WARNING:
CHAPTER INVOLVES DESCRIPTIVE ACCOUNTS OF GORE, FORCED TORTURE, AND TORTURE OF A MINOR. DO NOT READ IF YOU CANNOT STOMACH THE CONTENTS OF THIS CHAPTER.
Chapter 16
The truck stopped after hours of driving. Clementine couldn't sleep as her brain was working overtime to try and figure out why he had captured them.
The container gates opened, Phoenix and three of his men of his men standing outside.
"Get up." He ordered, she and Mia were the only ones to stand up. The other three were cowering in a corner.
She could tell that Phoenix was losing his patience as his face morphed into a scowl, so Clementine tried to help them up.
"NO!" One girl gave a shrill, ear piecing shriek at her touch, and tried to push herself further into the corner.
"You two, come here." Phoenix pointed at her and Mia, Clementine stared at the three sadly for a second before following Phoenix's orders.
They both dropped down from the truck.
'It's evening.' She
"Kill them." Phoenix told his men as he dragged both of the obedient girls away. The cries of the other three only lasted for a second.
She looked at her surroundings, some type of prison she gathered as he led the two inside.
The first thing she noticed noticed was the stench, it smelt like burnt syrup and flowers. The next thing was the people, they were in some daze. And finally, there were only about thirty of them in total as she counted, including those she saw outside. That gave her hope, as the Militia could definitely finish the raiders off if they only had this many people here.
Phoenix led them to a cell, pushing only Mia inside it and locking the gate. Clementine stared at the blank faced girl with worry as the man dragged her away.
He led her to the warden's office, she spotted a small metal cage made from rebar, that was located in the corner of the room, right next to the fireplace. There was minimal padding inside the cage. She looked around the office, she didn't spot any animals in the barebones room, or on the way.
"Get in the cage." The man opened the gate, she grimaced as she realized what he was saying.
She kneeled down and crawled inside the cage, the padding certainly didn't help much as she bumped her knees against the rebar flooring.
She sat down with her back against the rebar cage with a wince, she was unable to move around in the cage that much. She couldn't stand, and she only had around two feet of extra space if she had to guess.
"Good job." Phoenix closed the gate behind her, locking it with a chain and padlock.
The man left the office soon after, leaving the eleven year old alone. She searched around the room, the skylight had showed the dimming sky.
'This brings up bad memories.' She suddenly remembered the crazy woman from the zoo.
She tried kicking the gate open a few times, to see if she could break out, but it wouldn't budge. She then tried inspecting the frame of the cage for any weaknesses, but there wasn't anything she could take advantage of.
A few minutes passed before Phoenix reentered the office, the man was carrying a large duffel bag. He dropped the large bag on top of the desk.
"Your people don't have tight lips Clementine." He started emptying the bag, she could only make out a few objects he pulled out. The one that stuck out to her the most was a small photo.
"The mute little bitch." He turned towards her with a look of amusement, she returned his gaze with a defiant glare.
"Heh, that's what one of the militiamen as your people call themselves referred to you as that. Didn't even have to torture him to get him to crack. The mute little bitch with the hat." He sat down crosslegged, right next to the cage, his eyes boring through her own.
"I've heard a lot about you. Your leader is grooming you to be his heir no?"
She refused to answer the man, but he seemed to take her lack of a response as a yes.
"William Carver... I knew someone by that name."
Clementine's glare intensified towards the man.
Phoenix laughed, "Back in the Gulf War, the squad I was in was visited by some black ops types. Needed one of us for a mission of some sort." He showed her a photo, his finger directly above a smiling man.
"That man was me... Corporal James Walker. Everyone else in that photo were my squad mates. David, our squad leader, is this ugly son of a bitch." His finger moved towards a tall hispanic man.
"He refused to participate, didn't trust the bastards. So I decided to go with them instead." He stood up to grab a small black bag from the desk, and sat back down.
"The leader of this black op was no one else but your own William Carver." He opened the bag, revealing some tools.
Clementine refused to let the revelation bother her, she wanted to know where he was going with this.
"They captured some Iraqi officers in some shit hole, didn't care to remember the city. But Carver, that man tortured them when we got back to base. I watched as he did it. Felt sick at first, but by the last man, I learned... a harrowing fact about myself that day." He grabbed a small knife from the bag, trailing it with his finger.
"I hear he teaches you many things. He ever teach you how to torture a man?" She noticed the hungry, disturbed glint in his glazed eyes.
She nodded slowly, unsure of why he was asking her this.
"You ever do it?" He licked his nonexistent lips.
