Chapter 11

It was currently sometime around the evening, Clementine was currently in the truck that Bill had set up for her and Becca. They would've left earlier, but Bill had to make sure that nothing disastrous would happen in the hardware store while they were gone. Bonnie was currently letting Becca learn to drive, the redhead making sure the teen didn't drive too fast. Clementine was sitting in the back, thinking about yesterday's conversation with Becca, and Luke's "exile" as Bill had called it. It really was just a death sentence, but she didn't dwell on it. She had cared for Luke, at one point, though nearly killing Kenny had ended that.

Becca, when both of them met up to leave, had asked what happened to Luke once he got kicked out. Clementine simply waved her hand flat in front of her throat in a slitting motion, telling her he died. Becca didn't really seem to care about the man's demise, but she was very pragmatic when it came to these things.

Bonnie wanted them to be a few miles away, before they started shooting. The woman didn't want to risk potentially bringing a herd back their way, and also because apparently there was a shooting range nearby.

"Alright Becca, let off the gas and slowly press on the brake. We're gonna park right there in that parking space, usually someone would make you try to park perfectly, but it don't really matter anymore." Bonnie directed the teen, who only managed to respond with a nervous "Uh huh."

Once the truck was parked, Bonnie pulled out a sheet of paper from her pocket and started talking again.

"Okay, let's see here... so we've got a few guns here, thanks to Bill and Hank. We've got a Beretta M9, .223 Remington Bolt Action Rifle, Mossberg 500, and an M4. He's also given us three raincoats, earphones for the noise, latex gloves, knives, some extra ammo, and a few days of food in case we need it." Bonnie read over the note one more time silently, in case she missed anything.

"I don't know why Hank felt the need to write the gun names down, but let's get the coats on and cover up." Bonnie shuddered slightly, clearly not a big fan of the smell.

"Can't wait." Becca was beaming with anticipation, already grabbing a dark green coat and knife.

Once the three of them were geared up, Bonnie whistled loudly. At first, nothing had happened, but a few seconds later two walkers exited the forest. They waited for the walkers to come closer, before Bonnie stabbed the closest one to her in the forehead. The second one went to lunge towards Bonnie, but Clementine kicked its knee in. Becca kicked its chest right after, the force of the kick sending the undead corpse slamming straight into the ground. Clementine let Becca get the kill, as she stomped on its head a few times.

"Phew, you two make a good team." Bonnie praised, the girls smiling at each other.

"Now the hard part." Bonnie groaned in disgust, before kneeling down.

Stabbing her knife just below the walkers sternum, and dragging it down to open up the abdomen. A rank smell immediately spewing around the area, both Becca and Bonnie gagging once it hit their noses. Clementine wasn't bothered by it anymore, having long since gotten used to it.

"O-kay... get clo-closer." Bonnie was struggling for good air, as the smell assaulted her nostrils.

Becca looked at Clementine with a wince, waiting for confirmation as the eleven year old kneeled down, and started scooping with gloved hands.

"I'm so glad I didn't eat anything this morning." Becca declared as she also kneeled down to start smothering herself, holding her breath with puffed cheeks as she went.

"Lemme get y'alls backs." The two of them turning around as Bonnie started rubbing the entrails all over their backs.

"Now get me." Bonnie turned around, Clementine started rubbing the guts all over her back.

"Alrighty, let's get the guns and get started. Follow me." Bonnie led them towards some stalls, about a few dozen yards away, were some huge mounds of dirt and sand.

"Okay, so I'll go look for some targets." Bonnie placed two gun cases down and walked off.

Clementine decided to take this chance to show Becca how to load each gun.

"Cool." She pointed at M4, a wide grin on her face.

Clementine handed Becca the Beretta's magazine, showing her how to load it.

"So that's how it works." The teen thought out loud, as she tested the spring in the magazine, before loading it. She practiced it a few times, loading and unloading the magazine, before Clementine handed her the Beretta. Clementine showed the girl where the mag release was, the safety, and how to pull the slide back. Clementine, then had her practice inserting the magazine, and ejecting it, just so she could get used to the action. She did this with every gun until Bonnie came back with a stack of paper targets.

