𝐃𝐄𝐂𝐈𝐌𝐀𝐓𝐈𝐎𝐍.
[ all that remains; part four ]
━━━━━━━━━━
The next morning was a sunny, but cold one. Kassidy, Clementine, Pete, and Nick were currently heading down to the river to check out the fish traps. Kass thought Oliver wanted to come, but Nick told him he couldn't.
Kass looked at Clem with guilty eyes as the younger girl held her bandaged arm, "How does it feel?"
Clem smiled softly, looking up at her friend, "A lot better than it was last night."
Kass nodded curtly, looking around. "Great. I just hope we get going before our conflict with half of this damn group gets outta hand."
"I like 'em," Clem paused. "Well, most of them anyway."
Shifting in front of her, Pete looked back at them, rifle in his arms. "I heard you girls got an earful from Rebecca last night. Once she gets going there's no bringing her back."
Kassidy scoffed, crossing her arms, "What's her problem anyway? Aside from us."
"Well, she's got a lot on her mind. Bringing a baby into a world like this?" Somewhat disappointed in the answer Kass shrugged, stepping on a small door that replaced a bridge.
"How much further are these fish traps?" Clem asked, catching up to stand next to Pete.
"It ain't much further." The other girl goes to Pete's left side, seeing Clementine stare at is rifle. "Has anyone taught you two to shoot? By taught, I mean properly."
"When this whole thing started, my dad taught me," Kass remembered, smiling at the faint memories of Kenny teaching her.
"Is that so? You got to show me," Pete said, looking at Kassidy with a smile. "But have you shot one of these?"
Clem smiled, shaking her head, "Not a rifle," she responded honestly.
"Makes sense. Less kick. This thing would probably knock you on your ass." Kass smiled at his words, a small chuckle following.
The trio continued to walk down the path to the river, walking through a fence and over a small creek.
Pete spoke again, "Nick was about Clem's age the first time I took him hunting. We were in our deer stand and after a while, this beautiful ten-point buck comes out of the trees." He held his rifle up, looking through the nozzle, "He lines up the shot as I taught him and...He starts sulking about not wanting to shoot the thing. Saying "Please Uncle Pete, Don't make me shoot it! I don't wanna!"."
"What a baby," Clem giggled.
"Hey!" Kass looked over at said boy running toward them. "Why didn't you wait?" He asked, stopping in front of the three.
"You want us to stand around while you piss on a tree?" Pete quipped. "You know where the river is, boy. Anyways," he continued the story as he walked, the girls by his side. "So I grab the gun out of his hands before this big buck runs off when BANG! The gun fires. Boy nearly shot me and of course the buck got away."
Kass looked back at Nick who seemed annoyed and embarrassed, "What're you goin' and telling them this shit for?"
"Cause you almost blew her face off yesterday," he pointed at Clementine.
Nick stepped up to Pete, "Why are you always giving me a hard time?"
"Because you're always giving everyone else a hard time."
"Hey, I apologized to them last night. They accepted," Nick snapped.
Pete nodded in surrender, "Well good. I didn't even know that!"
"Let's just get to the river," Clementine said, trying to stop an argument from getting worse.
"You're always trying to embarrass me."
"You're doing a good enough job on your own." Nick pushed his way through Pete and continued up the trail. "Leaving us again?"
"I know where the fucking river is," he angrily muttered back. Both girls stood quiet and look at Pete.
"Well, anyway, I found that buck later that season. Shot it right in the neck," Pete continued, ignoring what had happened. "Brought it up to my sister's figuring she'd want to freeze some of the meat...Nick didn't speak to me for weeks." He paused then continued walking. "Sometimes you gotta play a role... Even if it means people you love hate you for it."
"You should tell him that, he'd probably appreciate you more," Kass responded, staring at him.
"Nick's father wasn't there much and he was a piece of shit when he was, so it fell to me to keep him in line. Meant I couldn't be just nice Uncle Pete."
"Uncle Pete!" The three of them jolted and rushed over to Nick. They broke through the forest to see the river with walkers and dead people all over the bank.
"Jesus, Mary, and Joseph." Pete walked up to one and poked them with the barrel of his gun, sighing, "Full of holes."
"Who do you think did it?" Clementine asked Kassidy.
"I'm not sure yet," Pete answered instead. "But ain't your average gana'a thugs, that much I know."
Nick wearily glanced over at Pete, "Think about it, You're Caver, what do you do?"
Kassidy looked at Nick, concerned. It was weird. They kept mentioning his name. "Who's Carver?"
Clementine nodded in agreement, "Yeah, who is he? You kept on asking if we're working for him. So... Who is he?"
"Check those guys there." Nick walked in the direction of where Pete motioned, as the latter walked toward the edge of the bank. "Be careful. Some of 'em might still be moving."
The two girls knelt down beside a walker to see what condition it was in. "This one's shot too," Clem mentioned.
"They're aimed at the chest and head." Kassidy stood, looking around, noticing a small island in the middle of the river with more people and walkers. "There's more."
Pete stood to see where Kass was pointing and sighed. "This wasn't no rinky-dinky pissing match."
