AN: So about the next chapter coming sooner... I'm sorry guys. I know I really dropped the ball on this one. College has been brutal, and the only reason I got this chapter done was due to thanksgiving break. I'd like to say the next chapter will come shortly after this one, but it will probably be around my Christmas break about a month from now. I'm sorry guys, but this is what it will take if I want my chapters to be remotely decent.

Also, if you don't know, tales from the borderlands is out. It's really well done, and I highly recommend it. Furthermore, I hope you all have a happy Thanksgiving.

With that, enjoy the most recent chapter.

Clementine:

She opened the door and walked back outside while she heard some footsteps to her left. I need to tell the others about the radio.

"Hey kid, what were you doing in there?" Clementine turned towards her left and saw Vince walking towards her.

"I was..." What do I say? "I was looking at the comics in there." She bent her head down in order to hide what she hoped Vince would think was embarrassment. To her surprise, that got a chuckle out of the guard.

"I loved those things when I was your age." The older man turned to face the store with the smile. Please don't see Luke. "Can't say I blame you. Still, " he made his voice a bit firmer now as he continued, "I can't have you going in there. That place is off limits."

"It won't happen again." Clementine lied.

"Good. Than we won't have any problems. Also, I was heading down here to let you know that Bill radioed me, said he wanted to see you up in his office. He doesn't like waiting, so I'd hurry if I were you."

"Got it." Clementine turned around and walked back inside. She could see Carver talking with Bonnie up in his office. Did she really tell Carver that I told her about what happened to Reggie? She suppressed her panic and headed towards the office. By the time she could see the staircase leading up to it, Bonnie was heading down with a blank look on her face. "Are you alright?"

Bonnie didn't look at her and kept walking towards her. "No. Be careful around him." Bonnie said to her as she walked past. This is bad. What did Carver say to her? Clementine stopped at the bottom of the stairs. Delaying can't make things better, but it can make things worse. If worst comes to worse, I have a gun. She walked up the stairs and knocked at the door.

"Hold on a second Clementine." She heard Carver say on the other side of the door, followed by the sound of a desk drawer opening. What is he getting? A few seconds later, she heard the click of the door being unlocked. "Come on in." She opened the door, and was greeted by the barrel of a gun. "Now, hand it over."

"What?"She said as she lifted her hands up.

"The gun you stole from the armory." Carver said with a smirk on his face. "Do you really think I'm as dumb as Bonnie and the rest of them? Hand over the gun."

So that's what he really thinks about the rest of them. Clementine reached behind her back and slowly pulled out the gun she had hidden underneath her coat and tossed it on the floor towards Carver. While keeping his revolver aimed towards her, he bent down and picked up the pistol from the floor. "Well, I guess we're even now."

"Huh?"

"You pointed your gun at me back in the cabin, shortly after we first met. Remember?" He turned around and walked back towards his desk. Clementine took a look around the room and saw Alvin handcuffed to a chair, unconscious and beaten bloody.

"Alvin!" She said as she walked over to the chair. After shaking his arm and seeing that he wouldn't wake up, turned and glared at Carver. "What did you do to him?"

Carver had a sober look on his face. "That wasn't me kid. That was Shel's doing. In case you haven't heard, Alvin killed someone while he escaped. I figured that Shel, being the closest family member to George, should be the one to determine the severity of the punishment. She carried out the sentence herself. To be honest, I figured that she would have just shot him and been done with it. However, this is what she choose, so thats that. As it turns out, she told me she's even gonna try to forgive him."

I doubt that he'll be forgiving her for this. Clementine walked towards Carver's desk. "About what you said before, about being even, we're not. You slapped me to the ground shortly before we got here."

"I know. That's one of the many things I wanted to talk to you about in here, where we can be one somewhat more equal footing, so to say. You can speak to me freely here." Carver said. "If you really want to get back at me for that, you're gonna have to wait a couple of years until you're tall enough to slap me without jumping up first." Clementine had to suppress a smirk at that. Just because he's funny doesn't mean he can get away with murder.

"So... Why am I up here?"

"For a lot of reasons. First, I have something for you." Carver opened his desk and pulled out a torn photograph that she immediately recognized. "We found this in the bag with the flowers on it, we figured that must have belonged to you." Clementine looked at the photo for a moment before putting it in her coat pocket. "I take it that this is the photo of you're real dad."

"No. This was Lee. He protected me when the outbreak started."

Carver's eyes widened a bit. "Wait... I know you were lying about your dad actually being back at the cabin, but was your father actually an engineer named Edward?"

"Well, everyone called him Ed, but yeah. That much was true. Why do you even care?"