"Okay, so we got deer targets, bad guys, and circles. Which one do you want to shoot at?"

"The bad guys." Becca eagerly stated, Bonnie shaking her head jokingly.

"Make sure to keep your hands off the guns while I'm out here okay?" Bonnie grabbed a paper target of a guy wearing a ski mask holding a pistol.

"So aim for the head for walkers, and people you just shoot them until they die right?" Becca was practically shaking from the excitement and potentially being nervous as well, this was probably the closest she'd ever been to a single firearm in her life. Clementine nodded her head, as Bonnie started walking down range.

"Did you ever have to shoot any bad people out there, while alone?" Becca asked as Bonnie finally set up the paper target.

Clementine nodded, it wasn't something she was shy about, no one just bothered asking her.

"Was it hard?" Becca's voice had lost some of the excitement it previously had.

Clementine shook her head, she never really thought about the act of killing the living anymore. It was just a normal thing now, something everyone would go through. She'd be saddened if anyone close died to her again, she learned that yesterday stressing about Kenny. But, she tried not to dwell on it.

"Alright girls, I'll keep watch while y'all get to it. Just make sure to be careful." Bonnie placed a pair of earphones on her head, and rolled her blood smothered raincoat hood over her head.

Clementine and Becca doing the same shortly after.

She had Becca start with the Beretta, since it was a lighter caliber, and would be a good stepping stone for her to get used to the recoil. Becca inserted the magazine, pulled the slide back and got into position to shoot. She held the pistol awkwardly, her elbows locked, feet too close, and her back too straight. So Clementine fixed her friend's shooting stance. She relaxed Becca's elbows, widened her stance, moved her left foot forward, pushed her knees forward. She then gave Becca a thumbs up, the girl firing shortly after. She missed by a few inches to the right of the head, so she had Becca aim to the left of where she shot. Firing again, a neck shot this time, she realigned the teen to aim slightly higher up. A clean headshot this time.

"Yes!" A barely audible cheer from Becca came out, the older girl had jumped for joy at getting the headshot. Becca sent a high five Clementine's way, before getting ready to shoot again.

Clementine had Becca shoot the pistol until she could get a grouping on the target's head five times in a row. Clementine, made sure the girl had kept a hand off the guns, as she switched out the target for a fresh one.

Returning to the stall, she noticed a few walker bodies littering the parking lot now. Bonnie wasn't even stressed or tired, as the walkers had been ignoring them completely. The echoes from the trees around them had made it almost impossible for most to determine the exact location of the gunfire.

Clementine handed Becca the shotgun, the weapon was fairly straightforward, and had a much longer range than action movies had portrayed. Learned that when Hank had her shoot a walker from the roof one day. She suddenly remembered that she wasn't supposed to watch action movies, but she'd sometimes sneak into the living room and watch her dad chilling on the couch, watching movies with buff guys shooting guns. She always liked the one with the time traveling robots, watching it one day when Sandra had fallen asleep when she was babysitting. The memory had her smile, as Becca loaded the shotgun.

Clementine only had to slightly fix Becca's firing stance this time. The older girl only shot it around fifteen times, as the spread at this range made it almost impossible not to hit the head. It was mainly just to get her used to the recoil of the weapon.

Clementine replaced the target again, more dead walkers littered the lot now, probably twenty at this point. Bonnie looked like she was in an action movie, covered in walker guts, a bloody knife in hand as she was smoking a cigarette, even though Bill said they weren't allowed, she didn't really care at the redhead doing it.

Onto the .223 bolt action, Becca was hitting headshots perfectly fine, her problem was struggling with the concept of having to lift the bolt back and pushing it in every time she fired. She'd have to practice more tomorrow, or at Howe's, but they had to hurry up before it got late. So she gave the girl the M4, not bothering to switch targets. Clementine made sure to keep the weapon off the "fun switch" as Hank called it.

Becca was having a giggling fit as she handed the rifle. She got started immediately, inserting the thirty round magazines, pulling the charging handle back and firing. She seemed disappointed that it wasn't full auto, but neither of them were ready for that one. Hank had been adamant about it before they left, saying something like, "It's fun while you're at it, but next thing you know, you're outta ammo, and a dead guy is eating your ass."

