SILENCED [TWDGS4 Clouis]

-. ..- -- -... . .-. 8

"Yes.. yes... now where is it this time?" The man grunts confusedly. He isn't intimidating anymore in the slightest.
"Let's get him out of here. Don't know how he's survived." Violet says to me quietly. I nod.
"Go get the others, and we'll escort him out.
I run up the stairs and open the door. Clem should be in her room with AJ and Aasim and the rest might be playing something out in the yard. I walk up to and knock on Clem's door.
"Come in." I hear her voice and open the door. I guess AJ's out in the yard as well, because he's not here.
"Hi Louis." She sighs. She obviously wants to ask me a few questions, but knows that I can't answer. I sit next to her in her bed and hold her hand. I give her a half-smile as to assure her.
"I don't know Louis... everything feels wrong. Me and AJ,  we've always been on the move. And it was because staying in one place always brought terror." I gaze around the room as I listen to her.
"I know you've survived, but I always have the feeling, before a storm. I think your terror is only just beginning."

I look at her. Is she right? Part of me doesn't want to believe her, but part of me wants to accept the truth. Coming from Clementine, the one I think I love, it makes my optimism for the near future falter. I sigh and shrug. After a few moments of silence, sitting in the warm room, I look at her. Her topaz eyes gleam as she looks at mine. I can basically feel her strength in her gaze. Her skin is beautiful bronze even in the dim light, and I must have been staring a lot, because she grins and says,
"Seeing me for the first time, Lou?"
I grin back. These moments are little. And although I appreciate them, a perpetual shadow hangs at the back of my mind, tugging at my happiness. I question whether love is worth it.

After two seconds, I realise that yes, loving Clem I'd probably the best choice I've made since... ever. It's every now and then that I make this realisation. That I realise how much of a fool I am to question these things.

Keep to you own words, Louis. Because for 6 years, you've had no words to keep to, and now you can't make any new ones.

Undecidedly, I prepare to stand up, but I decide that something else is more important. I lean in and kiss her. I feel the warmth in my lips after we let go. She's smiles.
"You're a really good kisser for someone in the apocalypse." She laughs. I grin and get up, motioning for her to follow me.

~~~

"Now, you better not come back. We're sparing you." Violet says loudly as the man stumbles away weak and stupid without his weaponry.
"Is he no longer a threat?" AJ asks.
"I don't think so." Clem answers. I watch, looking at AJ's leg. It's still wounded, and he's still struggling against it.

At least his injury will recover.

Violet turns around and we start walking back.
"What do we do now?" Willy asks. Violet gives everyone a determined look.
"We continue. We do what we've been doing for years. We defend, and we survive. Clem, Aasim, lets go hunting. Louis, Willy, Omar, Tenn, AJ, you all have to stay. Everyone knows their roles in the grounds. We have to prepare for the oncoming seasons."
I can't help but realise how Violet switches to 'survival mode' so easily.
"Clem? Can I come with you?" AJ says sheepishly.
"I'm not leaving for a long time, AJ. It's just a hunting session. Trust me, I'll be safe." Clem assures him.
I tap his shoulder and invite him to come over to the bench, where art supplies are laid out. He smiles widely and runs over, sitting down next to me. He's onto the art supplies like a panther; in a few moments he's already drawn a picture of him and Clem. Not an amazing artwork, but an artwork indeed.

I spend the rest of the afternoon with AJ, drawing things for him and showing him how to draw things. I'm not necessarily an artist myself, but I think this is as good as it gets in the apocalypse. As the sun starts falling behind the trees and the sky comes dark, AJ and I go back inside, away from the breeze and cold..