Under the Darkness | Clementine x Male Reader

War - Interlinked

Outskirts of Richmond, Virginia.

Two and a half years before the events of "Under the Darkness".

------------------------------------------------------------

Clementine is walking down a road not too far from Richmond. It's been barely a few hours since she said goodbye to Javi and Gabe and has headed for McCaroll Ranch to retrieve AJ. She assumes it will take her a few days to get there, so she will need to ration her supplies wisely, unless she is able to get her hands on more food from somewhere. Hunting is always an option, but after the action of the last few days, she'd rather save her bullets for protection. After all.. who knows what might be going on at McCarroll ranch.

The sun is killing her. Her signature hat is there, but doesn't really provide a lotta protection from the heat. She's thankful that Javier cut her hair before she left, otherwise, it'd be even warmer. A gas station is in the distance. She will rest there for a bit and hopefully stock up on supplies, before continuing her journey.

------------------------------------------------------------

After ten minutes more worth of walking, the survivor finally arrives at the gas station and takes a moment to survey the area. A bunch of cars are spread all around the place, filled with both dead humans and walkers. Looks like a bunch of people got into fighting over gas at the start and.. it didn't end well. Chances are, maybe one of these cars is still working and she can use it to get to McCarroll Ranch. That would life-changing.

Suddenly, a high pitched neigh interrupts her thought process. Her gaze moves up to spot two horses hitched by the entrance of the gas station. Her thoughts jump back to Richmond. The soldiers from the kingdom, armoured like knights of the old ages, riding on horses and saving the innocent. She is doubtful that whoever is here has any connection to the Kingdom though. These are probably some random survivors.

Clementine takes out her gun and silently sneaks over to the entrance, hoping that the horses would not alert any possible threats inside. Thankfully, they remain quiet as Clementine takes cover and carefully peaks inside. Right away, there is nobody to seen. A bunch of snacks and bottles on the ground, thrown over shelves and dead walkers. But no people.

There has to be someone. The horses can't just belong to nobody. Clementine walks inside, gun in her hand and guard held high as she surveys the building for the visitors. The office, the bathrooms, the closet, the employee dressing room. It's all empty of life.

Clem: Weird..

Maybe somebody found a working car and just.. left the horses. It's sad, but the smart thing to do. She saw that they had saddlebags on them, so she definitely has to check those later. Right now, her focus is on the gas station itself though. She gathers anything that looks edible off the ground and stows it away in her backpack. Food is food. And this place has anything.. ranging from chips to beef jerky, which is not a lot, but better nothing.

She walks into the section of the station where the shelves are thrown over and notices a walker on top of a shelf. For some reason, she decides to drag it off the shelf and is caught stunned to find an entire knife, including the handle, stuck in it's head.

???: Here..

A faint whisper fills the air behind her. She quickly pivots around, gun drawn at the source of the voice, but is left confused as there is nobody there. Her gaze falls lower and that's when she finally finds the source. A head popping out from underneath the shelf. It belongs to a boy that looks to be around her age, that had a shelf fall onto him and pin his entire body up to his ribcage. His eyes are open, but he doesn't seem to have a lotta time left. For a second, she debates killing him and putting him out of his misery, but then decides against it. The boy, barely awake, is staring at her, but doesn't say anything at first. His voice sounds raspy and exhausted.