The Walking Dead : The In Between (Season 3.5)

Just Survive Somehow

"So how are they?" Deanna asked Carl, walking next to him and Maggie.
"They're doing good," Carl nodded.
"Who?" Maggie looked visibly confused.
"Some kids Carl found outside the walls. Their names are Clementine and AJ," Deanna explained.
"Hm. What do we know about them so far?"
"They've been out there for a while. Probably about as long or longer as we had been out there before we got here. Overall, Clementine seems really nice, and AJ too. I think he's still a little bit skittish though," Carl told them. Maggie nodded.
"We all were at first. He'll be okay."
"Oh, they there are right now," Carl nodded in their direction.
Maggie and Deanna looked to see Clementine walking down the sidewalk with AJ in her arms. You could just see how tight he was holding on to her. The three of them approached them, all wearing kind smiles. "You must be Clementine," Maggie held out her hand, and Clementine shifted AJ to one arm so she could return the handshake.
"I'm Maggie," she smiled.
"It's nice to meet you, Maggie," Clementine smiled back.
"And you, must be AJ," Maggie shifted her attention to AJ, giving him a warm smile. He nodded nervously.
"You should go meet some of the others, Clementine. I can take AJ to meet my baby sister, Judith. She's younger, but I'm sure they'll be good friends," Carl suggested.
AJ made it obvious he did not like that idea, but Clementine knew that to make sure it was safe for AJ, she needed to figure the others out. She trusted Carl already.
Clementine hesitantly nodded, seeing AJ's fearful face expression.
"I promise you AJ, you're gonna be okay. I'm gonna be okay. I'll see you in a bit, okay?" She made eye contact with him, letting him know she was being genuine. He nodded and hugged her, and got a hug back. She handed him to Carl, who gave her a reassuring nod in response to the worried look on her face.
"I'll take care of him. I promise."
Clementine watched Carl walk away, AJ still watching her over Carl's shoulder.
"He'll be okay. Carl's a good kid," Maggie reassured Clementine.
Maggie went around introducing her people to Clementine. According to Maggie, a lot of their people went out this morning to lead a massive herd of walkers away from Alexandria. That made Clementine realize what a really good thing it was that they weren't outside of the walls anymore.
Clementine met Carol, Rosita, Aaron, then Tara and Eugene.

"Hi Clementine, I'm Tara," she said holding out her hand, smiling.
Clementine smiled and shook her hand.
"We were just headed to the medical building. You could come with and meet the doctor if you want," Eugene suggested.
Clementine shrugged.
"Sure," she agreed.
They all started walking towards the medical building.
"So I heard you've got a little boy with you?" Tara asked.
"Yeah. He's with Carl and Judith. His name's AJ."
"How old is he?"
"He's four.. I think. All I know is his birthday is during the winter."
"Well Judith's probably about two, but I'm sure they'll be good friends."
Clementine looked spaced, staring at the ground.
"I'm a little worried about him. Everything we've been through, and everything I've taught him, he's scared. There's never been a good reason for us to be apart before."
"I get that. When our group got here, we were so cautious. We all stayed in the same house for a couple of nights. Rick was so protective of all of us, but after some time we realized, this place is real. After some time, AJ will be okay. So will you. We're a family now," Tara smiled.
"Don't worry. Carl's a nice kid, and AJ's gonna like Judith," Tara assured.
That actually helped. Clementine smiled a little.
"Thank you, Tara."

AJ walked next to Carl who was pushing a stroller with Judith. AJ looked back in forth in every direction, very focused on his surroundings.
"So, what do you like to do for fun?" Carl asked AJ.
"I like to draw," AJ responded, still looking all around.
"Oh, that's cool," Carl said.
AJ didn't say anything back.
"You like comics?" Carl asked.
AJ looked up at him, finally.
"Comics?"
"Yeah, I have a lot at my house,"
Carl said smiling at AJ.
"You can borrow some if you want," Carl offered.
AJ smiled a little.
"Yeah, thanks."
Carl smiled at AJ.

