Clementine looked out on her equipment, neatly arranged on the dining room table. First, she inspected her gun. She had cleaned it last night, just to be on the safe side. After confirming it was fully loaded, she double checked to make sure the safety was on, then placed the gun into her holster. Next she took a small pair of binoculars and slid them into a pouch hanging from the back of her belt.

Clem examined the bayonet next. It still had a razor sharp edge from where Cruz had touched it up. Clem very carefully placed it in the sheath attached to her belt, then picked up her tomahawk. She had retied the knot in the rope that served as the weapon's shoulder strap and sharpened the blades as well she could. It was certainly better for it, but it didn't seem to have the same fine edge the bayonet did. Still, more than adequate for rotting corpses, Clem placed the tomahawk's nylon sheath on its head and set it aside.

Looking past her weapons, Clem checked her radio. The flower stickers on it were starting to peel off, but otherwise it looked no worse for the wear. And it and Sarah's radio were both given fresh batteries this morning. After clipping the radio to her belt, Clem retrieved the brown elastic hair tie sitting on the table and used it to pull her hair into a bun. Then she placed her hat on her head and tugged on it until it fit snugly.

"You're sure this is a good idea?" asked Sarah as she examined her rifle. "I mean, riding on the outside of the Brave? And when there's going to be lurkers around?"

"It's the best way to do this," stated Clem as she slipped her gloves on, taking care to tuck the bracelet on her wrist into one. "The Brave's engine will draw the walkers to the front of the RV. While they're distracted, I'll jump off the ladder on the back, stick the bag in a compartment on the Brave, and you drive away before too many show up. They already won't smell me because of the raincoat, and I'll probably be done before they even get close to the Brave."

"What if you aren't done before that happens?" asked Sarah.

"That's why I'm riding on top, so you won't have to open the door during any of this." Clem put on her respirator and tightened the straps. "If things get bad, I'll just get back on the ladder and we keep driving."

"Driving where though?" asked Sarah.

"I'll talk you through it on the radio, don't worry." Clem stood up and headed for the fridge. "Trust me Sarah, once this over, you're gonna be so glad we did this."

"I'll just be glad when it's over." Sarah helped Clem into her raincoat.

"You've got the rifle and your pistol loaded, right?"

"Yeah, and Omid is napping in the bedroom."

"Okay, the weather looks good today, and we've got everything we need." Clementine grabbed her tomahawk and threw it over her shoulder. "This is going to the best Thanksgiving ever."

"I can't wait." Sarah smirked at Clem, which gave the younger girl a burst of confidence. She shot out the door in a flash and raced around to the back of the RV. Clem scaled the ladder with great haste and upon reaching the top, surveyed her surroundings. Nothing unusual, other than Clem thought it was a lot colder today than it was yesterday.

"Sarah?" called Clem on the radio as she wrapped her free arm around the ladder.

"You ready Clem?"

"Yeah, take us onto the highway, the one west of the park, and go south." Clem held on tight as she heard the Brave's engine try to start. It seemed to sputter for a few seconds before erupting into a mighty roar. The RV lurched forward suddenly, causing a cool wind to blow past Clem's face and a chill to shoot down her spine. The girl clung to the Brave's ladder as tightly as she could as the RV moved onto the highway and picked up speed.

"Okay," said Clem into her radio. "You'll want to take the first exit you see on your left. After that, pull up to the corner in front of the restaurant and stop."

"Got it." Clementine felt the Brave pick up more speed as it barreled down the road, awkwardly weaving through the stalled cars littering the highway. Looking over, Clem could see the suburban neighborhood tucked behind the trees bordering the road, and the dozens of walkers moving about. Clem couldn't help noticing they were moving towards the highway, possibly following the sound of the Brave's engine.

Turning back to the road, Clem saw they were already nearing the exit. She was shocked at just how much ground they had already covered. Clinging to the ladder for dear life as the Brave rounded a corner, Clem spotted the grill fast approaching. The girl's heart beat faster as she heard the brakes on the RV squeak and the several tons of metal she was riding came to an abrupt stop.

Clem hastily clipped her radio to her belt, hurried down the ladder and dropped onto the pavement. Already she could see walkers from the motel moving towards the Brave. They were still a good hundred feet away, but so was Clem's bag of supplies. The Brave had stopped on the corner before reaching the grill and Clem had left her stash of food on the street just past the edge of the restaurant, leaving a sizable distance between the girl and her goal.

