Clementine felt a chill down her spine.
Something about the empty halls of the barracks made her deeply uncomfortable. It was dead silent, save for the sound of the group's footsteps echoing lightly through the cement tunnel.
Minnie led the way. The pistol they had taken from Lilly was tucked into the back of her waistband.
She approached the exit and carefully opened it a crack, peeking through.
The redhead turned and nodded, opening the door all the way, leading the group out into the cold night air.
In the distance they could hear yelling and the dull thundering of large groups of people running. Obviously their fire distraction had worked out.
"Try to act natural." Minnie whispered.
Nobody was quite sure what natural meant in this case, so they continued walking single file across the open courtyards.
Eventually they made it to the docks, carefully crossing the open area and crouching behind a large wooden crate sitting by the water.
Clem peeked out and searched for the guards. She saw one in the watchtower, as expected.
Violet tapped her on the shoulder and pointed.
"One over there." She whispered.
A guard wandered along the wooden pier that wound around the inside of the concrete dock.
He was holding a rifle low, but ready to fire if need be. There were another two on the far side. One was helping the other light a cigarette, the orange glow giving away where they were.
"Okay, I'll get up into that watchtower and open the gate, you guys get to the boat." Clem said.
"What about the guard?" Louis asked.
She took out Lilly's knife and held it up.
Louis' face fell a little.
"Wait." Minnie interjected, "I know this sounds insane, but please don't kill anyone."
Clem cocked her head to the side, a little confused.
Everybody looked to Minnie, expecting elaboration.
"A lot of these people are like us, they're not doing this job willingly, they were kidnapped too. Just- if you can avoid it, don't kill anyone, they don't deserve that."
"Alright." Clem said after a brief pause, "nobody dies."
Determined, she broke away from the group and moved low and fast down to the dock.
The guards that had been smoking were sitting on a box and facing away from her.
Clem began to move along the length of the boardwalk, peeking up past the rows of boats to keep track of the guards.
The creaking of wood planks up ahead was gradually getting closer.
Her eyes darted around, looking for a place to hide.
Thinking quickly, she clambered onto one of the smaller fishing boats and lay down inside the cabin.
The guard walked up and stopped in front of the boat.
Clem held her breath and watched him roll up his sleeve and check his watch.
The guard let out a sigh and kept on walking.
As soon as his footsteps faded completely, Clem crept out of her hiding place, going around the corner and arriving at the base of the tower.
It was a monolithic cement structure with a glass box at the top and a metal catwalk running along the outside.
At the bottom was a door that thankfully remained unlocked.
Clem carefully turned the handle and opened the door just enough to slip through, closing it behind her.
The tower had a narrow staircase along the walls that snaked around and up to the top.
She could see the shadow of the guard, illuminated by a light source inside the glass booth.
When she got to the top, the guard was sitting in a wooden chair, his gun resting against the wall.
Clem raised the knife in a reverse grip and swung it down, handle first, cracking the guard over the head and knocking him out of his chair.
He hit the ground limply, a book falling from his hands.
Clem pressed a finger lightly against the side of his neck.
Pulse is fine, and he's still breathing normally.
She took another length of bedsheet from her pocket and used it to tie his wrists to a pipe on the wall, forcing him to stay lying down if he woke up.
On the other side of the glass were the controls to the gate.
Clem opened the door and stepped out onto the catwalk.
The control panel consisted of two electronic buttons, and two winches that connected to the large sheet metal gates.
Which button opens the gate?
She hovered her finger over them and swapped between the two, trying to decide.
The button on the right was her choice, and luckily, the corresponding winch began winding in and pulling the gate open.
The other winch seemed to be reversed.
She made an educated guess that it was for closing the gate, so she went to work sawing through the thick rope attached to it.
Her forearm burned from the repeated effort, but eventually she had cut through enough of the rope that if someone tried to close the gate, it would simply snap and be rendered useless.
Clementine retraced her steps, making her way to the stack of crates that the others were hiding behind.
"Alright, let's get onboard before they notice that the gate's open." Clem whispered.
They crept in a pack, arriving at where the enormous steamship was docked.
