(Violet's Pov)
"Hey are you good?" Clementine asked me again and I look to the flames a bit and held my rifle close to me. I look down to her again and smiled at her gently.
"Yes, I am fine and you?" I asked her as she looked to me and she nods a bit.
"I'm good as well… so how was everything back home?" She asked and I think a bit.
"Well AJ hopes you come home soon, same with your parents." I tell her.
"Of course, they do…. Hoping this war ends quick, fucking stupid people all around us…. Let me tell you, we met up with this one group, and they just… don't understand anything, new people." She says and I look to her a bit and I look to her hand a bit and she grabbed my hand gently and messed with my fingers.
"Flex your fingers." She tells me and I do as told.
"Does it hurt?" She asked and I shake my head.
"Nah, it's like it never happened… you know they changed some standards back on the base?" I asked her.
"Oh? What changes?" She asked.
"Well for one thing now they got rich prissy kids joining, met this one guy whose daddy is an oil tycoon, he thought I was wearing heels." I laughed and so did Clementine and I lean on her a bit.
"Fucker kept bothering me, next thing I know he's actually out there digging trenches while grenades are going off near him… boy thinks he's been to war now because of that… fuckers won't send him out cause his daddy doesn't like his son doing hard labor." I mutter and shook my head.
"Did the dad ever come on the base?" She asked.
"Oh yeah, was fucking funny, I was out there on the gun range with the Lieutenant man comes barreling in like he owns the place yelling and hollering… wasn't till the Lieutenant told him that the next time he comes on the base like that his son will be kicked out, no benefits, nothing, and I quote 'Why should we let your boy gain the benefits of those who've lost life and limb overseas, people like Aldon here.'… I couldn't help but laugh which pissed off that tycoon man." I tell her.
"He didn't try anything did he?" She asked and I shook my head.
"Nah, man knew better than to try something while I'm holding a rifle… he did say 'Bet that bitch is some whore for the real men who fight.'… let's just say that the boy was punished for his daddy's actions, family can get you in a lot of trouble too, they mouth off or do anything bad while representing their soldier… well I just thank God my dad don't care about me enough." I tell her.
"Well, I know Lee and Carley won't do anything." She says and I smiled.
"Your parents are really nice." I say and she holds my hand a bit.
"You almost didn't go to the house?" She asked.
"I almost didn't step foot on the property… I mean I know they would be happy to help me but I just… it was strange being there without you there… and I didn't want them to think I was ignoring them…. Your uh… your dad helped me when I had an episode." I tell her.
"What happened?" She asked.
"Well your dad got this used tractor, and they use a uh… shotgun ammo to start it up… well I didn't know, now I was going to get some tools for him and then BAM… loud shot came out of no where and I just dropped down behind a tree and started freaking out when I couldn't find my gun… anyway your dad came running over to me and helped me calm down telling me where I was and such… the army doctor told me I shouldn't go back because I have this thing called Shell Shock… but… I was fine." I tell her.
"Maybe you should head back home if it's that bad." She tells me and I shake my head.
"As much as I was glad, they let me still work, I don't think they'll let me retire they'll just discharge me and that's it… it's hard getting work when they asked what you did and such." I mutter.
"You tried getting a job?" She asked and I nodded.
"Just in case… I told them it might not happen depending on how bad the war does get… but the moment they found out I have some... issue with loud noises they said 'Sorry we can't hire you, what if you have an episode while on the job?' I mean I get it but… made me feel like I could only just do this job… no one wants to hire a broken person right now." I tell her.
"What are they going to tell the millions of others that are here?" She says more to herself and I shrugged.
"They might hire those who haven't done what we have… though then again they might not, but then there will be people who will complain about all the homeless veterans but people won't do nothing about it." I tell her and she sighed.
"That's why I'd like to do something after this." I tell her.
"What?" She asked.
