Archive of Our Own

Chapter Text

    Recent days have brought along a bitter chill as winter steadily approaches. The thick blanket of clouds above shift and dissipate as strong gusts of wind blow them westward. Through newly uncovered patches in the sky, the sun’s rays break through to cast the dilapidated school grounds in an almost whimsical lighting. The bright beams make their way through iron bars and wooden boards to paint inconsistent patches of light upon the derelict dorms walls and floors. The infiltrating golden hues along with the rooms angled shadows are an ideal stage to reflect the dust and dirt adrift in the air, accenting their lackadaisical dance. The particles performance mirroring the languid movements of a blonde girl laying at the top of a threadbare bunk bed in her dirty dorm.

    Slowly opening her eyes, she squeezes them shut a few times, trying to blink away the slight sting of repose. With drawn out, dramatized movements she stretches her limbs, arching her back to pop satisfyingly. Sighing and sitting up with a low hung head, she drags her body to a sitting position at the edge of her mattress. Here she further slows her movements, hoping to protract her comfortable detachment as long as she could. With a heavy heart and an addlepated mind, leaving her room seems more arduous a task with each passing day.

    Where once this kind of calm serenity brought with it a paltry amount of succor, now only foments suspense and inquietude. A fertile field for thoughts and recognized truths to form and fall, as her mind vacillates between the diametrically opposed realities of now and ere.

    As it is wont to do, unbidden and without warning her mind strays to the vicissitude of this past year. These last few months she has been trying to actively avoid memories of Sophie and Minnie, though admittedly, not very successfully. She knows after almost a whole year it shouldn't affect her so deeply, but as time drags by she’s found that the pain hasn’t gotten any easier to manage or rationalize. Her mind went to work supplying her with the different possibilities of different actions, different outcomes of different scenarios.

‘If I got off my fucking ass and-’

    As the familiar thought flits to the surface she shakes her head in an attempt to dismiss the incessant remorse, hoping to avoid another day of contrition. Before she can become anymore encumbered by her burdensome thoughts she jumps off her bunk, bending her knees when she lands to ensure a soft, quiet landing. Walking out of her room and closing the door behind her she makes her way to the courtyard, mind set on breakfast.

    When she steps into the sun the first sight to greet her was Mitch, Brody, and Aasim eating at a table. It was a bit early for the courtyard to be bustling, but the three were planning on hunting this afternoon, trying to make up for the exiguity of resources within the shrinking safe zone with sheer will. Violet herself was only out and about because she was covering Omar’s watch, well... not just yet.

“Morning guys.” she greets, her naturally soft lilt carrying a rasp from her recent rest as she walks towards the fire pit, rousing a round of responding ‘morning’s’ from the table as she passed by.

After grabbing herself a small portion of Omar’s Overnights from the cauldron simmering above a small fire, Violet trudges over to sit alone at the table horizontally across from the trio. In her peripheral she can see Brody look over to her, but can’t summon the will to return the favor, instead starting on her breakfast. As she catches Brody’s downcast expression return to her own bowl Violet immediately feels her inured guilt begin to tug at her heart and instinctively, she tucks her head further down. As an innocuous quiet settles, only broken by the occasional clank of silver on ceramic, Violet begins to feel herself grow warmer, becoming somewhat uncomfortable. She settles on trying to finish her bowl as swiftly as possible, wanting to truncate her isolated awkwardness. The meager serving along with her hastened pace works to her intention, allowing her to finish her meal before the others.

“I’ve got watch. Good luck out there.” Violet coolly announces with a departing wave, feeling prepared to start her lookout at her preferred vantage point.

“See ya later, Vi. Don’t let Louis touch my stuff while I’m gone, please.” Aasim amiably responds, waving her off before looking back to his food to slurp a scoop into his mouth. Mitch and Brody each give her a nod in acknowledgement, “See ya.” Brody adds with a grin.

Violet walks to the overgrown wall, following it until she comes across her usual footholds. With routine ease she scales the wall, pulling herself over the lip to calmly sit atop the stone enclosure. Dangling her legs over the outer edge she takes in her immediate surroundings. Casting her eyes indiscriminately throughout the woods, through the darkness and the shadows, numerous walkers shamble along, stumbling over the detritus and stones.

‘Shit. A lot of deadheads. That’s gonna be loads of fun to deal with later.’

This sizeable a herd is rare sight to see so close to the school, but if she took a wild guess, the explosion and subsequent car crash probably has something to do with it. She astutely watched as they roamed like wild animals in their habitat, gurgling and hissing at nothing. Eventually, the majority of the mass nearest migrated further down the dirt path, dropping the volume enough to reveal the comforting susurrus of the wind blowing through leaves, a bird singing every odd second or so from the trees.

On her sequestered perch the thought provoking silence of this morning once again engulfs her. She reflects on just how bad the world has gotten since the dead started eating people, and her memories stray back to the analogous times of before. Before the apocalypse, before she got sent to Ericson’s. She’ll admit, even before the world went to shit her life wasn’t a happy one. Her relationship with life was complicated, but at least back then there was a possibility she could find a way for reconciliation. Nowadays everyone has a complicated relationship with life and no one is guaranteed a tomorrow, let alone happiness. The perditious epidemic only magnified her irresolute disposition, heightening the stakes, amplifying the pain, introducing new dangers. Still, it's a comforting thought, imagining a point in time where she could have enjoyed her life.

‘You'd think all that time in church would be good for something.’

    Slowly lowering herself onto her back she shifts to gets as comfortable as she can, settling in for a longer watch than what she was accustomed. Though she keeps an alert gaze on the surrounding woodlands, Violet lets her mind wander free. Trying to actively keep her mind away from the memories of this morning, Violet absentmindedly hums a tune to divert her thoughts. She can’t recall all the words, but the irritatingly catchy melody she heard every Sunday for three years was indelible. In the waking nightmare they find themselves in, her formative years partly spent in the House of God has only served to add to her growing disillusionment's, especially when the pasts paradigms and beliefs seem so incommensurate with contemporary application.

All those wasted pre-apocalyptic mornings spent listening to wack rhymes and tales steeped in casuistry still failed to inculcate within her the authoritative opinions of Christianity. The only thing they successfully exposed to her tractable mind was a distorted sense of compunction, albeit not very well, along with a deep sense of irresolution concerning the universe. With aphorisms and ardor the church heaped praise onto an invisible force, disseminating their pertinacious visions of rectitude and scruple. All those mornings listening to people expatiate on the innate good of the universe, and she had, ironically, rarely seen ethical probity displayed in her life before, and now... it’s basically nonexistent.

Though she often wished she could bring herself to believe in something greater, it would make things so much easier, it's not a matter of choice. It's impossible to make a conscious decision to believe in something you don’t, no matter how impractical it seems; there’s just something inexorable about belief. She holds more reason than faith and she can't bring herself to imagine, or indeed believe, in a true infinity. She’s too sensible not to think it probable that the concept of God may be no more than a fallacy. This, though, is an even more upsetting conclusion, opening a litany of nuanced questions and confounding interpretations. This perceived truth, of there being no God, fuels her ambivalence regarding concepts like evil, good, death, life, fate, fortune; all forces that seem intrinsically related to the purported existence of a universal power, yet undeniably play a real role in the world. This past year especially has been emotionally onerous, further informing her outlook, muddying her thoughts and rendering her more alone than she can ever remember feeling in her life.

‘If there is a god, I don’t see the fucking point.’

This has left her wanting to understand the efficient causes controlling all of the shit in the world, if there even is anything. God? Is it Fate? God’s plan? Is fate god’s plan or is it an arbiter of its own volition? And what of Fortune? What about us, do we have any say in what happens in our lives? Do we even have free will? With her mind racing she recalls a moral story she heard at church. She can’t remember its name, but she internally refers to it as: The Parable of the Dog and the Asshole. It starts with a wagon rolling down a path, a dog tethered to the back being drawn along. The wagon forces the dog to follow, no way for the dog to detach. The dog then, is left with two choices, it can either whine, complain, and fight against its certainty or it can acknowledge the otiose of struggle and have a resigned acceptance. Three choices if you count the constant choice of death.

In church, they said the moral of the story was you shouldn’t struggle against your fate, because God has a plan. It makes no difference whether you struggle, we all eventually go along in the end anyway. We should trust that his plans are good and we shouldn’t waste our time trying to understand why some things happen or don’t happen because we are incapable of comprehending God’s will. It’s not our place to question the instruments in which God implements its inceptions. So the right choice is to accept your fate because it’s in your best interest and it would be ridiculous to act otherwise.

Is that not what they’re doing now? Struggling against Fate, fighting the inevitable. She knows they fight to avoid the gruesome fate of becoming a walker, to avoid the uncertainty of what comes next. They fight to avoid the finality of death, they fight because they’re scared. But Violet is having a difficult time trying to see any other reasons for their continued struggle. They struggle to avoid death, but what’s the reason for living? To see more despair and feel more suffering? Watch more people they care about leave? Why? These days Fate seems to be a much more integral interlocutor in the events of our lives, while still being just as nebulous as she was before the world ended.

