Chapter 22
It had been a week since Clementine had gotten branded. Despite the stares, rumors, and insults in some cases, she had managed to keep herself calm enough to at least gain enough trust to go out on scavenging runs. They were currently heading into D.C. for a supply run. Max had apparently discovered some sort of food cache of non perishables that required more people.
"This kid is fuckin' creepy as shit man."
"Tell me about it. Feels like she's always watching us, listening for something."
Clementine heard two people whispering to each other from behind her. She didn't show that she could hear them though as she continued walking.
"Hey Clementine."
She looked over at Badger who was trying to speak to her. He reminded her so much of Phoenix.
"How many people have you killed?" He had his trademark smug, shit eating grin that seemed to be permanently etched on his face.
"Why does it matter to you?" Clementine was tired of the man constantly asking her this same question.
"Just want to know. Can't hurt to tell after all."
"I dunno, dozens." Clementine said nonchalantly.
"Shit girl, I think you got a bigger body count than all of us. I knew you were a little killer."
Clementine glared at him, she really didn't like Badger. He seemed to just be another Phoenix who hadn't gone off the deep end yet.
"Hey Lonnie, you believe this shit. Says she's killed dozens." Badger let out a mocking laugh.
"I believe it. Look at how banged up she is. Like she just crawled out of a war. Got that whole thousand yard stare thing goin'."
"Can y'all two idiots shut up? Gonna attract every damn roamer for miles." Max spoke up, annoyed at their antics.
"Lighten up will ya. Just some friendly banter, ain't that right Clem?" Badger gave her a light slap on the back.
"Don't call me Clem, and keep your hands off me asshole." Clementine angrily spat, the grip she had on her gun tightening.
"Alright then, girly."
"Say that again, I dare you." Her face had contorted with disgust.
"Shit Badger, she looks about ready to kill you." Lonnie gave a hearty laugh.
"Both of ya shut up, we're here."
They stopped in front of a large concrete building.
"So what the fuck are we lookin' at?" Badger looked over at Max.
"Some typa canned goods warehouse or something. Saw a few crates and some dollies inside when I went inside."
Clementine entered the building ahead of the others. It smelt terrible inside, a sickeningly sweet smell, typical of something rotting.
"Phew, smells like you Max." Badger joked waving his hand over his nose.
"Tsk, dumbass." Harry whispered to himself, separating himself from the group.
"The fuck you goin' Harry?" Lonnie called out to the man.
"I gotta take a shit." Harry grumbled as he disappeared from view.
Clementine noted the direction he had walked towards, before searching around warehouse herself.
"Hey kid, see if you can find us some crates I missed, or anything we can use." Max asked of her, before grabbing a dolly and moving an open crate of canned peaches.
She walked up some shaky metal stair, entering some type of office. There was a decayed body with a large part of its head missing, it reminded Clementine of some type of messed up flower.
A shotgun was on the floor, a Mossberg 590, she ejected the spent shell and checked for any inside the tube.
"Still loaded." Clementine hummed to herself as she holstered her pistol and decided to carry the shotgun instead.
She checked the body for more ammunition, finding two extra shells; loading both into the shotgun. Clementine then decided to search the desk, finding a box of shotgun shells, twelve gauge slugs.
"Damn." Clementine frowned, she would've preferred buckshot, but ammo was ammo.
She opened the box, and was able to load two more shells into the magazine tube until it wouldn't accept anymore. She then shoved the box inside her backpack.
Clementine checked the other drawers, finding nothing of any real value, except an expired bag of M 's. She grabbed the small bag, tearing it open and chewing on the stale pieces of candy. Tossing the wrapper away once she was finished.
The rest of the cabinets just had old documents inside. She left the office and went back downstairs, the creaking of the rusty metal stairs echoing throughout the entire building.
"Find anythin' up there?" Max was standing at the bottom of the staircase.
Clementine held up the shotgun, but decided not to tell him about the shells.
"More guns can't hurt I guess. But uh, just keep looking or whatever, we're almost done here anyways."
Lonnie was moving the second to last crate from what she could tell.
"Anyone seen Harry? Motherfucka ain't done shit since we got here." Lonnie cursed, wiping sweat from his brow.
