Clem awoke to the flickering light of a lamp on the ceiling. Irregular shadows painted faint outlines of unseen persons onto the walls, phantoms of the past looking for the presence of the living. She moved her head and realized that she had slept on Louis' lap, her cheeks taking the color of dusty pink as she adjusted her sloppy fitting jacket. Luckily nobody was awake to see her in this state. Her mouth felt horribly dry, she needed something to drink, a drop of sweet water would be enough. Grabbing the bottle strapped to her belt she gently shook Louis.
"Oh come on, just a minute more!", he pleaded with a low childish voice.
"There's no time to sleep now, you can make up for it at home.", Clem whispered into his ear, her warm breath caressing the dark freckled skin of his face.
Louis opened his sleepy eyes, the white in his eyes looking redder than normal, almost bloodshot. Even though he had no strength yet a smile played with his lips as he saw her face.
"What time is it?"
Clem looked around, there was no evidence whatsoever how long they had been asleep. The white walls were free of any clocks, they were sterile and clean, nothing like the cars she had seen till now.
"I don't know. We should try to open the doors.", she suggested, quietly standing up and sneaking to the other side of the truck.
"Good morning love-birds, how's it going?", a rusty and sleepy voice asked, Frank had awoken.
The girl scratched the back of her head in embarrassment and looked downwards, the floor suddenly looked very interesting for her.
"I didn't want to wake you up, sorry."
The man just shook his head in response,
"Don't you worry, I was awake all the time, just dozed off a bit."
Clementine smiled at his answer.
"I wanted to see what time it is, I've got no orientation in here..."
Frank smirked and pulled off the hat he had used to blend out the light.
"Ditto, just watch the walkers outside."
Sunlight flooded the back of the truck when Clem opened the doors, she had to shut her eyes for a second, blinded by the sudden change of brightness. Anne churned in her sleep, still not fully capable of talking or anything else. The street was free of the living dead, Clementine couldn't spot any of them. Something built up in the pits of her stomach as she looked around the dead looking road.
"Where did all the walkers go, normally they never leave completely..."
Frank and Louis moved to her side, both blinking furiously in surprise.
"That's interesting", Louis said, "they must have been drawn away by sound or food or whatever."
Frank was the most suspicious, he pulled his gun out of hiding and stepped out. He let his gaze swoop around them, his knees slightly bent, ready to face any appearing threat. His eyes widened as he fixed them on something on the far horizon, just outside the teenager's line of sight.
"Clear...what in the world?"
The teenagers followed his look. In the distance a big column of smoke was visible. The gray substance obscured the rays of the sun, painting a completely different picture of the usually peaceful horizon.
"Fuck, that's where the school is!", Clem almost yelled in fear. The knot in her stomach churned around, her feeling hasn't been wrong after all. She knew that something terrible had happened, something that would turn her blood into pure ice when she arrived. Pictures of maimed corpses lying in front if busted gates flashed before her inner eye before a voice interrupted her dark thoughts.
"What is happening here, can't you just leave a woman her precious sleep?", Anne called from the inside, her voice as rusty and weak as Frank's had been.
"Anne, wake up, the school's under attack!", Louis shouted.
Her head jerked up, no sign of dizziness were notable in her expression, the shock had driven away all of it.
"What?"
"Look at the horizon, that smoke is coming from the school!"
She jumped to her feet, gun ready in her hand. She put off the safety with a loud click as she ran to their side, her fingers turned white as she clutched the weapon in anger, the grey smoke leaving trails in the white of her eyes.
"Then we have no time to waste, make the cars ready to drive!"
Clementine's thoughts were racing, -No no no no no, this can't be happening. Not again!-
Louis pulled her out of her catatonic state, his warm hands found place on her shoulders,
"Hey, don't worry, they know how to defend themselves, they'll be fine!"
She could hear that he wasn't believing that himself, the crack in his voice had given that away. Then, a sudden change occurred to her, determination and anger replaced her fear from one moment to the other. Her friends didn't need an intimidated small child, they needed the strong independent leader they had chosen.
"Let's show those fuckers who they're messing around with!", she scowled angrily as she pulled the bow off her back, the dark metal glistening and irradiating death.
Her boy looked at her, grinning wildly.
"Now that's what I'm talking about!"
