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]

64. In Passing

Clementine stared up at the overcast clouds hanging in the sky. They had been teasing the girl with the promise of rain all morning, and yet not a single drop of water had fallen from them. Clem had a sneaking suspicion the moment they finished collecting, filtering, boiling, and bottling water today, it would finally rain. But until then, she was stuck toting back water a jug at a time. Fortunately, she wasn't alone in this task.

"Thanks for helping," Clem told Jet as they pushed through the shriveled remains of the overgrowth, reaching a small pond they had visited earlier.

"No problem. I was used to getting our own water before we ever left Houston," assured the boy as he set his jug and bucket down by the edge of the pond. "The military would bring us water every few days, but it wasn't enough. We had to put out bottles and pots every time it rained, which was almost never during the summer," he explained as he dunked his bucket into the pond.

"We did the same thing, and used anything else we had that could catch water," said Clem as she carefully pulled her bucket out of the pond, her sore arms straining as she set it on the dirt. "We had a garden then, and there were a couple of really hot weeks where there was no rain, and a lot of our plants died. Sarah was really upset; so was I."

"Some people would try to grow things in their backyards in Houston. If the military ever saw it, they'd literally just pull the plant up and take it with them."

"Patty said they did the same thing in Miami." Clem removed a funnel and a roll of paper towels from her backpack.

"The weird thing is I don't even think they wanted to take them," said Jet. "One of our neighbors had some tomato plants before everything started, and they didn't even have any tomatoes on them when the military showed up, but they took them anyway. Our neighbor told us that before they left, one of the soldiers actually said they were sorry, but that they were 'following orders'."

"Orders?" Clem carefully folded a paper towel before setting it in the funnel. "Someone told them to take all the plants that could grow food?"

"Apparently," said Jet as he grabbed one of the filled buckets.

"What were they doing with them?" asked Clem as she planted the funnel on the jug. "Did they have a farm?"

"Nobody really knew. Like I said, all the food they brought us was stuff in cans, boxes, or bags. If they were growing food, they never gave us any, and they actually gave us a little more than others because Granddad worked for them." Jet lifted the bucket off the ground. "Ready?"

"Go slow."

Jet tipped the bucket forward and water started flowing through Clem's funnel and into the jug. "Granddad told me he tried to find out what happened to our house's solar panels when he first started managing the refinery in Port Arthur. They never told him, and he said he never saw any solar panels on any of the buildings the military used; not in Houston or Port Arthur."

"Then, what did they do with them?" asked Clem as she watched the water fill the plastic jug.

"If we knew that, we probably wouldn't be going to... north."

Jet finished pouring the last of the water out of the bucket and Clem examined the jug. The water appeared clear, and the towel she stuffed in the funnel had only a few minor specks of dirt in it, assuring the girl there was little to filter out in the first place.

"Looks good," said Clem as she tossed the towel aside and replaced it with another one. "One we finish these last two, that should be enough for now."

The pair quickly filtered the water in the second bucket into another jug then collected their things. They walked together through the dried shrubs and past the leafless trees surrounding this murky pond. A short walk led them right back to the highway where a familiar RV was waiting for them. Sarah helped the pair hoist the water jugs inside, setting them on the carpet near the kitchen.

"Give me a hand with this," said Sarah as she walked over to a large pot sitting on the stove.

"Sure." Clem held her funnel in place over an empty jug while Sarah grabbed the pot. The older girl carefully started pouring the water and Clem felt a rush of steam moving past her. As Sarah capped the jug, Clementine took a deep breath and used a towel to wipe the sweat from her face.

"I don't know how Christa and Omid did this all the time," Clem admitted to herself.

"Omid?" repeated Jet as he watched the toddler move from the bedroom to the jug of water Sarah just set on the floor.

"Not him, his father," said Clem. "We all used to live in a cabin in the woods and Omid's dad had to go out to get water a lot."

"Wah-wah," giggled Omid as he banged his hands on the recently capped container of water. "Ooohh." The boy clasped the jug tightly, embracing the warm plastic against his skin.

"I helped Christa boil the water sometimes, but I only went with Omid to get it once. It actually took us a really long time to get to this stream he was using," said Clem as she watched the toddler hug a water jug. "Omid always smiled and acted happy when he'd get back, so I never thought about how much work it really was for him."

"At Shaffer's, they just brought me and my dad water every day," said Sarah, a trace of shame in her voice. "I didn't even think about where it came from until they started making us work."

"We haven't had to boil water in a long time," realized Clem.

"You haven't?" asked a surprised Jet.

"We put out a funnel with a hose to catch rain," explained Sarah. "It goes right into the Brave's tank and there are filters on the faucets and shower."

"And we find bottled water when we go out for food," added Clem.

"But we haven't had any rain since before we went to New Orleans," said Sarah with a sigh.

"And we haven't found much food lately," added a dismayed Clem.

The trio stood there in silence for a moment, briefly exchanging looks of concern until the sound of Omid giggling distracted them. Looking down, Clementine watched as the toddler pushed over one of the water jugs.

"Wah-wah." The cap prevented any water from spilling out, and yet Clem found the sight worrisome just the same.

"I'll just go put him back in his crib," said Clem.

"And since we have enough water now, I'll take us back to the gas station before we boil the next pot," said Sarah as she sat down in the driver's seat.

Clem returned Omid to his crib and spent a few minutes getting him settled before heading back to the front to find what had become a recurring sight for her waiting just outside. This gas station had a color scheme across the front where it transitioned from red to orange to yellow to finally green on the end and there was a small brick carwash tucked away behind the store. Beyond that, it was no different than all the other gas stations they had stopped at, or the other one directly across the street from this one.

Sarah emptied one of the jugs into the pot and then Clem turned on the stove's burner. The pair stared expectedly at the water for a second, then turned away and found Jet looking at them expectedly.

"So, what do we do next?" he asked.

"Well, we already got diesel. We even filled up the ones Anthony left behind before he went out with Patty and your grandpa," said Clem as she looked at the fuel cans lined up in front of the store.

"And we got propane for both RV's before that." Sarah's words caused Clem to eye the now open cage in front of the gas station that was missing several tanks. "Spray-painted warnings around the area."

"We could go fishing, but..."

"Granddad said we shouldn't eat it more than a couple of times a week," recited Jet. "And we had some just two days ago."

"Yeah." Clementine sighed. "I can't believe every fish has mercury in it."

"Neither could Anthony," said Sarah. "He kept asking Sin: Even fish in rivers? Even fish in lakes? Even fish in a tiny pond a hundred miles from the nearest city? He said yes every time."

"Yeah, he said mercury gets released into the air by coal plants and then it gets everywhere when it rains. I guess we were making it worse in Houston since that's where our electricity came from." Jet sighed. "But Granddad also said most fish only have trace amounts of mercury."

"He also said it's most dangerous to children... and babies," said Clem.

"I guess it's good I never gave Omid more than a few bites every time we had fish," realized Sarah.

"Granddad said if you were worried, you could just stop eating fish and the mercury will eventually work its way out of your body."

"And he also said pregnant women shouldn't eat fish because mercury can do bad things you can't fix to babies." Clem sighed again. "Christa ate a lot of fish when we lived in that cabin." Clem heard a giggling sound coming from near her feet. She looked down to find Omid trying to drag a jug of water back to the bedroom. "How'd you get out so fast?"

"He can climb out of his crib now," informed Sarah. "I saw him do it earlier this morning."

"I guess we don't need to bother fixing the latch on it then," reasoned Clem as she picked up the boy.

"So, what now?" asked Sarah as she checked the pot to see if it was boiling. "I did the laundry yesterday, took out the trash this morning, and we already had lunch."

"Stale pasta and more lima beans," recalled Clem with a hint of disgust.

"I guess we can take a break for a while." There was a very brief silence before Jet and Sarah smiled at each other.

"Chess?"

"Chess."

Yet again, the pair played chess while Clem watched Omid. After a few days of playing the same match, the pieces left on the board were few in number, and both Jet and Sarah took even longer than normal to decide on a move. Clem found herself studying Jet's moves carefully, taking note of how he countered and reacted to maneuvers she had seen Sarah use when they had played in the past.

Clem was so focused on their game she nearly forgot about the water. Suddenly realizing it was boiling, Clem quickly switched off the burner then looked over to watch the end of Jet and Sarah's match. Their moves were coming quicker now and the pieces on the board had been thinned down to their king and one other each. Clem watched Jet try to corner Sarah's king and Sarah blocking the boy's attack. After repeating the same few moves a couple of times, the pair looked up at each other at almost the same time.

"Stalemate?"

"Yeah."

"It's a tie?" asked Clem.

"Yep," said Sarah.

"There's nothing left either of us could do," explained Jet. "It would just go on forever."

"Fuh-vuh," said Omid.

"You still have that queen for when you got your pawn across the board," said Clem as she set Omid on the carpet. "Sarah's only got a pawn left."

"Yeah, but it's in front of her king, which is stuck in the corner," said Jet. "I can only check her from the back two rows, and she'll just move the king to the other row get away."

