(Violet's Pov)
I give a slide glance to Clementine as she was looking around the cage. I wanted to say something but what could I say in a situation like this. I mean I couldn't say anything with these whisperers next to us. I fucked up. If I didn't have that stupid panic attack or whatever we would have been fine, we would have been with the others. I tighten my injured hand and I shake my head as I place my head to my knees.
The Whisperers would talk amongst themselves and it was hard for me to hear a single word. I turn my head a bit to look to Clementine as she was looking to the one on the horse. She then looked to me and I take a breath. The bumps and jolts of the caged cart was all we had going for us. To many people to try and escape, even without guns we couldn't take them.
I closed my eyes for a bit and take another breath before I look to the Walkers as we passed them. How come they weren't trying to get to the cage? Did we still smell like Walkers? I Look to my bloody clothes and then I look to Clementine who also was looking at her clothes.
"We still smell like Walkers hu?" I whisper and then someone hit the cage.
"Stop talking." They Whisperer says and I look to them. The person next to them looked to the Whisperer and placed their hand on their shoulder as they kept walking. The one who hit the cage was taken to the front and the other walked next to us.
"He's an idiot, sorry." They whisper and I nod.
"What's going on?" Clem asked but she didn't look to the Whisperer.
"We are taking you to our camp, well more of our community." They tell us.
"Why though?" I asked.
"We need help, more people." They tell us.
"We killed a bunch of raiders so we didn't have to deal with this." I tell them.
"We heard."
"How?" Clem asked.
"Word travels fast, especially about you." They tells us and I look to Clem.
"We had an old member talk about a girl with the baseball cap, and a raider that lived told us the same thing." They tell us.
"Old member? James?" Clementine asked and the whisperer looked to us.
"No." They tell us and I tried to think of any other whisperer but couldn't think of one. The girl we met didn't know Clem that well, and she never mentioned knowing the whisperer girl.
"Who?" Clementine asked but no response. We weren't going to get anymore from them and I rubbed the back of my neck and looked to Clementine as she looked to be thinking. We finally get to a camp after what was hours in the cage. They stopped and then opened the back grabbing Clem and I and took us to a tent. When we are seated, I looked around.
"I told you, not to take peo-… Clementine." I hear and look to see a man with a beard and what looked to be armor.
"Jesus? Or Paul?" Clementine asked and the man smiled.
"Jesus, and who is this?" The man asked.
"I'd be happy to answer once we are untied." Clementine says and he nods as he comes over to us.
"What are you-."
"They are friends, drop it." Jesus says and he finished untying us and I rubbed my wrists a bit. I look over to Clementine as she did the same and I look to her wrists a bit. They were rubbed a bit raw but not too badly.
"This is Violet, now explain why this shit is happening." She tells him and he sighed.
"We needed more people to help us but it seems a group took matters in their own hands making it a difficult process." He explained.
"Yeah, well one of them wanted to kill us." I mutter and he looked to me a bit.
"I am sorry if he had hurt you and I will have a talk with him later, would you two like something to eat or drink… maybe we can chat a bit." Jesus asked and I look to Clem as she nods.
"Sure, uh but we can't stay long." She tells him.
"Of course, and um… Violet right? I am sorry this is how we first meet." He says and I nod as he leaves and I look to Clementine a bit and raise a brow at her and she takes a breath.
"Is everything ok?" I asked and she nods.
"Honestly it's a good thing it's Jesus that's in charge, he's an understanding guy, I met him back when I was looking for AJ." She tells me and I nod at this.
"Yeah, I think you mentioned him a few times, you said he is pretty reliable, but I thought he was in that Richmond place?" I asked and she nods.
"He was, but something must have happened." She says and Jesus comes back and hands us each a bottle water and he takes a seat.
"Clementine we really need help." He says to her and she nods.
"Did something happen to Richmond?" She asked him and he nods.
"Yes, a bunch of people came to Richmond and they stayed but they wanted more than that." He tells her.
"So, they took over from the inside… were they part of a previous group?" I asked and he looked to me.
"We didn't know, we were just trying to help." He tells us and I look to Clementine a bit and she looked to be thinking.
"Look all I can do is give you some ideas for planning, but we can't be apart of this." Clem tells him and I nod just a little to this.
"Of course, we need fresh eyes." He says and then grabbed some maps and papers and I look to them a bit and noticed the war was closer than what we originally thought. I see the map had our school being a pathway to an attack they had planned and it was labeled uninhabited with a question mark.
