(Clementine's Pov)
I woke up to the sound of movement, footsteps creaking on the hardwood flooring of the room. I open my eye as I sit up and looked to see AJ walking to the door and I looked to the window.
"A bit early to be walking around don't you think?" I asked as he stopped and turned to face me a bit sheepishly.
"I was just going on patrol." He says and I get up and walk over to him.
"Alright, and I'm coming with." I say.
"No, I want to do it on my own." He says and I look at him a bit.
"And how are you going to do this patrol, and who will watch your back?" I asked and he looked to me as he thought a bit.
"I was just going to look around." He says and I smile.
"Mhmm, well come on, I'm awake now so let's go." I say and he nods as we walk out. We get to the front of the school and I looked to see who was on watch and I was surprised to see Violet.
"Violet's on lookout." AJ states and I nod at this.
"Yea seems so." I say as we walk up to the watch post a bit and I hear a guitar as I looked up.
"Shit." I hear Violet say as she picked at the strings a bit and turned the knobs.
"She said a swear." He says and I hear some shuffling and looked to see Violet looking at us and I looked to AJ.
"She's older and you know better." I tell him and he nods.
"Hm, smart kid… I would have been hit for swearing." Violet says and I look back up to her.
"Clementine wouldn't hit you." He says to her and she laughed a little.
"No, if I was younger, swore once as a kid and had my mouth washed out with soap, didn't swear after that but now…. Now I can." She says with a smile and I smile a bit too.
"What has you two up?" She asked as she came down from the watch post.
"AJ wanted to try and sneak out to do some patrolling, woke me up so I decided to join him." I explained and she nod as I see Aasim come take watch.
"Well, I can join you two, we walk around after watch sometimes just to make sure there's no breach in the walls." She says and I nod as we all start to take a walk around the wall and checked for anything weird. When we get to the back of the school, we see that there's some playground stuff, but it's overrun by weeds and tall grass.
"What is that?" AJ asked.
"Never seen a playground before? Well, I mean one that isn't being taken over by the weeds and grass." Violet says as she looked to him.
"We saw a swing at the train station." He says and I nod as he goes over to one of the slides.
"Careful, it might be rusty." Violet tells him and he nods as he does what he can to be careful.
"Hm, I uh…. I was thinking a bit… about everything that happened." She says and I look at her.
"If you want to talk about it, I shall be your therapist." I say and she laughed a bit and shook her head as she looked to AJ and so did I.
"The um… the twins… I was supposed to be with Marlon that day the twins supposedly died…. Makes you start to think a lot." She says and I nod at this.
"Yea it does."
"To think…. I should have taken their place… if I could redo it, I would." She says and I cross my arms a bit.
"I know there are times where I wish I could do things over again; it gets tougher and tougher on people when they keep thinking how they could change things." I tried to explain to her.
"But he gave them away, to people we don't know, and yet here he is, alive and… I don't know, I hate him for it." She says as I watch her clench her fist.
"To think we all trusted him, Tenn. was so sad when he thought his sisters died, I thought Minnie was gone but to think that she is involved in a war, she couldn't even kill walkers Clem." She says and I look back to AJ as he went on a swing.
"Not a lot of people did, I mean it was easier for you guys honestly but for me, I had to kill so many, heck I made a game out of it when I was bored, morbid I know but I had nothing else to do." I tell her.
"What kept count of how many walkers you killed?" She asked and I smirked.
"Killed and how they were killed, do it with some style gets extra points." I tell her.
"How do you kill with style?" She asked.
"Once killed a walker with a knife when I was riding a horse, that was awesome, I also knew a guy that basically walked on walls and slammed a walker into the ground." I explained.
"Hmm, sounds interesting might be fun to do one day, also where did you find a horse?" She asked, and I sigh a bit.
"Stole it from a farm when I was looking for AJ, then I found the car that no longer exists." I tell her.
"Hm interesting." She says and I smile.
"Yea." I say as we head to AJ as he finished playing a bit.
"Had fun?" I asked and he nods.
"Yea, could we clean this up to play more?" He asked, and I looked to Violet.
"Yea, we can do that later on as we make the school better." She says and I nod we all walk again.
"I'm not going to lie but…. Now that I've had time to think about it, I don't like the fact that Marlon is alive, Minnie and Sophie could be dead anyway if they were part of a war." She says.
