(Violet's Pov)
I was Walking the road away from the Walkers, there was maybe one or two but they didn't bother me as I just kept walking. It took me a good few hours but I finally made it to the mechanic shop where an elderly man stepped out pointing his gun at me and so I stop.
"Who sent you?" He asked.
"Um… a man named Luke said you could help me." I say and he lowered his gun.
"Luke hu? sure, whatcha need?" The man asked.
"You got any motorcycles?" I asked.
"Sure do, what do you have to trade for it?" He asked and I noticed his gun was a shotgun.
"I have some ammo, but I can get more stuff for you." I tell him as I set my bag to the ground and pulled out the ammo for him. He comes up to me and I look to him as he grabbed the ammo and scratches his beard.
"Hmm, anything else in that bag?" He asked and I opened it for him and he looked at some of the items. He grabbed a jacket, some of the seeds I had, and even my spare pistol.
"Mind if I take these?" He asked.
"If I can get the motorcycle, it's yours." I say and he nods.
"Alright…. I'll get you one set up for the lack of your… arm." He says and I nod as he takes me to the vehicles and he grabs some tools.
"It's going to take a while, rest up a bit." He says.
"I'd like to watch, not saying you'll cheat me out f a good bike just… I use to work on vehicles a lot before the accident." I say as I lift my stump up and he nods.
"Sure, been a while since I had someone to talk to anyway." He says and I nod as I take a seat next to him and he got to work. I would hand him some tools that he needed and he took a part of the build he was making and fit it to my stump. Once he got it right, he worked on it some more and we got to talking.
"Guessing a Walker got ya hu?" He asked and I nod.
"Yeah, got me real good." I say and look to my stump.
"Well at least you're alive." He says and I chuckled.
"Sometimes I wish I wasn't…. but… yeah… I guess I'm glad to be alive." I say and hand him a screw and he looks to me.
"Guessing people been making you feel like crap once you lost your arm?" He asked and I think.
"No… no just the opposite actually… I mean they try to help me but I just… if I try to fix a car, they tell me to do something else…. That it would be easier but I just… I don't want to be treated any different you know?" I asked and he laughed.
"Oh, I know." He says and he tapped his leg.
"Lost my leg before all this, I wanted people to treat me like I once was, not what I lost." He says and I nod.
"Right?! I mean sure I get it, getting the plants and stuff from the greenhouse is important, we need food I get it, but I use to fix things with my hands, I worked day in and day out and to be treated as if I can't do what I use to… makes me feel like shit." I tell him and he laughed again.
"Guessing you're a hard worker hu?" He asked.
"As much as I can… helped fixed up my own home, build a bike back to it's formal glory, fixed anything I could that could be fixed." I tell him.
"That's what I like to hear… look over the years especially if this group of yours is considered family, they want what's best for you, do some of the small things and build up to the bigger things, there has to be at least a few other people that could keep a vehicle going." He says and he sets the screwdriver down and looks to his build.
"I mean… not as good as me." I mutter and he laughed once more.
"Alright, let's get you fitted up." He says and we go over to one of the bikes and he sets the device up. I take a seat on the bike and place my stump in said device and started the bike up. It roared to life and I smiled as I was able work everything like normal.
"Feel good? Doesn't hurt, does it?" He asked.
"No feels great, thanks." I say.
"Alright, safe trip." He says and I nod as I ride off in the direction of home. I kept to the back roads as best as I could seeing a few of the Walkers here and there. I felt bad that most of these people probably just turned into Walkers. Is that what is going to happen to all of us? If we don't take ourselves out, we'll be forced to walk this world as a corpse? Hurting others without knowing? I keep to the road and it wasn't long till I reached the edge of the trailer park. I had to stop far enough so they couldn't hear me and I get off the bike and stretched a bit. I take a look around the area a bit and I think. Should I go back to the farm just for a bit? I did say I would be back in a month, but I should talk to Clem and the others. I paced around a bit and sighed.
"You should tell them about the Walkers." I hear and look to see Mary and Tenn. I groan a bit at this and glare at them.