The only way on was a long gangplank, and it was only wide enough for them to board single file.
Now that she was closer, Clem also noticed the heavy ropes that ran from the deck of the ship and down to the dock rings.
"What?" Minnie asked, seeing her stopped.
"We aren't going anywhere with these tying us down." Clem said, taking out her knife.
She began slicing through the rope attached to the bow of the ship, but the tightly interwoven strands and the thickness of it made it slow going.
The group waited by the gangplank, heads on a swivel for anybody coming their way.
Finally Clem made it through the first rope and moved on to the second.
A flashlight beam clicked on, fanning the area around them. Luckily the other boats were obscuring them from view.
"Clem, hurry." Violet hissed.
"I know." Clem whisper-yelled back.
She cut through the second rope, the slack sliding off the dock and splashing into the water.
With her heart thundering in her chest, Clem went to work on the last rope.
The flashlight was getting closer now, along with heavy footsteps.
"Clem, leave it, we need to go." Minnie said.
"No, I'm almost done, otherwise we'll be stuck here."
She sped up her cutting, the knife not even halfway through the rope yet.
The others were beginning to walk up the ramp while Brody and Violet waited with Minnie and Clem.
The guard was just around the corner now, walking rapidly towards them, he definitely knew something was wrong.
"We'll figure it out later." Minnie said sternly, tapping Clem's shoulder.
Clementine glanced over at the approaching light, then at the rope. There was no more time, she'd be caught if she kept it up.
"Fuck." She spat, standing up and heading for the gangplank.
Minnie led the way, followed by Clem, Violet and Brody at the rear.
When a light behind her cast harsh shadows to her front, her blood ran cold.
"Hey! Stop where you are!" The guard shouted.
The girls hesitated for moment before picking up the pace and jogging up the ramp.
"I said stop damn it!"
The guard lifted his carbine and took aim.
"This is your last warning!"
A sharp crack sounded, echoing off the walls of every building in the Delta.
There was a zip, the ping of metal hitting metal, and a yelp from behind her.
Brody stumbled, but caught herself and continued running.
Minnie, who was further up the ramp and nearly on the ship, whirled around and pointed Lilly's pistol.
The redhead repeatedly squeezed the trigger, letting off shot after shot in the direction of the guard.
All of them were aimed low, skipping off the concrete, making the guard panic and run.
He was headed for a stack of crates when one of the bullets caught him in the calf and he fell.
Moaning in pain, he dragged himself behind cover.
"Come on, move it!" Minnie shouted, keeping the gun trained on the guard's cover.
The girls ran up onto the deck of the boat and everybody began pulling in the gangplank, preventing any unwanted boarders.
"Fuck, now what?" Marlon asked.
"Now we start this thing and get the hell out of here." Clem replied.
Minnie stepped forward, addressing the group.
"I served on this ship before, first thing we need to do is-"
She was interrupted when Brody collapsed, hitting the deck with a loud thud.
Everybody rushed to check on her, it was only then that they noticed the blood soaking through the lower half of her shirt.
Brody's face was pale, starkly contrasting with her chestnut brown hair.
Violet dropped to her knees, putting pressure on Brody's wound.
"Is there a first aid kit around here?" She asked frantically.
"Go down one deck, it should be on the wall by the stairs."
"I'll get it." Marlon said.
He ran downstairs, returning with a camouflaged military med-kit in his arms.
Sophie dropped to her knees beside Brody and gestured for Marlon to give it to her.
"Let me, I've done this before..." she said.
Sophie lifted Brody's shirt, exposing the bullet wound in her abdomen. It was a dark little hole surrounded by a ring of purple that oozed blood profusely.
She used some gauze to clean off the blood, causing Brody to let out a stifled squeak each time it made contact with her wound.
Violet grabbed Brody's hand and gently squeezed it in silent reassurance.
Minnie grabbed Clem's sleeve and pulled her over gently.
"We need to get this thing moving, come on." She said urgently.
"What about Brody?" Clem said.
"She's in good hands with Soph, but the boiler's gonna take time to heat up, the longer we wait, the more time we give them to mobilise."
