(Clementine's Pov)

I was walking with my squad as we walked the destroyed lands of a battlefield. I had no idea where we were at right now, I would have to look at the map but right now we were told to keep our guard up. Enemy soldiers were said to have been scoping out the area. We took cover behind some ruble and I look to the map as I wiped my face of sweat.

"Echo group is near here." I heard and looked to Garcia and I nod a bit.

"They should be here." I point and notice my hand was shaking a bit and I take a breath to try and calm myself.

"You good there?" I hear and look to Luke and I nod.

"Yeah just… wanna win this damn war already." I tried to joke and I put the map away.

"Look we head on east, get to Echo, maybe fucking rest up a bit." Garcia says and I nod as we get up and start moving again. We walked a good twelve miles before we reached Echo camp and there were a bunch of people running around their camp and I saw some people with dog tags looking through them some even laughing as we walked past.

"Jesus fuck." I hear and looked to see a solider take the tags and put them away and Garcia goes up to one of the soldiers.

"Fuck dude, they got their own nurse." I hear and look to see a man as he looked to me and winked and I flipped him off.

"Oooh nurse bitch got bite." They say and I point my pistol at them.

"WOAH PUT THAT AWAY EVERETT!" Garcia yelled and I look at him and then holstered my weapon.

"The fuck is wrong with you?" He asked.

"Your nurse is crazy." The man says and Garcia looked at him.

"Nurse? She isn't a nurse, she's the best damn sniper I got on my team, and you will treat her with respect just like you would any other solider." Garcia says and they look to me and I look away from them. I walked with David to the tent and I see a few soldiers and they look to me. They looked dirty and beaten just like we were. I sighed as we take a seat and I take my helmet off for a bit and wiped my head a bit.

"You good there?" I hear and look up to see a girl as she squats next to me and I look at her. Her face was dirty with what looked like dried blood and dirt, one noticeable feature were her blue eyes and she sighed a bit.

"We're a mess, don't take what those idiots say to heart." She tells me and I sighed and took a breath.

"Sniper hu?" She asked and I nod.

"Apparently the best." I tried to joke and I look to her hands as they were a bit shaky and she reaches for something in her pocket. I watch as she pulls out a cigarette pack and looks to me as she offered me one and I nod as I take one from her. She takes one for herself and then grabbed a match and as she lit my cigarette then her own.

"Shaky hands, worst thing to have is shaky hands." I mutter.

"Yeah… especially as a sniper." She tried to joke but neither of us laughed.

"What's your name?" I asked as I blew out some smoke.

"Last name or first name?" She asked.

"Hmmm, both would be fine." I say and she chuckled a bit.

"Violet Aldon, and you?" She asked.

"Clementine Everett." I tell her.

"Shit, heard about you, what you got twenty-eight kills?" She asked.

"Twenty-seven." I tell her.

"Right, right, twenty-seven, sorry." She says and puts her cigarette back in her mouth.

"No need to be sorry, I don't really keep track." I tell her.

"Why all the dog tags?" I asked and she looked to the group at the makeshift table.

"Stupid fucks." She mutters as she throws her cigarette to the ground.

"What?" I asked.

"Dead soldiers." She says quietly and I look back to the tags and look down.

"What do you do?" I asked her and she stands up cracking her back a bit.

"… Many things." She says.

"Such as?" I asked and she holds her M1903A4 to me.

"Same as you I suppose… and a translator when I can." She tells me and I look up at her.

"Damn." I say and she nods and she straps her rifle to her back and I see her hands shake again and she takes a breath.

"How many?" I asked and she looked around a bit then to the ground.

"Seventeen." She says and I nod.

"And one kid." She says and I look to her quickly as she puts her hand to her mouth and then looks down as she hits her hand to her thigh a bit.

"A kid?" I asked.

"They had a uh… one of those stick hand grenades, and they wouldn't drop it when told as they were running up to my group… and I uh… was told to take the shot…. I don't think they understood us." She tells me and I look at her as she grabbed another cigarette.

"Shit." I mutter.

"Guessing you think I'm a monster hu?" She asked.

"No… you didn't know." I tell her and she sighed and she was about to light another cigarette but stopped and she sighed as she put it away and then grabbed something else and put it in her mouth. She looks to me and then offers me something and it was gum so I take it and put it in my mouth.

