise and just allow Lilly to do her thing. We haven't heard a word about Ellie from anyone, which is worrying enough on its own, but right now, I'm fully aware that Clementine's going to need our help in order to get out of this mess.
Clutching a different object tightly in my hand behind my back, I tap my foot incessantly as I linger around the corner – right across from Clementine's room. Hopefully she'll actually be able to see what I've done here. I know that my handwriting's not the best.
Gulping, Miles stubbornly shakes his head as he repeatedly tries to tell Lilly that they were all told not to go near Clementine's room for fear of… ahem… "compromising their own safety and endangering their lives". I've never been more disgusted in my entire life, except for the day that I was kicked out of the house. That right there hurt more than I had ever cared to admit.
But fortunately for all of us, Miles is starting to crack. He was never made to go toe-to-toe with Lilly Caul, especially when she's on the hunt. To most people, this usually makes her look like a total asshole.
"F-fine! Okay, I'll do it! Just… just stop yelling at me!" he agrees, getting a steely glare from Lilly as I sigh deflatedly. This is going to suck so much. Miles, for all intents and purposes, is actually one of the few people around here that I can stomach hanging out with. He's just… chill, I guess, with his mostly laid-back attitude and quiet yet kind personality. Basically, he's the polar opposite of what Lilly is.
But the only way for this to work is for him to be the one to hand Clementine her tray of food. This man is a prime target – no real connections, no family ties that we could be shredding to pieces, and nobody really caring enough to search for him if he goes missing. Sad, but unfortunately for him, it's kind of true.
That doesn't make me feel any better about this though, as my stomach churns at just the idea of doing something as horrendous as this. If Lilly feels the same way, then she's got a pretty damn good poker face. I can't spot anything other than her getting annoyed that this is taking so long, but there's no way that she isn't regretting this, too.
When I weigh out the pros and cons, however, the choice is clear. As Carver would put it, we're putting the lamb to the slaughter.
"Miles… give her this too, alright?" I stop him, handing the man a small, weathered paperback book as I practically shove the thing into his hands; not giving him the opportunity to refuse. "If you're seriously going to keep her in there by herself, then some reading material might not be such a bad idea. The kid's probably bored out of her skull by now."
I happen to know that Miles is also a huge bookworm and that he'd be able to relate, and once he sees the cover on the front of the book – Lord of the Rings – he sighs and nods his head. "Sounds fair," he agrees as I pat him on the arm and give him one last genuine smile before he ventures towards Clementine's prison cell. Placing the tray of barely edible food onto the floor along with the novel, he makes sure that nobody else is looking before quickly scrounging through his pocket for his set of keys. Most of the residents have a pair of them after Kazuki and Scott had molded them all over the span of three weeks, but he happened to be the one to be loitering around this hallway at the time. This would be so much easier if we could just pick his pocket for the keys ourselves, since both Lilly's and mine were taken away when we came back, but he'd no doubt shriek for help if we tried. Neither of us are particularly good thieves, either, unless of course it's stealing something when nobody's home.
Closing my eyes and breathing deeply through my nose, I hear Lilly's footsteps getting closer towards me as Miles opens the door and quickly steps inside. "What now?" I ask, not wanting to be waiting right out in the hallway directly across from Clementine. That'd look a little conspicuous.
Tapping my shoulder and beckoning for me to follow, I tag along as we head towards the stairwell – no doubt where most of the occupants are going to be as we start to traipse the stairs.
"Now," she comments, opening the door to the second floor as we spot a bunch of the people having a chat to themselves, "we cause a distraction."
Clem's POV
"You've got friends in here, looks like," a voice calls out to me – soft yet enough to capture a little bit of my attention. Most of it's not on… whoever this person is, though. "Here, eat up. You never know when your next meal might be."
I can hear a plate of some sort being gently dropped in front of me and pushed towards my foot, but I don't move my gaze even an inch. I don't have any drive or desire to move around right now, not when all hope seems to be lost. I honestly think sending me off into a horde of walkers with nothing but my bare hands to fight with would be a nicer punishment at this point, rather than forcing me to look and stare at four barren walls all day. Now I know how Kazuki must've felt back then…
Feeling the mysterious person push the tray even further as it touches my leg, I lazily move my eyes to look at whatever mush this might be. Peas, mashed potatoes and pieces of corn – all tossed together in one big ball of green, yellow and brown. Diving down like a barn animal, I bury my face into my meal and start to eat without the use of my hands. Having them zip-tied behind my back like this is humiliating frankly, but what else can I do? It's not as if…
Oh… hello there… What have we here?
Watching as Miles of all people sets a book down onto the floor beside me, he frowns in sympathy as he lingers there; watching me for just a moment before awkwardly clearing his throat. "Jane and Lilly looked really concerned – and if you were wondering, Ellie's fine. James and Bo said – "
"I don't believe them."
He's about to speak yet again, but widely decides to hold his tongue and say nothing; abruptly strolling past me and checking to make sure that I haven't suddenly found a way to escape. I've been in every single room in this entire space station – if there was a way for me to get out, I would've found it by now.
