At All Costs

Night time Encounter

'Cool name,' Gabe thought to himself as he hurried back to the main campfire. He didn't want to be caught with Clementine, as he knew what Javi would say to him. On top of this, he had a pretty good idea of what he'd do to her.

Clementine went back to tending to AJ, being careful to hide the food under her backpack, as not to draw attention to it. Javi eyed her suspiciously nonetheless as he came back from his watch shift.

'You haven't spoken to her have you Gabe?' he interrogated.

'No,' the boy lied. 'Am I on watch now?' he asked, changing the subject remarkably quickly. Luckily for him, Javi didn't notice this, or if he had done, he'd regarded it as nothing out of the ordinary.

'Yeah, you are. Only for 2 hours though, then Kate will take over, ok?

'You got it,' Gabe responded, heading out towards the gate. He pushed the large, reinforced wooden gate open and passed through it, closing it behind him. He then perched on a bench a little way from the entrance, sitting slowly down and staring out into the night, The moonlight lit up the forest, and the trees swayed in the gentle breeze that blew. Everything was peaceful, tranquil.

Unbeknownst to Gabe, a shadow moved along the wall, sliently and swiftly. It followed Gabe for a few moments before coming to rest just inches from his right shoulder, all without him noticing. From within the blackness of the shade, two white eyes appeared, as white as the moon that was in the sky above. Gabe had just settled down when...

'Boo!'

'Ahhh!' Gabe leapt up off the bench and continued in his flight for another couple of feet, at which point he began plummeting back down to the earth below. He landed with a hard thud on the ground, his back going numb from the unforgiving landing. He looked back at the bench to see Clementine rolling around on the floor next to it in fits of laughter, with tears streaming down her face.

'Don't do that,' Gabe protested as he picked himself up and dusted himself down.

'Sorry,' giggled Clementine. 'The opportunity was too good to be missed.'

Gabe looked at her for a moment, seriousness etched onto his face, and she tried to contain her laughter. This lasted for next to no time at all, as the strain from holding back the hysterics made their faces swell, and the two teenagers burst into laughter, continuing until their sides ached.

When the euphoria eventually died down, an expression of confusion suddenly crossed the males' face. 'Clementine, how did you get out and where's the kid?'

'I snuck out after everyone went into their tents, so nobody saw me - and AJ? He was asleep, so I tucked him into the corner of your tent - call me Clem, by the way,' she explained. 'Thank you for the food earlier, you really didn't have to offer us any.'

'Nooo, I did - you looked like you hadn't eaten in a while, and I couldn't let you or AJ go hungry. It wouldn't be right,' he said, almost in an apologetic tone.

'Thank you Gabe. You're very kind,' she confessed, gazing at him, taking in his facial details for a brief second, before conversation resumed.

'Is that so?' he asked cheekily. 'I still need to get you back for scaring me.'

His arm snaked up and poked Clem in the ribs. She squirmed violently.

'Ticklish are we?' he smirked, and repeated the movement.

'Two can play at that game,' she grinned and did the same thing to him.

'Come here!' exclaimed Gabe as she took off from the bench and sprinted to a nearby tree. The two ran round in circles trying to chase and apparently tickle the other to death long into the night. Howls of laughter erupted from the two teenagers as they enjoyed acting their age for the first time in what seemed like forever.

After this they laid on the grass pointing different things out in the sky, such as star formations. Once they realised that this left them vulnerable to walker attacks, they collapsed on the bench due to pure exhaustion and continued to chatter happily for hour after hour as the night passed slowly by.