Important Information:
This fan-fiction takes place at the start of Season 4 Episode 1 and so on. This story does not stay entirely canon to the original game. But that's obvious due to it being fan-fiction. Anyway I hope you guys enjoy the story! I highly recommend not skipping past all the canon scenes since I have changed them!
~*~
Clementine's POV
I could feel my head pounding as I attempt to slowly sit up, bringing my hand up to feel a soft bandage wrapped around it. As I regain consciousness, my memories of everything came flooding back. The explosion in the cabin, being surrounded by walkers, crashing the car. But out of it all, there was only one concern that kept ringing in my head. "AJ!" I shout as I attempt to sit up only to have a restraint on my wrist preventing me from doing so. I look over and remove the tape that's currently holding my wrist against the bed's support pole.
They really aren't the best at restraining people.
I think to myself as I finally complete the task of freeing myself. I mean, who did they think duct tape was going to be able to hold? When I finally manage to free myself, I take a moment to analyze the room I was currently in. I always tried to keep a level head and look around my environment when in these situations; since that's what Lee taught me to do. I made sure to get up slowly and carefully in case there was any injuries I didn't notice yet in my dazed state. I could feel the pain in my abdomen get worse as I lift myself to my feet. It felt like a knife was being shoved in my stomach and that the asshole who put it there was twisting it. I walk over to the door and try to open it; not surprised to find it locked. "Shit . . ." I mumble to myself as I look around the room for another way out. There wasn't a vent I could reach, and even if I could I wasn't in any condition to pull myself up and into the vent. The windows show we were a few stories up, so that wasn't an option either. I start opening the drawers to the desk, hoping to find something to pry the door open with, only to come up empty handed. I look around for other alternatives, opening the closet and looking for anything to get that door open. I noticed a box with a black book inside and a box covered in stickers both sitting on the top shelf. I try to pull down the box with the book, causing it to fall onto the ground and spill its contents across the floor.
I curse myself for trying that when I knew I didn't have the strength to support the box's weight. I could only hope whoever had me trapped here didn't hear that. As I scan all the items which had fallen onto the floor, my curiosity got the better of me and I grabbed the black book. The cover of the book had the words 'Sophie's Photo Album' written on it with hearts surrounding the big glittery title. I flip through the pages, scanning a few of the photos to find mostly girls my age in each picture. One picture in particular caught my attention, which had two red head girls and a blonde girl in the frame. The two red head girls from the pervious pictures were standing on the right side and the blonde stood off in the far left. They were all smiling towards the camera, the red head girls holding up peace signs. The blonde girl's green eyes seeming to stand out in the photo. It was as if they were shining a bright emerald color in the sun, and the camera somehow managed to capture that beautiful effect. There were so many photos of the red haired girls, but the blonde girl only seemed to show up in that one photo.
I flipped through the book a bit more, finding myself trying to find the blonde girl in any other photo. It wasn't until I was close to the end of the book that I finally found what I was looking for. There was a photo of the blonde girl holding the camera out as she takes a selfie with it. The other two girls were in the background, all three with bright smiles. Her green eyes much more visible in this photo, enough for me to be able to notice the hints of blue in them. I stare at the girl's eyes for a minute before I finally snapped out of it. What am I doing? I need to focus on getting out of here! I need to find AJ and take care the bastards who took him and trapped me in here to begin with. I grab the chair from the desk and slide it over to the closet, climbing on top of it this time so that I could grab the sticker covered box without dropping it. I set it down onto the desk and open it, rummaging through it for anything that could help me get the door open. I manage to find a palette knife used for painting. "Alright, this will do." I say to myself triumphantly as I forced the door open with it.
