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Clementine did not like this.
Violet had left, taking AJ and Louis with her to investigate the group that she had seen.
That had been a few hours ago.
And they still weren’t back.
Clem had been waiting in the office, wanting to keep an eye on the gate.
She sighed, grabbing her crutches.
They really should be back by now.
She’d have to gather everyone else, organize another group to go out and look for them.
She hoped that they had just gotten pinned down by walkers, as horrible as that sounded.
It was better than the group of survivors trying to kill them or taking them captive.
Humans could be worse than the dead ever were.
Her thoughts were interrupted by a shout from outside, the sound drifting through the building.
“They’re back!” someone, probably Willy, he’d been on watch, yelled.
Clem smiled, relief filling her.
It’d just taken a bit longer, something hadn’t gone wrong.
She walked to the window, glancing out to see-
They weren’t alone.
There was a man, walking next to Louis, a limp in his gait. She could only just barely see the upper half of his body from the angle she was at.
Clem couldn’t see his face at all, a wide brimmed baseball cap blocking it from her view.
She felt dread go through her.
Why had they brought someone back?
Clem shook her head.
She couldn’t freak out about this.
She had to be calm.
And it wasn’t like they would’ve brought the man back if he was dangerous.
Maybe the group had decided that they wanted to trade with Ericson’s.
It made sense that their leader had come back, in that case.
But Clem wasn’t sure why he wouldn’t have brought his whole group, or at the very least supplies to trade.
But for all she knew his group was waiting outside the walls.
She couldn’t see over them from where she stood.
Clem turned away from the window, walking down to the courtyard.
She needed to see what was happening, and talk with the man if he was the leader of the other group.
She didn’t see anyone as she walked through the beat-up hallways of the school.
Everyone else had probably ran outside the moment they’d heard Willy’s yell.
She slowed to a stop as she stepped out into the yard, seeing that everyone was clustered around the man and Violet, Louis, and AJ.
She could hear snippets of conversation as everyone talked over each other.
“-why’d you bring him back-“
“-he said-“
“-that’s a cool-“
“-thanks kid, got it-“
“-are you okay-“
Wait, what was the one before that?
She didn’t recognize that voice.
Or maybe she did?
She felt like she’d heard it before.
But it defintely wasn’t one of her group.
It had to be the man they’d brought back, the voice rough and older.
Clem walked forward, calling out to the group.
“What’s happening?”
The people closest to her, Ruby and Tenn, turned to glance at her.
Ruby called back “They brought back the guy who’s in charge!”
So it was the leader, like she’d thought.
Tenn waved, before turning back to the group and saying “Clem’s here!”
The Erikson’s kids shifted, allowing Clem to see the man for the first time-
And she couldn’t breathe.
He had a cane, one that had been obviously been used to kill walkers, and a proper eyepatch, dark brown leather, but-
It was Kenny.
It was Kenny!
But she’d heard him die-
Kenny was looking at her, shock on his face.
Not nearly as much as the shock Clem was sure was on her own face, though.
She’d thought he was dead.
He’d been as good as dead, when she’d left him.
At least she’d been in decent health the last time he saw her.
The rest of Clem’s group was whispering to each other, not knowing what was happening, why she was so shocked to see this man-
“Kenny?” Clem breathed, her voice carrying over the courtyard despite it being a whisper.
Kenny smiled.
“Yeah kid, it’s me.”
AJ looked sharply at the man.
“Kenny?”
Kenny looked down at AJ, and his smile grew even wider.
“AJ! You’re okay, thank god-“
He reached out with the hand not holding his cane, trying to tug AJ into a hug.
AJ dodged him though.
For all that Clem had told AJ about Kenny, about how he had protected them-
AJ had still never met him, that he could remember.
Kenny’s face dropped for a split second, before he looked back at Clem.
And his eyes dropped to her leg.
Well, what was left of it.
The look on his face was pure devastation.
“Clem, what happened?”
Clem sighed, walking forward on her crutches so that she was closer to him.
“I got bit, Kenny.”
His face filled with understanding.
“Oh.”
He reached out, before glancing down at her leg, and instead walked forward, pulling her into a hug.
Clem leaned into him.
