Clementine watched the streets carefully through the Brave's windshield as they cruised slowly through yet another small town off the beaten path. Most of the houses they passed appeared relatively undisturbed except for the walkers straggling about in front of some of them, as if they simply lived there now.

The roads however told a different story, being littered with boxes and suitcases broken open to reveal now abandoned clothes or long forgotten personal effects. Also sitting in the road were stalled cars angled awkwardly towards the side, as if they tried to swerve out of the road suddenly only to encounter something else that stopped them.

As Sarah slowly maneuvered the Brave towards the shoulder to slip past the now frozen gridlock, Clem twisted her tomahawk in her hands as she scoured the area for any signs of what they were looking for. This place was just the most recent of many ruined little towns they had investigated, but she felt the presence of walkers here bolded well for them.

"Maybe we should stop for a while," suggested Sarah from the driver's seat. "Omid—"

"We just put Omid down for a nap," reminded Clem as she kept her eyes glued to the windshield. "We've barely started."

Trees surrounding the narrow and cracked roads made it difficult to see much of the immediate area, with only occasional bursts of buildings breaking up the scenery. Cruising past an intersection, Clem quickly scanned the signs out front. A drugstore, a bank, a senior center, and more walkers wandering around outside; nothing she wanted.

"Take a right here," suggested Clementine as they reached another intersection. "It looks like just houses on the left."

"Okay," said Sarah as she twisted the steering wheel. "I don't think we're going to find one here. Maybe if we tried some bigger towns, closer to the interstate—"

"We're not going near the interstate again," dictated Clem. "Not until we're ready." Clem noted the apprehension on Sarah's face but chose to ignore it. Looking ahead, Clem could see they were passing a narrow park between roads on the right and a church on the left, both of which seemed plentiful with walkers.

"I… I really don't like this," stuttered Sarah. "There's more lurkers here than in the last few towns we checked. A lot more."

"That means less people have come through here," asserted Clem as she focused on a walker clumsily chasing after the Brave as it drove by.

"I know, but—"

"They're just walkers," said Clem as she kept her eyes on the horizon for any signs of more stores ahead. "We've both got our raincoats on and we know what to do."

"But there's so—"

"Look!" Clem pointed to a small store at the end of the road with a sign that read 'Thompson's Arms & Accessories'. "Arms, that means it's a gun shop, right?"

"I don't know, maybe?"

"It's gotta be." Clem pulled her respirator over her mouth and nose and turned to Sarah. "You remember what to do?"

"I remember."

"We get in, and we get out." Clem pulled her raincoat's hood over her hat. "As fast as we can."

Sarah pressed down on the gas pedal and brought the Brave in closer to the store. After speeding into its tiny parking lot, the RV skidded to a sudden stop. Clem hurried to the door as Sarah hastily shut off the engine and removed the keys. Clem unlocked the door and looked outside. She could see a few walkers off in the distance on the road, but nothing in the immediate area.

"Let's go!" Clem leapt out and took a few steps away from the Brave to get a better look at her surroundings. She could see a few more walkers wandering in from the brush past the edge of the parking lot, but Clem reasoned they would be long finished before the corpses could clear the distance.

Sarah burst out of the RV, slammed the door, locked it, pocketed the keys, and then pulled the machete from the sheath strapped to her back. Sarah looked to Clem, who nodded, then they raced across the parking lot. The area was littered with signs of carnage in the forms of shell casings, discarded guns, faded blood stains and even a human skull with a hole in it laying amongst scattered bone fragments sitting atop a black smear on the pavement which may have been a body long ago.

Glancing up from the reminders of whatever bloody battle took place here, Clementine peered through the barred and broken front windows of the store. She could see there were guns inside. What she couldn't see is if there were any bullets left in there or just more useless empty guns like they had found on previous outings.

Reaching the double doors that marked the front entrance, Clem grabbed the one on the right and pulled on it. She found it very heavy, but with a hard yank she managed to get it open. A walker immediately stumbled out and moved towards the road, likely following the last thing it heard, which would have been the Brave's engine.

