Chapter 3

Words: 1,504

The next morning when Clementine wakes up, at first she's confused at where she is, because she's greeted by an unfamiliar sight; a ceiling. For some time now, she's been sleeping in outside or another words, in the wild.

But then the memories start to come back, and realizes that she at the railway station. She came hear after a man named BJ brought her here, who has a large scratch scar on his face; making him blind in his right eye.

As she sits up, she looks around, then looks down at herself. She smiles when she sees that she's wearing new clean clothes. She also doesn't smell now, because they let her take a bath. The bathtub was strange to say the least, but it got the job done, and she doesn't smell of dirt, and sweat.

She slept on the couch. BJ said that there were no more beds, but she could sleep in his and his girlfriend's bed with the two, but she declined and said she take the couch. She was happy with his offer, but didn't want to disturb them and...their kissing stuff.

She got off of the couch and put on her shoes. She walks where the kitchen is and sees that one one's there. That's when she realizes that it's very quiet. So everyone else is still asleep?

She walks to the front door, and looks outside through the window, and sees that Franklin is sitting on the stair, smoking a cigarette.

As if feeling that someone's looking at him, he snaps his head back, and catches her staring at her. He gives her a small smile, and gestures her to come outside with his head. She does so.

She closes the door behind her, and sits down next to the African-American man.

"Good morning, Clementine. Slept well?" Frank asks the young girl.

"The best sleep I had in months probably." Clementine says with a satisfied smile and closed eyes.

"That's good. Yesterday when you came here, you looked rough." He says.

Clementine nods, not knowing what to say yet to that. "...Well, it's rough out there."

"It is." He nods. "Anyway, today I'm gonna go and check out an old mall that was abandoned way before all this. You wanna come with me?"

Clementine nods. "Yes."

"Alright." He nods takes a last drag from the cigarette he has been smoking, and puts it out by stepping on the bud. "Let's go and eat. Though we're gonna have to wait for BJ to wake up. He's the one who's making breakfast and dinner today."

They step inside the building, and Frank hears Bernadette crying. He smiles. "It seems we won't have to wait long, huh?" He looks at Clem.

"It seems so." She smiles a little as well.

As they wait for the others to wake up and start making breakfast, Clementine helps Frank with setting the table. Bernadette eventually stops crying, and BJ and Samantha joins them. Not long after Hosea shows up as well.

BJ cooks some canned beans with canned corn, while Bernadette gets mashed carrots and peaches again. They eat breakfast.

Franklin mentions the others that he and Clementine will go and visit the old abandoned mall to scavenge something, maybe the two of them can find something.

After breakfast, Franklin and Clementine gets ready. Today BJ gets to rest; she was told that before she found her and took her back here, he was traveling for 2 days.

Franklin put on his backpack, tucks his Taurus PT92AF and hunting knife. Frank looks over to Clemetnine as she gets ready as well, and notices that she has no weapon. He takes out his pistol and hands it to her.

"Do you know how to use it?" He asks her, and in response she smiles smugly. "Yes, maybe even better than you." She responds.

Frank snorts. "Don't get cocky with me, kid." He shakes his head, and goes back to the weapon locker, where they store their weapons. He looks at all the weapons they have and he decides to take the HK P2000.

He gives Clementine a knife as well. After that's done, they leave the building, and head to his car, which is a Toyota FJ Cruiser, colored yellow.

They get inside, he turns it on, and drive off to their destination. The mall is not too far from where they are staying, and as they arrive, they see the old abandoned building looming in front of them. The windows are boarded up, and vines crawl up the walls, giving the place an eerie look.

As they get out of the car, Franklin and Clementine take out their weapons and prepare themselves for any potential dangers. They walk towards the entrance, and as they get closer, they can see that the door is slightly ajar.

They cautiously push the door open and step inside. The inside of the mall is dark and musty, with dust covering everything. They shine their flashlights around, exploring the old abandoned shops.

As they look around, they come across some old clothing stores, a shoe shop, and even a bookstore. Most of the items are either destroyed or covered in dust, but Clementine's keen eyes spot something shiny in one of the corners.

She walks over to it and picks it up. It's a small pocket knife, still in good condition. She shows it to Franklin, who nods in approval.

They continue their search, finding some useful items like canned food, water bottles, and even a first aid kit. They carefully pack everything into their backpacks, making sure not to miss anything.

As they explore further, they hear shuffling noises coming from a nearby shop. Franklin gestures for Clementine to stay back as he approaches cautiously, his knife at ready.

The figure comes into light and they see it's just a walker. Frank spins the knife in his hand before stabbing the walker in the head through the eyeball. He searches the pockets of the walker and finds nothing useful.

After a thorough search of the mall, Franklin and Clementine gather all the supplies they found and head back to their SUV. 

"I guess this wasn't so bad." Franklin says.

Clementine nods. "At least we found some things."

"Ain't that the truth." He says, and they get inside the vehicle.

He starts it up and they head home. Once back, they are greeted by Hosea, who checks over what they got together. They grab everything and place the lots in a safe place inside. Clem and Frank also put their weapons back in the locker.

After that, they sit down to relax, while BJ starts cooking up something for dinner.

//////

Weeks pass by peacefully. Clementine managed to adapt to the group, and nail herself inside the hearts of Samantha, Franklin, Hosea, and BJ. Maybe even Bernadette.

One day, Clementine and BJ were out exploring a small neighborhood when they heard a car, or more like a van coming their way, where they are at.

BJ, thinking quickly, turned to Clemetnine. "Come on, follow me." He said, and pushed Clementine from behind, and run inside one of the houses. Clementine barely stunned for a second before taking off after BJ.

Inside the house, BJ didn't stay inside, instead just kept running toward the backdoor. They exited through the backdoor, out to the backyard.

They kept hurrying, going toward the fence. At the fence, BJ lifted her up under her armpits, and helped her climb over the fence. Then he, himself, climbed over as well.

Clementine was about to run as well, but he grabbed her by the elbow, and pulled her back.

He sat down on the ground, and lean against the fence with his back against it.

"Why are we running from them?" She asked.

"We don't know them." He replied.

"You didn't know me either." She said.

"Well, you were alone." He reasoned. "This is most likely a van or some kinda big car like an SUV. There must be at least 3 people inside."

"But aren't you looking for more people to join the group?"

"I am! But I can't take chances with a lot of people. Especially ones with a car. They must be part of a community or something, and we don't know if they could be hostile. I ain't takin the chance." He reasons again.

Clementine thinks for a few seconds before nodding, understanding the risks. After all, the St. John family only had of them as well, but still were managed to get locked up by the brothers.

Suddenly the survivors heard the vehicle stop, but BJ didn't know where.

"Damn it." He curses.

BJ and Clemetnine waits around, hearing at least 5 different voices talk and joke around with each other, and shouting when they find something.

BJ thought to himself that if they are thay comfortable with shouting, risking of gathering walkers, that either means that they are dumb, suicidal, or well fucking armed to the teeth.