The Walking Dead: Red Glasses
Hello once again and welcome to the beginning of the new arc in my story, encompassing a few of the elements of the 2nd episode but not completely based off it. What I mean by that? Just wait and see *cheeky grin*.
This arc will DEFINITELY have more Sarah in it so be prepared for her, and in response to a review, no this will not be a Clarah story for a few reasons. 1. I don't ship them (or anyone in TWDG really) 2. This isn't going to be a shipping story in any way, unlike my Pokémon story (story and friendship first, romance further down the line if it lasts). And 3, this story is supposed to be about Sarah and her development into a survivor not romance (I apologise though, if you got your hopes up).
Enough of that! So just sit back and let's begin the second episode.
"Speech"
'Thoughts'
Actions
(POV change)
%%%%% Time skip/ scene change %%%%%
(Disclaimer: I do not own the walking dead or anything affiliated with it, it is owned by TellTale Games and Blue Sky Industries)
A House Divided: One night, two stories
(Normal POV)
A rustling sound of grass and heavy footsteps betrayed the silence of the forest as two men ran as quick as they could away from the undead horde. They were beginning to slow down as they became increasingly exhausted.
"We need to find a way to lose these guys soon!" Blake spoke with urgency, running with a limp and a crossbow in his hands.
"Look up ahead, there's a truck we can hide in and wait it out!" Pete pointed out in his breathy voice.
They moved faster so that they could have more time to secure the truck. The truck was red and displayed the brand of cigarettes they sold, "Red & Gold" in a white strip and red writing. It looked sturdy and relatively untouched and the doors at the back were wide open.
Pete was the first to make it inside and he extended his hand to Blake so that he could get in.
Blake accepted the hand and was pulled inside.
A gurgling sound could be heard as a few of the undead began to close in on the truck.
Pete closed the back door of the truck and bolted it shut, the rotten corpses banging their hands on the metal plating but not making any dents in it.
"Well, they shouldn't be able to get through that" Pete said in relief.
"Good, I don't think I can take much more without catching my breath" Blake panted.
"You 'n me both… but there is a problem" Pete informed him.
"What's that?" the teen replied.
"We can't get through 'em, so we'll definitely have to wait it out" the older man explained.
Blake scoffed, "figures, oh well" he sighed.
A wave of pain shot to Blake's foot as he cringed to supress the discomfort.
"Dammit" he gritted his teeth.
"How bad is it?" Pete asked in concern.
"I don't know… it might have opened up, but I don't think so" he replied while taking off his right boot.
The foot was bandaged up, but fortunately there was no sign of bleeding.
"Okay, that's good, they won't be able to smell us" Blake smiled, happy he wasn't making the situation worse.
"We should try and leave as soon as we can, your wound will need redressing after this helluva situation we're in" Pete suggested.
"I hope that Clem and Nick are faring better than us" Blake spoke with a worried tone.
"That boy may be reckless but I'm sure he and Clem are both fine, I just wish I was certain" Pete consoled the younger boy.
Blake was still uncertain about the situation but he shrugged it off as he changed the subject.
"While we're here we may as well check for any supplies, could be useful stuff here" Blake put his boot back on and began to scavenge the truck.
"It's a cigarette truck son, if this place wasn't raided already it wouldn't have much anyway" Pete told him.
"Still worth a look, good for passing time" Blake said optimistically.
"I guess so, check up front and see if the truck still works" Pete asked him.
"About that, I don't know how to drive" Blake chuckled nervously.
"I didn't suggest you drive, I wouldn't let you even if you did know how" Pete scoffed.
"Jeez, you have that little faith in me" Blake said in mock offence.
"son, I've been drivin' for more than 30 years, once you've had as much experience as me, then we can talk about you driving" Pete light heartedly patronised him.
"Okay, you win" the black haired boy conceded defeat.
He went to the front seat on the left side and twisted the keys in the ignition, the truck sputtered a bit as the engine started, but it cut out soon after it started. No fuel in the tank was the most likely answer.
"Damn, guess we're stuck" Pete was disappointed.
"Like you said, someone probably raided this place for fuel and other parts, I noticed that the radio is stripped down" Blake informed him.
"Anything's useful these days" Pete muttered.
