(Violet's Pov)
I look to Clementine as she looked back to me and I hear talking and I get up and see Javier and the others.
"What the-." I was stopped by Clementine as she held my shoulders back. I look down to her as she looked back up to me.
"Don't... please don't fight... there are others and you know them." She says and then I hear a familiar voice. I walk out and see Russell, Shel, Becca, and even Bonnie.
"Holy fuck." I hear as I look to Becca.
"Shit this is your home?" Russell asked and I nodded as I come up to them.
"You know her?" David asked.
"Yea, she saved my ass after I was bitten, made sure I didn't get an infection." Russell says and I nod to him.
"How you feeling?" I asked him.
"Great actually, thanks." He says and I nod and looked to the gates a bit and I see more Walkers.
"Herds are in patches these days, basically like a rain storm you know?" Kate says and I nod and looked to my friends and I rubbed my neck a bit. I see AJ as he looked to me then the others and I look to the group.
"How long ya'll plan on staying?" I asked.
"Till this herd passes on by if that is ok, but it might take some time." Bonnie says and I nod. I was ok with them staying, these people did me no wrong, neither did Kate so she was ok to stay as well.
"Ok... do we have enough food?" I asked Omar who nodded.
"Yep, have enough for a few days, might need to go hunting again." He says and I nod at this.
"Alright... everyone just sit back and relax I guess." I tell them and they all nod and do just that. I think a bit and head over to Russell as he talked to Louis.
"You know a Nate?" I asked him and he looked to me with widened eyes and then looked away.
"Drives a pick up truck? Wears a blue cap?" He asked and I nodded.
"Fuck he's here?" He asked and I shake my head.
"No, he's dead... fucker gave me a gut shot." I tell him.
"Damn... I'm sorry I honestly thought he was dead." He says.
"Don't be, anyway just wanted to know, he mentioned you at one point." I tell him and he nods. I think and head over to the gate and looked as the Walkers tried to grab at me and I could hear people whispering.
"Is she ok?" Bonnie asked.
"She has a lot on her mind right now." I hear Clementine say and I take a breath.
"What happened?" Bonnie asked her.
"Just... lots of things happened, but we're working on it." Clementine tells her. I glare at the Walker in front of me and I grip my hands into fists. I sighed as I take a few breaths and unclenched my hands and I went up the watch tower and took a good look at the herd. It looked a hell of a lot bigger than the previous one and I think a bit and looked to the new group of people. I looked back to the Walkers and then I take a seat. I watched as the Walkers would pass on by some even trying to grab my foot but they couldn't quiet reach it and I look into the woods a bit.
"Well, fuck." I hear and I turn to see AJ and the others as they were by the fire and I get up and go over to them.
"What's going on?" I asked.
"Don't have enough wood, fuck I knew we should have gotten some before the herd hit." Aasim says and I think a bit then looked to the Walkers.
"Could cover oursel-."
"No, we are not going to risk it." Javier says and I look to him and glare.
"Who died and made you boss?" I asked.
"You're going to say something stupid, risking others just for wood." David says.
"Who the fuck said I was going to let them go and get the wood?" I asked him and he looked to me.
"Look we have a small amount in the back, it should be fine for a while." Clem says and I look to her and I sighed a bit and nod as I head over to the back of the trailer.
"Mom." I hear and turn to see AJ as he comes up to me and I look to him.
"Hu... haven't called me that in a long time." I say as we head to the back.
"Sorry... I think I can call you and Clem my moms'." He says and I chuckled at this.
"It's fine AJ... actually Clem might be happy if you called her mom... I mean she has raised you for so long, it's deserving." I tell him and he nods.
"I just didn't want her to think that she was replacing my real mom." He says and I nod.
"I get it, but Clem is your mom at this point... even if she didn't carry you and such." I tell him as we grabbed the wood.
"I know... thank you." He says and I look at him.
"For what?" I asked him and I see tears in his eyes and I dropped the wood and hugged him.
"For... for taking care of me, even when I was an asshole, for... not treating me like a child but also trying to let me have a childhood... for keeping Clementine safe too... I'm sorry for everything I did that caused you more issues." He cried and I held him tighter.
"Shh, it's ok AJ, you didn't cause me any problems at all, ok?" I asked him.
