Snake glances down at Clementine, who was looking at the map with a pencil in hand. She was likely marking the area where the grocery outlet was, using one of the many icons they had came up with as a note to anyone else using the map that it was completely looted and void of anything of importance. He slows down a little so she isn't fighting the wind as much as he glances back at the road. "Well, I would hate to return with what little we found... this'll last a few days at most. Even though we are doing fine realistically, I don't want to slack off too much."
Clementine sighs and flips the pencil in her hand, dragging the eraser from their current estimated location to other looting locations. "I would disagree with you normally, but it is a little... lighter than I would prefer it to be." She says, looking down into the sidecar where she, the duffel bags, other tools and weapons that were snuggled in along with her. They definitely had more space in the side car and in the duffel bags. "We could hit up one more place on the way back if you want." She says, looking back at the map.
"Well the last time I spent extra time looting I got yelled at by a certain woman when I came back late..." he begins to say before Clementine makes an annoyed sigh. "Well, I'm giving you permission, this time, to hit up another spot. I promise I won't yell at you this time, at least for this reason. And I have plenty of other things to yell at you about. Plus, I'm here with you. I'd rather you hit up another spot with someone than go off and fuck around by yourself."
"Oh really? Name one thing that I've done to have you feel the need to yell at me."
She turns to look at him, resting her arm on the sidecar and raises an eyebrow, flicking up her visor. "Just one?" She asks, smugly.
"Forget it then. Anyways, what's nearby then?" He asks, glancing to the side of the road where a green sign labeled Mile 23 came into view. "Twenty Three." He says.
Clem finds Mile 23 on the map and with the eraser end of the pencil and uses it to follow the road and into...
"Well, there's the RV Camp. Last time any of us went there was months back. If there's any propane there it would be nice to have for cooking and keeping warm. Although I imagine we'll have to fight for it considering the amount of Walkers the others saw back then, but maybe we're lucky this time around..." She says. "There's also... a small fishing store near the river a few more miles down the way. Spear fishing has been fine, but if we could find some better fish traps or even bait to entice the fish with..."
"Why not both?" Snake asks, a small smirk appearing on his face under the helmet before Clem jabs his side the eraser point of the pencil. "Don't even try. Pick one or I'm saying we are heading home." She says.
"Well, we just picked up some stuff to burn and well, we are surrounded by a forest. We can cut a tree down or two and be mostly set for warmth. Although our axes have seen better days... eh fuck it, let's hit this fishing place up." Snake decides on.
Clementine nods, closing the map and sticking it into her inner pocket of her leather jacket. "Mile seventeen, second right then."
With the destination set, Snake speeds up towards the fishing store. Clementine reaches down and takes off her wooden leg, which was a glorified wooden lamp leg with a flat piece of wood crudely duct taped and nailed to the bottom of the lamp leg, topped off with a plastic bowl that served as a place to rest her nub in with accompanying medical straps they found in the nurses office and rubs the end of her said nub after removing the cloth wrapped around it to protect it from excessive rubbing and chaffing. As crudely as it appeared however, it did help her mobility and cause her to rely less on the clutches, although that 'leg' had seen better days. Covered in scratch marks and dried blood, it's seen it's fair share of Walker kills, especially when the flat part breaks off which turns her leg into a glorified wooden spear. Wasn't intentional, but it did save her life a few times. More than she would like to have happened and admit.
He hears her groan to herself and glances down at her to see what was up with her this time. He looks back at the road and rubs the back of his neck. "I had been keeping an eye out for an actual prosthetic leg, something that would sit better and be actually designed for...that sort of thing. Apparently those are near impossible to come by. What's her face... Eleanor? I asked her if they had any lying about. I uh, imagine you know that answer considering you are still using that old thing." He says, a small blush creeping upon his face. Luckily for him the helmet was covering his face and therefore Clementine was oblivious to his emotion, although she likely could tell by the tone of his voice.
"I'll be fine, I just... it still feels like it's there." She says, wincing slightly as she rewrapped the cloths around the nub. "I know its my muscles and nerves acting up down there, but fuck it's annoying. I keep looking down there expecting to see it there, yet it never is or will be."