***
Abel stormed onto the docks, a sawed-off shotgun in one hand and a radio clipped onto his belt.
Two of the guards were hunkered behind a stack of crates, aiming their guns at the steamship.
The other one was nursing a freshly bandaged wound on his thigh, lying slumped with his back to the boxes.
"The fuck's going on here?" Abel grumbled.
The injured guard turned to him and looked up.
"Some recruits decided they wanna steal the boat, one of them shot me." He winced.
Abel let out an amused 'hm'.
Looking around the area, he noticed that the main gate to the rive was wide open. Not only that, the sentry in the tower was nowhere to be seen.
"Why's that gate open?"
The guards looked at each other for a moment.
"Don't know, I saw it open and when I went to check the tower that's when I started taking fire." Said the injured one.
"And none of you thought to go up and check after the fact?"
The guards looked at him blankly.
Abel pinched his brow and took out his radio, tuning it to the right frequency.
"South tower, this is Abel, can you hear me?"
There was nothing but static on the other end.
"South tower, respond."
Still nothing.
Abel pointed at one of the guards.
"You, get your ass up there and find out what the problem is."
He didn't have to wait long to find out.
"Abel, our guy up here is unconscious and tied up." The guard announced over the radio.
"Our little friends in the boat planned this out better than we thought, can you shut the gate?"
There was a long pause.
"That's the thing... controls are all fucked, I think they sabotaged it."
Abel took a long, exasperated breath and switched frequencies on the radio.
"Command-" he said flatly, "-we might have a situation at the docks."
***
"That should be enough." Minnie said, shutting the boiler door.
She dumped the shovel she had been using to feed the fire that fuelled the boiler.
A loud bang echoed from above, prompting Minnie and Clem to run to the deck above them.
Another bang rang out, accompanied by the loud ping of metal hitting metal.
"Are there any guns on this thing? One of those assholes is shooting at us." Violet asked.
Minnie nodded.
"There's a gun locker one deck down, by the staircase."
Without a word, Violet jogged downstairs, returning with an old bolt-action rifle. She crept up to the side of the ship with her gun and peeked through one of the makeshift portholes on the middle deck.
When the next gunshot was fired in their direction, the muzzle flash gave away the position of the shooter.
Vi saw him in the watchtower and took a shot.
The bullet struck him in the shin and blasted out of the back of his calf, making him yelp and drop his gun off the side of the railing into the water.
He limped away and back inside, dripping blood.
In retaliation, a hail of gunfire erupted from the guards on the dock. Bullets ricocheted off the metal sides of the boat and everybody dove for cover, landing hard on the wooden deck.
The guns fell silent and Minnie and Clem crawled over to the bulkhead door that led inside.
"Now might be a good time to blow up those boats." Violet huffed, crawling in after them.
"No-" Sophie said, "-we're too close, if we blow it now the debris could damage our boat."
"Well fuck..." Violet said flatly.
Minnie took a handgun from the gun locker and racked the slide, tucking it into her waistband.
"I'm going up to the bridge, as soon as that boiler heats up, I'll get us moving."
Before Minnie could run off, Clem grabbed her by the arm gently.
"Be careful." She said in a hushed voice.
Minnie paused for a moment before pulling the shorter girl closer and kissing her.
"You too."
The redhead scaled the staircase and disappeared above deck.
They all waited in the cabin. During the downtime, Sophie had gotten Louis and Marlon's help to carry Brody onto a bed in one of the cells they had arrived at the Delta in.
After a few minutes of sitting in the dim light of a lantern, Louis got up and peeked through one of the portholes.
"Clem, bad news." He breathed, backing away from the glass.
Clem cautiously approached it and peeked through, careful not to expose herself too much.
Her heart sank when she saw what was waiting for them out there.
There must have been at least twenty soldiers taking up positions around the harbour. Each one of them was carrying military-grade weapons and wearing body armour.
She darted back and went below deck, looking through the weapons locker.
Clem took the last rifle and handgun as well as a few boxes of ammunition and brought them to the second deck where everyone was hiding out.