~*~
I step out into the hallway, looking around to see the walls covered in graffiti. The end of the hallway had a barricade of debris blocking it off. "Guess I'm not going that way." I whisper to myself as I continue to walk down the hallway in the opposite direction. As I turn the corner, I see the door at the end of the hall opening. I knew I couldn't be spotted, but there wasn't much to hide behind in this hallway. I didn't know who was in these rooms either, so rushing into one blindly also wasn't an option. I run back down the hallway towards the barricade, before sliding across the floor to hide behind an empty trophy case. It wasn't a perfect spot, but it was enough for me to get a bit of a jump on whoever turned that corner. The sound of footsteps was slowly getting closer as he approaches the door to the room I was originally in. As soon as he notices it open, he draws his knife and slowly approaches it. I could easily disarm him, but the noise of the altercation could attract anyone else in the building. I need to try and handle this quietly if I wanna stay hidden and find AJ without being spotted. I slowly step out from my hiding spot, holding the knife towards him.
"Don't move. Stay where you are and don't turn around." I say in the most demanding and intimidating tone I could muster. I slowly started walking towards him, watching as he slowly moved his hands into the air at the sight of my own blade. "Put down the knife." I say calmly, the boy kept his hands in the air without dropping the knife, but he did keep it where I could see it so I didn't spring just yet. "How about you do the same?" A voice behind me says calmly, the sound of a bow drawing causing me to turn my head slightly. I see a silhouette in the darkness aiming his bow towards me. I glare him down, trying to weigh my options in this situation. If i drop the knife I'm completely disarmed once again and back at square one. I'll be completely vulnerable unless I could somehow manage to get that bow away from him. Even then, it's a two against one situation with this other kid and his knife. But on the other hand, if I don't drop the knife I could very easily take an arrow to the shoulder or worse. "We're not gonna hurt you. We got your boy, he's safe." He says as he slowly begins walking towards me in an attempt to close the distance. Despite him saying this, I keep my guard up and clench the knife. Why should I trust him anyway? He had be tied and locked in a room and I don't even know him, it wasn't exactly a good first impression. "I'll take you to see him. Just put down the knife." The boy from earlier slowly starts backing up towards him, looking scared of the situation. I didn't want to trust this guy, but if he has AJ then I guess I have no choice. If he was telling the truth I at least would be able to know where AJ is and find him. Plus, this other kid looks pretty scared, so they don't seem eager for bloodshed. Reluctantly, I drop the knife which clangs against the ground. The boy slowly removes his arrow from the bow as he walks into the light.
He had this blonde mullet haircut and a varsity sports jacket over top a red shirt. He returns his arrow and bow to his arrow-holder and sheath on his back "See? We're not gonna hurt you." He says as he puts his hands on his hips. He stands tall and confident, his blue eyes shining as he steps fully into the light. "I'm Marlon. The little guy is Tennessee, Tenn for short. He's the one who's been taking care of you." He says as he puts a hand around the younger one's shoulder. He was a short kid, with a large burn wound across the right side of his face. He didn't look up at me, he just stared at the floor. "He uh . . . doesn't talk much." Marlon says as he gestures to the kid. I nod in response to what he said, looking them both over as I try to spot any hidden weapons on them. "Clementine." I say almost monotone. I was still trying to keep my guard up and keep my distance, not exactly trusting them just yet. Something tells me he picked up on that, since he looked towards the door to the room I had just escaped from. "Sorry, about locking the door and tying you to the bed and all. You were in pretty rough shape when we found you. We just had to take precautions. You know . . . just in case." He says as he looks back towards me. I wanted to say something about it, but at the same time I couldn't really argue it. If I was being honest, I would've done the same. Besides, if I want to be able to get AJ and go I have to try and at least play nice with these guys. "No need to explain. Like you said, I was in pretty rough shape." I say, crossing my arms to try and show some good faith while also giving off the fact I still wasn't comfortable with them or this situation. Marlon just smiles at me, either not noticing or not caring. "Come on, let's go see your boy."