Eyeing Sarah, the older girl was clearly nervous, but as the walker moved past her, unable to detect Sarah through her raincoat, the older girl sprung into action. She sliced her machete into the walker's ankle, causing it to collapse onto the pavement. Another quick chop into its head finished the killer corpse for good.

Clem watched anxiously as two more walkers came limping out of the store. Clem found herself becoming nervous as the moaning murderous monsters crossed right in front of her, and was still fearful they'd somehow detect her despite the raincoat. Sarah moved aside them and quickly downed and finished one with little effort. Closing in on the last one, Sarah aimed her machete high and, with a mighty swing, cut right into the back of the walker's skull, killing it instantly. Sarah rushed to the door Clem was still holding open and peered inside.

"What do you see?" asked Clem.

"It's a mess in there," answered Sarah.

"Are there any bullets?"

"I can't tell from here." Sarah switched on the lantern hanging from her belt and Clem stepped inside with the older girl. The interior was indeed a mess, with bodies, blood, and guns scattered everywhere. And with the door creaking shut behind them, it became much darker, the lantern and the striped sunlight from the barred windows being the only illumination to be found in this grizzly little tomb they had chosen to pilfer.

Clem watched as Sarah stepped forward towards the counter. "Wait," warned Clem in a hushed voice as she moved next to Sarah. Clem eyed the bloodied corpse lying on the floor just ahead and readied her tomahawk. She stabbed the head, causing the body to convulse slightly before returning to being perfectly still. "You need to stab the downed ones," reminded Clem as she struggled to remove her tomahawk from the walker's skull.

"Right, sorry." Sarah spotted another body nearer to the counter and carefully moved in close before stabbing it with her machete. Finally pulling her tomahawk free, Clem noticed several casings on the floor, as well as something else.

"Bullets!" There were unused bullets scattered across the floor glinting in the low light, almost like pieces of treasure waiting to be claimed. Clem knelt down and grabbed the first cartridge in arm's reach. "Nine, M, M," she read off the bottom of the bullet. "Sarah, keep a look out while I get these."

"Got it." Sarah surveyed the area while Clem set her tomahawk down. She removed her gun from its holster and ejected the magazine. She quickly fed the round into the magazine; a perfect fit. Clem scooped a couple more off the floor and hurriedly slipped them into the magazine. She was already loading another bullet when Sarah called out to her.

"Clem, get over here." Clementine loaded the magazine back into the gun, pulled back on the slide, and stuck it in its holster. The girl rushed over to behind the counter to where Sarah was standing.

"What is it?"

"Look." Clem looked down and saw a veritable rainbow of boxes of ammunition stacked up behind the counter.

"Whoa."

"Hold still, I'll pack as much as I can."

Clementine turned around and held still as Sarah unzipped her backpack. "Get the boxes that have a nine and two M's on it."

"Got it." Clementine felt her pack get heavier as Sarah hastily stuffed ammunition into it. As she waited, Clem studied the other boxes of ammo lying in front of her. Clem wanted to get bullets for the rifle too, but looking at all the different numbers and types of ammunition felt overwhelming.

"Okay, that's plenty." Sarah zipped up Clem's pack. "Let's go."

"Wait." Clem immediately reached for the zipper on Sarah's backpack.

"Clem…"

"I'll be quick." Unsure what type they needed, Clem grabbed two of any box that had the word 'rifle' printed on it and quickly tossed them into the bag before snatching two more from a different stack. Clem kept moving down the counter, grabbing every kind of rifle ammo she could see. As she hoisted another couple of boxes into the air, the end on one opened and a handful of rifle cartridges tumbled onto the floor.

"What was that?"

"One of them spilled," explained Clem as she tossed the other box in.

"Can we go?"

