"Okay, go again."

AJ was leaning forward from the backseat, his right hand on Lee's shoulder as the older man explained a road trip game he used to play. Clementine sat at the driver's seat, her hands on the ten and two position, following Lee's previous instructions to keep her eyes on the road.

Lee chuckled and nodded, his eyes on the dashboard, examining the lights displayed there. There wasn't really an abundance of oil in the apocalypse, but they had managed to find a half-full can in an abandoned gas station. Lee had called it half-empty, but Clementine liked to think positively. The speedometer read 65 miles per hour, the speed limit before all hell broke loose and laws had ceased to exist.

The afternoon sun was setting ahead of them, a beacon of light guiding them west in their quest to find a home. It was a yellowish orange, Clem's favorite color.

"So, you have to find a license plate from another state; in this case, one that isn't from West Virginia," Lee explained for the third time, pointing to a busted car on the side of the road to use as an example. "When you find one, you call out the name of the state you found and you get a point."

"There aren't many cars around," AJ pointed out, squinting as another broken-down car. Unfortunately, it boasted West Virginia's plate, so he slumped back. "This is boring."

"It used to be much more fun," Clem said, her eyes glued to the road. "I remember my dad used to let me win all the time. He thought I didn't notice, but I didn't mind."

Silence fell over the threesome. The engine revved as Clem drove through the countryside, avoiding potholes and bodies alike. At one point, they passed a crawling walker on the right, its arm reaching forward for them. Clem liked those moments where they would sit in silence and just admire the sunset.

Clem's moment of silence was broken by AJ's stomach grumbling. She looked to her right and exchanged a look with Lee. He frowned. They hadn't found food in at least two days, and their rations were getting scarce. Lee reached into the backpack at his feet and produced a small open bag of chips. He shook it gently and they heard its crinkling.

"Here you go, kiddo," Lee said, reaching over the seat and handing him the bag. "Enjoy."

AJ looked down at the bag and frowned. "What about you guys?"

Lee and Clem shared another look and smiled. "We'll find something else soon," Clem promised. "Dig in."

They drove on, listening to AJ's hesitant chewing. Just before Clem lost all hope of keeping her word, she spotted a small side street that seemed to be blocked off by two upturned train cars. She parked right beside a fenced-out entrance with a small bell hanging from a post. A sign over it read "Ring if you're friendly."

Lee looked over Clem's shoulder and examined the area. The train cars had formed a narrow pathway that led to a shack. It looked to be abandoned, but they had learned the hard way not to make those assumptions too fast. He looked to the girl and nodded. "You think we could find something here?"

"Worth a shot," Clem said, shrugging. She opened the door and stepped out of the car. Lee and AJ followed. She opened the trunk and grabbed a crowbar for herself. Lee had taught her how to swing it with deadly force. She liked the way the weight felt in her hands.

They walked toward the fences. The three of them shared a look as they saw the sign over the bell and silently agreed that ringing it would not be the best idea. Clem led the way in, followed by AJ, Lee holding the rear. The small makeshift hallway was empty, as far as Clementine could tell. Signs of people having lived there littered the place, however: empty sacks of potatoes, a broken-down radio, and at least a dozen pieces of torn clothing.

When they got to the shack, a gurgling noise caught Clem's attention. A walker had risen to their right, waddling its way to them, its arms outstretched. With a sigh, Clem stepped forward and swung her crowbar. She caught the walker clean on the side of the face with a crack, and the monster fell to the ground, unmoving.

"Nice one," Lee complimented, kneeling down to search the body. He sighed. "Nothing."

"Figured," Clem said. "Let's keep looking."

Clem approached the porch of the shack. The door was a deep red with scratches all over it, its peephole covered with tape. Before she had a chance to go in and inspect the house, he heard AJ call for Lee.

"What's this?" he asked, pointing at a tire hanging from a tree branch.

"That's a swing," Lee answered, kneeling down to AJ's level. "You get in here, and someone pushes you so you go real high."

"Oh," AJ said, tilting his head, "like when you pushed Clem when she was little?"

"Exactly, AJ," Lee said, ruffling the boy's hair. "Once we clear this place, I'll push you if you want."

AJ smiled and nodded. "I'd like that… after we clear the house, of course."

"Of course."

Smiling, Clem turned back to the door and tried the handle. Locked. Of course, thought Clem, rolling her eyes. She jammed the crowbar in the crack between the door and the frame and pulled to pry it open, much like Lee had taught her. In one swift motion, the door had creaked open.

She called Lee and AJ and the two of them followed her in, looking around. The house consisted of a single room attached to what looked like a ticket booth behind bars. On the right was a table with unwashed dishes and empty jars on it. The walls were plastered with posters, most of which hung lopsided on a single tack, their messages long gone.