"Got a boyfriend?" She asked and I laughed a bit at this.

"No… you?" I asked.

"Got a partner, they're in Charlie." She says.

"Oh, a fellow army man?" I asked and she laughed.

"Yeah… sure." She says and then walks away from me and I look at her. She headed over to a group and then shoved one guy who looked up to her and she hands him some gum as well and he took it with a smile. I look around more and I see David come up to me.

"Everett we're heading to where Charlie group is." He tells me and I stand up and nod.

"Need you to stay focused… and we're taking some of Echo soldiers with us." He says.

"We are?" I asked.

"Yeah, won't be much." He tells me and I nod and see the group coming up to us and I see Violet with them.

"Aldon will be assisting you with covering us, so work together." He tells me and we both nod.

"Names Louis." The man says as he holds his hand out and I take it to shake.

"What do you do?" I asked.

"Non-combat." He says and I raise a brow at him.

"He doesn't shoot people." Violet says and shoves him.

"But damn is he good at pissing people off." She says.

"So, what, priest?" I asked.

"Musician." He says.

"Omar is our priest, Aasim is our tech guy, Ruby is our doctor, Marlon is navigation, and Mitch deals with explosives." Violet lists off and I nod to them.

"Nice to meet you all." I say and they nod back.

"Alright, let's head on out now." David says and we start moving.

"What is a musician doing out here?" I asked Louis as he looked to me.

"Mistake, they said they needed able bodied people so they made me come, least I got Marlon here watching my ass." He says as he shoved the man who was looking at the maps.

"Dumbass shouldn't be out here if he can't shoot." Someone says and I shake my head a bit.

"And you think you're any better?" I asked them and they look at me.

"What you think you are?" They asked.

"Dude just stop, no one wants to be here." Aasim says and I look ahead.

"Head south west from here, we can meet up with Charlie group in a day." Marlon says.

"Fine with me." David says and we keep walking. We hit some ruble buildings after a few hours and I see Violet looking around a bit. I look to see David as he stops and holds up his hand and I listen around a bit. We hurry into the trenches and I look to see Violet run to one of the buildings so I hurry to follow her and grabbed her jacket to stop her.

"The fuck are you doing?" I whispered as we keep hidden.

"Heading up get a better view, see how many enemies." She tells me and I look to David who nods and we both hurry up the building and crouch to cover. I look to the busted window and look around as best as I could and saw nothing until I feel a tap and look to Violet as she pointed North of us and I see some ground troops. I use my site to try and get a good look and saw maybe ten to fifteen so I signal David as they got close.

"Dear Lord, I ask that I may be silent and unseen in my quest to preform my duty." I hear as I see Violet in position with her finger on the trigger.

"With perseverance, loyalty, honor and courage." She says and takes a breath as the enemies get closer.

"May I shoot straight and kill my much-respected enemy quickly, with one shot so that he does not suffer and writhe in pain." She finishes and I get ready to take aim and I hear the first shot from our side and I take my shot killing an enemy. They begin to shoot and I reload my rifle and I hear Violet take a shot and reload.

"Dear lord…" I hear her say again as she looks down her site and takes another shot as do I. We had to stop once some took cover behind the other building.

"Damn it." I mutter as I move away from the window and I look to Violet as she stayed where she was.

"Fucking move." I whispered and she didn't but she moved her position a bit and I quickly use my site to look around and there was a shot as I moved quickly as it hit the building.

"Fuck." She says as she moved a bit and I hear more shooting. I quickly line my site and look as best as I can and see the sniper but they shoot quickly and I back into the wall again and look to Violet.

"Hey, right side, building third floor." I whisper.

"Got it." She says and I watch her as she moves to look.

"I pray you will forgive me for filling the halls of your heavenly house with souls." She says and takes the shot.

"Fuck I missed." She says and look to the building again and line up my shot.

"Can't get a good angle." I mutter.

"They went behind the wall." She whispered and then moves.

"GOD DAMN IT!" I hear and look down just as David hits an enemy and I take a breath and look up the stairs.

