Three Orphan Pilgrimage (The Alternative to the Final Season)

by J. Gray Dingler

A story about three kids on a post-apocalyptic road trip, and the sequel to Young and Young at Heart. Their reprieve from a world torn apart by the dead coming to a close, a ten-year-old girl and her best friend set out on a journey to find a place to call home for not only themselves but also for the baby boy that they promised to take care of. [Art:Albaharu. Some M-Rated Content]

50. Mobile

"Come on, start already." Clementine watched as Sarah pressed a button on the dashboard. They both could hear the generator making a cranking sound, but it wouldn't start. "Let's give it a shake."

"Another?" asked Clem.

"I don't know what else we can do," shrugged Sarah. "Other than go looking for a diesel generator."

"Do they even make those?" asked Clem as she stepped out of the RV.

"Yeah, they do," assured Sarah as they pair navigated past the gas pumps.

"Why haven't we taken one then?" asked Clem as she buttoned her jacket, finding the crisp morning air a bit chillier than she preferred.

"This one has been pretty good to us," said Sarah as she grabbed hold of the generator. "It's only lately it's been giving us trouble."

"But it's just going to keep giving us trouble." Clem grabbed her side of the generator. "And one day, it's not going to work at all."

"Let's just try to get it to start today, then we'll worry about one day." The pair hoisted the generator slightly off the ground, something Clementine found hard to do while it was filled with fuel, then proceeded to swing it slightly with Sarah's help. Clem could feel the gas inside sloshing around, which Sarah speculated helped stimulate the fumes needed to start the generator. Clem didn't know if that was true but shaking the generator always got it to start before, except this time.

"Okay, that should be enough," spoke Sarah between deep breaths.

"I hope so," said Clem as she set the generator down.

"You two okay down there?" Clem looked up to see Patty watching them from on top of the gas station.

"We're fine, we're just trying to get the generator to start." Clem wiped the sweat from her brow and followed Sarah back into the RV. "We really should just get another generator, we're gonna have to eventually."

"I know," said Sarah as she sat down in the driver's seat. "But I wanted to hold onto this one for as long as we could."

"Why?" asked Clem.

"Because, it hooks into the Brave and runs stuff like the fridge and the TV," said Sarah. "Even though we could get another generator, I don't think we could find another one that works with the RV."

"But we don't even use that stuff," reminded Clem.

"I know, but I was hoping we could someday, like if we ever found anywhere safe to stay. Plus, if the generator dies, it's like a part of the Brave dies, you know?" Sarah looked Clem in the eye, then turned away. "Never mind, it's stupid."

"No, I get it," assured Clem as she placed a hand on Sarah's shoulder. "You've worked really hard to take care of the Brave, just like Christa told us to. It makes sense you don't want to just leave a part of it behind."

"Yeah, but we'll probably have to soon." Sarah sighed, then pressed a button on the dashboard. The pair listened as the generator sputtered in the distance, exchanging disappointed looks as it did, then they heard a slight bang followed by a familiar mechanical humming. "But not today!"

Sarah smiled at Clem, who smiled back. The girls headed back outside and quickly got to work pumping fuel. It was a routine task they had done dozens of times, but they moved with the utmost focus. They weren't sure if they could restart their generator again and didn't want to waste time trying today, there was too much to do.

The girls worked fast; Clem filling cans with diesel and Sarah quickly measuring out fuel stabilizer. After the first few containers, Sarah started running diesel over to the Brave and filling its tank before running back to measure out more stabilizer. They didn't want a single empty can left when they were done today.

Glancing skyward, Clem could see it was still early in the morning. They were making good time and Sarah had started storing the filled diesel cans, meaning the RV's gas tank was already full. Moving the tube into the next empty container, Clem watched as Sarah brought over the hoses they used for siphoning gasoline. The older girl was already lowering one of the tubes into the appropriate fuel tank when Clem felt a chill shoot up her spine.

"Wait, did you hear that?" Clem shut off the pump and picked up the baby monitor sitting on the pavement.

"What's wrong?" asked Sarah as she moved to Clem's side.

"I thought I heard Omid crying." The girl tried turning up the volume on the monitor only to discover it was already as high as it would go.

"I'll go check on him," said Sarah. "I'll be right—"

"Dah-bah!" yelled the boy over the monitor before giggling loudly.

"I guess he was just laughing," said Clem as she breathed a sigh of relief.

"It's just as well, this was our last diesel can," said Sarah as she carefully poured a small amount of fuel stabilizer into the container. "It's time we got started on the gasoline."

"Right." Clem started unscrewing the hoses they used for diesel while Sarah brought over empty gas cans.

"Everything okay down there?" yelled Patty.

"Fine," said Clem as she attached a new hose to the pump. "What about you? Do you see anything coming?"

"Nothing yet," reported Patty. "Here's hoping it stays that way."

"Are you ready?" asked Sarah as she set a container of fuel stabilizer next to the empty gas cans.

"Just about," said Clem as she stuck the hose into a fuel can. "Okay."

Sarah turned on the pump and gasoline started flowing into the empty container. Like before, the two worked in conjunction and filled the cans at a brisk pace. Watching the liquid pour into the can, Clem noticed it appeared closer to an off-brown than yellow at this point. Watching Sarah rush some gas over to Patty's motorcycle, Clem couldn't help wondering if they were doing all this for nothing.

Filling up the last can, Clem shut off the pump and Sarah poured in the fuel stabilizer. The pair looked at each other for a moment, surprised they were already done, then started cleaning up. They shut off the generator, emptied the leftover gas out of the hoses, and carried the filled gas cans over to motorcycle. As the pair went to collect the generator, they saw Patty approaching.

"I'm guessing we're done already," said the woman as she threw the rifle over her shoulder. "What time is it?"

"Um… half past eight," said Sarah as she checked her watch.

"Damn, I know we said we'd get the gas first thing in the morning, but I didn't think we'd finish that fast." Patty took a breath and looked down at the generator. "Well, let's put this thing up; get the creeper."

"The what?" said Sarah.

"Creeper?" asked Clem.

"You know, the board with the wheels on it," said Patty.

"You call it a creeper?" asked Clem.

"Me nothing, that's what every mechanic calls them."

"Really?" asked Sarah.

"That's at least what my dad called it." Patty removed the creeper from the Brave and set it next to the generator. Working with Sarah, Patty loaded the generator into the RV while Clem put away the pump and the hoses.

"Well, this is it," said Patty as she shut the Brave's storage compartment. "We got the gas, it's time to head out."

"Let me just get my stuff," said Clem.

"Yeah, and I should double check my things while I'm at it." Patty offered the rifle back to Sarah.

"Just hold onto it for today, you might need it," said Sarah. "And I'll get you my machete too."

"Right, right." Patty sighed softly, then headed for her motorcycle.

"Is she okay?" asked Sarah.

"I think she's nervous," said Clem.

"Well, we've never really been to a big city before," said Sarah as she headed back into the RV.

"We went to Orlando," reminded Clem as she followed after Sarah.

"No, we moved around the edge of Orlando to get to Disney World, then went right back to checking small towns. And Jacksonville was so messed up we couldn't even get into it."

"Okay, but what about Titusville?" asked Clem.

"Titusville wasn't that big a city and both times we went there… you almost died." Clem looked over at Sarah and saw the fear welling up in her friend's eyes. "I… I guess I'm nervous too."

"It's going to be okay Sarah," assured Clem as she moved in close. "What happened in Titusville…" Clem found herself biting her lip as memories of that place flooded back into her mind. "I was stupid… and careless… and I shouldn't have been."

"You did your best, and—"

"And I could have died and left you and OJ alone, all because I thought I could do everything myself," stated Clem, her voice tinged with guilt. "But I'm going to be smart this time, and careful, and I'll have Patty. It'll be just like when you and her figured out how to get all that food from Titusville the third time we went there. That time nothing went wrong because you were both smart and careful."

Looking into Sarah's eyes, Clem could see her words were doing little to ease the older girl's anxious mind. "I'm just worried," said Sarah as she turned away. "We've always stayed away from the big cities, and now you and Patty are going into one. Who knows what's in Mobile?"

"That's why we're going, to find out."

"I know but…" Sarah sighed. "Why don't you go check on Omid? I'll get your stuff ready."

Clementine watched as Sarah shuffled away and grabbed a stool. She felt an urge to go to her friend, but decided to check Omid first. Clem headed into the bedroom and found the boy standing on the bed. She watched as he tried to maintain his balance, swaying in place. A smile suddenly formed on Omid's face as he pumped his legs. He didn't quite manage a jump but falling forward and bouncing off the soft mattress was more than enough to make the toddler laugh out loud.

"I used to love jumping on my bed," said Clem as she sat down next to Omid. "Hard to believe that was only a few years ago." Clem watched as Omid stood up and tried jumping again, just to land in another fit of giggles as he belly-flopped back onto the bed. "You need to be careful though, you don't want to fall off the bed," said Clem as she took hold of the boy. "I jumped too high once when I was six years old and bumped head on the end of the bed. I cried for so long…"

"Muh-men." No matter how many times Clementine saw Omid looking at her, it never failed to make her smile.

"Can you say, Clementine? Clem-en-tine."

"Kem-men," said Omid.

Clementine wrapped her arms around Omid and tenderly embraced the boy. "You be good for Sarah while I'm gone, okay?"

"Dah-kuh," said Omid.

"I love you."

"Muh-boo."

Clementine let go of Omid and headed for the door. She heard the boy laughing as she left the bedroom, which just made her smile all over again. Approaching the dining table, Clem found Sarah hunched over the atlas, which was laid out next to Clem's backpack and tomahawk.

"Everything okay?" asked Clem.

"I'm just double checking to make sure I gave Patty the right directions," explained Sarah as she studied the atlas.

"It's just one road that takes us there, right? I'm sure it's fine," said Clem as she opened her backpack. "Did you already pack me a canteen?"

"And a couple of mixed fruit, and a can opener, and a box of bullets."

"Bullets?"

