Thanks to gaara king of the sand for the help.
Thank you everyone for reading!
Their travels by boat continued, the survivors still holding on to hope that they would find Wellington soon.
It had been a week since they had moved on, and the first few days of that week all was calm. Unfortunately, that time of calm didn't last.
They had been travelling for so long and weather had yet to become an issue. So, it took them by complete surprise when the sky started to grey over and raindrops beginning to fall.
They had noticed the sky greying and fogging over but they had no chance to get to shelter before the storm was suddenly upon them.
It was a light drizzle at first, but very rapidly that began to change. They wind began to pick up and the rain became heavier.
And before they knew it, they found themselves caught in a shocker of a horrendous storm. Waves were swelling, slamming and battering the boat which was starting to take in water.
They moved to the middle of the boat trying to ride out the stormy weather. Rain whipped into their faces and the wind continued to harshly gush around them.
Danielle flinched, squeezing her eyes shut as a loud noise of thunder roared out. She quickly threw her hands over her ears, whimpering a bit. The sound was an eerie one.
The storm kept pounding on. The wind and weather completely against them. They could barely see where the boat was going.
"C-Carley, I think I see something! I see land—"
"Clementine, stay down!" Carley ordered.
She barely could get the words out before the storm shoved the ship crashing into a large craggy boulder. The waves were growing rapidly, and the boat was thrashing out of control.
More rocks appeared midstream and then disappeared under the swirling water. Water danced into the air, splashing the trios' faces.
Unable to steer the boat they were free floating, the waves forcing them along. Panic struck the group and Carley ordered the girls to hold onto something. Carley kept Danielle close as the boat swayed harshly back and forth, to keep her from falling off the ship.
The swift current caught the boat sideways and smashed it against another rock, then a third. The impact of this caused the boat lurched, throwing them forward.
Clementine fell into the water with a painful splash, quickly resurfaced from the water and taking a shaky breath. She searched around trying to spot Carley and Danielle to no avail.
The wild waves continued to carry her, and she found herself struggling to keep both her head above the water, and before long, a hit to the head from a rock caused everything to go black.
It was early morning, the sun was beaming down onto the land, a light breeze blowing. The rain had stopped but the ground remained wet with the aftereffects.
Clementine laid motionless on the ground, unconscious and unaware of the presence of a young man.
The young man had been checking on the boats that had been tied to a dock to protect them during the storm. However, he was surprised when he noticed the motionless young girl. With wide eyes he hesitantly made his way over to the girl, unsure if she was okay. He was hesitant to touch her, but slowly gave her a light nudge. The girl however didn't react to the movement, not even stirring. He was nervous, frightened even. He checked the girl for a pulse. He was relieved when he found one.
The man continued to try to wake the girl, to no avail. He gave a flinched when he heard a rustle from the trees behind him. "Oh no…" He muttered, already knowing that more "intruders" were on their way.
He went back to trying to nudge the girl awake. "Wake up, please wake up."
It wasn't long before the "intruders" were stumbling their way out from beyond the trees.
Unable to wake the girl, the young man lifted the unconscious teen into his arms, not wanting to leave her to be eaten by the crazy people.
As the "intruders" got closer the young man found the urge to panic. He attempted to speed off with the young girl in his arms, clearly afraid.
Suddenly the teen let out a groan, eyes fluttering open. She was surprised as she felt herself moving, and noticed she was in someone's arms. She was confused, who was this person? And where was she? "Wh-What's going—?"
The girl didn't get the chance to speak another word before the young man had, shocked and somewhat startled, dropped her.
Clementine winced as she met the hard group. She quickly looked around noting the approaching walkers.
Forcing her aching and exhausted body to her feet. Clementine quickly pulled a weapon, an ice pick, and began killing the walkers, one after another.
The young guy who had saved her watched on in fear and surprise as the teen girl killed walker after walker. He was frozen and place and trembling a bit.
He tried to inch away, without being noticed. However, he didn't get far as Clementine killed the last walker and then took a moment to catch her breath.
Wiping off the ice pick, she strapped it back to her back, much like Molly used to. She wiped the walker blood, that had spattered on her face, away. Then she slowly approached the young man. "Umm… Hi there…"
The young man seemed frightened, and Clementine was a bit surprised to see him began to back away. Clementine wasn't used to seeing people react in such a way to her. But she couldn't blame him. It wasn't every day that a nearly five-month pregnant teen killed a bunch of walkers without breaking a sweat.
