Legless, But Alive | TWDG Season 5 Fanfic

All On Her?

The group that ended up heading to the train station consisted of Clem, AJ, Omar, Ruby, and Louis. Violet had been hoping to come along, but Clementine insisted that she hang back at the school and hold down the fort. On the contrary, Omar and Louis clearly DIDN'T wanna go. Lou had gotten quiet on the walk, looking over his shoulder frequently. He gripped 'Chairles' aggressively, Ruby by his side. Omar just grumbled this or that as he walked. It didn't take long to reach their destination. Trudging up the old road, Clem glanced into the tree line, distorted tire marks digging off in an abstract direction. Upon further inspection, she realized it was their old car. Marlon was right about one thing: that shit was absolutely totaled. It had gotten flipped upside down, and all of the glass windows shattered on impact. The rest of it was dented up or crushed. Clementine winced. That was one of their more close calls. A walker had actually gotten trapped underneath the rubble, its torso torn and distorted. It looked up, and let out a defeated growl. Other than that, it appeared that the group had cleared nearly all of the walkers in the area. Their numbers had probably gone down, drawn to the boat explosion. She stomped it's head in aggressively, holding her weight with her crutches, and grimaced at the squishing sound that came as a result.

After a few more minutes, the station was in sight. Not much had changed there. All that the group had done was set up some traps around the perimeter, using empty cans from inside to make a sort of alarm system. The trains were useful to serve as walls, but didn't exactly surround the whole thing. Still, maybe the decayed wood fence around the back helped? It was hard to say, but in short, there were multiple vulnerable gaps. They had bound the front two fence-like barricades together with fishing line, and a few tents stood in the dirt: backs to the locomotives. An extinguished campfire sat idly in front of the building, a chipping pot hung over it, filled with water. Charlotte noticed them first as she stood guard atop a train. "Javi!" She called out, smiling. A few people glanced up to see the commotion, to which she pointed at the group. Ruby tried to break the awkward divide. "Uh.. hi!" The crew was scattered around. Marty sat on the steps of the station, holding a shotgun, Mari and Evelyn drawing in the dirt in front of him. Javi was chatting with Jessica, his voice sounding tenser than previously. Then again, Clem wondered, how would she really know what typical was for him at this point? Olivia sat besides the tree that had the tire swing on it, carving into the trunk with a clunky knife. Louis raised an eyebrow, gesturing towards her. Clem shrugged, and continued forwards to meet her old friend. Javi's head turned and he mumbled something to Jess before diverting his attention.

"Hey, Clementine." He said, giving her a clearly half-assed smile. "I see you're.. Settling in." He nodded, scratching the back of his neck and avoiding eye contac. Jess had stormed off to sit by Marty, shooting him dangerous gazes that he was clearly trying to disregard. She glanced around, noticing the absence of some of their group. "Where's...?" Clem felt bad forgetting their names, twisting her face into a sour expression. "Oh, just tryna get their bearings I guess. Left a little while ago." She nodded, and looked back to the others. Louis was sneaking glances at Liv, while Omar stood with his back to them, surveying the area. There was an awkward silence for a moment before Ruby broke it. "Hey there, uh, name's Ruby. That's Omar and Louis." Javi smiled, looking over the three. "Javier. Nice to meet you." Louis waved, offering a toothy smile, Omar nodding behind him. AJ looked him up and down, still kind of suspicious. "Hey, man." Javi said, offering out a fist bump to AJ. He raised an eyebrow, looking to clem. "It's like a high five with your fist, kiddo." AJ then looked from Javier's hand to his own. "Oh." He threw out an aggressive punch, knuckle meeting knuckle. It made a sickening sound on impact, and Javi cringed, trying to hold back a wince. AJ frowned. "That kinda hurt.." He said, rubbing his hand awkwardly. Clementine couldn't help but giggle. "You aren't supposed to do it that hard." He looked awkwardly at Javi. "Oh, I'm sorry." He responded by patting him on the head, shaking the pained hand to try to ease the ache. "Don't mention it."