Pete was searching through a box and pulled out a box of cigarettes.
"Got a light?" he asked hopefully.
"No, sorry" Blake apologised.
"Shit" Pete cursed in annoyance.
Pete sat down as he looked through all the boxes, he couldn't find anything particularly useful.
Blake sat down as well.
"Tell me, did you really walk all the way from Seattle to here in just three months" Pete asked.
"Huh?" Blake responded in confusion.
"Washington State to North Carolina is a long way to go on foot, 'specially with all the Lurkers hanging around and I want to know exactly how you made it this far on your own" Pete explained.
"Well, I may have exaggerated some of the details on that, but it did take me three months" Blake began.
"Alright, I'm listenin'" Pete was interested.
"After spending almost two years in Seattle my group decided to split up and find new places to go, I hitched a ride out of the state so I could find my Dad, if he's even alive that is" he continued, drawing a sigh.
"I just continued wandering place to place usually on staying a few days and leaving, the last group I was with I didn't particularly like… especially that Nate guy… anyway that was three weeks ago and yesterday I found Clem and you guys, and now we're stuck in a truck with no way out" he finished.
"Where abouts was your Dad located last, if you remember?" Pete wondered.
"Tennessee, although he might have moved from my hometown" Blake answered.
Pete furrowed his brow, he was thinking.
"What?" Blake questioned.
"Nothing, my group just came from Tennessee way, I'm not exactly planning on going back any time soon" Pete responded with a disdainful tone.
"What's up that way?" Blake was curious.
"A pretty big settlement that we used to be in, at first it was fine and we were surviving but things started getting out of hand when the leader started making… morally grey decisions. We left after a while and made it all the way out here, trying to run from him, but he is very persistent and won't stop until he gets what he wants" Pete had a very vocal distaste for the former settlement and its leader.
"Sounds like he's got control issues" Blake quipped.
"You wouldn't be wrong" Pete agreed.
"Dammit, I hope those kids can make it back to the cabin just fine" Pete grunted.
"Me too, the others must be worried" Blake spoke, "it's been what, a few hours?" he asked.
"Yeah, around 3 I think" Pete answered.
"I reckon Carlos is having a fit over how they couldn't trust Clem and me" Blake chuckled.
"He may be distrustful of others, but he is a good judge of character so I think you're safe from him when we get back" Pete assured him.
'Yeah, like locking a girl in a shed knowing she wasn't bitten, real good judge of character' Blake thought sarcastically.
"We better get some rest while we can, we'll be waiting a while" Pete decided to close his eyes.
"Hmmm" Blake replied in agreement.
'This is going to be a boring couple of hours' Blake thought with an unamused tone.
%%%%% With Nick and Clem %%%%%
The other two left the stream and run back in the direction of the cabin, unfortunately they were cut off by a group of Walkers. They continued in a different direction, running along while being pursued by the unrelenting group of undead monsters.
A small shed was seen in the distance, it didn't look like much but it could back the horde so that they could be safe. Clementine and Nick ran inside and slammed the doors shut behind them.
The two of them put their weight against the doors to prevent the walkers getting in, the horde was using their strength in numbers to stack against them and start pushing the door open.
A large push opened the door and forced the two survivors back before they struggled to close it shut.
"What's the plan here, Nick?" Clementine spoke as she used what little weight she had to keep the entrance shut.
Nick had his back against the door as leverage as he shifted his eyes around the room, he let go of the door.
"Give me a second and hold this as best you can!" Nick then walked further into the room.
"Nick, what're you doing?!" she was exasperated, holding both doors shut with one hand on each.
It suddenly became a whole lot harder to keep the door shut, the walkers opening them slowly as she was becoming weaker.
Her left arm was beginning to hurt and she was close to losing her grip on the door as the pain ran through her arm.
Nick abruptly slammed a box at her feet and he took over closing the door, using the box as a barricade that managed to hold against the horde.
"That ought to keep 'em from getting to us" Nick breathed in relief.
"Thanks" Clementine said sincerely as she tended to her wound, it wasn't bleeding.
The older man sat down on the nearby chair.
"That bite still hurt?" Nick asked.
"Yeah, it's only been a day since I got it" Clementine answered.