"Sorry, I didn't mean to scare you… I wanted to thank you for helping me…" Clementine said.
"St-Stay back." The young man continued backing up, stumbling and tripping backwards. "Ple-Please! Please don't kill me!"
"What?" Clementine stopped in her tracks. "Why would you think I was going to kill you… I'm not a murderer."
"You- You just killed all those people…" The young man stammered. "How- How can you not see that as murder?"
"People? I didn't kill any people. I killed the walkers and they're already dead." Clementine said.
"Y-You killed them… You—" The young man said again, though he looked unsure.
Before Clementine could continue, the man gasped, pointing to an approaching walker that had jumped from the water.
Clementine didn't have time to react before the creature had grabbed her, sinking its teeth into her shoulder.
The girl yelped in pain, responding fast by pulling away, turning to the creature and grabbing her ice pick once again. She quickly buried the pick into the walker's head, killing it.
After seeing Clementine get bit the guy became even more nervous. He knew very well what happened after someone was bit by one of the crazy people. He had seen it before. They eventually went crazy themselves and started attacking other people.
This was all too much for the young man to take in. Clementine turned to him but noticed how pale he looked. "Are… you okay?"
The young man didn't respond, but Clementine noticed his eyes began to roll to the back of his head and before long the young man had fainted.
"Shit!" Clementine rushed over to him, checking him over. He didn't appear to be injured. He must have fainted from the shock of everything he had witness. She was even surprised that this guy didn't seem to know that the walkers were dead. She had thought everyone knew that.
It seemed outrages to think those things were alive, or to refer to them as people. They were far from that anymore and Clementine couldn't help but roll her eyes at the thought. Clementine looked around for somewhere to go. She couldn't leave this guy, especially not after he helped her, or tried to help her, and they couldn't just stay out in the open. Not when the walkers could show up any minute, it wasn't safe.
She gazed around the area until her eyes fell on some kind of cave. "Bingo." Clementine said. She took a moment "Come on…" The girl muttered as she hooked her arms under the young man's own. She wasn't strong enough to carry him, but she could drag him. And that's what she did, dragging the unconscious young man toward the nearby cave to hide from the Walkers until the guy woke up.
A while had passed before the young man finally came to. Clementine had been sitting on watch, just in case walkers stumbled upon them.
When the young man finally awoke, he quickly looked around, still seemingly nervous. "Wh-What- What happened?"
"You fainted…" Clementine explained. "Are you feeling okay?"
"I-I… fainted…?" The young man asked.
"Yeah…. You did…" Clementine confirmed.
"I'm so confused… What's going on… How are you… you?" The young man looked beyond confused. He was completely bewildered.
"What do you mean?" Clementine asked.
"I mean…. How are you…still the same… ? You're not turning into… one of the crazy people…" The young man asked.
"They're not crazy people. They're dead people." Clementine said.
"Dead... But they're walking around..." The young man pointed out.
"They're not technically alive though... They're zombies... Like people who died and came back to life. And all they care about is eating other people and turning them into more of them." Clementine said.
"I-If that's true... Then why haven't you turned into one of them...?" The yong man asked.
"I… I'm not entirely sure. But I can tell you for a fact that those things aren't "people". They used to be, but not anymore." Clementine said. "A lot of things have changed. People don't…stay dead anymore… When they die, they turn into those things. When people get bit, they turn into those things. That's how it's been for months and months and months. It's bad. The world isn't how it used to be. This is the apocalypse…"
"You got bit and you didn't turn into one of those things. How can I believe any of that?" The young man said.
"I don't know why I haven't turned…" Clementine said, her face taking on a sad look. "I've gotten bit before… Twice, this was the third time. As far as I and my friend Carley know, I'm immune to their bite… But that doesn't stop them from wanting to eat me. It just means I won't turn if I do get bit.
Seeing the young man was still unconvinced, Clementine began explaining to him some of the events that she had faced in the past few months. And to say the least, the young man seemed shocked to hear all of her stories.
"We've been travelling by water for months now… We thought it would be safer than land, but it's just as dangerous to be honest. We've run into some of the worse kinds of people, bandits, murders, cannibals… It's bad…" Clementine said.
"You've… really run into people like that…?"
"More than once… The world doesn't have laws anymore; a lot of people have lost their morals… And… they do whatever they can to survive. Even if it means harm comes to others." Clementine replied.
