(Clementine's Pov)
"Hey there sweet-pea." I hear and turn to look at Lee as he smiled to me. I walk up to him and I give him the biggest hug I could get as we both sat down in the RV seat.
"So, what's on your mind, you usually don't dream of me unless something is wrong." He asked and I look at him.
"I got mad again." I admit.
"It's ok to be mad sweet-pea, what did you get mad about?" He asked as I leaned my head on his shoulder. I felt comfortable by doing this.
"This girl Brody wanted to say I have no idea what it's like out there, beyond the walls, I just got mad I wanted to punch her."
"But did you?"
"No… AJ stopped me, and I couldn't." I tell him as I look up to see him smile as he placed his hand around my shoulder and I sigh a bit.
"You just got to remember they don't know what you've been through, not all of it, I know you've been telling them things about yourself but it's good to keep some things a secret unless you really need to talk about it." He explained and I sigh as I look over to Kenny and the others.
"I… they can't just act like they know everything." I mumbled and he laughed.
"Sweet-pea, you can't act like that either, you argued with Marlon about his safe zone, he's just trying o keep his people safe."
"What would you have done?" I asked him and he thought a bit and sighed.
"The same thing you did, I worried about you and Duck a lot when we were all together, I made sure both of you had food before us adults did remember?" He asked and I nodded at this.
"I worried about AJ, and Violet was worried about Willy and Tenn."
"That's a good thing, I mean… it's hard for me to explain." He says as he scratched his beard and I smiled.
"I know what you mean, being worried is ok, being mad is ok, even sad, it's ok to show emotions… it makes you human." I tell him and he nods.
"Exactly, see you're learning a lot." He says and I nod and I frown a bit.
"I wish you were still with me though… if I didn't listen to the stranger, you'd still be here… I don't know what to do anymore Lee." I tell him as I sit up a bit.
"You do what you think is right, and don't ever blame yourself for what happened to me, I know you didn't mean it, and I made things worse by telling you we couldn't look for your parents." He tells me.
"But it's all my fault, I should have listened to you."
"Sweet-pea." He says but I don't respond and we just sit there and I look at the RV side door for a bit and I sigh.
"After you died, I'd try to think, 'What would Lee do in this situation' but it's harder for me to ask that because I don't know what you'd think." I tell him.
"I'd always try to be neutral in these things, people don't like it but I could never pick sides, but I'd always think about your safety, think about others safety, and AJ's safety as well." He tells me and I nod as things started to fade a bit.
"I miss you so much." I tell him.
"I miss you too Clementine, and don't worry, things will be hard but they'll get better." He says and I nod as everything fades away.
I woke up to the sound of people arguing so I slowly sit up and I hear movement beside me, so I turn to see AJ getting up as well and I look to the door then back to him.
"There's sounds in the pipe." He says and I get up slowly as I go over to him.
"I'm going to go check it out, you stay here." I tell him as I hand him his gun back and I look to the door a bit.
"Stay safe?" He asked and I nodded as I grabbed my hat and go over to the door a bit and I open it. I hear the arguing get louder as I walk down the halls a bit and to a door. I try to open it quietly but it wouldn't budge, I try to look for a lock but that doesn't seem to be the answer since there in no lock.
"Fuck." I mumbled as I looked around and saw the emergency map and I look at it to see there was another entrance to this room. So I head outside and look around to see some cellar doors but again to my luck it was locked. The wind was blowing really hard tonight and I felt just a few droplets of rain but not a lot, so I quickly search around the courtyard and I find a piece of scattered brick on the ground. I grabbed it and I went back to the cellar doors and looked at the padlock and wait for the noise to continue. When it does I hit the padlock hard doing some damage but honestly not a lot, I wait again and hit the padlock once more breaking it free and I tossed the brick to the side as I opened the doors and walked down the steps just to hear more arguing.
"We have to tell them about what happened." I hear a female say as I walked up closer.
"Just shut up, no one will find out about this so long as you keep your mouth shut." I hear and the light flashes at me and I step back a bit.
"Who's there?" I hear and I move a bit and show myself.
"Clementine." Brody said surprised and I look to see Marlon too.
"Just go back to bed." Marlon tells me.
"I was asleep, you woke me up."
"Sorry we didn't mean to." Brody apologized.
"What is going on?" I asked.