"I don't know… after I retire, I'd like to… help those in need you know? Not just Veterans, but homeless people in general, Clem I saw some kids on the streets asking for money… fathers died mothers can't get a good paying job… it… it should break people's hearts." I tell her and she nods.
"Well, if you want, I can help." She says and I chuckled.
"Thanks." I say and we finally go to sleep. When we get up, we head on out and we had reached another camp. This one was worse than the last one I saw. Bodies of kids, teens, adults all over the place, burnt to a crisp, some not burnt but rotting.
"Lord have mercy." I say as we walked over a body of a child and I look to them a bit. I was angry, angry at the people who did this, angry at the people who allowed this to happen. Angry that we didn't get here on time.
"Come on." I hear and look to Clementine as she grabbed my arm and we walked away from the body. We get to the people in charge of this area and they tell us all that's happened, that the enemy was close by and they had set up a huge barricade out west.
"Alright thanks for the information." David tells them and they nod and get back to work. We exited out the camp and kept walking for miles, and miles, for days and days. It was starting to become a pain in the ass with the amount of camps we had passed, some were even blown up by the enemy.
"Trying to erase what they've done." Aasim tells us and I look to him a bit then to the side.
"Not like that's going to work, fucking pricks." I mutter as we walked in the woods.
"They think if they erase the camps then they can't be charged with what they've done." He says.
"They can be, there are other camps that are still up, there is always a way to get them." Mitch says as we kept walking and then we get to an opening and stopped. Clementine and I took to the east and west sides and used our scopes to see if there were any people. I saw a few and signal to her and she signaled back. I nod as we head back to the group and informed them of what we have found.
"I saw five people." I told them.
"Same, maybe more." Clem tells them.
"We can sneak up on them, flank them from behind." David tells us and I nod.
"Clem should stay here, up in the trees, she can signal me and I'll tell you guys when it's safe." Luke says and I roll my eyes a bit and I look to Clementine as she looked to me and I nod.
"I can see if there is any back foliage, we can have the upper hand." I tell her and she nods at this. David, Louis, Mitch and I head in the back thanking god that there was woods in the back. As I get up one of the trees, I took my spot and saw Clementine signal to me and I signal back to her. I look through the scope and saw some people making camp and I see some people in cuffs and I clench my teeth as I aim it at one of the men at the fire pit. If I shot him then he's fall in and burn. I say a small prayer before I took aim and shot the man right in his side. It made him fall into the pit and catch fire. Clementine then took a shot getting another one of the men. David and the others then shot at them and before we knew it all of the enemy were down and we didn't have to use our grenades or fire bombs. I take a breath and slowly get down the tree before I'm grabbed by Luke and he glared at me.
"Are you fucking stupid? YOU SHOULD HAVE WAITED FOR MY SIGNAL!" He yelled and I shoved him away from me.
"Back off Luke." Clementine says and I keep glaring at him and he glares at me. I go over to the captured people and helped untie them and took the blindfolds off.
"Thank you, thank you, thank you." A woman said as she hugged me and I and I pat her back a bit and then we stand up.
"Uh yeah um… yeah." I say and David talked to them.
"They took us from home, uh, little village that way." A man says in broken English and I look to the direction he was pointing.
"Did they take everyone?" Ruby asked.
"Taken, beaten killed, don't know if anyone there." The man says and I rubbed my neck a bit as one of the teen girls was looking to me and I looked over to Clementine who was helping the little kid.
"We can take you back there see if there is anyone still there, then we can tell our people that you'll meet up with them." David says to the man.
"Yes, thank you… also one of the leaders, their name is Joan, she thinks she is like a god, watch out for her." The woman tells David and I look to them and the teenage came up to me.
"Thank you for helping my family." She says.
"I mean it wasn't just me." I tell her.
"That man got mad at you; did you take the first shot?" She asked and I nodded.
