Flashback
BANG!
Is what Clementine heard before Marlon's lifeless body fell on her. She looks forward and sees AJ with his gun in his hands.
"W-what?" He stuttered. "I aimed for the head."
Everyone crowds around Marlon's dead body.
"No!" Louis yelled.
"Oh my God!" Omar exclaimed.
"Shit!" Violet yelled as well but she wasn't as affected as everyone else.
"W-we could get medicine, from the nurse's office!" Ruby said with a bit of hope in her voice. But all of that was shut down by Mitch.
"He's dead, the kid blew his brains out!"
"You shot him." Louis started. "He's dead. You're a murderer. You promised Marlon! You said you'd help him fix things! What the fuck did you teach this kid!?"
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Present
"Louis called me a murderer," AJ said, sadly. Clementine felt nothing but pity for the young boy. All this time, all she was doing was trying to teach him things that he would need to learn on the road. This time, AJ was trying to protect Clementine from Marlon.
"But... but we're supposed to kill bad stuff. Monsters?" He continued. "Did I do it bad?"
"Louis was right. Sometimes, people do bad things, as Marlon did. But when you shot him, he wasn't a threat to us anymore. If you kill someone when they're no longer threatening you, that's murder." Clementine looked at the boy whose face had grown a frown. As much as she hated to say it, Louis WAS right. What AJ did was murder.
AJ starts walking to the other side of the room. "What are we gonna do?"
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Flashback
Clementine looked to her left to see Mitch with his fists clenched. Suddenly, Violet stood in front of AJ with her bloodied meat cleaver out. "Back off, all of you!"
"It was under control! I talked Marlon down, then... He murdered my fucking friend!" Louis yelled.
"Take AJ, go inside," Violet said sternly.
"Come on, let's go." Clementine walked over to AJ.
"Oh, just let them go back to the dorms?!" Louis started. "What happens the next time one of us does something this kid doesn't like? Should we expect a bullet, too?"
"That's not what happened." Violet bickered with Louis.
"It's exactly what happened. It was over, 'til little Mr. Trigger-Happy decided otherwise!"
Clementine had had enough of this. "No, he wouldn't do that! He'd never hurt any of you! It was- Marlon threatened us!"
"AJ pointed the gun first!" Louis argued.
"We get it, Louis, just back off, okay?" Violet demanded.
"Back off? Seriously?!"
"Clem?"
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Present
"Clem?" AJ asks. "If I'm a murderer, am I gonna die too?" Clementine was taken aback by the question he had just asked her.
"What? Of course not!" Clementine exclaimed with a stifled laugh.
"Well, I think murderers are like monsters, and... I know what happens to monsters." He looks down at the ground. "Nothing good. Nothing good at all."
"We can forgive them. Murderers, even some monsters, they get a second chance."
"Some monsters? Not all?"
"When bad people, like murderers, try to make it right, that's when other people forgive them."
"That sounds hard."
"It is." Clementine shakes her head in disbelief. "We're going to fix this. You and me. I'm going to help you atone." Clementine pats the bed, signaling for AJ to sit next to her. He sits beside her.
"A...tone?" puzzled AJ.
"It means... to make up for what you did wrong." She looks in AJ's direction. "We'll make it all right with the others."
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Flashback
As the thunder continues to roar in the distance, you could hear Ruby crying and see her kneeling over Marlon's lifeless body.
"For God's sake, someone help me with this!" She cried.
Mitch blocks Clementine and AJ's way. "Saved you from that car wreck, and you fucking murdered him?!"
"Get back, Mitch." Clementine threatens.
"Get. Back." AJ said as well, but more intimidating.
"Or what?" Mitch pulls out a pocket knife and aims it towards the two. "You gonna let him kill me too? Then who's next? Aasim? Willy?"
"Haven't enough people died tonight? Brody. Marlon. We can't keep killing each other." Clementine replied.
"How the fuck are you saying that to me after what he did?" Mitch puts away his knife and starts to walk away. "Screw both of you."
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Present
"Hey. What is it?" Clementine looks at the boy whom looks upset.
"You've killed a lot of people." He said hesitantly. "You murdered your friend Lee, didn't you?" Clementine's eyes widened from his remark. Her heart ached at the constant reminder of how she killed Lee.
"W-what?"
"You said he was handcuffed. He wasn't a threat. So, that means you murdered him."
"I killed him because I loved him." Clementine narrowed her eyes at AJ but soon softened. "I didn't want him to suffer."
"How? He'd be dead."
"He would've turned. I didn't want that for him. He deserved better." Clementine then looked down at the floor. A moment of silence filled the room until AJ finally spoke up.
"I love you, Clem."
"I love you back." Clementine pulled AJ in a hug and stayed that way until the door creaked. They both looked in that direction. It was Tenn.
"Hey," Tenn walked over to the two. "Violet said to come to get you for the funeral."
"Really?" Clementine queried, surprised.