"I just... I know I did... you don't have to lie to me." He says and I pull away from him and look at him.
"AJ, I am being serious here, you are a good kid, you never caused me problems... even if I say you do it's just because I'm angry at myself, it's confusing I know I know, but people are confusing." I tell him and we both chuckled at this.
"Still... I wanted you to just know I was sorry." He says and I nod and I look to the side of the trailer and I think just for a bit and look to AJ.
"I might head out and get some supplies tonight." I tell him.
"I'll come with." He says to me.
"No, I-."
"You can't really stop me on this, I'll follow." He says and I sigh but nod.
"Ok, ok we can both go but no one else can know, ok? we have to be sneaky." I tell him.
"I know a spot in the wall we can sneak out of, don't worry Walkers can't get through I have it barricaded." He says and I look to him a bit.
"You haven't been sneaking out, have you?" I asked him and he doesn't say anything.
"Alright... just be careful." I tell him and he nods at this.
"I will.... Hey I know it's wrong for me to ask this but... do you think one day I could be on my own?" He asked and I think.
"I can't tell you no, but... we could work something out." I tell him and he looks to me.
"Wait, you would let me?" He asked.
"If that is what you want, like I said I can't tell you no, but I would like to help you out at least... maybe we can work something out like we can visit you and you can visit us you know?" I asked and he nods.
"Yea I just... I'll think about it." He says and I look to him.
"Hey let's bring the wood back and talk a bit afterwards, ok?" I asked him and he nods as we go and bring the wood back to the group I look to AJ and nod towards Clem and he nods a bit and I place my hand on Clementine's shoulder and she looks to me and I motion to the wall a bit and she nods as all three of us went over to the side and away from the people. I look to the side and watch the people then back to Clementine and AJ.
"Hey, what's up?" Clem asked and I rubbed the back of my neck and AJ took a breath.
"I just want you to know that... I mean I'm getting older and you know I would like to... be on my own." He explains to her and I look at Clementine as she looks at AJ.
"You want to leave?" She asked and he nods.
"Look we can figure some things out but I mean... AJ is growing up and I mean I'm a little on the fence about it too but... come on." I try to say to her.
"No, no I get it I do I just... do you want to take some time to think fully on it?" She asked AJ.
"I mean yea just a little but... it's not like I want to leave you guys permanently just... I don't know." AJ tries to explain and I rubbed my neck a bit.
"No, no I get it I do, I just want to know if you really want to head out at this point, I'm still going to worry for you and... and." Clementine stops and I look at her a bit and then AJ goes up and hugs her.
"Hey I won't leave just yet it's ok." AJ explained and I watch Clementine nod a bit at this. I go up to both of them and AJ pulled me into the group hug and I hug both of them. We stood there for a bit and we pull back and Clementine wiped her eyes of any tears and I look to both of them.
"Look, I know... it's not the best thing to hear but we should take some time and actually see if you're ready to leave on your own, I know you can take care of yourself but... I just want to be really sure that's all." I tell him.
"I know, I know." He says and I nod in agreement.
"Just know that if you ever want to come back you can." Clementine tells him and he nods.
"Thank you." He says and we nod in agreement. AJ then heads over to the others and I look at Clem as she was looking at the ground and I place my hands on her shoulders and she looks up to me.
"You, ok?" I asked her and she shakes her head a bit and I hold her to me.
"He's growing up." She says and I chuckled a bit.
"Yea... growing up sucks." I mutter and she laughed a little.
"Just imagine how Ruby and Aasim will feel when their kids do this." I say to her and she laughed a little more and I hold her to me. After Clementine calmed down, she went and talked to Bonnie and the others and I look at AJ who was on the other side of the trailer and motioned for me to come and I nod a bit as I head over to him when the others weren't looking. I grabbed the one bag and placed it on my back and he handed me my gun and we head to the part of the wall AJ had mentioned. We both snuck out and kept quiet as AJ killed a Walker and we covered ourselves and I look around a bit.
