Clem knew the old man was right. She had no choice, if she didn't cut it off, he would die! If Carley had never got off Lee's arm, he'd be dead. Clem would forever blame her for that, just as Nick would blame her for this if she chickened out. "Okay.. Three.. Two.."

"Hold on, I forgot to mention something!" She looked up, gasping in shock. She glared at Pete who only seemed to be prolonging the surgery. "Before you bandage me, use that there water bottle to clean up my wound. You'll run out of water, but if we do this quickly and manage to escape, it won't be an issue." The water bottle Pete was referring to stood up straight next to his arm. Clem sighed, nodding in understanding.

"..Okay. Can I start now?" He shakily nodded. "This is gonna suck." Clementine pressed the sharp blade against his skin as hard as she could, slowly beginning to cut as Lee instructed her. Already, Pete was moaning against the cigar shutting him up.

"MMMMGHH!" He groaned out, squirming around in agony. Clem almost stopped to help him before remembering what Lee said: 'No matter what, don't stop until it's gone. Do you want them to experience pain, or die horrifically?' She kept cutting. Outside, walkers had heard something, but it seemed they couldn't tell where. They waddled aimlessly, looking for the muffled groans of pain.

"Shh..!" She whispered, finally cutting the meat off. Now all that was left was bone and all that remained of his ankle. Blood sprayed all over, coating Clem's white sleeves in a grizzly crimson. She had difficulty forcing the instrument down his white bone, but after a few attempts, a disgusting crunch noise could be heard. Pete stopped screaming, his head hitting the wall behind him. The cigar in his mouth fell onto the floor. "P-Pete? Are you alive?" She checked his pulse after chopping the bone and extra skin, her hands shaking as she put two bloody fingers to his wrist. He was alive, the thumping of his heart feeling like the steam train she was on two years ago.

She immediately grabbed the cigar before it died or worse, spread flames and relit it to make the burning a bit more intense. With him unconscious, she felt a lot better about burning the wound. His body gently shook and tensed up, but not a sound came from him. The bleeding.. Kinda stopped? She soon realized that ash had gotten into the wound and it took a few minutes to clean it out. After that disaster, she cleaned the wound with the last of her water and bandaged it. It reeked, and she wouldn't stop shaking, but at least it was over. For now.

She sat by the window, holding herself as she shook. She closed her eyes. "Are you proud of me, mom..? I hope so.. I miss you so much. Both of you."

Nick and Molly scurried into the closest building they could find. He told her of a fishing shack that the crew planned on checking out but never did. She simply followed him, taking out walkers the sloppiest she ever had without Hilda in her arms. This spear was not a good weapon of choice. Nick had trouble keeping his head straight, but thanks to instinct he was able to lead them to the place. It was wooden, but looked sturdy enough. He quickly opened the double doors, running inside before breaking down to the floor, on his knees. Molly ran in as well, but she wasn't alone. "We got geeks on our asses! Nick, get the fuck up and help me!" She pushed her back against the doors as about four walkers smashed their bodies against it. She was struggling to maintain their security, they'd die soon if he didn't pull his head out of his ass.

Out of desperation, she moved the spear between the door handles. This worked, but no way it would hold. Nick finally got up and shoved a crate against the door. Then, he hugged himself and slowly walked towards the corner of the room. Walkers surrounded the place whilst Molly regained her breath. "What the fuck is wrong with you?! We could have been brainfood for those things!" He slumped down next to a shelf that dwarfed his feeble state.

"Whatever." He muttered, staring down at his raggedy shoes. He felt the itch to sob but swallowed the sensation in his throat and began to think quietly to himself. Molly paced around the room, staring around the shed for anything useful. The windows were fogged up, but she could tell the dead were all around them. She could hear them moaning.

"We're locked in, in case you care." She notified the only other person inside the structure.

"I don't." She full body eye rolled in response.

"Figures. You only seem to care about yourself." She kicked a large, hollow barrel out of frustration, closing her eyes shut. Was there no getting this prick? Who the hell hurt him? The sound of glass breaking all of a sudden pulled her from her viscous thoughts. Nick had thrown a glass containing some disgusting looking brown liquid. He was heavily breathing, his eyes looked as if they were about to pop out of their sockets, and he visibly fumed and trembled in anger. When he realized the bottle had something to drink in it, he assumed the best.

"Woah, calm the hell down! Do you want them to break the glass or something?" The windows were all boarded up anyways. There was no way anything could get in without serious force. It looked welded shut. The only windows that seemed breakable were tiny ones near the ceiling that brought in the bare minimum sunlight. Nick took a jar off of the shelf next to him, opened it up and took a sniff. Immediately, he jolted back and coughed. "What.. is it?"

"Whiskey." Nick answered quickly before sampling a taste. Somehow, he was able to keep it down despite the warm glass and shocking taste. Luckily, there were about twenty of these bottles free for the pickings. He continued to swig the glass.

"Mind if I get a sip? I can't remember the last time I had a drink, and it's obvious we ain't leaving here until Clementine and Pete come back for us, or by some miracle someone else finds us."

"Be careful what you wish for." Nick shook his head when Molly raised a brow at his reply and tossed her the glass jar full of brown alcohol. She opened up the top and sniffed it, choking up a few coughs before giving it a sample taste.

"Ugh! Fuckin' gross!.. This is disgusting. Guess it beats standing around here pissed and sober." She took another sip, the spicy concoction burning up her throat with a rancid warm taste. She sat down next to Nick indian style and drank up some more. There was a long silence between the two until four minutes had passed and they both had finished their first bottles.

