(Clementine's Pov)
I had gotten up early in the morning and started to work on some breakfast. I didn't hear Violet get up yet but I didn't want to bother her when she slept. I'll admit I have been acting like an asshole to her but she had to understand what I was saying. She's already done her job over there, they said that she only had to do office work, she was fine with that. What did she not understand? I sighed as I finished breakfast and I set the plates on the table and I went to her room door and I knock on the door gently.
"Hey Vi, I made breakfast." I say but no answer. I knock again and hear some shuffling and I back up a bit as Violet came out.
"Shit sorry." She says and I look to her.
"For what?" I asked as she hurried out the room with her ruck sack.
"Wait hold on where are you going?" I asked.
"Have to head out to the base I… fucking overslept." She says.
"Wait can't you just-."
"I have to go." She says quickly and runs out the door and I just stood there looking at the front door. I look to the plates on the table and then to the door. I sighed as I see her pass by the house on the bike and I walk out the door and see her leaving before I could stop her. I shake my head a bit and sighed. I would see her later today anyway so I go and put her plate away and I eat mine. When I finished my food, I noticed that Violet had left her lunch again and I smiled and shook my head. I hear a knock on the door and then see Carley come in.
"Hey mom." I say as I grabbed Violet's lunch.
"She forgot her lunch again?" Carley asked and I nod.
"Yeah, but it's funny I like bringing it to her." I say with a small laugh and she nods.
"Need me to take you to the base?" She asked and I nodded.
"That would be great, do you mind waiting though? She usually wants me to have lunch with her." I tell her and she nods.
"Oh, it's fine, after that we can go to the new clothing store that just opened up, I heard the owner came from Paris so it has to be good." She says and I smiled a bit and nod. We decided to talk for a bit as we waiting till it was close to lunch and when it was time we got in the car and Carley drove me to the base. Once there she parked over at Violet's office and I head inside and knock on Violet's door.
"Vi? I got your lunch." I say as I waited for her to open the door. When she didn't, I opened it and didn't see her anywhere. Maybe she went out for a smoke so I decided to take a seat and wait and wait, and wait but she didn't show up.
"Where the hell is that woman?" I asked out loud and then I see her Lieutenant walk by.
"Oh hello." I say and they turn to see me and they looked a little surprised.
"Clem, I didn't expect you to be here." He says as he walked in.
"I always come at this time; Violet forgot her lunch again." I tell him and he looked confused.
"Wait… she didn't tell you?" He asked and I look to him.
"Tell me what exactly?" I asked.
"She left this morning on the aircrafts." He says.
"WHAT?!" I yelled.
"Now calm down, did she tell you that she was leaving?" He asked.
"I told her… god damn that woman." I say getting pissed off.
"Hey, hey calm down." He says and I take a deep breath.
"When did she leave?" I asked.
"This morning, right as she got here… I'm surprised she didn't tell you." He says.
"She said she had to go but didn't say when." I tell him and he sighed.
"Right… ok look I'll send a message to her telling her you aren't too happy… do you need me to walk you to your car?" He asked and I shake my head as I grabbed Violet's lunch box.
"No thanks, and you tell her I'm royally pissed off at her, and when she get's home…. I don't know make something up." I say to him and he nods as I leave. I go out to the car and get in while slamming the door hard.
"Woah what happened?" Carley asked.
"She fucking left, they sent her back over seas for a fucking rescue mission after I told her she didn't have to… she didn't tell me she was leaving this morning either." I say as Carley started up the car and began to drive.
"Is that why she was in such a rush?" She asked and I shrugged.
"I guess, she said she woke up late and then just ran out… with her ruck sack, damn it I should have known when I saw the ruck." I mutter and shake my head.
"Maybe she didn't want to worry you more? But I agree she should have told you." She says and I rubbed my head a bit.
"The thing is, they shouldn't have asked her to go, she didn't need to go there are plenty of other people that could have done the job." I tell her and I groaned a bit.
"Maybe there's something more to it?" Carley asked and I shrugged.
"I don't know, she didn't talk much." I tell her and then I sighed.
"And I was an asshole to her the other day." I say quietly.
"She knows you didn't mean to act that way… but you have to remember Violet thinks she has to do this, it's her job." She tells me.
"No, her job is to stay here and work in that office… I'm not there to help her, what if something happens? I don't want to… I don't want to see her come home in a fucking casket Carley." I tell her and she sighed.
"I know sweetie, but trust me when I say she will get home safe." She tells me and I shake my head.