Perhaps it’s not that Fate’s presence has changed , but that when she makes herself known the ramifications are terminal, being felt to an abject degree. But how much power does Fate wield? At what point in an event does the onus shift from Fate to the free will of an individual? Does it? What then are they meant to do, let things happen or try to reach a different outcome? In what situations do we have control of anything? Can actions change an outcome or are actions fated? With all these questions bubbling up she lets out a mirthless huff of laughter, and she dryly thinks maybe the church did give her a piece of advice that’ll help her. God works in mysterious ways, and we just might not be capable of comprehending the workings of the universe.

A whistle interrupts her deep ruminations, garnering her attention. Sitting herself up she turns her head to the source and sees Tenn pointing behind him to Marlon and a girl, presumably the girl they saved from the crash yesterday. The new girls attention, it seems, was also captured by Tenn, because she too follows his pointed hand to look at Violet. When their eyes lock Violet feels a sharp stutter in her heart. Even from her distance, she is immediately fascinated by the girls bright, tawny irides that seem to hold an innate coruscant life. The piercing fierceness of a lion, the strength of a raging fire. Before she can be further enraptured, the girl blinks, turning away to say something to Marlon.

Curiously Violet scrutinizes the girl from her high vantage point, examining her sartorial sense. The girl wore an off white henley under a light grey hoodie, the outermost layer being a dark denim jacket. Her once olive green cargo pants, mottled with what one can only hope to be mud, were well fitted to her figure. On her feet she wore knee high black boots, red laces done up tight. Completing the ensemble were bloody bandages wrapping around her curly chocolate hair, looking every bit the hardened badass she would need to be to survive outside.

‘Holy shit…she’s hot as fuck.’

The girl is extremely stunning, and admittedly, Violet is painfully gay. This fact has always lead to her becoming a nervous wreck when interacting with people she found attractive; it’s quite the nuisance. Violet can’t say how long she was staring, but when the girl turns to go into the building she catches Violet’s line of sight, stuttering her step as she turns to again lock eyes with Violet. Feeling a flutter of nervousness, Violet sheepishly smiles and swiftly shifts away, trying for casual. Soon enough the girl saunters into the school, leaving Violet to stare after her retreating form.

‘Woah… THAT'S the moron that lead all these walkers here?‘

“Hey, Vi, you seen Rosie?” She suddenly hears Marlon holler from below, interrupting her gay thoughts.

“Nope.” she responds plainly, in a softer shout than Marlon’s.

“Well, shit.” Marlon murmurs to himself, “Think you can lend a hand clearing a path?” he asks.

“Sure. Give me a sec.” she said, beginning her decent.

“The guys hunting party should be coming back any minute. Gotta clear the way.” he said,  pointing a thumb to the gate before propping his hands on his hips as violet comes to stand before him.

“Just us?” she questions, thinking back to the substantial amount of walkers she saw earlier.

“No, I was hoping to find Rosie before they start coming up, if we’re lucky maybe even get Louis off his ass. I was also thinking to ask the new girl if she’d be willing to tag along.”

“Did you catch her name yet?” Violet asks.

“Clementine.” he supplies.

Nodding her head with this new information Violet ambled to the gate, grasping separate bars and looking out. “Well, we’re gonna need the help. I saw a shit ton of those assholes come through a while ago.”

“Well, fuck. Okay, sit tight. I’ll be back in a bit.” Marlon said before walking to the main building, whistling for his dog along the way.

While she waited at the gate she hears the distinct sounds of expectorating. Angling her head up to the watchtower she sees Willy leaning and spitting over the rail of the tower.

“What are you doing?” She wearily questions, not particularly invested in a conversation.

“Tryin’ to see if I can hit a walker. Watch this.” He replies, calling up some phlegm and spitting an impressive few feet.

“Gross.” She mutters, rolling her eyes and facing out towards the forest.

Hearing approaching footsteps she throws a glance over her shoulder to see Marlon walking up.

“Rosie! Where the hell is she?” Marlon shouts, still unaware of the location of his dog.

Louis and Clementine emerge from the school a second later and make their way to the front gate. As they near, Marlon directs a question to Louis.

“You give her her weapon back?” As a wordless response Clementine brought out her knife.

“Good. We’re gonna need you to put it to use.” Marlon continues, “We’ve got a hunting party out there trying to get back inside. Need our help to clear the way. Seems to be a few more than usual these last couple days.”

Reflexively, Violet sarcastically remarks, “It’s almost like something drew their attention. Something like... I don’t know...an explosion. Or a car crash.” she said, glancing at Clementine from the corner of her eyes.

“Vi…” Marlon lightly reproached, wanting a nice introduction, but not surprised at Violet's people skills.

“What? Just saying. There’s gotta be some explanation.” she defends.

“Look, I didn’t know any of that was gonna happen. Sorry if it caused you guys problems.” Clementine sincerely said, defending her own actions with a sure voice.

Feeling her guilt nip, her gaze drops from Clementine’s face to the floor. Before a tense atmosphere has the chance to form, Louis’s jocund nature intervenes. Feigning a clearing of his throat he begins as Violet turns back to the gate.

“Hello Clementine. I’m Violet. Nice to meet you.” he intones sarcastically, to an extent stopping the tension brought by Violet’s less-than-warm welcoming.

“What he said.” She said plainly, turning her head enough to throw it over her shoulder. Before they have the chance to dwell in the lingering tension, Willy’s yell gains the groups attention.

“All right, boys and girls. They’re starting to fill in!” He informs them emphasizing his words with a finger pointing to three flames in the distance.

“Come on.” Violet said, pushing the gate open and walking out.

“Be careful out there.” Marlon tells her, grabbing an arrow from his quiver and nocking it before running out after the blonde.

“Don’t mind Violet.” she hears from behind as Louis comes to stand before her. “She uh... grows on you. I promise.” he finishes swinging a unique wooden weapon onto his shoulder.

Clementine let the confused interest show on her face and Louis, noticing her expression affably supplies, “Oh this? It’s a chair leg. I call it “Chairles.”” With a self-satisfied smirk he turns around to slowly stroll out the gate.

Eyes widening in disbelief at the coquettish boys words, Clementine shakes her head before following the group of kids out. Closing the gate behind her she turns to walk off, turning around when AJ’s voice catches her attention.

“Clem? Lemme help!” He hurriedly shouts jogging up to the gate.

Bending down to his level she gives him instruction, “I need you to watch my back. Call out from inside if you see anything. Cool?”

With a disappointed look AJ shakes his head, “Okay…”

Standing to her full height she addresses AJ once more, “See you on the other side.”

    Turning to walk off Clementine immediately catches sight of a walker and pulls out her knife. Before she's able to close the distance she sees Violet swing a meat cleaver, embedding it in its head and kicking off its torso to dislodge her weapon before running off. Following the girls lead, Clementine makes her way to a couple of walkers in front of her, dispatching of them in quick succession.

As the second walker drops she hears Louis shout to her, “Whoa! Nice one, Clementine!” Looking in the direction of his voice she sees him standing a little ways ahead of her.

“Could use a little more finesse, though. Watch and learn.” Turning his back to her, he cups a hand over his mouth and yells out to a nearby walker to get its attention.

“Hey! Over here! Follow me!” The walker groaned as it changed its course, now going in the direction of Louis.

    Before the walker gets within reach of the boy, Louis cuts a rope strung up on the tree he was standing near. With a sonorous thud, a massive boulder comes crashing down, splashing guts and blood over the surrounding forest floor.

“And that’s how you school a walker.” He proudly boasts to Clementine, “There’s a whole bunch of traps laying around this area for these asshats. They’re all marked, so keep a lookout!” he informs her, running off to swing at another walker with Chairles. Taking a second to glance at the canopy above she sees an impressive amount of boulders suspended from the trees.

‘A little overkill, but still...pretty coo--Log trap! Whaa… ’

    Walking up to a marked tree she waits a couple of seconds for a walker to stand under the rock. Cutting the rope sends it whipping into the air, before the satisfyingly reverberant pound shakes the earth at her feet. Clementine does admit that using the trap was more fun than she thought it would be, but when she thinks of the poor sod who’ll have to reset all the traps, she can’t bring herself to use more than the one.

After all, she’s had to do much more with much less. Making quick work of the various walkers around her, she looks around as she pulls her knife from an eye socket. At the same time, she and Marlon take notice of the three torches and look back at each other.

“Looks like they made it back in one piece. C’mon, we’ll meet ‘em halfway.” He orders before sprinting along.

With a nod Clementine runs further into the forest, trying to clear the way as best she could. Exemplifying her unique erudition with precise jabs and a gracious form, she easily dispatches the handful of walkers. On either side of her she can see both Violet and Louis swinging, also making their way through the walker infested forest.

“Yo! Over here!” Marlon yells to them across a small, wooden bridge, gaining the attention of the trio. The teens jog over to Marlon just as another three teens come to a stop in front of them, torches billowing in the wind.

“Nice timing. We’re not gonna be able to hold them off much longer.” Violet said in greeting to the joining group.

“No kidding. Where’d all these walkers come from?” the redheaded girl in the new coming party questions, a hare slung over her shoulder.

“We can talk when we’re back inside the gates. Keep an eye out for stragglers.” Marlon orders, turning back to the school, the rest of the group following along.

    On her walk back she kept an attentive ear open for any groans or gurgles. Clementine takes wonted cautionary glances, first to her right then to her left. As she examined her left she saw she was walking alongside Violet, who in turn notices Clementine. They don’t say anything  for a few more step and she watches as the other girls face becomes faintly considerate, slightly squinting her eyes before looking forward.

