"We shouldn't be much longer," said Clementine into her radio.
"Really? It's not even noon yet," spoke Sarah's voice. "I guess you two didn't find much then."
"Actually, we've filled about four laundry baskets so far," said Clem.
"And more's coming." Clem turned her head to see Patty stuffing her backpack with cans she was pilfering from an open pantry.
"Wow, I can't believe you found that much before lunch," said Sarah. "But it might take a while for me to get there in the Brave. There are so many trees and telephone poles on the roads around here."
"No kidding," grumbled Patty as she started searching the cupboards above the counter. "This whole area clearly got bowled over by a big storm at some point."
"Just take your time," Clem told Sarah. "It'll be a little while before we get back to where we left the rest of the food."
"Stay safe," said Sarah.
"You too." Clem clipped her radio back to her belt.
"Holy shit!"
Clem hopped off the counter and ran towards Patty. "What is it?"
"Check this out?" Patty yanked a small brown package out of the cupboard and held it out.
"Don Pablo," Clem read off the packing. "Colombian super...mo whole bean?"
"It's coffee," announced Patty. "Wait, did you just say whole bean?" Patty flipped the package around. "Dammit, I'll need a grinder." Patty set the coffee down and started digging through cupboards.
"Why do you want coffee so bad?" asked Clem.
"You remember what I said about things that take the edge off?" asked Patty as she yanked a pair of mugs out of the cupboard. "These are nice." Patty stuffed the mugs in her bag and reached for two more.
"So… is coffee a drug?"
"No, but caffeine is and I'd kill for some again… well not literally, but it would be great to have some damn coffee again."
Clem looked at the coffee package again, noting the words 'rich' and 'smooth' printed near the top. "Can I try the coffee?"
"Sure, if I could just find a…" Patty pulled a tall chrome cylinder with a long handle out of the cupboard.
"Is that what you were looking for?"
Patty grabbed the handle attached at the top. It swung around in a full circle, making a grinding noise as she churned it. "No electricity required; perfect." Patty threw the grinder in her bag along with the coffee. "So, you think we've tossed this place enough?"
Clem looked out at the mess of boxes, empty containers and overturned drawers they had strewn across the kitchen floor. "Yeah, that's probably enough," said Clem as she put her backpack on. "I saw a wheelbarrow when I checked the garage earlier. We can use that to carry everything back."
"Sounds good." Clem headed out of the kitchen, navigating through the dusty and forgotten halls of this abandoned house with Patty following close behind her. Pushing past a half-open door, the pair entered a mostly empty garage filled with shelves stacked with old paint cans and scattered tools. There was no car, but leaned against the wall near the door was a simple rusted wheelbarrow.
"Here it is," said Clem as she took off her backpack. "Patty, do you think you can open the garage door?" Clem carefully pulled the wheelbarrow away from the wall and set it upright. "Patty?" Clem turned around to see Patty was standing in front of a wooden workbench in the opposite corner. "Patty, what are you doing?"
The woman turned around; a chainsaw clutched in her hands.
"What are you doing with that?" asked Clem.
"Well nothing right now, it's outta gas," said Patty as she toted the tool across the garage. "But it looks like it's in good shape. I bet I can get it working again."
"You really think we need that for walkers?" asked Clem as Patty set the chainsaw in the wheelbarrow.
"Who said anything about walkers?" said Patty as she threw her backpack into the wheelbarrow. "There's so much crap piled up on the roads around here I figured we could use something to help clear it out." Patty gripped the handle at the bottom of the garage door and pulled it upwards with a quick jerking motion.
Clem shielded her eyes as light flooded into the garage along with a stiff breeze. The girl pulled her respirator up over her mouth and placed her hand on her pistol as Patty grabbed the wheelbarrow's handles. The pair marched back outside and headed into the road. The street was full of broken tree branches, pieces of rotting trash, and dead leaves crackling beneath them as they moved.
The entire town showed signs of storm damage. Broken windows, peeled off roof tiles, and downed power lines everywhere they had looked today. There was also still a generous amount of food left to be found, along with a handful of wounded walkers. It was actually fairly ideal conditions for the pair, a town clearly abandoned before its every resource was exhausted and guarded only by a small number of dead worn down by the weather.
Moving along the street, Clem kept a close eye on the edges of the road. She didn't expect any trouble, but she kept a close look out just in case. Briefly eyeing Patty, the woman appeared alert but not nervous as she pushed wheelbarrow along. The sun was high in the sky now, and with the wind at the girl's back, she moved along at a good pace. The two walked in tandem and kept doing so for a long while before Clem spotted something.