"Don't think like that, he might have done wrong but he's still your friend, he messed up badly but to wish death on someone you know… it just doesn't sit right after a while." I tell her as we walked more.
"I just… it's complicated." She says.
"I once thought that about a friend of mine, that they should die and when they did… I blamed myself for it… when he actually died, I was alone with AJ, just because of what I remembered from the past." I tell her and she looked at me.
"Who was it?" She asked, and I rubbed my neck a bit as AJ ran ahead a bit to look at something.
"Kenny…. It was Kenny…. I was so mad at him when he killed Jane, but she hid AJ from us, but she was trying to prove a point…. I wanted to shoot him then, but I didn't, then as I got older, I started to think more like AJ does now…. Yea he tried to help me when I was getting beaten by Carver, but he was part of the reason it happened, but I remembered the good times… he kept me and AJ safe, he helped me raise AJ before he died, I blamed myself every day since he died, and I still do I still think that just because I thought it, it happened, Karma basically punched me in the god damn face." I tell her and I see her look away as I look at her.
"I'm sorry I didn't want to bring back any bad memories that you had." She says.
"Don't be sorry, I never had anyone to really talk to on this."
"Really, no one at all?" She asked and I nodded.
"No one, after Kenny I kept away from people, last time I was near people was when I was looking for AJ, and I may have tried to steal a car from them…. Maybe." I say and I hear Violet laugh a little at this.
"Maybe… ok I'll buy that." She says.
"Buy what?" I hear and look at AJ.
"It's a figure of speech, Violet's not really buying something." I tell him and he looked to me a bit but nods and goes back to doing what he was doing.
"He's a pretty cool kid." Violet says to me and I look at her.
"For the most part." I looked to AJ as he looked to a rusty pole in the ground and a string was attached to it.
"That is a tether ball pole." Violet explained as she went up to him. It was nice to see AJ interact with others, we had been alone for so long I had forgotten how it felt to have others around, I mean new people and all, I had AJ of course but sometimes it does get lonesome. It seemed like Violet was trying her best to explain the game to him but he still was a bit confused.
"But where is the ball?" He asked as he looked around.
"Well… Someone at the school tore it off and threw it at a Walker this was before we knew you had to get them in the head, and… funny thing is, the damn thing caught it and stared at the ball for a good minute before it dropped it then went after the kid." Violet said as she looked to the side a bit.
"Think his name was John… Jacob… jinglehimer shmit." She said and hummed the tune as she looked around.
"Hey that's a song Clem taught me." AJ says and Violet laughed a bit at this.
"Well, she has taste…. In child rhymes." She says as she looked to me and smiled. I don't know why but seeing her smile made my heart skip a beat and I smiled back at her. She went back to explaining some of the old playground equipment to AJ and I would follow and AJ would look at me to see if Violet was telling the truth and I would nod in agreement.
"When was the last time you were on a swing?" Violet asked and I looked to her to see her looking at me.
"Oh, about eight years ago… on a farm… with a bunch of cannibals." I say and sat on one of the swings and AJ sat on the one next to me and Violet helped push him.
"Shit… you did say something about that." She says and I lean back a bit and look at her.
"Yea… it's fine I've said that story a lot it doesn't faze me anymore a lot of the stories I tell just… don't faze me." I tell her.
"Anything you want to get off your chest?" She asked as she kept pushing AJ on the swing and he was kicking his feet a bit as he went in the air.
"Hmm… nah I have nothing at least in front of a child." I say to her and she laughed a bit.
"Wait we were supposed to be patrolling." AJ says and Violet laughed.
"It's ok to take a break AJ." Violet tells him.
"Oh… ok." He says and I smiled at him. After a while AJ decided that he was going to go to bed and he left us and Violet took a seat next to me on the swing and she looked to the school a bit.
"Been so long since new people came… when all this started, we heard we were supposed to get some new students…. They never made it." She says and looked to me.
"We heard on the radio that a bus was driven off the road and we thought it was them… but that was before everything went downhill." She says and I nod.
"My friend Lee, he was on his way to jail when the police car he was in was run off the road…. I found him because he had crashed behind my house in the woods and I heard a shot too." I tell her and she swings a bit.
"Damn… must have been a hard day hu?" She asked as she kept swinging.