Becca kept firing, the teen seemed to be overcompensating for the recoil, and had blinked a lot every time she fired. But that was expected, she'd get used to it eventually, her later shots got better. Reloading the M4 two times, before they had called it quits and decided to head back. Placing the weapons back in the cases, and loading them back up.

"All done?" Bonnie asked them, taking her earphones off, even more dead walkers surrounded the parking lot.

"Yeah." Becca answered tiredly, the adrenaline had worn off as she massaged her shoulder. The constant shooting taking a toll on it.

Bonnie chuckled at the teenager's expression as she tossed the bloodied raincoat in the back, and entered the truck, sitting in the driver seat this time. Both girls removed their raincoats and earphones as well, tossing the bloody coats in the back as well. Becca decided to sit in the backseat with Clementine this time.

"Man... my shoulder is killing me." Becca kept massaging her shoulder as Bonnie started driving back to Howe's.

"You'll get used to it. First time I had to shoot the AK, there was this large herd that had breached the fence. My arm was sore for days."

"Sounds awful." Becca winced.

"Yeah... but after a few more times, and suddenly you don't get sore anymore. There's that." Bonnie cheerfully stated.

"I guess." Becca yawned, the constant excitement from getting to shoot guns today had finally caused her to crash.

Clementine thought it was funny, her hands had hurt like crazy when she learnt to shoot,and she was scared to death of the things. But now she's teaching others to shoot, like Lee taught her. The clawing in her throat resurged, it felt like her throat was trying to explode outwards. She didn't know what exactly the feeling was, but she refused to let it escape.

"I'm goin' straight to sleep when we get back." Becca declared as she let out another tired yawn.

Clementine looked at the trees passing by, absorbed in her own thoughts.

"We're here." Clementine was suddenly inside the garage of Howe's. Bonnie turned the keys and pulled them out the ignition. Becca stepped out the truck the second it unlocked, and practically dragged herself towards her and Shel's living area. Which was just some break lounge in some fast food joint, connected to the hardware store that they had to share with Vera.

'I should see Kenny.' Clementine stepped out of the truck and entered the main aisle room, walking towards the pen. Russell was on guard today, she never really interacted with him often, and he left her alone unless Bill needed him to get her or something.

Russell stared at her as she approached the gate. Staring inside the pen to look at Kenny, he was laying down, and had a hand clutching the area where his crushed eye was.

"Need something, kid?" Russell inquired with a dismissive tone.

Clementine nodded, and pointed in the direction of Kenny. Russell followed her finger, looking at the Floridian. He stared at her with an inquisitive look, raising his radio.

"Hey Vera? Over."

"Yeah?"

"The kid, uhh, Clemen-something wants to see the fucked up guy in the yard. Over."

"It'll be fine, Bill says she knows the guy or somethin', I don't really care. Over." The radio cut off after that.

"Alright, you got five minutes, and don't do anything that'll get me in trouble." Russell lifted the pen gate up, Clementine walking in shortly after.

Rebecca looked like she was in deep pain for some reason, Carlos was helping her. The second they both noticed her, they sent a glare her way. Sarah seemed to have shutdown completely, staring at nothingness and clutching her knees. Mike just gave her a nod acknowledging her presence. Jane just stared at her, with that expression of uncaring and almost contempt. She'd never interacted with anyone in Kenny's group, Sarita seemed nice, Walter just seemed angrily depressed about something.

Clementine strode towards Kenny, poking him slightly to get his attention.

"What the hell do y'a-" Kenny cut himself off as he stared at the cap wearing girl in front of him.

"Clem! Sorry... I uh... how you doin' sweetheart?" Clementine shrugged, pointing at him to let the man knock she was worried about him.

"I'm fine." She crossed her arms and gave him a disbelieving look.

He sighed, "Look Clem, I'm alive and that's all that matters. I'm more worried about you to be honest. They've told me you were by yourself for two years, is that true?"

Clementine gave him a nod, she didn't really care about that lonely era of her life anymore.

