We Don't Die

The Search

"I'm going to find you, AJ."

Clementine wakes up in the middle of the night startled sitting up in the back seat of the car. She inhales deeply and exhales to calm herself. "It's okay, Clementine." She tells herself. "It was only a dream." She lays back down and closes her eyes hoping to fall back asleep.

Daytime

The sun is up and very bright and causes Clementine to wake up. She opens the door and begins to stretch. She stops and walks to the driver side door to the car. She places herself in the seat and takes out the keys and places them in the ignition. Just as she was about to turn the keys, she hears something. She takes the keys out of the ignition and looks over to where she heard the noise and raises an eyebrow. "That was weird." She says. She begins to place the keys in the ignition again and hears the noise again. She took the keys out and places them in her pocket and gets out of the car. She closes the door and locks it and begins to take out her hunting knife. She decides to investigate. She walks over to the woods carefully trying not to draw attention. She steps on a stick which made a sound, causing her to stop right in her tracks. She gasps and looks down then back up again hoping that didn't blow her cover. She sighs and cautiously steps over the stick hoping not to draw any more attention. She hears something again and hides behind a tree, knife in hand ready to attack. She moves her head out from the tree to get a quick peek. She notices a walker eating something of some sort. All she hears is the moaning and the chomping of its rotting teeth as it bites down on the victim, making a horrible ripping sound. She gets out of cover and brings herself down to move carefully over to the walking corpse. She moves slowly to the walker and stabs the undead monster in the head. The impact of the knife plunging into the skull made a horrible sound and caused blood to drop everywhere. She removes her knife and looks at what the walker was eating. It was a rabbit. "Dammit!" She says to herself. Clementine was very hungry and was hoping that the rabbit is what attracted her to move. She hears another noise behind her that makes her gasp and turn around quickly. She goes into combat stance, ready to defend herself at all costs. "Woah, woah, woah! Hey relax! I'm friendly!" A voice calls out from behind a bush. He comes out with his hands raised. He had a bow in one hand and an arrow in the other. "What the hell are you doing?!" She replies. "I'm out looking for food for my group. Seems like that corpse got to it already." The stranger responds. Clementine still in her stance looks at the man angrily. "Put the knife down. I don't want any trouble." She refuses to do what he says. "I'm not doing anything until I know you're not dangerous." She replies. "Smart. That's pretty smart." He places his bow and arrow down and the rest of his belongings on the ground. "See? I'm not here to cause any trouble or to hurt you. I was just hunting for food. I apologize if I startled you. I was trying really hard not to blow my cover and then shoot the little buddy. Then that thing came out of nowhere and killed the rabbit for me." Clementine lowers her knife and sheathes it. "Any reason why you are out here?" The stranger asks. "I'm searching for my kid. He - he got taken away from me not too long ago." "You have a kid? How old are you? Like fifteen, sixteen?" "No. I'm only thirteen. And I'm not his biological mother. His real parents passed away two years ago. I decided to take care of him while the adults made the decisions on where we go and all that." She responds. "Makes sense. I'm sorry to hear the tragic news. Have you found anything yet? I could help you if you'd like." "I haven't found anything. I've been looking everywhere but I haven't found him. I was told that he was being held at a place called McCarroll Ranch. I've been on the road for weeks and haven't found any sign of it." "McCarrol Ranch?" The stranger scratches his head. "Oh, that's where I'm currently staying!" He replies confidently. Clementine's eyes open wide. "You're - you're kidding. Is he there?!" She says with a loud voice. "He could be. What's the little guys name?" "His name is Alvin Junior. I call him AJ for short." The teen paces back and forth thinking. "AJ, AJ, AJ. Hm. There are so many kids there that it's hard to remember all the names. I can take you there if you'd like." Without a moments hesitation, Clementine agrees. "That would be great! Thank you." The teen picks his belongings up. He places his bow on his back and his arrow in his quiver. Clementine and the stranger began walking together to her car. "Sorry about the whole hostility back there. It's just been hard for me when this whole thing started. I had to realize that in this new world, you can't trust everybody." Clementine says to break the silence. "Don't stress about it. I understand. It's been complicated for me too. Group after group, death after death, even though this thing has been going on for five years, I still can't get used to it. It feels like I still have hope that things go back to the way they used to be." "I hear you there. But after awhile, my hope for the old world died down. Along with many people I cared about.." The stranger looks at Clementine. "I'm sorry to hear about that. The people we lose along the way, they feel like family after you do so much for them and they do so much for you. It's funny that before all of this, we were strangers and didn't know anyone. Now we care about the strangers and begin getting attached to them, ya know?" He replies. Clementine nods. She stops walking and so does the teen. "I'm Derek. People call me D for short. Call me whatever you feel comfortable with." He says holding out his hand. "Clementine." She places her hand in his and they shake hands. "It's very nice to meet you, Clementine." Derek says. Clementine smiles and begins walking to the car again. They approach the car and she opens the door and sits in the seat, placing the keys in the ignition and turning them. Derek is outside looking around making sure nothing happens. The car starts and it is very loud. Derek places his hands on his ears due to how loud the car is. "Out of all the cars you could have taken, you chose the loudest one?" He jokes. She chuckles and closes her door. "You getting in or not?" She jokes back. Derek smirks and approaches the passenger door and opens it. He places himself in the seat and closes the door. Clementine switches gears and begins driving.