"In case you need more, and you should take this." Sarah grabbed a black leather case and hooked it to Clem's belt.

"More bullets?" asked Clem as she flipped the case open and removed the spare magazine tucked inside.

"That's for if you run out and need to reload quickly. And I think you should take this too." The older girl held up an ankle holster with a small pink pistol tucked inside.

"Another gun?"

"In case you drop your gun or if… someone takes it from you."

"I don't know…"

"Please? You don't know what you're going to find in Mobile, and you just said you were going to be careful."

Clem didn't like to think about using her gun because she only used it when things went wrong, and bringing a second gun just made her think about how much worse things could be. But between Sarah's overwhelming concern and the unknown awaiting her, Clem found her hand moving to collect the second firearm.

"I also sharpened my machete yesterday," said Sarah as Clem strapped the pistol to her ankle. "And I got some extra rifle and pistol bullets for Patty." Clem looked up to see Sarah with a machete slung over her shoulder and a couple of boxes of ammunition clutched in her hand.

"We'll be okay Sarah," assured Clem as she grabbed her backpack.

"I'm just—"

"Trying to keep us safe, I know. You're doing a great job." The girl's compliment finally got Sarah to crack a slight smile.

"I also packed you some freeze-dried ice cream," spoke a bashful Sarah. "In case you want a quick snack."

"Thanks. I'll call you on the radio as soon as we get to Mobile."

"That's over twenty miles away. The radios might not work that far."

"Maybe they will," said Clem with a smile.

The pair headed back outside to find Patty smoking in front of her bike. She was busy wrapping her red scarf around her neck when the girls came up behind her.

"Patty?" The woman turned around to reveal she had a lit cigarette in her mouth. "I thought you could use some extra bullets," said Sarah. "Along with my machete."

"Yeah, more bullets, that sound good," mumbled the woman, sounding almost sarcastic. She stomped out her cigarette and then took the ammo and machete Sarah was carrying.

"You remember how to get to Mobile, right?" asked Sarah as Clementine stowed her backpack in Patty's trailer.

"Interstate Ten leads right over the bay," recited Patty as she secured the machete to the bike's saddlebag. "Simple."

"And you've got plenty of fireworks?" asked Sarah as she checked the straps holding the rifle to the bike.

"If we didn't we could always grab some more from over there." Patty pointed at the store across the street with the big sign that read 'Alabama Fireworks World'. "I really don't know about using fireworks to draw out the dead, we've never needed to do that before."

"We've never been to a big city before," said Clem. "There might be tons of walkers in Mobile, the fireworks will let us see them before it's too late."

"It'll also let anyone still alive know where we are too," added Patty.

"We talked about this," said Sarah. "We all agreed we're going to just live and let live if we ever meet anyone alive."

"Yeah, I remember," said Patty. "We see anyone and we'll just play it cool, not cause any trouble, and politely leave the first chance we get."

"But if they're in trouble we're gonna help them," added Clem.

"Assuming it's something me and you can handle," said Patty.

"And if they want us to go somewhere, or they want to come with us, we tell them we need a day to think about it," continued Clem. "We'll give them a place to meet us tomorrow and then we'll come home as quick as we can."

"And once we're back we can discuss if we want to actually meet up with whoever we saw," said Patty as she checked the motorcycle's tires.

"That's right, and…" Clem watched as Sarah struggled to remember any more advice.

"And what?" prodded Clem.

"I… I guess that's everything." Sarah suddenly met eyes with Clem, then moved in close. Clementine instinctively opened her arms and the girls tenderly hugged each other. The warmth of Sarah's embrace and the gentle sound of her breathing caused the rest of the world to just disappear for a brief moment.

"I love you," whispered Sarah.

"I love you too," Clem whispered back.

"And you be careful Patty," said Sarah as she let go of Clem.

"I will, believe me," said the woman with a sense of anxiousness.

"Okay then," said Sarah as she took a step back towards the RV. "You two take care of each other."

"We will." Clem collected her helmet and climbed onto the back of the motorcycle. As Patty sat down, Clem heard her mumbling something but couldn't make out the words. The woman turned the key, and there was a familiar stalling sound. Usually, Patty would usually start swearing at this time, but she remained oddly quiet as she turned the key again. The engine sputtered for a few seconds before cranking into a steady mechanical hum.

"Only took two tries today… lucky us." Clem wrapped her arms around the woman's waist and the motorcycle tore out of the gas station and onto the open road, the cold wind whipping at the girl's face as they shot down the road. Looking over her shoulder, Clem kept her eyes on Sarah and the Brave for as long as she could. The older girl disappeared into a dot as they drove away, then the RV faded into the horizon as it was replaced by the trees surrounding both sides of the road.

Looking ahead, Clementine caught sight of a road sign that said Mobile was twenty-six miles away before it zoomed past her. They had been talking about checking out Mobile for a couple of weeks now but it always seemed so distant to Clem. But now they were speeding towards it and God only knew what else in some fleeting hope Mobile's fate was somehow different from all the other cities Clem had seen since the outbreak.

The motorcycle sped through an underpass, its engine echoing against the walls before shooting out the other side. Clem briefly eyed the intersection they drove past before it disappeared into the trees that surrounded them. She didn't see much, but what little she saw was familiar. Cheap motels, a big gas station, and a couple of restaurants all crowded around the four lanes of highway; likely just another ghost town picked clean long ago.

Towns near the interstates and big cities were probably the first places people looted. That had been the case for Clem when she stayed on the outskirts of Macon. The others had spent months scavenging food from the surrounding area, just trying to hold out until rescue came. But it never came, and what did come forced them to flee. Even if that never happened, they would have had to go soon because there wasn't anything left for them.

Another underpass, and this one was isolated compared to the last, surrounded mostly by winding offramps and onramps. Shooting past the intersection, the trees surrounding the roads suddenly gave way to grassy fields that immediately gave way to water. The interstate had become a bridge now and they were crossing over the bay. There were big flat chunks of land on Clem's right, some of which the bridge passed over, but on her left was just open sea, likely the Gulf of Mexico. The air was much cooler over the water and carried a briny smell with it.

Clem felt the bike slowing down and peeking past Patty she could see abandoned cars on the road. Most of them looked like they had been pulled aside, but occasionally Clem felt the bike shifting from under her as Patty swerved past a semi-truck left in the middle of the road. It all made her think back to Titusville, and how they just barely managed to escape the carnage on a bridge by blindly charging ahead. They were lucky to suffer only a flat tire, and Clem found herself wishing they suffered no worse on this trip.

In the distance, Clem could see something poking up from the horizon. At first, she thought it was a radio tower, but then a building came into view beneath it and she thought it was a big church. But then much more of the building beneath that came into view and it was clear this was a skyscraper. And as they drew closer, another skyscraper sprouted up from the horizon along with more big buildings, despite them still being at least a few miles away.

She had never seen Jacksonville except from a great distant through her binoculars, and Titusville was only big when compared to other small towns according to Sarah, meaning Clem hadn't been in a big city since Savannah. She had been warned to stay away from them, and if she hadn't she probably would have anyway; Clem had found nothing but death and despair in Savannah, and doubted she'd find anything else in other cities anymore.

And yet they were closing in on one now, it looming ever bigger with each passing second they sped down the road. Clem could already feel her mind second guessing this decision, and yet it was still drowned out by the faint hope of finding something—anything that told her there was still a better world to be found beyond months and years of scavenging every backwater town in the country until they inevitably ran out of food to find.

Clem felt the bike slow down again and looking around she could see the land closing in around the bridge as they pushed closer to Mobile. Seeing more buildings come into view, Clem felt her chest tightening. Seeing those skyscrapers, all those floors, just forced her to think about how many people had been there, and may still be there, and what they were like now. The outbreak had done terrible things to people, which often seemed to lead to those people doing terrible things to other people.

Savannah had Crawford, a society that turned away anyone in need, and eventually turned on each other. After that was Shaffer's, a village who took in everyone they found, regardless if those people wanted to be there or not. And then there had been Valkaria, who baited people to do their biddings with promises of paradise built on lies and the suffering of others.

But even as those terrible memories flooded back into her mind, Clem couldn't ignore her need for others as she clung to Patty, the woman whose aid had been invaluable since they were forced to live on the road again. And before her was Sarah, who had helped to raise Omid despite barely knowing his parents. And there were Omid's parents themselves, and all the others before them whom Clem felt forever indebted to.

Feeling the bike slowing to a stop, Clem prayed that Mobile had more people like them and not like the ones who had left her with so many scars, both physically and mentally. She recalled the lone soldier they met when they first left Spokeston, who had spoken of a town with people who treated children right. It seemed so simple then, but now it almost sounded too good to be true.

"Oh, this is just great."

Patty's words were followed by a sudden stop. Clem found her hand immediately moving to her gun as she looked for signs of danger. The section of the interstate they were on was sloping down and it had more wrecked cars cluttering the road, but she didn't see anything moving. Past the walls surrounding the sides of the road were grassy fields and some large warehouses that partially blocked Clem's view of Mobile's skyline, which was gleaming in the morning sun.

"What's wrong?" Clem whispered to Patty.

"That." Patty pointed ahead of them. Past the mess of long abandoned cars cluttering this section of the road, Clem could see the interstate sloped down and under the land, leading up to a couple of dark tunnels. "Sarah didn't say anything about this."

"Maybe we could just go around, on a different road?" Looking behind them, Clem spotted a break in the wall leading to a smaller path that moved away from the interstate. "How about over there?"

"Better than going down, that's for sure." Patty slowly turned the bike around, carefully maneuvering around a rusted station wagon that looked like it had tried to jump the short wall separating the lanes of traffic. The bike moved back up the incline and turned onto the concrete path. It was a narrow walkway winding through a grassy field, likely made for pedestrians and not vehicles, but the bike was slim enough to ride along it.

The path eventually opened up into a backlot tucked away behind a small brick building. Driving past its gate, the pair found themselves evaluating their surroundings. Ahead of them was an empty lot that looked like it was used for construction, and beyond that they could see the rest of Mobile, and what separated them from it.