"So… is that what those things are? Cannibals?" The young man questioned.
"No… They're dead… They're zombies… Walkers…" Clementine said.
"Walkers?" The young man rose a brow.
"That's what we call them." Clementine said. "Those things aren't human. They aren't people. And they aren't alive. If they bite you, they kill you and you turn into one of them… All they care about is food… And to them, people are their food source."
"Holy shit… I… had no idea it was this bad…" The young man said.
"It really is…" Clementine said. "Look, I have to go… I need to find my friends… They're out there somewhere… At least I hope so… I need to make sure they're okay."
"You were all alone when I found you… I only saw you, until those… things started showing up." The young man said.
"They have to be around here somewhere… Our boat crashed and... I was thrown off… I guess they were too. I need to find them." Clementine said.
"How do you know they're still alive…?" The young man asked.
"I don't know… But they could be. And I need to find them." Clementine responded as she stood.
"W-Wait, I could use your help…" The young man called.
Clementine paused and asked, "With what?"
"If… If what you say is true… My people could really use some eye opening…" The young man said.
"So… you believe me…?" Clementine asked him.
"I want to…" The young man replied. "If it's true… Then… my people need to know. They need to realize what those… those things are… So we can protect ourselves, and stop losing people…"
"You've never killed a walker before… So what do you do when they show up?" Clementine inquired.
"We've been… running or… trying to reason with them."
Clementine furrowed her brows at that. "Trying to reason with them?"
He nodded.
"What the hell?" She had never heard of people doing such a thing with the walkers.
"Maybe you can come back with me and tell my people what really going on. I don't want to lose anyone else." The young man said.
"Why were your people even going near the walkers in the first place?" Clementine asked. "What made you think you could reason with them anyway?"
"We just figured that if we were…persuasive enough… maybe they would listen." The young man replied.
"If they didn't listen the first few times, why did you think they would ever listen?" Clementine scoffed.
"We didn't know what was going on. How were we supposed to know we were talking to the dead?" The young man said.
"It's been nearly a year since this all started, since the DEAD started WALKING. How did you guys not hear or see how bad things were?" Clementine asked.
"We knew there was a virus and that it was making people sick and crazy, but not to what extent it's at now. We didn't have access to the news or to televisions. And we rarely get visitors anymore. It was a surprise to even see you." The young man explained.
Clementine fought back a sigh then said, "Okay… I'll talk to your people."
"Thank you. Thank you so much." He said.
"Hold on though, I haven't even gotten your name." Clementine said.
"It- It's Ardy."
"Well, nice to meet you, Ardy. My name is Clementine."
"Clementine? Like the fruit?" Ardy noted.
"No. Like the vegetable." She said sarcastically with a slight roll of her eyes. She was used to hearing different comments about her name. "Come on. Let's go talk to your people."
Ardy gave a nod in response.
They only hoped she could get some sense into them.
Danielle awoke abruptly, nervous and unsure of where she was. She looked around, finding herself on some kind of beach. She began calling to Carley and Clementine, getting no response. But she soon spotted someone laid upon the sand.
Upon seeing Carley lying unconscious on the ground, Danielle felt panic hit her as she noticed a walker trying to bite Carley's neck. Danielle quickly jumped into action, reaching into her pocket in search of her knife. She quickly found and retrieved the weapon and rushed over to Carley's aid. The child used the knife to stab the walker in the head. The knife ended up getting stuck in the process. She struggled for a moment to loosen the weapon before finally getting the knife free.
She pushed the corpse away before dropping to Carley's side. She gave the woman a shake, her little heart pounding in her chest.
"Carley! Carley, please wake up! Please… Pl-Please don't be dead." She continued shaking the woman, not noticing a walker approaching from behind.
Carley groaned, stirring from the child's constant nudging. "D-Dani? What—?"
"You're okay!" Danielle exclaimed, relieved that the woman was awake. "I was worried."
"Yeah… I- I'm okay. What happened? Are you okay?" Carley asked, sitting her aching body upright.
"I'm okay. I—"
"Oh Shit! Watch out!" Carley quickly grabbed Danielle, pulling her to the side before drawing her gun. Aiming the weapon, she fired at the approaching walker, killing it.
Danielle's eyes widened and she trembled a bit, realizing how close that walker had been to grabbing her.
"Are you okay, Dani?" Carley asked the child.
"Y-Yeah. I'm- I'm fine." Danielle nodded.
"That's good… That was too damn close." Carley said.