"Well... what if you moved your queen here, then move to the back of the board?" suggested Clem. "You'd be so close, Sarah couldn't move the king to either space and it would be checkmate."

"That would take two moves," said Sarah. "And if I saw Jet moving his queen there, I'd move my king so he couldn't do what you just said, and move back if he tries to adjust next move."

"Well, why not move the queen right up to the king, so that Sarah's next move would have to put her in check?"

"There?" asked Jet. "Her pawn would kill my queen."

"Oh yeah, I forgot about that," admitted Clem.

"I told you, pawns make a big difference in the end game," said Sarah.

"Even when you don't get them across the board," realized Jet as he studied the lone unmoved pawn defending Sarah's king.

"I never understand why the game is over when the king dies," said Clem.

"Because that's the rules," said Sarah.

"Roo-roo," said Omid as he tried to grab one of the pieces, only for Sarah to raise the board out of reach.

"No Omid, you might choke on the smaller pieces."

"It's a dumb rule. In checkers, a king dying doesn't mean the game ends," argued Clem as Sarah put the last of the pieces away. "Why would the pawn stop just because its king died?"

"Do you want to play?" offered Sarah.

"Or you could play against me," suggested an eager Jet.

"That's okay. I don't think I'm ready to play against either of you... yet."

"Clem, Sarah, you guys there?" crackled Patty's voice.

"Yeah," said Clem as she grabbed her radio.

"I just called to let you know we're on our way back. In fact, we should be at the gas station in a few minutes."

"Already?" asked Sarah as she grabbed her own radio.

"Does that mean you didn't find much food?" asked Clem.

"Not really," admitted Patty with a sigh. "I was hoping Texarkana would be better than Shreveport since it still had walkers left in it, and I guess it is since we did find something instead of nothing, but it's not much."

"That's too bad," said Sarah.

"Food was scarce; more bottom of the barrel stuff people left behind. So we detoured to a hardware store and a few other places to get some other essentials, mostly for Sin."

"Like what?"

"Tools, more respirators, stuff for our vehicles, clothes, some flatware and utensils for the other RV."

"Radios," added Sin's voice.

"Grandad!" said Jet as he pulled Sarah's radio close. "Are you okay?"

"I'm... as well as I could be," spoke the man. "It's... disturbing, seeing an entire city so desolate; street after street empty except for a few of the walking corpses of its former residents and the endless debris left behind by all the ones who fled."

"Man, this place is nothing," said Anthony. "Seeing New Orleans as a ghost town? Fucking scary as hell."

"It almost makes me appreciate what we had in Houston," said Sin.

"It does?" asked a surprised Jet.

"Almost. What little we had wasn't going to last. Houston, sadly, likely has no more a future than Texarkana does."

"But the city you want to go to does?" Anthony's question didn't receive an answer.

"We're almost there," said Patty. "See you guys in a minute."

"See ya."

"Is this normal?" asked Jet. "Not finding much food? I mean, I'm not saying you're doing a bad job, I was just wondering."

Clem thought on Jet's question for a moment. "Kinda. We usually don't find much food in most places, and sometimes we find nothing at all."

"Really?" asked an unnerved Jet. "Even with knowing how to get past the dead people?"

"Yeah, but sometimes we get lucky and find a lot," assured Sarah. "Patty and Anthony found a ton of stuff in this one town in Mississippi."

"And you just found that one day, by accident?" asked Jet.

"Well... no," admitted Clem. "Anthony knew about it and just never went there because of all walkers, then Patty told him how to get past them."

"Oh..." An uncomfortable silence fell over the RV.

"Jet, do you think where your grandpa wants to go is a good idea?"

Jet turned away from Clem. "I don't know," he admitted in a quiet voice. "But if it's not, I don't know where else we could go."

Clem sighed as Jet's words echoed in her head; she didn't know where they should go either. Clem tried to think of something comforting to say, but nothing came to mind. The unfortunate truth that they had no idea where to search for safety had begun to weigh heavier on Clem's mind every day. So heavy, that the girl found herself relieved to hear a vehicle approaching if just because it could distract her momentarily from these troubling thoughts.

"I'm gonna go help Patty carry our food back," said Clem.

"And I should help Granddad carry stuff back to our RV."

Jet headed out and Clem followed behind him. Turning around to close the door, she saw Omid slowly climbing down the steps after her. "No OJ, you need to stay inside."

"Kem-men." Clementine felt bad closing the door on him, but would feel worse if she didn't. Walking across the pavement with Jet, the pair spotted a truck quickly approaching from the road; it wasn't Anthony's.

"Oh no..." Panic struck Clem like a bolt of lightning. She immediately spun around and sprinted back towards the Brave. She could hear the truck bouncing over the curb as she threw the RV's door open, and its brakes screeched to a sudden stop as she rushed inside.

"Sarah!" Clem raced towards the bedroom and found herself nearly colliding with the older girl as she burst out the door.

"What's wrong?"

"Somebody in a truck just pulled up!" Sarah's eyes went wide with panic. "We should go, right—"

"Where's Jet?"

Clem spun around and suddenly realized the boy wasn't behind her. "Jet!" yelled Clem as she ran back to the door. "Where..." Clem suddenly felt her heart in her throat as she looked out the open door.

"Omid!"

Sarah's outburst sent Clem racing back outside and towards the toddler. Her entire body moved without thinking as she watched Omid waddle closer towards the truck and trailer parked across from them. She was running as fast as she could yet everything seemed to be moving in slow motion. The girl forced herself to come to a sudden stop as she reached out both arms at the same time. Clem clasped her hands around Omid's waist, scooped him off the ground, turned around, and then there was a gunshot.

"Clem!" She stumbled to her knees as she heard Sarah yelling her name.

"Stay back!" yelled a muffled voice as Omid started crying in terror.

"I told you those gas cans were a trap!" yelled a second muffled voice as Clem heard a loud engine roaring right beside her ears. "Don't come any closer! Stay—oh shit!" Clem turned her head just in time to see the Brave suddenly skid to a stop beside her, its massive chassis blocking her view of the mystery attackers.

"Get in!" Clem heard Sarah yell from inside. The door was still open, so Clem hopped to her feet, ran inside, set a still crying Omid on the carpet, spun around, and locked the door all in a single series of quick motions.

"Do you see Jet?" asked Clem as she hurried towards the front of the RV.

"No, but look!" Clem watched a couple of figures dressed in hazmat suits that had been smeared with a dark substance quickly climb back into their truck. The vehicle pulled forward, hopefully to leave, but then a rusty red truck with a camper bounced over the curb and skidded to a sudden stop in front of the mystery truck, blocking it.

"Oh shit."

Clementine watched as the same couple of figures immediately hurried out the vehicle while Patty burst out of Anthony's truck, Sin following behind her as she took cover behind the vehicle.

"Patty," called Clem as she grabbed her radio. "They—"

A loud pounding on the door caused Clem to instinctively grab her gun. Not sure what to expect, she grabbed the handle with one hand and kept her gun pointed forward with the other. She cracked open the door suddenly and found herself aiming at a pair of terrified brown eyes.

"Jet!" Clem hastily opened the door and the boy rushed inside.

"Get back!" Clem could hear a voice yell from outside.

"Drop it!" Clem heard Patty yell back as she locked the door.

"Clem..." The girl rushed back to the windshield in time to see one of the people in a hazmat suit aim a rifle in their direction.

"Down!" Clem found herself instinctively grabbing Sarah's arm as she yanked both of them towards the floor. Turning away from the front, Clem saw Omid still crying loudly on the carpet and a terrified Jet trembling not far behind him.

"Jet," said Clem. "Could you—"

"I'll... I'll take him into the bedroom," stuttered the boy as he hastily scooped the toddler off the carpet.

"What the hell is going on out there?" Clem heard Anthony's voice ask over the radio as Jet hurried out of sight. "I can't see shit from inside the camper."

"Stay in there!" Clem ordered Anthony through her radio.

"There are two people by a truck, both of them are armed," reported Sin.

"They shot at me," added Clem.

"No, they shot into the air," corrected Sarah as she grabbed her own radio.

"You're sure? Clem whispered to Sarah.

"Yeah, I saw one of them—"

"I don't want to shoot anyone—"

"But we will!"

Hearing the strangers loudly yelling just outside, Clem inched up to the windshield. She saw the mysterious pair in stained yellow suits crouched down by their vehicle. One of them was aiming a rifle at the Brave, but not at its windshield. Instead, they were pointing a rifle just past the side of it, as if they were anticipating someone coming out the door.

"Drop your guns!" Clem could just barely see Patty hiding behind the front of Anthony's truck.

"You first!" retorted one of the people in the hazmat suits.

"Clem, Sarah," whispered Patty over the radio. "Are you both okay?"

"Yeah," assured Clem. "OJ too."

"And Jet?" added a concerned Sin.

"He's in here with us," said Sarah. "He's okay."