"Nothing." Marlon tells me as he got in front of Brody
"Nothing my ass."
"…. The guy we met in the woods, and the train station, we got history with him."
"Brody." Marlon says pissed.
"Wait what?" I asked.
"Nothing she's just talking crazy." He says and looked to me.
"If there's an issue I need to know now Marlon." I tell him and he glared at me a bit.
"There isn't an issue."
"Apparently there is, look I'm not mad or anything but this does need to be talked about." I tell him and he looked to me.
"I just… look I didn't mean to, we were just walking in the woods and, fuck everything went south I just." he stopped and I watched him as he gripped his hand into a fist.
"Look, just… explain what happened." I tell him and Brody looked to the ground when Marlon didn't talk.
"We went out hunting like normal it's not like it was planned." Brody says.
"Brody." He says a bit mad.
"Marlon, I just want to know what happened, you avoiding it is making you look bad." I explained.
"Marlon gave up the twins." Brody says and I looked at her.
"BRODY!" He yells and then he hits her in the head with his flashlight.
"MARLON!" I looked to Brody as she held her head a bit and blood poured down her face as she fell against the boiler and I ran up to her.
"Fuck I didn't… I didn't mean to fuck th-there has to be a first aid kit down here." Marlon says scared and I look at him.
"You bashed her head; a first aid kit isn't going to do anything." I say as I look at her.
"Who?" She asked and I think as I quickly pick her up.
"Don't fucking move her." He says.
"We need to get her to Ruby you fucking idiot." I say as I lifted her up a bit and she laid her head on my chest and I start to head out of the basement as fast as I could. The rain was falling and I look around. I then heard Brody mumble something.
"He-He said he was going to trade you and AJ to… to the raiders… I'm sorry Clem." She says softly as I look down to her to see one of her eyes blown.
"Fucking stupid ass." I mumbled as I head to the dorm but before I could I felt my jacket being pulled from behind and I'm tripped and dropped Brody and I look up as Marlon glared at me.
"ARE YOU AN IDIOT SHE NEEDS HELP!" I yelled hoping at least someone would hear.
"She just needs a first aid kit." He says pissed and I glare at him then look back to Brody as I she starts to have a seizure and I go up to her as she just stopped and I listened to her chest.
"Fuck she stopped breathing, fucking Marlon get help." I tell him and I try CPR just like lee did for Larry hoping it would work, I don't know I'm freaking out I'm not thinking right.
"S-She's going to turn." He says.
"FUCKING HELP ME!" I yelled at him and he runs into the dorms as I try to bring her back. It wasn't long till I saw some movement and I looked at her as her eyes opened but they were a clear milky white as she lunged at me attacking me. I had no choice but to look for a weapon, and the closest thing to me was a brick and I grabbed it as I hit her in the head damaging her brain as she dropped and I back away just as the kids were coming out.
"I told you she murdered Brody." Marlon says and I look at him in shock as the kids looked to me all shocked and I glare at him.
"You fucking liar." I say pissed as I get up.
"We just saw you bash her head in with a fucking brick." Ruby says and I look at all of them.
"SHE WAS A WALKER, MARLON HIT HER IN THE FUCKING HEAD WITH A FLASHLIGHT!" I yelled over the thunder and pouring rain.
"Bullshit, you were going to attack me and Brody jumped in to hold her down so I could get you guys." Marlon tells them and I see AJ walk out with his gun in hand.
"What is going on?" Tenn asked as he walked out and he saw Brody on the ground.
"Clementine killed Brody, she can't be trusted, she has to go." Marlon says as he come up to me and I hear the gun clicking and I turn to AJ who was pointing the gun at Marlon.
"What the fuck, he has a gun?" Aasim asked and I glare at Marlon.
"They both need to go, are you fucking kidding me." Marlon says as he goes to AJ and I pulled him back and threw him to the ground.
"Don't you fucking dare go near him." I tell him.
"YOU ARE A MURDERER, AND YOU EXPECT US TO LET YOU STAY?!" He yelled as he got up and I backed up to AJ as the other kids stared at us.
"You're a god damn liar Marlon." I say and looked to the other kids.
"He gave up the Twins to some people, they're alive but Marlon told you all they were killed by walkers, when Brody ratted him out, he hit her in the fucking head with a flashlight, I tried to bring Brody to Ruby as I was she said she was going to trade AJ and I to these fucking raiders and then he stopped me." I tried to explain.
