Here it is chapter 2 finally, sorry for the long wait, I had originally planed for this chapter to be finished at the end of February at the latest and now its April, what can I say I'm a slow writer and the fact that English isn't my first language doesn't make it any better also this chapter was a pain in the ass to write, I think I rewrote it almost three times and I still don't think I got it right.

Anyways enough about that, hopefully you will enjoy this chapter.


Chapter 2

Ellie's mind was churning. She still wasn't sure if she had made the right choice in trusting Pete and Luke. Sure they looked like nice people and they had saved Clem's life but even so she couldn't get rid of the nagging feeling in the back of her skull that told her that trusting these people was a bad idea that was going to come back and kick her in the ass and that they should turn around and go back into the forest.

But the rational part of her mind said, "go where? Rain clouds are moving in and you have no camp or shelter to protect you from it. The whole forest is infested with stalkers that you have hardly any protection against especially if they swarm you in the dark. Clementine is too tired to travel on her own strength let alone defend herself. These people are offering a solution to all those problems, a warm house as protection from both the weather and the stalkers and they have a doctor that can help Clementine a hell of a lot more than you can." Ellie bit her lower lip in uncertainty. "What would you have done if you were here Marlene?" she wondered not for the first time.

She would have felt a lot better about the situation they were in if she still had her gun, but unfortunately Clementine still had it. Ellie could see the gun handle sticking out of the back of her pants. Since she knew she wouldn't be able to take the gun back unnoticed. She had considered the idea of asking to get it back but quickly dismissed it. She doubted that either of the two men would like the idea of arming her even more, especially after she had threatened to kill them if they tried to double cross her.

It didn't take them long to walk down the hill and reach the cabin. As they got closer Ellie saw that a broad shouldered African American man was sitting on the stairs to the porch. He was dressed in a light brown jacket, a white shirt and dark jeans. His black hair was cut short and had started to turn gray at his temples whiles his goatee was almost completely gray.

He seemed to be cutting or carving something with a knife that Ellie couldn't see. He was so preoccupied with what he was doing that he didn't notice them until they had almost reached him. He sprang up from the stairs and stared at them from behind the lenses of his glasses with joy.

"Pete, Luke thank god you're alright," he said, his deep voice full of relief. "You two had us all worried when you didn't come back when you said you would." Then his eyes fell on the sleeping form of Clementine in Luke's arms and Ellie who was standing next to Pete with slight unease "and…I'm guessing these two are the reason for your delay?"

"Yeah, we found them in the woods surrounded by lurkers not too far from here," Pete said and gave Ellie a light nudge forward. Ellie – who had been staring at the knife in Alvin's hand – wasn't prepared for it and almost lost her balance. She threw Pete a quick reproachful look before she returned her attention to Alvin. "Alvin this here is Ellie." Pete continued as if nothing had happened.

Ellie raised her hand in greeting. "Hi," she said a bit guardedly.

Although he still looked a bit unease about them being there, Alvin managed to give her a friendly smile. "It's nice to meet you," he greeted back.

Pete threw a thumb in the direction of Luke. "And sleeping beauty over there is Clementine." At the mention of her name Clementine stirred but did not wake, she snuggled her head against Luke's shirt. "And she seems to have taken a liking to Luke." Pete smiled humorously. "You always were popular with the ladies," he chuckled.

Luke did not seem to share Pete's humor of the situation. "Pete this really isn't the time for this," he said in exasperation.

Ellie wondered if maybe he was worried about Clementine's health – if so then her approval of him just went up – or maybe Pete had pulled one to many of those comments in the past and Luke had finally had enough of them.

"You're right, sorry. Just trying to lighten the mood a bit." Pete said apologetically.

Accepting that answer Luke looked back to Alvin. "Do you know where's Carlos is? We need him," He asked and nodded down towards Clementine.

"Last I saw him he was upstairs with Sarah," Alvin answered.

Luke gave him a nod he then moved to gently lay Clementine down on the ground and with quick steps walked off towards the door of the cabin. Seeing a chance to get her gun back Ellie crouched down next to her new friend – who didn't seem to have notice that she was now lying on damp earth – removed her backpack and jacket and gently laid the latter over the sleeping girl as a blanket. Ellie looked up at Pete, who – to her relief – was busy talking to Alvin.

