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

34. Old Nightmares

"What the fuck was that?" Violet whispered once they were back in their cells, echoing the others' thoughts.

"It's that group," Clementine replied. "I mean, it has to be."

"But this close? Clem, we're dead if they get in here."

"I know. But we'll find a way. We always do."

"It's not easy," Minnie said. "This place is meant to keep you in."

"That's not helpful, Minnie," Violet replied with slight annoyance.

The cell-door squeaked open followed by Louis, Marlon and AJ. The man escorting them shoved the kids in, slamming the door behind them and retreating from the room.

Clementine jumped to her feet and instinctively rushed towards AJ to see if he was okay.

"Do you guys know what happened?" Louis asked. "All of them starting being weird all of a sudden and threw us back here."

"Another group got attacked," Clementine replied.

"You mean like yesterday?"

She nodded.

"Well fuck..." He looked worried. "If they attack Delta, that means...."

"... We get caught in the crossfire, yeah," Violet completed his sentence.

"Well, we can't just sit here."

Clementine noticed Marlon walk back into his cell.

"No, we can't. I'm not going to die in this shitty place," Violet responded.

"So, what do we do then?" Louis asked, glancing at everyone.

"What I've been saying for all this time. Find a way out."

"How? We already saw how closely guarded this place is. And we already spoke about this last night- we can't just slip out."

"Well, you have a better idea then?" Violet asked, irritated.

"Well, no but..."

Clementine quietly left them to talk, following Marlon. She didn't know what she was going to say, but she felt like she had to try and resolve things with him. She slowly approached his cell.

"Marlon?" she called out.

He looked up at her from the bed. For an instant, it appeared as though he was about to say something, but simply shook his head.

"Can we talk?"

"What do you want?"

She expected hostility but it still caught her off-guard. "I uh... I wanted to see how you were doing."

"How does it look like? We're in a cell and there's a war outside. And Brody. She's not here either."

"I know. We all miss her. But, we can't just-"

"We can't just what?" Marlon interrupted harshly.

"We can't just fight among ourselves," she replied. "We won't get out of here alive that way. We need to stick together."

"Like the time when you brought this all on us? That time? Or was it when you made Louis and Violet follow you here?"

"I didn't make them follow me. We-" Clementine began protesting.

"You know, every time, something or the other fucks up when you're around. Tomorrow, we just might be like the dead."

"You know it's not like that, Marlon. I know it was a bad call, but it was necessary to-"