The soft breeze steadily weaved itself throughout the brush of the trees, rustling and emitting a silk-like melody that echoed down the waterway. However today it was accompanied by the quaint sound of singing, two young voices calmly humming the lyrics of an old nursery rhyme.

Row, row, row your boat,

Gently down the stream.

Merrily merrily, merrily, merrily,

Life is but a dream.

Row, row, row your boat,

Gently down the stream.

If you see a crocodile,

Don't forget to scream.

Two figures could be seen occupying a corroded wooden pier that bridged the small lake together. One of them could be recognised by their ball cap, bearing an unmissable 'D' shaped symbol which had long since been worn down with time. The other was smaller in stature and much younger, hunched over as he sat on the edge of the pier, seemingly withdrawn from the song as he continued to stare downwards.

With one forceful lunge Clementine drove the handmade spear into the water, followed by a decisive splash. A small puddle of blood clouded the water as it rippled onwards down the stream. It had plunged through the flesh of a slightly more than average sized fish. The young teen slowly pulled it out of the water as she slanted her eyes, examining their future meal as it slowly began to cease thrashing.

That last disjointed verse from AJ had sounded off; she was picking up a tinge of hesitance. Nonetheless, his unresponsive demeanour was enough to tell that something was on his mind, at least. She turned her head towards him, a soft smirk on her lips as she spoke. "Come on, you love this one."

AJ hadn't been bothered to face her, still hunched over as he stared at the current beneath him.

It was obvious that he preferred to revel in his thoughts rather than talk right now, a brief moment of silence continued to pass before he finally managed to speak up in a rather dismissive tone. "It's a bad song. You shouldn't scream, ever. Screaming brings monsters."

And what could she say to that? He wasn't wrong after all, when it came to the here and now. Back then this is what they used to sing at school. She remembered when all the kids in class used to sing it in unison. That rhythm being something she could never forget any time soon.

"Yeah, you're right, kiddo. This song was written before, when kids didn't have to worry about monsters." She spoke before setting down the spear and making her way to his side.

"I don't remember a time without monsters." AJ spoke as he glanced somberly below him, Clementine only now managing to pick up on what seemed to be grabbing his attention. A rotted corpse, eyes glazed white and lifeless as it lay in the river, staring up towards them. It was a fate worse than death, a fate that she'd use every fibre in her being to keep from happening to AJ.

"I know…" She spoke less cheerfully now, knowing that deep down this wasn't fair for him, or any kid his age for that matter. Clementine drifted her gaze away from the corpse, slowly lowering herself as she now sat beside him, her legs dangling off the edge along with his.

"What's the first rule?" This time her tone harboured a certain sense of weight behind her words, Clementine's lighthearted demeanour shifting into something akin to stern. These were the type of things that he needed to know. It was the worst feeling in the world to keep looking back on things and wish you could change them, especially knowing they happened because of you. She wouldn't want to wish that feeling on anyone. Clem didn't want that for AJ. All she wanted was for him to avoid making the same mistakes she did at his age.

"Never go alone," the young boy replied almost instantly, the rules having been drilled into his head at this point.

"Never go alone, right. And what do we do when the monsters come?" She spoke whilst averting her gaze from the corpse, now looking over to him as she raised her eyebrow.

AJ, without haste, reached into his back pocket and pulled out a small silver revolver. He pushed out the cylinder with a click, double checking the bullets that were chambered inside, before pushing it back in. "We… shoot them in the head," he attempted to speak confidently as he sent a wary glance towards Clementine.

"And what else?" She pushed further, AJ briefly going silent in response. This rule being one of the few he always wanted to think about the least.

With hesitation smeared across his face, he finally pushed himself to respond.

"Always save the last bullet for yourself."

And with that, Clementine ceased the questioning, only for a moment. This next one wouldn't be easy to even suggest and she knew that. But, it was without a doubt the most important rule AJ just couldn't ignore. If it ever did come down to it… if by some chance whatever was around the corner would cut her life short… he needed to be prepared for that too, life without her.

"Now. What do you do… if I get bit?"

Silence. All but the soft trickling of the water passing by the rocks could be heard by the duo. Alvin Junior's eyes diverting themselves away from Clem's yet again as she asked the question he was dreading.

"AJ," Clem spoke firmly in a bid to get him to answer properly after getting no response. "What do you do?"