"Clem, I've got a grenade on me. I could toss it out at them, but they're right next to you guys," explained Patty in a quiet voice. "Back up as fast as you can and I'll toss it while they're distracted. Even if it doesn't kill them, it'll force them out of cover where I can get a shot at them."

"Wait, Patty," said Sarah. "I don't think they want to hurt—"

"If you don't let us go I'll start shooting!" yelled one of the strangers.

"You want to go? Then back up!" yelled Patty back.

"And let you get a shot at us? Don't count on it!" retorted a stranger.

"They don't seem all that willing to move," said Patty over the radio.

"They could start shooting at any moment," added Sin, his usually stoic voice noticeably cracking.

"I don't know what's going on," said Anthony. "But y'all are scaring me."

"Clem, Sarah, just move the RV back. And I... I'll take care of them."

Clem and Sarah turned to each other, each discovering a look of fearful disgust on the other's face. Clem also couldn't help remembering what it was like being caught in the explosion of a grenade, and that brief second of horror as she thought her life was at an end before everything went black.

"Guys!"

"Patty," said Clem as she held the talk button on her radio. "We'll..."

"Jesus Christ!" Clem was surprised to hear a third unfamiliar voice yell from outside. "Stop it, the both of you!"

"Grandma, get back in the trailer!"

"Get back Mrs. Goldfarb!"

Clem peered over the dashboard and discovered an old woman now near the pair in the hazmat suits.

"We don't want any trouble," spoke the woman slowly as she stood up, keeping her hands in the air as she moved out from cover.

"What do you want?" asked Patty.

"We just stopped somewhere to get some diesel," said the woman.

"There's a gas station literally across the street, why don't you go there?" asked a suspicious Patty.

"These two saw the fuel cans lined up out front but weren't clever enough to realize they probably already belonged to someone," explained the elderly woman. "But if you move your truck, we'll just go across the street and get our gas there." A tense silence followed the woman's suggestion.

"We'll watch them from the Brave as they leave," informed Clem over the radio. "If they do anything, we'll let you know."

"Get back in your vehicle, and we'll get out of your way," promised Patty.

"Sounds good to us."

Clem watched the old woman retreat behind the strangers' truck, where the two people in hazmat suits moved in close to her. The pair talked with her, but not loud enough for Clem to overhear. She couldn't really see the other people's faces through their gas masks, but their body language was very forceful towards the old woman.

"Clem," whispered Patty over the radio. "What's going on?"

"The old woman and the other two people are arguing," reported Clem as she watched the trio carefully.

"About what?" asked Sin.

"I don't know, I can't hear them," said Clem as she tried to see the old woman's face better, hoping she could figure out what she was thinking.

"I don't know what's going on out there, but things have suddenly gotten uncomfortably quiet." Clem ignored Anthony's words and kept watching the trio carefully. The woman suddenly gestured to one of the people wearing a hazmat suit, then to the other. Clem couldn't hear what was said, but it was louder than everything else they had said so far, and the woman immediately headed back into the trailer after saying it. The pair in the hazmat suits stood there for a second, then turned towards their vehicle.

"They're getting into the truck," reported Clem.

"All right, I guess it's our turn then." Patty got into Anthony's truck next, Sin sliding in beside her. Clem listened as she heard the sound of Anthony's truck starting, then kept listening as she heard the sound of it trying to start continue for several seconds before suddenly petering out.

"We'll move the Brave." Clem put her radio down and turned to Sarah, who immediately sat down in the driver's seat. The older girl shifted the RV into reverse. They rolled backwards several feet, then the stranger's truck roared to life. Clementine felt her stomach tying itself into knots as that unfamiliar truck inched towards them. Slowly it slipped past the front of the Brave, its trailer blocking the entire windshield. After a very tense several seconds, the trailer disappeared from sight and Clem breathed out.

"Clem? Sarah?" Hearing Patty call their names compelled Clem to hurry outside. She immediately rushed past the door and towards the her friend, who tossed her shotgun onto her back so she could greet the girl with open arms, which Clem was happy to throw herself into.

"Are you okay?" asked a startled Patty as she hugged the girl tightly.

"I'm okay," assured Clem as she hugged Patty back.

"And Jet?" asked Sin. "Is he—"

"He's fine," said Clem as she eased out of Patty's grip. "Like Sarah said."

"What the hell just happened?" asked Anthony as he emerged from the camper, the man's gaze darting about as he looked for threats. "Who the hell is that?" he asked as studied the truck and trailer pulling into the gas station across from them.

"I don't know," said Clem. "I went outside, thinking I heard you guys coming, and that truck pulled up out of nowhere."

"What'd they do to you?" asked Patty, anger and concern boiling over in her voice.

"One of them got out of the truck and shot a rifle into the air," explained Sarah as she approached the group. "I drove the Brave right up to Clem and was going to drive away, but then they started to leave, and that's when you guys drove up."

"So we got here right after them," noted Sin as he stared at the gas station across the street. "And you don't know anything about them."

"Just that there's at least three of them, and one of them is an old lady," said Clem. "And that they shot that gun when I ran outside to get Omid."

"Omid?" repeated Patty. "What was he doing out of the RV?"

"He just went out when I forgot to close the..." Clem looked over her shoulder at the Brave.

"Shit!"

"Omid!"

Clem and Sarah ran in unison towards the RV. Sarah quickly dropped to the pavement to check under the vehicle while Clem hurried inside. "OJ!" called Clem as she ran through the RV. "Oh—"

"Kem-men!" announced Omid as the girl burst into the bedroom.

"OJ," spoke a relieved Clem as she dropped to her knees in front of him.

"I... I got him to stop crying a minute ago," reported Jet, still shaking as he spoke. "Is it—"

"Omid!" Yelled Sarah as she burst into the room, nearly causing Jet to jump out of his skin.

"Sah-bah," said the toddler with a smile.

"It's okay," assured Clem. "Jet was watching him."

"So, is it okay out there?" asked the boy. "Is Granddad all right?"

"Yeah." Jet stood up and hurried outside. "Sarah, can you watch Omid?"

"I'll take care of him," she assured.

"Okay, I'll be right back OJ," said Clem. "Love you."

"Muh-boo." Clem smiled at the toddler, then stood up and headed out. She closed the Brave's door, then hurried to Anthony's truck. Approaching the vehicle, Clem saw Sin was telling Jet something. Before she could get in earshot, the boy ran off towards his own RV, which was still parked near the front of the gas station. Past Sin, Clem spotted Patty bent over the front of the truck.

"What the hell did you do to it?" asked Anthony.

"Something must have gotten knocked loose when I drove over the curb," echoed Patty's voice from under the hood.

"Oh, that's just great," groused Anthony as he crossed his arms. "This is what I get for letting you drive."

"Fuck you Anthony."

"Is that offer?" Clem watched as one of Patty's hands shot out from under the truck's hood and brandished its middle finger at the young man. Anthony didn't seem to mind. In fact, he just kept smirking as he watched Patty fiddle with the truck's engine. It was only when she turned around did his smile hastily disappear to be replaced with a look of frustration.

"Well whatever it is, I'll figure it out," stated Patty. "Just keep watch, once I get it fixed we'll get out of here."

"Keep watch with what, a baseball bat?" asked Anthony as he looked over at the gas station across the street. "I need a gun."

"Don't start with—"

"I do," insisted the young man. "If one of those people decide to come over and start something, there ain't shit I could do about it right now unless they got within in arm's reach."

"He's right, we should both be armed," added Sin.

"No, I... Clem, could you keep watch?" suggested Patty.

"I—"

"No, not her," insisted Sin.

"What? Why not?" asked an insulted Clem. "I—"

"I saw how effective you were with a gun when you saved us," said Sin. "But I doubt total strangers would think a small child would be a proficient marksman. However, if they saw Anthony and I had guns, they'd hopefully be more hesitant to take any action against us."

"Exactly," said Anthony. "Seeing a couple of big guys with guns will do a lot more to discourage those assholes from starting any trouble than a ten-year-old, no offense."

Clem couldn't help but taking offense at that comment, despite knowing it was probably true.

"You, I don't trust with a gun," Patty told Anthony. "And do you even know how to use a gun?"

"Yes, I had firearm training when I was fifteen," said Sin. "Why don't you trust him with a gun?"

"Because she's afraid I might use it to save her life," griped Anthony as he eyed the truck parked across the street. "Our lives are probably in danger right now and you don't want to do something because you're squeamish."

"It's... it's not that," stuttered Patty. "It's—"

"Whatever it is, it's wasting time," stated Sin as he watched someone emerge from behind the strangers' truck. Whoever they were just moved to a cover for a buried fuel tank, but Clem couldn't help feeling uneasy herself seeing this unknown person so close to them. "You have a pistol," Sin said to Clem. "Give it to me and I'll keep watch."

"And I could take Patty's shotgun," suggested Anthony.

"No, I'm not—"

"You're gonna just let these people kill us?" accused Anthony.

"They—"

"We'll give you unloaded guns," proposed Clem.

