Patty readied her shotgun and Clementine removed her tomahawk from her shoulder as the pair crept closer to the front of the church. Even from across the street, Clem could clearly see the half-dozen mangy corpses pounding fruitlessly on a pair of elegant white double doors. The walkers didn't seem to be making any progress getting inside, but Clem didn't want to even give them the chance.

"So now what?" whispered Patty. "Shooting them might just bring more walkers to this place, so what's the plan?"

"We make some noise, without guns, and then kill them when they come over this way."

"You make it sound so easy," quipped Patty.

"With the raincoats it is," said Clem. "You just aim for the ankle, back away, and keep doing it until they're all on the ground, then finish them off."

"All right, well let me find something to use as a club," said Patty as she looked around. "My bat's back on the bike."

"Here, use my tomahawk." Clem passed the weapon to the woman.

"What'll you use?" Clem drew her bayonet from its sheath. "That seems a little short for this." Patty looked at the tomahawk in her hands. "And this thing is actually kind of short for someone my size."

"As long as we have the raincoats on, you could bump into them and they wouldn't attack you."

"You're sure of that?"

"I've done it."

"You… ran into walkers… just to see if they'd attack you?"

"No, they ran into me," corrected Clem. "As long you smell like them, don't make any noise, and they don't smell any fresh blood, they'll just think you're one of them."

"It's scary how much you know about these things," said Patty. "Speaking of which, how do you want to distract them?"

Clem thought to herself for a moment, then took off her backpack. She removed her canteen and drank as much water as she could from it before stopping to take a deep breath. "Here, drink this."

"I've got my own you know," said Patty.

"Yeah, but we need to empty this one."

"I'm just gonna go along with this because I know you're about to do something really clever." Patty pulled her respirator down and chugged the remaining water. "Okay, empty; now what?"

"Now, we make some noise." Clementine pulled her pistol.

"I thought we agreed we wanted to do this without guns."

"It's not the gun I need." Clem removed the pistol's magazine and used her thumb to push bullets out of it and into her hand. "Here, give me the canteen." Patty handed the empty container back and Clem deposited the bullets inside. She then screwed the lid on tight and put her magazine back in the pistol.

"Still not quite sure where you're going with this," said Patty.

"It's called a noisemaker," said Clem as she approached the front of the church. "The place Sarah used to live taught us how to use these to draw walkers out of buildings. I haven't used them much lately since the raincoat makes it easy to get close and I can just knock on things with my tomahawk. But right now we can use it to get them away from the door." Clem held up her canteen. "You ready?"

"Yeah," said Patty as she removed the tomahawk's sheath. "I think so."

"All right, here we go." Clementine started shaking the canteen as hard as she could, causing the bullets to rattle around inside against the walls of the container and each other. The walkers initially didn't respond to the noise, so Clem moved up a few steps and started shaking the canteen harder, making an even louder racket. The walkers stopped banging on the door and slowly turned around, revealing their rotted faces to the pair.

"Here they come," said Clem as she backed down the stairs, rattling her canteen every step of the way. As the walkers came shambling down the steps, Clementine gave the container a couple of final and forceful shakes before tossing it aside, causing it to loudly skip across the asphalt. Some of the walkers chased after it, others just stumbled about in place, confused by what was happening.

Clem nodded at Patty and then moved towards the walker closest to the canteen. It actually dropped to its knees to recover it, putting its head in the perfect position for Clem to attack. She gripped the bayonet tightly with both hands and brought it down hard into the back of the walker's rotten skull. The blade cut clean through and Clem immediately pulled the knife free before backing up several steps.

Looking aside, Clementine spotted Patty slicing a walker's calf with the tomahawk with ease. Another walker then stumbled closer to where the canteen was and Clem sliced its ankle with the bayonet, sending it toppling onto its side. The girl left that corpse to flail about on the pavement while she headed right to the next to one, slashing its tendons with a quick swipe of her knife.

