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]

71. Finality

"Eight, ten, twelve—wait, didn't I already count these two?" Clementine had come to deeply regret not doing inventory before she painstakingly stuffed every compartment, cupboard, and drawer on the Brave full with everything they had taken from the shopping center. Fresh tools, auto supplies, ammo, new clothes, and a massive but nutritionally diverse horde of food were just some of the many goods that had consumed every last speck of free space left in her humble home. Even going to check on their supply of medicines required Clem to maneuver around a stack of encyclopedias sitting in middle of the hall and inch past a large box containing a new crib before she could even open the bathroom door.

"Kem-men!" greeted Omid as he waved from inside the toilet.

"OJ, no!" Clem dropped her pen and notepad and rushed forward. "How did you get out again?" Carrying Omid back to the bedroom required Clem to dance around the boxes full of salt and sugar parked in front of the door while carrying a messy baby. "What were you doing in there?" she asked as she set Omid on the bed.

"Ah-clah-da-geg." Clem cleaned Omid off and changed his clothes, then doubled checked his old crib. He hadn't managed to pry it open, nor tip it over. Setting him inside, Clem briefly watched as Omid pawed at the top of the railing before she realized the boy was taller than from a month ago and he could probably just climb out now. Knowing there wasn't a lot she could do to stop Omid from escaping his crib, Clem set a couple of heavy books on the toilet seat and got back to work.

She tallied the many medicines they had taken from the Sam's Club pharmacy. The previous residents had written simple layman terms like 'ANTIBIOTIC' or 'PAINKILLER - STRONG' across the original labels in big letters, making Clem's work a little easier. She also counted up their other medical supplies like gauze, alcohol, and a bunch of tools taken from the nearby hospital. Opening a small box, Clem cringed when she saw it was full of small, curved needles. She quickly put them away and hastily wrote down 'Box of Scary Needles' on her notepad.

Counting the packages of tampons under the sink, Clem found herself reaching for one facing the wrong way, curious to what was written on the back of it. What was there didn't do much to satisfy Clem's curiosity, in fact it only raised more questions. The picture of something she thought looked like a big plastic pen, some vague instructions about 'insertion', and some claims of offering protection from 'leaks' baffled Clem. She was about to open the box when she heard a loud bang from outside. Hurrying past the clutter as fast as she could, Clem retrieved her gun and burst outside.

"Patty?" Clem saw the woman moving away from the semi-truck parked in front of the Sam's Club.

"Oh sorry, I didn't scare you or anything?" said the woman as she grabbed hold of a cart parked next to the vehicle.

"I heard a bang a second ago."

"That was just me slamming the door," said Patty as she pushed her cart forward. "I was just dropping off some stuff for our big ass food truck here."

"None of those are for the Brave are they?" asked Clem as she eyed the glut of spare parts and containers of various fluids automobiles needed all sitting in Patty's cart. "Because we don't have any room… at all."

"Nah, this is for the semi we're storing our building materials in," said Patty as she pushed the cart. "Was just gonna run it over to the hardware store."

"I could do that," volunteered Clem.

"It's okay, I—"

"Please?" begged Clem.

"You… want to push this heavy stuff across the lot?"

"Not really, but—"

"Kem-men!" Clementine turned to find Omid waddling up to her. "Ah-wah-ah-bree!"

"I could use a break from OJ," confessed Clem. "I love him, but—"

"Parenting is a full-time job." Patty marched up the Brave's steps. "And you could use a babysitter." Patty scooped Omid off the ground. "What do you say little man, you want to hang out with your aunt Patty today?"

"Pad-dah." Omid grinned as Patty held him.

"Great, thanks Patty."

"Dress warm," said Patty as Clem rushed into the bedroom. "We got another freaky cold snap today." Rummaging through her own dresser, Clem was annoyed she packed her winter clothes so deeply into the drawer. "Oh, and before you go, leave the box on the bottom rack here," said Patty as Clem rushed outside to the shopping cart.

"What is it?" asked Clem as she knelt down and grabbed the large, flat box hanging out past the edge of the cart.

"Read it."

The box was surprisingly heavy, forcing Clem to drag it off. Dropping it onto the pavement created a slight clanking sound, at which point Clem noticed the words written on the cardboard.

"Bike rack for… RV's?"

"Yeah, I figured since we got that portable generator from the hardware store for our pump, we wouldn't need another trailer and could use the hitch for that. We could take our bikes with us to our new home. They'd be handy to have, plus, if we're going out into the country, there're probably lots of great places to ride."

"Wait, you said we. Does that mean—"

"I picked myself out a nice looking black mountain bike yesterday when I rounding up some odds and ends for our expedition into Indian territory," said Patty with a sly smile as she adjusted her grip on Omid. "If it works out, I might put one on the Sunseeker too; Jet mentioned he used to love riding his bike, so we might even have some company."

"That'd be great," said Clem as she buttoned her jacket. "Or it will be, as soon as it warms up."

"All right, say bye to Clem."

"Bah-kem-men!"

"Bye OJ!"

Clem pushed the cart forward across the cracked asphalt, the cold nipping at the uncovered parts of her face as she moved. The delay of what had felt like an upcoming early spring had been irritating but was only a minor annoyance compared to the last several days of preparation. Clem had lost track of how many hours they had spent loading things into trucks, and their attempts to plan for every contingency would always inevitably be derailed later by some other then unseen issue that forced them to start over.

Just looking at the other semi-trailer parked in front of the hardware store made Clem feel tired, and the long walk over to it gave her plenty of time to think about all the hassle involved with trying to prepare these hulking vehicles for the road. Everything from Patty fixing the trucks, to attaching the trailers, to getting them in the shopping center had been a struggle, and seeing Devlin and Sin talking outside the hardware store just led Clem to believe there had been yet another issue with loading it today.

"Then ditch some of the jars," Clem overhead Devlin say as she neared the pair. "Make some room that way."

"We'll need those to can our crops for the winter," insisted Sin. "We can store some of the jars in the truck's cab."

"The cab is stuffed with crap as it is, we'll barely have room for…" Devlin stopped when he noticed Clem pushing the cart towards him. "Let me guess, that's the auto supplies Patty sent over for the semi?"

"Yep," answered Clem as she let go of the cart.

"Just leave it there, I'll take care of it." Clem watched as Devlin opened the door to the truck and revealed the space behind the seats was already stuffed with boxes and large tools. Grabbing a battery out of the cart, Clem watched as Devlin pushed things around in a desperate attempt to squeeze just a little bit more into this already overpacked space.

"If these jars are so important why don't you keep them in your RV?" suggested Devlin.

"Our RV is already full; it's hard enough to move around in there as it is without knocking over one of the fruit tree saplings we salvaged from the community garden you showed us," said Sin. "Especially with Jet watering them every morning."

"Our RV is full too," added Clem as Devlin grabbed a couple of containers of motor oil from the cart.

"This would be a lot easier if we had another vehicle," mumbled Devlin as he tried to find a spot for a box of large fuel filters.

"Patty said she was lucky to get these two trucks working," reminded Sin. "Trying to find and repair a third would delay us even further, and when we've nearly finished packing anyway."

"Yeah, nearly. How bout we just cut back on the damn jars then? Do we really need five hundred of them?" Clem moved around to the back of the trailer, discovering stacks of cases full of glass jars piled up on the ground.

"Eight of us, eating every day over three, four, or even five months of winter depending on the weather; do the math. I have, and even with other food sources like fishing, five-hundred is actually still on the low side."

"Then ditch a few of the barrels. We've got plenty."

"Actually we're a few short on them going by the estimates I've worked out with Sarah," informed Sin. "I'd rather we not cut back any more than we have."

Moving past the edge of the trailer, Clem saw the door was still open. She could see black plastic barrels lined up by the very edge with various pieces of building materials such as rolled up chainlink and fence posts laying on top of them.

"We're not going to need these jars for a while," reasoned Devlin. "So why don't I just grab them on my first trip back to Tulsa in a month?"

"We'll likely still be using both trailers for storage in a month," reminded Sin. "You'd only have the truck itself, which doesn't hold much, and depending on what happens we might need you to bring back other things on your monthly trips; I'd rather not commit that space to the jars if it can be helped."

Clem hopped up onto the lip of the trailer's interior and looked at the barrels. Most of them were a single solid piece, but she noticed one past the first row had a separate lid on it. Climbing over the top of the barrels and inching towards the one with a lid, Clem squeezed herself under a roll of chainlink and undid the barrel's clasps.

"Look man, I don't know what to tell you." Clem heard Devlin say as she slid the lid off. "Transporting a bunch of jars in there without breaking them was going to be hard enough without running out of space. If we just threw them on top then we'd probably just be opening a trailer full of broken glass by the time we find somewhere to settle."

"Why not put the jars in the barrels?" yelled Clem as she looked into the empty container.

"What'd you say?" Clem looked over her shoulder just in time to see Devlin and Sin move in front of the trailer's open door.

"I said, why not put the jars in barrels." Clem climbed across the barrels and showed the pair the lid she was holding. "The barrels are empty, so why not put the jars in them?"

"We only got four of the ones with lids, the rest are all one pieces," said Devlin as Clem carefully climbed off the barrels and back onto the lip of the trailer. "That's a lot of jars for four barrels."

"Those barrels hold fifty-five gallons each; the jars come in cases of twelve, hold a quart each, which makes three gallons a case. Even with the shape of the containers we probably could get ten to a barrel, that's nearly five-hundred jars, and the barrels would give them protection."

"Yeah, but I don't know where the hell the other three barrels with lids are," said Devlin. "They could be packed all the way near the back of the trailer; we'd have to move everything on top of them to get in there."

"If we start now we'd probably be done by lunch."

Devlin stared at Sin for a moment, then sighed. "Clementine, could you do me a favor and go find Anthony? We're gonna need an extra hand here. I think he's parked in front of the big kid orphanage."

"Sure." Clem hopped off the trailer and started jogging across the parking lot, wishing she had her bike with her. Approaching the orphanage, Clem spotted Anthony's truck and headed towards the store it was closest to. Moving inside, she found Anthony shooting a three-pointer from the end of the building.

"Hey Clem," greeted Anthony in a loud voice as he retrieved the ball. "You here for a little one on one?"

"No. Devlin just sent me to tell you he needs your help loading the truck."

"What? He said he could handle the rest without me."

"He needs help moving some stuff around so everything will fit."

"Again?"

"Yeah."

"Goddammit!" Clem jumped as Anthony drop-kicked the ball, sending it slamming into the wall with a loud and hard thud before bouncing violently backwards towards the end of the store. "We haven't even started this farm yet and it's already turning into more trouble than it's worth. I can barely get to my bed through all the fucking bags of seeds and fish traps piled up in my camper."

"Yeah, the Brave is cluttered too…" spoke a tepid Clem. "Still, Sin said you should be done by lunch."

"Yeah great, another meal of crap out of a can because everyone is too busy to cook," groused Anthony.

"Um… well, I could cook something." Anthony's eyes lit up when she said that. "Patty is looking after OJ, so I've got nothing to do right now."

