Chapter 5
The first thing that Clementine heard, when she came to, was arguing.
"Don't you tell me that! Not with what fuckin' happened." One voice rang out, she was still a little out of it, and couldn't tell who was speaking.
"Would someone mind telling me what the fuck is going on here?" Another voice asked, a woman she could tell, as her vision cleared up, and sound's became clearer.
"Now hold on, Rebecca." Pete chimed in, Clementine now fully aware of her situation.
"We got this, don't worry." Nick chipped in.
"Like hell you do. Did anyone even think to ask where she came from? For all we know, she could be working with Carver!" The woman, that she now had identified as Rebecca, started yelling.
"The girl's mute, at least give her a chance to defend herself!" Pete defended her. "We found her alone, hurt, and barely able to walk. And I don't know how I'd feel about leaving a kid to get eaten by lurkers."
"What? And you just believed her? You should've put her out of her misery right there. Mute, my ass!" She exclaimed, not wanting to hear Pete's side of the argument.
Scared, Clementine tried to run away from the group of arguing adults.
"Hey!" Nick shouted, just before a gunshot rang out.
Clementine turned around and froze still, out of fear of being shot. Glaring at Nick, as Pete ripped the rifle out of his hands.
"You're lucky my nephew can't shoot for shit." Pete scolded the young man.
'Ain't that the truth.' She thought.
A door slammed open, Luke ran out of the cabin, a worried look plastered on his face.
"Whoa, whoa, what the fuck?!" Luke cursed, wondering what was happening.
"You idiot! Every lurker for five miles probably heard that!" Rebecca scolded Nick.
"You're the one tellin' me to fuckin' shoot her!" Nick defended.
"Everybody, just calm down for a second!" A very big black guy tried to calm the group.
"You okay, kid?" Luke asked her kneeling down to her level.
Clementine shook her head in response.
"Oh right, Alvin, Rebecca, I grabbed y'alls notepad so the kid could talk to us." The man told the couple, handing her a notepad and pencil.
"Alright now, can you tell us your name, and what happened to you?" He asked.
Clementine nodded, placing the pencil on the paper. She froze for a second, contemplating about what to say. They wouldn't believe her, if she said that she was alone for two years. Thinking quick she made up some story, that would be believable.
"My name is Clementine, my guardian, Lee, died in a scavenging run a few days ago. The other men in the group, tried to hurt me and I ran away. I fell into the river trying to escape. When I woke up, I found a dog, that brought me to a campsite. I found some food, and he got mad at me and bit my arm." She finished writing, blending truth with lies. Handing the notepad to Luke.
The man read it back to the group aloud, looking at her weirdly, once he got to the part about the men trying to her. Actually, a few of them gave her a weird look, when he said that. Pete, especially, as he kept looking back at the bruise on her wrists from when the scavenger had grabbed them.
She didn't understand the looks, but it seemed they had misinterpreted something she wrote, along the way.
"Dog bite, my ass." She heard Rebecca scoff to herself.
Luke shot the pregnant woman a look, before turning towards her. "Um, here you go. Just... say what's on your mind." Luke said softly, handing her back the notepad.
Clementine, thought for a second, and then started writing again.
"I just want some help with my arm. I will leave right after." She finished, handing it back to Luke.
Luke finished reading and Nick spoke up. "She tried to run, man."
"Well, Nick, can you really fuckin' blame her?" Luke chided the other man. Which made Clementine, nod her in agreement.
"We got a doctor right here, okay? He'll have a look. Now what the hell is wrong with you people?! Okay, she's just scared!" Luke argued, trying to defend her, which made her feel bad about wanting to steal from them a few weeks ago.
"We're all scared, Luke. Don't act like we're the ones being irrational 'cause we don't buy this bullshit story." Rebecca chipped in.
'Never mind.' She quickly went back on that previous thought.
"No way she survived out here on her own! Why are we even arguing about this?!" Nick shouted.
Another man exited the cabin, and walked straight towards her.
"Let me take a look." He brushed past the other group members, stopping right in front of her. Clementine took a step back as the man held out his hand.
"It's okay. Go ahead. He's a doctor." Luke reassured Clementine.
Rolling up her sleeve slowly, blood making the clothing stick to her skin.
"Damn, that must've hurt." The man she had learned was named Alvin empathized.
