Y/N was walking along through the forest in the cool of the early morning, looking and feeling a million times improved on the night before. It's amazing what a difference food, water and some solid sleep could make.
Pete and Clementine were walking behind Y/N, smiling and chatting happily as Y/N did what he did best, his eyes darting through the brush around them, on the verge of paranoia, looking for any signs of a threat. Pete had been good enough to let Y/N refill his arrows though, it was beyond fortunate their crossbows were compatible. This morning though he had a rifle in his hands. He smiled to the girl after small talk about the weather to ask:
"How are you two holding up? I heard you got an earful from Rebecca last night. Once she gets going, there's no bringing her back. Her bark's worse than her bite though."
Y/N chuckled from the front without looking round. Clementine smiled, it was so nice hearing Y/N laugh again, before she replied:
"She's all talk. Me and Y/N have come across a lot of people like her the last few years."
"Ran into your fair share of trouble?" Pete asked, a tone of sadness in his voice.
"A lot" Clem answered honestly. "But I'm so lucky I've always had Y/N there to protect me."
Y/N didn't turn round but Clementine could tell he was smiling.
"Y/N protects you? Like last night you mean? I ain't never seen a boy your age put a grown man on his behind like that before. Let alone a boy half dead" Pete chuckled.
"Done a lot worse than that Pete, a lotta times too. That's what the world is now" Y/N replied, again without turning.
"Ain't that the truth" Pete replied before noticing Clementine eyeing his rifle.
"So I assume you two know how to shoot? Proper I mean, any idiot with a gun can sh-"
Pete stopped as Y/N stopped dead in his tracks. He raised a hand to the other two, signifying stop, before raising his crossbow towards the brush and firing. There was a thud as Y/N quickly darted into the thick scrub, emerging a moment later reloading his crossbow.
"Walker. Lone straddler" Y/N said to the others.
"You heard him?" Pete asked with a smile.
"Yes sir" Y/N nodded. "Been in the woods all my life. When the regular noises stop, you know you got one near you"
Pete smiled and added:
"I take it you can shoot then?"
"Shoot, hunt, track, whatever you need" Y/N replied as he began walking forward again.
"That's impressive. What about you Clementine?"
"Our friend Lee taught me, and Y/N helped as well. Just not with rifles."
"Well, that makes sense. Less kick. This thing would probably knock you on your ass." Pete replied.
"Nick was about your age first time I took him huntin'. Came across this beautiful 13-point buck just standin' there on the ridgeline. The boy takes the rifle, lines up the shot just like I taught him, then I hear him start whinin'. He turns to me and he says, "I can't do it. I can't shoot it, Uncle Pete. Please don't make me shoot it."
"Aww...that's sad." Clementine said.
"Pussy" Y/N commented to himself, a lot quieter as his eyes scanned their surroundings. Right at that moment Nick came running up to the others, sporting a bruised nose and two blackening eyes.
"Hey! Why didn't you wait?" He asked in annoyance as Pete snapped back:
"You want us standin' around while you piss on a tree? You know where the river is, boy."
The group continued walking and Pete continued speaking:
"Anyway, so I grab the gun out of his hand before this big buck runs off when BANG! The gun fires. Boy nearly gut shot me. And of course the buck gets away."
"What're you goin' and tellin' them this shit for?" Nick snapped angrily. Pete snapped back as the two went back and forth:
"Cause you almost blew their heads off yesterday. Seems relevant. Tryin' to let them know it's nothin' personal with you."
"Why are you always giving me a hard time?"
"Because you're always givin' everyone else a hard time."
"I apologized already. They accepted" Nick yelled. Pete roared back:
"Okay, well, I didn't know that!"
"It's fine. He apologized." Clem added before Y/N stopped and turned, stank eyeing the pair of men.
"Y'all have had a roof over your head the whole time the dead been walkin', ain't ya?" He asked coldly. Clementine knew it was his angry voice.
"Yeah, we have son. Why?" Pete asked.
