With Patty gone, Clementine found herself just sitting in quiet disbelief, staring out the windshield in the faint hope she'd come right back. Part of Clem was telling herself that Patty could take care of herself and Anthony had no reason to hurt her, but all the other parts of her were thinking about what could go wrong.
"Kem-men?" Clementine looked over to find Omid staring up at her.
"Hey OJ," said Clem as she picked up the boy. "You want to play?"
"Bree-bree," said the boy.
"Huh?"
"I think he's ready for me to read to him," said Sarah. "I usually read him a story after you and Patty go out."
"Every time?"
"Ever since I found out he didn't worry as much if I read to him right after you and Patty leave," said Sarah. "When I don't read to him right away, he starts looking out the windows and—"
"Kem-men, Kem-men," repeated Omid as he stared at Clementine.
"Saying your name over and over," said Sarah. "I guess I don't have to read to him today since you're here."
"Well, could you anyways?" suggested Clem, thinking she could use a distraction herself. "I can't remember the last time I saw you read to Omid."
"I know I did it for the first few days after we left Spokeston," recalled Sarah. "But after a week of looking for food, I guess I was thinking about more than just reading stories."
"Bree bree," said Omid.
"Maybe think about it now?" Clem smiled at Sarah, which caused her to smile.
"Sure." Clem went with Sarah and Omid into the bedroom and sat down with the boy while her friend picked out a book. Sarah eventually selected 'Green Eggs and Ham'. Even though it was a short book, Sarah knew how to make it last for Omid. She stood up the book so Omid could see the pictures, she did a different voice for each character, and even would wiggle the page before turning it, which excited Omid to no end for some reason.
Clem wasn't sure if Omid actually understood anything Sarah was telling him, in fact she was pretty sure he didn't, but he loved it just the same. Laughing, clapping, touching the pictures; he couldn't get enough of it. Clem herself was enjoying Sarah's presentation, catching herself laughing more than once. She was nearly as disappointed as Omid when it finally ended.
"Bree bree," pleaded Omid as Sarah put the book the away.
"That's enough for now," said Sarah. "We can do another one tomorrow."
"That was really great," complimented Clem. "You do that every day?"
"Everyday you and Patty go out to do something," said Sarah. "I was reading him the Cat in the Hat the day before yesterday… until I heard that gunshot."
Clem's smile suddenly faded, which seemed to dim Sarah's as well. There was an awkward silence between the girls for a few seconds before Sarah opened her mouth to speak.
"I—"
"Clem, Sarah, you there?"
Clem immediately grabbed her radio. "I'm here. Are you okay?"
"Yeah, I'm fine," said Patty. "I just saw it was nine o'clock."
"Have you found the town yet?"
"Not yet, but Anthony told me its name," said Patty. "It's a place called Hattiesburg, and Anthony says it's more of a city than a town."
"A city?" asked Sarah with her radio. "How big?"
"From the way he describes it, maybe Titusville big?" Clem and Sarah grimaced upon hearing that. "Don't worry, I'm not going to do anything stupid," said Patty, as if she had somehow seen the girls' faces. "If it looks too hairy we'll turn around and come right back, I just wanted to let you two know where we were going."
"Just be careful," pleaded Clem.
"I will, talk to you—wait what?"
"Patty?" said Clem. "Are you—"
"Anthony wanted you to know he says hi," reported an annoyed Patty. "Talk to you in an hour." Clem heard the radio click, then silence.
"Bree bree," said Omid as he tugged on Clem's sleeve.
"How bout you try reading him a story?" suggested Sarah.
"Yeah, that sounds good," said Clem, thinking she'd enjoy it nearly as much as Omid. "Which books haven't you done yet?"
"I've already done them all a few times, we've only got like a dozen kid's books," said Sarah. "Do 'One Fish, Two Fish', he really likes that one." Clementine grabbed the book and immediately put on a show for Omid. She struggled to imitate Sarah's style, finding herself having to turn the book away from the boy occasionally to remember the words, and she thought her voices sounded the same, but Omid seemed to love it just the same.
Clem found herself drawing out her presentation of each page for as long as she could just so she could watch Omid laugh and applaud as much as possible. And like Sarah, she'd wiggle the page before turning it. Unlike Sarah, she liked to tease Omid by moving the page halfway before putting it back, a development that Omid found more suspenseful than anything in the book itself; would she turn the next page or not? It wasn't until Clem had finished the book did she notice Sarah wasn't even in the bedroom.
"Bree bree," pleaded Omid as Clem put up the book.
"I think that's enough for now," said Clem as she headed for the door. "Sarah?"
"Yeah." Clem found Sarah tying off a trash bag in the kitchen.
"What are you doing?" asked Clem.
"I figured I'd take out the trash while you were with Omid." The older girl grabbed the bag, then went to collect the telescope.
"You're going outside? It could be dangerous," said Clem.
"I know, that's why I'm going to use the telescope to look around first," said Sarah.
"You should bring your gun too, just—"
"I've got it already." Sarah pivoted in place to show the pistol in her hip holster. "I do this all time while you're out."
"Really?" asked Clem. "What do you do about Omid?"
"Normally I have to wait until he takes a nap to go out, and I bring the baby monitor with me," said Sarah as she headed for the door. "Today you can watch him for me."
"Well, take your radio in case—"
"I've got it too." Sarah turned in place to reveal she already had a radio clipped to her waistband. "I always take it when I go out, in case you and Patty call for me. Don't worry, I do this all the time."
Before Clem could say anything, Sarah stepped outside and closed the door behind her. Clem heard footsteps on the roof soon after, then watched as Sarah sprinted to a trashcan sitting near the bleachers. The older girl quickly tossed the bag inside and hurried back to the RV. She then burst back into the Brave, taking a few deep breaths before setting the telescope down.
"See… no big deal," said Sarah in-between breaths.
"Why'd you bother putting it in the trash can?" asked Clem. "You could have just set it outside."
"I don't like to just leave garbage lying around," said Sarah.
"Even if it's the end of the world?"
"We don't know how long we might be here. We don't want to start piling up garbage outside the Brave."
"I guess, but you still could have tossed that bag anywhere," noted Clem. "It's not like anyone is ever coming to pick up the trash again."
"I know, it's…" Sarah shrugged. "I guess some habits are just hard to break. I need to take out the trash so I looked for the nearest trash can or dumpster."
"Kem-men," said Omid as he walked towards the girl.
"Could you watch him for a while?" asked Sarah. "There's some other things I'd like to get done."
"Like what?"
"I haven't done a count recently," said Sarah as she collected a notepad.
"A count of what?" asked Clem.
"Of our food." Clem watched as Sarah headed into the closet, counting cans with a pen before scribbling something onto her notebook. Omid kept trying to wander away, so Clem would occasionally tickle the boy to distract him, but mostly she kept watching Sarah. Clementine was surprised by how carefully the older girl evaluated every item in their closet, and even after she was done counting kept writing in her notebook.
"What are you doing now?" Clem finally asked as she gave Omid another tickle, prompting the boy to giggle.
"Figuring out how long our food will last," answered Sarah.
"You can do that?"
"Sure, it's just math." Sarah turned the notebook around to reveal a series of numbers leading down the page into a single number under a big line.
"Fifteen?" read Clem. "We've only got fifteen days of food?"
"Pretty much, as long as we keep eating like we have been."
"It…" Clem looked at the cans stacked up on the shelves inside the closet. "It looks like so much more."
"Mah-bah," said Omid as he walked over to the closet.
"We usually split two cans between the four of us at every meal," said Sarah as Clem took hold of Omid. "Three meals, two cans each, that's six cans a day. We've got ninety-two unopened cans right now, so that's fifteen days and one extra meal, assuming we don't use more of it. You and Patty usually take a couple of cans for lunch and I split one with Omid while you're gone, so that's an extra one when you go out."