"Just wondering" he replied as he stood up and began checking the room.
"Wonder what we'll find here?" Clem said curiously.
"All I see are jars of some kind of liquid" he opened a jar, "smells like alcohol" he stated.
He took a swig as he clenched his hand and cringed at the strong taste.
"Whiskey" he informed exactly.
He seemed to know his liquor.
"I don't think getting drunk will help us in this situation" Clem disapproved of Nick drinking, crinkling her nose at the rotten food that was left there.
"Well… there's fuck all else to do, so the best we can do is wait until daylight and hopefully it will be safe to leave" Nick pointed out as he took another sip.
Clementine thought for a second.
"I'm sure Pete will be fine" she assured him.
"Of course he will" agreed, "he may be a mean old bastard but he's tough…" Nick spoke with certainty.
"Still wish he could have made it to us, he didn't mind a drink every now and then" he chuckled a little at the thought.
His expression also saddened.
"My father liked to drink as well…" he sighed, "he'd go out drinking and wouldn't come home until the middle of the next day, he was always tired and got very angry if anyone tried to get him to stop" he flinched a little as he remembered an unpleasant memory, taking a drink.
"So my mom got fed up with him one day and told him to leave, he never came back" Nick's expression got sadder.
Clementine looked down at the ground, feeling sympathy for the man.
"Pete then became the closest thing I've had to a father, now that Mom's gone he's all I have left" he spoke with a depressing tone, "despite what Luke says, it was my fault that she died you know?" he took another sip.
Clementine didn't say anything because she knew exactly what Nick was going through, guilt.
"I saw that she was bitten and I brought her back to the cabin in the hopes that we could stop her from turning, she died and came back to bite my mom, ripping her throat out. I had to kill them both." He seemed on the verge of tears, completely finishing the jar.
Holding back those tears he chuckled dryly, "you know what the kicker is?" he asked Clementine.
She shook her head, not liking what was going to come next.
"I only took her in because I liked her… I got my mom killed over some stupid fucking crush!" he angrily growled as he threw the empty glass at a wall that caused Clem to flinch.
He had a few tears coming from his eyes but he looked more furious that sad. He looked down in self-pity and he looked ready to give up. The look was familiar to Clem because it reminded her of Ben but even more so it looked like her.
"I killed my best friend" Clem said simply, the words hurt but she spoke them anyway.
"What…?" Nick was surprised by her words.
"He was more like a father to me, but I got him killed because of my stupidity" Clementine told him.
Nick looked up at her with eyes of shock.
"I was left in Atlanta with a babysitter while my parents went on vacation, this near the beginning of all this, I was rescued by a man name Lee. He promised to help me find my parents, and I continued trying to find them" Clementine had a strong sense of guilt dripping from her voice.
"I was tricked by a man who claimed to have my parents and he kidnapped me to hurt Lee. He found him and killed him to save me, but he was bitten and was going to die" Clem still vividly remembered that day.
"He told me to shoot him to prevent him from turning… I did and I still hate myself for letting my actions cause his death" Clementine looked at the ground and closed her eyes, trying to hold back tears.
"… but I have to live with it, for his sake, or else everything he did for me would mean nothing. I miss him, and I'm sure you miss your mom, but now is not the time to just give up" Clementine encouraged him.
Nick took these words into deep consideration, he frowned a bit.
"You sound just like Luke, you know that?" Nick smiled a small bit, "he always used to push me" he remembered.
"I never wanted to go into business with him… I remember when he sold me on it, his big plan" he spoke with a tone of irony, "some fucking plan" he added on.
"A case of beer 'n he just said "nick, we're burnin' daylight", and that was that" he recounted vividly.
"After six months we were flat broke" he said flatly, "but I didn't care, we were havin' fun" he shrugged.
"I wish I was like him. I wish I could just keep movin' all the time" he spoke with a bit of envy, "I'm just not… built like that" he said with a sad look.
"Everyone deals with things differently, you will learn to live with it in your own time… you just have to not lose hope" Clementine spoke wisely, far beyond her years.
Nick looked at the jar of whiskey in his hand and put it back on the shelf, turning to face Clementine.
