Know Where (A Walking Dead Game Contintuation)

Prospects

"Breakfast is ready!" Omar shouted from the wooden rotisserie.

Everyone gathered together at the table, the daily hunt from the stream is being served. The bowls were washed decently enough to be used again and everyone helped prepare the table.

"AJ," Violet starts, "stay here and help while I get Clem."

"Okay, tell her that it's the fish again. She loves Omar's fish, for what it's worth."

Ericson's School for troubled Youth didn't seem to fit anymore for the group. Violet and Clem talked about "Happy Sunshine Land" but that didn't stick well with anyone else besides Ruby; she said it made her smile. As much as Violet hated to admit it, Ruby always made her smile too, even in the dark times.

Violet continued to think of more names to discuss with Clem while she was walking up to her room.

"Land for Us? No. Clover? Gross. The Land of Nothing and Everything? Even more gross. Happy Sunshine Land doesn't sound that bad after all." Violet thought as she came up to Clem's door.

She opened the door slowly so as to not to let it creak. Violet had been observing how fast to open the door the past couple times, noting the threshold of too-fast after Clem nearly killed her in fright. She had it down to not too fast, not too slow. Just right. She walked in and closed it behind her.

Clem was still fast asleep. Violet pulled the chair from the desk and sat next to Clem on her bedside. She laid her hand on Clem's, bringing her eyes up to graze over the girl's face. Her expression was soft, maybe even peaceful: lips pressed together, lashes splayed upon plush cheeks, ringlets of brown hair resting in a delicate frame.

Every time Violet watched Clementine sleep now, she was haunted by the memory of when she didn't know Clem would wake.

She had jumped the fence with Tenn when they were escaping the herd Minnie brought. Violet trusted that she'd see her girl's shining face in no time when the four met back up at the school. She waited, and waited, and as seconds turned to minutes turned to hours, worry creeped under her skin like a roach. It was when she saw a gut-covered AJ running toward the school's entrance that her heart fully took the high dive into her stomach.

Everyone mobilized, Ruby taking the reins of the horse and cart they had stolen, Louis, Aasim, and Willy grabbing weapons and hopping in the back, and Violet putting a sobbing AJ into Omar's arms before jumping into the cart as well.

Upon arriving at the abandoned farm, everyone jumped off the cart, Willy cutting loose the wagon they were in, sending it careening through the woods and into a tree a distance off. The crash it made led the walkers to follow it, distracting them from tearing down the old wood structure.

Violet was the first to go blasting to the barn doors, screaming Clem's name as she pushed them open and ran to the girl's side. AJ had tied her jacket tight around her upper leg. Clem was passed out cold. Heat radiated onto Violet's hand as she pressed it to Clem's forehead and her chest labored with shallow breaths.

"We need to get her back to the school," Louis shouted, running in to carefully pick her up and then carrying her back to the horse Ruby was still on. Willy and Aasim stood in front of the barn killing off the straggling walkers.

"Hand her here, I need to get her back quick so I can tend to her," Ruby said, taking Clem into her arms up on the horse.

Before she could hit the reins, Violet was hauling herself onto the horse behind her.

"Stay safe y'all, I better see you at home," Ruby called as she got the horse galloping, Violet chopping off a walker's head as they rode toward the school.