"Yea… it's just… I don't know how a lot of people can live the way they do now… I mean trading others for safety, eating people, robbing people, starting wars… it's just… fucked." I try to say and she laughed a bit.
"I should be saying that but I get it… people are fucked up these days but it's not like it didn't happen before all this… people did the same thig it's just now it's gotten worse and since there's less people the more you hear about it… unless you've been isolated like us." She says and looked up a bit and sighs.
"Still thinking about Brody?" I asked and she nods.
"I just feel like shit is all… we were supposed to work on the fish traps together and now… god damn Marlon." She says.
"I get it you're mad and you all have every right to be." I tell her.
"It's just… I wasn't so nice to her, I blamed her I know I said I didn't before but a little part of me did blame her and I just… I feel so bad after what I had been doing to her over the past year… she didn't deserve it at all and I made it worse on her." She says and I place my hand on her shoulder.
"Hey, I think she understood… you guys have known each other for a long time, hell I wish I had people back from when all this started… all I have left is AJ… and I lost him for a while." I explain and she nods.
"Sorry I didn't mean to sound like a dick." She says as she looks at me.
"Hey it's fine." I tell her.
"How could you do it?" She asked.
"Do what?"
"How could you live out there? Without going crazy that is." She says.
"Oh, so you say I'm not crazy enough hu?" I asked and she laughed a little.
"No, I mean… damn." She says and I laughed at this.
"It's fine… I guess it's because I always think what Lee would do… he was always neutral when it came to arguments or trying to plan things out… When Lilly and Kenny were fighting, he tried to see it from both of their perspectives, leaving would have been bad but also good, only situation was, what plan did we really have besides finding a boat… but staying was also good and bad, good because we knew the area but bad because we were running low on supplies and we had raiders watching us… it's never a win, win in this type of world you know?" I ask her.
"I get it… you try to think of the possibilities that could happen with either situation, then try to take the route that seems less dangerous." She says and I nod.
"Exactly, some people might not like it but if they don't mention anything about it or give other suggestions then how can we work together… that's why AJ and I make a good team, I told him the same things Lee has taught me." I say and swing a bit.
"He's a good kid like I said, smart kid too." She tells me and we both stopped swinging.
"I wish a lot of kids here would have learned that before… we could have more people alive but this is all that's left." She tells me and I nod.
"Had this one group… AJ's parents' group and the thing is, people didn't want to listen, people were at each other's throats, they were to paranoid because of Carver and what had happened to Matt, and just… stupidity." I tell her.
"What exactly happened?" She asked.
"Well… Nick, Pete and I went to go check some fish traps they had… well the night before Nick had almost shot me, well her apologized after everything and Pete was talking to me about how him and Nick were going hunting… they argue a bit and we come up to the lake and check out to see what had happened… things went from bad to worse and just… Pete ended up getting bit." I tell her and she looked at me.
"Nick ended up getting drunk too, he just… that group was broken, and the way Carlos was treating his own daughter… in my own personal opinion now that it's been five years since all that happened I think Carlos should have told his daughter about the dangers of this world, he should have taught her how to survive and not coddle her, he should have told her that there might be a chance that something bad might happen to him… instead he sheltered the poor girl, she thought that the worse thing her dad could ever do was not talk to her for a short while, where I have seen people get shot for saying one thing wrong." I explained.
"Maybe he had his reasons." She says and I shake my head.
"Only thing he said was that she would cease to function, but that was because he had sheltered her way too much, that's why she couldn't survive in this world, on her own, we tried to help her, we really did, I had to smack her in order for her to get up and not be eaten by a bunch of Walkers for crying out loud… all Carlos and the others did was cause more damage to her than help her, it's like… I get it, you don't want her to think about all the bad but that will never stop, bad always comes in waves and right now, it's gotten worse, especially more up north." I explained to Violet as she swung a bit.
"I can see that, the thing is… we tried to do the same here for the younger ones, we didn't want them to see dead bodies coming up after them, we didn't want them to deal with any of that until they got older… in the end we fucked up and most of them were killed… we just wanted kids to try and have a normal life, we didn't wan them to think about what was beyond the walls and we just… we're just kids trying to raise kids in safety… was it wrong?" She asked and I look to her and think for a bit.
