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]

66. Status Quo

Clementine groaned as she rose from her slumber. She found herself reaching out in hopes of finding Sarah in her grasp, but only pulled back the covers. Opening her eyes and letting things come into focus, Clem found herself unsettled by her surroundings. She was just in a bedroom, but every little difference was an instant reminder that this wasn't her home. The color of the sheets, the shape of the window, the look of the dresser; it all felt alien to her.

"Sarah?" Looking around, Clementine saw no sign of her friend. "Patty? OJ?" As her eyes adjusted to the low light beaming in through the curtains, Clem realized she was alone. Searching the room for any signs of them, Clem spotted something on the dresser. Moving over to it, she realized it was one of her shirts and a pair of pants, but not the one she was wearing yesterday. After happily changing into something that actually fit her, Clem slowly stepped outside.

"Kem-men!"

"OJ!" Clementine knelt down as Omid hurried across the carpet and into the girl's arms. "How are you? Do you feel okay?"

"Kem-men," repeated the child as he flashed Clem a grin, which just made Clem want to smile herself. She ran her fingers through the boy's thick dark locks, looking carefully at his forehead. The bruise had faded, but it still disturbed Clem how big it was.

"You're finally up." Clem looked past Omid to see Jet staring at her, concern brimming in his eyes. "Are you okay? Do you feel all right? Sarah was worried you might be sick, so she let you sleep in."

"My head feels a little heavy, but I'm okay," assured Clem.

"Here, we saved this for when you woke up." Jet offered Clem an already open can with a spoon sticking out of it. Looking inside, she was pleasantly surprised to see it half full of peaches.

"You're sure about this?" asked Clem. "Giving me fruit?"

"Yeah, we've got extras," assured Jet. "Me and Granddad will have plenty left without that one."

Clem didn't argue with Jet any further and immediately popped a spoon full of peaches into her mouth, savoring that sweet stickiness for as long as possible before swallowing. As she ate, it did occur to her that with only two people, Jet and Sin's cans of fruit probably lasted longer than Clem's, which was shared with Sarah, Patty, and Omid.

"Mah-bah."

"You want some too?" asked Clem in a sweet voice.

"He already had something for lunch," informed Jet.

"Yeah, but he's a growing boy and he's still hungry." Clem fed Omid a small piece of peach, much to his enjoyment, then ate some herself, much to her own enjoyment. "Is OJ okay?" asked Clem between bites. "Did Sarah notice anything wrong with him?"

"He's been kind of quiet this morning, but he's fine… I think," shrugged Jet. "I don't know much about babies."

"El-muh," babbled the toddler as he stumbled over to the couch. Clem smiled as she watched Omid pick up his stuffed elephant and carry it over to her. "Tah-bah el-muh."

"I see her," said Clem with a smile as she took the toy.

"I think he missed you," said Jet with a smirk. "He hasn't done anything like that as long as I've been watching him."

"Where is everyone?" asked Clem as she ate another bite of peaches.

"I think they're all still working on your RV."

"Our RV?" asked Clem through her peaches. "It's okay?"

"I think that's what they're working on."

Clem handed the elephant back to Omid then hurried over to the front of the RV. Peering out the windshield, the girl felt her heart skip a beat when she saw they were facing a bridge with a very familiar vehicle parked on it. Without thinking, Clementine took off for the door.

"Kem-men!"

"Oh, Jet, could you—"

"Yeah, I'll watch him," assured Jet as he took hold of the toddler before he could get any closer to the door.

"Kem-men," repeated Omid in a sad voice.

"I'll be back," promised Clem. "Just be good."

She hurried outside and started running down the road. The sun was already high in the clear blue sky and Clem found it odd how dry everything was. If she didn't know better, she could swear it never rained yesterday. Looking aside as she walked, Clem could see her, Sarah's, Patty's and even Omid's clothes hanging from a clothesline strung up between two trees on the side of the road. Approaching the bridge, Clem slowed down for a better look.

The river had receded, allowing Clem her first good look at the bridge itself. It was a simple two-lane road whose shoulders were surrounded by waist-high concrete barriers. The wide gaps in-between the supports holding up this stone fence were probably built to allow water to pass through it, but apparently not enough seeing as there were large chunks of the barrier missing. Looking closer, Clem could see where the concrete had been twisted and broken by the force of the water in much the same way as a branch caught in a stiff wind would be.

Turning back to the Brave, Clem felt relieved it was still sitting in one piece on the bridge. But as she grew closer, that relief quickly faded. Dirt and dried mud stained the lower section of the vehicle, marking how high the water had risen last night. The entire RV was angled slightly to the right where it had crashed into the concrete barrier, the headlights on that side smashed open as a result.

But what Clem found more disturbing is the concrete itself, the only thing keeping the Brave from driving off a bridge and into the river, had crumbled badly from the impact. Most of the barrier where the Brave had crashed was gone now and the end of the vehicle was wedged between the remaining concrete, which looked ready to crumble at any moment. Inching in for a better look, Clem peered over the edge to find the river flowing mere inches below the bridge, foam splashing up and into Clem's face as if it was spitting on her.

Eager to get away from the river, Clem moved to enter the Brave, only to realize the door was on the side butted up against the barrier. Looking past the edge of the Brave, Clem saw there was no way she could open the door. Even if she could reach it, it would bang into the barrier before it could even be cracked open. Clem headed for the back of the Brave next, trying to ignore the constant smear of mud marking every compartment she passed.

Circling the back of the vehicle, Clem immediately noticed a step ladder positioned below the back window. She also noticed a piece of bent metal still hooked to the back bumper where their trailer used to be hitched. Doing her best to ignore that, Clem climbed up the ladder and moved through the window. She bellyflopped onto the bed, which felt slightly damp, and quickly rolled off.

"Clem!" The girl looked up to find Sarah standing in the bedroom door. "You're up." Instead of answering, Clem elected to move in close and hug Sarah, which prompted her to drop the bag she was carrying and return Clem's embrace. "Are you feeling okay? When I woke up this morning, you looked sick and you felt a little warm." Arching her head back to get a better look at Sarah, Clem immediately felt a hand on her forehead. "Hmm, you still feel a little warm."

"I'm okay," assured Clem. "But my head feels a little heavy."

"I think I know what can help." Clem followed Sarah to the closet, which was now a mess. The entire shelf had fallen over and there were cans, boxes, and bottles strewed across the floor. Despite the mess, Sarah picked through the wreckage and fished out a small box. She moved with great haste to remove a couple of orange pills from a package before handing them to Clem. "Daytime cold medicine; better safe than sorry."

"Thanks." Clem took the pills and headed for the sink. She turned the faucet, but nothing came out.

"The water pump is not working," informed Sarah.

"We have a water pump?" asked Clem.

"Yeah, or had, I don't know yet," sighed Sarah as she handed Clem a bottle of water. "I'm hoping it's just the coach batteries."

"Coach batteries?"

"It's a couple of batteries in the back for the lights and the pump and a few other things," said Sarah. "Hopefully when we replace them the pump will start working again."

"And if it doesn't?" asked Clem as she opened the water bottle.

"Then I don't know what to do," admitted Sarah.

"What did the manual say?"

"It said to take the RV to a professional and let them fix the pump." Clem found it hard to swallow the pills, even with the water. "Of course, that's if the Brave even works anymore."

"You don't know?" Clem looked over her shoulder at the driver's seat. "Have you tried starting it?"

"Patty told me not to until she worked on it, and I'm pretty sure the battery is dead anyway. We've been getting stuff we needed out of it all morning," explained Sarah as she collected something from the cupboard. "Here, you should go ahead and take this." Sarah handed Clem her pistol and its holster. After clipping it to her pants, Sarah handed Clem a magazine next. "Patty and I already have ours."

"I guess you got me these clothes," realized Clem as she loaded the pistol.

"We got clothes as soon as we got back inside, then Omid's baby stuff, tools for Patty," listed Sarah as Clem went to the window. "I came back to get a few other things, mostly stuff I wanted and didn't need, like our photo album." Standing in the same spot she stood last night and seeing the same river now calm and quiet, Clem had a realization.

"We didn't need to leave."

"Huh?" said Sarah.

"The Brave, it was okay, we could have just stayed in here all night," realized Clem. "Which means, we did all that stuff and almost died… for nothing."

"Well, maybe, but—"

"And it's all my fault."

"What? Clem, no, you—"

"I was the one who said we had to go," reminded Clem as she turned to face Sarah. "You almost died last night, and so did OJ, all because of me."

"Clem, we almost died because there was a flood, and all of us, not just you, thought we should get away from it," stated Sarah in a surprisingly stern tone. "We had no idea if the Brave would stay on the bridge or not and staying in here would have been really dangerous. You did the right thing."

"It's just… it doesn't feel right," said Clem in a quiet voice. "I can't stop thinking about when you fell into the water… with OJ. If that wall hadn't been there, you'd be—"

"I'm okay," assured Sarah as she placed her hands on Clem's shoulders. "So's Omid."

"I… I don't know what'd I ever do if I lost you," admitted Clem, finding it hard to not cry. "I've lost so many people, that if I lost you too I'd—"

"I love you too," professed Sarah as she embraced Clem. "But it's okay, we're okay right now."

"Yeah…" Clem took a deep as she wrapped her arms around Sarah again. "Even… even the Brave is still here."

"Hopefully Patty will be able to fix it."

"Where is she?"

"She went with Anthony and Sin back the way we came. A lot of her tools were on the trailer, which is gone now, so they went back to the little town we passed through to see if they could find anything. She called me a minute ago and said they'd be back any minute, so we should go."

Sarah moved past Clem and returned to the bedroom to collect the bag she had set down. Following her out the window and back onto the road, Clem spotted a vehicle approaching them from the other side of the bridge. She recognized it as Anthony's truck and watched it as it stopped right behind the Brave.

"There wasn't jack shit there when we looked a few days ago," griped Anthony as he stepped out of the vehicle. "And there ain't shit there now."

"We should just collect everything we can from your vehicle and go," said Sin as he stepped out. "You can find another RV later, like you did for us."

"First off, I barely got your RV working. It's not easy jump starting RV's that have been lying around for over a year with only whatever tools we just happen to find," retorted Patty as she moved right to the door on Anthony's camper. "And secondly, we can't even get a lot of our stuff out as long as one side worth of storage bins are stuck against a damn wall of concrete." Patty pulled a pair of thick chains out of Anthony's camper. "So the sooner we do this the sooner we are to getting out of here."

"I'll move our RV closer," said Sin as he headed up the road.

"Let me drop off this stuff in there first," said Sarah as she followed him.

Patty wrapped a chain around the Brave's back bumper. Moving in close, Clem watched as she removed a padlock from her pocket and locked the chain in place. "Hey there partner," greeted Patty as she looked over at Clem. "How you doing today?"

"Okay," said Clem as Patty looped the other chain around the Brave's bumper. "Do you need help?"

"Sin's gonna be driving by in a second," said Patty as she padlocked the chain. "If you could drag this chain over to his bumper, I'd appreciate it."

"Got it." Clem ran over and grabbed the end of the chain. Like Patty said, Sin drove by and stopped shortly after passing the Brave, Clem dragged the chain over to RV's back bumper. After looping the chain around it, Clem looked over to see Patty ready with another padlock.

"This is hardly ideal, but we don't have time for much else," she said after locking the chain in place. "Okay, cross your fingers this works." Clem followed Patty as she picked up the step ladder, then moved to the empty side of the road. "All right guys," she said into her radio. "Go slow—real slow, and don't stop until I say so."

Clem watched anxiously as both vehicles started moving forward and the chains were pulled taut. She could hear the sound of metal straining in the air while the Brave remained firmly in place on the road. Listening to Sin and Anthony's engines grow louder while the Brave continued to refuse to move made Clem feel as if she had a chunk of lead forming deep in the pit of her stomach.