"In—" There was a loud bang that forced the girls to spin around. A very portly walker with a beard had burst out of the backroom and headed right towards the girls. Sarah reached for her machete as she backed up, but her foot stepped on the loose rifle rounds scattered on the floor and the older girl stumbled backwards onto the ground as the walker lurched forward. Clementine pulled her gun in a flash and fired, nailing the walker between the eyes. The bloated bleeding corpse fell forward and right onto Sarah.

"Ah!" The bloated corpse nearly buried Sarah as she tried to scurry away and the older girl suddenly found herself pinned to the floor from the waist down. She tried shoving the dead walker off, but its massive size made it difficult.

"I'll get him off!" Clementine threw her weight against the body and tried to roll it off, but the narrow space between the counter and the wall meant it had nowhere to go. Clem grabbed Sarah under the armpits and tried pulling the older girl free, but she wouldn't budge. Rushing to grip the corpse's ankles, Clem heard a loud bang from the front door.

"Oh no. They must have heard the shot." Clem grabbed hold of the dead walker's feet. "Sarah, push as hard as you can!" Clementine pulled with everything she had while Sarah pushed from her end. The body started to inch towards Clem when an even louder bang sounded from the door. The girl watched in horror as a couple of walkers shoved open the heavy door and shuffled into the tiny shop.

Clem tried pulling on the corpse again, but she had lost her focus and the walkers were heading right for the counter. Clementine let go of the corpse's legs, pulled her gun and fired. The first one was hit in the forehead and dropped dead, the other one was struck on the chin, blowing apart a large portion of its lower jaw without halting it. Clem lined up her shot more carefully and pulled the trigger again, this time nailing it near the eye.

As that walker dropped dead, the door slid open again to reveal even more of the flesh-starved killers were flooding into the building. Clem pulled the trigger again, but the gun clicked and the trigger didn't return to the resting position. Realizing the gun was empty, Clem quickly ejected the magazine and grabbed the nearest box of nine millimeters.

She tore the box open in a hurry, sending more than a few bullets rolling across the counter. Her hands shaking, the girl only managed to feed two rounds into the magazine before the looming group of walkers forced Clem to load her gun. Before she could cock it, something pulled on her collar. Clem turned her head expecting to find another walker, but it was Sarah, having freed herself during the confusion. She tugged harder on Clem's collar and pulled the girl towards the other end of the counter.

The girls watched in fear as the walkers started piling against the counter, reaching towards where they last heard the gunshots. They didn't advance to where the girls were standing, but more walkers were still moving into the shop. Realizing they needed to leave, and soon, Clementine holstered her pistol and climbed onto the counter. As she moved onto the counter, some of the bullets in her pack made a slight jingling sound. Clem froze and looked over at the walkers. They were still trying to get over the counter at the spot where she had fired her gun.

Slowly stepping off the counter caused another slight jingle from the pack as another walker pushed the door open. Clementine motioned for Sarah to join her and the muffled sound of boxes of bullets jostling in place could be heard as Sarah crossed over the counter. Luckily the walkers didn't hear it as Sarah managed to reach the other side without attracting attention.

With nearly half a dozen walkers falling over each other and the counter now, the girls headed for the exit. The door suddenly swung open as they reached it, prompting them both to dart to the side as yet another walker stumbled in. Sarah grabbed hold of the door before it slid closed again and pulled it wide open. Sarah nodded to Clem, who peeked past the door just in time to nearly collide with still another walker as they rushed in.

Clem ducked past the side of the door in time to avoid bumping into the festering beast, taking a couple of quick deep breaths as she did. She poked her head out again and saw the next nearest walker was more than a few feet away. She tugged on Sarah's sleeve and the two of them darted out of the store. They weaved through more walkers crawling and staggering towards the gun store from all directions and raced right up to the door of the Brave.

Sarah hastily removed her keys and unlocked the door. The older girl carefully headed inside, and Clem followed right behind her. As soon as she crossed the threshold, Clem spun around and locked the door while Sarah raced into the driver's seat. She started the engine and Clementine watched anxiously as the walkers from the store started piling back out and towards the vehicle.