She shook her head with a frown, the thought of those she gave a painful, drawn out death in Knoxville flashed through her mind. The man's gaze seemed to harden a bit, before he lunged into the cage and grabbed her tied arms. She tried to fight him off, but his grip only tightened around her wrists, which made her yelp in pain. He cut the zip tie holding her arms together.
"Calm down kid, just freeing up your arms." He smiled as he returned the knife to its place in the small bag.
"When I got back home after the war, I wasn't the same, the civilian life was much too quiet, peaceful. So I joined back up with the CIA, served in a few more black ops myself. Eventually decided to seek out Carver one day, but he'd already left for the civilian sector. Became a civil engineer of all fucking things." He looked disappointed when he said that.
"One day I was ordered back home for some mandatory rest. When I returned, all this shit went down the same day. Weeks go by, and I met back up with my squad leader, David. Started this group and found a home in this random orchard." He let out what seemed to be a genuine laugh.
"Man couldn't keep a crop going for shit, only made it because of some civilians that approached us. Started this group, you might recognize it from some of your people. Seen some bodies with our symbol." He revealed a scar he had, it was melted over, but she recognized the icon.
'New Frontier... they're behind this?' The information didn't make sense to her, the refugees they accepted had only mentioned good things about the group, but people always changed.
"I got fed up with the way things were going. The person I'd become over the years hated the peace. The wars around us were only growing, and I didn't want to wait for us to be attacked with our pants down. I was afraid to reveal that side of myself to my only last war buddy, but by the time I could suck it up and bring forth my thoughts. It was already too late, someone that joined up with us at the start betrayed us for another group. And when the flames cleared, and I rose from the ashes covered in bandages and burns, the man I once was. The coward afraid to reveal himself died in that orchard, rended apart by the flames." His eyes regained that former sense of amusement and hunger.
Clementine could tell this man was deeply disturbed, but she found herself intrigued by the monologue.
"I know I'm losing this war kid. I don't have the men to keep the raids going. William trained y'all very well." The man closed the small bag of torture tools and stood up again.
"I'll be back tomorrow kid. Get some sleep... you'll need it." He placed the bag back on the desk and left.
She subconsciously rubbed her wrists as she thought about the things he had just told her. And she was praying that someone arrived soon.
Clementine woke up with sores all over her body, she tried to stretch them out, but she didn't have the room to do so comfortably. She backed into the cage and cracked her neck and back, offering her a brief surge of pleasure.
It was barely even sunrise, she rubbed the tiredness from her eyes, and a wet feeling assaulted her. She looked down at her hands, bloodied and blood pooling around her, the smell of flesh cooking burned her nose. She looked up and saw Vince's thrashing body covered in flames, Phoenix standing behind him. The shrieks and cries of Shel and Becca pierced her ears.
The burned man's laughter had overpowered everything else, and she saw Vince's body replaced with Lee's. A blaming, angered look on his face. The man mouthed the words 'your fault' as his face turned to bone.
She awoke with a frightful jump, her heart pacing, and her breathing rapid. She checked her hands, they were free of blood. The smell of burnt flesh was gone, the screams and laughter gone. She stared at the skylight, the sun was already in the center of the sky.
It took her a few minutes to calm down from the nightmare. Her rage towards the man was renewed.
The door opened not long after, Phoenix entering with some firewood, a gas can, and a fire poker. He sent her a menacing smirk as he placed the firewood in the fireplace. He poured gas over the wood and lit it.
"I never thought in all my forty years that I'd be here." The man started, he started poking the burning fire.
"Talking about my impending demise with a little girl." He looked over at her, his gaze made her uncomfortable.
"They'll be here sometime this week. I've made sure of it." The man's soft expression suddenly morphed into one of insanity.
She found herself crawling away instinctually, the man didn't even look human.
"I'm going to teach you lots of things before I die, Clementine. You'll learn something about yourself before I go." He strode over to the chains and padlock holding the cage shut. She crawled away, the heat from the fireplace warming her neck to an uncomfortable temperature.
Phoenix unlocked the gate and dragged her out by her legs violently, she tried to kick the man's hands, but his grip was like iron. He drug her towards the desk and sat her down on the worn chair. He grabbed a long chain from the desk, and wrapped it around her, locking it in place with a padlock.
Clementine thrashed as much as she could to try and escape, but the man backhanded her viscously. Her vision blurred and she barely managed to stay conscious from the powerful smack.
"Stay still sweetheart. Will only make this easier for you." He picked up a small dark brown block, the stench of it was the same as the one that permeated throughout the prison.
"This block here, is opium. This'll make you forget or care that you were ever in pain." She was confused, and scared as to why he had chained her up to tell her this.