Suddenly, there was a sharp cracking that caused Clem to jump. Her first instinct was that a chain had broken, but they were both still intact. Then she saw it, the Brave was rolling backwards, if ever so slowly. The cracking sounded again and Clementine rushed over to the front of the vehicle. She grimaced as she saw the edge of the Brave scrap against the concrete, causing another loud crack as a chunk of the wall was knocked off and into the river. But rolling back another foot finally pulled the Brave out of the wall and Clem breathed a sigh of relief.

"Okay, that's good, stop," Clem heard Patty yell. Rushing over to her, she watched as the woman hastily knelt down and unlocked the chains from both men's vehicles. "All right, pull ahead of us so we can finally get this thing off this damn bridge."

Clem watched as both Anthony and Sin pulled ahead enough to turn around, then drove past the Brave. As they stopped ahead of the vehicle, Clem looked back to find Patty struggling to drag the chains forward.

"Here, let me help," offered Clem as she approached.

"Thanks, just take this one." Clem took hold of one chain and started dragging it behind her as she followed Patty to the front of the Brave. The woman removed a couple of locks from her pocket and quickly secured both chains to the Brave's front bumper.

Turning around, Clementine saw Sin's RV's and Anthony's truck backing into place. Patty quickly dragged a chain over to Sin's RV while Clem dragged the other one to Antony's truck. After wrapping the chain around the bumper, Clem looked over to see Patty right next to her with a lock again. Looking at her face closely, Clem noticed the tense anxiety tugging at the corner of her weary eyes.

"Anyone ever tell you that you work well on your knees?" Clem looked over to see Anthony standing beside his vehicle, a smug smile on his face as he stared at Patty.

"Just get in your truck and wait for me to tell you to go," said Patty as she stood up, ignoring Anthony's comment. Anthony shrugged and returned to his truck while Patty hurried towards the back of the Brave, prompting Clem to chase after her.

"Are you okay?" she asked.

"Just tired," said Patty in a hushed voice. "I've had to argue with those two all morning while we tossed every house south of here for anything useful. Also, I might be a little sick from all that running around in the rain and a damn river." Patty wiped the sweat off her face before taking a breath.

"There's some cold medicine inside the Brave," informed Clem.

"Great, that's where we're going." Patty put the step ladder in place by the back window and climbed in. Clem followed her inside and immediately located the cold medicine and water bottle Sarah gave her a minute ago.

"It's daytime stuff, so it should be okay," said Clem.

"Thanks, you're a good nurse," said Patty as she swallowed the pills.

"Sarah's the one who found them for me."

"You're not sick are you?" asked Patty as she took a gulp of water.

"I think I'm okay, I just—"

"Feel a little off?" Clem nodded. "Yeah, I can relate." Patty put the water down and headed for the front. "Okay, now we gotta pray the steering wheel won't lock up on us," explained Patty as she sat down in the driver's seat.

"Why would it do that?" asked Clem as she sat down next to Patty.

"It's an anti-theft feature. This is a little older vehicle and the keys are still in the ignition, so hopefully it'll just let us turn left. Otherwise, I'll just have to work on it right here, on this damn bridge we almost got killed on." Clem watched as Patty placed her hand on the steering wheel. She hesitated briefly, then started turning the wheel left.

"That's good," said Clem as she watched Patty slowly force the wheel.

"Yeah, now hopefully we'll get lucky a few dozen more times today." Patty grabbed her radio. "All right, start moving up, slowly."

Clem watched as both Anthony's truck and Sin's RV started moving forward. The chains became taut and the vehicles stopped briefly before they started moving again, then the Brave started moving with them.

"It's working," said Clem with a smile.

"Yeah," said Patty as she clutched the wheel in one hand and her radio on the other. "Okay, just keep going slow until we're clear of the bridge. I don't want to ever see this damn river again."

The Brave lurched forward slowly with the help of the other vehicles, pivoting away from the edge of the bridge and back towards the middle of the road.

"So, do you think you can fix the Brave?"

"I don't know." Patty's blunt answer felt like a brick just hit Clem in the stomach. "The vehicle is pretty far off the ground and judging from the mud on the bottom, I don't think the engine was underwater yesterday. But that's just one of a hundred possible problems. I'm not even going to risk turning it on until I've done everything I can think of to make sure there isn't any water in the engine. If it isn't already, I don't want to hydrolock it."

"Hydrolock?"

"It's what happens when water gets into the pistons. They're only built to compress air, so something as heavy as water will bend and break them if the engine is running when it happens."

"What do we do if that happens? Do we have to replace the pistons?"

"That wouldn't work. The pistons would have scratched and dented the cylinders when they locked up, they'd be wrecked too. At that point, we'd have a better chance of replacing the engine than fixing it."

"Can… can we do that?"

"If I somehow had another engine that would fit and everything I needed to move it… probably not." Patty sighed as she adjusted the wheel back to the center. "My dad used to tell me you could sometimes swap out pistons on older model cars. Apparently way back when, they made them more durable, so they wouldn't always bend and scratch shit up when something went wrong."

"Why don't they still make them like that?"

"I don't really know. The new ones are cheaper I guess?" shrugged Patty. "If the RV was a newer model, we might not even be able to move it right now. Shifting it into neutral without a working battery was a hassle, and most new vehicles don't even have some convoluted manual override for the shifter."

"Is that why you don't want to look for a new RV?" asked Clem. "It'd be hard to get another one to work?"

"It'd be a hassle, no doubt, but…" Patty took her hands off the wheel as they cleared the bridge and kept moving onto the road beyond it. "The first time I looked this thing over, I thought it was weird someone had probably replaced the engine, seeing as it'd be a ton of work and money to do that. Now I'm thinking, maybe they just didn't want to lose their home."

Patty's gaze drifted slightly after she said that, as if she was taking in her surroundings. "All right," she said as she picked up the radio. "I think we're good." Patty removed the Brave's keys from its ignition while Anthony and Sin's engines shut off. "Okay, last stop for now."

Clem stood up and headed for the door, slowly as she neared it. She briefly hesitated opening it, then grabbed the handle. Clem pulled on it, only for it to not move. She grabbed it with both hands and pulled harder until there was a click. Pushing the door open, Clem was happy to see the side of road bordering the Brave again. Stepping back outside felt oddly satisfying, but as she turned around, she couldn't ignore that long series of scratches on the bottom of the vehicle, likely put there when it hit the wall last night.

"Well at the very least, we're not going to lose the Brave to a damn river," Patty marched out and moved right to the front of the vehicle. "Now that just leaves everything else that could go wrong." Patty unlocked a panel on the front of Brave and pulled it open, revealing the engine.

"Finally," said Sarah as she burst out of Sin's RV. "We can get to everything stored on the right side."

"Grab my toolbox, will ya?" said Patty as she bent down to examine the engine. "I'm pretty sure I left it in one of those compartments."

"Right."

"Clem," said Patty. "Take these and go unhook Anthony and Sin."

Clem took a ring of small keys from Patty and hurried to Sin's RV. She located and removed the lock, then moved to unshackle Anthony's truck just as Anthony himself stepped out of the vehicle.

"You really think you can fix this thing?" Clem heard Anthony say.

"I think I'd have a lot better odds of fixing it if you and Sin headed north and looked for the stuff we talked about right now." Clem removed the lock on Anthony's truck and moved back towards the Brave. Patty was already buried under the Brave's hood, popping out only briefly to grab the tools set at her feet. "We still don't have a generator, something all of us need."

"All the more reason to not waste fuel driving back and forth," said Sin as he joined the group. "We might have to use what diesel we have now just to get the means to acquire more of it, to say nothing about finding you a new RV and—"

"We don't need a new one right now," insisted Patty. "I've already got the spare battery we packed in your RV. So if you can just find some jumper cables, I can try to get this thing running. If I can't, then we can talk about looking for a new one, but in the meantime—"

"Me and him should go wander into unknown territory with nothing but a baseball bat and a machete between us for defense," said Anthony.

"Anthony, would you just once not argue with me," echoed Patty's voice from inside the Brave.

"He's right." Sin's words were met with a groan. "You have the only guns here, you should stay with us until you have everything you need."

"I've got my hands full as it is," insisted Patty as she turned around. "If I'm going to have any chance of fixing this thing before dark, I need to start right now."

"Then just give us guns," demanded Anthony.

"Don't start that, not right now," said Patty.

"Well I don't see an alternative," argued Anthony. "Either you come with us or—"

"I'll go with you," offered Clem. "I have my gun, and I can help you look for things."

"You?" scoffed Anthony.

"I don't think that would be a wise," added Sin.

"You've both seen me kill walkers," reminded an annoyed Clem.

"Yeah, it ain't them I'm worried about," said Anthony.

"If there was anyone still alive in this area, this flood might have them out looking for salvage as well," reasoned Sin.

"And no offensive Clem, I kinda doubt you could pull the trigger on someone who was still alive."

Clementine scowled at Anthony. "I've had to kill people before."

Clem's cold confession was met with a shocked look from Sin while Anthony merely raised an eyebrow in response. "Really?" he said, sounding curious. "Who'd you kill?"

"A man who kidnapped me," recalled Clem through gritted teeth. "I had to shoot him."

"You were kidnapped?" asked Sin in a quiet voice. "Why?"

"I still don't even know really," said Clem. "Just that he was crazy, and he wasn't going to let me go."

"Who else did you kill?" Clem looked over at Anthony. "You said people, so that means you've killed more than one."

Clem bit her lip and turned away, unwilling or unable to answer Anthony.

"Look, just take those couple of machine guns we have and go already," pleaded Patty.

"The ones with no bullets?" asked Anthony.

"Yes! Jesus, I've got a million things I have to run through before I can even check to see if the engine in this thing even works," griped Patty as she started digging through her tool box. "So would you, just this once, help me out without turning it into a damn ordeal?" said Patty as she clasped her hands together around the wrench she was holding.

"Just this once? I have to help you all—"

"Come on," said Sin as he placed his hand on the younger man's shoulder.

"Come on what? You ain't—"

"The sooner we go, the sooner we get back," stated Sin in a calm voice.

"But…" Anthony groaned out loud before marching off towards his truck.

"I understand your hesitation about giving us loaded guns," said Sin to Patty. "But if we're to keep taking risks like this—"

"Later," insisted Patty with a sigh. "Please, we can talk about this—"

"Later," finished Sin. "Of course."

"I'll… I'll go get those big guns," said Patty as she stepped away from the engine. "Clem, do me a favor and tell Sarah I could really use her help with the Brave. I think she went to drop off a few more things in Sin's RV and hasn't come back."

"Right." Clem raced towards Sin's RV and burst inside.

"Say cheese!"

"Cheese!" Clem watched as Sarah snapped a picture of Jet holding Omid, both boys smiling happily.

"Hey," said Clem as she approached the pair.

"Hey Clem," greeted Sarah.

"You're taking pictures?"

"Well, when I got my camera back, I figured I should test it to make sure it still works," explained Sarah. "And when I saw Jet playing with Omid, I thought it was perfect." Clem looked at the photo Sarah took and saw it was already starting to develop. "I guess it still works."

"What about your RV?" asked Jet as he let go of Omid. "Is it going to be okay?"

"We don't know yet," reported Clem. "I'm going with your granddad and Anthony to look for stuff that can hopefully fix it. Sarah, Patty said she's going to need your help with the RV."

"Okay, I'll be there in a minute," said Sarah as she placed her camera and the photo on the counter. "Let me just use the bathroom first."

"Kem-men," said Omid with a smile as he waddled away from Jet. "Muh-boo kem-men," he babbled as he wrapped his arms around Clem's legs.

"I love you too OJ," said Clem as she picked up the boy and hugged him. "But I gotta go for now."

"I'll keep watching him," assured Jet as he approached the pair. "You and Granddad be careful."