The doctor, inspected her wound for a minute. "Hmm. Whatever it was, it got you good." The doctor said, prodding the injury with his hands, making Clementine groan from the pain. She also frowned at what he said.
"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." Nick spoke, advocating for putting her down.
"No one's suggestin' that." Luke tried shutting, Nick, down.
"We could take her arm off." Pete chipped in, making Clementine, gasp in fear. "I know that worked for a cousin down in Ainsworth. We could try that." He added.
"It won't do any good. You'll just be makin' it worse for the girl." Rebecca argued against the idea.
"It's crazy. No one's gonna volunteer to do that." Alvin tried saying, but she thought that was mostly his own personal opinion.
"I would. If it means saving her life." Pete stated matter of factly.
"Then what? How would we know it worked?" Nick argued.
"Just let Carlos have a look first!" Luke yelled, trying to shut the group up.
Clementine glared at Nick, angry at the man for nearly killing her twice, and preaching for killing her.
"What're you looking at?" Nick shook his head at her.
The cabin door opens, a girl with glasses peaks out.
"Who's she?" She asked softly.
"Sarah, what'd I say? Stay inside." Carlos ordered, the girl closing the door.
"Look Carlos, she just wants help with her arm. She said she'll leave right after." Luke begged the man.
"And where exactly would you go?" The doctor questioned her.
"She's mute, Carlos, she can't answer you." Pete chimed in.
Carlos stared at the man, before looking back at Clementine.
"She said a dog bit her." Luke spoke up.
"A dog?" He questioned. "Could be a dog." He wondered aloud, she looked at the man, his face radiating that he knew it was true. The man just didn't want to use supplies on her, from what she gathered, leaving her feeling sick inside.
"Look, I dunno what the hell took a bite outta her, but still... she's just a kid. Worst case, she turns and we can deal with it." Pete stated, trying to help her out.
"I'm no doctor or nothin', and I'm good with whatever you decide, but maybe we should be sure before we go off and do something crazy. I'm just sayin'." Alvin joined in, staying neutral in the conversation.
"Carlos, we've been through this before. We all agreed, we don't wait for shit like this. End of story." Nick argued, Clementine glared at the man again.
Carlos, stood up, walking back to the group.
"So what d'you think? Was it a Lurker?" Nick and Alvin asked the doctor.
"A bite like that... could be anything. Only one way to find out." He told the group, Clementine forced herself to not hit the man, settling on just scowling at him.
"How?" Pete wondered.
"We wait." Carlos stated, Clementine, decided that she really didn't like this man.
"What?!" Rebecca blurted out in confusion.
"By tomorrow morning, if the fever's set in, we'll know if she's gonna turn. In the meantime, we can lock her in the shed." He casually said, knowing full well she'd already start getting sick by that time.
"The girl's in bad shape, Carlos. We should at least clean her arm up, stitch the wound, and bandage it." Luke tried convincing the man.
"We have all that stuff inside the cabin, we could probably get by with..." Alvin was cut off.
"Alvin please..." Rebecca interrupted the man.
"But, yeah, we can't do nothing." The man finished, siding with his wife.
"I'm not wasting supplies on a lurker bite. If it turns out you're telling the truth, I'll clean it and stitch it up for you in the morning." Carlos declared to the little girl, before walking off.
"I'm sorry. It's the best we're gonna get." Luke apologized to the girl. Clementine just, looked down, trying to conceal her hatred for the doctor.
'He wants me to die!' She snarled in her head.
"Finger off the trigger, son." Pete scolded Nick, handing him the rifle back.
"I ain't your son." Nick scowled, snatching the gun out of the man's hand.
"Don't be like that, man." Luke tried calming the man down.
"It's alright. Boy's got his mom's temper." Pete stated, seemingly unaffected from the outburst.
"Come on." Nick ordered Clementine, leading her to a shed, Luke walking beside her.
"This is just a waste of time. You'll see. And when she turns, I ain't gonna be the one cleanin' up the shed." Rebecca pouted to the group.
Clementine let out a slight whimper, the pain in her arm growing.
"Look, hold out the best you can, Clementine. And we'll see what's what in the morning." Luke tried reassuring her.
The trio eventually reached the shed, Luke, opening the doors, they stood there for a few seconds, Luke staring at her sadly, until Nick threatened her by lifting the gun up slightly. She walked inside the shed, looking back as Luke closed the doors and locked them.