~*~
Marlon had led me outside of the building and into the courtyard. As I looked around, I noticed all the kids going about their business. Each one seemed to be doing a task of some sort, pulling their own weight. The boy from earlier, Tennessee runs past me as he gives me a nervous look. He runs over to one of the walls and whistles up. I follow his gaze to the top of the wall where a girl was sitting up from what seemed to be a nap. As she looks over to me, my gaze falls onto a pair of shining green eyes. The familiarity of those eyes hit me almost immediately. She was the girl from the photo album I found inside. Except instead of a bright smile like in the photos, my gaze was met with a questioning and hostile glare. "It's good we found you when we did." Marlon's voice manages to break the trance I hadn't realized the girl had me getting lost in. "It wasn't easy getting you two out of that wreck, and walkers were on the way." I sigh at the thought of the crash. "The car, was it totaled?" I ask, Marlon walking ahead of me slightly. "Yeah." He says in a sympathetic yet knowing tone, of course I wasn't very surprised either. "Fuck." I think out loud to myself, the final words of advice Lee gave me flashing back in my mind.
Always keep moving, don't stay in one place for too long.
How was I supposed to do that without the car? AJ and I couldn't possibly keep walking out in the open. It was too dangerous, and I already knew from years of doing that how draining it could be. It's a waste of food, energy, and resources to aimlessly walk the thruways and roads. Trying to get the thoughts of our situation out of my head, I tune back into the conversation I hadn't even realized I began to tune out of. "What is this place?" I ask looking around the yard, the flagpole in the center waving a T-shirt as a flag. "You can probably tell it used to be a school. Now it's whatever we want it to be." Marlon says with a bright smile. "And who's in charge?" I ask as I curiously looked around and took in the sight of the building which seemed to be crumbling apart.
"Well, I am. Probably sounds strange, kids run by a kid. But, we do alright for ourselves." He motions towards the rest of the courtyard. "We've got good walls, good defenses; good location too. No one really comes out this way anymore." He says as he continued to motion to everything as he spoke. I can't but notice how tall he carries himself. It was almost as if he is trying to prove he is a leader with his stance. I couldn't lie, the large brick walls looked very enticing and safe. That didn't completely erase my suspicions and concerns though. Not to mention this guy still hasn't showed me where AJ is. "I got us a system in place that works well enough. Allow me to make it formal, welcome to Ericson's Boarding School for Troubled Youth." Marlon says confidently as he holds his arms out wide and spins to motion to the entirety of the school. "You and your boy, it seems like you both fit that description." He says with a joking tone as he turns back around to look in my direction, adding such an emphasis on the word 'that' as if it was an insult or something. I decided to be a little playful and have some fun with him, plus it would help establish trust with him. "You got me and AJ all wrong Marlon. Couple of pure angels." I say with a bright smile, earning a 'tsk' sound from the boy. "Jury's still out on you. An angel your boy, is decidedly not. He's been a little terror since he arrived." He says crossing his arms. "Excuse me?" I ask offended, stepping towards him slightly. But then again I couldn't be too surprised.
Marlon is quick to the defense, turning in my direction once again. "Let's just say he hasn't been happy without you around." Marlon says, which pretty much confirmed my suspicions for his behavior. AJ has never really had to go long without me, at least not if I had anything to do with it. I could only imagine how he is feeling thinking I'm unconscious and tied up while he is surrounded by strangers. He was just a kid after all, which is something I tend to forget at times. But I can't be blamed for it; in this world no one is really a kid anymore. I was only eight when the virus started, and had most of my childhood taken from me in the process. Marlon gives me directions to find AJ before running off to handle what seems to be a walker incident based on the boy's yelling from the guard tower. As I turned to go inside, I couldn't help but notice the girl from the wall earlier staring at me. She had one leg up with her arms wrapped around her knee, while the other lazily swung back and forth hanging over the edge of the wall. I wasn't totally sure, but I could've swore I saw her smiling softly at me. She seemed to advert her gaze once she noticed me looking in her direction, the soft smile I might have witnessed definitely being replaced with a sad or distant look. I try not to think about it too hard as I walk inside to find AJ.
