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Clementine and AJ were surrounded by walkers, with a crying AJ in one hand and a gun in the other, Clementine attempted to fend off the hord. One of the walkers made a grab for AJ but Clementine wrestled with it and managed to push it to the ground and shoot it in the head, but in the madness, AJ was thrown from her hands and landed on the ground. Once she was finished with the walker Clementine turned around, to see two Walkers rip oppen the small boy's body. “NOOO!” she screamed as she leapt forward killing the walkers and grabbing AJ, but it was too late. Clementine fell to her knees holding AJ’s limp remains, his skull is sticking visible and his organs protruding from his body, a stream of tears rushed down her face as she whispered the words “I’m sorry”. She felt the searing pain of teeth sinking into her neck, but she did not move, all she cared about was AJ and now he was dead. Everything faded to black.
Clementine oppened her eyes to find the face of a smiling woman hanging over her.
“WHAT, WERE AM I, WHO ARE YOU, WHATS GOING ON!” Clementine screamed whilst jumping up from the bed she had been lying in.
“It’s ok Clementine your home, your safe, everything is fine,” the women said in a calming voice.
“WHO ARE YOU, wait…? M-MUM? But you’re dead. Wait, dead, Walkers, Lee, AJ! WERE IS AJ.” Clementine started frantically looking around the room, trying to find her missing child.
“Clementine, calm down no one is dead, everything is fine, you just had a nightmare.” her Mother said in an attempt to calm her down, but Clementine kept searching. “Clem stop its okay” her Mother said holding her in place. Clementine suddenly bursts into tears and collapsed into a ball on the floor. “It’s alright Clem, just calm down and tell me what happened in your dream” Her mother said in a soft soothing voice. After a while Clementine calmed down and told her mother all about her journey through the apocalypse.
“And now, AJ is dead and it’s all my fault”. *Sobs* Clementine looked up into her mother’s eyes and saw the pain in her face.
“Oh honey, I’m so sorry that you had to go through that but it’s all over now, and everything’s fine.” Her mother hugged her again, her voice was soft and kind, but Clementine could tell that knowing how horrible her dream was, was very worrying for her mother. All of a sudden, they heard a loud noise coming from another room. Clementine jumped up, pressed herself up ageist the wall and silently crept moving along, signalling for her Mother to do the same. Confused, she followed. They moved like this throughout the house until they came to the kitchen, Clementine slowly peered her head around the corner checking for any dangers. She saw a man sweeping some shards of glass of the floor, he turned around and looked at her
“Good morning princess” the man said to her in a cheery voice.
“DAD?” she replied,
“Clementine had a nightmare,” her mother told him “she is a little disorientated”. He nodded, then turned to Clementine
“How about we have some breakfast” he said “I made Pancakes, your favourite” a big grin appeared on Clementine’s face
“I haven’t had pancakes in years” she replied. Her parents looked at her with puzled expressions on their faces “right, never mind” she whispered “I would love some pancakes” she told them, then sat down at the table whilst her father placed 3 pancakes on her plate. Clementine spent the morning eating a warm, delicious breakfast with her family, a luxury she had not felt for far too long. After they had all finished eating, her Father put down his fork and spoke,
“Well, that was nice” he said, “now I’ll do the dishes, and you, Clementine, should go get ready.”
“Ready for what?” she questioned
“Why for Lucy’s party of course.” he chuckled, “You didn’t forget your own best friend’s party did you?”. Clementine thought for a moment. She remembered a fare skinned little girl with long blond hair, a wide gap-toothed smile, and a deep love of anything pink. When she thought harder Clementine remembered her 9th birthday. Clem had been so excited, but the day of the party she woke up with a really bad cold and had to spend the day in her bed. Both girls were very disappointed that Clem couldn’t be there. Lucy, thinking Clementine had lied about being sick, wouldn’t talk to her for days. But she was convinced of Clementine’s innocence when she caught the very same cold Clem had suffered from. Remembering all this just made Clementine even more confused, but she just nodded and walked to her room. There she pulled out a pair of jeans and a tight shirt and laid them on the bed, then she found a pair of socks and sneakers.
