Clementine tread carefully across the asphalt, her tomahawk gripped tightly in her hands. On her left were trees that obscured her view of the residential area beyond them, but she could still hear them; dozens—possibly hundreds of walkers—shuffling about in the distance, just waiting for something or someone to stumble a little too closely to them.

Clem turned her eyes back to the highway, carefully eyeing the occasional stalled or crashed vehicle sitting on the road and making a mental note how far apart they were from each other. The highway was relatively clear of obstructions, something Clem thought boded well for her as she did her best to ignore the distant moans of living corpses roaming about in the distance.

Following the exit away from the main highway, Clem picked up the pace as something of interest came into view. Sitting on the corner just past the edge of the road was a modest combination bar and grill. Moving up to the curb, Clem noticed the motel behind it and the few dozen walkers idling outside in its parking lot. A concerning sight, but one that was hopefully far enough away to avoid taking notice of her.

Approaching the small diner, Clem took great care when she pulled the door open, fearful more walkers were inside. She didn't see any corpses inside, moving or otherwise, but she could only see a small section of the building from the door. The girl removed her noise maker next and shook it in front of the door, taking care not to shake it too hard and alert the walkers in the motel parking lot.

No response from the restaurant, and none of the walkers in front of the motel seemed to hear Clem's noisemaker. The girl removed a doorstop from her pocket and wedged it under the front door. With the exit propped open, Clem took hold of her tomahawk and moved inside. She navigated past the tables, behind the main counter, and into the kitchen where she found the grill's pantry, which was still partially stocked.

Clem removed her backpack and eyed the canned vegetables left behind for a moment. She had limited options, but eventually settled on a can of corn. She tucked the can into her pack, then removed a small garbage bag from it. Clem opened the bag and started stacking cans inside. After placing about ten inside, she gave the bag a tug. It was heavy, but not too heavy for her to carry. Clem put two more cans in it then tied the bag off.

After putting her pack back on, Clem slowly and carefully toted the bag of canned goods outside, taking great care not to jostle them enough to make any noise. Walking past the door, Clementine approached the edge of the road and set the bag down. Relieved she wouldn't have to carry it any further, Clementine returned to the door, retrieved her doorstop and then headed back to the road.

Moving east along the road, Clementine eventually found herself passing by some modest suburbs, whose former residents were wandering about as walkers now. Despite the presence of her raincoat, Clem felt herself tensing up. Even if they couldn't smell her, she was still fearful a single mistake or miscalculation would bring the vicious corpses down upon her. But this many walkers in a small area also meant those houses almost certainly still had food left in them.

Stopping at an intersection, Clementine took a deep breath, and then proceeded into the suburban neighborhood. She moved to the nearest house, where she used her tomahawk to down and kill a walker standing on the lawn. Clem briefly evaluated her surroundings to make sure there weren't any other walkers lurking about, and then began a slow and thorough examination of the house.

Once Clem was sure there weren't any walkers waiting inside, she began searching for food. Tossing a house for anything edible was something she had grown accustomed to in the months she had lived in Spokeston. The fridge was often a waste, but she checked it out of habit. At the very least she could find bottled waters that were never opened. The cupboards were usually her best bet, often having at least a few canned goods stashed in the back, and maybe even some dried goods that hadn't been opened if she was lucky.

Going back outside, Clem saw signs of havoc everywhere she looked; bodies were lying in the street, crashed cars smeared with blood, former lawns turned into small fields littered with the abandoned possessions of their former owners. At the end of one street was an entire cul-de-sac of foundations topped with blackened and seared rubble, all likely former homes destroyed by a fire long ago.

Everywhere she went she found more walkers, the keepers of this neighborhood turned graveyard, whose constant presence slowed Clem's efforts. After three houses, Clem had collected a jar of cherries for her backpack and an assortment of forgotten canned goods for her next garbage bag. Somewhere around five houses, Clem found toting her haul of canned goods around painful, and decided that was enough for now. She returned to the main road, bagged all but the jar of cherries, and left the stash behind after neatly tying the bag off.

Not entirely satisfied with her finds so far, and with only a few small items in her backpack now, Clem headed deeper into town. She saw more houses, a church, and more walkers everywhere she looked. The scant few moving about weren't much concern, but hearing several more wandering about town tied a knot in Clementine's stomach. But it also meant there was little chance anyone living had been here for a long time, and even less of a chance they had taken everything.