"Have you been looking into the school?" I asked.
"We had been told by some Caravans that said there was a school nearby that had people living there, we didn't know which school we thought they meant in town." He says and I coughed a bit and I look to him.
"Would be stupid if we were in the town school… sorry I just… sorry." I tell him and he chuckled a bit.
"Well, we like to be sure, but I get it." He tells me and I nod and I look to Clementine.
"Is this the group you're fighting? The resistance?" She asked as she pointed to what was deemed Enemy lines. Jesus nods and explains that they just called themselves that because they resist to law and order." He tells us.
"So, they just do whatever they want?" Clementine asked and I sit up a bit.
"Oh, I know this, in those books I've been reading, they believe that since the world is in chaos then they should be allowed to be a part of it, strangely though they have a list of rules they have to abide by." I tell them and they look to me.
"What?" I asked.
"Nothing just… surprised." Jesus says and I shrugged at this.
"Just something to read while bored." I tell him and he nods.
"So, what would these rules be?" Clementine asked and I think.
"The usual, no killing in the group, no bad things basically… some might have a rule of not to kill kids depending, unless they're psychotic and don't care." I tell them and they look to me a bit.
"Seems about right." Jesus says and I nod a little at this and I think a bit.
"Same as most the people in groups like that." Clem says and I nod again and I take a drink of the water.
"So… what do you think?" Jesus asked as we looked to the papers for a bit and I point to the woods.
"Best to get them there, if you know the place well, if they do then there is a problem, but if you head to the river over here you can lose them if something bad happens, best way to escape, if you can't escape to the river heading back this way to the ranger stations would also be best or at least to have landmarks." Clementine says as she uses a pencil on the map. I watched as she was showing Jesus other points they could go to and I look to the map a bit.
I point to a section on the map where there were a few abandoned buildings. I knew the area well enough and I look to the both of them as they looked to me.
"If you stop here, you'll find some supplies." I tell Jesus quietly. He looked to me as did Clementine and I clear my throat a bit.
"Those are just abandoned buildings." He says and I nod.
"Perfect place to stash some supplies in the floor boards." I tell him and he looks to me and nods. Once we were done Jesus and his other group members were kind enough to give us some extra supplies for the long trip ahead of us. Clementine and I then began walking into the woods away from the way there heard was.
"Did you put those supplies there?" Clementine asked and I nod.
"After you had left, I started to get scared of someone else coming to take our home… I went into town to get some supplies and one day I had the thought to go and store them in other places incase it did happen… if we couldn't grab our stuff back at the school." I explained to her.
"Were you really that scared?" She asked and I nod.
"I was terrified… and when you left it got worse but I just… I just didn't show it and… it just happened… I mean now others can use it, but… I was scared Clementine." I tell her. We stayed quiet for a while and I take a breath before I looked down to her and she looked to me a bit. I looked to the front of us and stepped over a log and after a while we decided to take a break over by a lake.
"Are you still scared?" She asked and I nod.
"Yes, I am… what about you?" I asked.
"Same… I'm scared of losing people I think of as family, and I'm scared of losing AJ, it's…. it's all scary." She tells me and I look to her then back to the lake and I take a breath.
"Life has been a pain these past few years." I tried to joke but Clementine doesn't laugh, not even a slight giggle or chuckle. I rubbed the back of my neck as I look to the lake.
"We have to go and see if we can meet up with everyone." She says as she gets up and I look to her.
"Clem-."
"Just… let's just go." She says and I get up and I follow her as we walked deep into the woods.
"Clem is something wrong?" I asked after an hour of silence.
"It's this stupid war bullshit, people fighting and causing so many problems for people who don't want to be involved, it's idiotic at most." She says and I look to her.
"You understand right?" She asked and I nod as we keep walking.
"I mean yeah, I did kind of have a freak out about it." I tell her and she sighed.
"I, I'm sorry I just…" She stopped and I look to her a bit.
"Hey it's fine… I understand it's just a bullshit subject, people wanting to kill or kidnap others for the whole idea of being the one community that takes over the entire state or states, it's basically like how the world once was." I tell her and she looked at me and I smile a little at her.
"You seem better." She says and I look to her.
"Oh no this is just me trying to not freak out at the potential bullshit that's going to come our way, if I've learned anything in the past almost ten eleven years in this apocalypse, it's that strange things always happen and the only thing we can do is fight it or just die trying, like what we have been doing this whole time." I stated and she looked to me.
"You seem to be taking this a little to easily." She tells me and I shrugged.