Danielle gave a nod in agreement.
Carley looked around the area. "I guess we should figure out where we are."
"I don't know… I remember our boat crashed and…. I woke up here. I saved you from one of the monsters." Danielle pointed to the walker that she had killed to save Carley.
"Well, thanks for that. Nice job, kid." Carley said.
"Thanks… Wh-What should we do now…? I don't know where Clem is… Shouldn't we look for her?" Danielle questioned.
"Clem… Wait, you don't know where she is? You didn't see her around here?" Carley asked.
Danielle shook her head.
"Damn it…. We gotta find her…" Carley said.
"Do… you think she's okay?" Danielle asked, looking worried.
"I… I don't know." Carley answered honestly. "I think she will be… But we need to find her fast. Come on—"
Before Carley could speak another word, the heard snarls and groans coming from beyond the trees of the small forest near them. Carley swore, realizing the sound had probably drawn the walkers.
"That gunshot must have grabbed their attention. Come on, we gotta move, now." Carley said.
"Wh-Where do we go?" Danielle asked.
Carley looked around for a place to hide, being mindful of the water as she knew walkers could likely be hiding in it. She soon spotted some kind of wooden lookout tower.
"Up there, hurry!" Carley said.
Daniele gave a nod and the two quickly rushed over to the tower, Carley helping Danielle up before following her to the top. Both of them moving fast before the walkers could notice them.
They managed to hide in time before the walkers started to pour out of both the small forest and water. Fortunately, they weren't wise enough to look by the lookout tower.
Ardy led Clementine back to his camp, the young girl killing any walkers they had ran into. Ardy had been surprised that she could handle the creatures with such ease.
"How many have you...killed?" Ardy suddenly asked.
"What?"
"Of those things? Walkers?" Ardy asked.
"I don't keep count. It's been a lot though..." Clementine said. "How long have you guys been on this island?"
"Too long… Our people were on a cruise and someone on board had been ill… They passed on and our doctor was attacked. She quickly became ill as well… And before we knew it more and more people were going crazy… Becoming those things. We didn't know what to do. We were panicking. We tried our best to defend ourselves, but those things just… seemed unphased by whatever we did. And when our ship happened upon this island, we abandoned ship, taking lifeboats and getting as many of our people here as possible. Our ship has been overrun, and we've been unable to board it for a while… It's completely full of those things. And now we're stranded on an island with people who want to eat us." Ardy explained his group's situation.
"Not people. Walkers." Clementine corrected.
"Right… Walkers… They're so terrifying… How...How are you not scared to face them...?" Ardy asked.
"Who wouldn't be scared of them...? I'm not wanting to go out and become buddy-buddy with those things. But I know that people aren't smart and they're not. We just have to stay out of their reach." Clementine said. "Look, we're going to sort this mess out… Just let me talk to your people."
Ardy gave a nod.
When the two arrived at the camp, Ardy led the girl to his captain who was speaking to a couple of his group members. "Captain, we...we need to talk..."
"Ardy, can't you see I'm in the middle of something?" The captain sighed.
"I-I brought someone who can help us... Someone who can explain to us what's been going on..." Ardy said.
"What are you talking about?" The captain asked.
"This is Clementine... I met her earlier today...and she's taught me a lot about the..."intruders" we've been getting." Ardy said.
"What about them?" The captain questioned.
"She... She told me that there's no used in trying to reason with them. And she's right." Ardy replied.
"What does some random girl know? We don't need her advice on how to deal with the prisoners. We've been handling it." The captain said.
"How many people have we lost with in the past few days alone?" Ardy said.
"Those things aren't prisoners. They're not even alive." Clementine said.
"What are you talking about?" The captain sent her a look of confusion.
"You can't reason with them or talk sense into them. They're dead." Clementine said.
"And why should I believe you, young lady? Do you know how insane that sounds?" The captain said.
"Trust me, I do. But it's even more insane not to believe me…" Clementine said. "You can't reason with those things."
One of the other group members started to speak, "Sir… I think we should listen to what she's saying… We've seen what those things are capable of and—"
"She doesn't know anything." The captain said.
"I know more than you think. You can't reason with walkers. The only thing you can do is run from them… Or kill them." Clementine said.
"Ki-Kill them? They're people… They may not be right in the head but killing is wrong." Another group member spoke.
"They are not people! Not anymore. Those things are decomposing, walking corpses." Clementine fought the urge to groan and facepalm at these people.