“You know, you’re not half bad. Considering the circumstances and all…” Violet said, turning to give Clementine a dainty smile before returning her gaze ahead.

‘... Pretty… ’

“Thanks.” Clementine responds, sending a timid smile of her own, failing to understand why her heart leapt and quickened as if ready for a fight and her stomach suddenly felt burdened with indistinguishable swirls and nervous flutters.

“Let’s finish these guys off. We don’t need them attracting more walkers back to the school.” she said, running off to kill another walker with a chop to the forehead, kicking the twice-dead corpse to the floor.

    Clementine takes this as her cue to get back into the action and walks over to the first walker she sees, crawling towards her with an arrow lodged in its lower back. After quickly stabbing it in its forehead she rises to see one of the boys from the hunting party shoot an arrow into a walker sitting against a tree. As the boy bends over to retrieve his arrows, he doesn’t take notice of the walker shambling towards him.

On instinct Clementine runs to the boy, stabbing the walker through its cheek. Not hitting the killing blow, the walker swings around, it's arms lashing out and striking a hard blow across her jaw. Its attention now on her, the walker grabs her wrist while she struggled against its strength. Suddenly, an impetuous brown mass throws itself at the walker, tackling it to the floor and knocking Clementine off kilter. When she finds her balance, she feels a chill run up her spine as she sees a massive dog squeeze the walkers head in its jaws until it explodes. She takes cautious steps back, her shaking hand holding her knife up to the dog as it approached with a growl.

“Good girl!” She hears somewhere off to the side, the voice also grabbing the attention of the animal in front of her. She watches as Marlon runs up to pets its head, “Shh, shh. Hey, hey, it’s all right, girl. It’s all right. Hey, I see you and Rosie are making friends.” he said, looking to her with a smile.

Lowering her knife Clementine lets out a breath, “Had a bad experience with a dog once.”

“Well, Rosie here can help you get over it. She’s as cuddly as they come. Except when she’s mauling walkers, that is.” he reassured her, patting Rosie’s massive head.

She hears the heavy panting of someone behind her and turning to look, she sees the boy from earlier. Scratching the back of his head and looking substantially shaken he addresses her, “That walker came out of nowhere”. She sends him a smile in acknowledgement as Marlon yells over the group, “All right, fun’s over. Let’s get inside--I’m fuckin’ starving.”

“You’re not the only one.” Clementine remarks out loud as the group trudged towards the gate. As they walk back, Marlon strikes up a conversation, “How’d it out there?”

“How do you think it went?” the boy grumbles in a surly tone.

“Be nice, Aasim.” the redhead reprimands.

“The safe zone’s nearly dry--I could barely find enough for tonight. We’re gonna have to scout out further if we want food for the winter.” Aasim states, airing his grievance.

Marlon glances to her before looking forward, “We’ll talk about it later.”

Coming to stand in Marlon’s way, Aasim continues, “Bullshit, we should talk about this right now--”

Roughly shoulder checking his way through him, Marlon heatedly responds, “I said later, dammit.”

Before Clementine can have a proper thought on their conversation, Louis jogs up between her and Violet. “Still standing, I see.” he said to her before directing his next words to Violet, “I’d call that a B-plus performance there, Vi. You’ve done better.” he said with a lopsided smirk.

Not turning his way Violet uncrosses an arm to flip him off, “Fuck off.”

In a show of mock hurt, Louis places a hand over his heart. “B-minus then. Now, Clem here? That was a solid A. A-plus even.” he compliments, making Clementine blush and look away with a bashful smile.

When she brings her face back from the floor, out of the corner of her eyes she catches Louis bump Violet with a friendly elbow. “Don’t be jealous, Vi. Be better.” he jokes.

Clementine looks over to Violet with a friendly smile, “Um, you kicked ass, Violet. A-plus.”

At hearing her words a small, diffident smile works its way onto Violets lips, her face a shade pink as she turns her head away.

‘Pretty.'

“I know.” Violet softly responds to her compliment.

“You’re both delusional.” Louis says shaking his head.

    When they finally made their way back to the school Violet approached Tenn sitting alone at a table, drawing a picture of what looked to be the beginnings of a building.

“Hey, bud. How was your day?” She said coming to stand over him and watch him draw.

“It was good. I was just waiting for you to get back.” he said, stopping his hand to look up to her. “I thought, maybe we could go see Sophie and Minnie. And maybe put some new flowers down.” he said with a hopeful expression on his face.

‘Shit.’

“Yeah. Of course, bud. That sounds like a great idea. You wanna go now or after dinner?” she asks him, giving him reign of their choice.

“Let’s go now, I wanna finish my drawing before bed.” he said with a smile as he pushes himself off the table.

Together the two young souls slowly lumbered to their makeshift graveyard. Tenn, looking up from his fiddling hands, offers Violet a sweet smile, “Thanks for coming with me, Violet. I was gonna come earlier today, but when I... I was…”

“Hey, you know it’s no problem, bud.” Violet softly intervenes, making her voice as kind as she could. Knowing how hard it is to find the right words to describe the emotional roller-coaster felt when remembering the twins. From him she receives a bright smile, eyes shining with gratitude before they start on their way.

As they round the corner of the graveyard Tenn jogs ahead to point to a patch a few feet away from him, “Hey, Vi, look! Violets.”He looks back at her with a smile and she gives him a faux glare, not fighting the grin that makes its way onto her own face.

    Violet stilled, watching as Tenn plucked bundles of her namesake into his hands. When he was satisfied with his bounty, he makes his way back to Violet’s side handing her a bunch of her own. She smiles in thanks as they both turn to walk the final steps to the marked graves. Violet feels her heart rate spike as she approaches the two empty graves, knowing that this was a terrible idea. She hasn’t been back to the graveyard in months, trying to avoid things that reminded her of the twins, especially with the anniversary of their death coming up. But when Tenn asked she couldn’t say no. She never likes to be a source of pain for him, so when it's within her power, she'll try her hardest not to disappoint him. Even when it may force her to open old wounds that never really healed.

“Hi, Sophie, hi Minnie. Sorry I haven’t been coming around a lot this month, Marlon’s been making me and Willy clean out some old stuff in the school. But it’s okay, we found a few little toy cars in one of the drawers.” Tenn softly talks, standing between the graves.

    Violet stands with her arms crossed, a quietly comforting presence as she lets him purge his thoughts to the memory of his sisters. As Tenn conversed independently, she felt her own sadness prod her heart as the bittersweet remembrance of the good times she had with the twins invaded her mind. She sighs as her face contorts in sadness, hunching into herself. As jarring as cold water on skin, her mind supplies her with a distant, almost forgotten memory. She begins reminiscing on some quotidian afternoon, Sophie had mindlessly began to paste tacky glow in the dark stars on her dorm ceiling while she and Minnie were listening to music and finishing some math work. It was a boring evening, an unremarkable memory. Yet, as she vainly attempts to recollect what they did for the rest of that day, her heart aches with remorse, her ever present guilt as prominent as the day she found out they weren't coming back.

“Hey, guys.” Violet suddenly hears from behind her, making her jump slightly. Turning her head she sees Clementine and her kid, AJ, walking up to them.

“What is this?” AJ asks, looking at the wooden crosses staked in the dirt.

“Our graveyard.” Violet tells the young boy before looking back to Tenn.

“You guys still do that?” Clementine asks, no hint of callousness in her voice, just curiosity.

“Kinda sorta.” Violet responds, reticent though not necessarily wanting to lie to Clementine.

“So who’s buried here?” Clementine asks, voice heedful as she knowingly tiptoed around a sensitive subject.

“Nobody, really. This is where we buried Tenn’s sisters’ belongings. Minnie and Sophie. Twins. Lost ‘em both about a year ago.” Violet replies, turning her head to watch Tenn set his bouquet down on Sophie’s grave. AJ also examines Tenn’s actions, confusion plain as he turns to Violet for clarification. She gives him an understanding look before answering his unvoiced question.

“Paying respects.” her soft voice tells him, returning her sad eyes to Tenn.

AJ looks to Clementine before asking, “Should we do that too? Maybe?” voice sounding unsure.

Violet looks over to Clementine and when their eyes meet she sees the question in her amber orbs. Violet gives her a small smile, and at the girls returned smirk she looks down, feeling nervousness crawl into her stomach.

‘… Her eyes are intense up close. Beautiful yeah, but intimidating as hell. Even when she’s not glaring.'

“Yeah, I think that’d be a very nice thing to do, AJ. C’mon.” Clementine said encouragingly to the young boy.

When he comes to stand before the graves Violet smiles kindly, handing him her gifted posy. She and Clementine watch as AJ squats beside Tenn to place his flowers on the grave. Violet feels a scenic smile tug at the corners of her mouth, heart warming at the sight of the two boys.

'Huh, well damn. She may be a reckless dumb ass, but… maybe she cares.'

“Thank you.” Tenn said to the other boy, moved by AJ’s consideration. Grinning as he stands, AJ makes his way back to Clementine’s side. When Clementine looks back to her, Violet gives her a thankful smile and head nod and with a departing wave of their own, Clementine and AJ walked back to the courtyard.

“I like them. They’re nice.” Tenn said, standing to his full height. “Come on. Let’s go see if Omar’s done yet”.

