Things That Are Lost: Season 3

Chapter 11: Preparations.

Sarah walks over and stabs the Ms. Martin walker in the head. She then pulls the knife out, puts it away, and turns to Ruby. "Are you okay?" "Yeah. Just need a minute." "Come on guys, help me find that propane and we can get out of here." Mitch groans before he walks off to search. "Asshole." Sarah mutters under her breath before she starts looking around.

Clem starts looking as well, and she comes across a propane tank wedged under some wood planks in a cabinet. "Let's hope there's gas in it." Clem tries to pull it out, but is unsuccessful. "Yeah, perfect. Here." Mitch says as he walks over and grabs the tank. He helps Clem get it unstuck and out of the cabinet. "Good find. We got the propane. Now if we could just find something that'd create a spark." Mitch goes back to searching and Clem looks around, spotting a beaker with a blue liquid in it. "Find something?" "I...I'm not sure what that is." "Dare you to drink it." Clem lifts up the beaker. "Eh, not in a million years." "One eye wimp." Clem looks back at him. "Excuse you?"

Sarah walks over to Ruby, who's still staring at Ms. Martin's corpse. "Ms. Martin meant a lot to you, huh?" "She was the only one who stayed. She saw us for what we were, a bunch of kids who no one wanted. She loved us when nobody else did. Like, really loved us." "I...wouldn't know anyone like that." "Really? No one?" "I had friends, sure, but they were worried about each other more than me, and my dad..." "I heard about your freak out that night." "He didn't love me, if he did, he would've taught me to survive." "If he didn't, who did?" "Well, she's currently accepting Mitch's challenge to drink that stuff in the beaker." Ruby and Sarah look over to see Clem drinking from the beaker, with the blue liquid in it, in front of Mitch. "Oh dear. Think she'll be alright?" Ruby asks before Clem sets down an empty beaker. "I....don't know."

Mitch claps as Clem sets the empty beaker down. "I'll admit, that was pretty sick, almost as sick as when I blew up the garage with my first bomb." "You blew up the garage?" "Yep. Dad wasn't to pleased. He gave me a chemistry set so I'd stop fighting the neighbors." "Why did you fight the neighbors?" "I had a lot of energy. Had to spend it somehow, and they didn't like my face." "....Do you want my honest opinion?" "I'd say yes, but I just want to find the last thing and get out of here."

"I think I found it." Sarah calls to them from a collapsed shelf, holding a sparker. "Fuckin-A. I was hoping there'd be one of those! That's an igniter. We can use it to create a spark. It's the last thing we need to blast those motherfuckers to hell. We should go back and tell the others." "Not until we bury Ms. Martin." Ruby states.

Mitch, Clem, and Sarah walk over to Ruby. "Bury her? Why bother? It's a walker." Mitch says before he looks to Clem and Sarah. "Help me drag it out back. We can burn it." "No. Ms. Martin's the reason we're all alive." "And?" "She deserves a proper burial. Here, next to the greenhouse she loved. That way the other's don't have to see her like this." "She's been dead for years. There's no point." "She deserves a real burial." "Sarah and I'll help you bury her. It's the right thing to do for someone you care about." "Thank you so much." "It's not her! It's a walker!" Mitch yells, which gets him looks from everyone else. "Fine, whatever. I'm not wasting my energy on that thing." Mitch storms out of the greenhouse.

Ruby, Clem, and Sarah take Ms. Martin's body outside the greenhouse. They dig a hole around the back and set the body in before filling the hole back up. "I'll put a stone in the graveyard, back at the school. But Ms. Martin loved this place. She'll be happy here. I'll make sure everyone knows you two helped me. That you both have... good hearts. Under all that muck." "Hey! Rude." Sarah laughs. Ruby looks over at Clem, who's sweating and who's face is turning a bit green. "And sweat, from the looks of you." "I don't think I should've drank that weird stuff...." Clem says. "Excuse me.." Clem runs back into the greenhouse. "Well, at least she's sparing us the sight of her vomiting up her organs." Sarah states.