"Hmm, the stuff you make is usually pretty good." Clem couldn't stop herself from smirking upon hearing that. "You think you could make one of those beef stews? I don't know what you do to it but it tastes a lot better than when I eat it right out of the can."

"I just warm it up and add some spices."

"You added something else last time you made it. I distinctly remember chewing on something that wasn't beef."

"Probably carrots," said Clem. "I used to add it to soups back when we had a garden, and I found some canned carrots last time I cooked stew."

"That'll at least give me something to look forward too," said Anthony as he headed for the door. "That and the hope that all this bullshit will lead to something better to eat than whatever we scoop out of a can."

Clem stepped out in time to watch Anthony get into his truck. He drove off towards the hardware store, leaving Clem alone. Checking her watch, Clem lamented that Devlin insisted they all start wearing watches. Although she enjoyed how the rainbow colored band matched the bracelet on her other hand, looking at the clock's face reminded her of how their lives were going to change once they were on a farm. Clem didn't necessarily like scavenging for food, but living without strict schedules had been a minor perk that she found kind of liberating. Still, she had to admit it was useful to know it was an hour to noon and she had time to cook lunch for everyone.

Hurrying back to the Sam's Club, Clem headed right into the concessions area. She retrieved a few cans of beef stew, one can of carrots, some onion powder and other spices, and went straight to work readying a meal ready for a group of hungry and hardworking people. As the stew simmered, she spooned some sliced apples out of a couple of cans, mixed some beverages, and decided to even grab some freeze-dried ice cream from the Brave, where she stopped long enough to let Patty know she was making a meal for everyone and it'd be ready at noon.

After she had finished setting out the bowls, plates, and utensils, Clem sat down to enjoy an early lunch herself, figuring it was the least she could do for herself after cooking it. Canned meat stews were a treat, normally being a rare find this long into the outbreak. Yet even with her delicate balance of spices it still tasted off. Not spoiled, but the chunks of meat were mushy and had little flavor, and the carrots weren't much of an improvement. The apples faired a bit better, tasting very sweet, but were still mushy. The freeze-dried ice cream however was just as good as the first time Clem tried it, and she savored each piece for as long as she could.

"So you did cook us a meal." Clem looked over to see Jet pushing a cart towards the concessions area. "I thought I heard Patty wrong earlier."

"Nope, she gave me a break from OJ," said Clem as she spooned some stew into a bowl for Jet. "So I figured I'd make everyone lunch."

"Great, I'm starving." Jet sat down in a hurry and grabbed a spoon. As he dug into the stew, Clem noticed the cart he had been pushing was full of small books.

"Are these the guides you made to help anyone coming here?"

"Yeah," said Jet between bites as Clem grabbed one of the books. It was different from what she expected, being a smaller black leather case with a zipper running along the side. Written in silver marker on the cover were the words 'OUTBREAK SURVIVAL GUIDE'.

"I thought you were just going to write everything down in a notebook," said Clem as she studied the guide in her hands.

"I was, but then I found these cool little day planners and figured I'd use them instead. You could keep other stuff inside of them, and they're smaller than normal notebooks so they're easier to carry."

Flipping the guide over, Clem saw more words written on the back in silver. "Don't panic?"

"Oh, that's from a book I read. I thought it'd be funny to put that on the back, but it's good advice too," said Jet with a shrug as he got some apples out of the bowl. "I was just coming over here to put them out on the welcome table for… whoever comes here after we leave."

"I'll take care of it." Clem grabbed hold of the cart and pushed it towards the concessions counter. The large ads above it for foods they could no longer get had been covered with a banner they created. 'FOOD, WATER & MEDICINE AVAILABLE - SEE TABLE FOR MORE INFO' it read. It was one of many signs they had strung up across town in anticipation of other weary travelers reaching Tulsa after they left. Set up right in front of the concessions counter was a long wooden table, which Clem parked the cart in front of.

Already on the table were six radios, packs of unopened batteries, and simple instructions taped onto the wood itself: 'Tune to Channel 11 - Wait To Be Contacted - Help Will Arrive No Later Then 30 Days'. There was also the words 'SURVIVAL GUIDE' written in paint on the end of the table, which Clem began stacking Jet's guides in front of.

"I thought you were just going to make a few of these," said Clem as she offloaded the cart. "There's like two dozen books here."

"I was going to, but then I saw there were still printers at the Target, and Devlin said he had another one of those little diesel generators I could use, so I figured I'd use the printers to just make copies of the notes you and Sarah gave me instead."

Placing another stack of books on the table, Clem grabbed one and unzipped the case. Flipping the guide open, the left side had small, thin pouches, presumably for business cards, along with a pen clipped to it. The right side had a stack of small pages held in place by binder rings. Flipping through the pages, Clem was surprised that the words on them were typed. "These aren't copies of the notes Sarah made for you."

"Well I was going to make copies, but since I figured I'm already using a generator, I could plug my laptop in, type up everything you and Sarah wrote down, then just print it, that way it's easier to read. The tricky thing was getting the page size right for something that small."

Flipping through the pages, Clem was surprised at how many there were, as well as the dividers where the words 'FOOD', 'WATER', 'GUNS' and 'UNDEAD' had been carefully handwritten in different colored inks. Flipping to the tab labeled 'CONTENTS', Clem found herself reading off the page without thinking.

"The undead: behavior, tactics, infection; Food: scavenging, growing, foraging; Places; scouting, roads, major cities," she read out loud as she wandered back towards where Jet was sitting. "We didn't give you notes on anything but walkers and a little on looking for food."

"I was just going to print up your notes, but then I remembered some stuff you and the others told me, so I wrote that down too, then I started looking up stuff in the bookstore and found books on common diseases and some other stuff, and… Well, I guess it ended up a lot bigger than I planned."

Flipping through the pages, Clem was surprised how many words were on each one. Scrolling through the section on cities, she found herself reading out loud again.

"New Orleans served as base of the operations for the US Navy until it was likely evacuated sometime during the summer of… two A.O?"

"After outbreak; I figured with everything that's happened, we should just start counting years after that. I explained that and some other stuff in the introduction."

"While occupied, the city received electricity from the nuclear plant, Waterford Three," read Clem. "However, with the city now abandoned, the fate of this power plant is unknown, and is speculated by a former resident of a post-outbreak New Orleans it was either shut down, or even possibly melted down. If there was a meltdown, then it's possible the New Orleans area is irradiated now and should be avoided. For more about radiation and a map of other nuclear plants, please turn to page…"

Clem found herself turning to the page listed without thinking, finding herself landing on a lengthy explanation of what radiation was on her left, while a map of the United States with small icons marking the location of nuclear power plants was on her right. Studying them, she was disturbed to see marks along the east coast of Georgia and Florida, along with the words 'no simple cure for exposure to radiation' on the other page.

"How did you make this map?" asked Clem as she shut the book.

"I scanned it from a book I found in the bookstore," explained Jet as he poured more tea into his cup. "Then put it all together with a program on my laptop and printed it up. I did the same thing for an edible plants book. I scanned all the pictures and wrote shorter descriptions so I could fit it on just a few pages; did you know you could eat clovers?"

"Yeah I did actually," said Clem as she flipped through the guide. "When we lived in a cabin, Christa, OJ's mom, had a book about edible plants; clovers weren't so bad, but we couldn't find any once winter started and were stuck eating mushrooms instead; I hate mushrooms."

"I also updated a map with everything we know, and put it on the left side along with a pen, so people could fill in stuff as they moved around."

Clem turned to the left side and discovered another larger pouch behind the smaller ones and a page printed on a slip of cardboard card inserted into it. Pulling it out, she saw it was a map of the United States with hand written symbols and words for cities they had visited. Most of the symbols were X's, Houston had a circle around it, and off to the right side were the words 'Shaffer's' and 'Valkaria' with arrows pointing to certain parts of Georgia and Florida. At the bottom of the map in Jet's handwriting was 'See cities section for more information'.

"I can't believe you did all this," said Clem as she closed the book.

"It's all stuff other people knew or wrote down, I just put it together," dismissed Jet. "I probably spent more time hole-punching all the pages than anything else; there's no three hole punch for pages that small so I could only do one hole on a few pages at a time."

"This will really help anyone who comes here."

"If you say so," said Jet as he looked away.

"It will," insisted Clem. "I'm gonna keep one."

"Why?"

"Because, this is really useful," said Clem as she flipped through the pages. "I don't remember most of the plants we could eat from that book Christa had, but this has all their pictures right here, and a bunch of great stuff; you should be proud."

"Well…" The sound of footsteps approaching derailed the conversation as Clem watched the others file into the area. Now that everyone had watches it was rare for anyone to arrive late to a meal.

"Kem-men!" called Omid as Patty carried him to his high chair.

"Hey OJ," said Clem in her sweetest voice as he was placed next to her.

"Granddad, I finally finished the guide I was working on," said Jet as he picked up the one on the table. "You want to see it?"

Sin took the book. "Why did you use these for the guide?"

"Well they were smaller, so… so they're easier to carry," mumbled Jet. "Do you like it?"

Sin flipped through a few pages, stopping to read one for a few seconds before placing the book back on the table. "It's fine," he said before moving past Jet to take a seat.

"What's this?" asked Devlin as he looked at the brown, white, and pink chunks sitting on a plate.

"Freeze-dried ice cream," informed Jet.

"Oh hell, she put some out?" asked an eager Anthony.

"I don't remember seeing that in the store," said Sin.

"Cause it ain't from the store, Clem hordes it in that RV of their's," said Anthony as he grabbed a piece of chocolate ice cream.

"Does it actually taste like ice cream?" asked Devlin as he picked up a piece.

"Oh yeah." Clem watched everyone's faces light up as they sampled the freeze-dried treat.

"Holy hell," mumbled Devlin as he chewed.

"It's… very good," admitted Sin, sounding pleasantly surprised.

"Don't get used to it," said Anthony. "They only break that stuff out once in a blue moon for the rest of us."

"We're trying to make it last as long as we can," said Clem. "Because we don't know where we could get more, or that there even is any more left."

"Well then, a major thanks for sharing it with us then," spoke a gracious Devlin with a smile. "And for cooking us this tasty looking meal."

"That's the very least we deserve after today; just getting ready to start a farm is hungry work," griped Anthony as he spooned a heaping amount of stew into the nearest bowl. "We'd better get some damn good vegetables and stuff out of this. I mean, what are we planning on growing this year?"

"You'd need to ask Sarah," said Devlin. "She had me load a bit of everything into your camper, but I don't think she was planning on growing all that this year."

"Where is Sarah?" Clem stood up, expecting Sarah to be walking past the door as she spoke, but she wasn't there.

"She's probably still at the bookstore," said Anthony. "She practically lives there now."

"I'll go get her," said Clem as she stood up. "Patty, can you watch OJ?"

"Sure," said Patty as she spooned some stew out of her bowl. "You hungry little man?"

"Mah-bah!" said an excited Omid before opening his mouth.