"I hope so… but she is in so much trouble when she get's back." I say and Carley laughed a little.
"Well let's get your mind off this for a while." She says as she drove into town. I just looked out the window as the buildings passed by and I lean my head on the window a bit as I look to the front windshield.
"Clem." I hear and look to my mom as she looked to me as she parked and she places a hand on my shoulder.
"It's going to be ok… and who knows she might be back next week." She tells me and I closed my eyes a bit and I take a breath and nod.
"Knowing her she'll make sure." I say and we both get out the car and head into the shop. I will say that a lot of the clothes were nice and it wasn't just women's clothes either there were men's clothes and children's clothing as well.
"Seems like it's a store for everyone." Carley says and I nod and I looked around a bit. I go over to the men's section and see some clothing that would be good for Violet and I show Carley and she nods and points to other stuff as well.
"Seems expensive if you ask me." She says and I laughed a bit.
"Well, it is from a foreign owner, maybe they get their shipments back in Paris." I say and she nods.
"That is true." She says and I nod and think a bit.
"… You think I should give Violet something nice?" I asked and Carley looked at me.
"If you want." She says and I look to the men's outfit and nod a bit.
"You're still worried about her hu?" She asked me and I nod.
"But I'm still angry at the fact that she didn't tell me she was leaving today… that I got mad at her just because she's doing her job." I say quietly and look to Carley.
"I'm sure she understands." She tells me and I shake my head a bit. I get some new clothes for Violet and I and even some new shoes for AJ while Carley got some new clothes for AJ, Lee and her. We then head to get some items from the grocery store and again on the radio it was people talking about the war and I sighed a bit.
"I swear." The same man from the other day says and I look at the items on the shelf.
"Hey stop being a Debbie downer." One guy says.
"This shit needs to end." The man says and I grabbed some canned corn off the shelf and showed it to Carley and she nods as we put it in the cart and she looked to the people at the radio.
"Fucking women are now working in the factories, not letting us hard working men have jobs." The man complained and I grabbed a can of peas.
"So what? Let them work if they want." I hear a woman say.
"Oh don't you start, you women should be at home with the kids." He says and I get pissed off and throw the can of peas at him. It hit him right on the head and he held the injured side as he looked to me and a few onlookers were shocked.
"YOU WANT A JOB SO BAD GO SIGN UP YOU BASTARD!" I yelled and he glares at me.
"You again?" He asked pissed off.
"LIKE I SAID YOU WANT A FUCKING JOB SO BAD GO FIGHT THE DAMN WAR, YOU ARE THE MOST SELF CENTERED IDIOT I EVER MET!" I yelled at him and I feel Carley pull me back as I was about to go up and punch the man.
"FUCK YOU BITCH YOUR HUSBAND SHOULD BEAT YOU FOR HOW YOU TALK TO ME!" He yelled and was also being held back and I tried to shove Carley off me.
"MY PARTNER IS MORE OF A MAN THEN YOU'LL EVER BE, THEY ARE OVER SEAS PROTECTING YOUR SELFISH ASS, YOU WANT A JOB SIGN UP SO THEY CAN COME HOME!" I yelled. It wasn't long till a worker got to us to try and break the argument up.
"I SHOULD-."
"SHOULD WHAT? I FUCKING WENT OVER SEAS THE SHIT I'VE SEEN WOULD MAKE PEOPLE LIKE YOU GO MAD YOU FUCKING PRICK!" I yelled and he glares at me and I'm pulled back more by Carley.
"It's not worth it, stop this now." Carley says.
"NO FUCK PEOPLE LIKE THAT, KIDS ARE BEING BLOWN UP I LOST FRIENDS OVER THERE, WE MADE SACRIFICES FOR PRICKS LIKE THIS? HE WANT'S A JOB HE CAN JOIN THE MILITARY AND GET HIS BRAINS SHOT LIKE MARLON, OR BE IN A POW CAMP LIKE WE WERE, FUCK YOU FUCK EVERYONE LIKE YOU AND I HOPE YOU GET SHOT!" I yelled as I looked to the man and I took some breaths as people looked to us.
"You were in a POW?" A woman asked but I didn't answer her as I kept glaring at the man as he looked to me.
"We should go." Carley says and we leave the cart as we exit the store. We get in the car and I shake my head as I punched the side door which hurt like hell due to it being made of metal. I gripped my fist in my palm and I shake my head as I feel tears in my eyes.
"Clem what the hell." Carley says as she looked to my hand.