"I wouldn’t risk rushing him. Remember what happened when Willy touched his mise en place?"

“Now, now, I insist. I will be but a moment. Try not to miss me too much, please.” Louis said before walking off to grab her a bowl of dinner.

She rolls her eyes and smiles, fondly watching his retreating form. Before returning her gaze forward she instinctively does a small sweep of the camp, course faltering as it passed over Violet. She quickly turns forward in her seat, trying to decipher the warm flutter the sight of the other girl gave her.

“Ladies and gentlemen, dinner is served.” Louis loudly announces his presence as he put Clementine’s food in front of her.

“Thanks.” Clementine chuckles with a grateful smile before picking up her spoon. “Wow. Can’t remember the last time we had a hot meal. Mmm, this is really good.” Clementine comments, amazed by the great taste. With the way AJ gulped down his bowl, she would guess he agreed.

When Louis and AJ let out separate belches, Ruby makes a vocalized complaint, “Ugh, come on.”

Agreeing with the country girl, Clementine looks to AJ, “Hey, slow it up, AJ. You’re gonna choke.” she scolds plainly.

AJ makes a face at this, but nonetheless grabs his spoon to eat the rest of his meal at a civil pace. Clementine catches Ruby nodding in approval at this, “Just because everything else died, doesn’t mean manners did. I’ll say goodnight.” she said pleasantly, slipping off the table to go to sleep.

“Goodnight!” AJ responds before looking into his empty bowl. “Clem?”

Clementine leans over to see his clean bowl and lets out a small huff of breath, “I’m sorry, buddy. I’m sure they shared as much as they could.”

“AJ, heads up!” Louis said passing what was left of his food to AJ, “I’m full kiddo. You can have the rest.”

“You sure?” Clementine asks, not wanting to impose anymore than they had to.

“You bet.” he said with a kind smile that reached his twinkling eyes. Touched by the boys generosity, she gives him a sincerely grateful smile before looking down to finish her own meal.

“I’m all done.” AJ said a couple minutes later, gaining Clementine’s attention. Looking back to her polished meal Clementine nods, “Mhmm. Me, too.”

“Now what?” AJ asks, voice shining with a hope they could stay up a little longer.

Before Clementine has a chance to answer him, Louis stands, “I’ll tell you what,” he says flipping is chair around. “Time for something… very important.” he said dramatically, holding a deck of cards in the air and pointing at it.

As Brody walked past she scoffed, “Oh, god, goodnight”.

“Violet! It’s time!” he calls out, beckoning the blonde girl to their table.

Grabbing Clementine’s dirty bowl and putting it to the side, Marlon's asks, “What’s the game tonight, Lou?”

Louis adopts a satirically gravelly voice to respond, “War.” he shuffles the cards as he continues his embellishes, “The oldest game around. A game played by man and beast alike. The only game there is.”

Not familiar with much in the way of card games Clementine feels lost for a moment. “I don’t know the game. The only card game I’ve played had less people.” she said hoping someone would give her some insight.

“Don’t worry, you’ll pick it up as we go.” Louis lightly said, still shuffling the cards.

“It’s easy. Everyone gets a stack of cards, everyone flips one over. Highest card wins.” Violet supplies, pushing the stacked dirty dishes further to the edge.

‘Pretty.’

“And the winner gets to ask Clem a question.” Louis jumps in, his coy smirk dropping when he sees Clementine send him a quirked eyebrow.

“What? I want to get to know you. We all do.” he defends, looking around the table for support and receiving affirmative nods from both Marlon and Violet.

“And what if I win?” She asks, wanting to know the rules before they start.

“Then you get to ask us one. It’s only fair.” Louis answers.

“Wait, what about AJ?” she asks, mostly herself, looking to his vacated spot beside her.

“What about him? Looks like he made a friend.” Marlon said as she turns around to see AJ climb onto the table Tenn was drawing at. “C’mon, you can take your eyes off of him for one card game. I’ll bet you both could use a break from each other.” Marlon said with a smooth voice, trying to win her over to the idea.

“Yeah, maybe. This is his first time around anyone his own age. Sometimes he act more like an adult than a kid.” she comments, turning around to direct a smile at AJ. “It’s nice to see him act like a little boy again.” she finishes, turning back to the group and resting her arms on the tabletop.

“Louis, if you would?”

“What? You wanted me to ask.” Louis said in defense.

“Shit.” Marlon said under his breath as he rubbed the back of his head, “I’ll be back.”

Pushing himself off the table, Marlon made his way after Clementine leaving only Louis, Tenn, and herself in the courtyard. She and Louis watched as Marlon jogged to Clementine before evening his pace to walk alongside her. Feeling immensely guilty for causing the girl obvious discomfort, Violet sighs, directing her head to the table.

“Well… shit.” Louis mutter beside her, turning back with a heartbroken expression to nuzzle his chin into his folded arms.

“Hey, Vi, come look! I’m almost done.” Tenn’s voice calls from behind, causing her head to tilt up in surprise to look across the grounds to the boy. She pushes herself up with a soft sigh, walking towards Tenn. She comes to a stop behind him and peeks over his shoulder to see what drawing the boy had begot.

“Wow. You’re getting really good, bud. Who’s that supposed to be?” she asks, letting a puff of laughter escape alongside her impressed grin.

“It’s one of the guys from the beginning. That older boy, Stuart. See? And that’s supposed to be the walker that bit him.” he points to his creation and looks up to see Violet turn her head in confusion.

Tenn explains, ”When I was coming out of your room, I- I saw his name on the wall for some reason. I don’t really even notice the graffiti anymore, but…I dunno. I felt kinda bad no one really thinks about him anymore.” Tenn tells her crestfallen, looking back down to scribble berries onto a shrubbery near Stuart’s knees. With his words, her face falls into a somber look of reflection.

“That’s really nice, Tenn. I’m sure he’d love it.” she said softly, watching him for a few minutes as he put details down wherever he felt needed them.

A lot of the graffiti in her hallway was left by Stuart. Anarchy mostly, but also a few signatures here and there. With a reminiscent smile she recalls the boys contumacious attitude and likewise taciturn temperament. Before he had last went out hunting he had made an effulgent gibe at Louis, pointing out how difficult it must be for a rich boy to wait for his meal. Saying he would bring his haul back on a silver platter to make Louis feel more at home. Releasing a deep breath from her nose, Violet stops the thoughts of the dolorous transpiring that came next and raises a hand to Tenn’s shoulder.

“Okay. C’mon, Tenn. Let’s turn in for the night.” Violet said, turning around and walking to the building, trusting him to follow.

As they made their ways up the schools front steps Tenn grabs Violets attention, “Hey, Vi, do you know where there are any pencils or colors? I haven’t had any green in a while and I wanted to try to make this drawing a little better.” he says fiddling with the edge of his notebook as they pushed through the front door. At his query, her mind snaps to the first place she can think of to find art supplies.

‘Sophie’s box should still be in there somewhere.’

“Uh, maybe. I think there might be some stuff up in Sophie and Minnie’s room. I can go look. If you want.” Violet tries not to make her awkwardness known when she responds, wanting to appease the boy with anything she could give. If he had picked up on her hesitation, he doesn’t show it.

“Really?” he asks hopefully.

“Really.” she said with an easy smile, “Just wait up in my room for me, okay? I’ll go get it”.

“You mean like Tenn?” AJ questions, squirming onto the creaking wooden chair until he is settled.

“Yeah, like Tenn.” Clementine responds with a giddy smile, extremely happy to see AJ happy and playing with a boy his own age.

“Huh. I like to do pictures, too.” he said as he picks up a red colored-pencil.

Smiling at AJ’s back, Clementine doesn’t hear the approaching boots. Only when the doorknob is being turned does she startle, heart rate soaring as her survival instincts kick in. She turns her body to view the intruder, and it is only when her eyes take in the sight of Violet, that she tries to calm her panicked heart. In an attempt to stop the adrenaline from the small jump-scare, she takes a calming breath, hoping for her nerves to recede.

Violet swears softly as she notices the rooms occupants, “Oh. Shit. I- I didn’t know Marlon set you up in this room." Entering the room and closing the door behind her she continued, “I just wanted to grab something. From the closet.” she said, pointing towards her destination.

“Where the hell is it?” Violet questions herself out loud, casting her eyes around the small closet. As Violet turns away from her unsuccessful search, her eyes land on the colorful box on the desk. “Oh.” she said simply.

“What?” Clementine asks, looking to the girl. As she raises a hand to gesture towards the box, Clementine understands.

“That’s what I was looking for. It belonged to Sophie.” When Violet meets Clementines eyes, it is only for a few seconds, looking away with a slight dust of pink touching her cheeks.

“Uh… Tenn’s sister. He was asking for more art supplies and stuff, so I was going to…” she softly trails, folding her arms over her chest as she stepped towards the desk.

“Oh! Sorry, we didn’t know…” Clementine hurriedly apologized, hoping they haven’t been unintentionally inconsiderate.

“No, no, it’s fine. Don’t worry about it. Honestly, it’s just been sitting here for the past year and no one’s touched it.” she said with a careless wave of her arm, walking closer to the door.

“If AJ wants to play with it it’s… it’s fine.” Violet tells her in an subdued voice.

Not needing to think on the subject, Clementine turns to address AJ, “You should probably give the box back. It doesn’t belong to us.”