Kenny gave her a sad look, and stood up from the bed. He kneeled down to her level, and opened his arms to offer a hug. She accepted the offer, hugging the man tightly. They embraced for a few seconds, before Kenny placed both his hands on her shoulders, putting a tiny bit of space between them.

"So um... talk to me, want to tell me what you've been up to these past couple years?" Clementine's eyes briefly widened before returning to normal.

'Kenny doesn't know.' She felt bad, she didn't know how to break it to him.

Clementine chose to look away instead, in some attempt to make the man give up on that question.

Kenny let out a dejected sigh, placing his hand on her hat. "Still wearin' this dirty old thing, huh?"

"You know, I half-expected to see Lee walk up next to you. When I saw you in them aisles. You guys were like two peas in a pod." Clementine felt a rush of sadness at the comment.

"Oh, shit, I didn't mean to... It's just hard not to think about it, you know?" Kenny apologized quickly after noticing her reaction.

Clementine took a deep breath to try and center herself.

"Aw, hell, I'm sorry, darlin'." Kenny paused, reminiscing on something. "He was a hell of a guy."

Clementine smiled sadly, 'He sure was.'

"When my son... well, he helped me do the right thing. I'll never forget that." They both grimaced at the depressing memory.

"So. Where'd you end up?" Clementine shrugged, an attempt at trying to make him stop trying to get her to talk.

Noticing the girl didn't feel like talking about it, he moved on. "Sounds like it ain't been easy for you. I'm sorry, darlin'. I wish I coulda found you sooner. But everything's gonna be fine now."

"Tell you the truth, I should've never made it out of Savannah." Kenny grumbled, his eye looking at some nonexistent thing past her.

"For some reason I tried to save that fuckin' shitbird Ben. Then it turned into a damn cluster. Couldn't help the kid. But I got out." The mention of Ben had filled her with anger, but it quickly died down.

"Long story short, I got lucky. Real lucky. Spent a long time alone after that. It, uh... And then I met Sarita, thank god. Gosh, it's great to have you back." Clementine smiled at the man, when a bang on the metal gate sounded out.

"Come on kid." The five minutes were up she guessed.

"Damn... well Clem, see you soon." She gave the man a smile and nodded. Leaving the pen to go eat supper as it was almost time to eat.

'I should go wake Becca.' She decided, already walking towards her place.

Entering the lounge, she saw the teen, face planted on her bed. Slowly sneaking up to her, she nudged her softly. Becca groaned, but didn't budge. Frowning, Clementine nudged the teen again, who still refused to budge, Clementine decided to just bring the food here instead.

Walking outside the room and towards the cafeteria, the smell of chili hit her nose, Tisha was probably cooking today she guessed. Clementine liked the woman, she was nice as long as you were on Bill's good side. Although, Tisha hated Troy with a passion, actually most of the people in Howe's did. Heck, Bill didn't even like him, only keeping Troy around because despite being dumber than a rock, he followed orders, barely, and was good muscle. She also had an inkling suspicion though that Troy was a creep though, he always messed with Jane in weird ways. Just thinking about the guy made her blood boil. She was just glad that Bill decided to punish Troy to doing latrine duty for six months. Apparently, it was something officers in the military liked to assign when someone acted up.

She finally gained view of who was cooking, and sure enough it was Tisha. She was plopping scoops of Chili into bowls. Clementine went up to grab two bowls and spoons.

"Where's your friend?" Tisha suddenly asked her, she pretended to fall asleep which made the woman laugh.

"Alright, just make sure the bowls are back before supper is over." Clementine nodded, and began returning to Becca's place. Clementine stared at the chili as she walked.

'Please don't be too spicy this time.' Clementine hoped, Tisha always made food spicy, and Clementine hadn't eaten anything spicy since she was still eight. Clementine reentered the break lounge, and placed the bowls on a nightstand next to Becca's bed.

Clementine stared at the still sleeping teen, and nudged the girl super hard this time.

"What?" Becca tiredly groaned, rubbing her eyes.

Clementine grabbed a bowl and placed it in front of Becca's face. She accepted the bowl of chili and scarfed it down, before Clementine could even begin eating. Becca burped loudly as Clementine started eating, almost spitting out the chili in her mouth at the noise.