"I'm fine… just go… please." I say as she let my hand go and then starts the car up. She was about to leave until someone came over to the door and I see it was the man and I was about to shove the door open but he makes a surrender with his hands. I look to Carley as she looked to the man and I looked back as he made a motion for me to roll my window down so I do it just a little.
"I'm not going to hurt you." He says and I roll it down a bit more and glare at him.
"The fuck do you want?" I asked pissed off.
"You were really in the military?" He asked.
"Fuck you prick." I tell him.
"Wait, I just… I came to say sorry I didn't know-."
"Of course, you didn't know, you fucking insulted me telling me I should just be at home taking care of my kids, that I have no fucking right to talk about something I know? Fuck you." I tell him.
"I… I deserve that." He says and I shake my head.
"Look I just… my son is over there and-."
"You think I give a damn? My husband is back over there when he shouldn't be, they fucking sent him back this morning." I tell him.
"… I just… I didn't mean to insult you ma'am and I just want to apologize for my words and actions, and… I greatly appreciate what you, your friends and husband have done I just… don't like this war as much as you guys." He says and I just look to the front.
"I'm sorry she's just… having a bad day." Carley says.
"I understand, again I do apologize." The man says and Carley drives off. I shake my head and look to the road a bit then lean my head on the open window.
"Clementine." I hear and look to Carley.
"Don't… I just want to go home… and get some sleep." I tell her.
"Alright… but at least come over for some dinner tonight." She says and I nod a bit. When we get home, I grabbed mine and Violet's items and Carley takes her thing into their house and I go into mine. Ducky runs up to me and I couldn't help but smile.
"Hey Ducky, let me go put some of these clothes up and then I'll feed you." I tell her and she quacks and I laughed a bit and go and put the clothes in my room and I head into the living room and I turn the radio on to play some soft music. I then go and get Ducky some food and set it on the floor for her and she goes after it. I take a seat on the kitchen chair and leaned my head on my hand as I watched the duck enjoying her food and I smile.
"I should get you a friend… so you won't be so lonely while we're out… I know AJ can be a bit of a handful." I joke and the duck actually looks at me then goes back to her food and I smiled. I head into the living room and take my prosthetic leg off and rubbed my stump a bit and look at it a bit. I sighed as I set the leg to the side and laid on the couch and had my head turned to the couch's back and placed my hands on my stomach and closed my eyes a bit. I don't know how long I was asleep for but I know I was woken up by some knocking and I slowly get up and look to see AJ come in the house.
"Hey, mom asked me to come get you." He says and I nod a bit and look to see that Ducky had decided to take a seat in Violet's chair she had bought a while back.
"Right dinner… sorry I just… I fell asleep." I mutter and he comes over to me and I sit up and grabbed my leg.
"If you want Carley and Lee won't mind coming over here if your leg is a bother." He tells me and I look to it a bit and I nod.
"Tell them I'm sorry." I say to him and he nods.
"They'll understand… I'll go get them." He says and I nod and looked to the cane and crutches on the side. Violet had gotten them for me, something about needing anything and everything available if my leg became a bother or if I needed the cane too for walking. I look to them for a while and then Lee, Carley and AJ all came to the house with the food and I get up and hop over to grab the crutches.
"No, no sit down I'll get you a plate." Lee says and I look to him.
"No, it's fine I have to get up or I'll fall asleep again." I say as I come over to the table and take a seat and set my crutched on the chair.
"So, you and Carley went to the new clothing store?" Lee asked and I nodded.
"It was nice, had clothes and many other things for all kinds of people." I tell him and he nods. A week would pass by and I would wait for Violet to come home. She said it would be quick but I should have known better. I was currently over at Grandma Everetts home and she is teaching me a recipe that Violet might enjoy when she gets home.
"Alright so we are going to make a simple chicken soup." She says and I look to her.
"Simple? Grandma this does not look simply." I say as I look at all the ingredients on the counter and she laughed.
"It is I swear." She tells me and I shake my head as we get to washing our hands, then the vegetable and the meat.
"You think Violet would like this?" I asked her as she was cleaning the chicken legs.
"I think she will, she likes my other chicken recipes." She says and I nod.
"So do we take the bone out?" I asked.
"No, keep the bone on trust me." She says and I nod as she gets some chicken broth and pours it in the soup pot. She takes come collard greens and cuts them up.
"Now the broth already has some salt in it but taste it and we can get it to your liking, I always tell your grandfather to taste it." She says and I nod as I take a spoon and taste the broth a bit.