"You're right. I'm not going to give up. Hell, if Pete found out I was givin' up he'd give me an ear full" he chuckled a bit with a genuine smile.
"We'll have to wait until those Lurkers scatter, so let's rest while we can" Nick told Clementine.
"Yeah" Clementine was a little drowsy after this whole ordeal.
The both of them closed their eyes and went to sleep, deciding to find the cabin in the morning,
%%%%% at the Cabin %%%%%
It was early in the morning and the group that went fishing still hadn't come back, worry was soon spreading among the Cabin group as they assembled in the kitchen.
Carlos and Luke were trying their best to keep everyone under control.
"Something definitely happened to them, no way they would stay out this late, it's damn suicidal" Alvin spoke his two cents.
"I knew we shouldn't have trusted those two, we invite them in and the next day this happens" Rebecca was angry and worried.
"We do not know for certain what happened, it could have been anything or, if we assume the worst, could have been captured by Carver" Carlos spoke darkly.
"I really doubt that, but even so we need to go find 'em" Luke took initiative.
"Out in the middle of the woods in the dark?" Alvin asked incredulously.
"It's the best chance we got, waiting until mornin' could mean we lose our chance at finding them alive" Luke reasoned.
They all grimaced at that.
"I'll get my rifle" Alvin agreed to Luke's plan.
"Alvin…" Rebecca murmured.
"It's got to be done Bec, we can't just leave them out there" Alvin gently told her.
"I know, just be safe okay?" she said with concern.
"I will" he smiled at her, gave her a kiss on the forehead and went to his room for a firearm.
Sarah was listening in on the conversation and felt nervous for the fishing group, especially her new friend Clementine.
'Please be okay, please be okay' repeated Sarah in her head like a mantra.
"Sarah, what did I say about eavesdropping" Carlos opened the door on her with a patient tone.
"S-sorry, I just wanted to know what's going on" she stuttered a bit.
"It's okay, Luke and Alvin are going out to look for the others and I have faith that they will find them" Carlos told her, comforting her.
"I just don't want anything bad to happen" she looked down in thought.
"I don't either, by tomorrow everything is going to be back to normal" Carlos spoke convincingly.
"Okay" Sarah smiled contently with his answer.
"Head off back to bed sweetie" he said lovingly.
"Alright we're headin' out, we'll be back by noon" Luke spoke to Carlos, informing him.
"Good luck!" Sarah told Luke.
"Thank you" Luke smiled at the girl's cheerful attitude.
Alvin gave Rebecca a hug before he and Luke left through the back door in the kitchen.
With Luke and Alvin gone Sarah went back upstairs and into her room.
'I'm sure they'll be back soon, Dad is usually right about these things so I don't have to worry' she thought optimistically.
She went to bed with a hopeful smile.
Downstairs Carlos breathed a sigh of exhaustion, he was tired.
"You really should get some sleep, sooner or later it's going to affect your health" a voice warned him.
It was Rebecca
She was sitting down in the living room, a chess set on the coffee table.
"I could say the same, you're going to give birth any time soon and being healthy is the best way to ensure both the mother and child lives" Carlos countered.
"You know I can't sleep well, not with fear of losing Alvin" Rebecca told him.
"It really has been a rough couple of days, hasn't it?" Carlos asked.
"This whole situation's a mess" Rebecca sighed, "I still don't trust those two" she stated.
"I don't fully trust them either, but I believe we shouldn't make arbitrary decisions about them, until they give us a good reason to not trust them" he reasoned.
She furrowed her brow at this, understanding his point.
"Well, until I see everyone is safe and sound, I'll keep my doubts" Rebecca decided.
Carlos respected her decision.
"Are you up for a game of chess?" Rebecca asked.
'It will help take my mind off the issues at hand' Carlos thought.
"Yes" Carlos answered with an honest smile.
"I'll take the white pieces" Rebecca gathered her pieces.
Carlos began setting up his.
"You're probably going to beat me at this again, I barely do well against Alvin but you're just too good at this" Rebecca took the first move, a pawn moving up two spaces.
"There are two things you need to play chess, patience and strategy, without either it just becomes harder to win" Carlos moved his knight into a favourable position for him.