"We know you won't talk to us, that's fine, but you should tell them about all those Walkers." Tenn. says and I think and nod. I get back on the bike and head to the trailers. Once near the walls I see the gate open to see AJ and Liz walking out and I stop the bike as they look to me.
"You're back early." AJ says and I nod.
"Yea uh… thought I should." I tell him and he looked to me a bit.
"Clem is in the house." He says and I look to see he and Liz have backpacks.
"You two going somewhere?" I asked.
"Just to the small town that way." AJ says and points in the direction and I nod.
"Well… just be careful." I tell them.
"Hm, thought you would have told us no." AJ says and I shrugged.
"You're grown enough and I know you can keep Liz safe, I can't keep babying you." I tell him and he nods.
"We will be back in a few hours, will you still be here?" Liz asked.
"Sure, I'll stay till you two get back." I tell them and they nod. They head one out and I head inside the trailer park and saw Clem and Minerva as they walk out and I go over to them.
"Hey, you're back early." Minerva says and I nod and look to them.
"How's the farm?" Clem asked.
"Don't know, didn't make it to the farm." I tell them.
"Did something happen?" Minerva asked.
"Curiosity got the best of me so I went to Austin." I tell them.
"You went to Austin? For what?" Clem asked.
"I was just curious about Luke." I tell her.
"You… why?" She asked as she calmed down a bit and I rubbed the back of my head.
"I just wanted to know why he did what he did, but there might be something you all might need to know." I tell them.
"Something going on?" Ruby asked and I nod a little.
"There is a whole bunch of Walkers in Austin, like they basically take over the whole city if they want, there is a school there too." I say.
"Well duh there are schools everywhere." I hear and look to see Aasim as he comes up.
"This school is filled with skeletons, like a few classrooms filled and a whole gym filled, some of them were fresh too, kids dead." I tell them.
"They must have put the bodies there." Clem suggests.
"But fresh ones? Some of those kids were eaten like you could see the bitemarks on their skeletons if they weren't torn apart." I tell them.
"Ok, but that doesn't seem like a concern." Minerva says and I rubbed my head.
"I also saw a guy named Clint and a woman named Elenor." I tell Clem as I look to her a bit.
"What?" She asked and I nod.
"Crazy right?" I asked and chuckled a bit.
"Wait… they are still alive?" She asked and I nod.
"Yeah… weird I know." I tell her.
"Well, what happened?" Aasim asked.
"Turns out they live in a community in Austin…. They seem ok, I mean Luke and I didn't argue like I usually do… though I did almost beat the hell out of Elenor." I mutter and look to them.
"So, they're good people?" Ruby asked.
"They seem like it, my only concern is why they were heading to a school filled with dead kids to go into." I tell them.
"Maybe they didn't know?" Minerva asked.
"Maybe, I mean I'm still weary on that they've lived there for how long and didn't know? Seems a bit weird to me." I tell them.
"That's just you being paranoid, though with what you've gone through… I wouldn't blame you for overthinking things like that." Ruby says and I think a bit.
"Back when…. Joan was still Alive, the high school here was considered the new CDC building… but Austin is to far away to dump the bodies." I explained to them and looked to all of them.
"They might have made a new location." Minerva suggests.
"Could have, I'll have to go back to the school to see but I don't know… people can be nice but… well we all know what happens." I tell them and they nod.
"Look if you plan on going to the school I'm coming with, and no you can't tell me no." Clem says and I nod.
"I'm not going to stop you." I tell her.
"Well, this is new, did you hit your head or something?" Ruby asked as she checked my head and I roll my eye.
"No, I'm just trying to… allow people to help me more… but I'm not going to always ask for help I still have some restrictions to help." I tell them and they look to me.
"Alright, when do you want to head out to the school?" Clem asked.
"Once AJ and Liz come back, I said I'd be here when they do come back." I tell her and she nods.
"Well, come get some something to eat." Omar says and I nod as we all go take a seat and he hands me some stew and I eat a bit.
"So did you ask Luke about… anything?" Clementine asked and I look at her.