~*~
AJ and I follow Marlon out into the yard with AJ's new friend Louis. He had puffy dreads and a long trench coat paired with jeans and boots. "You give her weapon back?" Marlon asks, the question directed at Louis. Louis smiles confidently as I pull out my knife. "Good, we're gonna need you to put it to use. We got a hunting party out there trying to get back inside. They need our help to clear the way." Marlon asks, turning towards the fence as if to analyze the situation. "There seems to be a few more than usual these last couple days." Marlon says almost questioningly, the blonde girl from earlier turning her head to look over her shoulder and interject. "It's almost like something drew their attention. Something like, I don't know, an explosion? Or a car crash." She says in a rather sarcastic tone. Marlon looking towards her with disappointed look. "Vi . . ." He says softly with a disappointed tone. "What? Just saying. There's gotta be some explanation." She says with a similar glare from earlier, her arms crossed as she looks out the fence. She was so confusing, switching between hostile and curious every time I saw her. "I don't think we've met, I'm Clementine." I say, I don't know why but something about the girl interested me. Ever since I saw her picture in that photo album she's had my attention. I wanted to try and be nice to her, especially since I didn't take the hostility personally. Something seemed off about her hostile front, it just felt like there was something about her she wasn't letting on. I couldn't explain it, but her attitude and hostility towards me felt almost forced. "Yeah I know, your kid won't stop talking about you." She says, turning to face me for only a second before turning back towards the fence. Louis clears his throat before motioning to both me and the girl. "Hello Clementine, I'm Violet. Nice to meet you." Louis says with an imitating tone and bright teasing smile. "What he said." Violet says quietly, not even looking at us this time around.
"Come on." Violet says as she pulls out a meat cleaver and runs out the gate. "Be careful out there." Marlon says before rushing out of the gates behind Violet, leaving Louis and I there to follow. I wasn't too concerned, considering this wasn't anything I hadn't dealt with in the past. "Don't mind Violet. She grows on you, I promise." Louis says as he steps in front of me and swings his weapon over his shoulder. He pulled my focus from the walkers for a moment, as I watched him prepare to swing his own weapon. "What is that?" I ask, pointing towards his weapon which looked homemade. He smiles and holds it out to me, I notice the nails hammered into the top. "It's a chair leg. I call it, Chairles." He says smiling, which honestly made me smile too. He seemed like the type of guy to name his weapon and use some cringe pun name. "Clem, let me help!" AJ says as he grabs the bar of the gate. I turn around and lean down to his level. "I need you to watch my back. Call out from inside if you see anything, cool?" I ask, AJ just gives me a look of disappointment. It wasn't that I didn't think AJ wasn't capable, but we didn't know these people and I didn't exactly trust them yet. I just wanted AJ to be safe and keep an eye on things for now.
"Okay." I stand back up and back away from the fence. "I'll see you on the other side." I walk towards the walker and slowly pull out my knife. Marlon, Louis, and Violet were taking out walkers left and right around me. I planned to show I could pull my own weight as well, to at least try and establish my skills and abilities to these people. "Clem! Monster!" AJ yells pointing slightly to my left. I walk towards the walker, taking out its knees before stabbing it in the back of the head. A maneuver Jane had taught to me a long time ago, before everything else happened. A second walker begins to approach, I save more time by just taking it out with a quick jab to the side of the head. "Whoa! Nice one Clementine!" Louis yells looking towards me with a smirk with 'Chairles' leaning on his shoulder. "Could use a little more finesse though, watch and learn!" He says confidently, coaxing a walker over to him before cutting a rope tied to a tree. A huge boulder falls on top of the walker and crushes it. Louis looks over to me with a victorious smirk. "And that's how you school a walker!"
The hunting party finally returned as Violet rips her cleaver out of a walker's skull, kicking its corpse to the floor. "Yo! Over Here!" Marlon yells as we finally meet up with his group. As we start to walk back towards the school, Violet ends up walking beside me. I turned to look over at her, which caused our eyes to lock. I looked away and towards the ground, feeling my heart pound for some reason. I don't know why I had such an awkward feeling in my stomach, I just looked at her. I didn't really know what to do or say, but Violet ending up breaking the silence. "You know, you're not half bad. Considering the circumstances and all." She says glancing over at me with a slight smile on her face, the same one she had when she was up on the wall. I can't help but smile back at her, she actually seemed really sweet when she wasn't trying so hard to act like a badass bitch. "Thanks." I turn my attention back to the path in front of us. "Let's finish these guys off, we don't need them attracting more walkers back to the school." She says before running off and slashing another walker. I did have to hand it to her, she really was pretty badass. I look around and notice a walker sneaking up behind one of the boy's retrieving an arrow from a walker's head. I ran up to him and stabbed my knife through the walker's head. I ripped it out to finish the job, but something runs between us. A large dog pounces the walker, practically ripping its skull apart as it drops to the ground, its head spilling blood. I felt my hands start to shake as I watched it, my heart felt like it was beating out of my chest. I felt the same fear I felt all those years ago, when that dog mauled my arm even after I tried to feed it.