"I personally don't use it, lost all sense of pain and touch months ago." He stared at the block for a few seconds.
"I'll be right back."
She was now utterly terrified of what he was planning to do with her.
Phoenix reentered the office with another, a woman that was in a daze, her pupils were almost invisible.
"This one." He pat the woman's shoulder in a friendly manner.
"Is currently under the effects of opium." He sat the woman down on another chair. He grabbed the fire poker from the fireplace, it was glowing red from the heat.
"This is the capability of that small, little brown, shit colored block." He placed the poker against the woman's face, the drugged woman barely reacted. The smell of the woman's flesh sizzling made Clementine sick, she almost threw up from the smell assaulting her nose.
"Come on now, we didn't even get to the best part." The man let out a manic laugh as he dropped the fire poker and grabbed a large knife from the desk.
"This here, is how you cut a finger off." He placed the blade on top of a joint of the barely conscious woman's right middle finger.
She tried to close her eyes to hide the sight, but the man slapped her again.
"Watch." The man's voice lowered intensely, making her body tense up.
He slammed the knife straight down on the woman's finger, her stomach started twisting.
"And this... is how you make others break, by only hurting one person." He started dragging the knife around the woman's chest, ripping through the clothing.
She watched as the man began trailing his hand behind his incisions, peeling the skin slightly. The woman on the chair had started becoming more aware. Phoenix arrived back to his first incision, and started dragging the knife under the skin, his bloodied hand was digging into the now screaming woman's body. But the screams died quickly as she passed out.
"Funny... I taught some fellas down south how to do this. The victim never stays awake long." He laughed at her nauseous face.
"Felt sick at first too, but then it fascinated me." He ripped off the now detached layer of skin, she could see the woman's muscles twitching.
Clementine turned her head and threw up on the floor, which made Phoenix laugh even harder, like he just heard a funny joke.
"You're a funny kid Clementine." He let out a joyful sigh, before slitting the woman's throat.
"Tell you what, how about I give you something to remember this lesson by." He approached the young girl, carrying the bloodied knife.
She didn't dare move in fear of what he might do. He hummed to himself as he looked her up and down. He placed the knife over her face, she tried to flinch away, but the man held her face still with his free hand. The rough texture of his skin felt sickening, but she didn't care about that much longer as the man began cutting into the side of her face. It only lasted for a second, but she screamed and kicked wildly from the agony.
"Perfect... now let's see..." He tapped a bloody finger on his chin.
"How about... got it!" He snapped his fingers, he exited the room again.
Clementine tried to escape the chains holding her down, but it was to no avail as the crazed man reentered with another drugged person.
"You will do the torturing." His monstrous smile made her sick as he pulled the dead woman's body off the chair, sitting the other person down.
The dead woman started growling, a knife quickly piercing her temple.
"Almost forgot." His voice cheerful, a disturbing glee as he strode towards her and unlocked the chains.
He forced Clementine towards the barely conscious man.
"Take it slow, if you end his life too soon... you'll be punished, and your friend will wish she was dead." Phoenix threatened, a dark whisper in her ears.
Phoenix handed her the knife, Clementine stared at the bloodied blade.
'I could end this right now.' She clenched the blade tightly, her knuckles turning white.
"Don't even think about it. The second I die, and don't check in with the others, is the second your friend is tortured in ways that she'll never recover from." The threat made Clementine despair, she felt like anything she tried was pointless.
'Survival... at all costs.' She repeated that mantra in her head as she placed the blade over a finger.
She hesitated.
"NOW!" Phoenix loudly boomed, she flinched from the sudden shout.
Rage swelled in her chest, the memories of Scottsville, Knoxville, the fire station and all the other engagements she'd been in. But then she remembered Savannah, for the first time in a long time. The rage had reached past its boiling point and exploded. By the time she came to, the man on the chair was already missing all of his fingers.
"Good job Clementine. Remember that feeling you just felt, it'll take you far. Give you the strength to do what must be done." Phoenix praised her, the man was smiling.
"Now start with his face. Make it into one large piece."
The rage swelled again, but this time she was fully aware of what she was doing.
She was locked in the cage again, staring at the dead body cooking in the fireplace. The smell didn't bother her anymore.
Clementine looked down at her body. She was covered in dried blood and caked vomit from head to toe. Some hers, most of it from the ones he had her flay open and cut apart.
She trailed the markings of a roman numeral three he had etched into the back of her right hand. The latest one, and the one she realized that she had started looking forward to the act of flaying one of these bastards alive.