"Now that you say it, I haven't seen him for a long ass time now." Badger looked around the warehouse with an uncaring look.
"See if you can't find him kid." Max waved her off.
Clementine walked towards where she had seen him head off to when they arrived.
She came up to a door of a break room, knocking on the door lightly. Clementine waited a few seconds, but there wasn't a response. Knocking again, much harsher this time, she finally heard the man speak.
"Don't come in!" The way he shouted had made Clementine suspicious.
She raised the shotgun, moved towards the wall, and quickly threw the door open.
"Goddamn it, I said don't come in!"
"Jesus Harry, the fuck are you doin' in there?" Badger suddenly appeared next to her looking through the doorway. He quickly started laughing at what he saw.
"Hey guys, come here!" Badger shouted smugly, the others appearing soon after.
"What th- Harry come on, we got a kid here." Max turned away in disgust.
"Kid, how about you go outside and watch over the food. You don't wanna see this." Lonnie closed the door, hiding whatever had Badger laughing and Max disgusted.
Clementine wanted to know what had happened, but ultimately decided to just leave.
Outside of the warehouse, she sat down on an unopened crate and inspected the shotgun. It needed some cleaning, the barrel had rusted a bit, but it seemed to be in working order.
Clementine sat there for a few minutes, standing up once everyone had finally decided to stop doing whatever they were doing. Harry looked ashamed of something, and Badger's smug banter certainly wasn't helping the matter.
"Harry, I hope you know that you're never living this down you horny bastard." Badger slapped Harry's back lightly.
"Man just leave me alone."
"Nah man, you could've scarred the shit outta her. You're lucky she didn't look inside, otherwise Ava woulda cut your nuts off." Lonnie laughed, making Harry shudder.
"Should've just told us you needed some "me time" or whatever." Badger continued messing with the man.
"Alright, alright, let's just this food back towards the camp. We can bully this idiot some once we're back." Max began pushing a dolly forward.
Badger and Lonnie shrugged to each other and started pushing their own as well.
"Assholes." Harry walked off with a dolly as well, leaving her to follow behind them.
She wanted to ask what had happened in the room, to see if she could learn information about them, but just as she opened her mouth a gunshot from the right rang out.
Clementine dove into an alleyway for cover, and aimed at where she believed the shot came from.
"Shit!" Badger cursed as he slammed his back into a dumpster next to her. Max and Lonnie did the same.
"Come out with your hands up!" A man's voice came out from the building across the street.
"Where the fuck is Harry?!" Max peaked over the dumpster.
Clementine spotted the aforementioned man on the ground cradling his right knee, blood was smothered onto his hands.
"You fucking asshole!" Harry screamed at the top of his lungs.
Another gunshot rang out, silencing Harry, who now had a gushing hole in his neck.
Clementine saw the muzzle flash in the building, and fired in its direction. Another gunshot rang out, but the flash was directed upwards. She quickly racked the shotgun and fixed her aim back across the street.
"You get him?" Badger was also aiming towards the building.
Clementine waited a minute, a distinct lack of any noise except the dying gurgles of Harry. She stood up slowly, stepping towards the dying man on the street.
"Damn... poor bas-" Lonnie was cut off by Clementine blasting the man's head into a confetti of viscera.
"Jesus fucking Christ!" Badger shouted in surprise at Clementine's actions.
She looked at them like they grew two heads.
"What? He turned." Clementine lied with a straight face, and then entered the building of their would be mugger.
"What the fuck man?! She just blew his head to pieces. He was still breathing." Lonnie's voice was panicked.
She found the assailant, he had turned into a walker. She racked the shotgun and finished it off.
"An AR-15." Clementine muttered to herself as she picked up his gun. She kneeled to place the shotgun down on the dead body, and ejected the magazine from the rifle.
There was only one bullet left in the magazine, meaning two shots remained. She searched the body for more ammo, but only found two empty magazines and a photo of a family. She tossed the photo away and grabbed the shotgun, leaving the building as she did.
"He had this and two shots left." Clementine jangled the AR-15.
The three men didn't care about that though, they were still focused on Harry's corpse.
"Kid, I get that you said he turned... but damn, that wasn't okay." Max sounded tense, and slightly fearful.
"I put him out of his misery."
"He didn't deserve... that Clementine." Max started, trying to make her regret her actions.
