The Engineer

Chapter 6 - The Talk

As Me and Clem go towards the Dorms. Clem looks up at me.

Clem: Hey..

You: Yea?..

Clem: You okay?

You'll never be..

You: Yea, yea I'll be fine.

Clem: He's done that with me too, when I first came in..

I was gonna ask what he did but decide not to push it considering it looks like it brings her back to bad memories.

The walk to the Dorms was pretty awkward. We make it there and I open the door and hold it open for Clem.

I'm looking down, deep in thought.

She looks at me worriedly but nods and hobbles through.

I follow and shut the door behind us.

I then start to remember that car and that radio, all that shit could still be useful.

You: How far is that wrecked car from here?

I say walking beside her.

Clem's face contorts into a frown.

Clem: Why do you care about that car?

She says with a hint of annoyance.

You: I don't think you realize how much you can salvage off of that car.

Clem: So are you planning on stripping it apart or something?

You: Well, yea..why? do you have a problem with that?

Clem sighs as we turn the corner to the left.

Clem: No, it's just...it was mine and I crashed it. It's pretty embarrassing for me.

You: Oh..

I try and reassure her.

You: Well, were you under pressure.

Clem chuckles.

Clem: Yea..yea we were under...alot of pressure.

She says as we reach the door to my new room.

I'm guessing walkers pressured them or something.

You: Walkers, I'm guessing?

Clem looks at me and nods.

You: Well...then it wasn't your fault.

Clem looks up at me, slightly surprised.

You: You were trapped and pressured. It probably would've taken a professional racecar driver to get out of a situation like that.

Clem gives me a heart warming smile.

Clem: Thanks, Y/N.

You: Of course.

I then open the door and walk in to hold it open for her.

She hobbles in and I close it behind her.

You: It's kinda dark in here, you gotta candle?

Clem: Yea, it's on the dresser.

I go over to where the candle is and get my matches and light the candle.

Clem goes over to the bed, placing her crutches against it, and I sit across from her

You: You know I barely got to ask any questions during the game. Do you mind if I ask them now?

Clem: Of course not.

She says as she shakes her head.

You: Alright, first question, what's this whole history with the Delta?

Clem looks down a bit and then looks back up.

Clem: Well...it actually started when I first came in, which was only about a month ago. Me and Aj were out there, barely surviving. We, like I said, got surrounded by walkers because of a grenade that went off in that train station-

You: A grenade?

Clem: Yea, there was a trap door that lead under the building that had a bunch of food, but it was rigged.

You: Oh.

Clem: Yea, anyways we were surrounded by walkers and we made a run to the car. I crashed it and me and Aj were both unconscious. Then these kids saved us. There were more of them but...they died.

You: ..I'm sorry..

Clem: It's alright..but um, what happened last week is we blew up one of Delta's boats because they had our friends hostaged on it.

You: Jesus, you guys blew up their boat?

Clem just nods in response.

Clem: Then we had to escape the walkers that were drawn in from the explosion...we got surrounded and-

You: That's how you got bit..

She nods.

You: Wow...that's..that's impressive.

Clem chuckles

Clem: "What? It's survival"

She said mocking me from earlier.

We both laugh a bit.

Then there's a pause. I decided to speak up.

You: Thank you, Clementine, for letting me stay here..

Clem: Of course, it's an awful world out there, I wouldn't just wanna throw you out to the walkers.

We both chuckle a bit and look up and..stare at each other. Her beautiful hazel eyes shine from the flickering candlelight. She's staring at me too until she snaps out of it.

Clem: Ummm..you do realize you had your backpack on the whole day, right?

She says with a smile.

I snap out of my trance.

You: Oh, um, no I didn't know actually.

I say with a laugh.

I put my pack down and lean it against the dresser.

She laughs at me.

Clem: Dork..

Huh, dork, that's new.

Clem: So what about you though?

You: What about me?

Clem: Like, what things are you good at?

You: Well..I like to build things.

She laughs a bit.

Clem: Okay, but like what do you build?

You: Anything really, mostly weapons though. Actually...

I open my pack and pull out my blueprint journal.

You: Here's all of my concepts.

I say as I pass her my journal.

She goes through the pages and looks at then in shock.

Clem: Woah...these are...cool..

You: Yea, one of them is an electric knife but I need a...couple components.

Clem: So, what do you need for it to work?

You: Well, it's more of a circuit that just loops the voltage all around, making it increase more and more. But for that I need some capacitors and diodes. Which I bet are in that radio.

Clem: Jeez, you're..-

You: Smart?

Clem giggles

Clem: A nerd..

You: Ouch.

Clem: So you're, what, an engineer or something?

You: I guess you could say that..