Clementine opened her eyes. Lying in bed across from her was Sarah, sleeping soundly on her side. Clem carefully scooched closer to her snoring friend and tenderly moved her arms around the older girl, gently squeezing her. She could feel Sarah breathing softly in her grasp, and the older girl's long dark hair tickled Clem's nose as she nuzzled her face against the back of Sarah's head.
With the morning sun beaming in through the blinds giving Sarah's brown skin a warm glow, the soft covers enveloping their bodies, and the soothing sound of Sarah breathing as Clementine held her closest friend in her arms, the young girl felt content to simply remain in bed, savoring the tranquility of their modest home. But it was not to last, as Clem suddenly heard a shrill crying from the house's only other occupant.
"I… I'm coming… I'm coming," mumbled a half-asleep Sarah as she instinctively moved out of Clementine's grasp and towards the crib seated in the corner of the bedroom. "Don't cry Omid. I'll be right there." Moving to the edge of the bed, Clementine watched as Sarah retrieved the squealing infant from his tiny bed.
Seeing Sarah try to cradle the crying child in her arms, as she so often does when Omid cries, prompted Clem to get out of bed herself. Christa had warned the girls of the burden of taking care of a child, and how it would be even harder for them as they were still children themselves, but they told the woman they wanted to care for her son anyway.
Clem never regretted that decision, offering to raise the child of the two people who had looked over her and protected her when her parents and Lee couldn't anymore. But looking at Sarah, still in her underwear because she didn't even have time to get dressed before comforting Omid, Clem did wish they could at least have a break occasionally. But there weren't many babysitters left to be found in a world ravaged by the undead. And even if there were, Clem didn't desire a respite from child rearing so much that she would go looking for a sitter, not when she knew what else could be out there.
"He's hungry," concluded Clementine as she put her pants on. "I'll go make him a bottle."
"I think he needs a diaper change too," added Sarah as she tried to soothe Omid with a gentle bouncing motion. "I'll take care of that while you get the bottle."
Clementine left Sarah to tend to the baby and headed for the kitchen. She went to the refrigerator to get some water. It wasn't cold of course, but even without electricity, the fridge seemed like a good place to store things. Next Clem collected a container of baby formula from the cupboard.
Opening the container revealed it was empty, prompting Clem to set it aside and retrieve one of the many unopened containers of baby formula that she and Sarah had found in the ensuing months since they settled here. She scooped a few spoonfuls of the powder into Omid's bottle, poured some water in it, then shook the entire thing until the formula was well mixed.
Returning to the bedroom, Clem had found Omid had settled, but only slightly, still fidgeting anxiously in Sarah's grasp.
"Thanks Clem." Sarah didn't hesitate to take the bottle and immediately guided the nipple towards the fussy baby's mouth, which Omid wasted no time suckling on. "At least he slept through the night this time."
"I'll go make breakfast," offered Clem. "Unless, you want me to look after OJ instead."
"No, I've got him," assured Sarah. "Although, I wish you wouldn't call him that."
"OJ? Why not? It's cute."
"Yeah, but it always makes me thirsty for orange juice."
"Oh, sorry," said Clem. "It's just weird for me to call him Omid, even if his name is Omid Junior. It always feels like I'm trying to talk to his dad."
"I wish I could have met him." Sarah sighed. "I'm always worried I'm doing something wrong with Omid and I can't help thinking I'd do better if I had known both of his parents."
Clementine moved in close and wrapped her arms around Sarah's waist. "I knew Omid," spoke Clem as she hugged Sarah. "And I'm sure he'd think you were doing a great job."
"Thanks Clem." Sarah set the now empty bottle down and moved her free hand over Clem's. "But I couldn't do it without you." Clem's heart beat a little faster as she felt Sarah's fingers curl around her own.
"I… I should get started on breakfast." Reluctantly, Clem released Sarah and left the bedroom. She collected the empty formula container and an empty bag from the kitchen, then moved out the back door and into the yard.
It was a sunny and warm morning. One of many lately, although Clem thought it felt a little cooler today than yesterday. Normally Clementine would appreciate the good weather, but setting the empty formula container by the numerous bowls and buckets sitting beside the house just made her wish it would rain already, and looking at the garden just strengthened the feeling.
When Clem found those packets of seeds tucked away in a junk drawer of some stranger's home, likely long forgotten about before the dead rose, she was struck by visions of she and Sarah enjoying a veritable bounty of home grown produce. The reality however had been underwhelming, to say the least.