Clementine's stomach growled, moving her gaze upon the bowl sitting at the end of the cage, a pound of raw flesh sitting on it. Tempting her, but she wasn't that far gone, not yet. She could withstand the hunger, she'd done so many times.
Her eyes then moved towards the chair in the middle of the office. The sound of flesh cutting, skin ripping, warm blood, and exposed organs flashing through her head. She clenched her fists around the cage bars.
'You'll be on that chair one day you bastard.'
She then looked up at the skylight. The starry night goading her to slumber, she curled into the corner, her back against the walls as she fell asleep. The thoughts of tomorrow's victim would be her last thought before the night claimed her.
Over the week, he had made her go through five people, one for each day. He slapped, punched, kicked, and threw her around if she made a single mistake or did something he didn't want her to do. Like throwing up on the body, or killing them off too soon.
She was working on the sixth person now, this one wasn't even drugged this time. She could only imagine the pain they were going through as the still conscious man had his chest flayed open. The sight of his intestines peaking out didn't bother her anymore, it had lost its shock value by the second person. She hated that she started to enjoy this, but the reflection of her face in the blood pooling on the floor, only reminded her of the disdain she had for this man. The man had marked her body with cuts for each victim, each one was masterfully done by the man as he engraved reminders of "his lessons" into her skin.
"You're a natural kid!" Phoenix praised her again for what seemed to be thousandth time this week, but the sound of gunfire began to echo through the prison.
"Looks like school time is over kid. Now for your final gift." He grabbed her by the neck and forced her to the ground roughly, dragging her to the fireplace and sitting on top of her chest.
"With this, you'll never forget what I've shown you today." He plunged his right hand into the burning fire, his face hadn't lost its maniacal look.
Clementine tried to push him off, thrashing and twisting, but he simply placed his knees over her arms.
He ripped his arm from the fire, it was on fire and he ogled it with some sick sense of wonder at the sight.
She was trying everything at this point to try and shake the psychotic freak off her.
"From now onwards, you'll carry the branding of my hand on you to remember these lessons, I'll live on through you, until the day you die." He ripped her jacket and shirt open and placed his flaming right hand in the middle of it.
The first thing she felt was the heat, then the excruciating pain, and then screams erupted from her throat, her throat felt like it was ripping open as they did.
'IT BURNS!' She was kicking her legs and trying to pull her arms free from the man's weight.
"This is my final lesson unto you Clementine!" He lifted his hand from her chest and put the flame that had threatened to kill her out. He then violently cut the burning flesh from his right arm.
"Always carry the rage you feel now in your heart. It may die down some day, but it'll always come back. This will make sure of it." He stood off of her, and stabbed the gurgling walker on the chair. Pushing the dead creature off and sitting down on it.
"Now!"
Clementine's chest felt terribly cold and hot at the same time. Her skin was bloodied, blistered, and terribly red, in the shape of a malformed hand.
She felt a visceral growl escape her throat, as she grabbed the knife from the dead walker's skull.
"Your final test."
She was caught in a daze as she started the first cut, by the time she finished, the man was laughing softly and the skin on his upper body was practically all gone.
"You've made... an excellent student Clementine." He coughed blood on her.
Her face remained blank, even as the door to the warden's office was kicked open. Bill was standing in the hallway with a... worried face?
"Shit. Let's get you covered up." The man removed his trademark, fur-lined coat and placed it over her. Blocking her exposed chest from view.
Phoenix kept laughing maniacally as she was escorted away by Bill. She ignored the looks of pity, and the calls of her name as she dragged herself down the hallways. She just wanted to go back home and take a break from all this.
Bill opened a door to exit the prison, and lifted her into the passenger seat of a large truck. She shuddered from the cold feeling in her chest, the sudden jerk had only aggravated the injury, making her wince.
"Don't worry, we'll get you taken care of." Bill's voice was surprisingly comforting, she never expected him to act like this. But people were always full of surprises.
Her eyes felt heavy, and everything went black.
"Hey Sweetpea." A familiar voice called behind her.
She waved at her former guardian with a soft smile, as she dangled her legs outside the train car.
Lee sat down next to her, the man letting out a choppy breath.
"I wish I could've been there... to stop this madness from happening to you." His teeth were clenched, and his fists were practically white from the pressure he put them under.
'But you weren't.' She thought to herself as she stopped dangling her legs.
She looked down to her chest, she was no longer in the dress she wore during this day, but in the camouflage hunting gear that Bill had given to her months ago. There was a large disfigured burn scar in the shape reminiscent of a hand.
"I know Clem. If only Christa and Omid had made it. You wouldn't have this... this thing on you." His voice was full of pity, and his face scrunched in disgust.