"I'll head up, stay here." I tell her and she nods as she gets to the floor and I hurry as she takes a shot. I go up the stairs fast and I find some cover. I grabbed my rifle and I took aim at the building and get a clear shot. I shoot the man in the head and hear a bomb go off below. I hear more shots ringing out as I look to the ground and I see more drop. I look around and see one solider left and I hear a shot as they dropped. I take a breath and looked down as David signaled us to come down and I nod as I head on down to see Violet getting up.

"You say a prayer?" I asked her as we walked down to meet with the others.

"You don't?" She asked.

"Enemies don't deserve it." I tell her as we head over to David. She kept silent as we get to the group and I look to make sure everyone was ok.

"Everyone good?" Violet asked her group and they nod.

"Yeah, had to use some grenades but easy to make." Mitch says. We head back out and I watched for any more enemies that could be nearby.

"How do you all know each other? Basic?" Luke asked and I look to them as Louis turned around walked backwards.

"Actually, we all grew up together… somewhat." He says and I look to them.

"We went to school together." Marlon says and I look to him.

"Oh, high school friends?" I asked.

"Boarding school." Ruby says and Violet laughed a bit at this.

"Tell them the truth." She says as we keep walking.

"It was a school for troubled kids." Omar tells us.

"Troubled?" Luke asked.

"Like bad kids?" I asked and I look to Violet who nodded. I walk over to her as she kept her rifle close to her and she looked down and then up again.

"What kind of trouble?" I asked. She kept silent and then looked to her rifle again.

"Just being bad kids is all." She says and I look to the others who also didn't speak. We all kept silent as we kept walking.

"How'd you all group up together?" David asked.

"Hell, if we know, just know that we have friends here." Aasim says and I look to him.

"Seems nice." I say quietly. I don't know how long we were walking for but we had to take a break so we stayed near some woods and we took a seat. I see Violet as she stood and leaned on a tree for a bit.

"Good with that rifle." I say to her and she looks to me and nods.

"Same to you." She says and I look at her more.

"So, you'll probably be seeing your man soon." I say and she smiled and looked to the ground.

"They might not be happy to see me." She says and I look at her as she looked out the woods a bit and I look at her.

"Come on Vi tell her the truth." Louis says as he shoved her a bit and I look to him then to her. She sighed a bit as she grabbed something from her pocket and comes over to me.

"It's… not a guy." She says as she looked to me and then hands me something. I look to her hand and grabbed the photo to see a woman with long red hair who was looking to the side of the camera smiling.

"What's her name?" I asked as I handed the photo back and she looked to it.

"Minerva… she went to school with us too… her nickname is Minnie but she's pretty tall." She laughed a bit and I look to her.

"What's her job in all this?" I asked.

"She's uh… non combat too, she got in a year after me, told me she hated the fact that I was killing people." She says as she puts the photo away.

"Yet here she is… in this war." I say and Violet nods.

"She wanted to work on helping civilians more so." She tells me and I look to her and again her hands were shaking again so she clasps them together.

"Fucking hate shaky hands." She mutters and I nod.

"Best better stop them, they start shaking when we need them, you'll get us killed." David says to her.

"David." I say quietly.

"Ain't a time to be scared when you have to keep us safe." He tells us.

"I know… I know." I hear Violet say as she takes a breath. David leaves and I look at Violet as she looks at her hands.

"Why do you say the prayer?" I asked and she looks to me.

"Cause no one wanted to die in this war… I don't want to die." She says and I look at her as she looked to the ground and her hands were still shaking. I grabbed them gently and they still shake as I grip them a bit and she takes a shaky breath.

"Fucking hell." She says and I look at her.

"Hey calm breaths." I tell her and she grips my hands into hers to try and stop the shaking and then I see Ruby come over and look at Violet.

"Hey, what's wrong?" Ruby asked her.

"I want to go home." Violet says quietly.

"We will, we'll all go home." Ruby tells her and I clasp her hands in mine tighter.

"You should go Clem." Ruby says and I look to Violet who just looked to the ground a bit and I nod as she let go of my hands and places them on her lap. I back up a bit and go over to David and Luke as I see Omar go over to Ruby and Violet and I take a breath as I see them looking at Marlon who was showing them something on the map.

