𝐃𝐄𝐂𝐈𝐌𝐀𝐓𝐈𝐎𝐍 ━ 𝐭𝐰𝐝𝐠

[ 028 ]

"Hey, I apologized to them last night. They accepted," Nick snapped.

Pete nodded in surrender, "Well good. I didn't even know that!"

"Let's just get to the river," Clementine said, trying to stop an argument from getting worse.

"You're always trying to embarrass me."

"You're doing a good enough job on your own." Nick pushed his way through Pete and continued up the trail. "Leaving us again?"

"I know where the fucking river is," he angrily muttered back. Both girls stood quiet and look at Pete.

"Well, anyway, I found that buck later that season. Shot it right in the neck," Pete continued, ignoring what had happened. "Brought it up to my sister's figuring she'd want to freeze some of the meat...Nick didn't speak to me for weeks." He paused then continued walking. "Sometimes you gotta play a role... Even if it means people you love hate you for it."

"You should tell him that, he'd probably appreciate you more," Kass responded, staring at him.

"Nick's father wasn't there much and he was a piece of shit when he was, so it fell to me to keep him in line. Meant I couldn't be just nice Uncle Pete."

"Uncle Pete!" The three of them jolted and rushed over to Nick. They broke through the forest to see the river with walkers and dead people all over the bank.

"Jesus, Mary, and Joseph." Pete walked up to one and poked them with the barrel of his gun, sighing, "Full of holes."

"Who do you think did it?" Clementine asked Kassidy.

"I'm not sure yet," Pete answered instead. "But ain't your average gana'a thugs, that much I know."

Nick wearily glanced over at Pete, "Think about it, You're Caver, what do you do?"

Kassidy looked at Nick, concerned. It was weird. They kept mentioning his name. "Who's Carver?"

Clementine nodded in agreement, "Yeah, who is he? You kept on asking if we're working for him. So... Who is he?"

"Check those guys there." Nick walked in the direction of where Pete motioned, as the latter walked toward the edge of the bank. "Be careful. Some of 'em might still be moving."

The two girls knelt down beside a walker to see what condition it was in. "This one's shot too," Clem mentioned.

"They're aimed at the chest and head." Kassidy stood, looking around, noticing a small island in the middle of the river with more people and walkers. "There's more."

Pete stood to see where Kass was pointing and sighed. "This wasn't no rinky-dinky pissing match."

Nick asked what it could be. Pete's only response was, "FUBAR."

Confused, Clementine turned to look at Kassidy who only shrugged at the words.

"Where are you going? We need to get the fuck out of here!" Nick urged, looking around with wide eyes. His reaction caught Kassidy's attention.

"We gotta check the rest."

"What? Why!?"

"Calm down and think about it, son," Pete stepped into the cold water, holding his gun up as he walked to the little bit of land in the middle.

"Calm down? We gotta get out of here now!"

"Shouldn't we get the others?" Clem questioned, looking between the two adults.

The oldest man sighed, "Wish we could, but one of these folk might still be alive, and they might be inclined to tell us who did this. We gotta do this now."