"I wouldn't say wrong per say, just… things can be handled differently… I get it you guys have safety, AJ and I really didn't have that, granted I was just a little girl at the time and a stranger took care of me with a group of more strangers, but after what happened with my first group… after we lost everyone… it hardens people… I won't lie I can be a major bitch, I've delt with assholes that would rather have a kid do the job for them than to risk their own necks, I mean hell I just… had to grow up that way… it's not what Lee would have wanted but that's how things are now." I tell her.
"I hear you, before I was sent here, I had to deal with assholes, had to grow up real fast where I lived… I just… I don't know anymore." She says and stops swinging and gets off the seat and I stand up too.
"I am sorry I just… I'm just trying to figure all of this stuff out." She says.
"It's fine." I tell her. We walked back to the front of the school and she went back to her spot on the tower connected to the wall and I headed back inside and went to my room and saw that AJ was finally asleep. I went and laid on my bed and fell asleep till I was woken up by AJ and I groaned a bit.
"We have to go into the town." AJ says and I nod as I wake up and stretched a bit. I was still tired but it was nice to have talked to someone last night.
"Hmm, ok I'll be up." I mutter and I slowly get up.
"Violet said she was going to come along with Louis." AJ says and he looked excited and I rubbed his head a bit and nodded.
"Alright, I'll be out in a bit." I tell him and he runs out the room. I get everything ready and grabbed my bag and hat and walked out to see the others were sitting at the table eating, Marlon was at a table alone and I go take a seat next to Louis.
"We can keep an eye on him, get any more information if we can." Aasim says and I nod at this.
"That would be good… so when are we heading out?" I asked.
"After we finish eating, I don't think AJ should come." Louis says and I look at him.
"Trust me, you'll wish he had come if he doesn't, ain't that right AJ?" I asked and he nods as he finished his food and I smile at him.
"I just don't want him getting hurt." He says.
"Thank you for your concern, Louis, but AJ and I have this handled, we have some rules to go by." I stated to the man and I looked to him just as AJ spoke up.
"Don't go alone, that's the first and important rule, check for any exits when entering a building, look in the windows before entering a building, if the door is locked wait for an adult to be with you in order to open it and have my gun ready, if trapped try and kill a Walker and cover yourself with its guts-."
"Woah hold on that's… why would you do that?" Violet asked and AJ and I looked to all the kids as they looked to us.
"If you kill a Walker and cover yourself with their guts it hides your scent and you can walk into a whole herd of them, only reason I know this is because of my friend Lee, when he saved me in Savanna." I explained to them.
"It works?" Ruby asked and I nodded.
"I can show you guys if you want." I tell them and they nod.
"Alright, first walker I find I'll show you." I say and we all finished eating. We all grabbed our stuff and began to walk out of the school, we kept walking till we got near the fish shack and I take a look around for any Walkers but there wasn't any and I shake my head a bit.
"Look it's not that we don't believe you-."
"I trust her." I hear Violet say and I look to them as does AJ.
"Ok, it's not that I don't believe you, but isn't it a bit dangerous?" He asked.
"Well, it's less dangerous than trying to walk into a herd guns a blazing." I say to him.
"I just… I don't know." He says.
"Trust us, AJ and I have done this for years, it's fine." I say and then I hear a few Walkers and nod to them and they keep quiet. AJ and I approached the closest Walker and I take it out with my knife so not to inform the other Walkers of our presence. I set the body onto the ground and opened it up and shake my head at the smell.
"You still fucking stink." I mutter and I saw AJ cover his mouth but I can see that he was trying not to laugh and I roll my eyes and cover myself. I could hear some gaging and looked to see that Louis looked a bit sick and Violet just kept her head to the side and I sighed a bit as I finished covering myself, and I helped AJ as well. We both stood up and I looked to the other two as they look at me and I walked backwards and a Walker came up to me and stopped as it just stared at me for a bit. I stare back at it and it moved away and I looked to the other two as they just stood in shock.
"Holy hell." I hear Louis whisper as AJ and I walked up to them, given a few feet since we did stink like high hell.
"See it works." AJ whispered and I nodded.
"Plus, it can be easy to get a cow catcher." I whispered and they looked to me.
"It's when you take a Walker and cut it's jaw off so it doesn't bite you, you put it in front of you and walk in the herd with it making a path." I explained.
"I'm guessing your friend Lee taught you this hu?" Louis asked as we walked a bit and I grabbed a rag from my bag and handed it to AJ so he could at least wipe his face.