To their left, however, they saw two walkers tied to chairs, their hands reaching for the newcomers. It was a woman and a man, or they had been in life. Now, the only difference between them was the length of what little hair they had left on their heads. Their dead, expressionless eyes looked through Clem, Lee, and AJ, seeing only prey to hunt.

At the feet of what Clem assumed had been the man was a small piece of paper and a bottle. The bottle was labeled 'Poison'. Clem saw a small keychain with two silver keys hanging off the man's belt, dangling slowly as the walker reached for its target.

"Please leave us alone. This is what we wanted," read Clementine, frowning.

"Did they give up?" AJ asked.

"I guess so," Lee said, taking the paper gently from Clem's hands. "A lot of people can't handle this world, and they take what they think is the easy way out."

"Trust me," Clem said, hugging herself and looking away. "It's not easy."

Lee looked down at her with a sad expression, understanding in his eyes. He placed a hand on her shoulder and nodded. She did the same, making an effort not to let the tears fill her eyes. Composing herself, she searched the barred gate, which stood beside yet another locked door. No way of prying that open, she thought ruefully. She noticed a small opening in the bars.

"Can't fit through those anymore," she commented to Lee, grinning.

"Nope." He chuckled.

"I could," AJ offered, raising his hand as if he were in class.

"Hmm, too risky," Lee said, looking back at the couple. "The keys are a much safer bet."

"I agree," Clem said, nodding. "No need to risk your life, buddy."

She stepped up and produced a hunting knife from her back pocket. She stood behind the walkers and disposed of them, muttering, "Sorry," as she did. When the job was done, Lee reached over and grabbed the keys off the male walker's belt loops.

The room attached to the locked door was even smaller than the first. There were empty shelves directly in front of the door, dust covering most of their surface. A lumpy mattress stood in the middle of the room, the covers strewn all over the place. On the other side, a wooden crib stood in a corner.

Clem approached it slowly, her knife shaking in her hand. It was empty, yet that was somehow worse. If her imagination was to be believed, she couldn't really blame the couple…

"Can we stay here?" AJ asked Clem and Lee, who shared a look. "No one's here… no one's ever anywhere. It's always just monsters."

"Not a lot of people left, kiddo," Lee pointed out, crossing his arms.

"That's sad," he said. "How many did there use to be?"

"About six billion people," Lee said, grinning.

"How many is that?"

"A whole lot," said Clem, "So many."

Frowning, AJ looked around the room. He seemed to have spotted something, for he ran to the other side of the room by the barred window. She turned to see AJ taking two bullets from the counter, examining them and loading them onto his trusty revolver. By her count, they had been out of ammo for about a week.

"Just a few," he said out loud.

"Remember what we said?" Clem said, kneeling beside the boy. Lee watched from the sidelines, his arms crossed. "You know this. Always…"

"Always keep the last bullet for myself," AJ muttered.

"That's right." She hated having to remind him of that, yet it was necessary. She never knew when would be the last time she reviewed the rules with him.

"C'mon, let's keep looking," Lee suggested. "These people can't have survived without some food."

And so they searched, coming up empty-handed. They scoured the room, upturning what little furniture the couple had had. At last, Lee almost cried out in glee, yet he grunted in distaste almost immediately.

"Damn, they're rotten," Lee said behind her and she turned. He was holding a moldy-looking jar of beans, fungus growing on the top.

"Fuck," AJ exclaimed, crossing his arms.

"C'mon, AJ," Lee said, frowning. "What did I say about swearing?"

"You let Clem swear," AJ complained, his eyes traveling from Lee to the girl he considered his sister.

Lee looked over his shoulder and to Clem, who shrugged. "That's because she's older," he reasoned, looking back at AJ. "Kids aren't supposed to swear."

"I guess…" AJ said dejectedly. Lee dropped the jar on the floor and it rolled over to the bed. "Hey, look!" AJ exclaimed, pointing at the jar.

Beneath it was what looked to be the corner of a trapdoor, hidden below the mattress. Both Clem and Lee kneeled to move it, exposing a wooden door in the floor, its handle rusted from weeks – years, probably – of disrepair. Quickly, Lee leaned in and opened the trapdoor, which cracked softly as something clicked nearby.

Inside a sizeable hole in the ground, dozens of jars, bags, and small containers filled with food were neatly stacked onto one another. Dust didn't seem to have reached this part of the shack yet, as they were mostly in pristine conditions.

"Oh my god," Lee said under his breath, his eyes wide. "Jackpot."

"We could eat for weeks with this stuff," Clem said, smiling.

Their elation, however, was short-lived. Barely two seconds later, they spotted a small green orb rolling its way from a hiding spot into the middle of the hole. Both Clem and Lee yelled,

"It's rigged!"