Looking for another target, Clem saw Patty topple the only walker still standing. Without a word, the pair headed for the pathetic cadavers trying to crawl along on the ground and proceeded to end them quickly and quietly with some well-placed stabs to the back of the head. In seconds, the walkers were dead, and looking over at Patty, Clem saw the woman seemed shocked that it was already over.

"That… that was really easy," realized Patty.

"They don't learn, and they're not fast, so tripping them works really well," said Clem as she used a walker's shirt to clean the blood off her bayonet. "And if they can't smell you, then you don't have to worry about them biting you." Clem sheathed her bayonet and picked up her canteen. "Although, the noisemaker didn't work as well as I thought. I guess it was hard for them to hear it over them banging on the door."

"You should get a metal canteen," suggested Patty as she cleaned off the tomahawk. "Put some bullets in that and it'll make a helluva racket."

"That's a good idea," said Clem as she unscrewed her canteen.

"Still, we just beat six of them with some loud junk, a couple of small sharp weapons, and some rain slickers coated in their guts," observed Patty as she knelt down to examine a walker. "It seems kind of crazy we've been losing to these things for so long."

"It's not just the walkers who make things bad," said Clem as she opened her canteen. "There are people out there who kill other people too," said the girl as she removed the bullets from the canteen. "Sometimes… not even on purpose."

"That's true, I guess I'm giving these things too much credit," said Patty. "We've been fucking things up as a people for a long time, the walkers just made it a lot easier."

"The walkers also made it harder for good people to do things," said Clem as she removed her pistol's magazine. "When it first happened, no one knew walkers weren't people anymore, and when you saw someone you care about turn into one, your first instinct wasn't to shoot them," said Clem as she loaded bullets back into her gun's magazine. "It was to help them."

"I guess I lucked up then. I had been on my own for a while when all this shit started."

"I'm lucky people took care of me, and figured out to fight walkers, and taught me things I needed to know," said Clem as she loaded the magazine back into her gun. "It's the only reason I'm still alive." Clem holstered her pistol and took a breath. Looking over, she saw Patty was knelt over one of the dead walkers, studying it closely. "What's wrong?"

"Nothing. Just making sure none of these guys ended up the way they did because someone did some sick shit to them, like that woman." Clem examined the corpses, discovering two of them were women and the other four were men. All of their skin appeared rotted and old and their clothes were faded and had tears in them, probably caused by other walkers' teeth. Even be walker standards, they all looked to be in poor shape, likely worn down by the weather over time.

"Thanks for the loaner," said Patty as she handed Clementine's tomahawk back to her. "Even for being a little on the short side, it got the job done."

"Sarah has a machete she uses when she goes out. It's pretty long and has this thing that lets you wear it on your back," said Clem as she tossed her weapon over her shoulder. "She'd probably let you use it since you're the one always going out now."

"I think I'll take her up on that. I've mostly been avoiding these things since you clued me into how to slip past them, but I didn't realize what easy targets that really made them." Patty looked up at the front of the church, now clear of walkers. "Well, good deed done. Let's go home."

"We should check to make sure they're okay."

"Come on Clem, we cleared the walkers out, isn't that enough for one day?" asked Patty. "I mean, you did that for me and it worked out."

"Only because you stayed and kept helping me and Sarah afterwards," said Clem. "Things would have been a lot worse for us if you hadn't of done that." Patty sighed at Clem. "And they probably know we're out here by now anyway."

"All right…" spoke a reluctant Patty as she drew her shotgun. "But let's be smart about this."

"I will." Clementine drew her gun and watched the streets while Patty approached the front of the church.

"Is there anybody in there?" asked Patty as she knocked on the door. "If there is, we're just here to help."

Clem kept watching the streets, in case whoever was inside had friends who had decided to use this opportunity to sneak up on them. But the streets were clear, and there was no answer from inside the church.