"You really think they made it out?" He questioned, so quiet he was basically whispering.

"Of course. Clementine is strong, stronger than Lee in my opinion. Physically, I mean. Anyways, she's a smart cookie, and so is that uncle of yours. They'll make it out alive, and then come back to get us." The blonde answered optimistically. She let her hoodie down, revealing her long, yellow curls to him. She smirked, gripping her bottle before chucking it the same way Nick had to the full one.

"Yeah.. I sure hope so." He copied her, glass shattering against a moldy wall as the sun burned the day away.

"You play war?" She questioned, opening up a new jar.

"I'm not that stupid." Nick replied somewhat seriously. "Let's play." Then, his tone shifted to a more relaxed one. He didn't smile, but his frown deafened.

"Good."

Several hours later, Clementine was barely holding onto consciousness. She was hungry from lack of food, exhausted from how much was put on her in such a short time and had now been waiting for an entire day for her friends and family to save her. She wasn't even sure if Pete was still alive, so she held her pocket knife close as she laid back in the front seat of the RV. The good news was, the walkers were clearing up. Hopefully they'd be gone in the morning too. She yawned, getting ready to finally pass out when she heard something worrying.

"Augh.. Ah..!" That was.. Pete. He groaned and moaned a worrying gravelly sound that made her stomach pinch itself. She woke up herself instantly, turning around to see that the man looked human. But then again, many walkers looked human after first transforming. She got up, sneaking closer to him.

"P-Pete..?" She called out quietly, holding the knife up. She was four feet away from him, so if he tried anything she had the advantage. He coughed, a human cough. She smiled, getting on her knees before hugging him as hard as she could.

"H-hey there, Clementine.. God, it's dark. S-sorry for scaring you, this leg.. It hurts like hell." Pete greeted, rubbing his nub with one hand while hugging the girl back with his other arm.

"That's to be expected. Lee told me he had painkillers to get rid of the pain when his arm got chopped. He was a mess for the first week too, but he also saved me on the same day it was amputated." She smiled proudly of her father figure. If he could do that, they could get out of this.

"I think I'd rather have leftie here gone than my entire goddamn foot." He chuckled, looking around the dark RV. His eyes settled on the dead body from earlier. "Poor bastard. Did you check him for anything? I'm hungrier than the dead."

"Yeah, but all he had on him were these blue crystals and a picture of his.. His family." She looked down sadly at the decrepit corpse. Pete nodded, rubbing his empty stomach.

"How's our walker situation?"

"Clear. But it's dark out, and I'm not sure how far away the cabin is from here."

"Well, here's some crushing news: They ain't coming for us." The man nearly tried to get up out of habit, only to sit back down immediately.

"I can tell. It would be suicide to look for us now."

"Not only that, but we're just too far out. This place is in the middle of nowhere, not even close to the river. If we wanna get outta here, we can't count on the walkers not being here tomorrow."

"Well, what do you suggest?"

"I suggest we leave, immediately. But, obviously, that's an issue for me. We need to be fast, but we can't be if you have to hold me on your shoulder."

"Maybe I can find something to get you out of here faster. Like a wheelchair." She got on her feet, walking around the windows to find something outside that could be of assistance.

"You can try. I'll wait for you." And so she did, beginning to search the outside of the van. After checking the closest window, she discovered something in the cover of darkness.

"Pete, how heavy are you?"

"Last time I checked, a hundred and seventy pounds. Now, probably a whole lot less." He replied, wincing at his missing foot.

"Do you think if you fell on a wheel barrow, you'd break it?" He stared at her with confusion.

"Uh.. I mean, depends on how sturdy it is. Why, did you find one?"

"I did. But we'll have to make this quick."

He bit his bottom lip, looking down at the dead body in front of him. "Clementine.. I'm not sure."

"Why not? How else are you going to get back to the cabin?" She turned back to him, raising her voice.

"I don't know. But, I also think that my only real option right now, my only viable one, is to wait here for Luke and the others." Clementine found this plan disheartening. Again, if she got him killed, she wasn't sure how Nick, Luke or any of the other members of his group could forgive her. She didn't know if she could forgive herself if she got the nicest man she had met in a while killed.

"Do you not trust my plan?" She reflected, balling her hands into fists.

"No, I don't." She scowled, shocked at his reply.

"Why? I thought you-"

"I do trust you, Clementine. What I don't trust is any eleven year old's strength. Not even one as tough as you." Pete explained. Clem couldn't believe this. She paced around, a habit she picked up from Lee.

"So what should we do? Just, wait? What if you bleed out?"

"Won't happen. You patched me up real nice. It won't be a day before they find us, trust me. What you need to do is leave here immediately and tell them where I am. Do you understand?" She understood, but she wasn't sure if this was the right call at all. What if leaving him here got him killed? Then again.. What if she got him killed?

Choices:

A: Bring him anyways

B: Leave without Pete

Relationships:

Lee: 10/10

Carley: 10/10

Christa: 8/10

Chuck: 10/10

Molly: 8/10

Luke: 7/10

Nick: 7/10

Pete: 8/10 (For saving his life again)

Carlos: 6/10 (He's beginning to worry about your whereabouts)

Sarah: 8/10

Alvin: 6/10 (He too is beginning to worry about you.))

Rebecca: 2/10 (She couldn't care less about your disappearance. In fact, she thinks you've taken down Nick and Pete.)

QOTC: Weird question, but an important one. Choose one of these ships you want to see most in this story (For season one-two at least). Lee x Molly, Duck x Clementine, Molly x Nick, Molly x Chuck, Lilly x Lee, Doug x Carley, Justin x Carley.