As the sun continued to climb higher into the sky, Clem saw more signs of trouble. Long past the suburbs now, she found herself walking slower as the walkers became more common, sometimes even roaming about the road itself, which was becoming more cramped with wrecked cars parked in awkward positions. Clem did her best to steer away from the walkers, reasoning it wasn't worth exerting herself to kill them and risk making enough noise to attract more into the immediate area.

Not wanting to go any deeper into town than she already had, Clementine started looking for a target. There were plenty of gas stations, more small restaurants, and even a gun store, which she had a slight inkling to investigate. But then she spotted it, just ahead on the corner was a sign that read 'Food Mart' sitting in front of a humble old wood building. Hurrying towards it, Clem saw the windows were broken and the pavement was marred by huge smears of dried blood.

Pulling open the door, an electronic beep sounded, followed by a hurried shuffling from inside. Clem pulled the door wide open and watched as a pair of walkers stumbled outside. Their ragged clothing was marred with large gashes caked in dried blood. Through those gashes, Clem could see where their flesh had been ripped and shredded, presumably by other walkers before they died. Looking at the loose strains of now rotted muscle loosely wrapped around the exposed bone on one of the walker's legs, Clem was surprised they were still even walking at all.

Unsure what they were looking for, the walkers just remained standing in the threshold. Thinking the door felt very heavy, Clem knocked on the metal with her knuckles. The pair of corpses tried moving towards the knock and Clem let go of the door. It swung back, banging the first walker on the head and causing her to fall over, while the other tripped over the first, landing on the pavement as the door shut on them, wedging them in place in an awkward position. Clem removed the sheath from her tomahawk and quickly finished the pathetic pair. She then wiped the blood clean and sheathed her weapon.

Examining the door, Clem spotted a small electronic device attached to the bottom of it. She was surprised the batteries had lasted so long, but it had probably seen little use in recent days. Locating a switch, Clem shut the beeper off and wedged the door open. She pulled the walkers aside so nothing was blocking her way and stepped inside.

The shelves were a mess, likely wrecked from whatever fate befell the walkers she killed, but they were still stocked. Clementine felt herself at a loss; she hadn't seen a store with this much food since she left Spokeston. This store however was only a mere fraction of the size of the one they had depended on then, but looking out on the shelves loaded with goods, Clem realized something; she'd actually get to choose what she wanted to eat for her next meal.

The girl gleefully broke our her next garbage bag and started shopping for her favorites. Some canned fruit were amongst her first picks, but then she spotted some jars of peanut butter. One of those immediately went into her bag, then another into her backpack. A small bag of white rice seemed like a good find. Clem wasn't sure if pasta stayed good for a long time, but the thought of eating spaghetti again seemed too good to pass up. So did the boxes of powdered jello just past that. Spotting some packaged jerky at the end of the aisle, Clem pondered if it was still good.

Doing a quick check to make sure nothing had crept up on her, Clem removed her bayonet from its sheath and cut the packing opened. The dried meat inside looked edible, or at least as edible as jerky normally looked. Sheathing her blade, Clem tugged her respirator down. Sniffing the jerky, it didn't smell bad, so Clem took a small bite. It was very salty, but not bad. Clem put her respirator back on and tossed the open jerky in her backpack, then three more packages into the garbage bag.

Checking the back, Clem was disappointed there wasn't any more food to find, but just a dark and empty backroom with some cleaning supplies stacked up. But returning to the still stocked front helped to chase away that minor setback. Clementine tied off her bag full of food and dragged it back towards the door.

Moving out of the store, the girl found her eagerness at eating a good meal replaced with a creeping anxiety as she moved further out into the open. Spotting the occasional walker not far in the distance and constantly hearing more shuffling about in different directions made Clem anxious. She quickly set the bag by the edge of the road and then hurried away from the store.

Rushing up to the nearest intersection, Clem used her compass to locate north and hung a left. The girl tread carefully as she moved away from the center of town. There were more gas stations and restaurants sitting on the sides of the road, but now Clem just wanted to get home. It was getting overcast and rain looked like it was on its way. As she moved along, Clem kept making note of any abandoned cars she passed. Seeing a couple of stalled trucks on both sides of the road, Clem stopped long enough to eye how far apart they were before continuing.

Moving away from the center of town, Clem found herself easing back into a more relaxed stride. The fewer walkers she saw, the more she picked up the pace, eventually moving into a light jog as trees started to monopolize the sides of the road again. Eyeing the road signs at each intersection she passed, Clem eventually found a street name she recognized and hung another left into a heavily wooded area.

