The light from outside burns through my eyelids, ruining the blissful illusion of a safe environment. Stirring me abruptly from the safety of my own dreams, I open my eyes cautiously, revealing the spot that once had Luke beside me is completely empty, leaving no traces behind that he was once there before.
He didn't abandon me didn't he?
My heart sinks, not only at the thought of him leaving me all alone, but the thought that my mind instantly jumped to that conclusion after everything we've been through. Times have certainly changed, that's for sure.
The sunlight gleams off of the snow leaving a beautiful shimmer across the parts that haven't been stepped in yet, the bare tree branches have ice glazed over them, sparkling amazingly whenever the light touches them.
Where's Luke...?
Instantly, I shoot upwards. Sitting up straight and peering over the edge of the medium sized hole, Luke's orange sweater is noticeable right away through the mass of white as he walks towards the burrow with something swinging by his side.
It looks like an animal, but I can't be too sure.
Confused, I strain my eyes a little against the heat emitting from the sun, it looks to be an animal, I think a rabbit; oh boy.
Memories from the first rabbit come swirling into my mind, the scent that it emitted when Carlos cut that thing open, that disgusting smell really did a number on me.
He silently trudges through the powdery snow, carrying a white and brown rabbit by his side, not noticing that I'm awake at all.
Eventually, he gazes up, hesitating on my eyes and smiling faintly to himself, as he quickens his pace towards where I am.
My heart thuds lightly, it's been awhile since I've felt genuinely calm about right now, not to mention how much he means to me.
And then it happened.
It snuck up on him, like a silent breeze in the dead of the night, two men grab him and force him to the ground without any words being shared amongst them. Dropping the rabbit to the snow, his eyes pierce into mine with fear; fear for my safety. Quietly I slink back down in the hole in case I'm found, it's what he would have wanted anyways.
"Where the fuck is she?" That same voice, the one that gave the order to kill Kenny and Carlos bellows greatly through the dense forest covered in snow. The sound of silence lingers between them, Luke not wanting to say a thing.
Shit shit shit shit.... Do I go out and reveal myself? Or risk Luke being shot too...
The anxiety is unreal; my heart stops instantly realizing that this could be Luke's final moments.
"Tell Avery I said rot inHell-" The crack of the back of a gun echoes off of his face throughout the forest. Instantly shutting him up as he doubles over in pain, clenching his face in the progress.
"Why don't you, you cocky son of a bi-"
"That's enough, he's my brother. He is my blood, and my problem." A female voice, roughly ranging from an age that's only a little bit older than I am is heard, followed by the sound of her footsteps crunching in the snow as she approaches her two men and Luke who's still on the ground.
My eyes widen a little, taking just a quick peek over the edge and witnessing him on the ground with blood dripping down his face, and Avery crouching beside him with a smug grin. His eyes catch a hold of mine whereas the other two talk very low about what to do next, his eyes say it all.
"She's around here; you were headed in that direction; weren't you?" She sneers, lifting her head in my direction and slowly heading towards me while the two men stand over Luke in case he attempts to try anything.
Are you kidding me? This is not happening.
Panic settles in, the sound of their footsteps getting closer and closer is enough to push me into a fight or flight mode. All I have are two screwdrivers and a... Revolver.
For once in my life I've been so happy to have a gun on me when I need it the most. Lately it's been a necessity to carry one at all times due to the Lurkers and not to mention crazed people... I remember a few times where luck saved my life all because I didn't have a strong enough weapon on me. Now all that's left is to get this over with; I don't want another repeat to happen again, like it did with Claire.
A small smirk spreads across my face, I may not be able to take out the other two but maybe Luke can do something once he realizes what's going on unless he doesn't get my signal.
It's now or never, I have to do something or else they'll kill him too.
Instantly I pop out from inside the burrow, catching Avery off guard. The snow blows around from the wind and sticks to my hair and shirt, the coldness in the air is nothing to me anymore. I feel suddenly used to it, the shivering still happens from time to time; but other than that, I'm alright. I hold my revolver steadily, aiming it directly at her head; showing no mercy for what her group had done to ours.
She stops abruptly for a couple seconds, chuckling to herself for a quite a long time, standing a few feet away from me with a smile on her face and her eyes locked on the gun that I have pointed at her. She offers her hand towards me with a gentle spark in her dark brown eyes, expecting me to accept her act of kindness; or something along the lines of that.