"What about the others?" he asked.

Keeping her eyes on the two men Ellie gently moved her hand – now hidden under the jacket – in under Clementine in search of the gun.

"Becca is resting, and Nick's been pacing back and forth in the living room for the past hour."

An expression of relief formed on Pete's face as Ellie's fingers tightening around the handle of the gun and she slowly pulled it out.

"That's good, I was afraid he'd storm off looking for us if we didn't come back in time."

With the gun now free she quickly stuffed it in the back of her pants.

"He almost did but we managed to talk him out of it."

"Thanks," Pete said and gave Alvin a grateful smile.

"I'm the one who should be thanking you, you guys are out there everyday hunting for food whiles I spend my day's sit on my ass watching the house. Good catch by the way," he said and nodded at the fawn slung over Pete's shoulder. "It should feed us a day or two."

Pete looked at Ellie. "Don't thank me, thank Ellie," he said with a smile. "She's the one who did the excellent job of catching it."

Ellie could feel her cheeks heating up slightly at the sound of his words. She didn't know why she was blushing, maybe it was because she wasn't usually complemented for her hunting skills. In the group from Boston she hadn't been allowed to go hunting at all. Marlene and the others insisted that it was "the grownups job" and that it was "too dangerous for a kid."

Alvin blinked in surprise and stared at her in astonishment. "Really? How the hell did you do it? We've been hunting in these woods for days and have hardly found shit."

Ellie shrugged. "I got lucky; its mother had walked into one of the traps I had set up so I jus-"

"Hold on," Pete interjected. "Are you telling me there is a full-grown deer trapped out there?" he asked, sounding almost exited at the idea of a whole deer trapped and just waiting for them.

Ellie hated that she had to dash his hope. "Not anymore," she said regretfully. "She made so much noise she attracted a bunch of stalkers. They were starting to tear her apart when I got there, I just barely managed to kill the fawn before it escaped and get out of there before they were on me."

Pete sighed and muttered a curse.

"Man, you must have nerves of steel kid. My guts wrench every time I see one of those things," Alvin said and shivered. "And to kill a cute little deer on top of that, uh-uh no way I could have done that when I was your age."

His words made Ellie beam with pride. She liked it when people thought that she was dependable and that she could handle herself in a tough situation.

"Hey, I don't like the idea of killing Bambi either," Ellie said. "But meat is food and this girl needs to eat."

Alvin chuckled approvingly at her words and scratched his chin with what looked to be a small piece of wood.

"What's that?" Ellie asked trying to eye the thing in his hand.

"Oh this! we lost a pawn from our chess game so I'm trying to make a new one," He said and held out his hand, so she could see it clearly.

Ellie had never played chess – hell she didn't even know how to play chess – but she knew what the pawns were supposed to look like and the thing that Alvin held in his hand only vaguely resembled one. The base was uneven, its midsection was crooked as hell and the thing at the top looked more like a badly decapitated egg then a sphere.

"It's not going so well," Alvin admitted sheepishly.

The cabin door flew open and a man who looked to be in his early to mid-twenties with short black hair and a stubble beard rushed out with a rifle held at the ready in his hands. He was wearing a dark red cap, a dark blue t-shirt over a white long sleeved under shirt and blue jeans. His blue eyes zeroed in on Pete immediately.

"Uncle Pete!" He exclaimed; his voice filled with concern. He hurried down the stairs.

"It's okay Nick. I'm alright," Pete said calmly as Nick stopped in front of him.

Relief washed over Nicks face when he heard those words and his body – that had up to then been tense – visibly relaxed. "When I heard Luke say someone was bitten, I thought…" he trailed off and a look of pain and grief crossed his face.

Pete put his hand on Nick's shoulder. "I know," he said and gave him a sad smile.

They stood like that for a few seconds then Nick with a look of realization murmured something under his breath and his eyes moved to Ellie.

"Ellie this is my nephew Nick," Pete said not noticing that Nick was eying her critically. His gaze moved up and down Ellie's body – which Ellie found very unnerving – twice like he was looking for something. "Nick this is Ellie," Pete continued.

When Nick didn't seem to find whatever it was he was searching for he nodded his greetings at her which Ellie payed back with a nod of her own.

