Two and a half weeks.
They had been at the Delta for two and a half weeks.
Two and a half weeks of menial labour, boot camp, verbal abuse and the occasional knock to the head when they did something the instructor didn't like.
All of this with the knowledge that once their training was completed, they'd be shipped off to fight a war they knew nothing about.
It all weighed on them heavily.
Clementine had been working on the farm with Louis the whole day.
She had protested when the shift manager assigned AJ to a job without her. It amounted to nothing in the end, so she begrudgingly let him go.
He'd be safe, Clem told herself. He was with Violet, she'd look after him.
But nonetheless, she felt uneasy without AJ.
Since he was born, she had rarely been away from him for long. The exception being when he was abducted by the New Frontier.
Clem hated thinking about that time of her life, about the person she was then.
That person who killed without remorse, stole, robbed and pushed everyone else away.
That person was dead now, and Clem hoped to keep it that way.
"You awake in there, Clem?" Louis asked, leaning on his shovel.
"Hm?" She asked, snapping her head around to look at him, "oh, sorry. Yeah, I'm good."
"Daydreaming about something more fun?"
"Not exactly." Clem replied, shovelling part of a rotten pumpkin into the pile behind her.
"Know what I've been thinking about a lot? My piano."
"You have a piano?"
"Yep, back at our school. It's this beautiful grand piano, eighty-eight keys... I could play for hours, totally lose track of time." Louis said whimsically.
He smiled and spoke as if remembering an old friend.
"Most of the people I live with are sick of my playing by now though."
"Well, when we get back you'll have two fresh sets of ears. AJ and I will be happy to listen anytime." Clem shot him a genuine smile.
Louis' face lit up and he stuck a hand in his pocket, leaning against the shovel coolly.
Or at least, what he thought was coolly.
"I will serenade the hell out of you anytime you walk past just for saying that."
"Is that a punishment?" Clem said slyly.
"That's for you to decide." He replied with a wink, shooting her finger-guns.
"You two, keep working. Your shift's not over yet." The supervisor yelled across the paddock.
Clem and Louis continued shovelling. When the supervisor disappeared from view behind the cornfield, Louis leaned in close to Clementine.
"What about that other thing?" He asked in a hushed voice.
"Making progress, but slowly." Clem replied.
"What've you got so far?"
"That gate at the docks is controlled by some kind of pulley system from the tower. If we can get up there, open it and then sabotage it so it stays open, we can steal a boat and escape on the river."
Clem spoke as quietly as she possibly could, thankfully the closest people were almost fifty meters in the other direction harvesting vegetables.
YOU ARE READING
The River (Clemerva)
Fanfiction"I haven't been avoiding her. I mean, I have. But it's not... I just don't want to talk to her until I know exactly what I want to say. Fuck, relationships are hard." The redhead sighed. "I wouldn't know, I haven't been in one before." Clem shrugge...
