The Walking Dead Final Season- 'Safe and Sound'

Safe and Sound V

Rain thumped against the wooden boards that lay across the open window; hundreds of damp fingers impatiently tapping against the wood in a heavy, yet soothing, cascade. There was no discernible rhythm, and the rain was so heavy that in between the scattershot of multiple raindrops there was often one solid blast of sound as dozens of droplets seemed to hit at the same time.
Clementine was sixteen, laying on her bed in her room at Ericson, the candle on the desk beside her jumping slightly in the faint wind that the rain pushed through the cracks in the boards.
Clementine was eight, she was in her treehouse on a Friday night, a blanket around her and a battery powered lamp spreading a soft light that climbed around the walls around her. Through the treehouse's opening she could see small orbs of candlelight in the dining room, the golden circles distorted through the window glass.
Her Parents were having a Birthday dinner-
No, was it their anniversary?
Clementine couldn't remember
She could only conjure up the silhouette of a memory, the individual details were gone. Only the outlines remained;The sound of rain on the wood,the candles in the window, the two figures smiling in the dining room, their faces blurred slightly by streaks of rain on the glass.
Clementine had no pictures or videos of her parents. They had been dead for half of her life, and memories of them were always half complete and strained.
Maybe the rain wouldn't stop, and one day all that she'd have would be smudged, featureless faces behind a smeared, indistinct window.
She turned on her bed, trying her best to keep that memory as bright for as long as possible before it dimmed to black as she fell asleep.

The mountains in the distance were speckled green and yellow; autumn trees were lined along the slopes, contrasting with the dark brown of the hills and the thick white of the cloud filled sky.
They sat peacefully in the distance, towering against the small town nestled underneath them. Clementine imagined that it had always been a quiet place, even before most of the world went permanently silent.
She shifted in the cart, trying to get her blood flowing after an hour or so of being wedged in the back between stacks of empty crates. It was being pulled by Man O' War, a far more quiet and friendly Horse than his name (bestowed upon him by Louis) would indicate. Aasim and Ruby were both sat on top, her hands around his waist as he scanned the town in front of them.
"I can't remember the last time we came here," he said.
"It was for a parade. Independence day. We all got hot dogs and sat outside the town hall," Ruby spoke, her voice light as she rolled off the memories.
"Oh yeah. Wow, that was years ago. Was that when we all had to wait on the bus for ages?"
"Yeah. Mitch wondered off. The Teacher's found him outside the general store-"
"Trying to pay adults to buy him some beer. Yep, I remember that. What an idiot, he was like ten years old." 
Aasim laughed as Ruby smiled before shushing him.
"Sounds like a fun day," Clementine said, still staring at the mountains ahead.
"I'd kill for a hot Dog," Aasim said.
"Fingers crossed then, maybe we'll find some Hot Dog seeds," Clementine said.
Another laugh from Aasim and a playful scolding from Ruby.
"We should have come here years ago, we might not have stressed so much about hunting food," Aasim said.
"I know, but Marlon said we couldn't-" Ruby began, before stopping herself.
Clementine felt it best not to interject; she got the gist of things. 
The sound of a metal bell shimmered beside them as the wooden door to the Visitor Center opened. Violet emerged with a smile on her face as she waved a piece of paper at them.
"Ok. One town map. Let's go shopping."
She unfurled the map and walked over to a picnic table nearby. Aasim hopped off Man O' War and went over to her, while Ruby helped pull Clementine over the side of the cart, who wobbled slightly as she stood upright.
"You Ok?" Ruby asked.
"Yeah, just waiting for all the blood to come back. Thankfully it doesn't take as long these days," she smiled and nodded towards her 'Robot leg'.
Ruby smiled, but seemed a bit hesitant to laugh. Clementine found that joking was helping her deal the fallout of losing a part of herself, but it seemed not everybody was as comfortable joining in with her.
Not A.J though; he was constantly coming up with crazy hypothetical ideas for attachments and special abilities for the Robot leg. Clementine's favourite so far was his idea of putting a mini trampoline on the bottom so she could, in his words, 'Jump super high and stomp on Walkers'.
She walked over to the picnic table and sat at the edge of the bench next to Violet.
"Any trouble in there?" She asked.
"Nope. Absolutely dead. In the best sense of that word," Violet said, turning to her and smiling before going back to the map. 
She pointed at two buildings a block apart.
"Ok. These two places are going to be our best bet for equipment. One's a store and the other's the pharmacy.There's a lot of other buildings that might have some good stuff, but I'd rather save that for another day until we know how quiet this place is, and this cart doesn't have a lot of space, so we can't afford any wasted space. Sound good?"
The others nodded their heads and gave a collective murmur of acknowledgment.
"We want proper decent tools," Ruby chimed in, "The ones at the school are kind of..."
"Crap," Aasim interjected.
"Yeah, that," she said.
"We've got plenty of seeds from that caravan, but some more won't hurt," said Clementine.
"What about the pharmacy?" Aasim asked.
"Ruby, I don't imagine we'll find anything in date, but there should be other things we can use right? Bandages and stuff? Violet asked
"Yeah, I'll grab what I can."
"If there's a wheelchair that'd be nice. But you know, don't put yourself out or anything," Clementine said playfully.
"Ok," Violet nodded and shot her a smile, "Well, we need to be at the middle of the street so that isn't too far. Aasim and I will go inside; Ruby you stay with the horse, and Clementine's the best shot so she'll be in the cart with her bow like an angel of death- Or, more death, I guess."
She folded the map up and turned to Clementine, who was smiling sweetly at her.
"What?" Violet asked.
"Nothing. It's just nice to have somebody in charge,"
"Yeah, well, I just thought 'What would Clem say?' and did my best impression of you," she squeezed Clementine's shoulder and helped her too her feet.
"Alright," Aasim began "Let's get this super weird double date moving."
Clementine and Violet hopped in the back of the cart while the other two climbed onto Man O' War, who began gently trotting down the main road into town.