Nick's gaze then moved to Clementine. As his eyes moved up her body, he tighten his grip on the rifle so that his knuckles turned white. With a horrible sense of foreboding Ellie moved her hand very slowly towards her gun.

"And the girl on the ground there is Clementi-"

But before Pete could finish the sentence Nick raised his rifle and aimed it at Clementine's head. Clementine's left forearm was sticking out from under Ellie's jacket and Nick had seen a bit of the bloody bandage sticking out from under her sleeve. Cursing Ellie pulled her own gun but before she could aim it at Nick, Pete had pushed the muzzle of Nick's rifle away from Clementine. Nick tugged the weapon out of his uncle's grip and tried once again to aim it at the small girl's head only for Pete to once more pushed it away.

"Put the gun down boy!" Pete snapped angrily.

"She's bit uncle Pete!" Nick shouted back heatedly. He stared at Pete with a mixture of incredulity and irritation. "She needs to be-"

"She needs to be looked at!" Pete cut him off.

"She going to turn, she needs to be put down now!" Nick snapped back.

"You'll have to go through me first," Ellie growled.

Nick whipped his head around and found the barrel of Ellie's gun pointed straight at his face. Surprised by this new threat Nick tried to raise his rifle but Pete stopped him.

"Ellie put the gun away," Pete said, grunting from the effort of stopping his nephew.

"Let go of me Pete," Nick hissed between clenched teeth.

Ellie however kept her gun aimed at Nick and didn't move a muscle.

"Ellie," Alvin spoke softly. He stepped in between the two parties; his hands held up placatingly. "Lower the gun."

She shook her head. "I won't let him kill Clementine."

Seeing the steely determination in her eyes Alvin said, "I get that, but starting a shootout here ain't going to help anybody, least of all Clementine."

Ellie bit her lower lip in hesitation, but she knew that he was right. If she started a firefight here, she and Clementine would most likely die, they were outnumbered and most likely outgunned to. Slowly and very reluctantly she lowered her gun and stuck it into the back of her pants. Alvin let out a sigh of relief.

"Would someone mind telling me what the fuck in going on here?" A new voice called out sharply from the direction of the cabin.

An African American woman in her mid-thirties with a mop of curly brown hair was slowly walking down the stairs towards them. The women were dressed in a pair of gray jeans and a black long sleeved under shirt with a light blue t-shirt that stretched tightly over her pregnant belly. As she approached, she eyed the two girls with suspicious hostility. Pete and Nick broke apart at once, the later giving the former an aggravated look.

"It's just two kids Rebecca, nothing to worry about," Alvin said in a calm voice although he seemed to have tensed up at her approach.

"Yeah, we got this under control," Nick added hefting his rifle uncomfortably in Ellie's and Clementine's direction.

Rebecca however did not look assured by their words. "Like hell you do. Did anyone even think to ask where they came from? For all we know they could be working for Carver."

Ellie's eyebrows rose in confusion. "Carver? who the hell is Carver?" She gave Pete an inquisitive look hoping for answers, but he was too focused on speaking with Rebecca to notice.

"Look, all I know is that there were two kids who's been split from their groups and were surrounded by lurkers. We couldn't just leave them there to die and Ellie here said that Clementine's been bitten by a dog."

"And you believed that bullshit?" Rebecca sneered contemptuously. "Lurkers are the only thing that bites people around here. You should have just put the kid out of her misery right then and there."

She spoke as if shooting wounded kids were the most obvious thing in the world. Her words and Nick's nod of agreement made Ellie's insides boil. She took a step forwards so that she was face to face with the pregnant women.

"Hey, fuck you lady!"

Rebecca's face twist in anger. "Watch your mouth you little-" she shouted back but was interrupted by Pete who stepped between them and pushed them apart.

"Alright, everyone calm down," he said sternly.

Rebecca and Ellie stared daggers at one another and would probably had continued to shout if not a newly woken and weary Clementine had chosen that moment to speak from her position on the ground.

"We're not wor-"

BANG.

A gun shot echoed across the clearing interrupting her word and made everyone jump in surprise. With ears ringing everyone stared at the rifle in Nick's hands that was pointing in Clementine's direction. Nick for his part was staring wide eyed in shock at the hole in the ground where Clementine's hand had been only a few second earlier.