"I…" The boy stuttered, knowing what he should be saying… however the courage to actually say it was something else entirely. "I know what I should do… but, it's not like… it's going to happen. We'll keep being careful, the both of us. Because we know how to deal with the monsters."

It was a start, but not necessarily what Clementine was hoping to hear. It was still pretty clear he wasn't very confident with the idea of the possibility. "But you know the monsters aren't the only thing we have to deal with."

AJ twisted his lips for a moment before finally answering. "Yeah… but, not everyone out there wants to hurt people. There's others like us. That just want to find a safe place. Right?"

Growing up without company must've been hard for him, especially given the fact that he didn't even have a taste of what things used to be like. But getting lonely still wasn't an excuse to get reckless, and that's what he needed to know. "Maybe, but we're not gonna go looking for them, because not everyone's us, AJ. That's why we can't just trust people so easily. Understand?"

"Yeah… I guess so." AJ finally gave in, not really wanting to push the notion of potentially making more friends any further. It was easy for Clementine to pick up on the fact that he was starting to at least get curious about other survivors.

Nonetheless, Clem was starting to feel the chill arriving in the air the lower the sun got. They'd spent enough time here already. She'd drop the morbid talk for now, in favour of getting AJ to focus more. And with that, she reached over and rustled his hair to get him moving.

"C'mon, goofball. Lets go." She spoke before standing back up, heading over to the backpack she had laid down earlier, unzipping it and pulling out an old towel. "We gotta find a place to stay before nightfall."

"Coming..." AJ sighed out, resisting the urge to roll his eyes at the nickname. Taking one last glance at the rotten calamity staring at him from below. He averted his gaze as he stood up, heading to where Clementine was. Seeing her knelt down and messing around with the backpack, he spotted a glimpse of something else sticking out of the side. "Clem, do you think we can… finish that book tonight?"

"Hm?" Clementine murmured right as she pulled the fish off of the spear with a forceful tug, beginning to wrap the towel around it so their catch wouldn't dirty in her bag. "Oh. You mean The Gruffalo?" She looked behind her now, seeing him slowly nodding, as to which she responded with a smirk. "Of course we can, but only if we set up camp tonight before it gets too late. So I'll need your help with that first, 'kay?"

"Okay!" His eyes lit up at the thought. It wasn't because he thought the book was that good, and not because he even liked reading that much. It was just the only time of the day where they'd be able to talk about other things. He'd ask and then Clementine would start telling him stories about his mom and dad, and the people that used to keep him safe when he was even littler. No matter how many times she told them they were always just as interesting as the first time. Nonetheless, it was something he always looked forward to, maybe even his favorite part of the day.

Without haste, the duo swiftly packed their things as they made their way off the pier, intent on moving on to their next destination to settle down for the night. By now it was a cycle, forever to be repeated.

The next morning had swiftly arrived as fast as the last one had. After stomping out whatever little of the kindling had remained from overnight, the duo were yet again on the move in an effort to keep their daily routine going. With a bellyful of cooked fish and The Gruffalo by Julia Donaldson now complete, the two pairs of legs cautiously trudged through the shrubbery. Clementine always made an active effort to try and avoid travelling on roadways or open areas, preferring to stick behind the cover the woods provided.

"So if we get a working car, we can find another book store?"

"What? You didn't like The Gruffalo?" Clementine raised her eyebrow in response to the question, a coy smirk smeared across her face.

AJ couldn't hold eye contact with her; it was just impossible. If he lied right now, she'd know. "Well…" He spoke warily, mulling over his thoughts for a few moments before continuing. "It was kinda silly… How does a mouse make a huge monster like that run away…? The Gruffalo could've just eaten him whenever he wanted..."

"It was kinda over the top. I think it's less about… what did happen, and more about the message in the story." Clementine wasn't so sure of it herself, but that's what mom and dad always used to say about these kinds of books.

"Message?" AJ asked curiously, brow raised ever so slightly.

He was showing an interest, and Clem wasn't about to brush that aside. Maybe a bit of talk would serve as a good time killer, given they still had quite a walk to get through. "Well, the mouse knew the Gruffalo was super dumb, so he knew how to take advantage. Even though he was a lot smaller, he was smarter. And that's how he survived."

"Oh, I get it… so kinda like how we deal with the monsters?"

"Exactly. Because we're smart and they're not We're smarter than all of them."