"What about the dried stuff we find? Like rice?"
"We usually eat it at the same time as the canned stuff, and we always run out of it before the cans so I just count the cans."
"What if we did start getting fish?" asked Clem. "Would that help?"
"Probably, but we'd still need to eat some vegetables and fruit as well to stay healthy, so we'd still be using a lot of cans."
"That's… kind of scary," admitted Clem.
"What is?"
"Just… knowing when our food is going to run out."
"We'll find more before that happens," assured Sarah as she took her notepad back. "Two weeks is plenty of time."
"Mah-bah." Omid slipped out of Clem's grip and headed for the closet. He moved right to a box tucked in the corner and reached inside.
"No OJ," said Clem as she took hold of him. "We need to wait for lunch."
"Mah-bah!" insisted the boy as he clung to a package of freeze-dried ice cream.
"It's okay, I usually give him a tiny bit after breakfast," assured Sarah. "Just get the already opened one."
Clem looked in the box and found an open package sealed in a plastic baggie. She was also relieved to see they still had well over a dozen unopened bags of freeze-dried ice cream remaining. Sarah had said they should only eat it on occasion to make it last, but it was reassuring to know that was one thing they wouldn't run out of anytime soon.
After reclaiming the bag Omid took, Clem grabbed the open package and started breaking off pieces of chocolate ice cream to feed the boy. He loved every bite and would immediately demand more after finishing a piece. Clem found herself trying to break the treat into the smallest fragments she could for Omid, and it always ended with him wanting more. After his fifth piece, Clem packed up the remaining ice cream and put it away.
"Mah-bah!" demanded Omid.
"No, that's enough for today." Clem let go of Omid and closed the closet door.
"Mah-bah." Omid moved right to the closet. Clem watched as he slapped his hands against the door a few times, then tried pushing against it in an attempt to open it. "Mah-bah!" he begged.
"Come on OJ, don't be like that."
"Mah-bah," insisted Omid as he started to cry.
"I usually get his ball and rattle after this and play with him until he forgets about the ice cream," explained Sarah. "Do you want me to take care of him?"
"I can handle it," assured Clem as she picked up Omid, carrying him back to the bedroom. "Don't cry OJ, we're gonna have fun." Clem sat the still sobbing boy on the carpet and grabbed a couple of things out of his crib. "Look what I've got." Clem held up an orange ball in one hand and a rattle in the other.
The boy's sobbing slowed when he saw those familiar toys, and upon hearing the sound of his rattle the sobs quickly morphed into laughter. Clem threw the ball and Omid would chase after it. She'd then tease him with his rattle until he tried to take it, which Clem would resist just long enough to make it a struggle before letting him have it. Then she'd throw his ball, and he'd forget his rattle long enough for Clem to steal it back.
They kept up this routine for quite a while, occasionally varying it by moving onto the bed, or Clem throwing the rattle while holding onto the ball. Clem started to find it bewildering how Omid never seemed to tire of it, his enthusiasm always the same every time he chased after one of his toys. Eventually Clem found herself growing tired, and just let Omid walk off with his playthings while she slipped out of the bedroom. Returning to the front, Clem found Sarah sitting on the couch with a thick book in her hands.
"Whatcha reading?" Sarah held up the book so Clem could read the cover. "Introduction to Anna-Tomy and phi-see-oh…"
"Anatomy and physiology," said Sarah as she lowered the book. "It's a textbook all about the human body. Did you know there are three tiny bones in your ear that let you hear?"
"There is?" asked Clem as she tugged on her own ear.
"Not on that part, like inside your head," explained Sarah. "Sound waves go into your ear, which makes you eardrum vibrate, and that vibrates these little bones, and that causes the liquid in your head to move, and that effects these little tiny hair-like things, and they send a signal to a nerve in your brain, and that's how you hear."
"Um… how?" asked an utterly perplexed Clementine.
"Well, sounds happens when something moves and creates vibrations, usually in the air, and—"
"You know what, that's okay," said Clem. "I'll take your word for it."
"Thanks for playing with Omid," said Sarah as looked down at her book. "I've wanted to read this book for a while. It's full of interesting stuff."
"How come you don't read something more fun?" asked Clem.
"I think learning new things is fun," said Sarah. "And, it might help one day if one of us gets hurt or sick."
"Oh, so that's why you're reading. It's like those parenting books we read when we first started taking care of OJ."
"No, I already read something like that called Pocket Medicine, it was all about how to know when someone is sick or what to do when they're hurt," said Sarah. "This one is just about how the human body works. It doesn't tell you how to fix it."
"Then why read it?"
"Well, I was thinking about how Patty asked if I could fix the Brave if I read enough books, and I wasn't sure. But then I thought, if I did have to fix the Brave, I'd probably have a better chance to do it if I read as many different books about cars as I could.
"But we really don't have any of those, but we still had this book we took from the Five Corners mall I really hadn't read much of yet, and I thought, I probably should read this, in case someone does get hurt and one of us has to do something."
"Do you think you could do anything if one of us got hurt, like bad?"
"I… I really don't know. I just know I probably couldn't right now, but if I keep reading stuff like this, maybe I could… but I hope I won't have to."
"Yeah, me too…" An eerie silence fell between the girls. They awkwardly turned away from each other, both trying not to think about what could happen to them, or anyone else.
"Clem? Sarah?"
"We're here," said Clem as she grabbed her radio. "What's wrong?"
"Wrong? Nothing, it's ten and I'm calling in," reported Patty. "We made it to Hattiesburg a little while ago. The good news is I'm pretty sure we're not going to run into anyone alive out here."
"What's the bad news?" asked a nervous Sarah.
"There's a lot of dead people walking around," said Patty. "Not as bad as Titusville, but enough where we're going to have to go slow. The good news—well other good news, is we've already found a little food on the outskirts, and there's probably more deeper in."
"Be careful," warned Clem.
"Yeah, I keep reminding Anthony of that," spoke an annoyed Patty. "I give him the raincoat and now he thinks he's lord zombie slayer and can't get enough of whacking walkers with my old bat. It does at least save me some work though."
"How long do you think it'll be until you get back?"
"Probably a while. We still have no idea where to look for fishing gear, and we had to park the truck outside of town, too noisy. So anything we find we'll be hauling back the old fashioned way a single trip at a time. I'll call you back at noon to let you know how it's going."
"Noon, not eleven?" asked Clem.
"We got a ton of work ahead of us, I think it'd be easier to just call you on our lunch break," said Patty. "Everything okay there?"
"Yeah, we're fine," said Sarah.
"Good to hear, talk to you in a couple of hours," said Patty.
"Yeah, we'll be waiting." Clem felt a slight sense of relief to hear Patty's voice again, especially when she sounded so at ease. But the relief passed quickly and almost immediately after she was once again waiting for the woman's return.
"Ay-dah-duh!" Omid's proclamation was followed by a quick shake of his rattle as he approached Clem and Sarah. "Ay-dah-duh!" he repeated.
"I think he wants to play some more," realized Sarah. "Do you mind watching him for a while longer? I was hoping I could get some more chores done today."
"Like what?"
"Do the laundry, clean the bathroom, check the oil pressure, tire pressure, antifreeze," listed the older girl.
"You need to do all that?"
"I don't really need to, but it'd be nice to get it done," said Sarah.
"Ay-dah-duh!" declared Omid before shaking his rattle again.
"Most days I'm lucky to sneak in some work while he's napping."
"I could do the chores if you wanted to play with OJ," offered Clem.
"I play with him all the time," assured Sarah. "Besides, do you even know how to check the oil or antifreeze?"
"No," realized Clem. "And I haven't done the laundry in forever."
"It's fine, I'll take care of it," said Sarah as she headed into the bathroom. "I do this all the time."