"This door feels like it's blocked from the other side," said Patty as she tried the knob. "That would explain how it was keeping the walkers out. But how was anyone getting in or out?"

"Up there." Clem pointed to a trio of small windows mounted over the door. The ones on the right and left had been boarded up, but the center window had been busted out.

"And here's how they were getting up to it." Patty grabbed a ladder lying in the corner and dragged it to the window. "The walkers probably knocked it over when they tried to get in." Standing the ladder up, Clem noticed red spots on some of the steps.

"Is that blood?" Clem pointed to a small spot on the bottom step.

Patty sniffed the splotch. "It smells like blood." The woman touched the mark, which left traces of red on her fingertip. "And it's fresh."

"Someone is in there," realized Clem.

"And they're hurt." Patty put her respirator back on and started climbing the ladder. "We're coming up," announced the woman. "Don't shoot, we just want to help." Patty stopped at the top of the ladder and Clem watched as the woman briefly poked her head past the window before ducking out of sight.

"What did you see?" asked Clem.

"Not much," said Patty. "Just a dusty old church inside." Patty leaned past the edge of the window. "It doesn't look like anyone has been in here in a while. Maybe the walkers got them before they could get inside the church."

"All the walkers we killed looked really old, and you just said the blood is fresh," reminded Clem.

"Maybe they tried to get in but couldn't, and ran off somewhere else?"

"I don't see any blood anywhere else, and if they ran off, wouldn't the walkers have chased them instead of trying to get inside?"

"All right, enough guessing, I'm going in." Clem watched anxiously as Patty crawled through the window. The girl quickly checked the street again but found herself immediately drawn back to the ladder, desperate to hear anything from Patty.

"Are… are you okay?" called Clem, unable to wait any longer.

"Yeah, I'm fine," called Patty. "It's good for you to come on in."

Clem holstered her pistol and quickly climbed up the ladder. Reaching the window, she peered inside to discover there was another ladder waiting for her inside. Crawling through the opening and onto the top of the next ladder was tricky, but with some careful maneuvering, Clem found her footing and climbed down to the floor.

"Watch your step," informed Patty as she pointed to an overturned nail bucket sitting on a large piece of plywood next to the ladder. "I guess they boarded this place up every time they went in and out, which from the looks of things, was a while ago."

The floor was coated with a thick layer of dust and had a musty smell strong enough to make Clem put her respirator back on. The only light coming in were from a couple of thin stained glass windows in the back, projecting dim images of some forgotten saints over the empty pews in the front row. Looking at the doors, Clem saw they had been completely covered by thick boards nailed right into the wall.

"Stay sharp," warned Patty as Clem turned around. "Whoever came in here can't be far." Patty pointed her shotgun down at a series of small red splotches leading up to the altar. "And if they bled out, they may be a walker already."

Clem drew her gun and followed Patty as she marched forward through the aisle. It was eerie how quiet it was; so quiet the pair's soft footsteps sounded loud in contrast with the dead silence hanging over the area. Looking down, Clem noticed the blood stains were incredibly small; so small she wondered what kind of injury produced such a consistent yet insignificant loss of blood.

"Hey, can anyone hear me?" called Patty. "We just want to make sure you're okay." Clem followed Patty past the altar and towards an open door tucked away in the back. Inching closer to the woman, Clem spotted more bloodstains leading to door Patty was approaching. "If you want us to leave just say so and we're gone." The woman's proposition was followed by complete silence. "All right Clem, stay here and watch my back, I'll go check inside."

"Okay." Patty readied her shotgun and slowly moved into the next room. Turning around, Clementine found nothing but an empty church laid out behind her. She kept searching for any sign of recent habitation; leftover cans, old clothes, misplaced furniture. But there was nothing, and looking down, Clem found only Patty and her own footprints in the dust.

