Warning: (Extreme language, Slight Gore)
Summary: The group goes to save Omar, Minnie, and Violet. But, everything takes a whole new turn.
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Clementine stirred up as she rubbed her eyes with her clenched fists. The sun's rays peaked through the slightly fragmented window, making Clementine squint her eyes and try to shift away from the light. Today was the day. The day that mostly Clementine dreaded.
She sighed as she casually arose from the uncomfortable cushion and took her hat from the dresser. She adjusted it on her hat and turned to face the door. She closed her eyes and thought about Lee. About what he told her during his last breath.
"You're strong, Clem. You... you can do anything."
Clementine opens her eyes and takes a deep breath. She furrows her eyebrows. She can do it. She's been through much. This was nothing. Clementine opened the door and stepped out.
_____
Nightfall came. Everyone was hunching behind the bushes, right in front of the building. Clementine strolled up to AJ who was trembling.
"AJ?" Clementine queried, being sure not to touch him. His head darted towards her. His optics were wide and bug-eyed. He truly seemed terrified.
"C-Clem... I-- I'm scared." Usually, nothing really scared AJ. He was born in the walker age and was used to these things. But this, this was much different. It was like they were being assigned on a death mission. This left AJ feeling horrified.
Clementine embraced him into her arms, rubbing his back. "I know-- I am too. But we need to be brave. What do we do when we're scared?"
"We... we breathe." AJ took several breaths. When he finally calmed down, he nodded his head to Clementine, signaling that he was okay for now. She nodded back before she went to go check on her lover. He was standing with his hands planted onto his sides. Clementine stood next to him, admiring his masculine physique and his handsome profile.
"It's... really happening, isn't it?" Louis asked, still looking at the building.
"Yeah, it is."
"People are depending on us. Depending on me. You're depending on me to... what if something happens to you, Clem?" Louis turns to face her as she takes both of his hands. "I just-- I can't. I don't want to lose you."
"I don't want to lose you either." Clementine brought her hand to his cheek and caressed it softly. "But we have to do this. You can't start crumbling. Not right now."
"Okay. No crumbling. Great. As easy as that."
Clementine shoots him a glare.
"Okay, okay! I'll try. Promise..."
Clementine flashes him a reassuring smile and pulls him in for a kiss. The couple gets interrupted by a small giggle from a little figure.
"Gross." AJ snickers before he runs away. Clementine's face turns red within a second as she releases a nervous chuckle.
Just then, the group hears growls coming from the walkers that were piling in. James had accepted to help Clementine and AJ to cause a distraction for the raiders.
Forthwith, the group distributes, leaving AJ, Louis, and Clementine to rescue their friends. Clementine and AJ kill a walker and carefully dive the knife in its chest, actuating it to make a large opening in its stomach. Clementine, Louis, and AJ crouch over the walker.
"We're not doing what I think we're doing..?" Louis spoke as he cringed.
"It depends." Clementine takes a handful of the walker's guts as she chuckles from Louis' comment. "What do you think we're doing?"
"Oh God, we are."
"It'll help us blend into the walkers."
Clementine started smearing the rancid guts on her clothes as Louis lets out makes a throaty gag.
Louis eventually gives in and starts smearing the guts onto his clothes. He soon regrets what he's done and stiffens up as he lets out a nervous laugh.
"There. I think I'm ready."
"Uh, no, you're not," Clementine says as she takes the guts and smears it on Louis' face. AJ tries his best not to laugh from Louis' facial expression. "There."
"Y'know, walker blood is one of the hardest stains to get out-- you owe me some new clothes."
"Sorry, Lou, not gonna happen," Clementine says as the three stand up.
"We gonna do it?" AJ asks with a bit of fright in his voice.
"We're doing it."
_____
Clementine, Louis, and AJ walk into the herd. This was greatly dangerous. Since they were impersonating the walkers, they had a high chance of getting shot.
"Use the walkers as shields!" Clementine instructed to AJ and Louis.
_____
The three made it to the entrance without being spotted by the raiders, but the walkers were still coming their way.
"Louis, I'll get the walkers! Focus on getting AJ inside!" Louis nodded before lifting AJ up and setting him the opening in the large entry. Clementine took out the bow that Louis had given her a few weeks ago and used it to shoot the walkers. Once the entrance had finally opened, Clementine rushed inside simultaneously with Louis.
