Clementine's POV
We reach the fire again as Vi is still carrying the little girl.
"What happened out there? Who is that?"
Vi and I look at each other. "We don't know. She's just a kid, we couldn't leave her out there." Vi sets her down at the fire next to where we are sitting.
Debb speaks up, "Can you tell us what happened?"
She thinks for a while before speaking. "Well...we were with our group and some people came to our camp...they seemed nice at first, they offered to take us somewhere safe. They said we would be safe there, it when we got there...they separated us...said we would be trained for war..." Vi and I look at each other. "When my parents disobeyed them...they were shot...I managed to break free and run...they didn't follow me. They never realized I even left."
I whisper to Vi, "That sounds like Lily."
Vi nods in agreement. "Can you describe who was with them?"
She thinks some more. "One of them had short red hair, but some of it was gone...like she got rid of it..."
Violet places a hand over her mouth..."That's Minerva..."
"You know these assholes?"
"Kind of. They took two kids last year, their leader used to be with my group when I was little, but she went crazy and shot someone. We left her on the side of the road...but that girl she just described was one of the kids who got taken..."
"She deserved it..." Vi whispers... I simply nod my head.
"Anybody else you remember?"
She thinks again...
"I remember...a man with a cigarette...he had dirty hair and was missing an arm..."
"Abel..." That name seemed to scare Fran...
"What's wrong, Fran..."
"That's the guy...from the cabin...when I fell asleep on watch...he was the guy who dragged me away..."
We all look at each other...
"Perhaps...there was more to my sister's intentions than we thought..." We all agree with Hayden...
"Louis, go inform the others. We have to discuss this."
"Oh yeah, cause I'm chopped liver..."
"Just do it, Fox it Felix."
He runs off to tell the others.
"Ok...so what do we do?"
We all try and think...
Then the little girl clings tight to my side..."Please don't let them take me again..."
I look to Violet. "I promise...they will never take you again."
I hug the little girl tight. "What's your name?"
"M-my name is Melanie..."
"That's a nice name. My name is Clementine, and this is Violet. These are our friends." I gesture to the others.
"Who is that?" I turn to see AJ walking to the fire.
"This is Melanie. Melanie, this is AJ. Speaking of AJ, what are you doing out of bed."
"I wanted to hang out with you guys. It seems fun out here."
"AJ, go to bed. Where is Tenn?"
"Still asleep. It gets boring being alone..."
I sigh. "We're figuring things out right now, AJ. Next time, ok?"
"Fine." He walks back to the house we stay at.
"You know, I'd say you make a great mother figure for him, but you seem more like brother and sister..." Malcolm says.
"Yeah. He can be a handful, but he is more of a brother to me."
We talk some more and decide to finally go to bed.
"Where is the kid staying?"
"That kid has a name you know..."
"Where is Mel stay in ng tonight?"
The small child now clinging to Violet says, "Can I stay with you guys?"
Vi and I look at each other. "Sure."
As we walk to the house Vi whispers in my ear, "Ok, you are gonna get attached to this kid, and then you'll want to adopt her and I'm gonna get dragged into this and then we have a kid and we can barely take care if ourselves."
"Calm down, Vi. It's fine. We aren't adopting the kid, we'll let Marlon and Brody do that." We chuckle.
"But seriously...Mel has been clinging to us the entire night."
"Well we did get her out of the tree."
"Yeah, but still. I swear we will end up adopting the kid."
"We are not adopting the kid."
We head back to our room and get a good night's sleep...mostly...