Kneeling down to search the ground more thoroughly, she could still only see the outline of her shoes and Patty's boots in the dust covering the wood flooring, but there was no sign of the feet of whoever was bleeding. Further confused, the girl honed in on the nearest bloodstain, reasoning whatever made it must have also left some kind of track behind as well. Leaning in close, Clem could see a small and very faint imprint in the dust, but it wasn't in the shape of a foot.

"Holy shit!" A high-pitched screech followed by a deafening blast sent Clem's heart racing almost as fast as her feet started moving. She burst through the open door just in time to see Patty cocking her shotgun.

"What happened?"

"That happened!" Patty gestured to the end of the room. Standing on a desk in the very back was a bright red fox, growling softly and baring its fangs. "I was just looking around and this fucker jumped out at me! You're lucky I hit the wall and not you with that shot you little bastard!"

"I think that's who we've been looking for, actually," said Clem.

"What?"

"I checked one of the bloodstains in the other room, and I saw a paw print in the dust," informed Clem as she lowered her gun.

"Seriously?" Clem nodded. "We went through all this hassle for a damn fox?" The fox barked at the pair, which sounded more like a monkey hollering than a dog barking. "Well it clearly wants us to leave, so let's get out of here."

Patty marched out of the room, but Clem's curiosity wasn't quite satisfied. Looking down at the ground she saw another couple of small blood spots leading past the side of the desk. Examining the fox itself, she didn't see any signs of injury or any blood on the desk itself.

"Hey." Clem felt Patty tugging on her arm. "Come on."

"Not yet," insisted Clem as she pulled free from Patty. "Something's not right. This fox isn't bleeding."

"So?"

"So, where was the blood coming from?" asked Clem. "We should try to figure out what was bleeding."

"Why?"

"Something else might be hurt."

"Well I'm pretty sure this guy isn't going to let us just look around." The fox barked, as if to confirm Patty's presumption. "So what do you propose?"

"You still have some of that jerky?"

"What? You want to feed this thing?"

"Just a tiny bit so it'll calm down." Patty just stared defiantly at Clem. "You said you didn't even like it."

"I also said it tastes better than a lot of our alternatives nowadays."

"Come on, I just need a tiny piece."

"Ugh, fine." Patty took off her backpack and retrieved a half-open pack of jerky. "But only a tiny piece."

"Okay." Clem took off her glove and used her fingernails to tear off a small hunk of meat from the rest of the stick. "Now," said Clem as she approached the fox. "Are you hungry? Do you—" The fox barked loudly as Clem inched closer, prompting her to jump back.

"Clem, it just wants us to leave," insisted Patty. "It wants us to leave more than it wants food, that should tell you something."

Clem thought on what Patty said, and it did tell her something. "We need to take off our raincoats," said Clem as she pocketed the piece of jerky.

"What?"

"We smell like walkers, so it probably thinks we're walkers," explained Clem as she removed her backpack and raincoat. "Take it off."

"Ugh…" Patty took off her raincoat and tossed it out of the room along with Clem's coat.

"Okay now." Clem removed the jerky from her pocket. "Are you hungry? Do you want something to eat?" Clem stretched out her hand towards the fox, careful not to move within biting range of the animal. It was still growling, but not as loudly as before. "It's okay. We don't smell bad now, there's nothing to be afraid of."

Moving the jerky a little closer, the fox finally stopped growling and inched forward on the desk to sniff the treat. Taking a step backwards, Clem watched the fox tried to move forward only to find it had no desk left beneath it. Clem pulled the jerky back, then tossed it to her left. The fox followed the flying piece of meat with its eye, then looked back at the girl.

"Go on." The fox eyed the meat again, then Clem, then hopped onto the ground and hurried over to the small morsel while Clem quietly moved past the right side of the desk. Looking underneath, she was immediately greeted by a frightened pair of eyes staring up at her. A second fox was nestled under the desk lying on its side. It looked like the first fox, except this one appeared frightened and its stomach looked slightly swollen.

"What's wrong with it?" asked Clem.