"Yeah." I say and she nods then Aasim informed us that he's radioed the closest group and they would be here soon. We had to keep going so we made sure these people were safe. Before we left though the teen gave me a kiss on the cheek and I turned red at this and nod then grabbed my rifle and started to walk away.
"Oooh Violet, you have a girlfriend?" Louis asked and I punched him on the shoulder hard.
"Ah damn it, what was that for?" He asked and I shake my head.
"Just making sure my hand still worked." I say and Clementine comes up next to me.
"It's part of their culture Louis." Aasim says and I nod and loo ahead.
"Oh, Violet how could you break my heart." Clementine says and I look to her with shock and she laughed.
"I wait hold on, Aasim said it was-." I tried to say and Clementine laughed more as she placed her hand on my shoulder.
"I'm just pulling your leg Violet." She tells me and I nod. She does lean a little closer to me and whispers in my ear though.
"I should show you what we do in my culture." She tells me and I feel my face heat up at that comment and she laughed again and I clear my throat a bit.
"Ok if we keep heading this way then we might get to that barricade they were talking about, when we get there we can send a signal out and see if we can blow that place up." David says.
"What if there is innocent there?" Ruby asked.
"We have no choice." David says.
"We can't kill innocent people thought." Omar says to us and I look to them and think.
"We can see if there are innocent, we can even try and sneak in get them then blow the hell out of the place." Clementine suggests.
"To risky." David says and sadly I have to agree with him.
"We can't just let innocent people die when they did nothing wrong." Louis says and I rubbed the back of my neck.
"To be honest here guys I sadly have to agree with David, we don't know how big this place is, and even if we did find out where the innocent people are located we can't fight a full blown army, a group yes but… fuck not even Clem and I are that good." I explained to them.
"So what? We have to let people die in order to win?" Louis says and I look down.
"I don't like it as much as you guys but we can't." I stopped and rubbed the side of my head a bit and sighed.
"Look we will camp out soon, we can come up with something but if we can't then we have to call in an air raid on the camp." David says and I nod at this. We keep walking till night comes and we made a temporary camp and I was looking to the open field as we had set camp into the woods and I look to the fields more.
"Hey." I hear and turn to look to Clementine then look back to the field.
"I don't like the idea of having innocent people hurt but we don't have the proper army." I tell her and then looked down to her.
"I know but there has to be something we can do… if we even get reinforces to come it might not be enough." She says and I look to the field again.
"But we can find a way… we just have to." She says and I sighed. We stayed quiet for a bit and I look to the sky a bit as I see the stars. I feel a hand on my face gently and I turn to look at her and she smiles gently at me and I kissed her gently on the lips. I pull back and she smiled at me.
"Come on, we need to get some rest." She says and I sighed as I follow her back to the camp and we take a seat near the fire. We ate some food and I look to the flames a bit as I ate one of those canned fish.
"Oh gross." Louis says and I smirked.
"Hey Kipper is amazing." I tell him.
"The fact that we got it in the town was just the icing on top." I laughed as he gagged.
"Oh, fucking gross." He says and I chuckled.
"God I would give to have some of my dads fried fish." Clementine says and I look to her a bit. We all chatted for a bit and then decided to get some sleep. I was having one of those rare good dreams, it was nice. That is until I woke up to screaming and I quickly open my eyes before I could grab my gun, I had one pointed at my head. I raise my hands up a bit and I turn my head a bit to see enemy clothing and I see them pointing a gun at everyone.
"Bewegen Sie sich nicht, sonst wird Ihnen der Kopf weggeblasen." (Don't move or your head will be blown off.). They say and I just stay put.
"Gut, jetzt steh auf." (Okay, now get up.). They say and I slowly get up as do the others. I then feel the gun being pointed at my back I keep my hands up before I feel them being pulled back and tied together. We were shoved and taken away from our camp, some of them laughing as they grabbed our guns and I glare at the ones in front of us. It was about two hours before we were taken to a giant camp and locked up in some cells. I was pushed to the ground and then they slammed the gate before I got up and I look to the people as they left.
