Five Days Later
If Clementine and I hadn't gotten used to traveling on foot for the past nearly two years, we'd be complaining about our feet aching as much as the others in the cabin group. Sure, it's still a pain in the ass, but it's not as bad for me and Clem as it is for the rest.
We've been on the road for about five days, and like Luke said, we just keep heading north. It's not so bad traveling with these people so far, but of course, they aren't as used to being on the road as we were. One night, I got lucky with finding a few squirrels for supper and got to roast them over a fire. It was refreshing to finally have somewhat of a hot meal for once, especially meat...but Clem and I have a personal rule for traveling. Either you can have a hot meal, or a good night's sleep, not both. The cabin group had to learn that really quickly before Clem and I left them behind, lucky for us, Luke was able to accept that rule long before the others did.
It was nearing dusk when we came across a river that was too far to swim across. Even if we could, the weather is not suitable for swimming, we'd die of hypothermia before we could reach the other side. Luckily, we came across a bridge. Clementine and I stood upon a rock so we could get a better look at the other side, I handed her my binoculars so she could see just a little better than me.
"Y'all see anything?"
"We can see the bridge," I say.
"And does it look passable?"
"I think so," Clem answers Luke.
"Good."
"There's also a little house by the bridge on the other side."
"How big is it?"
"She just said it was small. Maybe you should do a personal checkup on your ears, 'doc'." I swear, he just keeps getting worse...
"There's also this...lift or something," Clementine adds.
"Chair lift," Luke inquires what Clem meant by that. "Must be that ski resort."
"I've...never been skiing."
"Bec and I went once."
"It wasn't pretty," Rebecca admits with an embarrassed chuckle.
"You know," I whisper down to Clementine. "Sandy always wanted to see what skiing was like, do you remember that?"
"I think so... I wish she was here with us, I bet she would've liked it out here."
"I miss her too, Kiddo," I pat her head. "I bet she would've too."
"What else can y'all see up there?"
"Hold on," Clementine looks further up the mountain, she sees a large building that I think might be a ski lodge. "There's a building on the mountain."
"What's it look like?"
"It's pretty big," That's what she said. I couldn't resist making that joke in my head.
"That sounds like a good place to spend the night."
"Agreed," I say to Luke before hopping off of the rock with Clementine, she hands me back my binoculars and I put them back in my bag.
"We have to cross that bridge," Carlos says to the rest of the cabin group. "Let's go."
"Whoa, whoa, whoa. Hold on there, 'doc'," I say before anyone can start getting to their feet. "We can't all just go running across that thing out in the open. Plus, we don't know what's on there so we need to be careful."
"He's right," Luke agrees with me. "If we get spotted out there by the dead or the living, we're gonna be trapped."
"Going around that lake will take too long," Carlos crosses his arms.
"Who said we were gonna do that? I've been through this a million times. Me and Clem can sneak across, clear out any Walkers we run into, and once we make sure it's clear, the rest of you guys can cross over too."
"I'll go with y'all," Luke volunteers. "Give ya an extra hand if things go bad."
"Hmm," I turn to the little one to see what she thinks. "What do you say, partner?"
"It never hurts to have an extra hand, I trust him."
Took the words right out of my mouth, Kiddo.
"So it's settled," Luke was pleased with Clem's words, and he turned to his group with a plan set in mind. "The three of us will clear the bridge before the rest of y'all come across."
"You think splitting up the group is a good idea?"
"It's better than having no idea at all," I say. "Plus, it's better than risking everyone all at once."
"We'll have a tough time coverin' you from back here," Alvin said.
"Well, we'll just turn back if it gets hairy," Luke suggests...but Carlos still looks like he has something to say.
"Clementine should stay here."
"Excuse me?"
"She's..."
"'She's' what?" Luke seemed just as baffled as I was, there's no way he's about to say what I think he's gonna say.
"She's just a little girl."
"Hijo de puta..." I scoff. We're really gonna do this again?
"She's a valuable little girl," Luke corrects him before I lose my shit. "I mean, hell, if she can sneak into a house and no one notice, sew up a dude's arm, and kill a lurker, she's fit to cross a damn bridge."
"He's got a point," At least Alvin can see that.
