(Clementine's Pov)
I looked over to AJ as he sat next to me in the front of the car, I had my hand over his as we shifted the gears into thirty and he smiled at this.
"I did it." He says as I take my hand off of it and I put it back on the steering wheel. I smile at his excitement and I look at him with my good eye.
"Yea you sure did Goofball, when you get taller, I'll let you in this chair." I tell him and he just looked up at me and his smile got bigger if possible and god did that make me feel happy.
"Awesome." He says and I chuckle as I keep driving.
"So, where we headed now?" He asked and I looked back to the road.
"Well, we've been heading north and we passed a sign saying we were in Virginia, you should pull the map from the glove box." I say and I hear him open it and the paper crumple a bit. I look to him again then back to the road.
"You remember what I taught you about the maps?" I asked.
"Yep…. uh." He says and I hear the map move a bit so I take a look at him and see that he has the map upside down.
"The map is upside down Goofball." I say.
"…. I don't like Goofball." He says and I look at him sadly.
"Well…. Would you rather I call you shitbird?" I joked.
"No…. AJ is fine though." He says and I sigh a bit.
"you know I've always called you Goofball…. Why the change now?" I asked honestly.
"I'm grown."
"Is that right?" I asked.
"Yep… I can take care of myself you know." He says and I rubbed my neck a bit.
"I know you can bud…. But you need people to help you sometimes, it's not a bad thing you know…. When I was younger I always needed help." I tell him.
"Like Lee?" He asked and I nod slowly.
"You know, he trusted me a lot, when things got tough, he trusted me to make some tough calls, he didn't want me to go to Crawford…. I know he didn't but yet he trusted me…. Even when he." I stop as I watch the road and leaned forward a bit.
"But do you trust me?" AJ asked and I nodded a bit.
"I do…. But there are some things you should never have to do if I can do it myself you know…. People rely to much on a kid and… bad things happen to them or the kid." I say.
"Like you and your eye?" He asked and I nod.
"Yea… like me and my eye…. Some adults just don't care if you're a kid…. They just don't…. and I don't want what happened to me, happen to you…. Do you understand?" I asked.
"Yea, I do… but at some point, I'm going to have to make some calls that you can't." he says and I don't say anything. I hear his stomach growl a bit and I chuckle.
"Hungry hu?"
"Yea, a little." He admits and I nod.
"The chips we found last time should still be in the back if you want, just let me." But before I could say anything else he unbuckled himself and went into the back seat and I stopped slowly as I look at him.
"Alvin Lee Junior, you don't do that you hear me." I say loudly and he looked to me scared and I stop as I sigh.
"Just…. let me pull over next time ok?" I asked and he nods as he gets back in the front seat and I look at him. I start driving again and I look to the road.
"…. I'm sorry." He says but I don't say anything.
"Clem… are you mad?" He asked.
"A little…. But scared…. You just can't do that ok? What if a walker popped out of nowhere and I swerved?" I asked.
"I would have been fine."
"No… Kenny wasn't." I say as I drive.
"I... I forgot sorry." He says and I look to him and I pat his head gently. He had Kenny's hat on and I wanted to cry a bit but I didn't.
"You were to young when it happened…. Why do you think I have rules for the car?" I asked.
"Cause you don't want me to get hurt?" He asked and I nodded.
"Exactly…. I just want to keep you safe that's all…. Rebecca would be pissed if anything happened to you." I say.
"But it was my fault, my mom shouldn't be mad at you for my fault." He says.
"But I'm your big sister, I know better I have to keep you safe." I tell him.
"But I have to keep you safe." He says and I look at him then to the road.
"But I'm the one who has been raising you since you were a baby…. I should know better." I say.
"You let David take me." He says and my eyes go wide as I look at him a bit mad.