"Sort of like life at this point" Rebecca dryly remarked as she moved a bishop out into the middle of the board.
"Except life tends to change the rules so we have to keep adapting" Carlos replied and examined the bishop.
It was bait so that her pawn could take out his knight. He forwent the trade in favour of moving his pawn.
"You always have an answer for everything don't you?" Rebecca pointed out.
"That isn't true, I have made many errors in my life and I will continue to do so, after all we are only human" Carlos told her.
"That's definitely true" Rebecca agreed.
They continued their game with idle talk throughout.
%%%%% with Blake and Pete %%%%%
Early in the morning Pete woke up and he had a hard time sleeping in the truck.
His throat was parched as he coughed a bit, frightening Blake a little bit.
"Oh, you're awake. Jesus!" Blake started to control his breath.
"Stuck in this can the whole day and not a drop to drink" Pete complained as he scratched his throat.
"What time is it?" Pete asked.
"If I had to guess… 4-ish?" Blake estimated.
"Well, better see if the coast is clear" Pete said as he got up.
Unbolting the door he opened it and peaked out, there was a minimal amount of undead roaming about.
"Looks safe, on the count of 3 you follow my lead. Now we're gonna have to be quick if we wanna make it to the cabin without 'em following us, you think your leg is gonna be able to handle that?" Pete explained, concerned with his last question.
"I'll be fine, just tell me when" Blake replied as he picked up his crossbow.
Pete held up his hand, ready to signal Blake.
He put up one finger.
2.
3.
He then pushed open the doors and jumped down, immediately moving away from the van out of the way of the walkers. Blake jumped out as well, stumbling a bit from the pain in his foot but pushing on towards Pete.
A collective but unsynchronised gargle warned them that the undead spotted them.
"We gotta move!" Pete told Blake as he ran towards the cabin's direction, Blake in tow.
%%%%% 20 minutes later %%%%%
The game of chess was surprisingly equal in terms of pieces taken, but in terms of strategy Carlos was on the verge of winning. He had Rebecca's king surrounded and was three moves away from checkmate.
A loud banging on the door startled both Rebecca and Carlos out of their game, Carlos cautiously got up to check out the door when a voice spoke up.
"It's us, let us in!" Pete spoke in his easily recognisable accent.
Carlos dropped his guard almost instantly and moved to the door, opening it.
Pete walked in with a small coughing fit, he was tired and dehydrated. Blake walked in with his limp and wasn't coughing but he wasn't in much better shape.
"Thank god you're alright, what happened?" Carlos breathed a sigh of relief, and then immediately asked.
"God damn Lurkers got the drop on us… Nick and Clementine made it out… but we haven't seen them" Pete explained in between breaths.
"Have you seen them?" Blake asked Carlos
"No, we sent Luke and Alvin out around an hour ago to look for you but they haven't shown up yet, they said they'd be back by noon" Carlos explained.
"Dammit" Blake sighed in worry.
"There is something else I need to tell you" Pete spoke up.
"What is it?" Carlos was preparing himself for the worst case scenario.
"down by the river we came across a bunch'a dead bodies that were shot up bad, I think it might be Carver's doing" Pete warned.
And that was the worst case scenario Carlos was worried about, closing his eyes in thought. Rebecca visibly cringed at the name and Blake payed extra attention to the mention of 'Carver'.
'Again with that name, this is getting too coincidental' Blake pondered.
"What do we do?" Pete asked.
"We wait until the group is back together, and then we decide what to do from there" Carlos calmly replied.
"If that man is out there, it's only a matter of time until he finds us" Rebecca pointed out and was very nervous in saying so, something that didn't show up often.
"Which is why we should hope they come back as quick as they can" Carlos emphasised his point.
Rebecca didn't like his response but went to sit down on the lounge, she was anxious about the whole turn of events.
Blake looked directly at Carlos, "I think my foot needs new dressing, all that running has probably mangled it to hell" he told Carlos.
"I'll take a look, follow me" Carlos directed Blake into the kitchen.
Pete spent his time talking to Rebecca and trying to keep her calm, it seemed to work well. Pete had that effect on people (Nick not included).
Blake took his boot off to show the Hispanic doctor, the young boy wasn't wrong about the bandages being mangled. Carlos frowned a little, there was little supply of any proper wrapping material but the young man needed it unless he wanted to risk an infection.