Clem stood up and was about to head to the door, when she noticed Jet slumped over in his seat. "Why don't you come with me?"

"Huh?" said Jet as he sat up.

"You're done eating right? Why don't you come with me to get Sarah?"

"Um… sure. Why not?" Walking along with Jet, Clem waited until they were outside the store before leaning over to talk to him.

"I'm sorry," she said as they walked across the parking lot.

"For what?" asked a confused Jet.

"For your granddad not noticing how hard you worked on the guide," said Clem. "He barely looked at it."

"Oh that." Jet looked down at his feet as he moved. "It doesn't matter. It was just something I did to keep myself busy for a while, since I can't do much else."

"Don't say that."

"It's true. I can't carry nearly as much as Anthony and Devlin, Sarah's looking up stuff for the farm, Patty fixed the trucks, Granddad's figuring out how to build stuff we'll need. While I was spending all my time making guides that will probably never get used, everyone else was doing something that's actually important."

"I wasn't," reminded Clem. "I've mostly been watching OJ, and when I wasn't doing that I was just putting up stuff."

"You still cook a lot of our meals," noted Jet. "Look at how happy everyone was you had enough time to do it today. I can't do that."

"I couldn't either at first. I only got one lesson on how to cook and then I had to figure out everything else on my own. The stuff I cooked after we started living on our own was pretty bad for the first month, just ask Sarah."

"You mean the person who helped you when you had to save me and Granddad's lives?"

"I mean the person I almost got killed a bunch of times for being stupid." Clem turned around suddenly. "Jet, I know you feel like you're not useful because you haven't done as much dangerous stuff as me, but I never wanted to do any of this."

"Well, I know you don't want—"

"And for everything you think I've done right there's been a time when something did go wrong, and I almost got someone killed, or someone did get killed, or I killed… I mean…" Clem suddenly found it hard to breathe.

"I'm… I'm sorry," spoke Jet in a voice just louder than a whisper. "I didn't mean to—"

"It's… it's okay," stuttered Clem before taking a breath. "It's just… don't think you're weak because you find this bad stuff so hard, because I don't feel stronger for doing any of it… it just makes things harder."

"I'm sorry…" spoke a sympathetic Jet. "Is there anything I can to do to make things easier for you?"

"You already do," said Clem. "You watch OJ when we can't, and let us stay in your RV when ours was wrecked, and you care about us."

"Does just caring really help all that much?"

"Yes," stated Clem with no uncertainty.

"More than being able to fix stuff that breaks or help people if they get sick or fight off walkers, or worse?"

"Those are all things anyone can all learn, like Sarah and I did, and are still doing."

"Yeah, but can't anyone care about people too?"

"Most people don't, especially not now," stated Clem. "People who care are always better than ones who don't, because people who care make life better, and that's really important with things being so bad."

"I wish Granddad felt like that," said Jet. "He says my worrying doesn't help, and I'm pretty sure he thinks I'm not doing enough."

"Yeah, well, he's wrong." Clem started walking again. "Trust me, adults get stuff wrong all the time, they just don't like to admit it."

"Yeah, but I gotta live with this adult, so I can't just tell him that." Reaching the bookstore, Clem pushed past the entrance and headed for the small restaurant tucked into the corner of the store.

"Weren't you going to help Sarah with looking up stuff we need to know about for the farm?" asked Clem.

"I tried to help, but she was always way ahead of me. Anything I'd read she already read along with two other books on the same subject. It was like…"

A single lantern revealed a sprawling mess of open books, torn pages, and sloppily written notes that canvassed every surface in the restaurant, from the countertop to each table set out in front of it.

"It was like she was obsessed," finished Jet.

"Do we really need all these books just for a farm?" Approaching the counter, Clem noticed there were binders, not books, perched on it. Looking at the nearest one, Clem could read something written on the front in marker. "Onions?" Clem placed her hand on the cover.

"Don't touch anything!" Sarah came rushing out of nowhere and slammed her hand onto the binder. "Please, I'm still working on them."

"On what?" asked Jet as he eyed the binders lined up across the counter. "Are each of these really for only one plant each?"

"Yeah, they are." Sarah dropped some books onto a pile of different books, then immediately started flipping through the book sitting on top of the stack. Clem was surprised when Sarah ripped out a page and then grabbed one of her binders.

"So, you're making your own books for different plants?" realized Jet.

"Pretty much," said Sarah as she flipped the binder open. "It's taking forever though."

"Then why do it?" asked Clem as she watched Sarah stick the page into the binder, merely pushing it through the open rings until they tore small holes through the paper. "Isn't there just one book that tells us everything we need to know?"

"Not really, at least not in this place," said Sarah with a hint of irritation. "One book may talk about what kind of soil a plant likes, and another what kind of pests eat it, and then another book tells you how to get rid of pests and another for how to get seeds, and…" Sarah groaned. "It's such a pain."

"Well, we just came over to tell you I made lunch," said Clem.

"Beef stew. It's really good, like everything Clem cooks," said Jet.

"I'll be by in a few minutes. I need to finish up with this, then double check everything in the Brave and—"

"I said I'd do inventory for the Brave. Here, I got the list right—"

Sarah snatched the notepad away from Clem the second it left her pocket. "I thought we had more bullets than this," said Sarah.

"We gave a few boxes to Sin and Anthony after the flood, then used up a lot more getting here," reminded Clem.

"I know, I know, but Devlin said Tulsa still had—"

"Most of the bullets he gave us don't go to our guns, and the ones that did we had to split with the others."

Sarah flipped the page and continued to pour through everything Clem had written. "We don't have enough diesel," said Sarah, her voice cracking. "I was checking the atlas last night, and the Osage Reservation is like eighty miles across. We might run out and—"

"Sarah," said Clem, raising her voice slightly. "It's okay. We'll get some diesel and—"

"It's just we're so far behind," lamented Sarah. "It's already March and we haven't even left yet."

"It'll be okay, we'll… wait, it's March?"

"Yeah, today is the first day of March. So…"

Clem and Sarah both went wide-eyed at the same time.

"What?" asked a confused Jet. "What's so special about the first of March?"

"It's OJ's birthday," answered a dismayed Clem.

"His first birthday," added Sarah. "And we forgot!"

"I can't believe this."

"It's my fault. I was so busy with this I didn't even realize it."

"No it's my fault. I had almost nothing to do and I still forgot his first birthday."

"Hey!" The pair turned to Jet. "There's still time, it's only the middle of the day."

With that, Sarah took one last look at her binders of torn pages, then left the bookstore with Clem and Jet. The trio hastily returned to Sam's Club where everyone was finishing up their meals.

"Sah-duh!" said Omid, spewing a few pieces of stew as he talked.

"Hey Omid. I'm sorry I've been gone so long," said Sarah as she quickly sat down in front of the boy. "I'm so sorry that…" Sarah stopped talking and let out a deep sigh.

"What's wrong?" asked Patty.

"It's OJ's birthday today," explained Clem as she sat down.

"Really, that's—"

"And we forgot about it until just now," added Sarah.

"Oh…" said Patty as her smile quickly disappeared.

There was an awkward silence as Sarah used a napkin to clean Omid's face. "Sah-dah," he said with a smile. "Kem-men."

"We need to do something for him," concluded Clem. "Like a party."

"Why?"

"Anthony," scolded Patty.

"What? He's a baby," said Anthony. "He's not going to remember it; do any of you remember being one year old? I don't."

"He has a point," said Sin. "A party would probably be lost on him. At that age, parties are really for the child's parents and their friends."

"Exactly," said Jet as he approached his grandfather. "This is really important to Clem and Sarah, and we should do something for them."

"I understand that," said Sin. "But—"

"I'm up for a party," announced Anthony.

"You just said—"

"I said he wouldn't remember a party. I'd remember us having one."

"We've got work to do," argued Sin.

"We've been working our asses off," said Patty.

"And we're almost done," said Anthony. "We were talking about leaving today before you people figured out some more last minute stuff to do."

"There's more work still once we start the farm," reminded Sin.

"All the more reason to take a break now," argued Patty. "Before we got a bunch of crops we got to worry about."

"Come on Granddad," urged Jet. "The day is already half-over; why not enjoy ourselves?"

"Doing what?" challenged Sin. "Anything we could do to celebrate are the kind of things we could any day, and anywhere, so why is it so important we celebrate today? Why not wait until after the move, where we can plan our a proper party then? It's not like there are any amusement parks left open in Tulsa we'll be leaving behind."

"Actually," said Devlin. "There might still be one left."

"Really?" asked Sarah.

"Tulsa used to have a big fair at the end of every September," explained Devlin. "We had moved it up a little earlier in the month to avoid the cold, and we're getting ready to celebrate this year when… OKC attacked."

"There's actually an amusement park left somewhere in Tulsa?" asked a skeptical Sin.

"The closest thing to anymore," said Devlin. "Would be nice to spend some time there before we leave Tulsa behind."

"Be nice just to not spend the rest of the day playing Tetris in a semi-trailer with big ass barrels and heavy bags of cement," added Anthony.

"You want to have some fun on your birthday, right OJ?" asked Clem. "Fun?"

"Fud! Fud!" chanted Omid as he clapped his hands.

"Come on Granddad," prodded Jet.

"Well, some rest before we leave would probably be helpful," admitted Sin. "I suppose I could stay in the RV and read if nothing else."

"You do that, the rest of will be living it up," said Patty before she turned to Devlin. "Lead the way."

Finishing up their meals, the group returned to their vehicles and, for the first time since arriving here, left the shopping center behind. Devlin rode with Anthony, leading the others down the interstate. Clem watched from the windows as they retraced their path through the stacks upon stacks of bodies they had left in their wake when they had fought their way to this oasis a month ago.

Eventually, they drove past the bridge that returned them to East Tulsa and started moving north. Clem saw the Citadel come and go, and then they kept moving north for a while before turning east. She watched as they drove past one empty neighborhood after another, each riddled with clear signs of being abandoned; broken windows, flung open doors, and crude graves in most of the yards.

Sarah had said Tulsa's population had been over four-hundred thousand before the outbreak, but the scale of that had never fully dawned on Clementine. Even now, the seemingly never-ending stream of empty houses they were driving past represented only a very tiny fraction of this city's former population, which represented an even smaller fraction of the world itself. The longer Clem stared at them, the more she couldn't help but think the houses looked like graves, which would make Tulsa a graveyard.

"This has gotta be it." Patty's words snapped Clem out of her trance.

"You ready to have some fun?" asked Sarah.

"Fud!" said Omid as Clem looked out the windshield. The sprawling neighborhoods were finally receding and coming up on their left was a massive parking lot full of rides, carnival games, and colorful decorations as far as Clem could see.

"By the time we got the dam running, we had cleared out this side of the river and it was nearly time for the city's fair," explained Devlin. "After some discussion, we agreed to keep the tradition going into the outbreak, and worked with a couple of people who used to own a company that did fairs and carnivals. Once we moved the stuff out to the fairgrounds, we just left it there for next year, even turned it back on for a Christmas bash."