Clementine raced over to the bag stuffed with canned vegetables as fast as she could. She was so quick that she had trouble stopping when she reached her supplies, actually skidding slightly past them. The girl grabbed the bag with both hands, stretching the plastic as she pulled it off the ground. The cans inside jostled loudly as she hurried back towards the Brave as fast as she could, which wasn't very fast while carrying something so heavy.

Looking to her right, Clem spotted walkers lurching past the side of the restaurant and towards the RV almost as fast as she was moving while carrying a heavy bag. The girl forced herself to move faster, desperately gasping for breath through her respirator while the strain in her arms became almost unbearable.

Closing the gap to the Brave, Clem dropped the bag and hastily flipped open one of the compartments Sarah had emptied out earlier. The girl then dragged the supplies the rest of the way across the asphalt, creating a nasty scraping sound as she did. Her arms hurt as she struggled to lift so many cans high enough to get them in the compartment, but managed to hoist the goods inside with a final push of effort.

Clem turned to close the compartment and spotted a walker lunging right at her. The girl just barely darted out of the way in time and backed away from the Brave. The walker didn't follow her, likely only chasing the noise it heard, but looking around Clem saw more walkers banging on the front of the Brave, and dozens more from the motel growing nearer with every passing second. The girl darted around the end of the Brave, scampered back up the ladder and grabbed her radio.

"Sarah go!" The Brave shot forward, nearly pulling out Clem's grasp. The chorus of moans coming from the swarm of the undead grew louder as Clem felt the RV shake slightly. There were a couple of loud and sickening pops and then the Brave sped away, leaving behind a lot of clumsy corpses, a couple of which were splattered across the asphalt. Clem breathed a sigh of relief as the walkers faded from view and the cool wind blew past her face.

"Clem? Are you okay?" asked Sarah from the radio.

"I'm okay," assured Clem as she struggled to use the radio and hold onto the ladder at the same time. "Just… just stay on this road for now." Clem adjusted her grip and pulled herself up to get a better view of the area. They were passing by several houses now. Clem tried scanning for familiar sights but had trouble identifying anything while moving so fast. "Slow down a little."

The Brave decreased in speed, allowing Clem more time to survey her surroundings. She saw a lot of familiar buildings, but she didn't see the intersection where she had left her bag of supplies. She kept looking for it, but then she noticed a set of gas stations off in the distance. Studying them, she distinctively remembered passing them long after she had looted this neighborhood yesterday, which means they must have already gone past her stash.

"Sarah, stop for a second." The Brave skidded to a stop and Clem climbed on top of the vehicle. She turned around, checking back the way they came. Clem could see a couple of intersections in the distance, but she couldn't be sure if either of them were the one she was looking for. She was about to grab her binoculars when she noticed the dozens of walkers pouring out of the neighborhoods behind them. With the thought of that walker nearly catching her at the last stop still fresh in her mind, Clem sighed and moved back onto the ladder.

"We missed it," she reported over the radio.

"We did?" asked Sarah. "So, should we go back?"

"I don't want to risk it; the walkers are already moving around back there." Clem wrapped her arms around the ladder. "I should have put it somewhere easier to see," Clem mumbled to herself.

"So, now what?"

"Let's just get the last one," said Clem. "It's in front of a small grocery store with the words 'Food Mart' on the sign. It'll be on your right. Stop the Brave so the back of it lines up with the front door."

"I'll do my best." Clem felt the RV move forward again and clipped her radio back to her belt. She watched as the Brave weaved through the stalled cars scattered across the road, flattening an occasional walker unfortunate enough to be in the way. She readied herself as the store grew closer and the Brave slowed down. Clem could see the bag now, just sitting on the edge of the street as the RV rolled into place right next to it.

The girl hopped off the ladder before the Brave had even made a complete stop. She sprinted right to the nearest compartment, flipped it open in a flash, and immediately honed in on her bounty sitting a few feet away, still in a neatly tied trash bag.

Walkers were fast approaching from everywhere Clem could see, but she didn't need long. The girl grabbed the bag with both hands and summoned every bit of strength she had to pluck it from the ground in a single swift motion. Clem hoisted it into the air, carried it to the Brave, and swung it towards the open compartment just as the bottom of the bag burst open.