"Nope, that I learned from Jane, she also told me that the best way to take a Walker down is to hit it in the knee, and then stab it in the head, also if you see any Walkers down on the ground, make sure to get it in the head too, don't know if they really are down so it's safe to just do it." I explained and AJ handed me the rag back and I wiped my face.
"Must be getting all the guys with that trick." Louis says.
"Nope, and don't care, it's to survive and that's what I plan on doing." I tell him.
"You haven't heard a joke in a long-time hu?" He asked.
"Last time I heard a joke it involved two men and a lot of goats, I don't think you'd want to hear that." I say and he laughed.
"Oh god I think I know the one you're talking about." Violet says as she shakes her head.
"Let's let AJ have clean ears… as much as we can." Louis says as AJ was walking ahead of us. We kept walking and chatting a bit before we reached a somewhat empty road and I looked across the street both ways before we walked across and entered the woods again.
"So you haven't had a boyfriend at all?" Louis asked and I sighed and shook my head.
"Relationships cause problems that I don't like." I tell him and then handed AJ his pistol and Violet was looking at the map she had.
"Yea but, don't you want one?" He asked and I look at him.
"Are you offering?" I asked and he looked to the side a bit and I stopped and placed my hand on my hip.
"Louis what do you know about me?" I asked him.
"Well… you know how to survive." He says as he stopped too.
"Yea but what do you know about me?" I asked him again and he looked to me.
"Uh… well." He says and I smiled a bit and laughed as I kept walking.
"Why would you date someone if you know nothing about them?" I asked.
"It's to get to know you that's how dating works." He says and I think.
"Well… you aren't wrong but you also aren't right, for all you know I could just be some sick sadistic person that does human sacrifices." I tell him and I hear Violet laugh a bit.
"Well… you don't seem like it." He says and I shake my head.
"Ok… guess my favorite fruit." I tell him as we keep walking.
"You seem like the type of person that likes… pears." He says and I shake my head.
"Oh, are we playing a guessing game?" Violet asked as she came over to us.
"Sure, twenty questions about Clem." Louis says.
"Ok, Violet, what would Clem's favorite fruit be?" Louis asked and she looked to be thinking for a bit.
"Apples?" She asked and I nodded.
"One point for Violet." I say.
"Oh, come on that's common. I thought you would have said something like… I don't know durian." Louis says and we laughed at this.
"I tried a dragon fruit once, the red ones are good, oh and pomegranates, but I really, really love apples." I tell him.
"Why cause of the pie?" He asked.
"Mom use to make apple pies, loved them, oh and peach cobbler." I say and think about thanksgiving.
"Oh, I love peaches." Violet says.
"Hey, the best and only fruit I will it, is a melon, it's like a cantaloupe but better." Louis says and Violet nods at this.
"It's true." She says.
"Ok… what's my favorite color?" I asked as we kept walking and AJ was close to us but still ahead.
"Blue."
"Pink." Violet answers and I shake my head. She seemed to have guessed wrong to make Louis feel better because I remember telling her my favorite color a few days ago.
"Nope, both are wrong." I say.
"It's Purple, like her hat and old backpack." AJ says and I nod.
"Point for AJ." I say as I point to him.
"Damn, I was close though." Louis says.
"I was a lot closer." Violet says.
"Yea but if I had said red too, I would have been right." Louis says and I laugh.
"Ok, ok, let me think…. Oh, I got it, what is my favorite time of day?" I asked.
"Fuck um… afternoon?" Louis says and I shake my head.
"Nope." I say to him.
"Damn it." He mutters.
"I want to say night?" Violet says and I nod.
"That's two for Violet." I say.
"Why night though?" Louis asked.
"I like the stars, and I remember being told that if I was ever lost at night then just follow the north star." I explained.
"Oh, so like a map." Louis says and I nod.
"Yep, though day time is good too, but I don't know I just like the night." I say as we keep walking. As we continued walking and talking, we reach the edge of the forest to an open field and I look around a bit.
"It says here that if we keep going forward, we will reach a small town, shouldn't be too big but we can find some stuff there." Louis says as he looked to the map Violet was looking at.
"Yea we would have to cross the river though." She says as she points to the said river.
"That's fine, water never hurt anyone… ok let me rethink that." I say and we continued to walk.
"Alright, we know a bit about you, how about you know a little about us?" Louis asked and I nodded.