"You can't be serous; Marlon wouldn't hurt us." Mitch says and I glare at him.
"Clem." AJ says and I look down at him and before I looked back up AJ was shoved and his gun was taken away and Marlon held it up in the air and I was about to attack but he pointed it at me.
"Marlon?" Louis questioned.
"They met up with these so-called raiders, I've never heard of, strange man in the woods comes walking by after they arrived? And the same man comes to them again at the train station? Coincidence, I don't think so." He says as he looked at me and I glare at him.
"They need to go, Clementine murdered Brody, and then AJ pulls a fucking gun out on us, we kept them warm and safe unlike the adults, I pulled us all up when they left us, and this is how we get repaid?" He tells them and I watched him carefully.
"You're acting like those fucking adults." I tell him and looked to the kids.
"You killed someone in your own group and then try to place blame on someone else when they know what happened, this shit happens so much out there I'm so god damn use to it, so go ahead and pull the god damn trigger, kill someone else and then kick out a fucking five year old into a fucking walker infested world, or you might as well shoot him too." I tell him.
"Marlon put the gun down." Omar says and I watched as Marlon didn't move his gun.
"I…. You killed Brody, admit it." He says as he comes up to me and places the gun to my head and I just look at him.
"You aren't intimidating me to lie about something I didn't fucking do." I tell him.
"Marlon what the fuck?" I hear Violet say as he put his finger on the trigger, ready to shoot. Then AJ punched him in the gut and as Marlon was bent over I grabbed the gun as I shoved him to the ground and placed the weapon in my side pocket and lifted my hands up so the kids would know I wasn't going to use it on him or anyone else, this tactic doesn't always work but I'm not trying to look like the bad guy here.
"What the fuck."
"Stop this now." I hear them all saying as I glare more at Marlon as he looked to me.
"I'M PROTECTING YOU, ALL OF YOU!" Marlon yelled at them.
"By waving a loaded gun at people? That's fucking idiotic I should fucking know." I tell him and he looked at me.
"He's a monster." AJ says.
"The hell I am." Marlon says as he glared at him.
"You gave my sisters away?" Tenn asked as he came up to Marlon and Marlon looked at him then down at the dirt floor as he started to cry a bit. I guess the guilt started to get to him as he nods just a bit.
"I… I didn't mean to, I wanted to save them I swear I did." He admits as he looked to Tenn.
"So you killed Brody?" Tenn asked and Marlon nods slowly.
"We all need to calm down." Aasim says then I feel the gun move from my pocket and I see AJ holding it at Marlon and I quickly get in front of Marlon to keep AJ from shooting.
"The fuck is wrong with you Alvin Junior?" I asked pissed.
"He was going to hurt you, he's a monster." AJ tried to explain.
"Look at him, he doesn't have a fucking gun so hand it over." I tell him as I hold my hand out but AJ didn't and I get pissed.
"Alvin Lee Junior, give me the god damn gun now, we don't do this you know we don't." I say to him in a stern voice but he still doesn't give up the gun and I just stay in front of Marlon.
"You said he killed Brody he admitted to it even, he even admitted to trading Tenns sisters and you say killing people is bad, he's a monster." AJ says and I glare at him.
"We kill walkers and armed people AJ, not unarmed kids who are already down, now hand over the gun." I tell him as I hold my hand out but AJ just keeps pointing the gun at me.
"AJ, just give her the gun." I hear Tenn say and AJ looked to him and I walked up and took the gun from him as I held it in my hand.
"You say to kill monsters, Marlon is a monster, you said he killed Brody, and yet you defended him." AJ says to me pissed.
"Take Marlon inside, lock him in his office." I hear Violet say and I hear shuffling as the rain calmed down and I looked at AJ as he glared at me.
"Are you good?" I hear and I nod.
"AJ and I just need to talk." I tell the person not caring who they were right now as I kept my eye on AJ as he looked at me then to the ground.
"You said we kill monsters Clem." He tells me.
"YOU DON'T GO AROUND TAKING THINGS OUT OF MY GOD DAMN POCKET ESPECIALLY A LOADED WEAPON….. Fucking hell AJ we have rules for a reason, you know to never do that." I say and I hear someone come up behind me.