"No, if they have them there it wouldn't be good." David says and I look at the map.

"It's not the best bet but it's the only way we can get to them faster." Luke says.

"Yeah, but if you want to get us killed-."

"We won't killed." Luke says.

"Look just… let's take some time right now… rest up a little more." David says and I look to see him looking over to Violet.

"She, ok?" He asked.

"Scared like the rest of us." I say to him.

"But will she be fine?" He asked and I look to her as Omar whispers to her and she says something back. I sighed and rubbed the back of my head.

"She should be they can deal with her." I say to him and he sighed. We rest a bit longer and I look to Violet and the others and I look to David as he gets up.

"Alright, let's head out." David says and we all get up. We start walking and I look at our surroundings, I then look to see Violet walking in the far back so I slow down and walk with her.

"You good?" I asked and she stays quiet. I look to the ground then up and around.

"Hey best leave her be." Louis says and I look to him then to her.

"It's fine Louis." She says.

"Oh, so you can talk?" I asked and she looks to me then nods a bit.

"Yeah sorry." She tells me and I nod.

"It's fine… don't got to talk but it can keep moral up if you do." I tell her.

"How so?" She asked.

"Means you wont keep silent." I tell her and she chuckled a bit. The night comes quick so we had to stop and make a small camp to rest. We grabbed some rations and I sit with Luke and David as the others sit with their group as we eat.

"Now tell me this, why in gods green earth are we fighting this stupid war?" Mitch says out loud and we look over to them.

"To make sure the enemy doesn't take over." David says.

"To keep our families at home safe." Luke says.

"To help the innocent who are stuck in this." I say.

"I say it's to just make the dumbasses in congress safe, those bastards made us come here but wont pick up a gun themselves while they stay home all nice and cozy." Mitch says and the others laughed.

"Fat rich pigs rather us die than serve themselves." Violet laughed and shoves Mitch a bit who also laughed.

"Oh, look at me, I'll let kids and others die before I'll pick up a gun." Marlon says and they laughed again.

"They are doing what they can." David says and they look to us.

"Tell me this… David… from all the years you've been in this war… when have you seen a god damn congress man? Has the president come here? They make us go fight for them because they're chicken shit." Aasim says and I look to him then to the group.

"I joined; I wasn't drafted like you all." He tells them.

"Yeah, drafted is forced." Louis says.

"Least I want to do right." He tells them and I eat some of my food.

"And we aren't doing right?" Ruby asked and I look at her as I set my cup down a bit.

"You are solider, you are doing right." Luke says and I take a sip from my canteen.

"We kill so many, and yet more come, they kill so many and yet more of us come, it's and endless cycle of death." Louis says and I sighed. He wasn't wrong but there was nothing we could do.

"We have to do what we can to try and end the war." David says and look to Violet and the others.

"And when is that? When everyone is dead?" Violet asked and I look at her.

"When they surrender, or when the countries run out of people to send." David says.

"So basically, till all the people are dead or the country realizes they can't win a war they started." Mitch says and takes a drink of his own canteen.

"Some liquor sounds good right about now." Violet says and then laughs as she takes a drink from her canteen.

"Shit I'd love some whiskey." Marlon says.

"Need to stay sober." Luke says and I look to him then to the others.

"I'd rather die drunk and happy then sober and scared." Mitch says and I eat some more.

"Here, here." A few of them say and I lean back on a tree a bit. Everyone started to get ready for bed and I stayed up. I look to the side as I see some movement and it's Violet.

"Where you headed?" I whispered.

"Bathroom, can't be pissing myself." She jokes and heads to the side a bit. I sighed as I look to the flames for a bit I keep my eyes to the flame and I see Violet come back as she takes a seat next to me and shoves me a bit with her shoulder and I look to her.

"Got a family back home?" She asked and I nod.

"My father." I tell her.

"No mother?" She asked and I shake my head.

"I'm sorry." She tells me and shake my head.

"I'm adopted." I tell her and she looks at me a bit and I nod at this.

"So, both your parents?" She asked.

"They died when I was eight." I tell her and she nods a bit at this. I look to her as she looked to the ground a bit then to the flames.

"What about you?" I asked.

"I think my parents are alive?" She questioned and I sit up a bit at this.