"But without electricity, none of the rides will work," said Sin.

"I know," said Devlin. "But there's enough stuff here that doesn't use electricity to keep us busy for at least an afternoon."

Clem watched as the RV slowed to a stop in front of a long building that blocked her view of the parking lot. Standing watch outside was a thirty-foot tall statue of a man with a hat. He was striking a heroic pose, with his chest sticking out, one of his hands on his hip and the other resting on a tower made of black metal. Looking closer, Clem also saw the word 'TULSA' written in big letters across his belt buckle.

"Who the hell is that supposed to be?" asked Patty into her radio.

"I have no idea, but we didn't come here for him," said Devlin. "Me, Anthony, Sin, and Jet can circle the area, make sure it's still clear. East Tulsa has been empty for a long time, and there were no infected left when we started setting up this year's fair, but we should double check to be safe.

"Patty, you should park the girls outside the water park, just drive forward a bit until you find the spot we left empty. The water park has more fences than other parts of the fairgrounds, so I doubt any infected managed to wander in, but be careful."

"Got it," said Patty.

"Everyone stay alert and keep your radios on, at least until we secure the area. After that, we can kick back for a while, enjoy what'll probably be our last night in Tulsa, at least for a while."

The Sunseeker and Anthony's truck sped on ahead while Patty crept the Brave forward at a modest pace. Moving past the building and the carnival games bordering it, Clem spotted an empty space in the parking lot which Patty immediately pulled them into.

"All right, I'll go first, make sure everything is good," said Patty as she wrapped her scarf tightly around her face. "Then I'll buzz you on the radio."

"Okay, that'll give us time to put on Omid's winter clothes," said Sarah. "Come on Clem."

The pair navigated past the various things cluttering the center of the Brave and returned to the bedroom, where they began the long process of trying to dress Omid in more than a shirt or a jumper. He'd kick off shoes, yank off gloves, and throw off any hat placed on his head

"Come on OJ," said Clem as she fought to thread the boy's arm through a jacket's sleeve. "It's—"

"Nuh-uh!"

"Omid no!" scolded Sarah as she struggled to tie his shoe through the constant kicking. "If it were just a little warmer we could skip this."

After a lot of setbacks, the girls finally got Omid to accept his winter attire, at least for the moment. The girls armed themselves with guns and noisemakers as a precaution, but skipped the raincoats so as not to upset Omid. Stepping out into the parking lot, Clem tightened her jacket as the wind gave her a slight shiver. The pair briefly surveyed the area, finding it eerily quiet, then radioed the others to see if there was anything wrong.

As they waited for a response, Clem looked over at the attractions in the adjacent parking lot and spotted what appeared to be a dunking booth. She grimaced as she saw its tank was full of dirty water and its glass caked in a layer of thick algae. Looking past it at what appeared to be a simple game of ring toss, it dawned on Clem that without any people to run the games, there was little point in playing any of them. As she pondered what they could even do at this 'fair', she heard the familiar click of the radio.

"We're just about done with our sweep of the north side and we're going to start moving back towards you," confirmed Devlin. "So far everything looks good."

"Clem, Sarah, I'm about done with the water park if you want to check it out," added Patty. "There's a pretty killer slide not far from the entrance you could take Omid on."

Looking down at Omid, he seemed intrigued by his surroundings, but not awestruck like he had been in the past when he was outside. Clem briefly wondered if there was any fun to be had here for him, or for themselves. Each taking one of his hands, the girls walked with Omid until they reached a black metal gate that led to a simple dirt trail surrounded by trees on one side and a long iron fence on the other.

Walking along the path, Clem noted it was quiet out, like it usually was in Tulsa, but much colder than normal. The barren trees casting their twisted shadows out over the dead grass that canvassed the area just added to the sense of desolation. This place was probably full of life not that long ago, but now was just another mausoleum in this city-sized cemetery. It felt so prevalent that Clem barely noticed the small wooden shack with a green slide sticking out of just past the trees.

"Is the birthday boy ready to play on the slide?" asked Sarah in a chipper voice. "Ready to have fun?"

"Fud," repeated Omid.

"Go ahead and climb up, and I'll pass Omid up to you."

"Okay."

Clem climbed the incredibly short ladder to the small wooden playhouse, then turned around. Sarah carefully handed Omid to Clem, who carried him over to the edge of the plastic slide. Clem didn't think it looked all that great herself, but for Omid it was probably good enough. "Okay, get ready." Clem positioned Omid at the top of the slide while Sarah took up position at the bottom. "Here we go!" Clem gave Omid a gentle push and the boy squealed in delight the short distance down the slide and into Sarah's arms.

"Do you want to go again?" asked Sarah as she picked up the boy.

"Ah-din!" cheered Omid.

"All right, we'll…" Sarah stopped suddenly as she turned around.

"Sarah?" Clem slid down the slide and stood up. "What is…"

Just a bit ahead was a concrete path, and just past that a pool. Instead of water, it was filled with something much more colorful, but what exactly Clem couldn't tell from where she was standing. Looking for a better angle, she spotted a set of wooden stairs that led up towards some bigger slides. Clem raced up the steps, with Sarah carrying Omid right behind her. At the top of the stairs, Clem discovered the entire pool was full of plastic balls.

"Whoa," said Clem.

"This must be the slide Patty mentioned," realized Sarah.

Looking over at the pink and green slides next to her, Clem had to resist the urge to plunge headfirst into the world's biggest ball pit and picked up her radio instead.

"Devlin," called Clem. "Are these slides at the waterpark leading into a big ball pit safe?"

"The ones with the ball pit? Yeah. The others were too big to use safely without water, but that one has gym mats at the bottom under the balls, so you shouldn't hurt yourself," reported Devlin. "But double check to make sure an infected didn't wander into it before jumping into it yourself."

"Got it." Clem hurried back down the steps and over to the edge of the pool. She began rattling her noisemaker like crazy, looking for even the slightest movements, then would move to a different spot and do it. The pit remained still the entire time, there was no noise other than the noise Clem was making, and she couldn't smell even a whiff of pungent walker aroma in the air. Satisfied, Clem hurried back up the steps and hopped into a slide while Sarah sat down in the other one.

"Let me hold OJ," insisted Clem as Sarah tightened her grip on the baby.

"No way, you got to hold him on the last slide," said Sarah.

"The crappy little one, and only at the top," argued Clem. "This is a big slide into a ball pit, I want to do it with OJ."

"You can hold him next time," insisted Sarah.

"Paper, rock, scissors for this time," said Clem as she balled her hand into a fist.

"Fine. Three, two, one!" Sarah threw paper; Clem threw scissors.

"Yes! Come here OJ." Sarah grimaced, but passed the boy over to Clem.

"Kem-men," he said as he smiled at her.

"Oh yeah, this is going to be fun."

"Fud!"

Clem took a breath, then pushed off against the back wall. The sudden pull of the slide caused her to let out a startled yell as she felt herself flying down the pink plastic chute. She was laughing so hard her chest hurt and yet she couldn't even hear herself over Omid's squealing. Clem suddenly felt gravity yanking her and Omid downward and everything suddenly became a haze of multicolored plastic before landing on something soft and lumpy. Taking a second to catch her breath, Clem felt Omid suddenly pull free from her grip.

"OJ? Where are you?" Clem could hear him laughing nearby, but couldn't see him through the pond of plastic balls. "I'm gonna find you!"

"Not if I find him first!" Clem heard Sarah say from somewhere to her right. As Clem honed in on the sounds of a baby laughing, she found her foot brushing past something heavy. Reaching down, she found discovered something soft squirming against her gloves and grabbed it tightly.

"Got you!" said Clem as she jumped to her feet, sending balls flying as she poked her head past the surface.

"Got what?" Clem looked over to find Sarah next to her, neck deep in the same ball pit.

"I got…" Clem watched in disbelief as Sarah lifted a giggling Omid out of the ball pit. Raising her own arms, Clem discovered a pair of black eyes attached to a furry head staring directly at her. "Ah!"

Clem tossed the thing away and then waded towards the edge of the pool as fast as she could.

"What… what was that?" asked a startled Sarah as Clem climbed out.

"I don't know, some animal." Clem spun around and helped Sarah and Omid out of the pool, then drew her gun. Scanning the immediate area for threats, Clem spotted a furry animal lying on its back just a few feet away from where they were standing. Taking a step forward, she saw that it was about the size of a cat with gray fur, but had a long stringy tail like a rodent.

"It's… it's a possum," realized Sarah as she set Omid down.

"Are you sure?" asked Clem as she lowered her gun.

"No, but, I don't know what else it could be except a possum."

"Pah-sah," said Omid as he tried to move closer to it.

"Oh no, you're not touching a dead animal." Clem holstered her gun and grabbed hold of Omid.

"What's going on?" Clem looked over her shoulder to see Patty rushing towards them, shotgun at the ready. "I was on my way back when I heard a scream."

"It's okay, I just found a dead possum at the bottom of the pool."

"Doh-bree-pah-sah!" begged Omid.

"Yeah, it's right—" Clem turned around to discover the possum was gone.

"Pah-sah!" Letting go of Omid, Clem watched as he started walking as fast as his short legs could carry him towards some trees, where she briefly spotted something scurrying away.

"What the hell?" asked Clem.

"It must not have been dead," concluded Sarah.

"It looked dead," said Clem.

"Maybe it was faking?"

"Why would it do that?"

"Because it was a possum?" suggested Patty. "I mean, that's where we get the expression, playing possum… I assume."

"Pah-sah!" Clem hurried over to Omid and took hold of them. "Pah-sah!" he repeated as she lifted him into the air.

"That's enough," said Clem.

"Pah-sah!" repeated Omid, sounding upset now.

"Come on OJ, it's just an animal."

"He never sees animals," realized Sarah. "I mean, other than that cat in Valkaria, the only thing he ever sees alive is us."

"I saw some big birds over by this empty pool," announced Patty. "Maybe the little man would like to see them."

"Come on OJ," said Clem. "Let's go look at the birds instead."

Omid protested being taken away from the possum, but eventually relented as he was carried further into the water park. Following Patty, they passed by a playground that had sprinklers built into the pavement. Clem couldn't help thinking what a shame it was they couldn't have brought Omid here before the outbreak, or when it was warm. Following Patty to the edge of a mostly drained tidal pool, Clem was surprised as she looked down the concrete slope and found an entire flock of large, web-footed birds idling about in the shallow water at the bottom.

"Wow," awed Clementine.

"Yeah, I made sure to go around them so I didn't scare them off."

"Pah-sah! Pah-sah!" cried Omid as Clem set him down.

"Birds," said Sarah as she knelt down to look at Omid. "Can you say buh-erds?"

"Buh-ber."

"Canadian geese to be precise." Clem looked over to see Devlin walking up to meet them.

"Buh-ber." Omid started walking down the gentle slope, with Clem and Sarah following close behind him.

"Residents said they usually didn't come this far into town before the outbreak." Clem heard Devlin say. "But I guess with both the living and the dead gone now, there isn't anything stopping them."