After several minutes of walking, Clem found herself passing by some familiar houses. She had personally checked them all for food and anything else they might have needed in the last couple of days. They had yielded some scraps, not unlike a lot of houses she had checked in places with few to no walkers, but nothing else. But with her discoveries from today, Clem thought that they could soon take a long earned break from hunting for scraps all the time.

Picking up the pace, Clementine hurried into an open park coming up on her right. It was a quaint and quiet little place with a fountain overlooking the grassy fields bordering the woods. Heading across the uncut lawn and towards a small clearing in the trees, Clem found a familiar RV tucked away in a thicket. And standing outside of it was and even more familiar face removing something from the Brave's storage compartment.

"Sarah." The older girl moved her hand to the gun on her hip upon hearing Clem's call, but immediately let go when she saw Clem alone was approaching.

"You're back," said Sarah. "I was about to call you on the radio, it's going to rain."

"Yeah, I noticed," said Clem. "Are you putting out the hose to collect rainwater?"

"Yeah." Sarah pulled a long black hose with a funnel attached to it from one of the Brave's many storage compartments. A simple contraption that had been in the RV when they had first acquired it.

"I'll help you out." Sarah handed Clem the funnel end of the hose and the younger girl carried it up the ladder. Crudely connected to the funnel were a couple of metal hooks that Clem used to attach the hose to the edge of the Brave. After making sure the funnel was positioned to catch water sliding off the roof, Clem climbed back down the ladder. Moving around the side of the RV, Clem could hear the sound of raindrops hitting the leaves around her.

"Just in time," said Sarah as she threaded the other end of the hose into a small round opening on the side of the RV. "I was really worried you'd get caught in the rain and get your lurker smell washed off."

"Nah. If it started raining I would have just gone into the nearest building and waited it out."

"So, how'd it go?" Sarah asked Clem as they stepped back into the Brave.

"Pretty good," said Clem as she set her backpack and tomahawk down.

"Muh-muh," called Omid as he leaned against the edge of his crib.

"Hey OJ," called Clementine in as sweet a voice as she could through a respirator.

"He keeps trying to walk, so I moved his crib in here so I could watch," explained Sarah as she helped Clem out of her raincoat. "So, do you think we can take the Brave down there?"

"We can go down the highway west of here, collect the bags I made for us, then take the road I just took back here to the park," explained Clem as she removed her respirator and gloves.

"Are there many cars in the way?" asked Sarah as she stowed Clem's tomahawk.

"Some, most of them are pretty far apart. There were a couple of trucks on the road back that were close together, but I think the Brave could squeeze past them without touching them," said Clem.

"What about lurkers?" asked Sarah.

"I saw some wandering around, especially in town."

"Only some?"

"Well…" Clem took a breath, noting the concern on Sarah's face. "I could hear them everywhere I went in town."

Sarah sighed and sat down at the dining table.

"It'll be okay," assured Clem as she set her backpack on the table. "We have a good plan."

"I guess," shrugged Sarah. "I'm just wondering if this is worth it." Clem unzipped her backpack. "Is… is that jerky?" asked Sarah as she removed the package.

"Yeah, and it's still pretty good," said Clem as she removed the peanut butter. "I bagged up three of them, and some spaghetti, jello, more canned fruits," explained Clem as she set out a jar of cherries. "And there's a lot more in the store I took it from."

"You found a store?" asked an excited Sarah. "Like a grocery store?"

"A little one, yeah," said Clem as she set out the corn.

"That's great!"

"I know. For a while I was worried we'd found another town with a gun shop and no grocery store, like Sumac. But Titusville has both."

"Titusville?" asked Sarah.

"It's the name of the town just south of us. I saw it on the addresses on someone's mail when I was searching houses earlier," explained Clem.

"Okay, so how big is the store then?"

"Well, it's not nearly as big as the store we had in Spokeston," admitted Clem. "And there was no food in back either, only in the front."

"I guess we're never going to find another department store with a bunch of food lying around in the back," sighed Sarah. "Except maybe in the really big cities."

"We couldn't even get into Jacksonville," reminded Clem. "All the roads leading into the center of town were full of cars. And that's not even like a famous city."

"I know, I know. It just sucks that we can't even try because things are so messed up," lamented Sarah. "If only we were bigger, or we had help."

"It'll be okay. Titusville isn't tiny like the other towns we tried before we came to Florida. It's got a store with lots of good stuff, and there are tons of houses, and some restaurants, and maybe even more stores I haven't found."

"But it's all surrounded by lurkers," reminded Sarah as she examined the jar of cherries.