"Wait." Clem held out her hand and Patty halted. The girl holstered her pistol and removed her tomahawk's sheath.
"Walker?" asked Patty.
"Yeah, right there." Clem pointed to walker lying motionless on the road, its legs twisted into a broken mess and it clothes ripped, torn and stained.
"Didn't you get that one on the way in?" asked Patty.
"I think so, but I want to be sure." Clem gripped her tomahawk tightly as she approached her prey. She carefully positioned herself beside the walker and drove her blade deep into the corpse's skull. There was a sickening crack, but the walker didn't move or even make a sound. As Clem pried her tomahawk free, she noticed a similar wound on the creature's skull next to the one she had just created.
"Dead right?" asked Patty. "Like, for real dead, not undead or whatever?"
"Yeah," said Clem as she dragged the corpse over to the shoulder. "It's the one I killed earlier."
"I think it wasn't dead then, I mean for real dead," said Patty as Clem replaced her tomahawk's sheath. "I seem to remember it convulsing when you hit it then."
"Yeah, the really messed up ones just stop moving and wait for people to come to them." Clem threw the tomahawk over her shoulder and motioned for Patty to keep moving.
"Sneaky assholes," said Patty as she started pushing the wheelbarrow again. "Still, I guess we're lucky, every walker we've seen today has been pretty messed up. I'm not sure if we've seen any that could even walk yet."
"The one in the gas station we parked next to could still walk," said Clem. "But that was the only one."
"Well, in your expert opinion, what do you think happened here?" asked Patty in a playful tone. "A lot of leftover food and not many walkers, but no signs of people; this almost seems too good to be true."
"It's just a dash."
"Dash?"
"Like dine and dash," said Clem. "People grabbed what they could and ran. There's a lot of food, but a lot of the pantries and fridges were still missing things, and there's also not many cars left. They took what they could and just left."
"Still, there're not many walkers here, and the few left are in shit shape," said Patty. "How come no one has hit this town before?"
"They weren't always in bad shape, and I think there used to be more of them too. People probably stayed away from here because there were a lot of walkers, but then a storm came and killed a lot of them and messed up the ones it didn't kill, and we're just the first people to come after that storm."
"You sound pretty sure of yourself," noted Patty. "How do you know the walkers weren't the people just living here until recently and a storm killed them all?"
"All the walkers have faded clothes, like they've been out in the sun for a long time, and their skin is really dark and messed up, which happens to the ones who've been dead and rotted for a long time," said Clem. "There's also not many bloodstains on their clothes or bodies either, and the stains I did see looked really old. I'm pretty sure they've been dead for a long time."
"Damn… you're seriously good at this," said Patty. "You could write a book about this whole hunting for food in the zombie apocalypse thing."
"Who would read it?" asked Clem.
"I would, you seem to know everything about these damn things."
"I've just been around them a lot… that's all."
Clementine breathed a sigh of relief as a large billboard came into view. Seeing a familiar crack running across the length of the sign, the girl picked up the pace, as did Patty the closer they drew to their destination. Moving as fast they could, the pair crossed in front of a dilapidated gas station and found a black motorcycle parked behind it, along with four laundry baskets filled with food set out around the vehicle.
"Finally," said Patty as she set the wheelbarrow down. "My arms are killing me."
"We got a lot today," said Clem as she looked out at the sizable bounty they had scavenged. "We've found nearly as much here as you got back in Titusville."
"It's about time we caught a break," said Patty before taking a swig off her canteen. "And there's probably more in the surrounding areas, we could just chill out here for a while."
"That'd be nice," said Clem. "Just staying in one place for a while again."
"It'd be a nice change of pace for me," said Patty as she dug a can-opener out of her backpack. "The only time I've been in one place for a while was when I stayed at Miami and Valkaria, and those places were run by pricks."
"It's a lot better when no one is in charge," said Clem as she fished a couple of cans of mixed fruit out of one of the laundry baskets. "When me and Sarah started living on our own, we spent months in a little town called Spokeston all by ourselves, and it was great."
"Months?" asked Patty as she took a can from Clem. "What were you doing for food during that time?"
"We got really lucky," said Clem as Patty opened the can. "There was this store with tons of food left in the back."
