The Heart of A Semi-Broken Survivor

Helping the Hunt

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Clem had to admit, she was impressed. These kids had traps seemingly surrounding the entire area and from the way, Louis, Sophie, and Marlon were going they seem to know how to handle themselves, whether that translates as well with fighting people as it does with fighting walkers Clem hopes to never find out. She grips her knife tightly as she walks closer to walker approaching her, before knocking it down by its disfigured leg. Just as she goes to knife the undead bastard, she feels one grab her by the back of her hoodie, and just as Clem's panic fully sets in, she feels the hand let go and the sound of a weapon being retracted. But putting her focus back on the walker in front of her she sheathes her knife through its eye and digs it in deep before pulling it out. She takes a moment to gather herself, taking a deep breath and turns around to see the walker that had tried to grab her crumbled on the ground, and as she scans the area to see who might've helped her, she sees Violet not too far away from her, and from the fresh looking walker blood on her cleaver and the wound on the walker, it was her who had saved her ass. Clementine shakes her head trying to get back in the game and heads off towards the next walker but sets a mental note to thank Violet whenever next they have a conversation.

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Finally, the herd that came by had been cleared out, allowing the hunting party to come through, a small three man team, only two of them carrying anything as proof of their hunt. A redhead with slicked back hair and blue eyes comes up to them followed by the rest of her squad as Sophie quips "took you guys long enough, we couldn't hold off those assholes much longer". The redhead responds with "no kidding. Where'd all these walkers come from?" at this though Clem couldn't help but cringe, knowing that no matter how you look at it, this situation was her fault. Marlon, seemingly the leader of this band of kids, steps in and responds "we can talk when we're back inside the gates. Keep an eye out for stragglers though" and with that, he turns and begins leading the way back to the gate, everyone including Clementine falling in step with him. Eventually, as they walk Clem and Violet fall in step next to each other, walking almost in time with one another, Clem gripping her knife tightly and Violet doing the same with her cleaver. Clementine starts contemplates bringing up what happened earlier with the walker but before she could even think about what to say Violet says with, what Clementine thinks is as close to commendment she'll get from Violet at the moment "you know, you're not half bad. Considering the circumstances and all...". She gives Clem an undecipherable look before facing forward, but Clementine got a warm vibe from the conversation but she couldn't understand why that didn't stop her from smiling at the comment though. 

"thanks-" Clem was gonna say more but Sophie's voice caught both of their attention, cutting her off "Let's finish these assholes off, we don't need them attracting more attention to the school!". Violet nods at her and then Clem before heading in to chop down an incoming walker. Clem follows her example and heads over to a commando crawling walker, that either Marlon or that other darker skinned boy shot with an arrow, and plunged her knife deep into its head a few times. Looking ahead she sees that very same dude with his barely-there goatee, complaining about something like clean-up shit, but out of nowhere, a walker jumps him from behind and so Clem springs into action. Running as quickly as possible, she finally makes it and cleanly sheathes her knife through the back of the zombie's collarbone, like two inches away from the boy's face. But then it knocks her back and fights to get closer to her, which causes Clem to struggle and try to push it back. However, before either could do anything, growls were sounded and suddenly a stumpy brown dog tackles the walker and starts crunching down on its head. Clem's eyes widen in fear as she sees this, her hand gripping her knife shaking as she holds it out as a defense, her left arm suddenly warm, almost burning in memory of her last encounter with said animal.