Broken (a TWDG Fanfiction)

Duck

Her white and purple baseball cap with an embroidered “D” on the front hid part of her horrified pinched-up face, the other part she hid behind her scrawny knees. She had them pressed up against her chest as she wrapped her skinny and frail arms around her shins. Her eyes trailed down to her sleek black shoes as she sat in the corner of the train car. The floor was cold against the thin fabric of her dress, soon she would need to find something warmer to wear, she could have stole the jacket from the abandon car when her and the group found it, but she was taught very firmly in school and by her parents that all forms of stealing were bad, and taking the jacket was a form of stealing, so she refused.

Her golden eyes stared attentively at the older teen boy, Ben, sitting across the room, his head in his hands. She frowned. She could tell he blamed himself about everything.

“Clementine?” a hollow voice asked, she glanced up at the white-haired man looking down at her. He was older, and wore tattered dirty clothing, slightly resembling the people the girl used to see on the side of the road holding up signs for money.

“Y-yes.” she stuttered in a shaky tone.

“I suggest you start learnin' to protect yer'self. If you don't learn to properly, same thing could happen to you that happened to that boy.” she snapped her head up a him, in shock and fear. Her eyebrows arched as he no longer looked to her, but off into the woods where her friend, Duck, was being put out of his misery. His stare was vacant. She let out a shaky breath of air, fear and worry suddenly consuming her. At moments like that she wished her mom and dad were there to hug her. She didn't want to end up like Duck. Bitten. The very word caused her to shudder.

After a moment or two the man, Chuck, trailed off to the other side of the train car. The three kept to themsleves for a while, because they all knew that soon Lee, Kenny, and Katja would be back, and Katja would no long be carrying a dying boy in her arms.

Clementine had glared at the woods, then to the old man and lonely teen, before quietly slipping away, out of the car and into the thick woods, unnoticed.

She could feel the gravel crunch beneath her shoes as she jogged, various thin, tiny branches nearly scratching her face as she ran past trees. Was she trying to find them to say goodbye to her friend? Or just needing to see to believe her friend would soon be erased from the world? It was probably a little bit of both.

She could see two narrow figures a little ways away. One knelt, hunched over something. She hesitated to go any further, what if that wasn't Lee, Kenny or Katja at all? She bit her lip to stop it from quivering as she slowly approached the scene. She cowered behind a thick maple tree, staying hidden. As the girl looked closer she began to see all the gruesome detail of what had happened in the few short moments she was in the train car.

She let out a high-pitched whimper, and cupped a small hand over her mouth in attempts to stop herself from screaming. Katja lied lifelessly on the forest floor, a chunky, thick, red substance leaking from her head and ears. Her icey blue eyes were still open, except now they seemed to be glazed over with red.

Clementine's face went pale as the nausea in the pit of her stomach slowly made it's way to the back of her throat. Hot tears streamed down her face and jawline.

Kenny put two fingers to the Katja's eyes and gently closed them. Clementine was shaking with fear and shock. Did Kenny kill her? She didn't think he'd be capable to, her eyes then found the gun laying in Katja's limp hand, answering her question. Clementine seemed to shrink down.

Lee stood stiffly behind Kenny in disbelief. And next to him was Duck, slumped against a tree, his chest still rising and dropping steadily, inhaling short spurts of air and exhaling practically nothing. Lee seemed to say something inaudible before Clementine closed her eyes, looking away. She shouldn't have followed them. Her right hand gripped the tree, keeping her from dropping to her knees and breaking down. Her fingers dug into the bark, wedging little chips under her fingernails. She let out tiny sobs, she couldn't help it. After a moment she looked up, Kenny was aiming a gun downward at Duck, Lee right beside him, resting a hand on his shoulder, as he rested his index finger on the trigger.

Clementine had winced at the gunshot, it sent a flock of birds from a nearby tree up into the sky. The girl closed her eyes again, she saw it happen, her friend, his eyes sunk in and his face pale, get a bullet put in his head. He was officially erased.

Kenny had been the first to walk away from the bodies, and after a moment, Lee did they same. At the point Clementine did fall to her knees. She looked at the two corpses, they were just gone. Duck would never grow up and get married or graduate, and Katja would never grow old with Kenny or have grandkids. Because the two were just gone.

The girl walked slowly, her knees wobbly and her body shaking, as she made her way over to the boy. She stood for a moment, hovering over him and staring, and used her sleeve to wipe the tears from her puffy red face. Then, strangely, her sad, fearful expression changed to an empty, vacant stare--similar to the look Chuck had earlier.

Something in her had broke that day, something that could never be fixed. She wasn't the same girl she was when she entered those woods.

“Goodbye Duck.”