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It's been a while since she was alone, truly alone. No one to talk to, to rely on, to remind herself that the world still could have its silver linings.
She decides being alone sucks.
Clementine pulls on the sleeve of her tattered shirt, doing her best to cover up the bleeding wound that Sam had given her. She flinches, remembering the feral gleam in the dog's eyes as he attacked her. She knows that he had just been trying to survive, like her, but it
doesn't make her feel any better, physically
or
emotionally. Besides, she has bigger problems to worry about.
It's going to be dark soon, and walkers will be harder to spot. She's bleeding, tired, and has no food or supplies.
"And alone," she adds, sighing as she continues surveying the area she's walking in. The last thing she needs on top of everything else is to be jumped again. "Great."
She takes another step forward, only to stumble, and she sees spots in the corner of her eyes. Oh, no. The exhaustion, the injuries, they're already getting to her. She figures maybe it's because she's so small, already so starved....she's not going to make it if she collapses here though. She has to find some sort of shelter, somewhere the walkers or anyone else can't reach her.
Maybe she's already dying. She's cold and hot at the same time, and that can't be good. Her arm is throbbing, blood staining her shirt and dripping down into the dirt as she forces herself to continue onwards.
Whatever feeling she has left is replaced by dread as she spots a shape in the distance, a shape that limps, guts dragging out behind them. The chances of it being alone like her? Slim.
"Run," she whispers, but her body doesn't listen to her. Instead, it chooses to give up, and she cries out louder than she means to as she collapses, and with the way she had been clutching her arm, all her weight lays on the wound.
The walker senses her now and she stares, horrified, terrified, as it slowly, always so slowly, makes its way over to her,
and she can already see another one coming over too. So rare was it to find a walker alone these days.
She's going to die, in the worst way.
"You're strong, Clem. You - You can do anything."
“But I'm little!"
"Don't mean nothing."
Lee's voice rings through her head so suddenly, so clearly, she thinks for a brief moment, that he's there next to her, ready to help her up, but she's still cold on the ground, bleeding, and near death, and he never would have stood for that, so that can't be right.
She misses him, and wants to see him more than anything in the world, but she knows he didn't die for her to follow him so easily. They'll meet one day, but not today.
With renewed strength, Clem forces herself up on her elbows, pushing past her exhaustion, her pain, to crawl further away from the walker. She doesn't know who's faster, but she won't lie down and wait for that terrible creature to get her. She just has to get far away enough to get on her feet.
Suddenly, the walker screams in that horrible moaning way they do when they're attacked, and Clem looks over her shoulder to see both walkers down, a man in the midst of bashing their heads with....a flashlight?
They must be dead because he stops and looks at her, and she hopes he's a good man, because she can escape walkers, not so much a living person.
"
Dios Mios
," he breathes, and suddenly he's next to her, crouching down. "Are you okay? No, of course not. Here, I'm going to pick you up, okay?"
"Okay," she replies, because what else is she supposed to say?
The man carefully scoops her up into his arms, as if she weighs nothing, and then she remembers she probably does weigh nothing.
She flinches as her wound brushes against his clothes, reminding her of her other physical pain. He follows her gaze to her arm, and he gasps, but does not let her go or drop her, which she is thankful for.
"Is that-"
"No," she answers quickly. "Dog bite. It...It hurts."
"I bet," the man says, glancing back at the dead walkers before he starts walking in the direction Clem had been heading. "I have some supplies, I’ll help get you patched up, okay? I just need you to keep your eyes open, alright? That’s all you gotta do.”
“Okay.” She feels the exhaustion seeping into her bones, and it’s so tempting to disobey him, to just close her eyes for a little bit and rest. “I’m…..”
“I know, I know,” the man says, and his voice is so kind, despite the worry she can hear behind it. “Just keep talking with me, okay? We’re almost there. What - What’s your name,
mija
?”
