Chapter 23

The food they had managed to scavenge would last the group for a few weeks if they rationed it correctly. Which meant that there really was no more need to stay inside the dangerous environment that was the United States capital. So they decided to return back to the woods they had stayed in a few weeks ago.

Clementine lagged behind the rest of the group. Not for any real reason in particular, it was mainly because she had shorter legs and didn't feel like using up the energy to follow their pace. She looked down at the new clothes she had gotten this morning. A bit of displeasure filled her as she felt like the non-camouflaged clothing would make her an easy target. The dark green pants were okay, but the thin orange tee-shirt they'd given her just made her feel naked. At least they were smart enough to bring her a puffy jacket for some protection, but the blue coloring made her feel like her location was put on full broadcast. And the hiking boots they gave her were made from leather, so at least she wouldn't have to worry about her feet or the lower halves of her calves being bitten.

It was difficult to hide her discomfort from no longer wearing her hunting gear, but it was better than wearing something that wouldn't fit her anymore she guessed.

"Hurry up kid, Joan wants to speak to you." One of the New Frontier grunts notified her.

Clementine rubbed her tired eyes, she hadn't managed to get any sleep lately from the stress of Joan having figured out the truth about Harry. She was on edge about what the woman meant by a favor, and she wasn't prepared or planning to find out.

Clementine started walking faster, approaching the middle aged woman to see what she wanted.

"What do you want?" She said with an obvious tiredness.

"I just wanted to check in on you. How are you feeling, you've been awfully tired lately?" A knowing smile on Joan's face.

"Peachy."

Joan laughed at her sarcastic response.

"That's good, but you will be happy to know that's I've been speaking with the others. As of now, you are free to head back out with the scavenging parties. However, there were compromises to be made."

"What do you mean?" Clementine didn't like where this was going.

"You are directly under me now. My orders take priority over David's for you now."

She felt dread at the news.

Joan leaned in close and spoke in a whisper, "Tonight you are to head out on your own, come to me when it gets dark for your mission."

"Y-yes, ma'am." Clementine stuttered unintentionally.

"That will be all, you can head on back now." Joan's face took on the fake warm smile she always had and waved her off.

Clementine cursed herself for stuttering, but had no intentions of staying close to Joan any longer. Quickly making her exit, and heading to the end of the group.

"Shit." She muttered to herself.

Whatever Joan wanted from her couldn't be good.

Clementine stared at the tent ceiling waiting for everyone to fall asleep. She couldn't even think or attempt to rest, her mind was racing over what Joan wanted from her.

It was made even worse that she started feeling extremely sick halfway through the day. Her body felt both cold and unbearably warm, her eyes were burning, the urge to throw up was growing, and she was prettier sure she was finally on her period again. It had been at least two months since she had one. This thing was confusing her, was it because of the lack of any real

Clementine barely forced herself to get out of the sleeping bag she was laying in. Trudging towards Joan's tent, wiping her forehead and putting her hands over her aching stomach.

"You alright Clementine?" Paul asked from his tent.

Clementine swallowed the vomit that threatened to escape her mouth and nodded. She didn't trust him to help her, even if he was a trained professional.

Paul frowned at her response, "Just don't push yourself."

Clementine continued on her way, finally arriving at Joan's tent. She stood outside for a minute, breathing heavily at the effort she had forced herself through. Her legs started feeling like jelly now, and sweat was pouring from her forehead. Another urge to vomit came, but she forced it back down.

Entering the tent, she saw that Joan was sitting on a cot reading a book.

"I'm here ma'am." Clementine croaked out.

Joan closed the book she was reading, and looked to Clementine. Her expression changing from one of seriousness to concern at the disheveled and sickly appearance of the twelve year old in front of her.

"Are you okay, Clementine?"

She tried to nod again, but fell to the ground roughly before she could. Her body felt like it was burning now, and her vision was blurring. Clementine could faintly hear Joan call out for Lingard.

The second the doctor arrived, her vision went black.

When Clementine woke up, she was wrapped up in blankets and laying down on a cot inside the medical tent.

