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The Three of us.
The fire was somewhat hypnotising, crackling and popping in the silence of the dark, mild woods. Its flare reflecting in the face of its starter. Clementine stared into it, not really acknowledging its existence. She was completely lost in a world of thought and traumatizing memories. Eight years on and she still remembers that night, that life changing night. The stinging the memories were causing in her eyes brought her back to the present allowing her to blink away the tears and concentrate on the rabbit she was cooking. As she leaned forward to poke the fire she heard a twig snap under someone, or something’s, weight. Due to many years of reflex and killer’s instinct she whipped around, her trusty knife in hand and ready to attack.
“Sarah!” Clem’s eyes narrowed at the sight of the older girl. She was smirking and in a defence position. She was obviously trying to scare the orphan.
“You scared the shit out of me! Grow up will you!” They both rose to their feet and when Clementine looked back at Sarah, her smirk had vanished and she had a stone cold look on her face.
“I grew up the night I watched my Dad get his guts ripped by a fucking walker. I wasn’t messing around Clementine, you need to be more aware of your surroundings. I could’ve been a walker, or a bandit.”
Clemmy turned round and sighed heavily. What could she say? Sarah was right. Recently all she could think of was that night, all those years ago. It woke her up in the middle of the night, sweating and gasping for air. Their previous group had all sacrificed themselves for the two of the girls. Sarah had only been fifteen, Clemmy, only eleven, when they watched Carlos, Rebecca… Kenny, Alvin, Nick and even Luke try and shoot their way out of an overrun warehouse. But there was so many of them. They were everywhere. Moaning and running towards to the fresh food that was their group. Luke had gotten Sarah and herself into a car and drove them away. So far away. He told them that he would come back for them, but that he had to save the rest. Sarah was crying so much. She wouldn’t stop and when Luke left she had told Clemmy that he wasn’t coming back. When Clementine asked why she would say that she just dropped onto her knees and screamed for her dad. They sat hiding in the barn where Luke had taken them, for two days straight.
Eventually they realised he was dead. Along with the rest of them, so, they moved on. And kept moving on for eight years, never forgetting that night. It haunted them every walking and sleeping moment, but, it was what kept them alive. They grew up so fast, and now, now they were the talk of the living. Everyone knew the story of the two girls who always survived. The Walking Survivors was their most famous title. The lucky charms, the blessed. So many names, so many stories, so few happy memories.
Clementine still kept her hair short and she still wore the hat. She never took it off. It was her heart and soul, but she didn’t ware it for her Dad anymore. She wore it for Lee. Lee who she now thought of as her father.
“Clementine, in the morning we are going somewhere else. I hate how we’re in the open like this. It isn’t safe.” Sarah had cut up the rabbit and handed it to the younger girl. Clem accepted it and bit into it, savouring the warm delicious taste before swallowing and going for another bite. Through a mouthful of food she agreed.
“We’ll put the fire out and head up north. We have to get to higher ground. It’s safer there.”
“We are high enough. I saw a cabin when I was out hunting. It was clear, from what I could see. We should go there.”
Clemmy started putting the fire out and she sighed heavily after Sarah had spoken. “You shouldn’t be going so far away. It’s only two of us, and I doubt either of us could make it on our own.”
She saw Sarah was about to interrupt so she held up a hand. “Don’t, argue with the truth. How big is the cabin?”
“Quite big. Probably a five bedroomed house.” Sarah frowned and stood up to stand beside Clementine who was shaking her head rapidly.
“Too big. We need something we can both easily defend. We’ll just keep heading north.”
“No way! It’s going to start getting colder and we need something that can keep us warm! There might be suppli-“Clemmy interjected raising her voice higher to try to overrule Sarah’s
“It’s too big! We can find something else!”
“Yeah, what if we don’t? You feel like freezing to death? If we don’t get eaten or murdered in the process!”
Clementine’s eyes widened and Sarah turned to see what she was staring at.
“Walkers!” Sarah shouted as the both sprang to grab their backpacks. They both began to back up loading their guns while keeping an eye on the six, seven… eight walkers advancing on them.
“How many Clementine?!” Sarah aimed her gun and shot.
“I count twelve!” Clem aimed her gun and shot. Two down.
“We can’t kill them all! I say we run.”
“To the cabin?!” Another down, but more were beginning to surround them. They were both back to back, killing the lurkers getting too close for comfort.
“Screw this! Run!” Sarah turned and ran for the small gap between the walkers, having to drag Clementine out of the ring of the undead she was still shooting at.
As they raced through the wooded area, getting whipped by twigs and tall fern, with no idea where to go, they were rapidly escaping the danger they just found themselves in.
Clementine looked over at Sarah, who was just a few paces behind her. “Where are we going?!”
Without warning Sarah yanked at Clemmy’s elbow and pulled her harshly to their right. She didn’t have to ask why they had suddenly change course, as she could see the walkers that were a few feet in front of where they were running, for herself.
“We keep going until we find somewhere good enough to hide!”
That was enough to keep the younger girl going, and almost in sync, they continued to run from the terrors that were now normality to them.
Little did they know they were running right through the border line into something a hell of a lot worse than your average walker. They were heading straight into the half of America that was crawling with clickers, runners and bloaters. They were running straight into the fungal pandemic. Out one side of hell and into the other.