She rolls her head to the side, leaning it against his chest, and she can’t complain when she’s jostled as he picks up his pace, almost running.
“Clem,” she manages to say, and she focuses on the sky above her, the orange glow of the setting sun seeping through the holes of the tree shade and occasionally blinding her. It’s easier to close her eyes when it does, so she stares at the buttons on the man’s shirt instead. “Clementine.”
“Hey, Clementine,” he says, glancing down at her briefly with a smile. “My name’s Javi. We’ll fix you up, okay?”
He keeps repeating himself so much it’s almost annoying, but he’s only trying to keep her awake.
“Hi, Javi,” she murmurs. “You’ve got a funny beard.”
She hears a woman shout, and that’s when she finally blacks out.
.
She wakes to the smell of something cooking, and it makes her stomach growl viciously.
Rubbing her eyes, she sits up, and sees she’s in the backseat of some sort of car. For a brief moment, she thinks she fell asleep on the way to her grandmother’s again, her parents stopped at that gas station by the lake where she always fed the ducks.
Then she really looks around, and realizes this isn’t her parents’ sedan, and she’s not with on the way to her grandmother’s at all.
The last thing she remembers is being carried by a man - Javi, his name was, she thinks - with the promise she’d be fine.
Clementine bites her lip and pulls the sleeve of her shirt up, relieved to see her wound has been wrapped up, recently from the looks of it. Actually, she’s not even sure this is her shirt.
Pinching at the front of it, she sees that she’s right; it’s some pink sweater with a tiny teddy bear on the front. It’s cute, actually, but maybe she should focus on where she is.
Careful not to jostle the car - van, she realizes - she peers through the window, trying to spot the man from before, and there he is, standing outside nearby with a young woman, arguing over something if his frustrated face is any indication.
She tugs on the door handle, planning to slide it open just a little bit so she can eavesdrop, but it’s louder than she expects, and the two of them cut themselves off as they look over at her.
Javi strides over to her, relief clear on his face.
“You’re awake!” He exclaims. “How do you feel? You’ve been out for almost a day and a half now.”
“I’m….fine, thanks,” she answers, a bit warily. “Did you change my shirt?”
“No, Kate did,” he answers, looking back at the woman he had been arguing with her. She stands, watching with arms crossed, watching them. “Good thing you’re about the same size as my niece. Are you hungry? We were just getting ready to eat.”
Her stomach growls again, reminding her of what had woken her in the first place.
“Food sounds good,” she admits, carefully climbing out of the van.
Javi leads her to the campfire, and she sees now two other people - kids-
besides the woman, Kate, who continues to watch her.
“Clementine, this is Kate,” the man introduces, “and my niece and nephew, Mariana and Gabe.”
“Hi,” says Clem, awkwardly clutching
at her arm, the one that isn’t injured, if only to do something with her hands. “Um.”
The girl, Mariana, scoots closer to her brother, and pats the seat next to her.
“Hey, come sit down,” she suggests. Without thinking too hard on it, Clem makes her way over and sits down next to the other girl. “Have you ever listened to the Disco Broccoli theme song remix?”
Her brother groans besides her, and Clem gapes.
“What?” She exclaims, bewildered.
Mariana lights up with a smile and holds up a pair of headphones between them.
“People put the weirdest thing on cassettes,” she says as a way of explanation, and Clem slowly holds up the other end of the headphones so they can listen to the song together. “It’s a good way to drown out the world though.”
It’s….loud. She barely remembers the actual Disco Broccoli theme song, but she doesn’t think it had has many beats and sound effects as this version. Still, it’s not the worst thing she’s heard.
In fact, it makes her laugh when she hears a few lines from the show thrown into the song.
“That’s from the Halloween episode,” Clem exclaims once the song is over, putting the headphones down between them. “The one where he has to sing for-”
“The vampire fruit bats!” Mariana interrupts, giggling. “Gabe watched that one on loop for days one year!”