"You're not my dad, Carlos," The little one in question crossed her arms, annoyed with the Spanish 'doctor'. "I can take care of myself."
"And you are lucky you're not my daughter."
Clementine simply rolled her eyes at that. "Thank God."
"HA!" I couldn't resist laughing at Clementine's insult, even Luke couldn't fight back his chuckle. "Hope you packed some aloe vera for that burn, 'Doc'!"
"Hahaha..." Luke takes a second to calm himself from laughing, now acting more serious but he still had a small grin plucking at the corner of his mouth. "It's gonna be fine, alright? We'll signal you guys in ten minutes. Just watch out for a light at the far side."
"I can go too," Nick steps up with his rifle in hand, and I immediately shake my head.
"Three's enough, Nick."
"He's right," Luke agrees. "You stay with the group."
"I'm fine, guys."
"Then you can stay here and watch out for the rest of the group, we won't be too long." Luke, Clementine, and I start heading for the bridge, only for Carlos to speak his mind one last time.
"I don't like this."
"Yeah, well, when's the last time you liked anything, Carlos?"
"I'm guessing...fifteen years ago?"
My joke earns a few laughs, a few eye rolls, and one confused look from the 'doctor's' daughter. With a better attitude and a plan set in motion, the three of us walked further along the dirt path and set course for the bridge. Once we were a good distance away from the rest of the group, Luke broke the silence.
"Hey, sorry about that. I think I just needed a minute away from...all of that. And right now, I don't trust Nick to tie his own shoes. They're just still on edge after the Carver thing."
"I swear," I groan. "if I hear that name one more time..."
"It's been five days. Why would Carver still be following us?" Clementine asks a good question, but I honestly don't want to hear another conversation about it."
"...What's the most important thing in this world?" Thankfully, Luke was ready to change the subject. "What does everyone want?" Even the gangs. What do y'all think they're all after?"
"Food," Clem says with a big grin, I can imagine that she's picturing the biggest plate in the world with all of her favorite foods and snacks on top of it.
"Nope."
"You sure, dude? I would kill another man for a warm, juicy, cheeseburger right now. Don't forget about the salty, crispy, flaky fries to go with it..." My mouth couldn't resist watering at the mention of such an American meal.
"Okay, let's drop that, back to the original question. What's the one thing a guy would walk hundreds of miles to get back? Somethin' y'all just can't...find."
Ah. I think I see where Luke is going with this, Clementine does too. "Family," We say at the same time, knowing that it's all we really have left from before the world went to shit.
Luke nodded, pleased with our answer but he frowned sadly. "It's a tough world out there without people you can trust," With a look like that, I can imagine either he or someone else in his group isn't exactly proud of the things they've done...I can relate to that. "Anyways," He continues. "you can ask Rebecca, okay? I'm not gonna get in the middle of it. We've all made mistakes. Done things that we regret. It's not my place to talk about someone else's past, you know?"
"Seems like we're already in the middle of it," Clementine points out, making me and Luke chuckle.
"Tell me about it."
"Reminds me of the worst parts of high school..."
"Now that is somethin' I will never miss, even in the apocalypse."
Luke and I share another laugh as we finally reach the opening of the bridge...where three Walkers have decided to make their resting place. One was sitting on the ground leaning against a tree trunk while the other two were huddled together closer to the bridge itself. Luke sees them and crouches down behind a rock, Clem and I follow close behind him and take place behind the rock.
"Hmm. We can't shoot 'em. Too much noise."
"There's only three," I add.
"So let's take 'em," Clementine smirked, earning a grin from me and Luke.
"I like your style," We move a little closer and keep out of the Walker's sight. "Elijah and I'll take the big ones, you can get shorty, Clem."
"Actually, I can get the small one," I say. "you two can get tweedle dee and tweedle fucking retard over there."
"What?" Luke looks at me like I'm crazy. "Look, it's not like I know you and your girl have guts, but are y'all nuts?"
"Maybe we are," Clementine smirked at him.
"Besides, we've been through this before. I think Clem here can show you how it's really done."
"Oh, really now?"