_____
The three had made it inside and put the bomb that they had made into one of the boilers. Clementine turned around to face AJ and Louis.
"Okay, we won't have a lot of time when this heater turns on. So we need to be fast." Clementine pointed out.
"How much time will we have?" AJ inquired, cocking his head to the side.
"I'm not sure-- maybe an hour?"
Just then, a raider jumped up in front of the three, causing them to quickly hide. The raider thankfully ran past them towards one of the open windows. Clementine let out a sigh of relief before gesturing for Louis and AJ to follow her to the 'prisons'.
_____
Clementine, AJ, and Louis made it to the cells. It was in a dimly lighted hallway with nothing but sorrowful people sitting down in the cells, praying to get out.
"Clementine?!" A familiar voice came from her left. She looked to her left and saw Omar.
"Omar! Oh my god, I'm so sorry! Are you okay?" Clementine asked frantically.
"I'm alright. You should go and check on Violet, though. She needs to know that you're here."
Clementine nodded before walking over to Violet's cell and unlocked it. She walked inside to see Violet sitting with Minerva who was sobbing.
"V-Violet?"
Violet looked up at Clementine, scowling. She got up, gently placing Minerva on the floor and then pushed Clementine over.
"You fucking bitch! How could you just leave me and Minerva like that?!"
Clementine stayed silent, surprised about how angry Violet was.
"And now you have nothing to say? Do you know what they did to Minerva? They fucking cut out her tongue!" (It's okay baby Louis is gonna be fine)
Clementine widened her eyes and looked back at Minerva who was bleeding out of her mouth. Clementine felt guilty before. But now she felt really guilty.
"Oh my god... I'm so sorry, Violet. I didn't know they would do that."
"Bullshit! We should have never helped you when you and AJ came back! You're so fucking selfish! Choosing someone you've been dating for like a month over the people who actually helped you!"
Shaking her head in guilt, Clementine rose up and walked out of the cell where she saw Sophie pointing a gun at AJ's head. Clem clenched her fists in anger. She was about to disarm her until felt a barrel from a gun jab the back of her head.
"I wouldn't if I were you." Was the last thing Clementine detected before something hit her on the head, causing everything to go into darkness.
_____
Clementine wakes up on a cold, hard ground. She looks behind her and sees that she's in one of the cells.
"It's okay, Minnie. We'll be fine."
Clementine looks in front of her to see Violet trying to comfort Minnie. Clementine felt a deep pit of guilt in her stomach about what she had done to Minnie. She quickly removed those thoughts from her head and walked over to Violet.
"What do you want now?" Violet snapped.
"Vi, we need to get out of here."
"No."
"What?"
"They said if I fight back they'll kill Minnie. Or one of you. All you've ever done is get us hurt or killed. I saw Aasim die."
"Come on, Vi, we can't let them get in our heads. They're just trying to scare us."
"I'm not scared. I'm realistic. Whatever you do, leave us out of it."
Clementine finally realizes that Violet wasn't going to budge anytime soon. She rose up and walked over to the door to check on everyone.
"Clem, are you alright?" Omar asked from the other side.
"I'm fine. Where's AJ?"
"I'm over here!" AJ calls from Louis' cell.
"Thank god."
Louis comes behind the bars to see Clementine. When he sees that she's okay, he lets out a sigh of relief. "Is Vi okay?"
Clementine looks back at Violet who looked up at the sound of someone calling her. She quickly looked back at Minnie when she started crying again.
"Violet's okay."
"What about Minnie?"
Clem shook her head as she sighed in disappointment. She felt so guilty. How could she have been so stupid? If she had been a bit faster, none of this would've happened. "They cut her tongue out."
Louis' eyes widen as he places his hands behind his head, cursing under his breath. "Fuck, fuck, fuck. What're we gonna do?"
"We need to find a way out of here. Just look around."
Louis soon finds something. He points to the latch. "The latch is right there. Are there any bolts on the inside?"
Clementine looks on the inside of the door. There were three bolts that looked really rusted.
"Yeah, there are. I could probably take these out with my knife--" Clementine soon realizes that her knife was gone. "Shit. They took my knife." Clementine gets back up and looks through the bars again.
"AJ, do you have your knife?"
"Yeah, they didn't find it. They only took the big one."
"Good. Can you slide it over to me?"
