Home (Clementine x Female Reader)

Chapter 36 ; Escaping Delta

- oh my god thank you guys so much for 2K reads! kinda late cause i've been procrastinating on chapters, but thank you all, really!

AJ POV:

Since I can remember… Clem’s always been there with me. She taught me to be careful. To be quiet. To always aim for the head. And recently, someone new came around. People call her Wanderer. She’s like Clem too, she’s taught me to be brave. To be strong. To never give up.

They taught me to atone when I do something bad. To show mercy, sometimes. That you can’t let your emotions control you.

I’ve always listened to them. Always. But… I’ve been thinking more. I don’t know if they’re right everytime.

They told me to shoot them if they got bit. That doesn’t feel right.

We’re doing a lot of bad things. To save our friends. To protect our home. And when they told me to shoot Lilly… I got mad. So mad.

I  don’t… I don’t know what I feel anymore, and I don’t think Clem or Y/n know either. But I remember all the rules.

And the first one… is never go alone.

- Back to second POV:

Your head is pounding no doubt, you’re not sure how many times you’ve felt a headache this week, and you definitely don’t want to have to start counting.

You force your eyes open, your vision blurs for a few moments yet you still flinch at the bright light and the smell of smoke that makes your headache even worse.

When you finally come to, you look around slowly. You can see some blood on your hand and the small wound Minnie gave you seems like the least of your worries when you see what’s in front of you.

You and Clementine are back against the railing of the ship, that being the only thing holding you both from falling into the waters below. The ship is definitely tilting and there’s a fire not far from both of you, explaining the bright light from earlier.

You worriedly glance at Clementine just as she starts waking up, her breathing is jerky as she slowly opens her eyes, the fear obvious in her features. Her eyes immediately find yours and you can see some relief on her face when she sees you staring back at her relatively uninjured.

The sound of things falling on her opposite side catches your attention, you both watch Lilly’s dead body sliding along as the ship tilts slightly, her body riddled with gunshots. You stand and help Clementine up, hoisting her up with your free arm.

The ship tilts more and you see some bits of metal fall past the railing. An explosion from behind you both makes you both yell and grab onto the railing. The entire ship shakes, and with the impact from the explosion Clementine’s hat flies off. You both reach for it and it’s just out of your grasp, and it plops into the water below that’s full of zombies.

“Guys!” AJ shouts, snapping both of your attention up from her long-gone hat.

You look over to see AJ hanging onto a piece of the ship, you’re sure he would’ve fallen off otherwise if he hadn’t grabbed it.

“Hang on! We’re coming,” you yell, leaning onto the rail.

You both rush forward and hop onto a raft ahead, hanging on by some ropes, and just as Clementine’s feet touch its planks the ship explodes again, shaking you all as if to remind you about the unstable ground you stay on. You both drop down and grab onto the planks in an attempt to compose yourselves. Once the raft stills you rise up to see AJ.

He hangs above you both now, and it’s only that you realize just how fucked you’ll all be if you don’t get off the boat soon.

“AJ, you have to trust me,” you say loud enough for him to hear, stepping closer to the edge of the raft. “On the count of three, let go and I’ll catch you!”