"What school did he go to?" Carver asked, ignoring her question.

"University of Georgia." Where Lee taught.

"And what was your mother's name?"

"Dianna." Did he know my dad?

"Well I'll be damned." Carver said as he leaned back in his chair. "To think that I'm meeting the daughter of the man who saved my life." What! Carver smiled. "He had just gotten out of college and just gotten married to your mother. I hired him to help me finis up some work in a office building, I forget what it was called. This happened, what... over 20 years ago by now? Anyways, we were wrapping up the project, and I was doing some last minute work on some wiring. I was careless and touched a live wire. Your father was the one who grabbed a stepping stool nearby and pushed my jerking, electrocuted body away from the wire. If he hadn't been there... I would have wound up like one of the lurker husks on that fence you had set up around the cabin."

Why does he get to live, while my dad died? "So... what does this mean for me?"

"More than you might think. I took your parents out to dinner a few times to this really fancy place in order to thank him. I would have done more, but that's all your father would accept, and it was hard enough to convince him to accept even that. I owed your father a lot more, than I was able to repay him. Now that your're here... well, that debt is now owed to you. I'll get to that part later."

"Okay... and thank you for the picture."

"Not a problem. But I have to ask... do you know how he died?" Carver said.

Clementine stared down at the floor. "They were in Savannah when the outbreak started. I was left back in Atlanta with a babysitter. I survived in my tree house for a few days, until Lee found me. We joined a group of other survivors, which actually included Kenny. Eventually, we wound up heading towards Savannah. I tried running away from the group to try and find them, but they had already turned."

"I'm truly sorry to here that Clementine. I know your parents was excellent people, they deserved better than that."

Who didn't deserve better than that. "Thanks." Clementine looked back up to Carver, who seemed to have a genuine look of sorrow on his face as he was staring over at Alvin. He saw her looking at him, and the face of stern but friendly settlement leader was back on his face. "One other question. Is there any reason I should recognize that man, Lee, from the photograph? His face seems vaguely familiar. Was he some sort of politician or something?

"Actually he was convicted for murder. His full name was Lee Everett, he killed a state senator who he caught sleeping with his wife." Clementine couldn't make heads or tales of the expression on Carver's face for a couple of moments.

"Ah... Well then." Carver said, trying to regain his calm and collected composure. "Now, back to business. You're probably wondering why I shoved Reggie off a roof for something that wasn't even his fault."

"Wait, you knew that-"

"Of course I knew that you were trying to cover for Sarah. It's not like those glass walls are soundproof, I heard you talking to her before I walked inside."

"Than why did you murder Reggie!? Even if it was his fault, he didn't deserve that. Not over a bunch of berries."

Carver leaned forward, resting his elbows on the desk. "Clementine, you're absolutely right. He didn't deserve that. It's a damn shame you got him killed like that."

"What are you talking about? You're the one who shoved him off the roof!"

"I ain't trying to deny that. All I'm saying is you're the reason why I shoved him off the roof."

"But that doesn't make any sense. I didn't-" Carver raised his hand in the air, cutting her off.

"How about this. Let me finish, then you can ask as many questions as you want. It'll make this simpler for both of us."

"Fine. Go ahead."

"Thank you Clementine. I appreciate it. As I was trying to say, the only reason I pushed Reggie off the roof was because I knew you were covering for Sarah." Clementine started to open her mouth, but choose to let Carver continue. "I'm not happy about the state of the world as it is now, and I'm doing everything in my power to bring things back the way they were before all of this. But in the meantime, certain... sacrifices have to be made for the good of everyone. Protecting weakness, how you've been helping Sarah along, I admire it. Truly, I do. But this is simply a luxury we can't afford."

Carver stood up at this and turned to face the window that was on the back wall of his office. "Come on over here, take a look." Clementine got up and looked out of his window, down at all the people milling about, doing work, chatting, and various things daily post-apocalyptic life entailed. "Every one of those men and women keep each other safe. There isn't a person here who wouldn't trust someone here to watch their back. We've got lives that are easier compared to most people surviving out there, but all of these people have been toughened to one extent or another. Myself most of all. Every last one of them is alive because of what I've done. Other than the friends you met out in the woods, pretty much everyone here you'd ask would say I've kept them alive." Clementine saw him look down at her from the corner of her eyes. "You see, back in that cabin, I told you I wasn't a bad guy. I wasn't lying. What sort of evil person would do this much good for this much people? You see, I only killed Reggie to prove a point to you: Protecting weakness will only result in getting everyone else around the week person killed. A group is only as strong as it's weakest member. If you were surrounded by two dozen lurkers and had nothing but a pistol and a hammer between the two of you, would you want Sarah watching your back? Protecting her the way you have been might not have any consequences when it comes to picking berries. Thats why I had to create one. But you can be damn sure the stakes are much higher outside these walls. But I don't need to tell you that, do I?"