"Right." A small confident smirk emanated from the young boy as the duo shared a smile. However, not a moment later, something caught the boy's eye, his steps gradually beginning to slow before he came to a full halt.

"Y'know… a friend used to tell me-" Clementine paused for a moment, halting her speech suddenly when she didn't see AJ walking by her side anymore. Instead she turned around to see him standing there, staring at something.

"AJ? What are you doing?" Her brows furrowed, tilting her head as she raised an eyebrow, wondering what had him so distracted again, he certainly had a tendency to do this a lot.

The young boy was entranced by something, akin to a deer caught in a car's headlights. It wasn't long before he curiously looked up to Clementine "What's that?" He pointed to a rather small opening in some of the trees.

The teen squinted her eyes in the direction of his finger, managing to spot out what had goofball so excited. In a rather odd spot in the shrubbery laid a lone thin tree branch, sticking upwards directly from the ground, part of it submerged into the dirt. As she slowly made her way towards it, she scanned her surroundings carefully.

"Someone's stuck this in the ground, probably a marking for something." That was her best guess. This was in no way, shape, or form, nature's work. Someone had deliberately placed that there… which meant, at the very least… it was possible someone could've been in the area lately.

For a moment, Clementine pondered maybe booking it in the opposite direction. That way it was less likely they'd run into the person that put that there. But she wouldn't do that before at least checking it out.

"Hang tight for a sec." Clementine spoke as she knelt down, focusing on the general proximity of where the stick was protruding upwards, she scooped a bit of it up in her hands, feeling it's texture for a moment. She then began to press down on the ground around the stick. Seriously?

"I think something's buried here." She finally spoke, although to her it was no reason to be excited. Right now, it was all the more reason to be cautious. There was no doubt about it, just by feeling how hollow and dense the ground felt around the stick, it was easy to tell a hole had been dug there and then filled back up, no doubt about it. Finally, she stood back up, taking hold of the stick and pressing it downwards. She could feel some resistance on the other end… whatever it was, it was too soft to be a body.

"And I don't think it's a corpse…" Although it was apparent she was still very wary, a tinge of surprise in her tone was evident, initially thinking someone might've just buried a body here.

AJ's eyes almost sprung wide in excitement, shifting his weight from one foot to another in anticipation as he watched Clementine examine the site from behind. "Really? Can we… dig it up?"

Clementine stood back up now, hands on hips as a sigh escaped from her lips, looking back and forth between the stick and AJ. The urge to say no was abundantly clear and written all over the girl's face. AJ's eyes locked on to her, piercing her with a begging pout. Finally… Clementine gave in, tilting her head down and rolling her eyes. "Alright, fine. Give me a hand with this." She spoke begrudgingly before pulling the stick out of the ground and throwing it aside, the opportunity to find something useful was just too good to pass up this time.

"Cool!" AJ immediately dropped to his knees without haste, beginning the hack away at at the dirt with his fingers, a bit of it almost flying into Clem's face.

"Easy, kiddo." She huffed out a chuckle whilst trying to cover her eyes from the storm of dirt AJ was digging up. Before long she joined his side and began to dig as well. We're seriously gonna need to wash our hands after this.

The more they dug, the more obvious it was that someone had really put a lot of effort into making this thing. As a couple of minutes passed, the undertips of their fingernails were clogged with muck and grime. Dammit… Clementine grunted, scrunching up her face as she tried to flick the dirt out of her fingernails every so often to avoid that gross feeling.

"I... I see something!" AJ cheered, even though this wasn't a full scale treasure hunt, it sure did come close to being as exciting as one.

"Alright, I think... I can grab it now." There wasn't much left to dig up, her hand practically driving through what was left of the dirt and grabbing a hold of some kind of material… it was a strap. Clementine pulled upwards with as much force as she could until a dirt covered object finally unlodged itself and was elevated to the surface. Clementine brought it to her face, the object dangling from her hand. No way.

"It's… a bag." Clementine sounded just as surprised as she was confused. Without a second thought, she quickly dusted it off excitedly and scrambled to get the zipper undone, quickly opening it to examine the contents. What the hell?

It was lightly packed, but the items inside were… useful. Bandages, three bottles of water, a few cans of tuna, some matches… a magazine for a pistol that had some ammunition inside. She'd find out if it was compatible with her gun the moment they were away from there. There was even some kind of…. music player attached to some headphones in there.