"Why are we doing this? It's so fucking dumb." Nick seethed.
"Because it's safer this way. And I'd rather be sure." Luke answered the man
"Yeah, but safer for who?" Nick questioned back, both voices fading out entirely.
'I can't believe this... You're gonna be fine, you're gonna be fine.' Clementine assured herself, pacing around.
Clementine started looking around for anything useful, checking a barrel in the corner.
'Nothing.'
She glanced at an anchor, vice, and a board marked with the shapes of tools, yet lacking any. She tried looking up, seeing a life saver and a hammer high up on a shelf. Attempting to reach the hammer, grunting from the effort, just to be left disappointed as she only managed to push it out of her grasp.
She started searching for anything she could use to reach the hammer, discovering a folding table next to the shelf, raising it up and climbing it.
Once Clementine had stabilized herself on the table, she tried reaching for the hammer. Panting as her hand nearly reached the tool, before hearing a crack and finding herself meeting the floor.
Clementine letting out an agonizing yelp, as she landed directly on her injured arm. Clementine stood up slowly, letting another grunt of pain out. She lifted the board, that had made up the shelf with both arms, her left arm feeling like it was on fire from the effort. She grabbed the hammer and searched around. She spotted a box in the corner, checking it for anything useful, she found some fishing line. She placed the fishing line on the workbench, moving the box out of the corner, and discovering that the area behind it seemed to be in disrepair, only being held together by a board, and some plywood.
Turning the hammer around, wedging the claw end In between the board, and pulling the hammer with both hands. Ignoring the growing pain in her injured arm, she eventually pried the board off the wall. She stuck the hammer in her right pocket, and started kicking the plywood. Snapping it off after two kicks.
Laying down on her stomach, she crawled out of the hole she'd just made. Immediately getting soaked in rain, and hearing walkers roaming around, she started inching her way towards the lit up cabin. Mud splashing on her jeans as she got closer. She tried opening the side door, and windows, finding them locked, she moves around the back. The windows being much too high for her to reach, she just keeps walking around to other side of the building. As she rounded to the other side, she noticed that she had to keep walking around to the front to get the windows on this side. As reach neared closer to rounding the corner towards the front of the cabin, she spotted some plywood covering a spot in the crawl space.
Clementine pulled on the board, trying to rip it off and failed, but she saw that the nails holding it in place had detached enough, that she could use the hammer to pry them off. Once Clementine finished prying them out, she pulled the board aside and entered the crawl space.
"House meeting in five minutes." Clementine scowled at the sound of Carlos's voice.
"That's... that's great." Alvin tiredly responded.
"It won't take long. There's a few things we need to discuss." Carlos assured the man.
'Yeah, how you're willingly dooming a litter girl to her death.' Clementine scoffed, as she neared some type of hatch under the house.
"Fine." Alvin sighed.
Clementine crawled directly under the hatch, pushing it, and quickly realizing it was locked. Looking closely, she saw that the space where the latch that was locking the thing, was too thin and could only be accessed with her pocket knife, that the group had failed to notice, thankfully. Flicking the knife open, she stuck the blade into the latch, snapping the blade in half, but successfully unlocking the hatch. Entering the cabin, she waited a bit, as she heard footsteps entering a room.
"I've already made my decision." Carlos declared to the group.
"Well, Luke has more to say, I guess. Where's Sarah?" Pete asked the doctor.
"She's got her book. She doesn't need to be a part of this." Carlos answered.
Entering what seemed to be a living room, she took in her surroundings. The table had book, lit candles, and playing cards scattered around. Listening to the conversation through walls, she noticed they were talking about her.
Until the next break, this whole section is just a slightlymodifiedversion of the eavesdroppingconversation, this is here just in the case you wish to skip it.
"For all we know, she could be connected with Carver." Rebecca assumed.
"Come on. There's no way." Luke reassured the group, Clementine found herself liking the man, more and more, even if he did drop her.
"She could be. We don't know." Alvin defended his wife.
"She's connected to somebody. There's no way she's out here by herself." Nick stated.
"She said she was escaping members of her own group, and if you couldn't tell, from the bruises on her wrists, they seemed intent on tryna... you get the idea." Pete mentioned, although that last part confused her.