"We used to have more. Then we stopped. It seems right, though." Tenn turns towards AJ. "I brought you something."
"For me?" AJ asked.
"I figured you'd be afraid, with everyone all upset. But you were brave last night. Like a firefighter."
But then, AJ puts down Tenn's hand. "No, firefighters are good. I'm a murderer."
"No you're not, you gotta have a trial, first. They decide that stuff in a courtroom. That's how it works. Er, worked. Before. Back then, there were all kinds of rules. About who was innocent, and who was guilty."
"We have to decide things for ourselves now. We can't rely on other people to make the rules for us." Clementine chimed in.
"Who decided you're a murderer?" Tenn asks.
"Clem. But she's right. So's everyone else."
"I think you're okay." AJ smiles at Tenn. "You sure you don't want your firefighter?"
"No, you should keep him 'cause you're good like him. But, maybe we can play with him later? Together?"
"Sure!" Tenn accepted. "After the funeral. They buried them already. Vi'll start it soon. See you out there." Tenn leaves the room.
Clementine sighs. "This is going to be hard. Everyone's going to be upset. We need to show them we care, okay?"
"Okay." AJ nods his head in apprehension. Then, Clementine and AJ leave the room and head out to the courtyard.
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The pair make it to the courtyard and see everyone crowded around Marlon and Brody's graves. Everyone turns around to see them and frowns.
"Oh, God, they're here," Aasim muttered.
"So what? They knew Brody, didn't they?" Violet snapped.
"But Marlon-" Omar started but was interrupted by Violet. "Just leave them alone."
"Shit," Louis mumbled, loud enough for Clementine to hear.
"Clem," AJ said.
"What?" Clementine replied.
"Why do people have funerals?"
"Well, it's to say goodbye to someone you've lost."
"But... they're dead."
"This is your last chance to see them before they're gone forever."
"I made them all sad. Like if someone took you away."
Clementine smiled sadly at the boy. Somebody as young as 5 years old, shouldn't have to experience this much death around them. Hell, to even kill someone whom he thought was a bad person, but gets blamed for it anyway.
"Does everyone get a funeral?"
"People do. Some animals too."
"Even monsters?"
"Even monsters."
Violet finishes talking to Brody's grave and looks over to Tenn. "Tenn, you ready?" He nods and walks over to Brody's grave with a piece of paper in his hands.
"Brody. You always said you wanted to go to the beach. So, I drew it for you." Tenn places a drawing on a beach on Brody's grave and looks back as Violet smiles at him. Violet walks over to Marlon's grave and stops.
"Marlon was..." Violet started to speak but couldn't get the words out of her mouth. Then she turns around and looks at the ground. "I can't. Not for Marlon. After what he did to the twins and Brody I--"
"You didn't even like Brody! You were always mean to her." Willy yelled at her as Violet frowned. She looked around to see everyone staring at her. She shakes her head and starts to walk away.
"I can't. Someone else do it."
"Bitch." Mitch mutters, loud enough for Louis and Violet to hear.
"Dude, don't." Louis tries to calm Mitch down.
"Seriously, Louis? He was your best friend. He wasn't perfect, but he deserved better than to get gunned down by that kid." Mitch starts walking towards Clementine and AJ. "AJ killed him like it was nothing. We all saw it, and no one stopped it."
"You're right, Mitch. Marlon didn't deserve what AJ did to him." Clementine said.
"I know what I did. I'm sorry." AJ admitted. No one looked convinced. "I know I'm a murderer. But I'm gonna a... a..."
"Atone." Clementine corrected.
"Yeah, atone it."
"Fuck, I can't listen to this." Louis growled while walking past them.
"What I did was bad, and I'm going to make it up to you, I promise."
"You don't have to make up shit!" Violet interrupted. "Marlon was a fucking murderer and a liar and if we'd asked more questions about Minnie and Sophie disappearing last year, none of this would've happened."
"She's got a point." Aasim commented.
"Shut up! It wasn't Marlon's fault!" Willy argued.
"Then whose fault was it?!" Violet snapped, shutting Willy up immediately. Clementine appreciated how Violet was standing up for AJ and her. But no matter how many time she would say it, that would never cover up what AJ did to Marlon.
"Whatever happened before, AJ still shouldn't have killed Marlon." Clementine claimed.
"Yeah, he wasn't hurting anybody when I killed him." AJ agreed.
"See what I mean? How can any of us trust these fucking people?!" Mitch yelled.
"What are you saying?" Violet said, skeptically.
"I'm saying they gotta fuckin' go. Take a vote. Majority decides. They leave or they stay. Today."
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OOOOOO THINGS GOT JUICY IN THERE LOLOLOL. I'm gonna be breaking each episode into about two parts. Depending on whether or not it has a cliffhanger. And this is gonna be an AU when Sophie and Mitch are actually alive so in the first few chapters its gonna be fro the game then later, it will be my own original story. K? K.