AJ’s face falls, but nods in acquiescence as Violet approached him.

“Thanks, buddy. It’s just that Tenn wanted it, since it was his sister’s and all.” Violet offers with a thankful smile.

“It’s Okay.” AJ sighs, letting his head fall again in disappointment.

Glancing over to Violet, she sees the girls guilty frown before she went on, “You can finish your drawing though. I don’t mind.” she tells AJ, lifting his spirits as he turns around to finish his drawing.

Her kind words to AJ adds a flutter to her still quickened heart, Clementine turns to give Violet an appreciative smile. The girl returns the gesture, her own much more shy, before she turned away.

Looking at the dresser holding her hat, Violet lightly observes, “Huh! I see you’re um… settling in.” she smiles, flicking her minty eyes from her face to her baseball cap.

“Yeah.” Clementine said, turning her body to put her full attention on the girl before her, “Is that okay?” she asks, hoping Violet isn’t upset by their uninvited intrusion.

Clementine watches as Violet’s face falls, pain evident, “Sure. I guess.” she said before starting to walk towards her bunk bed on the left side of the room. The girls dreamy, far off voice sounds more so like she’s talking to herself than with Clementine.

“I always liked this room.”, she began gently, “Sophie had, like, paintings and shit on the walls. Lots of color.” Violet’s head fell before she continued, turning around so her back no longer faced Clementine, but still not lifting her head to reach her eyes, “And Minerva… she was really musical. Not like Louis, though… she had actual talent.” Violet said, shaking her head lightly.

Not expecting the quip, she is unable to stop the chuckle that bubbled up. When Violet hears the sound, her head lifts to look at Clementine and she quirks an eyebrow, unsuccessfully suppressing a smirk.

‘Pretty.’

Letting herself fall back to lean onto the beds ladder, Violet goes on, “She had the most amazing voice. Real Bluesy. Marlon always joked that he would scavenge a guitar and the two of them would tour the country.”

She looks to Clementine with a reminiscent smile, before she again falls into desolation. Clementine feels her own face fall as she watches the girl once again take on an air of despondency, her seemingly innate disposition.

“That was a long time ago. After they… afterwards, Brody and Tenn took down all the paintings. And that was the end of it.”

Crossing her arms, Violet hunches over, “I shouldn’t have even brought it up. It’s not a good memory. Guess I just lost my train of thought.”

“Well, they sound like they were great friends.” Clementine said taking a couple steps closer to the girl.

Uncrossing her arms Violet replies, “Yeah, Sophie was a good friend. And Minnie…” she hesitated, a smile flashing onto her face as she grabbed hold of a rung of the ladder, pulling her head closer.

“Uh… We were close. Me and her.” she said in a demure tone, looking to Clementine for only a second, before her eyes again fell to the floor.

Understanding her unspoken meaning Clementine digests the information before asking, “What exactly happened to them? Sophie and Minerva?” she asked, finishing her question as she sat on AJ’s bed.

“They went scavenging with Marlon and Brody out past the safe zone. Didn’t make it back. It happens.” Violet explains, letting go of the rung to sit at the edge of Clementine’s bed, leaning her lithe frame against the ladders side rail.

“Honestly, I just miss having someone around to talk to. There’s just… so many dudes. This place can get a little too Bro-town for my liking sometimes.” Violet said, letting a short chuckle escape. The small noise raising Clementine’s pulse, as the corners of her mouth unconsciously turn upward.

“And I’m not exactly like… a people person. You know?” she said, arms and head moving in uneven gestures as she tries to find the right words to say. “I know I sometimes have a habit… have a habit of being a little bit too harsh”.

“You come off all right. I thought you were pretty cool.” Clementine tells her, wanting to assure she didn’t in the least feel put off by the less-than-warm welcoming.

An invading moonbeam perfectly shines upon her face as she turns her head up in slight surprise. Clementine feels her stomach drop, swirling into a warm puddle, as she’s struck by the adorably taking girl in front of her. Leaning casually against the ladder with her hair mussed from the long day, Violet effortlessly emanated a quirky charm.

‘Woah… ’

“Oh. Um. Thanks. I guess.” she stumbles out nervously before looking up to Clementine, “You were pretty cool, too. Out there against those walkers.” Violet compliments with a small smile. The conversation then falls into a comfortable lull, the girls sit in the quiet for only a few second, smiling at each other.

“Hey, Clem. I’m an artist now.” AJ said, breaking the spell. The two girls’ moment transfixed came to an end, as they both shared a look before standing to walk behind the boy to look at what had been drawn.

“Not bad, kiddo.” Clementine compliments, standing over his left shoulder. When she looks to Violet with a smile, the other girls eyes flick away, “I should be getting back.” she said walking up to the desk to retrieve the art supplies.

“Thanks again for the box. You’re pretty cool, AJ.” she tells him while shutting the lid of the box and making to grab it. With a final, departing smile, Violet makes her way to the door, “See ya.”

“Yeah. See ya.” Clementine responds as the door clicks shut behind Violet’s retreating form.

Clementine stares at the door Violet had just left through, heart pounding and eyebrows crinkling in contemplation. Thinking back to how the moonlight perfectly reflected the other girls olivine eyes, she couldn’t stop imagining the girls pale face, how her sharp jawline and sandy hair looked so, so soft.

‘I- woah… Violet’s really nice. And pretty. This place might not be so bad.’

“You know, I’ve been thinkin’...” Brody started casually as the three girls and AJ walked to the fishing shack, “I wish we could go on a road trip together."

Upon hearing Brody’s voice, Violet can’t stop the small amount irritation that bubbles into her chest and feels a scowl form on her face, “Road trip? Why bother? It’s not like there’s anything worth seeing anymore.” she said in her usual drawl, trying to keep her personal arising animosity out of her voice as best she could.

Ostensibly unperturbed, Brody continues in a jolly intonation, “Oh, C’mon. I’m sure there’s plenty of stuff to see. Maybe Clem could show us around. You’re able to get a car working and you know how to drive!” she goes on, wearing an expressive smile, her excited voice stoking her ire.

“Barely.” Violet naturally supplies, not even having to try to be pessimistic.

“C’mon, Vi!” Brody hushes her looking back with a glance.

Clementine joins the girls’ conversation, “You sure you trust my driving? I promise I usually don’t crash.” she responds with a cheeky grin.

“Oh, right on second thought…” Brody plays along, looking up in thought.

“Yeah, I think Clem just totaled the last working car in the world. So much for your road trip.” Violet adds.

Hearing the girls’ conversation, AJ joins to ask, “Are we going to the car?”

“No, bud. It’s broken.” Clementine answers, looking down to the boy next to her.

“Good. I’m sick of the car.” AJ said, voicing his contemn for the vehicle.

Walking ahead of the rest of their group, Brody walks up to the rusty blue pickup abandoned by the shack.

“I wish this old rust bucket was still working. We could just jump in and start driving." With one hand she caresses the side of the truck’s bed, “We could take turns sitting in the back -- it’d be like driving one of those cars with the top that goes down!”

“We’d run out of gas eventually.” Violet said, patience for the pointless thought exercise dissipating with each syllable Brody spouted.

She turns around then to address Violet, “But still. It’s fun to imagine isn’t it?” offering her optimism to her.

Rolling her eyes with a sigh, Violet uncrosses her arms and faces away from the palavering girl to stand closer to the rivers bank.

“Where would you go, Clem? If you could drive anywhere you wanted? If gas wasn’t an issue.” Brody continues, directing the question to Clementine.

“Or a busted carburetor, or flat tires, or the transmission--” she sarcastically lists off the top of her head.

Throwing her an unimpressed look Brody monotones, “Buzzkill.”

Clementine calmly waits for the girls to finish before giving her answer. “I’d drive down to the coastline. Maybe park on the beach and go swimming.” she said with a small smile.

“That’d be an absolute dream. You could spend every day in the sun…”

At this point just wanting Brody to stop talking, Violet sarcastically antagonizes her further, “And die of skin cancer. Fun.” she looks over to send an overly sweet smile.

“We’re all gonna die. I’ll take skin cancer over turning into a walker any day. I’ve lived here my entire life. Heck, I’d say I know every inch of these woods. I’d kind of like to unknow it.” Brody tells them.

“No use in dreaming about what could be. We’ve got shit to do.” she said placing a hand to her hip, wishing they could finally be done with this idiotic conversation and begin their duties.

Looking disappointed Brody agrees, “Yeah, I guess we should get to work on those fish. We’ve got some spears inside the shack. C’mon.” Brody said leading the way to the shack.

Knowing a bad idea when she sees one, Violet informs the three, “You go ahead. I’ll stay out here.”

    Turning away from the girls she looks back to the river, listening as the door creaked and clicked shut. With a minute to try to compose herself, she takes a deep breath and ruminates on her behavior for a minute. She’s sensible enough to realize when she’s being a bitch, but this doesn't stop her from bristling in the girls presence. Violet’s naturally mordacious personality has been grating against the other girls incessant need to talk, and she's been steadily garnering more resentment towards Brody this past year. She can barely find it in her to talk to the girl most days, and this evening seems especially grating. Why is it so easy for Brody to keep trying to talk, when her discomfort with her is so obvious?