"You have no idea what I did, you were to young, I didn't let him fucking take you, I fought for you, I looked for you, I went to the ranch to save you, I killed people just to get you back, I did things someone my age should have never done, but I did it for you, you're all I have left in this world, all my friends are dead or missing or worse and I just…. I never wanted him to take you, I stole medicine from them so you could get better, because that fucking piece of shit doctor and David didn't have faith in you, they wanted you to die but no, I couldn't let that happen, I…. I just." I tried to say but I stopped talking and looked to the road sadly and I don't say anything else. AJ doesn't speak to me either and I just drive for a good while until I get to another train station. I stop slowly and look to it.
"We going to do it?" He asked and I think a bit and I nod.
"Yea… we look see if there is anything, if not we keep going." I say.
"But if we do?" He asked as I handed him a knife.
"We pack it in the car and we keep going."
"Could we stay?" He asked and I think a bit.
"I don't think so." I say as we get out the car and I go in the back and grab my bag and we go looking.
"Ring if you're friendly….. what does that mean?" AJ asked and I look at him a bit.
"Means they shoot first." I say and I go up to the bell and think as I ring it. Only thing that happed was a few walkers came out of hiding and I sigh as I look at them.
"Stupid walkers." I mumble as we head up to them and kill them. I look at AJ as we look around and I see some water and think as I put some in my canteen and try it. I regret that choice because it was really bad, so I spat it out and coughed a bit, I also here AJ laugh and I look at him and smile.
"Want some?" I asked and he shakes his head while smiling.
"Nope, I'm good." He says and I chuckle as I watch him looking at an old tire swing.
"That's a swing bud." I tell him as I walk up to him.
"Oh… So, it's not a monster trap?" He asked and I chuckled as I pushed the swing a bit.
"Nope, not a monster trap, you're supposed to sit in the tire and someone pushes you from behind making you go in the air a bit, god I had one of these at my home… I loved it so much." I say as I look at the swing and I remember playing on it while Sandra pushed me from behind. I frowned a bit at the memory and I look to the train station.
"I'd like to swing on it…. When it's safe though." He says and I nod a bit.
"Sure, that sounds like a plan." I tell him as we go up to the door of the station building and I look in the window then to AJ.
"Alright, what do we do when we get to a new place?" I asked.
"Always look for a way out." He tells me as he remembers our rules.
"And?"
"And look through the windows first before entering a building." He says and I nod as we head inside and I look around a bit.
"Hmm, I only know this door I don't see anywhere else." He says and I nod.
"That's true…. Alright that's what we have to work with." I say and turn to see two walkers sitting in chairs and I look at them then to the window.
"I didn't see them." He says and I nod.
"Neither did I." I admit as I walk up to them and I see a bottle of poison and a note.
"Please, leave us alone, we wanted this." I read and looked to the walkers.
"Why would they do this to themselves?" AJ asked and I look to him then to the walkers again as I sigh.
"They gave up, but I have no clue why." I tell him and I look at the ticket booth area and I walk up to it and look inside to see a mattress and some blankets.
"Look they have a key, could be for the door." He tells me and I look to him then I go and see the key on the walkers. I think for a bit and shake my head.
"We have to kill them to get it." He says and I nod a bit.
"Yea but…. they asked as people to stay like this." I respond.
"But they're dead, they're monsters now, there's no need to make them live like this." He says and I rubbed my neck a bit.
"You said you wouldn't want this to happen to you." He says and I look to him.
"But they wanted to stay like this." I tell him.
"But we need the key." He argued.
"We can find another way, AJ you have to understand there are people that would like to be walkers." I try to explain.
"I think it's stupid." He tells me and I look to the Walkers again.
"AJ can we please not argue about this, besides this is going to teach you how to think on what to do if the key wasn't here, new learning experiences." I try to explain to him and he looked at me.
"But we have the key Clem, you're not making any sense." He tells me.