"How the fuck did they find us?" I hear and look to see Luke as he tried to ram his cell door. I moved so my back was to the wall and I look to the side and see Clementine as she was over by the cell door.
"We didn't see anyone, they fucking ambushed us." Louis says as he hurried over to his cell door.
"You fucking idiots, why the hell was I even in this group." Luke says and I glared at him.
"Hey fuck you mean, we had to be with your team, not the other way around, so shut your fucking mouth and stop, they'll blow our brain out if you keep it up." I tell him and he glares at me.
"You should have been on watch, fucking lazy bitch." He says and I look to him.
"HEY DON'T CALL HER THAT!" Louis yelled.
"Louis don't." I tell him.
"The fuck are you going to do about it bitch boy?" Luke says and Louis looked pissed. And it was rare to see that man pissed off.
"Hey fuck you, you never take watch you get to fucking sleep, we have to stay up and watch your sorry ass, should have left you back at the swamps, fucking saving your ass in that muck was a mistake." Louis tells him.
"Fucking shut up the both of you." Ruby says and then there was a slam and we look to the side to see someone coming over to the cells.
"Oh, some Americans, nice to know that there are stupid people in this war." The woman says and I glared at her.
"Alright we will set some ground rules for all of you and you will listen." The woman says and we kept silent.
"You there… you look like you want to beat me up." She says as she looked to Clementine and I get up and the woman looked to me.
"Oh, a fighter… this is going to be fun." The woman laughed. She then looked to Clementine and the cell door was opened as the woman walked in, she then grabbed Clementine and I run up but before I could get close one of the soldiers hit me in the gut with their rifle knocking the wind out of me as I dropped to the floor trying to breath.
"Take that one to the other cells, and… make sure to give her a special treatment." The woman says and I feel someone grab my hands behind my back. Clementine and the others yelled and I tried to get out of their grip. They hit me again and I tried to breath. I coughed a bit until they threw me into another room. I get up only to get punched in the face and knocked to the ground and I look to the side as I took some breaths.
"Keep her here, Joan is going to have some fun with this one." One of the soldiers says.
"Come on, Joan wanted us to give her the special treatment." The other soldier says as they grabbed their pistol and shot it near my head and I froze up. I swallowed a bit and looked up to them as they laughed. They wouldn't be laughing if they were in this position, I know I wouldn't take joy in doing this to people.
"So, are there more of you?" One of them asked as they put the pistol under my chin and I look to them.
"July sixth." I mutter.
"Excuse me?" one of them asked.
"324-58." I say quietly and they hit me.
"Fucking bitch ain't going to tell us anything." One of them say as they force me to sit up. I don't know how long I had been here but there was a point where they had forced me outside. They made us work in the mud just digging holes for no reason, just dig and dig and dig some more. at one point I had seen Clementine and I wanted to run up to her but they had guns and even dogs on us. I stopped working for just a second before one of the soldiers yelled and pointed their rifle at me. I stabbed the shovel to the ground and moved the mud to the other side.
"You can't stop moving." I hear someone whisper and I look to them and they nod to me and I nod back a bit. We had to keep quiet while we worked, no words are to be spoken, if they catch you whispering, they shoot you. They already shot two people a while back just for one word. I kept working in the rain and the dogs were barking like crazy. At one point they had some of us standing in a line for hours. If one person fell, they were shot. It was hell on earth here. If we didn't give them information we were beaten, they even tattooed numbers on us as if we were cattle getting ready to be slaughtered. I was in my cell and I looked to the numbers on my arm. I hadn't seen Clem or the others besides that one time. We had been here for months the cold weather had finally come through and it was snowing. I was currently digging a hole my hands were freezing and my shoulder was starting to hurt like hell that I dropped my shovel. I couldn't pick it up and I heard some yelling and dogs barking. I went to grab my shovel but my shoulder started to burn more as I slowly grabbed it. But it was too late because I was grabbed by the back of my shirt and dragged up out the ditch. I groaned in pain as I was shoved to the ground. I hear some talking but I kept the side of my face in the snow and I tried to get up but I was tired.