She groaned, and attempted to sit up. But as soon as she moved, the urge to vomit came back, and she was unable to force it down. She was move her head away from the bed fast enough to not get throw up all over herself. The acidic fluid escaped her throat violently, burning on its way out and covering the floor.

Clementine moaned painfully, as her vision began to clear up.

"Huh?" She looked on in confusion as she stared at the vomit on the floor.

'Blood...'

Clementine felt pangs of worry and terror at the blood filled vomit on the ground.

"I see you've finally woken up Clementine." Paul sat down on the stool next to her.

She barely registered his comment as she placed her head back down on the cot.

"You've been out for almost thirty three hours." He placed a hand on her forehead, a deep frown covering his face.

"What?" The words barely came out as nothing more but a whisper.

Paul didn't answer, grabbing a clipboard and pen instead.

"When'd your symptoms start, and what were you doin'?"

Clementine looked at him worriedly, slight panic filling her.

"About... halfway through the... day we left." Her head was pounding.

"Anythin' make it worse?"

"Everything... moving mostly."

"Okay, does anythin' make it feel better?"

"I don't know." She couldn't think straight from the pain.

"That's alright, how does it feel?" Paul's face lost his constantly defeated look, replaced with a sense of focus.

"Like fire."

"Where's the pain?"

"My head, and stomach mostly."

He looked over at the vomit on the floor, writing something else down.

"On a scale from zero to ten, ten being the worst pain you've ever felt, how would you rate it?"

She thought about his question, before holding up a nine.

The doctor hummed to himself as he continued writing stuff down. He finally stopped after a few minutes.

"I'll be back with some food and water."

Clementine watched as the doctor quickly left the tent, disappearing from view of the tent. Her eyes darted around, attempting to distract herself from the pain she was in.

"What is it?" She heard a faraway voice.

"An infection... she's throwing up blood."

Clementine felt the urge to vomit again, throwing up on the puddle already next to the cot.

"That bad?"

"It's been almost two days since she got sick, and it's only getting worse."

"There anything you can do?"

"I don't know. It might be viral or bacterial, but I don't have the tools to know what she needs. She might not make it Joan."

Clementine felt like the entire world had stopped around her. Sounds had stopped registering to her, even after Dr. Lingard returned.

"Clementine!" He clapped his hands in front of her loudly.

"I'm gonna give you some medicine, it's a strong antibiotic. It might help you out, it might not, but it's our only option for now." He held up a small, nearly empty bottle, and a syringe.

She only managed to nod weakly, memorizing the name of the medication.

"Try not to move, it'll only take a second."

Clementine barely even noticed the needle entering her arm, she was more concerned about the conversation she had heard earlier.

"Am I going to die?" She choked out miserably, her hate for the group taking a backseat for now.

Paul gave her a defeated look, "I don't know."

Depression set in as she realized the gravity of her situation.

"You need to eat something." He helped her sit up, and gave her a bowl of some type of soup.

Clementine ate the soup slowly, the weakness in her arms making it difficult to lift the spoon.

"Try not to think about it." He handed her some water as well.

"Hey Doc, there's a meeting!" Badger shouted across the campsite.

Paul sighed dejectedly, placing the medicine back inside the safe.

"I'll be back later tonight to check on you." He left her alone inside the tent.

The food had managed to make her feel a little better, but the weakness in her body wasn't going away.

She stared at the empty bowl on her lap for a long time. The thought of dying before being able to avenge Kenny, and returning his hat to Sarita and the child that had most likely born by now had hit her hard.

A small sniffle escaped her, before she laid back down and tried to sleep.

Clementine's gaze was focused on the corpse of Kenny in front of her.

"Damn, gonna die before you even manage to see it through. Ain't that a bitch." Phoenix sat down cross legged by Kenny's body.

She didn't acknowledge the statement, she just kept looking at the corpse in front of her.

"Never thought I'd see you like this. All weak and tired. Even when you returned to Howe's you had fight in you."

"Hmm, you are a goddamned failure kid. You're just going to let all the work we've done go to waste! The sacrifices people made for your worthless ass be for nothing!" Phoenix stood up and shouted in rage.