"I… alright fine." I say and I take my knife and I stab one walker in the head, when that one was down and I had taken the knife out the other walker grabbed my arm weakly and I stabbed it in it's head as well. It took me two tries and I finally killed it and AJ grabbed the key as he went and opened the door to the booth. I took my knife out of the Walkers skull and I walked over to AJ as he grabbed a can of peaches and he looked to me.
"Look Clem, it looks kind of like you." He says as he shows me the can and I grabbed it from him to see that little girl on there and I look to AJ.
"You know, your dad said the same thing to me." I tell him.
"Really?" He asked and I nodded.
"Him and Walter both said it, you know I hated that they compared me to this girl." I say as we look around and AJ finds some bullets.
"Why is that?" He asked and I shrugged.
"No clue, I was eleven and just didn't like that they compared to me to her." I tell him and he nods and I look around more.
"What's this?" He asked as he pointed to a crib and I look to him.
"That's a crib, it's were babies sleep until they get older." I explain to him and he looked to me confused as he looked back to the crib.
"I didn't sleep in one of these." He says and I chuckle.
"Nope, you fit inside a small crate just fine when you were born." I tell him and sigh as I dropped the can and it rolled a bit on the ground as I look as it hit the mattress.
"What's that?" He asked and I went to the mattress as I moved it away to see a trap door.
"Secret floor door." He says and I chuckle as I opened it and we both saw a lot of food.
"Holy shit." I say and then a grenade pops out of nowhere.
"Fuck it's rigged." I say as I slam the door and I grab AJ before the bomb went off making us fall into the other room. I got up after a bit and looked to AJ and we heard Walkers.
"Shit, get to the car." I say as I got up and kicked the door in as we ran out. I saw a few walkers and looked to AJ.
"Go up I have them." I tell him and he does as told and I kill a few walkers. AJ was able to trap one under the door and I killed that one and we ran to the car as fast as we could. I threw the bag and knife in as I was about to close the door a walker comes up and I try to grab the knife but AJ shoots it in the head and I quickly shut the door as I put the key in the ignition. I was able to start up the car and drive off a bit before another walker gets on the hood and I swerve a bit as I try to get it off. It finally flies off but before I could straiten the car out, I was going to hit a tree head on so I turn the wheel fast and it was a big mistake, we fell down a steep hill and the car flipped a few times. My head hit the steering wheel and I blacked out for a short while before I woke up a bit to see a few walkers coming to the car. I move a bit and unbuckle myself as I fall to the roof only to look and see AJ gone.
"Fuck…. AJ." I say as I look around and move out the window of the car I look and see a walker get close and as I was about to grab my knife and arrow was lodged in its head and I lean back on the car a bit as I felt my leg burn and I look to see blood.
"FUCK are you ok?" I hear and turn to see this girl with blond hair.
"A kid, where?" I asked.
"Your boy is fine, my friend Louis has him can you walk?" She asked and I move my leg a bit and I nod.
"Alright come on quick." She says and I follow her as more walkers come at us. It wasn't long till we were away from the walkers and I heard an explosion and I groan a bit.
"Fucking great…. Just…god damn it." I mumbled.
"Keep swearing like that and your boy's going to pick it up." The girl says and I shake my head.
"He knows better than to swear, I told him so." I tell her.
"Sure, but he'll do it one day." She says and I stop a bit due to my leg burning.
"You ok?" She asked as I looked to her and I nod a bit.
"I've been through worse." I say as I started Walking again and so did, she.
"Sorry, I didn't introduce myself, I'm Violet." She says and I smirk.
"The flower or the Color?" I asked and she looked to me a bit confused and I rubbed the back of my head.
"Uh, I suppose the flower." She says.
"Sorry I uh…. Heard someone ask that once with a boy named Duck…. Dodging or quacking." I say and chuckle a bit and she laughed a little.
"Ooooh ok, I got it." She says and I nod.
"Uh… I'm Clementine." I tell her.
"Nice to meet you Clementine." She says and turns to face me but then stops as she looks at me a bit.