"I think at this point I've and all of us have been desensitized to the fact that a punch of crazy people aren't going to allow anyone peace because they're idiotic." I tell her and she looked ahead of her.
"Well, that's a fun way of thinking about it." She says and I chuckled a little.
"Fun yeah… anyway we should be at the meetup point in a few days… kind of wish they could have given us a horse or something to make the trip quick." I mutter the last part and Clementine giggled a bit.
"Well, at least they gave us extra food." She says and I nod in agreement. We keep walking and I tried to think of anything to say and I take a breath.
"So, once we meet up with the others what do we tell them?" I asked.
"Everything, about the war and how we need to change our plans if something is to happen." She says and I nod a bit at this. It had been a few hours before we took another break and I look to the maps a bit as we ate our dinner. I think for a while as I currently eat some of the stew we had. As I looked to the map a bit I had a feeling that something or specifically someone was watching me. I look up a bit from the map as I had some stew in my mouth and I see Clementine looking at me as she was leaning a bit on her knees as she looked to me. I swallow my food and I sit up a bit.
"What?" I asked and she just shrugged.
"I don't know really." She says and I raised a brow at her and chuckled a bit.
"You don't know why you're looking at me?" I asked and she nods.
"Yeah, I really don't know…. Guess you have one of those faces." She says and I chuckled again and couldn't help but smile a little.
"Sorry… I have one of those faces? Like… to punch?" I asked and she laughed.
"No, no, just…. you look good." She tells me and I give her the face that means 'Really?' I laughed a bit and shake my head and I take a breath.
"Alright, I look so good that you have to look at me…" I pause a bit and think for a while and look back to Clementine a bit as she shrugs and I eat my stew a bit. I look a bit to see Clementine still looking at me and I look back to her.
"You look good too you know." I tell her and she smiled at me a bit and I smile back.
"We should be about a day or two out from where the others are, we can make a stop at the cabin for anything that might still be there." She suggests and I nod at this.
"Probably not much, after I saw the Whisperers, I doubt there is anything left." I mutter and I finish my stew and once done I set the bowl to the side and I look back to the map and sighed a bit at this and scratch my head. I put the map up and I lay back on the ground a bit and I cover my eyes with my hands as I think a bit. I could hear the wind blowing outside and some cool air coming in the small little hut we had taken shelter in from the cold. I think and think for I don't know how long but my mind was racing. The impact this whole issue can cause is more than I would like, the fact I had a stupid panic attack when I did, the fact I shut down when I shouldn't have and it bothers me. it bothers me to the point that I sit up and look to Clementine as she looked to me.
"I'm sorry." I tell her.
"Sorry for what?" She asked as she set her own bowl of stew down to the side of her.
"I'm sorry for freaking out like I did back at the school, if I didn't do that then we would be with everyone… it bothers me because I… I haven't done that… and it makes me look incompetent and I am I mean… we were thrusted into this world as kids and we were left alone except for one adult… who actually cared for us, and showed us that she cared… the others just worried for themselves but then it got me thinking." I say as I lean my head onto my hand.
"What did it make you think?" She asked and I shrugged a bit.
"It made me think how some of those adults had families of their own… how they had people they cared about and I don't know if it hurt some of them by leaving us you know? I hated them for so long because I thought they didn't care about us, that it was their job to take care of us but… they have families…. Well, some of them did, some of them didn't but… they could have had sick mothers or fathers, so the mindset of just hating someone or not liking them because they left without thinking what is going on in their head just…. the fact that I… I don't know." I tell her and she thinks a bit.
"You know that's true, you had your reason to be mad when you were young, it's understandable in all honesty I had those thoughts too here and there, but once you get the time to think about it, it changes your mind… but it doesn't make you incompetent I mean look at me, I left because I was scared and you didn't really get angry at me because you had time to think… yes you still can have the fears you do but everyone doesn't want to be alone in this world." She tells me and I nod a bit.
"Yeah… anyway, let's get some sleep before we head out." I say as I get up and work on the fire a bit.
"Yeah, you're right." She says and she gets a makeshift bed ready. When we went to bed, I looked to the door a bit and I made sure we were both covered in the blanket but I made sure she was nice and warm. When I finally went to sleep it seemed to have made time go by faster because I was woken up by Clementine. We left the hut after having breakfast and putting the fire out, we then walked more and more into the woods until night came again. It would be days before we got to the meeting point and saw no one here and we would keep going to the next meeting point until we finally reached the others.
"Shit took you guys long enough." Marlon says and I just nod.
