𝐃𝐄𝐂𝐈𝐌𝐀𝐓𝐈𝐎𝐍 ━ 𝐭𝐰𝐝𝐠

[ 012 ]

"It's heavy!" Clementine exclaimed.

"You'll get used to it," Kassidy assured as she stared at her feet.

"You'll get stronger. To aim, you look right down the top. Through that notch. Line up the sight at the end with your target," Lee held Clem's shoulders to help her aim, fixing her stance and arms.

"Is there anything else I should know?"

"Take a deep breath, hold it, and fire," Lee told her.

"Makes the gun not shake as much and gives you better aim," Kassidy explained.

"I'll remember that... Okay, I'm ready," Clementine said, facing the boxes in the back.

"Good girl," Lee praised, turning to Kassidy, "Kass, why don't you go stack up some bottles for Clementine to shoot at?"

She looked up at him and muttered, "Sure, Lee," walking over to a large box, noticing at least three bottles. She grabbed them and lined them on top of the box.

"Alright. Don't lock your elbows. Okay. Let's take the shot. Squeeze the trigger smoothly and I'll cover your ears. Nice and easy."

"Nice and easy."

BANG!

"Eek!"

"You okay?" Lee asked.

"My hands hurt. I don't like this, Lee." Clementine frowned and looked at Lee.

"Let's stick with it, okay?" He replied, watching Clementine pout some more.

"Do I have to?" She whinef.

"Yes, you do," Lee says and repeats the same as before, a smile forming on his face.

Clementine aimed the gun in the bottles direction. The first few times, she missed and shot at the box above.

Clem aimed again, Lee holding back her hair and covering her ears.

"Steady now... almost got it..."

BANG!

"I got it!" Clem smiled.

"Excellent, good shot," Lee says, smiling as Clem smiled back.

Lee explained the same as before and covered Clem's ears as she aimed. But this time, Clem shot at and hit the bottle immediately, smashing it into pieces.

"I did it again!" Clementine exclaimed.

"Yeah, you did. Good job,"  Lee praised with a smile.

"Thanks, Lee. Kassidy! Did you see that?" she exclaimed.

"I saw it, Clem. Great job," Kassidy congratulated, although she didn't really care that much due to the fresh pain of her mother and brother's death.

"Thanks," Clem replied, smiling up at the older girl before turning back to Lee. "I did what you said and held my breath, and the gun didn't shake as much." She furrowed her brows, "They're not walkers, though."

"No," Lee said. "Far from it. But you know how these things work now. I'll graduate you to walkers some day."

"I feel good," Clem smiled.

"Not so scary, huh?" Lee took the gun back.

"Nuh-uh," Clem sat back down on the edge of the train, Lee and Kass following. "My hands hurt. And my ears have noise in them."

"You'll get used to it," Lee said darkly. "What do you two think of Chuck?"

"I don't know," Clem said.

Kass nodded, "But I do like his guitar. He said he'll teach me how to play."

"He may be okay, though," Lee said. "He's probably had it pretty rough." He noticed something in the bag beside him and took it out. "So, you're probably not going to like this," Lee muttered.

"Oh no, did something happen?" Clementine asked.

"No," Lee shook his head. "We need to talk about your hair. It's not safe."

"That's not nice!" Clem scolded.

"What?"

"Are you saying it smells?

"No."

"Cause it does. Kinda... so does Kass'."

"No it doesn't," Kassidy grabbed her hair and smelt it. "Oh, it kind of does."

"Do you remember when Danny St John grabbed your hair? And I got mad?" Lee asked.

"Yeah," Clem answered.

"Who wouldn't? You looked ready to strangle him to death..." Kassidy shrugged.

"Well, that could happen again," Lee held up the scissors. "And if it's a walker... well, we need to trim it."

"Just a trim, right?" Clementine asked.

"I need to trim it short enough that it can't be grabbed."

Clem sighed "Okay. What about you, Kassidy?"

Kassidy shook her head, "My hair is short enough already. Takes forever to grow out anyway."

Clementine sighed as Lee nodded, "Why is it that short anyway?"

"It's not..." Kassidy muttered with furrowed browns as she shrugged. "I'll be outside if you need me."

"Okay," Lee replied.

When Kassidy left the train car and closed the door behind her, she noticed Ben leaning against the railing with his hands on his head, looking miles away at the ongoing rails below.

"Hey, Ben. You doing okay?" Kassidy asked, shaking his arm a bit. Ben snapped out of his trance in fright, but calmed down when he noticed it was Kassidy.

He avoided her question with his own, "Are you okay?"

"My mother and brother are gone... Just-" she sighed, "You didn't answer my question."

"No... not really," Ben replied, sadness present in his tone as Kassidy raised an eyebrow.

"What's wrong?" she asked.

Ben glanced at his friend with sad eyes. He just couldn't keep it from her, knowing it was his fault that two members of her family were taken away from her. "About that whole bandit supplies incident. Lilly was right, it was me," Ben muttered revealing his secret as her eyes widen in shock. "I was the one giving the bandits supplies."

"What? How could you do that?" Kassidy asks, still shocked by this betrayal, as her eyes watered.

"They said they had my friend, I didn't know what to believe. But by the time I figured they were lying, it was too late. The next thing I knew, they attacked, and now...Carley, Katjaa, and Duck are dead because of me..." Ben finished, looking at the ground in guilt.

They stood silent until Ben heard sniffles and hesitantly looked up from his feet, noticing that Kassidy was crying. "Oh God. No, no. Please don't cry Kassidy. I'm so sorry," he stammered, bringing her into a hug. Kassidy stood there, stiff, as Ben hugged her. Although she had to admit, the contact had her flushed. She was mad- but also not. He couldn't have known they were lying. Or that they would attack and walkers would get into the motel.

"Does anyone else know?" Kassidy asked, breaking the awkward silence as she took a step back from the hug and Ben.

"Lee knows. I've been thinking about telling Kenny but Lee said that wasn't a good idea," Ben mentioned as Kassidy nodded her head.

"You should listen to him. Dad would kill you. I... I don't want that..." Kassidy finished before hearing her father's voice from up front,

"Aw shit! Hold on, everyone!" he exclaimed, pulling the breaks and forcing train to an abrupt stop, causing everyone to cling onto something.