"Sarah—"

"I'm going!" The Brave lurched backwards at a crooked angle, then tried to pull forward. Clem watched as a couple of walkers darted in front of the RV and a sickening splat followed by a couple of slight bumps followed. Sarah stepped on the gas and the Brave shot forward. After a couple more rough bumps, the RV swung back onto the road and accelerated to a steady speed, prompting Clem to finally breathe a sigh of relief.

"Thank… thank God," spoke a shaken Clem.

"That… that was…" Sarah stuttered as she tried to organize her thoughts.

"It's okay, we're okay." As Clem's breathing returned to normal, she could hear Omid crying in the distance. "I'll go check on him." Clementine dropped her backpack, which made a loud thud as it hit the ground, then removed her raincoat, gloves, and respirator.

Feeling several pounds lighter now, Clementine headed into the bedroom to comfort a crying Omid. Turning to his crib, she was surprised to see he was standing up on his own by holding onto the bars. Not surprising, he was crying again. Clementine reasoned it was probably the gunshots, or maybe the walkers, but either way, she wasn't surprised the poor boy was crying. Clementine picked up Omid, not only eager to comfort him but wanting a little comfort herself.

"It's okay now OJ, it's okay," assured Clementine as she held Omid close, grateful just to be near him again. "We're here. We're okay." Clem ran her hands through Omid's curly dark hair and kissed his forehead. "It's okay." Clem hugged the small boy close to her body for several seconds until she felt Omid hands gripping her, not so much for a hug but out of curiosity. "I love you," whispered Clem into Omid's ear.

"Muh boo," mumbled Omid as she set him back down in the crib.

"Here." Clementine picked up a ball sitting in his crib. "Why don't you play with your ball for a little while?"

Clem gently tossed the ball, bouncing it off the bars of the crib. Omid turned his head to follow the ball as it rolled behind him. He seemed puzzled by the ball's movement at first. Clem watched as Omid collected the ball in his hand and threw it against the bars, apparently delighted to just see it bounce at an odd angle.

"Da-bah-boo," said Omid as he threw the ball against the bars of his crib.

"You have fun. Me and Sarah will be in the next room." Clementine left Omid to play and returned to the front. Clem watched as Sarah shut off the Brave's engine and put the parking brake on. Looking through the front window, it looked like Sarah had parked the Brave off the rural highway just outside of town.

"You didn't see any walkers around here, did you?" asked Clem.

"No," grumbled Sarah as she removed her backpack and machete.

"That's good."

"Yeah, unless some wander over here," griped Sarah as she pulled her respirator off.

"We'll just move further down the road if that happens." Clementine moved over to her backpack and peeked inside. There were boxes of bullets stacked nearly to the top and Clem found herself surprised the bag was actually on her back a minute ago. "Finally," spoke a relieved Clem as she eyed their hard-earned prize. "This is great."

"No, it's not." Clementine watched as Sarah flung her raincoat aside in frustration.

"What's wrong?" asked Clem.

"What's wrong?" repeated an irritated Sarah as she tossed her respirator onto the counter. "We almost died!"

"I… I know," spoke a startled Clem. "But we're safe now, and—"

"There were lurkers everywhere and… and you just ran out there."

"Sarah, we needed bullets."

"Bad enough to just run into a bunch of lurkers?"

"We had the raincoats and—"

"And we nearly got killed anyway."

"Sarah, we needed these bullets," asserted Clem in a stern voice. "We got really lucky when those people let us keep the Brave."

"We didn't even have our guns when those people attacked us," argued Sarah. "So how would the bullets have helped then?"

"They're going to help now because we're never leaving the Brave without our guns again," stated Clem.

"Never?" repeated a dubious Sarah.

"Never," declared Clem through clenched teeth. "We're never making that mistake again. We should have done this a long time ago—we should have done this when we first left Spokeston."