‘Fuck. Blood boiling, bitch. Okay, just... calm down… ’

Violet calms down slightly, but is still decidedly annoyed and knows that she won’t be relaxed until she’s back in camp. Resigned to her afternoon of agitation Violet calls to the girls to hurry them along, wanting to get this over with.

“Hey! What the hell is taking you two so long.” Violet gruffly shouts.

Seconds later, Brody leaves the shack, spears in hand.

“Here ya go, Vi.” she said as she reaches Violet’s side to extend the two handles to her.

“Thanks.” she mutters, plucking the spears out Brody’s grasp and placing them near a slab of stone near the river.

She tries to focus on the spear and her grip position, the patterns of the swimming fish and waters current, her breathing, still hands. But the only thing she can focus on are the slowly receding footfalls, her focus leaving with each thud of Brody’s boots. The footsteps are long gone and her focus has dissipated by the time a fish swims in front of her. With a thrust Violet goes to spear the fish, missing.

“Shit.”

“Can I join you?” she hears someone sound out from behind her.

Looking up to Clementine’s voice, she sees the girl with a small grin hanging off the corner of her mouth. “Sure.” she said, moving to show Clementine where the fish tend to group.

“Hey, check out these guys over here.” Violet nods to the river.

Clementine leans over to see, “They’re swimming against the current.”

“Guess they don’t realize it makes them easier targets.” Violet said pointing to a fish that was self evidently, an idiot.

“I wanna try.” she hears AJ pipe up from somewhere to her side.

“Take a spear. Go nuts.” Violet said, prompting Clementine smile and hand the boy an oversized spear.

“Go ahead and try. They’re not running.” Violet said to Clementine as the girl comes to stand near.

As the two girls fish, Violet looks over to Clementine holding the spear next to her. Looking at the supple frame and flexing forearms caused a lusty stir of warmth within her, a flutter subtly impeding the rhythm of her heart.

‘She’s really fucking cute. Okay, no big deal just… say something.’

Striking up a conversation has never been Violet’s forte, especially when she tends to be tongue tied around beautiful girls. But, seeing as this girl has been patient and kind in the face of Violet’s enmity, it seems best to start with an olive branch.

“Hey, um, sorry if I was weird last night… about the whole room thing. Seeing someone else in there… Uh, it was harder than I expected”.

With a self abasing chuckle she tries to explain, “You’d think I’d be less sentimental by now.” she finishes, frowning at her shifting reflection in the ripples.

“I understand. There are people I still miss, too. It never really gets easier.” Clementine said with an understanding empathy in her voice, comment ringing with personal experience.

‘She… That’s- yes.’

“Yeah, it really doesn’t.” she said with a hung head. “I just… I don’t know what the problem is between us. With Brody… I don’t know why it’s like this. Why is it so weird? I can never relax around her. It just keeps getting worse.” Violet opens, spilling her thought out to a patiently listening Clementine.

“Maybe because she never said sorry. About Sophie and Minnie and not being able to save them.” she said in her low voice, trying to look Violet in the eye.

“She tell you that?” Violet quietly questions, the familiar guilt rapping at her heart.

“More or less. She wants to talk about it, you know.”

“I just… I feel guilty about the whole thing.” she finally admits, feeling her heart drop further as her frown deepened. It may be the other girls genuine nature, but something about her tells Violet she can trust her; a scary thought to have or dwell upon, so she instead continues with her train of thought.

“Why?”

“I was supposed to be out with the twins that day. I wanted to work in the greenhouse so I asked Brody to cover for me. But then… I didn’t even get to say goodbye. I… I wanted to talk to Brody, to tell her I didn’t blame her for what happened. But every time I tried, I was reminded of who we lost. It was easier to just not talk about it.” she lets out, her emotions seep into each word as a damn breaks, powerless to stop the flow. And she lets it, she pours her heart out to the girl next to her, and the spontaneous out-pour seemingly stuns the other girl into silence. Sensing she’s made Clementine uncomfortable with her over-personal prating, she starts walking away, “We should get going.”

After they reconvene with Brody, they set off to see if the boys had any luck with their traps. As they walk Violet is no longer uncomfortably agitated, more so resigned to her guilt. She can’t change her past actions, but she can sure as fuck change her current choices.

‘Gran always did say we’d go to Arizona one day.’

“The Grand Canyon.” Violet said, breaking the silence that surrounded the group.

“What?” Brody questions the uncontextualized location.

“That’s where I’d go if we took a road trip. Start driving until we hit the Grand Canyon.” she clarifies, keeping her face forward.

“Yeah. That would be cool.” Brody said, her natural southern drawl softer than usual.

Feeling a modicum of guilt ebb away at the sound of the mellowed voice, Violet smiles to herself.

‘Damn, she was right. Thanks, Clementine.’

“Hey, you slow pokes coming?” she throws over her shoulder to the two lagging girls.

“Yeah, we’re right behind you.”

“So what do we do? Eat rocks?” Louis quips with an unhappy frown.

“You can't eat rocks.” AJ tells said, thinking Louis silly as to entertain such a thing.

“I'm aware” Louis flatly tells him, moving his coat to prop his hands on his hip.

“Will Marlon kick us out if we don't find food?” AJ worriedly asks, looking to Clementine.

“Well, let's not find out.” Clementine said, producing a map from her back pocket and examines the only viable option they have.

“The train station. It's not too far from here.” She announces to the group as she replaces the map to its original spot.

Having been staying quiet since Brody’s panic attack, Violet jumps in, “Maybe, but it's outside the safe zone.” she said, pointing out the obvious risk they will be running.

“There was food in there when AJ and I passed through. It's worth a look.” Clementine said to the other girl, pointing out the obvious benefits they stand to gain.

“You sure there was food?” Violet asks her, searching for truth in her word, a reason to feel confident in entrusting Clementine.

With as much certainty she can muster, Clementine assures the blonde, “Positive. Yeah, some of it was destroyed in the explosion, but there has to be something left. There was so much there.”

Waiting a beat, “Or we could starve.” she adds to drive her argument home, and looking to the two shifting teens in front of her, the persuasive technique was working.

Violet looks to Louis with reluctance and Louis looks to Violet with a shrug. Clementine sees the onus shifting and looks to Violet for her confirmation.

With everyone looking to her the pale teen rolls her eyes and relents with a resigned, “Fine. Let's go.” before starting off into the forest, everyone else following suit.

The group walks in silence for a minute or so before Louis clears his throat, “So, seeing as we're gonna be walking for a bit, who's up for a friendly little game of I Spy?”

While Violet groans beside him, AJ perks up at the mention of game, “Ooh, can I play? Me and Clem always used to play that. She said I was really good at it.”

“Of course, kiddo. I’d even wager you’re better than ol’ Vi here.” Louis jovially jests, knocking his shoulder together with the blonde.

As she’s jostled she looks about to respond before sending a glance to AJ and closing her mouth. She looks to Louis and settles for, “Oh, I don’t doubt AJ could beat us. But at least I’d be able to present him with a challenge. AJ here caught a fish faster than I could, I'm pretty sure he can take you on.” looking back to AJ, she directs the rest of her words to him with a kind smile.

“Louis is just salty he lost our last game.” She tells him conspiratorially, putting a hand up to block her mouth from Louis’s sight.

“I heard that!”

AJ giggles at the two teens and Clementine feels her heart swoop.

“Okay, how’s about this. I spy with my little eye something… purple.” Louis said, grinning the whole time.

“Really?” Violet drawls, being the only thing with purple in the woods.

“What? We're just warming up.” Louis chuckles.

“Violet’s jacket!” AJ softly shouts, exclaiming his findings with excitement.

“Nice one, AJ. You, my dude, are a regular sleuth.” Louis said with an impressed tone. “You're up, little man. What do you see?”

“Hmm. Uh, I spy… with my little eye… something… brown.” he said astutely facing forward, away from his object of description.

“Ooh, that’s a tough one. Clem was right, you are good at this game.” Louis said tapping his chin and surveying his surroundings.

“He’s the best. Always beats me.” Clementine proudly said, always eager to talk about how amazing AJ is.

“Hmm. Is it that tree?” Louis asks, pointing to a random tree ahead of him.

Grinning, AJ smugly replies, “Nope.” he said, popping the ‘p’.

“Is it that tree?” Louis asks again, pointing to another random tree next to them.

“Uh uh.”

“Hmm. Is it that tree?” Louis said, pointing to another tree.

Clementine giggles and watches as Violet shakes her head, slowing her pace to slightly fall behind Louis and AJ, coming to walk closer to her.

“I’m am not going to stand next to that the whole way there.” Violet said as she falls in step beside her.

“What? Not a fan of redundancy?” Clementine asks, smiling at the girl next to her.

“More like not a fan of stupidity.” she responds, looking over with a small smile.

“Well in that case, I’m not sure you’re talking to the right person.” Clementine jokes, causing both girls to let out soft giggles.

“Nah, I’m positive you’re smarter than Louis. You have to be.” she said with an easy smile.

‘Damn, that's a beautiful smile.’

Letting out a humored huff Clementine asks, “What makes you so sure?”

Violet looks to the floor with a shy shrug, “Well, I mean. It’s not too hard to be smarter than that dork.” she says nodding her head to the teen still pointing at trees.

“But, I know for a fact you're a genius because you helped me with something I’ve been struggling with for about a year in, like, half an hour.” she continues with an open expression.