"Add a pinch of salt." I say and she nods as she grabbed the salt and adds a little to the pot.
"Now take the chicken legs and add the garlic powder, chili powder, onion powder, or instead of adding the garlic and onion powder use the actual onion and garlic to the broth, but for now we have the powder." She explains and I do as told. She also added some chili powder to it so it has a little spice to it with some pepper as well.
"Usually, I would make it Cajun style but I don't know how much spice Violet could handle." She tells me and I nod.
"… When we met up with this one group a guy had some spicy candy… Violet traded her pack of cigarettes just to try some, she actually enjoyed it, but she gave the rest to David." I say as I roll the chicken in the spices and I feel a hand on my shoulder and I look to my grandmother as she smiled that gentle smile of hers.
"Well, when she gets back, I'll give you my recipe if she want's some Cajun style, but for now we will do this." She says and I nod as we get back to work. She then tells me to put the chicken into the pot and she takes the collard greens to the pot once it's heated up and then she works on some onions.
"Now I don't know about you but I love onions." She says and I laughed at this.
"I love them too." I tell her as she dices up the onion and I add it to the pot.
"Do you think we should add anything else to the soup?" She asked as she lets me have a taste and I shake my head.
"Tastes good to me maybe a little more pepper?" I asked and she nods as she adds some to the mix and I think.
"Now we get to make the noodles." She says as she grabbed a bag of egg noodles and we get a pot going to make them.
"Ok I have to admit this is simple." I say and she laughed and then I hear someone come in.
"Oh, is grandma making soup?" I hear and turn to see my grandfather walking in with Lee.
"Just helping Clementine with new recipes." She explained.
"You should make some beef stew; Grandma makes the best beef stews." Grandpa says as he kissed her on the cheek.
"Oh, don't flatter me, but this is one of the many recipes Clementine wanted to make for Violet." She explained to him and I smiled a bit.
"Ooooh doesn't she love Cutlets?" Lee asked and I nod.
"It's her favorite but we don't have all the ingredients to make some homemade cutlets, they have to be home made." Grandma explained and I nod in agreement. Violet loves her home-made cutlets more than the premade stuff; she can tell the difference.
"So, you want to get into baking?" I hear and see Carley as she walked in with AJ as they had bags and set them on the table.
"Actually yes… I just want to make a good meal for Violet." I say as I look to the soup and Grandma covers it.
"Let it sit for a bit, and make sure it's on low heat depending on what you're doing for a meal." She says and I nod as we talked more on food. When it came to food my grandmother could talk and talk about how to properly make a meal and make sure it's hot and ready by the time dinner came around. She loved to bake too, she use to run a bakery before she met my grandfather.
"Oh, when he first walked into my shop I was in love." She says and I smiled a bit.
"And your grandfather has such a sweet tooth, it was like we were meant to meet in that store." She says and I lean on my hands a bit.
"Does Violet have a sweet tooth? I know a really good chocolate cake recipe that she would love." She tells me and I think a bit.
"Honestly she use to carry chocolate around for others, she does love hard candies though." I explained.
"An old woman at heart." Lee jokes and grandma hits his shoulder gently as we all laugh.
"It's true though… I'm actually thinking about changing my degree now, instead of sports I could do culinary." I say.
"Would that make you happy though?" I hear and look to Grandma.
"I love to see Violet smile every time I brought her lunch, and I love cooking your recipes, it makes her smile and she always tells me to thank you… I guess I just love to see her smile." I admitted.
"Good food can do that, why do you think they say a way to a man's heart is good food?" Grandma says and I laughed.
"But Violet isn't a man." I laughed and grandma shrugged.
"I think it goes for everyone, I remember when my grandmother made wonderful cakes with little ingredients, she loved to make people happy and I opened my bakery and named it after her… but if it does make you happy maybe you should take some cooking classes, or you can learn from me and do it as a hobby." She tells me and I nod. We went and checked on the soup and added the noodled to the boiling water, making sure to add some salt to the water so the noodles don't stick to the pot or to the other noodles. When dinner was done everyone got a bowl and grandma had some crackers and I helped get everyone something to drink.
"Its best to make this when you aren't feeling well." She tells me and I nod as everyone sat down and we ate our food.
"Great as always." Grandpa says and I smiled a bit at this. Two months would pass and I was getting better at cooking. I would go over to grandma's house to get some lessons after school, and I would make my own recipes as well for her to try.
