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Clementine’s eyes darted back and forth between Mike and Arvo, or more accurately, Arvo’s gun. “Let me come with you.” She tried to sound confident, commanding them to bring her with. Clementine’s eyes squinted as she aimed her own gun, yet her breath was small and shallow, small clouds appearing in the air for only a moment before disappearing. Her gun remained pointed at Mike as he spoke.
“Sure, sure. Just give me the gun and we'll go.” He spoke soft and firm. She didn’t move. “Just give me the gun, Clem. I'm not gonna hurt you.” Mike’s hand outstretched as he slowly moved closer to her. “Easy.”
- [Threaten]
+ [Give Gun]
Slowly, she lowered the gun. She shook in her jacket, which was thin and only used air pockets for insulation. This was better suited for the fall and spring, she had thought when Bonnie first gave it to her. The gun slipped from her numbing fingers. Mike caught it.
“It’s fine,” he continued. “Just hurry in before he hears us.” Clementine glanced at the house. It was cloudier outside than before, small specks of fresh snow laid on the porch where Bonnie had stood for her smoke a few hours ago, the wind picking up. What if Jane, or, god forbid, Kenny, heard the cord just as she did, and woke up?
Arvo looked at Mike, waiting for a short moment before lowering the gun. He squinted at her, making Clementine first to look away.
“Alright, you heard him. In.” Bonnie smiled at her, gesturing her head to the car. Clementine entered the back seat. She briefly looked behind her, with help from Mike’s rearview mirror, to see multiple bags in the trunk. Just herself, Mike, Bonnie, and Arvo, the others were gone.
Mike entered the driver’s seat, adjusting the seat and mirror, taking away Clementine’s view of behind her.
“There’s no time for that, Mike. If Clementine woke, Kenny might too…” Bonnie warned from the passenger’s side. Arvo closed his own door, next to Clementine in the back, behind Bonnie. He rested the rifle propped up against the seat in front of him, next to his legs.
- “Where’s Jane?”
- “We’re just leaving Kenny?”
+ “Where’s AJ?”
- “…”
“AJ is coming with… right?” Clementine nervously asked. Mike stopped fidgeting with the control, his hand still resting on the rearview mirror.
Nobody spoke, they all froze.
Bonnie broke the silence. “Clem… there’s just too much of a risk. Going back in could wake Kenny.” She turned her head towards Clementine, giving a sympathetic look.
“It’s risky enough already, but with a baby?” Mike added.
- “He’ll die!”
+ “We can’t just leave him.”
- “There’s no formula.”
- “…”
“We can’t just leave him. He’s only a baby.” Clementine pleaded.
“Fine,” Bonnie sighed, turning her head forward. “Go and get him, then.” Clementine cracked open the door halfway before pausing.
It was now Mike’s turn to look back at her. She could feel Arvo looking at her too. She looked back between the door and Mike. If she left, would they leave without her? Would she then be stuck with no food and no way to escape the house?
“Well?” She looked back at Mike from the door.
“No. You’ll drive off if I go in.”
“No, hon, we wouldn’t.” Bonnie looked back at her too.
“I don’t know that. You were just about to do that.”
“I wouldn’t lie to your face about it.”
“Yes, you would!” She was met with multiple “shh”s from the others for raising her voice.
“Not too loud,” Bonnie hushed. “We can’t be the ones to go in. If they wake and see us, Kenny will know. He trusts you, Clem. If you want to get AJ, that’s on you. A baby will only slow us down, what happens if he cries and draws in a walker?”
“Kenny will find a way to get him to that Wellington place. This is just us going our separate ways. Kenny knows how to look after a kid.” Mike reassured.
“Your choice. Baby, no baby, all you.” Arvo joined in. “But you must hold him.”
Everyone stared at Clementine, waiting for her decision. Why was it always her who decided? Why was she always the one to make these big choices. What could she do? Leave AJ with Kenny and Jane, or risk the others running away with the supplies? Neither of these choices were good. Either way, someone was going to suffer. Would it really help him to be left with Kenny and Jane?
- [Leave AJ]
- [Get AJ]
“It’ll be harder with a baby, there’s nobody here who knows how to look after one. He’s better off with Kenny. I don’t think he would hurt someone that young. At least not on purpose.”
“You understand why we’re doing this; it’s to keep us safe. How long until he kills one of us? How long until you wind up like everyone else?”
“He will hurt you.”