"We been on the move campin' since before last winter. You know how we survived?"
The two men shook their heads. Clementine subtly raised a hand to Y/N, signifying for him to remain calm.
"By not havin' fuckin' domestics and drawing god knows how many dead and alive down on us. Keep your fuckin' voices down!"
Nick looked intimidated, storming off towards the river. Pete chuckled and nodded before the three began walking again.
"I want to hear the rest of the story" Clementine said with a quiet giggle. Pete smiled and continued:
"So anyway, I found that buck later that season. Shot it right in the neck. Brought it up to my sister's, figurin' she'd want to freeze some of the meat. Nick didn't speak to me for weeks. Sometimes you gotta play a role, even if it means people you love hate you for it."
"He doesn't hate you." Clementine said with a smile. Y/N talked without turning round:
"You sound like my uncle Daryl."
Clementine smiled as Pete asked:
"He the one who taught you to hunt and shoot?"
"Yeah. My old lady was a smackhead and a prossie. My old man was a biker. As much prefer to spit on me than speak to me. But his brother, Daryl, my uncle. He taught me everything. I'd be dead if it wasn't for 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. Raise him right. Meant I couldn't just be nice Uncle Pete" Pete replied before there was a panicked yell of: "Uncle Pete!"
"He never fuckin' learn?" Y/N snapped as he began running, Pete and Clementine right behind him. The three arrived to see a riverbank covered in dead bodies.
"Jesus, Mary, and Joseph." Pete muttered. Y/N meanwhile had his crossbow raised, pointing across the river, carefully scanning the horizon.
"Full'a holes" Pete muttered, poking one of the bodies with his rifle. Clementine watched Y/N nervously. She knew him so well by now she could tell just by looking at him he was ready for a fight at a moment's notice.
"Do you see anyone, Y/N?" She asked nervously.
"No. Don't mean no ones there's though. You remember those gang bangers last fall?"
—~—
The five friends were huddled in an abandoned home. They'd come up on a small township in the middle of the woods and tried to scavenge for supplies. They ran into three people. They weren't the kind of people to ask nicely how someone's day was.
In the ensuing shoot out Y/N had killed one of them, Carley had shot one in the leg, and one had escaped. The five friends took cover in a house, Y/N and Lee dragging the man in. Carley and Christa had taken Clementine into a room. They heard Y/N and Lee have a loud argument before Lee entered the den where the three females were and sat, not saying a word.
Y/N had been alone with the other man for about half an hour. There were screams. There were bangs. Y/N eventually entered the den with bruised and bleeding knuckles.
"There's another eight of them. Set up alone in here. They're gonna be coming. If they find us, me and Lee are dead. You three will wish you were."
"What are we gonna do?" Carley asked fearfully, knowing exactly what Y/N was talking about.
"You four are going next door, leave me two mags and the glock with the silencer. The alley on the other side here, I'm gonna wait for them there" Y/N said.
"How do you know they're coming?" Christa asked.
"Old mate was pretty clear they would be. I'll lay in wait and when they come for the asshole we've got I'll pick them off one by one."
"How do you know they're gonna go there and not next door Y/N? It's risky son" Lee added worried.
"Cos I'm gonna bait me a line" Y/N said coldly.
—~—
"You mean with the broken ankles?" Clem asked, drawn from the memory.
"Exactly. Whoever did this might still be out there. Waitin' for another sucker to stumble across this mess. Just like baitin' a fish."
"Who do you think did this?" Clementine asked, turning to Pete.
"Not sure yet. But it ain't your average gang'a thugs, that much I know, it's complete FUBAR."
Pete was calm, silently impressed at Y/N's instincts. His nephew though, he wasn't so impressed with.
"Think about it. You're Carver, what do you do?" Nick asked in a mad panic.
"Who's Carver?" Clementine asked. She didn't get an answer and exchanged a silent glance with Y/N when he turned around at the same time Pete and Nick shared a worried one.
"Check those guys there. Be careful. Some of 'em might still be movin'" Pete finally answered.