"Sounds fair." I say as we keep walking.
"Ok, what is… Violet's favorite color?" Louis says.
"Dude why not ask her what yours is?" She asked as we walked.
"Just having some fun, it all." He says and I shake my head a bit as I think.
"Ok… I think Violet's favorite color has to be… red, and Louis, yours has to be… green." I say.
"Holy shit, you got it right." Louis says and I look to Violet who nods.
"Yep, you got it, two points." She says and I laughed and we walked some more.
"Ok… favorite sports, go." Louis says.
"Oh, that's a tough one… Louis, I think you like baseball…. Violet thought… you don't seem like a sports person." I say.
"I do love baseball." Louis says and I nod and look to Violet.
"I'll give you that, but I do like to play soccer here and there, just not a favorite sport." She tells me and I nod.
"I'll take the one point than." I say and we reached a river. At this point AJ went to go and clean up a bit and so did I and I shook the water off my hands and looked around a bit.
"Hey what's over there?" Violet asked as she went over to the other side and grabbed what seemed like a backpack from the grass. I go over to her and we looked inside to see only a knife and some papers which I grabbed and looked at them.
"Papers?" Louis asked and I nodded as I read them.
"Something about Delta, Delta, Delta, is this a community?" I asked as I looked around a bit.
"I have no idea." Louis says and I look to Violet as I put the papers back and grabbed the bag from Violet and set it back down where it was.
"Ok, don't take anything from this area that we see, no knife, no can, nothing ok?" I tell them.
"Why?" Louis asked.
"It could belong to someone from this group." AJ says and I nod.
"And they could be dangerous we don't know." I mutter and we head on in the direction of the town.
"But what if it's just a random bag?" Louis asked.
"It's not worth the risk, it won't help us in the end." I say and turn to look at him and see the bag in his hand.
"DUDE!" Violet yelled.
"What, it could be useful, maybe we might know who this person was." He says and I go up to him and grabbed the bag from him and head back to place it in its spot.
"Hey wait." Louis says as he grabbed the bag and I glare at him.
"Do you want us to get fucking killed?" I asked him.
"For taking a bag?"
"Yes, for taking a fucking bag, people out here are fucking crazy and will kill you for taking a god damn piece of paper." I say as I grabbed the bag back from him.
"That's stupid." He says.
"That's life out here." I say and head back to the river. I look around to make sure there was no one around and I set the bag back in its spot and head back up to the others.
"Like I said before, don't fucking take anything, all we know is that it belonged to someone in some place called Delta, that's fucking it." I tell them and looked to Louis in particular and we began walking again.
"Wasting my damn time putting a bag back… fucking serious?" I asked as I looked to him.
"I thought you were joking." He says.
"Why would she joke about that?" Violet asked.
"You have to be wondering just as I am to know who these people are or were." He says.
"Look I get it, you want to know but right now that isn't the best idea, people have gone crazy for less." I mention and looked to AJ who stood next to me.
"They just don't understand." AJ says.
"Pardon?" Louis asked.
"You guys don't understand, it's scary out here… Clem and I might look like we aren't but we are scared… I hate it out here." He tells them.
"I'm sorry AJ, we will learn… maybe you can teach us." Violet says and he nods.
"Ok… I can be a teacher." He says and I rubbed his head and we finally reached the town we walk in and I look around and see nothing but symbols and such on the buildings and I go up to it and looked to the others.
"Careful." I whispered and they nodded as they grabbed and readied their weapons. We walked around and grabbed some items here and there and we reached the gun shop and I try to open the door but it won't budge. I checked the windows and saw that there was some guns inside and I saw that the door was barricaded with a desk and a few file cabinets.
"Louis you and AJ stay here, Violet you and I will go around back and see if we can make our way in through a back door." I tell them and they all nod as AJ was telling Louis what to look out for as Violet and I went in the back ally.
"You sure you can trust Louis to watch AJ?" Violet whispered and I chuckled just a bit.
"I mean AJ is watching him, he's in charge." I tell her and she laughed a bit too. She goes up to a door and looked at it before she tried to open it but it wouldn't budge either.
"It's a security door, only opens from the inside." She tells me and I nod as I look around and see a fire escape butting up against the building.
"Do single story buildings usually have these?" I asked.
