Loss

Introduction

     Surviving. Why does it even matter anymore? The young girl thought to herself. Suddenly, AJ, sleeping, shifted around her backpack and grunted a little bit, trying to get comfortable.
     "He's a pretty good reason why." She could hear Lee's voice say.
     I know. But.. if we all end up dead anyways, why put ourselves through this? Why live in this world with so much death and disappointment and.. in all just sadness?
     "So that you always have hope that it'll get better. That one day, dead people won't be walking around the streets putting you in harm's way. That one day, you and AJ will get a chance at a normal life. Give up, and there's no chance of that happening for you."
     She knew he was right in every way. Even in her thoughts, Lee knows best. Even if it's difficult to do what he's saying to, she knows it's better than the alternative by a long shot.
     She thought about Lee like this a lot. After all, he was her father figure in the apocalypse until his death, so how could she ever forget about him? He loved her more than most things after meeting her and vowed to take care of her with his own life. Little did they both know that it would cost that to save her. Clem thought about that a lot, too. Blaming herself for his death is something she did often, but she knows Lee would be mad if he knew, so she tried to keep that thought out of her mind.

     As she approached the cottage she was (for now) living at, she could see the young woman Jane trying to get one of the cars working.
     "Find anything?" Jane asked in an almost desperate voice.
     "No. Not unless dirty socks lying on the ground are acceptable to eat."
     They both smiled for a second, but quickly came to the realization that they really need to find food if they're going to survive.
     "I... haven't been feeling well lately" Jane said
     "I've noticed.. what's wrong? Is it the lack of food or..?"
     "No idea kiddo. Hopefully I'll be feeling better soon."
     "I hope so too"
     "Go tell Kenny that this whole place has been emptied inside and out, and that we need to leave." Jane said, after a long pause in the conversation
     "Yeah.."

     Clementine went to find Kenny in his room, looking at the wound on his eye. It reminded her of something special she found for him
     Clementine grabbed a box from her room wrapped in some colored paper she found, and tied with some fishing wire she'd found in one of the drawers.
     "Oh hey Clem, what's that you got there?" Kenny asked, curious.
     "Here" Clementine said in a cheerful voice, handing Kenny the box she grabbed.
     "What's thi--"
     "Just open it!" Clem said in an eager voice. She wanted to see how happy Kenny would be to receive this gift from her.
     Kenny ripped off the paper and opened the box to find a black eyepatch bundled up nicely inside.
     "Oh Clem--" Kenny said,  shocked with happiness "This is--  thank you so much, hun!"
     Kenny being happy about his present made Clem smile deep. She loved how appreciative he was of his gift.
     "No problem. I thought you would like it a lot more than bandages." She said, still smiling "Anyways, we've scraped this neighborhood clean. I checked the very back today and there was nothing to be found in the cottages back there."
     "Ok hun, pack up your things, and we'll leave tomorrow at first light."
     "Ok. I'll go gather my things now."
     "Get some rest too, we could all use some before the long walk tomorrow."
     "I thought you said you could get the car out front working?" Clem said, confused.
     "Not as lucky as we were last time, Clem. This car'a battery is completely busted."
     "Oh. Well this sucks." She said with sarcasm and disappointment.
      "Sure does Clem but like you said, this place is empty and we need to go. The little guy isn't gonna survive with the amount of food we've been getting for the past two weeks."
     "Yeah, same for the rest of us."
     Clem left the room, feeling very tired. She was happy with Kenny's positive attitude and happiness, that isn't something you see often anymore, especially from him.
     She went upstairs quietly, making sure not to wake up the slumbering AJ. When she got to her room, she placed down her backpack, unraveled the child from it, and placed him on the bed, next to her. When she rolled over, AJ awoke, upset about his interruption.
     "Awe, I'm sorry goofball. But hey, don't be too sad about this, tomorrow morning, we're gonna leave and move to a place where we'll have lots of food for you ok?"
     AJ fell right asleep after she said that, loving the fact that in the morning he could be leaving and getting food.
     Clementine fell fast asleep too. Not because of the same reason AJ did, but because she was exhausted, physically and mentally. Living like this is hard, not just because of the work, but because of the sadness that goes along with it.
     Clementine woke up, startled. She hated nightmares so much, that being the reason she woke up too. Unaware of it, when she woke up she managed to punch a hole in the wall, that woke AJ up quick, and he started to cry.
     "Oh no.. please don't cry." Clem said, upset to hear the child crying. "We're leaving soon AJ, it's just about morning. That means food soon!"
     AJ made sure to shut up quickly after hearing those words.

     The only problem, they didn't leave that morning, because when Clem went to the living room after calming AJ to ask Kenny when they would be heading out, she found Jane hanging from the ceiling fan, lifeless.