A Shred of Hope (The Walking Dead) (The Final Season Retelling)

16. The Calm Before the Storm

The dog in Clementine's dream barked. She shushed him, trying to ignore him and sleep. He kept barking every little while. She couldn't see him though. The sound of his barks carried through but any direction she looked, he was nowhere in sight.

Finally, her eyes opened. She decided to yell at the dog, when she realised it was just a dream. Sighing, she closed her eyes, until she heard the bark again.

It wasn't in her dream.

She sat up straight, straining her ears as she tried to figure out where it was coming from. A minute passed before she heard it again. Something felt off. She couldn't point out what but there was something that wasn't right. She suddenly found herself extremely uncomfortable.

Pushing the blanket off of her, she got to her feet. A sense of déjà vu crept through her as she stood in the same spot as she had, two nights ago. Sweeping the room with her eyes, she noticed everyone asleep.

With the addition of Minnie, the floor was overcrowded with sleeping bodies. Trying to step over them towards the door, her leg finally stepped on something, making her jump.

Her victim hastily sat up, rubbing their hand. "What the fuck?" Clementine heard Brody whisper.

"Fuck," Clementine said, kneeling down next to her. "I didn't mean to."

"What are you doing up at this hour?" She sounded annoyed.

"There was a dog barking. The sound woke me up."

"Dog?" Brody asked, her voice alert now. "Where?"

"Listen." The two of them held still in the dark, listening for the animal. Just as Brody was about to tell Clementine off, the bark came again. "See?"

"What's it doing here? Do you think we should get it inside?"

"I don't like dogs, remember?" Clementine replied. "And something's wrong about this."

"What do you mean?"

"I don't know. We should wake the others up. Packing can take time."

"This early?"

Clementine couldn't make out Brody completely in the dark, but she knew the girl looked extremely surprised by the way she spoke. "Yes. Trust me on this."

Brody didn't speak for a moment, staring at Clementine. "Okay," she said, finally. She placed her hand on Marlon's shoulder, stirring him awake.

"Mhhm?" he groaned through his sleepy stupor, hoisting himself up on one elbow as he looked around through half-closed eyelids. "What is it?"

"Wake up. It's time to get a move on."

Clementine looked through the dirty window, noticing the first rays of the sun starting to light the darkness up. "It's already dawn. I want to get out of here quickly."

The others were slowly starting to stir with the conversation in the room. The activity in the room suddenly increased as the kids looked around to see what had caused them to awaken. Clementine woke AJ up, too.

"Who the fuck is talking so loudly?" Violet murmured sleepily.

"We're leaving," Clementine told them.

"What? What's wrong with sleeping for a few more hours?" Louis asked.

"It's not safe. Get your bags filled and be ready." She looked at their faces. "Where's Aasim?"

"Looks like he didn't come back last night," Marlon said, staring at the empty blanket near the door. He stood up. "Come on, guys. Let's get back to the road." He watched as everyone cursed him. As they began filling up their bags, he walked over to Clementine. "What's wrong?" he whispered.