"Yeah, but if we can do this, then we can keep getting stuff from around here for a while, and that means we can spend most of our time here, with OJ," said Clem. "And… with each other, like we used to."

Sarah smiled. "I'd love that." Sarah took a bite out of the jerky. "And this, is really good." Clem grabbed the peanut butter and unscrewed the lid. She pulled seal off, noticing there was a thin layer of moisture on top of the spread.

"Do you think this is good to eat?" asked Clem.

"Does it smell good?" asked Sarah as she struggled to open the cherry jar.

"Yeah, but there's like, something sitting on top."

Sarah sat down and looked at the peanut butter. "Oh, you just got to stir it when that happens." Sarah took a spoon and started churning the spread.

"How do you know that?" asked Clem.

"When I lived at Shaffer's, we had to do that sometimes, at least until we ran out of peanut butter," said Sarah. "Man, I used to eat so much of it, I was actually sad when we ran out."

"I used to eat it a lot too when I first started staying with Lee, back in Macon," said Clem. "I was sad when we ran out too."

Sarah finished stirring and scooped out a big spoonful of peanut butter. "Do you want to try it first or should I?"

Clem looked at the big lump of peanut butter and thought the answer was obvious. "I want to try it." Sarah handed the spoon to Clem, who licked a dab of peanut butter off it.

"Well?" Clem answered Sarah by sticking the spoon in her mouth. "I guess that means it's still good." Clem nodded as she licked and smacked her lips, trying to swallow all the sticky goodness. "I'll get you some water."

"Iwis… wehud... sumilk," mumbled Clem through the peanut butter.

"What?" Clem took a swig from the water Sarah brought her.

"I wish we had some milk," said Clem.

"Maybe we can find some powdered milk," suggested Sarah.

"Bah-bah," said Omid as he eyed the girls.

"You want some peanut butter OJ?" said Clem as she spooned more out of the jar.

"Don't give him that," said Sarah.

"Why not?"

"He might have a peanut allergy."

"Oh." Clem set the spoon down. "So, how do we find out if he does?"

Sarah thought to herself for a moment, then moved the jar closer. She dipped her finger in it, causing a small dab of peanut butter to stick to her fingertip. "We'll give him a tiny bit and see if anything happens." Sarah knelt down to look Omid in the eyes. "You want to try something new Omid?"

"Bah-bah!" Sarah held out her finger, which Omid examined briefly before sticking it into his mouth.

"He definitely seems to like it," noted Sarah as Omid continued to try to eat Sarah's finger. "Ow." Sarah pulled her hand back. "He bit me."

"Bah-bah," demanded Omid.

"So I guess he's not allergic," concluded Clem.

"We really don't know that yet," said Sarah as she took her seat. "It might upset his stomach or something. We should probably wait, and if nothing happens today, we can give him a little more tomorrow."

"Bah-bah," repeated Omid.

"I think he's still hungry though."

"Well." Sarah examined the cherries Clem set out. "There were cherries in that mixed fruit he tried, so these should be okay." Sarah grabbed the jar lid and struggled to twist it off. "Ugh."

"I'll hold it in place so you can use both hands." Clementine grabbed the jar and Sarah gripped the lid. Clem braced herself as she felt Sarah pulling with all her might. Clem almost felt like the older girl was going to rip the jar from her grasp because she was twisting so hard, but then a sudden pop sounded and the lid moved.

"Finally," said Sarah as Clem set the jar down. "Do jarred cherries stay good for a long time?"

"I don't know." Clem sniffed the open jar. "It smells okay."

"Do you think canned and jarred stuff ever goes bad?" asked Sarah.

"I don't know." Clem pulled a cherry from the sticky substance that filled the jar and popped it in her mouth. "It tastes good."

"Yeah, but does it taste as good as cherries from before?" asked Sarah.

"I don't know," said Clem as she chewed the cherry. "I didn't really eat cherries back then."

"I did." Sarah took a cherry from the jar and put it in her mouth. "And this isn't bad, but it's not as sweet as the cherries I remember from before."

"But, they're still good, right?"

"Yeah, I'm just worried one day even the canned and jarred stuff won't be good anymore." Clem hadn't thought of that, but looking at Sarah, it was clear from her face the older girl had been pondering this possibility. "It'll probably take years for that to happen, maybe even decades."

"Yeah, definitely," said Clem. "Right now, it's good."

"I'll smoosh one up for Omid," said Sarah as she picked up a spoon.

"Who's hungry?" teased Clem as she collected the boy from his crib and set him on her lap.