"Well, he said he left because Kenny was crazy, he asked in Jane was still around but I told him no, asked if he felt like what he had done would look like betrayal to other and he said he didn't really think about it like that, he honestly didn't think he would be alive this long either, thought he'd freeze to death from the lake." I explained as I drank some of the broth.
"Anything else?" She asked and I think.
"He thought you went with Jane only, told him how you were with both Kenny and Jane from what you told us… He did get a bit upset when I told him about Jane and the baby." I tell her.
"He has no reason to be mad, he left us." She says and I look to her as I set the bowl in my lap.
"I explained to him about the fact that there is a shortage of food and such… plus with bandits and wars, wouldn't have been the best for you and them anyway." I tell her.
"He then asked how you were, told him how you lost your leg to a Walker bite, how you raised AJ, great leader and such… he's a bit surprised but he knows you." I tell her as well and ate some of the meat in the stew.
"Anything else?" Minerva asked.
"Hmm, he did say if we wanted to come to his community that it was fine, if we need help… I offered the same, he seems pretty… ok for the most part." I tell them.
"Well… it's great to have some people on our side." Aasim says and I nod as I finished eating.
"Though I'm still not a fan of Javier and David… Kate is the only ok one… plus Bonnie, Russell, Shel and the others." I list off.
"Anyway, I still want to know about that school." I mutter.
"Maybe the people in the area just put the bodies there." Willy suggests.
"But think about it, we bury our dead." I stated.
"Not everyone does that anymore Violet." Clem tells me.
"But to waste fuel to take bodies to a school?" I asked her.
"That does sound weird." Minerva said and I nod.
"Maybe they think the bodies could infect the crops?" Aasim says.
"Why bury them near the crops?" Omar asked and Aasim shrugged.
"Sometimes the rotting bodies liquify and the rain water causes any contamination to spread the land." Aasim says.
"Ok fair enough but I still find it weird." I say and think a bit.
"There were some fresh bodies there that's what worries me." I tell them.
"Why is that?" Clem asked and I point to my stump.
"Bitemarks on arms, legs, necks." I tell her.
"Could have been a massive Walker attack." Ruby says.
"I mean fair enough, there is enough Walkers there to basically take over the city itself, and there have been huge heard passing b-." I stopped for a bit and looed down.
"What?" Minerva asked.
"Fresh Walkers… no body last twenty or so years they'd be all bone at this point, it's still less then what we originally started with but come on, think about it, more survivors than what we thought." I tell them.
"We had over one hundred people at the Delta." I hear Minerva say.
"Richmond have close to a thousand too." Clem tells us.
"What about Javier's group?" I asked.
"When we meat up with them to take down Joans community they had maybe thirty." Ruby tells us and I think.
"But hundreds of thousands… and think about it, some of the Walkers did look young, like our age, yeah some were older but-."
"Violet, I think you're overthinking this." Omar says.
"But hear me out on this, let me just… say what I have to." I tell him and he nods.
"Liz, she was attacked by a group of people, now she had said that her mother was bitten, she's what seven years old? Everyone should know by now that you can cut a hand that's been bitten, or a foot, leg, ankle… her mom was bitten on the palm of her hand." I tell them.
"Maybe they didn't know?" Minerva says.
"But how could people not know by now?" I asked.
"I mean you guys didn't really know about the Delta, or my life out of these walls." Clem says.
"Yes, but we couldn't leave at the time logically, yeah we had survival skills but not people skills, you taught us that… and I never had to cut off a limb but when you got bit, I was desperate." I tell her.
"Ok I see what you're saying now." Clem says as she leans back in her chair.
"But what would this have to do with Liz?" Aasim asked.
"Her mom was bit and they said she couldn't survive the bite but it was her hand… could have cut it off and everything could have been fine if they kept it clean and such." I tell them.
"You're saying that people intentionally let a little girls mother die from a Walker bite?" Omar asked and I nod a bit.
"Look when I was at that base in Tennessee, I found those letters, there were letters at the new CDC here in Texas, in those letters there were people that actually wanted this to happen." I explain to them.
"Are you saying people are making more Walkers on purpose?" Willy asked.
