The Heart of A Semi-Broken Survivor

Helping the Hunt

###########################################

She cries out in pain as it bites into her arm, the teeth digging deep, and from what seemed like it seemed to be trying to chew on it. Her blood splattering across the ground and among her arm, and the sharp burning sting is all she can see and feel. In her panic she lands a few good hits on the animal as it continues to maul into her, finally, one decent one was enough to have it retract his jaw from her arm, the pain searing but she ignores it, and in an instinctual fashion she pulls in her leg and kicks the dog - Sam, she thinks its name was - watching as it tumbles over the log she was sitting on previously. She gazes at her mangled, bleeding arm wincing at how bad it looks and flinches when she hears the dog snap its jaw again before she hears it whimper, and she grips the small pocket knife in her hand tighter.

#######################################

On reflex, Clementine can't help but take a few steps back as her breathing increases upon seeing the dog advance upon her growling all the while. Before anything could happen, however, both Marlon and Sophie ran over, Marlon went straight to kneeling down in front of the dog "good girl! shh, shh. Hey, hey, it's all right, girl. It's all right" he says trying to calm the dog whose face was covered in walker blood. While on the other hand, Sophie came over to Clementine to pat her on the shoulder grinning broadly "dude you kicked ass out there!" this brings Clem out of her fear-induced reverie, but it seems Sophie caught on to Clem's uneasiness and the proof of this is the concerned gaze she was giving Clem. Despite this, however, Marlon and his mullet seemed too invested in the dog to notice, to Clementine's relief. The blonde then turns with a crooked smile plastered on his face "heh, I see you and Rosie are making friends.", Clementine takes a moment before relaxing into a more neutral stance and timidly saying "h-had a bad experience with a d-dog once" she says looking wearily at Rosie. Sophie smiles reassuringly and kneels down beside Rosie and Marlon "Well, Rosie here can help you with that, she's really just a cuddle pot. Well except when she's going at deadheads, that is", she pats Rosie's head as the dog licks her blood-soaked chops.

Clem nods but doesn't feel like she can say much else, but thankfully the others regroup, and she smiles when the boy she saved earlier thanks her. This ques Marlon and Soph to stand, while trigila bionda bellows out "all right, fun's over. Let's get inside -- I'm fuckin' starving", and with that, he turns and heads towards the gate. Clem feels her own stomach give a slight grumble at that comment "you're not the only one", and she falls in step with the rest of the teenagers. As she gets closer to the group she can hear Marlon, the redhead and the goatee boy - who she now knows is named Aasim - discuss something about a safe zone and then all of a sudden Marlon's shoving past a protesting Aasim claiming they'll talk later. Before Clementine had a moment to ponder on this - these kids are pretty hectic - Louis and Sophie trail up to her side, Louis laying chairles on his shoulder as he says "still standing I see", which Sophie adds in "oh my god Lou, you should've seen her out there, she was kicking all sorts of ass" she says latching onto his arm, the praise causes Clem's cheeks to warm up. Louis nods approvingly before turning to both Sophie and Violet who had come up beside them "time for the grading period ladies~" he says smiling charmingly "first up, Sophie, definitely gotta say a solid A, that thing you did with your hook that ripped the walkers head right off was epic~" he turns to Sophie giving her gentle, but dazzling smile, which caused Sophie to turn away to hide a blush. 

Violet rolls her eyes at this interaction and silently gags, which to Clem's amusement makes Louis pout and turn towards her "well for you, I'd call that a B-plus performance out there, Vi. You've done better". Soph snickers a little as Violet turns away and simply gives him the bird, which makes Clem smirk "fuck off Lou". This causes Louis to act offended, placing a hand over his heart while Sophie patted his back faux-sympathetically "B-minus then-". But then Louis caught Violet glance in Clementine's direction quickly, which gave Louis an idea, smirking evilly, he then turned to Clementine smiling charmingly "Now, Clem here? That was a solid A. A-plus even". This causes Sophie to look at him questioningly, but he just winks at her before nodding to Violet who was trying to keep from both glaring at him for his obvious flirtation and judging Clementine's reaction. Sophie realises what he's doing and her eyes sparkle with the same twinkle of mischief that Louis himself held, this encouraged Louis to say this next "don't be jealous though Vi. Be better".
Violet glared at Louis and was about to retort when Clem's soft voice kicked in "um you kicked ass, Violet. A+", she says giving Violet a small smile which in turn made both Sophie and Louis to give each other small, secret, excited ones of there own. Violet, like the gay disaster she won't admit to being, just shrugs looking away, blushing only slightly as she allows a small smile to grace her face "I know". Sophie rolls her eyes good-naturedly at her best friend's behavior while Louis shakes his head faux-disapprovingly "Y'all are deluded".

Clementine smiles inwardly, these kids seem like decent people, and they have built up quite the mini community here. These people could just be what she and AJ need in their life. And maybe, just maybe...

She and AJ have finally found a place they could call home.

A/N: Sooooo I'm sorry it took me so long to update, but damn I'm kinda glad I waited until after watching a playthrough of ep 3. Anywho, this was probably one of the longest chapter's I've written for this story so far, and that pleases me greatly. I haven't had the greatest start of 2019, its been filled with alot of loss... but writing this out has helped me relax and feel happy for the first time in a bit. Anyways, I hope you liked this chapter, and the slight differences I've chucked in here and there, and I really hope you're all having a fantastic 2019 so far. Peace and Blessings to you walker stalkers.

P.S. If any of you have any idea how I can fix the minor error I have with Sophie and Minnie feel free to give me any ideas

P.P.S. For anyone at all who hadn't got it, it was Violet who had saved Clementine, and yes I will have a moment based on it next chapter.