"No!" Clem hurled the bag into the compartment, only to discover it was empty now. All the girl's hard-earned loot had spilled onto the asphalt, prompting Clem to drop to her knees. She grabbed the nearest couple of boxes and threw them into the empty compartment, but turning back to get more she realized there wasn't time; walkers were bearing down towards the noise of the dropped groceries.

Clem turned towards the back of the Brave and let out a startled yelp as she found another walker right in front of her. The vicious rotted beast lunged at Clem, who fell over as she tried to back away. The terrifying chorus of the moaning monsters was only equaled by the forest of rotted legs marching towards a defenseless Clem lying on her back, like an upended turtle helpless before its predators.

There wasn't enough time to use the tomahawk and even if she stood up there was nowhere to run. Clementine just kept inching backwards over spilled groceries, her heart pounding against the side of her chest as one of the walkers dropped to its knees. She watched in terror as those jagged teeth tore through a packet of pasta in search of blood, only for the walker to keep crawling closer when it didn't find any.

Clem suddenly felt her stomach drop as her back slammed into the RV. Too afraid to look away from the looming danger, Clem clumsy tried to feel around the side of the RV only to suddenly fall onto her side. Turning her head, Clem saw her arm had slipped under the bottom of the Brave. The girl immediately rolled the rest of herself under the RV just in time to hear the grotesque sound of walkers chewing.

Looking aside, she could see greedy misshapen hands scooping up the various packages of foods she had dropped on the ground. There were more sick chomping sounds, followed by a shower of white rice garnished with shredded beef jerky raining down on the pavement in front of Clem's eyes. Dropped cans and jars followed next as the walkers realized there was nothing alive in those groceries they heard hit the ground.

Clem sighed in disappointment as she saw what she had worked so hard to find be literally torn apart in front of her, but she soon discovered a bigger problem as the Brave started moving. It wasn't driving forward but seemed to be rocking back and forth in place. Turning her head, Clementine saw dozens of shuffling legs around the edges of the Brave, and more still coming.

"Clem?" whispered a clearly panicked Sarah from the radio. "Clem are you okay?"

"I'm okay," whispered Clem back as she grabbed her radio. "Get ready to drive when I say so."

"Hurry, there's more of them coming."

Clem clipped her radio back to her belt and crawled towards the back of the RV. She could see a couple of more walkers were standing by the ladder, but they were far enough apart she could slip between them. Very carefully, Clementine emerged from under the Brave. The two corpses seemed busy cluelessly banging on the back of the vehicle, allowing Clem to move towards the ladder.

Clem put her foot on the ladder, then quickly doubled checked the walkers; still beating their fists against the hard metal. The constant rocking made it hard for Clem keep her grip, but she put her other foot on the ladder. The girl took another step, then another, taking great care to keep quiet.

She was nearly half-way up when a sudden jolt almost knocked her off the leader. Clem screamed as a foot slipped out from under her and the pair of walkers broke from their routine to charge the ladder. Clem regained her footing and hastily climbed to top as she saw the flesh-starved cadavers grasping at the ladder, gnashing their broken teeth at the girl.

"Sarah go!" Clem's order was followed by the roar of the Brave's engine revving up, which provoked louder and more vicious snarls from the mob of undead who had surrounded the vehicle. The Brave seemed to barely lurch forward ever so slightly as the rocking grew worse. Clem struggled to maintain her grip on the radio and the ladder as she felt the whole RV swaying back and forth. "Sarah?"

"I'm trying!" There were a couple loud pops as the Brave's engine got even louder, sounding almost like it was preparing for take off. More pops along with a strange rumbling feeling as the Brave seemed to be moving forward again. The rumbling grew worse as did a growing cacophony of loud cracks and sickening crunches sounding against a background of constant moaning. Clem felt one more violent shake and then a sudden tug as the Brave shot forward with shocking speed.

Looking behind her, Clem saw a long line of fallen walkers smeared across the road in varying positions and numbers of pieces, a select few still even crawling after the Brave in a futile attempt to catch it. Looking ahead, Clem saw more walkers approaching from all sides as the Brave cruised along at great speed.

"Clem, where do I go?"