"Not unless there was something up there." She says and goes over to the ladder and starts to climb up the ladder. I followed behind her and we finally get up to the roof and I got a good look around the area to see nothing moving. I feel a hand on my shoulder and I turn to look at Violet who pointed to a hatch in the roof and I nod as we head over and she was able to open it up. We go down and see that it was in the shop and I nod as we head over to the front door and moved the items away from the door and open it up for AJ and Louis.
"How'd you get in?" AJ asked and Violet pointed to the open hatch.
"The door is a security door; I don't think we should go out that way unless we want to get any dead heads coming out from hiding." She says and I nod in agreement.
"Alright, well let's grab what we can and head on out." I say as we searched for any weapons, and lock boxes as well. AJ was able to find some bullets for his own gun and I was looking at an old pistol and shook my head as I grabbed a holster and attached it to my belt after unbuckling it. I then looked around and grabbed some ammo boxes for any of the weapons we grabbed and I grabbed a few rifle bags as well and Violet set the one, she found in one of the bags. She didn't seem too fond of some of the guns that were in the shop and I looked at her a bit then looked over to the side and saw AJ as he looked at the window.
"Something up?" I asked and he points to something and I look to see a Walker trapped under a truck.
"Do you think they were alive when that happened?" He asked and I look some more.
"I sure hope not… come on, let's get all this stuff ready." I tell him to keep his mind off of it. Once we had gotten all that we might need we headed up the hatch again and exited out the building and out of the town. The only thing I couldn't tell them was that there was a wall of walkers piled up across the other side of the town. I don't know if Violet saw it too but I don't think I should ask her for now. It was about the mid afternoon when we finally made it to the school and we set the items down on the tables and I look at the others as the kids took a look at what we found.
"Ok, we need to set some rules." Aasim says and I nod at this as we discussed what we planned to do. We would use the guns for practice on the Walkers outside the school walls, once done we were to take the guns and lock them up in a storage room and Violet said she could hold on to the key and we all agreed. Once we were finished talking, we all decided to go and talk to Marlon as the younger kids went to play or draw. We headed over to the music room where Marlon was and I look at him for a bit before Louis came up to him.
"Did those raiders have a group name?" Louis asked and Marlon looked to him.
"What?" He asked.
"Did that raider group have a name?" He asked again.
"I don't know… I know they said Rockingham but I doubt that that was their name." Marlon says and I think.
"Did the leader or the person tell you, their name?" I asked.
"Uh… Able was the crazy guy in the woods that shot you… the other person was a woman… Lilly I think was her name." He says and I look to him a bit narrowing my eyes.
"Long hair?" I asked.
"Kind of." He says.
"Brown?" I asked.
"Yea." He says and they look at me and I place my hand to my mouth and I think a bit.
"Green eyes?" I asked.
"Yea." He says and I think some more. It couldn't be her; it can't be her.
"Are you saying you know this person?" Mitch asked.
"I sure hope not, Lilly was part of my old group, if this is the Lilly I know, she might not be too happy to see me." I say to them.
"What did you do to her?" Ruby asked.
"Oh, I didn't do anything, I was nine when she left our group… well… was kicked from our group." I tell them.
"Why did you kick her out?" Violet asked.
"She shot a woman in our group, Lee wanted her to stay because well… she was broken after her dad died, he wanted to help her but Kenny… he was able to convince him to leave her on the side of the road." I tell them.
"Your friend wanted to keep a killer with your group?" Aasim asked and I sighed.
"It's not that simple, Lee tried to save her dad but Kenny took it to far and dropped a salt lick on her dad's head… I saw it happen… and Kenny didn't make things better, they both fought and it got worse after the Saint Johns farm… they tried to make Lee pick sides and it was just hell." I tell them.
"So, she now kidnaps kids, are you going to blame that on her dad for being dead for god knows how long?" Aasim says pissed.
"No, god no I don't look, I'm just hoping this isn't the same Lilly, that's all." I tell them.
"Alright, well let's just get things set up, we don't have any idea when they are coming." Mitch says and I look to Marlon as he looked to the side.
"Do you know when they are coming?" Violet asked a bit pissed.
"No, I don't I just know I needed to bring someone." He says and I grabbed Violet as she was about to charge after the boy.
"Fucking prick." She says and shoves my hand off of her and she heads out the doors and I sighed a bit.