Ellie recovered first and was crouched down at Clementine's side in a heartbeat, "Clem are you alright?"

Clementine responded to Ellie's question with a barely perceptible nod, not taking her golden eyes off the gun that had nearly blown her hand off. Ellie whirled around and glared up at the dazed Nick and saw to her satisfaction Pete jerk the rifle out of his nephew's unresisting hands.

"Keep your finger off the trigger, boy!" He shouted furiously.

The door to the cabin flew open and a panicked looking Luke burst out. "Whoa! Whoa! What the fuck!?" he cried out. His words were quickly followed by those from Rebecca and Ellie who started to shout at Nick at the same time.

"What the fuck is wrong with you!"

"You idiot! every lurker for five miles probably heard that!"

Their insults seemed to shake Nick out of his daze. He gave Ellie a quick obstinate look before he rounded on the furious Rebecca. "You're the one telling me to fucking shoot her!" he snarled.

Before Rebecca got a chance to respond and vent her anger, Ellie stepped in front of Nick and without warning pushed him as hard as she could so that he staggered back a few steps. "If anyone should be shoot here it's you, you fucking asshole!" she shouted and moved towards him with the intention of punching him. She never got the chance.

"Everyone just calm down for a second!" Alvin said. He took Ellie by the shoulders and steered her away from Nick. She glared at Nick who glared right back at her with such intensity that one could think that she had just insulted his saintly mother.

"Clementine are you okay?" Ellie heard Luke ask as he helped the African American girl to her feet.

"Yeah" Clementine answered weakly.

Luke turned back to the group and for the first time since Ellie had met him, he looked angry. "What the hell is wrong with you people? They are just scared kids."

"We're all scared Luke," Rebecca said without a hint of remorse for what had happened. "Don't act like we are the ones being irrational because we don't buy their bullshit story." She waved her hand at the two girls.

"Irrational!" Ellie exclaimed in outrage. She raised her hand and pointed an accusing finger at Nick. "Your stupid redneck friend here nearly blew Clementine's hand off!"

Rebecca looked like she was about to retort when the sound of the cabin door opening and closing caught everyone's attention. Ellie looked away from the pregnant woman and to the Hispanic man that had just exited the cabin and was walking calmly towards them. The man had thick black hair, a full mustache and a stubbled beard. He was dressed in a pair of worn dark jeans and a red and white checkered patterned shirt that reminded Ellie a lot of the shirts that Joel usually wore.

"Let me take a look," he said with a calm lightly accented voice. The others parted to make way for him. He stopped in front of Clementine and gestured for her to show him her arm.

Clementine hesitated and looked at Luke. "It's okay Clem, he's a doctor," he said with a kind voice. Her eyes then went to Pete and Ellie. Pete gave her a smile and nodded. Still feeling more than a bit angry, Ellie gave the smaller girl a stiff nod.

Clementine pulled up the left sleeve of her new jacket and stretched out her bandaged arm to the doctor who took it gingerly and started to unwrap it. When he reached the final layer Clementine's face twisted into a grimace and she whimpered in pain. Her dried blood had fused the bandage to the stitches in her arm, Ellie could only imagine how painful it must be for her to have her unhealed flesh pulled at like that.

When the final layer was removed everyone in morbid fascination leaned in to have a better look at the wound. Nick quickly averted his gaze and took a few steps away from the group, whether he did so because he found the wound disgusting or disturbing to look at Ellie didn't know.

Alvin made a hissing sound. "Damn that most have hurt," he murmured loud enough so everyone heard him.

After a quick inspection of the arm Carlos looked up at Ellie. "Did you do this?" He asked and pointed at the stiches. Ellie crossing her arms and nodded. She gave him a defiant look daring him to criticize her work. To her surprise no criticism came instead he asked in the same calm voice, "and you used disinfection on it?" Ellie gave another nod in response. With his questions answered Carlos focus went back to Clem's arm.

After letting him study the sewed up wound a bit longer Luke asked in a worried tone the thing that the entire cabin group was wondering. "Is it a dog bite like they say?"