AJ nods and crouches down to slide the knife between the gap in the door. Clementine sees the small knife that he made glide on the floor.
Clem picks it up and uses it to scrape off the bolts. Before she could get halfway through the bolt, she heard a loud bang on the door along with someone saying "Hey!"
Clementine jumped back, almost losing her balance as she stood up, looking at the woman. She was a slender, dark-skinned woman with black hair that was tied up into a bun with a bandana wrapped around it.
"Whatever you're doing, don't. Trust me. It ain't worth it, step back." She warned.
"She awake?" A familiar voice came from beside the woman. Lilly.
"Yes, ma'am."
"Good. I'll take it from here."
Lilly walks in front of Clementine's cell and pulls out a pistol. Sophie walks up behind her as well. Clem hears a click, indicating that Lilly switched off the safety.
"Back up," Lilly ordered sternly. Clementine widens her eyes. Lilly had become even scarier than before. Clementine timidly backs up and bumps into AJ's knife. She swiftly slides it under the bed, trying her best to not raise any suspicions from Lilly.
Lilly still holds her gun up, aiming it at Clementine. "Sophia. Open the door." She ordered.
"Yes, ma'am." Sophie crouches down the latches' level and unlocks the door, her crossbow in hand.
Lilly walks into the cell, cornering Clementine. Sophie steps inside as well, pointing her crossbow at Clementine. "Normally, the trouble you've caused, I'd shoot you and toss you over in the riverbank."
Louis widens his eyes at Lilly's comment. Afraid that she was actually going to act on it. But Lilly said otherwise.
"But I'm genuinely impressed." Clementine raises in an eyebrow in bewilderment. "When we brought you here, you didn't cut any slack for anyone. You kept fighting and fighting and fighting. I didn't think that you were worthy at first, but maybe I was wrong. We may need to teach you some manners, but if we bring a prize like you back to the Delta, it might make this whole clusterfuck of a mission worth it."
Clementine clenches her fists in anger. "If you really want me, let the others go. This is none of their business."
"This isn't a negotiation. This is me telling you how things are going to be. Nothing lasts, Clementine. Not friends. Not love. Not the place you call home. They'll all fall eventually. Never forget that, or they'll drag you down, too."
"This is all your doing! You fucking brainwashed Sophie! You people are fucking sick!" Louis yelled, banging on the bars.
"Y'all better back away from the door!" The slender woman threatened, clenching the once Violet's meat cleaver in her hand.
"Just watch, I'll be the one who breaks out at night and cuts your throat while you sleep." Clementine threatened. But Lilly wasn't affected by the feisty comment at all. She stood up, making Clementine gulp in fear.
"That's kind of what I expected you to say. But you'll see-- I'm not kidding around." Clementine expected Lilly to do something to her. But Lilly had a different route.
"Dorian, pull the mouthy one out of the cell. They obviously need to learn that things work differently around here."
"Fuck. Fuck, fuck, fuck." Louis cursed before he was plummeted to the ground by 'Dorian'. She placed her knee onto Louis' back, forcing him down. She took out Violet's cleaver and brought Louis' hand onto the floor. Clementine immediately knew what she was going to do to him.
"Get your fucking hands off of him!" Clementine retorted before being stopped by Sophie.
"Hey, hey! Stay still! Just breathe. Don't make things harder than it has to be." Dorian attempted to calm Louis but only made him panic more. Clementine took a step to the side to see AJ slouching down, walking over to Dorian, ready to pounce onto her back. So many things were going through her mind. Without thinking, she yelled, "AJ, no!"
"Oh my god, fuck, please no!" Was what Louis said before the meat cleaver chopped off his right pinky. Clementine's eyes widen as she covers her mouth with her hands in shock. Louis' scream echoed through the halls, making Clementine cringe. She hated seeing him in such agony. It made her feel in distress as well.
Dorian drags Louis into the cell roughly, making him grunt in pain each time she dropped him to the floor. AJ lets out a loud growl while clenching his fists. "No!" He yelled.
"We'll kill you!" He shouts to Lilly. She turns around, surprised about how aggressive he was.
"You think you can kill me?" She calmly asked, making him even angrier.
"I know I can. We'll throw you in the river, or I'll put a knife right to the side of your head!"
"Big talk for a little guy."
"I know I can do it. I killed Marlon." Lilly's eyes widen at the confession. "He wasn't a monster but you are!" AJ walks closer to her and poses his hands as if he was holding a gun.