- [Leave AJ] 🠈
- [Get AJ]
“Can you look after a baby? Because we sure can’t.”
“He’ll be worse off with us.”
“We do not want to hurt him.”
- [Leave AJ]
- [Get AJ] 🠈
“If they see you in there, who knows what they’ll do to us. Do to you.”
“If things get scary out here, we don’t know how to keep him quiet.”
“What will keep him safe?”
+ [Leave AJ]
- [Get AJ]
Clementine closed the door.
Slowly, she crossed her arms over her chest as Mike started the engine. It took two tries to start, which was faster than Kenny’s struggle earlier. Clementine looked at the floor.
Mike began to drive, slow to not make any noise that would wake Kenny or Jane. Why wouldn’t they bring Jane with? What had she done to upset them too? The snow caught the car at first, but it slowly moved over. The unpaved ground made the seats rumble and bounce uncomfortable as it moved.
“Arvo, how do we get to the highway?” Mike asked quietly.
“Keep going forward. It will be there soon.” He replied.
Clementine looked out the window to the house slowly getting smaller before it was obscured by the trees. She bit her lips, both top and bottom until the skin came off, hoping the others would be okay. Her eyes stayed watching the window.
They were on a proper road now, no longer dirt paths and driving between trees, but the ground was still hard to drive on, covered in snow. It appeared that snow plows weren’t running during the end of the world. Once the snow got heavier, Mike slowed down. It picked up even as they headed Southwest. Or, at least what they assumed was Southwest.
It was quiet. Mike and Bonnie would have their own brief conversations, but they were hushed. Clementine couldn’t tell if it was to keep her and Arvo from listening in, or if it was just from their own exhaustion making them keep quiet. Maybe they were trying to stay quiet to let her sleep. She hadn’t slept at all. Not one bit. What if they left her on the side of the road while she slept? Would they do that to her?
Clementine and Arvo leaned against their own respective windows. It was early in the morning, the sun was just rising. Arvo’s eyes looked heavy, but he hadn’t fallen asleep yet. Maybe it was out of fear that he would wake up back with Kenny. Clementine assumed that he would take his glasses off if he planned to rest. She could remember Mike taking them off for him before it got too late. Was it so the broken glass wouldn’t get into his eye? Or is it just hard to sleep with glasses on? Sarah took hers off before she slept too. A part of Clementine was glad Sarah wasn’t here now. She would’ve been terrified. Would they have left her behind too?
“You kids okay back there?” Mike asked clearly from the front, his eyes not breaking away from the road.
“Yes. Fine.” Arvo answered, sitting up a little.
“How’s your face feeling?”
“It only hurt a little now.”
“If it’s still hurting tonight, we can try using some of the painkillers.”
“No, don’t waste it.”
“How far are we?” Clem spoke up.
“Uh, we aren’t too sure. Let’s just keep driving until the snow calms down, then we’ll siphon gas from the next car we see.”
“We aren’t low, are we?”
“Yeah, a little. Not enough to be an issue though. We’ll find some sort of town to stay in. Then we’ll look for a city or settlement.”
“Oh, okay.”
She looked back out the window. Lee said to stay away from cities. He never said anything about settlements. They couldn’t all be like Carver’s, maybe there’d be a place like the motel. A nice group with another kid.
Eventually the forest began to be less thick and the car got stuck in snow less often. Was this a sign of civilization? Did Mike have a map, or was he just using Arvo’s memory to keep him from getting lost?
Clementine looked over at Arvo. His glasses were on his lap, his eyes distant.
“Hey,” Clementine broke the silence. “How’d you break your glasses?”
Arvo looks surprised that she was talking to him. “Long time ago. When the… what do you say… things came.”
“The walkers?”
“What?”
“What do you call them?”
“I don’t know how to say it. Те, кто умирает и возвращается. Dead.” Clementine looked at him. “You don’t know what I say.”
“I think I understand. I call them walkers. Sorry they broke your glasses.”
“It’s fine.”
“Can you still see?”
“Yes. Right is good, the other is hard sometimes.”
- “We’ll find you new ones.”
- “Can you see without them?”
+ [Show Glasses]
- “…”
“I think I have something that can help.” Clementine began to dig in her pockets. “Here, can you swap the lenses?” She took out Sarah’s old glasses. The left side, just like with Arvo’s, had been shattered.
“Let me see.” He took them from Clementine, examining them. “No, different shape. Would not fit mine.”
