The Walking Dead : The In Between (Season 3.5)

One of Us

Clementine sat on the porch, watching AJ draw, laying on his stomach next to her. Michonne walked up the steps and smiled at AJ, when he looked up at her. He smiled back, then focused back on his drawing. Michonne sat next to Clementine.
"Hi," Michonne greeted the two, watching AJ draw.
"Hi," Clementine and AJ said, in sync.
"Whatcha drawing?" She asked him.
"Guess!" AJ said holding it up for her, smiling. "Okay, I'll guess," Michonne leaned closer to examine the drawing.
"Ooh! It's you and Judith?"
AJ nodded. Clementine was impressed. She had never been good at AJ's guessing game.
Michonne gave him a high-five, which he gladly returned.
"Imma go get more colors," he stood up, and ran inside.
Michonne looked at Clementine.
"Hey, so, I figured you might wanna hear about Hilltop?"
Clementine nodded.
"We made a deal. They give us food, and we help them abolish a group that terrorizes their community and others like them. The 'saviors' they call themselves. We're gonna end it tomorrow. It's the same group that tried to kill Daryl, Sasha, and Abraham," she informed her.
Clementine nodded again, looking deep in thought.
Michonne hesitated.
"I know this is a lot to ask.. and you're so young, but you're smart, strong and independent. And you care about this place. I can tell you do," Michonne took a deep breath before asking, "Are you in?"
Clementine paused for a several seconds, before coming to the conclusion that any safe home is worth fighting for.
"Yeah. I'm in."

Rick, Glenn, Daryl, Michonne, Clementine, Jesus and Andy all stood around a table, planning the attack. Andy drew out what he remembered about the compound.
"We go in at night. While they're sleeping."
"Guards won't be sleeping. Like I said, I think there's only one way in, and you won't be able to get in without waking the rest of them."
"We don't need to," Rick said. "They're gonna open it for us. Let us walk right in. They want Gregory's head, right?" He asked rhetorically.
"We're gonna give it to them."
As the room cleared, Rick stopped Clementine before she left to speak to her alone.
"Are you sure you can do this? Have you.. killed before? Was the W attack your first time?"
Clementine was quiet for a second.
"..No. I've killed before then. I've done a raid like this," she didn't make eye contact, and started to fidget with her sleeve. It was kind of a nervous habit she found herself developing.
"Why?"
"To get AJ back.. to protect myself and people I loved."
Rick nodded, and gave her shoulder a small squeeze.

After a little bit of driving, they stopped to begin executing the plan. Clementine split off with Glenn and Heath to find a walker that resembled Gregory.
"Hey," Glenn looked up at Clementine. "It's good to see you again, Clementine."
"It's good to see you too, Glenn."
This was the first time either of them had acknowledged that they'd met before. Heath seemed confused, but he didn't ask. Three walkers stumbled towards them, snarling. Each of them took one out, then went to examine them.
"What do you think?"
Heath asked them, staring at the one he had killed.
".. Maybe," Glenn tilted his head slightly. "If we uh.. cut the hair, trim the beard," he shook his head.
"If it was dark," Heath added, giving up on the walker. Clementine stood up to analyze a different walker. Heath and Glenn stood up as well turning to the other walkers.
"We're gonna kill those people. Tonight. I've been lucky. I've never had to do it before. Have you?" Heath looked at them, curiously.
Clementine's eyes wandered suddenly, no longer making eye contact.
"I've been lucky too," Glenn nodded. Clementine avoided the question by stepping over a walker, pretending to analyze one of the other walkers again. "Maybe this one," she said, moving the walkers face slightly with her knife. She unintentionally made it obvious she was avoiding the question.
Heath and Glenn looked at each other, with the same mix of shock and sympathy on their faces.
"Yeah, maybe," Glenn finally answered Clementine, distracted.
"You nervous?" Heath asked Glenn,  changing the subject.
"You ever seen something that afterwards you didn't want to sleep, 'cause when you closed your eyes, you could see it?" Glenn asked quietly.
"Yeah."
"Killing somebody has to be worse than that. It has to be," Glenn tried to keep his volume low so Clementine couldn't hear, but she did.
"So yeah. I'm nervous," Glenn finished.