“Thank you, by the way. You really didn’t have to do that. I know I probably made you uncomfortable with all of my personal shit yesterday, and I’m sorry. But, I really appreciate you helping me with Brody.” Violet’s melodic voice wavers as she nervously lets Clementine know what was on her mind.

Clementine understandingly smiles at Violet before responding, “It was no problem, really. Anytime. I mean it.”

They each smile into each others eyes, familiarity, trust, and understanding slowly building between them. Clementine can’t stop herself from getting absorbed in the girls pale eyes. The green of her eyes seem to shift to silver as the light randomly broke through the canopy to touch her face. Eventually, Violet's attention gets taken away by AJ telling her to look for something red.

‘Sweet Jesus, she's breathtaking. She--I… I'm attracted to her. Holy fuck, I’m attracted to her.’

    Clementine doesn’t know what to do with this new understanding. She had barely understood what Javi was talking about when he’d said Gabe had a crush on her. She eventually understood, but she still felt embarrassed when she caught the boy staring; that's not what she was feeling now. She thought Gabe was a sweet boy, a cute face, but ultimately too young and confused for Clementine to look at him as anything more than a friend around her age. Violet, however, inspires emotions she can’t describe, but enjoys the rush of nonetheless. Pulse rushing, heat rising, stomach swirling. She likes the feelings Violet inspires within her, she’s never experienced anything like it before. Growing up in this world, she never really had time to think about her sexuality, always surviving, always moving. She's sure she likes boys, she thought Louis was charming when she first saw him, afterall. Likewise she admits Gabe was kind of cute, maybe a little too innocent. But she also acknowledges Violet is really pretty, and is capable of making her heart do weird things. Clementine is almost positive that means she likes girls. Something she has no experience in, and doesn’t know how to navigate.

‘Cool… cool, cool, cool, cool, cool. Okay, okay don’t panic, Clementine, you got this. Just… get to know her. Yeah, just talk to her. Mhmm, or maybe later? Later's good.’

They’ve only been walking for 20 minutes or so, but it was already getting dark. As the suns trip across the sky drew to an end so did their game of I Spy.

“Aw, man. I was winning.” AJ says, pouting his lips.

“Oh, ho you are good! I concede, good sir you’ve bested me this day. I'll make sure not to take it as easy on you next time, now that I know you're a pro.” Louis said leaning over to giving AJ a low five.

“And just in time too, we’re almost there, look.” Clementine tells them, pointing to the train station coming up.

As they near the area the sounds of groans and gurgling is clear, and grows with every step they take. Crouching their way over to stand behind a large boulder Clementine motions to the overrun location with her head, “There. That’s where the food is. Lot more walkers than last time, though.” she says, the gears in her mind already turning as she surveyed the surrounding area. The place looks like a suicide run.

“We’re gonna die.”

“Took y'all a while.” Ruby greeted as they finally made it back from the perilous food run.

Trudging across the courtyard and placing the duffel bags on the table's surface,  Louis unveils their bounty with a histrionic flair.

“How poor are they that have not the patience.” he parodied in a proud voice.

Violet listens as everyone comes over to offer their praise. They’d brought back a hefty haul and it looked like they wouldn't have to worry about starving for the next few days. After the initial elated reaction the only person whom expressed their disapproval was Brody, as was to be expected. Violet knew she would have a problem with venturing past the safe zone. The fleeting thought that it could just as easily have been her with the panic attacks and aversions crosses her mind. As Brody continued to bicker with Clementine, she prods Louis with her elbow while nodding in the direction of the stew.

As they make their way over, Louis strikes up a conversation, “Man, Brody is losing it. Poor Clem.”

Looking back at the two girls, she sees Marlon joining the fray, “Yeah. She seemed really freaked out when we found that cigarette. She's just scared.” Violet said as Louis hands her a bowl.

“Yeah, I know. But still. We just brought back the biggest haul the school's ever seen. She could, maybe… not yell at Clementine and be grateful that we risked our lives to ensure our continual survival. Just saying, that'd be cool.”

“Well, neuroses usually aren't reasonable. Just… let her calm down. You know what happened this time last year.” Violet softly supplies, voice tapering off towards the end.

“Fuck. Yeah. Right, okay.” Louis mutters, eyes downcast in remembrance.

When they come to sit at the table with Tenn and AJ they are both silent, a year away in their minds. Violet's not sure if it's the time of the year or the days events, but either way, she can't stop the feeling of dread that loomed over her. Today just feels… off. She can't explain it, the best thing she can think of is that the anniversary is coming up. It's scary how fresh the pain feels, as if she had blinked and a year had passed. When Clementine finally makes her way over, Louis grabs her attention.

“Don’t sweat it, Clem.” he said with a supportive smile.

“Ever since we lost Sophie and Minnie, Brody’s been freaked out by anything that happens past the safe zone. She’ll be alright eventually.” Violet explains, not wanting Clementine to feel guilty when she had done nothing wrong.

Startling both girls, Aasim speaks up from behind, “Still, we should make sure this is a one-time thing. We can take Rosie out in the morning, see if she catches a scent. You know, just in case.” he responsibly reasons before walking to his seat to enjoy his meal.

Having lost her appetite, Violet announces, “I’m gonna go clean up.” wanting to retire from the long day and let sleep relieve her of the sorrow for a brief reprieve.

Not stopping her movements she faintly hears Louis also announce his departure. As she walks to dispose of her dish her mind is occupied with the thoughts she has mostly kept at bay for the last few months. The torrent of repressed sadness unexpectedly hits her, and Violet feels the pressure in her chest increase with every breath. As she places her bowl on the table, she feels a hand touch her shoulder. Looking back she sees Louis, eyes crinkled with an understanding smile, thin-lipped as to almost resemble a grimace.

“I’m good. I’m just tired. Gonna turn in for the night.” Violet evenly responds as she crosses her arms and hunches to look at the floor, already feeling her weary eyes burn.

“Okay.” he said, uncharacteristically soft, “Just know I’m here if you ever need to talk to somebody, okay?” he said, ducking his head to try to catch her eye.

With her nod, he gives her a kind smile, “Goodnight, Vi.” he said as he walks off.

She watches him go with a sigh, slowly walking to the steps that will take her to her dorm. Walking into the dim hallway she adeptly makes her way, not raising her head from the floor; no longer relying solely on sight to make the rote route to her room. Clicking the door shut behind her she pulls herself up the ladder to fall face first onto her mattress. She’s tired, both physically and mentally. As she reflects on the days events, it wasn’t any more or less hard than she usually worked. She was accustomed to labor and aching muscles, it's never bothered her that much. The deeply personal conversations held with Clementine, however, were continuously running through her mind, exhausting her. Tonight she felt as if she’d been run over by a truck, muscles whining in protest. It was always the mental fights that seeped majority of one’s strength, and tonight Violet can admit that she has lost. She relents to the fact that tonight she’ll have those same nightmares, and as her heavy lids droop, she has one last conscious thought.

‘This fucking sucks.’

“What’s that?” AJ asks, also awoken by the ominous sounds reverberating throughout their room.

“Shhh.” she directs, trying to get a better listen.

The sound of an indistinguishable argument again echos from the pipes, at once startling and confusing her. “What the hell?” Clementine said aloud to no one as she listens to the voices for a few more seconds.

“There’s voices in the pipes.” AJ deduces, sitting in bed with his legs crossed.

“I think someone’s in trouble.” she says, worry touching her heart.

“Is it us?” AJ asks, he too growing nervous.

“No, no, no. Not right now, but we should help them.”

“If it’s a monster we should kill it.” he said matter-of-factly.

“I don’t think it is.” she informs him, “You got your gun?”

“Uh-huh.” he said, pulling the revolver out as proof.

“I’ll be right back. Stay safe.” Clementine said before heading out the door to find the source of the noise.

She walked through the moonlit hallway and followed the voices. Walking towards the source eventually leads her to stand at the basement entrance. She places her ear against the cold metal and is sure the voices are coming from behind the door. When she tries the handle she finds the door locked.

‘Damn, locks from both sides. Fucking inconvenient building plans, this isn’t even practical.’

As luck would have it, she notices an evacuation map pasted to the right of the door showing another entrance to the basement just outside. Following the guide to the cellar door out in the courtyard, Clementine walks to the metal doors. Bending down she picks up the padlock keeping her out, yanking on it a couple times. Looking around she spots a brick laying a few feet away and goes to retrieve it. With two hits the lock easily breaks, allowing her to lift it from the latch and heave open the heavy doors. With the voices no longer muffled she can make out the two distinct voices of Marlon and Brody. Stepping down into the basement, Clementine takes a steadying breath.

‘Okay. Now, what the fuck is going on.’

“What the hell is going on?” Violet shouts as she and Tenn finally rush into the courtyard. As Marlon acknowledges her she sees a splatter of red across his face, the lightning illuminating his hysterical features. At the sight she feels her heart lurch as adrenaline floods her system, mind racing.

“Look at her hands! She’s covered in Brody’s blood!” Marlon snarled, thrusting an accusing finger at Clementine.

Hearing this Violet’s stomach plummets, churning with repulsion at the news. Violet looks to Clementine, watching as the girls horrified face angled down to her own bloody hands.

‘Fuck.’

“Jesus Christ, Clem.”

“What did you do?”

