TWDG//

SEVEN

That night Clementine did stay with me. Except when I woke up, she was gone. I sighed, and sat up, sliding on my shoes. Today, Aasim and I have to check the prophane. I yawn as I open the door, and walk along the dorms. I can hear soft snoring near each door, meaning I got up early again. I stop at Aasim's door. I hear no movement on the other side. I know I'm on the door softly.
I hear a thud.
"Who is that?" I hear. I open the door, and peek in. Aasim is lying on top of his covers, his face weary and tired.
"Just me. We have to check the propane." I said. Aasim nods, and sits up, and scratches his head.
"Okay. I'll get dressed out of these--" Aasim gestures to his normal clothes. "So they don't get ruined. Like you did."
I looked at my old green shirt, the bloodstain hovering where I got shot, and my old denim jacket.
"Okay. I'm feeding Rosie." I nodded, and shut the door behind me as I walk downstairs.
I walk in to see Clementine leaned across the table toward Violet, who was sitting down. I see Violet give Clem a kiss on the cheek. I wait there, as Clem composes her posture, and turns to see me.
"Gotcha." I smile.
"You cheeky little man" Clem smiles, and walks over to tickle me. I laugh.
"Stop it! Ha ha!" I laugh, and push Clem's hands away. Violet shows up behind Clem, and ruffles my hair. I smile at Violet.
"You go check that prophase, and come back, and we can eat that leftover fish for dinner as a celebration." Violet said with a wink. I give a nod.
"Okay," I run upstairs, and nearly run into Aasim.
"Calm down, AJ. I'm ready, are you?" He asks, visibly nervous.
"Are you scared?" I asked.
Aasim sighs, and says "Yeah. Does this actually work?"
"Yeah, as long as you're not bleeding or have any scent of blood on you in anyway" I said.
"Okay, then I'll be fine." Aasim takes a deep breath, and pulls out his tomahawk. "Let's go."
I bring out my old axe, and nod as we walk outside the gates.
"Okay, step one, lure a walker." I whisper.
Aasim nods, and creeps towards the outside of the old safe zone. That's when I see them all.
From the attack, there really has been an overrun of walkers. All slowly slumping outside, and gnarling at anything. The closest one is wandering off by itself, and growls when it sees us. Aasim moves closer, and I stay where I am, behind the tree. The walker lifts its arms to grab Aasim's wrists. He chops the wrists off in one swing motion. The walker protests in a long yell, and Aasim slices its head. It slumps to the ground, now lifeless. Aasim takes a deep breath, and potions the tomahawk on the walker's stomach. I grab the tomahawk from him, and easily slit an open hole of the stomach. Aasim nods a Thank you, and reaches in to grab various types of bloody guts, and proceeds to swipe it over his old clothes. I do the same, The icky smell causing waves of sickness in my stomach as I swipe it on my face. One we are done, and all covered, we slowly go into the crowd.
This part always scares me; The thought that if anything goes wrong, there's nothing we can do. We edge through the herd, and towards the stream, and the fishing shed. I sigh, and push through the walkers, and last the shed, which too has large amounts of the Dead inside. Aasim takes charge in front of me, and kills the monster in front of him, which seems to pick up on our odd aroma. I sigh as we keep walking further pas the stream: Somewhere where I have never been. The herd seems to decrease as me move past them, to my relief, as if so many can't cover a lot of space. As we move through the trees, I see an old blue truck. It's massive; Like, one of those old trucks Tenn and I used to play with. I crinkle my forehead as I think of the sad memories. Aasim stands in front, and gulps.
"It's...big." He said, and moves to the side, near the door. He opened it, and gasps as a dead walker topples out. He moves out of the way as it crashes to the ground. "Willy must've killed it."
He sits in the driver's seat, and looks through the dashboard. "Uh huh!" He says, and brings out four little boxes of ammunition. I smile.
"Nice find." I said, and moved around to the back of the truck. It was all locked. Aasim moved around the back, with a key.
"Found it in the glove box." He said, and put it into the chainlinks. I heard a click. "Yes!"
With a grunt, Aasim pushes the door up. Our eyes widen.
"My god.." he murmurs. We stare at seven big gas bottles. Aasim climbs into the back, and I hold the door up to the point where it holds itself with a safety click. Aasim lifts all the bottles up by a little, before stepping back. "Wow, they're all full!"
"What's in them?" I ask, as I open a box in the corner. Rows of energy bars, and even an empty canteen.
"Prophase!" He answers. He picks up a fuel tank. "And...gas! This has to get us to Richmond!"
I nod. "We have to go back and tell them"
"Nah, I say we drive this back to the school." Aasim hops out of the truck, and lifts me onto the ground.
"What? But...wouldn't that attract attention?" I asked.
"Well, yeah, but what does it matter? We'll be gone by the time we get there." He answers, moving to the front.
"Do you know how to drive?" I ask.
"Not really, but I read a car manual from Clem's old car. It taught me a bit." He said, and opened the passenger door on the other side for me. He shut the door, and moved around the other side.
"But I think a truck is different from a car" I said, as Aasim shuts his door.
Aasim studied the pedals. "I think I can do this. Seat belts, please."
I nervously click the seatbelt on. "Please don't crash."
"I won't, promise." Aasim takes a deep breath, and puts the key in the ignition. The truck starts up with a groan, and it vibrates.
"Let's go" Aasim steps on a pedal, and we lurch backwards with a holt.
"Wrong one!" I cry. Aasim frowning, and presses on the other pedal, and we begin to move though the herd of walkers coming over to the noise of the truck. We start crushing them to death before going through the narrow tree rail, and past the shed and the stream. Everything on the ground was so far away from where I was sitting. Aasim becomes entirely focused on the trail as we head towards a familiar route towards the school. I close my eyes.
"Thank you, God." I whisper. Though the trees, I start to see the school. "Yes!"
We pull up at the front of the gate, and Ruby rushes over. She laughs, and pushes back the gate.
We drive in the school, and everyone else comes out, even Clementine and Violet. Even though Clem leans against the crutches, I see Violet's hand on hers. I hear the gates close behind us, and Aasim shuts off the truck. I open the door, and step off the long step, and run towards Clem.
"It works, Clem. It works!" I cry, and as she kneels off her crutches, and hugs me. "And there's so much gas!"
"Really? Fuck.." Violet smiles, and heads over to the truck, and goes toward the back. Clementine pulls away from the hug, and wrinkles her nose.
"You smell like a walker." She said, and laughed. I look down at my clothes.
"I'm gonna change" I said happily. She smiled, and hobbled after me, whilst everyone inspects the truck.
"I'm so happy!" I exclaim.