"I thought we already across the bay," said Clem as she looked out at the water bordering the empty lot. "Is that—"

"Hold on." Patty revved the bike and pushed forward, driving over the sidewalk and into the lot itself. Clem clutched the woman tightly as they zigged around a mound of broken cinder blocks, sped past a pile of rotting lumber, and kicked up dirt in their wake as the bike rushed towards where the water met the land. Clem was about to tell Patty to stop when she felt the bike swerve to a sudden stop that made her stomach drop.

"God dammit…"

Clem kept her eyes shut until her head stopped spinning, then looked up to find a grand river spread out before her. The murky water stretched out in both directions as far as she could see, the city they sought still so far out of reach.

"Now what?" asked Clem. "How do we get across?"

"We don't," said Patty as she turned the motorcycle around. "We go under it." Clem saw they were facing the interstate again and realized the only way they could get into Mobile was to take the tunnel. "But before we do that, we might as well scope out as much as we can from here." Patty put the bike's kickstand down and turned off the engine.

Clem retrieved her binoculars and started surveying the distant shoreline while Patty dug through her bike's trailer. There were trees lining most of the shore, which made it impossible for Clem to see the streets. Beyond the trees, she spotted a couple of towering glass office buildings, a very long white building with a green roof and a steeple, and in the distance another tall building with an oddly curvy and uneven roof.

"I gotta say, this is not what I was expecting to see in Alabama." Clem looked over to see Patty planting a bottle rocket in the dirt. "Those buildings have a real arty-farty look to them. They look more like what I'd expect from some upscale west coast city where everyone thinks they're an artist."

"Why are you setting up a bottle rocket?" asked Clem. "We still haven't even made it into the city yet."

"Yeah, exactly," said Patty as she removed a lighter from her jacket. "Let's make sure we're not walking into an army of those things before we risk our asses in some ominous tunnel." Patty knelt down to light the bottle rocket. "You watch the city for any movement, I'll watch the road in case something on this side of the river hears us and comes running. And be ready to hop on the bike if we need to make a quick getaway."

"Got it." Clem took a step back and watched as Patty lit the fuse. The rocket sparked for a few seconds before blasting off in the direction of the river. The explosion of light was almost impossible to see in the morning sky, but the loud bang was sharp and clear as ever. Clem kept her eyes open but couldn't see anything moving on the other side of the river. It was also dead quiet except for the sound of the river rustling.

"See anything?" whispered Patty.

"Nothing," said Clem.

"Yeah, and I don't hear anything either," said Patty. "It's almost eerie how quiet it is. You're sure bottle rockets work on walkers?"

"I've seen it," said Clem. "But walkers move slow, and I can't see much from here though."

"I guess we'll just need to get closer." Patty groaned to herself, then climbed back on the bike. The pair returned to interstate and headed back down the incline towards the tunnels. They were pitch black inside and hung open like bottomless voids in the land itself. Clementine felt nauseous as they moved closer, only to feel dizzy when the bike spun around suddenly.

"What are you doing?" asked a startled Clem.

"I don't want to risk driving into that tunnel only to find it's blocked off somewhere," said Patty as she turned the bike around so it was aimed away from the tunnels. "There'd be no room to turn around and we'd have to walk the bike back the whole way."

"So we have to walk the rest of the way?" asked Clem.

"Unless you want to head north and hope there's a bridge we can cross."

Clem thought on Patty's words, then looked over her shoulder at the tunnel. It seemed to beckon to her, almost challenging the girl to come forward. Clem was afraid, but looking back at Patty she felt the courage to get off the bike.

"Let's get ready," said Clem as she opened the trailer. The pair quickly collected their gear, donned their raincoats, and checked their weapons before walking up to the entrance of the tunnels.

"So which one?" asked Patty as she eyed the two tunnels. "Left or right?"

"I don't know," said Clem. "Which one do you think we should take?"

"Well, the bike is already on the right side of the road," noted Patty. "If we have to make a run for it, it'd save us a few seconds to not have to hop the center wall to get back on it."

"So the right one," concluded Clem.

"Seems like as good a guess as any."

Clem handed a set of firecrackers to Patty and the woman pulled a lighter from her pocket. Patty lit the fuse and hurled the firecrackers into the right tunnel, then grabbed the rifle on her back while Clem drew her pistol.

Clementine nearly jumped when the firecrackers went off, sounding like gunshots as they against echoed the walls of the underpass. The sudden flashes of light would briefly illuminate the interior, revealing images of crashed cars and bodies lying on the pavement just past the entrance. Clem kept her eyes glued on the tunnel and her finger on the trigger. The strobing effect created by the firecrackers was causing the shadows to flicker, which played tricks with Clem's eyes as she looked for any signs of movement. As suddenly as they had started, the firecrackers went silent, and the tunnel was dark again.

Clem stood there, her arms stiff as she clutched the gun in her trembling hands and her knees shaking as she watched and listened. Briefly glancing at Patty, she could see the woman was doing the same; waiting for something horrible to come. Clem expected an uneven chorus of moans and a swarm of walkers to come flooding out of the tunnel any second, or at the very least the sound of someone running out to meet them echoing down the tunnel. But nothing emerged, and the area was dead silent. Clem wasn't sure how long they stood there, but it felt like an eternity.

"I guess nothing is coming," said Patty as she approached her bike. "At least, not yet." Patty removed her key from the bike's ignition and then looked down at Clem. "Ready?"

"I hope so."

"Me too."

"Let me just call Sarah and tell her we're okay." Clem removed the radio from her belt and pressed the talk button. "Sarah, are you there?" Clem waited for a response, but didn't receive one. "Sarah?" Clem fiddled with the knobs and checked the radio for any problems. The volume was turned all the way up, she was on the right channel, and the slight clicking sound when she pressed the button meant it was still working, but still there was no answer. "Sarah? Can you hear me?"

"She probably can't," said Patty. "We're probably too far away."

"Yeah, I knew that, but I was kind of hoping I'd get lucky."

Clem put the radio away and took out her flashlight instead, likely as ready as she was ever going to be to enter this tunnel. Right away the pair found cars piled up near the entrance and dead bodies lying on the ground. Patty used Sarah's machete to stab the corpse's heads, fearful they weren't entirely dead, but not one of them stirred when attacked. Checking a body with her flashlight, Clem searched for signs of how the person had died, but the body was so rotten it was little more than a human-shaped lump of blackened flesh in soiled clothes.

Crawling past the blockage of abandoned vehicles at the entrance, the pair found more cars and bodies clogging the way forward. They proceeded slowly, stopping to stab downed corpses and checking the wrecked vehicles for potential hazards before progressing a few feet to repeat the whole routine. Clem began to worry it would take them all day to get into the city at this rate, but after a few hundred feet the bodies began to thin and then the cars disappeared from the tunnel altogether, allowing them to walk freely.

But at this point, the faint light from the tunnel entrance was gone and suddenly Clementine felt very alone. The darkness was suffocating, their flashlight's beams seeming being swallowed by the blackness as the sounds of their footsteps echoed against the empty concrete walls that surrounded them, cutting through the dead silence that seemed to be following them. And with every passing step, the air grew hotter and stickier, and Clem had no idea why.

She moved in close to Patty, fearful she'd lose the woman if she didn't, then reached for her hand in desperation. Clementine breathed a little easier when she felt Patty's gloved fingers wrapping around her own. They didn't say anything to each other, but just knowing someone was beside her made it easier for Clem to keep walking forward through the unknown until they eventually spotted a faint dot of light piercing the darkness.

Clem started walking faster as did Patty, and then they started running, eager to escape this dark and lonely place. As the light grew bigger, Clem felt her feet knocking against something small and lightweight. Checking the ground with her light, she could see old cans and other bits of trash lining the floor, and looking ahead she could see more garbage paving the way to the entrance. At first, it was just loose bits of junk piled up around her ankles, but before long she was nearly tripping over filled bags of trash as she desperately tried to hurry to the end of the tunnel.

Clem was beginning to fear they would never make it to the other end of the tunnel. The garbage was growing thicker with ever step, the girl finding herself forced to crawl over portions of the ground that were stacked so thick with tied black bags that walking was impossible. Eventually, she had to start walking on the garbage just to keep moving forward, her feet sinking down as she stepped on things she didn't want to think about.

The air continued to grow stickier and as they grew closer to the light. Clem could see small black dots dancing in front of her eyes now. They were flies, or some other insect, and every step they took seemed to cause more of them to scatter into the air in front of her. She could hear them now, zipping past her ears as she marched ahead. At first it was just a couple of stray buzzing sounds, a few steps further and it became an uneven chorus of bugs circling around her head, then it was all she could hear.

The noise was so loud no it was practically drilling through her ears and right into her very mind. Clem had trouble seeing Patty through the flies and the bags of trash that were sloping upward into a mound that led up to the light at the end of the tunnel. Clem felt something wet oozing through a bag she stepped on as flies kept smacking into her face, making the girl's skin crawl with every step.

Suddenly, Clem's foot knocked into something heavy and the girl fell forward. Her flashlight went flying out her hand as her head smacked into a trash bag with something hard in it. Struggling to find a solid footing on the bags of waste beneath her, Clem looked up to find only pitch blackness. She couldn't see the light from before, or Patty, or her own flashlight, and all around her she could hear the flies, buzzing so loudly they sounded like an angry swarm ready to strike.

"Patty!" screamed Clem as loud as she could through her respirator. "Where are you! Patty!" Clem felt something strong grab her arm and the girl spun around in a hurry.

"Come on!" Patty handed Clem her flashlight, then gripped the girl's free hand tightly as they marched through the trash and towards the light just ahead. They had to climb on top of the bags now, the mound too steep to keep walking up it. With every step Clem took, she felt her arms and legs brushing up against something new and spine-crawling, but she also felt Patty's hand pulling her to the top.