“Oh. That’s too bad.”
“Even if they do, do the eyes match mine? Who knows.” Arvo handed the glasses back.
“Maybe we’ll find an optometrist store, they’d have tons of glasses, all different shapes and prescriptions.”
Arvo smiled slightly. “It’s been years since I’ve seen an eye doctor. Maybe my eyes changed.” He looked back at Sarah’s glasses. “Who are they from?”
- “My friend.”
+ “A girl I used to know.”
- “I found them.”
- “...”
“A girl from my group used to have them. She… didn’t make it.”
“Oh. I see. The baby one?”
“No, before that. You never met her.” Clem looked to the floor again. “I’m sorry about earlier.” Arvo didn’t respond. Clementine didn’t look to see his face. She wasn’t sure if she wanted to.
There was a silence. Arvo shifted slightly closer to his window. Once she was certain he wouldn’t see, Clementine tried to catch a glimpse of him. She wanted to at least try to let Arvo know that there didn’t need to be any sort of distrust or bad blood between them. She wanted him to know that she had lost people too, people that she cared for. Her own family. Arvo’s face looked heavy. The dried blood on his face was easier to see with the sun out. She hoped it didn’t hurt, at least not too much.
Before Clementine could think about what she could possibly say to ease the tension, Bonnie tried to change the subject. “Let’s play I-spy! I spy, with my little eye, something blue.”
Mike joined in on this topic change. “Is it…” he dragged out the word “the sky?”
Clementine tried to tune them out. She looked back at the window, watching the trees go by. Sometimes she would see what looked like a person. Or at least was. At some point. Had they died out in the cold? Or was it a walker that got them? She thought of AJ again.
“There’s a rest stop up here, Mike. Can we stop there for a bit?” Bonnie asked. Clementine wasn’t sure how much time had passed. The sun was in the sky now, from what she could tell through the clouds.
“Yeah, yeah, sure.” He replied to her before directing his voice to the back. “It might be bumpier pavement there, so hold tight. You guys don’t get car sick, right?”
“No,” Clementine replied.
Mike pulled off the highway onto a smaller road. The car shook slightly from the bumps, snow, and dirt on the unmaintained asphalt. After a minute or two, they could see the rest stop.
At the end of a small parking lot surrounded in forest, a small building sat at the end. It was made of stone with a simple triangle roof. Fortunately the snow hadn’t piled up on the door. Inside, there was guaranteed to be bathrooms, and if they were lucky there would be water.
Two empty cars sat in random sections of the parking lot, snow covered them. They seemed to be long abandoned, likely before the outbreak even began.
“Keep your eyes peeled for walkers.” Bonnie drew a handgun, which Clementine recognized as the one she had held earlier.
The car parked in the very front, under a disabled sign. Mike opened the car door. The others followed, Arvo with his own gun.
Slowly, Mike reached for the door. It opened. “Hopefully nobody’s been in here but us.”
Inside the rest stop was simple. Men’s restroom on the left, women’s on the right. Two vending machines were on either side, next to two drinking fountains. The power was off, making them rely on the windows and glass door to see.
Mike walked over to one of the vending machines, looking at the selection. He suddenly lit up, grinning as he turned back to the others. “There’s still some food in here!”
“Really? Lord, things really are looking up for us.”
“It’s understocked, but there’s a little to eat. Pretzels, mints, candy, chips, crackers. Damn!”
“How much of each?”
“No, I’m just listing what I see. Maybe there’s two bags of pretzels, but that’s about it.”
“This one has drinks.” Arvo pointed at the one across the hall.
“Clem, see if you can find something to break these open.”
+ Bonnie and Mike
- Arvo
- The Walls
- The floor
Clementine walked back to Bonnie and Mike, who were trying to pry open the doors with various items they had on them.
“Hey Clem. Found anything?”
“No.” She shook her head slightly. “Why don’t you shoot it?”
“We don’t know how many walkers might be in the woods. Better not to risk it.”
“And we aren’t doing the best on bullets, either.”
- Bonnie and Mike
+ Arvo
- The Walls
- The floor
Clementine walked over to Arvo, who was looking at the drink vending machine. Clementine took a look at the selection. Three bottles of water, an orange soda, and two bottles of a dark soda. The labels had fallen off the drinks.
“Hello Clementine.”
“They have soda!” Clementine smiled.
“Yes. Which is your favorite?”