"Oh, these cookies are great Clementine." She says and I smiled.
"I used brownie mix instead of cookie mix for this, but added some chocolate chips to them." I explained and handed her the recipe card as she looked to it as she ate another cookie.
"Oh, this would have been wonderful at the shop." She says and I nod a bit.
"I also thought about adding some macadamia nuts and white chocolate to some cookies but sadly I couldn't find any macadamia nuts this time around." I sighed and took a cookie.
"Oh well when they come back, we should make that, it sounds good." She says and I nod and we make note of what we plan on doing when certain foods come into season.
"I saw this one recipe where people make Chocolate oranges I think, but they either have the orange sliced and dipped into the chocolate or this one place puts the orange and mixed it in with the chocolate." I tell her.
"Oh yes I have tried those, they are very good." She says and we keep talking about the different desserts we would make.
"Have you gotten a letter from Violet?" She asked as we were writing some recipes down.
"No, I don't think she has time to do it." I sighed a bit.
"She'll be back soon… do you at least know where she is?" She asked and I think.
"No, I don't." I say sadly. When we finished, I drove back home with Lee and I went into my house and set the recipe cards in a little booklet I had. I then make some food for the Duck as they came running to me and I gently pat their head before I set the food down for them. I then go and turn the radio on and listen to some music as I go and make something simple to eat.
"We interrupt this channel to inform everyone that there was a bomb dopped down in the European area, the military on the U.S. side was the ones to develop such a weapon, many were killed in the blast some of our own soldiers were also killed many people have already gotten news of their loved ones, this is truly the end of the war." I hear and look to the radio.
"Many have to also deal with radiation poisoning some have already died due to the amount of radiation destroying their bodies, to close to the bomb when it went off, we do have some reports of survivors they have been sent home to have their final days back home… there are a few soldiers that were sadly left blinded by the bomb as well, they are said to be sent home… there was also report of a missing group where the bomb had been dropped, there were soldiers in charge of rescuing them but due to a miscalculation on where the bomb was to be dropped that group was in the middle of the blast." I hear and dropped my cup.
"Due to this weapon of mass destruction the war was called off, and there are some questions on whether a weapon of this much power should be used, the UN have been discussing this as of yesterday, and it seems that everyone is in agreement that no such weapon should be used by anyone for any reasons with how much damage has been done…. May god have mercy on everyone involved in this catastrophic event…. In other news the leader Carver is still on the run, it is to be believed that he has fled to another country, if anyone has any information on him, please report him to the proper authorities he is dangerous and needs to see some form of justice… thank you for listening." The radio then went off to play some soft music and I quickly run to Lee's house and I bang on the door.
"Woah Clementine are you ok?" He asked.
"I need to go on base." I tell him.
"What? Is it your leg?" He asked.
"No, no I heard the news I need to go now, please." I begged and he nods as he grabbed his keys and told Carley he would be back. He quickly gets to the car as do I and he drives me on base and I hurry to Violet's old office and bang on the Lieutenants door.
"OPEN THE DAMN DOOR!" I yelled and the door was opened and he looked to me as I hit him in the chest.
"Ah fuck wh-."
"DID VIOLET GET CAUGHT IN THAT BLAST?!" I yelled and he looked to me.
"We don't know, we lost contact with her and her squad a month ago." He says and I grip my hands into fists.
"YOU LOST CONTACT AND DIDN'T DO ANYTHING?!" I yelled.
"Please calm down." He says and I hit him again.
"YOU PROBABLY GOT MY PARTNER KILLED AND YOU WANT ME TO CALM DOWN? THEY SAID THE BLAST WAS WHERE THOSE PEOPLE YOU SENT HER TO GET WERE!" I yelled and he looked to me.
"No, we said they could have been there, not that they were there, the news… fucking they fucked it up and the general is working on their mistake." He tells me.
"THAT…. That doesn't make anything better." I cried and he looked to me.
"Send me back." I tell him.
"I can't your leg-."
"I don't give a fuck… send me back, she hasn't come home, she has to still be out there." I tell him.
"Clem if she was in that blast… her body is gone." He says and I feel more tears fall down my face and I shake my head.
"Send me back I don't care just send me back." I tell him.
"I can't." He says.
"You sent her back… you fucking sent her back so send me." I tell him and he sighed a bit and then looked to me.
"Fine… I will see if they will send you back, you are to only go there to help find any survivors not just for Violet." He says and I nod. It was something at least and he told me he would give me a call on when I leave. They also will issue me a new uniform to show I was part of rescue and not for battle. I head back outside and see Lee as he looked to me and he gives me a hug.