"Uh." I tried to say and looked to the side of my head.
"Shit, your head is bleeding." She says and I look to her.
"If you start to feel dizzy or anything just tell me, I need to tell Ruby just in case." She says and I nod a bit as we keep walking, she keeps a close eye on me and we get to this gated area and I look to it a bit.
"Welcome to Ericson's." She says.
"Hmm, never heard of this community." I say and she laughed.
"Community? The hell is that?" She asked and I looked to her confused as she let me in the gates and I look around.
"Uh… it's where people live uh like Richmond and Wellington." I explained.
"Uh what?" She asked.
"You…. You have no idea what those places are?" I asked and she nodded.
"None of us do, I mean we've lived here since the whole Dead heads started walking around." She says and I look at her.
"Eight years? You've been here for eight years?" I asked and she looked at me.
"Uh, why don't we get you checked out before you have a big mind blow." She says and this redhead short girl comes up to us.
"Clementine, this is Ruby, Ruby is basically our doctor here." She says and I look at her a bit chocked.
"Wait where is the adult?" I asked and I hear some laughing.
"No adults here." This boy says. He had a messed-up mullet as he wore a Leatherman jacket.
"Uh, pardon? You're joking right?" I asked.
"Hey let's get you checked out, then we can answer your questions." Ruby says.
"Wait, where is AJ?" I asked.
"Your boy? He's with Louis right now, being calmed down, you can see him once you get checked out." The boy says.
"Uh… I didn't catch your name." I say as I am taken over to a picnic table and I sit down as Ruby looks me over.
"Oh I'm Marlon, I'm the leader of this group." He says and again I look at them as if they're crazy.
"But… you're kids." I say.
"Well you are too, but you're taking care of a kid on your own I presume." Marlon says and I look at him.
"I…. you got me there." I say and I hiss a bit as Ruby stitches my brow a bit.
"Sorry." She says and I nod a bit.
"I should be use to it by now." I mumbled.
"Tell me about it…. Need your eye checked on?" Ruby asked and I shook my head no.
"Nah, it uh…" I stopped talking a bit and looked down.
"Can't be that bad." Marlon says and I look to him.
"Well, seeing as there's just a hole where my eye use to be I'd say it's pretty bad." I say chuckling a bit.
"What is so funny about that?" Ruby asked as she finished and I look to her.
"Uh, sorry Dark humor is the only way for me to cope with it I guess." I say and look down.
"Where is AJ?" I asked once more.
"Music room, I'll take you there." Violet says and I stand up a bit, but I felt a bit woozy and my vision was spinning before I fell over as Violet ran up to me. I have no clue on how long I was out of it I know I woke up but then I'd go right back to sleep. When I finally did wake up fully, I look to see my hand duck taped to the bedpost and I quickly tore it off and looked around just for the door to open and I saw Violet.
"Holy shit, you're awake." She says and the door opens more and I see AJ and I get up from the bed as he runs to me. I hug him tightly and he hugs me back as best as he could.
"Clem you're ok." He says and I nod.
"Y-yea I'm fine…. I'm fine." I tell him and we pull apart and I look him over.
"You sure gave us a scare." I hear and look up to Violet.
"Sorry." I say as I get up.
"It's cool, least we know now that you're ok…. Uh Ruby had to check you to make sure you weren't bit you know, I mean I knew you weren't but she had to make sure." She says and I nod.
"I told them to make sure." AJ says and I look at him and chuckle.
"Oh, you don't trust my ninja skills?" I asked and he posed like a ninja which got a laugh out of me and Violet.
"Hey uh, I brought some food for you so uh." Violet says and I nod as she comes up to us and sets the food on the desk and I sit in the chair.
"Thanks." I say to her and she nods.
"No problem, Ruby said you probably passed out from the lack of food, once your boy here said something about you not eating for a few days." She says and I look to AJ who looked at me then to the ground as if he thought he did something bad.