"Was your father drafted?" I ask her and she chuckled softly.

"That man? In battle? He would have died the moment he touched ground." She says and I look at her.

"Do you not like your father?" I asked.

"No… I hate the man like he hates me." She says and she grabbed a cigarette and she hands me one and I shook my head a bit. She lights it up and takes a breath and looks to the flames.

"How can you hate them?" I asked and she looks to me.

"My father is a drunk." She tells me and then I see her clasp her hands together a bit as she takes a breath.

"He never wanted a kid… never wanted a family, he had to marry my mother because he knocked her up." She tells me and look at her.

"You have any siblings?" I asked and she shakes her head and takes the cigarette out her mouth.

"Only child." She says.

"And they brought you here?" I asked.

"You have any siblings?" She asked me.

"An adopted brother." I tell her as we looked to the flames.

"What's his name?" She asked me.

"Alvin Junior." I say to her and I rubbed my head a bit.

"I'll take first watch… get some sleep." She tells me as she pats my shoulder and then gets up. I look to her as she takes a seat away from the fire and I look to the ground a bit before I leaned back against the tree and shut my eyes. The dream I had wasn't the best. Blood, people dropping like flies, the sounds of bombs going off, bullets flying everywhere. I wake with a startle and looked up to see Violet with her hand on my shoulder as she looked to me.

"Breakfast, then we head out." She says and I nod. I yawned a bit as I get up and crack my back a bit and grabbed some of my rations. Violet comes over to me and hands me something and I look to see it was some cheese so I take a slice and I see her eat some of her own.

"Sit down." I say patting the spot next to me so she does.

"From The Netherlands." She says as she points to the cheese.

"It's good." I say quietly and she smiles.

"No, it's pronounced Gouda." She jokes and I laughed a bit at that as she chuckled.

"Cheese joke hu?" I asked and she nods.

"Have to make some jokes." She says and I nod at this and finish the cheese. She finishes her food and I stand up as does she. I grabbed my rifle and we set off to find the Charlie group.

"Mama, Mama can't you see." I hear and look to Louis.

"What the army's done to me." Violet sings.

"They put me in a barbers Chair, spun me around I had no hair." Marlon sings and I shake my head a bit.

"Mama, Mama can't you see, what the army's done to me." Mitch says.

"They took away my favorite jeans, now I'm wearing army greens." David says.

"Mama, mama can't you see, what the army's done to me." Luke says.

"I use to date a beauty queen." Violet laughed.

"Now I love my M16." I say and she looked to me.

"Mama, Mama can't you see, what the Army's done to me, I use to drive a Cadillac, now I carry one on my back." We all say and I shake my head a bit as they repeated the cadence as we kept walking. We finally get to Charlie group and find the person in charge.

"Was there a Minerva Leigh here?" I hear Violet ask as she went to each solider asking but some shook their heads and others waved her off. I go over to her as one solider waved her off.

"God damn it, she's in this group." She says getting pissed off.

"Hey we'll find her." I say as I pulled her away. She shakes her head and we see more soldiers at a table looking at dog tags. I shake my head a bit at this and we are taken to a place to rest up a bit. I look to the side a bit as Violet still looked around from where she sat.

"Hey it'll be fine." I tell her and she sighed. David talked with whoever he could and I looked to the ground a bit as we waited.

"Heard you were asking for Minerva." I hear and look up just as Violet does as well.

"Yes, is she here?" Violet asked and I look at her then the solider who took a knee.

"Was she family?" They asked.

"Yes, to me, why?" Violet asked and the solider grabs Violet's hand and places something in it. They whisper something into her ear and then walk away and I look to Violet as she looks at what is in her hand and I see the tears in her eyes.

"No… no god no." She whispers as she placed the item to her head and takes a shaky breath.

"Violet?" I hear and look to see Ruby as she comes up to us.

"What's going on?" She asked us and I look to Violet who was taking shaky breaths.

"All-powerful father, my heart breaks for my loved one who has been lost in battle…" I hear Violet say quietly so we don't say anything until she finishes.

"…Amen." She says quietly.

"Amen." I say and she looked to me and I nod a bit. I look to see sadness in her eyes. The tears that keep falling and the grip she has on the item she held close to her.