Carlos didn't answer him at once. He gently poked and twisted Clementine's bitten forearm a few times – making her wince in pain – before he said, "hmm it's hard to tell…whatever it was it got her good."

Nick – who had been standing on the side biting his nails – pushed his way back into the center of the group. "This isn't how we do things man. When you're bit you get put down end of story, I'm not going through this again," he said his face a mask of irritation.

"No one is suggesting that Nick," Luke said his hands raised in a placating gesture, "but we don't know if it really is a lurker bite or not."

"She was bitten by a fucking dog! She's not going to turn!" Ellie shouted in frustration.

It felt to Ellie like they were running around in circles and not getting anywhere. Despite the cloud of frustration that was swirling in her mind Nick's words had made Ellie think. They had been through a situation like this before but with a real bite victim that time and by the sound of it they had – like many others before them – not taken enough precautions when they tried to help him or her and it had literary come back to bite them. From the look of things, the person in question had been someone close to Nick.

"No wonder he's so jumpy."

"You don't know what you're talking about." Nick said. "I've seen this shit before, when your bit by a lurker your as good as dead." He pointed at Clementine's arm. "When that bite kills her, she's going to turn and then she's going to try and eat us. She has to be put down now before that happens!"

"Wow, you've seen a few people get bitten and turned? that most make you a fucking expert on situations like this right?" Ellie said her voice dripping with angry sarcasm. "You think you're the only one that have seen bite victims before? I was stuck in Boston for more than a month after those things took over. I saw hundreds of people get bitten and turned by those things." she snared heatedly. Her eyes felt slightly moist, but she ignored them. "During the past two years I've have had to mercy kill more than twenty people, some of them were my friends!" she shouted, her voice cracking as the face of an African-American girl with brown eyes and brown black hair set up in a ponytail flashed through her mind and tears threatened to spill down her cheeks. "So, don't come to me and say I don't know what the fuck I'm talking about!"

Pete grabbed them both by the shoulders and pushed them apart. "That's enough!" he said in a low voice, yet they all heard him and there was no mistaking the weariness in it. His gaze wandered to Nick. "We're not putting anyone down, at least not until Carlos has had his say."

Nick gave him a mutinous look but didn't say anything. Ellie felt a great gratitude towards Pete for stepping in, she didn't think she could have continued the argument with Nick, at least not without getting physical and that would not have ended well. From the corners of her eyes Ellie saw Alvin give her a sympatric look. She quickly wiped the tears from her eyes with her sleeve, she hated crying – especially in front of other people – it made her feel weak.

She felt a hand on her shoulder and looked up into Luke's concerned face. "You okay?" He asked.

Ellie nodded. "Yeah," she sniffed and whipped her eyes again. "Just…give me a minute."

"Pete the girl is bitten, she needs to be put out of her misery," Rebecca said – with a tone that Ellie thought was not quite as harsh as it had been before – and gestured to Clementine. "You can't seriously believe this wishful thinking their spewing."

"I have a pretty darn good bullshit detector Rebecca, that why none of you have ever beaten me in poker and it tells me that they are telling the truth." The scowl that Rebecca made told everyone what she thought of Pete inbuilt lie detector.

"Who are they?" A new voice asked.

Standing on the threshold of the now half opened cabin door was a Hispanic girl with shoulder length black hair and red rimmed glasses. She was dressed in jeans, a grey shirt and a sky-blue jacket. She didn't look to be any older than Ellie herself. From her appearance alone Ellie guessed that she was related to Carlos somehow.

"His daughter maybe?"

"Sarah?" Carlos rose from his crouch and half turning looked at the girl, his face suddenly very stern. "What did I say? Stay inside."

"Definitely his daughter."

With a look of dejection Sarah did as Carlos ordered, silently closing the door behind her. With his daughter back inside Carlos turned his attention back to Clementine. He crouched down again so that their eyes were leveled with one another and put his hand on her forehead.

"I don't want to be any trouble," Clementine said, speaking up for the first time since Nick almost shoot her. "I just want to know if my arm will be okay and then we'll leave. You'll never see us again, I promise."

Carlos eyes narrowed slightly. "And where exactly would you go?" he asked with a suspicious edge to his voice.

"Far away from here," Ellie cut in before Clementine could answer. "We can take care of ourselves."