"No, it's a good thing you told them AJ." I tell him and he nods as he sits on the bed.
"Well I should get going, Uh Marlon left your bag in his office AJ knows where it is, so when you're up to it you can get it, also Marlon wants to talk to you when you're done." She says and I nod a bit as she leaves the room Once she is gone, I look to AJ as he looked at me.
"You eat anything?" I asked him and he nods.
"Yea, the food was really good." He says and I look to it and I eat some of it.
"Damn." I say as the warm soup warmed me right up.
"See good." He says and I chuckle a bit.
"Yea, haven't had a good meal in weeks." I admit as I eat some more.
"This place is fun; they have lots of cool things." He says and I look to him.
"Goofball, you know we can't overstay our welcome." I tell him and he sighs and looks to the wall a bit.
"What if Marlon wants us to stay though?" He asked and I rubbed the back of my head and I looked to the bowl and I look back to AJ.
"We shouldn't stay long we have to keep moving." I tell him.
"Why do we keep moving anyway? We can never stay someplace nice." He says and I look to him sadly.
"It…. It's just not safe to stay in one area too long that's all." I say.
"You always say that though." He complained and I sigh as I finish my soup and I look to him.
"Because it's true, no place is safe anymore, we stay to long people find us, and most of the time those people want to hurt us." I tell him.
"Like carver did to you?" He asked and I glare at the wall and I nod.
"He was a sick man…. But he was right about one thing, people rely to much on a kid to do anything… and look what happened to me." I say and he looks down.
"I'd just like to stay somewhere longer than a few days you know." He says and I look at him sadly.
"I know bud…. And one day we will, but right now we can't do that, especially with these huge herds and bad people." I tell him and he nods. I get up from the desk and I grab the bowl but AJ grabbed it from me as we walked out. I watched him as he ran up to some boy by a cauldron.
"Your boy is pretty active hu." I hear and turn quickly and accidentally punch the person.
"HAHAH FUCKING LOUIS!" I hear and turn to see Violet and a few other kids laughing.
"Fuck I'm sorry I just, you just." I say and he waves it off.
"You're cool, my bad, seems like we know where your boy gets it from." He says.
"He hit someone?" I asked.
"Yea, Marlon touched him from behind and your boy elbowed him in the gut." He says.
"Touched him?" I asked a bit pissed.
"Oh god no not like that it was his shoulder." The boy Louis says as he sees my face and I look at him.
"Good…. That's uh… ok." I say and I nod a bit as I look to see AJ go over to one kid that looked to be drawing.
"Uh, shit I uh, need my bag." I say.
"Right, Marlon has it, I'll take you to him." Louis says as we head back inside.
"By the way, if you didn't hear Violet yelling out my name, it's Louis." He says and I nod.
"Clementine." I say.
"Oh, like the fruit?" He asked.
"Uh no, like me." I say and he laughed a bit as we go up the stairs.
"Hey a little humor can do some good." He says and I nod as we get to a door and Louis opens it as I walked in I saw Marlon looking over his desk a bit then looked up to see me.
"Oh hey, glad you're up." He says and I nod.
"I'll leave you two be." Louis says as he closed the door and I look back to Marlon.
"Um, Violet says my bag was up here?" I asked and he nods as he hands it to me.
"Don't worry nothing is missing." He says and I look through it and I find my hat.
"Shit didn't know I wasn't wearing it." I say as I place it back on my head and I look to Marlon.
"Must be pretty important?" He asked and I nodded.
"You know if you want it cleaned up and patched up." He tried to say and I shake my head.
"No I like it this way, thanks for the offer though." I say and he nods.
"Uh, well I just wanted you to know, you and your boy could stay here for as long as you need to, just after a while you have to help out you know." He says and I nod.
"Thanks for the offer, we might head out tomorrow if that's fine." I say and he nods.