Clem could see the end of the tunnel now, it was just a small opening at the very top where the light was shining in, but that was more than enough for her and Patty to fit through. As they neared the top, Clem found her feet standing on something much sturdier and stronger than a trash bag. Able to secure her footing now, Clem started running for the exit and Patty raced alongside her. The girl burst past the end of the tunnel and back outside only to find the ground suddenly disappear from beneath her.

"Clem!" The girl felt a forceful tug on her arm pulling her backwards and onto even footing. Looking down, Clem saw the ground was a good five or six feet below her and that she was standing on the edge of a metal walkway.

"You okay?" asked the woman.

"Yeah," said Clem in-between deep breaths, grateful to not be face down on the pavement right now. "Thanks."

"Let's get off of this thing." Patty sat down on the edge of the walkway and hopped down. "Come on, I'll catch you." Clem sat down on the same spot and looked down to see Patty waiting beneath her, her arms wide open. Clem scooted off the edge and felt herself being pulled towards the ground only to land in Patty's arms. "I gotcha," said the woman as she set Clem down. "You okay?"

"Yeah, I think so," said Clem as she found her footing.

"Come on, let's find out where we are." Clem started following Patty up the incline, grateful to be free of that horrid dark trap. Looking around, she was surprised to see there were no cars in either lane of the road. Turning around, she saw what they had been standing on looked like some kind of scaffolding sitting on top a delivery van parked sideways across the road.

"I think I found a way up." Clem turned to find Patty gesturing at the tall wall bordering the road exiting the tunnel. Following Patty's finger, Clem could see she was pointing at a rope ladder hanging from the fence at the top. Clem hopped over the short wall betweens lanes of traffic and hurried over to the woman, who was racing towards the ladder. Patty climbed up first, reaching the top and moving out of sight for a moment before returning and signaling for Clem to come up next, which she did as fast as she could.

The wall must have been at least twenty feet tall, and each rung further up the ladder made Clem feel more uneasy. Nearing the top, the girl breathed a sigh of relief as Patty grabbed her arm and pulled her the rest of the way up. The fence the ladder was attached to ran right along the edge of the wall, leaving the pair only a narrow ledge to stand on. But the section of fence next to where the ladder was attached had been cut wide open, allowing them to slip inside only to find another tall brick wall looming over them.

"Well, we're off to a bad start," groaned the woman as she dusted off her jacket. "Thank God we had our masks on. Apparently these people are using these tunnels as a dump now."

"Not both of them," said Clem as she looked over the fence.

"Huh?" Clem pointed at the second tunnel, which had nothing blocking its entrance, nor any signs of trash being piled up near it, just a couple of orange road signs, both of which were turned out so as not to block the road. "Sonofabitch, we took the wrong one."

"Yeah…" sighed Clem as she peeled off a wrapper stuck to the bottom of her shoe. "At least we know which way to go on the way back."

"Assuming we get back."

Clem surveyed their surroundings and discovered the narrow section between the fence and the next wall where they were standing led towards an open courtyard. "Let's go this way."

Entering the courtyard, the pair found a small path circling around a grassy area with a lone tree. The red brick wall to their right was at least ten feet high, appeared thick enough to stand on, and surrounded the courtyard on one corner. In the opposite corner was the short black fence overlooking the underpass they just climbed up from intersecting with a couple of short buildings with red tiled roofs and big wooden doors. Clem also noticed a ladder resting in the narrow alley between the buildings.

"Clem, check this out." Patty was standing in the corner between the short buildings and the overlook. "Well now we know why they chose this tunnel to be their landfill." Outside the courtyard and besides the buildings was a parking lot that bordered the same fence the ladder was attached to. This side however was missing a much bigger section of the fence, and parked in its place was a massive dump truck backed up right to the edge. "Must have just dumped everything over the wall and tossed it into the nearest tunnel."

"Who did?"

Clem's question seemed to startle Patty, who immediately removed the rifle from her back. The woman turned to the buildings she was standing near and then turned back to Clem. Patty didn't have to say anything, Clem pulled her pistol and the duo headed towards the nearest door, guns at the ready and their hearts in their throats.

"We should knock," whispered Clem.

"I was afraid you were going to say something like that." Patty lowered her gun and raised her fist. She hesitated, then knocked twice on the door and backed up. "Anybody in there?" called Patty. "We're not here to cause any trouble. We're just out scavenging, that's all."

No answer, nor did Clem hear anything. Patty grabbed the doorknob and threw the door open, then jumped back and put both hands on her rifle. Clem kept a tight grip on her gun but kept it pointed down, in case anyone was watching her right now. Her eyes keep shifting around, just looking for anything that could be trouble, but she never saw anything.

"Let's check it out," whispered Patty as she moved up to the door. The woman stuck her head past the threshold and quickly pulled it back, then stepped inside. Clementine checked behind her one last time, then rushed in after Patty. The interior was full of shelves with greeting cards, brochures, and a counter with a cash register.

"Fort Conde: Mobile's Official Welcome Center." Clem turned to find Patty reading a large sign behind the counter. "That was some welcome."

"There's a lot of dust in here, and there're cards and stuff all over the floor," noted Clem. "I don't think anyone has been here in a long time."

"Yeah, but there had to have been people here at some point," said Patty. "All that garbage had to come from somewhere."

"But when? How do we know if there's anyone left?"

Patty thought about Clem's question, then headed back outside. "Come here, I'll boost you up to the roof," said Patty as she threw her rifle over her shoulder. "Maybe you'll see something."

"Wait, Patty." Clem watched as Patty grabbed hold of a blue picnic table.

"Please don't be nailed down." Patty grunted as she slowly pulled the table closer to the side of the building. "All right, hop up."

"Patty…"

"I know it looks a little steep, but—" Clem turned around and headed past the edge of the building. "Wait, Clem. I think we can…" Patty became very quiet as she saw Clem picking up the ladder that was lying on the ground.

"Let's just use this," she suggested.

"Oh… I guess I wasn't the first one to think to use the roof as a lookout."

The building wasn't very tall so their view from on top was limited, but they could see the surrounding area better, as well as a major four-lane road running along the river and towards the skyscrapers Clementine saw earlier. Taking out her binoculars, Clem scanned the streets and the nearby buildings for signs of anyone, alive or otherwise, but found nothing.

"Clem, look at this." Clem saw Patty was pointing to the empty lot across the street and examined it through her binoculars. The lot was full of crude crosses made of wood sticking out of the ground.

"Is that a graveyard?" asked Clem.

"Yeah, a recent one," said Patty. "Back in Miami, there were so many dead in the first few days that the military started digging up parks, golf courses, whatever they could just so they'd have somewhere to bury all the bodies. They'd always leave a cross where they'd bury someone, along with whatever that person had in their pockets when they found them."

"Why?"

"In case you wanted to find someone you knew," said Patty. "Those first few days were so chaotic there wasn't any time for calling the next of kin or filling out death certificates. You just had to hope your friends died carrying their driver's licenses or something else with their name on it. I remember spending a whole day picking up wallets at a golf course near my dad's old house just to see if he had died."

"Did he?" asked Clem in a quiet voice.

"If he did I never found out. After a while, the military stopped bothering to bury every corpse they found and just threw them into open graves where they'd burn them."

"You think the military has been here?" asked Clem.

"We haven't seen a single walker yet," mumbled Patty as she looked towards the river. "And the roads are clear."

"But where are they then?"

"They probably left after they used up all the food. That's what they did in Miami; just packed up and pulled out one night. I remember the morning after it happened, it was just dead quiet, like it is right now."

Clem found the silence that followed that comment unnerving. There weren't even any birds chirping, just a soft wind blowing through. Putting her binoculars down, she found it hard to believe she was standing in a major city. Even in Savannah, there had been walkers still roaming about that she could hear at times. But here, there was nothing.

"We should make a little noise, see if anything happens." Patty retrieved a bottle rocket from her backpack and looked for a spot to mount it. She managed to stick it between a couple of roof tiles and took a moment to aim it towards the main road. "We hear something we don't like, say an army of walkers marching this way, then we'll hop down and take the non-full-of-garbage tunnel back under the river. Sound good?"

"Yeah." Clem took a few steps back as Patty lit the bottle rocket. The fuse sparkled as it burned before the rocket took flight towards the river. A loud bang sounded and Clem looked and listened for anything responding to the rocket. But again, there was nothing new to see or hear, just more silence.

"We should just go back," suggested Patty.

"Why?" asked Clem.

"Because, if the military was here, which they were, and then they did leave, which it looks like they did, then they wouldn't have left anything worth taking anywhere in the city or a five-mile radius," said Patty.

"You don't know that," argued Clem.

"Uh yeah, I do," retorted Patty in a sharp tone. "You want to know what I did the first day after the troops ditched Miami? I spent the day—the entire day—looking for food, and you want to know what I found?"

"Um… nothing?"

"Damn right. And I didn't stay a second day because I knew, of the people left in town, there was more than a handful I didn't want to run into just because I went looking for something I wasn't going to find." Clem sighed as Patty headed back for the ladder. "Come on."

"Wait."

"Clem…"

"Up there." Clem pointed at the tallest building she could see. "From up there, we could see the whole city."

"And what do you expect to find exactly?"

"I don't know, but we should check more than one building before leave."

"Why?"

"Because we crawled through garbage to get here," retorted Clem. "The least we can do is look around for more than five minutes."

Patty scratched her head, then looked out at the skyscraper in the distance, its windows practically glowing as they reflected the morning sunlight. "Well, it doesn't look too far, and we could probably get there following the big road by the river."

"So you'll go."

"I guess," said Patty with a shrug. "But unless we see something amazing, we're going home right afterwards."

"Deal."

Clem climbed down with Patty and the two navigated their way around the welcome center and towards the main road. Along with the silence, Clem also found it eerie just how relatively neat and organized Mobile's streets looked compared to the other towns she had visited. They were moving north on a four-lane road, and there wasn't a single car on it. There wasn't even any pulled to the side. The only cars Clem could see were in a nearby parking lot, which had a vehicle neatly set in every single opening.