"Clearly," Rebecca said sarcastically. Ellie responded by giving her the finger.

"Carlos we've been through this shit before. We all agreed we don't wait for shit like this, end of story," Nick said.

Carlos didn't answer him, he just stared at Clementine's wound in contemplation. With a sigh, he stood up and rejoined the rest of the group.

"So, what do you think?" Alvin asked.

His question was quickly followed by one from Nick. "Was it a lurker?"

Carlos crossed his arms and took a deep breath. "A bite like that…it could be from a dog it's hard to tell. She does have a small fever." Before anyone could interrupt him at this damning bit of news he continued, "but it's not high enough to tell if it's from a lurker bite or just a common cold. There is only one way to find out for sure," he finished, and his face turned grim.

"How?"

"We wait"

"What!" Rebecca exclaimed in surprise.

She wasn't the only one who had been taken aback by Carlos words, Alvin was staring at him wide eyed in shock and Luke looked apprehensive. Ellie on the other hand was using all the self-control she had not to smirk.

"By tomorrow morning we'll know for sure if she's going to turn." Carlos looked back over his shoulder at Clementine. "In the meantime, we can lock her in the shed."

The joy that Ellie had just felt went out of her as fast as the air from a popped balloon. Both hers and Clementine's eyes widened. "You can't be serious!" Ellie exclaimed in disbelief. The look Carlos gave her told her that he was dead serious.

"And what would you have us do then? Let her stay in the house?" Carlos asked. Before she could answer he continued, "you have so far not shown us any proof that she was not bitten by a lurker."

"We both said th-"

"That's not good enough," Carlos cut her off, his voice now hard as stone. "I'm not going to risk the life of my daughter or any other member of my group on the word of two strangers, especially when there is a safer way to find out the truth."

Ellie clenched her hands into fists and grinded her teeth in frustration. She wanted to shout and protest, even hit someone. It took all her willpower to do none of those things. She understood Carlos reasoning, she really did. Back in Boston a day or two before order had completely collapsed the survivors of the orphanage experienced a situation similar to the one Carlos was in now.

A wounded man – Ellie never found out his name – had come pounding on the orphanage gates begging for help. Mrs. Hale, the matron of the orphanage and the only grownup that hadn't abandoned the children to die knew the man and let him in and tended to his wounds. The next morning the kids were awakened by a horrible scream. When they had gone down to see what had happened, they found Mrs. Hale lying on the floor in a pool of blood with the man crouching over her body and ravenously tearing into her throat.

It took five of them working together to kill it – once they had overcome their shock and horror – but by then it had already killed little Jeremy – who had been paralyzed by fear – and bitten Rachel and Michael. There would probably had been more deaths or bites that day if not the new girl, Riley Abel, had had the foresight to stab the heads of Jeremy and Mrs. Hale. Although at the time the other kids – Ellie included – thought that she had lost it.

Since Mrs. Hale had kept them inside the orphanage ever since the first riot and stopped them from watching the news since she didn't want to scare them, the kids had no idea how the stalker virus spread. So, they did the only humane thing they could think of, they treated Rachelle's and Michael's wounds as best they could and then – on Riley's urgent insistence – quarantined them in separate rooms in case they too died and turned. That turned out to be a wise move since they inevitably did.

It was that incident that taught Ellie and the other kids that a bite was certain death. They never let another bite victim into the orphanage again no matter how much they pleaded or screamed for help, not even if it was one of their own. They did however mercy kill them if they asked them to with a silencer gun that one of them had found but unfortunately, they didn't always have bullets to it. In those cases, the victims were left to find a way to kill themselves. Ellie could still remember how one of them – Jessica – hade pleaded with them to let her in after she had been bitten on a food run. They had told her to go away and commit suicide, but she didn't listen. She just stood there screaming again and again to be let in for almost ten minutes before a group of stalkers reached her and tore her apart. She didn't even try to run away from them, she only screamed.

If Ellie was in Carlos situation, she would have done the same thing that he was trying to do now but that didn't mean she liked it. Understandably Clementine didn't like it ether. Her eyes had been moving rapidly back and forth between Ellie and the members of the cabin group as they argued and when Ellie stopped talking after Carlos pointed out the danger of letting her in the house, she looked even more uncertain and fearful.

