If only things were different

Chapter 3: the right thing to do?

Ladies and gentlemen, this is the last chapter to this story. I know it was short, but it was originally going to be a one-shot. I made it longer so people could vote Bonnie's fate. Hope you all enjoyed it though. And special thanks to everyone who voted.

I do have another Walking Dead story coming soon. The story will be called "There's always hope". I can't give an exact date on when it will be released, but it should not be that long. Around 1-2 weeks. If you have me on your favorite authors list, just keep your email alerts open and it should give you a notification when it has been released.

And apart from that, down below she shall find chapter 3. Enjoy the chapter, folks.

"Well, what's it going to be, Clementine?" Kenny asked a second time when the young girl had not yet made up her mind. He folded his arms together and waited for her answer.

Clementine looked back and forth between where Bonnie was locked inside the bathroom and then back towards the group. This certainly was a tough decision to make on her own. Now she knew how Lee felt when he had to make all those difficult choices in the past: saving Carley over Doug, choosing who to feed, sparing Andy and Danny St. John, and leaving Lilly on the side of the road.

Sarita noticed Clementine's somewhat nervous expression and placed her hand upon Kenny's shoulder, not wanting to put too much pressure on the young girl. "Kenny, don't push her. Just let her think."

"I am, Sarita, but it's late and she's a danger to the group the longer she's here." Kenny explained to his girlfriend, taking her hand for a moment and gently held it in his grip. He let her go and now waited for Clementine's answer.

Clementine thought the entire thing over multiple times that was beginning to give her a headache. She did not want to become like Carver; a murderer, a thief, and a heatless person. But she also wanted to protect her group no matter what. She saved Pete's life before he died, and Luke's life, and technically saved the entire group by giving Kenny the order to fire.

Finally, after thinking it over in the short time she had, Clementine made her decision. She knew it was what Lee would have wanted. She turned around to face the group and spoke out her vote in a serious tone. "We let her go."

This caused Sarita, Luke, Alvin and Carlos to give a supportive nod and proud smile towards Clementine for her choice. Kenny, Nick and Rebecca had voted to the opposite of Clementine's choice, but nevertheless, they respected her decision and gave her supportive nods with slight smile across their faces. It was hard to believe that these were the same people who locked her in a shed for mistaking her dog bite to be a walker bite.

"All right, let's get her out of here." Kenny told the group and turned around, slowly marching towards the bathroom. The others followed him from behind. Luke stood out of the way and handed Kenny's rifle back to him when he went past. Kenny reloaded his rifle and pulled the chair out of the way from the bathroom.

Kenny opened the door with one arm and ordered their prisoner out of their in a serious tone. It even caused Sarita to jump slightly. "Get out of there!"

The man from Florida took a few steps back near the rest of the group (exception of Sarah) and aimed his rifle towards Bonnie when she walked out of the bathroom with her hands in the air. He beckoned for her to move over to a certain sport to which she obliged without question.

Once she was in the right position, Kenny took a couple of steps towards her with his rifle aimed directly at her forehead. He did not dare to take his eyes away from her, even despite the fact she is unarmed. "All right, now you listen me! We're letting you go tonight, but if you come back and EVER try and hurt these people again, I will not fucking hesitate to put a bullet in between your fucking skull. You got it?"

"Okay, okay, I got it. I promise, I won't tell anyone what happened here. I'll just say lurkers got them." Bonnie promised as she raised her hands into the air further when Kenny approached her. She certainly looked afraid of him, and the rest of the group could not blame her.

"Go on and get out of here!" Kenny ordered, gesturing his rifle towards the exit to the ski lodge. He still continued to hold her at gunpoint until he was that she was out of their home and not a danger.

Bonnie did not hesitate to make her escape before Kenny had changed his mind and decided to finish the job. She did not even ask for her gun back and immediately ran towards the exit, pushing open the doors and running off into the cold darkness of the snow. How she would survive on her own out there without vision and with nothing to defend herself was a mystery. But the point was she was gone now and unless she has a death wish, she will not come back.

The group remained silent and stared towards one another for a moment, unsure on what to say or do. With Bonnie gone and Carver dead, it was time for them to head to sleep. After all, Carlos did mention that Carver's community was not far from the cabin and that was five days away.

"Did...Did we do the right thing?" Nick was the first to speak up with a question on his mind. He folded his arms together and turned towards any of the group members, expecting an answer from any one of them.

"If we killed her, than we would be no better that Carver." Carlos responded whilst he kept a normal expression across his face. He could feel his eyelids beginning to close on his own and needed to get some sleep as soon as possible.

"I think it's time we all got some sleep." Sarita declared, taking note of how late it was and how exhausted everyone was. Especially Carlos, who could not use two of his fingers for a while and had multiple bruises across his face.