Clem divided her time between finding new ways to entertain Omid while she watched Sarah work through the morning. Sarah grabbed their portable CD player and set it up in the kitchen while Clementine kept Omid busy with his stuffed elephant, doing a voice for it while moving it about for his amusement. As fascinating as Omid found his newly animated friend, Clem found herself even more interested in watching Sarah work.
The older girl painstakingly cleaned each piece of clothing with great care, wrung them out by hand, and then immediately moved onto the next piece without missing a beat. Clem was surprised to see when Sarah had finished, she collected her basket of wet clothes and walked right outside. Just in trying to keep Omid from wandering out after the older girl, Sarah had already tied the clothesline to the Brave and was looking for somewhere else to secure it.
Clem resorted to throwing Omid's ball again as Sarah worked to hang up their wet clothes, sending the round plaything flying wherever she could so as to buy herself more time to watch the windows. Part of Clem thought it was risky going out just to do the laundry, but she saw no danger every time she checked, and again Sarah worked quickly, tying their clothesline to the goal post and then hanging up their clothes with great speed.
After that, Sarah moved on to checking the various parts of the Brave that needed checking while Omid decided he would no longer be chasing a ball today. Clem switched to making silly faces and Omid giggled in approval at most of them. She occasionally peered out the window and caught a glimpse of Sarah carrying something towards the front of the vehicle, but then Omid would demand more faces by chanting 'Kem-mem' as loud as he could.
Eventually Sarah returned to the Brave, much to Clementine's relief. Before moving on to her next task, Sarah recommended playing their CD of lullabies while rocking Omid in her arms to try coasting the boy into a nap. Clem jumped at the suggestion and quickly swamped in the appropriate music and picked up Omid, but the boy would have none of it.
The music seemingly did nothing, and Clem found it hard enough to rock the heavy toddler when he wasn't trying to escape her grip, which was constantly. Eventually Clementine surrendered and released Omid. The boy opened the cabinet under the sink and started pulling out objects one at a time. Clem hovered over him every step of the way, taking possession of anything potentially dangerous while setting aside everything else Omid dragged out just in time for him to grab something new.
"What happened to putting him down for a nap?" Clementine looked up to see Sarah standing over her.
"OJ thought it'd be more fun to drag out everything we keep under the sink instead," mumbled a tired Clementine.
"Nah-bah-bah!" said Omid before tossing something out of the cabinet.
"Huh, haven't seen this in a while," said Clem as she picked up a baby's bottle.
"Well, if you watch him just a little longer, I'll clean up his mess and make lunch for you."
"How about you watch him and I make lunch?" suggested Clem as she reached into the cabinet to retrieve Omid.
"You're sure?"
"Mah-bah-bah," declared Omid as he clung to his sippy cup.
"Yeah, I'm sure."
Clem happily passed Omid to Sarah, who took the boy to the bedroom. She then quickly cleaned up the mess Omid made and went right to work with making a meal. Her first instinct was to make soup, thinking she could use something warm and filling. But going through their closet, Clem found herself stopping to count out just how much soup they had left. She saw they had a few cans of soup with chicken in it, but most of their remaining soup was tomato.
Hesitant to use another can of her favorite soup with so little left, Clem opted for tomato. She discovered they still had plenty of uncooked macaroni left as well. The girl turned on the stove and worked to combine the two unlikely ingredients. As she was experimenting with small additions of spice, Clem could hear overjoyed laughs occasionally coming from the bedroom. Clem wasn't sure what Sarah was doing but Omid really seemed to love it.
After turning the stove off to let the soup simmer, Clem grabbed some powdered ice tea from the closet and quickly mixed herself a pitcher's worth of it. Unable to wait for lunch, Clem drank an entire glass of tea herself, grateful for the fleeting relief it brought her. She then poured the remaining tea into a couple of glasses and spooned the soup and macaroni into a pair of bowls.
"It smells good," complimented the older girl as she carried Omid to the dining table. "What is it?"
"Macaroni in tomato soup," shrugged Clem.
"Huh?"
"We had extra of both, so…" Clem shrugged. "And I made some tea."
"I'm sure it's good if you made it," said Sarah as she grabbed a spoon.
"It's food." Clem sat down and sampled her own creation. It wasn't bad, but the tomato and spices just seemed to blend together into a salty taste and the pieces of macaroni only added texture, not much flavor.
"You want some soup Omid?" Clem watched as Sarah blew on her spoon before offering it to the boy. He swallowed the soup, then made a pouty face.
"Nah-bah," he insisted.
"Don't be like it," said Sarah. "Clem worked hard to make lunch."
"It's okay, it's not that good," said Clem before taking a sip of her tea.
"You want something to drink Omid?" Sarah poured some tea into the boy's cup and handed it to him. He quickly took a sip from it just to drop the cup on the ground.
"Omid!"
"Nah-bah," he said.
"Right, forgot he doesn't like tea," sighed Clem. "Even though he likes kool-aid."
"Don't worry, I'll—"
"Get him to drink some," finished a weary Clem. "Is he always like this when I'm gone?"
"He's always been kind of a picky eater," noted Sarah as she picked up the cup.
"I mean all the other stuff," clarified Clem. "Do you have to play with him this much every day?"
"I think he's acting like that because you're here today. He always gets excited when you come home."
"I don't remember him being this excited," said Clem. "I mean, I used to spend whole weeks with him back in Spokeston, and he never wanted to do as much as he did today."
"Yeah, ever since he learned to walk, it's like he can't sit still," said Sarah as she spooned a piece of macaroni out of the bowl. "I had to nibble at his feet a minute ago just to get him to sit still long enough to change him."
"You did what?"
"Nibbled his feet." Clem just stared at Sarah in disbelief as she offered the boy a piece of macaroni. "Not literally. You just pretend like you're going to chew on his feet for a second and he really likes it for some reason. I think it's like a better version of wiggling his toes."
"Okay. Did you learn that from one of those parenting books?" asked Clem as Omid turned his head away from the macaroni.
"No, I just… tried it one day and he really seemed to like it."
"You just… tried chewing on his feet one day?"
"You'll try a lot of things to keep him happy when you spend whole days with him." Clem watched as Sarah moved the spoon to right in front of Omid's eyes. He seemed perplexed by it, then tilted his head up as Sarah lifted the spoon higher. Eventually he opened his mouth in surprise and Sarah fed the macaroni to the boy in a flash.
"Nah-bah," mumbled Omid as he chewed on his food.
"Yeah, I can see that," said Clem. "Even just feeding him takes a lot of work if we don't have what he wants."
"And he's just been getting into everything lately," added Sarah as spooned more soup out of her bowl. "Last week I caught him trying to climb into the toilet."
"Why?" asked Clem as she watched Sarah try to feed Omid more soup.
"He probably thought it'd be fun I guess," shrugged Sarah as Omid turned away from the spoon.
"No, I mean, why he is acting like this?"
"Well, he's getting older." Sarah held the spoon in front of Omid's eyes again, but this time he refused to look at it. Sarah then snapped her fingers, causing Omid to turn his head suddenly. The older girl then expertly guided the spoon into the toddler's mouth during the confusion.
"Nah-bah!" said Omid while making a sour face.
"At the end of February he'll be one year old," noted Sarah.
"That's less than two months away," realized Clem. "I can't believe it's been that long already."
"Yeah, I still remember when we made a dresser drawer into his bed," said Sarah. "Before we found that crib for him."
"He was so tiny then," reminisced Clem with a smile. "I was worried we'd lose him if we weren't careful."
"I know." Sarah tried offering the sippy cup to Omid but he refused. "And all he wanted back then was his bottle." Sarah carefully maneuvered the sippy cup behind Omid's head and then shook it slightly. The boy heard the tea splashing around in the cup and turned his head. Surprised to see a cup over there now, he took it from Sarah and sipped it for a moment before dropping it again.
"Nah-bah! Nah-bah!" protested Omid.