But Clementine couldn't find it in herself to deny the accusation. She was a failure, she was going to waste their sacrifices, and it's all because she got sick.

"They'd be disgusted seeing you give up like this." His skinless face was now in front of hers.

Those unblinking, maniacal eyes bore into her soul for what felt like an eternity.

He suddenly grabbed her face, squeezing it tightly, his eyes like a torrent of starving flames.

"You can't give up now! I didn't teach you those lessons, and I didn't give you those gifts for you to just give up! Get your ass out of the bullshit you've dug yourself in, and do what you came here to do!"

Clementine pulled his hands off her face and slumped down next to Kenny's fake dead body.

Phoenix gave her a look of disgust before disappearing.

Tears rolled down her face as she curled up.

"Why?" She cried weakly as the concept of dying became more and more apparent.

"You ain't gonna die Clem" The corpse next to her had suddenly spoke.

"K-Kenny?" She looked up slowly to see Kenny as he was before he died.

"Maybe, it's up to you to decide. This is your dream after all." He laughed and tussled the top of her head.

"What do you mean I won't die?" Clementine asked, her voice coming out as a sad whimper.

A smug look crossed his face as he looked at her.

"That's up to you to figure out." She didn't know what she was expecting from a figment of her own imagination.

"I'm just fuckin' with ya." Kenny laughed at her distraught face, before turning serious.

"Clem they have medicine, just steal it."

The idea was sound, if it wasn't for the fact she didn't have the means, nor the strength to do so.

"But how? I don't have the keys for the safe. And in case you forgot, I can barely even sit up." She waited for some type of response from the imaginary Kenny.

"You'll figure it out Clem. Just don't give up so easily alright, you still gotta return my hat." He rubbed her head one last time, his body reverting into a corpse.

Clementine wiped her eyes as she finally took in the surrounding area of her dream.

Wellington... the spite in her returned full force, and she gave the dead man next to her a final goodbye.

Clementine's eyes opened weakly as she woke up. It had become nighttime, and Lingard was laying down on the cot next to her. She attempted to sit up on her own, using all the strength she could muster to get up.

Her vision started to clear as she finally managed to sit upright. She looked at the calendar on the desk, she'd been out for an entire day again. The weakness in her body hadn't faded at all either, since Paul gave her the antibiotic. But she couldn't just succumb herself to dying to whatever infection was killing her.

Clementine strained herself as she placed her feet on the ground and stood up. Her legs wobbled uncontrollably as she'd been unable to use them for nearly three days. But she powered through it as she knelt down next to the doctor. He didn't react as she nabbed the key from his pocket.

She turned around towards the desk, and realized grabbing the keys was pointless, as he had left the safe open. She wobbled over to the safe and grabbed the small bottle of medicine he had used on her.

"Vancomycin..." The bottle was almost entirely empty.

She grabbed the syringe in the compartment above it, and drew the remaining liquid out. Hesitating as she ejected the air bubbles out.

What if she still remained sick? What if it didn't work like last time?

The doctor started to move around, and any hesitation that remained disappeared as she injected the last of the antibiotic.

"Clementine... what have you done?" He groggily sat up, his face extremely flushed.

"What I had to." She coughed a small amount of dried blood as she stood back up.

"That was the last of it. It's wasted on someone like you. You won't make it." He spoke in a defeated, and matter of fact tone.

"You don't know that for sure." She sat down on the ground, breathing heavily as sweat dripped into her already burning eyes.

"Sadly, I do. It's my curse."

Clementine scoffed at the comment, and coughed some more.

"Knowin' when someone's gonna die. I'm sorry, Clementine... I tried everything. I-I really did."

"C-clearly not."

"Nothin' will help you Clementine. I'm sorry, but you have to leave before they find out what you've done."

She started coughing violently as she attempted to speak.

Attracting the attention of David who had been walking nearby.

"How's she doi-" He noticed the syringe in her hand, and the empty bottle of medicine on the floor. He glared in barely controlled anger at Paul

"What the hell is this?"

"She... I couldn't stop her, it was too late."