"GET UP!" I hear someone yell.
"VIOLET GET UP!" I hear but I don't want to.
"VIOLET!" I hear and I take some slowly breaths and closed my eyes. I tried to think of something nice before they would shoot me.
"GET UP VIOLET DON'T DIE LIKE THIS!" I hear but I still didn't move. I was cold, I was tired, I wanted to just go home. There was a shot but I wasn't dead. There was more yelling and more gunfire and I just stayed on the ground. I just wanted to fall asleep. I feel something shaking me fast and hard and I slowly open my eyes to see Louis and Clementine as they looked to me with worry and I looked to see some enemy soldiers going down.
"Help me get her up." I hear as I closed my eyes again. I tried to get up on my own but I fell back into the snow before I was dragged to the side. I knew I wasn't face first in the snow as I feel two hands on the sides of my face and I open my eyes a bit and see Clementine looking down at me.
"It's ok… it's ok you're going to get help just… keep looking at me." I hear her say and I take a breath and moved my head a bit. I look back to her as she looked back to me.
"I… I wanna… g-go home." I tell her and she nods.
"You will… you will ok." She tells me and I nod slightly at this before I closed my eyes again. How long I was out I don't know. I just know I woke up in a hospital bed and I looked around the room a bit. I tried to sit up.
"Oh god she's awake." I hear and turn my head to the side to see Ruby as she ran out the door. I hear some running after a bit and laid my head back on the pillow and then looked to see Clementine come through the door and I smile a bit before she runs up to me and gives me a hug. I moved my arm up a bit and patted her back.
"The others?" I asked.
"Louis and the others are ok, Mitch is getting checked out for his frostbite, and Omar is as well." She tells me and I nod a bit.
"Louis?" I asked.
"He's fine as well, he was dehydrated but… he's fine." She tells me and I nod at this.
"Where are we?" I asked.
"Back in the states… Louis and the others put up a fight to stay with you." She tells me as she takes a seat.
"Hmm… what happened?" I asked.
"They… they were about to execute you but… our allies came and took them out… god you wouldn't get up, I was so scared." She tells me and I look to her she looked like she wanted to cry so I moved my arm a bit and hold her hand gently.
"I'm fine… I'm sorry I couldn't get up." I tell her.
"Don't… don't be sorry." She tells me and she held my hand a bit.
"My shoulder just started to hurt… and I was so tired." I tell her truthfully and she cried.
"You wouldn't get up… you wouldn't and I thought." She stopped and I look at her and I pull her hand a bit and she gets up and I pulled her to me.
"I'm here, I'm sorry… it's ok to cry." I tell her and I feel tears hit my shirt as I held her to me.
"You… you scared me." She cried and I nod.
"I'm sorry." I tell her quietly and she gripped my shirt.
"How are you?" I asked her quietly and she moves back.
"I'm fine… missing a finger but nothing else." She tells me and I sighed a bit. I hear more people come in just as she took a seat and I look to see the others.
"Shit, you're alive." Louis says and I nod as they come over. We chatted for a bit, I heard that Luke had died when they took him from the camp across a frozen lake, and David was shot execution style when he wouldn't talk to Joan. They had captured the evil woman though but they wouldn't tell anyone where she was for safety reasons. The war was still going on and I lay my head back a bit.
"They aren't sending any of us out again." Mitch says and I look to him.
