The Walking Dead A New Frontier: Six Years Later

Chapter Twelve: The One Thing That Goes Right

By the time they reached Montpelier, night had fallen. There were a few stray walkers wandering the streets, they made sure to stay out of their sight.
Clementine followed the map Javi had given them, they crept through the abandoned streets before coming across a small suburban neighbourhood. One of the houses had a yellow glow radiating from the back yard and smoke rising into the air. Clem and Gabe snuck over to it and ducked behind the fence at the front. She peeked over and saw a circle of five people sitting around a campfire, they were all armed and she could hear fragments of their conversation.
"So this guy cut open a rotter, smeared himself in its guts and says; 'check this out'. Fucker walked straight into a herd and they didn't even notice him."
"Bullshit."
"Hey, believe whatever you want. I know it's true."
One of them stood up and took a swig from a flask. She began walking towards the house.
"Where are you going, Rose? The night's still young."
"I was on watch all last night, I'm going to sleep."
"Suit yourself."
The woman disappeared up the back porch steps.
"What do we do now?" Gabe asked.
Clem peeked over again at the people sitting around the fire.
"We sneak into the house, that woman went in alone so maybe we can press her for information without alerting anyone."
Gabe nodded and they made for the front door of the house. Clem tried the handle and unsurprisingly it was locked. She looked over the front window and pulled out her knife, wedging it under the latch and pushing it up. Gabe gave her a thumbs up and they both climbed inside.
There was a light coming from upstairs in the room to the right, Clementine pulled out her knife.
"You stay here and make sure nobody sneaks up behind us." She told Gabe.
She crept up the stairs, careful not to make them creak. Clem got to the landing and carefully peered into the room. The woman, Rose, had her back turned and was placing a blanket onto the bed. Clem snuck behind and grabbed her, placing the blade of the knife against her throat.
"Don't make a sound or I'll kill you." She warned.
Rose gulped and nodded gently.
"Where's the rest of your group."
"Outside."
"That's only four, where's everyone else."
"We're the only ones here."
"Where's Samson?" Clem whispered.
The woman paused.
"He's not here, this is just an outpost."
"Where's your settlement then?"
"I'll die before I tell you."
Clem felt a shooting pain radiate around her face, Rose had wrenched her head back and struck her in the nose. She ran towards the side table and reached for the pistol resting on it. Clementine tackled her to the ground and seized her wrist, Rose frantically tried pushing Clem off with one hand and aiming the gun with the other. She twisted her wrist and let off a shot, Clem's ears began ringing. She then saw the knife out of the corner of her eye and reached for it with her free hand. Rose was still trying to aim the gun at her and fired again, it disturbed the air and caused Clem's shirt to ripple under her arm. She had to end this fight now, Clem pushed the knife against the Rose's throat. The woman panicked and grabbed Clem's wrist, trying to shove the knife away. Clem pushed and the knife entered her throat, Rose's eyes widened in fear as she began gurgling. She brought the gun up again but before she could fire, her body went limp.
Clem's heart was beating out of her chest, she felt sick and her hands were shaking. Gabe ran into the room aiming his rifle.
"Clem what-." He stopped when he saw the body.
"What the fuck was all that?" A voice from outside called.
"Oh shit."  Clem muttered, drawing her pistol.
They heard heavy footsteps and got ready to fight. A large, bald man stood in the doorway.
"Rose what's going.." he trailed off when he saw the scene in the room.
The man aimed a double barrelled shotgun at Clem. She quickly fired a succession of shots, the first hit him in the ear, he flinched and fired back in panic. The buckshot hit the bed behind Clem and send out a shower of dust and fluff. She fired again, putting three rounds into his chest, one of which hit him in the heart. The man took three steps into the room, stumbled and collapsed, letting off a final shot into the floor.
More voices echoed from downstairs, Clem and Gabe braced themselves. Shots rang out from the hall, Gabe cried out in panic, one grazed his arm, tearing his coat. They were shooting through the wall beyond the landing. Gabe and Clem returned fire, she put an entire magazine through the wall before stopping to reload. Gabe fired his rifle, rapidly working the bolt between shots. Clem reloaded and saw something in the corner of her eye through the sliding glass door to the balcony. She wheeled around and saw one of the raiders jumping down onto the balcony and aiming a gun. She fired through the window, striking them in the sternum. They collapsed and began wheezing, she fired another shot into their head.