"Yeah, Eleanor said something about phantom limb syndrome, that the feeling might never go away. AJ told me about what happened to it or rather how it came to be. Sounded like you should be dead realistically." He says before very quickly adding, "Not saying that I want you dead, but just saying..."
She nods. "No I understand. An axe slashed down my leg followed by a Walker bite would do that to you." She says shaking her head, reattaching the wooden leg to her body. "I told him to kill me. Same thing that Lee... Lee had told..." she trails off before correcting herself: "asked me to do for him right before he turned." She looks away, a sad yet pained look on her face. "Yet, luckily for me I suppose, AJ didn't listen." She chuckles to herself. "Tell that boy to listen and he doesn't or tell him one thing and he does another. I wonder who he learned that behavior from. Surely not me." She says in a sarcastic, yet caring, tone.
"You gave him the tools to survive and he used what he learned from you to make his own decision. You might had been ready to... go." He says, tilting his head to the side before tilting it back the other way to face the road. "But AJ wasn't ready to allow that to happen. You must be proud of him regardless of how you raised him. They don't make guides on how to raise a child in a literal hellhole like we are living through. Especially a parent as young as you are and were."
Clementine nods as she raises her helmet visor, watching Snake with her brown eyes. "I am. His parents would be proud too. I think... Lee and Kenny would be as well. He doesn't remember Kenny at all, but without him and his determination to get us safe at the time to Wellington, who knows what and where we would've ended up at... or as."
"I'm assuming you aren't talking about the leg right?" He asks.
'Kenny' was the name she had given her wooden leg. She said it made sense in some sort of way. When he asked the first time around when she was discussing her past she said that despite how Kenny was at the time back in the day, under all the moody swings of emotions he had, he was still a good person under all that anger. This was her way of both remembering and thanking him for all he did.
"No, talking about human Kenny."
"What ever did happen to him? You said he left you at Wellington and left by himself."
"I don't know. Wellington wasn't taking in new people at the time and Kenny begged them to take us and not him. That was the last we ever saw of him. Considering he took the bag that they had offered, he's probably still out there with another group at peace with himself knowing we were safe. That's all he wanted was for us to be safe."
"Not taking in new people? Definitely hadn't heard that before." Snake says in a light sarcastic tone. He nods to himself though. Those types of stories usually ended like that: two people splitting up and never seeing each other again. He could relate... had one to many of those types of experiences.
"Eighteen." She says, catching the green sign on the side of the road.
Snake slows down a bit, glancing around to see any sort of Walker activity. Seeing none, he speeds up a little. They had said they would return back by sunset so he needed to keep a decent speed.
"Ever have someone like that?" Clementine suddenly asks after a few moments of silence.
"Huh? Someone like who?" He asks, looking down at her.
"Like Kenny? Someone who was a good person deep down, but was really...strong. Moody...angry about things, but always wanted to do what's best for everyone?"
"Starting to sound like you're talking about me." He says, lifting his visor to make eye contact with her. "Sorry for you that sort of flattery won't work on me."
She rolls her eyes and shakes her head, a smirk appearing. " You really must like being yelled at by me if this is the type of attitude you want to give me knowing damn well."
"Damn well what?" He asks.
"And this is why people think we're a...couple or something." She says, waving a hand in the air before looking in front of her.
Snake groans playfully and waves a hand dismissively, "I mean, I wouldn't-"
"Stop." She says, looking straight ahead.
Snake looks back in front and squeezes the brakes, gripping the handlebars tightly as the motorcycle lurches to a quick stop, turning slightly as he combats the force. Clementine grips the sidecar as she, also, combats the force of the sudden braking. Before the two of them was a lone deer, in the middle of the road. The deer, a buck, stares at them and in a stance that it was ready to run if they made any more noise. Clem reaches down into the sidecar and pulls out a hunting rifle, A Winchester Model 70 chambered in .308 Winchester with the backend of the rifle an axe head instead of it's standard stock. The stock was broken off when it was used to beat the head of a Walker in some time back and Snake figured that with enough wire, rope, a metal rod, and some duct tape he could attach the head of an axe to it. As crude as it looked, it worked. A small cloth covers the axe head portion so it doesn't actually cut into someone's arm had they need to fire it.