"Bang."
Lilly crouches down to his level. "So you killed Marlon. Huh." She flashes an evil smile. "I'd bet you'd make a great soldier."
"AJ, don't talk to her, okay? She's a monster." Clementine reminded AJ.
"Clem seems to care a lot about you, huh?" Lilly stands back up and grabs AJ's wrist tightly. "Come with me. We need to have a little chat."
"Don't you fucking touch him!" Clementine yells as she tries to get out, but stops once the door closes on her by Sophie. "No-- no, please!"
"Clem!" AJ cried.
"AJ!" Clementine cried back.
Sophie stood in front of Clementine's cell as Clem started to glare at her.
"Don't. Don't look at me like that! This is the only way we survive."
"Are you serious right now?" Louis yelled. Clementine had never heard him yell at someone this loud. It kind of scared her. "After everything she's done, you're just going to help her?! Fuck you!"
"Do you think I like doing this!? God, I would love to come back and be with you guys again. But now, the Delta is my family. I can't betray them!" Sophie confessed sincerely. Louis' face softened as he knew what she was talking about.
Clementine took this opportunity to grab AJ's knife and attempt to scrape off the bolts. But, Violet slammed Clementine into the wall.
"What the fuck are you doing? You're gonna get us all killed!"
Violet was about to punch Clementine, but she wouldn't allow it. Clem slammed Violet into the wall, pushing her forearm against her neck, choking her. Minerva ran up behind Clementine and pulled her off, attempting to save her lover. Clementine squirmed out of Minerva's grip and pushed her. Sophie saw this and was furious.
"What the hell are you doing?! Stop!" Sophie swiftly unlocked the door and immediately regretted it when Clementine rammed the door and pushed her, sending her to the ground. Clementine ran out of the cell and unlocked Louis' latch only to hear him say, "Clem! Behind you!"
Sophie kicked Clementine's knee, sending to the ground and pushed Clementine's hunting knife down, making it dig into Clementine's chest slightly. Clem groaned in pain as she tried to push the knife as far away while Sophie tried to dive the knife into Clementine's chest.
Louis ran out of the cell and picked up the crossbow from the floor. He aimed it at Sophie, shaking. Clementine could tell that he's never killed anyone before.
"Sophie! Stop!"
"I can't let her leave!"
"Shit."
All of a sudden, Dorian sneaks up behind Louis. He curses as he turns around and lets go of the arrow. The arrow goes right into Dorian's mouth. She collapses to the ground, still choking on her own blood.
"Dorian! No!" Sophie shouted. Clementine punched Sophie in the face, knocking her to the ground. She punches her one more time and knocks her out cold. Clementine grabs her knife and unlocks Omar's cell. Everyone comes out of their cells as Omar calmly instructs everyone to leave.
"Clem, c'mon! We have to get out of here!"
"You go. I have to find AJ."
Louis stands up and walks over to Clementine, a still bit shaken. "Clem, I can't let you go by yourself."
Clementine flashes him a sad smile and quickly pecks his lips. "I'll be fine."
He nods meekly before Clementine kisses him one more time and runs off in the opposite direction.
_____
Clementine soon made it to the rooftop where she saw AJ getting pulled by his arm. Clementine looked up to see one of the chimneys with smoke rising out of it.
"Shit. They started the boiler."
Clem crouched down behind the crates full of supplies, avoiding eye contact from another woman that was guarding them.
Clementine crouches and walks to get behind another crate. From there, she could see Tenn.
"Fuck." She swore.
"Tennesse, did you get lost?" Lilly teased. Tenn just stood there, embarrassed.
"He wasn't the only one, ma'am. Follow me."
The woman led Lilly who grabbed Tenn and AJ by their arms. Clementine followed them, still hiding behind the crates. Her eyes widen when she sees James. Lilly takes off his mask.
"We found this one in the herd." The guard said, looking back at Lilly.
"No wonder there were so many walkers out there. Must have thought you were clever, leading those walkers over here. Or was that Clementine's idea?" Lilly said, placing a hand on her hip. James stays silent. "Nothing to say?"
"You don't fucking scare me." James snapped.
'Wow, he actually cussed.' Clementine thought while walking closer, still crouching.
"Is that so?" Lilly asked.
"You force your ways onto others. Because you're weak. Because you're afraid."