"You're good at this," complimented Clem.
"I can't do it too much or he'll start crying," said Sarah as she picked up the sippy cup again. "I don't like tricking him, but he has to eat and we just don't have enough of the things he likes to give it to him for every meal."
"I wish we did," sighed Clem. "I wish I could do anything other than look for stuff we need that other people left behind."
"You do plenty Clem," assured Sarah. "More than anyone your age ever should."
"And it's still not enough…" Clem took a breath, then started sipping at her soup, wishing it was something better. Sarah managed to get Omid to swallow another two spoonfuls of soup, another piece of macaroni, and a sip of tea before crying. Sarah then had to resort to giving the toddler another tiny piece of ice cream to calm him down. As Clem washed the dishes, taking care to use as little water as possible, a familiar click sounded from her waist.
"Patty calling the home base, anyone home?"
"Hey Patty," greeted Clem in an excited voice.
"Sorry for calling a little late, it took us a few minutes to find somewhere to settle in and we were starving, maybe literally in Anthony's case judging from the way he eats," said Patty. "I hope you two weren't worried."
"It's fine," assured Clem. "I didn't even know it was past noon already."
"How are things going in Hattiesburg?" asked Sarah.
"Pretty good, we're just resting our feet for a few minutes," said Patty. "We've managed to dig out some fishing rods from a few people's garages and a couple of other things, along with what's shaping up to be a pretty damn fine haul of food as well."
"That sounds great," said Sarah.
"Does that mean you'll be coming back soon?" asked Clem.
"Not quite yet, Anthony is still saying he could use some scented lures or something, and we've still got room in his camper for more food," said Patty. "Poor bastard is holding out hope we'll find some freeze-dried ice cream."
"Why would he be thinking that?" asked Clem.
"Because, I let him try a tiny piece of mine, then ate the rest of it in front of him and said that was probably the last piece in the world."
"That was mean," scolded Sarah. "Why would you do that?"
"Hey, you're not the one who's spent the last four hours with him," said Patty. "He's been practically assaulting me with annoying jokes and gags all day. Trust me, he was asking for it."
"When do you think you'll be home?"
"Well, we'll probably go at it for a couple more hours then call it quits, and it's a bit of a drive back," said Patty. "My guess is we'll be back before three. If it takes longer than that I'll call you at three with a progress report."
"All right, we'll be waiting for you," said Sarah.
"Don't start dinner without me. Seriously, don't, we've picked up a lot of stuff you can use for dinner."
"I won't," assured Clem.
"See ya soon."
The radio clicked and Clem placed the device back on her belt. "So now what?" Clem asked Sarah.
"Well…"
An odd clatter derailed Sarah's train of thought. The pair looked over to discover Omid standing at the exterior door, trying to reach the handle to it with his rattle.
"Omid, no," said Sarah as she picked up the boy.
"Bah-dah-pah!" pleaded Omid.
"You can't go out, I'm—"
"Why not?" challenged Clem. "There's two of us. One of us could keep watch from on top of the Brave, the other could take Omid outside."
"We… yeah, we could," realized Sarah. "But do you want to do that? I thought you were getting a little tired playing with Omid today."
"Maybe, but I want to go out too," admitted Clem as she looked at the window. "I think I've spent enough time in the Brave today."
The girls prepared for their outing, dressing themselves and Omid in warm clothing, then loading and equipping their guns. Sarah grabbed the telescope while Clementine grabbed Omid. The older girl headed out first, securing a position on the roof and scouting the surrounding area before calling to Clementine that it was safe to leave.
Clem set Omid on the top of the steps, then stepped outside and turned to face him. She called to the boy, encouraging him to follow her, and follow he did, slowly climbing down each step with great enthusiasm. After he had reached the ground, he stood up and flashed Clem a somewhat toothless grin before walking over to her.
Clem took the boy's hand and they started moving across the field together. The ground was a combination of dying grass and mashed dirt, but it didn't dampen their spirits. Between the clear blue sky hanging over them and the cool crisp breeze blowing past their faces, the two felt liberated from the claustrophobic safety of their humble home as they walked past their own clothes swaying in the freely in the wind.
They walked past the goal post and down to the stream Anthony had been fishing out of it. It was a fairly humble sight, being no more than a few inches deep and maybe ten feet wide at best. Clementine found herself a little surprised Anthony had caught as much as he had out of it. But there's something calming about the sound of the water gently passing by them.
Clem watched as Omid tried walking into the water, only to stop the boy. She restrained him long enough to remove his and her own shoes, then they walked into the stream together. The water was incredibly cold and the pair couldn't stand to spend more than a few seconds in it before quickly hopping back to the shore.
With nothing to use as a towel, Clementine elected to lay in the grass and just let the sun's warm rays dry her feet. She set Omid on her chest, and together they stared up at the sky and watched the clouds fly by. After a whole morning of making loud demands, Omid seemed perfectly content to quietly sky-gaze with Clem, only making noise to awe at the occasional passing cloud.
Clem wasn't sure how long she lay there, but by the time she was ready to move she noticed her feet were mostly dry. She put her and Omid's shoes back on, then returned to Sarah. Clem took over as the watch while Sarah carried Omid out to the field. There, Sarah kept encouraging Omid to run after her, slowly walking away from him and then increasing in speed as he drew closer, forcing him to move faster.
Clem had seen Omid walk plenty but she had never actually seen him run before. And she continued to not see that as Omid struggled to get up to even a brisk walk before falling over. The ground was soft and he was never hurt, so before long he'd tried again. Sometimes Sarah would sit down with Omid so he could paw at loose blades of dead grass, other times she'd run off calling his name, spurring the boy to chase after her.
Eventually, Sarah returned and it was Clem's turn again. This time she took Omid over to the bleachers and helped him stand on the top of the very last one. The girl kept a tight grip on the boy as he awed at the sky-high view of the surrounding area. They walked along the bleachers from one side to the other, enjoying a feeling of being taller than the rest of the world for once, before crossing the field to climb the other bleachers for a different view.
After switching up again, Sarah brought Omid to the bleachers as well. But instead of carrying him up the steps so he could see the view, Sarah encouraged Omid to climb each and every step as they made their way to the top. It took the toddler a very long to figure out how to climb up steps, but once he made it past the first one he seemed to develop a reliable tactic for climbing the rest. And going down the steps was much easier than going up them.
Next, Clem sat in the grass with Omid for a while as Sarah took down their now dry laundry. She wasn't sure where to go at this point, but Omid still seemed eager to explore. After Sarah finished with the laundry and returned to keep watch, the pair starting wandering around the football field, occasionally detouring to behind the bleachers before returning to the field where Sarah could easily see them. Clem wasn't sure where they were going, but she just felt glad to be moving.
The sun slowly began to sink and Clem returned to the Brave to trade places with Sarah again. The older girl came down to greet them and Clem watched as Omid excitedly walked over to her. As Sarah talked to Omid in the sweetest voice she could, Clem took a breath of cool air and looked out at their surroundings for a moment.
The goalpost cast a shadow over the forgotten football field, which was surrounded by now empty bleachers, and everything was painted a faded orange by the afternoon sun. There was a sad beauty in it, this peaceful yet desolate piece of the world long since left behind. It was likely no one had stepped foot here in months, and after they left, no one might ever come to this place again.
"Did you miss me?" Clem heard Sarah ask in her sweetest voice.
"Sah-duh," smiled the boy.
"I missed you too." Watching Sarah bend over to plant a kiss on Omid's forehead, Clem noticed she was holding something.
"Is that the diary I gave you?" asked Clem.
"Yeah, I was writing it in a little while I was up there," explained Sarah. "Don't worry, I was keeping watch. I spend more time thinking about what to write than actually writing anything."
"You do?" asked Clem. "Don't you just write about whatever happened?"
"Well I did for about a week and, I don't know, I just got bored doing that," said Sarah. "Not much happens while you and Patty are out."