"I'm not saying it's not possible, but people were crazy wanting all this to happen, had everyone actually worked together we might not even be in this situation to begin with." I explained to them.
"So what people are making Walkers so they can live out their crazy fantasy of being in an apocalypse?" Aasim says.
"And if they had any kids they sure as hell probably taught them the same thing." I tell them. I then sighed as I thought some more.
"Something wrong?" Minerva asked and I looked to all of them and then lean forward a bit in my seat and took a breath.
"Back in Joans group when people got bitten some of them wanted to be…. Experiments, and many people just wanted a cure to be found to save their families…. People have done it before we were overrun…. Maybe someone or a community is… experimenting on people?" I suggest.
"What trying to find a cure?" Minerva asked.
"Call me crazy all ya'll want but… it's not unheard of." I tell them.
"Yeah, but Joan was crazy." Clem says.
"Why do you think she opened me up?" I asked her and she looked to me.
"Were you bit?" She asked and I look to them a bit and shake my head.
"Wasn't… really bitten." I tell them.
"WAIT WHAT?!" They all yelled.
"Calm down, least we know you can't get infected by scratches, has to be a bite." I explain to them.
"Jesus fuck." Clem says and I look at her.
"Clem-."
"You were used as an experiment…. And you didn't think to fucking say something?" She asked and I just look to her.
"What was I going to say to you? We were arguing…. Regardless that doesn't change the fact that people could be doing the same thing." I tell her.
"You have no idea how bad this is, if it is true." Clementine says and I look at her.
"I do know how bad it is, I had to deal with it, it wasn't all just for experimenting, she was bat shit crazy remember?" I asked and she sighed and rubbed her face.
"Sorry I didn't…. I didn't mean to say that." She says.
"It's fine, no need to apologize." I say and she looked away a bit and I look to the others.
"Look let's say you are right, no one has been in this area to see if there are more people." Willy says.
"Maybe they have been using their own?" I asked.
"That's cruel." Ruby says and I nod.
"I mean mostly kids probably." I tell them.
"Alright we can keep on watch for anyone coming though." Aasim says and I nod.
"You going to be heading out after this?" Minerva asked and I shrugged.
"I want to go check out the CDC here see if there is anything else we can learn." I bring up.
"I'll come with." Clem says and I look to her and then nod.
"Alright." I say and I get up to go clean the bowl. Everyone else went about their day and a few hours would pass and AJ along with Liz come back and I look to her and I rubbed the back of my head. AJ and Liz run up to me to show me what they found and I look and nod as they go put their new supplies up. Liz comes over to me and I look at her as she takes a seat next to me.
"Liz I have a question for you." I say and she looks up to me and I smiled a bit.
"You're not in trouble." I tell her and she smiles and nods.
"Ok, what do you want to ask?" She asked and I chuckled a bit.
"You said your mother was bit on the hand correct?" I asked and she nods.
"Did you know that if you cut off a bite then you could save them? Before you met us of course." I asked and she looked to me then to the ground.
"It could have worked, but the adults said she would die anyway." She tells me and I look to her.
"Did your old group do anything… bad to their people?" I asked her.
"What do you mean?" She asked. I place my hand to my mouth as I try to think of the right words to say.
"Did they…. Hurt others?" I asked.
"Oh yeah, they hurt bad guys." She says and I nod.
"But what about people in the group?" I asked.
"You mean did they hurt others in my group?" She asked and I nod.
"I mean… I don't know, kids didn't get involved with what the adults did." She tells me.
"How much do you remember about your old group?" I asked her.
"There was a boy that was a big bully." She tells me and I chuckled a bit.
"Why was he?" I asked.
"Because his dad was the leader… he thought he would be the leader too for us." She says.
"A leader for the kids?" I asked and she nods.
"Yea… His mom and sister were nice too." She says.
"I hope so."
"Yea, his mom made really yummy cookies, and his siter made us grape juice." She says and I look to her.
"Did…. Did any of the foods or drinks taste funny?" I asked and she shook her head no.
"No… only when the dad gave us the cookies and drinks." She says and I lean back a bit.
"Did anyone get sick?" I asked her.