Clementine, as quietly as possible, aims down the scope at the deer, biting her lip as she relaxed her breathing. Snake glances back at her and then the deer, resting a hand on her shoulder. "You know where to aim?" He whispers. She nods. "Roughly."
He points to where he thinks the lungs are with his free hand. "Yeah, around that area. Although if you feel ballsy, you could go for the heart. Worst case you hit the head, but we should be close enough for the meat to still be good before the blood contaminants it." He says.
The deer watches them, eyes attentive. He could hear Clementine's breathing slowed as she locked in to where the deer's lungs were likely at, all the while adjusting for the wind and distance. A few more moments of silence then...
She fires and a moment later, the deer let's out a cry, falling over and attempting to get back up, but it struggles on the ground, withering in pain. Snake drives the motorcycle towards the deer as Clem chambers the next round, ejecting the spent round as she ran the bolt through.
The deer cries out and struggles to breathe on the ground as Snake get's off the vehicle and walks to the deer's neck, a large hunting knife in hand. He stabs the deer in the neck and after a few more moments, the deer laid dead before them. He pulls the knife out and slings the blood onto the asphalt, hitting the deer with the back end of the knife to make sure it was actually dead, as Clementine hobbles to the deer, having left her clutch behind in the sidecar. "Well, that takes care of our food issues for now." She says, proud of her actions.
"You really are a heartless little woman. How could you do that to this poor deer?" He asks sarcastically, putting his knife back into his holster.
"You say that, but don't act like I don't see your mouth watering for something other than rabbit stew and fish fillets. Fuck, I know I want some steaks right about now."
'True that.' Snake thinks to himself before looking back down at the dead deer. "Well, guess we won't be going to that fishing store. We don't want the meat to waste." He says. "Cook what we can for these next few meals and make jerky of the rest. Would be nice to have a stockpile of jerky for when it starts to really get cold."
Snake grabs the deer and with Clementine's help dragging the beast, set the deer into the sidecar. He hears the sidecar creak which worries him slightly, but they didn't have to much further to go. He can drive slowly and be back before not to long. "Well, get on behind me." He says, getting back on the motorcycle. Clementine follows, taking her new spot behind him. She places her hands initial on the side of the seat, but decides to rest them on his hips instead. She nods and once more they were off to return back to camp with the supplies looted prior and now fresh meat for the camp.
"You know, we put a pair goggles and a little handkerchief on that deer we could act like he's our little travel companion." He says, motioning his head towards the deer.
"A little too late and a bit morbid now to simply ask the deer to join us and follow us back to camp eh?" She replies.
"Nah just, just some old cartoon I used to watch featured a deer who traveled the world. Wore a pair of goggles and some different colored handkerchief for each episode. Educational show, we were poor and we didn't have cable until a year or so before everything went down. We used those old school rabbit ear antennas. You know what I'm saying? Those things you had to stretch out and move around to get a signal?"
"Yeah I do. We had a pair ourselves although that was in the spare guestroom I think. The main TV we had was cable...I think." She says, adjusting her posture as she leaned in to hear him better against the wind. "Think stuff is still playing on the TV despite how long it's been?"
"Doubt it. Even if there was, or could, it would just be infinite reruns of whatever that was loaded into the system for the day. They use, well the one I saw anyways, VHS for that sort of thing. I looted a broadcasting station so I kinda got a behind the scenes things of how it was done. Of course what was being played on the VHS was sent out to those broadcast towers and then that was how it was transmitted to the TV's that had access to it. The stations that were a bit behind in the times though." He rolls his eyes at himself. "Or you know, the electric grid being down and all being the simple answer." He says, shaking his head at both his nerdiness and his stupidity for simply not saying that to begin with. Clementine snickers and sighs softly. "You are an idiot." She said in an inoffensive tone.
They both fall silent for a bit as he turns off the main road to a side road. Not much further now until they turn into another set of roads that would lead to the school and back into relative safety behind the walls of the Ericson Boarding School.