“I had a cream soda at a fair once. It was really good, but I haven’t seen one of those in years.” Arvo gave her a look. “The orange one looks good too,” she added.
“Hopefully not expired.”
- Bonnie and Mike
- Arvo
+ The Walls
- The floor
Clementine looked around the room’s walls. There were a handful of infographics about the history of the stop, the animals outside, and things to do in the area. Other signs included ones leading to the bathroom, or a map of a trail outside.
Attached to the wall next to the door was a fire extinguisher. Clementine opened the case it was kept in, which thankfully didn’t need a key. She picked it up, and managed to hold it up for a few seconds, but the weight, once it left the box, was much more than she expected. Her arms gave out, dropping the extinguisher. She jumped back, not wanting to crush her toes. There was a loud bang as the metal hit the concrete floor, making everyone turn to look at her. Clementine’s cheeks felt hot.
“Careful there,” Bonnie warned.
“I got it.” Mike walked over to pick it up. “Good job Clementine!”
Mike raised the extinguisher over his shoulder, his steps slower, but with more pep, as he walked over to the first vending machine. “Careful,” he said, urging everyone to take a few steps back to avoid any unwanted splinters. He brought it down in one quick swing, smashing the glass in easily. Clementine looked back after flinching slightly at the loudness of it all, seeing a large hole in the center of the machine.
“There we go!” Mike exclaimed, picking up the extinguisher again slowly to avoid the shards of glass. He raised it up again and took a few steps over to the drink machine, repeating the process. Clementine didn’t flinch this time.
“Alright kids, let’s take these to the car.” Bonnie began to reach into the snack machine, grabbing a few items at a time.
“The glass is sharp, be careful.”
“Yeah, I got it.” Bonnie tossed a bag of chips and a bag of crackers to Clementine.
Successful, the group added the haul to the trunk. For the first time, Clementine saw all the stuff they had. Multiple bags sat in the small space provided in there, piled on top of each other. Her eyes were initially drawn to the medicine bag. She recognized a few others, like the case of food found in Arvo’s cabin. Clementine paused when she looked at one of the bags. That was the one the formula was kept in. She slowly peeked in. It was empty. They left the formula. She took a shaky breath and felt a pit appear in her stomach. The others had to have woken up by now. Was AJ hungry?
“We don’t know how long until the next stop.” Mike placed the drinks down next to the food. “I’m going to see if those cars have any gas, you guys go to the bathroom and clean yourselves up.”
“Are you sure it’s safe to be out here?” Bonnie asked, worried about the exposed elements and any walkers that could be nearby.
“It’ll be fine. I have this.” He took out a gun of his own. “I’ll shout if anything goes wrong.”
With that, they returned to the building. Arvo went to the men’s while Clementine followed Bonnie to the women’s.
“How’re you holding up, girl?” Bonnie started conversation.
- “I miss the others.”
- ”Tired.”
- “Okay.”
+ “...”
Clementine remained quiet.
“Look, I know it’s been a long day.” Bonnie crouched down to meet Clementine’s eyes. “But you’re safe now. Things are only getting better. We’ll find a way to get by. It won’t be like it was before. We’ll be our own little group.” Clementine wasn’t sure how long that would last. “You go get yourself cleaned up.”
Bonnie went to one of the sinks, turning on the water. It ran! She grinned, similar to how Mike did earlier when he saw the snacks. “They must have their own reserves, or something.” She commented.
Clementine set her hat on the counter, using wet paper towels from a dispenser to attempt to clean herself. She put a dab of soap, one of those cheap industrial pink brands, onto a towel and wiped her face. The texture felt strange, not how she remembered from her art teacher’s sink. Hopefully it wasn’t expired. Either way, she needed it; her most recent bath had been falling into that lake.
“Oh, how I’ve been needing this,” Bonnie laughed to herself, using her new shampoo mix of old hand soap and water to lightly dab her hair. She then grabbed a handful of paper towels to try and dry it. “Want to do your hair too?” Bonnie must have noticed Clementine took her hat off.
Clementine took a look at the high quality toiletries they were working with. She tried not to look judgemental, frowning slightly. “No, thanks.” She didn’t trust that pink goop in her hair.
“Suit yourself,” she winked and set the handgun on the counter. “I’m gonna use the toilet, then we can head out if you’re ready.”
Clementine began to work on drying herself off. As the ungreased hinges of the door swung open, Clementine heard a slow, low snarl. The sound of rotting flesh stuck in a groaning throat came next, making Clementine turn around just in time to hear Bonnie scream at the walker inside the stall.