"Especially you." Clementine tells me and I look to her. I kept quiet but took a breath. The others had left and I look to Clementine as she stayed with me and I just laid in the bed for the next week or two. When they finally discharged me, we all went to Clementine's home where Lee and Carley had made a huge meal for all of us and I was sitting next to Clementine as everyone ate and I had a few bites but not a lot. Clementine asked if I was ok and I was so I nod to her and she looked to me. After dinner Clementine and the rest of us went over to her house and I headed to bed. I didn't feel like talking to anyone, I didn't want to talk to anyone, and I didn't want anyone asking me if I was ok, or what was wrong. All I know is that Clementine came into the room and looked at me as I was laying on my side and she rubbed my shoulder gently and I look to her.
"I just want you to know we were thinking about going to visit Marlon… next week." She tells me and I just nod. She kissed me on the head gently and then leaves the room. Through the course of the week, I would wake up in the middle of the night and look around the room. I was a sweating mess but I didn't leave the room. I would be bothering people with my own issues and I didn't want to do that to them. They had problems too; they didn't need to be bothered. But this night was the worse. I got up in the middle of the night in a puddle of my own sweat as I wiped my face and looked around, I got out of the bed and left the room and looked over to the living area where the others were. I look to the door where Clementine's room was but I decided to head out the back door and take a seat outside in the cool air. I rubbed my face a bit and I grabbed a cigarette out of my pocket and lit it.
"Vi?" I hear and look to see Louis and I looked away. I feel him take a seat next to me and I looked to him a bit as I smoked my cigarette.
"You doing, ok?" He asked and I shake my head.
"Do you want to talk?" He asked and I shake my head again.
"Ok… no talking." He says and I nod a bit and looked to the side and to the pond.
"We're going to head to Virginia tomorrow." He says and I look to him.
"To visit Marlons family." He says and I nod a bit.
"Then we will head to Arlington to visit him." He says and I nod again. He stays silent and I look to him.
"We aren't wearing our uniforms, are we?" I asked.
"It would be nice… and we're go to visit the other graves too, walk around a bit." He says and I nod.
"Do we need to bring anything?" I asked.
"No... I'm getting his dad a bottle of jack and his mother some flowers, but you guys don't need to bring him anything." He says and I nod a little.
"You went to the service, right?" He asked and I look to him a bit and took a hit from my cigarette.
"I was in the back, I didn't talk to them or let them see me." I tell him honestly and I scratched my head a bit.
"So, they didn't see you?" He asked and I nodded.
"I didn't want them asking me questions about what happened, it wasn't the right time or place." I tell him and he nods.
"I'm sorry for making you talk." He says and I shake my head.
"No, it's… it's fine." I tell him and he nods. It was a while before we went inside and I went to my room and laid back in the bed. I finally fell asleep and was woken up gently and I opened my eye to see Clementine as she smiled at me gently.
"Hey time to get up." She says and I nod as I get up and looked to the door to see that it was closed and I look to her a bit as I pulled her to me and hugged her.
"Hey what's wrong?" She asked and I kissed her cheek gently.
"Just making sure I wasn't dreaming." I whisper to her. She moved her head to the side a bit and I moved away from her and looked to her. She smiles at me gently and then I got up and grabbed my bag gently. We all headed out to the train station and we all got tickets. We got a big cabin to stay in and I was looking out the window as we were going over a bridge and I look to the waters.
"Any news on Davids funeral?" Louis asked.
"No, not a word." Clementine says.
"Well… we can go see if he is there." Omar says and I just keep looking out the window. I feel a hand on my shoulder and I look to Clementine as she looked to me.
"Want something to eat?" She asked and I nod a bit and get up with her.
"Vi and I are getting something to eat." Clem informs them and the others nod as we head out the cabin and looked for the dinning cart. We walk in and take a seat and I look to the menu a bit and then to Clementine.
"You know what you want?" Clem asked and I look back to the menu.
"Uh… just a burger and fries." I tell her and then closed the menu. I take a breath and looked to the window again.
"Are you sure you're, ok?" She asked and I nod a bit and then grabbed a cigarette.
