(Violets Pov)
"Ok Louis and Willy you two will go and inform Ruby and Tenn of what we're going to do, so we can get their opinions on how it should play out, me and AJ are gonna go look for James and see if he'll help us with this." I said to them and Louis nodded.
"Noted, just be careful." Louis said and I nodded as me and AJ walked into the woods and Louis along with Willy walked to the school.
"He'll help us." AJ said and I looked at him.
"Maybe, we can't be to sure on what he'll do." I tried to explain.
"He helped us when Abel shot me though." He said and I nodded.
"Yes he did, you have to thank him again for that too." I said and he nodded as we walked.
"So what exactly was this world like before the walkers?" He asked and I thought a bit.
"Well..... that's hard for me to explain.... What uh did Clem tell you?" I asked a bit curious as to what she's been telling him. Not that I'm saying she's bad at raising him or telling him some thing but, what her life was probably like before all this.
"Well, Clem said that when she was little, her parents took her to a .... Fair?" He asked and I smiled.
"Oh those are fun, and really loud too."
"Loud?" He asked as he walked on a log and I watched him to make sure he didn't fall.
"Well people were screaming in a good way, having fun going on these rides that make your blood pump and all that junk, you'd also play games to win prizes too." I tried to explain. He smiled a bit.
"I wanna go to one." He said and I thought for a bit.
"If I remember correctly the world basically ended during the summer time, maybe we can find the old fair here, they usually set it up during the summer."
"But we cant be loud."
"Nope can't be loud but we can play the small games." I told him and he looked so happy.
"What else did people do before the Walkers?" He asked.
"Hmm parents or older people usually had jobs, actually if this world hadn't gone to shit Louis, Ruby, Clem and I would probably have jobs by now, and worrying about school."
"But you're at a school why would you worry about it? Does something need to be fixed?" He asked.
"Well no not that, I mean studying and trying to get into college so we could get a better job... or at least that's what we're told to do." I said as he jumped off the log carefully.
"Ok like when Clem taught me to read?" He asked.
"Well yea she was teaching you, and she's still teaching you, technically people never stop learning even if we aren't in school." I said.
"Like how to survive?"
"Yea, before walkers showed up people would go camping and learn how to live in the wild, it's good to know especially if you got lost in the woods or on an island with no people." I said and we walked some more.
"Oh Clem's good at surviving." AJ said and I nodded.
"Yea She is... with how long she's been out here I shouldn't be surprised at half the things she does or has to do."
"Clem's told me stories of what happened to her before I was born."
"Oh? Did she say you could share the stories?" I asked.
"Only a few, she told me some that I shouldn't have know, but she was ranting? Talking a lot to herself." He said.
"Ok well what would clem like for me to know?" I asked trying to make a joke to which AJ did smile but I think it's because he can talk about his parental figure more.
"Well you know she's know Lilly right?" He asked and I nodded.
"Well she told me about the times that Lilly was actually nice to her, before Larry her dad died, those hair ties she has were from Lilly, oh and there was this kid named Duck." He said and I chuckled a bit.
"Dodging or quacking?" I asked and he looked at me.
"Well she said he talked a lot." He said and I smiled a bit.
"Oh, oh and she told me how she use to draw a lot too, she's an artist." He said and I smiled softly.
"She even taught me about this thing you do with a leaf and you put it under the paper and it makes the leaf." He said and I laughed.
"Leaf rubbing, I remember doing that a lot as a kid." I said and looked around a bit.
"Clem said she did it a lot too." He said and stopped walking and I looked at him.
"She's gonna be ok right? I mean I know she's tough, really tough." He said and I nodded.
"Yea she's tough."
"So that woman we saw in the woods that was Minerva?" He asked and I nodded again as we walked. I'm surprised we haven't seen a walker for a while but I'm not one to go looking for them.
"Yep, well.... It was but she's different than what I remember."
"Hm, you said she was nice before she was taken?"
"Oh yea, real nice, couldn't even hurt a walker honestly, and she also use to sing to sounded all blusey you know?" I asked.
"I wouldn't, Clem's hummed to me and I heard Louis sing something." He said.
"You remember the words?" I asked.
"Hmmm he kept saying 'oh my darling Clementine' But... Clem's not his.... Is she?" He asked confused and I chuckled a bit at his question.
"No, it's an old song way before Clementine or I was even born... it's a sad song though." I said.
"Sad? Why would he sing it than?"