Eugene's vocabulary was very hard for Clementine to keep up with.
All she could tell was that Eugene wasn't on board with some building plan. Finally reaching the medical building, they were met with a doctor named Denise. She said she went to medical school, but was more interested in physcology after experiencing panic attacks.
"I only kind of want to throw up," Denise joked. Eugene wasn't helping her confidence.
Clementine tried to listen to everything Denise said, but she was distracted. Something felt off. It was quiet outside. Before, you could hear muffled voices of people chatting and laughing. Now, nothing. So quiet, you could hear the buzz of a machine.
She approached the window, and saw the horrific image of somebody being brutally attacked.
"AJ!" Her mind instantly went to him and Carl.
Her heart started racing, and she sprinted to the door and out.
"Clementine, wait!" Tara shouted after her.

Carl started hearing screams, so he grabbed AJ, and took Judith from her stroller to move faster. He ran with both of them in his arms to his house.

Clementine nearly tripped on the steps to Carl's house, she was in such a rush. She threw the door open, and was faced with Carl with his gun up.
"Oh thank god," Carl lowered his gun, catching his breath.
"I almost killed you."
"What's going on? Where's AJ?" Clementine skipped over her almost death.
"I don't know, some maniacs jumped our walls. AJ's upstairs with Judith," he paused. "Some of these people.. they've been inside these walls the entire time. They don't know how to fight for themselves. A lot of people are going to die."
Clementine thought for a second.
"I have to go out there. I need a gun," she went up to the window and peeked out, staying out of sight.
"Are you crazy?" Carl looked at her like she was speaking tongues.
"We have to protect the kids. You have to stay here."
Clementine turned away from the window, frowning.
"This is how we protect them. We get rid of these people," she thought for a second. "You stay here, keep that gun aimed at the door. I remember where the guns are, I can make it."
Carl shook his head, ready to object, but Clementine turned back to the window and saw Carol outside with a gun, and a bag slung on her shoulder.
"Carl, she has the guns. I can do this. Please, trust me," she made eye contact. He hesitated, but nodded.
"Please, be careful. I'll let AJ know you're okay," he requested.
"Thank you," Clementine nodded and raced outside.
"Carol!" She called to her.
Carol whipped around to see Clementine, and ran to give her a gun from the bag.
They gave each other a nod before running in two different directions.

Clementine eventually ended up with Rosita. They covered each other and moved together.
"Pst!" Rosita nudged Clementine, turning her attention to a house occupied with W people.
"Between the houses," Clementine pointed.
"We'll get them when they come out."
"That's what I was thinking," Rosita nodded. They sprinted between the houses, watching from under the railing of the porch. As two W people came out, they simultaneously shot one each, killing both that had left the house. Suddenly a loud horn rang out into Alexandria, followed by a loud bang, making them both flinch.
"Shit, what is that?" Clementine covered her ears.
"I don't know," Rosita also covered her ears, barely being able to hear what Clementine said.

Clementine and Rosita found source of the horn. A truck had crashed into the tower against the walls. It almost penetrated the structure, but Spencer managed to shoot the driver just before it brought the tower down. The horn was turned off eventually, unfortunately, everyone knew that it had been on long enough to tear the herd off track and back this way.

"I think it's over," Maggie approached the group, Deanna following her. "Thank you. All of you, so much," Deanna said looking around at the group of people that helped.
Clementine, Rosita, Carol, Morgan, Maggie, and Deanna stood around in a circle. Now that it was over, Clementine felt the confusion wash over her. Nobody mentioned any trouble with another group, so who were those people? Why did they attack? Who are they?
"I thought this place was safe?" Clementine questioned, crossing her arms.
"As long as evil people exist, no place is completely safe. That's why we need good people protecting it," Maggie gave Clementine a sad smile.
It wasn't great for their case that this happened to be Clementine's first full day in Alexandria.
"You got here yesterday, and protected this place better than some of the people who've been here since the beginning. Alexandria needs you, Clementine," Deanna said.
Clementine looked around, then back at the group, thinking for a second.
"Yeah.. okay. I'm with you."

Clementine stared at herself in the mirror, once again. Suddenly she brought the scissors up,
and cut her hair.