"We will." Clem handed Omid to Jet, which was quickly met with protest. "Doh-bree-kem-men," pleaded the toddler as Jet took hold of him.

"I'm sorry OJ, I really am," spoke a penitent Clem. "I'll make it up to you later, I promise."

"I'll read him one of those books Sarah just brought back," assured Jet as carried Omid away.

"Doh-bree-kem-men!" Seeing Omid disappear behind the bedroom door felt like a pin prick right through Clementine's heart.

"This feels wrong," she professed to no one in particular.

"Yeah, I know." Clem looked over to see Sarah standing by the bathroom door, looking at the bedroom with a familiar sense of regret. Turning away, Clem spotted Sarah's camera sitting on the counter.

"This is a nice picture," she Clem as she examined the photo of Jet and Omid sitting next to it. "It'll look good in our album."

"Let's go ahead and put it in." Sarah retrieved their book of photos and drawings from a bag and set it on the counter. Opening the cover, Clem immediately placed her hand on the photo of her smiling on her bed, the oldest picture they had.

"I can't believe this was only a year ago."

"Less," corrected Sarah. "It was late February when I took that."

"Feels like so much longer." Clem traced her fingers around her own smile, thinking she looked strange in an oversized shirt that clearly didn't fit her. "That was a nice day."

"People broke into the cabin after I took that," reminded Sarah.

"Well, yeah, but before that…" Clem smiled as she remembered what happened. "We played hide and seek and… I just felt like a kid for a while."

"Me too," said Sarah with a sigh.

Clem gazed over at the bedroom door. "I used to get mad ay my parents when they told me they didn't have time for me. It made me mad because it didn't look like they were doing anything, and I just thought they didn't want to play with me. But they were probably doing all kinds of important stuff I didn't even think about."

"Or were trying to plan for stuff we'd need later," added Sarah.

"Does… does that mean we're grown-ups now?" asked a sincere Clem as she turned to Sarah. "I mean, I don't feel like a kid anymore."

"Me neither," added Sarah.

"Is this just what being grown-up is like? Having to worry about things and taking care of stuff because no one else will?"

"I… I don't know; that's what my dad always did for me."

"It's what my parents did for me, and then Lee, and Christa and Omid…" Clem thought to herself for a moment. "Being grown-up sucks."

"Yeah."

"And we're not even big, like real grown-ups."

"Yeah."

A knock came from the door, followed by the sound of someone entering. "Hey, is everything okay?" asked an anxious Patty as she stepped inside.

"Yeah, we're fine," assured Clem. "And Jet's looking after OJ."

"Good, because Anthony and Sin are getting impatient and I really need a second set of hands working on the Brave."

"I'm coming," assured Clem in a resigned tone.

"Me too," echoed Sarah.

Clem stepped outside and Patty immediately handed her a filthy raincoat. "Yours is still clean from wearing it in the rain. Just take mine for now."

Curious to how it would fit her, Clem threaded her arms through the sleeves of the raincoat. "And take these," said Patty as she passed Clem her tomahawk and backpack. "Respirator, radio and some food for later are all in the bag."

"Thanks Patty," said Clem as she threw the tomahawk over her shoulder.

"Save the thanks for when I fix the RV, assuming I can fix it."

Patty hurried back down the road towards the Brave while Clem adjusted the coat. It was a little big on her, the sleeves being too long in particular was irritating, but it would do. Clem was about to take the raincoat off when she heard a loud clicking from her left.

"I figured I should get a picture of you as a grown-up." Clem turned to find Sarah removing a photo from her camera. "Jet told me he thought we looked 'badass' in our raincoats when we saved him back in Texas, so maybe at least we look cool as grown-ups."

"Bad ass?" repeated Clem. "What does that mean?"

"I don't know, I just think he likes us," said Sarah as she pocketed the photo. "Why don't you take my camera with you?"

"Why?" asked Clem.

"In case you see anything," said Sarah with a shrug. "Looking at our photo album, I always think we're not taking enough pictures. We still got tons of film left," explained Sarah as she pulled the camera's strap over the top of her head. "You never know what you're going to see."

"Well, we're are just going to be looking for stuff to fix the RV, so I should have room." Clem took off her backpack and Sarah carefully set the camera inside.

"Hey!" called Anthony. "Daylight's burning, we going or not?"

"Good luck," said Sarah.

"You too." Clem and Sarah exchanged a look of concern, then turned away from each other. Sarah moved towards the Brave while Clem hurried over to Anthony's truck. She tossed her stuff into the camper, then joined everyone in the cab. The truck was old, the seats wore out, and there were little bits of garbage all over the floor. Having to wedge herself between Anthony and Sin felt strange to Clem, and then having to watch the Brave shrink from sight again left her feeling cold. Before she knew it, it was gone and there was only the open road in front of them.

Clem tried moving closer to one of the windows, only to remember she was stuck in the middle. She could see through the windshield there were mostly empty fields on both sides of the road dotted by occasional trees. After putting a lot of distance between them and Texarkana, the familiar sprawling southern pines that so often surrounded the roads had begun to slowly fade away while empty fields gradually emerged in their place.

The trio sat in silence as they drove down the road, which just made Clem feel uneasy. Looking over at Anthony, the young man had a clear look of irritation and possible resentment in his eyes. Sin's face was harder to read. He didn't look happy, but then that was normal for him. Staring up at the man, trying to guess his mood, Clem was startled by him turning his head towards her. Clem looked away suddenly and just stared at the floor for a while, only looking up after a few minutes when Anthony said something.

"Think this place is worth stopping at?" he mumbled as he slowed the truck down.

"It looks like a ranch," observed Sin. "I doubt we'd find much of anything here."

Clem moved closer to the dashboard for a better look, seeing a stable and what may have been someone's house hidden behind a few trees bordering their dirt driveway.

"We should check it out," she said.

"Why?" asked Anthony. "Like he said, I doubt there's anything we need there."

"There might be food, we always need that," reasoned Clem.

"Yeah, but—"

"And we'll learn more about the area," she continued. "If we check the house, then can find out if anyone has been here recently, and that will—"

"Tell us if there could be people in this area, which is something we should know," concluded Sin. "Stopping here is a sensible start."

"If you two say so," shrugged Anthony as he put the vehicle in park. The trio quickly filed out, donning respirators and raincoats while drawing their weapons.

"Seeing as you got the only loaded gun, why don't you take point?" asked Anthony as tossed his machine gun onto his back.

"We should take point," argued Sin. "Armed or not, we're the adults."

"I'm seventeen," retorted Anthony. "You take point, you're the oldest."

"I'll do it," insisted Clem in a hushed voice as she pulled her pistol. "Just be quiet, there could be walkers, or worse." Moving down the path, Clem found herself holding her breath. The last time she had done any kind of supply run had been back in New Orleans, and that didn't end well. There were broken branches and other bits of bark littering the ground. Clem couldn't be sure if they were signs of neglect or just debris leftover from yesterday's storm.

As she moved forward, Clem noticed Sin wasn't far behind her, nearly walking beside the girl actually. He carried the rifle he had been given firmly yet naturally, as if he was already used to it. Anthony however was further back, forcing Clem to look over her shoulder to see him. He seemed to be keeping his distance while precariously balancing his baseball bat on his shoulders. Except for the soft sound of their feet on the dirt, it was dead quiet, without even so much as a breeze blowing.

Walking past the trees planted beside the driveway, Clem finally got a good look at the house they had seen from the road. Tiles were missing from the building's roof, one of the windows was broken, and the front door was ajar. Looking around the immediate area, Clem couldn't see any vehicles, which further suggested there was no one in this area. Clem watched as Sin approached the door slowly, his rifle aimed ahead.

"Don't," whispered Clem as she approached the man. "Keep your gun aimed at the ground. If there is someone here, we don't want them to think we're here to shoot them."

"The threat of force is the only use for this without bullets," challenged Sin. "If someone sees a raised gun, they'd be hesitant to attack."

"Unless they have a gun too," retorted Clem. "And decide to shoot first because it looks like that's what you're about to do."

"That's a chance I'm willing to—"

"Well I'm not," insisted Clem. "Someone I knew already died because he aimed a rifle at someone, then got shot because someone else thought he was about to shoot first. Even good people do bad things when they get scared, and aiming a gun at them would scare anyone."

"What about bad people?" whispered Anthony as he drew closer to the pair. "We want to look friendly for them?"

"Bad people don't give a shit if we're friendly or not," swore Clem. "They'd just shoot us either way."

Anthony raised a skeptical eyebrow at Clem, but Sin lowered his rifle anyway. "Seriously, you're taking orders from her?"

"She made a good point." Sin said that like it was a simple fact, which Clem was grateful to hear. She moved towards the open door, taking care to keep her weapon lowered. She briefly looked over at the broken window and Sin approached it as if he read her mind. The man kept low before leaning forward to peek inside.

"See anything?" whispered Clem.

"Nothing of interest," he answered in a hushed voice. "Just an old house." Clem moved back to the door. She took a breath, then carefully pushed it open. It made a slight creaking sound that cut through the silence as an empty foyer was revealed to the group. The girl found her muscles growing tenser as she entered the house, making it harder for her to keep moving, but hearing Sin right behind her helped ease the tension slightly.

Clem decided to head right upstairs, hoping to find a bedroom. The stairs creaked as she climbed up them, only slightly, but each awkward squeak caused her to flinch. It didn't help that her steps were followed by slightly louder creaks as Sin came up after her. Spotting a bedroom door dead ahead, Clem moved towards it and gently cracked it open. Slipping inside, she honed in on the dresser and let out a sigh of relief once she got close to it.

"What is it?" asked Sin.

"Nothing," said Clem. "Whoever was here last packed their clothes, which means they're probably long gone."

Checking the other rooms produced more of the same; bare dressers, half-empty shelves, partially cleared out closets, and a few forgotten items left strewn across the floor. Returning downstairs just revealed more evidence that this home was long abandoned. The broken window was the result of a large branch that was still lying amongst the shards of glass on the floor, the pantry and fridge were cleared out, and the garbage can was caked in a foul smelling black residue that Clem didn't even want to try to identify.

"So, anything?" asked Anthony as the pair stepped out of the house.

"Nobody's been here in a long time," reported Clem. "But other than that, we didn't find anything useful."

"Typical," answered Anthony.

"We still haven't searched the garage," noted Sin. "We might find the jumper cables Patty asked for there."

"I'll poke around behind the house," suggested Anthony. "Rednecks love leaving shit to rust on their yards, occasionally they leave out something good."

"There's a barn over there," added Clem as she stepped away from the house. "I'll go check it to make sure there's nothing there either and we'll all meet back in front of the house in a couple of minutes."

"Aye aye." Clem detected a hint of sarcasm from Anthony but chose to ignore it as she headed for the barn. She didn't know what to expect; any animals living there were surely long gone. She wasn't even sure what used to live here. The neglected fence surrounding the barn seemed to surround too small an area for cows, or at least Clem assumed it did.

Walking into the barn confirmed there was nothing inside. No animals, or even remains of them. There were a few stalls with simple gates that had been left open. It reminded Clem a little of the St. John's barn, but even more empty. The dirt was still damp as she walked across the area, and Clem stopped to examine a pitchfork left lying near the back entrance. Moving it aside, Clem looked up to see someone standing just past the door.

The girl instinctively raised her gun and placed her finger on the trigger as she aimed at the silhouette. The sun was in her eyes, making it impossible to tell who was there, just that she saw them standing about ten feet from the barn door. Clem's heart started beating faster and her hands began to shake as she tried to aim for what she thought was the person's head. The figure still hadn't moved and Clem briefly debated if she should say something.

"Don't… don't move," ordered the girl suddenly, unable to hide the fear in her voice. The figure didn't respond; if because of what she said or because they couldn't hear her, Clem didn't know. "Who… who are you?" No answer. "Anthony? Sin?" Clem's legs were trembling so bad she could barely take a step forward, trying to keep her gun steadied as she moved. As she slowly inched out of the barn, the figure came into focus, and it wasn't a figure at all.