"I'm going back over there." I tell him.
"Clementine-."
"I don't care… she hasn't come home… I need… I need to find her." I cried and he hugged me more.
"Ok… ok." He says quietly. A week would pass and more news about the bomb was going around like wildfire, many people were angry and I don't blame them, I was given a call that I would head out for a short while, which could be any amount of time in all honesty. I tell my family I'll be back and Lee took me back on base where I go on the aircraft waiting to go back. When we finally arrived we were taken to our stations and I saw how bad the destruction was. There was a point where no one could go due to the amount of radiation so we were kept a safe distance.
"Clementine?" I hear and look to see Brody and even Louis.
"Holy shit you guys are here?" I asked.
"We heard about the bomb, Omar is even here too, to… you know." Louis says sadly.
"Has Violet come through?" I asked.
"No, did you get separated?" Brody asked.
"No, she was here to… she's not in the medic tents?" I asked and they looked to me.
"We haven't seen her Clem what is going on why would Violet be-." He stopped talking and I look to him as he looked to me.
"She wasn't involved in that blast, was she?" Brody asked and I look to her.
"I don't know, I just know she was here and… I don't know." I tell them.
"If we see her, we will get you." He says and I nod as we all got to work. We had been here a week and I still didn't hear anything about Violet, I was starting to believe that she was actually gone at this point. I was angry, I was so angry at everyone and everything. Violet shouldn't have been here, I explained to Louis and Brody along with Omar about what had happened and why Violet was even here to begin with. We got some more people that came in but none of them were her and they were in terrible condition. I helped as best as I could and even with searching for people. But once the week was up we were mostly recovering bodies. At this point I was just hoping I would find her body and bring her home.
"FUCKING GOD DAMN IT!" I hear and the truck stopped as we looked around.
"HELLO?!" Louis yelled but nothing. We waited and waited but still nothing.
"HELP!" We hear and I hurry out the truck as Tripp yelled at me and Louis also followed me as we got out and ran across the land.
"CALL OUT!" I yelled but heard nothing.
"HEY CALL OUT!" Louis yelled. We didn't hear a call out but there was a shot that rung out and we look to the sky to see a flair gun and we hurried in its direction. When we got there, I see a kid as they looked to me and Louis scared.
"There… there's a few people hurt… help." He says and we nod as we followed him and he takes us to a bunch of rubble. We slide down in an opening and drop down to the ground a bit. We kept following the kid and reach a bunch of people.
"Jesus fucking Christ." Louis says and I look to him.
"Louis go to Tripp tell him to call a new truck for survivors as well." I say and he nods as he hurried out and I go help anyone I can.
"Fucking hell." I hear and look to the soldier as they held their arm, or what was left of it. I look to the tourniquet and saw when it was applied and nod.
"Good, you're doing fine, any other injuries?" I asked. They shook their head and they look to me a bit. It took a bit but Louis came down with Brody who came to help as well and we got any of the injured to the trucks.
"What happened here?" I asked one soldier.
"When… when we finally got some rest something came on the radio…. We were told to take cover and the building collapsed when a huge explosion went off… fucking hell I heard so much screaming." The man says and I nod a bit. There was one soldier that came up to us.
"There's someone that really needs help, our Sergeant Major got hurt and she won't let anyone touch her." A private tells us and I nod as I follow them as Brody worked on the man we were talking to. They take me to the other side of the crumbled building and I see some blond hair.
"Violet?" I asked once they turned their head a bit then moved their head away and I run up to them quickly. I dropped down and placed my hand on their stomach and they quickly grabbed my hand.
"DON'T TOUCH ME FUCK!" She yelled and I gently grabbed her face as her eyes were shut.
"Violet, Vi it's me Clem." I say to her and she struggled to get my hands off her.
"FUCK YOU LET ME GO!" She yelled as she grabbed my hands and moved them away.
"Violet." I say quietly as she kept her eyes shut and I see there was some burns on her.
"Shut up… tell them to shut up." She says as she shook her head and I stopped her.
"Stop the concrete is hurting you." I tell her and I feel her grip my hand tightly.
"Clem… tell Clem." She says quietly and I look to the other soldiers.
"What happened?" I asked as I tried to work with her.
"She told us to hurry into the building when she got the radio call, she was the last one down and then complained about her eyes burning and then she ran off to here… she didn't move we thought she died or something, until we heard her talk." One of the privates said and I look to her.