Nick asked what it could be. Pete's only response was, "FUBAR."
Confused, Clementine turned to look at Kassidy who only shrugged at the words.
"Where are you going? We need to get the fuck out of here!" Nick urged, looking around with wide eyes. His reaction caught Kassidy's attention.
"We gotta check the rest."
"What? Why!?"
"Calm down and think about it, son," Pete stepped into the cold water, holding his gun up as he walked to the little bit of land in the middle.
"Calm down? We gotta get out of here now!"
"Shouldn't we get the others?" Clem questioned, looking between the two adults.
The oldest man sighed, "Wish we could, but one of these folk might still be alive, and they might be inclined to tell us who did this. We gotta do this now."
Kassidy looked at Clem, watching the trusting expression on her face. If Clem felt like she could trust Pete, then so could she. He seemed like a good man. "Stay there, keep searching these," Pete spoke, looking at his nephew.
"This is a dumb idea," he responded, walking backward slowly.
"You know, Nick, I don't like this either," Pete sympathized, "but sooner or later you're going to have to realize a simple truth."
"What? That you're an asshole?"
"That nobody in this world is ever going to give a goddamn weather you like something or not. You gotta grow up, son."
"Come on girls," Pete called. "Wanna be useful? Keep a lookout on that tree line. Whoever did this might still be there. Looking for another sucker to stumble apon this mess."
"We're on it." Both girls agreed, Kass patting the top of Clem's hatted gead.
"You girls always so agreeable?" Pete asked.
Kassidy shrugged. "... It usually depends, but no."
"Good. You'll fit right in with this outfit. Keep your heads on straight." Suddenly there were groans, making the three walk over to a walker that had a pole poking out of it's chest. "Same deal."
"More bullet holes," Kass pointed out, looking up at Pete.
"Hope this isn't anyone you two know."
"No..." Clementine muttered sadly, Pete stabbing the walker's head with the pole.
"Damnit." Pete looked over at the other side. "More on that side. You check out the these ones." He went on to tell the girls what to identify them by before walking off.
Both girls stood still and looked at one another before they went their separate ways and started checking the bodies. Kass made sure none of them were still alive. Thankfully they weren't, so she checked their pockets and found next to nothing.
Kass sighed, "And this why I think we gotta leave sooner than later. We don't wanna get involved in whatever fucked shit these guys are in."
Clem shook her head, "Come on, Kass. They saved our lives. Sure, half of them don't trust us, but I think we can stay with them for a while. Plus, we won't make it out here by ourselves."
Kassidy thought on what she said and groaned after a moment, "Okay. We'll stay with them for a little while longer. But once their problems catch up with them, we're gonna have to pay the price."
'I wonder who this Carver guy is,' Kassidy thought, looking back to see Clementine looking over a body.
"Clem?" She walked toward her friend and stopped, noticing the purple bag. "Oh..." The capped girl nodded as she went for her bag, stopping when they both heard coughing. "Shit."
"What happened to you?" Clementine asked, looking at the man's face. Her eyes shifted up to Kass, who had a hand on her gun. "You were in the woods with Christa."
"The woman we were with, where is she?" Kass asked, curious to her whereabouts. If this guy survived then maybe Christa might have too.
"Please, tell us. Tell us!" Clem exclaimed, her eyes pleading.
"Please..." he gasped, pointing at Clem's open bag, a bottle of water inside.
Instead, Kassidy snatched the bag away, putting it on her shoulders. "Not until you tell us," she snapped, standing up.
Clem was surprised with her friend– she would've expected her to be kind to a dying man.
"AHHH!"
The girls jolted and turned around, watching as Pete backed away from a crawling walker, shooting it in the skull. Kass pulled her gun out after, knowing that there would be a lot more coming after that.
"Pete!" Nick exclaimed.
"I'm fine, I'm fine!" he shouted, looking down. "Just...Just lost my footing." Kassidy's eyes scanned to his feet, noticing the bloody bite. "Damnit, god damnit," he whispered, eyes hitting Kassidy's as she stared wide-eyed at him.
"Shit, Lurkers!" Nick exclaimed, shooting another that came from behind him.
"I'm out of ammo!" Pete yelled.
"Come this way!"
"Son of a bitch...damnit, you get your asses over here, all of you!" Pete's throat sounded constricted, the emotions swarming him. He was bitten.
"I'll cover you!"
"Kassidy," Clementine paused. "Go with Nick, I'm going to help Pete."
Kassidy's eyes widened in panic, "But Clem, he's-"
"I know!" the younger girl huffed. "Just go, I'll see you soon."
Kassidy looked at her in disbelief until her expression changed into one of steel. Clem knew what it meant– Don't fucking die.
She nodded and they both ran separate ways. They helped the men get walkers off of them, but there were too many preventing them from grouping back together.
Kassidy sighed. "Go, get outta here!" she exclaimed, looking over at the other side of the river.
"What?! No! I'm not leaving you!" Clem exclaimed.
"Don't argue with me! Just get out of here and meet us at the house!" She dragged Nick into the woods and ran, the dead hot on their tracks.