TWDG\\II-South State

THREE

--Present time--
AJ
The cell was dark, as presumed, when I woke up. It wasn't morning yet.
We arrived here originally to get any food or water. But it turns out we were now Jerome's prisoners. And worse of all, we barely got any food or water.
My stomach cringed from lack of food. I ate a little bit of leftovers yesterday morning, and I was still hungry. I realised the pattern of my diet was about as much work I put in, I got out. But since I wasn't very strong, or energised, it was fairly difficult to portray any effort.
Clementine shifted beside me; I had gone to sleep strewn across her lap. I lifted my head, which burned from the amount of water I was getting (Which was almost non existent.)
"Clementine?" I asked, as she opened her eyes. Her fake leg was leaning against the wall beside her as she reached for it.
"AJ..." She gave a weak smile, and ruffled my hair. I watched her, concerned as she strapped the leg onto her scarred stump. "You're up."
"Yeah..." I say, watching over at Violet, who had slept in her hugging-leg position all night. Her head was folded on top of her arms. Ethan was also in his same position, but Louis was bad, his head thrown back against the wall, the rest of his body limp.
"Are you okay?" I ask Clementine. Honestly, I felt like it had been ages since I asked her that question. Clem sighed, and I could see the dreary amount of nights she had hardly slept.
"It's whatever, you know." She murmured. "We're trapped in a fucking cell, Javi and Gabe are dead, and I have a gut feeling Jerome will get bored of us pretty soon."
"Getting bored? You mean he'll...kill us?" I ask, immediately scared at the thought of dying.
"Jesus, are you blind?" Violet pipes up from her sleep. "We destroyed his fucking home! We really don't know what he's capable of."
"But we have an idea." Ethan whispers. I look at him in the dark. He's rolled onto his side, facing us. His cheek resting on the floor, with his arm stretched in front of him. He looked half dead.
"Did he stab you in the leg?" Clementine asked softly. Ethan scowls.
"No! I don't even know him!" Ethan calmed down. "I just wanted my leg to get better, and I got dragged into this mess."
Violet rolls her eyes.
"Do you blame us?" Clementine asked, a worried edge in her voice.
"Well, I don't blame you for helping me, I'm grateful for that, it's just...I wanna find my sister, and I can't now." Ethan muttered. I looked over at Clementine who seemed fixated in this boy wanting to find a lost family member. And I knew right the second Ethan came on board the truck that he reminded Clem on when she was younger; Lost and injured, and just wanting help. And of course getting dragged into a mess just because she was there. And definitely when Clementine raced off to retrieve me after I was taken away.
"Was your sister in that group? The one that stabbed you in the leg?" I asked.
"No, she was left at a community before that group." Ethan said, frowning. "She was just a baby."
I snapped my attention back to Clementine, who had an unreadable expression in her face. It was obvious that Ethan reminded her too much of herself.
"Why did your group hurt you?" Violet asked, getting rid of her layers of coldness in the one sentence.
Ethan shrugged, then sniffed at the memory. "My friend was getting starved at the camp, so I just...well I decided to steal some food for him. I was caught, and they just....hurt me."
Ethan's cut along his forehead, and bandaged leg proved that right.
"They thought I would bleed out and die in the middle of the highway as they planned." Ethan's face softened a little. "But that wasn't the case."
Silence filled the room.
"Woh." Louis said.
"Yeah. Maybe Nevaeh is better in that old community." Ethan said with a sigh. "I guess I'm stuck here now."
"You're not stuck,"'Clementine said determining her voice. "If you don't get out."
"You're saying we should...break out?" I ask. I knew that if Clementine was willing to do this, then we could just as well get out of here.
"We have nothing to lose by trying." Clementine said.
"Except for eachother." Violet protested. She gave a glance at Clementine, who just stared thoughtfully at Violet. I knew there were problems between them. Well, not them, but their relationship. I just wished those problems were resolved, either way.
"We have lost people; I've lost people" Clementine said. She sighs. "AJ, do you really wanna be stuck here for the rest of your life?"
I thought about this. "No."
"He's only saying that because he has no choice." Violet said.
"If I have a different opinion to Clem, I'll let her know." I manage a smile. "It's always been like that."
"Louis?" Clementine asks. Louis nods without a second's hesitation. "Ethan?"
"Hell yeah." Ethan answered.
"Violet?" I ask.
Violet sighs. "Sure."
"Okay, but let's not be stupid and do this straight away." Ethan said. "We need a plan; Good enough to at least improv from whatever point."
I looked at Clementine with an adoring look.
"Ethan's smart." I whispered. Clementine smiled, and looked back at the group.
Her twisted and lonely stump lay on the cement group, her fake leg leant up against the wall.
"Okay, so obviously there aren't that many people here. I think Wynn said something about twenty-seven at least?" Violet said, and sighed. "It's easy to train twenty seven people to shoot a few kids."
"To shoot a few smart kids." I corrected. "There's that weird guy with the piercing in his eyebrow that guards me everyday, and then there's that black haired woman. That shitbird Eli said something about me loading the arsenal lard tomorrow. If I can sneak a few bullets from those rifles when nobody's looking, we have good enough weapons for when we can leave."
"I'm chopping wood." Violet sighed. "There's nothing useful I can get out of that. Not even warmth! It's a fucking freezer down here!"
"I can get some supplies." Ethan piped up. "In a few days, I assume would be the reuniting of the schedule to day...five? If I'm correct, that would mean I could a whole lot to leave with."
"Where do they leave the trucks?" Violet asked.
"I happen to know the answer to that question." Clementine smiled, and straightened her hat. "They have a big place here at South State; they have order buildings, and cells, and a whole house for entertainment. I mean, a lot of buildings for just a big group of people. They have a garage at the far end, providing trucks and gasoline....since, you know, our truck was pretty much empty when we rocked up. The back opens back to a abandoned old city...Illinois. We find Gabe, we leave, and we figure out a plan from there."
"Wow." I smiled. "That sounds good. All we need is--"
"How do you know Gabe didn't just run away." Violet interjected, spitting her question at Clementine. Louis gritted his teeth, and interlocked his gaze to mine. I held my breath too.
"Come on." Clementine said, a bitter end to her voice. "I know Gabe didn't just run away. He'll be in this area, waiting."
"I don't know..." Ethan said. "They might have killed him. AJ only came to see Javi die."
Clementine took a shallow breath.
She was still grieving over his death.
I frowned at Ethan, but he wasn't looking at me.
He too was taking uneasy inhales, and fiddling with his fingers.
"What I was trying to imply," Violet said, frowning at the group. "Was that we should just leave Gabe behind."
"How fucking dare you!" Clementine scrunched her face up. "He is my friend! When those raiders attacked, and took Louis, Omar and Aasim, I didn't just reply with 'let's just leave them behind.' I fucking tried, Vi."
I look over at Clementine with a concerned look on my face. Violet raised her eyebrows, and looked down at the ground, guilty.
Clementine sighed. "What fucking ever. We'll figure out this shit in the morning."
And with that, Clementine rolled in her side to the wall. Louis sighed.
"Vi......." that was all his slurred speech could hardly pronounce before Violet too laid down, and closed her eyes. Louis sighed, and exchanged a sad glance towards me. Ethan muttered something unintelligible under his breath, before laying down too.
I bite the inside of my cheek.
Shit fuck.