Approaching an intersection, Clem saw the remains of a roadblock. There were orange and white signs along with cement freeway dividers positioned in the road, but most of the signs were lying on the ground and the dividers for the north and south entrances had been pushed outward, as if something had crashed through them. Studying the dividers more closely, Clem saw the inside edges of them had been crushed into gravel that was lying on the pavement.

"Why don't we just check things out from this place and call it a day?" Clem looked up to see Patty gesturing to an office building looming over the intersection. It looked a lot like they one they were heading for, a tower of glass windows that narrowed into a spire at the top. It could pass for other skyscraper's twin if not for one detail.

"The other building is taller," dismissed Clem.

"Come on, this one is tall enough, we could see plenty from the top of it."

"We could see more from the taller one."

"Taller means more stairs to climb," argued Patty.

"Which means we'll see more," countered Clem. "It's going to take a while to get to the top of either building, we might as well go up the taller one."

Patty looked at Clem for a moment, then started walking. "Why do you always got to make so much sense?" Looking around, Clem found it odd what she was seeing. She had been so accustomed to gas stations and small two-story houses that moving under a pedestrian bridge that connected a parking garage to a two-block-long building with ornate steel arch entrances felt almost like she was exploring an alien planet. Looking at the building on her right, Clem saw the steeple she had seen from across the river, but the sign out front stated it was connected to a convention center, and not a church like she had expected.

Clem also found it difficult to grasp how orderly an empty city could be. Even the most thoroughly cleaned out town had signs of people just pushing through the chaos. Old cars moved only as far as needed to use the roads, broken windows, and trash left in the streets. Here, the roads were clear, the buildings looked undisturbed, and the only trash they had seen they had crawled through on their way here. Looking to her left, Clem could see the parking garage was neatly packed full of cars, just like the lot she had seen. It was as if someone had carefully closed the entire city before leaving.

Moving past the convention center, Clem could see a pair of gigantic cranes facing the river. Stepping away from the street, Clem discovered a pair of train tracks that ran alongside the road and right into the convention center. Moving in for a closer look, Clem saw the tracks passed through the entire building as part of a train tunnel that spanned the whole structure. Looking at the cranes, the girl approached a fence and discovered a yard just full of shipping containers and semi-trucks all crowded around the cranes, almost like a mob of children around their parents.

"Clem!" Looking over her shoulder, Clem could see Patty waving at her from the road. "Come on, this building you want to check out is over here."

"Coming." Clem hurried back to the road. She had been so distracted by the cranes she hadn't even noticed the skyscraper they were heading for was just across the street. The building was every bit as impressive looking up close as it was from afar, with tall poles displaying a variety of flags Clem didn't recognize just to the left of the entrance and a large standing torch made from gold sitting to the right.

Approaching the steps, Clem saw there were potted plants sitting outside, still welcoming visitors who never came anymore. A round emblem with the letters 'RSA' was adhered to the wall bordering the steps and above the tall panes of glass that made up the front was the words 'RSA TOWER' in big gold letters. The doors on the left had been covered by a blue tarp, whereas the ones on the right allowed Clem to see inside the lobby. The interior looked every bit as posh as the exterior, sporting marble floors and a massive wooden desk in the back.

"Well, this is the place. Looks as dead as everything else around here." Patty tried the door, only to find it locked. The woman took hold of her rifle and prepared to ram the butt of it into the glass, but stopped suddenly mid-swing. "Wait a minute." Patty lowered the gun and turned to the tarp pasted over the other half of the entrance. Peeling it back revealed the glass on those doors had already been broken. "Yeah, let's just do this the easy way for once."

Patty ducked under the door's handle and slipped inside, Clem following right behind her. Walking through the broken glass and into the lobby, the same thick silence that followed them everywhere in Mobile was inside as well. There were some dark red stains scattered across the marble floor, but little else to show signs of turmoil. Moving past the main desk, the pair entered a hall with elevators lining both sides. Patty approached an open one and stepped inside.

"Patty, they don't work."

"I know, I'm just trying to see how many floors we're going to have go up." Clem joined Patty in the elevator and saw a series of numbered buttons going up to the thirty-five. "Come on, we got a long climb ahead of us."

The duo located the stairwell and started climbing. It only took about five floors before Clem started having regrets about this idea. Between her gun, the second gun on her ankle, extra ammo, her tomahawk, a knife, radio, and a backpack that already had food, water, and a can-opener in it, Clem was already carrying a load, and toting it upstairs just made it feel heavier with every floor. Looking at Patty, she could tell the woman was every bit as tired as Clem was, and probably more than a little annoyed.

After fifteen floors, the pair decided to rest long enough to catch their breath. Curious about their surroundings, Clem suggested to Patty they explore the floor they were on. There was little to see, mostly empty offices and desks with now useless computers sitting on them. There were a couple of vending machines tucked away in a break room, but both of them had been left open by whoever cleaned them out of anything edible. At the very least, the view from the fifteenth floor was breathtaking, so much that Patty tried to convince Clem they could see well enough from here to not need bothering with the rest of the building.

Clem considered Patty's suggestion, but looking back to the window, she noticed the shorter skyscraper they passed on the way here blocked her view of the south side of town. Much to Patty's irritation, the duo continued upward. Around the twentieth-floor, Clem's legs were aching. At twenty-five, sweat started beading down her face and into her eyes. And at thirty, she was breathing so hard she had to pull her respirator off to get more air. But slowly, painfully, she soldiered on and reached the top floor, out of breath and in desperate need of rest.

"Fuh… finally," mumbled Patty as she clumsily pushed the door open. "Let's find somewhere… to sit down… I really need… whoa…"

"Wuh… what is it?" asked Clem as stumbled inside. "Did you… whoa."

The door exited out into a lavish lounge where pristine white sofa chairs surrounded glass coffee tables placed in front of the wall of windows that showed the entire city stretched out before them. The carpet had a subtle but refined pattern that complimented the ceiling tiles that matched the floor perfectly. There were paintings on the walls, expensive looking decorations adorning the counter, and leather bar stools stacked up by the windows that looked out at the city sprawled out below.

"Holy shit," said Patty as she walked further inside. "What is this place, the executive lounge?"

"I don't know."

Walking up to the windows, Clem could see the rest of the business district just below; its parking garages and office buildings all surrounding this one massive tower. Past that was the suburbs where clusters of houses surrounded churches, schools, and a big open park. And beyond that was just green, everywhere, broken up by nothing but distant roads that simply disappeared from sight where the land met the sky. Feeling as if she was standing above the whole world, Clementine found her hand moving to the glass without thinking about it, as if she could touch the horizon itself.

"Oh fuck yeah." Looking behind her, Clem saw Patty staring at a bar. "Please tell me they forgot something." Clem watched the woman hop the counter and immediately start checking the bottles behind it. Not interested in the bar, Clem moved through the lounge, passing by a grand piano and finding her way into a dining section as she followed along the windows.

Turning a corner, Clem found herself facing east. She knew because she could see the sun high in the sky in front of her. She could also see the river better from here, along with all the docks, cranes, warehouses, and even railroad tracks built right next to the water on both sides. Clem found herself wondering what this river looked like before the outbreak, imagining ships and trains coming and going all day while the streets were full of cars driven by people just living their lives.

Turning around, Clem spotted a kitchen and found herself moving to it purely on instinct. She checked the drink machines, only to find they were dry as a bone. The pots on the ovens were empty too, and heading through a thick door to a meat locker proved fruitless as well. Clem turned another corner and found an antique wooden pantry pushed up against the wall. The top the shelves had elaborate carvings of fish swirling around an emblem.

Sadly, the shelves themselves were almost completely empty, and further investigation revealed what little was on them was also completely empty. There were a couple of modern plastic shelves tucked into the corner that had more pots and pans on them but nothing edible, not even leftover spices. Turning away from the shelves, Clem found herself facing the windows again. She thought it was odd that such a view was buried in the back of the kitchen, but then she noticed a small curved table facing the windows.

"Hey partner," said Patty as she came around the corner. "See anything?"

"Not really," admitted Clem. "And I didn't find any food either. You were right, they didn't leave anything."

"Yeah, well, the military makes mistakes sometimes." Patty removed a wine bottle from behind her back.

"That's empty," noted Clem.

"Not quite." Patty shook the bottle and Clem could see a thin pool of liquid sloshing around in the bottom. "Probably just enough for us to share a drink. What do you say?"

"Now? While we're out?" asked Clem.

"Come on, it's New Year's," said Patty as she set the bottle on the table. "It is New Year's, right?"

"New Year's Eve," corrected Clem.

"That's what I meant," said Patty as she took off her backpack. "Nobody celebrates on New Year's, the partying is always done on New Year's Eve. Besides, I think we could use a lunch break after all those damn stairs."

"I am kind of hungry," realized Clem.

"And I'm a lot hungry." Patty took off her rifle, machete, raincoat, and respirator. "And I know I'm sick of wearing this crap." The woman pied her gear into a corner, then tossed her gloves on top. Clem, feeling she had spent enough time toting several pounds of equipment everywhere all day, shed her gear and tossed it next to Patty's. She was about to take a seat, but then felt then something clinging to her leg and groaned.

"Brought that ankle gun again I see," commented Patty.

"Sarah wanted me to take it," said Clem as she removed the gun and its holster. "She thought I might need it."

"Hopefully you won't," said Patty as Clem tossed the pistol into the pile.

Sitting down, Clementine took a deep breath and wiped the sweat off her face before fishing a canteen out of her backpack. The water was still fairly cool, probably because it was cold out this morning. After taking a long swing from her canteen, Clem retrieved her can of mixed fruit next. She was about to grab her can opener, but her head started to itch. Clem took off her hat and pulled the tie out of her hair.

"You look different with your hair down," said Patty as she pulled a can out of her own backpack. "In fact, you look different with hair at all. You wear that hat so much I was starting to think it was covering a bald spot."