"Right then…" he mutters, patting down some of the walls as I curiously flip open the book with my foot. Lord of the Rings? Why would they send me something like this? Jane and Lilly know that I'm not that into medieval stuff, with knights, horses and all of that shit.
Flipping through the massive number of pages and cringing at how long this is going to take to get through, I stop as in one of the pages, a small piece of paper falls out onto the floor in front of me. Cleverly disguised as some sort of bookmark, I do a quick double-take over my shoulder to make sure he isn't looking before shimmying the note open.
What I read sort of makes me wish that I hadn't read this stupid thing in the first place, but I know what it means. The message is barely anything other than a messily-written scrawl, but I get the point loud and clear.
"…Miles?" I whisper into the inky darkness, lit only by a small candle near the back corner and the light coming from under the doorway. "I can't eat or read properly… not like this. Not with my hands behind my back."
Knowing that he isn't going to like that idea, I clear my throat and interrupt the young man before he can talk again. I can practically hear the hesitation in his breathing as I correct myself.
"How about this – if it'll help you sleep at night, you can pull your gun out on me. Go ahead, it's not as if I'm getting anywhere like this," I chuckle, shrugging my shoulders as I hear the click of his gun and feel the barrel of his weapon brandished on the back of my head.
Damn, Miles has got some brass after all.
"You try anything," he warns, "and I… I'll…"
"I just want to eat and read this book in peace. That's it."
"Promise?"
"Promise."
Miles slides the gun down to my neck as I hear him start to undo the zip tie that's been keeping my wrists barred and chafed for god knows how long now. It's been digging into my skin like a knife, and several times I've had to bite down hard on the inside of my cheek just to make the pain more bearable.
Letting my arms fall limp at my sides, not bothering to try and make a fuss in order to not draw any attention in on this room, I stare at him with a watchful eye and allow him to tie me back up at the front – exactly what I was hoping for.
He tightens my restraints almost to the point of cutting off the circulation in my wrists, but in all honesty, he has every right to be cautious about this. Miles isn't a cruel man, but he isn't about to let me off that easily. And why would he? Miles is in the same room as a murderer – a criminal in every sense of the word.
"Thank you," I smile, lying between my teeth as he slowly nods and eyes me for a couple more seconds. Trying to make it seem like I'm more interested in my dinner than anything else, I keep my head down until I hear the guy slowly walk back towards the door.
As soon as his foot pivots and his body is facing away from me, I spring up behind Miles and body check him right into the concrete wall; trying to take out his knees first as he drops his gun on the floor.
Fumbling around for the weapon with his free hand as I try to pin him down, Miles grazes his fingers onto it and nearly grasps it. Seeing this, and knowing that that shooting will end up becoming the death of me either way, I bite into his ear and rip a piece of it off with such fury that I taste the metallic scent of blood in my mouth.
"Go for the eyes! Kenneth over here always loved that!" Carver boasts, egging me on as Kenny growls back at Carver in my head. "Fuck him up, Clementine. You know that you have to. Survival of the fittest – this man is weak, like Reggie… like your friends."
"Clementine, stop!" Lee pleads; the schizophrenia causing my brain to hurt as I yelp out for all of them to get out of my head. "You know this isn't right! This isn't you! You're better than this, we both know that!"
"…no…" I disagree, wrapping my bonds around the front of Miles' neck as I pull back with all the strength I can muster. "I'm not… I'm not…"
"ACK! AAACCCKKK!" Miles grunts in a desperate attempt for air as I dig the restraints deeper into his throat. Strangling him for about thirty or so seconds, I wait for about a minute longer; not letting go in case the guy is just faking it. However, with his face turning a pale white, and no further breaths escaping his lungs, I take the scene for what it is – Miles is dead.
Lifting my arms over his head and kicking the deceased man onto his side, I quickly dart around inside of his pockets to find anything useful. Finding it to be fairly successful, I try to somehow find a way to cut my bindings without actually cutting myself, too. Having no other choice, I stick the knife into Miles' head and leave part of the blade exposed before rubbing the plastic material of the zip tie onto the sharp edge.
My god, am I under pressure here! I know that none of this is exactly normal, even by my standards, but this is a do or die situation right now. This could've been my only opportunity to try and make a break for it, and if one person had to die in order for me to save my friends, then so be it.
Although, it seems that Jane and Lilly have inadvertently just saved my ass this time around. Go figure.
Frowning as I finally manage to get the restraints off, I tenderly rub my wrists and sigh as I pick up Miles' gun from the floor. Plucking the knife out of his brain, I quickly whisper an apology before putting that into my pocket. If all goes to hell, which it surely will, then I'm going to need something to protect myself with.
It's awful how this ended up turning out, though. Miles showed me nothing but kindness and trust ever since I met him, and I repay the guy by choking him to death. So much for the promise right there, Clementine! Not exactly a great send-off here, but it's how it's gotta be. Killing the guy seems to be a pretty far cry from what Jane or Lilly wrote for me to do – getting the keys.
Standing up off of the dusty floor, I quickly undo the lock, carefully peek my head out into the hall, and shut the door behind me before booking it down the hall at lightning speed. I need to find Jane, Lilly and Ellie, and then we need to get the hell out of here.
Huh… sounds like my first night at the cabin all over again.