Sarah, Ruby, and Mitch leave the greenhouse area with the supplies they found in t. "Think it'll be enough?" Ruby asks. "Hopefully. And it means Lilly and her people won't be able to climb the walls. They'll have to come through the gates. We can plan for that." "Straight into a fiery explosion of death. Assholes won't know what hit them." Mitch says.

Later that night, Sarah checks on a sleeping AJ in their room, until the door opens and Clem stumbles back inside. "Jeez. How long were you out there?" Sarah asks. "Rest of the day....everything inside hurts." Clem walks over and sits down on her bed. "How's he doing?" "He'll live."

They both hear creaking floorboards at the door and look to see Louis standing there with a bunch of clothes in hands. "Brought you these. I noticed his shirt got messed up, when....you know." He walks in and sets them out on the desk. "Where did you get those?" "They were Tenn's, back when he got here. Should be about AJ's size." He looks over at AJ. "How's he doing?" "Better. His fever's down. Thanks for carrying him in." Sarah says. "No problem." Louis crosses his arms. "So, we got a greenhouse again. And bombs." "Mitch's idea." "I figured. Violet says we'll start getting this place ready in the morning." "Good." "They all seem okay with letting you all stay. For now, anyway. We we're getting ready to fight." "Well, you're gonna need both of us for the fight that's coming." Clem says from the bed. "She's right." "Yeah, sounds that way." "Everyone else is okay with us staying. What about you?" "It's fine. While he gets better." "And after that?" "I don't know, Clementine."

"Clem? Sarah?" AJ, now awake, mutters. Clem gets up, walks over and kneels next to the bed. "Hey kiddo. How do you feel?" "Better. Still hurts." "I know." AJ looks over at Louis. "Hi, Louis." Louis waves at AJ. "Hey, little dude." "I missed you. Are we friends again?" Louis glances down at Clem, then back to AJ. "Just eat some sleep. Okay?" He turns around and heads towards the door. "Louis?" Clem asks, which gets him to stop. "I'm sorry. That you're hurting, and, uh, it's our fault." "It wasn't all you. Marlon, he..." He pauses for a second. "Forget it. I should go." He walks out of the room and closes the door behind him.

"I'm not mad at him anymore. Are you two?" "AJ, I was never mad at him. I understand why he acted that way. Why he wanted us gone." Sarah states. "Me, too." AJ yawns. "What about you, Clem?" Clem stands up. "I'm pissed at him." "Of course you are." Sarah says. "Oh please. He had no trouble throwing us back out there to die. They all did, except for Violet." "I get your point, but look at them now. They're lost and they'll get taken from their home if we don't help them fight back. Remember how it was for us when Carver took us?" Clem thinks about it for a minute, remembering the situation they were in. "I understand." "See? What it so hard?" "Whatever. Let's just get a look at they shirts Louis brought you, AJ." Clem walks over to the desks with several shirts laid out on it. "Then we'll sleep. It's been a long day." "Yeah. James was nice, but I don't like sleeping on the ground." "Me, neither." "Really? I enjoyed it." "Just go to bed, Sarah." Clem grabs a shirt for AJ. "How about this one?" "It looks like Tenn's boots." AJ says, noticing the symbol on it. "Yeah. I think it's the same character. This one will work. You can put it on when you feel better, okay?" "Yeah." "Time for sleep you two." Sarah sets a candle on the desk next to the bed. "I can't sleep with the light on." "Give me a damn second to blow it out." "Good night, sleep tight." Clem starts. "Don't let a walker bite." AJ finishes. "And if it tries?" Sarah adds. "Bang." Both Clem and AJ say. Clem takes her hat off and gets in a bed as Sarah blows the candle before getting in the top bunk above Clem.

The next morning comes. Clem wakes up early before Sarah and AJ. She quietly gets out of bed and lays out the map of the school on the desk next to the bed. She sighs before she leaves the room. Later she comes back and finds Sarah looking over the map. "You're not doing this without me." Sarah states. "I know. I just wanted to get a head start." "Well then tell me what your plan is here." Clem walks over and starts explaining the defense plan to Sarah, and soon the day ends. The next day they get up and head out to make the defenses. They continue to prepare the school for the raiders through many days.