The Walking Dead A New Frontier: Six Years Later

Chapter Fifteen: Check

Clementine slammed open the front door of the school, she followed the decorations to the classroom. The teacher was crouched down on the ground in the corner in front of the group of children.
"AJ!" She called.
The boy jumped up from the group and ran to her.
"What's happening Clem?" He asked, worried.
"We need to get you somewhere safe, come on." She took his hand and ran with him out of the building.
The gunshots had gotten closer to the inner city and away from the gate. Clem drew her pistol and carried it in her free hand. They arrived at the house, Clem hurriedly got her key out and fumbled with the lock. She slammed the door behind her and ran to AJ's room to retrieve his gun.
"Are we being attacked?" AJ asked.
"We are." She said, taking the backpack full of emergency supplies from under the sink.
"Take these," she gave AJ the gun and put the backpack on him.
Clem lead him to the utility closet in the hallway and opened the hatch to the crawl space under the house.
"AJ, listen to me. I need you to get down there and hide, don't open this door for anyone but me." She placed her hands on his shoulders.
"If it's dangerous let's just leave." He pleaded.
Clementine paused, she wanted to leave. She wanted to take AJ and run to somewhere Samson couldn't find her. But she knew that it was her fault Samson was here and she wouldn't be able to live with herself if Richmond was destroyed and she just left.
"We can't AJ, I owe it to these people to help. They kept us safe and fed, we can't go."
"Let me help then!"
"Alvin Junior, this isn't a discussion." She said firmly.
Clem hugged him and he jumped down into the crawl space. She backed out of the closet and closed the door, suddenly she was hit by a blinding flash of pain. Something had struck her in the side of the head and sent her sprawling across the floor into the lounge.
"Surprise." A voice taunted from above.
She rolled over and saw Samson standing over her grinning.
"You shouldn't wear that hat so much, made it too easy to follow you here."
Clem raised herself quickly and tried to aim her pistol at him. He was on her in an instant, wrenching the pistol from her grip and punching her in the nose. She looked to her left and grabbed an empty bowl from the table, swinging across and breaking it over Samson's head. He released his grip on her and she shuffled back, drawing her knife from its scabbard. Clem stood up and held up the knife, Samson growled and rushed her. She brought the knife down aiming at his throat, Samson grabbed her wrist and the blade. His fingers became slick with blood, Clem pushed as hard as she could trying to break Samson's grip. He growled and swung his leg, kicking Clem's knee out from under her. She felt like she was floating for a moment before she came down hard on the floorboards, landing on her chin.
Samson tossed the knife aside and grabbed her by the shirt, he hurled her into the bookshelf. Clementine was winded by the impact, she felt books and broken pieces of shelf landing on her back. Samson grabbed her by the leg and began to drag her towards him. She swung her prosthetic leg up and kicked him in the groin, Samson howled and let her go. She scampered across the floor for a few feet before getting to her feet and running down the hall to the bedroom.
Samson picked up the gun from where it had fallen, he angrily turned his gun down the hall and began firing off rounds. Clem ducked to one side and racked the slide of the pistol she had stashed under the bed when she arrived in Richmond. She fired three shots at Samson in retaliation, Samson weaved to the left and behind the lounge wall. Clem saw his wrist bend around the corner and moved away from the door before he sent a barrage of fire at her. The bullets tore through the bed and pillow filling the air with dust and feathers.
Samson's fire ended abruptly and Clem heard him curse before dropping the gun. She knew he was to the left of the hall, Clem slowly walked up with the gun raised. When she arrived at the corner she quickly turned towards Samson, his hand grabbed hold of the gun from the top, locking his fingers over the slide. Clem squeezed the trigger, the shot went wide as Samson twisted the gun away from his chest. She tried to fire another follow up shot but the gun was jammed, Samson had grabbed the slide, preventing the gun from cycling the spent shell.
She swung the pistol into Samson's head, using it as a club. He shielded himself with one hand and lunged at Clementine, seizing her by the throat. She lost her footing and fell onto her back in the lounge, Samson wrapped both his hands around her neck and squeezed. Clem punched him in the ribs, he didn't react. Her eyes darted from left to right, trying to find something she could use to fight back. She saw her knife on the right and reached out to grab it. Her fingers brushed the handle but it was just barely out of reach.
"You steal my guns, kill my people and you think you can just get away with that shit?"
Clementine's vision began to blur, she could feel herself slipping into unconsciousness. She knew it would be the end if that happened.
A gunshot rang out and Samson howled, letting her go. He clutched his side and Clem saw AJ standing in the hall, the barrel of his gun smoking. Clementine took the knife and jammed it into Samson's chest, he leaned back and began wheezing. His eyes were wide and darted around frantically, blood streamed from his mouth. His breath rattled and he slumped onto his back, the rattling stopped after a few seconds.
Clementine coughed and sputtered, she could finally breathe again. AJ sprinted to her side and she hugged him. Clem tried to speak, to thank him but nothing came out except a croak. Once they had let go of each other, Clem pulled the knife free of Samson's chest and brought it down into his head, making sure he didn't reanimate. She had to wait for a moment to catch her breath, once she stopped coughing Clem stood up using the couch as leverage. Clutching her side, she knelt over Samson's corpse and opened his jacket revealing a holstered gun. She pulled out the heavy revolver and checked the cylinder, six rounds. Clem retrieved the Ruger pistol from the kitchen drawer and checked the magazine, there were eight rounds.
"Clem, what are you doing?" AJ asked.
"Getting ready to fight." She sighed.
AJ stepped forward as if to say he was ready to fight as well.
"Sorry kiddo, nothing's changed. These people aren't like Lily's group, they don't want to capture us, they want us dead. I'm not going to risk letting you get in the middle of that."
AJ nodded slowly.
"Make sure you come back okay." He said.
Clem flashed him a smile.
"Don't worry. You know me, I'm too tough for them. You just stay safe goofball."
Once AJ was safely in his hiding spot, she walked out the door, locking it behind her. The gunshots were closer than ever to her neighborhood. Clementine stepped off her porch and readied her revolver, heading towards the fight.