The Walking Dead A New Frontier: Six Years Later

Chapter Eleven: The Way This World Is

A cold wind blew through, the trees shivered at its touch. Clementine pulled her coat closed and buttoned it to stay as warm as possible. She headed up the group walking in a straight line, Gabe was behind her and at the back was Jensen.
She checked her compass and glanced at the map, they were making good time. The group had been walking for nearly four hours, along the way Clem had become acquainted with Jensen. She learned that he wasn't originally from Richmond, but rather a survivor from Chicago who had been on the road for years.
They heard groaning coming from up ahead and slowed their pace. There was a large group of walkers feasting on the carcass of something unidentifiable. Clem counted six of them, she drew her knife, Gabe took his out and Jensen readied his hatchet.
"We each take two, I'll go for the two on the left, Gabe the two in the middle, Jensen you get the right ones."
Jensen looked over at her and smirked.
"Yes ma'am."
They snuck up behind the walkers, Clem raised her knife and plunged it into the skull of one of them. It slumped backwards and the others took notice, they groaned and stood up in pursuit of a fresher meal.
Jensen swung his hatchet at one of his walkers, cleaving it's face in two. Gabe kicked the feet out from under one and finished it off on the ground, like Clem had taught him.
She went after her second walker, it was ignoring her and pursuing Gabe who was preoccupied. Clementine kicked it in the side of the knee, the leg gave way with a crunch and snapped clean off leaving the walker lying flat on its back. It took hold of Clem's prosthetic leg  and tried to sink it's teeth in, she promptly wedged a knife between its eyes. Gabe dispatched his second walker and Jensen followed suit.
"All good?" Clem asked.
She had her question answered when Jensen cried out in panic, two walkers had heard the fighting and emerged from the bushes. Jensen grappled with them, frantically trying to push them away. Clem and Gabe ran to his aid, she stabbed the walker in the base of the skull and it dropped to the ground. Gabe killed the other and Jensen was let go. He stumbled back and fell panting to the ground.
"Holy shit, th-they had me. Thanks." He said between breaths.
Jensen got to his feet and retrieved his weapon.
"I'm good, let's keep moving." He said, exasperated.

They continued their trek until the sun began to set, the group kept walking until they came across a clearing.
"This seems like a good enough spot to make camp." Clem said, checking the surrounding area. The grass was overgrown to the point they were knee deep in it, there was trees in all directions giving them good cover from anyone or anything outside the clearing.
Gabe set up the tent while Jensen gathered firewood. Once he was done, Clementine started a fire. They had to tear up a circle of grass to avoid burning the area down but it was all worth the effort when she felt the warmth on her face from the flames.
Jensen handed the can of steaming beans to Clem.
"What's the most fucked up thing you've done?" He asked without looking away from the fire.
Clem gave a sideways glance to Gabe who shrugged. She chewed on the beans in her mouth before handing the can off to Gabe.
"I killed a guy with a hammer."
Clem and Gabe were silent.
"I was staying in this abandoned store and kept my supplies out back. While I was out this young guy snuck in, he must have thought it was abandoned. I got back to see him packing my food into his bag. I didn't even think, I just rushed him and hit him on the head with a hammer. It didn't kill him right away, he sort of stumbled around and asked me who I was. He..uhh..he kept saying that over and over. He died after about a minute. That's the most fucked up thing I ever did."
Clem looked over at Gabe, his face was frozen in an expression of shock. She swallowed hard.
"I had to shoot the mother of my adoptive son."
She felt a hand on her shoulder, it was Gabe's.
"Jensen, we've all done fucked up things out here. It's how this world is, it puts people in those positions. But that doesn't make you a bad person. You made a mistake and as horrible as it is, it can't be undone. There's no point forcing yourself to relive it, best to move forward and learn from it."
Clem sighed, she wasn't sure if the speech was directed at Jensen, or at herself. She still had nightmares about the ranch to this day, all the people she killed, many of whom were innocent, she still remembered their faces.
Jensen furrowed his brow and closed his eyes, exhaling shakily.
"You're right Clementine." He finally said.
He took the rifle that Gabe had packed and checked the bolt.
"You guys should get some sleep, I'll take watch tonight." Jensen said.
"Are you sure?" Gabe asked.
"I'm sure, not tired anyway."
Clem and Gabe listened to Jensen and crawled into the tent. She unfurled her bedroll and put it on the floor, they had packed a one person tent in order to travel lightly. She lay down next to Gabe and placed her hat next to her on the floor of the tent.
"Shit Clem, I didn't know you had to do that." Gabe whispered.
"I know you didn't. Look I'm fine, she was a walker and if I didn't, AJ would have died." She really didn't want to have another conversation about past trauma, they rarely ended well.
"Yeah but I couldn't even imagine-."
"Gabe please. I didn't bring it up for sympathy, I'm okay. I wouldn't have done anything different." She interrupted.
"Okay, sorry." He sighed.
"Don't worry about it."
Clem layed in the nook of his arm, she could feel him running his fingers through her hair again. She liked the feeling, it relaxed her, made her feel safe. She soon drifted off to the chirping of the crickets outside.
Clementine stirred from her sleep, the birds outside were chirping and the morning light was penetrating the tent. She put her boot on and kissed Gabe's cheek before unzipped the tent, Jensen was still sitting in front of the smouldering fire.
"Morning." She greeted as she closed the tent back up on a sleeping Gabe.
"Oh, uh..morning." He said.
Jensen handed her a metal mug of coffee, she thanked him and took a sip.
"When Gabe wakes up we'll have some food and break camp, we should be at Montpelier by about noon."  She said between sips of coffee.
Jensen was silent for a while, he poked at the glowing coals with a stick.
"Clementine, I need to show you something." He sighed and began rolling his sleeve up, he turned his forearm around to face Clem. On the inside of his elbow was a bite, it was covered in dry blood and thin hairs from his shirt.
Clem's face fell, she put down the mug.
"Oh fuck."
"Yeah." Jensen said solemnly.
"Why didn't you tell us?"
Jensen examined the bite, turning his arm back and forth as if staring at it would bring a solution.
"I don't know, I guess I didn't trust you enough. What you said last night though, you trusted me enough to tell me that, so you deserve my trust in return."
Clem swallowed and cast a glance back at the tent where Gabe was sleeping.
"How are you going to play this?" She asked quietly.
Once again Jensen was silent.
"I don't want to turn, I'll end it myself."
The sound of a zipper moving startled Clem, she jumped around and saw Gabe's face poking out of the tent.
"Hey guys, up early huh?" His smile faded when he noticed everyone else's expressions.