The group exchanged looks.
"Can you prove it?" The captain asked.
"What?" Clementine asked back.
"That they're not alive. Can you prove it?" The captain questioned.
Ardy furrowed his brows. "Sir, how is she supposed to—"
"Actually, I think I can…" Clementine said. "Do you have one of those things you're calling intruders around?"
The captain looked to his men. "We do… The intruders are currently captive…"
"Well, take me to them… Take me to your "prisoners"." Clementine said.
"…Follow me." The captain said.
Clementine nodded following the man as he led her to a room where the "prisoners" were being held.
They didn't know how long had passed as they sat in the wooden lookout tower, watching the walkers roam around below them. It seemed like forever had gone by but slowly and surely the creatures seemed to be growing disinterested. They soon began to break off from their group, one by one, stumbling back into the forest. Carley breathed a sigh of relief when the last of the creatures had finally staggered away.
"Alright, I think we're safe." Carley said.
"So should we go find Clem now?" Danielle asked.
"We'll wait a few more minutes. Make sure the coast is really clear." Carley said.
"Okay…" Danielle gave a tiny nod.
The two sat in silence for a few minutes but Carley soon spoke. "How are you holding up, Dani?"
"I'm okay…. I'm just worried about Clem." Danielle said.
"She'll be alright… She's tough. And she can take care of herself." Carley replied.
"I know she can…And I know she's tough… But I still worry about her… People can't be tough all the time." Danielle said.
"I know… I worry about her too… But we'll find her soon." Carley said back.
"I hope so."
"And Dani, I wanted you to know Clem and I are both really proud of you. I know we've been through a lot… and things have been tough, but you've been really brave and helpful." Carley said.
"You really think so?" Danielle brightened at this.
"I really do." Carley said.
Danielle smiled at that. "Thank you…"
"No problem, kiddo…" Carley said.
Danielle was glad that Carley and Clementine were proud of her. She was glad that they found her to be brave and helpful.
Carley began looking around the lookout for anything useful, eventually finding a machete. "This could come in handy…"
"If we run into the monsters?" Danielle said.
"Yeah… If we run into monsters." Carley said.
"…Or bad people…" Danielle added with a small frown.
"Just stay close to me. I'll keep you safe." Carley said.
"I know you will." Danielle said.
"Come on. Let's go find Clem." Carley urged her to follow.
Danielle nodded in response.
The two made their way down from the tower and began to search for Clementine, Danielle keeping close to Carley all the way.
They hoped that wherever Clementine was, she was safe.
Upon entering the room Clementine noticed two walkers tied up and snarling…
"This is where we interrogate the prisoners. Or try to…" The captain said.
"Right… You try to interrogate them. I'm sure that doesn't get you very far." Clementine approached one of the walkers.
"Careful." Ardy said.
"I got this…" Clementine replied, drawing her knife.
"Wh-What are you doing?" The captain quickly asked.
Clementine didn't respond as she approached the creature, the men watched on wondering what she planned to do. To their surprised she grabbed the restrained walker and used her knife to cut it's jaw off.
The men gasped in horror.
The walker was unable to bite her, but remained alive, and actively trying to grab her. The girl then quickly cut the creature's arms off, leaving it unable to grab the girl. Despite being armless and jawless the creature continued trying to attack her to the shock of the others in the room. They stood, stunned in place as they watched the creature attempt to break loose from its tied, completely unphased about losing its arms in jaw.
"Still think they're alive?" Clementine called to the group.
Not getting a response, Clementine made her way over to the second walker in the room. "Tell me this thing is a person…"
She promptly cut the creature's head off and tossed it toward the group.
Various gasps came from the group, some of the men gagging in response. Ardy stumbled away from the walker's still moving head, going to the corner and vomiting right then and there.
"These things aren't people. Not anymore. They don't die, unless the brain is destroyed. And everyone who dies turns into them… People who get bit, turn into them. You can't interrogate them. You can't talk sense into them. They want to kill you… All they care about is food. And if you want to survive, you're going to have to do whatever you can to protect yourselves. It's kill or be killed." Clementine said.
The men continued staring in horror and shock at the moving head by their feet.