"Uh we have some news, the Whisperer's leader is a man named Jesus, I know him from when I was a teenager and I was looking for AJ, it seems that there are some people they deem the Resistance who are part of the wars up north… now we're heading down south but with the way things are going then…. Well we all know the war is going to happen all across the states no matter what… unless we help as best as we can." Clementine says.
"Wait hold on we left so we wouldn't get involved and now you want to get involved?" Louis asked.
"It's more complicated than that." I tell him.
"As in?" He asked and they all look to me.
"If we don't end this whole thing soon it's going to get to us eventually, all we're doing is delaying the whole thing by what? A few months maybe a year if we're lucky… we can just help get some supplies to our friends and try our best to not get involved but it's highly likely we will have another raider situation on our hands but at a bigger level." Clementine tells them and I nod.
"Looks like it's a double edge sword situation." Aasim says and I nod.
"Damned if we do, damned if we don't." Marlon says and again we nod.
"Alright looks like we have no choice but to fight." Mitch says and I rubbed the back of my neck.
"We're going to try and stay out of the fight as best as we can, we have already given some information to Jesus for right now we have to lay low until we are really needed… if that's what we all agree to." Clementine suggests and I put my hands in my pockets as I think.
"Wouldn't it be best if we joined in and helped them?" Ruby asked and I see James and the girl Whisperer and she looked to us as did James as they came in.
"Violet, Clementine." James says and I nod and I look to him a bit and I stand up.
"Do you guys know who the leader of the Whisperer group is?" I asked.
"Just a crazy guy named Caleb." The girl says.
"No, it's Jesus, unless you know hm as Paul." Clementine says and I raise a brow at them.
"Are there two different group of Whisperers?" I asked.
"We don't know a Jesus or Paul." The girl says and I think a bit.
"So, two different groups of Whisperers it seems." Clementine says and we all just stay quiet for a bit and I look to see AJ as he was sitting on the couch a bit and I take a breath.
"Ok so if we come across any Whisperers, we have to come up with some questions to ask them so we know if they are from Jesus group or from this Caleb guys group, of course we can't ask them who's group they are with cause they can lie." I suggest.
"What we can do is ask for a description of their leader? Or maybe ask if they know a Paul? Since they probably know him as Jesus if he goes by that name more." Marlon suggests.
"Wait you all are going to help the group?" James ask.
"Only Jesus's group." Clementine tells him.
"We can't work with them." James says and I look to him.
"Look-."
"You don't like helping people even though you have preached about how we all shouldn't hurt Walkers, why do you care more for rotting disease infested corps than actual living people?" I asked him and he looked to me a bit.
"They were people once." He says.
"And we're people now." Marlon says and James looks to him.
"I help as much as I can, but I know when to step back and this is something I have to step back on… the other group could have someone we know and it can cause problems for us." He says and I nod in understanding on this point.
"He has a point, but that doesn't mean you can't help in other ways." I stated and we just take a seat as we talk about what we can do. For now, we have it all settled that we can help with the Whisperers on Jesus's side doing things like getting them supplies if they needed and if we by chance find where anyone else in the other Whisperer group and inform Jesus and the others.
We decide that it would be Louis and I to head back up north for a bit to talk with Jesus on our plan to see if that would work, the reason it was Louis and I and not Clementine was because she was going to stay back and help the others grab the supplies that we might be giving to Jesus and his group. She is also going to be the one to ask the questions to any wonderers that are Whisperers and it's best if she is the one to talk to them than just all of us. I was a bit hesitant on this plan as were the others but it had to be done regardless. We settled for the night and ate some food that Omar made and I look to the window a bit just simply looking at the snow before I feel someone sit next to me.
I look to my side and see AJ as he also looked out the window. Clementine then came over an put her hand on his head and we both looked to her and she simply smiled to AJ before she took a seat. I look to see the others talking o each other. Not looking over to us or talking to us. It was just Clementine AJ and I.
"Do you think this is a good idea?" She asked the boy and I looked to him as well.
"You have been quiet." I mention to him and he looked to be thinking a bit as he looked to the ground.
"I think everything is ok, though why Violet and Louis?" He asked and I think.
"Clementine can ask the questions to any wonderers and Jesus knows me already and I need someone to watch my back for me." I explained and Clementine nods in agreement.
"It's better if I ask the questions in all honesty." Clementine tells him before he could speak.
"Why is that?" He asked.