"Clem, come with me over to the embankment" Y/N said, Clementine nodding and walking over as Nick walked up to Pete and the pair got in another argument.
"Why are we doin' this? We need to get the fuck out of here!" Nick asked/whined.
"Gotta check the rest" Pete snapped, checking another body that had been shot in the head.
"What?! Why?!"
"Calm down and think about it, son."
"Calm down?! We've gotta get out of here, now."
"Jesus Christ, get a hold of yourself. The kids are calmer than you for God's sake" Pete snapped.
"What if someone's alive, Nick?" Clem asked as she got to Y/N.
"Who cares?!" Nick snapped back.
"Cause they might just be inclined to tell us who did this. You know, Nick, I don't like this either, but sooner or later you're gonna have to realize a simple truth." Pete roared.
"What? That you're an asshole?"
"That nobody in this world is ever gonna give a goddamn whether you like somethin' or not. You gotta grow up, son!"
"Whatever" Nick said moping. Clementine watched Y/N as his eyes darted between the two of them.
"What are you thinking?" Clementine whispered to her best friend as they checked the first of two bodies on the sandbar.
"Shot in the head too. We need to get the fuck away from these people Clemmy. They're hiding somethin'. We just need to-"
Clem looked at Y/N who had stopped in his tracks before he darted forward. She looked at what he picked up:
It was her backpack.
"My backpack? What's my backpack doing here?" She asked fearfully before one of the bodies on the sandbank coughed. Y/N was on him in a moment, his hands gripping the man's collar tightly as he moaned in pain from Y/N ripping him up from the ground.
"You're the fucker who chased our friends. What happened to them? WHAT FUCKING HAPPENED?" Y/N roared, the pain from his arm blocked out as spittle flew from his roaring mouth to land on the man's face.
"WHAT HAPPENED?!?" Y/N roared again, punching the man hard in an injury on his left collarbone. The man cried before whimpering out:
"Killed one of the women. Others got away. Water... please... water..."
"I'LL GIVE YOU FUCKING WATER" Y/N roared, all reason leaving his mind as he dragged the man three feet to the water's edge and plunged him face first into the river. The man kicked and fought as hard as he could, but Y/N's hands held his face under the water and knees in the back kept the man down. He fought for about thirty seconds before his body went limp.
"Fuckin' asshole" Y/N growled, the adrenaline still pumping through his veins. He stood and turned panting, Pete and Nick staring at him horrified, Clem with tears streaming down her cheeks as she said:
"We have to find them Y/N. Christa or Carley we have to know who-"
"Ah fuck" Pete yelled before firing a shot at the walker who had grabbed his foot.
"We gotta get-"
Nick was cut off as over a dozen walkers quickly appeared at the riverbank through the woods, emerging right between Pete and Nick.
"We gotta go Clemmy, to Pete, now" Y/N said, figuring Pete was their best shot at survival.
She nodded and picked up her bag as they quickly crossed to the riverbank, running towards Pete. Clem realised too quick that Y/N had tripped, a walker on the ground grabbing his foot. She got to Pete's side and turned to see Y/N under a walker and screamed.
"I'm ok" Y/N replied, throwing the walker off him. "I got the fucker!"
Y/N stood, picking up his crossbow and throwing it over his shoulder, pulling his knife and impaling a walker as Nick and Pete fired shots.
"We gotta-"
Before Y/N could finish Nick yelled "I'm empty" and ran before he was overwhelmed.
"Nick!" Pete yelled, pulling the trigger and yelling to Y/N: "I'm out!"
Y/N stabbed another walker in the head, pulling his knife as he quickly did the maths of the growing number of walkers between him and Pete and Clem, yelling out as they backed off:
"I'll go after Nick. You keep her safe Pete! You fucking keep her safe!!!"
Clementine yelled "Y/N!" before losing sight of him as Pete grabbed her arm and pulled her away, hobbling as fast as he could.
"Fuck!" Y/N roared, backing up and running the way Nick had fled.