Her anxiety beginning to fade and her eyes adjusting to the outside light, Clem suddenly realized she was aiming at a tree trunk. It was odd, as if something had snapped the top of the tree off, just leaving a broken trunk still rooted to the ground. Examining it closely, Clem had no idea how she had mistaken it for a person; it wasn't even remotely person-shaped.

"Clementine?"

Clem grabbed her radio. "Yeah?"

"Did you find anything?" asked Sin.

Clem looked at the broken tree again. "No, nothing."

"Well I have," blurted out Anthony. "Meet me in front of the house."

Clem put her radio away, then tried to holster her pistol. Her hand was shaking as she moved it, and she had to use her other hand to steady it long enough to slip into the leather holder. She briefly took a moment to steady herself, wiping the sweat from her forehead before heading back. Arriving in front of the house, Clem watched along with Sin as Anthony dragged something out into the open.

"How's this for a find?" asked Anthony as he gestured to the device he was standing in front of. "One new generator."

"It's not new," noted Clem as Sin knelt down to examine the device.

"You know what I mean," dismissed Anthony. "This was the one thing we didn't think we were going to find anytime soon, and I—"

"It's no good," informed Sin as he stood up.

"Really?" asked an irritated Anthony. "You can tell that just by looking at it for two seconds?"

"It has a spark plug," said Sin.

"So?"

"So it runs on gasoline," said Clem with a sigh. "Not diesel."

"Well, maybe we can just try using diesel on it," suggested Anthony. "It wouldn't have to work long for—"

"It wouldn't work at all," said Clem.

"So, what, diesel doesn't burn?" mocked Anthony.

"Not in a gas generator," said Clem. "If you put diesel in that, nothing would even happen."

"Really, you're an expert on all things gas and diesel?"

"I am, and she's right," reminded Sin in a stern voice. "Even if we could somehow raise the temperature high enough to convert diesel into a vapor, the spark plug still wouldn't ignite the fumes."

"What if we just threw a fucking match in there, I'm pretty sure that'd get it to burn."

"It wouldn't," assured Sin. "Diesel's flash point is over—"

"Flash point?"

Sin groaned to himself before adjusting his glasses. "Let me put it this way; if we were in Death Valley in the middle of July, and you threw a match into a puddle of diesel, there would be a small chance it would create a brief flash of fire before immediately going out."

"Well that's dumb. Why the hell is diesel so much pickier than gasoline?"

"Do you really want a lesson on fuel efficiency versus volatility right now?" Anthony could only stare at Sin in response. "I didn't think so."

Clem looked down at the generator. "We should take it anyways," she said. "We might need it before we find another diesel one."

"Didn't you say the gas has gone bad by now?" asked Anthony.

"We still managed to get a gas generator to start on New Year's, that was less than a month ago," said Clem. "Although, it took a lot of tries."

"We might as well," said Sin. "We can siphon vehicles along the way, and I can check to see if any of their fuel is still usable. Like you said, this might be all we have until we find a new diesel generator."

They toted the generator back to Anthony's truck and continued down the road. Every house they stopped at was the same as the last one. Clear signs of being abandoned long ago, anything edible gone or rotten, and nothing of use to be found. After several houses, the trio still hadn't found jumper cables, but did discover what Clem was fairly sure to be a battery charger tucked away in some forgotten corner of a cluttered garage.

The area they were searching appeared to be only rural farmlands in every direction. They had yet to see even a gas station and there were almost no signs on the roads either. The group found themselves trapped in a cycle of looking for something more lucrative than abandoned houses, only to find nothing but houses in-between the larges stretches of nothing they were driving through. The gas generator they weren't sure worked was still the highlight of their search today.

With their hopes of locating anything they needed waning along with the daylight, the trio diverted towards draining whatever cars they could find of whatever fuel they had left. Sin was very particular about what little gas they could salvage. At his insistence, they gathered a few glass containers from one of the nearby houses, which he would use to examine any fuel they collected.

Sin's tests were simple. First, he looked at the color of the gas. Clem wasn't an expert, but it wasn't hard to see why the man tossed out gas that had congealed into some kind of gross black goop. Even the best looking gas they found had a brown tint to it, which would lead to Sin's second test of trying to burn a small portion of it. Most of the gas did burn, but usually only after a prodding it with a lighter.

After several hours of work and over a dozen houses, the trio had acquired a battery charger, a gas generator, a few spare tools, a set of unused spark plugs Sin said would be useful for the generator, less than half a can of hopefully usable gasoline, and not a single piece of food. Nothing canned, or bagged, or jarred, just empty pantries and trash cans that had been left to fester long ago.

With the sun hanging low in the sky now, and little reason to think they'd find much of interest, Clem stopped and removed her backpack. She grabbed the few cans from inside and offered them to Sin and Anthony, signaling her desire for a meal break.

"Which one do you want?" asked Clem as she set out the cans.

"I have no preference," said Sin.

"Then take the asparagus, nobody likes that," said Anthony as slid the can towards Sin. "I'll take the… beets?"

"I've got white hominy," informed Clem. "If you want to trade."

"What's white hominy?"

"I… don't know," she admitted. "But it's okay. I've had it before."

"Ehh, you know what, I think I'll just grab some peaches," shrugged Anthony as he set the can down.

"You have some?"

"Plenty," said Anthony before disappearing into his camper. It dawned on Clem that a single person would have more of their favorite food left than any group they split food with. And since Anthony didn't return, she also concluded he wouldn't be sharing any of it with her today. Instead, the girl inched over to the hood of the truck and grabbed the canned beets. As she set the white hominy down, Sin placed the asparagus next to it and took the hominy for himself.

"I thought you didn't have a preference," said Clem as she handed Sin a can opener.

"Perhaps I should have said, my preference isn't a priority," he answered as he opened the can. "And hominy is a type of treated corn."

"It doesn't really look like corn," noted Clem as she handed him a spoon. "Or taste like it."

"It's a different kind of corn then you'd find for sale at the store. They use it to make other things too, like cereals and grits," said Sin as he handed the can opener back.

"I like cereal and grits better." Clem gripped the opener and tried to open her own can. Her hands were sore from holding onto her gun so much today and slightly numb from the cold. She struggled to bear down hard enough to break the metal only for the opener to keep slipping. "Um… could—"

"Here." Sin stretched out his hand and Clem gave him the opener and the can. The man carefully cut through most of the lid, then handed the can back.

"Thanks." Clem grabbed a fork from her bag, pried the lid open, and wasted no time spearing one of the sliced beets inside. Biting into the cold vegetable, Clem found herself wishing she was back home in the Brave, warm and surrounded by everyone she cared most about. Looking over, she saw Sin silently fishing for what was apparently corn with his spoon. "Do you think the generator will work?"

"Hard to say," he said between bites. "We could test it, but we have so little gas that I'd rather save it for when we get back; without jumper cables, that battery charger is our only chance of jumping your RV."

"I really hope the Brave is okay."

"We would help you until we found you a replacement vehicle," assured Sin. "You do know that."

"I do, but… I just don't want to lose this one. It's our home."

"Surely not your first though," noted Sin.

"No, I had to leave my old home right after the walkers… I never got to go back," realized a saddened Clem. "I still miss it sometimes. When we were going through Georgia, I even thought about going back there, and I kind of wish we did, at least for a day."

"I can't imagine," admitted Sin. "I always wanted to get away from home when I was your age."

"Why?" asked Clem. "Was it a bad place?"

"No, just…" Sin sighed to himself. "I lived on a farm."

"Were you a farmer?"

"Anyone who lives on a farm is expected to be a farmer. I hated it, the only one of my siblings who did. It was the same thing, day after day, working in the dirt, living in the middle of nowhere."

"You, mean like here?" asked Clem as she gestured to the empty fields that surrounded the road.

"The plants were different, but basically yes," said Sin as he fished around in his can for more to eat. "I just wanted to get away from it, and see more than the same patch of land I had lived on my whole life."

"I'm sorry. But Jet said you came from another country, so that means you did get away."

"Further than I ever would have imagined," professed Sin in a quiet voice. "When I first came to this country; I knew no-one, had almost no money, and every day felt like an ordeal."

"That sounds like now," realized a glum Clem.

"The uncertainty is familiar in a sense."

"What did you do then?"

"Whatever I could," said Sin with a slight shrug. "One of my first jobs was working on a ranch."

"A ranch? Isn't that like a farm?"

"Yes, except focused more on animals than plants. Believe me, I was well aware of irony," said Sin with a forced grin. "I was the first in my family to leave the country, traveled about half-way across the planet, just to wind up working on a ranch in Texas."

"Wow, that… sucks."

"Indeed. Although last night, I was grateful for my work as a ranch hand for the first time in my life."

"Last night?"

"Where did you think I learned to throw a lasso?" Sin smirked at Clem.

"Still, weren't you mad, or sad, when you wanted to get away from a farm and just ended up on a different one?"

"Oh yes," assured Sin with a nod. "I spent a lot of nights cursing myself, wishing I was somewhere else all over again."

"I wish I was somewhere else," admitted Clem. "All the time."

"I as well."

"How did you get through it before?"

"By telling myself, whenever I'd listen to myself, that I came a long way from where I started, so that means I could go a long way further to arrive where I finally wanted to be."

"I don't know," said Clem. "If I had died last night, I wouldn't have gone anywhere ever again."

"You can die anytime, so don't think about it, think about where you'll be if you live instead."

Clem pondered on Sin's words as she finished eating what was left of her beets. As she finished her meal, Anthony rejoined them outside, apparently already well fed and ready to go himself. With sunset approaching, the trio agreed they should probably just turn back now. Clem was about to return to the truck with the others, when she noticed one of the few road signs at the intersection they were parked at.

"What do you see?" Clem looked at Sin, then pointed at the sign. "Eufaula Dam?"

"What's the holdup?" asked Anthony as he joined the other two.

"I was wondering, could we go see this dam before we go back?" asked Clem.

"Why the hell would we do that?"

"I'm just thinking, I'd like to check it out before we go," said Clem.

"Why, what's the damn point?"

"Dams can mean electricity, even under these circumstances," informed Sin. "It would be prudent to investigate before we leave. If nothing else, it might tell us where we may or may not wish to go tomorrow."

Anthony shrugged. "Fine, but you can drive," said the young man as he returned to his camper. "I'm on break."

"Thanks." Sin gave Clem an approving nod in response, then they both returned to the cab of the truck. She wasn't sure what they were going to find, but there was a bit of excitement in the prospect of exploring the unknown for something other than supplies for once. The road they traveled on looked like more of the same; abandoned farm houses intermixed with open fields and occasional trees. After a few miles, Clem thought about telling Sin to turn back, but before she did the river came into view on her left.

It was hard to see at first, but as they continued further down the road, Clem noticed she wasn't looking at the river specifically, but a massive layer of water just sitting on open fields. She only knew there were fields under the water because of the trees poking out past the surface. Sin noticed it too, slowly down slightly to get a better look at the flooded fields. They were filled with tree branches, broken boards, and other debris drifting past homes that had been swallowed by the river.

The further they moved, the more the floodwaters encroached onto the land until it had nearly reached the road they were driving on. Then the river disappeared as they entered a more heavily wooded area, prompting Clem to stand up and lean in close to the windshield for a better view. The trees parted as suddenly as they had came and just off in the distance, Clem saw the dam they had been looking for, or more precisely, what remained of it.

"Good Lord…" The truck rolled to a stop and Sin put it in park without taking his eyes off the sight. He exited the vehicle, never averting his gaze while Clem did the same, keeping her vision glued to the dam as she stepped out. The looming concrete structure in the distance had been split into two halves bookending a massive waterfall running between them.