"Well, I'm going to get started on dinner." Omar says and I nod as everyone left and it was just Marlon and I in the room. I take a seat on the piano chair and look to him as he kept his eyes to the ground and I rubbed my neck.
"Why didn't you just let him shoot me?" Marlon asked and I look to him.
"Do you really want to die?" I asked him.
"I don't know." He says and I take a breath.
"Look, what's done is done, you have to live with the guilt but you can make things right by helping us defend the school, they still might be pissed at you but everyone will be mad for their own reasons." I tell him.
"Seems like you have experience." He says and I nod.
"Oh yea, trust me, if you think death is the easy way out, you are sorely mistaken." I tell him.
"Why is that?" He asked.
"Well, think of the people you'll hurt… Louis and you are still friends if I recall." I tell him and she just kept his eyes to the ground.
"Look, it'll take some time, trust me, time is all we have." I tell him as I get up and leave the room. As I head out to the court yard I head over to the others as they make some plans on how to secure the school.
"Clem have any ideas?" Mitch asked.
"Barbed wire can go across the wall; we can set the tables like this." I say and draw it out on the map of the school in front of us. After I finished drawing it all out everyone agreed and I nodded at this. Once everyone was set on the plan, we all went to work and I grabbed the barbed wire and Violet came up to me.
"Come to help?" I asked and she nodded at this. We get to the look out tower and Violet grabbed one end of the wire and I held the other end as she pulled it to the other side of the wall.
"You know, if I was told I was going to be fortifying the school against a bunch of crazed adults wanting kids for a war, I would have called you bat shit crazy." She says and I laughed at this.
"Well do you still think I'm crazy?" I asked her.
"Oh yea, you're insane… but in a good way." She says as she secured it then walked back over to me carefully. She dropped down a bit and then grabbed the other wire and walked to the other side making sure the front walls were good.
"I mean if I was told that I would be living in a world full of dead people, I would have been confused for one thing but then say that person was silly." I tell her and she laughed.
"Oh yea, same here, but hey now we know they were right." She says as she secured the other side of the wall and then came back over to me. We made sure the center was good and I grabbed one of the metal rods she brought up and the hammer, hitting the rod into the wall making sure the barbed wires wouldn't unravel. When we finished up, she looked at the few Walkers that were by the wall and she takes a breath.
"You good?" I asked.
"Yea… yea I'm good." She says. I look to see that the others had set up what we could for the night and Violet took a seat on the tower and grabbed her guitar.
"Know any good songs?" I asked and she thinks a bit and plucks a few strings. I watch her as she plays some more.
"I don't know this song." I tell her and she looks to me.
"My grandpa wrote it, so no one knows it really." She says as she keeps playing. The sound was soothing it seemed like it was meant to be used for a lullaby.
"It's nice." I tell her and she nods.
"Yea… maybe I'll play the popular songs but right now… I think this is fine." She tells me and I nod as I lay my head back a bit and look to the stars. I keep looking and then I moved a bit to look at the Walkers down below. They just walked around as if nothing was wrong in the world, but they still wonder when they are going to get their next meal from any of us in the school.
"Walkers suck hu?" Violet asked as she stopped playing her guitar and I look at her and nod.
"I mean, yea… they take people away from us." I tell her.
"That's true, then other people have to make it worse by also taking people from us." She says and I nod and sigh a bit.
"You know… AJ only knows this world… I wish I could show him how it was before… not having to worry about stupid raiders taking kids, people having to shoot each other, Walkers killing everyone… it's just… I want him to have a normal life is all." I explained to her.
"Oh, trust me, that's what we wanted for Tenn. and Willy, but hey, you have done some of showing him normality." She says and I look to her.
"How?" I asked.
"Well, he grew up with a big sister, right?" She asked and I laughed a bit at this.
"Lots of people think of me as his mom… I even did at one point." I say and look at my hands.
"Ah, well he grew up with you, and you taught him how to live at least, and hey he's here, he's friends With Tenn and Willy…. Maybe more with Tenn." She says and we both laughed a bit at this. We hear that dinner was ready so we head on down and eat for a bit, AJ was over with Tenn who was drawing and I watch him a bit then looked to the other teens. We all go over the plan again just to make sure and tomorrow AJ and I will be teaching them properly how to use the guns. When we were all done we all headed to our rooms and I helped AJ into bed and I went to bed myself.