"I give my people a cause to fight for," Lilly argued. She looks at the guard who was holding a rifle in her hand. "The thing about people like him, AJ, is that they're too broken to fit in a community. They won't fight for anyone but themselves." Lilly spat onto the ground.
"Shoot it." She ordered to the guard.
"No!" AJ yelled. All of a sudden, Tenn snuck up behind the woman holding the rifle and took her pistol out of her pocket.
"What the fuck?!" She swore from surprise. Tenn aimed the gun at her and kept on switching between Lilly and the woman.
"Easy there, Tenn." Lilly warned.
"Don't hurt him! Just... stop hurting people. Please!" He pleaded, not sounding intimidated at all. Clementine facepalmed herself from behind the crate. He was going to get himself killed!
"Shoot her!" AJ demanded, frightening Tenn a little. James started to get up but stopped when the woman pointing her rifle at him. Tenn pointed to the gun at her when he saw that.
"Why don't we all just take a breath, all right?" Lilly tried to settle the situation down but only made it worse when Tenn pointed the gun to her. He furrowed his eyebrows with anger as he tensed onto the gun, still trembling.
"Give me my friends back!" Tenn demanded.
"Put down the gun."
"Let them go! All of us! Or... or else!"
The woman snuck up behind Tenn and aimed the rifle at him. Lilly noticed this and bent down, facing Tenn so that the barrel would touch her forehead. Tenn widened his eyes as she did this.
"Fine, do it. Save your friends. That's what you came here to do, isn't it?" Lilly tempted him. Tenn eventually gave up and started crying. He couldn't even think about killing anyone.
"Oh, I see. You came here to cry." Lilly snatched the gun out of Tenn's hands and pointed it at his forehead. "Guess you're not a soldier either."
"Please, don't!" James yelled.
"No!" AJ cried. He grabbed Lilly's arm and bit her hand, making her scream in pain. The woman was about to shoot AJ when James tackled her to the ground. Clementine took this to her advantage to throw herself at Lilly.
Lilly fell to the ground along with Clem, making Lilly drop the gun. Clementine gets off of Lilly, attempting to grab the gun. Unfortunately, Lilly grabs Clementine's ponytail and pulls her down to the ground. Lilly walks over to Clementine, but Clem kicks her knee and makes her fall to the floor.
Lilly pins Clementine to the ground and holds her by the neck as Clementine tries to push her off.
"Stop!" Tennesse cried.
Lilly lets go of Clementine and punches her in the face. Clementine was now slipping in and out of consciousness. AJ grabs Lilly arm, attempting to pull her off, but she knocks him onto the ground. Clementine elbows Lilly in her side, making her fall over.
Clementine backs up until her back hits a wall. She uses the wall as support to get up. She felt as if she was going to pass out by now. Lilly runs up to Clementine without warning, but Clem was prepared. She took out her knife and tried to bring it up to her neck, but Lilly was too strong. She forced Clementine's arm down and punched her face yet again.
Lilly dragged her to the railing and pressed her forearm against Clementine's neck, choking her. Grunts escaped Clementine's mouth as she struggled more and more to breathe. Thankfully, AJ took CLementine's knife from the floor, and plunged it into Lilly's knee, causing her to groan in pain and to kick him off.
Clementine kicked the knife that was still in her knee, making her scream in pain. She kicked it one more time before Lilly collapsed to the floor, holding onto her severely bleeding leg.
AJ picks up the gun that Tenn had dropped and aims it at Lilly. Lilly flashes a terrified look on her face when she realizes that her plan had failed. AJ could now choose her fate.
James walks up to AJ slowly. "AJ. Put down the gun, she's not a threat--"
"You didn't see what she did down there! She cut my friend's finger right in front of us!"
Clementine clutches onto the railing for support. AJ looks at her. Clementine immediately knew what he was asking.
Before Clementine could speak, a gunshot rang out with someone's body falling onto the floor.
Oof, that was really long. That was literally 4000+ words. I am shooketh. Btw, sorry for the delay everyone. While I was working on this chapter, a lot of things were going on in my personal life that I'm not ready to talk about. I've basically been really moody and stuff and some days I couldn't even bring myself to go to school 'cause I felt like shit. It's that bad. So, thanks for your patience and thank you SO MUCH for 2k reads! I really don't know what I would do without you guys.
Thanks, my angels <3