"Um…" Clem looked around, only now realizing they had zoomed past the turn she had used yesterday to get back to the park. "I'm… I'm not sure," admitted Clem into the radio.

"You're not?" The terror in Sarah's voice cut through Clem like a knife.

"Just… just keep going!" ordered Clem as walkers approached from every direction. "And don't slow down." Clem felt another couple of bumps as the Brave picked up speed again. Frantically looking around, all Clem saw was more walkers pouring out of every building in every direction as the RV swerved to avoid hitting a car stalled on the road.

"Clem?" called a desperate Sarah.

"Just keep going, until we get some distance from all these walkers," said Clem. "It… it can't be too much further." The more they raced down the road, the more Clem was worried they were never going to see an end to the walkers. Everywhere she looked there were more coming and they couldn't risk slowing down long enough to search for another path. She cursed herself for not pushing further into town yesterday and realizing how dangerous the area really was.

Shooting past an intersection, Clem noticed the area on the left was opening up into a park while coming up on the right were three identical hotels that absolutely towered over everything else she had seen in town. Scanning the area, Clem didn't see many walkers, just a few stragglers stumbling about in the distance.

"Okay, stop for a minute. There're not many walkers here." Clementine braced herself as she felt the Brave screech to a sudden stop. "I'm gonna look around, just give me a minute." Clem climbed back to the top of the Brave and removed her binoculars from her belt.

Just surveying the area around them, Clem spotted long rotten bodies, broken humvees, discarded rifles, and even an occasional abandoned stretcher scattered across the road. Checking back the way they came, the intersection they crossed seemed to be the last place for them to turn off this street, and already walkers were flooding into it as they marched towards the Brave's position.

To the Brave's left wasn't a park but a few baseball diamonds, which Clem could see more than a few walkers approaching from. Looking through the binoculars revealed the ocean was just past the baseball diamonds, meaning there wasn't anywhere to go that way. Looking ahead, Clem saw bright orange road blocks in front of a bridge going out over the water. Clem was just about to check their right flank when she heard Sarah over the radio.

"Clem! They're coming!"

"How many?"

"Tons!" Clem turned right and saw hundreds of walkers pouring of the three motels and moving right towards their position. Putting the binoculars away, she found even more undead already stumbling across the grass and right towards the Brave.

"Clem, where do I go?" Looking over her shoulder, Clem saw walkers were filing in behind them, even more were flooding in from the right, and on the left they were blocked by the ocean. "Clem!"

"Go straight!" Clem hastily returned to the ladder and grabbed on as the Brave suddenly shot forward. They zipped out of range of the nearest walkers, but Clem could see more of them moving away from the other two hotels and swarming onto the road ahead of them. "Don't slow down!" The Brave jumped ahead a little faster, splattering a pair of undead shambling into the road. As they soared past the last hotel, Clem felt the Brave suddenly drop in speed.

"Clem, the road is blocked, what—"

"Don't slow don't."

"But—"

"Speed up," ordered Clem.

"You're sure?"

Turning around, Clementine saw hundreds of walkers shuffling into the road and heading right towards them. "Yes!" yelled a panicked Clem. "Go through the road block, it's the only way!"

"Okay, hold on." Clementine clipped her radio back to her belt and wrapped both arms around the ladder as tightly as she could. The girl's heart raced as she heard the Brave's engine practically screaming as the vehicle picked up even more speed. They were moving so fast now that the cold wind began to sting as it whipped across the uncovered parts of Clem's face. The young girl braced herself for what was about to happen next, not knowing when it was coming, just that it was.

There was a thunderous crashing as the ladder tried to jerk itself free from Clementine's grip. The girl screamed as another horrible rumble bucked her off the ladder. Clem wrapped her arms around one of the rungs before falling, finding herself hanging awkwardly as the Brave continued to shake. Clem struggled to pull her legs forward back to the ladder against the force of the vehicle trying to escape her grasp.

After just barely getting her feet back on the ladder, Clem managed to regain her footing. Briefly looking over her shoulder, she saw walkers swarming towards a mess of broken road barricades and torn barbed wire. Looking to her left, Clem saw nothing but water. Turning to her right, more water. Carefully moving up the ladder, Clem peered over the top of the Brave and saw they were traveling on an incredibly long highway stretching out over the sea and towards what Clem only could assume was an island in the distance. One thing she didn't see in that direction was more walkers.