"I just like wearing it," said Clem as she scratched her head. "I never see you without your jacket on." Patty immediately took off her leather jacket and tossed it aside, revealing a black sleeveless undershirt and her not entirely bare arms. "What's that?"

"A tattoo." Patty flexed her arm slightly to reveal the image of a blue butterfly on her left shoulder. "Like it?"

"Yeah, it's pretty."

"My dad flipped out when he saw it," said Patty as she grabbed a can opener from her backpack. "I told him, 'Be grateful I didn't get it on my ass like I had planned."

"You wanted a tattoo on your… butt?" asked a confused Clem.

"Nah, I just said that to piss him off." Patty opened the can in front of her, then started opening Clementine's.

"Is that why you got the tattoo?" asked Clem as she grabbed a spoon out of her bag.

"No, I just wanted a tattoo," said Patty as she opened Clem's can of mixed fruit. "And I didn't care if he didn't want me to."

"Why'd you pick a butterfly?"

"Because they can fly and they're beautiful, two things that appeal to me." Patty sighed softly to herself as she grabbed her spoon. "I never thought I'd be spending New Year's in Alabama. Of course, I never thought there was anywhere like this in Alabama either." Patty gestured to the window before sticking her spoon into the can sitting in front of her.

"This place is really nice," said Clementine as she fished out a chunk of pineapple from her own can. "I wish I could have seen it before the walkers. I wish I could have done a lot of things before the walkers…"

"Yeah, me too." Patty looked over at Clem. "But I imagine you wanted to do a lot more, seeing as you're only ten."

"I was eight when people started turning into walkers."

"Jesus…" Patty turned away from Clem and back to her single can meal.

"I guess I could never get a tattoo if I wanted to," realized Clem.

"You don't know, maybe we'll meet a tattoo artist or something," said Patty. "I mean, in that movie about that guy who couldn't remember things, he made his own tattoos with just an ink pen, a needle, and a lighter."

"But I couldn't do a lot of other things with pens and lighters," said Clem. "I always wanted to ride on a plane, but I never got to."

"I always wanted to try skydiving, I guess that's never going to happen."

Clem looked out the window at the now lifeless city just beyond the glass and sighed. She scraped some leftover syrup out of the can and popped it in her mouth. Clem savored the sweet sticky flavor for as long as she could, only to eventually swallow it and be forced to look down at her now empty can.

"Well, I think we could both use a drink." Patty grabbed the wine bottle she took and pulled the cork out. Clem watched as she poured what little liquid was left in a glass, then held the bottle upside over a second glass, allowing a tiny amount of wine to slowly drip into the bottom. After a few seconds, the dripping stopped and Patty set the bottle down. Looking at the glasses, there was barely enough liquid to cover the bottom of them.

"So, should we do the thing where we knock the glasses together?" asked Clem as she picked up her meager drink.

"People are usually drinking to something when they do that," said Patty as she grabbed her glass. "I really don't feel like drinking to another year of this crap. What do you want to drink to?"

"I… um… I don't know."

"I'll drink to that." Patty knocked her glass against Clem's then quickly downed what little wine she had. Clem looked at the bit of red liquid pooled at the bottom of her glass, then raised it to her lips. The wine was oddly sweet but still had a pungent aftertaste. Clem wasn't sure if she preferred it or whiskey, but seeing as they didn't have any more wine, it didn't matter.

"Well, I guess we should get going," reasoned Patty as she looked at her empty glass. "Not like anyone is bringing us dessert."

Clem's ears perked up upon hearing the word dessert. She grabbed her backpack and pulled out a foil bag stored in a plastic bag.

"What's that?" asked Patty.

"Ice cream," said Clem as she laid the bag on the table.

"What?"

"It's freeze-dried," said Clem as Patty picked up the bag. "We got it at the space center at Cape Canaveral."

"Is it any good?"

"Try it."

Patty shrugged and open the bag, removing the already opened foil bag inside. She grabbed a brown piece of dried ice cream and examined it, a skeptical look in her eyes. Patty turned to Clem, who just nodded at her. The woman shrugged and then popped the piece in her mouth. She looked disappointed as she chewed on it, then suddenly her eyes lit up. "Oh my God…"

"I tastes just like real ice cream, doesn't it," said Clem.

"It really does…" Patty sat stunned for a moment, then grabbed another piece of ice cream. "You and Sarah have been holding out on me," teased Patty as she chewed her ice cream. "When were you going to tell me you were keeping something as great as this in that RV?"

"I guess we just haven't thought about it lately," said Clem as she grabbed a piece of vanilla ice cream. "Sarah said we should save them for as long as we can."

"I guess you don't have many of these left," reasoned Patty.

"No, we got a whole box of them," said Clem as she looked at the food in her hand. "But Sarah said we'll probably never find any more of them… so we should make them last." Clementine popped the ice cream in her mouth, chewing it until the flavor came rushing onto her tastebuds, then letting it sit there for as long as she could. "Also, Omid really likes it, and since we can't get any more oranges to make juice, it's kind of his favorite food now."

"Well… we probably shouldn't eat up any more of this then. God knows what a picky eater the little man can be," said Patty as she placed the foil packet back in the plastic bag. "I appreciate you sharing it with me though. I never thought I'd eat ice cream again."

"Me neither before we found that," said Clem as she put the bag back into her pack. "I guess we're not going to find anything here, just like you said."

"Believe me, I wish I was wrong, but food was the first thing the military went after when they took over Miami," said Patty. "They spent most of their first week going door to door, just clearing out everyone's kitchens right in front of them."

"They just took people's food away from them?"

"Yeah, and they were good at it. If they saw your kitchen was empty, or you didn't have much food, they figured you hid it, and they'd toss the rest of the house looking for it. They'd even dig up the yard if it looked like someone had recently buried something."

"But why? Weren't they supposed to help people?"

"They always said it was for our own good, that they had to ration it to make it last, but I swear they were just hoarding it for themselves. The only time they went hungry was right before they left the rest of us to rot." Patty stared out the window at the empty city, then stood up. "Let's go. I've seen enough of this place."

"Yeah, me too."

Patty put her jacket and scarf back on while Clem tied her hair back into a bun. Her legs didn't ache, or at least not much, and her backpack was lighter after eating some of the food in it. As she put her raincoat back on, Clem found herself staring out at Mobile.

All their preparing and anxiety for this expedition, only to discover an empty city; nothing they could take, no clues to where they should go next, just nothing. As Clem put her respirator back on, she took one last look out the window, thinking if nothing else, she could at least enjoy the view.

"Well, we got a long walk back," said Patty as she threw the rifle over her shoulder. "You ready?" Clem kept staring out the window. "Yo, Clem, you ready to split?"

"In a minute," said Clem as she pulled out her binoculars.

"You see something?"

"Something…" Clem adjusted her binoculars and focused on a big gold dome west of the tunnel they came in from. "There's a hole in the roof of that building."

"So?"

"The building is a huge dome," said Clem as she handed the binoculars to Patty. "The big gold one, on the right."

"Yeah, I see it," said Patty. "And that is a big damn hole."

"Don't you think that's weird?" asked Clem. "All the other buildings look okay. How come that one is messed up?"

"I don't know, but I'm guessing you want to find out."

"Well, we don't have to," conceded Clem. "There's not going to be any food there."

"No, but it is close to where we came in," said Patty as she handed the binoculars back. "We've come this far, we might as well check it out before we leave."

"Really?"

"Maybe we'll get lucky and find something worthwhile, or some more wine at least," shrugged Patty. "It'd be nice if we had something to show for having crawled through this place's dump on the way in."

The pair secured the gear and began the long trek back down the stairs, which was a lot easier than the trip up them. Heading back outdoors, Clem saw it was early afternoon now and the air had warmed a little, making their walk back to the tunnel a tad more pleasant. Heading west, Clem kept a sharp eye on the sides of the road and the buildings they passed. There were rustic two-story structures, more neatly arrange parking lots, and even trees growing out of planters cut into the brick sidewalks, but no signs of danger.

Reaching a new intersection, Clem and Patty slowed to a stop as they could see the massive gold dome they were seeking come into view. The top of it was just poking above the buildings on the intersection that blocked the pair's view of the rest of the structure. Clem could see the hole now, which appeared much bigger this close to the building. A significant portion of the dome's roof was completely missing and the girl found it odd this opening seemed to line up perfectly with their limited view of the structure.

"Clem, check this out." Clem spun around and ran over to Patty, who was standing on the sidewalk. "Look at this streetlight, it's like something just pushed it over." Clem hadn't noticed the streetlight before, but now she could see it had been bent over at its base, which appeared crushed now.

"What could have done that?" asked Clem.

"I could think of one thing."

Patty eyed the hole in the dome and started moving down the street at a quick pace. Walking south on the road, Clem spotted a sign that read 'Mobile Civic Center' and an arrow pointing ahead. A large and very long brick building lined with trees blocked the pair's view of the dome from this street, but in the distance Clem could see dead trees rotting in the grass and a broken fence at the edge of the parking lot bordering the area. Patty ran ahead and Clem sprinted as fast as she could to catch up with the woman, bursting past the fence and into the lot.

"Oh God…" The parking lost was a mess of bodies splayed out across the blood-stained pavement like dead leaves. Clem found herself pulling her gun just as Patty raised her rifle. Edging forward slowly into the carnage, Clem could see shell casings, more blood, burn marks, and odd thick tracks all painted onto the asphalt like a grotesque canvass. Looking up, Clem could also see half-crushed cars seemingly pointing the way to the domed building missing a huge chunk of its roof.

Nearing the closest body, Patty put the rifle away and pulled a machete instead. Clem kept a tight grip on her gun and her eyes open as Patty approached the lifeless form. The blade was shaking in the woman's hands, and she kept looking up as if she was expecting an attack. Patty suddenly swung at the head and the blade made a sickening crack as it knocked the skull clean off.

Looking down at the now headless corpse, Clem noticed the faded green camo uniform it was wearing and the words 'U.S. Army' above the left chest pocket. Looking up, she saw Patty heading for next nearest corpse. Another quick swipe of the machete and it created another hollow cracking sound. The bodies were old, many of them withered to the point where they were little more than skeletons now.