"So, what's inside?" AJ asked, not being able to take the anticipation any longer, although the look on Clementine's face said it all… it was rare that he saw her this taken off-guard.

"Things that are going to help..." She murmured in response, her gaze not leaving the inside of the bag. She was still amazed at the fact that someone would be stupid enough to actually leave this stuff out here for the taking. Regardless, these supplies would make the next couple of days a lot easier on them. They were struggling to find resources enough as it was already, there was no way she was leaving this here. "Good spot, AJ! You know the drill. Get your bag and let's pack it in."

"Do you think… they'll come back for this soon?" The boy questioned with perhaps a hint of remorse in his tone. He supposed he secretly hoped for a bunch of old toys or books… something people wouldn't desperately need to survive.

"If they have enough of this stuff to be burying it out in the middle of nowhere, they clearly don't need it as much as we do. So don't worry about it."

"Okay..."

And that was the end of that. Without another word from AJ, the duo quickly began to indulge themselves with their new findings, although one of them seemingly much less enthusiastic than the other as they crammed most of it inside of their backpacks until nothing remained. Clementine slung the now much heavier backpack over her shoulder with a grunt as she finally stood up.

"Chin up. After we find a place to hunker down maybe we can get that music player wor-"

The teen took a casual step forward as they began to leave, her speech then being cut off by a loud SNAP. Her eyes widened in horror, her mind not being able to comprehend what was going on in the heat of the moment. The snap of a twig was the last thing she heard before she felt the tight embrace of thick rope tighten around her ankles.

"Fuck!" She cried out as out a massive contraption with cinder blocks held together by some kind of netting fell down from above, serving as a counterweight as she felt her legs buckle beneath her, followed by her weight leaving the ground. The girl was launched upwards in a spiral as she felt her body twist around. The backpack she was wearing fell straight off her shoulders, as well as her hat, the bag hitting the autumn leaves below with a crunch. Her breathing was rapid and her heart raced as she finally opened her eyes… realising she was now hanging upside down, the rope holding her firmly in place by her legs as she looked up towards them.

"Clem!" AJ cried out in sheer disbelief, running to his now strung up carer in a panic. "I'm so, so sorry...! I - I… It's my fault! I-"

"I should've known it was too good to be true…" Clementine cut him off. "This is on me." She winced, scrunching up her eyes in pain as she looked back up to her feet, firmly tucked away in the noose shaped rope that held them together. She could feel the material rubbing against her ankles, like it was constricting any blood flow from getting through. Every passing second it was starting to hurt more. "Are you okay?" She finally asked, averting her upside down gaze to AJ.

"I'm fine but- you… how am I going to get you out!?"

"Shh, relax. Just-" Clementine paused, Stupid, you're so fucking stupid, Clem! She thought before attempting to compose herself. If she started panicking, it was only natural that AJ would follow suit… and she didn't need that right now. There was no way only one person could have set this whole trap up alone…

"See where those blocks fell down in that netting over there? That's what's keeping me up here. Get your knife and cut that rope."

"O - Okay, I got it." He stammered out as confidently as he could, of course coming off as a total mess He scurried over to the counterweight, digging around in his pack before pulling out a small knife, grabbing hold of one end of the rope and beginning to cut away at it.

"Don't tire yourself out cutting too hard, let the knife do the work." Clementine suggested, trying her damndest not to come off as impatient after a brief moment of silence passed.

"It's… really thick." This knife sucked, and he was cutting away at the dense rope as hard as he could… it felt like he was barely making any progress at all.

"Take your time, there's no-" A crunch in the leaves distracted her for a moment, her head darted off towards the trees, although they obscured her view… there was no doubt about it. Someone was coming… right away she waved off AJ, mouthing the words GO! repeatedly until he finally caught on. She watched as he reluctantly picked up her gun off the ground and darted away, quickly taking cover behind a nearby tree. She was completely helpless like this, and it was all her own damn fault. Clementine let out a small huff of breath, closing her eyes for a moment in an effort to calm herself as she listened to the footsteps get closer and closer.

"Well… someone's in a lot of trouble now, aren't they?" An unfamiliar voice taunted her as its figure finally emerged from the treeline. Out stepped a young man with a smug look on his face, seemingly taking amusement, or pride, in the sight of the strung-up teen.