"Hmm well lots of people had sad songs to sing, different reasons though." I tried to explain.
"Oh... like I could sing a song when I'm sad?" He asked and I nodded.
"Yea you could, I remember Minnie had made up a song for us when we were sad or scared... it helped us a lot." I said and closed my eyes a bit remembering her singing to us in the music room as Louis played on his piano and Marlon would joke about finding a guitar and traveling across the country.
"Could you sing it one day?" He asked.
"I uh... I suppose I mean Maybe one day." I said and rubbed his head gently.
"Um... sorry." I said as we walked more and I saw a cage like the raiders had being pulled by their horses.
"Hey look it's James." AJ said as he went over to him and he looked at us.
"Oh hello." He said quietly and I nodded.
"So you're James?" I asked just to make sure I mean I never saw the guy or heard him.
"Yes um... is something wrong?" He asked.
"We uh..." I tried to say but rubbed my neck. What the hell am I supposed to say? 'Hey we need your help taking down a boat full of raiders by the way AJ said you could use walkers.' Yea right good idea Violet.
"We need you help to get Clem and my other friends back." AJ said and hames looked at me and I nodded.
"How can I help?"
"AJ uh said you could use walkers?" I asked AJ and he nodded.
"I uh... I don't want them to get hurt."
"Well AJ said he knows a way we don't get hurt." I said and he looked at me.
"I meant the walkers." He said.
"Um...what?"
"I don't want you guys getting hurt either but I don't want the walkers to get hurt, I uh... ok I'll agree to help but you have to do one thing for me." He said.
"Depends on what that is." I said cautious and I pulled AJ back a bit.
"I just want you to walk with them." He said and pulled out a mask. It was made of walker skin.
"I uh... don't think that's a good idea."
"Trust me, it's safe just walk slow like them and keep calm." He said and handed me the mask as he walked and I looked at AJ and followed James to a barn looking building and I saw AJ run over to look at something so I followed him real quick.
"What is that?" He asked.
"Uh that's a salt lick." I explained.
"Is it good?" He asked and I shrugged, I mean I never tried it. I saw him bend down and lick it before I could stop him and he mad a disgusted face and I couldn't help but chuckle a bit.
"I should have said it's mostly used for animals to lick." I said and he looked at me.
"Ooooh..... I probably shouldn't have licked it anyway." He said and I smiled a bit as we went over to James who was waiting by the barn doors.
"Like I said put the mask on, keep calm, walk slow, if you can ring the wind chime in the center of the barn." He said and I felt AJ tug on my arm so I bent down to his level.
"Stay safe?" He asked and I sighed and nodded.
"I will."
"Look for another way out." He said and I gave him a questioning look.
"Clem said to always look for another way out when in a new place." He said and I nodded.
"I'll be sure to do that little guy." I said and stood up once more and looked at the mask in my hands and I put it on.
"If I end up bit it's on you." I told him and he nodded as he slowly opened the door and I saw about twenty walkers walking around in there and I gulped as I walked in slowly. My breathing got a bit heavier as I got closer to the walkers, I mean hell I'm surrounded by a fuck ton of them. But they haven't noticed yet so that's a good thing I guess. I walked a bit more to the center and saw the wind chime but as I was about to touch it a walker got close to me and I moved my hand back and it looked at me but didn't do anything.
'Fucking hell vi what have you gotten yourself into?' I thought as I slowly reached for the wind chime again and slowly tapped it and it made some sound. I looked around a bit as the walkers just stared at it and I slowly left the barn while they were distracted and I took the mask off the instant I got out. Then I felt a little body collide with mine in a hug and I looked down to see AJ and I hugged him back.
"No bites?" He asked and I nodded.
"No bites." I said to him and he smiled and hugged me again.
"So do you think they're still monsters?" He asked and I looked at him.
"Walkers with souls? Look I'm not one to be an ass on people's beliefs but they're still monsters, doesn't matter if they don't attack you, they attacked me and my friends and killed kids at my school." I tried to explain.
"I knew you'd think like that." He said and I looked at him.
"Do they have names? Do you know their names?" I asked and he looked at me.
"What?"
"The one in the green raggedy shirt, what's his name? What about the woman in the very back wearing the metal chain bracelet do you know her name?" I asked and he looked at me.
"Clementine, Aasim and Omar, they have names they're alive and they're about to be forced into something they clearly don't want to be apart of, we're still kids, teens but still kids." I said and he looked at me.