The air is dead silent between us, Luke scrambles to try to get to his feet; only to be oppressed by Avery's two men in the process. Creating just more and more of his own blood on the fresh snow underneath him. My eyes dart back and forth between Avery's cheerful smile and Luke's worried eyes, they have him almost face down in the snow, and I can see him shivering from here.
"You sure are something, Clementine. I'll give you that-"
"I mean it." The words come out darker than I intended, which is a good thing. I apply a little more pressure on the trigger, narrowing my eyes greatly as the snow glistens around us from the sudden impact of the sun shining for a few minutes. The grey clouds hang in the sky, covering every visible inch of blue for miles. I wonder if the rest of the world is experiencing this weird cold front like we are.
The other two men grab a hold of Luke, hauling him up off of the snow covered ground as Avery nods her head briefly, and without another the word the two men begin to take him away from the scene, causing me to panic and raise my revolver towards them in retaliation.
Why are they hurting him, what did he ever do them besides try to leave their place? Should I just shoot them and risk Avery killing me to save his life...? Is that even something Luke wants me to do...?
Avery's eyes widen in fear for the safety of her own group members, I catch her movement as she tries to swipe the revolver away from me. Accidentally my finger pulls the trigger; firing a bullet straight into the snow bank creating a loud, deafening noise to ring throughout the forest. Which causes the two to stop hurting Luke.
"Clemen-" He gazes over at me once more before the sound of the gun cracking against his skull once more echoes across the forest, I feel a couple tears start to trickle down my cheeks as I raise the revolver again, pointing it at his sister.
"Please, Clementine, I just want to talk with you, you see?" Her alluring voice softens a bit in an attempt to calm me down, I glance up watching the two men haul him up the path a little, towards the main road as he's trying to glance back towards Avery and I.
"You killed Nick." The words spit from my mouth with the intention to hurt her, considering she's known him before this all started.
Her eyes widen greatly, I can see a couple tears forming in the corner of her eyes while she looks stunned and shocked.
"H-he's dead...?" The sincerity in her voice tells me everything; she cared a lot about him, and if I didn't know any better the two of them must have had something going on before the apocalypse hit. The tears begin to flow from her soft brown eyes as she tries to wipe them away with her sleeve, avoiding my gaze in the mean time.
"S-sorry, I knew him very well; that's all." She calms herself down; wiping her eyes once more before regaining the strength and confidence she had with me before I bought up Nick, her breathing's a bit spaced but other than that she looks less traumatized.
There's no way they would have killed Nick. Her reaction was just too real to even visualize her brutally beating him to death; let alone one of her group members. Luke was the one who found him dead, and he didn't even have any bite marks on him; just deep gashes.
"Clem, don't lis-" The sound cracks in the crisp air once again, Luke's head recoils against the blow, spitting out more blood from his mouth; while his eyes narrow greatly at Avery with a vast amount of discomfort.
"Quiet, you." One of the men snap, delivering a shattered blow into his ribs with his steel toed boot causing Luke to writhe around in pain on the ground, and the other one just glances down and tries to avoid Luke's eyes.
My heart hurts greatly, Luke's trying to warn me about her yet she's being so nice to me. After everything that has happened, after all of the betrayals we've had the people that we lost, should I even bother giving her my time?
"Why are you doing that to Luke." The words come out bitterly, tightening my grip on the revolver while she smiles softly, raising her hands and slowly approaching me with a calm vibe. She doesn't seem like she's in any position to hurt me, I don't see any guns or knives anywhere on her body, maybe I should give her a few minutes of my time...
"I don't have control over what they do to him; it's their beef with him. It pains me too but, he screwed a lot of us over." She avoids Luke's glare, while the same guy reels his foot inside Luke's other pair of ribs.
"Did Luke- or any of them for that matter, mention to you why they had left our family? We were safe, secure." She's now even closer to me than she originally was before, oddly enough I haven't pulled the trigger yet.
I was there! I witnessed how Carver was before Kenny brutally beat his face in and left him to die. Carver killed many people for messing up on simple tasks; he was cruel, evil, and above all; just plain hungry for power. But to be fair, Luke did sneak in and once Carver found him; he treated him horribly for running away, let alone breaking back inside.