"Hey Calm down." I hear and turn to see Violet.
"Cal-CALM DOWN?! Are you fucking kidding me right now?" I say pissed and she backed up a bit.
"He's just a kid Clementine." She says.
"A kid that needs to learn that rash actions have consequences, if he had shot Marlon than what?" I asked.
"Well he didn't." she tells me.
"Yea because I had to get in front of him, AJ knows not to take a loaded gun from my pocket." I tell her.
"He thought to fast but he's scared, and you can't yell at him." She says.
"I… You think I want to yell at him? I don't but for fuck sake Violet, you and your fucking group didn't grow up like I did, I was a fucking stupid kid when all this started and it cost people their god damn lives, I got two of my best friends killed because I didn't fucking listen, one got bit and the other got fucking shot." I tell her as I look to AJ who backed up a bit and I shook my head.
"Go to the room AJ, I'll talk with you later." I tell him and he runs off and I watch him then looked to Violet.
"Clementine, he's just a kid, he's going to make mistakes, he should be having fun and not worry about this stuff." She says and I looked to her.
"What would you have done if he shot Marlon? Would you be saying the same thing?" I asked.
"I don't know, all I know is right now I found out that he killed Brody and gave up the twins, and yea I'm pissed but I don't know how I would have felt if he did shoot Marlon, but he didn't end of story." She says.
"No, not end of story, he's not going to pull this stunt and get away with it." I tell her.
"And what the hell are you going to do? Hit him?" She asked pissed and I glare at her and I clench my hands into fists.
"I never laid a god damn hand on him in that manner, and I never will, don't fucking assume that just because I'm mad that means I'm going to hit him, I talk to him about it."
"You were just yelling at the poor boy, Clementine he's just scared." She says.
"And you think I'm not? Had he shot Marlon someone in your group would have probably hurt him or put him in danger, I never want to see AJ hurt, I…. I don't want to see any more people get hurt." I explain and she looked to me as I unclenched my hands and I shook my head a bit.
"You shoot the wrong person and you're the god damn bad guy for life, you know… that's how it is out there, I shot this one woman… she had been taking care of AJ, I thought she was a bad person because they had him locked up in a locker, and she was in a group where AJ was taken to when he was a baby… I shot and killed an innocent woman, who was trying to protect him in this massacre that was happening at her home, I didn't think twice about it as she turned to look at me…. I don't want AJ to feel guilt for killing a person, I don't want him to feel that way at all, especially at his age… he's a god damn five-year-old kid, born in this fucked up world." I say as I sit at one of the tables and Violet sits next to me.
"I'm the reason AJ hits people that walk up behind him, because of that day…. When I opened that locker… the woman's blood was on the back of his shirt… he was so scared and he was only three years old." I tell her and I looked at her.
"Clementine." She says as she placed a hand on my back.
"I don't like yelling at him, I never like yelling at him but I can't control it…. I just… get angry because I don't want him getting hurt for doing something dumb." I look away as I watched the sun rising up and I sigh as I get up and start walking to the room. I knocked on the door lightly and then walk in as I see AJ looking at me from his bed and I closed the door and lean on it a bit.
"I'm sorry Clem." He says and I look to him.
"I'm sorry too Kiddo." I say as I come up to him and he looked up at me.
"I'm not getting my gun back am I?" He asked and I nodded as I sat next to him.
"Not until I can trust you with it again, AJ you know why I took it right?" I asked.
"Because I was going to shoot Marlon with it…. But he killed Brody, why would you let him get away with that?" He asked so confused and I rubbed my face a bit as I tried to think of an explanation for him.
"He didn't have a gun AJ, he was no longer a threat and he was on the ground and beat…. We don't kill people like that AJ, it's wrong and you'd have to carry the guilt with you for the rest of your life…. Think about it, you wouldn't want anyone to shoot me, I know you wouldn't have liked it if Marlon killed me, and I had nothing on me, and I didn't attack him until you did." I explained and he looked to me.
"He killed Brody though." He says sadly and I nod.
"I know…. I know."
"And she didn't have a weapon." He says and I nod at this.
"And he's going to have to live with that for the rest of his life, the fact that he killed one of his friends, and his other friends look at him differently now." I tell him and I look at the window and I rubbed my eyes with my one hand as I yawned a bit from exhaustion.