The former cabin group could not help but agree with her suggestion and departed to their rooms near the back of the ski lodge. There was a small hallway near the back with multiple rooms along the way like a mini-apartment. There was also an upstairs part that Rebecca and Alvin were sharing together.

Fortunately, there were enough rooms and the right amount of space in each one for everyone. Kenny and Sarita shared a room, Walter and Matthew use to share a room, but with them gone...It was now empty. Luke and Nick both had a single separate room each for themselves, and Carlos and Sarah shared a room with two different single beds. And as for Clementine, she had a single room to herself just opposite of Carlos' and Sarah's room.

One by one, the cabin group departed from the front of the ski lodge and proceeded into their rooms for the night. This was without a doubt going to be a night they would remember for the rest of their lives, but they good thing out of all this was William Carver was no longer a threat to them and they could now live freely.

Luke and Nick practically landed fast first onto their beds in their separate rooms. Alvin and Rebecca went back upstairs and both shared a double bed with each other and hoped to get some sleep for the night. Fortunately for them with Rebecca's pregnancy, the bed was more than big enough for the both of them to sleep in.

Carlos was the last one to enter his room where his eyes met his daughter sitting on the center of her bed, her legs crossed together in a yoga position. She was reading her book like her father asked her to, but with the power being out and of how late it was it was difficult to see it.

Sarah turned her attention away from her book the second she heard the door open and smiled when it was no other than her father, the man who protected her with his life and her last bit of family. "Dad!" she greeted, running over him and embracing her father in a hug. She still seemed to be worried for him.

Carlos returned the hug to his daughter, holding her in a tight embrace. He had to be careful due to his fingers, but the love he and his daughter shared made their moment together worth it. He let her go out of his embrace and placed his good hand upon her shoulder. "It's time for bed now, sweetie. Get some sleep for the night."

Sarah nodded in agreement. She had never stayed up this late before since her father always put her to bed at a certain time every night, but now she could see why. She was extremely tired. She took her shoes off and made her way over to a small bathroom into their room to get changed into her pajamas.

Whilst she was gone, Carlos kicked off his shoes and sat down on his own bed, placing his hands over his bruised face. He thought for certain tonight was going to be his end. All those beatings he received, the pain of his fingers being broken whilst his daughter could only watch helplessly. He was grateful to be alive and swore he would not let this happen again.

Before long, he turned his attention towards the bathroom door when Sarah had come back into their room, wearing a pair of pink pajamas. She only had two pairs of clothes left which were her usually regular clothes and a pair of pajamas.

Sarah got into her bed and took her glasses off and placed them onto a drawer. She leaned her head against the pillow and waited for her father to finish tucking her in under her blanket. Despite her age, Carlos still treated her like she was only eight-years-old, but Sarah did not mind this. In fact, she seemed to be unaware of it.

"Try to get some sleep for tonight, sweetie." Carlos whispered, planting a kiss upon her forehead. He turned around and proceeded over towards his own bed until his daughter asked him a rather interesting question.

"Dad?" Sarah called out slightly, causing him to freeze in his tracks but he did not turn around to face her yet. "Are those bad men gone? Are they going to come back?"

Carlos was about to answer with a lie but then he realized that it was not going to be a lie and rather be the truth. With Carver dead, they were safe from him and no longer had to fear him. He turned around to face his daughter with an honest expression. "No Sarah, those bad men are gone now. They are not going to bother us again. We're safe now."

"Oh, okay." Sarah believed him and decided to drop the subject. She did not seem much affected after watching her father being tortured by Carver, but she may just not know how to respond. Nevertheless, she was ready for bed tonight. "Goodnight, Dad."

Carlos watched as she closed her arms and immediately fallen asleep in a matter seconds. He was unsure on how her life was going to be affected after witnessing tonight's events. This was one of the reasons he kept her shielded from the world outside. He spoke to his daughter one more time before he too decided to turn in for the night. "Goodnight, Sarah."

With the rest of the group tucked in for the night, Clementine and Kenny were the only ones who remained present. Sarita had tried to get Kenny to come to bed with her, but he told her to go on ahead and assured her he would not be that long. This was the best she was going to get out of him and decided to go on ahead.

Kenny mainly had his attention focused towards Clementine who sat in the living room area on the couch, staring off into a picture. He made his way over to the fire and put it out for the night. With that, he made his way over to Clementine and sat down beside her with a slight smile.

Clementine had almost all of her attention focused onto the photo she held into her hands, but she was aware of the man presence. "You're mad at me, aren't you?"

"What?" Kenny inquired, slightly surprised to what he just heard. He loved Clementine with all his heart and cared for her like she was his own daughter.