"So, what were you writing about?
"About… what happened."
"Huh?"
"I mean, I thought I'd write about everything that's happened since things changed," said Sarah. "I thought that would be better than only writing about what I just happened to do today."
"Can I read it?" asked Clem.
"Um… I guess so." Sarah opened the book and turned a few pages, then handed it to Clementine. "Here, this is where I started."
"I was just sitting at home, waiting for my dad to come back," read Clem. "We were going to watch a movie together, but he had to go to the hospital for an emergency because he was a doctor."
"It's stupid," insisted Sarah. "Just—"
"I want to read it," insisted Clem as she pulled the diary away from Sarah. "Please."
"Okay."
"I saw someone in our yard through the window. I didn't know who it was, so I went outside to ask him and he growled at me," read Clem. "He wouldn't say anything, he just kept growling, and I was so scared when he started walking towards me.
"I ran inside and locked the door, and he started pounding on it, and I didn't know why he wouldn't go away. He just kept pounding and growling and pounding and growling. I'm not supposed to call my dad when he's working on an emergency, but I was so scared I did it anyway. Most of the time when I got scared and called him, he would always tell me everything would be okay. But this time he told me not to call the police and lock myself in my room, and don't come out until he got home."
"Seriously, it's terrible," insisted Sarah as she took the diary back.
"No it's not," said Clem.
"Come on Clem, who would ever want to read this?"
"I do," repeated Clem. "I never knew what you did before you went to Shaffer's."
"I didn't do anything, my dad did everything," insisted Sarah. "And it's nothing compared to what happened to you; your babysitter turning into a walker and trying to kill you."
"You should keep writing it."
"Why?"
"Because I want to know what happens."
"You know what happens," said Sarah. "You've been there for most of it."
"I still want to read it," said Clem with a smile. "And one day, you can read it to OJ."
"I don't think I'd want to read this to Omid; so many scary and terrible things."
"Not now, but one day, when he's older, he might want to know why we're taking care of him," reasoned Clem.
"Huh, I didn't think about that. Still, he wouldn't want to hear this stuff right now, right Omid?" The pair looked down to see Omid's eyes were half-closed now and the boy was just barely standing with Sarah's help. "Yeah, I think you just want a nap right now."
"Finally," said a relieved Clem. "I thought he would never get tired."
"It's getting cool out here," noted Sarah. "We should be heading in anyway."
Sarah collected the telescope and their guns while Clementine headed into the bathroom to give Omid a quick bath. The boy barely flinched as Clem dressed him, and gently setting the toddler into his crib, the boy seemed to fall asleep almost instantly as his head touched his pillow. Clem pulled a blanket over his sleeping form, then placed his stuffed elephant in his arms and his rattle by his feet. Breathing a sigh of relief, Clem headed back into to front to find Sarah unloading their guns.
"So now what?" asked Clem.
"What do you mean?" asked Sarah as she stored their weapons.
"What do we do now?" asked Clem. "Are there any more chores we need to do?"
"Not really," said Sarah as she closed the cupboard. "I was just going to read for a while."
"Well, shouldn't we put some water in the tank, if it's running low?" suggested Clem. "We've still got buckets, and the stream is right there."
"We'd have to boil it first to make it was safe," informed Sarah. "Rain just comes right out of the sky and into the tank when we put out the funnel and tube, and there's a purifier on the water pump to make sure it's safe. Water from the river might have all kinds of things in it that could make us sick."
"But you just said there's a purifier, wouldn't that make water from the river safe?"
"The manual says you should always use water that is safe, so I don't think it catches everything," said Sarah. "Even if it did, I figured it's better we don't put dirty water in the tank. I don't know how long the purifier will last, and I really don't know where we could ever get another one."
Clem flinched upon hearing that, never realizing there was a part of the Brave helping to keep their water safe, and that it might break someday. Suddenly, she felt very guilty for taking such a long shower on New Years. "Well, why don' t we boil the water, like we used to?" suggested Clem. "We've still got the pot we used for that."
"I don't want to start a fire while Patty is gone," said Sarah. "If anyone heard us yesterday or Anthony's truck leaving this morning, they might be heading this way, and if they saw smoke, they might come this way."
"Yeah, you're right," said Clem.
"And the tank holds over fifty gallons, and our pot can only boil about a gallon at a time," added Sarah. "So—"
"Okay, I get it," said Clem.
"Maybe tomorrow, once Anthony and Patty are back, we could do it."
Clem got up from her seat and headed to the front of the Brave. She pressed a button on the dashboard's radio that caused the LED clock to light up; it was almost two-thirty in the afternoon.
"I wish we still had the old generator, we could watch a movie," said Clem. "But I guess then we'd just have to worry about someone following the noise." Clem sighed as she sat down in the passenger seat.
"We… could play chess for awhile?" suggested a hopeful Sarah. "We haven't done that in a long time."
"Sure." Sarah eagerly grabbed their board while Clem took her seat at the dining table. The older girl set up the pieces with amazing speed and soon after the pair was playing chess. It didn't take long for Sarah to win, and right after they started a new game, which Sarah also won in no time. She had always been better at chess than Clementine, but the younger girl didn't remember struggling so hard to survive more than a few dozen moves.
After their third game, Clem found herself remembering a lot of tactics she'd normally employ against Sarah and at least prolonged the older girl's victory this time. By the time they had started their fourth match, Clem had recalled most of Sarah's early game tactics, along with her own, and it felt like they were having a proper match again.
But not long after that, Clem found herself falling into a familiar routine of surviving Sarah's opening maneuvers just long enough to become utterly lost in the middle game. She had been here many times when they had played in the past, struggling to advance her pieces through the older girl's ever-shifting strategies only to fall prey to yet another trap she hadn't anticipated.
Deep into their sixth match, Clem found she couldn't really concentrate on the game anymore. She looked down at the tiny battlefield populated with plastic pieces and couldn't see anything but a mess she had no interest in sorting out. She moved one of her few remaining pawns forward, only to see it taken out by Sarah's bishop, prompting Clem to sigh out loud.
"Are you okay?" Sarah asked Clem. "Are you getting bored?"
"No… maybe," shrugged Clem. "It's just… is this what it's like for you? You just stay here all day, wondering what's happened to me and Patty?"
"No, usually you're not here with me." Sarah smiled at Clem, which caused the younger girl to crack a slight smile, but only briefly.
"But when I'm not here?" asked Clem. "It's just a whole day of waiting to find out if we're okay or not?"
A slight frown formed on Sarah's lips. "Pretty much," she said as she moved a knight. "I try not to think about it, think about what could happen. It's easier when I have something to do. Omid usually helps with that."
"And when you don't have something to do?"
"I just… wait, and hope. I can't call you because if you're hiding from someone, or you're right next to a walker and the radio goes off… it'd be bad. And I really can't come after you either if you don't tell me where to go, so… I just wait."
"But, you came after me in Titusville," encouraged Clem. "You saved my life."
"Yeah," said Sarah in a quiet voice. "You were talking to me on the radio, and then nothing. I kept calling you, but you didn't call back, and… I didn't know what to do. I went to where you left that box, and you weren't there, so I started going down the train tracks and… I just kept thinking you were dead, and I might be getting Omid killed trying to find you."
Clem felt guilty as she watched the older girl slump over in her seat; uncertainty gripping her face, fear in her eyes, and her hands shaking slightly. "And now this time, I might have gotten Patty killed instead."
"What?" asked Clem. "Why do you think that?"
"I'm the one who said we shouldn't leave Anthony behind," said Sarah. "If anything happens to her, it's—"
"It wouldn't be your fault," finished Clem.
"Yes it would," insisted a guilt-ridden Sarah. "You two do all the dangerous stuff, not me. And then when we met someone who could be dangerous, I say we should help him, because it's not like I'm the one who almost gets killed all the time, just you two while I sit here and be useless," confessed Sarah as she began to tear up.
