"Clementine?" whispered Sarah.
"Yeah?" answered Clementine.
"What did you mean, when you said you killed Lee?" Clem tensed up. "I'm sorry. I—"
"He was bitten," answered a teary Clem. "And I didn't want him to turn into a walker, and he told me there was only one way to stop that from happening. So..." Clem bit her lip, trying not to cry. "So I shot him."
"Oh Clem," spoke a saddened Sarah. "I'm so sorry." Clem tried to stifle her tears as she thought back to that horrible day. "It... it was like my dad. Wasn't it? He... he was already dead. Even if he got up, those bites would have killed him." Clem listened to Sarah weeping and felt like crying herself.
"That's why you shot him, isn't it?" asked a sniveling Sarah.
"I'm so sorry Sarah," spoke an emotional Clem. "I didn't want to. But—"
"But we had to go, and you knew I wasn't going to leave him..." Clem felt her eyes tearing up as she listened to Sarah whimper. "So you had to, because I didn't want to believe it, and we were going to die because of me, because I didn't want to leave my dad, even though—" Clementine started crying loudly, startling Sarah.
"I'm sorry, I'll—"
"It was my parents," cried Clementine.
"What?"
"That mistake I made, because I trusted someone who said he had something I needed?" reminded Clem. "It was my parents. He said he found my parents."
"Huh? Who did?"
"The man I talked to on my radio." Clementine felt Sarah's hand moving up and down her back as she tried to stop crying.
"It's okay," assured Sarah in a calm voice. "We don't have to talk about it if you don't want to."
"Do... do you not want me to talk about it?"
"I just want whatever makes you feel better. Do you want to talk?" Thinking about Sarah's question, Clem realized they were both alone, lost in the dark, cold and hungry, without any idea if they'd ever find anyone ever again. It dawned on the young girl she might never get another chance to talk about this again.
"I... I thought my radio was broken, but I kept it anyway, because I liked to pretend I was still talking to my mom and dad on it. But when I put new batteries in it, it started working again. So I thought, maybe I could use it to find my mom and dad. If they found another radio, they'd know to try to call me on it, and one night, someone answered me.
"I told him about how my parents went away to Savannah, and he said he felt bad for me. We kept talking, and I told him about how scared I was, and the bad things I saw, and he kept saying how terrible it was for a little girl like me to have to go through this.
"He said he would be my secret friend. Someone I could tell anything to, and he would never tell anyone else no matter what. One day, he told me he was going to Savannah to find my parents. And not long after that, we found a train that could take us to Savannah too."
"A train?" asked Sarah. "It still worked?"
"Yeah, I know. It took us right to where my parents were, and when I told my friend about it, he said he was already there, and that he was going to start looking for them before we got there, and I told him to start at the hotel they were staying at. It felt like a dream come true." Clementine started sniveling. "But when we got there. Everything went wrong.
"Lee wouldn't give me my radio back, because he knew my friend wasn't actually a friend, but I didn't want to believe them. Christa told me too, and I didn't believe her either. We went to the only place in Savannah that was supposed to still have people left, and everyone there was already dead. But I kept telling myself they had to be somewhere in Savannah, but Lee said there just wasn't enough time to look for them. So I..." Clem drifted off.
"Go ahead, it's okay," assured Sarah.
"I... I waited for Lee to fall asleep, and then I took my radio back. When I called my friend, he told me he already found my parents, and said he tried to tell me yesterday, and when I told him Lee wouldn't let me have my radio, he said it must be because he doesn't want me to find my mom and dad, because he just wants to keep me to himself and..." Clementine started choking up.
"And I believed him. Lee always took care of me, but I believed someone I never met before because I was stupid."
"You're not stupid Clementine. You just wanted your mom and dad back."
"But they were gone, and I should have known better," insisted a guilt-stricken Clem. "And because I didn't, that man took me away from Lee, and he got bitten trying to save me from him. It's my fault he died. I killed him, after he saved my life like a hundred times."