"Yeah, right." Nick scoffed.
"Whoever she's with, they'll probably come looking for her." Carlos brought up.
'Should've thought about that before. Dick.' Clementine insulted the man in her head, her opinion of the doctor lowering more and more.
"Great. They show up and we've got her locked in the shed." Alvin groaned.
"You think we should bring her in here?" Rebecca questioned her husband.
"No. I'm just saying it wouldn't look too good." Alvin responded back.
"It's just a precautionary measure. Anyone else would do the same." Carlos stated, in a matter of fact tone, that only made Clementine disgusted.
"You really think Carver would come after us?" Luke asked the group.
"You think he wouldn't?!" Nick butted in.
"He's not exactly the type to let things lie." Pete mentioned.
"What happened, happened. There's nothing we can do about it now." Luke assured.
"Let him come. I really don't give a damn." Alvin snapped.
"Alvin!" Rebecca exclaimed.
"What? I don't." Alvin replied.
Clementine kept listening to the group argue, trying to see if they might give her any hints on where anything that could help her, might possibly be.
"You brought her back here, not me. You knew she was bit." Nick scoffed at Luke.
"What was I supposed to do, huh? Leave her out there to die?" Luke defended.
"Better her than us." Nick responded.
"You'd've done the same, Nick." Pete chimed in, defending Luke.
"It wasn't the brightest idea." Nick argued.
"Oh, and firing your rifle was, huh...? Next time we'll just put up a neon sign that says "Lurkers Welcome"." Luke bit back.
"Where you goin', hon?" Alvin asked his wife.
"I want to get my sweater." She replied back
"We'll be done in a minute." Carlos came in, interrupting her from leaving.
"You're in the middle of nowhere, runnin' away from child rapists, surrounded by lurkers, about to get eaten alive, and you're telling us it was a dog?" Nick said, skeptical at the excuse.
"Yeah, yeah, I know it sounds crazy, but...look, for whatever reason, I think she's telling the truth." Luke seemed very adamant on defending her, it seemed.
"Look, there's no point in arguing about it now. She's in the shed, she's not gonna hurt anyone. We'll just see what's what in the morning." Pete chimed in.
"But Carlos said she could die if she doesn't get her arm treated." Luke argued with the man.
"Assuming she doesn't turn." Rebecca hissed.
"That true? The girl could really die?" Alvin asked worriedly, suddenly regretting his choice it seemed.
"If the infection spreads...anything's possible. It could definitely get a whole lot worse for her." Carlos stated.
Clementine, swore that she'd never been so angry at a person in her life.
"Don't we have penicillin? Or something that could, y'know...stop the infection from spreading?" Luke asked the man.
"We have some. But not enough to spare." Carlos sighed, intent on denying Clementine any form of assistance.
"We're not wasting anything on her. What if one of us needs it?" Nick sided with Carlos.
"Look, I'm just saying, we could help, that's all." Luke was very quickly becoming her favorite person in this cabin.
"We need to think of ourselves first. That's just the way it is." Rebecca said, which Clementine found herself agreeing with Rebecca. If only for the logic of the argument.
"We can't just let her die. Not if there's something we can do about it. Let's just say she's telling the truth and she doesn't turn. Then what?" Pete asked the group.
"We apologize for being assholes. And then we help fix her arm." Luke declared.
"She can't stay with us. We barely have enough supplies for ourselves." Rebecca argued angrily.
"We've got more fish in the traps than we could ever eat." Pete stated.
"Yeah, but she's seen us. She knows we're here." Nick mentions to them.
"What, you scared of a little girl?" Luke jokingly insulted the other man
"A little girl is not the problem. It's who she might tell." Carlos reminds them.
"We gotta keep an eye on her." Alvin decided for them.
"IF she doesn't turn. Which she probably will." Rebecca chimed in.
"I gotta take a leak." Nick abruptly stated.
"Hold on. We're almost done." Carlos stated.
"Fine." Nick sighed.
"My point is, if a little girl can find her way here, then almost anyone can." Carlos theorized.
"Pete, you saw those lurkers, alright? That's more than we've seen in a while." Luke mentions.
"Yeah. Seems like it's not as safe as it was. Least not like when we found this place." Pete responded sadly.
"Maybe it's time to move on." Nick suggested.