Clem stood there in disbelief as she took in the sight. They must have been at least a thousand feet away, and yet the sounds of the newly created falls was booming in her ears, the asphalt seemed to pulse under her feet from the tons of water being dumped into the nearby river with every passing second, and the thick mist hovering over the broken dam was even dampening the very air she was breathing.

Moving forward for a better look, Clem nearly collided with the safety railing surrounding the road. Looking past it, she could see the area downhill of them had been turned into a massive wading pool from the abundance of water. They only clues that it was ever any different is a side road forking downward until it disappeared under the water and the twisted rigging poking out above the water, like many a giant metal weeds growing out of a swamp.

"Why'd we stop?" asked Anthony as he climbed out of the camper. "Are we… holy shit."

"I thought rain alone couldn't cause a flash flood as massive as the one that happened last night," spoke Sin in a quiet voice.

"God damn, I've never seen a dam break before," awed Anthony. "Wish I had a camera."

Clem suddenly remembered her own camera and hastily took off her backpack. She pulled out the camera, flipped open the top, then held it up to her face. They must have been facing west because the sun was setting just beyond the dam. The bright orange glow gave the newly made falls a golden and almost ethereal aura, as if they were posing for Clem.

"You've been carrying that this whole time?" asked Anthony as Clem snapped the picture.

"Sarah gave it to me," she said as she removed the picture from the camera. "In case I found anything."

"Well, that's definitely something," noted Anthony. "And we've seen it, I say it's time to get back before it gets dark, or something else goes wrong."

Anthony returned to his camper while Clem picked up her camera again. She took aim at the mess of metal sticking out the water, then noticed Sin was in the shot. The way he looked out at the dam, stunned by the sight of it, prompted Clem to tilt the camera towards him. She snapped Sin's picture, and he didn't even seem to notice. After putting the photos and the camera away, Clem saw he was still staring at the dam in utter silence.

"Sin?"

"This was a hydroelectric plant," he said suddenly.

"How can you tell?"

"All that metal." Sin pointed to the bent and twisted beams protruding from beneath the water. "It was an electrical substation."

"What does that mean?"

"It means this dam generated power, and yet it's been left behind," noted Sin, disturbed by this revelation. "This doesn't bode well for tul…"

"Tul?" repeated Clem.

"Nothing," he said suddenly as hurried back to the truck. "We should go."

They drove back south as the sun continued to set, the light of the sunset giving way to long shadows that blanketed the area with patches of shade. Even with the headlights paving a way through the growing darkness, Clem felt isolated and alone so far from home. It was different than when she went out with Patty or Sarah before; with them, it always felt like a little bit of home came with her.

The lights of the truck seemed to reflect off something in the distance. Clem stood up as she saw a couple of RV's parked on the road ahead. They hadn't moved from where they were earlier, and seeing their lights bounce off those bright white exteriors felt like they were being signaled home. Coming to a stop between the two RV's, the group was immediately greeted by Patty rushing up to the side of the truck.

"Finally," said the woman as Clem and Sin exited the vehicle. "Did you guys find those jumper cables?" Patty's hands and clothes were covered in stains and dark smudges while her eyes looked nearly ready to bulge out of her skull.

"It's nice to see you too," greeted a sarcastic Anthony as he emerged from his camper.

"We could only find a battery charger and a gas generator," informed Sin. "Along with half a can of gas that should burn."

"Should?" repeated Patty.

"You're welcome to go looking for something else," suggested Anthony.

"It's just a bunch of fields and farmhouses north of here," said Clem, ignoring Anthony. "That's all we can find."

"Shit, I knew we never should have moved so far away from the cities," lamented Patty.

"Really, because I seem to recall you saying the opposite a few days ago. That you didn't want to risk running into anyone else and that we—"

"Anthony, I swear to God—"

"Will you be able to fix the Brave with a battery charger?" asked Clem. "I mean, if we can get the generator started?"

Patty took a deep breath, then looked over her shoulder. "I… I think so," she said. "I checked everything I could reach, cleaned out anything I could with the tools I had on hand, replaced anything we had replacements for. The spare battery should be fine if we can just charge it up a little."

"What about the pistons?" asked Clem.

"I can't get to them Clem, not without basically taking apart the engine. At this point, either it works or it doesn't."

"The same's largely true of the generator and gas we took," said Sin as he turned to Anthony's camper. He and the younger man helped to carry over the device while Patty wiped her forehead, accidentally smearing grease on it.

"You okay?" Patty asked Clem between breaths.

"Me? I'm fine," assured Clem. "But what about you?"

"Just tired, and worried, and maybe a little sick." Patty coughed lightly and Clem wasn't sure if she was clearing her throat or not. "Those two didn't give you any trouble did they?"

"Anthony was kind of annoying, but—"

"Trying spending whole days alone with him," said Patty with a painfully forced laugh. "Other than him, any trouble?"

"Well, we found out where the flood came from." Clem took off her backpack and pulled a photo out.

"The hell is that?" asked Patty as she looked closely, struggling to see the image in the low light. "A waterfall?"

"It's a dam." Clem looked over to find Sarah and Jet standing behind them, each holding a flashlight that they were aiming at the photo.

"Yeah, it's a dam," said Clem as everyone leaned in close.

"Jesus," said Patty.

"How big was it?" asked Jet.

"Pretty big," answered Clem. "I was afraid to get closer to it."

"How did it break?" asked Sarah as she studied the picture.

"I'm not sure," said Clem. "Maybe—"

"The area we searched was abandoned, so there was likely no one left to operate the spillways," explained Sin as he and Anthony set the generator on the pavement.

"Spillways?" asked Clem.

"They allow for excess water to be released, which eases pressure being put on a dam," explained Sin. "A few days of heavy rain building pressure with no one to release it, combined with over a year of neglect, and it likely needing maintenance even long before the outbreak, and nature was able to topple it."

"Well, here's hoping that's not going to be a trend tonight." Patty knelt down by the generator. "How much gas did you get?"

"Half a can," said Anthony as he placed the fuel and the battery charger next to the generator.

"That's it?"

"Everything else looked completely unusable," informed Sin as he opened the gas can.

"Well, if this doesn't work, we can go looking for jumper cables or even a diesel generator tomorrow," said Patty as she plugged in the battery charger.

"Tomorrow?" said Anthony. "You want us to camp here another night?"

"I didn't spend all damn day working on this thing just to leave it without even finding out if it still runs," insisted Patty as she hooked the charger's cables to the battery.

"So we just keep wandering around out in the middle of nowhere, burning up all our diesel on the off-chance that some farmer had some cables or a working generator they just left lying around in their barn?" asked Anthony.

"Well if that's too much hassle, why don't you just leave us here on the side of the road?" retorted Patty in a harsh tone. "That's always your first instinct right, just abandoning people."

"Oh geez, who just spent the last several hours looking for stuff without a loaded gun because you didn't want to go looking for a new RV?"

"We'll have to get out a new diesel generator eventually," argued Sarah. "So once we do, we should at least bring it back here to fix the Brave."

"And you guys stopped for a few days just to help us," added Jet. "We can do the same for you."

"Our food and supplies were running low before this even happened, and there's none to be found here," argued Sin. "Every day we spend here or coming back here is another day less we have to find food later."

"You think I don't know that!" barked Patty. "I think about that every time I split up my third of the food we do find between four people so three people can get the other two-thirds!"

"Hey!" yelled Clem. "Can we just try the generator already? If it doesn't work, then we can argue."

Everyone became quiet, then turned to the generator. Sin knelt down and examined a switch on the device. "Ready?"

"Yeah."

Sin grabbed the cord, and Clem felt her heart in her throat as he pulled it. A couple of strong tugs produced nothing but the sound of the cord spinning some mechanism inside the generator. Sin adjusted the choke and pulled the cord again, and there was still nothing. The man moved the choke back and forth a few times before trying again, and there was still nothing.

"I'm sorry," he said. "But—"

"Let me work on it," said Patty as she brushed past Sin. Clem expected her to pull the cord, but Patty ignored it for a small rectangular protrusion next to the engine. She pulled the piece off, revealing an opening underneath filled with machinery.

"I already checked the air filter," said Sin. "It—"

"How much gas do you have left?" asked Patty as she adjusted the choke.

"None, I put it all in the generator," said Sin.

"There's literally nothing left in that can? Not even a few drops?"

"Well, there's probably—"

"Just pour what's left into the lid," instructed Patty.

"Patty, seriously—"

"Sarah," she said. "Get me a straw."

"A straw?"

"Yeah." Sarah hurried into the Brave while Sin painstakingly poured what little gas was left into a lid a few drops at a time. Once Sarah returned, Patty took the straw and dipped one end of it into the shallow pool of gas while covering the other end with her finger. Clem remembered kids at school doing the same for their milk, and the milk would stay in the straw as long as you kept the top of it covered.

Patty seemed to be doing the same trick now, but with a small amount of gasoline. Clem watched as Patty carefully angled the tip of the straw into one of the openings in the exposed panel then lifted her finger, letting the gas slide inside. She repeated this a few more times, feeding gas into a part of the generator a few drops at a time.

"You're putting gas directly in the carburetor," realized Sin.

"Old redneck trick… or at least my dad thought it was," said Patty as she dripped another drop into the generator.

"If it starts, the motor will pull in the air and—"

"Will hopefully be enough to pull in the crappy gas and keep it running," finished Patty as she got another drop from the straw. "A spray bottle would work better, but there ain't enough gas left for that, so…"

Patty put the straw down and grabbed the handle for the cord. She pulled it and Clem thought she heard a gentle sputter. Patty put both hands on the cord and pulled it again and there was a slight popping sound this time, but the generator still didn't start. Before she could try again, Sin stepped forward. Patty stepped aside and grabbed the choke while Sin grabbed the cord. He put one foot on the generator and both hands on the handle, then pulled. A slow and quiet popping sound came from the generator. Patty pushed the choke forward and the popping grew faster and faster until it finally turned into a familiar dull rumble.

"Thank God," she said before taking a deep breath.

"So now what?" asked Clem. "Will this fix the Brave?"

"Yeah, hopefully the generator will run long enough to give the battery a decent charge," said Patty. "Then… it'll be the moment of truth. If it doesn't start after all this, I don't know what to do."

Patty stepped away from the generator and pulled a pack of cigarettes out of her pocket. "Why don't y'all just go rest for a few minutes; I'm gonna have a smoke and try to think if there's anything I forgot before we pull the trigger."

Sin, Jet, Anthony and Sarah all returned to their respective vehicles while Clem stayed to watched Patty light her cigarette. "You sure you're okay?

"I… I just really hope I didn't fuck this up." Patty took a long drag off her cigarette. "Otherwise, we all wasted a day running around for nothing."

"You're a good mechanic," assured Clem.

"I worked part time in my dad's shop when I was a teenager," refuted Patty. "I know you're real impressed that I can rotate tires and what not, but I'm not like… a real mechanic."

"Why not?" asked Clem. "You've fixed a ton of things."

"Nothing as involved as this before."

"So if it doesn't work you're not a mechanic anymore?" Patty just took a drag off her cigarette in response. Clem moved in close to the woman and grasped her free hand. "Whatever happens, you're a really good mechanic, and a great friend."

"Thanks." Clem felt Patty's hand squeezing her own. "I guess I'm not used to people counting on me. I mean, I was nineteen when this all started."

"I was eight," added Clem.

"God, it kills me anytime I hear that," said Patty with a sigh. "Just, go in and rest for a bit. Hopefully, we'll be back on the road soon."

"You're not coming in?"

"I'm just gonna stay out here and watch the charger and the generator, make sure nothing goes wrong," said Patty as she gestured with her cigarette. "Plus, I really need a smoke and I don't want to stink up the RV."

"Okay, well if you need anything, just come and get me."

"You've done enough for now, but thanks Clem." The pair exchanged smiles and Clem moved into the RV.