Clementine stayed silent, fighting the urge to gulp down the lump forming in her throat. He... looked and sounded around her age, possibly african american. The first thing she noticed was his large brown coat that went to his thighs, and his brown hair was made up of small dreads that reached down no further than his cheeks.

"So, this was you then?" The girl asked, squinting her eyes at the other boy, who returned her gaze with a condescending smile.

"Yeah, really didn't think anyone would be dumb enough to get caught in it." He placed his hands on his hips, that smile of his never fading as he looked over to the dug up hole. "But I guess that's what you get for trying to mess around with my shit."

"I… thought it was abandoned. Look, you can have it all back. Just cut me down and I'm gone."

"Nah, don't think so. You took a peek at my stuff, so I think I'm gonna do the same. Only fair." His tone remained carefree and nonchalant with a sarcastic tinge, scoffing out a chuckle as he shook his head. The unnamed kid began to make his way towards Clementine's bag, kneeling down and then unzipping it as he began to dig around and take the items out, including some of hers.

"That's- You're taking everything I have!?" She could feel her anger beginning to bubble up within. This guy's overconfident and snarky demeanour had her sick to her stomach, coupled with the time she was spending upside down. She didn't know how much more she could take of this.

"You were gonna do the same to me. Only difference between us is that you prefer doing it behind people's backs. So cry me an upside down river." He rolled his eyes as he continued to dig around inside of the bag, before grabbing hold of her old hat, his brow raised as he held it up towards Clementine. "This thing looks like it's seen better days. You considered ditching it yet? " He sneered in a rather pretentious manner.

"Don't you fucking touch that!" Clementine's nostrils flared up as she could feel herself beginning to lose control at the sight of him holding the only piece of her past she had left. There was nothing she could do as she saw it go into someone else's hands, except for hopelessly writhe around in anger.

"Or what? You'll come down from there and do something about it? That's real cute." The young teen mocked her again, seemingly getting a kick out of seeing her so riled up. "You can relax. I don't have any use for your private crap. Same goes for… whatever's left of your hat..."

Clementine forcefully bit her tongue lest she'd throw more insults at him. She'd been effectively caught off guard and now he had control of the situation. She watched as he dug around in her backpack, taking whatever he pleased before he got up and went to the backpack her and AJ had originally found, digging through it before she saw that smile finally drop. He turned towards her, his gaze attempting to suppress something akin to irritation.

"My MP3 player. It was in there, and it's not in your backpack, so where is it?"

"How should I know? With your crap job at hiding it, it's almost like you were asking someone to take it. Maybe someone else already did?" She lied, of course.

"I have my reasons for putting that there, but it's really none of your business… so, I'll ask again. where is it?"

That was her bargaining chip… that MP3 player. If she could lull him into a false sense of security, then maybe she'd have a chance at catching him off-guard. She still had her small knife in her jacket. It was just a matter of getting him close enough to actually use it. As she hung there, a brief moment of silence passed as her eyes drifted towards the left, thinking… before she finally looked back towards him.

"How about this? You cut me down and I'll tell you where it is. Deal?"

"Y'know, on second thought. Maybe your private shit can be useful." Throwing aside his usual lighthearted nature, he was starting to get irritated with her complacency as he brushed aside her attempts to bargain.

She knew how to try her luck, he'd give her that. But he was patient, and he'd get it out of her even if it took all damn day. He casually reached over and picked up her hat again, holding it up to her face. "What I wanna know is… just how much you really care about this? Must be a lot right?"

She tried not to react, to give him anything to work with. She was failing at it, horribly. Her eyes trailed his hand as he dangled her ball cap in front of her. Her heart shrieking at the mere of sight of it, she forced her mouth shut. Somehow hoping he'd move on from it.

"Guess not, so it won't matter if I just…" He placed his hand into his back pocket, withdrawing a small lighter as he held it underneath the hat, flicking the flame on and holding it under.

"Okay!" She reached outwards in desperation, finally dropping the facade. Grief ridden all over her face. "Just- please don't," she mumbled out, mentally grimacing as she reached into her jacket pocket, pulling out the MP3 player in defeat.

"There we go. Was that so hard?" The boy's face looked noticeably pleased as he got the results he was looking for. Placing the hat atop her bag, he then extended one hand out. "Now, throw it over."