"We can't just keep running. At some point we've got to settle down." Rebecca tells the group.
"We should. And we will. But can we find somewhere safe? I don't know." Carlos questions.
"You seen what it's like out there." Pete states.
"I was just starting to like this place." Alvin whined.
"Look, we've had a good run here. But if it's time to move on, then I got no problem with that." Pete seemed to be the levelheaded one in the group she could tell now.
"Yeah, but...I mean, where do we go from here?" Luke asked the group.
"No more cities. We all agreed on that, right...? Too many damn lurkers." Alvin chips in.
"We're not going back the way we came. That's for damn sure." Nick declared.
"We can probably find somewhere better. We just need to look." Rebecca says, hopeful.
"Wherever we go, we can't get too attached. We'll be fine as long as we keep things fluid." Carlos decided.
"We can't forget we need to check the traps tomorrow." Pete reminded the group.
"What do we do with the girl?" Nick asked.
"You're not leaving her here with me!" Rebecca rebuked.
"We can't just keep her locked in the shed. We're not animals." Luke argues with them.
"Then take her with you." Carlos suggests to them.
"What?" Nick says, flabbergasted at what Carlos just said.
"You want to keep an eye on her, then take her with you. Are we almost done here...? I want to make sure Sarah's ready for bed." Carlos said, eager to want to leave now.
"Wait a second. There's something else I want to talk about." Pete tells them.
Clementine realized that eavesdropping on the group was getting nowhere and kept searching around. Walking into the bedroom, right next to the living room. Searching around, she found absolutely nothing to help her injured arm. Walking out the room, she snuck towards the stairs, slowly walking up them to try and make as little noise. She walked inside a room on the far left of the hallway, searching around she walked towards a dresser, she found some rags on the top of it, opening it, she found a watch. Deciding to take it, she grabbed the object, and shoved it in her pocket.She also saw a board game on the desk, but it seemed super complicated for her to understand.
Stepping out, she entered the room next to the one she exited. A bathroom, checking the linen closet, she found it empty. Walking towards the mirror, she pulled it slowly to try and make as little noise she could. With the medicine cabinet exposed, she looked inside it. Find a needle, embedded inside a pincushion. Pulling the needle, she inspected it, seeing no issues, she pocketed it. Closing the medicine cabinet, she started walking towards the door, when she heard footsteps walking up the stairs.
"That man sometimes, I swear!" She heard Rebecca scolding someone to herself.
Panicking, Clementine jumped into the linen closet and held her breath.
Rebecca stepped inside the bathroom, opening the sink and taking a sip of water.
"Damn it... Just need to have this baby and...oh, god. Let it be okay and...let it be his." The woman begged, before taking a deep breath, and leaving.
Clementine's, eyes widened at what she had just heard. 'Poor Alvin.'
She slowly exited the linen closet and bathroom. Entering the last room, she was surprised when another girl was in the room, sitting on her bed with a book. Sarah she gathered, gawked at her, to which Clementine, brought a finger to her lips to try and tell the girl to stay quiet.
"What happened to you?" The older girl asked Clementine, who just ignored her and started searching the room.
"Hey! What are you doing?!" She quietly yelled at Clementine, who just ignored her.
Clementine started digging through the closet, eventually finding a bottle of peroxide. Showing it to the other girl, she simply shushed the other girl again, and nodded her head in thanks, at the girl not screaming for help. Clementine exited the other girls room, sneaking down the stairs and entering the storage room.
Dropping down the hatch, she crawled back out from under the house, and walked back to the shed, stolen medical supplies in hand. Crawling through the hole, she stood up, and placed the stuff on the workbench.
'It can't be that hard, right?' She tried reassuring herself as she rolled up her sleeve and placed her left arm on the bench. Grabbing the bottle of peroxide, she unscrewed the lid of the bottle and grabbed the sewing needle. Pouring the liquid over the needle, just to make sure it was as clean as possible before placing it back down on the bench.
'This is gonna suck.' She thought, just as she poured the peroxide over the wound, as soon as the disinfectant had touched the dog bite, the pain in her arm increased tenfold. Yelping from the sudden onslaught of pain, Clementine, dropped the bottle of peroxide on the floor, the pain making her lose her grasp on it, and gripping her arm in some futile attempt at making the pain disappear.