"Oh god… does Sophie know yet?" She asked as she got up.

"Sophie?" I asked.

"Minerva's twin, she couldn't be drafted since she takes care of her mother and little brother." Ruby tells me and I look to Violet.

"I… I need I'll be right back." She says as she hurries off and I was going to follow her but was stopped.

"Let her go for a bit." Ruby tells me and I sighed as I take a seat and looked to the side a bit.

"Least she knows." I say quietly.

"It's a terrible thing to know." Ruby says quietly and I nod at this. I look up to see David and Luke as they come over to us.

"Where is Aldon?" David asked as I stand up.

"She had to go… she just got some very bad news." I tell him and he looked to Ruby.

"Well, she needs to hurry up and deal with it, enemy was spotted west from here the camp is moving." David says and I look down a bit and I go to find Violet. I look around and find her as she had grabbed some poor guy by his jacket.

"I just need a god damn pencil." She tells the man and I pull her back.

"Hey, leave him be, what do you need?" I asked her.

"Pencil, I got paper but no pencil." She says.

"Alright." I say and look to the soldiers.

"Hey any of you got a pencil?" I asked.

"Yeah uh… here." One man says as hands me one and I hand it to Violet who hurries and takes a seat at a table and writes something down.

"Hey we have to get going." I say after a minute and she quickly gets up and puts the letter in her pocket and grabs her rifle and we head on out. We separate from the Charlie group and keep walking.

"Heard there was a bridge a few hundred miles that way." David says as he points north east. We keep walking and I look to the Echo group as Ruby told them what had happened. I look ahead of me and wiped the sweat from my face and I look to the side a bit.

"Why there?" I asked.

"Some Ammo and even a few tanks, safe land as well apparently." He says.

"Ain't no land safe." I hear and looked to Echo group as they look to David.

"Safest we are going to get." He tells them.

"Why did they have us come with you guys?" Louis asked.

"They said you were good, and we needed you since our number went down." Luke says and I look to the path ahead of us. We all kept silent for a bit and I take a breath as I look to the side a bit. The sun was beating down on us and we had to take cover in some shade for a bit.

"Fucking hot as hell." Marlon mutters.

"Sorry, sun is all we got, hope a cloud passes by." Luke says and I look to the man as he takes a drink from his canteen and I look back to the side.

"So how did your sorry asses get sent here?" David asked and I look to the group.

"Drafted." Louis tells us.

"Couldn't all have been drafted." David says as he throws his gum to the side and gets a new piece. He looks to the group and so do I then I look down to my weapon a bit.

"Was either this or jail." Mitch says and I look to him a bit.

"Jail? The fuck you do?" Luke asked and Violet hands me a cigarette which I take and she strikes a match to light it.

"Blew shit up… I should have picked jail if this was what I was getting myself into." He says and Violet offers anyone else a cigarette.

"Same for any of you guys?" David asked and look back to my weapon.

"… Father made me." Louis says and I look at him.

"Wanted to help others." Ruby says.

"Best in my town for survival, I was pressured." Marlon tells us.

"No one wanted to hire me." Omar says and I look to Violet as she just looked to the side.

"What about you Aldon?" Luke asked and she looks to us then back to the side.

"I asked a question." Luke says and she kept silent but gripped her rifle tightly.

"Not now Luke." I tell her.

"What? She's acting like someone died." He says and I look down a bit. we were silent for God knows how long.

"Oh shit." Luke says.

"Hey I'm real sorry." He tells her but she stays quiet.

"Was it a good friend?" David asked and I look at her as she wipes her face.

"Yeah… yeah, a very good friend." She says and looks back to her weapon.

"How long ago?" David asked.

"… Two months." She says quietly.

"Back home, right?" Luke asked. She shakes her head at this.

"Damn." He says and she takes a breath.

"Did they say how?" Louis asked and she looks to him a bit.

"Apparently… when Charlie group got to where they were now, there were many enemies there… she tried to talk to them and I guess one panicked…. Shot her in the lungs." Violet says.

"God damn." Marlon says and I look down to the ground. We kept quiet and I look to see the others getting up and I do as well as we kept going to the bridge.

"How long you think this war will last?" Aasim asked.