David stomped angrily towards Paul.

"You fucking high again? Pull yourself together before the others see you!" He roughly lifted the doctor off the cot, before turning towards her.

"What the fuck were you thinking? How could you be so stupid? So selfish?!" He grabbed her arm and forced her to stand up.

Clementine couldn't respond as she barely managed to keep herself from falling to the ground.

"Nothing to say for yourself? That waste will cost someone else's life down the road. Someone in this camp who could be saved. Not some kid who is going to die anyways." More people were drawn to the commotion.

"Screw you." She barely managed to spit out, before vomiting on the floor.

"C'mon David. She's just scared." Ava came to her defense.

"No! We should've put her down the second she lost consciousness."

Clementine wiped her mouth, her stomach had finally stopped cramping.

"You ungrateful little shit. We opened our arms to you; made you one of us. This is how you repay us? By stealing? By putting yourself before the group?" He paused for a second.

"You're done here. You broke our rules. Violated our trust. There is no place for you in the New Frontier."

"Fuck you, and fuck the New Frontier!" Some semblance of her former strength returned as her heart started racing, and her spite for the group returned tenfold.

"You already did! That's why you have to go!"

Clementine gave him a scornful, murderous look.

"Glare at me all you want. Then get your stuff and get the hell out!"

"Maybe we should give her another chance, at least, in case she gets better." Paul spoke up, not comfortable with abandoning a child to die alone.

"Don't fight me on this, Paul. You know what Joan would say if she were here. I'm sorry, Clem. You brought this on yourself."

She spit on the man as one final insult she could give the man, before stumbling off towards the tent she stayed in before falling unconscious. She grabbed her backpack, and her weapons, panting from the exhaustion and pain she was in. Her fists clenched over the backpack straps as she left the campsite.

Clementine somehow managed to find herself back to the bus she had met Ava in. She entered it, and plopped herself onto the mattress roughly. The exhaustion hitting her like a truck as she felt herself drifting off again.

Clementine woke up the next day feeling leagues better. She still felt like complete shit, but compared to how she felt days prior it was practically night and day.

A nasty cough escaped her throat as she rose out of the bed.

"Fuck... Where am I?" She rubbed her aching head as she remembered the events of last night.

Her stomach growled heavily as her appetite finally returned. She searched her bag for any food, grabbing a can of beans she snatched from the food crates, a few days ago before they left the capital.

Grabbing the knife from her bag, she stabbed the top of the can harshly, and began cutting it open. She practically drank the contents of the can, as her hunger had taken hold over any decency she had left.

A satisfied sigh leaving her as she laid back down.

"I'm not going to die." She whispered in a hopeful tone, and grabbed Kenny's hat from her waist.

Clementine knew it was her own mind telling her not to give up. But she felt comfort believing that it was actually Kenny telling her to keep going.

She was back to square one now, but at least she still knew where the New Frontier was. And she had no qualms about being alone again.

Her body still felt exhausted from being bedridden for so long, rest was her current priority as she quickly fell asleep again.

The days flew by quickly as she regained her strength. She stopped throwing up blood relatively quick, and her fever had dropped completely.

"Die anyways, my ass. Go screw yourself David." She muttered to herself while carving a large branch.

The medicine had worked wonders for curing her of whatever infection had ailed her. But spite towards David's comments about her being dead anyways had definitely contributed to her recovery.

She had snuck back into the New Frontier campsite a few times for supplies over the week. Amassing a decent haul of canned goods, and some ammo for herself.

Clementine blew the shavings off the branch she was carving, a spear that reached up to her neck in her hands now. She needed to go out hunting again, she was getting antsy at being cooped up in this bus for however long she had been at this point. Leaving the bus, she entered the woods looking for any critters she could find.

Minutes went by as she trekked through the trees and brush looking for any small game.

The sounds of birds chirping filled the area, notifying her that it was definitely well into spring now. She still kept her jacket on, purely for the extra protection it provided.

A branch cracked in the distance.

Clementine froze as she waited for whatever made the noise to show itself.

'Oh shit.'