Clementine, let out some labored breaths, gritting her teeth as she tried to calm down. 'Okay... okay, I'm good. I'm fine. Now the fun part.' She inwardly loathed this moment. Taking the needle in her hands, and grabbing the fishing line, pulling out more line than she probably needed, and bit the line to cut it from the spool. She then started attempting to thread the fishing line through the needle, taking a few attempts to do so, as her hands kept shaking. Once she managed to tie the line in place, she looked at the needle and then at the wound.
She sat there for a few seconds, dreading this moment. Taking one deep breath, she started stitching up her arm. Once the needle entered her arm, she immediately let go of it, slamming her fist on the table, as the agony had been nearly too much for her. Taking a breather, she started suturing again, not slowing down, in the belief that if she finished faster, it would be over quicker. Not even realizing she was screaming from the pain, tears in her eyes, she kept going. Once she finally made the final stitch, the two separated sides of skin had fully kissed, she bit the line attached to the needle, and started both the ending and start of the stitching.
Sweat dripping down her forehead, and breathing heavily, she began the final step, grabbing the rags to bandage her wound, she started rolling it around her arm. Just as she started though, her hands still shaking, she accidentally dropped the roll on the ground. Mentally cursing herself, she bent down to pick up the roll.
A rotting armed suddenly gripped hers. Surprised, she tries to grab the hammer on the workbench, kicking the arm holding her, as she tried to separate herself from the walker. She held onto the table for dear life, struggling to reach the hammer that seemed to get further away from her. Clementine lost her footing, as the walker had finally managed to knock her to the floor. Clementine tried reaching for the rake that was next to her, but couldn't get to it.
The walker burst through the opening in the shed and got on top of her, nearly biting her throat out. Struggling, she kicked the walker away, she stood back up and jumped for the rake, dodging the walker's lunge at her. Grabbing a broken piece of wood, she stabbed the walker trying desperately to kill it, but only managed to spin themselves around. Clementine stabbed the walker's head again, the undead creature still trying to eat her, she pushed it away. The walker stumbled back and fell onto an anchor, shoving its intestines outside of it abdomen.
Clementine grabbed the hammer, and started bashing the walker's skull in with the claw end, again and again, until she was sure it would stop moving. She didn't even notice the shed doors being opened, as she struggled to pull the hammer out of the mangled skull. Breathing heavily, and dropping the hammer to the ground, she crossed her arms.
Turning around, gripping her now stitched arm, she glared at the group that was gawking at her.
"Holy shit." Luke amazed at the sight.
"What the...?" Alvin didn't finish that thought.
"How the hell did it get in here?" Nick wondered, astonished at the sight in front of him.
"Little girl's tough as nails." Pete praised her.
"Are you alright?" Carlos asked her, receiving a quick glare from her.
"The shed should've been safe." Luke stated, worried.
"Girl's tougher than I thought." Alvin thought aloud.
Luke stared at her stitched arm. "You patched yourself up?"
"Where'd you get that stuff?" Nick questioned, glaring at her, to which she glared back.
Rebecca darted her eyes around at the group. "Did she steal from us?"
"This doesn't change a thing. She hasn't done anything to us." Pete still seemed to want to defend her, even after stealing from them.
"Says the man not carrying a baby." Rebecca angrily blurted in response.
"Enough already!" Pete shouted at the pregnant woman.
Luke, seeing things going down hill, tried to calm the group. "Guys, please."
Clementine stared at the group, her anger at them visible.
"She must've stolen it. It didn't just magically appear." Nick stated the obvious.
"Unless she had some help." Pete suggested, which she found surprising that he'd assume that.
"Bring her in and I'll take a look at her arm." Carlos sighed, Clementine could tell the man was clearly disappointed at the way things had gone against his plans
"Damn lurkers sneakin' around out here... We better get inside." Alvin warned the group, as they started leaving towards the cabin. Clementine followed them, passing Luke who had stood still.
He suddenly spoke. "You hungry?"
Clementine, froze at the question, surprised, she hadn't expected it somehow, even though the man seemed to be on her side ever since she passed out on the way. She nodded after a second, and continued walking, she could tell that her exhaustion from the past few hours was plastered all over face as she entered the cabin.
Carlos waved her into the kitchen, directed her to sit down on a chair, and started inspecting her arm. Luke was pacing around, and Nick was biting his fingernails for some reason. She thought he'd be happy about the situation, from all the times the man nearly killed her.