"I… I think she's pregnant," suggested Patty.

"Really?"

"Yeah, check it out." Patty pointed to a half eaten mouse carcass lying next to the fox. "The one yelling at us must be the papa fox. He must have dragged this bleeding rat back for the mama fox, and the walkers followed him and now—"

The papa fox started barking its high-pitched bark again as it quickly placed itself between the mama fox and the two humans examining it. Clem and Patty moved away from the desk and the papa fox stopped barking.

"And now he wants us to leave," concluded Patty. "And seeing as the only food left here are rats, and these two have already staked a claim in them, I think it's time we head home."

"Wait," said Clem. "You should give them your jerky."

"Why?"

"So we know the mom will get enough to eat, and the dad won't have to go out again today and risk getting eaten."

"Oh come on Clem, they look like they're doing okay," insisted Patty.

"It's just one piece. Please? For me?" Clem batted her eyes at Patty, desperate to sway the woman's heart.

"You know…" said Patty as she fumbled with her pocket. "One day, you're going to be too old to do the puppy eyes thing."

"But not today," realized Clem.

"No, not today." Patty retrieved what remained of the shriveled stick of dried meat and sighed. "Here, have a meal on me." Patty tossed the jerky at the papa fox, who sniffed it briefly before picking it up with his teeth. Clem watched as he carried it over to the mama fox and the pair started chewing on it together. Even though they were foxes, seeing the couple share a meal was heartwarming for Clementine and made this ghost town feel a little less empty.

"All right, watching them eat is making me hungry, and got nothing left to snack on," said Patty. "Let's go home." The pair headed back through town and reached the motorcycle sometime past noon. After another frustrating experience trying to start the bike, the pair zoomed back down the road and returned to the motel.

"Well, that was a bust," said Patty as shut off her motorcycle.

"It wasn't so bad," said Clem as she climbed off the seat. "We got to see those foxes, and that lake was really beautiful."

"Forgive me if I don't share your enthusiasm about foxes and lakes," quipped Patty as she removed her helmet. "But you were definitely right about one thing."

"About what?" asked Clem as she took off her own helmet.

"About not leaving someone to die." Looking up at Patty, Clem was surprised to see the woman appeared upset now. "I can't believe I jumped right to saying we should just go."

"It's okay," assured Clem.

"No, it's really not," insisted Patty in a quiet voice. "I don't know when I got so used to people dying that I could just choose to ditch somebody without a second thought."

"Well, I don't think you're the only person to do that," comforted Clem. "So many people have died by now, it just doesn't seem like a big deal anymore when it happens."

"That's the problem, it is a big deal," said Patty. "It's becoming obvious to me that humans are an endangered species now."

"What do you mean?" asked Clem.

"Well, on the ride back, I was thinking, what if we all just left people to die? If everyone did that, then there won't be any people at all before long, and then… that's it, for everything. We'll all just be gone, and the only thing left of people will be walkers wandering around, trying to eat animals."

Clem found Patty's conclusion disturbing. She had always worried about what fate may befall her, Sarah and Omid, but she had never thought about what could happen to people as a whole. Everywhere they went, they found only signs of people long gone, either in the form of empty ghost towns, or ones only populated by walkers long since left to slowly rot away. Thinking about it now, Clem realized she was probably excited to see those foxes today just because it was good to see something was still alive.

"Thanks for stopping me from making a mistake," professed Patty.

"You're welcome," shrugged Clem. "But really, I just didn't want anyone else to die."

"Yeah, well, that makes two of us now," said Patty with a smirk. "But I wanted to ask you, what would we have done if there had been someone in that church?"

"What do you mean?" asked Clem.

"I mean, would we have just told them 'You're welcome for the rescue, bye?' What if they wanted to come with us? Do we just tell them no? What if they wanted us to come with them because they know somewhere safe? Would we want to risk checking that out?"

"I… um… don't know," said Clem.