"Just watch and learn," I took out my sickle, Luke unsheathed his machete from his back, and Clementine grasped onto Hilda. The three of us move toward the Walkers with our weapons in hand, I kill the sitting Walker easily and I watch as Clementine hits one of the bigger ones in the back of its leg. Once it was immobilized on the ground, Clementine stuck the sharp end of her ice pick into the back of the Walker's skull, killing it. Luke simply swung his machete and cut the third Walker's head clean off from its body.
"Whoa..." Luke finally got a good look at Clem's handiwork, he sheathes his weapon and gives a hard pat on her back. "Nice work, Kid. Who taught ya how to do that?"
"A friend of ours," I say. "She showed us that these things go down easier than you think, once they're down, it takes them a minute to get back up. You just gotta be fast and know how to take 'em down."
"Damn...glad I'm out here with you two."
"Well, we're not out of the woods yet," Clem says now eyeing down further down the bridge, only now I realize that it was one for a railroad. I really doubt we have to worry about any trains coming our way...
Trains... I haven't even seen much of any others since...
I shook away my rising nostalgia and led the way down the bridge, Luke and Clem follow close behind me and the former watches our backs. For the first part, the bridge had a few metal beams that were blocking the path but not too much to stop us from crossing, so we kept going until we ran into...a small problem. When I say small, there were two walkers ahead of us and ready to feast on our flesh once they saw us coming.
"Hold on," I say just before Luke is about to reach for his machete. I noticed that along the railroad, a few of the boards were rotten enough that they would snap in two. Right below was a good fifty-foot drop into the river. "Hah!"
I stomp my foot on a few of the boards, it takes a few tries but they eventually break and fall all the way down into the river. I nearly lost my footing but Luke was there to keep me standing up straight. Now with a trap laid out for our hungry friends, the three of us lure the walkers to their doom. Like lemmings, they simply walk off the edge and fall right into the hole. Only now, these monsters were stupid enough to fall over rather than have a camera crew force them to jump.
"Dumbasses," Clementine smirked.
"You sure gotta mouth on you, Kid."
"I'm afraid that would be my fault," I admit. "Can't help how I run my mouth sometimes. I even how to insult people in Spanish."
"You're kidding..."
"Te corto las pelotas, cabron." (I'll cut your balls off)
"The hell did she just say to me?"
"I'll let you know during my next seminar," I laugh and so does Clementine, I can't help but feel like a proud parent...but my pride immediately goes away when I see a man on the other side of the bridge walking toward us, he was holding a rifle in his hands but I can't exactly make out his face. "Shit..."
"Y'all see him too, right?" Luke asks in a hushed whisper, now seeing the man too.
"Yeah."
"We see 'em. Let's just talk to him."
"Clem should do the talkin'."
"What?! Why me?"
"'Cause I don't want to get in a fight, I don't think your brother don't either. You really think he'd shoot a little girl?"
"I'd shoot me."
"Well, that's a helluva thing to say."
"I'd shoot one too," I admit, though I'm not proud of it.
"The hell is that supposed to mean?"
"It means that anyone these days is capable of taking away a life, even a kid. Clem here is living proof...and we've lost someone before thanks to a stupid kid pokin' her nose where it don't belong."
"...Look," Luke sighs. "Even if it comes down to that, we'll shoot him first."
Let's hope it doesn't come to that.
The three of us wait for the rifleman to get closer, he stops when he is at least twenty-five feet between us and calls out, "Well, who are you?"
"Who's asking?" I call back.
"I am."
Pretty straightforward response, your time to shine, Kiddo.
"I'm Clementine, this is Luke, and this is my brother, Elijah."
"Clementine, Luke, and Elijah..." He repeats our names and takes a few steps closer to us, his eyes squinting to get a better look at us. This allows me to get a better look at the man for myself, he was a little shorter than me but he looked like he was in his mid-thirties, he had a goatee and I think he's of Asian descent with a little caucasian as well. "Huh. You don't look like assholes. Are you assholes? No offense or anything, but you know how it is out here, you run into a lot of assholes."
"I'm not an asshole," Clem crosses her arms as she answers.
"Are you calling me an asshole?" Luke smirks at what Clementine is probably implying.