"It would be great if you could stay longer, you know, give your boy a place to stay longer to rest up, I don't think he's had a good night sleep in a while." Marlon says and I think a bit and I nod.
"Alright we can do that, just tell me what work needs to be done." I say.
"Hard worker hu?" He asked and I nodded.
"Use to work a lot out there." I say and he nods.
"Alright, well tomorrow you should come back here and we can talk about what you can do to help us, but for now you should go talk with the others, I have to check to see if our hunting party is back yet anyway." He says as we leave the office and head to the courtyard. I look to see the other kids at the picnic tables talking and I stand there a bit awkward.
"Clem come join us." Louis says and I walk over a bit and stand there.
"Have a seat, we wont bite." Violet says and I have a seat right next to her and I look to the others.
"You sure about that?" I asked.
"Well, we ain't Walkers so I'm sure." She says.
"Fair, but I've bitten lots of people and I'm not a walker." I say.
"Shit really why'd you bite them?" Louis asked and I shrugged.
"Don't put your hand near my mouth and you'll be fine." I say.
"Dually noted." Louis responds and I nod as he shuffles a deck of cards.
"Care to play a little game?" He asked and I look at the cards.
"Uh…. What are we playing?" I asked.
"War." He says and I look at him.
"Hu, haven't played that in a while… sure why not." I say as he passed the cards around and I look at my deck.
"But in this game, we get to ask you questions if we get the high cards, but if you get a high card you can ask us a few questions, sound fair?" He asked and I nod.
"Sure, sounds pretty fair to me." I say and he nods and we all flip our cards.
"Victory Violet." I hear and see that Violet has the high card and I nod to her.
"Hmmm, ok how old are you?" she asked.
"Going to waste a question like that?" Louis asked and I look at him then to her.
"I'm uh… sixteen… just turned sixteen a… a few days ago." I admit and she nods as we flip our cards again and I get the high card.
"Sweet." I say and look to them.
"Uh, grossest thing you guys ate?" I asked.
"Horse eyeballs." Violet says and I gag a bit.
"Fuck really?" I asked and she nods.
"Yea fucking gross." She says.
"Cantaloupe for me." Louis says and I look at him.
"I'd rather eat that then horse eyeballs." I joke.
"I hate the stuff though… What about you?" He asked and I rubbed my neck as I shook my head.
"Uh, I'd rather not say." I tell them.
"Come on can't be that bad." Louis pushed.
"Hey if she doesn't want to say she doesn't have to man." Violet tells him and he shakes his head.
"Aww come on nothing she's had could top your horse eyeballs." He says and I look to them both.
"…. I didn't know what it was till it was to late." I say.
"You make it sound like you ate a person." He says laughing and I look to them and he stops laughing as I give him a serious look.
"Shit fucking really?" Violet asked.
"Wasn't like I enjoyed knowing I was eating one of my group members legs…. Back when all this started, we had been in this hellhole for three months and we were on the brink of starving to death, my old group and I… well these farmers came by and god…. We thought they were kind people, they let us on their farm, food for fuel for their generators you know, well come to find out during dinner time Lee comes running down and before he could stop us… Duck and I already took a bite of the meat…. Turns out it was one of our group members Marks legs…. Once they were found out they shaved us in a meat locker and I threw up a lot… shit I honestly thought that I was going to turn into a walker for that." I explain to them.
"Holy fuck." Louis says and I nod.
"Yea…. It uh…. That day was pretty scary to me." I admitted and they nod as we flip our cards again.
"Alright." Louis says and I look to him and he looked to me.
"Ever have a boyfriend?" He asked.
"Oh my god." Violet says as she slammed her fist on the table.
"Come on it's a pretty valid question, besides she has a boy." He says and I laugh a bit.
"Uh re think the ages Louis." I say and he looked to me.
"How old is he?" He asked and I look to him.
"Let's just say if he was really mine, I would have been Eleven when I had him." I tell him and he looked at me and turns red with embarrassment.