"I doubt Valkaria was the last place on Earth that still has living people left in it; sooner or later, we're going to run into someone, and we should figure out what we're going to do when that finally happens."

"You're… you're right," realized Clem. "What should we do?"

"I'm not sure yet, but we should work that out tonight before we get back on the road tomorrow," said Patty as she collected the pair's raincoats from the bike's trailer. "For now, I just want to lie down for awhile. Mind if I borrow your shower?"

"Go ahead."

"Great. After a long day of running around, I could use a pick-me-up."

Hearing Patty say that caused Clementine to remember something vital that she nearly forgot. As the woman headed for the Brave, Clem slyly took a few steps backwards. As soon as she saw Patty knock on the RV's door, Clem quickly darted around the corner of the office and over to the other side of the motel. She raced down the parking lot, skidding to a sudden stop as she spotted the room number she was looking for.

Clementine pushed past the door and found her sack still sitting where she left it. After opening it just enough to see its contents were undisturbed, she hoisted the bag over her shoulder and started hurrying back the way she came. She ran as fast as her legs could carry her, bursting with anticipation as she rounded the corner of the office. She was moving so fast she almost didn't stop in time to avoid crashing right into Patty as she crossed back to the other side of the motel.

"Whoa, where are you off to in such a hurry?" asked Patty as Clem skidded to a sudden stop. "And where'd you go just now? I turn around and… what's that you're carrying?"

A big grin quickly spread across Clem's face. "Come into the RV and I'll show you." Patty followed after the girl with the sack, curious to what she had planned for her. Stepping back into her humble home, Clem saw Sarah standing by the driver's seat and Omid walking past the couch to greet her.

"Muh-men," said the boy as he approached Clementine.

"Is everything okay?" asked Sarah.

"Clem has something to show us… apparently," said Patty as she locked the Brave's door behind her.

Clementine laid the sack on the ground and pulled it open to reveal its contents for everyone to see. "Merry Christmas!" the girl announced as she showed off a selection of boxes covered in colorful wrapping paper and topped with plastic bows.

"It's… it's Christmas?" asked a puzzled Patty.

"It's Christmas Eve actually," said Clem. "I wanted to put these out while everyone was sleeping tonight, so you'd find them in the morning, like Santa did it, but since we're gonna leave tomorrow I figured I should go ahead and do it right now."

"Clementine, that's so sweet," said Sarah as she knelt down and examined the gifts.

"I didn't even know it was Christmas," admitted Patty. "I hadn't even been thinking about it."

"I have, ever since we measured ourselves a few weeks ago," said Clem. "That was December fifth, so I just had to count each day after that until we got to twenty. Today was nineteen, so that means it's Christmas Eve."

"Puh-dah," babbled Omid as she started pawing at the nearest gift.

"Here." Clem slid a smaller box topped with an orange bow towards the boy. "This one is yours."

"Mah-bah," said Omid as he started tugging on the bow.

"And this one is for you Patty." Clem offered the woman a box wrapped in green and red paper.

"You got me a present?" asked Patty as she took the box.

"Of course," said Clem.

"What is it?"

"Open it and find out."

Patty tore off the wrapping paper and opened the box inside. "Huh." The woman pulled out a long red piece of fabric.

"It's a scarf," said Clem.

"Yeah, I see that," said Patty.

"Remember? You were cold and you said you wanted a scarf?"

"I remember complaining about it being cold and saying something about mittens," said Patty as she wrapped the garment around her neck. "I've been meaning to get some winter clothes, but anytime we're out there I always just think about getting back here."

"And I got you some gloves."

"Oh, so you did get me some mittens?" asked Patty as she checked the box again.

"Sorta." Patty removed a pair of leather gloves from her box. "I thought you'd like something cooler than just mittens."

"They're cool all right," said Patty as she put a glove on. "But are they gonna keep my hands warm?"

"The tag that was on them said they're for driving and you didn't have to worry about cold steering wheels when you wore them," said Clem.