"Sarah," called Clem as she managed to retrieve her radio. "Stop the RV." The Brave began to slow down as did Clem's heart rate. Finally coming to a halt, Clem climbed on top of the Brave and scouted their immediate surroundings. Almost entirely water on both sides and the bridge seemed to run right over the ocean. Still no signs of walkers though, which helped Clem to breathe a little easier.

"Clem?" called Sarah from the radio. "Are you okay?"

"I'm all right," assured Clem. "And I don't see any walkers around here."

"That's good," said Sarah. "I can hear Omid crying, I'm going to go check on him."

"Okay, I'll be there in a second." Clem put her radio away and climbed back down the ladder. Sweating from the numerous close calls and the noon sun bearing down on her, Clem tossed her raincoat aside and pulled her respirator off. The girl then peeled her gloves off and set her tomahawk down, not even realizing how much it had been digging into her side until just now.

Straightening her jacket, the girl found great relief in the cool air, only calmly blowing past her in instead of zipping past to nip at her face. She took a deep breath, relieved to be free of her hot and stuffy respirator. But that relief was soon replaced with disgust as Clem noticed all the small dents and smears of rotten flesh scarring the back of the RV. Moving around to the side, Clem found the open compartment she had tried to use earlier, locating the two boxes she had tossed in during the madness, which had shifted into the corner during the chaos. Collecting one, she discovered they were boxes for powdered jello, much to her disappointment

Looking past the compartment, Clem was horrified by the sight of bloody hand prints and splotches of rotten flesh haphazardly smeared across the side of the Brave as if it had been a canvas. And stepping in front of the RV was even worse, being drenched in chunks of festering meat and its now dented grill dripping with blackened blood, as if the Brave had broken its teeth while devouring walkers.

Strolling to the other side, every little mark from a walker pounding on the vehicle and every speck of gore smudging the Brave's paint just made Clementine feel sicker. And to think about how close she had brought Sarah and Omid to so many ravenous monsters filled Clem with guilt. But what disturbed the girl most is when she approached the open compartment she had used to stow the first and only bag she had managed to collect.

"What?" Peering inside, the compartment was completely empty. "Where… where is it?" Clem checked again but there was nothing to find. She quickly popped open the next nearest compartment and found all their tools strewed about inside, likely shaken from where they normally sit by the crash. The bag of food must have fallen out on the way because she forgot to close the compartment.

"It's… it's not… dammit!" Clem slammed the compartment shut, then the empty one next to it, and then she fell to her knees. She tried to move her hands in front of her eyes to stop herself from crying, but found she was still holding a box of jello. Just looking at the meager consolation prize in her hand, Clem felt like hurling it into the water, but then she spotted something even more disturbing.

"No… please no." Crawling forward on her knees, Clem discovered a strand of barbed wire wrapped around the Brave's rear left tire. Clem didn't know much about cars, but she didn't have to know much to see that the tire was flat now.

"Clem." Clem spun around to find Sarah standing behind her. "Are you okay?" Clementine turned away and started crying in response. "Clem, what's wrong?" asked Sarah as she knelt down beside Clem and placed her hands on the despondent young girl's shoulders.

"Every… everything," said Clem between choked sobs. "Everything's wrong. Lee told me to stay away from cities and I didn't listen and now everything is wrong."

"Like what?" asked an anxious Sarah.

"I almost got us all killed, and I wrecked the Brave," cried Clem as she pointed to the tire. "And all I got was a couple of stupid boxes of jello! The big heavy bag full of stuff fell out, but not the stupid jello!" Clem hurled the package of powdered mix she had been clutching at the flat tire. "That's it, that's all I got! We all almost died so we can eat jello!"

"Um, can we even make jello without a working fridge?" Clementine started crying harder in response to Sarah's observation, feeling even more useless for only salvaging the most worthless item she had collected. "Clem, what about you?" asked Sarah as she moved in front of the crying girl. "Are you hurt? You didn't get bitten did you?"

"No," cried Clem. "But—"

"Thank God." Clem found herself suddenly being hugged by Sarah. The older girl was squeezing so hard Clem had trouble breathing for a moment. "I was so worried something had happened to you." Looking up as Sarah released her, Clem saw the overwhelming relief resting on older girl's face.