"Why is Maggie here? And Clementine?" Carol asked, outraged, pulling Rick aside.
"Maggie's guarding the perimeter. And you said yourself, Clementine's a good shot. We need her. I asked to make sure, and she told me she was ready," Rick explained.
"When I said she was a good shot, I was trying to convince you that she was one of us. I didn't mean for you to bring her into dangerous, deadly situations," Carol crossed her arms.
"And Maggie shouldn't be here."
"It's their choice, Carol. Besides, everything is a dangerous, deadly situation now," Rick argued back.
"Fine. Then I'm staying outside with Maggie. And you better protect that girl with your life."

Eddie drove up to the compound as planned, and presented the guards with the decoy Gregory head. They examined it.
"He broke my hand, I broke his nose. That's why it looks that way," Eddie said. One of the saviors took the head and pulled his lips to sync with his sentence,
"Lil bitch broke my nooose," he said in a whiny joking tone. The other savior laughed. He threw the head aside.
"Alright. It looks like you've learned. I'll get your guy, you'll go home. And you can bring us more stuff next week, kay?" He slapped Eddie in the face lightly. The other guy whistled 'happy birthday' while the other went inside. Daryl came up behind the whistling guard and slit his throat, then finished him off with a stab to the head. Everyone else ran from their spots up to the compound. They carried the guards body into the bushes and hid. The other guard returned with the hostage.
"Well well well, look who it is-," the man was interrupted by Michonne thrusting her sword through his stomach from behind. Rick finished him, and then tossed Clementine the keys before hiding his body. Clementine ran for the door and unlocked it quickly, with Glenn and Daryl behind her. Everyone else filed inside.
"Check the doors, find the arsenal. Take em out," Rick ordered, quietly.
Everyone split up into groups of twos and threes. Clementine opened a door, examining the room before going in, and Michonne followed. There were two men sleeping in beds on opposite sides of the room. Michonne watched Clementine walk quietly and slowly to one of the men, and stab him through the head, with no hesitation. Michonne looked away when Clementine noticed that she was watching her, and went to kill the other man.
They moved to the next room, taking the same precautions. Clementine crept up to another sleeping savior, when suddenly a very loud alarm started blaring. The man shot up in his bed and socked Clementine in the stomach as hard as he could, taking the breath out of her. She doubled over in pain, dropping her knife. Michonne whipped her sword out and stabbed the man in the head, then turned around swiftly, slicing the other guy, who was about to attack her, in half.
Clementine picked up her knife, and Michonne helped her up.
"Are you okay?"
"Yeah," Clementine said breathlessly, holding her stomach. After she caught her breath, they both took out their guns, and ran out of the room.

Rick, Daryl and Michonne sprinted down a hall way, and threw the doors open, when Michonne froze.
"Wait! Where's Clementine? Wasn't she behind us?"
Rick and Daryl turned around.
"Shit! We gotta go back," Rick pulled the door shut and ran back the way they came from. Michonne and Daryl followed.
Running through another set of doors, they found a savior throwing himself against a door, using his body weight to try to force it open, but there was a resistance on the other side of it.
Rick shot him in the head, and the door slammed shut, the person on the other side finally winning the battle.
They all ran to the door and Michonne knocked.
"Clementine?"
The door slowly opened.
"I ran out of ammo," Clementine said, catching her breath.
On the floor of the room she shut herself in, was four dead saviors, all stabbed through the head.
She stepped over the bodies and joined them in the hallway.
"Thanks.. I don't know I would've been able to handle that one," she motioned to the dead guy in front of the door.
"You're okay?" Rick checked before they began walking.
"I'm okay," she assured.
"Not bad, kid," Daryl gave her a nod.

By the time they cleared out the compound, it was daytime, and they were ready to head to Hilltop. While Tara and Heath prepared for their two week run, Clementine wandered around the parking lot by herself. She was zoned out for the most part, but she knew she needed to get back to Alexandria, so she was also searching for a suitable car.
Michonne watched from afar, curiously, before approaching.
"Hey, whatcha doin'?" she asked.
Clementine stopped her pacing.
"I think I should get back," she paused.
"I really miss AJ."
"So you're looking for a car?" Michonne looked around at the cars in the lot.
"Yup," she confirmed.
After searching for a few minutes, they found a good car, and got it hotwired.
"Thank you," Clementine gave her a smile.
"Of course," Michonne smiled back.
Suddenly Clementine gave Michonne a small hug.
It caught her off guard, but she hugged her back.
Clementine let go, and got into the car.
Michonne handed her the map they had used to get from Alexandria to the compound.
"Be safe," she requested.
"You too."