"Um to be honest Clem is more trust worthy when it comes to talking to others, I mean she's done this longer than us… she's the best we got when it's keeping the others safe." I try my best to explain but even for me it was a little hard to the basics.
"So why are you going and talking with Jesus if Clementine is the best?" He asked and I look to Clementine and I raise a brow because honestly, the kid was right. When she looks at me and I chuckled a bit and wiped my face a bit.
"I mean he is right, you are better." I say to her and she looked to AJ who was looking to the both of us at this point.
"It's best if I deal with the groups that we run into rather than those we know." She tells him. He still looked a little confused at this but then he shrugs and walks away talking about how adults are making things complicated. I look back to Clementine as she watches him and I go and stand up from my spot and crack my back a bit.
I take a breath of air and look to the window a bit as I looked outside. I then feel a hand on my shoulder and I look to Clementine a bit as she looked to me and gave me a soft smile. Omar would call for dinner and we go and grab a bowl each as we took a seat and ate our food.
"Ok so we have a plan set up, Violet and I can actually head out tomorrow into the town to get some supplies if that's ok? we're going to need some new jackets." Louis mentions and I nod as I look to Clementine.
"Yeah that would be a good idea, could find some other supplies too, we need any ammo?" I asked and we all made a list of what we would need and I made sure to get the right size shoes for AJ along with clothes for him too.
When the next day came I grabbed my gun and Louis had his bow and arrow and we walked into the town that was about eight miles from the meeting spot. I look in a shop and made sure to pack what we needed in the bags.
"So… What happened back at the school? I mean you just basically shut down?" He asked and I shrugged a bit.
"I don't know why that happened… I really don't." I tell him honestly and I grabbed the bag after filling it up and looked to him a bit as he looked to me.
"I mean, it just happened is all." I tell him once more as we go and get some ammo for the guns and I rub my head a bit as I keep looking for anything to bring back.
"So where do we head after this? I mean the whole group?" He asked as he grabbed a bullet and looked to it a bit as I looked to him and think.
"Clementine said to head south but we aren't too sure how things are going down there it could be just as bad as the north for all we know." I grabbed a package and it felt light and I look to see all the bullets gone and sighed and threw the box to the side.
When we finished we began walking back to the meeting point and I look around the woods a bit. the leaves were falling a bit and I look to the sky a bit and stopped as I hear some rolling thunder. Louis stopped as well and then we both look to each other and I take a breath and begin walking once more.
By the time we got back to the meeting point the rain was pouring hard as we get inside and I shake any water from my hair and look as the others come over and take the bags from us. Ruby hands Louis and I both a towel and I start drying off my hair and I see Clementine as she was looking to a map of the states and I go over to her. She marked off some areas and I take a seat next to her and she rubbed her leg gently.
"You know that feeling you get when a storm comes?" She asked as she stopped rubbing her leg and I think and nod a bit.
"Or the air smells like rain before it falls." I mention as I look to the map a bit.
"Or my knee acts up a bit." She tells me and I nod a bit. We looked over the map a bit and by this time everyone had settled down with the rain. That rain will become sleet soon with how cold it is, and making the snow basically turn to ice as well.
"Going to have to stay up a bit with this rain, Walkers could be lurking around." Marlon says and I nod as I help Clementine fold up the map and I look to the others. Aasim and Ruby were sitting on the sofa and Louis was by the window with AJ. Marlon looked to us a bit and then I looked to see Omar cooking. Mitch and Willy were looking at Mitches books a bit and planning ideas for bombs for any place we go. James and that Whisperer girl were also off to the side and they looked over to us a bit before they would go back to their conversation.
"You'd think they would freeze with this weather mixed with rain." Louis says and we look over to him.
"Yeah, but sometimes that's not the case." Clementine says and I look to her.
"One time, weather just like this happened, AJ was just a toddler but Walkers didn't move as fast as they do in the what we call normal weather." She tells us.
"Never really left the school if this happened, too busy trying to keep the kids inside so they didn't get sick." Ruby says and I nod and look to the table a bit. didn't matter though, three kids died that day. we tried our best to keep them safe but even then, that wasn't enough. I feel a poke to my cheek and look to Clementine a bit as she moved her hand and I smile a little.
"You, ok?" She asked quietly and I nod a bit before I look to the table again.
"Yeah just… some stuff on my mind." I wave it off and I decided to get up and stretch and crack my back.
"Alright, I'm going to bed early." I tell everyone and they tell me to have a good sleep. I head to the other section of the building and I go and lay on the bed a bit and close my eyes for some much needed sleep.