"I know I can be one, but that still hurts me, Clem," I add, faking a hurt look across my face. Fortunately for the three of us, the hooded man found amusement in our answer, a small chuckle escaped from him before he approached us now with his rifle lowered.
"You folks headed north like everyone else?"
"'Everone else'?" Luke questioned the man.
"I see at least one group a day move through here. You all look the same. It's like a great migration of the dazed and confused."
"Have you seen two women named Molly and Christa?" Clementine asks him.
"Molly and Christa?"
"Both are about this tall," I ley my hand out just below where my top lip is, exactly how tall Molly and Christa are. "One black and one blonde, Have you seen 'em?"
"Well...maybe?"
"Really?!" Clementine's hope just sparked up to eleven when the man said that, but I remember that one guy said that they were taken. Maybe this guy has seen...him too.
"I mean, a lot of people come through here. I don't know."
"...What about a man named 'Carver'?" I asked him.
"Carver? Like George Washington Carver? The peanut butter guy?"
"What?"
"He was a guy who helped popularize peanut butter," I whisper to Clem before I continued talking to the hooded man. "No. This Carver guy should be around my height, older man, looks like a real piece of shit, probably reeks of whiskey too."
"...How do you know that?" I ignore Luke's question as I wait for the man's answer to my own.
"Sorry, never seen someone like that before... But now I want some peanut butter, though."
Man... I can't even remember the last time I've even seen any peanut butter or even some empty jars.
"I gotta say," He continues. "you guys look like shit. If you need food, I've got some canned stuff in the station back here," He gestures to the small building behind him.
"Well, that's...awful nice of you."
"Yeah...it is," I cross my arms. "What's the catch?"
"No catch," He said, shaking his head with a small, genuine smile. "I've got plenty."
"Sorry if I have a hard time believing that. I've had my fair share of 'assholes' as you put it, so what exactly is it that you want from us if you give us food?"
"Uh...don't kill me?"
"..." That's probably the most genuine reaction I've seen from a man for a long time. Plus, he doesn't strike me as a violent person by nature. I think we can trust him. "Fair enough."
"Alright then," Luke smiles back at him. "Thank you."
"Hey, no problem. Nice running into friendly faces out here. Like I said, I've got food and supplies back in the station."
"What's your name?"
"Oh, it's..." The man's eyes squinted, but he wasn't looking at us. "What the fuck, man?" His angered words make the three of us turn around...and we see exactly what he was upset about. More specifically...who it was.
"What the hell is he doin'?!" Nick, with his rifle in hand, was running toward us, he aimed his weapon once his eyes met the strangers...and he did the same. "No, no, no ,no! He's wi- He's with us!" Luke waved his arms, hoping to keep his friend from pulling the trigger...but I know better than that. "Nick! NO!"
"Put it down!"
"Don't shoot!" Clem's cry rings out behind me as I dash for the hooded man, he looks at me in shock and nearly points his rifle at me before I tackle him to the ground.
BANG!
The gunshot makes my ears ring. I get off of the hooded man and look back to Luke and Clem, he kept her from getting hit. Thanks, Luke. I see Nick coming closer...and I make a beeline right for him. "Did I hit him?" He asked. "Where is-" I don't even give him a chance to speak another word before I snatch the rifle out of his hands and hit him in the gut with the butt of it, this knocks the wind out of him and makes him fall to the floor of the bridge.
"You fuckin' moron! You coulda killed us!"
"Who the hell is that?!" The man shouts, pointing his rifle down at a winded Nick. "Is he with you?!"
"Whoa, whoa, whoa!" Luke gets in between his friend and the stranger. "Yes, he's with us! But he's just a little on edge, it's been a rough few days for us."
"He almost shot me!"
"We're well aware!" I say. "But we can talk about it once we get off this bridge, that gunshot rang out for miles and will bring Walkers."
"He's right, we gotta get off this bridge. Let's go."
"Wait. Who the hell are they?!" The stranger pointed to the opposite end of the bridge, where the rest of our group was already crossing.
Great, I'm sure this'll go over well with them...
We all get to the other side of the river, everyone seemed on edge with the stranger's appearance and he was understandably just as skeptical about us. Nick was all right, but there was no way I was giving him back his rifle after what he tried to pull a few minutes ago so I'm holding onto it for now.