A black bear was in front of her, and it had cubs behind it. She slowly backed up to get out of sight of the mother bear. Raising her feet high to make sure she didn't get caught on anything.

The bear sniffed the air and looked straight at her. They had a standoff for what felt like hours, before it decided to turn away and leave her alone.

If she had her shotgun on her, maybe she'd be able to take the animal on. But then she'd have to spend days making the meat last, which would be a pain for her as she still was unable to stay awake for long periods of time. Whatever the infection she got was, it had done numbers on her body, and her ability to labor for long hours. The fact that she had even survived was probably a miracle, and she wouldn't be wasting it.

For the next few hours, she searched for any small game, mostly finding wild fruits, veggies, and mushrooms. But the lack of any small animals, the one thing she was looking for, was starting to upset her.

"Be patient Clementine, you've had moments like this before."

Clementine stopped walking as she started feeling increasingly tired from the search for game. She sat down under a tree, rubbing her eyes and placing her head against the tree.

"I must be going crazy. I'm talking to myself like some nut." She snorted as she realized the absurdity of her current situation.

A crack sounded behind her.

Her grip on the spear tightened as she slowly, and silently pushed herself back up. She peaked around the tree, and thanked whatever higher being was out there as a bobcat had decided to lay down where she was looking.

'Not exactly the tastiest thing out there, but meat is meat.'

She put all her body weight into the spear as she drove it straight into the large cat. Lodging itself straight into its neck. Clementine quickly drew her knife and finished the bobcat off with a quick slit of its throat.

She quickly grabbed the carcass and returned to the bus as quickly as she possibly could. The fact that bears were here in these woods didn't bode well.

By the time she arrived, she got started on making a fire to mask the scent of any blood still left in the bobcat with smoke. She grabbed the last jar of moonshine she had left, staring at the clear fluid inside before pouring it onto the small fire she had lit. The practically pure source of ethanol burning wildly as she stuffed more firewood into the growing flames.

Clementine began skinning the animal, tossing anything she wasn't going to use into the fire. After skinning, she separated the cuts of meat from bone as best she could. Throwing whatever she finished directly over the fire, or onto small racks she made. The smell of the meat was awful, cat meat always smelt terrible. It was almost as bad as being in the thick of a walker herd.

She waited for the meat she was cooking to finish. Before eating, she grabbed some ashes from an old fire and rubbed the ashes on her hands. Supposedly, the lye from the ashes would make sure any bacteria on her hands would be dead. How people back then figured that one out was beyond her. But according to Kai, apparently ash was used in soap-making for hundreds of years.

Clementine grabbed a strip of bobcat and started chewing on it. The extremely gamey flavor almost made her gag, but she still managed to finish it.

She shuddered after eating the last of the meat she cooked on the fire directly. A disgusting aftertaste in her mouth.

Clementine grabbed the jar of moonshine and contemplated using the alcoholic drink as a mouthwash to get rid of the taste of cat meat in her mouth.

"Fuck it." She took a small swig and swirled it around her mouth, spitting the alcohol into the fire once she was done.

The aftertaste of bobcat was gone now, but it was replaced with the burning of the alcohol covering every crevice of her mouth. Though in her mind, that was a win compared to tasting bobcat all day.

A tired yawn left her as she sat by the fire. It seems she would be going to sleep early again today.

Clementine placed a few more logs into the fire to make sure that it kept burning for a long while before entering the bus and turning in.

It had been maybe a month since her exile from the New Frontier. The time that had passed since, was hard to judge, as the days flew by from her practically being asleep for most of it. She would have been stealing more supplies from them, but she was forced to stop sneaking into their camp after they decided to increase security around the area.

Someone probably noticed the missing supplies she was stealing, but it also could have been the recent swell in their numbers. Which definitely put a damper on her idea to burn everything down and scatter them.

Which led to Clementine's current situation, she was returning to the bus after an unfruitful day of failing to find anything to eat.

By the time she arrived, it was already nighttime and she was thoroughly pissed at the lack of anything from foraging today. She sat down on the bed and rubbed her forehead, the sounds of crickets chirping lulling her to sleep.

