The River (Clemerva)

Chapter Thirteen: Just A Mistake

Violet aimed down the sights of the handgun, hovering over the bullseye on the target downrange.
Her hand swayed as she held the gun out in front of her.
She glanced at everyone else using their other hand to steady their aim, then down at her left hand, which was in a sling after her fall off the tower.
Violet sighed, closed one eye and squeezed the trigger.
The bullet blasted a hole clean through the paper target. It was high and to the right, but it was within the middle three rings of the bullseye.

"Nice shot." Clementine whispered from her right.

Brody, Clementine, Louis, Marlon and AJ all fired their guns. Surprisingly, AJ seemed to be the best shout out of all of them.
Violet fired six more times until the slide held open, telling her that the gun was empty.
She ejected the magazine and passed the gun into her left hand while she grabbed more ammo. Violet slotted the mag in and gave it a slap before pushing the slide release.
Just as she was about to aim again, she saw someone approach the officer out of the corner of her eye.
Minnie stopped in front of him and exchanged a few muffled words. The redhead reached into her back pocket and produced a folded slip of paper with a wax seal on it. The officer pried it off with his thumb and skimmed the contents, occasionally looking up at Minnie with a raised eyebrow.

"I just need to talk to her, it won't take more than a minute." Violet heard Minnie say.

The officer rolled his eyes and waved her on.

"Alright, fine. One minute." He said.

Minnie approached Clem and tapped her on the arm. The two walked away from the group, out of earshot.
Violet scowled and raised her pistol to the target, squeezing off a round.

Those two have been hanging out a lot.

She shook her head and stopped herself before that train of thought got too far along.
Of course she was still upset about what happened between herself and Minnie, but it wasn't like she had an embargo on who her ex could spend time with.

***

"Hey, what's up?" Clem asked.

"Hey, I spoke to some of the officers and the guards. The night you got attacked, Anderson was in the common room. He had his meal there and played pool until like one in the morning, way after you were taken to hospital. He's innocent."

"Shit. What now?"

At the far end of the field, a lone walker stumbled through the gap between two trees, it's jaws slowly snapping at nothing.
One of the guards raised his rifle, but the officer pushed the muzzle down with his hand.

"Leave it, another perfect teaching opportunity."

The officer turned around and clapped his hands together, getting the attention of the recruits.

"Alright kids, you know the drill. Whoever kills that walker gets to leave early!"

Minnie glanced back at the base before turning her attention to Clem again.

"We'll work something out. I need to go, Lilly will be expecting me back soon. Let's meet later though, come to my place before dinner?"

"I'll be there." Clem replied.

A tiny smile played on her lips. Minnie was inviting her over again, that meant something, didn't it?
Or it could mean exactly what it seemed like, she just wanted to solve the case.

More gunshots rang out from the range behind them as everyone opened fire on the walker crossing the field.
Minnie said goodbye to Clem and began walking back to the base.
As Clem returned to the range, everyone was reloading their pistols.
In the lull that the break in the fire had brought, a low rumble was audible from the woods at the end of the field.