"Who...in the hell...are you?" Rebecca was the first to question the hooded man despite her exhaustion.
"I feel like I should be asking you people that." He retorts.
"Look, man," Alvin speaks up calmly, not wanting to raise any more tension. "from where we were standin', it looked like you had a gun on our friends."
"Well, your buddy drew first!"
"Bullshit!" Nick grew angry at his accusation.
"Shut up, Nick."
"Pull your head outta your ass, farmhand," I say. "Luke, Clem, and I saw you point your rifle at him with us still in your line of sight! You coulda hit one of us!"
"Yeah, but I didn't!"
"Look, I...I know Pete was close to you, Nick, but you can't-"
"Don't fucking talk about him!" The grieving farmhand cuts Luke off.
"Does this happen a lot with your people?" The hooded man asked me.
"So far, yeah," I nod. "My girl and I have been with these guys for about a week now. What's your name anyway?"
"It's Matthew."
"Well, Matthew, it's nice to meet you. You'll have to forgive some of these guys," I whispered, leaning in to whisper to him. They can be real idiots sometimes. Luke is probably the only one with a decent brain."
"Are any of the others gonna try and shoot me too?"
"Nah," I shook my head. "Without a weapon, Nick ain't much. Hell, he's barely much with one. Alvin is a good guy. Rebecca is all bark with no bite. Carlos claims he's a doctor but he can't tell the difference between a walker bite and a dog bite. And his daughter Sarah has been practically sheltered ever since the world went to shit."
"Well, like you, Luke, and your sister, they all look like shit. How long have you guys been on the road?"
"Five days now. They've insisted on reaching the other side of the mountain by the end of the week."
"Why's that?"
"Well-"
"I hate to cut your conversation short," Carlos interrupts me as he approaches me and Matthew. "But I need to ask..."
"Matthew," I tell Carlos his name, fighting back the urge to tell him to fuck off.
"Right. I need to ask Matthew here if he's-"
"No, 'Doc', he doesn't even know who Carver is," I interrupt him, giving him a taste of his own medicine. "How about you just keep an eye out while I can see the food that Matthew here mentioned before? Clem," I look over to her. "come on."
"Right behind you," She nods, leaving the others so they can have their own conversations.
"It's just in the station," Matthew leads us to the front of the small building...but I noticed that Nick was sitting alone on a bench just a few feet from the door that leads inside the station.
"You two go ahead, I need to have a little talk with Nick here."
"You sure?"
"I am," I nod at Matthew, he heads inside and Clem gives me a knowing nod. The kid knows I'm about to give a piece of advice, and I pray to god that he actually listens. I tower over him for a good few seconds before he builds up the courage to look up at me in the eye.
"...I had to kill my mom," He admits to me, which is honestly not surprising. Luke told me and Clementine about how he lost his mother, I can imagine he wanted to be the one to put her out of her misery...something no child should ever have to go through. "Sounds weird when I say it out loud, huh?" Nick humorlessly chuckles but I let him keep going, it seems like he has more to say after looking over to where Luke and Carlos are having a private conversation. "Luke always used to push me. I never wanted to go into business with him. I remember when he sold me on it, his 'big plan'. Some fuckin' plan..."
What the hell does this have to do with what happened on the bridge?
"A case a beer in, he just said," Nick continues, now imitating his friend, Luke. "'Nick, we're burnin' daylight'. And that was that. After six months, we were flat broke. But I didn't care, we were havin' fun... I wish I was like him, I wish I could just keep movin' all the time. But I'm just not...built like that."
It shows...
"I'm sure they're talkin' about me right now," Nick rolled his eyes, now imitating a certain Spanish Doctor. "'Luke, he's becoming a danger to the group," I'd laugh, but I'm too annoyed. "I swear, that guy inside the station looked like he was holdin' you guys up. I figured he was with Carver."
