At All Costs

Exploration and Consolation

Morning broke, and the group piled into the van, heading out on their adventure. They made their way East for a while, before arriving at a small, abandoned building, seemingly some kind of outpost in a clearing of the trees. They climbed out, and noticed a large cluster of walkers prowling around, just a few hundred metres down the road from their location.

Javi addressed the collective. 'Conrad and I will search the building. Tripp, you look around that shed over there,' he instructed, gesturing vaguely towards an even smaller, brick structure. 'Gabe and Clem, search the surrounding grounds but keep watch. Nobody fire a bullet at all - we don't want that lot breathing down our necks,' he finished, glancing over to the walkers.

The group split up and spread out. Tripp found that the doors to the outhouse were rotten, so they fell right off at his feet. Clementine wandered round the back of the house, but found nothing of use. Conrad and Javi broke into the main building with ease, and thankfully found a small gathering of food, not enough to last, but enough to suffice for a day or two. This they swiped. They were about to head through into the other room of the building when a gunshot sounded throughout the place, rattling the windows and doors. Javi and Conrad ran outside, followed by Tripp from the outbuilding and Clem from the rear of the house. A quick search uncovered Gabe, on his back, pulling his pistol out of a walkers' mouth. He pushed the lifeless body off of him and got to his feet.

'Gabe! What did I say before we split up?' yelled his Uncle.

'It was going to bite me! What did you want me to do? Give it a hug and tell it to come back later?'

'You could've easily stabbed it, instead of drawing every walker in the god - damned county to where we are!'

'I had no time to get my knife out - I would have died, Javi,' the teenager argued.

'Guys, can we, uh... do this back at camp? called Conrad, his gaze transfixed on the now approaching herd.

'Oh shit,' groaned Tripp. 'Run!'

The group dashed out of the clearing and back to where they left the van. Squeezing into it, they sped away, racing back to the safety of the camp.

Upon arrival, Clem went off to play with AJ, Tripp and Conrad spoke to Eleanor and Kate whilst Gabe and Javi went to the far end of the camp for a "discussion." Raised voice were heard, but nothing exact could be understood until the end of the conversation

'Fuck you!' Gabe shouted, and everyone turned to see him storm back towards them. He didn't look at anyone, blanking them all as he stomped past them and into his tent. Javi didn't even try to explain what had happened, he just sat at the fireplace, staring endlessly into the dancing flames. 

His nephew didn't come out of his tent at all, for the entire evening. Eventually, Clementine decided to go and try and talk to him, so she left AJ in Kates' care, and went over to his tent with some food.

'Gabe? Can I come in?' No answer. 'I'm coming in anyway.'

He was sat cross - legged on the floor, repeatedly stabbing it with his knife, with the contents of his pockets turned out over the floor. His pistol and a magazine of bullets amongst other things littered the ground surrounding the indentation he had made. She pushed the food under his nose, making a small smile creep across his face. He took the food and peered at it, still not eating any.

'Eat up,' offered Clem, who had sat down next to him. 'You haven't eaten since we got back. Can't have you going hungry.' she smiled, remembering how he had done the same thing for her when she first arrived at their camp. He eventually did finish the meal, but still looked glum.

'Hey,' Clem said. 'Remember what I said last night? Anything you want to talk about, you come to me, ok?'

Gabe turned to face her, another small smile forming on his lips. 'Thanks,' he replied quietly.

'Awh, come here,' Clem grinned, and she pulled him into a hug, with his head resting on her shoulder. She gently rocked him back and forth until his gloomy mood disappeared.

'You're treating me like a baby,' chuckled Gabe.

'Do you want me to stop?' asked the girl, pretending to be offended.

'What? No, no. I, umm.. I kinda like it,' he confessed, his cheeks turning red as he said it.

Clem giggled, and continued to hold him for another minute or so, then began to get up to leave. Gabe was saddened by this, but didn't show it.

'Oh Clem - before you go...' Gabes' voice broke off as she turned to him

'Yeah?'

'Thank you, really.' he smiled.

'No problem Gabe,' she grinned, and headed back to take AJ off the adults.