"You're not useless, how could you even think that?" asked Clem as she put her hand on Sarah's. "And if it's your fault then it's mine too. I told Patty we should help Anthony too."
"Yeah, and you also told her to not go with him this morning," reminded Sarah. "Not me."
"She wanted to go, even though I didn't want her to."
"Yeah, well…" Sarah tried to say something, but she seemed lost now.
"I'm sorry," said Clem in a tired voice.
"For what?" asked Sarah.
"For… all of this," shrugged Clem. "How messed up everything is, worrying you by going out, and taking chances, and… just everything."
"None of that's your fault," said Sarah.
"Some of it is… maybe," shrugged Clem. "I don't know. All I do know is this sucks, not knowing what's going to happen."
"Yeah, it does." Sarah dried her eyes and then moved her knight. "I just sit here all day, reading things, and I never know if any of it's really going to help or not."
"I feel like that every time I got out with Patty," said Clem as she moved her rook. "We've spent whole days looking for something, anything, and then just come home with nothing. It makes me feel useless too."
"Really?" asked a surprised Sarah.
"Sometimes, like today." Clem looked down at the board and moved her king. "I'll just be glad when Patty gets home. I just can't think right now."
"Yeah, I can tell," Sarah moved her bishop. "Checkmate." Clementine looked at the board again and sighed. "Sorry."
"It's okay," said Clem as she tipped over her own king. "I'm going to go check what time it is." Clem wandered towards the front of the RV and pressed the button to light up the clock, then felt her stomach drop.
"Sarah!" called Clem. "It's three-thirty!"
"What?" asked Sarah as she stood up.
"Patty was supposed to call us thirty minutes ago."
"Okay, well maybe she's busy right now or—"
"Or she could be dead right now," reasoned a panicked Clem.
"It's okay!" insisted Sarah as she put her hands on Clem's shoulders. "It's okay. We'll… we'll just call her, okay?"
"We can't, because if she isn't dead, then—"
"We'll just whisper," reasoned Sarah. "The radio clicking doesn't make much noise, but Patty will hear that, and when she picks up the radio she'll hear us whispering and call us back."
"That… that could work."
"Just relax," insisted Sarah as she picked up her radio. "Every time she's called today, she said she call back later than the last time. She's probably just so busy she missed what time it was."
"Yeah… that makes sense." Clem watched anxiously as Sarah moved the radio close to her face.
"Patty?" whispered Sarah as she held the talk button. "Patty, can you hear me?" Clem waited impatiently for an answer, and she felt her heart beat faster for every second that passed without getting one. "Patty," said Sarah a little louder. "Are you okay? You didn't call us at three." Clem felt herself struggling to breathe as she saw the calm on Sarah's face start to fade away. "Maybe—"
"We have to save her."
"Clem…"
"That's what we have to do," insisted Clem. "Like when you came and saved me in Titusville. Where… where did she say she was going?" Clem racked her mind for the city Patty mentioned, and hated herself when she couldn't think of anything.
"Hattiesburg," said Sarah. "She said it was off the interstate."
"Okay, let's go," insisted Clem as she sat down in the passenger seat.
"Clem, we can't just leave, what if they come back here and we're gone?"
"So we're just going to stay here? What if Patty's hurt? Or what if…" Clem suddenly found it hard to breathe.
"Look, we'll… we'll leave a note behind," reasoned Sarah. "I'll leave out one of the diesel cans, they're bright yellow so they'll be easy to see, and tape a note on it saying we came looking for them and will come back."
"Okay, you do that," said Clem as she grabbed the stool.
"I'll find Hattiesburg on the atlas and then we'll follow the interstate there," said Sarah as she grabbed a notepad. "I mean, Anthony's truck may have just broken down and Patty's busy trying to fix it right now."
"Maybe," said Clem as she stood on the stool. "But I'm going to load our guns and—"
A familiar crying echoed from the bedroom.
"I'll go take care of him, and—"
"No, I'll do it," said Clem as she jumped off the stool. "You just make that note and get us ready to leave." Clem hurried into the bedroom and found Omid thrashing out from under his covers. "What's wrong OJ?" asked Clem as she picked the boy. "Do you—ugh." One sniff was all Clem needed. She grabbed their supplies and their blanket and set Omid out on the bed.
Clem tried to work fast, but found it hard to concentrate. Omid kept squirming in place as she tried to clean the toddler's bottom, and he seemed to keep resisting her attempts to put a new diaper on him. "Please OJ," begged Clem the boy kept trying to roll away. "Just be good for a minute, okay, and I'll give you whatever you want."
Clem rolled Omid back onto his back only for him to immediately roll back on his side. Clem groaned as she racked her mind for a solution, then she grabbed Omid's foot. She moved her mouth forward and very gently bit down on Omid's big toe, careful only to exert just enough force to make contact. She mimicked chewing on his the toe and Omid suddenly broke out into a fit of laughter. It was so sudden and loud it actually startled Clem, but it kept Omid on his back long enough for her to fasten a new diaper on the boy.
"Bah-bah," demanded an upset Omid.
"Okay, I'll get you something to eat," said Clem as she picked up the boy. She carried Omid to the closet, flung open the door, grabbed the open pack of ice cream, then slammed the door shut. "Here, you like this, right?"
Clem hurriedly broke off a small chunk of ice cream and fed it to the boy. He chewed on it for a moment, making pleased noises as he did so, then opened his mouth. "All right," said Clem as she grabbed another piece. "Just don't tell—"
"Clem!" yelled Sarah.
Clem quickly fed Omid the piece and then jammed the bag into her pocket. "What is it?" yelled Clem as she raced back to the bedroom and put Omid back in his crib.
"They're back!" Clem raced back to the front just in time to see a rusty red truck with a camper barreling towards them from the other side of the field.
"Patty? Are you there?" Clem said into her radio as she watched the truck slowed draw closer. "Patty? Say something." As the truck moved to a stop near the RV, Clem noticed only one person was sitting in the truck's cab, and it wasn't Patty.
"Maybe her radio broke," speculated Sarah. "Or—Clem!"
Clementine charged out of the RV as fast as she could and ran towards the truck. She was nearly there when she saw Anthony exit the vehicle, prompting Clem to stop suddenly. She found herself instinctively backing up as Anthony moved forward. Looking at the young man, Clem found herself sickened by the forlorn look on his face.
"What… what happened?" Clem felt paralyzed when Anthony looked directly at her. "Where's Patty?"
"Now, don't panic," spoke Anthony in an anxious voice. "But I've got some bad news."
Terror gripped Clementine and her every instinct told her to run, but before she could the door to the camper swung open and something burst out.
"Thank God," yawned Patty as she stepped out of the camper. "We're finally… well not so much home, but back at our… camp, I guess?"
Clem turned to Anthony, utterly confused by the man's now cocky grin. "Bad news," said the man, his voice relaxed and free of anxiety now. "We found more green beans."
"What the hell are you talking about?" asked Patty as she dropped the backpack and garbage bag she was carrying onto the grass. "Are you—ah!" Clem threw herself at Patty as hard she could, tossing her arms around the woman as she slammed into her. "Jesus Clem, you trying to break my ribs or something?"
"I'm just glad you're back," professed Clem as she squeezed Patty as hard as she could.
"I'm fine, why…" Clem felt Patty pull free of her grip. "The fuck did you say to her just now?"
"I was just messing with her a little," said Anthony with a smile. "Told her we had bad news and—"
"You do not joke about things like that," ordered Patty as she pointed at the man. "Not to her, not to anyone, you hear me?"
"So she can shoot at me but I can't make—"
"Do you hear me!"