Five Minutes Into The Ride

"Take a left up here." Derek says pointing. Clementine turns the wheel and goes where she was directed to go. "Is there anything I should know about this ranch before we approach?" She asks. "No, there's no danger of any kind. Of course we get an occasional walker or so, but we have lookouts ready to defend our property. Your boy is safe there, I promise." Clementine exhales with relief. "What place did you recently leave?" Derek asks. "A place called Richmond." Derek sits up. "Richmond?! You mean the place where the New Frontier took over?! How did you get out of there?" "The New Frontier is no more. The previous leaders died by either bullets or walkers. I stayed to help Javi and Kate rebuild Richmond." "Rebuild? Why? What happened?" There was a long pause between the two. Clementine finally spoke up. "It's a long story." She responds. As Clementine keeps the car going straight, Derek notices the sign in the distance. "After the sign, take a right. There's a dirt road on that side that'll take you to the ranch." She nods and keeps the wheel as straight as possible. As she passes the sign, she takes a right like she was told and Derek was right. There was a road that was leading them right to McCarroll Ranch. She puts her foot on the brake as she notices the ranch. She stops in front of the fence and puts the car in park by the gate and takes out the keys and opens her door. Derek gets out of the car and walks towards the fence. "I thought you said you get the occasional walker or two in there." She says concerned. "We do. We just recently got a hole in the fence that we haven't taken care of yet. If it bothers you, we can fix that today." Derek replies. "Yeah, I'd like to do that." Derek nods. "Stay right where you are!" The guard says. "Pete! Come on man, it's me you fucking shithead!" Derek calls out. "Derek?! Oh shit man! I didn't see you approaching! I only saw her!" "Yeah, yeah, open the gate." Pete pushes the button and the gate opens. "The way Lingard described the ranch, he never mentioned a fence or a gate before." Clementine adds. "That's because we just added it. The ranch was wide open for anyone or anything to come in and kill us in our sleep. We decided to be smart and not stupid." Derek replies. They walk inside and the ranch wasn't very big. There was only two main houses and four cabins. "This seems more like a camp than anything." Clementine comments. "Again, we installed things to have more room. We kept getting visitors so we decided to make cabins for the kids and had the guardians stay in the houses. Everyone has a job to do." Clementine looks around and notices kids playing. It's so strange to be seeing kids laughing and playing around in this world. She then looks over and notices someone punching the punching bag. He's wearing a tank top and sweatpants. He seems to be fit. Must be doing some exercise on the daily. Derek shows Clementine around some more and they get closer to the teen working out. He notices Derek and the new girl and gets off the bench and cleans himself off as best as he can to look properly approachable. Derek and Clementine approach the teenager. "Hi! Forgive me if I seem to stink and not look approachable as I usually do." He says. Clementine looks at him and giggles. "A survivor, this one." The teen adds. "Where'd you find her?" "Found her in the woods. She was hunting like I was. She was very protective of herself and seemed to know her surroundings. She has someone here." Derek replies. "What is your name?" The teen asks. "Clementine. Some call me Clem for short." "Clementine? That's a beautiful name. My name is Jeremiah. I don't really like the name but it's what my parents decided." She giggles and he holds out his hand and she shakes it. "It's nice to meet you, Jeremiah." "The pleasure is all mine, my dear." They stop shaking hands and Clementine blushes a bit. "Says she's looking for a kid named Alvin Junior, right? AJ for short?" Derek asks. Clementine nods. "That's right." "AJ? That's your kid?" Jeremiah asks. She nods. "I love that kid! He's very smart and very creative." Clementine smiles in appreciation. "Thank you. He gets his talents from his parents." "I bet you're done waiting for him. Let me take you to him. Derek, you good to be on lookout duty? Pete said he needed to do something really quick." Jeremiah says. "Yeah. Yeah, I can do that." Derek takes off to the guard tower while Jeremiah and Clementine approach the big, wooden house.