"Bah-muh-boo," babbled Omid.

"That's right, you are."

"Boo-moo."

"Here comes the airplane," announced Sarah as she maneuvered the spoon towards the excitable infant.

"Bah-bah!" exclaimed Omid before Sarah slipped the spoon into his mouth. Omid chewed the soft mush as well as he could with only four teeth, swallowed it, then giggled happily.

"We should probably set the fruit aside in the future, so we've always got enough to keep feeding Omid," said Sarah as she scooped another cherry out for the boy. "If we're ever going to wean him, we'll need a steady supply of foods he likes."

"If the peanut butter doesn't hurt him, we could keep some of that around too," said Clem as Sarah mashed another cherry into a fine mush.

"Yeah, and we should keep trying different foods to find out which ones he'll eat," said Sarah as she fed Omid another mashed up cherry, much to his delight. "But only one new food at a time, in case he's allergic to anything." Sarah scooped another cherry out of the jar.

"Sarah, hold on," said Clem before the older girl could feed the boy again.

"What? Do you think we shouldn't be feeding him cherries?" asked Sarah. "I mean, the mixed fruit we found in Sumac said it had—"

"I just want you to save some for me," said Clem. "I'm hungry too."

Sarah smiled, then aimed her spoon a little higher. "Open wide." Clem opened her mouth and found a spoonful of mashed cherry being delivered into it right afterwards, much to her own delight.

The girls and their boy enjoyed their meal. Finishing the jerky, corn and cherries with pleasure, the girls then treated themselves to a spoonful of peanut butter each as a dessert. As the rain set in, the soothing sound of water pattering on the roof of the Brave seemed to lull Omid to sleep as Sarah settled him back in his crib.

"Well, I guess we won't be getting the bundles you left out for us today," concluded Sarah as she watched the rain through the Brave's windshield.

"Yeah, it'd be too risky today," said Clem. "And I'm kind of tired."

"We'll get an early start tomorrow if the weather is right." Sarah pulled the windshield's curtains closed. "Guess we'll just take it easy today."

"I was thinking I could practice with the sharpening stones some more," suggested Clem. "I want to make sure my tomahawk and knife are ready for tomorrow."

"I was going to read some more from that medical textbook," said Sarah as she moved towards a cabinet. "A lot of the stuff in it is really interesting." As Sarah retrieved her book, Clementine noticed something lying on the counter.

"Actually," said Clem. "Do you feel like playing a game of chess first?"

"Chess?" repeated Sarah. "We haven't played that in forever."

"Yeah, that's why we should play." Clem smirked at Sarah, who started grinning in response.

"This is going to be so much fun." Sarah put her book away and eagerly collected their travel chessboard. She set it on the dining room table and, with great haste, arranged the pieces. Clem sat down in front of the row of white pieces and tried to devise her first move. After some thought, she decided to play it safe and moved her queen's pawn ahead two spaces, then awaited Sarah's response.

"You said we're in Central Florida, right?" asked Clem as she watched the rain through the window.

"Yeah, you said we should find somewhere with a lot of lurkers, so I figured sticking with the coast was a good bet once we got out of Georgia," answered Sarah as she eyed the board.

"Do you think it'd be warmer if we went further south?"

"I don't know, maybe a little," shrugged Sarah. "I think the weather here is really nice though. I mean, it's not even that cold. You wouldn't even think it was late November."

"I wasn't thinking about November. I was thinking, if it's really hot in the summer, and it rained, and the water was still warm, we could finally have a hot bath again."

"Yeah, but it'd be in the summer, when you'd want to cool off."

"Yeah, that's true," said Clem as she turned away from the window. "If only we knew how to get propane for the hot water heater."

"We could maybe try to get some," suggested Sarah. "I'm just worried if we did it wrong we'd blow up the RV or something."

"Could that happen?"

"I'm not sure, I really don't know anything about propane other than what's mentioned in the Brave's manual, which isn't much other than it's dangerous if you don't handle it right." Sarah moved her king's knight forward, a move Clem wasn't anticipating.

"How long until you think Omid is weaned?" asked Clem as she considered her next move.

"I don't know. The book I read said you can start weaning a baby after six months, but how long it takes just depends on the baby."

"What happens if we don't wean him?" pondered Clem. "I mean, is it bad if he keeps drinking baby formula?"

"I don't think so, I just think it's important he gets used to eating other foods eventually."

"But why? What's wrong with the formula?"

"I don't think there's anything wrong with it, it's just as you get older you need other stuff too," said Sarah. "I mean, you wouldn't want to drink milk every day for every meal would you?"