Clem turned to Frank, who had informed Adrian about the happenings. His head appeared from inside the car, reddened but cool he yelled,
"He can't drive, he's still drunk from yesterday! Did one of you learn how to drive a car?"
She stepped forward, her posture strong and save. Her right hand played with the line of her hips, a confident look in her eyes made doubt impossible.
"Give me the keys, I've done it for a whole year in a row.", she called back and raised her hand, ready to catch the keys.
"Shouldn't you tell him that you crash regularly?", Louis whispered in her ear.
"You're not helping right now!", she hissed back.
Her fighting instincts had taken control of her body, she wasn't in the mood to joke around. Next to her, Louis flinched and backed away. This wasn't the reaction he had hoped for.
"Well then, there you go", Frank noted, tossing her the keys. "That's for the armored Humvee at the front, it's my baby so take care of it."
Clementine nodded grimly and ran to the cars door, Louis at her heels.
"We will make the vanguard, lets meet at the school as soon as possible.", she called back to the rest of the group while starting the engine.
The motor hummed to live and Clem pushed the gas, seemingly catapulting them. They drove with high speed, running over some walkers and signs on their way back home. Louis clung to his seat, pearls of cold sweat formed on his forehead as his fingers turned white from the pressure.
"Darling you're the person I wanna die with but it's a little soon for that, slow down a bit!"
Without hearing him out, she raced until she could make out the schools gates. Her worst fears came true as she saw that they were opened to the edge, blown out of their angles. The yard was empty, no one was standing there to keep guard. Well, no living individual. The place was completely crowded with walkers and there were even more flooding the yard.
"Fuck, fuck, what happened?", Louis asked, shocked by what he was seeing.
The rotting herd let out a pained groan as their attention turned to the steaming and purring engine of the truck. Their milky white eyes fixed on the windows, it was like they were staring right at Clem, blood thirst in the orbs as they started to approach. James had believed that there was something human left in walkers but moments like this told a while different story. Anger flared up in her soul, it took over her like a raging wildfire, burning away useless fear.
Clementine didn't hesitate as she drove the vehicle straight trough the herd, crushing everything in her path. The walkers blood painted the cars sides red, the black smooth paint disappeared behind crushed bones covered in the crimson red substance.
"Yikes!", Louis exclaimed, every time a walker hit the front window. A small red mist laid itself over Clementine's eyes, now she was the one who was bloodthirsty, determined to kill the abominations flooding her home.
After cleaning the yard from most of the walker infestation, they both left the car. Clem's hand wandered to her back once again, firmly gripping the metal handle of her bow as she ripped it free. The first arrow found its target with a wet crunch, the monster's knees bulged as its life flowed out of the fatal head wound. Her side was covered by Louis who put his chair leg "Chairles" into action. The blunt weapon took everything from the undead, anything that could have been called human. Small metal nails ripped open their skin followed by the mighty wooden block smashing the bones, turning them into dust. One by one the walkers fell to their knees, their heads either exploded into a red gory mass of brains and bones or pierced by the wooden projectiles with barbed iron tips. When Frank, Anne and Adrian arrived, the schoolyard was almost completely cleared of walkers, their dead bodies plastering the ground.
"Jesus Christ, what happened here?", Adrian asked from the back of the other Humvee, holding his head with a hand.
"You just missed a totally cool cleaning action. Jokes aside, where are all the others?", Louis commented.
The same question had taken up space in Clementine's mind too. She turned around to see the path of destruction she had left. Her steps quickened as the others followed her example.
They walked towards the front door, seeing bullet holes all over it. Small bent lead was lying on the floor, stray bullets that had not survived the impact on the sturdy wood.
"This can't be any good.."
The girl didn't get to finish her sentence as a mask covered with rotten skin launched up from behind the door, the smell of decomposition stinging in her nose as the walker bared its teeth.
The sands of time around her slowed down, her mind focused on one thing. She jumped, kicking in the direction of the undead with all of her strength. A low click echoed off the walls as a small barrier got pulled away near her foot. With a whirring sound the blade on her prosthetic deployed. Blood rumbled in her ears as the metal burrowed itself in the undead's neck, flesh giving way to the deadly tempered steel. The scraping of bones followed as its spine parted. The head of the walker flew against the wall and fell to the ground with a surprised groan just as Clementine landed on her feet safely. The rest of the walkers body was still standing, slowly falling forward as if someone had severed the invisible threads that had held it in place. The people around her watched the scene with disbelief.