"I need her to open her eyes." I say quietly and tried to help her but she gripped my hands. The other soldiers left me alone and I told them I would call for help if needed.
"Violet it's me." I tell her and she shook her head again but I had to grab her head.
"Stop moving your head." I say to her.
"Fuck… tell Clem." She mutters and she gripped my hand again as she tried to say something.
"Tell Clem what?" I asked.
"Sorry… I'm sorry… I… she… she won't want…me." She says and I look to her.
"I left her… she's mad at me… I left her." She says and I grabbed my jacket and put it under her head.
"I need you to open your eyes." I say quietly.
"Can't." She mutters.
"Yes, you can." I say.
"I can't… they were burning, they burn." She says.
"I know, I know but I need to see how bad." I tell her. It took a while but she opened her eyes a bit and one eye looked so white it was scary. They moved around trying to look at something.
"Are… are they opened?" She asked.
"Yes, they are." I say and she looked so sad.
"I… can't see…. God I can't see." She says as she laid her head back.
"Hey, it's ok." I tell her and she tried to look around.
"I can't… I can't see… fucking hell." She closed her eyes again and I look to her sadly.
"Hey, do you know who's talking to you?" I asked.
"The voices." She says.
"What voices?" I asked.
"I… I sometimes… think Clem… oh god she's going to leave me." She says and I look over her more.
"Why would she leave you?" I asked and I looked to see her leg was busted but not to the point of an amputation needed.
"I'm fucking blind… she… doesn't need to… t-t-take care of me." She says and lifted her head up a bit and I slowly lay her back down.
"Don't get up." I tell her as she tried to breath and I go up to her ear to get her to breath like me.
"Listen to me breath and copy me." I tell her and I hear her nod as I breathed in slowly. She tried to do the same but it seemed like it was hard for her.
"Do your lungs hurt?" I asked.
"H-Hard… p-panic… panic." She says and I nod.
"Ok, just breath like me." I say gently to her. She copies me for a while and I look to my watch to see it took thirty minutes for her to calm down.
"Ok… we have some medics on the side, we're going to have to pick you up." I tell her.
"Leave me here." She says and I look at her.
"Why?" I asked and she gripped my hand.
"Can't… can't go home… no home." She says.
"What about Clem?" I asked her. It was weird asking about myself to her but I don't think she understands who or what is going on around her.
"She… I can't…d-d-do this to her." She stuttered and I look at her as she gripped my hand more and it was shaking.
"BRODY!" I yelled and she ran to me. Violet kept shaking and she turned her head to the side as she threw up. Brody helped me with her as we tried to get her to stop. I look to the private as they watched.
"Did she hit her head?" I asked getting panicked myself as she wouldn't stop shaking.
"No, not from what we've seen." He says and the shaking stopped.
"We need to get her out now." Brody says and I nod and she helped me as we got her situated and helped get her out from under the building. Louis helped us by grabbing her and we hurried and got her on one of the trucks I hit the back telling the driver to go. Violet started to shake again and Brody helped me with her as Violet threw up more and it landed on another soldier who moved to the side and when the shaking stopped Violet kept saying sorry. The soldier said it was ok to her and we kept watch on her. We finally get her into a medic tent and they worked on her more. It was a few days before they said she was going to be taken back to the states and I was going to go with her. They took us back to Georgia and I was with her as she was in the hospital. I hadn't called Lee or anyone as I stayed here with her. Days and days would pass, Violet kept having seizures and throwing up, like she couldn't hold anything down either. I was starting to fear for the worse.
"Does she have any family?" A nurse asked and I think a bit.
"She… her mom but I don't know her number." I say quietly as I watched Violet sleep.
"I'll see if we can find her number." She says and I look to the nurse.
"Will… what about her eyes?" I asked.
"Well one is completely damaged, but we can't remove it, the other one looks ok from what the doctor said but we believe she's still blind until she can talk to us." She explained and I nod and I hold Violet's hand gently. The nurse leaves and I keep watching Violet for a bit. Brody and Louis came back home a few days later they came to visit Violet but they had to head back home. I finally get up and go ask the nurse if I can make a call on their phone. They let me and I call up Lee.
"Hello?" I hear and I take a breath.
"Hey Lee um… I'm at the hospital with Violet… but I uh… I need to get out a bit… could I meet you?" I asked.
"Of course… how is she?" He asked and I look to where her room is and then to the floor.
"I'll explain when you get here." I tell him.