"We should have rushed into a town full of lurkers and just ran into the first gun store we saw after we left Spokeston?"

"We couldn't find them any anywhere else; the only places we hadn't checked are ones with lots of walkers," reasoned Clem. "Sarah, sometimes we're gonna have to take chances to get things we need."

"We didn't have to take this one."

"Yes we did," insisted Clem.

"No, we didn't," refuted Sarah as she crossed her arms.

"How would you know? I'm always the one who has to go out there."

"You told me you wanted to be the one who goes out," reminded Sarah.

"Yeah, and now I'm telling you we needed bullets bad enough to do this," argued Clem.

"So we always have to do what you say?" challenged Sarah.

"No, but…" Clem groaned. "Look, I know this stuff scares you but—"

"Scares me? You think I didn't want to do this just because I was scared?"

"Weren't you? It's okay if you were; I get scared a lot too, but I still go out there because I care about you and OJ."

"You didn't look that scared," accused Sarah.

"How could you say that?" retorted an insulted Clem. "I was so scared when that walker fell on you. I… I thought you were going to die… because of me."

"Clem…" Sarah watched as Clem dried her eyes.

"I won't ever ask you to do anything like this again," promised a guilt-ridden Clem. "I'll… I'll just do it myself from now on."

"No, Clem, that's… that's not what this is about," assured Sarah.

"Then what?"

"Omid."

"Omid?"

"You… you know what I was thinking about when I was trapped under that lurker?" asked Sarah.

"Wuh… what?" asked a concerned Clem.

"I thought, if I die, you'd have to take care of Omid by yourself," spoke a shaken Sarah. "Then I remembered I had the keys to the RV, and you couldn't get back in without them. And then I thought, if you died too, Omid would be all alone." Clem watched as Sarah teared up. "I just thought about Omid… being stuck in here, all by himself, with no one to feed him or… or…"

Sarah became too choked up to speak, tears rolling down her face while a horrible thought forced its way into Clementine's mind. It was an image of a lone Omid, trapped in his crib, crying for help, until he starved to death, and then turned into a tiny helpless walker, who continued crying forever.

"I'm…" Sarah looked up at Clem, who had tears running down her face too. "I'm so sorry." Sarah took a step forward, then wrapped her arms around her friend. Clem hugged Sarah tightly, grateful for the older girl's comfort. "I'm so stupid," confessed a tearful Clem.

"No you're not," said Sarah.

"I was this time," insisted Clem. "You were trying to tell me it was dumb before we stopped."

"Yeah, but I didn't try very hard," realized Sarah. "I've actually been wanting to say something all week, about how we should just forget about the bullets for a little while and focus on food but…"

"I just didn't think we would be safe until we found some," confessed Clem. "But we're never really safe. I… I forgot how dangerous walkers can be when there's a lot of them, even with the raincoats." Clementine took a deep breath. "We'll be more careful from now on; with walkers and with going out. And if you think I'm not being careful, just say so."

"Okay."

"I… I was worried about OJ too," added Clem. "But I was thinking about when that person put a gun to his head, and how horrible it would have been if they pulled the trigger and…" Clem found herself choking on her own words as Sarah tightened her grip on the younger girl. "The one wearing red said they wouldn't have actually done it but… we should be ready in case we meet someone who would." Clem pulled away from Sarah.

"I'll… I'll move the Brave a lot further down the road," said Sarah as she sat down in the driver's seat. "And find somewhere out of sight to park."

"I'll put our stuff up." Clementine collected their raincoats while Sarah started the Brave. Clem folded the coats carefully, then placed them back in the non-functional fridge where they belonged. She moved to store the rest of their equipment, but then noticed something was missing.

"Wait, where is it?" asked Clem.

"Where's what?" asked Sarah.

"My tomahawk," said Clem as she looked around on the floor.

"I don't know. Maybe—"

"I left it on the floor of the gun shop." Clem sighed, then looked at the bullets in her backpack. "At least we got what we came for…"