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

20. Photographs

Flames.

Death.

Destruction.

Slaughter.

McCaroll Ranch.

AJ.

The Infinites.

The sunlight pouring in through the window roused Clementine from her disturbed sleep. Yawning, she pulled herself to reality. Her hand instinctively reached for the space beside her, instead, finding nothing.

Her eyes snapped open as she sat upright, her sleep vanishing within an instant. AJ wasn't there. She looked down to the side, noticing Louis and Violet asleep on the mattresses that were laid on the floor.

Clementine sighed, realising everything that had happened was not a nightmare. It was very much real. She looked around at the room she was housed in. Jonathan had offered to let them stay for a while. The room was quite bare, save for the necessities like the bed, chairs, table and a large dark brown closet.

The white walls seemed to have been painted recently. The bathroom door was right opposite her bed and the room door was to her right, across the mattresses. Pulling the covers off of her, she got up. Her cap lay by her bedside, as well as her bag. Their stuff had been recovered from the van, thankfully, which meant she still had most of her belongings, save for her weapons.

She lingered at the foot of the mattresses, debating whether to awaken Violet and Louis. Deciding against it, she stepped past them and let herself out of the room. The bedroom opposite hers was still shut. A staircase to her left led downstairs.

Holding onto the handrails, she slowly made her way down, still slightly dizzy. She noticed the photos along the wall. She recognised Jonathan from them, but not the boy and the woman, although, it was safe to assume that they were his wife and child.

Reaching the bottom, across was the main door. To the left was the living room and to her right was the kitchen. Light spilled in from all the windows around. The sounds coming from the kitchen told her to head over there. She walked in to find Jonathan sitting at the table, eating. A hot, steaming mug accompanied his food.

"You're awake early," he remarked, looking up from his breakfast.

"Yeah, I've been told that a lot," she replied.

"How's the head feel? And the shoulder?"

"Better than yesterday. Still feels dizzy, though."

Jonathan gestured at a chair at the table, waiting for her to sit down. "It's a pretty nasty cut on your head. Might take a while. Your shoulder should be healing faster, though." He took a sip from his mug. "There's some coffee on the counter, if you'd like."

Clementine nodded. She picked out a mug from the wall cabinet, pouring some hot water into it and mixing it with the milk powder. Adding a spoonful of the coffee powder, she stirred the hot liquid, reveling in the feeling of holding a hot mug of coffee in her hands.

She sipped some of it, closing her eyes as she enjoyed the first taste of coffee in months. The warm mug felt comfortable in her hands as she headed back to the table.

"I'll arrange for some clothes for the three of you, if you don't have any," Jonathan said. "There should be enough people with your size. Check the closet too. There should be some that might fit you."

"Thanks," Clementine replied.

"There's some breakfast for you over in that pot there." He pointed towards the counter. "Jared had his, so it's just for the three of you now. Finish it off."