“What are you doing?” She heard her mother ask from the doorway
“Getting dressed”
“Aren’t you going to wear the party dress you picked out from the shop last week, you were so excited to wear it yesterday.” Her Mother walked over to the closet and pulled out a purple dress with a blue ribbon around the waist.
“But that’s not very practical.” Her Mother frowned,
“How about you go have a shower and I’ll get your outfit ready for you”
“Okay” Clementine walked into the bathroom and closed the door. She took in her surroundings. Everything looked the same as she remembered, just cleaner. Clementine looked in the mirror and was shocked at what she saw. She was so small. She ran her tiny hands over every inch of her face. Her hair was long and bushy. “Oh my gosh” she hadn’t noticed it before, but even her voice was small and squeaky. It finally sunk in, “I’m 8” she gasped “I’m fucking 8 again, and everything… the walkers, my friends, they never happened. This is all so confusing.” She looked around the room again, this time she focused on the ticking clock. “I guess, I just have to go about my life, how I did before.” So, Clementine decided to get ready for the party. She striped off her pyjamas and climbed into the shower. She turned the tap and was pleasantly surprised when hot water came streaming out of the tap. After fiddling with the taps to get the right temperature, Clementine stood under the stream of water. The warm water ran through her hair and over her body. It felt amazing. It was so nice, she didn’t want to get out. After a few minutes of just standing under the water, Clementine washed herself. When she was done she turned off the taps and grabbed a towel. After drying off she climbed out of the shower. In the corner of the room she found some clothes. She realised her Mother must have brought them in while she was distracted enjoying the warm water. She put the clothes on, then looked in the mirror. She was now wearing the dress her mother had showed her earlier, some white socks with frills on the top, and some blue, Mary Jane shoes. The outfit made Clementine quite happy. For so long she had very little clothing to choose from, and she always had to think of what was practical, not pretty. Clementine looked up at her hair, it was still wet, so she searched the cupboard until she found a hairdryer. She plugged it in at the wall and dried her hair. Next, she found some black hairbands. “They aren’t purple, but they will do” She pulled her hair into two pigtails and fashioned them with the bands. Content, Clementine walked out of the room.
“Oh, don’t you look nice,” Her mother said when she noticed her, “I like your pigtails, trying something new?”
“Uh, I guess” Clementine walked into the kitchen, her Father had already finished washing the dishes, so he wasn’t there. Clementine wasn’t quite sure what she was doing there, she just had a feeling that she should go there. Then she spotted the scissors. Clementine instantly knew what she must do. She grabbed a chair and pulled it over to the bench. She climbed from the chair onto the bench and grabbed the scissors. Then she climbed down and put the chair back. She walked back to the bathroom and closed the door. She pulled out her pigtails and started to cut. “Keep your hair short” When she decided her hair was short enough, she put it back into pigtails. Old habits die hard. When Clementine went to put the scissors away. She was intercepted by her Father.
“Clementine!” he exclaimed, “What have you done to your hair?!”
“I cut it” she replied sheepishly
“I can see that, but why?”
“It was too long”
“You can’t just cut your hair” he said, “we have to talk about these things, and then take you to a hair dresser.”
“I didn’t think of that. Sorry” Her Father sighed and rubbed his forehead with his fingers.
“We’ll talk about this after the party. Go wait in the living room, we will leave in a few minutes.” He walked off. Clementine went downstairs to wait in the living room. She felt bad about being scolded, but she had to keep her hair short, she promised. She sat on the couch and looked around the room. Her eyes homed in on her D hat. She rushed over to pick it up. Looking at it, Clementine took note of how clean it was, no stains, no tears, no blood. It was like brand new. When she put the hat on her head, she felt at home. Nothing ever felt quite right unless she had this hat on her head.
“Clementine” She heard her Mother say as she walked into the room, “time to go… what are you doing wearing your Dad’s hat, you know he doesn’t like you wearing it without his permission.”