"Just… waiting for the letter saying I'm kicked out." I mutter and lit the cigarette and offer her one. She declined and I nod as I put it away. I looked to Clementine and the waiter came and took our orders and then left. I look at Clementine more and she was looking to the dessert menu they gave us and I tap my fingers on the table a bit. When we got our drinks and food we ate and drank. I look to her as she was drinking the tea she had and I decided to ask her something important.
"Marry me." I say and she almost dropped her cup and I grabbed it before she could drop the cup. I look at her as she looked to me in shock and I look back at her. I was shocked myself that I even asked the question.
"Can… can you repeat that?" She asked and I felt scared and shook my head quickly.
"Please… repeat what you just asked." She says to me and I look to her again as she gently put her cup down and I look to her as I sat up in my chair and I clear my throat a bit.
"Marry me." I say again and she looked to me. She didn't say a word and I rubbed my hands on my pants and I looked around a bit then to her.
"F-Forget I asked I'm sorry I shouldn't-."
"Yes." She says and I look to her.
"What?" I asked and she smiled at me.
"Yes." She says and I look to her and I couldn't help but smile at this.
"Really?" I asked and she nods.
"Why not? You did ask and I answered." She says and I nod quickly at this.
"I uh… I thought you would have said no or… or just never answer." I tell her and she laughed a bit.
"We have been through a lot together, I was worried you wouldn't have made it, that I'd never see you again… so I say yes." She tells me and I nod again at this and I smiled more to her. We finished up our meal and we decided to get something sweet for us and the others I paid for the meal and sweets and we both head on back to the cabin as we carried the treats and I kissed her on the head gently then we got to the cabin door and Clementine opened it for me and I walk in. I handed everyone their treats and we all sat down and at them together.
"So, I was able to call a hotel for us to stay at, they didn't have a lot of rooms so we're going to be bunking." Louis says as he finished his food and I nod as I eat some of the cake I had. We talked about all that we were going to do while there any plans to go places and the train finally stopped in Virginia and we headed to the hotel. We got our rooms and set our things down for the day before we went to visit Marlon's family. We dressed up nicely and I went with Louis to get some alcohol and flowers. We get to Marlons parent's home and Louis knocked on the door. A man opened the door and greeted Louis with a hug and I was standing next to Clementine.
"You must have been with Marlon, come in." The man says as we nod and walked in. Louis handed the man the bottle of jack and then a woman came in and gave Louis a hug and he handed her the flowers. We all stood in the living room and I looked around as I saw some old photos on the wall and I see Marlon's military photo. I take a breath and looked to the people as Louis talked to them for a bit.
"Ah so you all were his friends." The woman says as she looked to us and I see the others nod.
"Marlon was a smart man." Mitch says and I look back to the photo a bit then to his mother. It was a while before we headed out, it was getting dark by the time we reached the hotel and I didn't want to go in there yet. I watched as the others go in and I head off to the closest bar which wasn't far. I take a seat at the bar and order a drink. I don't know how long I was here for but I know I wasn't drunk, no that would be stupid. I took my last drink and paid the tab as I get up and leave the bar. I don't know why but I decided to take a walk around I even went to the small park on the side and just walked some more. when I finally did get to the hotel I went to my room and I see Clementine looking at me and I smile at her gently. She comes up to me and kisses my cheek and I look to her and kissed her cheek as well. We go to bed so we could be ready for another trip on the train.
"You seemed out of it." Clementine says as she laid in the bed with me and I place my hand on her side and she held my free hand as I looked to her.
"I'm fine… I promise." I tell her and she looks to me a bit and I nod.
