The Walking Dead A New Frontier: Six Years Later

Chapter Eight: A Chance Encounter

Clem collapsed on the couch almost as soon as they walked in the door. AJ immediately picked his book from the shelf and began reading in the sunlight from the window. Clem threw her jacket on the floor and took her boot off, she had been stuck on the wall all day and she could finally relax. She looked down at her prosthetic leg and sighed.
Why not? She thought.
Clem began loosening the laces that held the leg to her thigh, the leather bracer hung loose and she slipped out of it. Clementine felt strange taking off her leg. Whether she was sleeping or in the shower she left it on, her logic was that if there was an emergency she'd be better off leaving it on so she would always be ready. Today though, she felt extra comfortable.
She took the cloth from her back pocket and began cleaning the prosthetic, that didn't prove to be too hard considering she has been standing on a clean metal platform all day.
Clem set it down and stretched out on the couch, AJ was reading to himself.
"Whatcha reading, goofball?" She asked.
AJ looked up and rolled his eyes, despite AJ's protesting Clem still insisted on calling him goofball.
"It's called The Hobbit. It's cool, it's got dragons and magic and stuff."
"Definitely sounds cool." Clem smiled.
AJ looked at the stump where her leg used to be and frowned.
"You took off your leg?" He asked, confused.
"Yeah, I'm super tired today."
Clem could tell by the look on AJ's face that he was still grappling with her action in his mind.
"But..what if we have to run?"
"Then I'll put it back on and we'll go." She reassured him.
"I like it here, I hope we don't have to."
Clem patted the empty cushion on the couch next to her and AJ ran up to join her. She put her arm around him and kissed the top of his head.
"Me too, kiddo."

Clementine decided to go scavenging and had specific items in mind. She borrowed an M16 from the armoury, one of the many they had found in the weapon cache in the cabin. The city gate closed behind her and she set off on the road.
The town that they had searched the day she found the guns was empty save for a few walkers. Clem crept around the back of one of the houses they didn't search, she turned the doorknob and it stayed firmly in place.
Shit.
Clem searched the outside of the house for an entrance. She peered in the side window and noticed the latch was rusted, she wedged her knife under the frame and broke the latch.
Once inside, Clementine got to searching.
Please have a kid's room. She thought.
She scoured the house from top to bottom, finding none of the things she originally wanted. There were a few books she took for herself.
Can never have too many books, I suppose.
Satisfied that she had searched the whole house, Clem left through the window and continued along the road once more.
The second house proved far more successful. She couldn't believe they had what she was looking for, Clem stuffed the items into her backpack which weighed her down somewhat. She didn't care, it was a gift anyway.
One down, one to go.
Clementine ventured out of the town, there were no shortage of abandoned gas stations on the side of the road. They had mostly been picked clean back in the early days, people wanting gas or other essential supplies. Clem pried open the automatic doors, which had stopped being automatic a very long time ago. Rats scurried away from her and into their dark corners, she didn't like her chances of finding undamaged food with rats around. Clem wiped the dust off the freezer and looked inside.
Empty, Shit.
She had been out for a while, Clem decided to head back through the town and see if she missed anything. As she walked back through the centre of the street, the supermarket caught her eye again.
It's worth a look.
She was right, it was. In the storage section at the back of the store was exactly what she was looking for. Satisfied with her haul, she made the trip back to Richmond through the woods.
Clem took a sip from her canteen, it was almost empty.
"Hey there." A gruff voice from behind greeted her.
Clementine spun around and placed her hand on the grip of her pistol in its holster. The stranger stepped over the brush, he was middle aged with a dark beard. He wore black, reflective sunglasses and had a shotgun resting on his shoulder. The feature that intrigued Clem the most were the flame tattoos on his forearms.
He raised his free hand, "whoah, no trouble. Just passing through."
"So am I." Clem said slowly.
The stranger nodded, "the names Samson, and you are?"
"Names are for friends." She replied, not taking her hand off the gun.
Samson let out a small chuckle, "fair enough then. You by yourself too?"
Clem pondered his question, she decided not to tell him about Richmond.
"Yep."
Samson sighed, "I don't blame you, people make things complicated. When you're alone there's less to worry about."
He slowly paced around the small area of woods.
"Well, I best be going. Pleasure meeting you." Samson said.
Clem just nodded and turned away.
"Wait a second."
She froze, it's always something isn't it.
"That's a fine rifle you have there. Not many of them around that don't got owners, where'd you find it?"
Clem turned back around to face him.
"Found it in a hunting shack." She lied.
Samson slowly nodded again.
"In a hunting shack huh? With bullets and everything, well ain't that lucky."
Samson began walking towards her slowly, his shotgun remained over his shoulder.
"See, I think I know where you found that gun. There were a lot more like it, weren't there?"
Clem took the rifle off her back and shouldered it, aiming at Samson.
"Back off, I don't want to waste the bullets on you." She said.
Samson continued forward, ignoring her threat.
"But the rest were taken too, and you couldn't have taken all those by yourself now, could you? No ma'am I think you have a group somewhere out there, that makes you a liar."
She began moving backwards to create distance between her and Samson.
"I said back the fuck off." Clem hissed through gritted teeth.
"I hate to say it, but I'm a liar too." Samson gave a whistle and more people emerged from the woods behind him. Clem counted are least ten of them, all brandishing weapons.
"Fuck." She whispered to herself. Clem flicked the fire selector on the rifle from semi to automatic and squeezed the trigger. She swept the group of raiders with the muzzle as a burst of gunfire tore through the air at them. There was a scream and the sound of weapons being racked. Clementine didn't stick around to see the result, she began running as fast as she could out of their reach, turning back and firing a quick burst at them every now and again. The raiders returned fire, the air around Clem became full of the cracks and pops of bullets breaking the sound barrier. The shots impacted with the trees next to her, showering Clem with debris and dust. Clem stumbled as something collided with her left arm, there wasn't any pain so she kept running.
I need to lose them, can't let them get to Richmond.
She fired back at them and on the last round the bolt stayed open, Clem dumped the empty weapon and transitioned to her pistol. She hadn't been paying attention to what was in front of her and almost ran head first into a walker. She frantically dived to the left and continued running, the walker turned around and groaned at her. As she ran, more and more walkers were coming towards her, likely drawn by the gunfire. Clem used this to her advantage, ducking and diving between the walkers, using them as cover.
"Shit, rotters!" One of the raiders called out far behind.
She heard them begin to direct their fire on the small herd and quickened her pace to get back to the city.

Clem reached the gate, her lungs burned and her leg ached.
"Hey, open the gate!" She called to the operator.
In all the excitement she hadn't realised that her shirt was slowly getting more and more wet. She looked at her arm and her eyes widened, her whole sleeve was soaked in blood. Once she had seen it, the adrenaline in her system stopped being an effective painkiller. Her arm burned and throbbed, Clem's eyes began to water from the pain. The guards helped her in and took her backpack for her.
On the way to the medical bay, Clem had one thought.
I got shot for a Disco Broccoli dvd and some pudding, didn't I?