"That is lucky," said Patty as she handed Clem an opened can. "Stores always seem like the first thing people hit. I hadn't seen one with jack in it until Titusville, and it was tiny, and I needed your camouflage trick to even get close to it."
"We also got a lot of food from the houses in Spokeston, and Sarah had a garden in the backyard," explained Clem. "We spent most of our time playing games and taking care of OJ and reading books and just having fun. It was almost like being on summer vacation."
"Sounds great," said Patty as she opened the second can. "But you two were never worried about running into anyone else checking out that store loaded with free food?"
"Yeah, I was worried about that sometimes. But no one…"
"No one ever came?" finished Patty.
"Yeah… no one ever made it to where we lived."
"Well, I'll eat to that." Patty grabbed a spoon and thrust her can towards Clem. "Cheers."
Clem was puzzled by Patty holding her can out, as if she was expecting something. "Um… I've already got one," said Clem.
"I was waiting for you to bump it with your can," explained Patty. "You know, like when people clink champagne glasses or whatever."
"Oh…" Clem gripped her can carefully and thrust it forward, producing a slight metallic clink. "Cheers."
"Hell yeah."
Clem dug into her mixed fruit, enjoying a sweet treat after a long morning of hard work. The girl did her best to keep a watchful eye on the road for signs of trouble, but she actually found it difficult. Sitting in the grass, the sun warming the air on a clear and cool day while birds were chirping in the distance as Clem enjoyed a good meal; it was actually hard for the girl to worry all that much right now.
"Man I'm freezing my ass off," grumbled Patty as she adjusted her jacket. "Remind me to get some mittens or scarves or something," she said as she fished a small piece of pineapple out of her can. "It's only mid-December and it's already colder than I ever remember the worst winter being."
"Really?" asked Clem before biting into a syrup soaked peach. "I think it feels more like early spring already."
"I guess I'm used to Florida weather," shrugged Patty.
"We're still in Florida," reminded Clem.
"Yeah, in the panhandle, that's more like southern Georgia," reasoned Patty. "Case in point, you're from Georgia and you like this weather."
"Sarah says we're actually just below Alabama now," said Clem.
"Ugh, even worse," quipped Patty.
"Why do you not like Alabama?" asked Clem.
"Because it's Alabama." Clem just stared at Patty in response, finding her odd smirk confusing. "Come on, it's like the state everyone knows to stay the hell away from, it and Mississippi."
"Why?" asked Clem.
"Because, they're full of hicks and racists and religious nuts," said Patty. "Sorta like Florida if it didn't have any big cities to take shelter away from the rest of the state."
"Are there any states you do like?"
"Hmm… no one's ever asked me that before." Patty rubbed her chin for a moment. "Well, even now, I'd love to see Hawaii."
"I never been there," said Clem.
"I've never been out of Florida before."
"Then why do you hate other states so much if you haven't even been there?"
"I don't think you have to go to Alabama or Mississippi to know you don't wanna go to Alabama or Mississippi," said Patty with a smirk.
"I think you kinda do," said Clem with a smirk of her own.
"Well, I guess it doesn't matter since we'll be going there eventually," shrugged Patty. "Seeing as Mobile is apparently in Alabama."
"I don't think it really matters what state we're in anymore," said Clem. "Sarah and I came from South Carolina, went all the way through Georgia, and deep into Florida, and it's mostly the same everywhere. Almost no people, barely any food, and everywhere we go we're scared of what we'll find. The only thing that changes is the weather and what kind of trees are on the side of the road."
"Yeah, I guess it's all just a bunch of lines on a map now," said Patty. "Still, all the more reason to maybe settle in for a little while, take a break from all this running around."
Clem saw something approaching from the road and jumped to a stand. She found herself reaching for her gun, but then she saw the outline of a familiar recreational vehicle. Clem eased her hand away from her gun, and breathed easier when she spotted the word 'Brave' stamped across the front of the approaching vehicle.
"Speaking of a break, here comes the fun bus." The Brave awkwardly maneuvered past a power pole that had collapsed in the road before rolling over some branches, creating a loud cracking sound. Clem watched eagerly as the RV slowed to a stop and the door swung open.
"Sorry I took so long," said Sarah as she stepped out of the RV. "There's so much stuff on the roads. I don't know how you two got past it all this morning."
"By driving a motorcycle instead of a house with wheels," said Patty as she flashed the older girl a smile.
"Wow, you two did find a lot," said Sarah as examined the pair's spoils.