"Some did." She tells me and I think a bit and look to Clem as she came over to us.
"Liz, did." I stopped and I think of the right words to say.
"Did any of the adults eat or drink the cookies?" I asked and she shook her head.
"No, it was only for the kids, they said Adults don't like sweets but they lied, the bully had a birthday and a cake and the adults ate the cake." She says and I nod and Clementine takes a seat and looked to me a bit confused and I give her a knowing look and I look back to Liz.
"Did any adults get sick after eating the cake?" I asked.
"Only the sister, but they said she was having a baby soon." She says and smiled at me.
"Was the party in the morning?" I asked. She thinks a bit and then shakes her head and I look to Clem a bit.
"Ok… were you scared there?" I asked.
"A little, but the adults made sure we were ok, and my mommy and daddy made sure I was ok too." She tells me and I nod.
"Do you feel safe here?" I asked.
"Yeah, I like it here, everyone is nice it's safe, it's like a big family." She says and I rubbed her head a bit. she then asked if she could go play with Delilah and I nod as she runs over to the girl and I look to Clementine and she looked to me.
"Everything ok?" She asked and I look at her.
"I was asking Liz what she remembered from her old group." I say and look to the girl.
"I'm guessing it has to do what you found in Austin?" She asked and I nod.
"She said that when their leader gave them food and drinks it would taste funny, then when the leader's wife and daughter it tasted good." I explained.
"Could be a bad cook." She says.
"Explain to me in this day in age, does a man who thinks he's basically the president of the world, bake cookies?" I asked her. She thinks a bit and then nods.
"I see your point." She says.
"Now could he have been a bad cook? Probably… but I just find it weird." I tell her.
"You seem to forget you were the type of person to go and make sure families were ok before your own health." She tells me and I look to her.
"But I never baked them cookies and gave them grape juice, I gave them proper food like meats and vegetables, now a candy here and there sure but… no candy these days." I tell her and she looked to me.
"Oh, and it was always hard candy." I joke and she laughed a bit and nodded.
"So, I guess you'll be heading out tonight?" She asked and I look to her.
"I know you were probably going to sneak out without me." She says and I sighed.
"Alright, yeah I was going to leave tonight." I tell her and she nods.
"Alright… let me grab my bag." She says and I nod then she heads inside and wait for her. It was only a few minutes and she comes out and hands me something and I look up to see my prosthetic and I take it gently and look to it.
"Please wear it." She says and I nod gently and get up and head inside and set the prosthetic on the table. I sighed and take my shirt off and put the prosthetic in place. I look at it a bit then put my shirt back on and head on out the house and look to Clem and nod as we head to one of the trucks. We decided to take the junker and I set my bag in the back.
"Where you two headed?" AJ asked and I look to him.
"Going to check out the old CDC building that was made near here, got some… questions that need to be answered." I tell him.
"Then I'm joining." He says and I look at him then Clem.
"I think it would be best if you stayed here… watch over Liz." I tell him and he looked to the girl then to me.
"You think something is going to happen?" He asked me quietly and I look to him.
"Depending on what we find out." I tell him and he nods.
"Alright." He says and I nod as I closed the door and he goes to open the gate and I drive us out.
"Got to bring the bike in." I mutter as I start driving.
"That would be best." She tells me and we stay silent for a bit.
"Can we talk?" She asked and I look to her then back to the road.
"Sure… what's on your mind?" I asked.
"About Louis." She says and I keep silent for a bit and I look to the road some more.
"What about him?" I asked. She said nothing for a while and takes a breath.
"Did you love him?" I asked her and she stayed quiet. I take a breath myself and I keep my eyes to the road more.
"Fine…" I say and keep driving.
"It's not like that… I just." She tries to say something.
"The man is dead, get over your feelings." I tell her.
"I didn't love him like that." She says.
"Why did you want to bring this up? Why bring him up right now? Are you mad that I killed your boyfriend?" I asked getting pissed.
"I told you it wasn't like that." She says.
"Did you sleep with him?" I asked.
"No, god no I didn't." She says to me and I look to her and she looked down.
"Then why bring him up?" I asked getting pissed and I look to the road.