Clementine looked at his open hand as she considered her options. Something was stopping him from coming over and searching her. The reason being because he probably didn't trust her enough to get too close, it was the right call on his end, but not the one she needed. So Clementine did the only thing she could think of at the moment, she dropped it on the floor just below her. Now you have no choice, asshole.

"You're not a very good listener, are you?" The teen spoke with a tinge of frustration. He'd clearly told her to throw it towards him. She was screwing around with him, but getting his player back was the priority at the moment. Alright, guess I'll bite. "No funny stuff, don't make me have to loot a corpse." He spoke before reaching into his side belt, pulling out a small revolver as he made his way to the girl.

Clementine remained silent, trying to visualize the action she'd take before it was going to happen. Her eyes trailed him as he slowly approached with his gun trained on her. The closer he crept, the more Clem's heart began to race. There was a big chance that this would go wrong. But even if she did nothing, there was no guarantee he'd even let her go… this was the only way in her mind she'd have a chance of getting back to AJ. He knelt down below her, gun still trained on her as he looked down.

That was her window.

"There better not be any scratches on i-" His speech was cut off as Clementine quickly grabbed his arm, using all her strength to divert the barrel of the gun away from her. "What the fuck!" He cried out as he pulled backwards, trying to release himself from her grip as he used both of his hands in a frantic attempt to wrestle the gun away. She quickly reached behind her with her other hand, grabbing a hold of her knife as she pulled it out and swung at him as hard as she could.

Right as the sound of the cold hard metal of the knife tore through the other boy's jacket, the gun went off, not before managing to slice through the fabric and cut his arm before she let go to cover her ear, the other kid stumbling backwards. Clementine squeezed her eyes shut and let out a muffled cry. The ringing sensation being too much to bear, the bullet had narrowly missing her ear. She'd cut him… but she'd missed the killing blow.

"You idiot...!" He grimaced as he got back up to his feet, the gun still in his hand. His left hand cradling the wound just below his right shoulder. She'd got him good. He winced… examining the damage… luckily for him, the cut wasn't too deep. He'd had enough at this point, pointing his revolver directly at the girl with the knife still in her hand. "Drop it!"

"You left me no choice, asshole!" She yelled back, still in pain as she had no other choice to comply. Aggressively throwing the knife down to the side, now using both her hands to press against her ear.

"I was gonna let you go after you gave it back… but now-"

"STOP!" A third voice cried out, AJ stepping out from behind the tree with Clementine's gun drawn on the older teen. The young boy tried to stop his hands from shaking, but the effort proved futile.

"AJ, no!" Clementine yelled out, outstretching her hand. She'd hoped that he'd run off by now… the last thing she needed was him getting involved in this mess and getting hurt. All because of her.

For a moment, the unidentified teen jumped back, holding the revolver towards the source of the noise in a panic, before realising who he was pointing it at. "Oh… another thing you were hiding… A little too small for a rescue party, don't you think?" He noticeably relaxed himself, a smirk returning to his face as he shot Clementine a glance.

"L - let her go! O - or I'll shoot. I will!" AJ threatened with a small quiver, taking a step closer with the pistol raised.

"Wow, getting stuck with a kid this early? My heart goes out to you, honestly." The teen chuckled in AJ's face, sending an amused glance towards Clementine, before returning it to the young boy before him. "Tell me kid, that thing even loaded?" He asked, brow raised. It was usually either two things… people didn't have the stones to pull the trigger, or they didn't have the ammo. And it was definitely one of the two, otherwise by now he'd have a bullet hole in him.

If AJ wasn't already scared, now he was absolutely petrified. Clementine's life was in his hands… in the hands of a gun that didn't have any ammunition left inside… and her captor had already somehow caught on. The tension in the air was cut off by an all too familiar sound of groaning, a shambling corpse that had been attracted by the earlier gunshot made its way into view, heading towards its supposed next meal.

"Looks like we got company. Tell you what? Why don't you go ahead and prove me wrong and shoot this dead guy here. Before she has your friend for lunch." Without giving the young boy a chance to answer, he whistled and waved his hands around, moving behind Clementine whilst he attracted the corpse. "Hey ugly, over here!"

Clementine watched in horror as the walker began to shamble her way, her eyes widening as it directed its attention on to her, beginning to make its way over. Without her weapon… and tied up like this… it was over if it got to her. Her only hope now was that AJ didn't get himself hurt trying to get in the way of that. She was desperate now, so she turned to her last resort, begging.