"Maybe we can go back to Richmond. They could cut it off and you might make it." Gabe suggested.
"It's too far and too late, I'll turn before we get back. Besides, I was bitten yesterday, my times about up."
Gabe shook his head.
"There's got to be something we can do."
Clem put her hand on top of his, he looked at her with tears welling up in his eyes. She hadn't seen him like this before, he had always taken things in stride.
"Look, I know this is hard. But there's only one way I'm not turning."
Jensen pulled a revolver out of his waistband and opened the cylinder. He emptied the bullets into the palm of his hand and placed one in the chamber.
"Before I go I want you two to do one thing for me."
Gabe took a shaky breath.
"Sure, man. Anything."
"I want to be buried. I'll dig the hole, all I ask is that you cover it up."
Gabe ran his hand over his face.
"I...fuck." Was all he could muster.
"We'll all dig." Clem reassured him.

They had no shovel with them, the digging took hours. They scooped the soft dirt away with a hatchet and their hands.
Jensen sat back and gazed into the hole.
"Shit, this is surreal." He said, his voice was calm. Clem had seen this kind of thing enough to know he had accepted what was going to happen.
Jensen wiped the sweat from his brow. His face was gaunt and pale. He began to cough violently, spitting out a chunk of blood.
"I guess it's time." He croaked.
Gabe wiped his eyes and got to his feet, helping Jensen up as he did. Jensen stepped into the hole and took the revolver from beside it.
"Gabe, you've been a great friend. I'm gonna miss you."
A tear rolled down Gabe's cheek.
"Me too, man."
Jensen looked up at Clem.
"We haven't known each other for long, but I'm glad I got to meet you Clementine. You keep him safe, okay?"
Clem nodded slowly, feeling a pain in her chest.
"Good luck you two. Find out who wants to attack us and make sure they don't get the chance."
He raised the muzzle of the gun to his temple, clicked back the hammer and squeezed the trigger.
The gunshot echoed through the woods. Birds took flight, squawking in fear. Jensen lay in the hole, Clementine gently closed his eyes and took the gun from his hands. She took the cloth wrapped around her belt and placed it over his face. She and Gabe began burying him, pushing the mound of dirt back into the hole.
Once it was done, they stood over his grave. Clementine squeezed Gabe's hand gently, he wrapped his arms around her and buried his face in her shoulder.
"What do we do now?" He asked after a while.
Clementine looked out over the trees and at the sky. The sun was high in the sky, she had no doubt it would be dark soon.
"We have to keep going." She said with a sigh.