"Didn't think that through." He says and I nod.
"And no, didn't have a boyfriend at all." I tell him.
"Really now?" He asked.
"Nope, just causes a lot of trouble." I say.
"The best kind, right?" He asked.
"Oh god no…. when there was the boy, Gabe he apparently had a crush on me but uh… it was really weird, cause he'd listen to me but not his uncle, and he tried to impress me with things I could do myself you know… not use to it and all…. Besides I need to take care of AJ." I say as I look over to him and then back to Louis and Violet.
"Besides, romance is gross and dangerous." I say.
"Dangerous how?" Violet asked.
"Hmm, seems like you guys are learning more about me than I am about you." I say.
"Well Violet here was in a relationship." Louis says.
"With you?" I asked and they laughed.
"No, Violet had a girlfriend." He says and I look to her as she looked at the table and I looked away. She didn't look like she wanted to talk about her relationship.
"What about you?" I asked Louis.
"Nope, I'm single." He says and I nod.
"Good for you." I say.
"But it does tend to get lonely." He says and wiggles his eyebrow a bit and I shake my head.
"Uh not interested if that's what you're asking, like I said, relationships are dangerous." I say.
"You never said how." He says.
"Hmm, there was this guy and girl in my group, right as AJ was trying to uh…. Be born, Luke was supposed to keep watch for walkers…. Well him and this girl were uh…. Rolling around like teenagers and walkers got us in a tight spot…. my friend Sarah…. Ended up getting killed because of his lack of patrol…. and I couldn't help her…. and she called for me and her dad before she died." I say to them.
"Shit uh…. God I'm so sorry." Violet says and I nod.
"Yea…. Well that's why I'm not to fond of relationships…. Plus, if you don't help someone's significant other people get pissed off at you…. And it pisses me off more than anything when you get blamed for something you couldn't control, especially if you're a god damn little kid." I say as I clench my fist in anger and then unclench it a bit.
"Shit, they'll blame you and then try and use you as a bargaining chip for a bunch of fucking psychopaths." I say as I remember Conrad.
"That happened to you?" Violet asked and I nod a bit.
"Yep…. I was thirteen years old too, the group they wanted to use me as a bargaining chip for…. They took AJ from me, they threw me out into the wilderness on my own as they ripped AJ out of my arms…. They said he was weak, they said he wasn't going to live long, they wouldn't give him even a tiny bit of medicine just to help him he was just a toddler, he…. He was just a baby and they were going to let him die, and it just…." I stopped talking and shook my head a bit as I remember David and his bullshit.
"They branded people, they branded me, that's how you knew you were in, that's how you got in, they fucking burnt my skin saying I was family and that's how they fucking treat family? Fuck that, I'm fucking glad they're dead too." I say and look to them.
"Fucking hell, that's a lot of anger." Louis says.
"Oh no, I was beyond Angry, trust me I was on a war path, I've done a lot for that boy, I raised him on my own for a long time." I tell them.
"Well you might not be his mom, but you sure act like it." Violet says and I nod a bit.
"I promised his mom and dad I would protect their boy." I say and they all nod and we flip the cards again and I look to see Louis had won again.
"Alright so…. What happened to your eye?" He asked and I look at him.
"Happened when I was eleven." I say and I see Ruby look up as she looked to me and I look back to Louis and Violet.
"What uh…. Happened?" He asked.
"Hmm, there was this group in a Howes store, the leader was Carver and well…. He didn't care how old you were he'd beat the hell out of you… anyway I stole a couple of radios so Luke could keep us posted on when we could escape, well before we could get one to him he got caught cause he tried to steal some food….. anyway, Carver caught on and found the one radio we were supposed to keep, and…. Before Kenny could grab the radio from me, I announced that I had it…. Walked up to Carver with the radio in hand and I placed it in his hand before he got to three…… once he said three…. I knew I was in trouble, next thing I know my face gets smashed in with a radio multiple times, Jane, Kenny, Sarita, and Nick tried to help but…. Carvers group pointed guns at them…. Only reason he stopped was because Bonnie said there was a breach in their wall or something…. I blacked out for a while." I admitted and looked to them.