"How'd he get bitten?"
"I don't know, I just know he wasn't bitten before I left."
"So, you went to meet this man?"
"I met him in the yard of the house we were all staying in."
"And then you left with him?"
"No, I asked him about my parents first, and he said they were waiting for me at the Marsh House. Then I asked him how did he know they were my parents when I never told him their names or what they looked like, and when he didn't answer right away, I knew he was lying to me."
"So, what did he do when you told him he was lying?"
"I didn't tell him that, I was afraid too. I just told him I wanted to say goodbye to everyone before I left, so I could get back in the house. But, he wouldn't let me."
"What did he do?"
"He grabbed me, and covered my mouth so I couldn't scream. I tried to get away, but he was stronger than me."
"What... what did he do to you?"
"He locked me in a room, and started asking me weird questions, like what I liked to eat, and when my birthday was, and what my favorite color was."
"Why?"
"I don't know, he was crazy. He said the jacket I was wearing belonged to his son, and that I could keep it if I stayed with him. I said I just wanted to leave, but he said I couldn't because it was too dangerous. I used his radio to tell Lee where I was, and he locked me in a bathroom. Lee did find me, but by then he was already dying, because of me."
"I... I don't get it. Why do you think it's your fault Lee died?"
"If I never talked to that man, Lee would still be alive right now," explained a tearful Clem. "None of that stuff ever would have happened."
"But, you didn't want to go with that man, and it sounds like you did everything you could to get away. He made you come with him."
"But I shouldn't have talked to him to begin with."
"Why not?"
"I should have known better than think someone would just help me for no reason."
"But, isn't that what Lee did?"
"He..." Clem found herself speechless.
"And isn't that what Christa has been doing?"
"And it's what Omid did," added Clem. "And... what you did."
"People are supposed to take care of kids," explained Sarah. "It's not stupid to think that people would want to help you."
"But not everyone does," noted a bitter Clementine.
"Yeah, that's true," conceded Sarah. "But that makes them wrong, not you."
"I still shouldn't haven't trusted that man though. I should have trusted Lee and Christa when they tried to warn me about him."
"Well, he never should have lied to you in the first place. I'm so sorry you didn't find your mom and dad Clem."
"I did find them," spoke a somber Clem.
"So, that man wasn't lying?"
"He was lying, but I found them anyway," explained a weeping Clem. "They were walkers. Right outside the hotel they were staying at. They probably died right after everything went wrong. They're probably part of the herd that's behind us right now."
"Oh God. Clem..."
"I just wanted to see them one more time, but not like that," sobbed Clementine.
"I just wanted to tell my dad I loved him one more time," wept Sarah. "He tried to hug me, but I was afraid of him. But... I still loved him."
"The day my mom and dad left for their vacation, my mom told me she loved me, and I didn't say I loved her back because I was mad at her that day, because I wanted to come with them on vacation and I didn't understand why I couldn't," bawled Clementine.
"I... I should have told her I loved her. I... I should have told Lee I loved him too. He did everything for me and I never even told him I loved him. I didn't tell Omid either, or Christa. I'll probably never even get another chance to tell her that—"
"Clementine," whispered Sarah in a quiet voice.
"Yeah?" answered a miserable Clementine.
"I love you."
"Wuh... what?" muttered a stunned Clem.
"I love you." This was the first time Clementine could remember someone saying this to her since the world changed, and it was coming from someone she had only known for a couple of weeks.
"I... I... I love you too." Clementine tightened her hold on Sarah, and Sarah responded in kind. So closely entwined with each other now that Clementine couldn't even feel the cold air anymore, just the warmth of Sarah's body. And as she shut her eyes, the doubt and fear that had so often loomed over Clem finally seemed to evaporate from her mind, leaving the small girl with a fleeting moment of peace before drifting off to sleep.