"You're mad at me because I decided to let Bonnie go." Clementine confirmed, obviously expecting that was the reason Kenny had come over to see her in the first place rather than go to bed.

But that was not the reason he was here. He was not mad at her at all, not one bit. In fact, he was proud of her. He placed his hand upon her shoulder and waited until she looked him in the eyes. "Darling, I ain't mad at you. You did what Lee would have done. He always made the right choices, kept our group together. You were just doing what he taught you to do and I'm proud of you for that."

Clementine was able to raise a slight smile in response, but the mention of her guardian left her sad. Even after it has been more than two-years since she was forced to put a bullet in his brain to prevent reanimation, he still hurt her from the inside and she missed him dearly. She partial blamed herself for his death.

Kenny too now had a somewhat sad expression across his face. He and Lee had become best friends when they first met each other at Hershel's farm. Even despite Lee not always agreeing with him one-hundred percent of the time, he and Lee were like brothers and Lee was always there for his family when he couldn't be.

Lee saved Duck at the farm, he sided with him against Larry when he mistaken Duck to be bitten, Lee sacrificed his own rations for Kenny and Duck, he saved Katjaa from David after he became a walker, he built Duck a swing, he saved Katjaa from Breda, and to top it off, he was there for Kenny when his son died and even volunteered to shoot Duck himself rather than have Kenny do it.

"Lee was a great man, Clementine." Kenny reminded her, placing his hand upon her shoulder a second time. "He did a lot of things to save us and even gave his own life to save you...I wish he were still here."

"Me, too." Clementine agreed, turning to her left for a moment with her eyes narrowed onto the armchair. For some reason, she could just imagine Lee sitting there whilst watching her.

"Why don't you get some sleep for the night, Clem?" Kenny suggested, not wanting to keep up her up any longer than he needed to. "It's been a long day and you're probably exhausted."

Clementine nodded in agreement and placed the photo of Lee back into her backpack. She was about to get up and leave, but stayed with Kenny for a moment when something was on her mind. She and Kenny were the only ones left from their group and she did not want to lose him. "Kenny..."

"Yes, darling?" he responded.

"Please don't leave me." Clementine pleaded, not sure if she can handle losing someone close to her again. She could not cry anymore. "I need you. I can't keep going without you."

Kenny slowly raised a smile across his face and leaned forward, embracing Clementine in a hug. He too did not want to lose her again after being reunited for a short time. It was fate that brought them together again. "I promise, Clem, I won't leave you. We can all stay together for now on. No-one else is going to leave. I promise to stay with you until the end, Clementine."

Clementine shredded a fear tears as she leaned out from his hug and wiped them away. She trusted Kenny when he promised her this. After all, he was a Christian man. "Thank you." she whispered.

For the rest of the night, Clementine and Kenny left together to their bedrooms and tucked in for the night. She walked inside her own room that she had trouble finding due to the darkness but was able to find it in the end. She closed the door behind her and sat down on her bed, staring off into nowhere for a moment.

Eventually, she kicked off her shoes, placed her backpack on the floor and her hat on the drawer and proceeded to get some sleep for the night. She hoped Lee was looking down upon her right now with a beaming smile to tell her he was proud of her. With their groups together, Kenny reunited with her again, and Carver dead, Clementine had the feeling everything was going to be okay after all.

And that brings us to the end of this story, ladies and gentlemen. Like I mentioned above, it was originally just going to be a one-shot, but I decided to split it up into more chapters for everyone to be able to vote Bonnie's fate. Hope you all enjoyed it, and down below are the statics for the people who voted Bonnie's fate.

Now that this story is over and that I have finished Fight for Survival, I am already working on my next Walking Dead story which I will be releasing soon. I can't give an exact date, but it is soon. Stay tuned for my next Walking Dead story and special thanks to everyone who took their time to read, review and leave their votes.

Bonnie's Fate

90% of the people voted to let Bonnie go.

10% of the people voted to Kill Bonnie

Assassin's Creed Master out.

Disclaimer: The Walking Dead is owned by Robert Kirkman, Tony Moore, Charlie Adlard, and Telltale Games.

The cast:

Melissa Hutchison voice of Clementine

Scott Porter voice of Luke

Brian Bremer voice of Nick

Andrew "Kid Beyond" Chaikin voice of Carlos

Louisa Mackintosh voice of Sarah

Shay Moore voice of Rebecca

Dorian Lockett voice of Alvin

Gavin Hammon voice of Kenny

Julia Farmer voice of Sarita

Kiff VandenHeuvel voice of Walter

Wylie Herman voice of Matthew

Erin Yvette voice of Bonnie

Michael Madsen voice of William "Bill" Carver

Owen Thomas voice of Troy

Julian Kwasneski voice of Johnny