"I just… needed to have a little time out is all." I tell her and she kissed me and I kissed her back. We fell asleep as I held her to me and when we woke up, we headed out the hotel and onto the train again. We wore our uniforms this time as we rode the train and then after that we had to take a car to the cemetery. When we got there, we saw many people we got to the point where it asked people to stay silent so we did just that as I took them to the direction of Marlon's resting place. There was a funeral going on and we stopped as we saw the horse drawn carriage taking the casket down the path where the soldier is to be put to rest. I look to Clementine as she looked to the casket and I feel her take my hand gently and we begin walking again. We get to Marlon's plaque and Louis goes up to it. We stayed quiet as we paid our respects.
I held Clem's hands tighter and took a breath and we walk away from the plaque and walk around. At one point we decided to go to the tombs and watch as the guards changed and they even had a wreath ceremony. I heard some people talking and it annoyed me a bit but I feel Clementine hold my hand a little tighter and I held hers back. Louis and the others decided to head out for a quick bite to eat as we exit out the silenced area.
"Has anyone called to see if Brody was here?" I asked.
"She said she'll come next month, they have her working to hard at the hospital." Ruby says and I nod a bit.
"I think I'll stay a bit longer." I tell them.
"You sure?" Louis asked and I nodded a bit.
"Yeah, I uh… want to see if Minerva is here." I tell them and they nodded.
"You can go with them Clem." I tell her and she shook her head.
"It's fine, I'm not hungry anyway." She says and I nod a bit as the others leave Clementine and I go and see where we could find if Minerva was here or not. I see her name on the paper and looked up the lot number and section. It took us a while it was a long walk but we finally get to the right plot and we walked over to her grave and I see someone.
"Sophie?" I asked and she turned to look at me.
"Violet… glad your alive." She says and I nod and Clementine comes next to me. I look to the grave a bit and I rubbed the back of my neck a bit.
"I'm sorry." I tell Sophie and she nods.
"So, who might you be? Did you know my sister?" Sophie asked Clementine I look to the woman and then to Sophie.
"No but she was with me when… we found out what happened." I tell Sophie.
"I'm Clementine." Clem introduced herself and shook Sophies hand and I look back to the grave and then remembered something. I grab the item in my pocket and looked to Sophie as I gently grabbed her hand and placed the dog tags in her opened hand. I then closed her hand and she looked to me as she looked to the tags.
"Thought you might want them… trust me it'll help." I tell her and she nods. She leaves the area and I look back to the grave and then saluted it. When I was done Clem and I walked out the cemetery and decided we were a little hungry so we take a cab to the closest diner and we grabbed a bite to eat.
"I wonder if I can get my grandfather buried here." I say quietly and then took a bite of my fries and I look to Clementine.
"That would be nice, you think they'll allow your grandmother?" She asked and I think.
"Not buried… I'd have to get them cremated in order to allow them both here… but now that I think about it, my father would hunt me down if I moved their graves and had them burned." I mutter and then eat another fry.
"Oh… that's just… we should go visit them again, at some point." She suggests and I smile at her gently.
"When my father is dead." I tell her and she shakes her head with a small laugh and I laughed a little as well.
"It's beautiful there though… I wouldn't mind being buried there one day." She says and I look at her.
"Same." I say and she nods to me.
"Well let's make a deal… if I die before you, you make sure I'm buried there, same goes for me to you." She says and I nod at this.
"It's a deal." I say and we laughed a bit and then ate more of our food. We didn't get back to the train and then to the hotel, where I then tell Louis and the others that Clementine and I would be heading back to Georgia tonight. They bid us a goodbye and Clementine and I got changed into some comfortable clothing but also warm. As we got on the train it was night and we were both currently laying on the bed in the cabin with the blinds closed. I held Clementine close to me and look to her as she looked to me.
"I'll get you a nice ring when we get back home." I tell her and she nods.
"Same." She says and I chuckled.
"I don't think that's how this works." I tell her as she gently hit my shoulder and I laughed.
"It'll be a simple band, and the same with mine, a simple band nothing fancy you hear." She says and I nod at this. I kissed her on the lips and she kissed me back as we fell asleep listing to the sounds that the train made and some whistle of the wind.