"What?" asked Anthony. "What good would—"

"Fine," said Sin as he turned back to watch the gas station. "Just hurry."

"You're okay with—"

"It's better than standing here arguing about it," Sin told Anthony in a stern voice. Patty briefly made eye contact with Clem and gave the girl a grateful nod. Clem hurried back to the vehicle and retrieved the automatic rifle and machine gun from the closet. She emptied the weapons' magazines as fast as she could, which wasn't very fast as she had to eject the rounds one at a time. After making sure the chambers were empty, Clem replaced the magazines and toted the guns back outside.

"Finally," said Anthony as he reached for the rifle. "Any longer and—" Sin took the rifle. He briefly removed and examined the magazine before replacing it and threading the shoulder strap over his head. "Help yourself why don't ya?" Anthony grabbed the machine gun and took up a position behind the end of the camper while Patty went back to work on the truck. Clem, still fearful of these strangers, took up watch on top of the Brave.

Even with her binoculars, Clem couldn't see these new people very well. Their truck and its trailer mostly concealed them from sight. Moving to the edge of the Brave, Clem managed to spot the pair of people in hazmat suits crouched over a fuel cover on the pavement. She watched as the two used a pair of massive bolt cutters to presumably break the lock on the tank, then retrieved what looked a pump for a well attached to a hose to start siphoning away diesel.

Clem periodically reported what she saw over the radio, which was mostly the pair in the smeared yellow outfits getting fuel a couple of hand pumps at a time. Occasionally, Clem could see one of them briefly looking at her from across the street before returning to the routine of pumping fuel. Clem would also sometimes hear Anthony's truck try to start, followed by Patty swearing in the distance. This routine continued for longer than Clem had hoped it would before she spotted something moving towards them.

"One of them is coming this way." Clem's nervous proclamation was followed by frantic shuffling in the distance.

"Just one?" asked Patty in a hushed voice.

"Yeah, it's..." Clem adjusted her binoculars. "It looks like the old woman from earlier."

"Is she armed?" asked Sin.

"She's... she's carrying a basket," noted Clem.

"What about a damn gun?" asked Anthony. "Can you see one of those?"

"No, not on her belt, and I don't see a strap around her chest either," reported Clem.

"What about the other two people you saw, where are they?" asked Patty.

Clem briefly scanned the gas station before spotting a familiar shade of yellow. "They're behind their trailer," she reported.

"Are they armed?" asked Sin.

"Yes," said Clem as she eyed the rifle in one of the stranger's hands and the handgun in the other's.

"Okay, we can see the old woman now. She's waving a white cloth, like she's surrendering or something," reported Patty. "Keep an eye on those other two, this could be a trap."

Clem did as she was told and watched the pair carefully. It was hard to tell from this distance, even with the binoculars, but something about the way they held their weapons made them look tense. But they didn't advance, instead they just continued to watch things from across the street. Clem was so focused on them she almost didn't hear her named being called on the radio a few minutes later.

"Clem?" repeated Patty. "Are you there?"

"Yeah, sorry."

"This woman has something she wants to talk to you about," said Patty.

"Really?" asked Clem. "Why me?"

"Because... well it'd be easier to just let her explain it to you."

"Okay, I'm coming down." Clem hurried down the ladder and towards the truck. She found herself moving more slowly as the elderly woman came into focus. She had a mess of curly gray hair covered by a tan sun hat. Her denim jacket looked severely faded along with her jeans, which were threadbare around the knees. Wrinkles ran across her leathery face, congregating around her small gray eyes and cracked lips, while her hands remained high in the air to show everyone she wasn't holding anything.

"Clem," said Patty. "This woman wanted to ask you something."

Clementine felt unsettled as the old woman smiled at her. The sudden attention made her uncomfortable, but there was also something genuinely warm in the woman's face that eased her mind, if only slightly. "Hi there sweetie," she spoke slowly but surely. "My name is Winnie."

"Winnie?" repeated Clem.

"Well, Winifred, but I prefer Winnie," she said. "What's your name?"

"Clementine," she said. "Or, just Clem."

"Okay," said Patty. "If you want to ask this, you'd really need to ask her."

"It was you I saw earlier," noted Winnie. "You came running out of that RV and grabbed hold of that little boy."

"Yeah," confirmed an apprehensive Clem. "So?"

"Well, like I was telling them just now, I wanted to apologize for my how my grandson and his... girlfriend, acted earlier." Clem couldn't help note but how she stressed the word girlfriend, as if she resented saying it. "They saw someone burst out of that RV and just thought they were being attacked; didn't even notice you were a child chasing after a smaller child or even think to just keep going until I spoke up."

"So you told us," said Anthony as he adjusted his grip on his gun.

"Why did one of them shoot?" asked Clem. "My friend said she saw someone shoot into the air."

"That was Jamila's bright idea," said Winnie, making no attempt to hide her contempt. "Show of force or some nonsense. Damn fool is going to get us all killed. I don't blame your friends here for thinking the worse when they drove up."

"We tend to think the worse about people in general these days," admitted Patty in a measured tone. "I'm guessing you know why."

"Oh yeah, I understand. You got that precious little thing in there and you want to protect him." Clem noticed Winnie was looking at her now. "She tells me you're the one taking care of that baby."

"Um, yeah, me and my best friend take care of him."

"I... I was just wondering," the woman took a breath as she became more aware of the others staring at her. "I was wondering if I could see him."

"What? Why do you want to see our baby?"

"Because I haven't seen one in what feels like an eternity," said Winnie with a heavy sigh. "And... I don't know if I'll ever get to see another one at this rate."

"I told her this was your decision, not ours," informed Patty. "So, what do you say?"

Clem suddenly felt everyone's eyes on her as they expected an answer. Looking at the woman, the first thing Clem noticed was how frail she appeared. Winnie was older than Sin and a few inches shorter than Patty. Even just standing there, Clem could see her hands were shaking not from fear but just from the strain of keeping them in the air, and there was a look of quiet resignation in her eyes contrasting her sweet smile.

"Well... I... I guess it's okay?" With those words everyone's focus moved from Clem back to Winnie, who seemed pleasantly surprised.

"I really appreciate this," she said. "You mind if I let my grandson know real quick I'm gonna be over here for a minute?"

"Depends," said Patty. "How are you going to let him know?"

"I'm just gonna give him a thumbs up," said the old woman. "Wouldn't even have to leave this spot. I would just need to turn around."

"All right, just... no sudden moves." Patty's words made Clem feel tense, and seeing Winnie turn in place just made her feel more nervous. Despite Winnie's harmless appearance, Clem felt her hand instinctively moving to her gun anyway as the old woman balled her hand into a fist. She extended a single thumb into the air and moved her arm out towards the opposite gas station. Looking at where Winnie was gesturing to, Clem saw what she thought was one of the people in hazmat suits briefly duck out of view behind the trailer.

"All right then," said Winnie as she turned towards Sin. "Does this mean I can have my basket back?"

"Sin," said Patty. "Whatta ya think?"

"The box inside hadn't been opened, and I didn't taste anything suspect when I sampled the jar," said the man as he removed a woven basket from the cab of Anthony's truck. "But then, I'm not an expert on what poisons taste like."

"But surely you know what jams taste like," said Winnie with a smile.

"Jam?" Clem looked at the basket as Sin opened the lid. Inside it was what looked like a single box of powdered jello and a small jar filled with a very dark red substance.

"Blackberry, jarred it myself," boasted Winnie before turning to Sin. "Honestly, what did you think of it?"

"Honesty? It was probably the best-tasting thing I've had in a long time," confessed the man in uncharacteristically frank voice. "I wasn't accusing you of trying to poison us, but—"

"Someone you don't know bringing you a basket of something to eat is a reason for concern. I understand, but I meant it when I told the rest of you earlier I wanted to make it up to you for the trouble we caused. I just wish I had more to give you; could barely get Aaron to let go of that one."

"Aaron?" asked Clem.

"My grandson," said Winnie. "I told him the least we could do after scaring those children was give them something good to eat."

"Again, it's up to you," Patty told Clem. "I kind of doubted you had much trouble with poisoned jam in the past, but you have a way of surprising me with horrifying revelations, so I figured I'd ask first."

"No one has ever tried to poison me, but..." Clem eyed the jam with hungry eyes.

"The jar was sealed before I opened it," informed Sin. "Although she said she's the one who jarred it, so..."

Clem unscrewed the jar and looked at sticky substance inside. Sniffing the jam, she found it had a tart fruity smell that was difficult to resist. The girl dipped her finger in the jam and moved it to her lips. She hesitated briefly, then the scent proved too tempting and she stuck the jam in her mouth. "Oh my God..." Clem immediately spooned a bigger dollop of jam out of the jar.

"I think she likes it." Clem could only nod at Winnie as she felt the sublime substance teasing her tongue. It was sweet and tart, but not at the same time. Each movement of Clem's mouth caused the flavor to shift from one back to the other, and they were both delectable. Even the tiny seeds stimulated her senses in a way that the gave the jam an almost electric feel, as if the girl could feel the nutrition being absorbed into her body.