"When I woke up, Luke was talking about leaving me, but the others said that what he was saying was fucked up."
"That is fucked up, he wanted to leave a kid with a group of people that just beat the living hell out of a kid." Violet says.
"Yea… well doesn't matter anyway, I was able to help them Injured and all that, had to turn on the PA system in Carvers office and Alvin…. AJ's father saved me and I couldn't save him…. I saved the others when I jumped on Carver and they grabbed his gun and stuff…. Kenny ended up shooting him in both his legs and I…. I was a monster." I say.
"What did you do?" Louis asked.
"…. Bashed his fucking head in with a crowbar…. Until there was nothing but skull…. Kenny wanted to bash carvers head in but honestly…. I just…. I lost it; I really did…. But before he died, Carver was right by telling them that they look at me as if I was their leader…. and he wasn't wrong." I admit as I look at the cards and I hand Louis the deck back as Marlon came up to us.
"Hey Brody and them need help getting back, I can't find Rosie anywhere." Marlon says and I stand up.
"I'll help." I say and he nods.
"We have a hunting party out there, we just need to clear a path for them to come through and then get them back here, easier said than done though so stay alert." He says and we all nod as we go out the gate and I close it on AJ as he tried to come out.
"I need you to stay here and be my eyes ok?" I asked and he nods.
"Alright, be careful." He says and I nod as I grabbed my knife and we head out. I kill a few walkers and Louis even showed me the traps they had set up. It wasn't long till we had killed the walkers and met up with the hunting party, as we started to head back Violet walked next to me and Louis ran up to us.
"I call that an A plus performance Clem good job." He says and I nod.
"Violet you get a B Plus, you've done better." He says and I roll my eyes.
"Don't worry Violet, I think you deserve and A Plus." I say and she smiles at me.
"I know." She says and I smile.
"You're both delusional." Louis says.
"Am not." I joke.
"Are too." He says and I see some walkers. We separate and I killed a few and then look to see a walker sneaking up on one of the kids, so I hurry and stab it but it didn't die, I struggled a bit but before I could kill it something rushed on by and grabbed the walker head, I look at the figure and saw it was a dog so I raise my knife up a bit just incase it decided to attack me. It walked up to me a bit licking the blood from its lips and I watch it carefully till I hear a whistle.
"Rosie there you are." Marlon says as he comes up to her.
"You ok?" He asked.
"Had a really bad experience with a dog once." I admit and he looked to me.
"Well Rosie here can help with that, she's as cuddly as they come, when she isn't mauling walkers." He says and I nod as we walk back to the school with the others and AJ runs up to me and checks me.
"No bites?" He asked.
"Nope, no bites." I tell him.
"You always ask each other that?" Violet asked.
"Yep, it's our thing." AJ tells her and I nod.
"Always have done this." I say and she nods at this. It wasn't long till dinner came around and AJ finished his food quick so I gave him mine since I was still full from the last bowl I ate.
"So, That's Aasim, Tenn, Mitch, Willy, Omar, and Brody." Marlon says as he introduced the others and I nod.
"I'm Clementine and this is AJ, or if you want call him shitbird." I joke and AJ punches me and I chuckle a bit.
"I kid, I kid." I say.
"You better." He says and the others laugh at this. It wasn't long till we all had decided to go to bed. AJ and I head to the room where I was in and he laid on the bed and I smiled seeing as I don't have to try and convince him to lay in it instead of on the floor like the last place we were at. I laid in my bed and I looked to the bed above me, I closed my eyes just a bit as I finally drifted off to a good nights sleep, something I haven't had in a long time.