"Please, I'm the one that took your things. He hasn't done ANYTHING! Leave him out of this!"

"C'mon, any second now it's gonna be chow down time for our dead buddy here. Shoot, like you said you would before." The teen crossed his arms, ignoring Clementine as he focused his attention on the boy, glancing off to the side every fews seconds or so to get a beat on where the walker was.

The gun shook in his hands, AJ froze as he watched the monster approach, until it was only a half dozen feet away from Clementine. He didn't know what to do… any minute that corpse would be on top of her to shred her to pieces. His lower lip began to quiver as the reality began to sink in… he knew it was empty. "I - I can't…" He sobbed, tears beginning to well up in his eyes.

No bullets, figures. The teen finally sighed out as he shook his head, arms now crossed as he watched the walker stumble over, not far from the girl now. The thought did however cross his mind that maybe he was taking this little joke a tad too far, like he usually did… He rolled his eyes as he saw the little boy start to get teary-eyed. Oh for the love of…

"Alright, Alright… Just- don't start the waterworks. You'll attract more… if they're not already on their way." He sighed out as he gave in, reaching for the side of his belt and pulling out a small hatchet. He swiftly got in between the walker and Clementine, with one massive swing downwards he plunged the axe into its head with a crunch. The groans soon subsiding as it fell to the ground with a harsh thud. He then walked over to the netted cinderblocks they'd set up as the counterweight and began to hack away with his hatchet, with a few swings the rope snapped, sending Clementine tumbling down to the ground, freeing her.

Clementine winced as she hit the ground with a thud, her shoulder taking the brunt of the fall. The first thing she grabbed was her hat, placing it back atop her head before freeing her legs from the rope, rubbing her ankles, which had red rings around them at this point. "Clem!" AJ yelped as he ran into her arms, she pulled him in close. Shutting her eyes as she sighed out in relief, in the moment grateful for him simply being okay right now… Thank God.

The nameless teen approached the two survivors, briefly giving the cut below his shoulder a second glance. He hadn't been trumped like that in a long time, so he supposed there was a bit of respect there, even if she did almost kill him. Clementine however didn't seem to share the thought, laying down a vicious gaze on the other boy.

"Easy." He spoke in an attempt to come off as non-threatening. He slowly tucked his revolver behind the back of his pants, before doing the same with his hatchet. "See? No weapons. Let's just chill out… I'll admit, maybe I did take that a little too far, bu-" His speech was abruptly cut off as Clementine was having none of it, she rose to her feet, tackling the other boy over as she dug her knee into his chest, pinning him to the ground as she pressed her knife to his throat, a near barbaric look in her eye.

"Give me ONE good reason why I shouldn't just carve you up and be done with it after the shit you pulled?!" She spoke through gritted teeth, tone like venom.

The teen kept his gaze to the sky, fearing that if he looked towards the girl that knife would start to pierce his throat. He gulped… silent for a moment. "You can call me Louis, by the way." Even as he gasped for air, he still attempted to be humorous.

"If you're still open to making that deal… I could show you a place where you and the kid might be safe. Same place where I'm from, actually…. Only kids are allowed there, so you'd probably fit in pretty well... But if you find slitting my throat more appealing, by all means, it's your life."

Clementine scoffed at his little spiel of bullshit, going on about safe places like they just grew on trees, this whole area was a wasteland. "Even if that was true, why the hell do you think we'd go anywhere with you?"

She death-stared him, expecting a response… but Louis fell silent. All she felt was a cold chill going down her spine as she looked up, hearing the sound of several guns being prepped as multiple figures emerged from the treeline, all aiming their weapons at her.

Louis' eyes fanned over to the side for a moment, a smirk starting to form on his face yet again. "Well, with the way it's starting to look… you might not have a choice."

Author's Notes: Alright we made it to the end : ) So yeah long story short this is pretty much my take on a possible starting point for the final season, some details were altered so consider this an AU of sorts with inspiration from the yet to come canon story of TFS. Even though there will be characters in this story who's personalities we don't know about yet I decided to go off what little information we were given about them since I thought it'd make a nice challenge to write. Hopefully ya'll liked it, and we'll see where it goes from here : )

Special shout out to my buddies Art and Dot for continually beta reading the chapters to this story, thanks a bunch!