"Well, he wasn't. And honestly, man, you need to get over the fact that you've lost people. Everyone here has lost someone, it doesn't give you an excuse to get others killed along the way, least of all yourself. An old friend of mine once told me that you don't end it all because it's hard. You stick it out and help out the folks you care about. That same man died so that he could make sure a poor kid didn't have to suffer a painful death. And you know something? You reminded me a lot about that kid, he was a screw up too. The only difference is that he was scared, you've been through this world for almost two years now and it seems to me that you still make mistakes. So let me make this very clear," I lean down and stare deeply into Nick's eyes. "You think long and hard about what Pete's last words to you meant. 'Keep your head on straight'. In other words, use that head of yours to think before you act. Got it?"
I don't even wait for a response so I head into the station, I find Matthew and Clementine rummaging through a trunk that rested underneath a window. I look over them and see for myself that Matthew was not lying about the food he had, there were at least seven cans of peaches and I think some of them were beans too.
"Huh," Matthew shows Clementine one of the cans. "That girl kinda looks like you."
"Wait, what?" I took one of the cans, now noticing the logo of a hand-drawn little girl with bright blue overalls and a red shirt with her hair tied up in pigtails. "Well, I'll be damned. She kinda does look like you," Clementine doesn't seem too pleased with me agreeing with Matthew and she elbows me in the stomach...and I immediately regret my decision.
Damn, she's getting stronger.
"Asshole..."
"Are you two always like this?" Matthew smirks at how we bond.
"Sometimes, but only when he forgets I'm not just a little kid."
"I only said it kinda looks like you, you're ten times more badass than that sissy on the can."
"And don't you forget it."
"Anyways," The pain in my gut fades as I turn to Matthew, I have a few questions for him. "Why are you rested out here all by yourself?"
"I just keep an eye out for any shady survivors and lend a helping hand to those who are making their way north. Plus, it's nice to get away from the others."
"'Others'?" Clementine asks.
"Yeah," He nods. "I have a small group that's set up on top of the mountain, I think they'll like you. Well, probably just you two. One of our guys can be a piece of work sometimes. But I've only known him for a short while now."
"Well, you don't seem like a people person yourself if you're cooped up in this box with nothing but peaches and beans to keep you company."
"Hey, I keep a good book or two here on occasion too." After a hearty laugh from Matthew, the station door opens with Alvin comes inside with his backpack over his shoulders.
"Man, I thought we had it bad. Look at this dump."
"Hey, this is my humble abode you're talking about here, man."
"Right..." Alvin takes the foot out of his mouth and gets a good look at the food in the trunk. "Guess you did have food, after all. Man, fuck Nick. He's lost a lotta people, that's for sure. But that doesn't give him any excuse to start shootin' at strangers."
"Trust me, I just made that point very clear."
"At least give him a break," Clementine adds. "He may be an idiot, but his uncle literally just died."
"Yeah, true enough. I don't know what I'd do if I lost Bec. I'm just saying..." Alvin sighs. "I mean, any of y'all ever known anyone to do a somethin' like that?"
"Nah, not me."
"Well," I look over to Clem, we both have one specific bitch in mind who got people killed over her grief. "There was this woman we used to know."
"What happened?"
"Her dad died, he was a real piece of shit," Clem crosses her arms. "She just blamed a lot of my friends for it and got some good people killed, she shot a woman too...and nearly shot my brother too."
"Damn. What'd y'all do?"
"I nearly slit her throat, but I thought leaving her alone with nothing but the clothes on her back was a far worse punishment."
"Damn..."
I don't care how bad it sounds, she deserved it along with her pathetic waste of human flesh she called a father.
"Oh, crap," Matthew, now looking through the window and out to where the bridge was, sounded panicked. "We gotta problem outside."
Oh, great. What now?
I looked outside beside him and saw exactly what the problem was. A herd of Walkers was crossing the bridge. I counted at least ten of them. Nick's gunshot must have brought them all. It looks like we're not staying here for much longer.
"Walkers..."
"Let's go!" All four of us ran outside and met the others, who were already on their feet and ready to go. "I hope you all packed your running shoes! Move it!" And so we began our descent up the mountain. Hopefully, we can at least make that ski lodge a place where we can rest for one night...if Matthew's people don't mind guests, that is.
Far over...the Misty Mountains cold...
Two dungeons deep...and caverns old...
We must away...ere break of day...
To find our long...forgotten gold...