'I can't believe we've gone through so much medical supplies in just two days, first the peroxide and now the bandages, they better stay alive or all this will be a waste' Carlos mentally sighed.
"This will be the last of the bandages, after this you'll have to make a proper effort to keep your foot from being contaminated" the doctor wrapped the young man's foot carefully.
"I'll try my best…" Blake told him, "hey Carlos?" he asked.
"Yes?" Carlos finished wrapping his foot.
"I'm sorry for all the trouble we've caused, worrying you all and using up your supplies" Blake was apologetic, "I'll make sure that Clem and I do our best to help where we can" he promised.
"First we need to make sure she comes back with Nick, and then we can talk about you helping us" Carlos told him with an even tone.
"Yes sir" Blake agreed.
%%%%% in the whiskey shed %%%%%
Clementine awoke to somewhat brighter surroundings, realising it was the beginning of dawn. They had spent an entire day in the small building and she was getting hunger pains.
"You're up, come on" Nick directed her to follow him, helping her up with a strong hand.
Nick seemed to be in a better mood than yesterday, maybe that talk with Clementine was having an effect on him.
Nick moved the small box that blocked the door and looked out, the area was filled with only a few walkers, safe enough to run from.
"Looks like it'll be easy, just follow my lead, the cabin's only a few miles away" Nick told her.
"Right" Clem nodded her head, ready to move.
"Let's go" he told her as he opened the doors slowly, trying to make a little noise as possible.
They began to walk away from the shed when a noise caught Nick off guard.
A walker had begun its advance towards him from behind the shed. He pushed it away onto the ground and caved its head in with a sickening splat.
This unfortunately got the attention of the other walkers in the area.
"Shit, Clementine run!" Nick told the young girl.
She tried to take his hand to make him follow her but he pushed her away, the horde was surrounding the area and soon was going to be overrun.
"Just get to the Cabin, tell them to find Pete and Blake!" He ordered her hastily as he backed up towards the shed.
"Nick!" Clementine shouted to him, scared for his wellbeing.
"Just Hurry!" he yelled and went back inside the shed, some of the walkers going in her direction.
She saw no other way to go so she just ran off towards the way Nick told her, dodging the undead that tried to block her path.
'Please be okay nick, please be okay!' she told herself as she bolted towards the Cabin.
%%%%% in the Cabin %%%%%
(Blake's POV)
I was playing a tune on my guitar in the kitchen, it was an old folk song about a woman whose husband's head was found dead in his car but the body wasn't.
It went along the lines of, 'in the pines, in the pines, where the sun don't ever shine, I would shiver the whole night through'.
Not that I was singing, I was absolutely horrible as a singer, and a mediocre guitarist. But the group seemed to enjoy it, so I guess I was doing an okay job at taking their minds of the subject of the others being missing.
As I reached the bridge of the song the door of the kitchen slammed open and had broken my concentration, everyone tensed up and Pete instinctively grabbed for his crossbow.
After a second I realised who it was, it was Clementine and she was breathing hard as she looked around to see us.
"Clementine?" I asked, unsure if I was seeing things.
"Clem, where's Nick?" Pete bluntly asked her.
"I was holed up in a shed with him, when started to leave when he got surrounded by Walkers, he managed to get back inside" she told him as clearly as she could.
"Where was he?" Pete prodded more.
"Down that way" she pointed out to the west, "you'll be able to follow my tracks back to the shed" she elaborated.
"I'm goin' back out" Pete told us.
"Not alone, I'll come with you" Carlos decided.
"My husband is still out there, as well as Luke, I'm coming as well" Rebecca stood up.
"But Rebecca…" Carlos tried to interrupt.
"GET. THE. GUNS" she spoke angrily, her mind couldn't be changed now.
Carlos just listened to her and went to grab some rifles while I just stood here wondering what I should do.
Carlos came back in with two rifles, handing one to Rebecca.
"You should come with us" Carlos told me.
"But what about my leg?" I asked, uncertain about it.
"You'll be fine, take it easy and it'll hold up" he told me, I grabbed my crossbow and got up.