Putting her machete away, Patty knelt down to grab a discarded automatic rifle lying on the ground. She checked to see if the gun was loaded, only to discover the weapon's magazine was missing. Cocking it didn't produce a bullet, leading the woman to believe it was empty. She dropped the gun back on the pavement and started moving forward.

Every step closer to the dome seemed to bring more horrible images into focus. More mangled bodies, increasingly larger smears of dried blood on the pavement, dozens upon dozens of shell casings, and the twisted metal remains of a nearly dozen cars that all had been at least partially flattened to paving the way right up to the building they were approaching.

Looking down at her feet, Clem saw another automatic rifle lying on the ground. She didn't bother checking to see if it was loaded because it had been crushed into a piece of flat metal like a can. Attached to the rifle was an arm, or at least what Clem assumed was one; all that was left was a sleeve from a piece of blue camo clothing and a big black smear underneath it.

"Holy shit, I was right…" Patty whispered to herself before running towards the edge of the parking lot bordering the civic center. Clem ran after the woman, who was racing towards a big green truck with a canvas canopy on the back. Nearing the truck, Clem could see bullet holes running across the side of the vehicle and on the canopy as well. She was about to investigate more thoroughly when Patty sprinted around the edge of the vehicle.

"Slow down," called Clem as she chased after the woman. "Why are…" Clem's jaw dropped as she saw what was parked behind the truck.

"I knew it, someone rolled a goddamn tank right through here," said Patty as she eyed the enormous armored vehicle looming in front of them. "The soldiers in Florida were always driving one around Miami, just as if to remind us what would happen if any of us got any bright ideas about trying to get rid of them."

Clem studied the tank as she slowly walked around it. Small dents and burn marks scared the armor plating everywhere Clem looked, while she could see dried splatters of blood and dirt staining the treads. She could also make out faded white lettering that read 'U.S. Army' on the side of the vehicle. The tank appeared battered and in disarray, but Clem couldn't tell if it was broken or just abandoned.

The area around the tank was littered with more empty casings, more dismembered bodies in blood-soaked Army uniforms, and more discarded rifles. Checking one, Clem discovered it also didn't have a magazine or a round in the chamber. Looking up, Clem saw Patty was already climbing onto the tank. The woman offered her hand and helped pull Clem on top of the chassis. Moving over to the turret, Clem saw many more burns and bullet marks. The girl turned to Patty, looking for some kind of sense what to do next, but the woman just kept staring at the turret.

"Patty?"

"I… I just keep wondering if this is the same tank I saw back in Miami," mumbled Patty. "It looks just like it, but these things come off an assembly line right?"

"I don't know," said Clem.

Patty turned back to the tank, then climbed on top of the turret. The woman knelt down and grabbed hold of the hatch. A stern pull was all it took to open the door. Moving over the edge, Clem found herself grateful she was still wearing her respirator. Most of the interior was charred pure black, but there were also large misshapen globs of what Clem could only assume used to be flesh caked to the bottom. Looking at the hatch, Clem saw more burnt flesh stuck to the inside of the door. She couldn't be sure, but the shape of the marks almost looked like fingers stuck to the handles.

"Jesus… what the hell happened here?" Patty looked away in disgust and then slammed the hatch shut. Clem wanted to say something to comfort the woman, whose every movement now appeared twitchy and anxious, but the girl couldn't think of anything to say.

Climbing down off the tank, the pair spotted more military vehicles parked across the lot near the side of the building they had passed on their way into the lot. Approaching it, they could see there was another covered truck riddled with bullet holes and beside it a broken mess of blackened metal sitting on a couple of flat tires. There were also more empty shells on the pavement in front of the vehicles, but no bodies or rifles this time.

"I just don't get it." Patty checked the back of the truck only to discover it was empty. "Was there some kind of mutiny or something?"

"I don't know," said Clem as she examined the truck more closely. "Why does this one said navy?"

"Huh?"

"The tank and all the uniforms have army written on them, but this truck has navy written on the side."

Patty took a step forward and studied the lettering on the truck. "Back in Miami, I used to hear rumors that the different branches of the military were fighting each other," recalled a stunned Patty. "But I never believed them."

"Maybe they were true," suggested Clem.

"We don't know that," retorted Patty. "The Army could have had a single truck that used to belong to the Navy. Someone could have stolen all this Army stuff and attacked the soldiers staying here. We don't know." Stepping past the edge of the truck, Clem could see a couple of double doors leading into the building behind the vehicles. She looked over at Patty, and then the pair approached the entrance with great caution.

Nearing the building, they could see more crudely made graves planted on the lawn outside, dog tags hanging by a chain from each and every one of them. Patty pulled the door open and Clementine gazed inside. The interior was dimly lit, but Clem could already see overturned boxes and knocked over chairs just past the entrance. Turning on their flashlights, the two stepped in and started surveying the room.

There were more emptied out containers, big tables pushed up against one of the walls, and tons of papers strewn all across the floor. Reading one of the pages, Clem saw what she assumed was the name of a street at the top, a series of different times on the left-hand side, and a few messily written words written on certain lines. Some of the notes were a small sequence of numbers and letters Clem couldn't decipher, but most of them were just the word 'nothing' written on the page over and over again.

There were also dates in the upper left corners of the pages. The report Clem was looking at now was from June, and flipping through the pages she could see the rest of the papers she was holding were too. Checking more pages laying on the floor, Clem found a stack from July but didn't see any dated past that month. There was also no years on any of the dates, leaving Clem to wonder if what happened here occurred last summer or shortly after the outbreak had started.

"Fuck me…" Clem dropped the papers she was holding and looked over at Patty.

"What is it?" Patty sighed, then turned around to reveal she was holding a severely torn blue camo jacket. It matched the color of the sleeve from the dismembered arm Clem had seen earlier, and the words 'U.S. Navy' were still visible in gold lettering.

"And I keep seeing USN stenciled on the containers in here," reported Patty as she tossed the jacket aside. "And I bet if we check those dog tags on the graves outside, every one of them will be from the Navy too." Patty started marching back to the door without another word. Following her back outside, Clem found Patty was already examining the dog tags hanging from the nearest grave.

"USN, that's gotta mean United States Navy." Patty let go of the dog tag and immediately checked the next one. "Yep, here's another one, and I bet this one is too."

"Patty, maybe we should—"

"And three… and four… and I bet every single one of them is Navy because the Army is fucking over there." Patty pointed to the tank and truck sitting amongst the dismembered bodies in green uniforms. "I guess they didn't feel like burying the people they were at fucking war with!"

"Patty calm down," urged a concerned Clementine as she saw the panic and frustration spilling over in the woman's eyes. "Whatever happened here, it happened a long time ago, you don't have to be scared."

"I don't know, the military being at war with itself is pretty fucking scary to me!" barked Patty. "If they're fighting over God knows what, then what chance do we…" Patty suddenly went silent, then spun around. She looked up at the top of the civic center, then took a few steps backwards.

"What are you looking for?" asked Clem.

"That hole in the roof… that tank must have made it."

"Yeah, so…" Patty rushed for a pair of small double doors on the edge of the civic center. "Wait, Patty!" Clem raced after the woman as she pulled one of the doors open and jammed a wedge under it. "What are you doing?"

"Finding out what they were killing each other over," said the woman as she jammed a second wedge under the other door.

"Why?"

Patty didn't answer. Instead, she pulled her rifle and walked right inside. Clem pulled her own gun and chased after Patty, reasoning calling on her to stop would be a waste of time. The doors led to a series of concrete halls spreading as far Clem could see in both directions. The pair turned on their flashlights and Clem followed Patty as she started moving further into the building at a frantic pace.

There were more bodies, and a lot of them, but these bodies didn't have uniforms. They appeared badly burned, their flesh and clothes roasted black, but Clem could still see they weren't wearing uniforms like the other bodies, their clothes being a variety of things ranging from jeans to hooded jackets to even a dress.

Clem was afraid Patty was just going to march over the corpses without checking to make sure they're dead first, but the woman had already drawn her machete. Clem felt uneasy as she watched the woman swiftly and fiercely driving the blade into every head of every body she approached, creating a disturbing rhythm of sickening cracks and pops that echoed across the length of the long dark hallways.

Patty stopped as they reached an intersection. Shining her light ahead, Clem saw a sign that read 'To Auditorium' pointing to the left. Before the girl could say a word, the woman was already marching down that hall, slicing into the skulls of more corpses that lined the floor like a blackened and bloodied carpet of the dead leading the way to a pair of double doors at the end of the corridor.

Reaching the doors, Patty seemed oddly still all of sudden as the urgency that had so driven her to this point briefly disappeared from her face and was replaced with one of uncertainty and hesitation. But then the woman drove her boot into the door and kicked it open with a single swift strike. Shining her light, Clem saw another tunnel ahead of them, but this one led into a bigger space.

The area beyond was lit by a single immense ray of sunshine beaming in through the ceiling, no doubt from the gaping hole they had seen. It was hard to see much from this distance, but it was clear they were approaching a major arena. As they grew nearer to the end of the tunnel, they could make out distant shapes silhouetted in the distance by a blinding light.

It wasn't until they reached the end of the tunnel and emerged onto the floor of the vast auditorium beyond could they see what they were really looking at. The shapes they had seen in silhouette were the stray limbs from just a few of dozens—if not hundreds—of charred bodies all lying in the middle of the auditorium, the sun shining down on them from the ceiling as if to serve as a spotlight to the horror.

Clem could see the remnants of camping tents and crudely made shelters amongst the pit of corpses. It all blended together in a single grotesque blob of scorched tar and burned flesh that spanned the entire floor of the arena. Looking up, Clementine saw even more bodies and primitive dwellings in rows and rows of seats surrounding the pit, all scorched the same shade of black as the pit. Even with her respirator on, Clem could still sense the putrid smell in the hot thick air that was irritating her eyes.