"So, does this mean I can come in for a minute?" Clem looked at the jar, then nodded.

"Just yell if you need anything," said Patty. "I'll be out here, working on Anthony's truck."

"Okay." Clem screwed the lid back on the jar and handed it to Winnie, who placed it back in her basket. The girl couldn't think of any reason to be afraid, yet she still felt a tinge of dread in her stomach as she led the woman into her home. Moving towards the bedroom, Sarah emerged suddenly and was startled by the sight of the old woman.

"Who... who's she?" asked the older girl.

"Her name is Winnie, and she's with those other people," introduced Clem, trying to sound calm. "Winnie, this is my best friend in the whole world, Sarah."

"Um hi," said Sarah with an awkward wave.

"Hi there sweetie," said Winnie, sounding more melancholy now. "Are... are you the boy's mother?"

"What?" asked Sarah.

"No, he's the baby of a couple who used to take care of me," informed Clem. "After they died, Sarah and I took care of him."

"Just the two of you?" Clem nodded. "Oh dear... and I thought I was young when my son was born."

"Clem, what's going on?"

"Winnie wants to see OJ," said Clem. "She says she hasn't seen a baby in a really long time."

"Oh, um... okay." Sarah briefly eyed the old woman, then turned back to the door. The three stepped into the bedroom where the woman first laid eyes on Omid, who was sitting on the floor while playing with his rattle. He turned his head slowly and looked up at the elderly women staring at him.

"Duh-muh-dah-bah?"

"Oh God..." Winnie gasped so loudly, it actually startled Clem. Looking at the woman, she appeared utterly stunned, as if she had just seen a ghost. "He's beautiful..."

"Boo-duh-bah?"

"Do you want to hold him?" offered Sarah.

"May I?" Winnie looked to Clem for approval, who nodded with a smile. She knelt down in front of Omid and stretched out her arms, causing the boy to smile and walks towards her. As soon he walked close enough, Winnie grabbed hold of the boy and lifted him into the air with a sudden upward motion. Clem felt a sudden bolt of fear shoot their her veins, only for it to immediately be chased away by Omid's excited squealing.

"Oh, aren't you just the most precious thing in the world," mused Winnie, nearly weeping as she listened to Omid's excited laughter.

"Hah-buh! Hah-buh!" chanted the boy between laughs.

"You want to go higher?" asked Winnie. "Sure thing."

Winnie acted if she was going to set Omid down, then pulled him back into the air, causing the boy to squeal in delight. Seeing both Omid unable to stop laughing and Winnie nearly crying with joy, Clem found herself feeling a rare moment of contentedness, a brief moment where everything wrong with the world disappeared from her mind and only joy flowed into her; she only wished she could make it last forever.

Suddenly there was a flash followed by a whirring sound. Clem looked over to see Sarah removing a photo from her camera. "Sorry," she said as she set the picture down. "I just haven't seen him smile so much in a long time."

"Oh it's fine dearie," assured Winnie. "I... I don't suppose there's another photo left in that old thing?"

"Yeah, there's plenty," said Sarah with a smile as she raised the camera. "Say cheese!"

"Cheddar!" said Winnie as she lifted a laughing Omid back into the air as another flash signaled another moment being captured on instamatic film.

"I... I can not thank the both of you enough for this," spoke a profusely grateful Winnie. "What's... what's this sweet little thing's name?"

"Omid."

"Omid? That's a nice name."

"His full name is Omid Junior," added Clem. "So I call him OJ."

"I can see why," said Winnie as she studied the giggling tyke. "He's just a little sweet bundle of joy I'd like to eat up."

"Yeah, except on nights he won't sleep," said Sarah. "Then one of us have to stay up with him for what feels like forever."

"Give him something soft to hold when you put him to sleep," suggested Winnie as she set a still chuckling Omid on the bed.

"He has a stuffed elephant he really likes," said Sarah. "But when he wakes up at night he never wants it."

"That's cause he wants one of you," noted Winnie as she lightly tickled the boy. "Don't you, you sweet little thing?"

"Wee-lil-lee," laughed Omid.

"Keep that elephant close to one of you before bedtime," instructed Winnie. "That way it'll smell like you, and when he holds it, he'll think he's holding onto one of you."

"Really?" asked Clem. "Does that work?"

"Used to do for it Aaron when he was just a baby," said Winnie. "I only wished I had known that when I raised his father."

"Where is your son?" asked Sarah. "Is he out there in that trailer?"

"No, I hadn't seen him in years," Winnie told Sarah in a quiet voice. "My son walked out on his wife when Aaron was just a baby, and that was the last any of us every saw of him."

"You... you never saw your son again?" asked Sarah. "And Aaron never meet his father?"

"Pretty much," shrugged Winnie. "I made so many mistakes raising him; can't help thinking it's my fault he turned out the way he did."

"I worry about the same thing for Omid," admitted Sarah.

"Someone told us we shouldn't feed him fish," said Clem. "After we already feed him a bunch of fish for a couple of weeks."

"You're worried about mercury poisoning." The girls nodded at Winnie. "I used to feed Justin, Aaron's father, canned tuna all the time when he was a kid. Then years later, decades actually, I read I probably shouldn't have been doing that."

"I guess it's good we found out now," reasoned Clem.

"You make all kinds of mistakes as a parent, or at least I did," said Winnie with a sigh as she ran her fingers through Omid's hair. "After Justin walked out on us, I did my best to not make the same mistakes on Aaron as I did on him. It was the least I could do for Aaron's mother. She was stuck working two jobs to provide for all of us... but I'm pretty sure I still made some mistakes with Aaron though."

"What happened to Aaron's mother?" asked Clem.

"Deborah, Aaron's mother, she... she got bitten by one of those things not long after all this started," said Winnie in a quiet voice. "We all breathed a sigh of relief when she killed it, only to find out later that if one of them bites you, you eventually turn into one yourself. Aaron was heart-broken... so was I."

"I'm so sorry," said Sarah.

"Our parents are gone too," added Clem.

"And yet you're parents yourself," noted Winnie.

"We aren't OJ's... I mean..." Clem never really thought of herself as Omid's parent, but hearing Winnie saying it out loud, the girl couldn't think of a reason why she wouldn't be.

"Here." Sarah handed a photo to Winnie. "It came out really nice."

"Oh, thank you so much dearie." Clem briefly eyed the photo before Winnie stored it in her basket. Seeing Omid laughing and an old woman crying in joy was a sight Clem was glad she witnessed. "That reminds me, I brought this for you." Winnie reached into her basket and removed the jam.

"You should try it Sarah, it's really, really good."

The older girl dipped her finger in the jar and raised the jam to her lips. The second she tasted it her eyes popped open, as if she had just been woken from a deep trance. "Oh wow."

"It's nice to see people actually enjoy my jam again," said Winnie. "Aaron and Jamila have been eating it for so long they're sick of it. I am too really."

"It's way better than lima beans," said Clem.

"Is that what you've been digging out people's pantries?" asked Winnie. "We've been finding a lot of cream of mushroom soup cans ourselves. I actually didn't mind it before, but we've had it for so many meals now that I'm starting to get sick just looking at the label."

"Mah-bah," said Omid as he started reaching for the jam.

"What flavor is this?" asked Sarah as she pulled the jar away.

"Blackberry."

"Omid's never had blackberries before," said Sarah. "Let me get a spoon or he'll make a mess everywhere."

"Yeah, babies are good at that."

Clem climbed onto the bed and took hold of Omid while Sarah headed for the kitchen.

"How old is he?" asked Winnie.

"Almost eleven months now," said Clem.

"Not even a year old yet," noted Winnie as she moved in a little closer. "That means he was born after things changed, and you and Sarah have been taking care of him this whole time?"

"Yeah," said Clem.

"Lord, and I thought me and Deborah had our hands full with Aaron."

"We got lucky for the first six months, where we were living next to this grocery store that was still full of food," explained Clem. "But then the food ran out and we had to go look for more, and we're still looking."

"All right," said Sarah as she walked into the bedroom and sat down on the bed. "Who's hungry?"

"Mah-bah!" cheered Omid as he watched Sarah spoon a tiny morsel of jam out of the jar.

"Open wide." Omid happily opened his mouth and Sarah fed him the jam. Hearing the boy making cooing noises as he literally smacked his lips eating the jam tickled Clem in a way that only making a child happy could.

"Mah-bah! Mah-bah!" repeated Omid as he reached for the jam.

"In a minute," said Sarah as she pulled back the jar. "I want to make sure he doesn't have an allergic reaction."

"You're already better parents than I was when Justin was a boy," said Winnie with a weak laugh. "I didn't even think about allergies until after he was in school. He was in the first grade before I found out he had a mild allergy to eggs. I used to call him a bellyacher when he'd complain about my breakfast, didn't even realize they were actually making his belly ache."

"I'm sorry," said Sarah.

"Be sorry for him, not me. The worst part is after I found out, I stopped getting eggs altogether. When Justin got into high school, he said he wanted eggs and they didn't bother him, and I told him he was wrong and that he was allergic to eggs."