Taking Ellie's silence for reluctant acceptance Carlos said, "Luke, Nick take her to the shed."

Clementine instantly took a step back. "B-but w-what about my arm?" She asked fearfully. "It still needs fixing right?"

Carlos face soften just slightly, and when he spoke his tone was more friendly then any Ellie had so far heard come from the man. "Your friend did a good job at stitching and cleaning your wound. There is very little more I can do to make it better and if it is a dog bite like you say it won't kill you." Although his words seemed to calm Clementine, she still looked a bit uneasy. Carlos turned and addressed Ellie, "since you are so certain that it is a dog bite, I recommend that if you have more clean bandages you use them. I won't waist any of ours on a potential lurker bite."

Ellie gave him a short stiff nod to show she understood but said nothing. Oh, she had more bandages alright, enough to mummify half of Clementine if she wanted to, but she wasn't going to tell any of them that. if they knew just how much medical supplies she had in her backpack they would most likely try to demand some of it as payment.

"Or all of it," she thought darkly. She needed to be careful and make sure that they didn't see it.

"Come on," Luke said not unkindly to Clementine and gestured for her to follow him.

With her head lowered in resignation Clementine walked after him. Ellie's eyes followed the direction of their walk until they spied the shed that was standing at the edge of the clearing. It wasn't very remarkable, just four wood colored walls, a pair of white double doors and a roof. It didn't look much bigger than her old room at the orphanage.

"Finger off the trigger son," Pete said sternly. He held out the rifle to his nephew who irately snatched it from him.

"I ain't your son," Nick growled and hurriedly marched off after Luke and Clementine.

"Asshole," Ellie muttered, glaring daggers at his retreating back.

Pete sighed and shook his head. "He has his mother's temper," he said as if it would excuse Nick's rudeness.

Ellie didn't know what to say to that, so she just shrugged, picked up her jacket and backpack and headed of after Nick.

"And where do you think you're going?" Carlos voice cut through the air like a knife.

Ellie half turned and scowled at him. She was really starting to get tired of him and his I-know-best-do-what-I-say attitude. "With her of course," she answered in a deadpan voice and jerked her head in the direction of Clementine. The disapproving look on Carlos's face told her exactly what he thought about that idea.

"No, you're not," he said with the same sternness he had used when he spoke to his daughter. "You'll be staying in the house with us."

"Trying to separate us huh." Ellie scowl deepened, and her hands clenched into fists. If he thought he could order her around and that she would meekly obey him like Sarah did he had another thing coming. "Like hell I will. I don't have to do anything you say," she responded defiantly. "You not the boss of me."

They glowered at each other, neither one of them backing down.

"Maybe not," Carlos said slowly. "But have you considered the fact that if you stay in that shed and she should die and turn during the night she'll kill you."

Ellie snorted. If he thought he could scare her into obeying him he was dead wrong. "She won't turn. I was there. I know she wasn't bitten by a damn stalker, so I damn well know she's not infected!" Ellie almost shouted the last part.

Carlos stared at her with growing frustration and Ellie was sure that he wasn't used to being talked back to like this by a kid. She suspected – from the little she had seen of her – that Carlos daughter was too timid to stand up against her father like this.

Carlos opened his mouth no doubt to argue more but before he could utter a sound Rebecca said, "give it up Carlos. If the girl wants to be eaten by her friend, I say we let her. So long as I don't have to clean up afterwards."

Ellie glared at Rebecca and was sorely tempted to flip her off again but restrained herself when Alvin said, "Becca that's enough!" He sounded more disappointed with his wife then angry. Laying his arm around her shoulder he said, "come on," and steered her towards the cabin.

Carlos sighed and rubbed his eyes. Perhaps it was because he was tired or maybe because he had realized that anymore arguing with Ellie was pointless that he said, "if you want to stay with your friend, fine, go." And without another word he headed back inside the cabin.

Ellie in turn spun on her heel and headed for the shed. When she was only a few meters from it Luke started to shut the doors whiles Nick kept a guarded eye on Clementine who was standing just inside cradling her wounded arm and looking dejectedly out at them.

"Hold the doors," Ellie called out to them. The two young men looked at her as she walked past into the shed and stopped before Clementine.