“Shut up, Mari,” murmurs the boy beside her, and Clem looks over his sister’s shoulder to get a good look at him. He doesn’t look that older than her either, not that she could really remember her own age all that well anyways. “It was a good episode!”
“I just think it’s funny how much you like Disco Broccoli even though you never wanted to actually eat broccoli,” remarks Mariana, poking her brother’s shoulder. “You even slept with a Disco Broccoli thing instead of a normal teddy bear.”
“Shut up,” hisses Gabe, cheeks bright red, the flush deepening when Clem laughs. “Great.”
“It’s okay, I had one too,” assures Clem just as she remembers what Javi said earlier. “Oh. Mariana, right? Um, thanks for the shirt.”
The other girl blinks, surprised by the change in subject, but smiles and shrugs.
“Sure,” she replies. “It didn’t fit me anymore anyways.”
“Food’s ready,” interrupts the woman, Kate, as she comes over to the three of them. Her expression tells Clem that she’s not happy about something, definitely whatever it was she and Javi had been arguing over. “Come on.”
She walks away before Clem can reply, and Mariana sighs.
“She’s not as happy as we are to have you,” she whispers before standing and going over to peer at whatever her uncle had cooked up.
“It’s not much,” says Javi apologetically as he cuts up a fish that she now sees must have been cooking on the fire. “But can’t really complain, you know?”
“It smells great,” says Clem honestly. “And way better than the last thing I had, which was some….raccoon or something.”
“Fish is definitely better,” agrees Javi, handing her a portion with a grin. “Here, eat up. Can’t have you passing out again.”
Clem nods, taking a bite of the fish, and it’s bony and unseasoned, but a million times better than anything she’s been offered in the last two years. Legs included.
“So, Clementine,” starts Kate after a moment. “Javi says he found you alone in the woods. Were you by yourself this whole time?”
Clem chews slowly, dread filling her as she remembers she doesn’t know what had happened just a few days ago, but shakes her head at the woman’s question.
“No,” she answers, getting the attention of the other three. “I had a group, but….it fell apart a while ago. I was with this woman….but we got separated. She….” Clem remembers the gunshots she heard, the shouts that sounded a lot like Christa, and she looks down at the dirt. “It’s just me now.”
“Well, you’re more than welcome to stick around with us,” offers Javi, seeming to ignore the look Kate gives him. “We have plenty of room in the van, and we can’t just, you know, leave you out here.”
“Are you sure?” Clem blinks in surprise. “I mean….”
“It’s better than being alone,” comments Mariana, nudging her with her shoulder. “You’ll like the van. I got two more cassettes in there. And Gabe has this dumb game we can play.”
“It’s not dumb,” protests Gabe, shooting his sister a look. “You’ll like it, Clementine. It’s easy to learn the rules.”
Clem bites her lip, thinking it over. She barely knows these people, literally just met them, but then again, they did take care of her and fed her, and, well, it’s not like she had anywhere to go.
“Okay,” she agrees, smiling a bit. “If you’re really okay with me staying.”
She can’t help but look at Kate as she adds that, certain now that the woman didn’t exactly want her included.
Kate stares back for a few seconds before she looks at Javi, seeming to have a silent conversation with him, and sighs and shakes her head.
“Yeah, you’re welcome here,” she says finally, digging through her pockets for something. “I’ll be back.”
“Hey, not too much,” warns Javi even as she starts walking away. “It’s your turn to drive, don’t forget that!”
“She smokes weed,” explains Gabe, seeing Clem’s confused expression. “But at least she doesn’t do it in the van.”
“Speaking of which, hurry and finish eating,” says Javi, tending the fire. “We should get back on the road before it gets dark. Can’t stick around too long in one place.”
Clem watches as Javi nearly catches fire, Kate smokes in the near distance, Gabe leaning away from Mariana as she dangles a fish bone in his face, and she smiles.
She thinks maybe she’ll like it here.