Clem watched as Omid stopped to look at a lone goose standing away from the rest of the flock. She smiled as she noticed a sense of awe gripping the boy's chubby face as he stared up at the regal long-necked bird just ahead of them. Even Clem was a little surprised by how big the goose was the closer they got to it, realizing its head probably came up to her chest.

"That one's the lookout," said Devlin in a whisper as he approached the group from behind. "If he sees anything that looks like bad news he'll warn the others."

"Huh, sorta like we do," realized Clem.

"Cept they probably spend less time arguing about it," said Patty.

"I just wish I had brought our camera," whispered Sarah.

"Buh-ber." A curious Omid waddled towards the lone goose while Sarah and Clem followed behind him as quietly as they could. As they neared the goose, it suddenly turned its head and looked right at the Omid.

"Buh-ber!"

The goose let out a violent honk and snapped its neck forward, prompting Omid to scream and stumble backwards into Sarah's arms while the ornery fowl reared its wings back and stuck out its chest.

"Hey!" Clem stepped in front of the goose and it immediately hopped backwards. Before Clem could make another move, the goose spun around and took off into the air, honking loudly as it flew. The rest of the flock nesting at the bottom of the tidal pool suddenly spread their wings and started darting into the air, creating a cacophony of flapping wings and loud honks as they temporarily blanketed the sky right above the group.

"It's okay now, it's gone," said Sarah as she cradled a frightened Omid. "Look, see, they're flying away."

Omid let go of Sarah and looked up in time to see the flock of geese flying overhead.

"Buh-ber." Clem watched as Omid stretched up his hands towards the sky and tried in vain to grab the distant flying animals, only to pull back nothing.

"I think that's enough birds for now," said Sarah as she picked Omid up.

"I probably should have warned you they're pretty territorial," realized Devlin.

"Why are you here?" asked Patty. "Is anything wrong?"

"Nah, I just wanted to tell you everything looks all clear," said Devlin. "Figured I'd come by in person to let you know there's still a bunch of playground stuff on the main fairground that doesn't need electricity, and you can take all the prizes you want from the games too if you want. Jet and Sin were going to check out the mini-golf course in the back. I'll be at the stadium on the corner, settling something with Anthony."

"Settling what?" asked Clem.

"Just a little personal bet we made."

"I spotted a dirt track with some go-karts next to this place," noted Patty.

"They don't work, at least not anymore," said Devlin. "We were going to fix them, but, you know."

"Still, I think you'll enjoy yourselves. Most of the buildings in the middle were going to be used for activities we had planned for the residents, like the swap meet, so there's not much there. But you could check out the Pavillon, it's the fancy building that stands out from all the others. The Tulsa Fair used to do art exhibits, so we worked with some of more creative residents to set up a new one in the fairground's old arena… shame we never got to finish it."

"Thanks Devlin," said Clem.

"You kids have fun, especially you buddy." Devlin smirked at Omid, then started walking away.

"So, where to next?" Patty asked the others.

"Back to the Brave," stated Sarah.

"What?" asked Clem. "Why?"

"Omid needs… changing."

"Oh."

"That goose literally scared the shit out of him," chuckled Patty. "Come on, I'll walk you two back."

The group headed back and Sarah hurried inside to change Omid. Before Clem could follow her, she felt Patty tugging on her shoulder.

"I bet I could get one of them running," she said.

"You mean one of the go-karts?" asked Clem.

"Yeah, there were like a dozen of them," said Patty as she removed a toolbox from one of the Brave's exterior compartments. "We only need to get lucky on one. Let's give it a try."

"Right, let me just tell Sarah where I'm going." Clem stuck her head past the door. "Sarah, me and Patty will be at the go-kart track!"

"Okay!" Sarah yelled back from inside, prompting Clem to go racing after Patty, who Clem spotted disappearing behind the Brave.

"Wait up, I don't… whoa."

"You didn't think we were walking there, did ya?" Clem watched as Patty removed a black bike from the Brave's back-mounted bike rack. "Seriously, you didn't notice this until just now?"

"No," said Clem as she stared at the rack in disbelief. "How did you even have time to put this on?"

"I lucked up, got Omid down for a nap after you left this morning."

"This is awesome." Clem carefully removed her own bike from the rack. As she put her helmet on, she noticed Patty's bike had pouches mounted on each side of it. "Where did you get those?"

"Found them at the Target," said Patty as she slipped her toolbox into one of the saddlebags. "We can get some for yours when we get back."

"Definitely," said Clem as she mounted her bike. "Where's the go-kart track?"

"The dirt path past the gate wraps around the edge of the waterpark and leads right to track," instructed Patty as she put a helmet on. "Can't miss it."

"Race ya!" Clem took off towards the entrance of the water park before Patty could even get on her bike. She was pedaling so fast she barely noticed the massive cluster of colorful and twisty slides towering over her until she had nearly zoomed past them. Looking back, Clem found herself a little sad they'd probably never be used again, but looking ahead, she saw she was about to crash into a fence.

"Whoa!" Clem skidded to a sudden stop and managed to avoid a head-on collision with a gate. Catching her breath, she spotted a wide dirt road just past the chainlink.

"You rotten little cheater," chuckled Patty as she came to a sudden stop in front of the fence.

"I won," claimed Clem.

"Yeah, cause you cheated," smirked Patty as she got off her bike. "You'd never beat me in a fair race."

"Wanna bet?" challenged Clem.

"Oh, we're betting now," said Patty as she made her way to the gate. "What do you want to bet me?"

"I… don't know," realized Clem. "I really don't have anything, or at least anything I wouldn't already give you."

"How about whoever gets to the go-karts first gets to ride one first?" proposed Patty as she opened the gate.

"Sounds good," said Clem as Patty returned to her bike. "Where are they?"

"They're…" Patty took off pedaling.

"Hey!" Clem went chasing after the woman as fast as she could, but it was no use. Even without a head start, Patty still would have beaten her, and all Clem could do was follow from behind, far behind. Patty quickly veered off the dirt and disappeared into the asphalt parking lot nestled in the center of the race track. As Clem reached the lot herself, she spotted several small tents in the distance, many of which had been blown over. Closing in on those, she discovered over a dozen tiny race cars with faded paint jobs parked by the tents, and one familiar looking mechanic parked by the karts.

"Look who's finally here," said Patty as Clem rolled up to the collection of go-karts.

"You cheated," accused Clem.

"You first," reminded Patty with a smile. "And besides, if I bring one of these suckers back to life, I want to be the first one try it out. It might be a poor substitute for a motorcycle, but at least I'll get to drive something with a sense of speed again."

"You drive the Brave all the time," reminded Clem.

"That's different. It's a big ass vehicle that's completely enclosed, you can't feel how fast you're going in something like that. But something smaller like this, where there's no windshield; you can feel it."

"Like the first time I rode on your motorcycle," realized Clem. "It felt kind of like I was flying."

"Exactly," said Patty with a smirk as she removed the toolbox from the back of the bike. "Why don't you go take a lap while I get one of these damn things running? Get in a little practice with a dirt track on your bike before we move out to the country?"

"Okay." Clem pedaled back to the dirt track, riding along at a brisk pace as she examined her surrounding. She saw little of interest beyond some very tall bleachers in the distance that likely belonged to stadium Devlin mentioned. Every now and then she could hear the sound of an engine trying to start, but it usually went silent before long.

After circling the track a couple of times, Clem stopped to talk to Sarah over the radio. She said she was showing Omid all the games and rides at the fair, and that even though they didn't work, he was thrilled to just look at most of them. Clem was about to ride back to the fair to join her when she heard another engine start, but this time it didn't shut off right afterwards.

Riding back towards the parking lot, Clem watched as a green go-kart burst on the track with incredible speed before racing off into the distance. The kart charged down the straightaway like a horse out of the gate, skidded through a hairpin turn, zipped right through the next straightaway, past the next turn, and came barreling right back towards Clem herself. Clem was just about to run out of the way when the cart skidded to a sudden stop about twenty feet from where she was standing.

"Oh yeah!" As the dust settled, Clem could see Patty slowly climbing out of the kart, an odd smile on her face and an intense look in her eyes. "I really missed that."

"You got it to work," said Clem as she approached the kart. "That looked like a lot of fun."

"Well, there's only one way to find out." Patty stepped aside, leaving nothing between Clem and the go-kart.

"Me? But you only rode it for one lap. That's not really a whole turn."

"Eh, I got to drive stuff better than this for a pretty long time," reasoned Patty with a shrug. "You've got a lot making up for lost time to do."

Clem deployed the kickstand on her bike, then raced towards the still idling go-kart. She scrambled into the driver's seat only to discover her feet didn't quite reach the pedals.

"Hang on," Patty reached behind Clem, then she felt the seat sliding forward. "All right; brake, gas, steering wheel. Got it?"

"Got it. Anything else?"

"Don't crash." Patty picked up Clem's bike and moved it out of the way, leaving her with just a long stretch of dirt road and the two hundred pounds of metal she was sitting in that was just waiting for her command. Gripping the steering wheel, Clem could feel it vibrating in her hands. She pushed down on the gas pedal and the kart shot forward so quickly it startled her. After quickly slamming on the brake and coming to a sudden a stop, Clem could see Patty off to the side, waving her on.

Clem mashed down the gas pedal and the kart shot forward with such speed it felt like Clem had been slammed against the seat. She let go of the pedal but didn't hit the brakes this time. Even without the gas, she was rolling forward with incredible speed towards a turn. Clem jerked the wheel to the left and the vehicle just as hastily swerved to the left with her, nearly pointing Clem at the opposite wall.

She quickly turned the wheel back the other way long enough to correct herself, then pulled it closer to the center. With a little practice, she was able to wrangle the kart into turning the corner. With some gentle taps on the gas pedal, Clem was able to maintain enough speed to escape the hairpin. With the wheel centered and another long straightaway in front of her, Clem mashed the gas again. Another sudden jolt of force shoved her against the seat, but she was ready for it this time.

The engine was roaring in her ears, the smell of gasoline singed her nostrils, and the cold wind was practically scratching at her face, but Clem couldn't be happier. The sense of speed she felt was addicting, and her heart beat faster and faster the further she drove. After going through the hairpin turns a couple of times, she discovered she didn't even need to slow down to make it through them, so she didn't anymore.

The track was the only thing she could see as everything else melted into a sprawling blur, and more now than ever on her bike or Patty's motorcycle, Clem felt like she was flying. She could almost feel the vehicle pulling off the ground and if she could just push the gas pedal a little harder, go just a little bit faster, she might take off into the sky itself. What happened instead was there was a loud pop and the engine suddenly went dead. Clem tried the pedal, but it did nothing, and she eventually rolled to a stop.

"Hey!" Clem turned her head to see Patty rushing up behind her on a bike. "Was starting to think you were never going to stop."

"I don't think I would have if the kart hadn't," admitted Clem as she placed her trembling hand on the side of the vehicle. "That was… amazing," spoke a woozy Clem as she tried to stand up.

"Wasn't it?"

"It… it felt like… like…"

"You were free?"