The vegetables they did manage to grow were heavenly treats to be sure. Even ones Clementine didn't like to eat from before she savored now. After surviving primarily off canned goods for over a year now, the small girl had learned to never take the taste of something fresh and flavorful for granted ever again, especially when they so rarely got to relish that taste. But she and Sarah were hardly the ones who valued the literal fruits of their labor.
Birds were a constant pest, especially crows. The feathery scavengers seemed to act with impunity as they routinely pilfered the peppers Sarah had painstakingly grown. Clem wished the walkers would just eat the crows, but seeing as they always fled when Clem and Sarah approached them, there probably wasn't much chance that slow stumbling corpses would catch one.
Crows at least were easy to chase off, insects not so much. The girls were overjoyed when the tomatoes started coming in, even eating them raw the first day they had them. By the third day, there was a sizable infestation of caterpillars feasting on their freshly grown fruit. The girls labored for a day to remove the pests without killing them, only for more to appear the next day. After that, Clem didn't hesitate to squish them, but by then, there weren't many tomatoes left to save.
The biggest killer of their plants wasn't insects or birds, but the sun. Clementine had been taught the importance of having plenty of drinking water, but she grossly underestimated how much water an entire garden of thirsty of plants would need. A couple of long hot summer weeks with no rain was enough to deplete what Clem initially thought was a healthy stockpile of water. Needing water themselves, the girls let many of their plants wither, fearing if they didn't, they wouldn't have water left for themselves, or Omid, whose only food had to be mixed with water first.
Sifting through what remained of their mostly failed attempt to grow their own food, Clem spotted a silver lining in the form of a pair of small carrots poking out near the edge of the garden. Clementine thought about leaving them so they'd get bigger, but then remembered they'd have little water to spare for them and simply pulled them out of the ground.
Knowing the carrots alone wouldn't make a meal, Clem retrieved a set of keys hidden under the back steps of the house. Moving past the remnants of the garden, Clem approached the large RV parked under the even larger tree at the end of the backyard. Unlocking the door, Clem moved inside and opened one of the closets.
On the shelves inside were stacks of canned goods and bottled water, all salvaged from the surrounding areas. It would seem like a plentiful stash of supplies, if not for the fact that Clementine knew it was the only food left in this tiny rural town. She had picked clean every house and every building of anything useful over the course of the last few months.
Bagging a can of soup and a bottle of water, Clem closed the closet, locked the RV, and returned its keys to under the porch. The girl moved back into the house and retrieved an iron pot, knife, can opener, and clean cloth from the kitchen. She set the pot in the fireplace and started building a woodpile with the most recent stack of cut up furniture and old magazines they used for tinder and kindling.
Clem cleaned the dirt off the carrots, using a dab of water and the cloth. Then she cut the carrots into slices and placed them in the pot. Next, Clem opened the can, noting it was chicken soup, one of her favorites. She poured the soup mix into the pot, then poured some water into the can and swirled it about, making sure any leftover soup in the can mixes with the water, before pouring it into the pot. A lighter and a torn magazine was all Clem needed to get the fire going, and once it was started she returned to the kitchen.
There, Clem cut off the stems from the leftover carrot tops. She placed the stemless tops in a tray of water sitting on the windowsill. In the tray was other carrot tops that were in the process of regrowing their stems. Clem sliced the carrot greens into the smallest pieces she could manage, then gathered them along with a pepper shaker and a spoon.
As the fire warmed the pot, Clementine mixed the greens and pepper into the concoction, then started slowly stirring everything together. As she stirred, Clementine watched Sarah emerge from the bedroom, holding Omid up by his hands and helping the infant to stumble a couple steps closer to where Clementine was seated in front of the fireplace.
"Come on," urged Sarah in her sweetest voice. "Keep going." With help from Sarah, Omid managed a few more clumsy steps before falling onto his bottom. "That was good," praised Sarah. "Let's try one more time." While Sarah helped Omid back to a stand, Clementine got an idea. She retrieved a stuffed elephant sitting on the couch and held it out in front of the child, who immediately start smiling.
"OJ, look who it is," teased Clementine as she dangled the toy in front of the excited infant. "You want your elephant?"
"El-muh," babbled the baby as he tried walking as Sarah held him up by his hands. He managed several steps closer before falling forward and out of Sarah's grasp, where he started crawling towards his prize.