"That's not even all of it," said Patty. "We filled up my trailer after the first few houses."
"That's why we called you so soon," said Clem. "We weren't sure if we could even get all of this in the Brave."
"Well, let's find out." Sarah grabbed a laundry basket and Patty and Clem followed the older girl's example. Toting the supplies back into the RV, Clem spotted Omid walking across the carpet to greet her.
"Muh-men!" he exclaimed.
"My men?" repeated Patty as she sat the basket of supplies down.
"He usually says muh-muh when he sees me," said Clem as she set her basket down.
"Actually, he's been saying muh-meh for a while now," said Sarah as she stacked food on the shelves in the closet. "I think he's trying to say your name. He started saying muh-men today after I said 'Clementine will be back soon."
"Say Clementine," Clem said to Omid with a smile. "Clem-men-tine."
"Muh-men," said Omid.
"I missed you too OJ," said Clem in a sweet voice. "Patty, could you help me out of this?"
"Sure thing." Clem held out her arms and Patty carefully removed the gore stained raincoat. As Patty stowed the raincoat in the fridge, Clem got a stool and carefully unloaded and stored her weapons in the cupboard.
"Here, while you're at it." Patty passed up a couple of pistols and her switchblade, which Clem placed in the cupboard.
"Watch him for a moment, I gotta get something." Clem hopped off the stool and headed back outside. The girl grabbed her empty can and Patty's as well, then hurried back inside. She ran to the sink and filled the cans with water.
"What are you doing?" asked Patty.
"Making a treat for OJ." Clem stirred the water in both cans for a second before carefully pouring them into a sippy cup. "We still haven't found kool-aid or anything like that, but the syrup in these cans is really sweet. So we just mix it with some water and we should get—"
"Mah-bah?" asked Omid as he saw the sippy cup in Clem's hand.
"That's right, mah-bah." Clem screwed the cap on the cup and gave it to the boy. The girl watched intently as the toddler raised the spout to his lips. Omid drank from the cup for a few seconds before setting it down. Clem anxiously watched for a reaction as Omid stared as his own cup with a sense of confusion.
"Mah-bah." Clem's heart skipped a beat as she saw Omid smile, and she breathed a sigh of relief as he started drinking more from his cup.
"Not as good as orange juice, but still pretty good, right OJ?" asked Clem.
"Mah-bah," he said happily.
"That's a relief," said Sarah. "We're down to our last two oranges."
"Speaking of treats, you two mind if I borrow your stove long enough to make some hot water?" asked Patty as she dug through her backpack.
"You don't need the stove," said Sarah. "The sinks have hot water."
"Not hot enough for this." Patty removed a brown package from her bag.
"You're gonna make coffee," realized Clem.
"Hell yeah, I think we could both use a pick me up after a long morning," said Patty as she removed the coffee grinder from her pack. "Still want to try some?"
"Sure," said Clem.
"Warm up some water on the burner and I'll get that French press thing from my bike." Clem quickly filled a pot in the sink and placed it on the burner while Patty rushed in and out of the Brave in a flash.
"All right, I've never actually used one of these before," said Patty as she examined the odd looking kettle in her hands. "But I think this comes off and…" Patty pulled on the top, removing it entirely and leaving her just with a chrome pitcher in one hand and a lid with a rod poking through it in the other. Looking at the lid, Clem saw the rod had a mesh screen attached to the end that went in the kettle. "Okay, I think I get it. Once you're done brewing, you push this plunger thingie down and that keeps the grounds from getting in the coffee."
"Grounds?" asked Clem.
"The little chunks of leftover bean," said Patty as she set the French press next to the sink. "Speaking of which, I guess I need to use this thing to actually grind some beans." Patty grabbed the grinder and, after a little fiddling, managed to pop the handle off.
"Did you break it?" asked Sarah as she closed the closet.
"No, that's supposed to come off… probably." Patty unscrewed the top of the grinder next. "Yeah, here we go, just need to drop the beans in here." Patty gestured to Clem, who immediately grabbed the coffee.
"Why do you want coffee so bad?" asked Sarah as Clem handed the package to Patty.
"It has caffeine," explained Clem. "And that takes the edge off."
"Edge?" asked Sarah.
"Let me put this way," said Patty as she fiddled with the package. "Did you ever notice most adults drink coffee?"
"Yes," said Clem and Sarah almost in unison.