"This might hurt a little." The doctor said, just as he squee her arm, a little harder than he needed to.
Clementine hissed in pain, the man raised his eyebrows in confusion at that. 'Asshole!' She thought to herself.
Luke suddenly spoke. "How's she look?"
"Her suturing skills need some work, but otherwise I'd say she should be fine." Carlos told the man.
"So it wasn't a lurker bite?" Luke asked the doctor.
"If it was, the fever would've already set in and her temperature would be through the roof." Carlos started bandaging her arm, Luke and Nick left the room as he did. Once he finished, he started washing his hands in the sink.
"I wish you wouldn't've done what you did." The man suddenly started. Clementine furrowed her eyebrows at the man.
"You have nothing to say for yourself?" To which Clementine, raised her eyebrows at the man's question. She thought he already knew she couldn't speak, although for her, she didn't know what was stopping her.
"I heard the screams, and the noise you've been making, would be impossible for someone truly mute." He continued, angrily, her eyes widening at the statement.
"We put you in that shed out of concern for the safety of our loved ones." The man seethed, looking ready to hit her.
"And stay away from my daughter!" He ordered, his voice making Clementine nearly jump at the sudden outburst. The man stomped out the kitchen, leaving the girl staring dumbfounded at the empty doorway.
Luke walked inside the kitchen, staring at where Carlos had stomped off too, holding a bowl of food. "Hey, uh... brought you some food, if you're hungry." He said softly, handing her the bowl.
Clementine inhaled the food, her stomach had been hurting from hunger for days now, the beans she had before Sam bit her, had only quieted the stomach pains for a bit.
"That's gonna leave of hell of a scar." The man tried lifting up her mood, but she ignored it, choosing to keep eating.
"Better than a stump, at least." He tried again, which immediately flashed images of Lee's final moments in her mind, making Clementine try hiding her face, in an attempt to hide the sadness that had come over her.
Luke quickly noticed her reaction. "What?" He waited for a response, before nearly facepalming. "Right. One second." He walked off for half a minute, and came back with the notepad and pencil they had her use hours before.
"My guardian, Lee, lost his arm the day he died." She wrote, the memory suddenly finding itself at the forefront of her psyche. Tears had nearly started falling, but she stopped herself.
Luke shoot her an apologetic look. "Sorry for bringin' up bad memories."
Clementine just sunk her head a bit and kept eating.
The kitchen door opened, Nick, walking in. Clementine scowled at the man, hate radiated from her face. The man seemed ready to ready to say something, but changed his mind. "Whatever." The man walked back out.
Luke noticed her reaction to Nick. "Look, sorry about Nick, he lost his mom recently, tryna help someone that got bit." He explained to Clementine, the anger still showing on her face. "We thought we could control it, but... we couldn't. And then she turned and his mom was standing right there and she got attacked... There was nothing we could do about it."
"And I know there's no excuse, for the way he's treated you... but just try to understand where he's comin' from." Luke tried to make Clementine give up on her hate of the other man, but sighed.
Clementine looked at Luke, her features softening. The man had been nothing but nice to her, and she felt like she could somewhat trust the man. Although she wasn't about to give the man her life story.
"This group of yours." He froze, trying to find the words. She suddenly remembered something Nick had said when she was eavesdropping on their conversation.
'What's a child rapist?' She asked, showing him the paper.
The man seemed visibly shocked at the note. "Well, uh... it's someone, that umm... well it's someone that wants to do something bad to kids." He said, clearly dodging the question.
'but like how?' She wrote, handing the paper back to him.
The man sighed. "They do something to you, something only grownups should do. Even if you say no to them, and beg them to stop, and it hurts you, and leaves you damaged in a way that nothing can ever fix. It's something that should never have even been close to happening you. You're lucky, Clem, let's just leave it that." He finished, distraught at the conversation.
Clementine raised an eyebrow at that, she still didn't understand what that meant, but moved on, the conversation clearly making Luke uncomfortable.
'They just held a gun to my head, threatening to kill me, if I didn't tell them where my stuff was, because I hid it from them when Lee died, and one chased after me when I ran off? That's why I have the bruises, because the guy chasing me grabbed my arms.' She finished writing, and Luke read it again, the man taking a deep breath.