"Kem-men!" called Omid as he rushed out the bedroom as quickly as his short legs could carry him. "Kem-men."

"Hold on," said Sarah as she grabbed the boy. "Give Clem a second."

"Kem-men!" protested Omid.

"I'm glad to see you too OJ," assured Clem as she hurriedly took off her backpack. She pulled out her raincoat, but had trouble finding the fridge when she noticed the interior of the Brave was being lit only by a lantern sitting on the counter.

"The lights ran on the coach batteries," reminded Sarah.

"That's the stuff that made the water run too?" asked Clem as she stuffed the raincoat into the fridge.

"Yeah," said Sarah as she picked up the backpack.

"Kem-men!" repeated Omid as he ran up to the girl.

"I know, I know, I missed you too," said Clem with a big smile as she picked up the toddler. "Did you miss me too?"

"Kem-men, muh-boo," said Omid with a smile.

"Ahh, I love you too," said Clementine as she hugged the child.

"He's been asking for you since right after you left," informed Sarah as she unpacked Clem's bag.

"I'm sorry," said Clem as she set Omid down.

"No it's okay, it means he's all right," assured Sarah. "I barely slept at all last night. I… I kept having nightmares."

"About what?"

"About being back in that river," said Sarah in a quiet voice. "I couldn't stop thinking about when I fell in and I grabbed that guard rail or whatever it was… I could feel him, through the backpack, and I kept thinking I had killed him."

"You didn't," assured Clem as she approached Sarah.

"I'll… I'll just be glad when we get out of here," admitted Sarah as she stored the last of Clem's equipment.

"Kem-men, puh-bah," said Omid as he clutched something in his hands.

"You want to play ball?" Clem grabbed the ball, which Omid refused to let go. He smiled as she gradually twisted the ball out of his grip, then took off running when she threw it across the room.

"Did you take this?" Clem looked over to see Sarah holding the picture of Sin.

"Yeah, I was going to take a picture of all that metal stuff, but I saw him standing there and thought I'd take his picture too."

"I can't believe a whole dam broke," said Sarah. "You guys are okay right, you didn't get caught in it… again."

"No, that was miles away, we just went to check it out," said Clem. "What about you, was everything okay here?"

"Yeah, I'm just—"

"Tired?"

"Yeah," nodded Sarah as she sat down on the couch.

"Puh-bah."

"Here you go," said Clem as she took the ball. "Go get it."

"I was helping Patty with the Brave for hours. Then I took the laundry down, and went through all the compartments on the Brave we couldn't reach before we moved it. Water got everywhere and ruined almost all our encyclopedias and tons of my books; it's just horrible."

"It's okay," assured Clem as she sat down next to Sarah. "They were just books."

"Just books?" Clem was surprised by the sudden snap in Sarah's tone. "Do you want to know what I was looking up yesterday?"

"Umm… well—"

"Imperial Valley," said Sarah as she stood up. "I thought, if wherever Sin wants to go doesn't work out, maybe we should go there next. So I looked it up and you know what it said?"

"What did—"

"It said the whole valley gets all its water from the All-American Canal."

"Okay, so—"

"So I looked that up, and it's a series of canals and dams," announced Sarah. "Dams that provide all the water to the farms in Imperial Valley."

"Oh…" Clem paused as she processed what Sarah just told her. "I hope Winnie and the others will be okay. If a dam here broke, then—"

"Puh-bah." Clem took Omid's ball and tossed it across the room.

"And that's not all I was reading about," said Sarah as she grabbed a book off the dining table. "Look." Sarah held out the book and on the bottom half of both pages Clem saw illustrations; peaches being jarred on one side and green beans on the other.

"Is this about making jam?" asked Clem as she took the book.

"About canning foods," said Sarah before pointing to a paragraph. "Read this."

"The steam-pressure method is used to process low acid foods. The bacteria that can cause bot… bottle-ism? Can grow in these foods, including meat, fish… and most kinds of vegetable."

"You can't just turn stuff like that into jam, or put it in a jar," explained Sarah. "You have to use a pressure cooker or you won't kill all the bacteria."

"So… Winnie was wrong, you can't jam everything," realized Clem.

"Not the same way you jam fruit or flowers, no."

"It's good you looked that up. But what's bottle-ism?"

"I think botulism is a disease," said Sarah. "I was about to go get the B encyclopedia, but… that's when you said the river was flooding."

"I'm… I'm sorry Sarah," said Clem as it dawned on her what they had actually lost. "We'll… we'll find another set of encyclopedias, after—"

"After we fix everything else that's messed up," sighed Sarah as she looked over the dark RV interior. "I spent like fifteen minutes taping plastic over where the window in the bedroom used to be, and I don't even know if the Brave works any—"

The generator suddenly became silent, which caused Sarah to as well. Both she and Clem stood up and inched their way to the front.

"Puh-bah."

"In a minute," said Clem as she picked up Omid. "I just want to—"

"Sarah?"

Sarah grabbed her radio in a flash. "Yeah Patty?"

"The generator is out of gas, so it's do or die time. Give us a second to clean up and close the hood, and then we'll try to start the Brave."

"Got it." Sarah sat down in the driver's seat while Clem took the seat next to her. She set Omid on her lap and watched anxiously as Patty and Sin moved the generator out of the way.

"Okay," said Patty as she approached the front of the Brave. "Once I get out of the way, I want you to try and start the engine."

"Okay," said Sarah as she grabbed the keys off the dashboard.

"And if it does start, put it in drive and try to move forward, we still don't know if the steering and the axles are okay or not."

"Anything else?"

"Yeah, pray." Clem heard a dull slam and watched as Patty carried the battery charger out of the way. "All right, you're all clear."

Clem watched anxiously as Sarah moved the key to the ignition, her hand shaking as she slipped it into the slot. Clem felt Omid squirming in her grip as she waited in anticipation of Sarah turning the key. She hesitated, merely holding the key for several seconds, then turned it halfway.

"The clock came on," said Clem as she pointed at the dashboard. "That's good, right?"

"It means the battery works," said Sarah, not sounding enthusiastic. "It doesn't mean the engine works though." Sarah took a deep breath while Clem held hers, then turned the key. A weak churning sound echoed from the engine and Clem found herself paralyzed as that was all she heard. That sickly mechanical sound just kept ringing in her ears for several seconds before disappearing entirely.

She looked over at Sarah, the older girl's hand trembling before she turned the key again. The churning returned, but this time Clem heard a slight popping sound that gave her hope. Sarah must have heard it too because she kept the key turned for a long time, but the engine still wouldn't start. Sarah let go of the key and slowly closed her fist, as if she wasn't sure she wanted to turn it again.

"Kem-men." Clem looked down to see Omid looking up at her. "Mah-bah."

"We'll feed you in a minute OJ, just, in a minute." Clem looked over at Sarah, who then turned back to the ignition. Watching her friend place her hand on that key again, Clem found herself doing as Patty suggested and quietly saying a little prayer; please just let us hold onto this, at least for a little longer. Sarah turned the key, and there was more churning, and a pop, then a couple of pops, and then a deep rumble.

"It… it works?" asked Clem in disbelief.

"It works!" exclaimed Sarah as the engine grew louder, as if the Brave was roaring back to life. Sarah's hand suddenly moved to the transmission and Clem felt her stomach drop as they jumped forward. They were only rolling along the pavement at a slug's pace, yet it was the most exciting ride in recent memory. They couldn't stop cheering out loud, prompting Omid to start clapping and giggling in delight. Sarah put the parking brake on and shut off the engine, which was followed immediately by a knock at the door.

"It works?" asked a shocked Patty as Sarah pulled the door open.

"It works!" repeated Sarah as she bounded out of the RV.

"I can't believe it," said Patty, barely able to contain her enthusiasm.

"It works," said Jet, adding to the chorus of obvious.

"Well done," said Sin in a measured but friendly voice.

"You did it," said Clem as she set Omid on the ground.

"Dib-bib," said the toddler as Clem took hold of his hand.

"We did it," said Patty in-between breaths.

"Come on," said Anthony. "I think you deserve the bulk of the credit." Clem watched as Anthony swung out his arm and slapped Patty's butt, prompting her to spin around.

"Don't you fucking touch me!" Patty drew her gun in a flash and aimed it at Anthony. The joy of the celebration evaporated in an instant and everyone stared at Patty in shock and disbelief, except Anthony himself. The young man just casually raised his hands and there wasn't a trace of fear on his face as Patty angrily pointed a weapon at him; he was smiling.

Omid started crying, which Patty must have heard. She suddenly lowered the gun and saw everyone staring at her. Without warning, she took off for the side of the road and just kept running until she disappeared behind a couple of trees. Clem was just about to run after her, when she felt Omid's hand clinging to her's.

"Sarah."

"Yeah."

Sarah took hold of Omid and Clem went running in the direction Patty went. Passing through the few trees clustered by the road took almost no time at all and Clem found herself in a flat field overlooking the still overflowing river. Sitting near its new shoreline about a hundred feet away was Patty, her head clutched in her hands. Clem hurried as fast as she could through the dead grass and called out to the woman.

"Patty!"

"Go away!" she yelled back. "Just… just fucking leave me here!"

"No!" exclaimed Clem as she closed in on her. "Just come back and—"

"Forget it Clem," sniveled Patty as she wiped her face. "No one is going to want to be around me after that."

"I want to be around you," said Clem as she came up behind the woman. "And I saw what Anthony did."

"He's such a fucking asshole! But God, everyone is going to think I'm crazy now and…" Patty grabbed her gun and arched her arm back to toss it into the river.

"Don't!" Clem grabbed Patty's arm. "We might need it."

Patty dropped the gun, letting it fall onto the dirt. "I'm such a fuck up."

"Just talk to me," insisted Clem as she picked up the gun, unloading it almost on instinct. "I know Anthony makes you mad, but—"

"The prick was smiling at me! He… he was just loving how much he pissed me off!"

"Yeah… I saw that too," noted a concerned Clem.

"That's all he does, piss me off every chance he gets because he likes it. That and make it obvious how bad he wants to fuck me."

"Fuck you?" Patty looked at Clem suddenly, then turned away.

"Forget it."

"No," dictated Clem. "What did you mean by that?"

"You wouldn't understand,"

"I will if you explain it to me."

"It's just—"

"Bad? I've seen and heard a ton of bad things, so just tell me. I thought people just said fuck when they're mad at someone, or something goes wrong, or you get hurt…" listed Clem as she tried to recall every time she heard someone use that word. "Oh, and people say fuck when they mess up, like you fucked up. Is that what you meant, that Anthony wants to mess you up?"

Patty sighed deeply. "No, that's not what I meant when I said he wants to fuck me."

"Does fuck mean something else?"

"Yeah, it does."

"Really? It can mean like… five different things?"

"Yeah, it's a versatile world," said Patty with a weak laugh.

"So, what does it mean this time?"

"Clem…"

"Just tell me already."

"I meant he wants to have sex with me."

"Ohhh…" Clem suddenly became very quiet. "And you don't want that."

"Fuck no. Oh, I guess that's another way to use fuck."

"How do you know he wants to… do that with you?"

"It's pretty obvious."

"Not to me."

Patty groaned and stood up. "Forget it, forget I ever—"

"Patty," said Clem as she grabbed the woman's hand. "Talk to me."

Patty took a deep breath, then closed her fingers around Clem's hand. "It's all his little comments about me, or calling me 'beautiful' all the time."

"Is that bad?"

"The way he does it. He's always twisting anything I say to make some bullshit dirty comment."

"Like what?"

"Like back in Baton Rouge, when I couldn't get that truck started. He said we should go back through New Orleans, I said 'my ass', and then he said 'My ass makes a compelling argument'. That was his little way to sneak in a comment about how he thinks I have a nice ass."

"Oh…"

"Now that might not seem like a big deal, but—"

"You remember when I said there was a boy named Mick who forced Sarah to kiss him? He said she had a nice ass before he did that."