A loud crack of a branch, and rustling of bushes alerted her. Exiting the bus, she looked around the pitch black tree line before drawing her knife.

"Woah there, Clem!" Ava stepped out from behind a rock.

"It's just me." Ava approached the bus holding a large duffel bag.

"What the hell do you want?" Clementine crossed her arms and glared at the bald woman.

"I'm really glad you're alive."

Clementine was debating putting Ava down here and now to be done with it.

"Clementine, I know this is hard. I'm sorry about David kicking you out like that. I really am."

"I don't care what you think. I did what I had to."

"I know you don't. Look, it's not much, but... here." Ava tossed the duffel bag at Clementine's feet.

Clementine raised an eyebrow, kneeling down to search the bag.

'Three cans of food, energy bars, and water.' It was barely anything, but the sentiment had taken her by surprise.

"Why?" She was suspicious receiving charity from a group that for intents and purposes decided she was no longer one of them. Even if it was justified.

"Let's just call it a peace offering. I understand why you did what you did, and clearly David was wrong about you being dead anyways."

Clementine snorted at that.

"But I just wanted you know, that there are still people who care for you. Even with all your... problems."

"What's that supposed to mean?" Clementine furrowed her eyes at Ava.

"Listen, it's dangerous out here and you're not exactly in tip top shape in case you forgot. You're a strong kid, but that won't get you far. I don't doubt you have some sort of plan, but make sure you keep a level head Clem."

Clementine's face softened, turning away to hide the regretful look that she now had.

"I'm sorry Ava, y-you're a good person." She choked up a tiny bit.

"Thank you, Clem. Sorry, I know you don't like people calling you that, it's just easier for me."

"It's alright."

Clementine's previous thoughts about killing Ava disappeared completely. They both stood there awkwardly for a few seconds.

"Look, just because it didn't work out with us doesn't mean you won't find happiness somewhere else. Don't stop looking. For me, staying alive has always been about finding people I could trust as much as they trusted me. That's what The New Frontier has been: a silver lining. Made me feel worth a damn. Kept me going in the worst of times. You'll find yours. I know you will."

Clementine sadly thought about Kenny's hat, anger filling her again.

"I don't need one." She said through gritted teeth.

"I wish that were true kid. But the things you've been through, you need someone to help you along. When you find that someone, or something. Let them help you with whatever is killing you inside."

"Just... go away."

Ava sighed, "I should get back, before anyone notices I'm gone. I know you probably don't care, but well, there's an old airfield, about ten or miles south of here - Prescott. It's a bit of an acquired taste, but there's good people over there. I'm sure they'll take you in."

"I'll miss having you around, Clem." Ava offered her a handshake.

Clementine stared at the offering, maybe, just maybe this one person wouldn't have to die. She accepted the handshake, but didn't say anything.

"You're going to be okay. Good luck out there, Clem" Ava walked off back into the tree line.

Clementine stood there, wallowing in regret and sorrow about the past few months.

"What's even the point anymore?" She unclasped Kenny's hat, rubbing her fingers on the brim.

A growl drew her out of her thoughts, grabbing the duffel bag and closing the door.

She sat back down on the bed, thinking back on her time in The New Frontier. The brand on her arm itching as she massaged it.

"Don't give up." Kenny's voice echoed in her head.

The image of Wellington on fire reemerging in her mind. Kenny's smiling corpse, the innocent woman she shot, the people she gunned down in the woods. She had already gotten this far, she couldn't just stop at this point could she?

Clementine laid down, staring at the rusted ceiling of the bus. She didn't manage to get any sleep that night, and when checking up on the campsite the next day, The New Frontier was gone.

A/N

And that's the flashback arc over with. In case anyone is wondering, she had a real bad case of bacterial gastroenteritis. That's what I came up with on deciding to figure out how she'd get kicked out. Cause after all, she's only in The New Frontier for around a week or so in canon funnily enough. From this point on, chapters might take a while longer to come out, as the Elden Ring dlc drops in a few days. But don't worry, It's just going to be for a short period, and then it's back to it.