"Why did he want food he was allergic to?" asked Sarah.

"He didn't. It turns out most kids with an egg allergy actually outgrow it by the time they're a teenager; so I gave him eggs when I shouldn't have and didn't when I should have."

"You can outgrow allergies?" asked Clem.

"Egg allergies you can, unless I'm wrong again."

"Mah-bah!" demanded Omid as he tried to stretch his hands far enough to grab the jam.

"Well, I don't think OJ is allergic to this," noted Clem with a smirk.

"All right, here you go Omid." Sarah fed the toddler a small spoonful jam, producing an even louder set of happy noises muffled by his loud chewing.

"Did you really make this yourself?" Clem asked Winnie.

"Of course," she said.

"How?" asked Sarah.

"Oh it's easy. You just boil the fruit with pectin, add the sugar, wait for it all to foam up, pour the stuff—"

"Wait, boil fruit?" asked Clem.

"What's pectin?" asked Sarah.

"You know what, I brought this for you as well." Winnie grabbed a small cardboard box from her basket. "I've been told I'm not the best at giving directions, but luckily every box of pectin comes with instructions on how to make your own preserves."

Clem watched as Winnie offered what she thought was a box of powdered jello. The word 'pectin' was written on the front and the side of the container had already been torn open. Looking inside she found a sealed bag of what felt like powder and a piece of folded paper.

Unfolding the paper, Clem was surprised to see it was nearly the size of a small poster and written on both sides were a series of instructions and measurements for jams, jellies, and other things Clem hadn't even thought to make. Clem pulled the small packet out of the box next and opened it, finding a light brown powder inside. "So... what is this stuff?"

"It's what makes jam," said Winnie.

"Yeah, but what's it made out of?" asked Clem as she sniffed the powder.

"Ground up orange and lemon peels."

"Really?"

"More or less."

"And... that can turn stuff into jam?" asked Sarah with great curiosity.

"Pretty much," said Winnie. "You just need jars, fruit, sugar, water, heat, a pot, and a box of that stuff, and you can turn pretty much anything into jam."

"Really?" asked Sarah as she eyed the instructions.

"Mah-bah." Sarah fed Omid another spoonful of jam before taking the instructions from Clem.

"Could you turn tomatoes into a jam?" asked Sarah.

"I'd probably add apple cider vinegar, make it a spicy jam," said Winnie as she rubbed her chin. "Or skip the sugar and go with peppers, make salsa."

"What about... peas?" said Clem.

"Well, I never tried that myself. That'd probably boil pretty easily, but I'd imagine it'd make a lousy jam. Might be better to just make pea soup."

"What about fish?"

"Never tried that, but you can jam almost anything. I've made jelly out of flowers."

"Really?" asked a surprised Clem. "How?"

"You just pick some petals, pour in double that amount of boiling water, let it sit overnight, then strain the liquid from the pulp and you've got a tea," explained Winnie. "And if instead of drinking it you stir in pectin and sugar, you can get jelly instead."

"Does... does it taste good?" asked a very curious Clem.

"It depends on the flower. Roses are good, sorta taste like fruit punch. Honeysuckles are amazing."

"Do they actually taste like honey?"

"Yes... actually. Dandelions have a wild flavor."

"You made jam out of dandelions?"

"Jelly; jams have seeds, jellies don't," explained the woman. "Dandelion leaves are also good on salads."

"Really?"

"You keep saying that like I just told you about a magic spell," noted an amused Winnie.

"I guess it's just—"

"Nowadays, an old woman's jamming hobby is suddenly very useful," said Winnie with a smirk. "I like to remind my grandson of that constantly."

"Mah-bah." Once again, Sarah gave Omid some jam before turning back to the instructions she had set out on the bed.

"This... this is how canned goods are made."

Winnie smirked at Sarah. "The process is called 'canning' actually. I say 'jarring' when I talk about it because people get confused when you talk about needing jars to 'can' something."

"If we could grow enough of our own food, we could turn it our own canned goods and have it for later," realized Sarah. "I mean, that's what you've done. It's not even that complicated, the instructions just say we need to put the jars in boiling water and put a lid on the pot."

"And the pressure takes cares of the rest, or maybe the heat I'm not sure," said Winnie as she rubbed her chin. "Like I said, anyone can do it. The jars lids even tell you if you did it right or not." Winnie grabbed the jar lid lying on the bed. "Press down on the top of that."

Clem put her finger on the center of the lid and pushed down. It moved in, then made a very slight pop as it returned to its original position as she let go. "So, what does that mean?"

"It means it's not sealed, or would if it was on a jar right now," explained Winnie. "If you can push the top of a jar in a little, that means the seal is broken. But if you can't press it down, then it's sealed and still safe to eat. Your handsome friend noticed that before he opened the jam."

"Anthony noticed that?" asked Sarah as she fed Omid another bit of jam.

"Which one is Anthony?"

"The really tall young guy with the dark hair," said Clem.

"No, not that punk," dismissed Winnie. "The older gentlemen with the glasses; he even pressed down on the lid to make sure it was still sealed."

"It's like pickle jars," realized Sarah. "After you open them, there's the little bump on the top of the lid that wasn't there before."

"Yep."

"Is that there just so if you know if the jar has been opened?" asked Clem.

"Yep."

"We already have sugar, a pot, and a stove," said Sarah as she read the instructions Clem took out of the pectin box. "We just need pectin and some jars and we could make our own jam."

"Yeah, that and something to turn into jam," reminded Winnie with a sigh. "Another hobby I was into was gardening, and it too suddenly became a lot more important after people started turning into those horrible things. Between what we grew and what my grandson and his... girlfriend, could salvage nearby, we made it through the first winter okay. But this one?" Winnie shook her head.

"I always just bought seeds in the past, never thought I'd need to save my own. For some plants it's easy to figure out how to get their seeds, but for most of them it isn't. You have any idea where lettuce seeds come from?"

"No."

"Me neither."

"Nor did I until recently. It turns out if you don't pick lettuce when it's ready, it'll eventually grow flowers you can get seeds from."

"So you shouldn't eat lettuce until after it flowers," concluded Sarah.

"Lettuce becomes bitter if you don't pick it right away, almost like it's upset with us for waiting to eat it," grumbled Winnie. "You should plant at least some lettuce just to use for getting seeds, but we didn't think about that until it was too late. We had used what few seeds I had left this spring and only managed to collect a handful from the plants we grew. We had to make do with mostly fruit and no vegetables, and there was even less food leftover for Aaron and Jamila to find after a year of scouring old suburbs for whatever people didn't take with them.

"We even picked every blackberry we could find this summer, hoping it would make up for our shrinking garden, but it didn't. When it became obvious there wouldn't be enough food to last the winter, we went looking for help..." Winnie took a deep breath. "We found anything but."

"So, what now?" asked Clem. "Where are you going?"

"Jamila's got an idea," said Winnie with a hint of disdain. "Wants us to go some place called Imperial Valley."

"Where's that?"

"In California, right on the Mexican border. Or so I'm told, I never heard of it before. Jamila said she went there once when she lived out west, says the biggest farms in the country are there."

"So you think there will be food there?" asked Sarah.

"That's Jamila's and Aaron's hopes, but personally I think it's just a pipe dream. There were plenty of farms where we lived, most of them didn't last; of course most of those were cattle ranches. Still, we could barely keep a big garden going for two summers, and I know big farms bought their seeds the same as us."

"Then why are you going?" asked Clem. "If you don't think it'll work?"

Winnie shrugged. "Truth is, I don't have any better ideas. I was kind of hoping with how far we had to go, we'd run into somewhere that has things under control along the way. I'm guessing you haven't found anywhere to settle either judging from this RV and the other one outside."

"No. Sin, the older man, says he might know somewhere good to live up north, but he won't tell us where yet," said Clem.

"It sounds like he's taking you for a ride," noted a concerned Winnie.

"He told us he didn't want to say where because we might leave him behind if he did," explained Clem. "He also said he wasn't actually sure if it's safe or not, and that it was his second choice after we had already seen his first choice was no good."

"How refreshingly honest," chuckled Winnie. "Although, truthfully, that sounds like a bad plan."

"We don't have any better ideas," admitted Clementine with a shrug. "Everywhere we go has either been abandoned or run by bad people."

"Bad people?" repeated Winnie. "Bad how?"

"Bad like they locked us in a cage and wouldn't feed us if we didn't work," recalled a bitter Clem. "Bad like they whipped me for stealing, even though I didn't steal anything."

"Oh lord," spoke a stunned Winnie before taking a deep breath. "We've had our runs in with bad people too, but was kind of hoping that was just bad luck, and that most people couldn't be like that."

"We keep hoping the same thing," professed Clem.

"And to think, I kept telling Aaron he was being paranoid when we left home. I told him rotten people had to be the exception, and it's been over a year now, and there has to be places where things have worked out."