"The hell do you-"

"Nick! Come on man, give them a moment."

"How are you doing?" Ellie asked the younger girl.

"I'm okay, just a bit cold," Clementine answered and emphasized the point she rubbed her arms with her hands.

"It is pretty chilly out here," Ellie noted and her anger at Carlos for locking her new friend in here rose anew.

"I bet it's a lot warmer in the house," Clementine said longingly.

"Maybe, but it also has a couple of jackasses in it." To Ellie's satisfaction Clementine smiled. Ellie was then reminded that she and Clementine was not alone when from behind her Nick mutter what sounded like a series of curses. She turned to the two men and cleared her throat. "You can close the doors and go now."

Nick and Luke looked at her first in confusion then with dawning realization. "You're going to stay in there with her?!" Nick burst out in disbelief. "Are you fucking serious?"

"Yeah I am," Ellie answered.

Stepping forward with a look of apprehension on his face Luke said, "Ellie I don't think that's a good idea. If something were to happen during the night." He cast a quick glance at Clementine. "We probably won't be able to help you in time."

"Oh, for fucks sake," Ellie groaned in annoyance. With all the running, arguing and shouting she had done today her patience were at its last straw. "Look," she said exasperatedly. "Carlos and I just had an argument about it, and he couldn't make me change my mind and you won't either so just drop it alright!" When neither of the two men moved from the spot she snapped, "just go. I'll be fine."

"Ellie-"

"Just fucking go!" she shouted.

If Luke took offense to her rudeness, he did not show it, Nick on the other hand looked furious. He took a step towards her. "He's trying to help you, you ungrateful little shit!" He snarled.

Luke put a hand on Nick's shoulder. "It's okay Nick. It's been a long day…for all of us. Let's just go back to the house." Luke turned on his heel and walked out of the shed. With one last nasty look at Ellie Nick followed his friend outside. "I'll come out with some food for you guys later okay," Luke said before he shut the doors.

"This is stupid," Ellie heard Nick mutter under his breath once the latch had been slide into place and the sound of the two men's footsteps could be heard heading in the direction of the cabin. "Why are we even doing this?" Nick muffled voice ask through the wooden doors. "It's so fucking dumb."

"Because it's safer this way and I'd rather be sure," Luke answered.

"Yeah but safer for who?"

Ellie wondered how Luke would respond to that question but by then he and Nick were too far away for her to hear his reply. With the two men gone Ellie pulled out her flashlight and turned it on so that they could better study their new surroundings. The shed was sparsely furnished with only a shelf on the left side wall and an empty workbench on the right. A barrel with a few planks sticking out of it stood in the far-left corner with a garden rake leaning against it. On the far wall hung a life ring, a fishing rode and a very sharp looking boat anchor. On the floor the far-right corner was a toolbox.

Judging by the many potential weapons the cabin group had left them they had never intended for the shed to be a prison cell. Ellie turned her attention to the sheds other occupant who had also been scanning the interior of the shed.

"They left a lot of stuff in here," Clementine said. Her eyes roaming over the things on the far wall from right to left before they locked onto the shelf. "What's that?" Clementine asked and pointed.

Ellie looked up at it. She hadn't noticed it before but a handle of some kind of tool was stick out over its edge of the shelf. Standing on her tiptoes she reached up and grabbed it. It turned out to be a hammer. She hefted the tool in her hand and showed it to Clementine who looked at it with interest

"Do you think Luke, or the others need it?" she asked.

Ellie shrugged. "Don't know, maybe. Why do you ask?"

Clementine pulled out her folding knife and showed it to Ellie. "I need another weapon. I only have this knife and it doesn't really have any reach."

Ellie nodded in understanding. By her estimation the blade was no longer then Clementine's index finger, it was not the kind of knife you'd want to have when fighting stalkers. "We can ask Luke when he comes back out," she said and put the hammer back on the shelf. "But before he does let's bandage up your arm and rest." She sat down on the hard floor. "This floor is going to be a bitch to sleep on," she thought as she pulled out her medical bag. "I hope Luke brings something soft for us to sleep on or else we're both are going to have sore backs in the morning."


I've already started writing chapter 3 but like i said I'm a slow writer so it probably wont be finished any time soon.

Please review and tell me what you think?