"Didn't sleep good?" He asked and I shook my head.
"No, but I have to stay up now." I say as we both get off the bed and I hear a knock on the door.
"Come in." AJ tells them and the door opens to reveal Violet, Tenn and Louis.
"We're all going to talk in the music room… about what to do with Marlon." Violet says.
"And you want us involved?" I asked.
"Might as well, you were there when he killed Brody, and you did say he wanted to trade you two." She says and AJ goes with Tenn as I looked at the other two teens.
"Come on, Tenn and Willy will keep AJ away from the conversation." Louis says and I nod as we all head to the music room and it's only the older kids in there with Marlon sitting on the ground holding his head as he doesn't look to anyone.
"Jesus, what are we going to do?" Ruby asked as we all looked to him.
"We kick him out." Mitch says.
"Why would you do that?" Aasim asked.
"Because sending him out there is basically killing him anyway." Mitch retaliated and I rubbed my neck.
"He traded the twins, and killed Brody, he admitted to it in front of all of us and he waved a loaded gun too, that thing was loaded." Omar says as he looked to me and I nodded.
"AJ was going to shoot him; how would you feel if it was Ruby?" Louis says to Aasim and they all start to argue.
"Hey woah calm down everyone." I tried to keep the peace but no one was listening so I whistled loudly and they all looked at me.
"Look we aren't going to kick him out ok? I wouldn't want anyone to go out beyond these walls." I say.
"Easy for you to say, you never had someone in your group murder your friend." Mitch says pissed.
"I've seen it, I've been there and I've done that, look I'm just saying, if he goes out there he's going to die, and he mentioned trading AJ and I to raiders, meaning they are here already, and they'd pick him up if a walker doesn't get to him first, then what?" I asked as they all looked to me and so did Marlon.
"Then what the hell do we do hu? Since you're so knowledgeable about this shit." Mitch asked pissed.
"Never said I was, and I can't tell you guys what to do, it's your home, I'm just saying we shouldn't send him out there, lord knows I wouldn't want to go back to that, it's hell out there." I tell him.
"We should Vote on what to do." Omar says and I look at all of them as they nod.
"I vote that he leaves." Mitch says.
"You can't be serious dude." Louis says.
"He killed someone in our group, he traded two of our people to raiders like nothing." Mitch says to Louis.
"I was scared." Marlon says.
"FUCK YOU MAN, I AUGHTA BEAT YOUR ASS!" Mitch yells and before he could go after Marlon I stand in front of him.
"Oh you want your ass kicked too hu?" He says.
"Mitch, calm down." Ruby tells him.
"Calm down? We can't let him stay here."
"He was scared ok? People react different when scared I mean look at what AJ did, he thought Marlon was going to hurt Clem that he thought he should break one of their rules to keep her safe, I hate Marlon with every bone in my body but beating him isn't going to solve the issue." Violet says and I looked to her a bit as she says my nickname and then I look back to Mitch
"HE TRADED YOUR GIRLFRIEND VI!" Mitch yelled.
"YOU THINK I DON'T KNOW THAT, BUT MINNIE WOULD NEVER WANT HIM TO GET BEAT, SHE DIDN'T EVEN WANT TO KILL WALKERS, AND THEY ATE OUR FRIENDS!" Violet yells and they all start to argue again and I sigh.
"SHUT THE HELL UP!" I shout out and they all looked at me.
"Look, how about this, Marlon stays, does hard work, is watched on, and can't be given a weapon of any kind, the first time he messes up then we can throw him out, a compromise for everyone ok?" I asked and they all looked at me and nodded a bit.
"Good, now… Marlon, why did the raiders want kids?" I asked as I looked at him and he looked up at me.
"I don't know… some war that's going on I think, I don't remember." He says sadly.
"War?" Louis asked and I think a bit.
"War up north?" I asked and Marlon nodded.
"Shit…. God damn it." I say as I take my cap off and slick my hair back.
"Wait you know about this?" Mitch asked.
"Did you know about this Clem?" Violet asked and I looked to them.
"These wars have been going on since I was thirteen the ones up north I mean, I heard of this place called wellington being attacked, then The New Frontier group attacked Richmond along with Prescott, then after I had left Richmond to find AJ it was attacked and so many other groups, I haven't thought about it for a while cause I was to busy trying to take care of AJ." I explained as I crossed my arms.
