Ch. 3 Roommate request

Back in the Atlanta area Julius has no particular destination in mind and no reason to rush, Machiavelli is going to come find him soon. Instead, he is devoting his time to teaching little Clementine how to defend herself. For now he focuses on breathing, conditioning, strength building, and training her coordination, as well as a few basic techniques. Despite the training being hellish the girl didn't complain much, instead learning everything he threw at her with surprising speed. She's a rare talent indeed, not only that Clementine was observant and well behaved.

"Clem, you know you don't have to just obey all my training. I know it is something that I enjoy, but if you want to do other things just speak it and we can." Says Julius after pondering for a while and affirming in his mind that Clem was a little too obedient.

"What are you talking about Julius?" Clem asks genuinely curious.

"I'm just saying that you're my sister now, and that means you don't have to feel like you owe me anything or just do the things I want to do." Julius says more seriously to the little girl.

"Well… at first, I kind of thought like that, then I saw you chase down a deer, and kill it with a single punch, or the time you bent those metal bars so we could escape that horde. You never seem scared… I don't want to be scared again, so I will train until I'm strong and fearless like you." Clem says looking at Julius with eyes full of determination.

"You're well on the right path then. You've come a long way in my breathing technique, and you've also been doing well in the stepping technique too. Soon I'll teach you the rhythm echo, it is probably useless against the dead but will be very useful against the living." Julius explains to her with a smile.

"Yay! You said when I learned that you would let me start advanced training." The little girl happily reminds him.

"Of course, so are you sure there is nothing else you want?" He asks. He knows the girl had to want more than just training. Not everyone is him, and he has other interests.

"Hmmm…I kind of want to join a group or at least find some more people that we can go around every now and then?" She looks scared as she asks him. He has as always told her people were the worst, but much to her surprise he readily agrees.

"As long as they are good people, they can join us," Julius says. "I don't care if they have supplies or not. I can handle that, but a bad nature is innate."

Clementine stops to think about what he had said. "(I don't really understand the last part but…) so some people are just bad?"

"Precisely, watch closely what people do and judge accordingly." Julius says.

...….

"Alright Jules, we've been walking in the woods for two days if you didn't want to find a group you could just say so. And what are we going to do about the supplies? We need to have something to contribute if we're going to join a group and you just said 'I'll handle it'?" Clem said slightly annoyed at her adoptive brother. She didn't want to complain but her feet were killing her, and they saw no sign of another living person since he'd agreed to find someone.

"I told you we have to travel through the woods until we pass the highway area. That helicopter we saw the other day was bad news. These things are blind, so a low moving, slow, loud ass helicopter is definitely up to no good. Secondly, I own the most real estate a single person could possibly own. I design all my homes with bunkers fully stocked for anything and Mac sets them all up with top notch security systems. So, any of my houses I say houses but estates really, that aren't sold only he or I could access, and they're loaded with supplies. I was actually in Georgia to celebrate my four-hundredth successful build in the states, not a pie eating contest...that was a happy coincidence," He declared reminiscing on how good the pie was. Honestly, he had spotted a group a few days ago and besides the wife-beater they seemed to be worth approaching, but when he went back to the place they were they were gone. They even had a few kids that Clem could play with. Well, no use crying over spilled milk. He would begin his search for people anew when they left this area.

The two walk on in an awkward silence, Clem knows it wasn't his fault but ever since the idea of joining a group had been given the green light she had been antsy. Julius knew this was the case, so he never faulted the girl except for the occasional calling her a brat. As they are walking Julius suddenly stops Clem when he hears crying and light footsteps followed closely by the steps of one of those things.

"Follow me". He says as he sprints in the direction of the noise, he reaches back and grabs Clem, throwing her on his back before speeding up. He arrives at the scene of one of those dead ones about to bite a little girl on her shoulder. He flicks a coin at the creature's head, and it pierces through it's skull like a hot knife through butter. It falls toward the girl, but Julius's stride had never stopped. He quickly pulls her away from the falling dead. He looks the girl over and she seems fine, but she is extremely scared of him. "Ughhhh! Clem handle this." He says with an exasperated sigh. It's annoying that the girl is afraid of the person who just saved her life.

Clem rolls her eyes but still steps towards the little girl with a smile. Now this normally wouldn't be so scary, but Clem has taken up her older brother's habit of dressing like a warrior. She is currently wearing an all black kunoichi outfit, a black bandana worn around her chin like a mask, and she's covered in blood from her training slaying walkers.

"D-d-d-don't' come any closer" the little girl stammers, trembling and teary eyed.

Julius finds this cute. Now it's Clementine's turn to be treated like a monster for saving someone. It was a truly annoying experience.

"Hey little girl, we just saved you! Why are you acting all scared instead of saying thank you!?" Clementine raises her voice at the little girl, which earns her a thump on the forehead from her big brother. Leading the two to quarrel until Clementine gets her thump back. The little girl begins to chuckle a little and speaks.

"I'm sorry and thank you, my name is Sophia." Says the little girl softly. "Thank you for saving me."

"That wasn't so hard was it?" Clementine asks while extending a hand to help the girl up. "Anyways what are you doing out here?"

"I got separated from everyone when a bunch of walkers came while we were on the highway over there," she says pointing the direction she came from.

"Walkers…that's not bad." Julius notes the name for the walking dead. "So how long have you been hiding here?" He asks.

"A couple of hours," Sophia answers.

"And no one has come yet?" Julius follows up with another question.

"Rick said to wait here and that they would be back, but I got scared here, so I tried to find them…"

"Good thing we got here when we did then, being stuck with the monsters by yourself can really suck." Julius says. "Is your camp far from here? We would be happy to help you get back."

"R-really?" Little Sophia is elated to hear that such strong and nice people would be helping her.

"Yeah, you can't stay out here by yourself." Clementine adds.

"Thank you!" Sophia runs up and hugs the blood-stained duo with a joyful smile.

"Don't mention it kid," Julius says.

"Where are we going though?" Clementine asks.

"To get back to them we have to go….!" she paused to get her bearings. After letting her think for a moment Julius grabs her and quickly climbs the highest nearby tree. He dashes up it more agile than any animal and never loses speed.

"You see anything familiar from up here?" he asks.

Sophia takes a moment to admire the view and the speed at which Julius had moved, "Woooooooooow, do you have superpowers?" She is amazed at how far she could see and how he can balance so well on the top of a giant tree without even wobbling. Though the number of dead bodies she saw walking around quickly brought her back to reality.

"Haha yeah I'm a Superhero," Julius answers ignoring Clementine's sarcastic cough. She didn't take much longer reach the top as well. "So do you know any way back"? He asked the girl.

"Rick says…Keep the sun on my left shoulder and follow the highway..." Sophia takes a second to consider the advice on navigation she was recently taught.

"So it's that way?" Clementine asks.

"Mhmm," Sophia nods approval.

"Alright, well lets go! Clem, grab the bag!" Julius leaps into the canopy.

"AAAAAAH!" Sophia screams as they are falling.

Clementine found it hard to contain her joy as she thought about finally having friends again. She grabs the bag much bigger than herself not even straining under its weight in the slightest. She slid her mask up and rolled it into a hairband, revealing a giddy smile. "Wait for me!"