"Hope the damn war ends tomorrow, shit a few hours from now would be great." Louis says.

"Wars not going to end that quickly." Violet says.

"A man can hope." He sings and I keep my sights forward.

"… I was framed." Violet says to me.

"For what?" I asked as we walked some more.

"…. My grandmother… shot herself." She says to me.

"And you were framed?" I asked confused.

"It's why I hate my dad… he blames me, said I killed her…. She was depressed after granddad died… Cancer or something." She tells me.

"This happen recently?" I asked.

"Nope… happened when I was eleven." She says and walks ahead of me and I stop a bit then run up next to her.

"So how did that get you sent here?" I asked and she looks to me.

"They didn't start my hearing or whatever till this year, said to just send me out to war or into an asylum…. Guess they wanted me to die here then back home." She tells me.

"But you didn't do anything-."

"They didn't care… where I live, they didn't care." She says.

"So, if I got this right, your grandmother kills herself when you were eleven, you were sent to the school till they could do all this legal bullshit, and when this all started, they sent you here to die?" I asked.

"Basically… that was almost two years ago." She tells me.

"You've been here for two years?" I asked.

"Yeah… actually I've been here longer than them." She says pointing in the direction of her group.

"How old are you?" I asked.

"Nineteen." She tells me.

"So, seventeen?" I asked her and she looks at me.

"Almost two years." She reminds me and I look to her and then to the path. We had walked for hours no enemy in sight which was a bit alarming to me.

"Alright, stop here for a bit, rest up." David says and I hear some groans as people started to take a seat.

"Fucking hitchhiker in my book." Mitch says as he takes his boot off and a few rocks fall out and we laughed a bit at this.

"Oh, thank the lord." He sighed as he set his boot to the side and I take a seat as well.

"Hungry?" I hear and look to Violet as she offered me a cracker and I nod in thanks as I take the cracker. I take a bite and coughed a bit.

"Haha, to dry?" She asked and I nod as I grab my canteen.

"Sorry." She says as she takes a seat next to me.

"Nah it's good… damn things are always dry." I say and she nods.

"How'd you get here?" She asked and I look at her as she looked to me and drank some of her water.

"Came from the beaches." I tell her and she spits up her water.

"Woah, you good there?" I asked and she nods as she coughed a bit.

"Fuck… heard it was hell on the beaches." She says.

"When we got there, it was tame… ish." I tell her.

"How tame?" She asked as she hands me what looked to be a piece of chocolate.

"Few hidden gunners, fuck a few people were burned alive." I tell her and she looks down.

"Couple months back, I saw some people with flamethrowers… bullet hit the tank blowing them up." She says and I look to her.

"In two years, you only killed seventeen?" I asked her.

"It would be nineteen now." She says and takes a bite of her chocolate.

"Gonna get one more on your birthday?" I asked. As I take a bite of mine.

"Hope not… I'd just like one day of… no fighting." She says and I look to her hands.

"Nasty hu?" She asked and I chuckled.

"Same here." I say showing my hand and she chuckled as well.

"When is your birthday?" I asked.

"I'll just say in the summer time." She tells me and look to the side a bit. we didn't do much other than map out where we were, how long it would take us to get to the bridge, and so on. There really wasn't much that we could do so I grabbed a paper and a pencil and I began to write.

'Dear Lee,

It's been a few months since I had written to you and AJ, how are things? Is AJ doing good in school? Anything change back home? Nothing much here if I'm going to be honest, my group met up with another one, there is another sniper in the group, her name is Aldon. I find it strange how she says a prayer before taking out the enemy, but I can't say much, she's been here the longest. Her and I work pretty well together if I have to be honest with you. Moral is fine for now, and I hope to come home soon. I miss playing baseball. I miss going and taking AJ to the park. I wish this war never happened but it happened. More letters will be with this, hope to hear from you when I can.

Your Sweet Pea

Clementine.'

I finished my letter and set it in my pocket and leaned back a bit to the tree. I hear some shaking and look to Violet then to her hands as she held dog tags. She wiped them a bit as she looked to the name on it and I take a breath. I look to the side a bit. I close my eyes as I try to relax for even a little bit. Trying not to worry. Trying not to be scared.