"Well, that's because—"
"Ah-bruh-mah-da!" babbled Omid as he started pulling on one of the drawers near the sink.
"No Omid," said Sarah as she collected the toddler in her arms.
"Mah-da! Mah-da!" he protested as he tried wriggling out of Sarah's grip as she sat down on the couch.
"And that's why adults drink coffee," said Patty. "Enjoy that boundless energy while you have it little man, because when you get around my age you're going to need a little help to stay that excited about anything." Patty opened the coffee and immediately sniffed its contents.
"Does it smell good?" asked Clem.
"It…" Patty sniffed the package again. "It really doesn't have much of a smell at all." The woman appeared disappointed, but then shrugged. "Well, cheap coffee is better than no coffee." Clem watched as the woman fished a handful of brown beans out of the package and carefully dropped them into the grinder.
"All right, it looks like they idiot-proofed this thing," said Patty as she screwed the top back on the grinder. "Assuming I didn't just break this handle." Patty placed the handle back on top of the chrome tube and started churning it. "Well, it sounds like it's grinding, so I guess that means—"
"Gah-bah! Gah-bah!" Everyone turned to Omid, who was smiling and clapping his hands together. After a few seconds of watching him, the boy settled, now watching Patty with great anticipation. The woman turned the grinder a few times, and Omid started laughing and clapping again.
"Oh, you like that little man?" Patty started turning the handle which caused Omid to burst out in excited laughter. "Wow, he really likes that."
"It's like a rattle," realized Sarah. "Which… we've never given him."
"You're right," said Clem. "How… how we could forget that?"
"Maybe because you two have been busy with—oh I don't know—everything else?" said Patty as she sat down next to Sarah and Omid. "And if the kid wants a rattle he can play with this." Patty angled the grinder so Omid could reach its handle, which he didn't hesitate to grab. The toddler struggled to churn the coffee, until Sarah placed her hand over Omid's and helped him turn the handle.
"Gah-bah!" he giggled happily as the grinding resumed.
"The kid loves it," chuckled Patty. "Maybe he has a future as a barista."
"I'd be happy if he could just have a future outside of this RV," said Clem.
"He's been getting into everything lately," added Sarah. "I know he wants to go out, but it's just too dangerous."
"Maybe not," said Clem. "This area isn't so bad, and Patty and I were talking about staying here for a little while, like we did in Spokeston."
"You guys found a lot, but nowhere near as much as we had then."
"Yeah, but it's enough for a week or two, right?" asked Patty. "And there's more to be found too I bet. And it's not like we got a pressing need to hurry to Mobile or New Orleans. Either they've got their shit together there or not, us arriving a few days earlier won't change that."
"That's true. I'm just kind of nervous about stopping anywhere now," said Sarah as she kept helping a giggling Omid grind the coffee. "I think this thing is done. It's get really easy to turn."
"Hang on." Patty took the grinder and headed for the French Press.
"Mah-gab-bah!" pleaded Omid.
"Don't worry little man, you'll get it back in a minute." Patty unscrewed the bottom of the grinder, which looked like a small metal cup. Clem watched as the woman carefully poured a brown powder into the French press. "Here, go nuts little man," said Patty as she handed the grinder back to Omid, who immediately started playing with it. Patty turned off the burner and started pouring water into the French press.
"So, is it done?" asked Clem as Patty set the pot down.
"Just needs a few minutes now," said Patty as she started pulling mugs out of her backpack. "You guys got any sugar?"
"In the cupboard above the fridge," said Clem.
"Gah-bah, gah-bah," said Omid as he played with the grinder's handle.
"We got to get him something better than… whatever this is," lamented Sarah. "I saw a playground on the way here, but…"
"We should go there," said Clem. "We could just park the Brave next to it and stay for a while. Or even find a house to stay in."
"I don't know…"
"Why not? We did it in Spokeston."
"I know, but ever since we left I've been wondering if it was really smart to stay there for so long. I mean, all we had were locks on the doors and a gun with one bullet. We didn't even board up the windows. Anyone could have just broke in and then what would we have done?"
Clem grimaced in response to Sarah's question. "I… I don't know what we would have done."
"Exactly. With the Brave, at least we can try to drive away. I really don't want to risk living in some house in the middle of nowhere again while it's just the two of us."
"Yo, third person over here," said Patty as she placed the lid on the French press. "And it's not like we gotta move in today, we can take our time and check out the area, make sure there's no nasty surprises waiting for us."