"He's dead, I killed him, I'm so fucking sorry but it was a god damn accident Clem, I would never hurt him or the others or you, I gave you a fucking gun back at Joans community and told you to blow my god damn brains out if you had to… I feel guilty for what I did but I was panicking, I had a damn gun in my hand that should have been the first fucking thing anyone should have looked at, instead of just attacking me." I tell her.
"He was protecting us."
"AND I HAVEN'T? IS THAT WHAT YOU'RE SAYING?!" I yelled and looked at her then to the road.
"I HAVE BUSTED MY ASS FOR ALL OF YOU, SORRY I'M FUCKING." I stopped and gripped the wheel a bit.
"I'm sorry if I'm fucking weak to all of you, that I'm broken and a nutcase in your eyes but at least I still have my priorities." I tell her.
"And what are those priorities?" She asked in a snarky tone and I slammed the breaks making her put her hands out to the dashboard and I turn in the seat and I look at her.
"My priorities are to keep you and those two kids alive, I fucking failed Tenn. I fucking failed Mary, you think I don't feel like shit knowing I could have saved them?" I asked her as she looked to me.
"I got hurt and damaged for you…. FOR YOU!" I yelled at her and she glared.
"I never ask-."
"YOU DIDN'T HAVE TO ASK ME TO DO ANYTHING!" I yelled as she backed up a bit and we had a bit of a staring contest and I take a breath.
"You didn't have to ask me to do anything…. I never blamed you for what happened to me, I blame myself, but God forbid if I had to do it all over again you sure as fucking hell know I would do it over and over because what she did to me, I would never want to happen to you." I say and I feel tears run down my face and I place my good hand to her cheek. She backed up a bit and so I moved my hand away and I lean back in the seat and I look at her.
"I… love you… so God damn much Clem… you're the only one who didn't… bullshit with me… you know what happened to me before the Walkers, you… gave me hope…. Hope that I could do better, that I could be a better person." I tell her and I grabbed my dog tags.
"I made a mistake but I was scared… I was still that scared little girl I was when those teachers abandoned us, I didn't wany anyone to get hurt… I didn't care if I died doing it, I just…. Wanted to do a few good things before I was dead rotting in the ground…. a forgotten memory to you and AJ." I tell her.
"You want us to forget you?" She asked and I clench my tags tighter and nodded as I shut my eyes tightly.
"Why remember me? I just ruin everything even before the dead… I was a mistake in my parents' eyes, my grandmother kills herself with me in the same room, not caring if it damages me more…. teachers that said they cared didn't and left us all to die… Tenn…. probably fucking hates, me because I didn't take that fucking bullet, same with Mary… I…" I stop talking and look down.
"They don't hate you." She says and I laughed and shook my head.
"You can try and tell me that but it won't work… I hate myself every single day for what happened to them." I tell her and lean my head to the side and I sighed.
"You can't-."
"I can… I have and I will continue to do so because I know I could have done something." I tell her.
"What could you have done?" She asked.
"Stayed on watch that night… that Tenn. died… instead my dumbass said 'We're ok, we can all go to sleep tonight no need to worry.' Hah… no need to worry hu?" I asked myself and let go of my dog tags.
"Should have kept telling Mary and AJ no, not to come with Minerva and I… should have made sure Joan was dead, should have just… let her kill me or I should have just gone with her…. Or stayed with her." I tell Clem.
"And get hurt more?" She asked.
"Mary would still be alive if Joan wasn't looking for me." I tell her quietly and I look to the ceiling.
"I'd rather people forget me then remember me as a broken, weak woman who…. Failed in life." I tell her and started to drive again.
"You aren't." She says and I shake my head.
"I am, tell me this Clem… why in the hell are you still with me? you and the others treat me like I'm broken but you say I'm not, bullshit, I couldn't work on a fucking truck, because you didn't want me too." I tell her.
"Because you just broke your prosthetic." She says.
"When you broke yours did, I ever treat you like you treated me?" I asked her and kept driving.
"No-."