"Forgot I was hungry, thanks Clem." Clementine smiled at Becca and finished the food. The chili was still a bit too spicy for her, but she finished it before supper ended. Taking Becca's bowl, she started walking outside the room.

"Wanna sleepover?" Becca blurted out, surprising Clementine. She couldn't even remember the last time she had one, if she did. The closest thing she could consider one, was sleeping next to Lee at the motor inn and RV. Clementine thought for a second, before giving a nod.

She thought about what'd they even do during a sleepover. There weren't any boys to gossip about, she hadn't even seen a boy their age since maybe Duck and Ben. Maybe just talk or play games or something people do at sleepovers.

Clementine was forced out of her thoughts as she bumped into Troy. The man had just finished cleaning one of the main bathrooms, judging by the stench he was letting off.

"Watch where you're fuckin' goin'." Troy stomped off and gave her a malicious glare. Clementine shuddered at the uneasy feeling that man gave her each time she'd interacted with him.

She continued on back to the cafeteria to return the bowls. Tisha thanking her as she placed them down, before shooting a glare at Troy who picked up the last bowl of food. Clementine suddenly remembered something that Tisha said about the guy, calling him a racist asshole. She didn't exactly understand what that meant, but it sounded bad. She suddenly remembered Lee saying something similar about Larry as well. Clementine glared at Troy for a second, before shrugging and looking around the main aisles. She had managed to find a monopoly set, and some playing cards. Returning back to Becca's room for the third time in half an hour.

A week had passed and snow had begun to fall. Becca had gotten really good at shooting, but they had to stop going to the range once Shel finally returned. Shel hadn't figured it out yet, but Becca was planning on bugging her older sister about her being able to start using guns until she relented. Since Bill returned, Clementine had been learning to fight from him, he'd been training her and Becca for an hour or so everyday. She enjoyed the activity, learning to defend herself was fun, if exhausting. Becca usually won their spars though, mostly from her size and because Clementine was still somewhat weak from being malnourished the past two years.

Rebecca also gave birth to a baby boy, around the second day that Bill was gone, but she and the baby didn't make it. Clementine had a suspicion that Carlos and Rebecca had killed it though, but she couldn't actually prove it. Bill was upset about it, apparently the baby was the child he spoke of the day Reggie died or something, but he quickly moved on, Rebecca had cheated on Alvin while they were first here.

Carlos had been working double time now because of the deaths, documenting how to do emergency surgery and other medical procedures, for practically the entire day until he slept. Sarah had only shutdown even more since Rebecca and the baby died, moving on autopilot at this point, she wouldn't be surprised if the girl didn't live much longer the way she was doing. Kenny, Walter, and Sarita were doing really well. Although, Kenny had been really pissed about the baby dying, but he calmed down after a few days. Mike had been moved out of the pen early, once Bill returned, for stopping Luke and being a good worker. Jane still had a long while before she moved out though.

Clementine as of this moment though was going to break the news about losing her ability to speak to Kenny. She'd already wrote down what she'd say and stuck it in a letter, but as she neared the door to reach the expansion, she started feeling nervous. Would he treat her differently, get upset, she was usually pretty good at reading people, but Kenny could just change within moments when he learned something heartbreaking.

Clementine walked towards the expansion where he worked, carrying a bucket of nails and some weird looking metal things, that they'd need while working. She walked past a comic store that had been deemed completely off limits. Why? She didn't bother to ask, but not every building had been deemed safe or needed, as of yet. Bill wanted to make sure the expansion and the walls were completely secure first, before even trying to fill in any buildings that were within the scope of the expansion. Passing by another building, the one where Troy had slammed a door into her face, they'd finally managed to completely board up this store now. They'd had a few break-ins from walkers when it came to this building, but now that it was done, the walls had been expanded further.

She entered some connivence store from what she gathered, Kenny, Walter, Mike, and weirdly enough Stan were working. Mike could've stopped working on the expansion when he moved out, but he said something about it being a great way to relieve stress. He'd also quietly whispered about it being a great way to keep Troy's ass off their backs, since Mike could technically become a guard now.