"Here you go." Clem set the toy down and Omid immediately grabbed hold of it, wrapping his chubby digits around the soft stuffed animal. "You like your elephant?" The baby cooed happily in response as he pawed at the stuffed elephant's ears.
"He took nine steps that time," noted Sarah as she sat down beside Clem. "I think that's the most he's done at once." The older girl was fully awake and dressed now, having donned a shirt, jeans, and her familiar round red-rimmed eyeglasses with the slight crack on one side. "I bet it won't be long until he starts walking on his own."
"He's getting so big," noted Clementine as she watched Omid play with his toy. "I wish I was growing as fast as he was."
"If you were you'd probably be eating like him," noted Sarah. "And even sharing three cans a day, we've only got a little over three weeks of food left."
"We'll find more," assured Clem. "That's why I'm going up the north road today. We've never been very far north of here."
"If the garden hadn't been such a disaster…" Sarah sighed. "I'm so sorry. I thought I knew what I was doing, but I should have read more about—"
"Sarah, it's fine," assured Clem. "We didn't know. And the stuff we did grow was great. We'll do better next time."
"If I had done better this time, we could have probably stayed here for the winter."
"If I find more food north, we can probably still stay here for the winter anyway. Maybe even find more seeds to use for next summer."
"I hope so." Sarah collected a couple of bowls and spoons from the kitchen. "That smells really good."
"It's just chicken soup." Clem started spooning the soup into the bowls. "With some carrots."
"Carrots?" asked a surprised Sarah.
"Yeah, I found a couple left in the garden."
"Really, that's great!" Sarah eagerly picked up her bowl. "I can't believe I missed those."
"They were really small. They were probably still growing the last time you checked."
"I should check to make sure nothing else is still growing out there." Clem watched anxiously as Sarah moved the spoon to her lips. "How… how is it?" The smile on Sarah's face as she sipped the soup made Clem pretty confident she knew the older girl's answer.
"It's great Clem," praised Sarah before swallowing another spoonful. "You're a great cook."
"It's just soup mix," insisted a humble Clem. "All you do is warm it up."
"It always seems to taste better when you do it though. I don't think I ever get the right amount of pepper."
Clem took a sip from the soup, savoring the warm broth. The bits of chicken seemed to have lost a lot of their flavor with time, but Clem found with the right amount of pepper, you hardly notice. And the fresh carrots were a welcome treat.
"Come on Omid, just try a sip." Clem watched Sarah try to coax the baby into accepting a spoonful of soup. But he would have none of it, pushing the spoon away and spilling the soup. Sarah sighed and picked a small piece of carrot out of the soup. "How bout we try just a carrot?" urged Sarah as she carefully guided the vegetable to the infant's mouth. "It's nice, and soft, and—" Omid slapped the piece of carrot out of Sarah's hand.
"Omid! No." Clem's stern order caused the baby recoil suddenly and start crying.
"Clem! Don't yell at him," said Sarah as she tried to comfort Omid.
"I didn't," insisted Clem.
"You raised your voice."
"Barely," defended Clem. "And you said the book you read told you to tell babies no when they do something wrong."
"You could have been nicer about it." Clem and Sarah both made a face at each other, then found that they couldn't remain angry at each other.
"I'm sorry," said Sarah. "It's—"
"It's okay." Clem leaned in close to Omid. "And I'm sorry OJ. Okay? I'm sorry I raised my voice," the soothing tone of Clem's voice seemed to ease the infant's mood.
"He's supposed to be the right age when he can eat solid foods and other stuff. Yet he won't."
"Maybe he just doesn't like carrots?" suggested Clem. "I used to hate carrots."
"I was just hoping we can start weaning him soon. All the formula we have is past its expiration dates."
"A lot of the canned goods we have are past the dates marked on them too. They were okay," said Clem. "I think my dad once said those are just the dates they're supposed to sell them by, and that it's okay to eat them afterwards."
"I know that, but it still worries me. If it spoils or something, and he still needs formula there'd be nothing we—"
"Sarah," said Clem. "We'll be okay. He still likes the formula, and we got enough of it to last for a while. We'll wean him by then. We probably just haven't found a food he likes yet."
"I used to be such a picky eater before," sighed Sarah.
"Yeah, me too." Clem looked at the window and the rays of sun beaming in from outside. "It's not fair to get mad at him. He doesn't know what it's like. How hard it is."
"Maybe..." said Sarah. "Maybe he won't have to."