'Just stop.' She felt a tear drop, her gaze switching to the passing trees.
"I'm sorry Clem." He whispered softly, his tone ever caring.
'No you're not... you aren't even real.' She bitterly thought, she began to feel angry at the man.
"I... I'll just go." Lee moved to place a hand on her shoulder, but she inched away.
She didn't even bother to look at his face as he stood up, and probably disappeared into the shadows as he always did. She just kept staring at the trees, her face forming into a dejected frown as the minutes passed by.
She blinked, and the trees were suddenly on fire. Another person sat down next to her.
"You don't need that bastard anymore anyways, Sweetpea." Phoenix said the nickname mockingly.
"He'll just bring you down with him. I'll be there to give you the "hope" you need now." She ignored the man's mocking laughter as the trees burned brighter.
"Ignore me all you want. But the day will come when you need someone's advice. And the only one who can help is me." The man disappeared in a plume of fire.
The flames disappeared instantly with him, the trees now leafless and charred black and white.
The sight was a pleasant change to her, was all she could think.
Clementine awoke in the infirmary being tended to by Carrie. She had an IV in her arm, and bandages wrapped loosely around her chest. Her chest hurt, and her throat felt terribly dry.
"Hey Clem." The woman's voice a soothing rasp.
Clementine looked around tiredly, no one else was here.
"No one can... hurt you now. I'll get your... friends." Carrie spoke the longest sentence, Clementine had ever heard the woman speak. She knew the woman had to be in pain as she placed the blanket over her chest, exiting the room right after.
She laid there, her chest was starting to feel itchy as she waited for Carrie to return.
"Don't worry Clementine. Your gift is safe and sound." She looked around for the source of that awful voice, but the room was still empty.
Her eyes locked onto a mirror, stitches, scabs and still healing lacerations, covered her face and body. They didn't hurt anymore, but each time her eyes were drawn to one, she could remember the cutting blade dragging across her skin.
"-od" The doors opened, Kenny, Becca, and Carrie entered the infirmary.
"Thank god, that you're okay Clem!" Becca cried and ran towards the side of Clementine, throwing herself into an embrace.
She winced as the teen put pressure on her injury, but she didn't fight it.
"Come on, she needs to breathe." Kenny joked, but his face betrayed his tone.
"Sorry." Becca apologized tearfully and sat down on a chair next to the bed.
They remained silent for a moment, but she didn't mind it.
"We were scared when you didn't wake up for almost three days." Kenny started, his face and eyes oozing pity about what happened, it made her angry to see that look in his face.
"Kept slippin' in and out, screamin' wildly like an animal caught in a trap."
'I was.' Her face remained blank, her eyes half closed from exhaustion.
"Anyways, glad you're doin' alright honey." Kenny placed a comforting hand on her knee, but it didn't help the anger that was bubbling inside her.
"They'll get you killed." Kenny was replaced with Phoenix for half a second before the man flickered out of existence.
She only felt rage in her heart, when she saw the man. The terror she felt from the man died by the time she realized that she was enjoying torturing his men by the third victim, replaced with pure unadulterated hate.
'I despise you.' She clenched her fists tightly.
"I know." The man laughed mockingly in her head before it was drowned out by Becca speaking up.
"Can I... stay here tonight, Carrie?"
"No... she's fine to leave now. Just be careful." Carrie then stood up and offered Clementine some painkillers, but she refused them.
The doctor frowned sadly at her refusal, before she placed them back.
'I deserve this.' Was Clementine's only thought as she slowly stood up. Her legs wobbling from not being used for so long. She tried moving on her own until she regained her balance.
Carrie handed Clementine a loose shirt and her jacket, it had been cleaned from all the blood and vomit she had gotten on it. Becca helped her put them on, she felt her burn flare up from the movement, a slight wince marked her face as she finally finished getting covered up. Clementine started slowly stepping out of the infirmary.
"Alright, let's get you to the room. Shel will be happy you're finally awake." Becca chuckled as she followed close behind the eleven year old.
Clementine kept seeing his mocking gaze and laughter as she walked through the store. She ignored the attempts to get her attention as she laid down on her bed, falling asleep soon after. The burnt trees were the only thing she dreamt about.
A/N
I got kind of sidetracked while working on this chapter and finished it really quickly. I watched a few old liveleak videos that I managed to find to get an accurate idea for what I wanted to describe in this chapter. This chapter's purpose is to set up the kind of character she becomes in season three in this AU, and later on as well.
Also yeah, Phoenix is a dick, and he won't be going anywhere for a long while.