Mᴜᴛᴀɴᴛ Aᴘᴏᴄᴀʟʏᴘsᴇ 5: Bʟᴀᴄᴋ Mᴀsᴋs ❪✓❫

33 || 𝐓𝐇𝐄 𝐆𝐎𝐎𝐃 𝐓𝐈𝐌𝐄𝐒

𝐍𝐚𝐫𝐫𝐚𝐭𝗼𝐫'𝐬 𝐏𝐎𝐕

At this very moment, Clementine sharpened a pile of thick sticks of wood to create homemade shanks as she sat in a lawn chair. She's already made about 10 of them in just a few minutes, all thanks to her survival skills. She wanted to keep herself occupied while she was waiting for the mutants to return home.

When she sharpened one of the last few shanks, she stopped when she saw a marking in the knife handle.

An elk was standing on the edge of a cliff in this small design on the leather handle. Clem sighed and thought back to a day she remembers clearly...

...

"The first animal I see, I'm totally killing it, and you are dragging it back to Hopeswell." Casey says with a laugh, walking out of the gates with Casey. They were out on an early hunt this morning and hoped they'd find something that will feed the small families back home.

Casey led Clementine into the forest where they suspect a herd of deer walked into. The game trails were embedded deeply into the damp mud from last night's storm. The two friends make their way through the thicker brush.

Clementine could see Casey was so excited to make a kill today if they were lucky enough. "See anything?" She asked.

He shook his head. "'Not yet. You?"

"Nothing," Clem replied, walking to one side of the trail and looking ahead to make sure they didn't startle anything.

It felt like forever. The sun brightened up the woods and cast shadows along the ground. Clem took down some Walkers, and so did her hunting buddy. After defending themselves from the Dead, Clementine heard small squeaks and bugles in the distance. "Hear that?" She smiled at Casey.

The animal bugles again. Clem followed the animal's cry and let Casey trail behind her. The trees swayed in the breeze and the two-person team hunkered down into the bushes to disguise their scent. Soon, Clem and Casey saw a herd of elk-- even better than a full-grown whitetail deer.

"I saw them first," Clem whispered to Casey with a laugh.

"Whatever." He snickered. "Take the shot."

Clem breathed out and raised the rifle she used for every hunting trip. She chose the biggest bull with a gorgeous rack sitting on top of its head. The girl looked through the scope and aimed it above the deer's shoulder. She pulled back the bolt and watched the elk swivel its ears toward the sound. Clem fired and felt the rifle kick back on her shoulder.

She was happy to see the elk squeal and buck when the bullet entered its lungs. The female elk bolted from the area. Clem's kill bled out, leaving a red trail. Clem and Casey went to retrieve the animal lying in the grass and grinned when they knew they would be eating tonight.

"Excellent job, Clem. Excellent job." He patted her back. Casey grabbed the elk's antlers and began to drag it in the middle of the trail so he had more space to gut the animal.

...

Clementine stared at the elk on the knife handle and felt a tear sting her right eye. When she blinked, it fell on her lap and soaked into her pants. She missed her best friend so much. She sniffed away her runny nose and tossed the last shank into the pile. Clem dropped the knife next to her feet as she still sat in the chair.

****

Kitty changed her mind this morning about joining the groups today with Raphael. She chose to play with Harlow in the park, discovering she is showing early signs of intelligence that leads to her becoming her own person. The mutant human with cat ears and a tail began teaching her adopted daughter how to walk on the scratchy grass. "Come on, Harlow." She baby-talked the mutant baby.