"We should head into the town since the Walkers are coming from that direction, might be thinned out at some point." AJ whispered and I nod in agreement and we walked through the heard. We head on through the woods and the Walkers aren't thinning out and I take a look around us some more as we keep walking through the herd. It took us a while to reach the town and once there I saw Walkers crawling after they had rotted for years and I rubbed the back of my head a bit and then we headed into one of the stores and looked to AJ once we were inside and had the doors barricaded. I looked through the bag and found a journal and wrote some information down on how far out we walked in the heard and that the herd hadn't thinned out.
"Seems like there is a lot more than what we thought." AJ states and I nod at this.
"Seems like they all made a huge herd, at one point." I say and look back to my book.
"Could that be why we didn't see as much Walkers around?" AJ asked and I nod.
"Yea could be there is a crap ton hell we haven't reached a thinning part of this herd." I then stood up and looked out the window and then one of the Walkers looked at the window and stared back at me and I back up a bit and look to AJ and he looked to me.
"Let's find some supplies and head back." AJ says and I nod as we look around and find whatever we could and packed our bags with anything we could find and I noticed we were in a mall and I head up the stairs a bit.
"What is this?" I hear AJ ask and I look at him.
"It's a mall... basically a big store with many things, food, clothes, entertainment and so on." I explained to him.
"Oh... cool." He says and I chuckled.
"It's pretty cool." I mutter and we headed up the second level and found some clothing and I look through it a bit. I find some clothes and we packed them up for the others and I look at AJ as he grabbed a few as well. We then headed over to another section of the store and we just keep looking around and I hear some growling and turn to a security door and put my ear against it. It was a little hard to hear but there was a thump against the door and I look to AJ who had his gun out and I nod as I grabbed mine and I tried to open the door but it didn't budge and I sighed.
"Ok... ok good." I looked around and then back to AJ who also looked around.
"We should head back." He says and I nod as we go to the window section of the store and I look to see how bad it was and if we could get another Walker.
"Why are you so agreeing with me on my choice to leave?" AJ asked and I stopped and looked to him.
"Do you not want me to?" I asked a bit confused.
"No... yes?" He says a bit confused and I look at him.
"You don't have to leave but I know you don't want to stay somewhere for so long... besides I think you should have the choice to leave... even if you didn't like it when I left after freaking out." I tell him and he looks to me.
"I didn't... I didn't mean to act like that and then do this, I just... I was worried for Clementine and I know you have some... problems I still don't understand it you know." He tells me and I nod.
"Very confusing hu?" I asked and he nods and I chuckled at this.
"I... don't think I am ready to be on my own." He says.
"Why do you think that?" I asked him and he shrugged.
"I'd be a hypocrite for one thing, and then... I mean I just... am I a bad guy?" He asked.
"No, not at all... you're still learning, hell I am still learning and look how old I am... and don't tell Clem this but even she is learning." I joked and he laughed a bit.
"I just... I'm confused like I want to go but then I don't want to because I feel like I'm being a hypocrite after I yelled at you about leaving us, and how Clementine got upset when you just left us in a panic." He says and I think a bit.
"Ok, I get it, look if you want to try and leave, I won't stop you, but if you want to come back, you know Clem and I would allow you back in no second thoughts, you're basically our son AJ... you're Clem's son, she's seen you grow up from a little baby to the man you are today.... It's called Empty Nest syndrome I think." I tell him.
"What does that mean?" He asked.
"It's uh... something that happens when a child leaves the parents home, it mostly happens with mothers, and Clem just... she is going to miss you but, in all honesty, she knows you're going to leave one day, she is going to miss you but she won't stop you." I explained.
"I just... I don't know." He says and we walk again.
"I get how you are feeling to a point, not completely but I get it." I tell him.
"How would you know?" He asked.
"Well... you want to be independent; you want to be on your own, you just want to be an adult, and you think you can't unless you aren't around all of us... I mean hell even getting your own trailer at home could be a form of independence but in this world it's different, and well... Clem and I we never had to deal with this, I mean we only had you to raise to full adulthood, and.... We just we don't know what to do in this world." I ranted and AJ looks at me.
"You actually... got some of it right." He says and I nod a bit.