"Do you see now what I'm talking about now? Walkers aren't people anymore. They're the dead come back to life... and there's nothing you can do to stop them unless you," Clementine takes her ice pick and stabs the walker in the head. "Kill it... I've seen thousands of these things in Atlanta, in Macon, Savannah, all across Georgia...I've seen them all over the place. On land, in the water. You can say what you want but I've seen all of my friends DIE and some have their guts pulled out by those monsters… I've seen people being eaten alive, so how about instead of letting more people die you help yourselves by helping me kill these walkers so we can get OFF of this island."
The group remained frozen in their state of aghast after what they had witness.
Clementine began making her way to the door, ready to exit the room. She paused, but didn't turn back around, speaking again. "This world is much more dangerous now than it used to be… We have a lot to worry about with walkers and bandits popping up everywhere and we need as many people as we can around us that we know we can trust if we want to keep living and not become an extinct species... The walkers outnumber us, but it doesn't mean they are smarter than us. All they ever think about is food, nothing else, and we are the main course. So start thinking about those in your group, who are relying on you. Those who you have under your care and not the damn walkers or you're all going to die."
With that the girl exited the room, leaving the group beyond shocked at what had just happened.
They had been searching for Clementine for hours… Time had flown by and before they knew it, night had fallen. Both Carley and little Danielle were exhausted, but they continued pushing forward.
She didn't know how long had passed before they noticed some kind of camp.
"Do you think Clementine's in there?" Danielle asked.
"She might be… Only one way to find out…" Carley said. "Stick close to me."
Danielle nodded.
She looked around for a way to sneak into the camp. She remained as quiet as possible, Danielle doing the same.
And eventually she found a way to sneak inside. Upon getting into the camp, Carley was surprised to see Clementine sitting, calmly and unharmed. The girl was speaking with someone and hadn't noticed her right away.
Carley was relieved to see the teen was okay. "Clementine,"
Clementine whipped around, eyes wide. "Carley! Danielle!" She brightened as she looked to the woman. She quickly stood and rushed over to hug the woman and child.
"Who are they…?" The captain asked.
"My friends… We got separated thanks to the storm from the other night." Clementine said, breaking the hug. "I'm glad you're okay…"
"Are you okay?" Carley asked. "What happened to your arm?" Carley asked, noticing the girl's now bandaged arm.
"I'm fine… Don't worry about me…" Clementine said.
"Is it…?" Carley paused for a moment.
"It was but I'm okay. Really..." Clementine assured her.
"Do they… know…?" Carley asked.
"I told them… About being immune." Clementine confirmed.
Carley nodded her understanding. She figured they had taken it okay, seeing how the girl was uninjured. "We've been looking for you all day. I'm glad you're alright."
"Me too... But we can't leave yet." Clementine said.
"I know… Not with the ship in the condition it is…" Carley sighed.
"I'm not saying because of the ship. These people need help." Clementine said.
"Your girl has… opened our eyes to a lot of things that was didn't realize. And our lack of knowledge unfortunately caused us to lose many people." The captain said.
"Lack of knowledge?" Carley repeated.
"They didn't know the walkers were dead… They didn't realize they weren't people…" Clementine explained.
Carley sent the captain a look. "How didn't you know they weren't people?"
"We had no way of know what they were… We just… knew they were dangerous…" The captain said.
"Their ship was overrun by walkers… They've been forced onto this island and trapped thanks to the walkers… We have to help them." Clementine said.
Carley sighed at this, knowing Clementine wouldn't leave the island until they had helped these people. "Where is this ship of yours?"
"It's not far, many of those things jump off the ship when they hear loud noises. Whenever they do, we had been taking them prisoner, but your girl explained to us that that's pointless." The captain said.
"Yeah. It is…" Carley said. "Noise attracts them… If we can lure them to the island, we can take them out..."
"My… people have never killed them before." The captain seemed hesitant.
"There's a first time for everything. Just remember, you have to destroy the brain. So… aim for the head…" Clementine said.
"Once we deal with the walkers on land, the bigger question is how we are going to get them off that ship without causing many, if any deaths…" Carley sighed.
"Luring them to the island would be our best bet. We just need something that will make a lot of noise." Clementine said.
"We … have a drum, we use it to alert our people when we're under attack. To tell them to hide and take cover… Perhaps we can change that today and use it to get the creatures attention." The captain said.
"That's a good idea. That'll work." Clementine said.
"So we'll used the drums to deal with the walkers on the island, after that we'll climb on the ship and take out the remaining ones." Carley said.
"How are we supposed to get on the ship in one piece?" The captain asked.