Lee jumped to the side and took AJ and Clem in his arms, landing on the ground with a thud before the grenade went off. A resounding bang filled their ears, ringing softly. Dust particles covered them from head to toe as the threesome got up, coughing.

"You guys okay?" Lee managed to say, examining Clem's bleeding forehead. Luckily, they were otherwise unscathed.

"We're fine," Clem assured him. "We need to get out of here."

As if on cue, the sounds of walkers erupted all around them, seemingly appearing out of nowhere. They scrambled to their feet and rushed to the door, swinging it open. Lee led the way, Clem and AJ right on his heels. Walkers had started to trickle in, three of which had found their way into the narrow hallway between the two train cars.

"Here!" Clem exclaimed, throwing the crowbar to Lee, who caught it with one hand.

As they ran, Lee disposed of the walkers with ease, swinging back and forth and cracking their skulls. By the time they got to the end and past the fences, at least two dozen walkers had rounded on them from different directions, surrounding the car and the road around them.

Clem rushed to the driver's side and got in, slamming the door behind her. Lee sat on the front and AJ jumped in the back. More of them had surrounded them, two walkers banging on the windows. The one banging on Clementine's side managed to smash the glass. Its hand reached into the car, grabbing Clem's face.

"Clementine!" AJ yelled as Lee reached for his knife and plunged it deep into the walker's face, killing it. Clem pushed the body off her and shakily turned the car keys. The engine revved as it sparked to life.

"Go!" Lee urged.

She followed the steps he had taught her, removing the brake and putting it in reverse, and then her feet did the rest. With some effort, the car backed up until they skidded to a halt. They had hit a pair of walkers that had made a beeline for the back of the car.

She had barely switched gears when another walker broke through Lee's window and took hold of his right wrist, holding it in a death grip. He punched the walker in the face, cracked its nose several times until its grip gave way. When he was free, Clementine pressed hard on the accelerator.

They seemed to be out of the woods, yet as fate would have it, they were never that lucky. They had moved a mere twenty feet when three walkers seemed to materialize to their right, launching themselves in front of the car. Clementine swerved to the left, trying to avoid the crash. She drove off the side of the road and into a large ditch, which flipped their car on its head. They landed with a crash, their seatbelts saving them from expulsion from the car.

The world spun around as Clementine made a herculean effort to remove her seatbelt. She landed with a thud on the roof of the car, her vision blurry. She looked around. Outside the back window, she spotted AJ crawling out of the car, a large cut on his left cheek. Lee struggled against a walker that had followed them to the ditch.

As AJ collapsed on the ground outside, Clem reached for him. Her body was numb. She made an effort to remain conscious, but the darkness seemed to be tugging at her. She fought it for as long as she could, long enough to see two pairs of legs rushing to the side of the car. One of the newcomers picked AJ up.

"No," Clem gasped. The air had been knocked out of her lungs. She could barely breathe. "Don't take him…" was the last thing she could say before darkness consumed her.

She awoke in a dingy room, lying on a rather comfortable bed. As her eyes adjusted to the new lighting, she looked around. She was in what looked to be a dorm room, possibly in a school. A bunk bed stood opposite the one she was on. To its right, there was a desk and a chair, both clean of debris. Her head was pounding from the pain, but when she tried to get up, something impeded it.

Her left hand was tied to the bedpost with duct tape. Frowning, she removed the tape and sat up on the bed. Her hat was on the bedside table. When she put it on, she noticed she was wearing a bandage around her head.

"Must have been in rough shape," she muttered to herself. "What is this place?"

She tried the door, but it was locked. Figures. She looked around the room, searching for something to help her dire situation. The afternoon sun shone through the boarded-up window, casting shadows on the hardwood floor.

She opened the closet beside the desk and spotted a small toolbox on a top shelf. Using the chair, she reached for it and searched inside. It was mostly filled with colored pencils and art supplies.

"Got it," she said, producing from the box a palette knife.

Jimmying the door was easy. She wasn't prepared for what greeted her, however. The hallway beyond the door was empty, its walls covered in scribbles from who she assumed were the students that lived here. Outside, someone was yelling at the top of their lungs, small voices trailing after it. She strained her ears and realized it wasn't just anyone yelling.

"AJ!" she exclaimed, breaking into a run through the halls, searching for an exit.

She found one fairly quickly, bursting through the double doors into a courtyard. It was circular, with about four tables littering most of it and a flagpole in the middle of it, sporting a crude hand-made flag.

"Where is he?" AJ was yelling, aiming his gun at a boy with bright blond hair stylized into a mullet. Two other kids stood by the blond boy, whom Clem assumed was their leader. They pleaded with AJ, their hands raised.