"Clementine said the same thing before we started living on the road," informed a weary Sarah. "That was back at the end of August."

"I really thought things would be better," spoke Clem in a hushed voice.

"I didn't," admitted Winnie. "I just didn't want to accept I was going through all this again."

"Again?" asked Sarah.

"There were walkers before?" asked Clem.

"No, not that specifically." Winnie took a deep breath. "I was living in Czechoslovakia when the second world war broke out."

"Check-luh—"

"It's a country in Europe, that's all you need to know," Winnie assured Clem. "I was just fourteen when everything changed."

"That's how old I am," said Sarah.

"I won't bore you with a long history lesson, I'll just tell you I thought the world was ending then too. There were killers, work camps, even wandering what was left of the country in hopes of finding safety while being afraid of what else was out there."

"How did you survive?" asked a desperate Clem.

"Honestly? It was mostly luck," confessed Winnie in a tired voice. "I was just a girl during the war. My family was smart, but smart only got us so far. Not long after the war started, my father was trying to get us on a boat that would take us away from everything, but it didn't happen, and for six years we..." There were tears in Winnie's eyes now as she swallowed her own words. Clem leaned in close and placed a hand on the woman's shoulder.

"I'm sorry," said Clem.

"Me too," said Sarah.

"Oh, don't be sweeties." The woman placed her hand over Clem's. Her skin felt rough against her own, like paper, yet Clem found it comforting. "You two got plenty to worry about without worrying about the likes of me. I'm old; I had a lot more good years than bad ones. If you want to worry about anybody, worry about my grandson. He's just a kid; hell you're both kids, it's not fair to either of you, or him." Winnie looked over at Omid, who was breathing softly in Clem's arms.

"I'll put him in his crib." Clem carefully placed Omid in his own bed. Turning around, she found Sarah offering Clem the boy's favorite stuffed elephant. Clem took the toy and strategically placed it in Omid's arms.

"Just take it one day at a time."

"Huh?" said Clem.

"This... madness, just try to deal with it a day at a time," advised Winnie. "Don't think about the whole world, it'll just drive you crazy. Just focus on each day as they come, and hopefully there will come a day when you won't have to think like that anymore."

"Is that what you did?" asked Sarah.

"It's what I'm still doing." Winnie stood up and looked down at Omid in his crib. "That and pay close attention to what people do. Talk is cheap, but actions aren't. Between someone who talks a big game, and someone who actually does what you need them to do, go with the second one."

"Okay," said Clem as carefully memorized what the woman said.

"And... just tell yourself you can always do better later," spoke Winnie in a pained voice.

"Huh?"

"Things are bad and..." Winnie took a breath. "If you ever do anything you're... not proud of, just tell yourself you'll make good on it later, when things are better." Winnie's words stung Clem as she suddenly felt aware of the things she had done she wasn't proud of.

"What did—" Clem put a hand on Sarah's shoulder. The older girl looked at Clem, who shook her head slightly at her friend, urging her not to stir what must have been painful memories for Winnie, or Clem herself.

"Things like this... no one really knows what to do. So just... get through it first, and then you can make up for your mistakes later."

There was a rumbling in the distance which caused Clem to hurry to the window. "Patty got Anthony's truck started," she announced.

"I guess that means it's time for me to go," realized the woman as she collected her now empty basket. "I'm sure Aaron is waiting on me anyway." Winnie stood up and started heading for the door.

"Wait," said Sarah. "Would... would you like some ice cream?"

"Ice cream?" repeated a confused Winnie.

Clem hurried to the closet and retrieved an unopened package, which she quickly handed to Winnie.

"Freeze-dried?" said Winnie as she studied the package. "How's it taste?"

"Weird for the first second," said Clem.

"Then just like real ice cream every second after that," assured Sarah.

"I can't accept this, you kids—"

"Please?" begged Sarah. "We want you to have it."

"And we've got like... a dozen bags more," counted Clem. "You can have that one."

"Well, it would probably help break up our routine of jam and crap junk we're sick of," realized Winnie. "And if you two little angels want me to have this, I guess I shouldn't argue."

"Yeah, you shouldn't." Clem's playful tease was met with a warm smile from Winnie, who then turned to the door. "Come with us." Clem's outburst caused Winnie to turn back towards the girl. "I... I mean..."

"We'd like it..." professed Sarah. "If you came with us."

"I'd... I'd like that too," admitted Winnie. "But I can't just leave Aaron behind. The poor boy would be lost without me."

"You wouldn't have to," said Clem. "We could all travel together."

"I don't think Aaron or Jamila would go for that. Plus, it sounds like we're going in different directions."

"Ask them," pleaded Clem. "And we'll ask Patty and the others."

"I'll... I'll try." Winnie walked out the door and the girls followed her. They could all feel the tension from the others as Winnie moved past the group and towards the other gas station. Only after she was halfway across the street did Patty finally approach the girls.

"You two okay?" she asked them. "You were in there a while with her."

"We're fine," assured Sarah. "We just—"

"We think they should come with us," Clem blurted out.

"What?" asked Patty.

"Yeah, what?" repeated Anthony.

"You can't be serious," said Sin.

"Why?" asked Jet.

"We are serious," said Sarah. "She's really nice and—"

"Here we go again," mumbled Anthony. "We should take in some old woman because—"

"Because she knows a lot about preserving food," argued Sarah in a stern voice as she held up the canning instructions. "And growing food too."

"Let me see that." Sarah handed Sin the instructions.

"And what about the other two?" asked Anthony as he looked over his shoulder at the distant truck. "From what you've told me, they didn't sound all that friendly when you first met."

"You didn't either when we first met," reminded Clem in a harsh tone.

"Yeah, but I didn't aim a gun at your fucking baby," retorted Anthony.

"No, just me." Anthony glared at Clem in response, and she was happy to stare right back at him.

"This seems very simple," concluded Sin as he handed the paper back to Sarah. "And even if it weren't, why would need someone to preserve food we don't have?"

"She could help us grow food because she used to have a garden, then she could turn it into stuff we can keep," argued Sarah. "So after spring, we might not even have to look for food anymore."

"But in the meantime that's one more person we have to feed," said Anthony. "Or three, as I'm sure those other two would come with her."

"She's a survivor," argued Clem. "She survived a war."

"Did she?" asked Sin, sounding surprised to hear that. "What did she tell you about it?"

"That... it was mostly luck she survived," admitted Sarah.

"Well that's real helpful," scoffed Anthony.

"We think she should come with us, and her family," declared an annoyed Clem. "So that's two votes."

"Oh, so we're voting again?" asked Anthony. "We'll I vote no. We're not getting enough to eat for ourselves these days, especially since we were all told about how every fucking fish in the world has mercury in it and I'm probably riddled with poison now for eating so damn many of them."

"Fine, Patty?" Clem was surprised to see woman quietly leaning against Anthony's truck. "Patty?"

"Yeah, I'm thinking," she said in a quiet voice.

"You don't want to help these people?" asked Sarah.

"I do, but..." The woman turned towards Anthony's camper suddenly. She opened the door and pulled out a small plastic bag. "After splitting things three ways, this is all we got today."

"This... this is it?" Clem dug through the bag to find two cans, three bags of uncooked pasta, a jar of olives, a container of oatmeal, and nothing else.

"And we've already got three vehicles to fuel and take care of," added Patty with a sigh. "One of which I nearly broke today."

"And these people already seem capable," added Sin as he looked over at the gas station. "The stains on their suits make it clear they're already aware of how to mask their presence from the dead, and you said over the radio they have their own means of acquiring fuel from buried fuel tanks."

"So, neither of you want them to come with us?"

"I'm... I'm sorry Clem," said Patty. "I'm sure Winnie is a wonderful old woman, and maybe the rest of her family is all right, but it's getting hard to keep things going for just the six of us and Omid."

"And I'm hearing this right?" A grin quickly stretched across Anthony's face. "Are you actually not taking their side?"

"Shut the fuck up Anthony."

"Even when she agrees with me she tells me to fuck off," groused the young man as he crossed his arms. "But that's three to two, so..."

"Jet." Clem suddenly noticed the young man sitting quietly by Anthony's camper. "You want to help people, right?"

"Well, yeah, but..." Clem felt her heart sink as she heard that but.

"Well, that's four to two."

"He didn't even answer," argued Clem.

"It's pretty obvious what he's going to say," dismissed Anthony.

"Well then let him say it," insisted Sarah.

"Well... do they even want to come with us?" asked Jet.

"Winnie said she would," said Sarah.

"What about the other two?" asked Patty.

"She... she said they might not," admitted Clem.

"Well this is a non-issue then," declared Sin. "There's no point in arguing about bringing along people who don't wish to be with us."

"We don't know, they might," reasoned Clem. "We should ask them."

"No fucking way," retorted Anthony. "Especially when you and Sarah are the only ones even pushing for this."

"I didn't say I didn't want them to come," corrected Jet. "It's just—"

"It's just we can't feed three more fucking people," retorted Anthony. "And there ain't nothing they can do for us. It doesn't matter how many of us there are if there ain't not food left to collect, which there hasn't been lately."