"It's possible… We just need to be really careful." Carley said. "We can use the sound of the drums to distract them, while we have people climb aboard."
The captain agreed that the plan sounds plausible.
"I appreciate this. I can give you whatever you need as a thank you for what you're doing." The captain said.
"We need our boat repaired… Our ship was damaged pretty badly during that storm, so we're pretty much stuck too…" Carley explained.
"I can do better than that. I'll give you a boat for all your troubles." The captain said.
"That'd be great." Carley said.
Clementine nodded in agreement.
"Okay… Let's do this…" The captain said.
"Your people are going to have to fight as well, we need every able body that can help." Clementine said.
"Who is we?" Carley asked Clementine. "You're not fighting…"
Clementine nearly pouted as she said, "But Carley…"
"No buts." Carley interrupted. "Do I need to remind you, you're six months pregnant? You shouldn't be out there helping… It could hurt the baby."
Clementine shot Carley a glare at this. "I can still help."
"No. You can't." Carley said. "You and Danielle will stay here."
Clementine fought back a sigh but didn't protest.
Carley looked to the captain. "Call in your people… It's time."
The captain alerted and informed the other group members of the plan, explaining to them the situation. And though people were hesitant to kill the creatures at first, they knew it had to be done. Carley and the others headed to the island and the alarm drums were loudly played.
The noise did its job, and the walkers began to appear, so from the forest, others from the water, and many from the nearby cruise ship.
Carley and the group began killing walker after walker. The drums continued to be played as a distraction and Carley and the people began climbing their way aboard the large cruise ship. With that they began killing walker after walker.
Carley lost count of how many of the undead creatures they had tossed from the boat or killed. However, eventually the boat was clear. No walkers remained.
And though there had been a few deaths within the group, they had not been in vain. The group had their boat back. They were no longer forced to remain on the island, and they now knew just what those creatures were, and how to protect themselves and their loved ones from them.
Though the group had been shaken up by the events of the night, they had thanked Carley profusely asking what they could do to repay the trio.
Carley asked for a place to rest and a boat for the morning.
Not wanting to travel at night, they had decided to stay. They were given a meal and a tent to rest in. They were then left to their own privacy.
"I've heard of skeptics before, but I never thought anyone would stay convince that walkers were people." Clementine said.
"Yeah, but people can believe the craziest things." Carley said.
"Well, I'm glad they got their boat back. That's a good thing." Clementine said.
"Yeah, it is..." Carley said. "It's been a long day..."
"Very long..." Clementine agreed.
Silence fell for a moment then Clementine spoke again.
"Carley, I'm sorry..."
"For what?" Carley asked.
"For not looking for you right away... I guess I got distracted... I should have looked for you and Danielle before anything else."
"Hey... You had your reasoning... I know you have a big heart, kiddo... You were just helping people like you always do..." Carley said.
"I wanted to look for you guys... And I was worried, but... I wanted to help them too..." Clementine told her.
"I understand Clem... Don't ever feel bad for doing the right thing..." Carley said.
"...Okay..."
"Look, like we said, it's been a long day... Let's get some rest... We'll be back on the road tomorrow." Carley said.
"Back on the water..." Danielle corrected.
Carley chuckled. "Yeah, back on the water."
The three laid down to sleep.
"Goodnight Carley. Night, Danielle."
"Goodnight girls."
Morning had come and they were given supplies by the captain and soon led to the island deck where the boats had been tied. Several people were out and about, clearing the island of the walkers' bodies.
Ardy led Carley, Clementine, and Danielle towards a ship. "I wanted to thank you again for everything you've done… I can't imagine how many people we would have lost if you guys hadn't come along."
"I'm just glad we could help… Do you think you guys are going to leave the island now?" Clementine asked.
"We talked about it… But we might just stay here for now… If the world is really as bad as it seems, we don't want to risk getting stranded somewhere else… Besides, as long as we've been here… It's started to feel like a home to us. But having the option to leave is good… Thanks for helping us get our boat back." Ardy said.
"Yeah, I'm glad we could help." Carley said.
"You take care of yourself, Ardy… The world's not what it used to be." Clementine said.
"You as well, Clementine. You three be safe out there…" Ardy said.
"You be safe too. Goodbye Ardy." Clementine said.
"Goodbye." Ardy said back.
After the trio bid their goodbyes they boarded their new ship, Ardy untying it from the deck. The ship began to drift away as the light waves carried it on. Ardy waved to the as the ship sail further and further into the distance.