"AJ!" she yelled over his voice, cutting him off. "What's going on?"

"Clem!" the boy said, lowering the gun and rushing to her. He wrapped his arms around her legs, and she hugged him back. "You're okay."

She kneeled to his side and examined him closely. Other than a small cut on his cheek, probably from the crash, he seemed unscathed. "No bites?"

"No bites."

"What the hell is going on?" she heard the blond boy say in a commanding voice. He wore a school jacket with a big R embroided to its breast, jeans and comfortable-looking boots. Tied to his back was a compound bow, two arrows attached to its side.

She turned to him, her hands at her hips.

"Why don't you tell me?" she said. "Why was AJ pointing a gun at you?"

"How should we know?" the boy said, shrugging. "He kept yammering on about a man and then he pulled that shit out."

"A man?"

"Lee!" AJ said angrily. "They won't tell me where Lee is."

"What?" Clem said, fear creeping up her spine. Turning to the group of teenagers, her glare focused on the leader. "There was a man with us in that car. Tall, short hair, black. Wears a blue shirt."

"He was with you guys?" the leader said, frowning.

"Of course, you dumbass," Clem exclaimed, controlling the urge to roll her eyes. "He was in the same car as us."

"We thought he was kidnapping you guys or something."

"So what did you do to him?" she asked, venom in her voice.

The leader shifted uncomfortably on the balls of his feet, shooting a quick glance at another boy with dreads and an overlarge trench coat. He seemed to be weighing his words, yet the ones that came out were most definitely not to Clem's liking.

"We, uh, left him there."

"YOU WHAT?" Clem exploded, taking two commanding strides forward until she was inches from the boy. "You left my dad in a wrecked car surrounded by a dozen walkers?"

"He's your dad…? Oh, we didn't…" the boy stammered, his expression faltering.

In reality, Lee wasn't her father, nor was he AJ's, but she had come to see him as a father figure over their eight years together. After all, she had spent nearly as much of her life with Lee as with her real parents. She'd been through thick and thin with Lee, and the thought of him succumbing to such a gruesome death was too much to bear.

"Where's my stuff?" she said coldly, looking the boy straight in the eye.

"Back in the admin building," he said, jabbing a thumb behind him. "You're not going to get him, right?"

"Like hell, I'm not," she exclaimed, rushing past him and into the building. Luckily for her, her backpack was a short way from the door, leaning against an empty trophy cabinet. She threw it over her shoulder and walked back outside, where AJ seemed to have taken the hint and was getting ready by the gate as well.

"You're going alone?" one of the boys asked. She looked at him. It was the guy with dreads and the trench coat. His expression was one of compassion, yet Clem's rage was too hot to pay him much attention. With a simple, "yes," she dismissed him.

She strode over to AJ, nodding to him like she and Lee always did before doing something dangerous, as if to say, "I'll have your back and you'll have mine." Before they could venture out the gates, a hand gripped her wrist, locking her in place.

"Let me go," she cursed, pulling hard. It was the third boy, with short brown hair and the beginnings of a beard on his chin.

"We'll go with you," he said, nodding. "Louis and I will take you there. You guys have no idea where the station is from here, right? We do."

"I… no, I guess not," she conceded, slumping her shoulders as his grip loosened.

"Don't worry," the boy named Louis said, taking hold of his coat flaps in what he must have assumed was a comical sight. "We'll help you get your dad back, it's the least we can do."

"You guys can't be serious," the leader said, his expression shifting from defiance to something Clem could only attribute to fear. "That's way outside the safe zone. We got lucky once, we won't –"

"Marlon, just shut up," the boy with the patchy beard said, rolling his eyes and taking a bow from a rack attached to the makeshift watchtower. "We left him there, we can't leave him."

"He's an adult!" Marlon said as if that settled the matter. "We can't trust him, Aasim."

"He may be an adult, but she clearly cares about him," Aasim argued. "We should at least try."

"I… I don't…" Marlon stammered, searching for words of defiance that wouldn't come. "Ugh, alright, but be quick, and be safe. We can't afford to lose more people."

"Don't worry, safe is my middle name," Louis quipped, grinning at the boy. "Actually, it's Jacob, but safe sounds much better under the circumstances."

Clem was getting tired of this pointless banter. For all she knew, Lee was fighting for his life as they spoke, and she was not waiting another second.

"Okay, are we leaving or not?" she asked impatiently, with one foot out the gate.

"Sure thing," Aasim said, nodding. He walked past her and motioned for Louis, Clem, and AJ to follow.

"Lead the way, I guess," Clem said, fear replacing impatience. What if they were too late already? No, Clementine, stop it. She had to hope against hope that Lee could hold out.

"We're coming, Lee," she whispered to herself, closing her eyes.