"Well, they certainly feel good. How do I look?" Patty posed for the girls, placing her now gloved hands on her hips as her new scarf hung down in front of her leather jacket.

"You look great," said Clem.

"You're not just saying that because you picked these out, are you?" teased Patty.

"It really does look good," said Sarah. "The scarf goes well with your hair, and the gloves match your jacket."

"Here Sarah, this one is yours."

Clem handed Sarah a small blue package with gold ribbons tied around it. The older girl carefully untied the ribbons, then very slowly removed the wrapping paper, taking care not to rip it. Removing the wrapping, Sarah held out a blue book with an ornate gold trim. She flipped it over, looking for a title or description, but both sides were devoid of words, covered in only decorative images of stars and planets surrounding a symbol of the sun etched into the middle.

"There's nothing written here," noted Sarah as she cracked the book open.

"That's because it's a diary," said Clem. "You read everything so fast, I thought maybe you'd like a book to write-in instead. And I thought you'd like this one because it looked a little like your watch."

"It is really pretty," said Sarah as she admired the cover.

"And it's even got its own bookmark," said Clem as she pointed to a thin strip of blue fabric hanging from the top of the book's spine. "That way it's easy for you to keep track of where you leave off in your diary."

"I've never had a diary before though," said Sarah as she toyed with the strip of fabric before setting it between a couple of the pages. "What would I even write about?"

"Whatever you want," said Clem. "I picked you out a pen too. I tried a bunch of them and made sure to get one that writes really well."

Sarah found a matching blue pen clipped to the side of the diary. "Well, I guess I can try it. Maybe I'll like having a diary," said Sarah with a warm smile. "Thanks Clementine."

"Muh-men," babbled Omid as he continued to paw at his present. The paper had been torn to shreds and the bow ripped off, leaving nothing but a shoebox making a rattling sound as the boy shook it in his short arms.

"Here," said Clem as she removed the top of the box. "You'll find this easier to shake."

Omid pulled out a what looked like a giant green plastic spoon. The spoon end was enclosed with clear plastic that revealed a few small balls inside, while the handle was topped by a tiny pillow covered in colorful pattens. Omid shook the object in his hand, and the balls made a loud rattling sound, which the boy found incredibly amusing.

"Gah-bah!" celebrated Omid as he kept shaking his new toy.

"You got him a rattle," realized Sarah.

"Yeah, and he can chew on the soft end of it, instead of his elephant," said Clem. "I also got this." Clem removed an unwrapped box with a picture of what looked like walkie talkies on it. "This isn't a present, I just figured we could use it."

"Baby monitor?" read Sarah off the box.

"When I was looking for stuff, I remember my old babysitter talking about these once," said Clem. "You turn one on and leave it by the baby, and you can hear what they're doing with the other one. Now we can keep an eye on Omid… or an ear I guess, when we have to go outside without him."

"This is great Clem," said Sarah. "I can't believe you did all this for us."

"Yeah, how did you do all this?" asked Patty. "I mean, where did you get all this stuff?"

"Well, I found the wrapping paper in a house close to here when we first checked everything out," said Clem. "So this morning, I went out to get it and then a little further down the road to that big store we checked for food earlier to get you guys some presents."

"You did this when you were supposed to be on watch?" asked Patty. "You just left the overpass?"

"I really wanted it to be a surprise, and I made sure there was nothing coming before I left." That answer didn't seem to please Patty. "I guess you're mad at me now."

"Well… it's not like this town is bursting with danger, or anything but year old walkers that were nearly dead already. And, I'd be lying if I said I wasn't digging this scarf," confessed Patty as she admired her reflection in one of the windows. "If anything, I'm mad because you're making me and Sarah look bad. We didn't even know it was Christmas." Patty turned to Sarah, who had a guilty look on her face. "Wait, you didn't know, did you?"