As the various kids reacted to the conjecture of the incident with fear and confusion, Marlon exploits the situation, shoving AJ and grabbing the young boys revolver. As thunder claps and lighting illuminates their stricken faces, Marlon’s eyes dart around while he holds the pistol above his head. He surveys the frightened crowd with frantic eyes, before trying to salvage the predicament, seeking personal indemnification.

“We saved their lives when anyone else would’ve kept walking! We fed them, we kept them warm! And this is how they thank us?! Guns being pulled and murder!” Marlon inveighed, beginning to haphazardly wave the pistol at the gathered crowd of kids.

“Well, FUCK. THEM.” he vituperated, aiming the gun at Clementine.

“You shoot me and what do you offer up to your raider friends when they come knocking?” Clementine shouts above the rainfall and various outcries.

“What the hell is she talking about?” Aasim questions.

“He won’t do it because he needs us alive.” Clementine announces, face contorting into a angered frown.

“Shut up.” Marlon sibilated, grasping the gun with two hands.

“Brody told me: Marlon was going to give me and AJ up to raiders in exchange for safety. The same way he gave up Sophie and Minnie!” Clementine told the surrounding kids, hoping to sway minds with facts.

At this Violet’s breath leaves her, feeling nausea overtake her body she bows her head and attempts to control her breathing.

‘What?’

“Raiders?”

“Oh my God.”

Marlon jostles the gun is his hand, “Shut the fuck up, Clementine!”

“Let her talk!” Aasim shouts.

Clementine looks to the boy before continuing, “Brody told me the truth, and that’s when Marlon killed her.”

The thunder does nothing to drown out the deafening confessions of the night. Violet directs a murderous glare at Marlon as the rest of the school looks at him with accusatory eyes.

Marlon looks to the faces waiting for an explanation and begins pacing before starting on a forceful diatribe, “Aw, come the fuck on! They only met up with these ‘raiders’ because Clem insisted they go out there. Quite the coincidence, isn’t it.” he said with a smile, stopping to again level the gun at Clementine, “Shame I don’t believe in those.”

“Think about how scared we all were when the adults left.” he continues, resuming his pacing. “I pulled us out of that fear. I gave us all courage again. Who are y’all gonna believe, huh? Johnny-come-lately and her little fucking lunatic? Or me? Your friend?” He finishes his acrimonious speech by aiming his gun at Clementine, becoming increasingly untethered with each bilious outburst.

Violet swims through confusion, anger, and hurt while subjected to the argument, her forlorn gaze directed to the floor. It’s only Clementine’s scared voice that draws Violet’s head back up, “Violet, you have to believe me.”

When she looks into her golden eyes she no longer sees a raging fire, just molten embers. They plead with Violet’s heart, trying to convey a silent message. Violet freezes on the spot, fear clouding her acumen and rendering her impotent.

Her attention is taken away by Marlon, “You don’t. You met her like two days ago!”

‘But... I- I don’t fucking know.’

“I don’t know you, Clem. Not really. I’m sorry.” she quietly said, feeling her gut wrenching as Clementine’s face shows shock and disbelief.

“This isn’t like you. I know you’re not weak.” she beseeched, trying to get through to her.

“Don’t let her get in your head. Hey, what would Minnie want you to do? She was my friend, too. So was Brody.” He said in a threatening voice looking back to Clementine.

“Clem, I... “ Violet begins, unsure with how to proceed.  “Shit.”

“We’ll all feel safer once I pull this trigger.”

“If you were there that day the raiders came… He would have abandoned you, too.” Clementine invokes imploringly, desperate for Violet’s aid.

‘No sh-she… she's absolutely right.’

Looking up to glare at Marlon, Violet steps away from the crowd and goes to stand between Clementine and the gun. Pulling out her own weapon as she stares him down, Marlon lets out a soft chuckle, “Violet being difficult. Why am I not surprised?”

“Put the gun down. Now. We’re gonna do this the right way.” She forcefully states watching as his hand that held the gun trembled.

“Stand down, Marlon. Be reasonable.” Aasim calmly said as the group slowly advances as if carefully approaching a wild animal.

“You don’t get it. You- you don’t understand at all, do you?” Marlon’s wavering voice begins, taking steps back while waving the gun.

“I’m trying to protect you!” his mercurial shift to hysterical shouting is punctuated by a clap of thunder along with Rosie’s continuous barks. “All of you! Every fuckin’ one of you!” he bleated, waving the gun indiscriminately at his friends.

“He’s lying to you. He can’t--or won’t--protect you. Look at what happened to Brody. To Sophie, Minerva.” Clementine said stepping a few steps to Marlon. “You suck at protection.” Clementine roasts, pointing to Marlon.

“Shut your fucking mouth!” Marlon quickly shouts, swerving to again aim his gun at Clementine.

“I made the right call. I saved the lives of everyone in this fucking school! If they came back… I’d do it again!” He admits with a voice dripping in venom.

‘Motherfucker.’

“Excuse me?”

“I didn’t realize we were so fucking expendable.”

“You’re a dick.”

“You told me they died.”

Marlon looks in the direction of the various obloquy with a horrified expression, “I had to save the rest of you, okay?”

“You gave my sisters away.” Tenn said as he approached Marlon, beginning to cry as he continues, “Why would you do something like that? I trusted you, Marlon. THEY trusted you!” he questioned, his entire body emanating sadness.

“He was in a tight spot. He did the wrong thing, but he thought it was for the right reason. But that doesn’t mean he shouldn’t have to pay for it.” Clementine said, defusing the situation as much as she could.

As he turns to listen to Clementine his face is plastered with guilt. Lowering the gun he turns back to Tenn, “I wanted to get them. Stage some kind of rescue. Honest, Tenn. I just couldn’t. I was… I was too afraid.”

“You killed Brody because she knew?” Tenn asks him.

The softly uttered question seems to strike the broken boy as he dropped his face, posture following suit. He closes his eyes as tears well up, blinking them away to join the raindrops rolling down his face.

“Mhmm. I didn’t mean to. I didn’t want this. I wanted to save all of you. Sophie, Minerva.” he cries out, “I didn’t want to hurt them.”

“We can still fix this, Marlon.” Clementine calmly supplies, again stepping out towards Marlon, “It’s going to be okay. We can make this right.”

“We’ll help you.” Louis solemnly promises, also stepping forward, “We’re all family here. The only one any of us has left.”

With the fight having been removed from him, Marlon numbly stands for a few seconds before letting the gun slip from his grasp and clatter to the floor. As soon as she sees the gun laying at his feet Clementine goes to retrieve it, before stepping back in place beside Louis.

“I know I betrayed you. All of you. Just let me leave. You’ll never have to see me again. Just let me become… a bad memory.” he begged.

“If you really think we’re just gonna let you walk out of here, you’re wrong. You can stay. But I think it’s only right he be kept as a prisoner.” Clementine says, directing the last part as a census to the surrounding crowd.

“What?”

“Are you fucking kidding me.”

“He fucking murdered Brody, Clem.”

As Violet voices her concerns along with the others Clementine looks to Louis for support. He gives her nods of affirmation and turns to address the group.

“Guys. I- I think she’s right. We can’t just let him leave. But we can’t let him stay and walk free after he… I think the right thing to do is to hold him as a temporary prisoner in the basement until we can come to an agreement.”

“I second that motion.” Aasim said immediately, wanting the most responsible course decided.

Violet watches Marlon as the group deliberates, watching his shoulders gently shift, his gasps between sobs shaking his broken frame. With his head permanently bowed to the floor she couldn’t see the expression written on his face, though sight was unnecessary to know it was filled with self-abasing hatred.

‘Motherfucker.’

“Vi? What about you. What do you think?” Louis asks, crossing his arms over his chest as he stood in front of Marlon.

“Fuck him.” is the first thing she can think to say.

“Vi. I know, okay? Just--”

“No. He fucking MURDERED Brody. He gave the twins away. I honestly don’t give a shit about what happens to him, all I know is I don’t want to look at his fucking face.” she said, crossing her arms and hunching over to look at the floor.

“Okay. That’s your vote. So... “ Louis said unsure of what to do from here.

“So, we lock him down in the basement. First thing tomorrow morning we’ll have a funeral for Brody. And then we can hold another vote, once we’ve all had a night to sleep and think about it.” Clementine outlines, stirring nods of approval from a few of the kids.

“Okay, then it’s settled. Everyone try to get some sleep, I’ll go lock him up.”

“I’ll help you.” Louis said, grabbing Marlon by the elbow and easily leads the docile boy to the open cellar doors.

As the crowd dissipated, Clementine came before her to place a hand on her tense shoulder.

“Are you okay?” she asks softly.

“No. Is that okay?” Violet sadly asks, angling her head to look at the girl in front of her.

“Of course it’s okay. I- I’m here if you need to talk, or… whatever.” Clementine said with a small smile, removing her hand.

Returning the gesture with a sad smile of her own, Violet uncrosses her arms, “Thanks. I’m, uh, I’m pretty tired, so I’m gonna head off. I can drop AJ off in your room if you want.” she said, nodding to the school.

“Yeah, actually. Thanks, I'd appreciate it.”

“Of course.”

Before she passes Clementine she puts a hand of her own upon the girls strong shoulder, “Please be careful.” she says, looking to Louis and Marlon shuffling to the cellar.

Clementine looks to her with a grin, “Of course. Goodnight.”

“Goodnight.”