"Ok." He says and we hang up and I thank the nurse. I head back to Violet's room and take a seat by her bed and hold her hand again. I would look to the clock here and there and then to Violet. When I saw the time I got up a bit and kissed Violet on her head gently and then went to tell the nurse I would be gone for a bit. They tell me it would be fine and that I can come back at any time, and they would call my home if anything is to happen. I nod as I head outside and I go to meet up with Lee as he was waiting in the car. I get in and looked to the window a bit as he began to drive.
"What's wrong?" He asked and I wipe the tears that were falling and I take a breath as I tried to calm myself down. I explained what I was told happened and what I had done, what Violet is going through. He drove into town and we stopped to get something to eat. We take a seat and I just look to the window a bit.
"So… Violet might need some more help than what you think." Lee says and I look to him.
"I can help her." I tell him.
"I know you think you can but Clem… from what you told me… she's going to need a lot of help." He tells me and I shake my head at this. He sighed as I look at him.
"I… don't want her to think that I abandoned her… she didn't leave me when I got in the accident." I tell him.
"This is different Clementine." He says and I shake my head again. We got our food and ate a bit and I look to my plate here and there. I then asked Lee to take me back to the hospital which he did and I head back inside and go to Violet's room.
"Hm." I hear and look to see Violet had sat up and looked around the room and then to where I was.
"I don't need any more shots." She mutters and I smile a bit as I go up to her.
"Well good thing I'm not a doctor." I say as I take a seat in the chair next to her bed. She looked to me and squints a bit but then sighs.
"Clem?" She asked and I take her hand.
"Yeah… how's the eye?" I asked.
"Hmmm." She just hummed and laid back on the bed but she still looked to me, or at least looked like she was trying to.
"Blurry in one eye." She mutters and I smiled a bit.
"It could get better." I say.
"I… I can't remember much." She says and I nod.
"It's fine." I tell her.
"No… it's not." She says and I look to her sadly.
"Well, you'll be home soon." I tell her.
"I… I can't." She says and gripped my hand and I hold it back.
"Hey it's ok… take your time." I tell her. She took a breath and it was shaky and then she coughed a bit.
"I can't do this to you." She says and I look to her.
"Do what?" I asked.
"I'm blind." She says and I look to her as she looked to the front of the room.
"I can't… I don't want… you to take care of me." She tells me.
"Vi-."
"Why… would I ruin your life like this." She says and I look to her.
"Why does everyone think this would ruin my life? Don't I get a choice in this too?" I asked and she held my hand tighter.
"I just… you… I can't explain." She says and sits up a bit.
"Can you try?" I asked and she looks at me as best as she could. I gently move her head to face me and I rubbed my thumb across her cheek as she tried to look at me.
"I'm useless." She says and I shake my head.
"You aren't." I tell her.
"I can't see." She says.
"And I can only hop." I tell her.
"I can't help as much." She says.
"But you'll try, I know you'll try, and I'll help." I tell her.
"I…" She stopped and then laid her head on my shoulder.
"I'm sorry… I shouldn't have gone… I didn't know they would drop it on us… I… I talked about it… It's karma." She says quietly and I held her head to my shoulder and moved my other arm to rub her back gently.
"It's going to be ok." I whisper to her.
"I don't want to be a burden." She says quietly and I feel her head shift a bit so she was facing my neck.
"You won't be… I don't care what anyone says, you are not and will not be a burden." I tell her.
"… I'm so sorry." She whispers.
"Don't be sorry… I'm sorry I got mad at you; I know you were just thinking about those people… I'm sorry." I tell her.
"You don't have to be." She tells me and I kissed her head gently.
"I do… I thought I lost you and I thought the last thing you would remember about me was being angry at you." I tell her.
"No, I… I was worried about when I came back… like this." She says.
"You said to leave you there." I tell her.
"I wanted to die there." She says and I rubbed her back more.
"I just… didn't want you to see me like this… I didn't want to be taken care of… I just… I don't know." She tells me.
"You should talk to someone about this." I tell her and she laughed.
"I thought I could talk to you." She laughed.
"You can but I think you need professional help." I tell her and she nods.
"Maybe." She says quietly. It would be three more months before I would take Violet home, her other eye got better which we were both happy for, she could see my face again and she was so happy but it was blurry from far distances which she was fine with. We go to the house and I help her sit on the couch and I take a seat with her. She pulls me to her and I let her. She said it was to make sure she wasn't dreaming, and I understand.