She tried to hand the pistol to Louis, but he shook his head.
"I can't... I'm sorry, I just can't shoot people..." he sighed.
"Hey, don't worry, go see if Sophie needs anything." Clem reassured.
Louis nodded and went over to where the redhead was working.
AJ waddled over and tapped her on the arm.
"I'm a good shot, I can help." He said simply.
"AJ, no. This isn't the same as walkers."
"But I-"
"No buts, I am not putting you in danger, please just trust me here, kiddo."
AJ sighed and admitted defeat.
"Okay."
Marlon approached Clem and cleared his throat.
"I'll take it." He said, holding out his hand.
Clem hesitated before placing the gun in his outstretched palm.
"If things go bad, conserve your ammo, there's not much to go around."
Marlon nodded and readied his weapon.
Clem did the same, pulling back the charging handle on her rifle.
"I'm going to see how long Minnie thinks the engine will take." She announced, "AJ, I want you so stay with Sophie, okay?"
AJ, still not happy that he wasn't allowed to help, sat cross legged on the floor next to the tall girl.
"I'll keep him out of trouble for you." Sophie winked.
"I'll keep an eye on those assholes out there." Violet said, before stepping outside the bulkhead door with her rifle.
Clem went the same way Minnie did, up the centre stairs towards the top deck of the boat.
Everything was completely exposed on deck, she kept low, sticking to what little concealment there was.
Thankfully it was dark enough that nobody saw her scamper across to the bridge.
"Minnie?" She whisper-yelled.
Minnie's head poked through the open door.
"Get inside, keep your head down." She said.
Clem did just that, crouching down next to where the redhead was sitting.
"How's it going?" Clem asked.
"Better now that you're here." Minnie smirked.
Clem rolled her eyes and put her gun down, resting her head on Minnie's shoulder.
Minnie put an arm around her shoulder.
"Probably not the best time or place to flirt, right?" The redhead laughed nervously.
"Maybe not, but you won't hear me complain." Clem sighed.
"You were asking about the engine though?"
Clem nodded.
"Still a while off, fifteen minutes maybe."
"Shit." Clem muttered, "they've got an army down there."
"That's not good." Minnie replied flatly.
Everything suddenly became blindingly bright.
Clem squinted at the white light that poured in through the windows.
"What the fuck is that?" She said.
Gunshots rang out from below, not aimed at them, but at the lower deck.
***
Violet put up a hand to shield her eyes from the bright light that had enveloped them.
She heard a bang, then a crack as a bullet flew inches from her head.
She dropped to the ground, landing hard on her elbows and crawling away.
A volley of bullets began striking the place she had been standing a second ago, sending bright flashes of sparks erupting off the walls.
She readied the rifle and went to a different window. Violet aimed down on an angle, making herself a harder target to hit. Now that she had moved, she could see the array of enormous, powerful floodlights the Delta soldiers had set up along the docks that were aimed at the boat.
Vi took aim and began firing off shots, blasting out one of the lights. She managed to fire again and hit one of the soldiers, the bullet striking their hand.
She had to duck again when they figured out where she was and opened fire.
Violet counted her blessings that the Delta had welded metal panels to the side of the railing, they were the only thing stopping her from turning into Swiss cheese.
***
Clem peeked over the side, keeping as low as she could.
The Delta soldiers were focusing their fire on whoever was shooting below.
Clem propped her rifle up against the metal railing and began firing at the soldiers.
She hit one in the shoulder and saw him fall and be dragged behind cover by his comrades.
Another, she fired at, blasting chunks out of the wooden crate they were hidden behind.
Her next trigger press was a dissatisfying click.
She ran back before bullets began sparking off the side of the rails.
***
They were locked in a sort of loop, one side would fire, then duck behind cover when the other fired back.
Violet was starting to run low on ammo, but a lull in the shooting drew her attention back to the porthole.
A pair of soldiers ran down the dock, carrying something heavy looking that Violet couldn't identify.
They crouched down and started putting them together. One of them placed the heavy thing onto a tripod and attached a box to the side.
Vi's eyes widened when she finally realised what it was.