"Yes ma'am!" reported Anthony with a mock salute. "Humor is forbidden on the compound, copy that!" The man moved away from them, an odd enthusiasm in the way he moved, almost like he was dancing as he spun in place before rushing into his camper and out of sight. Clem heard a soft click behind her and turned around to find Sarah locking the door to Brave.
"Are you okay?" asked the older girl as she approached Patty.
"Anthony didn't hurt you, did he?" asked a suspicious Clem.
"Hurt me? No. But…" Patty looked at the camper behind her and moved a few steps further away from it. "He annoyed the ever loving shit out of me every fucking second he could," she said in a hushed voice.
"How?" asked Sarah.
"He would just not shut up the whole time we were out," said Patty as she rubbed her forehead. "Talked constantly."
"About what?" asked Clem.
"Anything. Everything. Where I'm from, where I'd been, where he was from, where he'd been, on and on, all goddamn day. I think feeding him just encourages it," groaned Patty. "It only got worse once I showed him that walkers can't smell you through their own muck. Started pondering all the things we could do with them if they didn't attack us. I started tuning out when he said something about tying a bunch of them together to pull a cart.
"Jesus, I was actually glad anytime we found walkers because it meant he had to shut up for a while. Once it was finally time to head back, I told him I was tired so I had an excuse to ride in his camper instead of spending another hour on the road in the truck with him. Although it wasn't much of an excuse, I was so worn out by then I actually did fall asleep I guess."
"Is that why you couldn't answer your radio?"
Patty's eyes shot open upon hearing Clementine's question. She quickly checked her watch, then let out a long guilty sigh. "Shit… I'm sorry. I was going to call in after we headed back but—"
"It's okay," insisted Clem as she moved in to hug Patty again. "I'm just glad you're all right."
"Did you get everything Anthony needed to catch fish?" asked Sarah.
"More than everything. We actually lucked up and found a bait shop before we came back, now he's got pristine rods, new knives, every kind of scented lure known to man. Acts like he could catch whole schools of fish now. That was after we grabbed every bit of food we could find in the area, which was quite a lot."
"That's great," said Sarah.
"Not only that, the interstate we took goes to Hattiesburg if you head north, but if you go south, it takes you right to New Orleans," informed Patty. "And on our way to Hattiesburg, we a saw a sign for a place called Beaver Lake. Anthony thought that'd be a step up over this crappy stream to fish in. I figure we could chill out there for a few days, learn some fishing basics, grab a little more food from Hattiesburg, then finally head down to New Orleans."
"That sounds… great," realized Clem.
"Yeah, but let me go square up with big mouth first," said Patty as she turned away from the girls. Clem watched as Patty knocked on the door to Anthony's camper, tapping her foot impatiently as she waited.
"Are you okay?" asked Sarah as she placed her hand on Clem's shoulder.
"I… I don't know how you do it," confessed Clem.
"I think the same thing every time you and Patty leave."
"Is that the big bad wolf I hear?" Clementine looked over to see an irritated Patty still waiting outside of Anthony's camper. "I won't come out, not by the hair on my chinny-chin-chin."
"Quit fuckin' around and get out here already," ordered Patty. "We need to split up the food we found today."
"Well lucky for you, I don't have any more hairs on my chinny-chin-chin." Clementine watched as Anthony emerged from his camper, and was surprised to see his beard was completely gone now. "The food we share, but I'm not parting with my new collection of razors and shaving cream. I am done with the 'Quest for Fire' look."
"You look a lot… better," professed a surprised Sarah.
"Thanks for noticing," smirked Anthony.
Clem would have said he looked a lot younger. She wasn't sure why, but without facial hair, Anthony almost didn't look like an adult anymore. Seeing him stand next to Patty, she couldn't even be sure which one was older.
"Enough bullshit already, just grab the food," insisted Patty.
"Coming right up," spoke the young man in a cheerful voice. "I can't tell just how great today has been."
"But he'll spend twenty minutes trying…" Clem heard Patty mumble under her breath.
"Now that I know you can just walk past these damn things, the sky's the limit," said Anthony as he set a cardboard box on the ground in front of the camper. "Well not literally, it's not like I can fly now… that'd be something else."
Looking into the box, Clem was overjoyed to see it stuffed with canned fruit, boxes of grits, jars of pickles, bags of sugar, still sealed containers of spice, and all manner of edible treats they were either running low on or had used up completely.
"Into the sky and under the ocean excluded, I can pretty much just go wherever the fuck I want now," beamed Anthony as he dropped another box on the ground next to first. "Do whatever the fuck I want and not worry about getting eaten by some half-rotted walking corpse shambling around."
"It's not that simple, trust me," insisted Patty. "There's still plenty of ways those things can fuck us over, and then there's still the living to be worried about. Those people you told us about—"
"Those inbred lazy fucks would never uproot themselves long enough to get more than a few feet away from Gulf Port," assured Anthony as he set a yet another box on the grass. "Unless someone told them you can just slip past those things by smelling like them, and I ain't telling them shit."
"Yeah, and they could figure it out themselves," said Patty. "Or we could run into some other horde of sick fucks anywhere else in the country."
"Wow, you're just loads of fun aren't you?" said Anthony as he picked up the next box.
"I'm just saying, there's still plenty for us to be worried about," said Patty. "I know how you feel; when Sarah and Clem told me about how to get past walkers I couldn't believe it. We even went to Disney World, but—"
"Wait, you three went to Disney World?" asked Anthony in disbelief as he placed a box on the ground. "How was it?"
"Empty," said Clem. "It was empty, like a ghost town."
"Except for some bodies left behind," added Sarah.
"You find any of those big mascot costumes people put on for the tourists? Because I wouldn't mind having one of those," said Anthony as he headed back into his camper. "Cover it in guts and then walk around killing people dressed as Mickey—no Goofy, screw Mickey."
"This isn't a game Anthony," said Patty. "I need to know you understand that."
"You're asking me that?" said Anthony as he dropped a box at Patty's feet. "The guy who spent a fucking month surviving off fish while trying to decide was it better to slowly die at a broken down gas station or probably die a little sooner walking to the next town looking for food that probably wasn't even there?" Clem watched as Patty just turned away from Anthony, a look of embarrassment on her face.
"I get you're all gung-ho to go off looking for some paradise that doesn't exist," said Anthony as he grabbed box of supplies. "But for me? Shit, this discovery is nothing short of a damn vacation from all the bullshit I've had to put up with since shit hit the fan."
"It won't last." Anthony turned and looked at Clementine.
"How would you know?" he asked her.
"Because it doesn't," stated Clem with no uncertainty. "Sarah and I lived together for months after we started using the smell to get past walkers. Then we had to leave and found out there wasn't much food left by then, and if we didn't figure out how to get diesel, we probably would've starved to death by now."
"All right, but you obviously did figure it out—"
"And then Patty joined us, and we used her motorcycle to check out places out faster," added Clementine. "Until the gas went bad, and we had to leave it behind."
"Wait, whatta ya mean the gas went bad?" asked Anthony.
"It's like food, it expires after a while," explained Sarah. "Even when it's kept in tanks."
"And we don't really know how long diesel will stay good," added Patty.
"Or how long we can keep our RV running," said Clem. "The walkers are just one problem. Even if they went away tomorrow, we'd still have a bunch more."
"And that's why we can't afford to spend a lot of time screwing around," argued Patty. "Yeah, we got lucky today and found some good stuff that'll probably keep us going for a month, maybe two if we head back and grab some more. But then it might be all four of us trying to survive on fish while deciding if it's worth risking a trip into the next town over or not."
"That's why we're looking for somewhere safe," said Clem. "There might not be a paradise out there, but there's got be something better than this; somewhere where we can live for years, and not months."
Anthony stared at Clementine, and she stared back at him. She couldn't tell what he was thinking, but he was definitely thinking about something.