"Jesus, she's only fourteen."

"She was thirteen then. I didn't understand it, even after Christa explained it to me, but it bothered me, the way they kept talking about it. Neither one of them cared about her, or even liked her, but they kept arguing about the way her… you know, looked."

"Sizing her up like a piece of meat, I'm sure," snarled a bitter Patty.

"But why didn't Anthony just say that you have a nice ass like Mick did? Why make a joke about it?"

"Because then you and everyone else would notice what an asshole he is. But the way he does it he can always say he was 'just joking' if I complain about it."

"How do you know he's not just joking?"

"Because his jokes are always about the same thing when I'm around. Just earlier today he made that crack about me working well on my knees."

"What does that mean?"

"You don't want to know."

"Yes I do."

Patty sighed. "He was saying I must have sucked a lot of dicks, or I'd be good at it. Ha-fucking-ha."

"What?" Clem found herself disgusted by the image forming in her mind.

"Typically you're on knees when you do that and—"

"Why would anyone ever do that in the first place?"

"It's a… grown-up thing Clem," said Patty with a nervous shrug. "People do a lot of stuff with each other that you probably don't want to know about. Stuff like that is usually private for a reason."

"And Anthony just makes gross jokes about it?" asked as disgusted Clem.

"You should hear the stuff he says when it's just me and him alone out looking for food. The guy just loves his dirty jokes, that is when he's not needling me for every little mistake."

"Why didn't you ever tell us about any of this?" asked Clem.

"We had bigger problems than the a smug high-school dropout with a filthy mouth giving me a hard time," said Patty. "It's just… not a big deal."

"Except it is, you got so mad at him when he…" Patty hung her head in shame before Clem could even finish speaking. "Why didn't you ever tell us how he was making you feel?"

"I… wanted you guys to be safe. As long as he kept helping us that means you, Sarah, and Omid could all stay in the Brave while we did the supply runs. I figured it was better to just put up with it than risk chasing him off by making an issue out of him shit-talking or hitting on me."

"He hits you?" asked a horrified Clem.

"What? No, hit on, it means… you tell someone you like the way they look."

"Like, saying they're beautiful?" asked Clem.

"Sometimes, sorta," shrugged Patty. "It's usually more like saying they have a nice ass or whatever, more about reminding them how you like looking at them then what they actually look like."

"Well then I don't like it," concluded Clem.

"Yeah, me neither, and Anthony knows it, but he also knows I want his help and I'll put up with it."

"I heard what he said to you, right before we went into New Orleans. When he got mad and said he didn't feel appreciated."

"Yeah, he said I should be more worried about him than all of you," recalled a bitter Patty.

"No, he said you should be worried about him and not a 'stack of kids," corrected an even more bitter Clem.

"God, I wish you hadn't heard of any that," sighed Patty.

"Why not?" asked a defensive Clem. "Why haven't you talked to us about any of this?"

"Because like I said, I didn't want to worry you guys. And I really didn't want to get into discussing sexual harassment with a ten-year-old."

"What's sexual harassment?"

Patty groaned out loud. "Well, I set myself up for that one. All this stuff we're talking about that's grossing you out, sexual harassment is when you keep doing stuff like that to someone who tells you stop."

"And, Anthony slapping your…"

"Yeah, that's a big one."

"And… Mick wanting Sarah to kiss him, even though she didn't want to, would that be sexual harassment?"

Patty took a deep breath. "Yeah… especially shit like that."

"I think I get it then," said Clem as she quietly thought on everything Patty just told her. "It's sorta like rape, but…"

"It's forcing all the stuff leading up to sex on someone instead of sex itself," finished Patty. "God, I can't believe I'm telling you this."

"You're our friend, if something was bothering you should have told us."

"I'm so fed up with it, I can never be myself around him. I've always gotta watch what I say or do because he's always looking for another way to get under my skin."

"Is that why you threw away those underwear?" Patty looked up in surprise at Clem. "Before we went into New Orleans, I took out the garbage and saw that you threw away the underwear Anthony saw when Sarah was doing the laundry that day."

"I just couldn't look at them anymore and not think about Anthony picturing me in them," mumbled Patty through her teeth. "He just pisses me off so much and then he grabbed my ass and I just…" Patty buried her head in her arms as she pulled her knees up to her chest. "Fuck… what I'm gonna do? I fucked everything up. What am I going to say? I pulled a fucking gun on him."

"Were you going to shoot him?" asked Clem, afraid of what the answer would be.

"Of course not I… I was just wore out, and mad, and I wasn't thinking straight and… and…"

"You had a gun," finished Clem. "That's a dangerous combination." Clem was surprised to hear Patty start crying. It was muffled by her own arms, but it couldn't be clearer. "You made a mistake, but it's okay. Nobody got hurt."

"This time," sobbed Patty. "I just don't know what to do."

Clem thought to herself for a moment. "Tell him you're sorry."

"Oh God…" moaned Patty.

"You are, aren't you?"

"Of course I am but…" Patty took a deep breath. "He's never going to let me live this down. He's going to hold this over my head anytime I tell him to stop from now on."

"Okay." Clem took a breath and thought about what Patty just said. "Tell him you're sorry; then tell him to stop doing stuff that makes you feel bad."

"What? No, I couldn't—"

"Why not?"

"You know why not. If I ever just told him to stop for good he'd just throw a fit and start rattling off everything wrong I ever did, especially now that I aimed a damn gun at him!" exclaimed a frustrated Patty. "And I know what he's going to say: He'll make a bunch of excuses, ask if he's not allowed to tell a joke, then ask what'll happen if he doesn't stop."

"If he won't stop, then he can leave."

"What! Clem, we can't tell him—"

"If he's a good person, he'll stop doing stuff you hate if you ask him too," reasoned Clem. "And if he doesn't, then he never really wanted to help us in the first place."

"And then he'll ditch us," reminded Patty.

"Would you want to stay with someone who'd leave when we need help just because you told him you don't like him touching you and saying gross stuff to you?"

"No, but…" Patty took a deep breath. "With the way things are, I don't know if we can afford to be picky about who we keep around. Anthony annoys the shit out of me, but I'm still worried about everything else out there.

"If those guys in New Orleans weren't going to let us go, he really did save us. And Sin saved our asses yesterday, and we still don't know where this safe place he wants us to go is. If we start making demands, everyone might just ditch us and then we're back on our own in an RV that might still be broken in other ways I haven't found out about yet. I… I don't know if I want to risk that."

"At least we wouldn't have to give up so much food," reasoned Clem.

"No, we'd just have to worry about running into something a woman, two girls, and a baby can't handle. As much as Anthony pisses me off, that seems like a small price to pay for having backup." Patty's expression shifted suddenly as she turned to Clementine. "Anthony, he… he hasn't said anything like we were talking about to you or Sarah, right? He ever talk about how 'hot' either of you are or call you beautiful or anything like that?"

"No."

"You're sure?"

"Yeah. He was impressed with how I killed walkers on that bridge, and he's always telling me stuff about how we can't help everyone, but I don't remember him ever saying anything about how I look."

"What about Sarah?"

"I don't remember him saying anything like that to her either," said Clem. "Although…"

"Although what?" Patty asked in a sharp tone.

"Jet said me and Sarah looked 'bad ass'. Was he hitting on us?"

Patty chuckled. "No, that's just a way of saying you think someone is really tough and cool, which you both are."

"Really? How does bad and ass mean that?" asked a dubious Clem.

"It… just does when you say them as one word."

"Where does everyone learn all this stuff?" asked a very confused Clem.

"High school, mostly," said Patty with a shrug.

"The teach you this stuff in high school?"

"Teachers don't; the other kids do."

"Really? Even that stuff about… being on your knees?"

"Oh yeah, Anthony's not that far off from a lot of guys I knew in high school actually; blow jobs was a semi-regular topic."

"Blow jobs?"

"That's—"

"I don't want to know," stated Clem. "At least right now."

"Yeah, that's probably enough locker room talk for tonight."

"Locker—wait, I don't want to know that either."

"Clem?" called Sarah from the radio. "Puh… Patty? Can you hear me? Are you guys okay?" Patty removed her radio from her belt and looked at it. Clem held out her hand and Patty gladly passed the radio over to her.

"We're okay, both of us," assured Clem. "We're just talking, and we'll be back in a minute."

"I guess it's time to go," reasoned Patty as she stood up. "God, I don't know what I'm going to say. Everyone must hate me now."

"I don't. I'm… I'm on your side," suddenly realized Clem.

"You say that like you're not sure," noticed Patty.

"I'm sure, it's just… I guess I never really thought I was on anybody's side before," said Clem.

"Well, I appreciate that, but you're probably the only one after that." Patty sighed. "Okay, I'll go beg for forgiveness, hopefully Anthony will accept, and with a little luck everything will go back to normal." Patty moved away, but Clem snapped out her hand suddenly and grabbed Patty's arm.

"Maybe… maybe they shouldn't."

Patty was resistant to Clem's idea at first, but after several minutes of discussing all the details, the two returned to the road together. Clem saw everyone except Omid was standing around the Brave, as if they had been discussing something themselves.

The second they saw Patty approach, everyone's eyes were on the woman and Clem could tell she was nervous without even looking at her. Clem moved in closer to Patty, hoping to provide her some comfort. Everyone was standing in a semi-circle, and in the middle was Anthony. He stood there with his arms crossed. He looked irritated, except there was this weird little twitch on the edges of his mouth, as if was trying to hide a smile. Everyone stood in silence, as if they were eager to hear Patty speak.

"How's… how's Omid?" Clem suddenly asked Sarah.

"He's okay," she assured. "I put him down for a nap a minute ago."

"Okay, that's good." The awkward silence swiftly returned and wouldn't leave again until Patty finally opened her mouth to speak.

"Anthony…" she barely managed to say.

"Yeah?" said the young man as he uncrossed his arms.

"I'm… I'm really sorry for what I did," she said, sounding choked up.

"You mean pointing a gun in my face?" asked Anthony, raising his voice.

"Anthony…" said Sarah.

"You started it," accused Jet.

"Stay out of it," instructed Sin. "This is between them."

"Like I said, I'm sorry for what I did…" said Patty, her voice soaked in shame. "It's been such a long day and you… it just set me off. That's not an excuse though, so, I'm sorry. I never would have shot you and I promise I'll never do that again."

"Well I would hope not," said Anthony, sounding almost sarcastic in his mocking tone. "Be nice to know you wouldn't blow my head off for—"

"But I want you to promise you'll stop harassing me."

Clem watched as Anthony's eyes went wide with shock. Looking around, she saw everyone looked a little surprised or confused, but Anthony was utterly baffled.

"I… am I hearing this right?" he asked. "You nearly kill me, and now you come back and demand I change my behavior? You think this is a good time to do this?"

"No," admitted Patty. "I should have said something a lot sooner."

"That's… that's what you think?" asked Anthony, sounding angry now.

"I don't want you touching me like that again."

"Or what, you'll fucking shoot me?"

"No, I told you, I won't let that happen again. But I'm not gonna put up with all your little comments and jokes about—"

"Oh Jesus, I can't tell a fucking joke anymore! Am I hearing that right?" Clem rolled her eyes at Anthony's comment. "I can never make a joke again because you don't like it."

"I don't like you making jokes about how you want to screw me," said Patty, confidence coming back to her voice.

"Name one time, one single time I've ever made a joke about wanting to screw you."

"She works well on her knees." Anthony turned to Clementine suddenly, shocked to her say that. "Yeah, she told what you meant by that."

"What… what does it mean?" asked Sarah.

"I'll tell you afterwards," said Clem, not looking forward to having that conversation.

"I don't believe this, you guys always do this! No matter what happens, even when you pull a fucking gun on me, I'm still somehow the bad guy!"

"Are you?"