"But… I messed everything up," said Clem.

"None of that stuff is as important as you." Sarah's words stirred around in Clem's ears for a few seconds before igniting something in the young girl's anxious mind. Clem threw her arms around Sarah and held her tightly as she started crying even louder.

"I… I love you," professed an emotional Clementine between sobs.

"I love you too." Being held by Sarah seemed to chase away all the clouds hanging over Clem's head, and after a few seconds of comfort, Clem didn't feel like crying anymore. She dried her eyes as she stood up and took a deep breath.

"Okay," Clem said to herself. "The first thing we need to do is try to find out where we are," she realized. "I'll go on top of the Brave and look around some more. Then we can figure out what we're going to do next."

"Okay, I'm going to get back to Omid," said Sarah. "He was still upset when I came out here, but… I just had to see if you were okay."

"I am now," said Clem, managing to crack a slight smile. "Thanks." Sarah smiled at Clem, then hurried back to the front of the RV. Clem returned to the ladder and climbed on top of the Brave. Moving up to the front, she removed a small pair of binoculars from the pouch clipped to her belt and started surveying her surroundings more thoroughly.

The bridge they were on was very narrow and simple, just two lanes of highway stretching over the water below, as if the road just sloped up slightly to avoid getting wet. There were a couple very tiny islands, not much bigger than the Brave itself, poking their heads above the water off in the distance. On the left just up the road was a small outcropping of land with a parking lot and a rest stop.

Aside from what appeared to be a small office, the rest stop wasn't much more than a parking lot bordered by small wooden docks cropping out wherever the land met the water. One oddity was a row of gas cans and a stack of red plastic bins beside a dock near the edge of the area. Another oddity was most of the vehicles, what few there were, had their hoods popped and a few of them seemed to be missing tires.

Clem briefly eyed the office again, the only building around, for signs of someone living in the area. She didn't see anything suspicious, and with all the noise the Brave made it seemed like if there were anyone here they'd already be out investigating. Looking back at the dock, the bins appeared empty, or at least the one laying on its side that Clem could see inside of.

Reining in her curiosity, Clem looked at the few vehicles parked in the rest area and wondered if they could salvage a tire for the Brave, only to then wonder how. They didn't have a jack, and never even tried swapping a tire before. And turning back the way they came, Clem could see far off in the distance that some of the walkers from the town were still moving towards them. They were very far away, but trying to replace a tire, without knowing how, would likely give the beasts enough time to close the distance while they couldn't drive away in the one thing that could keep them from being eaten by the undead. Clem tried to focus her binoculars but something suddenly moved in front of them.

"See anything?" asked Sarah as she climbed onto the Brave's roof, Omid clutched in her arm.

"Not much," admitted Clem. "Why'd you bring OJ out here?"

"He wouldn't stop crying anytime I set him down, and you said there were no walkers, so I thought to bring him outside." Clem looked down at the little boy, dressed in his orange jumper. He seemed to be staring up at the sky with a sense of awe. "It is safe, for now, right?"

"For now, but the walkers from town are still coming this way." Clem pointed behind Sarah. "So we can't stay here long. Do you think the Brave will be okay with a flat tire?"

"I don't know. Ed said it's a bad idea to drive on a flat, but we don't have much choice," said Sarah as she moved towards Clem. "But, where do we go?" asked Sarah as she looked out on the horizon.

"I guess we'll have to go forward." Clem turned around and used her binoculars to scout out what laid ahead of them. The bridge led to a large land mass with trees and greenery bordering the edges, but the girl could see little else beyond that.

"Do you think it's safe?" asked Sarah.

"I don't know, but I don't see anywhere else we can go." Clem lowered her binoculars. "There's just ocean everywhere."

"Actually I think this might be a river," said Sarah.

"How do you know?"

"The road atlas shows that there's this big river that runs down the Florida coast before you get to the ocean," explained Sarah. "I'm pretty sure that's where we're at."

"I just hope wherever we're going isn't as bad as where we just came from."

"And that's there's another way to go once we get there," added Sarah. "If that's an island, and this bridge is the only one leading to it, that means we'd be trapped there."

"Yeah," spoke Clem in a hushed voice as she looked down at Omid, who was sky gazing without a care in the world. "We… we would."