Hope - A Louisentine Story

Chapter 12

Description: After getting the information they needed, Louis and Javi discuss a plan of action to get Clementine back. Meanwhile, she is doing her best to hold out for Louis, dodging unwanted questions from her kidnappers.

Wordcount: 2246

A/N: Things are calm right now, but I promise shit will hit the fan eventually. This is mostly a filler chapter. Enjoy!

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How did I get here?

Clementine sat against the back wall of her cell, looking out the barred window. Her hands had been bound after her third attempt at punching a guard, tight zip ties digging into her skin whenever she moved so much as an inch. A spider crawled its way through the wall toward the window, spotted just before reaching the metal bars.

In a swift motion, it slithered through the bars and into the outside. Clementine scoffed. "Lucky," she muttered, looking down at her hands. Dirt was starting to gather under her fingernails. She thought about the man who'd been coming into her cell these past three days.

John Myers was a rough man, she decided. He was definitely ex-military. The only question he seemed to ask her was "Where are you from?" So far she'd given him the cold shoulder, but her meals were getting scarcer as the days went by. Today's rations had been a quarter of an apple and half a glass of water. They're getting desperate, she thought.

Before she could delve further into her thoughts, she heard the creaking of the metal door ahead and a new man entered. He was tall, with short stubble covering the bottom half of his face. He wore a white lab coat over a blue button-up shirt. Clementine straightened up at the sight of him, raising an eyebrow.

"You're new," she drawled in a bored tone.

"Good observation," the man replied with a smile, taking a seat at one of the chairs.

He wrote something into a clipboard he had in his hands, his eyes never leaving the paper. Clem noticed the top of a scar protruding from his shirt. New Frontier. She braced herself for the usual question, already rolling her eyes.

"How old are you?" the man asked instead, making Clem do a double take. She blinked a couple of times before he repeated his question.

"I'm... 21," she said hesitantly. There was no reason to lie about that, was there?

He wrote something down on the clipboard, nodding to himself. "My colleagues have reported that you've been throwing up. Is that true?"

"What does that have to do with anything?" she snapped, rolling her eyes again. "I thought you guys only cared about where I lived, which I'm still not telling you."

"That's okay, I'm not here for that," he assured her, smiling gently. "I noticed you also refused the fruit we've been giving you."

"Again, considering the source, that's pretty obvious," she retorted. The man seemed to have found the answer he'd been looking for because he looked down at his clipboard with a chuckle. "What's so funny?"

"That's not the only reason you've been rejecting the food, is it?"

Clementine stared at the man, pursing her lips. She had a bad feeling about him. He had a nice personality, but years on the road had taught her never to trust people like that. He was actually right, unfortunately. This baby was not too fond of fruits, and she was having a hard time keeping them down. She decided to stay quiet, which the man took as a positive answer.

For a second, he looked uncomfortable. Clementine raised an eyebrow, "What is it?" she prompted, sitting up straight.

"Are you sexually active?" he asked, his voice getting lower. Clem frowned, staring at the man.