"Yeah, I guess it did," realized Clem. "It was suddenly like I could go anywhere, even though I didn't leave this track."

"Felt the same way the first time I drove my motorcycle," said Patty with a warm smile. "Felt like I could go everywhere, even though I was really just annoying everyone on the block by revving the engine so much."

"It was different from when I rode on your bike. This was—"

"This time you were in the driver's seat," finished Patty. "That makes a big difference."

"Yeah," said Clem.

"Imagine if you were riding a motorcycle instead of just a little go-kart."

Clem did imagine riding her own motorcycle instead of just a go-kart, and out on the open road instead of on a track, and she liked what she saw in her head. "Do you think I can get a motorcycle someday?" she suddenly blurted out. "I mean, when I get older."

"Well, I'm sure we could find one, but…"

"But?"

"Motorcycles run on gas."

"All of them?"

"All the ones I know of. I mean there might be some diesel ones out there, but diesel engines are usually better at hauling things than speed, people typically don't put them in motorcycles."

"Or go-karts?" asked Clem as she looked at her now motionless joy ride.

"Yeah, typically small things that go fast usually use gas."

Clem sighed.

"Hey, buck up, maybe we'll find a motorcycle that runs on diesel. Or maybe we'll get a gas one to work for a little while. I mean, I got this thing to run."

"Until I broke it," said Clem.

"It's probably just out of gas or something. I'll fix it… again," assured Patty as she grabbed her toolbox off her bike. "Why don't you go check in with Devlin and Anthony real quick, seeing as we're already right next to the stadium."

Clem hadn't even realized it until just now, but the kart had stalled right outside the bleachers she spotted earlier.

"Go head, I'll stay here and play Bicycle Repair Man."

"Play what?" asked Clem.

"You know, Bicycle Repair Man, cept I'm repairing a go-kart instead of a bike, and I'm a woman instead of a man…" Clem just stared at Patty in confusion. "You know what, forget I said that. Why don't you go see if Anthony or Devlin want a turn in the go-kart?"

"Sure."

Clem left her helmet with the kart, then headed for the stadium. She found a large opening in the track's outer wall which led her onto a paved road running along the sports arena. Following it towards the street, Clem spotted a small path past the edge of the stands that took her inside. If not for the rows upon rows of seats surrounding the area, Clem would assume she was just walking across a dirt lot full of dead weeds instead of a stadium.

Looking off in the distance, she could see a couple of figures near the center of the stands. As she approached them, she heard a faint cracking sound before something small went flying into the air. Following the object with her eyes, Clem watched as a baseball landed a little further down the field from where she was standing. Running over to get a better look, she noticed several more lying on the dirt in roughly the same area.

Another crack sounded and Clem saw a second ball go flying into the air, prompting her to hurry downfield before one landed on her head. As she neared the infield, Clem could see Anthony standing on what remained of the pitcher's mound, along with a bucket of baseballs by his feet. Beyond him was Devlin at home plate, a bat tightly clutched in his hands. Anthony pitched the ball and Devlin swung with such speed Clem barely saw the bat move before there was another loud crack.

"That's twelve to twelve," Clem heard Devlin yell in uncharacteristically jovial voice. "This one is going to make thirteen and break the tie."

"Only if you hit it!" yelled Anthony as he grabbed another baseball. "This is your last ball, so if you miss it, that means another rematch."

"Not a chance!" boasted an excited Devlin.

Clem watched as Anthony arched his hand behind his back, then snapped it forward. The ball came flying out of the man's grip and went screaming towards Devlin at an odd angle. Before Clem knew it, there was a loud crack and the ball went flying high into the air. She followed it with her eyes as long as she could before it finally disappeared behind the scoreboard.

"God dammit!" swore Anthony as he tossed his glove onto the dirt.

"When we organized teams to play here during the fair, do you know who was first pick two years in a row?" Anthony glared at Devlin in response. "Come on, don't look at me like that. If you had been here then, you probably would have been a top tier pick yourself."

"Lucky me," griped Anthony.

"Well looky here, we got an audience," said Devlin as Clem walked across the infield. "Did you catch the exciting ending?"

"Yeah," she said as she moved towards Devlin. "What was it?"

"Just a little batting practice. Me and Anthony were seeing who could hit the ball more times, and I just won, again."

"Yeah, and I'm just leaving," grumbled Anthony as he wandered off the pitcher's mound.

"Hang on, Clementine here might want to try her luck," said Devlin. "How about it?"

"I don't know, I—"

"We keep some smaller bats for the kids' teams. Just give it a few swings." Devlin turned to Anthony, who was walking away. "Come on man, don't you want Clem to have a challenge? You gotta be the pitcher, you know I can't pitch for shit." Anthony stopped in place, then started walking back towards the mound. "If I could, he never would've gotten a single hit." Clem giggled at what Devlin whispered. "You want to give it a shot, right? You're already wearing a baseball hat."

"Umm… sure. Why not?" Clem located a large variety of bats and other equipment scattered across the dugout's floor. After fishing out a bat that felt good in her hands, she went running back to home plate where Devlin was waiting.

"All right, that's what I like to see," said Devlin. "You ever play baseball before?"

"I played tee-ball one summer," said Clem.

"Were you any good?"

"No."

"Well, we're changing that right now, bend your arm." Clem followed Devlin's instructions as he changed her stance and showed her how to grip the bat properly. It was a lot to take in so quickly, but Devlin had a way of explaining it that kept it simple. "All right, here we go. Keep your eye on the ball and swing."

"Got it."

"All right Anthony, whenever you're ready."

Clem watched as Anthony flashed a wicked smile before throwing back his arm. Clem could barely see the ball before it had nearly reached her. She dropped the bat and instinctively darted out of the way.

"Hey, hey now," said Devlin in a calm voice. "You can't be afraid of it."

"Sorry," said Clem as she came back to the plate.

"Strike one," called Anthony.

"You want to take it a little easier on her?" suggested Devlin as he tossed the ball back. "She's only… how old are you?"

"Ten," said Clem as she picked up her bat.

"No promises," said Anthony as he caught the ball.

"All right, top arm bent, keep your back foot on its toe so you can pivot, and don't be afraid of it."

"I'll try," said Clem.

"All right Anthony, shoot."

Clem tightened her grip on the bat and observed Anthony carefully. He had that familiar smug smile on his face she wanted to just slap off him. The pitch came suddenly and Clem swung her bat, but hit nothing but air.

"Strike two."

"You gotta keep your eye on it," said Devlin as he tossed the ball back. "Just shut out everything else until that ball is the only thing left in the world, then glue your eyes to it. Wherever it goes, your eyes go."

"Okay, but when do I swing?" asked Clem.

"If you focus on the ball hard enough you'll just know when to swing," instructed Devlin. "You got only a split-second so there's no time to think. If you think about it then you're over thinking it and you'll miss. So don't think, just act."

Clem gripped her bat and turned to Anthony. He still had that annoying look, but she forced herself to ignore it and instead stared at the ball in his hand. He tossed it up and down a few times, and Clem followed along with her eyes. Even when Anthony bent his arm behind his back, Clem's eye tracked where she thought the ball was. That sudden snap of his hand didn't seem so sudden this time, and Clem found herself just watching the ball grow bigger until a sudden sense of urgency compelled her arms to move.

"Shit!" Anthony dove to grab the ball as it bounced across the ground. He slid across the dirt but the ball bounced right over his glove, prompting Anthony to groan as he rolled onto his back in frustration.

"There you go now, that was a solid hit!" Clem felt a firm slap on her back as she watched Anthony just lay in the dirt in defeat. "If there were anyone up in those stands, they'd all be screaming for you to hurry to first base right now. Just picture it; roaring crowd, lights on you, and running as fast as you can."

"That would be pretty cool," said Clem as looked up at bleachers, trying to picture that many people all looking at her.

"That was always my dream." Clem turned back to Devlin, noticing a hint of sadness on his face now. "I always wanted to in the major leagues, ever since I was a little boy, but it never happened."

"Why not?"

"Eh, just not major league material. I was a good hitter, but that was it. I never got noticed by anyone playing ball in college, and after that, I needed work so I joined the Coast Guard, and that was it." Devlin looked out at the empty stands. "I was really looking forward to this year's fair. The first year, I actually hit for the cycle. Can you believe that?"

"No, because I don't know what that is."

"It means you hit a single, a double, a triple, and a home run, all in the same game. I couldn't believe it, I felt like Jackie Robinson."

"Who?"

"One of the best ball players," said Devlin with a smile. "I was really looking forward to doing it again this year, to be a big shot and have people cheer my name, if just for a little while. Chief had to promise we wouldn't be on the same team because no one wanted to play against both of us." Devlin took a breath. "Just… forget I said any of that, it's stupid."

"No it's not," assured Clem. "You had fun doing this, and it made you happy, and you wanted to do it again; everybody wants to be happy."

"Yeah, but I need to stop thinking about the past, start thinking about what's ahead of us."

"We'll have to do that tomorrow," reminded Clem. "So, let's not think about it today, at least for a little while."

Devlin smiled at Clem, which made her smile too.

"What are you three up to?" Clem turned to see Patty walking across the field.

"Nothing," mumbled Anthony from the ground. "I'm officially retiring."

"Did you fix the go-kart?" asked Clem.

"Go-kart?" Anthony suddenly sat up and looked at Patty. "Devlin said all the go-karts were broken."

"I fixed one, then Clem wore it out and I fixed it again," informed Patty.

"Where?"

"It's on the track, next to the gate that leads out here to the stadium."

Anthony jumped to his feet, tossed off his glove, and started sprinting across the dirt. "Dibs!" he said as he disappeared into the outfield.

"Great, now we're gonna find it and him wrapped around a lamppost in a couple of minutes," chuckled Patty as she crossed into the infield. "Sorry Clem, you might be stuck waiting a while for another go."

"It's fine," assured Clem. "I had my turn; let him have some fun."

"Speaking of fun, you girls want to try some batting practice?" offered Devlin.

"I think I've had enough, but thanks for letting me play," said Clem as she handed the bat to Devlin. "Didn't you say there's a mini-golf course?"

"Right this way." Devlin led Clem to the back wall bordering the field. "All right, up we go." Devlin knelt down and offered his hand, which Clem recognized as a boost. She stepped onto his hand and he helped her climb over the wall and into the nearest row of bleachers. "All right, just head straight out of the stadium and to the parking lot across from it. You'll find the mini-golf course there."

"Got it."

"So, does this mean I get a private lesson?" Clem heard Patty ask as she jogged down the aisle.

"Sure, grab a bat," Devlin answered before Clem moved out of earshot of the pair. She quickly exited the stadium and hurried across the asphalt. As she reached the next lot, Clem found herself looking out on many twisted paths of green carpet boxed in by pieces of wood in every direction she looked. There were ramps, tunnels, a big toy castle, and everything else a mini-golf course should have, just a little rougher looking.

