Things That Are Lost

Chapter 4: Freedom

Rebecca let's go of them and Sarah hugs her. "Sarah.... I'm so sorry about Carlos." "I'll be alright... let's get out of here." "We can't find anybody." "I know. What do we do?" "We're still covered in walker guts." Rebecca turns to the horde. "Look. The walkers are still moving toward the hardware store. We can make it out if we stick together-" She stops mid sentence and holds her stomach. "I'm glad you two are here." "We'll stick with you." "Thank you. We need a clear path to the trees. Maybe they're thinning out somewhere, do you see an opening?" Clem and Sarah look for an opening in the walkers. Clem struggles to see one when Sarah whispers, "Over there!" The three of them head to the opening, only to be cut off by walkers. "Damnit, go back." They turn around and Clem bumps into Jane.

"Jane!" "Jane, thank god-" Jane cuts them off. "Stop. Relax. You need to walk....SLOWLY. You'll be fine." Jane walks a little before Rebecca asks. "I can't do this alone... You have to help us. Please." "We can't clump together like this.... it's better if we spread out. You three will be fine...." "We should all stay together, it's safer." "It's exactly the opposite." Jane starts moving again, but one look back at them gets her to change her mind.

"Fuck." She walks back to them. "We'll have to push through that cluster of walkers." "There's too many." "We'll make a cow-catcher." Clem asks, "The fuck is a cow-catcher?" "You'll see." Jane looks around before spotting the perfect walker. "There." She points at it. "That one looks light enough to carry. I'm going to get on the far side of her. You need to get its attention." She moves past them and Clem taps the walker. It turns, Jane gets behind it and stabs it in the jaw and tears it off. "Not gonna bite anyone now, are ya?" Jane starts pushing the walker through the group. "Follow me." The rest follow her closely. "Keep up. If you fall behind, I can't come back for you."

They get through the herd safely without attracting attention. Jane pushes the cow-catcher to the ground and stabs it in the head. They get away from the herd and head towards the meet up point. A few hours later it's morning and the four of them are walking in silence. Clem looks behind her seeing Rebecca with a hand in her stomach, struggling to keep up. She slows down and walks next to her. "Is....everything alright?" "No... I'm not alright, but I'll be a lot better when we find the others. I need to make sure everyone else made it out. Luke....Nick....Kenny. God damn it, what if they aren't there?" Jane looks back at her. "If they aren't.....nothing we can do about it." "Don't even say things like that!" "Fine! Sorry."

Rebecca stops and the others stop and face her. "I have to stop. I'm sorry. I don't want to slow us down. Can I have a minute?" "Yeah. Take a minute." "Thank you. Alvin was supposed to be here for this...." "Kenny could help, he had a family."

"What are you going to do with it?" "What do you mean by that?" "Oh. Sorry. Just making conversation. It was nothing." "No. What do you mean by that? Do with what? My baby?!" "I'm just looking at the worst case scenario. You, Sarah, and Clem won't be able to raise a baby by yourselves. Clem especially." Clem looks at Jane. "The hell's that supposed to mean?" "Don't think no one saw what you did to Troy back there." "What? He was still alive.....unlike Carver." "What makes you think you won't do that to the baby?" Sarah defends Clem. "Clem wouldn't do that, she's a good person." "Good people don't bash another living person's head in." "They had it coming." "You can't possibly be defending her Sarah." "I am, because she's my friend." "You people keep hanging around her, and you'll end up like Carver."

Clem clenches her fists. "Maybe you'll end up like him in the next five seconds." "This is what I'm talking about. You're unstable Clem." "I did what I had to to keep this group safe." "You're going to bring them down, my sister, we......" Clem cuts her off. "She died? I couldn't care less." "You don't......you don't get to say that." Jane walks away from them. "We all lost people Jane, your sister is nothing special." Jane doesn't respond and keeps on walking. "Whatever." Clem starts walking as well. Sarah and Rebecca look from Clem, to each other before continuing.

Later they finally reach the meet up point at Parker's Run. They see Mike and Bonnie talking. "We can't just sit here and do nothing." "I know. I know. They'll be here soon." "Holy shit." Mike says as he and Bonnie see the four of them. "It had been so long. We were starting to worry no one else would make it." "Well, besides...." Mike looks behind him at Kenny sitting on a fountain with a gun in his hand and Sarita nowhere to be seen. "Where's Sarita?" Mike and Bonnie exchanged looks before Bonnie answers, "She was getting bad.....real bad.....she passed out on the way here....when we went to help her...well....." Everyone grew silent. "I tried to talk to Kenny but he flipped out on me. Started yelling. Scary shit." "I know he probably didn't mean it, but it was scary." Jane looks down at Clem. "Now I see who you get it from." "Get what from?" "Nothing.....just thinking out loud."

"I've been nervous to even go near him." "What, you think he's gonna shoot you?" "The way he's acting now? I dunno. Maybe. He's not thinking rationally." 'Damn, this happened because of me.' Clem thinks before suggesting. "I should go talk to him. This is my fault." "Hey. You did what you thought was right. That's all anyone can do in that situation."

Clem sighs and walks over to Kenny, slowly approaching him as he doesn't look up at her and says. "Sarita.....God, wherever you are.... Please forgive me.... I can't be alone again." "Hi, Kenny." Kenny slowly looks up at her. "You think I don't know what y'all are whispering about over there?" He asks as the others help Rebecca over to a bench. "What's wrong with Kenny?" "Why's Kenny acting that way?" "Do you think Kenny's okay?" It's all I hear from anyone anymore." "Kenny... I'm so sorry about Sarita--" Kenny cuts her off. "Sorry, huh? Well that's nice of you, seeing as this was your fault in the first place." "There was nothing I could do." "Seeing how things turned out, I think I might've preferred you do nothing." "What was I supposed to do? Let the walkers devour her?" "You think because you're a little girl, you can just get people killed and no one will care? That because you're "sorry" it'll all magically go away? That's not how it works!"

Clem jumps back a bit from that last line while thinking, 'It's not my fault Kenny, she was bit, I just saved her life!' "Fuck off Kenny. It wasn't my fault she got herself bit." "Don't you fucking talk about her like that!" "Why not? Because it was her fault for getting bit. I didn't kill her, I saved her life, and here you are, blaming me for something that I didn't do." "Shut up!" "No! You shut up! All you do is hold onto past events like no tomorrow, well wake the fuck up! Stop holding onto old grudges and stop blaming others for your fuck ups! It's the apocalypse, so get over it!"

Kenny doesn't respond and just looks at her, anger and shock visible in his eyes. He watches as a drop of blood falls from her bloody bandage an onto the ground. "Clem...." Clem cuts him short. "Don't......just don't....." She walks away from him and towards the others.