"Exactly… I still treated you like a god damn human being, and that's all I ever wanted in my life… was to be treated like a human… I want to be treated as if I didn't lose my arm because I was stupid, that I'm not a broken toy." I tell her.
"You're not a toy." She says.
"Feels like it… I get broken and tossed around… Louis knew it when you first came to the school." I tell her.
"Wait-."
"When he found out you had feelings for me, when I told him I was coming back to my home that you thought of me as a fucking… as a god damn phase basically… that you didn't love me at all and I was just practice…. Sadly, enough I believe him now." I tell her.
"After being together for so long-." She tried to say so I stop her.
"Clem, you were hesitant a few times when I asked… I asked because I was worried, he was right, and it crushed me… it fucking crushed me and I just knew…. I just knew someway somehow; he would try to take you from me." I tell her.
"He didn't try anything." She tells me.
"Oh really? While I was gone, he didn't try a damn thing?" I asked her and she stayed quiet.
"Fucking… fucking great." I mutter.
"He didn't do anything bad, maybe said some sweet things." She says.
"And I bet you liked it." I mutter.
"I never cheated on you, I never had feelings for him but god damn it, maybe I should have." She says.
"YOU SHOULD HAVE, THEN MAYBE YOU COULD HAVE HAD HIS BASTARD CHILD AND LET HIS LEGACY LIVE ON!" I yelled at her and I drove.
"VIOLET!" She yelled.
"I don't give a damn Clementine; all he did was make me feel like shit but he says a few sweet words and you swoon." I tell her.
"Violet, I just wanted a civil conversation-."
"Yea well it stopped being civil when you brought him up." I tell her. We kept silent and I sighed.
"I'm sorry for yelling…. I'm trying my best to keep my anger at bay but…. I don't know… when it comes to him and you I just can't." I tell her.
"I'm sorry." She tells me and I shake my head.
"Don't be." I tell her.
"I didn't mean to say that I should have left you for him I just…. No one laughs anymore, he told the jokes… we don't play cards anymore, it's like…. I can't explain it." She says and I finally reach the building and I stopped the truck and looked to the high school and I take a breath.
"Let's just get this done and over with." I mutter as I get out the truck and head in the back to grab my bag. We go inside and I look around there was no sound the Walkers that were once here all gone and Skeletons. I take a breath and I head in the direction of one room and tried to open a door but it was locked.
"What did they do here?" I hear Clem ask herself and I sighed as I grabbed the crowbar from my bag and jammed it into the frame and broke the door away from it. I open the door and saw bodies in bed hooked to machines long dead no sound and I go over to one bed and looked around for any notes.
"Experiments on people who were freshly bit here." I tell her and I found nothing do I go to the next bed and look in the nightstands.
"This is cruel." She says.
"Some of them were volunteers, wanted to find a cure as fast as they could, it's what they were doing at the old CDC and any military base that was used as an emergency evacuation station." I tell her.
"How would you know that? The notes you showed-."
"Back in Joans community I was snooping around found some old files dated to when this all started." I tell her and then look to her.
"I may be a dumbass sometimes but at least I try to figure out what was going on." I tell her and then looked at the last nightstand but found nothing.
"You never told me." She says.
"Yeah, well how could I tell you?" I asked.
"What do you mean?" She asked and I walked out the door as I kept looking in every room I could.
"Violet-."
"We argued, you wanted to leave Joans but… there was more than what Joan even knew… she found some of the files, wanted to try it herself but I told her that if it didn't work then, than what makes her think it would work now… then she decided to use me." I tell Clementine.
"You keep us all out of the dark with what happened to you, you only ever spoke when you were drunk." She says and I stopped and looked to her as we stood in the halls.
"Ok… with the year that we had been there I was beaten, raped, cut open, and treated like shit, kept it from you because you would have planned something, Joan would have found out and would have caused more problems for me and you… I wanted you and the kids safe yes but I also wasn't suicidal at that time." I tell her and she looked to me.
"I didn't think people would do it now until I started to think more and more than when I got to that base in Tennessee and found all those notes… had to act like I didn't have a clue when I told all of you what I knew because I didn't want anyone to panic at the time… now we know it could be possible and I want to know who in their fucked up mind would kill a bunch of kids and adults to find something that could have been eradicated if they didn't start it up again." I tell her.