Gabe stopped firing and pulled out Jensen's revolver.
The gunshots from the opposite side of the wall had stopped as well. Clem and Gabe carefully waited, not taking their guns off the wall for a second. Blood trickled along the carpet in the hall from behind the wall. She got a better angle and saw a raider slumped on the top of the stairs. She didn't have much time to examine him however, a bullet collided with the door frame next to her, showering her with wood chips. She retaliated by firing blindly down the stairs and retreated into the room. They heard rapid footsteps and a thud before the shots continued. They counted eight before a click of the hammer informed them that their enemy was out of ammo.
Clem ran down the stairs and slapped the gun out of the man's grasp. He had one hand pressed against his neck which was bleeding profusely and was slumped against the wall at the bottom of the stairs.
"It's over, tell us where Samson is." Clem pointed her gun at him.
"Fu..ck..you." He spat.
"You're hurt pretty bad. We've got medical supplies, we can help you. But only if you help us."
The man struggled to speak, the blood was seeping through his fingers.
"I'm..not telling you..shit." He said laboriously.
Clem saw his gaze shift to over her shoulder, his glare softened. She turned around and saw what he was looking at, Rose had reanimated and was now coming after Gabe who was standing halfway up the stairs.
"Gabe, behind you!" She shouted.
Gabe turned around and tried to raise his pistol to the head of the walker. It grabbed him by the wrists and the weight caused him to stumble backwards. Clem ran to his aid but Gabe and the walker hit her as they tumbled down the stairs. Clem fell backwards and felt a flash of pain, the back of her head had struck the stairs. Her vision blurred and she came to a halt on the ground.
"Clem, shoot it!"
Where..where the fuck was that from?
She made out a blurry shape moving in front of her, Clem shook her head and could see somewhat clearer now. She came to her senses and grabbed her gun from the ground.
"Push it's head up!" She yelled.
Gabe used his knees to brace against the walker's chest, keeping as much distance from its teeth as possible.
Clem lined up the shot and fired, blood oozed from the wound and onto Gabe who was less than thrilled.
"Are you okay, no bites?" Clem got to her feet and helped Gabe up.
"No bites, I'm good."
Clem stumbled towards the man still leaning on the wall. Her head was still spinning but she couldn't let on that she wasn't in total control of the situation.
"I'm guessing that was your last ditch effort to get us killed?" She asked.
The man said nothing, his face was contorted into an expression of rage.
"Look, the offer still stands. We just want to know where Samson is, we're not going to hurt any of your people."
The man's upper lip twitched, he finally gave in.
"F-f-fine. I'll give you what you need." He struggled to say.
Clem knelt down on one knee, waiting for his response. He suddenly lunged forward brandishing a small switchblade. His stab was aimed at her face, Clem jumped back and fired her gun once. The man's blood and brains vacated his head and were splattered all over the wall. His body went limp and he slumped down even further along the wall.
Clem felt a warmth on her cheek, she touched a hand to it which felt wet.
"Fuck."
Gabe rushed to her side.
"Oh shit, you okay?"
Clem sighed and got to her feet.
"Yeah. Ugh, fuck."
She walked to the living room and dropped down onto the moth eaten couch. Clem touched a hand to the back of her head and winced.
Ow.
Gabe joined her, kicking up dust from the couch when he sat down.
"What did we even accomplish here?" Clem sighed.
Gabe was silent, so she continued.
"We had to kill five people and all we learned was that they work for Samson. Which would have been a great start if they weren't all dead. Not to mention we lost Jensen on the way up here."
Gabe tensed up at the mention of his friend.
"I just....We came here to find out one thing and we fucked it up."
She could see her reflection in the television in front of them. She looked terrible, there was dried blood caked around her nose and down her chin and a long cut on her left cheek.
"Maybe they left a map somewhere?" Gabe tried to look on the bright side.
"Yeah..maybe."
They searched the house but no such map existed. Clem shot the other two raiders in the head to make sure they didn't come back. As they searched the living room, Clem saw something under the TV. A DVD player, she began unplugging it and stuffed it into her rucksack.
The one fucking thing that goes right today, of course.
They left through the front door. The gunfire had drawn walkers to the neighbourhood, the dead shambled through the streets. They had to jump fences for a block to avoid being seen, when they were finally far enough away they began the long trip back to Richmond empty handed.