The walker was wearing a ripped up shirt with a knife piercing its lung, presumably how it died. Maybe it was attacked and limped in here to make a toilet paper bandage before finally kicking the bucket. Either way, it quickly got a hold of Bonnie’s shoulders, its mouth open and ready to feast.
- Bonnie
- Walker
+ Gun
Clementine reached for the gun Bonnie left on the counter, aiming it at the walker’s head.
+ Shoot
There was a loud bang as the Walker fell to the ground. Clementine bounced slightly from the recoil, her back hitting the sink. Bonnie gasped as dark blood splattered onto her, covering her face and shirt. Her hand quickly went to wipe the blood off.
“Are you okay?” Clementine nearly shouted, lowering the gun.
“Yeah! Oh god, thank you Clementine.” Bonnie turned and tightly hugged Clementine, squeezing her tightly. “I knew we should’ve brought you.”
Clementine rubbed blood off her, transferred over from Bonnie’ hug, once Bonnie backed away. “Sorry about that,” Bonnie chuckled. They both turned back to the sinks, washing the new blood off their faces. “So much for me washing up a minute ago,” she tried to lighten the mood, but Clementine’s heart was still racing.
There was another bang as Arvo slammed opened the door, his gun drawn and ready to shoot. “What was the noise?” He looked around the room, gun moving with his eyes. The blood on his face from earlier was washed off, but the bruises still remained.
+ “There was a walker.”
- “It’s okay.”
- “Put the gun down!”
- “...”
“A walker was in here.” Clementine pointed to the dead body. “I took care of it.”
“Clem shot it, we’re all good.”
Arvo lowered the gun. “Oh. No bites?” His eyebrows raised as he asked, willing to raise the gun again if the answer was yes.
“No,” Bonnie smiled. “Everyone’s okay.”
Arvo nodded in response. “We must go.”
“Yeah, there might be walkers outside who heard that.” Bonnie agreed, taking the gun from Clementine and hurrying out.
Clementine grabbed her hat and followed. Outside, Mike was siphoning gas from a red container into the car. She looked at the gas canister, noting how little fuel seemed to be in it. How would they get far with just that? When would be the next time they even saw gas? Mike took notice of her concern, smiling at her before standing up.
“Wanna try?” He offered, wanting to calm her nerves. And because car maintenance was always handy to know.
- “Yes.”
+ “No.”
“Not right now.” Clementine crossed her arms over her chest, shivering slightly again.
“Maybe I’ll teach you later.” Mike smiled, which made Clementine return the gesture. “I was just trying to find anything outside here for the car. I got a little gas from the other cars, but… nevermind. Let’s get going. You guys look a lot better.”
“You sayin’ I was ugly before?” Bonnie asked in a tease.
“Maybe,” Mike smiled, opening the driver’s door.
He started the car once everyone got in. In the few minutes they were outside, the car already got cold. Clementine crossed her arms to stay warm.
“What was all the ruckus inside?”
“A walker almost got me.”
“You alright?”
“Yeah, Clem shot him. Still got me all worked up though.”
“No shit. I saw a walker out in the woods, but hid behind one of the cars. Don’t think it saw me.”
“Well it can’t get us in here either way. So I think we’re fine.” Bonnie ran a hand through her hair.
Mike began to back out from the spot before driving back onto the bumpy road.
“I hope the soda doesn’t explode.” Clementine smiled.
“Do you think carbonation goes away with age? I mean, those things must be years expired.” Mike pulled onto the highway.
“Maybe it’s like wine. Gets better with age.”
“Yeah good luck with that. At least the water should be fine. I’m surprised nobody got into that place before us.”
“We must really be in the middle of nowhere. How far from the civil war site are we?”
“Shit, probably a hundred or so miles.”
“And the walk from Arvo’s.” Arvo lifted his head up at his name.
“I wonder how far this road’ll take us.”
“Let me know when you want me to take over.”
“And trust you to drive in this weather? Fat chance!”
“You sayin’ women can’t drive now? You’re worse than Carver.”
“Yeah, and who was working with him?”
Bonnie punched his shoulder. “Asshole,” she snickered.
Clementine closed her eyes and rested her head against the window as the two joked. She felt warmer with the sun now out. Maybe things would finally work out now. Maybe. She felt her eyes getting heavy with the gentle hum of the engine and the soft chatter up front.