"It wouldn't have been eradicated." She says.
"Not completely but we would have to have made extra precaution when someone dies of natural causes." I tell her and placed my hand to my hip as I think.
"Why keep this from us?" She asked.
"I already said… so no one would panic." I tell her and I go into the next room.
"No there has to be more to it." She says and I shake my head as I go into an office and I start looking around.
"Violet." She says and I look up to her then back to the desk as I opened the drawers.
"What else do you know?" She asked.
"As much as I told you." I tell her.
"You're lying." She tells me and I look back up to her as I grabbed a file and set it on the desk.
"Why do you say that?" I asked her. I opened the file and read it a bit as I waited for her to answer me. I take a seat in the chair and then look up to her as she looked to me.
"Why do you think I know more?" I asked her. She still didn't say anything and she looked to the side a bit and I look back to the file but it was nothing important.
"You knew about all this, didn't tell us to not cause a panic but right now you not telling me everything is going to cause me to panic because god forbid if something ends up happen when we find out more on all of this and someone gets hurt, I'm going to be asking myself why the hell you couldn't tell me shit if that bad thing happens to you." She tells me and I look at her.
"Don't be worried about me." I tell her.
"You aren't a god damn soldier like you were in Joans group, you can't keep secrets from us." She tells me.
"You still think you're in Joans group, don't you?" She says and I shake my head at this.
"You haven't had any panic attacks in a while… you stopped talking for a while." She says as she comes over to me and I look up to her.
"You haven't tried to drink anything, and you haven't freaked out in a while, you were talking as if everything is ok." She says and I look to her.
"What you want me to be all miserable and have a woe is me attitude for the rest of my life?" I asked her.
"No but no one changes that fast, especially with all that you've been through." She tells me and I look to her.
"What are you hiding?" She asked. I stay quiet and I rubbed my head a bit then look to her.
"Everything, Clem…. I'm hiding everything." I tell her.
"Explain… now." She says and I stay silent.
"Nothing-."
"It's not nothing." She tells me.
"It is nothing." I tell her. She then laughed sarcastically and looks away from me then back to me.
"Look me in the eye and tell me you haven't been seeing her in your head again." She says and I look to her.
"You know damn well I can't." I tell her.
"How can you lie to me like this?" She asked.
"I never… Clem you haven't told me everything about yourself I can have my secrets too." I tell her and she looked to me then goes to the door and locks it then takes a seat on the desk and I look at her.
"Fine, you want to know everything about me?" She asked and I just look at her.
"I was eight God damn years old when this all started, I was with a babysitter Sandra when it started, she got bit and told me to run so I ran to my treehouse and was there for days, I almost died there until Lee came and helped me. I was with a group of people who didn't know what the hell they were doing and I was just a dumb kid who wanted her mom and dad to just come home. I met with cannibals we thought they were good people but they weren't."
"Clem stop."
"No… listen to me." She says and I keep my mouth shut.
"Time went by people started to betray each other, started to keep their guard up and never had a time to just shut the hell up and work together…. I was lied to many times and I hated it, and because of that I listened to a liar who said my parents were alive and they were dead the whole time… more and more time more and more fuck ups and I became a cold hard bitch that would shoot first ask questions later… until I got to the school." She tells me and I look at her. She kept telling me everything she had done to survive out in this world before she even came to the school and I looked to the ground for a while before she finally finished and I look up to her.
"Clem."
"I told you everything in my life from when all this started… now you talk right now." She says and I just looked to the ground and sighed.
"I can't." I tell her.
"Why not?" She asked and I rubbed my face a bit.
"I just can't." I tell her.
"Why god damn it?" She asked as she got off the desk and got in front of me. Basically, caging me in the chair and I felt uncomfortable.
"Violet." She says and I look up a bit to her then to the side. She grabbed my face and made me look at her and I take a shaky breath.
"Clem… stop." I tell her.
"Why feeling uncomfortable? I don't give a damn." She tells me.
"Stop… please stop." I asked and she looks to me.