"Wait, you said you were part of the New Frontier, you were part of this war?" Violet asked and I looked at her and shook my head.
"No, I was kicked out before the wars, I heard about them when I was trying to head back south when I had AJ finally, people talked about it so that's how I know about it." I explained and she nods at this.
"Why take kids though?" Aasim asked.
"Children soldiers are the best you can get, easier for them to get in smaller spaces, and can guilt some people that still wouldn't want to harm a kid, it's an advantage thing, plus this guy Carver mentioned how the next generation needs to be stronger than the last, it's the only way to grow up heartless these days." I tell them and I place the cap back on my head as I think.
"So, Minnie and Sophie, they're child soldiers?" Violet asked sadly.
"I'm afraid so…. Unless they were killed." I say the last part quietly.
Fucking hell." Mitch says.
"Look we don't know if they're dead, what we do know is that the raiders are here and they want more kids for their army, we won't let that happen though." I say.
"How do we stop them?" Ruby asked and I think.
"The school is already a fortress on its own, the walls the gate, the building alone, if we can get some supplies, we can make sure they can't get you guys." I say to them.
"There was some barbed wires in the greenhouse, but walkers overran it, it's been boarded up ever since." Omar says.
"Alright there's one thing we can get, anything else?" I asked.
"If there's any fertilizer and propane in the old science lab in the greenhouse I can make bombs." Mitch says and I look at him and I nod.
"That would be great actually." I think.
"We can head into the valley look for supplies in people's homes?" Violet suggested.
"If we do that, we need to be extra careful." I tell her and she nods.
"Alright, we can do this, plan things out as time goes and then just, work it all out." Aasim says and we all nod and I look to Marlon.
"We should tie him up." Mitch says and I looked at him.
"What do all of you think?" I asked.
"Just for now, until we feel like we can trust him." Louis says and I nod as I look to Marlon as Mitch grabbed some rope and tied him up and I sigh a bit as we all head out. I look to see Brody's body and I shake my head.
"We'll bury her and have a funeral once you get the barbed wire." Violet says and I nod then Ruby Mitch and I went to the greenhouse and I looked at the door as Ruby tried to open it and I look around as does Mitch.
"This is all just…. Fuck." I hear ruby say and I look at her.
"I know, but let's get through this." I say and she sighs.
"I know I do but… knowing what Marlon did… Would he have traded all of us?" She asked and I look down a bit and then we walk to where mitch was.
"I don't know, I can't answer for him." I tell her as we look for a way in and I see the roof and point to it.
"Up there, the broken roof gives us access inside, I just need a boost." I say and the two teens nod as they help me up and I grabbed the ladder as I climbed up it.
"Just get in and open the door, Holler if you need help." Ruby says and I nod as I jump down into the building and I look around to see a few Walkers. One of them getting up and I look around quickly for any weapon and I grabbed a shovel as the walker got closer, I hit it in the head with the metal half. The sound alerted the other Walkers as they got up.
"CLEMENTINE?!" I heard Ruby yell as I took care of the other Walkers as quickly as I could.
"ARE YOU OK?!" I hear Mitch yell as I breath a bit and I nod.
"Yea… I'm fine." I tell them as I get up to the door and I remove the wood from the door and opened the door for them.
"Good lord." Ruby says as she looked at the walkers than me.
"Yea… there was only three, thank god." I say and they both nod and I go pick up the shovel.
"We should give that to the others, we don't have a shovel at the school." Mitch says and I nod as I hand it to him and he walked out and I look around a bit grabbing what I could.
"These would do wonders for morale." Ruby says and I looked to her confused.
"For what?" I asked.
"Means make people feel better basically." She explained and I nod at this as Mitch comes back and I looked at one of the old cabinets. I go over to it and try to open it, but to my luck it didn't open and I sigh as I look for a crowbar.
"So, you really are ok with Marlon staying?" Mitch asked and I looked up to him as I grabbed a crowbar.
"As I said before I can not tell you guys what to do in your own home."
"But you basically live here now." Ruby says and I think.
"I honestly don't know, it's different here than out there, if we were not in these walls and he knew how to live out there, I wouldn't have given it a second thought of leaving him on the side of the road, or shooting him myself…. But I have to teach AJ not to kill someone who wasn't even armed." I tell them.