The newly mounted machine gun pivoted upwards and a roar of automatic fire erupted from the barrel.
Violet made a run for the other side of the boat.
High caliber rounds punched through the metal panels and kept going, piercing the walls of the boat behind them.
Violet kept running, her head pounded from the shooting. Mid-stride, she tripped over her own feet and skidded along the deck, bullets still ripping apart the space behind her.
For a brief moment, Vi thought that was the end of her, she was going to be turned into a red smear on the wall, but gunshots from above her drew the attention of the gunner.
She looked back at the carnage, tennis ball sized holes perforated the entire side of the boat on the second deck, smoke trailing wispily out of them.
***
Clementine felt a pang of regret when the machine gun stopped firing and tilted to face her.
Drawing their attention seemed like a good idea at the time, but not as much now.
Minnie tackled her to the ground just as a hail of fire ripped apart the crate she had been standing next to, showering them both with chunks of wood and dust.
A red tracer round hit the metal wall behind her and burst into a bright flash of light.
Clem felt something small skip along the ground and hit her in the hip. Blood begin to soak through her shirt around and patted herself down in a panic.
It was strange, her hand was completely covered in blood when she brought it up to her face, but there was absolutely no pain.
***
Violet ran below deck, almost losing her footing again.
"Sophie!" She yelled over the noise of the machine gun, "-the bombs!"
Sophie was still flat on her stomach, protecting AJ with her body.
She got up and swore, fumbling for the detonator in her coat pocket.
She flipped the metal clip that held the trigger in the safe position squeezed the remote, waiting for an explosion.
When nothing happened, Sophie squeezed it again and again, producing nothing but the chunky mechanical click of the trigger.
"Nononono.... Come on..." Sophie grunted to herself.
She whacked the side of the detonator and kept clicking it.
"Fucking work!"
Sophie squeezed once more and this time, a second later, a blast erupted outside.
In an instant, there was a chain reaction of explosives all going off one after the other. The harbour was enveloped in enormous balls of smoke and fire.
Many of the Delta soldiers were thrown off their feet, some weren't as lucky and got caught in the radius.
A shockwave rocked the steamship, sending it crashing into into one of the wooden docks and smashed it apart.
Shrapnel from the destroyed boats was flung out in every direction, skipping off the water and the cement walls of the harbour. A long jagged piece of metal collided with their ship, tearing a hole into the hull and lodging itself just above the waterline.
Violet, Sophie and AJ were sent sprawling by the force of the blasts, Sophie rolled down a flight of stairs and Violet crashed head first into the wall while AJ held onto a metal beam for dear life.
Then there was a strange calm.
Columns of smoke rose from the burning wreckage around them, the soldiers began to pick themselves up and hobble away to cover.
"Jesus fucking Christ." Violet groaned, hoisting herself up using a railing.
Sophie climbed back up the stairs. She was cradling her right arm which dangled uselessly in front of her, very clearly broken.
"I told you it'd be dangerous." She winced.
Marlon and Louis ran over to them from the other side of the boat.
"Did you guys do that?" Louis asked in disbelief.
There was a fresh gash on his forehead that was streaming blood, but he seemed to be ignoring it.
Sophie nodded.
"They look like they're backing off." Marlon said.
"It won't be for long, there's no way they'll let us leave, not after that." Sophie explained grimly.
"I'm out of bullets, what are we supposed to do when they use that gun on us again?" Violet said.
Marlon tossed her a small box. She caught it midair, the contents rattling. The box had about seven bullets for her rifle rolling around inside.
"We found some more below deck, that's the last of it." He explained.
While they sat there clipping bullets into magazines - as if having seven extra rounds would help their situation - there came a hoarse yelling from the docks below.
Hazarding a peek, Violet leaned over the edge a little to see Abel, bloodied and manic, ordering the soldiers around. He must have seen her too because the haggard man whirled around and started blasting with both barrels of his shotgun.
Violet skittered away, but felt something small hit her face and a stinging sensation.
She checked the spot and her fingertips came away bloody.
"Violet, what happened?" Louis panicked.