Sarah didn't answer, instead hurrying into the bedroom and returning just as quickly carrying an envelope. "I was going to give you this tomorrow after we got back on the road," said Sarah as she handed the envelope to Clem. "But I guess you might as well have it now."

Clem quickly tore open the envelope and unfolded the piece of paper inside. "Merry Christmas Clementine. I'm sorry I didn't get you a great present. I wanted to make you something, like the bracelet I gave you for your birthday, but we left most of our craft supplies back in Spokeston. I thought about using the camera to take a picture of something, but I couldn't think of something special we haven't already taken a picture of. I tried making a drawing of you, but it didn't come out very good.

"But I still wanted to get you a present, so I made this note. I'm sorry I couldn't get you more, but I wanted you to know how special you were to me, and that I'd get you anything you wanted if I could because you're the best friend anyone could ever ask for and you deserve to be happy every day.

"Love, Sarah."

Looking up at her friend, Clem noticed Sarah seemed disappointed. "I know it's not a very good present, but—"

Clem threw her arms around the older girl. "I love you too," professed Clementine as she squeezed Sarah as tightly as she could.

"Merry Christmas Clem," said Sarah as she hugged the younger girl.

"Ber-duh-breh-muh!" exclaimed Omid as moved in to hug Clem's leg.

"Hey." Clem looked over at Patty. "You said you found this stuff at that big box store down the road?"

"Yeah, why?"

"Well, seeing as tomorrow is actually Christmas, why don't the four of us have a shopping spree there tomorrow?" suggested Patty with a sly smile. "See what else we needed without knowing it."

"I thought you wanted to get back on the road tomorrow?" asked Sarah.

"And wouldn't one of us have to keep watch from the overpass?" added Clem.

"Ehh… fuck it," shrugged Patty with a smile. "You said it yourself, we've got plenty of food for the moment, this place is deserted, and that messed up walker we saw was like over a hundred miles back. I think we'd be okay if we spent tomorrow just having some fun."

"Maybe we could check out that lake we saw?" suggested Clem.

"Lake?" asked Sarah.

"There's this beautiful lake in the middle of town, you and Omid would just love it," said Clem. "Although, it'd be hard to get the RV close to it."

"We'll figure it out," assured Patty. "And maybe we can pick up an inflatable raft or something while we're shopping."

"I thought you really wanted to get to Mobile already," said Sarah.

"I did," said Patty. "But now I'm thinking maybe we shouldn't rush out of here so fast after all."

"Why not?" asked Clem.

"I guess, because I really like being around you three," confessed Patty in a sentimental voice. "And I don't know what's gonna be waiting for us in Mobile… or who. So before we go off to face God knows what there, I think I'd really like to spend at least one more day just the four of us together."

Clem smiled at Patty. "Why does it have to be one day?"

"Huh?"

"In school, we used to take the whole week off for Christmas," said Clem. "Why don't we do that?"

"A day's one thing, but do we really have enough food to spend a whole week not scavenging?" asked Patty.

"Well, we've got about a month's worth right now," informed Sarah.

"That's enough for us to take at least a week off then," said Clem.

"But we've been here about a week already," reminded Patty.

"A week we've been taking turns watching the road, and getting gas, and looking for food, and emptying the RV's septic tank," said Clem.

"Ugh," shuddered Sarah. "I hate doing that."

"We always just move on as soon as we finish doing everything we need to do," said Clem. "Let's stay here longer than a day, like a vacation."

Clementine watched Patty's face twist slightly. The woman was clearly considering Clem's proposal, and she didn't seem convinced. But then there was a rattling sound and they all looked down to find Omid standing in front of Patty.

"Gah-dah!" said the toddler before shaking is rattle at Patty.

A slight laugh escaped Patty's lips, and right after that the woman let a smile settle on her face as she picked the boy up off the ground. "Oh, what the hell," she said as she looked at Omid. "Mobile can wait until New Year's; Christmas break can be just for us."