Three Orphan Pilgrimage (The Alternative to TWDG's Final Season) [Walking Dead]

111. A Thousand Miles

Clementine felt a jolt shoot up her spine. She tried standing up but her limbs wouldn't move. She tried screaming but there was no noise. Suddenly, she was falling through nothingness. Terror washed over her body, her heart pounding against her chest as she could hear something in the distance. It was an unbridled yelling that got louder and louder, filling Clem with terror until she felt like she was going to explode, then something grabbed her.

"Clem!" Blinking her eyes, Clem saw Horatio kneeling in front of her. "Clem," he repeated. "It's okay."

"Huh?" Clem felt something wriggling in her lap and looked down to find Omid. He was staring up at her, whimpering very loudly as he tugged on her arm with both hands.

"You nodded off," said Horatio. "I guess you were having a nightmare and startled him." Looking around, Clem was sitting in a chair in a cramped hallway. Sabriya and Dilawar were seated across from her while Eskiya was leaning against the wall next to them. They were all looking at Clem. "Do you want me to hold him for a while?"

Clem looked down at Omid, then back up at Horatio. "Sure." Horatio inched in close and Omid's whimpering grew even louder. "It's okay," assured Clem as she gently patted his head. "I'm okay now." Omid settled but still looked worried as Horatio carried him back to his seat. Clem looked aside for a second then turned back to Horatio.

"How long was I asleep?"

"Probably like... ten minutes?"

"Why didn't you wake me up sooner?" asked Clem in a harsh tone.

"I... figured you could use the sleep," said Horatio. "Also it's not like you missed anything. We're all still just waiting for Sarah to finish her turn talking to these council people."

Clem's eyes shifted to a pair of dark wooden double doors. One by one they had been called into that room to speak with Fair Haven's leaders. It had been a long and slow process that the others insisted was more tedious than anything. Clem still dreaded when it was her turn. It filled her with an anxiety that brewed up in her stomach, making her sick. So much so that it followed her into her very dreams just now.

"Everything okay over here?" Clem turned her head to see the one-eyed woman from the first night approaching the group.

"I think he's just restless," said Horatio as he cradled Omid. "We all are."

"Yeah, sorry about that," said the one-eyed guard. "It's been a while since we've had an entire group of people come to town, and this is the first time anyone has brought us a guide to all this insanity."

Clem looked over at Eskiya. He appeared lost in thought, which was unusual for him. So was him giving away his copy of the Outbreak Survival Guide. Sarah had suggested that on the first day and Clem convinced her it was better if these people didn't know how to get past the dead. The next day she discovered Eskiya of all people had volunteered his copy to one of the guards. It made her suspicious that he was plotting something, although what exactly she didn't know.

"Getting past the dead has been a constant struggle for all of us. Then you people show up with a book that says we can walk right past them if we smear some of their guts on us," said the guard. "Lot of arguing amongst the council that night, some of them thought you people were trying to trick us. Then we tested it ourselves, found out it works, and there was a completely different set of arguments last night."

"Yeah, we went through the same thing ourselves when we first read it," said Dilawar.

"Read it? I thought you people wrote this book?"

"We didn't," clarified Sabriya. "Clem knew the person who did though."

"Is that true?" Clem looked over to see the guard was staring at her now.