"You're stalling." Clem turned her head to find Jet standing by a small windmill that looked like it was meant to go in someone's yard. Sin was standing across from it with a putter in hand and a powder blue golf ball at his feet. "If you wait any longer I'm gonna give the windmill blades another push."

"That won't be necessary." Sin tapped the ball and it rolled forward, banging into one of the windmill blades as they swung past. "Dammit."

"Ha, that's another one I beat you on," boasted Jet.

"That makes what, ten holes now?" asked Sin.

"Eleven."

"Of course." Sin set his putter down and stepped off the course.

"Where are you going?"

"I thought I'd check on the art exhibit Devlin mentioned."

"But you haven't finished the last hole."

"Seeing as I've already lost, badly, I concede."

"You really beat him?" Clem asked Jet as Sin walked away.

"Yeah, mini-golf is like the one thing I'm better at than he is," said Jet as he rested his putter on his shoulder. "Probably because it's stupid and not important so he doesn't care, but whatever, it's nice to know there's one thing he's not an expert on."

"It might not be important but this definitely isn't stupid," said Clem as she looked out over the expansive golf course covering the entire lot.

"Yeah, Devlin said some of the kids from the orphanage helped build it," said Jet. "They did a really good job, I think it's even better than Speedy's."

"Speedy?

"Speedy's Fast Track. It was this awesome place we'd go every year on my birthday. They had a really cool mini-golf course, but their arcade was even better." Jet sighed as he looked out over the fairground. "It's weird huh, thinking about how there used to be places where people would just go to have fun all day."

"A little, yeah," agreed Clem.

"If Omid was older, and you tried to explain this to him, I bet he wouldn't understand," spoke a melancholy Jet. "I mean, places where everything is just there to have fun, it sounds like something out of a dream now; he probably wouldn't believe it."

"I remember stuff like this and I barely believe it was ever real," admitted Clem. "We went to Disney World back when we were in Florida, and Omid was mostly just scared of all the dead bodies there. Without people, it was just a lot of broken decorations and rides that didn't work."

"Sorta like here," said Jet. "A lot of the decorations for the mini-golf course were blown over and we had to try to put them back where we think they went, and most of the other stuff here doesn't work without electricity.

"I remember, after we finished clearing out the areas around the shopping center, Granddad went with Devlin to check on the dam, and I hoped maybe he could get it working again, only for him to tell us the machinery was broken beyond repair, and even if it wasn't, he didn't know how to fix it."

"And then there was that other dam that broke and almost killed us when it flooded," said Clem. "Your Granddad said it made electricity too."

"I guess it's all gonna break eventually now that there's no one left to fix things or make new parts to replace the old ones." Clem tried to think of something to say to Jet, but could only manage a look of quiet resignation. "Sorry, just thinking out loud."

"Why don't we play some mini-golf?" asked Clem, desperate to change the subject. "We can still do that."

"Yeah, it's just a shame there will never be another Speedy's. Seriously, they had the best go-karts there too. I liked them more than the mini-golf. I wish the ones here worked."

"Actually, Patty got one of them working."

Jet went wide-eyed with shock upon hearing that. "Really?"

"Yeah, I got to drive one. It was really fun." Jet just stared at Clem, like he couldn't believe what he was hearing, but then Clem heard a buzzing sound way off in the distance, and she realized Jet probably couldn't believe he was hearing that instead. "That's probably Anthony driving it right now."

Jet turned suddenly, as if he was going to leave, but hesitated. "Umm… would you mind if—"

"Go head," prompted Clem with a smile. "You already played mini-golf anyway."

"Thanks!" Jet set his putter on the ground and took off running in the direction of the go-kart track. Looking at the two discarded golf clubs, Clem found an idea forming in her head as she reached for her radio.

"Sarah?"

Clem reunited with Sarah and Omid, then returned to the mini-golf course. As they played their way through the eighteen holes, Clem found herself disappointed by how badly damaged they were. The green carpet on most of them and had been warped by the weather, creating little creases that messed up the ball. One hole wasn't even finished, missing the actual hole anywhere on the course. And whatever decorations Jet hadn't put back where now scattered across the lot between holes, often in pieces.

Still, Clem enjoyed herself. Neither she or Sarah were very good at mini-golf, but that keep things competitive as they both struggled to prove they were marginally less terrible than the other one. And Omid never tired of chasing after the colorful golf balls the girls hit or pushing over decorations that Jet had likely painstakingly set back up, something Sarah couldn't resist taking a picture of. After taking turns spinning the windmill for the last hole, the girls realized they had lost track of the score and just agreed to a draw.

Moving past the mini-golf course, the girls explored some of the buildings making up the center of the fairgrounds. One was full of now lifeless arcade cabinets, likely brought in later judging from the displaced furniture. Clem briefly fiddled with a few of the controls while Omid stared at some of the artwork on the sides before they moved onto another building.

The next one was likely a cafeteria, with very long tables running across the length of the building. Whenever it was always or cafeteria or recently converted into one Clem couldn't say. The building past it had much smaller tables spread out all over the place, along with a few boxes sitting on them. Digging through one, Clem found only odds and ends like books, knick knacks, and a few other things. Sarah surmised this was likely meant for the swap meet that never happened.

Eventually, the girls found themselves arriving at a white building with large glass windows and big trees planted out in front of it. This must have been the pavilion Devlin mentioned, so the girls went inside to check out the art exhibit. Sadly, there wasn't much to see, being a large but empty arena of seats surrounding a floor that would also be empty if not for the few rows of free-standing walls. Most of the walls didn't have anything on them, and there were boxes and tipped over walls cluttering the floor, marking this as yet another incomplete attraction of Tulsa's final fair.

Wandering the improv halls, Clem found herself briefly eyeing drawings and other illustrations hanging on the walls. Some of them were portraits of people Clem didn't recognize, other landscapes. Some were painted in watercolors, some were simple pencil sketches. Approaching a long wall in the center of the arena, a single canvass caught Clem's eye.

It was hard to see all the details in the low light, but in the center of canvass was a set of disembodied hands grasping each other. Each hand's fingers had interlocked with the other's, forming an almost heart-like shape that was the center of the painting. The background was several shades of dark green, forming a kind of murky bog decorated with ink blots of varying shape and size.

"It's an interesting piece." Clementine nearly jumped out of her skin as she spun around.

"Sin?" Clem watched as the man moved in from the edge of the arena. "You scared the hell out me."

"Sorry. I didn't mean to startle you," said Sin as he stepped forward.

"What are you doing here?" asked Sarah.

"I came here to look at the art," said Sin.

"Wasn't that a while ago?" asked Clem. "Why are you still here?"

"My miea, wife, used to say I usually couldn't appreciate art because I didn't have the patience for any art that wasn't hers," said Sin as he approached the painting. "So, I decided to take my time, think about what I saw, then look at it again and see if I noticed anything new."

"And?" asked Sarah. "Do you?"

"I'm curious to what the darker shapes represent. I initially assumed they were a simple representation of evil or danger, but now I'm not so sure. Looking more closely, they might be hands as well."

Studying the painting more closely, Clem saw the blots had much more defined shapes than she realized, but couldn't tell if they were supposed to be hands or something else in this dim lighting.

"Perhaps it's trying to say for every two souls that make a connection, a dozen others won't, and the piece is really a tragedy. Or, maybe the other shapes are people Tulsa was yet to find and take in from the cold.

"I'm not much of an art critic. Mostly, I was just thinking about how difficult it must have been to be create any art under these circumstances. But then, art and adversity often go hand and hand… perhaps that's the painting's meaning."

"It still just looks like a couple of hands to me," admitted Clem. "Sarah?"

"I don't know," she said. "Maybe—"

"Ah-wah-fud," said Omid as he tried wandering out of Sarah's grip.

"Omid, no," said Sarah as she held him back.

"Fud! Wah-fud!"

"I think he wants to go back to the rides and games," realized Sarah. "He likes touching the stuff they draw on the signs."

"This art gallery is kind of drab for a one-year-old," admitted Sin with the slightest of smirks.

"You want to come with us?" asked Clem as she picked up Omid.

"I should find Jet, see what he wants to do. Have either of you seen him?"

"Last I saw him, he was going to the go-kart track," said Clem.

"I thought the go-karts didn't work?"

"Patty fixed one."

"Well then, that's where I'll find him."

Sin headed for the exit while Sarah raised her camera. She took a picture of the portrait hanging on the wall, then went with Clem out to parking lot. The pair gravitated back to the numerous rides and carnival games set up across the parking lot. Like so much else at the fair, some of them were unfinished, and many others had been ravaged by the weather. Eventually, Omid honed in on a small funhouse built onto a long truck bed.

"Fud!"

Omid started clumsily moving towards the alleged funhouse while Sarah and Clem followed behind him.

"This place again," sighed Sarah.

"Again?"

"He came earlier when you were on the go-kart track. More than once."

"Fud!" cheered Omid as Clem helped him up the steps. "Fud!" Clem followed Omid as he walked past the circular hole that served as the entrance. The funhouse interior appeared to be a small obstacle course composed mostly of padded obstructions, none of which were a hindrance to someone as short and small as Omid. Pushing past the large foam cylinders blocking her way, Clem watched as the tiny boy hurried towards the huge wheel built into the center of the area.

"Fud!" Omid slowly climbed into the wheel, then started trying to walk along it. He was too light to make it spin, but when he couldn't move any further he started pushing against the wall. Clem watched as Sarah entered the wheel and leaned against the side Omid was pushing on, causing the wheel to spin forward slightly, which then caused Omid to burst into a fit of giggles.

"He really loves this thing."

"Fuh-huh-ha!" giggled Omid as Sarah tilted the wheel a little more.

"Give me your camera," said Clem. "I'll get a picture of you two."

"Sure." Sarah removed the camera from her neck and handed it to Clem.

"Okay," said Clem as she unfolded the camera. "Say cheese!"

"Cheese!"

"Wee-hee-hee!"

Clem pressed the button and there was a loud click.

"Here," said Sarah as she fished something out of her pocket. "While you're waiting for that one to develop."

Clem sat down to examine the handful of photos while Sarah continued to amuse Omid. After skipping past the picture from the golf course, Clem found herself looking at a photo of Omid standing by a sign that read 'You must be this tall to ride'. Another was Omid placing his hands on a different sign that had a picture of a large bird on it, and the next was him sitting in a giant teacup.

"I think he's even cuter in photos," said Clem with a smile.

"I would have taken more but he almost never sits still," said Sarah as she tilted the wheel forward a bit more for Omid. Clem turned to the next photo and found herself looking at Sarah's copy of the painting.

"You know, I just realized something," said Sarah. "If Omid is a year old, that means it's been over a year since you and I met."

"Oh yeah, I guess it has," said Clem as she pocketed the photos. "It feels like it's been longer, a lot longer."

"I know. I wish I could remember the exact day we met."

"Why?"

"I don't know, it just feels important. Like… it's our anniversary or something."

"We should do something to celebrate," suggested Clem.

"I thought we already were?" said Sarah as she pushed the wheel forward again, prompting more giggles from Omid.

"We're celebrating Omid's birthday," reminded Clem. "We should do something extra for our anniversary."