“But Mu-”
“No buts’, put it back right now young lady.” Clementine took the hat off her head and looked at it. She had spent so long with it being her hat, but now, it wasn’t anymore. She lifted the hat to her lips and gave it a kiss, then she sadly put it back.
“I suppose I don’t need it now that I have Dad back.” Clementine whispered to herself
“What was that?”
“Nothing”
“We better go then” Her Mother held out her hand. It took Clementine a minute to realised she wanted her to take it. She walked over to her Mother and put her tiny hand in the considerably larger ones. They walked together to the car.
The car ride was silent, except for the humming of the engine and some slight chatter between Clementine’s parents. The young girl spent the ride looking out the window. It was strange to go from a dark, desolate world, where roads where cluttered with broken down cars to a bright world filled with people walking and running and driving. They got caught in traffic, another thing Clementine was no longer accustomed to.
They soon arrived at a familiar looking house with pink balloons bobbing above the mailbox, fastened to it by silver strings. Clementine climbed out of the car and started walking towards the house.
“Don’t forget this,” her mother called, Clementine turned around to see her holding a box neatly wrapped in shiny blue wrapping paper with a white ribbon on top. “you wouldn’t want to show up without a present.” Clementine turned around and took the present from her mother,
“Thanks Mum” she said,
“Alright,” her Father said, “we better get going, see you after the party sweetheart.” Panic stuck Clementine, she had gone so long without her parents, she didn’t want them to leave just yet.
“Wait!” she cried, “please don’t leave me” her parents were surprised,
“Is everything alright?” her mother asked, Clementine bit her lip,
“Yes,” she said, “I just, I want you to come to the party, have some cake and hang out with Lucy’s parents.” Her parents looked at each other, then nodded
“Alright,” her father said, “we’ll ask Lucy’s parents if we can stay, I’m sure they could use some help taking care of all of you kids.” Clementine smiled, and they all walked to the door. The chime of the doorbell was soft and sweet. It caused a chorus of children inside the house to sing
“Someone else is here” The door was answered by a tall blond woman wearing a long orange dress.
“Hello Clementine” she said, “come on in!” Clementine handed the woman Lucy’s present and walked through the door. There she saw an exited bunch of young children all looking at her. Except for one who was too busy stuffing his face with gummy worms. Most of them looked familiar to her, but Clementine’s eyes focused on one child in particular, the most familiar of them all. Lucy was wearing a short pink dress with white flowers along the bottom. Her long blond hair was pulled back into two pigtails, with a small pink bow on each. She ran over to Clementine and pulled her into a tight hug.
“You’re here!” she exclaimed, before releasing her friend “isn’t this so exiting, I’m nine now.” Clementine smiled and nodded, trying her best to hold back tears of joy. “Come join the party” Lucy took Clementine by the hand and dragged her further into the room.
-A few hours later-
A large grin was fixed to Clementine’s face, she just couldn’t stop smiling. She looked around at her friends and her family and was overcome with joy. Slowly, her vision started to go blurry and the voices of her friends became muffled, FLASH, all of a sudden everything went dark and grey, and Clementine could feel a sharp pain in her neck, FLASH, it was back to normal, but she could hear a loud ringing sound in her ears. FLASH she looked down to see her pretty purple dress was replaced by a muddy shirt and jeans, both covered in blood. FLASH, it was back to normal, again. FLAH this time Clem could see a strange object in her arms, but she couldn’t quite work out what it was, she began to feel very weak. FLASH, her eyes widened when she realised that the strange object was not an object at all, but the dismembered remains of a baby. FLASH, “AJ” she muttered under her breath, she was too weak to do anything else. FLASH, she fell to the ground dropping AJ’s body. She lay there unable to move for a minute and then slowly she began to rise to her feet and let out a long groan. Now she understood what had happened, she knew the apocalypse wasn’t a dream, she knew her parents were dead she knew that everything she had seen after she was bitten was her mind's way of giving her a little bit of happiness before an eternal torment of eating flesh. Starting with AJ’s. With her eyes glazed over and her skin peeling away Clem reached down to pick up the infant's body and began to feast.