He was safe.
They were both safe.
She’d thought he was dead.
But he was here.
Wait, actually-
She pulled back slightly, looking at him.
“How did you survive, Kenny? I- You weren’t okay.”
She’d heard him shooting at the walkers.
And she’d heard him yell “Dammit, I’m out!”
And then there was one more gunshot.
Kenny sighed, his arms dropping from around her as he stepped back.
“After you ran, I fired almost all my bullets at them, but I knew- I knew I wasn’t making it. I was about to end it,” he winced.
He took a breath, continuing.
“When one of the walkers suddenly had a bullet in its head. There was a scouting group nearby that found me, and took me back to their place. They had a doctor, and my legs weren’t paralyzed, somehow, just really messed up.”
He raised his cane off the ground slightly.
“It’s why I’ve got this, now.”
Clem’s mind flashed through all the groups nearby that she knew were stable and powerful enough to deal with having someone so severely injured.
Most of them Kenny would hate, defintely now staying there longer than he had to, but-
“New Richmond?” she asked.
Kenny raised an eyebrow.
“Damn, nice guess, kid.”
“Is Javi still in charge?”
Kenny smiled.
“Yeah, he’s good at it. Even if he for some reason thought I should be in charge of defense.”
Clem rolled her eyes.
“Of course he put you in charge of something, Kenny. You’re a good leader.”
“Hey, not to interrupt, but what the hell is happening?” Violet said, reminding Clem that there were other people here.
Clem glanced around, seeing that the entirety of her group was looking at her and Kenny with varying amounts of confusion.
She sighed.
“This is Kenny. He was part of the group I was in at the beginning. I thought he was dead.”
“We figured that out.” Louis signed, an amused look on his face.
Kenny turned to look at AJ again.
AJ was hiding slightly behind Violet, and Clem realized that he looked wary.
She had been so caught up with seeing Kenny again that she hadn’t noticed how AJ was feeling.
Clem held out a hand.
“AJ, come here. It’s okay, I’ve told you how nice he is, remember?”
Kenny smiled at Clem for a moment, as AJ walked over to Clem, grabbing her hand.
He glared at Kenny.
Kenny smiled.
“Hey kid. Glad to see she found ya.”
AJ kept glaring.
“If you hurt anyone, I’ll hurt you.” He said.
Kenny smiled again, quickly covering it up with a serious expression.
“Wasn’t planning to, AJ.”
Clem looked back at the rest of the group.
“You guys can head back to what you were doing.”
Ruby and Aasim left first, Ruby back to the nurse’s office, Aasim going with her because he liked watching his girlfriend work .
Mitch dragged Willy off, muttering something about explosives, which Clem was going to ignore for now.
Omar sighed, before climbing up to be on watch, since Willy obviously wasn’t going to do it anymore.
AJ looked at Kenny for a moment longer, before turning to Clem.
“I’m gonna teach Tenn how to shoot.”
He grabbed Tenn’s hand, dragging him off to the other side of the school.
Clem sighed.
“He’ll warm up to me.” Kenny said, sounding confident.
Clem smiled at him.
She felt like she was smiling more today than she had in months.
Or maybe even years.
She loved it at Ericson’s, loved her friends, but there was something different about having Kenny back, having an adult she trusted.
“I’m glad you’re okay, Clem.” Kenny said.
“I’m glad you’re okay too, Kenny.”
Kenny looked at Clem, a regretful look on his face.
“I’ve gotta get going soon, Javi’s expecting us back.”
Clem nodded, before asking “Why did you come back with Violet, Louis and AJ anyway?”
“Bunch of kids asking us for supplies. Needed to check on ‘em.”
Clem smiled.
Of course that was why.
“Good thing you did.”
Kenny chuckled.
“Yeah, good thing I did.”
They walked to the gate, Omar waving at Clem.
The gate was opened, and Clem turned to look at Kenny.
“You’ll be back?” She asked, already sure of what his answer would be.
He reached out, ruffling her hair with a smile.
“Yeah kid, I’ll be back.”
He hugged her, before stepping back, and leaving.
She sighed, but there was a smile on her face.
He was alive.
And she’d see him again soon.