She knocked on the door to get their attention.

"Hey kid, just bring 'em right over there." Mike pointed towards a broken window. Clementine sat the bucket down, she'd noticed she'd gotten slightly stronger now that she'd been eating actual full meals now, on top of the training from Bill. Stan was working on some metal sheets next to her, flattening them out with a hammer and banging on something else. It looked like he was nailing the sheets together, but it wasn't exactly nailing at the same time.

"Rivets." His voice boomed, noticing her staring at his work.

"I'd prefer welding, but we ain't got the power. Diesels finally goin' bad, stabilizers done all they can." Stan informed, Clementine nodded at the sudden new, she just learned that fuel could actually go bad.

She also realized that was the first time she'd ever heard the large man say a complete sentence. Clementine smiled at Stan before walking towards Kenny, she handed him the letter, writing on the envelope telling him to open it once he finished.

"What's this about?" Kenny chuckled, confused as he held the letter. Clementine gave a faint smile, and left to work in the armory.

Bill had her learning to clean the guns now, he joked about wanting her to be able to do it blindfolded. Though she was positive that he was being serious about it. Hank was working the armory the past few days, something about checking the new guns and ammo they found at a former military encampment.

Entering the armory, she waved at Hank, who barely acknowledged that she entered, the man was busy glossing over some huge sniper they found.

"It's beautiful ain't it?" He asked as he placed his hands on his hips. She raised an eyebrow at the question, she didn't understand what was beautiful about the abnormally large gun.

"This here's a .50 Cal, this baby will take out an engine block and fuck up anything behind it. Made the case to Bill, that if we ever found a hostile community with the capability of makin' fuel, this here'll stop them dead in their tracks." Clementine was getting worried about the emphasis on fuel, she didn't even know that gas or diesel could even spoil. Now they were worried about groups being able to make their own?

Hank finally looked over at her, "Ah shit, don't worry about it, probably not that many people know how to even make their own fuel." He paused for a second. "Except maybe Stan, he's been collecting all our used motor oil."

Clementine just stared at the man, waiting for him to teach her how to clean more guns. They both just stared at each other until he realized what he was supposed to be doing.

"Oh right, come here." He beckoned her over, and had her sit down on a stool. "You're gonna dismantle these ones, and put them back together." He placed an AK-47, some type of shotgun, and a revolver similar to one Bill uses.

He began showing her the steps to taking the AK apart, grabbing one of his own to demonstrate just because of the abundance of them. Clementine then spent the next two hours just dismantling and putting the guns back together. Say what you will about Hank, but the man certainly knew his guns.

A month had passed now, the snow was thick and Clementine was wearing camouflage hunting gear because of the cold, and also because she was out hunting. Bill hadn't been a real big fan of children going out alone, but he made the exception because of the fact she'd survived on her own for two years. So here she was, a Springfield M1A on a sling across her back, as she walked through the snow covered woods looking for game. She'd seen a large deer pass by here a few minutes ago, and was following its tracks. She hiked for a while, suddenly she heard the noise of a branch cracking. Unslinging the rifle and putting it in her hands, she searched for the source of the noise.

She spotted it, a large deer with massive antlers. She aimed at its chest, the creature was still moving. A whistle stopped it in its tracks, it looked in her direction, and then fell to the ground. The shot killed it instantly, but the corpse was still twitching. She put the rifle sling back around her back, and approached the body. She'd been carrying a folding board with some rope tied at the ends in a backpack, so she could drag anything she shot. Sliding the board under the body, she began the long hike back to Howe's, she'd be back in around half an hour, before evening at the least.

She was thinking about recent events, around a week ago, Bill had managed to convince some small community a few dozen miles away to join us. They had horses, and livestock we needed, and Bill had plenty of firepower they needed. They'd be moving here sometime next week, so Bill had people working overtime right now to set up some pens for the animals. The design for the pens involved a lot of dirt being transported from the forest, making a decent amount of noise, but the unexpected freeze which was being a bit of a hindrance, had made the walkers a nonissue thankfully. The only reason they were being moved here as well, was mostly because Howe's was a lot more fortifiable than some random farm. We also just had way more room according to Bill, so that was another primary reason.