"I'm pretty sure I just got shot in the face." Violet said numbly.
Sophie pushed Louis aside and took Violet by the face, moving her head around manually to get a better look.
"Ow- hey, careful!"
"Looks like a couple shotgun pellets hit you, hold still." Sophie said clinically.
She took a pair of medical forceps out of the med-kit and raised them to Violet's face.
She felt a good deal of discomfort while Sophie rummaged around in her face picking out bits of shrapnel, but it hurt much less than she would have thought.
It was damn impressive - bordering on dumb - that Sophie was able to ignore her broken arm and provide aid to everyone but herself
"You're good to go." Sophie said, giving her a thumbs up and flashing that pretty smile.
***
In the lull after the explosions, Clementine took the time to properly check herself.
There were a number of lacerations along her lower back and hip area, all of them oozing small amounts of blood, but as far as she could tell, nothing was serious. Although she wasn't exactly a doctor, and sewing her arm up in a shed that one time didn't count.
"I'm gonna take a look." Minnie said, raising her gun.
"You sure that's a good idea?"
Minnie shrugged.
"We gotta know what they're doing, don't we?"
The redhead carefully approached the railing and peered over, only to go deathly pale and take a running dive back to where Clem was.
The violent bark of the mounted gun started again and it wasn't long before Clem was crawling on the ground with her.
"Oh for fucks sake, again?" She yelled over the din.
***
Violet ran to the porthole when the shooting resumed.
Somebody had gotten on the machine-gun again and was firing at Clem and Minnie on the top deck.
Nobody seemed to be paying much attention to her, so Violet rested the barrel of her rifle against the opening and aimed for the gunner.
Her shot hit him in the thigh, she was pretty sure she saw his kneecap explode in a mist of blood.
The turret swung ninety degrees upwards as the gunner fell from it, letting off a few misfired shots that hit the floor of the top deck and exploded out of the other side.
Violet swore and ducked away from the hail of bullets aimed at where she had been standing.
She moved along the deck, firing at the guards to keep them off the machine gun, but her gun ran dry with a dissatisfying click after just a few seconds of shooting.
***
Taking advantage of the distraction, Clem crawled on her stomach back to the edge of the ship and pointed her rifle downwards.
Another soldier had dragged away the previous gunner, leaving a trail of slick, dark blood, and taking their place.
Clem was beginning to notice a pattern. There were enough soldiers down there that just shooting the gunner wasn't going to solve anything, they needed to put the gun out of commission.
The gunner squatted down and let off two shots before the fire abruptly stopped and the weapon jammed. He began hitting the top of the gun with his fist and pulling the charging handle over and over.
While he did this, Clem could finally get a good view of the box magazine attached to the side of the gun.
She lined it up in her sights and started taking shots at it.
The rounds pierced through the box, sparking.
She fired again and again until a small explosion came from inside the mag, tearing the metal and flowering outwards.
What followed was a cascade of bullets being ignited and cooking off. The bursting ammunition sprayed shrapnel and sparks in every direction, sending the soldiers around in its radius to the ground, covered in a multitude of deep wounds.
This went on for quite a while, much longer then Clem had thought it would. Clearly they had a lot of bullets in that box, much more than she could say for herself.
She ran over to Minnie, who was once again at the controls.
"How's it looking?" Clem said, having to raise her voice over the constant blasts below.
"We're good, I'm starting her up now." Minnie shouted back, somewhat exasperated.
She pushed a heavy lever forwards and began turning the wheel in the direction of the open gate.
***
Marlon was nearly knocked off his feet when the boat lurched forward. He had gotten used to the steady bobbing of being stationary in the harbour.
The momentary joy he felt was quashed fairly quickly when the boat jerked suddenly backwards.
The foot-thick rope that tethered them to the concrete dock was pulled taut and caused the boat to change trajectory, swinging into the side of the industrial port and obliterating the wooden pier below it.
Marlon slipped over, his feet struggling to find purchase on the iron deck as the entire ship listed to the left.
"The rope, we're still attached!" Violet shouted from inside the cabin.
"I've got it!" Marlon yelled back.