"And we can't live in the Brave forever," said Clem. "Eventually, we have to find somewhere to stay. This place might be good practice for when we have to stay somewhere for good."
"I don't know…" Sarah looked down at Omid, as did Clem. The pair watched as the boy derived an unusual amount of pleasure from playing with a coffee grinder. It was uplifting to see him so happy, but it just made Clementine wonder how much longer would he be content to live in this cramped motorhome.
"You know what? Hold that thought, I got just the thing to help you think." Patty pressed down on the rod sticking out of the top of the French press until it sank into the device, then grabbed the press's handle. Carefully, the woman poured coffee into the mugs, then reached for the sugar.
"Is it done?" asked Clem.
"Just about," said Patty as she poured sugar into each of the mugs. "Still want to try it?"
"Definitely." Clem hopped up and raced over to the nearest mug. "Sarah, you gotta try it too."
"Um, okay." Sarah set Omid down on the carpet, then approached the counter.
"All right, be sure to stir it up real good," said Patty as she handed out spoons.
"I will." Clem gripped the nearest mug, which was warm to the touch, and started eagerly stirring the coffee. As she stirred, Clem noted the slightly pungent aroma, which she thought smelled a little like tree bark. But seeing Patty so casually sip from her mug, Clem quickly raised her own mug to her lips and felt the hot coffee slide into her mouth.
The coffee tasted like how burnt wood smelled and was almost as warm, causing Clem to immediately spit it into the sink. "Ugh!" Even after spitting out the coffee, Clem still had this horrid aftertaste festering in her mouth like a cloud of hot ash. The girl placed her head in the sink and drank right from the faucet.
"Clem, are you okay?" asked Sarah as she hastily set her mug down without tasting it.
"It's awful," griped Clem as turned off the faucet. "Is it supposed to taste like that?"
Looking at Patty, Clem saw the woman grimacing as she swallowed. "No," she choked. "It's stale as hell. I was hoping since it wasn't opened, it'd still taste good, but I guess that was wishful thinking." Patty groaned, then started spooning more sugar into her mug.
"What are you doing?" asked Sarah.
"Same thing I do with any crappy coffee, dump a shitload of sugar in it," said Patty as she started stirring vigorously.
"But what's the point if it tastes bad?" asked Clem.
"I told you, this stuff can help keep your energy up, and I want to be alert while I'm standing watch." Patty took a deep breath, then hurriedly drank from her mug.
"Standing watch for what?"
Clem's question was answered first by a loud slurping sound, then a disgusted sigh as Patty wiped her lips. "Keep watch while you two show Omid that playground."
"I don't know if I want to do that," said Sarah.
"Yeah, well, I think the little man does." Patty pointed to the door, which Omid was heading down the steps to reach.
"Omid!" Sarah rushed off to collect the fleeing toddler.
"You're up for clearing out a couple more blocks today right?" Clem turned around and looked up at Patty. "For Omid?"
Clem saw the eager look in Patty's eyes and the determined smirk on the corner of her mouth. The girl looked down at her mug, then started spooning sugar into it.
"Clem?" said Sarah. "What are you doing?"
"I'm getting ready," said Clem as she started stirring. "We're going to that playground."
"That's the spirit." Patty looked at Sarah. "You gonna get ready too?"
"I think I can get ready without drinking that stuff," insisted Sarah.
"All right, I guess I'll just have a double then." Patty poured some sugar into the remaining mug and started stirring. Looking at the woman as she gripped her mug, a smile crept across Clem's face.
"Cheers," said the girl as she thrust the mug forward.
"Cheers." Patty tapped her mug against Clem's, and the pair raised them to their lips. Even all the sugar couldn't make the stale coffee taste good, instead providing a mere hint of sweetness that barely diluted its rancid flavor. Clem swallowed as much as coffee as she could, then gasped for air. The aftertaste was horrid, and she felt a little sick, but seeing she had only half a cup left, Clem quickly forced herself to finish the coffee and slammed the mug down.
"Ready partner?" asked Patty as she put her mug down, trying to hide her disgust for the drink.
"Ready," said Clem, doing her best to conceal her own disgust.
"All right, we can use my bike to—"
"Wait." Clem rushed to the sink and hurriedly slurped up a few handfuls of water, then immediately drank some more.
"Feeling better?" teased Patty.
Clem let out a long and very relieved sigh. "Okay…" she said between deep breaths. "Now I'm ready."