Bonnie did tell her some interesting facts about their community. They had fifteen people, three children around Becca's age, two of them boys, and one of them a girl. Their leader was some veteran from the marines who returned home just as everything started. They had a veterinarian, and another veteran who was a field surgeon or something of the sort. Whatever it was, it made Bill extremely happy, and she was sure Carlos wouldn't be living much longer. Not that it would matter anyways, the doctor had become extremely depressed, and reclusive since Sarah died during a minor breach twelve days ago. The poor girl had just froze and got dragged through the break in the walls. It was a sad situation overall, but she couldn't bring herself to feel sorry for the doctor.

The other group also had a still on their farm for making biofuel, which made Stan really excited, at least she thought he was. The man had just recently managed to finish building a small refinery to make black diesel out of their old motor oil, the biofuel from the still would just make keeping the trucks running even easier.

Clementine had dragged the deer about halfway the distance she needed to go, she was getting tired but she didn't feel safe stopping in the middle of nowhere. She started thinking about Kenny to keep her mind off the burning in her calves. Kenny had taken the news of her newfound muteness better than she expected, but the man had kept trying to get her to talk every time he saw her. She tried, but it just refused to come out as nothing but gurgles of spit. Carlos refused to help her when Kenny had begrudgingly asked the man, to which the doctor just cursed him out for even trying. She thought back to the cabin randomly, she wondered what would've happened if she never accepted the deal with Bill. Maybe she'd still be alone, or dead,she didn't know but she didn't regret her choice. She finally told Bill, once he returned, that you could lead the walkers with noises and that had given the man an idea. Which essentially boiled down to, packing dozens of walkers in a truck container, and letting them loose in a hostile community. She thought the strategy was barbaric, but the man assured her it would only happen to those who deserved it. She trusted Bill at this point, so she accepted the answer, but she didn't fail to notice the changes in the man.

Bill had recently gotten a more militaristic mindset when it came to leading the community, for better or for worse, it led to a lot changes within the hardware store. First, every single one of the guards had been mandated to tactical training from Bill. Second, Bill had essentially gotten rid of sending new people to the pen, replacing it with what was essentially a boot camp, though anyone currently in the pen still needed to work their way out. Third, which concerned her the most, the increased emphasis on expansion. Bill had expressed that he wanted their community to expand past just Howe's and the surrounding area. He wanted them to have multiple outposts within the state. The only reason they didn't set one up at the farm, was because it was way too far, and the lack of manpower would be detrimental to them. So Bill had the idea of attracting more groups or lone people to Howe's, but in a larger capacity than they were currently. Time could only tell how the plan would work out, but she was worried about the potential setbacks from the idea.

She had finally gotten back to Howe's, her legs were practically on fire now. She waved a hand to get the attention of anyone that was on lookout duty. About a minute later, Tyler had jogged towards her and dragged the deer for her as she walked back inside the hardware store.

She trudged towards her room, took her hat off and plopped down onto the bed. She stared at the book pile next her nightstand, having read all of them by now. Her eyes then moved towards the calendar in her room, dates for what she'd be learning from him plastered all over it. She'd finally learned what the actual date was since Savannah, which had cracked a smile on her face when she received it. Clementine had fallen asleep not long after, mentally preparing herself for what's to come.

A/N

Sorry, I really wanted this chapter to be released sooner, but for some reason when I saved it yesterday to come back to it later, it just didn't save. So I had to completely rewrite the second section from memory.

The cabin group has been almost entirely wiped out, AJ never gets to see the light of day. Carver's empire begins to grow, original characters will begin appearing, and everything that leads to season three will be completely different from here on out. It'll probably be a few chapters before season three begins here, just so I can build rapport between the new characters. The reviews do help InfiniteGrandAdvancer, but I really wanted to give the cabin group a horrid and depressing end for the fun of it. I did mention plans for how I've planned how the later seasons might kick off, and I'll get there eventually. I'm planning on it being a big character development moment for the Clementine here. Anyways that'll be all I guess. I'll get to work on an AO3 account while I'm at it.