"Clem!" exclaimed Sarah. "Don't say that."

"If you're not a bad guy, then you won't do things you know Patty doesn't like," asserted Clem.

"But she can pull a gun on me?"

"I said I'm sorry, and I was wrong," repeated Patty in a sincere voice. "If you don't feel safe around me… then maybe we should just go our separate ways."

"Wait, I didn't say that," insisted Anthony. "I just don't like you telling me how to act after you threatened to kill me!"

"What if I told you to leave Patty alone?" challenged Clem. "Would you do it then?"

"I… you… you're always on her side!"

"What if I said it?"

"Jet, stop it," insisted Sin.

"Why can't you just say you won't do stuff that Patty doesn't like?" pressed Clem, refusing to let Anthony ignore the issue.

"How the hell am I even supposed to know if she doesn't like something or not?"

"I'll tell you," assured Patty.

"And you guys can just treat me like shit?" retorted Anthony.

"We wouldn't do that," insisted Sarah.

"We don't do that," corrected Clem.

"And if we do something you don't like, just tell us," said Patty.

"I don't like this right now," retorted Anthony.

"Well sorry, but Clem and I thought this was something we really needed to talk about."

"Can you believe this?" asked Anthony as he turned Sin. "Are you more worried about me cracking a joke or her pulling a gun on you?"

"I'm more concerned with someone who draws a weapon in anger." Patty hung her head in shame when she heard Sin say that.

"Yeah, me—"

"What you're discussing now is a separate issue," continued Sin. "One you should work out."

"Separate issue, what… man, fuck you," grumbled Anthony as he pointed at Sin. "You're the whole damn reason we're even out here, you and your mystery safe place that…" Anthony turned back to Patty and Clem suddenly. "That's what this is, you're trying to ditch me before we get to this paradise he supposedly knows about."

"Actually, Sin," said Patty as she turned to the older man. "Clem and I both think it's time you tell us just where the hell we're going."

"What?" asked Sin.

"Um… yeah, what?" repeated a confused Anthony.

"We agreed that we'd help get you on your feet and teach you what we know, and then you'd tell us this place you heard about," reminded Patty. "At this point, you know as much as we do about getting around the dead, but we still don't know where we're going."

"Is… is this really the time to discuss this?" asked Sin.

"Hey man, it's a separate issue," repeated Anthony in a mocking tone. "One we should work out."

"I… I saved your lives last night," reminded Sin in a calm voice.

"And we're grateful for that, but you're the one who said gratitude isn't the same thing as obligation," reminded Patty. "You also said before you'd paid us what we felt you owed us. After everything we've done, I think you owe it to us and Anthony to tell us where we're going."

"For real," added Anthony.

Sin stood there quietly. He was clearly thinking about the situation, but Clem could draw no conclusions from his stoic face.

"We're going to—"

"Jet!" The boy went silent as Sin suddenly glared at him, but Jet shot the man a look of defiance in response. Sin turned back to the rest of the group, a resigned look now hanging off his face. "Tulsa."

"Tulsa?" asked Sarah.

"Tulsa, Oklahoma," clarified Jet.

"Oklahoma? That's why we've been driving hundreds of miles north? To go to fucking Oklahoma?"

"Actually we're already in Oklahoma," corrected Sarah. "We crossed the state line not long after leaving Texarkana."

"You know what I meant."

"Not long after the military recruited me to run the refinery, I went to my first meeting a little early, and while I was waiting I overheard a couple of high-ranking soldiers talk about Tulsa. They said the senior officer stationed there was refusing orders and they wouldn't be receiving any supplies from Tulsa anymore."

"That's it?" asked Anthony.

"No, it's not," retorted Sin in a harsh tone. "They kept talking, said it was a mistake to send the Coast Guard instead of the regular military, that they were hoarding things Houston needed for its farms, and that they couldn't spare any resources trying to reclaim it."

"That's—"

"And then after that, people started talking about Tulsa."

"Because you told them about it," concluded Anthony.

"No," said Jet. "He didn't tell anyone. One of my neighbors told me that a soldier told him if he ever had to leave Houston, they should go to Tulsa. Then I told Granddad and he told me what he had heard."

"I didn't think much about it first, so I never mentioned it to anyone, but rumors about Tulsa started to spread anyway, and they all said the same thing; Tulsa had broken ranks with the military because they were trying to make their city self-sufficient."

"Well if Tulsa is so damn great, how come you never tried to go there before?" asked Anthony.

"Or how come you wanted to go New Orleans first?" added Sarah.

"Tulsa was very far, and we didn't know what lie between it and Houston, and none of us knew anything about fighting the dead, let alone you could just walk past them if you 'smelled' like them," explained Sin. "And since my position in Houston meant Jet and I were relatively well cared for, it was a lot of risk to take based on just a rumor and an overheard conversation.

"As for New Orleans, it was closer, and I knew it was a city of major importance to the military. I figured with everything we were shipping there, or I thought we were shipping there, it would be well fortified."

"And it's a damn ghost town now," reminded Anthony. "Why should Tulsa be any different?"

"Because it wasn't part of whatever failing plan the military had in place," said Sin.

"They figured out what the military was doing wasn't working and did something else," added Jet.

"That still doesn't mean what they did worked either."

"No, it doesn't, but like I told you before, I don't see any alternatives." Sin took a deep breath and adjusted his glasses. "I plan to continue to Tulsa. It's less than a hundred miles away from here, and I'm sure Jet and I could make it on our own at this point. If you don't want to come with us—"

"We want to stay together," stated Clem in a sincere voice. "We're better together."

"But there does need to be some changes," said Patty. "I said before we'd do a three-way split on the food for a while, then we'd work out the details. Well now's the time; we start splitting the food evenly per person from now on. We're one group that takes care of each other, so let's start acting like it."

"What?" asked Anthony. "So I gotta go out every day to get only—"

"And we'll take turns getting the food too," stated Patty.

"And I'll help," added Clem.

"You will?" asked Sarah, sounding worried.

"Really, only two of us need to go out, three's a crowd," reasoned Patty. "And with Clem's help, that means two of us can stay back in case anything happens as well, like in Texarkana."

"What about me?" asked a nervous Jet. "Do… I need to take turns?"

"We just figured me, Clem, Anthony, and your granddad would do it," said Patty. "Thought that would be fair."

"Fair?" said Anthony. "You do half the work but get over half the food?"

"We wouldn't count Omid since he doesn't eat as much as us," said Clem.

"So split six ways, that's half the food for half the work," said Patty.

"That seems equitable," said Sin with a nod of approval.

"Yeah, you would say that," said Anthony. "You're getting two shares of food to my one."

"After they take their share, we could split the rest in half," suggested Jet. "That'd be a quarter for a quarter of the work."

Sin looked at Jet, then turned to Anthony. "That sounds fair to me."

"You people keep tossing that word around," said Anthony. "They have guns, we don't. So you and I are taking a bigger risk."

"Yeah, Clem and I talked about that too…" Patty slowly reached for her pistol, but didn't remove it from its holster. "After what happened last night, we realized keeping all our guns in one vehicle isn't a good idea." Patty unclipped her holster entirely and removed it from her belt. "If the Brave had been washed away, none of us would be armed right now." Patty took a couple of steps forward and offered the gun to Anthony. He looked at the weapon, the looked up at Patty.

"This your way of bribing me into staying?" scoffed Anthony. "If I leave I don't get that right?"

"You can have it either way, we could always find another pistol," assured Patty. "But I'd rather not lose you."

"Oh you wouldn't?" said Anthony with a wicked smile. "So—"

"But if you keep pissing me off and hitting on me—"

"Jesus, this again, are—"

"Or touch me like that again, then forget it."

"You pulled a gun on me!"

"All the more reason we shouldn't stick together," said Patty as she crossed her arms. "I know you're a young man and I'm like the only woman here even close to your age, but I'm not gonna put up with it anymore. So if you think you can't control yourself, consider the gun a parting gift."

"Patty! Stop saying stuff like that."

"I'm serious Sarah," replied Patty.

"Anthony keeps making her feel bad," added Clem. "She doesn't want to do this if he keeps doing that."

"What about how I feel?" asked Anthony as he raised his voice again. "So I gotta walk around on eggshells while you keep telling me to fuck off all the time?"

"I'll stop doing that," assured Patty.

"Will you?"

"Yes. I don't want fight Anthony; I'll just go out with Clem or Sin in the future even if that'll make this easier. But if making me miserable is so important to you—"

"That's not fair," interjected Sarah. "He's not trying to make you feel bad on purpose."

"Well then I don't know what it is," said Patty as she held out the gun again. "I said I'm sorry, I'm trying to make things right, and if he tells me he doesn't like something I'm doing, I'll stop, but he won't say he'll do the same for me."

"Of course he will," insisted Sarah. "Right Anthony, you didn't mean to make Patty mad and you won't do anything like that again, right?" Anthony looked around at everyone, almost if he was searching for another ally. Clem didn't feel particularly charitable herself, and Sin and Jet only seemed curious to his answer. "Anthony?"

"Sure," said the young man as he snatched the gun Patty was holding. "Whatever you people say." Clem couldn't help thinking Anthony sounded defeated as he said that, which suited her just fine.

"If that settles everything," interjected Sin. "We should probably get some distance from the river before we turn in for the night. The dam that caused the flood could break further and push the river more inland."

"Sounds good to me," said Patty. "Tomorrow we can go looking for a new generator and some other things to finish fixing the Brave. Then we'll all head to Tulsa and hope for the best."

Sin nodded at Patty, then returned to his RV with Jet. Patty went with Sarah back into the Brave. Clem watched as Anthony fiddled with the gun they gave him.

"This isn't even loaded." Clem removed a magazine from her pocket and offered it to the young man. "What, you didn't trust me?" he asked as he snatched the bullets away from her.

"People can do bad things when they're angry," stated Clem. "And they do even worse if they have a gun at the same time."

"So what, you thought I get pissed and kill one of you?" Anthony's biting tone wasn't helped by the sharp click of him sliding the magazine into the gun.

"I've seen people do it before."

"You mean a minute ago when Patty almost killed me?" Clem resisted the urge to flinch at Anthony's harsh tone and the sound of him cocking the gun.

"No, before that, and it wasn't almost," recalled Clem. "We were arguing outside an RV then too, and…" Clem looked up and noticed Anthony was already half way back to his truck. Seeing no point in remaining outside, Clem headed in. She found Sarah already in the driver's seat and Patty lying on the couch.

"You okay?" asked Clem as Sarah started the RV.

"Yeah, it's just been a long ass day," said Patty slowly. "Think I'll go hide in the shower for a while."

"The shower doesn't work right now," reminded Sarah.

"The drain works," said Patty as she sat up. "I'll go sponge myself off with a washcloth and a bottle of water." Patty stood up and headed for the bathroom, but stopped in front of Clem. "Thanks a million partner."

"You'd do the same for me," said Clem with a smirk.

"Here," said Patty as she balled up her hand. "Bump fists with me."

"Why?"

"It's what you do when you want to celebrate with someone using just your hands, like a cooler handshake." Clem pushed her first forward and gently tapped her knuckles against Patty's. "There you go!" Clem giggled as Patty bumped back before grabbing a bottle of water and disappearing into the bathroom.

Hearing the familiar sound of the Brave's engine was white noise to Clementine, and the girl found herself gravitating to the bedroom. The lights still didn't work, so the room was lit only by the moonlight passing through the layer of plastic Sarah had taped over where the hole where the window used to be. Kicking off her shoes and collapsing face first onto the bed, Clem discovered the comforting touch of the mattress and its covers were practically caressing her into a soothing trance. The girl would have been content to just lay there in that position for the rest of her life.

"Mah-bah." Clem turned her head to find Omid staring expectedly at her. "Mah-bah."

"Okay…" said Clem with a yawn. "I'll get you something to eat."