"I may not like the idea but I'm no monster like those raiders...... I'll help." He said and I nodded.
"Thank you.... Seriously thank you." I said and he nodded.
"Meet me by the river early in the morning, I heard them announce they'll be leaving Some time tomorrow." He said and I nodded as he went to the door and opened them as me and AJ walked away. We headed back to the school and as we walked to his and Clem's room we saw Ruby with a pillow.
"Oh hey you guys." She said and I nodded.
"Did you get that James fellow to help us?" She asked.
"Yea, we did, what are you up to?" I asked.
"Well this might sound silly but maybe we can have a small hootnany before we go get Aasim and the others back." She said.
"Swear?" AJ asked and I smirked a bit to mess with Ruby.
"Oh yea, it's a swear." I said.
"Vi, don't lie to the boy like that and no it's just another word for party. She said and he chuckled a bit.
"What can I do?" He asked.
"You can make the decorations." Ruby offered and he ran to his room and I looked at Ruby.
"You good Vi?" She asked and I nodded.
"Yea... look I know we said we'd think about what we would do with Clem and AJ after the raiders and everything but.... I'd be nice to let them stay. I mean Clem know what she's doing and AJ." I tried to explain.
"Hey if it makes you happy, I'd like for them to stay, lord knows they deserve it." She said and I nodded as she left and I went to check on AJ. I saw him at his desk with some colors and a pencil and I watched him draw a bit and looked around the room, it had a few skulls here and there and I saw a disco broccoli character doll.
"Clem says his name is beet-nick." He said and I chuckled.
"I use to watch this when I was younger, before I got sent here that is." I said and he looked at me.
"Marlon said this was a school for um." He tried to think.
"Troubled youth." I said and he nodded.
"You guys don't look like trouble though." He said and I smiled a bit at his innocence.
"No um... I guess you can say we aren't now but before everything we were troubled.... Maybe we might tell you when we have the party." I said and he nodded and colored again and I saw a drawing that said AJ protecting Clem.
"You look up to Clementine a lot hu?" I asked.
"Yea she's like my mom.... I know she's not my real mom she's told me about her, but Clem's my mom now." He said and I sat on the bed and watched him more.
"Are you like Tenns' mom?" He asked and I turned red.
"More like an older sister, older protective sister." I said and he nodded.
"Tenn's a good friend, I think he's my first real friend."
"What about Clem?" I asked.
"She's old though." He said and I laughed.
"Not as old as me I bet." I said and then his face changed to thinking.
"Ok he's my second first real best friend." He said and I chuckled and nodded.
"Ok and I promise not to tell Clementine you called her old." I said and he smiled and showed me his new art piece and handed it to me. It showed Clementine with her signature hat, holding her knife and then Aasim and Omar we're behind her, they were all wearing capes too and I smiled.
"Looks great buddy."
"..... Violet?" He asked as I lowered the drawing.
"Yea?"
"You said something about walkers and souls?" He asked. I rubbed my neck as I placed the drawing down and looked at him.
"Yea... I didn't didn't I?"
"What's a soul?" He asked.
"It's um.... People believe that everyone has a soul, it's uh.... James thinks that the people who became walkers are still in there somewhere, that's why he doesn't want them to get hurt."
"But you don't think they do?" He asked.
"It's uh.... I want to believe that I really do but.... That doesn't mean you don't have to believe the same thing that I do, or what James said." I tried to explain and he gave me a confused look.
"Put it this way, if you want to think that walkers are still people, then you can, but if you believe that the person is no longer in there, than that is what you believe in, don't follow everyone else's lead on things like that ok?" I said and he nodded.
"My mom turned into a walker and tried to eat me, if she was still in there then why would she do that?" He asked and I had to really think on this.
"Well.... Ok, if by chance some part of your mom was in there, well she couldn't control her body... like a muscle spasm, where your body just moves on it's own even though you didn't want to move that part of your body.... You real mom would never want to hurt you." I said.
"But Clem stopped her." He said sadly and I nodded.
"Well.... Don't you think your mom would be happy that someone stopped her before she could hurt you?" I asked and he nodded.
"Yea I suppose." He said and I rubbed my neck.
"I think Clem could explain it better than I could." I said.
"No it's fine, you try and I kinda understand, plus you probably didn't have to talk about this a lot with anyone." He said and I nodded a bit.
"Yea heh.... Well let's go see what the others are doing." I said and we both got up and he grabbed his drawing and we left the room and headed down to the music room with the others.