"I'm so sorry, Clem, I... we thought, something bad was happening to you kid." He apologized to her, which only made her feeling more confused.
"Anyways, since you're pretty much on your own, what's your plan?" He asked her, trying to move on from that conversation.
'leave' is all she wrote.
The man seemed saddened by how blunt of a response she gave. "Well, you're welcome to stay here if you want. You can let yourself heal up and take some time to sort things out."
Clementine, stared at him, and pointed above her, and then towards herself. The man seemed to catch what she was saying.
"They'll just have to deal with it." He smirked.
"So what happened to your parents? If you don't mind me asking. I mean, I assume what happened to them is what happened to just about everyone's parents. You're just so young." He asked remorsefully.
She just shook her head and looked away.
"Hey, I'm sorry, I... I shouldn't have asked." He apologized to her.
'Went on vacation and left me with a babysitter and they never came back. We went to Savannah to find them, they were already dead.' She wrote, having moved on from their deaths.
"Wow. Well, I'm sorry to hear that."
'This man found me and took care of me. We met up with other survivors and we all tried to make it, but, it didn't work. His name was Lee. He taught me how to survive. He told me to stay away from cities. He's the reason I keep my hair short. He taught me how to shoot a gun.'
"What happened to him?"
Images of his body, a bloody hole in his forehead flashed. 'I killed him.'
Luke seemed to understand what she meant by that, even if she didn't fully write it. "I'm sorry."
The door opened again, Pete walking inside the room. "I hate to interrupt, but I'm out there standing watch and I can't help but notice this place is lit up like a goddamn beacon in the middle of the woods."
Luke stood up. "Yeah, it's time to turn in anyways."
"Get your winks while you can, 'cause we're goin' fishing at first light. A couple fresh brookies for dinner? Wouldn't that be nice." Pete said, lightening the mood.
Luke left the room, Pete gave her a smile, and left too. She finished eating her food. The door opening, and Rebecca entered the room. The pregnant woman, walked towards the sink, and started washing her hands.
Rebecca started. "Oh, you're still here. I wouldn't get comfortable, if I were you."
"Maybe you fooled everyone else, but not me."
Clementine just glared at her. The woman ignored the venomous look the girl gave her.
"Nothing to say? You got what you needed. You got what you came here for. Now go."
The woman left the room, Rebecca seemed to really dislike her for some unknown reason.
Clementine placed her empty bowl in the sink, washed her hands, blew out the candles and walked out of the kitchen. Looking around for a spot to sleep, she laid down on the couch. She stared at the ceiling for a few minutes, pondering on the past few days. She then started thinking about tomorrow, she knew they were going to make her go with them to check the traps, she wondered if she could somehow convince them to let her go to the truck. Clementine was hoping she could find anything the scavengers hadn't stole, and also to find her duffle bag of supplies she had hidden away.
Her eyelids started getting heavy, and she fell asleep.
A/N
I just wanted to explain some things here, just stuff that I added to some of the cabin characters that I felt made sense to their personalities. Mainly Carlos though, as he's the most different.
Carlos, I always felt it was a bit odd that a doctor wouldn't recognize a dog bite from a human one, but then I started thinking about his character throughout Season 2. I replayed through the season before writing this and he struck me off as someone who very clearly had a disdain towards Clementine. Then it hit me, Carlos very clearly knew that it was a dog bite, he just didn't wish to or want to use any supplies on Clementine. His word choice in the eavesdropping section I felt had hinted towards. 'Cause if Clementine had waited for morning, she was going to get a severe infection either way, or perhaps even die of blood loss. That's why I made the change to his character, especially with Clementine being unable to speak from Traumatic Mutism, he believes she's playing them. Not knowing that subconsciously, Clementine has unknowingly convinced herself that she's better off never speaking, as she believes she got everyone killed by talking to The Stranger.
Rebecca, and Nick aren't really much different for now, Nick just didn't get a chance to apologize. He also doesn't know Clementine was 'the midget in a raincoat' after all.
Pete and Alvin are unchanged. Sarah is as well, personality wise, Clementine just doesn't know how or wish to interact with her yet.
Luke is similar in the way that he's portrayed as well, but he's also the only person trying to interact with Clementine in a meaningful way, similar to how it was Season 2. Just more so than before.