"But he killed Brody, he tried to frame you, doesn't that piss you off even a little?" Mitch asked as I opened the cabinet door with the crowbar which showed the barbed wire and fertilizer as well.
"Yea, I am pissed, hell I was more pissed when he pointed a gun at everyone, but AJ also pointed the gun at him… look my way of thinking is confusing, I never really understood things even when I was younger, I've picked up some very bad habits when I traveled in many different groups." I say as we pulled the wires out and set them to the side along with the bags.
"Bad habits such as?" Ruby asked and I looked at her.
"Well, honestly I use to drink a lot of alcohol, I mean yea when I was eleven it tasted bad but I was alone and depressed and I was told drinking helped people, didn't know it was in a negative way… I also smoked but had to quit that…. Oh, and bashing people's faces in, trust me when I had my face bashed in I just started doing it to others." I tell them as we looked around for more stuff and we get to a shelf.
"You what?" Mitch asked.
"What? The drinking, smoking, or bashing peoples faces?" I asked as me and him pushed down the shelf that was blocking the back door.
"The bashing face thing." He says.
"Oh yea, when I lost my eye, I bashed the face of the fucker who damaged my eye…. When he was doing it, I felt like I was floating and shit, I was accepting death at that point." I put my ear to the door to listen for anything but heard nothing so I opened the door a bit and walked in only to have a hand grab my arm and I turned a bit as I pulled my arm bad from the walker, ripping it's arm of and I shook it off me as it landed to the ground I backed up.
"What the hell happened?" Ruby asked and then she froze as she walked in.
"Nothing, I'm fine." I say and I watch her as she walked up to the walker.
"Mrs. Martin." She says and I looked to her then to the Walker as it tried to grab at us.
"It's a walker." Mitch says.
"No, it's Mrs. Martin… when all the adults left us, she was the only one to stay here… she taught me about medicine and how to patch people up." Ruby says sadly and I looked to the ground a bit.
"Can you please… I can't." Ruby asked me and I nodded knowing what she wanted me to do. I grabbed my knife as I looked to the walker and I stabbed it in the head then looked to Ruby as I pulled the knife out.
"Thank you." She says quietly and I nod.
"What other nasty habits did you pick up?" Mitch asked, trying to steer us away from what just happened.
"Uh.. cussing a lot, I use to tell Lee that swearing was bad, and I tell AJ it's bad too, but I swore like a sailor, it was pretty funny too." I tell him as we looked around more.
"I use to swear a lot too you know." Ruby says and I chuckle.
"Really?" I asked and she nods.
"Oh yea, use to be a real asshole when I first came here, I punched a teacher in the face once or twice." She says and Mitch laughed a bit.
"So how did you get sent here if it's ok to ask?" I looked to him as he looked at the old chalkboard with symbols written on it.
"Use to blow shit up, that's why I had the bomb idea, I use to make them at home when my dad got me a chemistry set." He says.
"Neat."
"Oh yea, well until I blew up my dad's garage that is, that's when I got sent here." He says and I look at him.
"Bet you were an angel when you were little." Ruby says and I nod.
"I was, well I thought I was…. I was pretty stupid if you really want to know." I say as I looked at some old test tubes and I take a whiff of one and backed away coughing at the smell.
"Stupid? Girl you're teaching us how to make this place more fortified and you lived out beyond these walls for years, you have to be smart to live out there." She says to me and Mitch nods.
"I don't see how you'd call yourself stupid." Mitch tells me.
"Well, when I was eight, I was in the first grade, so I was held back, and I was just unfocused a lot, I was the kid that wanted to color more than listen to some teacher ramble on and on about… Bleh Math." I say and they chuckled.
"But you grew out of it?" Mitch asked and I shook my head no.
"No, I'm still unfocused sometimes, it happens sometimes but that's when I remember something from a long time ago but then again that's a lot of people these days." I tell him and he nods and I looked to a few test tubes on the shelf that was yellow.
"Looks like piss." I say.
"Dare you to drink it." Mitch says and I look at him.
"Oh, not in a million years." I say.
"Woos." He called me and I roll my eyes and I see the propane tank and we grabbed it.
"Awesome, now all we need it a ignitor." He tells me and I look through the cabinets. I finally find an ignitor for him and we grabbed all the supplies as we head out.