"What about me?" Clementine asked the Hispanic doctor.
He let out a heavy sigh, "Clementine, I need you to watch out for Sarah, keep her distracted, and don't tell her anything… she gets nervous about these things" he ordered her, anxious about leaving Sarah alone.
"Wouldn't it be better to take me and her with you guys? It'll be safer" Clem reasoned.
"No, we won't be gone for long, I trust you enough to keep her out of danger" he told her.
"Alright, you can count on me" Clem told him, happy she could be trusted.
"Thank you" Carlos sincerely said.
Rebecca and Pete began to walk out the door and I decided to follow them with Carlos.
"Stay safe" I told Clementine calmly.
"You too" she replied.
I nodded and left. On the forest tracks we followed Clem's left over footprints, Carlos looked at me.
"I know you're probably wondering why I left Clementine alone and brought you" He began, he wasn't wrong.
"Yeah, I did question your motives" I told him honestly.
"The reason is because it's a precaution, I wanted to make sure I could trust the two of you, by yourselves" he explained.
"And you just let Clementine stay behind with Sarah unsupervised?" I was a little skeptical of his thought process.
"That little girl managed to sneak into our home, steal our supplies under our noses, stitch herself up and kill a Lurker by herself while injured" Carlos listed off the events in order, "because of that I can trust her to keep Sarah safe, besides that she also hasn't tried to hurt any of us" he spoke favourably of her.
I had just witnessed what Pete called, Carlos' judge of character. Despite my earlier assumptions, he really did seem to see the good in people even if he had a hard time showing it in his actions.
It was good to see that he had a nicer side to him.
%%%%% at the Cabin %%%%%
(Clem's POV)
I sighed as the group left the cabin, I turned back around to see Blake's guitar in proper sunlight. I took a closer look at it.
Besides the scratches and flaking of some of the colour I noticed something about the strings, I had always seen the biggest string being at the top but when I picked it up and held it in a playing position the heavy string was on the bottom.
I noticed he held his crossbow differently to me as well, and I occurred to me as I switched the guitar upside down and held it with my right hand on the neck.
Blake was left handed.
The concept surprised me. I didn't hear much about left handed people in the two years of the apocalypse. Even in school I only saw one kid in my year use his left hand instead of his right for writing, his name was Stephan Louis and I never talked to him, he seemed nice.
I shook my head and focused on the task at hand, keeping an eye on Sarah.
Apparently the young girl was upstairs in a room that I haven't been in before, perhaps I could use this time to find out more about the group and maybe bond a little, if possible.
I opened the door to the sound of the Hispanic girl's voice, "say cheese!" she spoke as my eyes were assaulted with a bright light.
I blinked a few time to notice that Sarah had a Polaroid camera in her hands, "I found this under the house with a lot of other old stuff, isn't it cool?" she spoke excitedly and handed me a photo that slid out from the camera.
The black picture faded into a picture of me, my face was one of unflattering surprise, and I did agree with her that it was cool but I didn't share as much of her enthusiasm, it was just a picture after all.
"Take a picture of me" she asked me kindly.
'Why not, what's the worst that could happen?' I decided to take her photo as I took the camera from her hands.
"Get me in a good pose, okay?" she encouraged me.
I chuckled ironically at the fact that even in the apocalypse Sarah found a way to have fun, something I really missed.
She stood with her hands in front of her, crossed over one another. She had a smile on her face that she was struggling to hold, this gave me the impression that she wanted me to hurry up.
I pushed the button to take the picture, light enveloped the room for a split second and a picture of the young girl was ejected from the device. She looked good in the photo.
"Where's my dad?" she asked me, breaking me from my thoughts.
'This was going to be tough to explain to someone like her' I sighed.
"There is something you need to know" I told her.
"My dad told you not to tell me didn't he?" she looked worried.
"He's okay, it's something else" I began.
She anxiously waited for my explanation. I contemplated on what to tell her, the truth or lies.
On one hand, if I told her the truth she might overreact but if I lied she might see through it. Either way it was a tough choice.
'What to do, what to do?'
Well, that went better than expected. In my opinion I think this is my best chapter written for this story.
As always leave constructive criticism, and be on the lookout for the next chapter.
Until next time.