"We should find out what day our anniversary is," yawned Sarah. "Maybe sometime next year."

Looking at the exit, Clem could see the already waning light was fading fast. "It's probably time we go back," she realized.

"Yeah." Sarah knelt down to pick up Omid.

"Nuh! Wah-fud!" protested the boy loudly.

"I know," spoke a sympathetic Clem. "But we can't stay here forever."

Walking back to the Brave, Clem conferred with the others over the radio that they were ready to leave too, especially since Patty said she was done repairing that go-kart. By the time they made their way through the twisting maze of abandoned amusement park rides, they had found the others and their vehicles gathered near the Brave. Jet, Anthony, Patty, Devlin, even Sin all shared a look of sadness that the day was over.

"Well, it was fun while it lasted," said Anthony, as if he was stating what everyone was thinking.

"Yeah," said Devlin with a sigh.

"If we hurry back, we can finish our preparations tonight," suggested Sin. "That when can all get a good night's sleep before we head out tomorrow."

"To start our new lives as farmers," lamented Patty.

"Maybe we could come back here next year?" suggested Jet. "You know, if things work out."

"That'd be nice," said Sarah.

"Yeah, it would." Clem opened the door to the Brave, but didn't go inside.

"What?" asked Sarah.

"Now that he's a year old, we should see how tall he is," realized Clem as she looked at crude height chart they had made on the doorframe.

"Oh yeah, go—"

"On it." Clem hurried inside and to the cupboard they kept their markers in. She dug past a stack of whetstones and a couple bottles of cleaning solution to find them, then bounded back outside.

"Okay Omid," said Sarah as she picked up the toddler. "Hold still."

"Wah-fud!" protested Omid as Sarah placed him on the Brave's bottom step. His constant squirming made it hard for Clem to make a mark on the door, but eventually Sarah held him in place long enough for Clem to trace a line just over his head. As Omid hurried away from his place on the bottom step, Clem wrote the date next to the line, along with 'Happy Birthday!'

"He's grown a lot in a month and a half," realized Sarah as she studied the marks. "Like over half an inch."

"Maybe we have too." Clementine looked at Sarah, then hopped onto the bottom step. Clem was pleased to see her newest mark was noticeably higher than her old one. It was minuscule growth compared to Omid's, but just the fact she had gotten taller at all pleased her. Clem measured Sarah next, and was mildly annoyed that Sarah seemed to be getting taller slightly faster than her. Finally, Jet stepped up to be measured, and his slight growth pushed him closer to Patty's mark on the door.

"What about me?" asked Anthony. "I'm pretty sure I can get taller still before my next birthday."

"How old are you?" asked Devlin

"Seventeen. Surprised?"

"Yeah," said Devlin. "I figured you were a little younger."

Clem couldn't stop herself from smirking when she saw how Devlin's comment annoyed Anthony. Sarah grabbed a yellow marker out of the bag and Anthony took his place on the Brave's bottom step. Stretching up to make a mark above Anthony's head, Clem found herself a little annoyed at the way he was smiling at Sarah, but then she always found his smile annoying.

"Well, look at that," said Anthony as he admired how much higher his mark was on the door. "I think I'm even taller than Devlin."

"No way," said Jet.

"Well, there's one way to find out." Anthony looked at Devlin, who just shrugged and climbed onto the Brave's step. Sarah used an orange marker to draw the line, then Devlin stepped back, revealing his mark was just ever so slightly higher than Anthony's.

"Told ya," said Jet with a smug grin.

"Oh just barely," reasoned Anthony. "And he's wearing those big ass army boots."

"You're wearing boots too," reminded Jet.

"Sin," said Sarah. "We should measure you too."

"Why? I'm not going to get taller. If anything, I'll start shrinking."

"It's just, then we'll have everyone on the door," said Sarah.

"And it'll be a reference," reasoned Jet. "Like Patty's mark."

"They're growing kids," Patty said to Sin. "Just go with it."

Sin sighed, then stepped forward. Sarah grabbed the brown marker, the only they hadn't used, and made a mark for him as well. Looking at the door frame, it was amusing to see the lopsided and out-of-sequence rainbow of marks leading up to the top, but Clem felt like they should do something else to commemorate this occasion.

"We should get a picture while we're all here," said Clem as she grabbed hold of the camera. "Everyone, just stand next to each other."

"What about you?" asked Sarah. "You should be in the picture too."

"I think there's too many of us this time to just hold the camera out in front of our face," concluded Clem.

"May I see it?" Clem handed the camera to Sin, who's eyes and fingers immediately went to the button on the side of it. "Could I take one picture to test something?"

"Sure."

"Take a picture of Devlin," said Sarah. "I don't have one of him yet."

Devlin stood by the Brave while Sin aimed the camera at him. He very slowly clutched the button for the camera, almost as if he was trying to take a picture as slowly as possible. After what felt like several minutes, the camera clicked and out a came a photo, which Sin handed to Sarah.

"The button takes a decent amount of pressure, but not too much that we can't probably use it from a distance." Clem watched as Sin set the camera down, then knelt down to untie his shoe. He removed one of his shoelaces, then tied it into what Clem recognized as a slipknot. Threading the loop around the button on the side of the camera, Clem realized his plan and knelt down to untie her own shoe.

"What are you doing?" asked Sarah.

"We're gonna need a longer rope." Clem removed her shoelaces, which Sin tied to his own, eventually creating a long pull cord for the camera. Sarah then climbed into the Brave and set the camera on the top step where she began the painstaking process of positioning it while arranging the others standing outside with orders to move in certain directions.

Eventually, Sarah seemed satisfied with the group's arrangement, then proceeded to tape the camera to the floor per Sin's suggestion so the pull cord wouldn't just yank their only means of taking photos down the steps and onto the hard pavement. Hurrying down the steps, Clem grabbed the pull cord and waited for Sarah to get into position. Sarah took hold of Omid, who kept trying to wander off, then looked right at the camera.

"Okay, everyone smile." Clem put on a smile herself then, very gently, tugged on the rope of tied shoelaces. It took more effort than she thought it would, and she found herself hesitating because she was afraid she'd pull too hard and yank the camera free from the tape, but finally a firm tug was rewarded with a satisfying click and a photograph. Hurrying over to it, Clem could see even on the still developing outline that everyone was in the shot.

"It looks good," said Sarah.

"Yeah," said Clem.

"Great, can we leave now?" asked Anthony. "I'm freezing my ass off out here."

"Yeah, me too," added Patty.

Clem handed the photo to Sarah and went over to collect Omid, who was slowly trying to walk back towards the fair. "Come on," said Clem as she grabbed Omid's hand. "Let's go." Trying to move Omid back to the Brave was instantly met with much resistance.

"Wah-fud! Wah-fud!"

"OJ, no. It's time to go."

"No!"

Everyone looked at Omid in shock.

"Did he just…"

"OJ," said Clem as she knelt down "Let's go." Clem gently tugged on Omid's arm, prompting him to pull back.

"No!" he said.

"He said his first word!" exclaimed Sarah.

"You… you want to go," said Clem, unable to restrain her giddiness. "Right OJ?" Clem tugged on his arm again, prompting him to pull it out of her loose grip.

"No!"

"Holy crap," said Anthony.

"I know," spoke an awestruck Patty.

"Not him, that." Anthony pointed up at the sky, prompting everyone else to look up.

"What's that?" asked Jet.

"What's that—are you serious?" asked Anthony. "It's snowing!"

"I'm from Houston, we don't have snow there," retorted Jet.

"Ditto, cept for Miami instead of Houston," added Patty.

"We usually don't get snow this close to spring in Tulsa either," said Devlin. "Especially after it barely snowed this winter."

"Suh-no." Omid reached his hands up into the sky and tried to grab one of the tiny white specks falling towards him. But unlike the clouds or the birds, this time he was able to pluck them right out of the air, and seeing a snowflake stick to his glove caused the boy no small amount of amazement. "Suh-no!" Clem watched as Omid started stumbling about the area, eyes and hands both aimed skyward as he tried catching more snowflakes.

"I guess we're not going in yet," concluded Clem.

"Yeah," said Sarah.

"Actually," said Patty as she approached the pair. "Why don't you two head inside and get warm. We can watch Omid until he gets bored."

"You're sure?" asked Clem. "Knowing him, that might be a while."

"I'm sure."

"If anything—"

"We'll come get you." Patty smiled at Clem and Sarah, who both turned and headed back into the Brave. Watching Omid run about, trying to catch the snowflakes, with all the others looking on, Clem found her hand moving to the camera. She peeled off the tape and snapped one more photo, then closed the door.

"I think this turned out be a pretty good first birthday," said Sarah as she plopped down on the couch.

"Yeah," said Clem as she sat down right next to Sarah. "And hopefully, he'll be tired enough to sleep all night for once."

"Hopefully," repeated Sarah as she leaned back in her seat.

"You know, while we're waiting, we still got time to do something for our anniversary."

"Like what?" asked Sarah. "I'm pretty tired, and I still got to finish my work on those books for the farm when we get back."

"Well… how about we just play chess?"

"You know… that sounds nice."

Clem set up the chess board between the driver and passenger seats so they can watch Omid through the windshield while Sarah flipped on the Brave's headlights to give themselves a better view of the outside. The high beams repelled the encroaching darkness and gave every snowflake in the area a twinkle, which just made Omid more eager to grab them.

"This kinda reminds me of that night we spent at Walter and Matthew's," said Sarah as she finished placing the pieces on the board. "Except, you didn't even know how to play chess back then."

"I do now."

Clem made her opening move and then Sarah made her's. The pair played quickly, often only stopping to briefly glance out the window at Omid as he collected snowflakes. By now, Clem was very familiar with Sarah's opening strategies and how to counter them. Unfortunately, Sarah was well aware of Clem's tactics as well, resulting in the first several moves feeling more like a formality. It wasn't until they had progressed past that did it feel like they were actually playing, and shortly after that Sarah seemed to stall. Looking up at her friend, Clem noticed she appeared distracted.

"What's wrong?" asked Clem. "Afraid you're going to lose?"

"No, it's not that."

Clem grimaced in response. "What then?"

"It's just… I'm worried this isn't going to work," confessed Sarah.

"What?"

"The farm," she said. "This was all my idea, so if it doesn't work, then—"

"It'll be okay, Sarah. It—"

"What if it's not? Then I'll have made everything worse and—"

"Sarah," said Clem in a stern voice. "It's okay. We all agreed with you to do the farm, and if it doesn't work, we can come back and make new plans."

"I know, it's just… I don't know," said Sarah as she shook her head. "I don't know what's going to happen, and that scares me; that always scares me."

"It scares me too…"

Clem watched as Sarah finally took her turn. Looking down at the board, still cluttered with pieces, Clem tried to decide what her next move should be. She had maintained control for the moment, but by now she had moved past all of Sarah's opening moves and where the game went from here was unknown territory for Clementine. She placed her hand on her queen, then pulled it back suddenly, fearful it would be the wrong choice.