"All right. If you three are so dead set on keeping this road trip rolling, I'll go along with it," he shrugged before setting the box he was holding on the grass. "Starting tomorrow, think I've done enough for today." Anthony smiled at the trio, then headed back into his camper and closed the door.
"Wait, hold up," said Patty as she examined the boxes.
"I forget something?" asked Anthony as he poked his head out of the camper.
"Yeah, like three more boxes of stuff," informed Patty.
"How do you figure that?" asked Anthony. "That's six boxes, we had twelve total, that's half."
"There're four of us total," reminded Patty as she gestured to Clem and Sarah. "Or do you have a harder time counting people than boxes?"
"I have a hard time counting people who weren't out there collecting stuff today," retorted Anthony. "You and I did all the work, we split the goods in half."
"There's four people here, that means we split it fours ways," dictated Patty.
"Or we split fifty-fifty with the two people who actually got it," suggested Anthony. "And then you can split your half with them however you want."
"You wouldn't have gotten shit today if I hadn't told you how to get past the walkers, and I only know about it because they told me," argued Patty. "So you owe them."
"I thought that's why I got drafted into being your personal fisherman?" challenged Anthony. "You tell me how to get to stuff from the dead, I'll get you people fish and show you how it's done. So now I gotta catch fish for you, teach you how to fish, go out to get food, only to keep one-quarter of it because why again? You told me about one useful trick and now I'm your indentured servant for all eternity?"
"If we hadn't have given you diesel, you'd still out in the middle of nowhere starving to death," said Patty. "We're in this together, which means everyone gets an equal share of whatever food any of us find."
"Really? Because I seem to recall when I was asking for food this morning you said it wasn't your responsibility to keep me fed," reminded Anthony. "But after spending hours hauling heavy ass boxes several blocks, now we're all in this together?"
"Listen smart ass, if you want me to fix your damn truck—and believe me it needs fixing I could tell just by listening to it on the way over—you're going to give us our fair share of that food."
"Fair share?" sniped Anthony as he crossed his arms. "That your word for extortion?"
"If you don't like it you can always leave." Clem was surprised to hear Patty say that.
"Well then, maybe I—"
"What about two-thirds?" Clem blurted out.
"Clem, why should we give up a share of our food?" asked Patty. "Just because he's being difficult?"
"He'll need to eat more if he's the one going out to get food," said Clem.
"So will I, which means I'd need more, so that cancels him out," argued Patty. "Besides, he ate a ton today while we're out. We'd probably have had another box of stuff if not for him eating it."
"And then we could be arguing about it as well," added Anthony.
"Two-thirds is fair. With the fish, that's plenty for us," reasoned Clem.
"Until we stop finding food and we'll have wished we had kept more," argued Patty.
"Then won't we be eating just the fish then?" asked Sarah. "And we'll need Anthony's help?"
"Yeah, what about then?" mocked Anthony with a smirk.
"Quiet!" ordered Patty.
"Patty, just give him two-thirds," demanded Clem. "It's not worth fighting over, at least not right now."
"Well gee Clem, I'm not sure if you remember, but two-thirds was your idea, not his," reminded Patty. "He's wanting to keep half of everything we found today. He never said—"
"I'll do two-thirds."
Patty turned to Anthony and shot him an angry look. "Really? Just like that? After arguing about how you deserved half of it for like five minutes?"
"Sure, one of us has got to be reasonable after all." Anthony flashed Patty a smug grin, which just seemed to further anger the woman. Clem watched as he retrieved two more boxes of goods and set them on the grass with the others. "There, everything nice and square now Red?"
"Don't call me that," ordered Patty through clenched teeth. "You—"
"It's fine," interjected Clementine.
"Great. If you need me, I'll be getting familiar with my new arsenal of fishing gear." Anthony closed the door in a hurry and the left the three to carry their spoils. They each grabbed a box, Clem struggling to tote hers, then began the short march back to the Brave.
"I really wished you two hadn't gotten involved in that," said Patty in a hushed voice.
"Why?" asked Sarah.
"Because now he's going to think he can get what he wants if he just argues long enough," said Patty as she set her box beside the Brave. "You shouldn't have said we'll give him a third."
"What? He was about to leave us," argued an annoyed Clem as she dropped her box on the ground. "All because you wouldn't give him more."
"He was bluffing," said Patty.
"How can you be sure?" asked Sarah as she placed her box on the ground.
"He won't bail on us until after I work on his truck," stated Patty as she went to collect another box. "That gives us leverage."
"Leverage?" asked Clem. "I thought that's just when you move something with a lever?"
"That's what I was trying to do, as long as we have something Anthony needs, we can use that to move him wherever we want," explained Patty as she grabbed another box.
"That doesn't seem right," noted Sarah as she picked up some food.
"Hey, he's doing it with us," argued Patty. "He knows we want to learn how to fish, and he used that to get a bigger cut of the food."
"He… he did," realized Clem as she toted her box back to the Brave.
"If I could have gotten away with it, I wouldn't have taught him how to get past the dead so soon," said Patty as she placed her box on the ground. "But I did because I knew his truck being in shit shape still gave me something to bargain with."
"But how do you know his truck is in bad shape?" asked Clem as she set her box down.
"Trust me." Clem just stared at Patty until she sighed. "There's a long delay before it starts, I can hear the engine belt rattling, the muffler is giving off some weird smells, and that was all before today when I saw that half the engine maintenance lights on his truck's dashboard were lit up."
"It sounds like it's going to break down," concluded Sarah as she put her box down.
"Yeah, and that's why he needs me," said Patty as she went back to collect the last of their supplies. "And that's why we should have just insisted on keeping our half."
"But does he know he needs you?" asked Clem as grabbed a box.
"I made it pretty clear his truck is in dire need of tune up," said Patty as she grabbed her backpack and the trash bag she carried out.
"Maybe he thinks his truck is fine and you're just bluffing," suggested Clem.
"He'd have to be a damn idiot to think that," said Patty as she walked back to the Brave. "It couldn't be more obvious."
"To you, I don't think I would have noticed all that stuff you just said." Clem's observation caused Patty to take pause.
"Did Anthony mention anything about his truck today?" asked Sarah. "Like, did he want to go to an auto shop to get the stuff you'd need to fix his truck?"
"We did go by an auto shop. But it was my idea, and he just kept pestering me to leave. Bastard made me carry everything I picked up in my own backpack, had to stuff our raincoats and gear into this trash bag when we finished," said the woman as she dropped both items in front of the RV.
"So he probably didn't think his truck needed fixing," concluded Sarah as she set her box with the rest.
"Which means, he was probably going to leave just now," said Clem as placed the final bit of supplies on the grass.
Patty groaned as she rubbed her forehead. "I'm sorry…" she said in a quiet voice. "It's been a long day and… that prick was just really starting to get to me. I really didn't want to give him anything that we didn't have to."
"It's okay," assured Sarah.
"But you should be careful with him," added Clem. "You were right about us needing to learn to get food other ways. We don't want him to leave until after he teaches us how to fish."
"Yeah, yeah, I'll play nice, for now anyway." Patty took a deep breath. "All right, let's get all this inside."
"Right." Sarah removed the Brave's keys from her pocket and headed for the door.
"Sorry again, it's just, we really do need as much food as we can get," said Patty. "After all, there's not really three of us, there's—"
"Mah-bah!" Everyone looked on in surprise as Omid emerged from the Brave, an angry look on the boy's chubby face.
"How did you get out of your crib?" said Clem as the boy climbed down the bottom step and immediately started walking over to the younger girl. "OJ, what are—"
"Mah-bah!" Omid clumsy pawed at Clementine's pockets. "Mah-bah!" The girl reached into her pocket and pulled out the baggie she had forgotten she had. "Mah-bah," he said in a happier voice before opening his mouth.
"He wants more ice cream," said Clem.
"Holy shit…" Everyone turned around to see Anthony staring at them in surprise. "You guys have more of that ice cream?"