"I did what had to be done, he would've had a hole in his head either way. And in case you forgot, I killed the guy who killed him in the first place. I did more for him than either of you assholes did."
Max sighed and pinched the bridge of his nose.
"Let's just head back. Push Harry's crates Clementine."
Clementine didn't fail to notice the looks the three gave her. But Badger's made her feel uncomfortable, like the man had found some form of humor in the situation. A shudder ran through her body at his gaze.
"Look, Lonnie says that he was still alive when you shot him." David told Clementine.
"He doesn't know what he saw. I was the only one who did anything!" She tried to emphasize her point.
"I'm sorry Clementine, but you're staying here in the camp until we're confident enough you can go back out."
"This is bullshit." She crossed her arms and turned away from the man.
"I get it, people struggle with having to put down one of their own. They'll come around eventually, but until then, you stay here." He left the tent, leaving Clementine alone.
"Buncha idiots." She grumbled to herself, standing up and leaving the tent as well.
The stares she received let her know exactly who they believed. Which to be honest, Lonnie was right, Harry was still alive when she shot him. But there was quite literally nothing that anyone could have done to save him. If anything, she stopped his suffering short, more than he, or any of them deserved.
Clementine sat down by herself next to the campfire. She knew that she would have to make her move soon the way things were going. Jotting down in her memory, the perfect places to set fires and cause the most damage to the group.
"Hey Clementine." Ava sat next to her.
Clementine acknowledged the greeting with a quiet huff.
"Don't feel like talkin'?"
"What do you think?" Clementine said harshly.
"Well too bad kid, I'm not leaving till you start."
"I just want to be left alone." Clementine didn't fail to realize how childish she sounded when she said that.
"And that's okay, but you can't just put yourself in a bubble and ignore what's happening around you. The people here are worried about you."
"Why? I did what needed to be done."
Ava sighed in some degree of annoyance.
"Because of how absentmindedly you're able to do these things. It also doesn't help that you just stare at people like a hawk most of the time." Ava placed a hand on Clementine's shoulder.
"Some of them are asking for you to be kicked out." Ava whispered quietly.
'Shit.' Clementine cursed mentally.
"Everyone is getting stressed about you. Not that it's your fault or anything, but it's just how it is. They're still not ready to see someone your age doing these kinds of things so easily."
"And you are?" Clementine said with a condescending tone.
"I'll be honest, no I am not. But I am worried about you. You shouldn't have had any of this bullshit happen to you."
"You're a good person Ava." Clementine blurted out mindlessly.
"I'm just trying to help out. Try not to think too hard about it." Ava stood up and walked away.
"Why did I say that?" Clementine scolded herself.
She stood up and stretched, a tear forming in her shirt sleeves.
'I need new clothes.'
Clementine looked around the campsite for anything she could switch into.
"What are you looking for?" Joan suddenly appeared from behind her.
"Clothes."
"Your clothes do look to be in bad shape. But I don't think we have any in your size currently, but I'll see about the scavenging parties finding some."
Joan's expression told Clementine that she was here to talk about something else.
"I've been watching you Clementine, and I just can't figure you out."
Clementine didn't know how to respond to the confession.
"You aren't here for food like you said, I can tell that much."
Clementine felt her muscles go stiff.
"What do you mean?" Clementine said harshly, mixing in a fake sense of disbelief.
"I have seen the looks you give the people here. Watching us, and everything around you, constantly on edge." A smirk crossed Joan's face.
"And?" Clementine's heart started racing, had she been found out?
"There's a bloodlust in you... Harry, he wasn't dead was he?" Joan's eyes were burning through Clementine's own.
"You don't know what you're talking about." She tried to dodge the question.
Joan however, had correctly assumed it to be admission of guilt.
"So it is true. Don't worry, I won't tell anyone. But I will ask you to do me a favor someday." Joan walked away, leaving Clementine alone.
Clementine watched Joan walk away, her menacing aura gone, back to her warm personality. A facade to trick others, and get them to do what she wanted.
'I can't stay here any longer.' She looked around the campsite.
Her eyes rested on Ava for a second, a frown on her face forming.
'No Clementine, no backing down now. For Kenny.'
Clementine steeled herself for the upcoming days.