"That was a hell of an action Clem, when did you learn to do that?", Anne asked her, her eyes full of surprise.
"Actually I never did. I was acting on a sudden impulse...", she answered, not even she knew how she had done this.
"L...Let's keep moving, we're not here for fun", she added, "we still need to find our friends."
They did what she said, continuing their way to the upper floor, killing some lost walkers in the process. Everything had been destroyed, shelves thrown around, supplies littered the ground and the smoke of burning pieces of wood from outside created a gloomy atmosphere, dimming the suns rays to a minimum.
"It's them. This wasn't a group of raiders, they wouldn't leave supplies behind.", Clementine noted, her hand clutching around the leather grip of her knife. Then they reached the directors office door. All of them were shocked of what was hanging there, a gasp escaped Clem's mouth as her eyes found the gruesome scene.
A human hand hung there, pinned to the door with a familiar meat cleaver. The red blood flowed down the brown wood, leaving behind dark trails. Beneath the metal of the weapon a small white sheet of paper glowed in the gloomy light, red spots of fresh human life seeping through the sensitive membrane.
"The Deltas send their regards", Louis read out loud, holding a hand in front of his mouth, shocked by the message. Clementine felt like she had to puke, her guts were churning inside of her but someone got ahead of her. The loud sound of puke hitting the floor made them turn around. In the room behind them a lonely figure was handcuffed to a chair. A loud moan of pain followed the sudden dispersed meal, a cold shiver was sent down the girl's spine as she started to recall its owner.
"Clem, Louis, is that you?", a weak voice asked.
Clem's eyes welled up when she saw who it was: Omar, his bare chest crowded with cuts and bruises, crusted blood covering one side of his head.
"Oh my god, Omar, what have they done to you?!", she cried out in agony.
"Don't mind me, I'm dead already...I-", he coughed, small drops of blood followed the former meal.
"Don't you talk like that, you're gonna be fine, we'll patch you up!", she screamed, her gaze wandering to Adrian. He shook his head, deep sorrow in his eyes.
"I'm sorry Clem, but he is right. There's nothing we can do..."
She turned around again, slapping Omar who had passed out for a second.
"Don't you die on me Omar! Who did this to you?"
"Didn't you see my hand back there? It was them Clementine, they came back for us. They asked me about you and your location, but I didn't tell them. So they cut my hand off, took the others and left me here to send you a message: "You may have won against Lilly, she was a pussy all along, but you won't win against us. The Deltas send their regards...""
He met her gaze, pain struck Clem's chest when she saw the fear in his eyes. An inhuman fire lightened up the two orbs, pure terror from the pits of hell glistened in the low light as he pleaded,
"Don't let me turn.... I don't want to end like that. Please, give me a pistol with one shot, I'll do it myself. I don't want to suffer any more."
Louis stepped up to him and laid his hand on the boys shoulder. He had accepted what had to happen, he knew what had to be done in order to help his friend.
"Thank you Omar, for being a good friend, a good companion...Goodbye old friend, you will feel better in the afterlife...", he whispered, pain and sadness cutting a deep wound into his girlfriend's heart as she heard it.
Louis' eyes were red from crying, Clem hadn't seen him so emotional in a long time. He reached behind him, pulling out a gun from under a pillow on the ground and checked the magazine: One bullet left.
"There you go brother, don't waste your chance..."
Anne sat next to Omar, saying goodbye to the boy, Frank followed her example.
The three left the room, leaving Omar and Clementine alone.
"Before you go I want you to know something", Omar coughed up, red spit dripping down his lip.
"It wasn't Lilly, Clem. They captured her, she's seen as a traitor now. Don't try to let out your grief on her..."
" I will, thank you Omar. Goodbye. Say hello to Tenn for me okay?", she stuttered out, rivers of tears streaming out of her eyes. Omar closed his eyes, holding the weapon tightly.
"Leave now, please...", he begged. Clementine obeyed, closing the door behind her. They were halfway down the stairs when they heard the shot and something heavy falling to the ground.
See? I promised it would get dark eventually, and we are just getting started..... R.I.P Omar...