"Ok... we can talk more of this later?" I asked and he nods as we got to the back storage area where the loading docks were. We both opened the doors a bit and we saw all the Walkers and I quickly grabbed a Walker and AJ cut the jaw and I pulled it into the store, I stabbed it in the head and take a breath then look to AJ and he nods as we open it up and smear the guts on each other. When done we looked to the door and I opened it to let AJ out. He drops down to the ground and I follow him and we look around as the herd walked around us. We head in the direction of home and once we reach the open fields where more Walkers where I took a good look around. As I did AJ grabbed my arm and moved me to the side to an abandoned tractor and we ducked down.
"What?" I whispered as I see a Walker coming up to us but stopping and turning to the side.
"I thought I saw lights." He tells me and I turn my head to peak from the side of the tractor but due to being hidden and on the ground, I couldn't get a good look. I sighed a bit and look to AJ as he checked his gun and I checked mine and we both got up slightly and snuck threw the herd. I follow AJ as he takes me where he saw the light and it was just a busted one sitting on a car. I look around keeping an eye out for anyone and then there is a loud bang as I look to AJ who shot off his gun. The Walkers hear this of course and I pulled him away from the Walker that tried to grab him and I shove him to the side a bit as I grabbed my knife and kill it. I look around as I hear another shot but it didn't come from AJ and we take cover under the car and I try my best to breath but I was panicking.
"I saw a man, I shot him." AJ says scared and I look to the side to indeed see a man laying on the ground with a bullet wound in his skull. I nod and think as the Walkers crowed the car and I hear someone yelling and I try to breath.
"Ok, what we can do is... fuck we are going to have to run if they follow, I'll shoot them and you run and hide." I mutter.
"I am not leaving you this time." He says.
"You aren't, trust me you aren't I just need to... to listen to me please." I begged.
"No god damn it." He says and I try to breath and then we hear more shooting and I hear it hit the car and I nod as I get out from under and I hear AJ and I take a shot at a Walker and AJ comes over to my side and we look around and I hear another gun go off and we ducked as the Walkers went to the sound I stood up and grabbed AJ as we ran. I hear another gun shot go off and I feel pain in my leg and I dropped to the ground. I turn quickly to see a Walker coming at me and I shoot it in the head and looked to not see AJ around and I try to get up as a Walker grabbed my bag and I take it off quickly and shove it back. I got up and tried to run but my leg was becoming a pain and another Walker grabbed me and I felt a bite on my arm. I punched the damn thing and stabbed it in the head with my knife and I hurry to find somewhere to hide but I can't. I get angry and run off to the direction of the house and I see an abandoned truck so I hurry and get inside. I take a few breaths and a Walker slams into the door and I lock it up and look at the Walker as it looked back to me and hit the glass for a bit. I grabbed my knife and held it close to me and I take a few breaths and then I hear the other door open and I see AJ as he hurried in and locked the door as well and I chuckled.
"Holy hell." I laughed and he looked to me and I take a breath as he laughed a little too.
"Lucky sons of bitches." AJ says and I laughed again at this and lean my head on the steering wheel and I hear another bang and I look back to the window and I watch the Walker as it gave up and walked around the truck a bit. I look to AJ and then looked around the truck to find anything.
"I don't think... I don't think the truck is going to work." AJ says and I take a breath as I keep looking and then I look to him.
"A-Always try." I say out of breath and then stopped and laid my head back a bit when I couldn't find the keys. It was a while before I put the seat back and then pulled the wire compartment and I was able to open it. I then grabbed the wires and I put the two wires together and I hear AJ get up.
"Lights on." He says and I nod as I put two other wires together making the truck sputter a bit but it didn't start. It took a few tries but the truck actually came to life and I hurry up and look to AJ as he put his seatbelt on and I floored it. I kept hitting Walkers not giving a damn and we both cheered at this.
"HELL YEA!" AJ yelled and I laughed as we kept driving. It took a good while before we get to the trailer park and I park in the back and shut the truck off and we hurried into the trailer park through the hidden break in the wall. After we get the break boarded up I lean on the wall and look to AJ who looked to me and we both laughed a bit and high-fived each other.
"WHERE THE HELL HAVE YOU TWO BEEN?!" We hear and turn to see Clem, Ruby, Aasim, Minerva, and even Louis looking at us and I laughed at this.
"We... We just uh." I laughed a bit and looked down.
"Hanging out." AJ says and we laughed at this.
"Oh no, you two are in big fucking trouble." Minerva says and I look to her then to Clem.