"Not unless that was all we had." Clem moved the pawn in front of her king's bishop forward one space, strengthening her presence on the center of the board and preempting a possible aggressive maneuver from Sarah's knight.

"Exactly." Sarah moved the pawn in front of the knight's empty space forward one space, further confusing Clem. "We probably should have saved some of that stuff you brought back today."

"We still got a lot of peanut butter."

"Yeah, but eating all that other stuff, just for one meal, when it was all you brought back, that was kind of wasteful."

"I got a lot more just waiting for us," assured Clem.

"But we don't have it yet."

"We will," said Clem. "And besides, this is going to be our Thanksgiving, remember? We'll get all the stuff I left out tomorrow, then we're going to have a really big meal with Omid to celebrate, even bigger than today."

"Today was pretty great."

"And we'll keep eating like that after Thanksgiving, because there's plenty of stuff to take from this town."

"Yeah, and plenty of lurkers too,"

"And we've got a plan to get past them." Clem noticed the pawn Sarah had moved would allow her bishop to be moved next. Clem countered by moving her king's pawn one space to block a possible attack next turn while further strengthening her presence on the center of the board. "I mean, you were the one who said you were tired of just doing pretty good. Here's our chance to do great and stock up enough to eat where we'd only need to go out like once a week."

"I know, I know. It's… I'll just feel better once we've actually done it," said Sarah as she moved her king's bishop like Clem suspected, but only a single space behind the pawn she had moved. Clem didn't understand this choice since the bishop was blocked by Sarah's knight now and could have gone one more space to have better access to the rest of the board. "Right now, you're talking like we know this is going to work."

"It worked pretty well in Sumac when we tried this," said Clem. "I just got out, put the bag in, and we left."

"Most of the lurkers there were pretty far apart, if there were any at all when I would stop the Brave," reminded Sarah. "You make it sound like they're all over the place we're going tomorrow."

"Well, yeah, there's more of them, and I'll probably need to be quicker," conceded Clem as she moved the pawn in front of her queen's bishop a single space forward. Looking at her pieces, Clem felt a surge of confidence as she realized she had almost total control of the center of the board right now and her king's bishop was free to advance next turn. "But I'll have my raincoat, I'll be fast, and if things look really bad we'll just keep moving. One way or the other, we'll be okay."

"I hope so. But it makes me nervous, driving into a town with even more lurkers. If anything went wrong…"

Clem grimaced as she noted the reservation on Sarah's face. "Sarah, do… do you ever wish you were with someone else?"

"What?"

"You know, do you ever wish there was someone else here, instead of me?"

"What? No."

"Really? You wouldn't want to be with someone older or—"

"No." Clem looked up, surprised by the certainty in Sarah's voice. "I'm alive because of you. I'm happy with you. Clem, you're… you're one of the best things to ever happen to me. You and Omid."

"Thanks… thanks Sarah," said a bashful Clem.

"Do you ever wish you were with someone else?" asked Sarah.

"Never," said Clem. "The only thing I wish is everyone who's… gone, could be here with us. But as long as I have you and Omid, I feel like it'll be okay." Sarah smiled, which made Clementine smile.

"It's your move," reminded Clem as she examined the board. The younger girl's pawns were out in front helping to maintain control of the center while Sarah had only moved pieces on her king's side, seemingly boxing in her own bishop for no reason. "I think not playing for so long has made you rusty."

Sarah shot Clementine a wicked smile that almost instantly deflated the younger girl's confidence. She watched as Sarah took hold of her king and its rook at the same time and moved them both, placing her king behind the bishop and the rook to the King's right.

"Hey!" protested Clem. "You can't do that."

"Sure I can, it's called castling, remember?" said Sarah. "I explained this to you. If you haven't moved your king or rook all game and there's nothing in-between them, you can move the king towards where the rook was and move the rook to the king's other side."

"But…" Clementine thought to herself for a moment, then sighed. Thinking about it now, Clem could recall when Sarah had explained castling to her, only for Clem to think it didn't sound that helpful. But looking at the board, she realized why she shouldn't have been so quick to dismiss it. Clem saw Sarah's king was now safely tucked away near the corner. There was a rook on its right, a bishop covering the diagonal points of attack, pawns covering the bishop's flanks, and a knight ready to move forward with the rest of it comrades to fight for its now well safeguarded king.

"You said didn't want me to go easy on you," reminded Sarah.

Clem frowned, seeing she had a much greater challenge ahead of her then she had anticipated.