The dog slowly began to approach me, I slowly start to back away feeling as though my blood had turned cold. "Good girl!" Marlon yells as he runs and pets the dog. "Shh . . . Hey, it's alright." He says as he shushes the dog and tries to get it to calm down. Louis and Violet run over to group back up with us. I couldn't help but freeze as I stare at the dog. I felt as though I couldn't move a muscle no matter how hard I tried. My hands were shaking and I felt like I had gone pale. Violet must've noticed because she walks over to me and lightly shoves my shoulder playfully. "What's with the look on your face? You look like you're scared of dogs." She says jokingly before laughing softly. Her laughter slowly faded out as she looked over at me. I was still trying to stop my shaky hands as I refuse to look away from the dog. I felt so embarrassed at being scared of the dog, especially when there was worse things to be scared of in this world. Her smile had completely changed to a look of concern as she reaches out to touch my shoulder gently. "Oh! Um- Shit, Clem I- . . I didn't mean-" She cuts herself off, not really knowing what to say I guess. She just sighs and lowers her hand, taking it off of my shoulder as she steps back. I could tell she feels guilty so I try to snap out of it. Despite the bubbling feeling of fear in my stomach, I rip my gaze away from the dog and grab Violet's hand for comfort instead. "No it's alright. I just, I had a bad experience with a dog once." I say softly, embarrassed by how breathless and fear ridden my voice sounded. Violet seemed surprised for a moment at me grabbing her hand. She clearly didn't know how to respond to it, so she let my hand go. She crossed her arms as she stepped back towards Louis, not saying a word. "Well, Rosie here can help you get over it. She's as cuddly as they come." Marlon says with a bright smile. "Except for when she's mauling walkers that is." He adds, which made him laugh softly. I know he was trying to help, but that didn't really help me relax.
The group started to make their way back to the gate. Marlon and the others begin to discuss issues with the food supply and a so called 'safe-zone' while Louis and Violet walked alongside me a ways behind. "I call that a B-plus performance there Vi. You've done better." Louis starts teasing Violet, a smug smirk on his face as he commented on her skills. "Fuck off." Violet says as she looks away and flips him off. I can't help but smile at their little banter, it felt almost like a brother-sister type relationship. I couldn't really explain it, but it was kind of relaxing to watch them tease one another. It feels like forever since anyone's been able to just let their guard down and have fun. "B-minus then. Now, Clem here? That was a solid A. A-plus even." Louis says with a confident smile. I look over at Violet who was looking down at the ground. "Don't be jealous Vi, be better." Louis says also noticing her looking to the ground. He was continuing to mess with her, but I couldn't help but notice how she didn't seem into it anymore. I lean forward to look at her with a soft smile. "You kicked ass Violet, A-plus." I say, which caused Violet to actually look up at me with a soft side glance. It wasn't much, but it was something. I swear I could even see a smile on her face. I liked seeing her smile, it was much more welcoming and comforting than her tough girl vibe. "I know." She says softly, looking back towards the ground. "You're both delusional." Louis says with his playful teasing tone. I smile at the two as the teasing seemed to continue and Violet seemed to calm down again.
I didn't notice at first, but Violet had reached out again and took my hand in hers. I didn't pull my hand away or stop her from doing so. Instead, I just smiled and brushed my thumb across the back of her hand. Part of me is still skeptical, but maybe AJ and I could actually stay here. This place is safe by the looks of it, and everyone seems nice. But I'm not going to get my hopes up just yet.