... He has a point. "I... I have some questions."

"I expected as much. Come on, follow me." Carver headed out of his office, and Clementine followed him. She saw that he was heading up another flight of stairs towards the roof. "And by the way, whoever gave you that godawful jacket deserves to be shot. It's hideous."It's not that bad, is it? Clementine looked down at the sky blue jacket and grimaced.

"Back in the cabin... how did you know I wasn't going to shoot you?" Clementine asked as she walked out onto the roof.

Carver was silent for a moment. Before he shrugged. "Eh, I might as well let you in on my little trick, it might save your life some day." Carver walked a bit closer to the edge of the roof, as if he was trying to get a clearer view of the parking lot. He turned back around to face Clementine, who had started leaning back against the wall next to the door. "First of all, I didn't know that you weren't going to shoot me, all I knew was that you weren't going to shoot me in the head. And that's all that mattered." He unzipped his jacket and revealed a bulletproof vest underneath his heavy coat. It's a good thing I didn't shoot. "I could tell that you weren't aiming at my head. If you were, I would have been able to see down the barrel of your gun, but I couldn't at the angle you had it at. You were aiming for my chest."

Impressive. "That... that is a cool trick."

"Yep. Read about it in some novel. I've had to do it before, it works." Carver said as he zipped his jacket back up.

"But," Clementine said."What if I had shot you in the leg or the arm?

"You might have been able to do that, but I still would have had a decent chance of running out of the house after your first shot."

Clementine didn't have anything to say to that. "Anyways." Carver continued, "I have an offer to make you. Follow me." Carver walked up towards the other side of the roof, towards a set of stairs that lead up to the higher portion of the roof. "I want you to take a look around."

The horizon was much farther than she expected it to be. Now that she was high enough above the height of all the trees, she could see for miles around. She could see some buildings off in the distance, towns, cities. Well it's a nice view, but I don't understand

"Well Ed." Carver said while looking up at the sky, interrupting her thoughts. "I think letting your daughter help rule what's left of this country counts as paying off the debt I owe you."

"What? You can't be serious- I'm"

"I'm serious." Carver turned around to face her. "In case you haven't noticed, I'm not getting any younger, and day to day life has taken it's toll. This hair was jet black when this started." Carver said while pointed at his head. "I see something in you." He walked forward and crouched down to her level. "I realized it almost as soon as I met you. You can keep you nerve under pressure. You're smart, and of course, you couldn't have survived this long otherwise at your age if you weren't mature beyond your years." He got back up, and walked towards the edge of the building again.

You're a murderer. You killed Walter and Reggie, and God only knows what else you've done! "I'm not like you. I wouldn't kill someone just to prove a point!" She said in a voice just below a yell. Carver sighed.

"I don't expect you to accept all of this at once. All I'm asking you is to trust me for a while. You'll come around to my way of thinking soon enough." Not being able to think of a good response, the young girl looked down at the floor. "Look. Here's how this can work. I'll be letting you out of the pen in a week. I can say you aren't really to blame for what the rest of them have done, and" he continued in a patronizing voice, "that you're just a kid." He switched back to his normal tone, "They'll believe me. At the moment you're smart, but your education stopped in, what? Third grade?"

"I was going to go into forth grade after the summer everything started." Clementine said.

"We can fix that. I'll educate you myself. It'll take a long while, but we've got plenty of time before you become an adult. To be perfectly honest, I don't know how my son or daughter will turn out, what type of person they'll grow up to be. All I know right now is that you have what it takes to run much more than this place. I want you're help. I want you to help my child lead the next generation, and to start helping me lead this one."

"We can help people. People like you and me, we have to wear a heavy burden: to keep humanity alive."He extended his hand down to her, the same way he did back at the cabin when he introduced himself as George." It falls to people like us to lead mankind, to safety. This cannot be the final chapter of history. We can beat this plague, put the lurker's back into the ground where they belong, and bring peace and comfort to those poor, wretched souls barely scraping by

I hope he doesn't know that I'm lying. "I... I'll help you." She said as as she reached out her hand and clasped Carver's.

"I'm pleased to hear it." He said."I hope that I don't need to tell you that this conversation stays between us." Clementine nodded her head. "That's good. Now, let's head back down to my office. There's someone I want you to meat, she'll give you a tour of the place before dinnertime for you folks." Carver walked past her as she was thinking to herself.

Maybe I can get the radios while I'm on my tour?