"Wait, can we bury Mrs. Martin?" Ruby asked.
"No, just burn the damn thing." Mitch tells her.
"Mitch." I say and he rolled his eyes.
"Fine waste energy burying the damn thing, I got to get these to the school." He mumbled as he left and I rubbed my neck as we grabbed a trowel and start to dig for a bit. After a good hour we grabbed the body and lay it in the ground and I cover it up.
"Thank you." She says and I nod as we head to the school and I look around.
"They probably have Brody buried by now." She tells me and I nod as we set the items on the picnic table and I turn to see some of the kids over by the graveyard. I looked to Ruby as she nods and we head over to the others as they looked at Brody's grave and I rubbed my neck as everyone talked about her and I stayed quiet as they all left after a few minutes and I followed Violet.
"Hey." She says and I nod and I stay quiet as she sighs and looked to the main building and clenched her fists then shakes her head as she goes to the maps on the picnic table and I come up to her as she points out some areas.
"I was there a few days ago with AJ, the place was overrun by walkers, but I don't know if it still is." I tell her and she nods as she marked the area as a possible place to look.
"Thanks for the help Clem… I mean you and AJ can leave anytime you want." She says and I looked to her.
"Honest to god, I would be as bad as Marlon if I didn't help you guys… anyway I'm the best when it comes to hiding from walkers." I tell her and she laughed a little.
"Well so are we." She says and I nod as we looked to the map more and make plans for tomorrow for a supply run and I think a bit as I see one place marked on another map and I point to it.
"We should check this place for supplies." I tell her and she looked at it.
"A gun store?" She asked and I nodded.
"Look, you guys might not be a fan of them right now… after what Marlon and AJ did, but it's a necessary thing, what if Mitch's bombs don't work? Bow and arrows can't beat other with guns." I tell her.
"Can we talk about it with the others?" she asked and I nodded as we worked more and I helped Aasim put the barbed wire up on top the school. It took a while for us to get it set in place and I looked to see how dark it was starting to get. I looked over to AJ as he drew with Tenn and I rubbed my neck a bit.
"Is it bad that I kind of wished AJ had pulled the trigger?" Aasim asked in a hushed voice and I look to him.
"I… why?" I asked.
"Marlon gave up our friends and you said he killed Brody…. When I saw her body I saw the indent that wasn't caused by a brick hitting her head." He says and I look to him.
"It uh… it's hard for me to answer, I would be mad if someone in my group did that but… taking a life isn't something AJ shouldn't do, it… warps a kids mind I wouldn't have cared if I was the one taking the shot but him." I tried to explain.
"Yea… yea you're right, I'm sorry I shouldn't have hoped AJ would have done it… it's just… Brody was a sweet girl, she had panic attacks like crazy and her knowing about this and Marlon making her keep it a secret…. He killed her because of guilt and it's sick." He says.
"I know… I'm sorry." I tell him and he nod as we get off the wall and he heads over to Ruby and I looked to AJ again as Violet went to check on them and I looked at the drawing of the school as I add where the barbed wires were placed.
"Hey dinner time ya'll." Omar announced and we all take a break as we get something to eat and I looked to everyone as they kept quiet and I think.
"So, what else are we going to do?" Ruby asked.
"…. How do you guys feel if we got guns here?" Violet asked and everyone was quiet at the proposition.
"I'm ok with it as long as we have them locked up after use." Aasim says.
"Same." Ruby gives her option on it.
"We can get some locks and stuff for them, after all this is done and over with we can keep them locked up unless we all feel like we want to carry them more." Violet offers and everyone nods.
"As long as Marlon doesn't get one." Louis says.
"Or AJ… at least until I can trust him." I say.
"I trust AJ more with it than Marlon." Omar admits.
"Well that's up to me, I'm sorry but what AJ pulled was uncalled for." I tell him and he nods.
"It's your choice." He says and I looked to AJ and I nod as I look back to all of them.
"Ok, we can do that…. I could probably find a vehicle, worst case scenario we might have to leave, so we need to have a meet up point at least." I explain.
"We might have to leave?" Louis asked.
"Just in a worse case that's all, it's a precaution." I explain and he nods.
"Alright." He says and I finished dinner and we all get up and start to head to bed.