He used the railing to lift himself onto his feet and broke into a sprint towards the cleat on the edge of the stern where the rope was attached.
When he got to it, it came to his attention that he didn't have a knife. The rope was under too much tension to simply untie it.
Marlon suddenly remembered the gun Clementine had given him. He checked the magazine and popped up, aiming the muzzle at the rope.
It took four shots to sever the rope, sending it off the edge like some kind of enormous limp snake.
Those four shots had drawn a lot of attention.
With no chance to react, Marlon was cut down by a burst of gunfire that struck him in the upper chest.
A thin mist of blood and dust filled the air.
He collapsed backwards onto the deck and gasped for a moment before he stopped moving altogether.
Violet saw all of it happen.
She screamed, called out to him and darted over to where his body was lying.
The deck was slick with blood which trailed behind her as she struggled to drag Marlon's body back inside.
Her hands and her clothes were saturated in a deep crimson and a coppery smell assaulted her senses.
Sophie was saying something, but the words weren't reaching her, they were just a garbled mess.
Louis' fists we're balled up at the side of his head. Tear tracks ran down his cheeks and he was probably wailing by the look of it, but Vi's hearing still hadn't come back, instead there was only a high pitched ringing.
Everything suddenly lurched, Sophie almost fell down the stairs again. The boat was moving.
***
Minnie kept low while she steered, not wanting to be the target of another round of gunfire.
Clementine crouched down at her side, one hand on her shoulder, like a bodyguard.
The walls of the Delta were moving past them through the bridge window, eventually giving way to the open river. Bullets pinged off the ship's hull in a feeble attempt to halt their escape.
Now that they were out of the gate and cruising along the river, Clem let the empty rifle drop from her hands and hugged Minnie around the back, resting her head sideways between her shoulder blades.
The redhead craned her neck and planted a kiss on Clem's cheek.
She stayed like that for a while, clinging into Minnie like a piece of flotsam in a shipwreck.
Once they were far enough away from the Delta, Clem stepped out onto the top deck, finally able to stand up and not fear having her head blown off.
The sun was rising, painting the river a mellow gold colour. Birds were chirping in the trees along the bank, the occasional walker wandered past and uselessly tried to follow the giant boat.
A chilly wind whipped through Clementine's short hair and made her jacket flap around wildly, wrapping itself around her arms.
She stretched and leaned over the railing, admiring the view.
"Can you check on everyone below deck?" Minnie called from inside the bridge.
"Sure, I wouldn't want them to miss out on this view." Clem replied wistfully.
She descended the steep metal staircase back down to the lower deck where she had last seen everyone.
Clem froze when she saw everyone gathered around something on the ground.
Louis heard her come down the stairs and looked back at her with a numb expression. Over his shoulder she saw Marlon, bloody and pale.
Clem dropped to her knees and hugged Louis.
She didn't say anything, what even was there to say?
Sophie joined them, wrapping one long arm around Clementine's back and one around Louis.
Violet snaked her arms around them all, followed by AJ clinging to Clem's back and Sophie's hip.
After a while, Clem quietly slipped out of the embrace. She got to her feet and extended a hand to the rest of her friends.
Louis took it and she helped him up.
The rest of them followed quietly behind Clem as she walked back up the stairs and out into the morning sun above deck. They sat themselves at the bow of the ship, dangling their legs out over the railing. The wind whipped at their hair, the chill on their skin was refreshing.
Minnie had set a course for the group's old home, an abandoned school in the woods. They still had friends back there who would be elated to find out that they were all still alive.
Violet reassured Clem that those friends would love her once she met them.
After that, who knew? She could stay at the school with Violet and Louis' friends, make a home of it for herself and AJ.
Or they could all move on together, take the boat further up river in search of something new.
Whatever lay ahead for them, they would face it together. They were practically family now after all they'd been through together.
She came to the conclusion that it wasn't something she needed to decide right now. After all, it was a very long trip back to where they had started, and Clementine was very tired. She found herself closing her eyes gently and focusing on the sound of rushing water, of the current of the river being pushed aside by the boat's broad hull.
THE END