"Look, how about this?" said Patty as she raised her voice. "If they ask to come along, we'll talk about it then."

"They—"

Patty held out her hand to silence Anthony. "Otherwise, we don't say anything about it. If they say they want to come with us, we'll talk it out with them, but we don't offer. Does that sound fair?"

"If we don't offer they might think we don't want them," said Sarah.

"We don't," stated Anthony.

"You don't," snapped Clem.

"Clem, I just really don't think we should be inviting anyone else to come along with us at this point," said Patty. "We're still depending on food we collected over a week ago, Anthony's truck nearly quit on us today, we just had to start bottling our own water, and—"

"It's going to rain soon and you know it," argued Clem as she looked up at the sky, which was still overcast and still not raining.

"And just planning on our luck changing isn't a plan at all," argued Patty. "It wouldn't do these people any good to offer to bring them along when we're not even sure if we'll be able to take care of ourselves."

"Maybe if we had any idea of where the fuck we're going." Anthony eyed Sin, who just ignored Anthony in response.

"So yeah, if they ask to join up, we'll figure it out together; if they don't, we just go our separate ways."

"We... I..." Clem racked her brain for a rationale, but none came. She turned to Sarah, but the older girl appeared to have no solution herself. "I guess it's okay."

"Great," mumbled Anthony. "Can we finally get the fuck out of here?"

"It'll take me a little while to put back together a few things in your truck's engine," said Patty. "Then we can go."

"I can offload the things we've collected while you work," said Sin.

"And I'll put Anthony's diesel cans back in his truck," added Jet.

Clem returned to the Brave, feeling defeated while carrying the pitiful bag of goods that had been collected. It took her almost no time at all to store the meager bounty of goods in the closet. Despite her frustration with the others for being so adamant against Winnie's family joining them, staring at their own dwindling stock of food gave Clem second thoughts as she couldn't ignore the obvious; they had been eating food faster than they could replace it lately.

After shutting the closet, Clem delivered the water they had bottled earlier to the others; one jug per person. Having only two left after giving the others their water, Sarah began to boil the last jug that had yet to be purified. With nothing to do herself, Clem decided to take up watch again on top of the Brave. It was almost sunset now, turning an overcast sky into a dark one while it grew even colder. The girl was nearly ready to go inside when she noticed movement from across the gas station

"They're coming over," reported a hopeful Clem.

"Who's they?" asked a suspicious Anthony.

"All three of them."

"Shit, we need to leave, right now," demanded Anthony.

"They don't have their guns out," reported Clem.

"We'll hear them out," declared Patty. "Clem, get down here."

The girl hurried down the ladder. As she joined the others by Anthony's truck, she was surprised to see Sarah there already, as well as Jet peering out from behind the truck to watch the group approaching. Winnie was to the left of the pair Clem had seen earlier. They were still wearing the hazmat suits, but their gas masks were gone now and their hoods pulled back.

Finally seeing the couple up close, Clem was surprised by how young they appeared. The thin man with the curly hair, who Clem assumed was Aaron, looked like he could be Anthony's age. The dark-skinned woman next to him, Jamila presumably, appeared a little older, but Clem couldn't tell how much. She couldn't even be sure if Jamila was actually older than Aaron or was her just being the tallest made Clem think she must be older.

Clem could see the others tightening their grips on their guns as the trio slowed to a stop about ten feet away from Anthony's truck, and Clem herself had to fight the urge to move her hand to her own pistol still on her hip. There was a long and very tense silence following the trio stopping in front of Clem and the others. Looking at their faces, Winnie appeared nervous, Aaron slightly less so, and Jamila almost not at all. She also noticed their eyes gradually moving about, likely studying all of them in hopes of figuring out what they were thinking.

"We wanted to make sure you people would be all right before we left," Winnie said suddenly. "Jamila noticed you working on this truck and—"

"Figured I could lend a hand." Clem was surprised by how deep Jamila's voice was.

"Are you a mechanic?" asked Patty.

"Nah, but I spent enough time having to fix my old POS to get familiar with cars," said Jamila.

"Yeah, well Patty is a mechanic," blurted out Anthony. "And she already fixed the truck, so you guys can just leave."

Clem saw Jamila's eyebrows shift downward slightly after Anthony said that, as if his comment angered her.

"We also wanted to apologize for what happened earlier," said Aaron, desperately trying to conceal the guilt stewing in his voice.

"We just saw someone tearing ass out of that RV and figured it was an attack. I... I didn't even see that baby Mrs. Goldfarb saw." Clem suddenly felt very nervous as Jamila looked directly at her. "I wasn't trying to shoot you, I swear. I just thought hearing a shot would keep anyone else from storming out at us. You gotta believe me."

Clem could hear a subtle sincerity in the woman's voice, as if she was trying to hide how much she cared from the girl. "I believe you," said Clem as she realized she did actually.

"Like I told her, I was thinking the worse when I boxed you in with the truck earlier," admitted Patty.

"You people runnin' from anything?" asked Jamila.

"Why do you ask?" said Sin.

"Just wondering if there's anywhere we need to avoid," said Jamila.

"Houston." Jet leaned out from his hiding place behind the truck.

"Jesus, how many kids do you have?" asked a concerned Aaron.

"I didn't even meet this boy," noted a surprised Winnie.

"I didn't get to meet you either," realized Jet. "I was just saying, don't go to Houston. Things were bad when we left there, and they were about to get a lot worse."

"Good to know," said Aaron.

"Do you know of anywhere we need to stay away from?" asked Sarah.

"Nashville..." said Jamila suddenly, looking pained as she did. "Stay the fuck away from that place."

"Why?" asked Sarah. "What's wrong with Nashville?"

Clem watched as Aaron moved in close and placed a hand on Jamila's shoulder. "Trust us," he said. "You people wouldn't want to go there."

"We'll take your word for it," said Patty.

"And we'll start leaving warnings about it from now on," added Clem.

"Warnings?" asked Jamila.

"Yeah, like those." Clem pointed at the graffiti they had left on the side of the gas station.

"Stay away from Houston, Savannah, New Orleans, Gulfport, Mobile, Jacksonville, Miami," read Jamila off the wall. "All these places are fucked up now?"

"Or just ghost towns," said Patty as she shook her head. "Either way, they're all places none of us ever want to go back to."

"Then Nashville would belong on that list," spoke a bitter Winnie.

"The fuck is Valkaria?" asked Jamila as she read the name off the wall.

"Little post-outbreak town of assholes run by a two-faced bitch and her dickless wannabe cop on the east Florida coast," sneered Patty.

"And there's somewhere even worse near Savannah, Georgia," warned Sarah. "They call themselves Shaffer's."

"These are the places you were telling me about earlier, aren't they?" Clem nodded at Winnie. "Lord help us all."

"Dead don't eat dead; smell like the dead," read Jamila. "What's that, some kind of public service announcement?"

"Basically," shrugged Patty.

"Not everyone knows how to get past walkers, so we thought we'd tell them."

"Really?" asked Aaron. "I figured everyone would know by now. I mean, you people clearly know; everyone where we lived knew."

"Where did you live?" asked Jet.

"Near fuckin' Nashville," growled Jamila.

"Actually in a town a bit of drive from Nashville itself," clarified Winnie. "We headed for the city after the growing season was over..."

"Stay the fuck away from there," repeated Jamila, the woman nearly trembling as she spoke.

"We will," assured Sarah, sounding a little afraid herself now.

"We're all just heading west now, hoping to find somewhere to live," said Aaron as he comforted Jamila.

"Same here, cept we're heading North," informed Patty.

"Well... I hope you people find something."

"Yeah, you too."

A quiet pause followed the exchange. Everyone remained still, waiting for someone else to move or speak. Clem felt a sudden urge to speak out, to tell everyone they should travel together, but she didn't. She looked to Sarah instead, and there was a keen look in the older girl's eyes that made Clem think she was about to speak, but she didn't. Clem then looked to Winnie, whose fading smile made it clear she was already regretting not speaking. Clem hoped maybe someone would finally break the silence, but it didn't happen.

Instead, Aaron and Jamila turned away and started moving back to their vehicle, prompting Anthony to get into his truck. Sin motioned to Jet, who followed the man back to their RV, then Patty gestured to Clem and Sarah before heading into the Brave. The girls moved as they heard Anthony's truck starting, and watched as it finally pulled away from the curb, leaving both girls with a clear view at Winnie, who was still standing in the street.

They looked out at the older woman, and she looked back at them. The sadness hanging off her wrinkled face as the three exchanged one last look of disappointment was almost too much for Clementine to bear. Hearing the Brave's engine starting, Clem finally turned away from the fleeting moment as she and Sarah went home. Taking a seat at the front of the vehicle, Clem watched as Aaron's truck passed in front of them, along with the trailer Winnie surely was in. Their truck moved down the road while the Brave drove off in the other direction, and the world felt a little emptier for Clem as she realized she would probably never see that kind old woman again.