"He told me that Carver was losing his mind the first time they ran away. I was there for the second time." My eyes never leave hers, watching her every movement while her smile slightly drops a little bit, but still keeping her spirits high.
She tries so hard to keep her face smiling, but it's clear to me that the mere mention of her brother's name sends a spike of rage through her heart.
"Is that what he told you? Part of it was true." She tries to keep her voice calm, but I can feel the rage burning though her lungs, and fueling her motive even more.
The way she said that... Do I want to wait around and hear her words?
My heart shuts down, instantly I lower the revolver, she looks like she doesn't have a weapon on her; but after all of the shit we were just through; and losing everyone else, what more do I have to lose?
The loose snow continues to blow all over the place around us, bits of the snow gets stuck inside her light brown hair and shower over her dark red jacket with white fur around the hood. She takes note of my clothes, no jacket, and my old hat that my dad let me 'borrow.' She watches my actions based on how cold it is outside, she knows that even though I don't feel it anymore; my skin and body temperature will still drop to the point of death eventually.
She might help me, maybe I can get some things out of her.
It's sad how this world turned out to be, Lee taught me not to use people for things, not to take people for granted or not to steal unless we absolutely have to. And even then he felt bad about it. I feel guilty in a way; thinking about using her to gain things that we need, plus I'm risking Luke's life as well. But the cold is getting worse; I'm up to my knees almost in snow. I need to try.
"He's not to be trusted anymore; Dad- Carver made him leave in an attempt to clean up some of the damage he was causing to our home, our people. I agree, Carver took things too far; but Luke... The things he did, I will never forgive him. I just want to protect you-" She pleads with the kindness from her heart. But based on how her mother did the same; I'm beyond wary of trusting her even in the slightest.
"So you killed mostly everyone from our group in an attempt to 'save' me?" She recoils from the amount of power in my voice, seeing the wrong that she had done.
That's a definite load of bullshit spewing from her mouth.
Her eyes still stay the same however, after what I just said to her. They're still happy and cheerful, while a small smile still stays on her calm face despite the fact that she almost feels broken on the inside.
She's really making an attempt to win me over, much more than her own mother ever did. I want to give her a chance, but we lost too many people doing that as it is.
"They couldn't be saved, he already brainwashed them into believing that we're the bad guys. I left my father's camp to drown in the Walkers shortly after you guys escaped and I started my way up here to find my brother; to stop him from doing the same thing he did to us."
"I have no reason to believe you... Where are you taking Luke?" My glare pierces her eyes, she panics a bit; smiling awkwardly but none the less, still keeping her composure over the situation.
"You'll see him soon; I just wish to have a few words with him later is all, Clementine. I'm sure you can understand; he's my brother after all."
"If you're anything like Claire...." I threaten, gripping the revolver with everything I've got; she doesn't even flinch away or retaliate with her expression.
"I'm nothing like her. She bailed on her men the second they were attacked by Walkers and when Luke confronted her yesterday, she just got up and ran. I hope she's dead, she was controlling and above anything else; she's the reason Carver made his bad decisions."
I feel oddly relaxed, something deep down inside is telling me to trust her with everything I've got. But can I? Especially after all of the betrayal.
She softens the loss of losing Rebecca and the baby a little with that sentence, but I don't know if she's speaking the truth at all.
"My men are taking him back to our new home, there's only a few of us; me, them two and couple others back there. If you're willing to follow me, I have no reason to lure you into a trap; I was just really desperate on finding you before he tried to get inside your head. It's not a long way back; if anything it's around an hour of walking. I even have stuff for you, like a warmer jacket." Her eyes sparkle, she really doesn't look like a killer; she's only a year or two older than me and if anything she seems happy enough to even find another girl around her age after dealing with all of these adults.
The sun disappears behind the grey clouds, instantly the air becomes more chilling than yesterday. My thin shirt gives me little to no protection whatsoever from the wind, and the freezing temperature. I'm going to have to do something and fast; staying here by myself without Luke could be a matter of life or death.
I lower my revolver completely, slipping it inside my bag. What else do I have to lose? She's already taking Luke there, and I don't want to be separated from him ever again. When we get to her home, or whatever, I'll sneak away to find him and ask him what's going on. But I think for the mean time; she seems to like me, I'll use it to my advantage at getting both of Luke and I out of here; alive.