"Oh, come on it was just a little fun." I say to them.
"Going out... into a fucking herd of Walkers is fun to you two?" Clem asked and we both nod and look to each other and nod again.
"Yea, got to have that rush you know... also." AJ says and he grabbed his bag and set it down in front of him.
"We got some supplies at the Mall." I say and he pulls out some meds and some old bags of chips too.
"You two... risked your lives for this bullshit?" Louis says and I laugh.
"Come on, we were having fun, plus we got a new truck." I say and point to the wall.
"Ok, both of you are fucking grounded." Clem says.
"You can't ground us." I say.
"How the fuck can I trust you two? AJ, you want to be on your own but pulling something like this is showing me I can't trust you." Clem tells him.
"Woah hold on this was my idea, not his." I tell her as we both get up.
"Did you take a bag with you?" Minerva asked
"Oh yea, fucking Walkers grabbed it when someone shot at us and shit, but we're ok." I say and Ruby comes up to us.
"The hell happened to your leg?" Clem asked.
"Got shot in the leg, so can I go take a seat?" I asked and Aasim and Clem helped me to the trailer and I took a seat on the porch and I see the others look at me and I look back at them and I flip them off and laughed a little.
"Violet." Clem says and I look to her and smiled.
"What? Having a little fun." I tell her.
"Did you drink or something?" She asked as she looked to me.
"No... no god no I ain't that stupid." I tell her and she looked to me and I shake my head a bit and Ruby checked my leg.
"Need to get that arm checked too." Omar says as he comes over.
"Arm?" I asked and looked to my arm to see the blood and there was still some pouring from the wound and I wipe it a bit to see teeth marks and I quickly cover it and take a side glance to Clem who was talking to Minerva, or well it looked like Minerva was trying to keep her from kicking my ass.
"Violet, let me see your arm." Ruby says and I look to her and I shake my head.
"No, it's fine." I tell her.
"Violet... let me see your arm." She demands and I look to her then to Omar and then back to her and slowly move my hand away and she looked to it and gasped.
"CLEMENTINE, MINERVA GET HERE NOW!" Ruby yelled and they both look over to us and they hurry over and I back up a bit and laugh a bit awkwardly as the other two new groups look over to us.
"Get her inside now." Ruby tells them and they help me up and take me inside as Ruby runs to her house and they help me take a seat on the couch.
"What's going on?" Minerva asked and I place my hand over the bite.
"Nothing Ruby is just over reacting, might be something wrong with my leg." I tell them. They look to me and them Minerva looks at my arm and then comes over quickly and I try to move but she grabbed my arm and moved it to show the bite.
"JESUS FUCK!" She yelled.
"What?" Clem asked and I look at Minerva who looked to Clementine.
"She got fucking bit." Minerva tells her and I look at Clementine who was looking at me.
"What?" Clem asked and she looked to me then comes up and looks at my arm then Ruby comes into the house and I pull my arm back a bit and hold it then looked as they rushed to get everything set up.
"What if I don't want... to cut it off?" I asked and they looked to me just as Ruby tied my arm a bit where she will cut and I looked down.
"What if I want to turn?" I asked.
"You aren't thinking clearly Violet trust me you don't fucking want this." Clem says as she comes up to me and places her hands on my face and I look at her.
"You don't want this, trust me, you don't want this." She says and I look at her eyes and I looked away a bit.
"Violet." I hear and I shut my eyes.
"Violet, we need to cut it now." Ruby says and I look to Clem again.
"Please... don't do this, don't.... don't leave me please." She says and I see tears in her eyes. I place my good hand on her face and stroke her cheek a bit. Some blood was on her cheek and I felt bad but I didn't want this anymore, if I don't cut it Clementine will be hurt if I do cut it I still might end up hurting her. I move my hand from her face and I take a deep breath and blew some air out and looked to Ruby and then to Minerva.
"Get Clem out of here... please." I say and Minerva helped Clem up and out the trailer. I could hear Clementine cry and I look to Ruby and I look around and take my belt off and she comes over to me and I look at her.
"I'm going to bite on this and you fucking cut as fast as you can ok?" I asked and she nods as I place my arm on the table and she grabbed the saw after she cleaned it and I put the belt in my mouth and bit hard as I felt the first cut.