"Oh my God!" Patty's outburst provoked the body closest to them to start moaning, its pathetic cries sounding weaker and softer than that of most walkers. Then, then body closest to it started moaning too, and then a couple more near that one started moaning, and in seconds that moaning erupted in a torrent of undead crying echoing off the walls of their massive tomb.

Clem instinctively started running, barreling back the way they came. She was already halfway down the hall before she noticed Patty hadn't moved. The girl sprinted back towards the woman, doing her best not to trip on the bodies lying in the way, and reached out to grab Patty's hand. "Run!" Clem tried pulling the woman backwards but couldn't budge her from where she was standing.

"They can't even move…"

Turning towards the mess of undead bodies, Clem could see that none of them had gotten any closer to Patty. Some of them shifted in place, barely able to move their limbs, many of which were little more than bones barely held together by thin strips of burnt muscle. Others couldn't even do that, helpless except to keep moaning. Not a single one of them appeared capable of even crawling anymore, and as more of them started moving their arms and legs what little distance they could, it all seemed to blur together in the light as one monstrous but pitiful organism whose limbs swayed futilely in desperation.

Trying to look away, Clem's eyes fell upon the pair of bodies lying nearest to the doors. One was so badly burned shouldn't couldn't tell if it was a man or a woman, their charred husk clumsily trying to move its arms out in her direction, but couldn't because of the second body. A small child—a baby even—was still clutched in its grasp, its skin fused to the other body's arms as they both keeping moaning their weak howls as part of the ghastly cacophony.

"Patty!" yelled Clem as she pulled on the woman's arm as hard as she could. "Let's go!"

Patty didn't say anything, she just started running with Clem. They moved as fast as their legs could carry them, jumping over bodies and hurrying around the corner in a flash. Clem could see the sunlight coming in through the doors Patty wedged opened and raced to them faster than she even knew she could run. The pair burst outside and just kept running. It wasn't until they were nearly halfway down the parking lot did they finally slow down.

Patty turned around suddenly and looked back at the civic center, her eyes staring up at the gaping hole in the roof with horror. "What… what the fuck was that!"

"I… I don't know," babbled Clem.

"Did they just decide to… what, bomb a whole arena of people for fun?"

"I don't know."

"Or were the Navy keeping them prisoner and decided they were too much trouble and the Army tried to—"

"I don't know!" yelled Clem. "Let's just go home, okay? You were right, there's nothing here, so please, can we go home?" Clem could feel her eyes tearing up as she looked at Patty, who looked like she was on the verge of crying herself.

"Yeah, let's get the fuck out of here already."

The pair moved swiftly, retracing their steps back to the interstate and this time choosing the other tunnel for their walk back. Patty didn't say anything, but Clem could sense she was anxious. She was moving fast; less concerned with encountering anything after what they had already seen and more eager to simply leave this place. Clem felt the same, only keeping her light aimed at the ground ahead of them so they knew it was clear to keep going.

This tunnel was mostly clear. There were no cars Clem could see and there were only a few bodies pulled to the sides of the road, all of which looked too rotten to even be walkers, and before long there were none of them to be seen either. The pair was completely alone again, their rapid footsteps echoing in the pitch darkness a constant reminder of how badly they wanted to escape it. It seemed like no matter how quickly they ran they never actually moved, stuck in the same empty piece of tunnel for what felt like forever.

Suddenly, a distant light managed to pierce the prevalent darkness. Clem was nervous at first, but when it didn't move she realized it must be the other end of the tunnel. Almost in unison, Clem and Patty started running as fast as they could, eager to leave all that they had seen behind. The light grew larger at an infuriatingly slow pace, teasing them with the constant reminder of how far they had left to go. But eventually there came a point where the could see the road just past the tunnel, and then finally they were outside.

Clementine pulled her respirator off and took a couple of deep breaths, the taste of the cool air helping to slow her pounding heart. Feeling the sun on her skin and seeing the clouds, now orange and pink from sunset, helped the girl to breathe easier. Looking over, she found Patty already jumping over the divider to where her bike was parked. Clem took a couple of quick breaths and hurried after the woman, every bit as ready to leave as she was.

The pair stripped off their gear as quickly as possible and packed it all away in the bike's various pouches and in its trailer. Clem retrieved her helmet and quickly put it on before climbing on the bike, where Patty was already sitting. She wrapped her arms around the woman's waist just as she felt the engine struggling to start underneath her. After failing to start once, Patty turned the key again only to get the same result.

"Come on, you've been good all morning, don't start this shit now." Patty turned the key again, and again the engine refused to start, making only loud clicking and humming noises as if to mock the woman. "Don't do this me, I don't need this. Not now." Another turn of the key and the engine sounded ready to go, but then fizzled and went quiet. "Start you fucking piece of shit!" Patty turned the key once more, and then slammed her fist down on the motorcycle when it refused to start.

"Goddammit!" Patty leapt off the bike and marched right to her trailer. "I've checked and rechecked every fucking thing on you just yesterday, and you're still pulling this shit on me? What the hell I'm missing?" Looking over her shoulder, Clem could see Patty was toting a toolbox back her way. "Get up Clem, I'm gonna have to fix this damn thing, even though I swear there's nothing wrong with it."

"There probably isn't," said Clem.

"I know! But it's not working anyway, so—"

"I mean it's not the bike, it's probably the gas?"

"What do you mean?"

"The gas is probably just bad."

"What are you talking about?" asked a confused Patty. "We got it just this morning, and out of an underground tank, how could it be bad already?"

"Gas goes bad eventually, no matter where you keep it."

"That… that doesn't make any sense," stuttered Patty. "The stabilizer we always put in the gas cans, it's supposed to stop that."

"It slows things down, but gas is like food and eventually it goes bad no matter what you do." Clem was surprised to see Patty staring at her wide-eyed in disbelief. "You didn't know that?"

"No!" retorted Patty, sounding more panicked than angry. "How the hell do you know that?"

"A mechanic we met once told me and Sarah about it," informed Clem. "He told us that, unless someone made more gas, it was all going to be bad in about two years."

"Two… two years?" stuttered Patty. "It's already been like a year and half since shit fell apart!"

"I know. Me and Sarah were talking about getting a diesel generator soon since we won't be able to use the old one much longer."

"So diesel doesn't go bad?"

"It does eventually too, but it takes longer."

"How much longer?"

"The guy we talked to said maybe ten years, but he didn't sound sure." Clem waited for Patty's response, but she didn't say anything, she just kept standing there with a blank look frozen on her face. "Patty?"

"We're fucked…" she mumbled.

"Patty, we—"

"We're fucked!" Patty hurled the toolbox at the side of the bike, causing it to explode into a mess of metal implements and for a frightened Clem to jump off the bike in a hurry. "It's not enough we can barely find food that hasn't gone bad on us, now it turns out the gas—the fucking shit we need to even go looking for food, it's going bad too!"

"I… I thought you already knew," stuttered a frightened Clem. "You're a mechanic and—"

"And no one ever fucking told me!" barked the woman. "Oh God, we're screwed. We've got nowhere to go, and now we won't even been able to get there!" The woman kicked her tool box down the road, strewing what few items left in across the pavement.

"We'll go to New Orleans next," suggested Clem. "And—"

"And there'll be nothing there either!" yelled Patty. "That's assuming the military didn't just bomb it into a goddamn crater!"

"Then we'll go somewhere else," said Clem.

"Where!"

"I don't know, but we can't just give up," pleaded Clem.

"Why the fuck not…" mumbled Patty as she wandered away from the bike. "We're all doomed, every last one of us." Clementine felt sick as Patty walked a few steps away before falling to her knees, then started crying into her hands. Hearing the woman sobbing her heart out, Clementine felt like crying herself, but instead she walked up behind the woman and put her arms around her.

"Get off!" Patty jerked out of Clem's grip and the girl took a few steps back. She waited for Patty to do something, but the woman just sat there silently. Unable to look away from the despair and misery hanging off the woman's face, Clem leaned in to try to hold her again.

"I said get off." Patty jerked away again, but with far less force this time. Clem only waited a few seconds before trying again, and again she felt Patty trying to squirm free from her grip. "Just stop it already."

"No," said Clem as she tightened her grip on Patty.

"Stop…"

"I won't," said Clem as she did her best to not cry. "You're sad, and I want to hug you."

"I don't want a hug…"

"Well I do." The death and desolation were all too much for Clementine to bear and she suddenly started crying as she clung to Patty's back, desperate for any kind of comfort. Patty jerked free from Clem again and the girl was about to start crying into her hands when she felt a strong set of arms wrap around her.

"I'm sorry," whispered Patty in a quiet voice as she embraced Clem. "I'm so sorry."

"It's okay," said Clem as she hugged Patty in response.

"No, no it's not," insisted the woman as she ran her hand up and down Clem's back. "It's all so fucked up."

"It's okay Patty," insisted Clem as she rested her head on Patty's chest. "It's okay."

Clem hugged Patty as hard as she could, content to remain in the woman's arms for as long as she could. The feeling appeared mutual as the two remained in their quiet embrace for so long that Clem was nearly startled when Patty spoke.

"God…" she mumbled in a quiet voice. "What could I have ever done to deserve someone like you?"

"You care about me," said Clem without hesitation.

"Is that all it takes these days?" asked Patty.

"It's all it ever took," insisted Clem. "If more people cared about each other, things would be better."

"Yeah, I hear ya." Clem felt Patty's chest move as she took a deep breath. "I should have been comforting you, not the other way around."

"It's okay Patty. Everyone gets scared sometimes, especially now."

"But I'm supposed to be the adult. I should be… putting on a tough face or whatever we're supposed to do."

"I'm glad you're not."

"Really? You're glad I lost my shit just now?"

"I'm glad you're not trying to lie to me, and tell me everything will be okay when you don't know that it will. And… I'm glad to know I'm not the only one who is scared."

"Oh you're not, believe me. Still…"

"Still what?"

"Still, what do we do now?"