The Walking Dead: Return to Paradise

Chapter Thirteen: Housekeeping

Clementine stood before the gate, staring down the mass of rotting bodies that clambered to get inside. She looked down at AJ who stood to her left.
"You ready, kiddo?" She asked.
"I'm ready." AJ nodded, holding up his knife to prove it.
Clem gave him a nod and left him with Ruby in the courtyard. She joined Violet, Minnie, Asim and Louis in the admin building.
"You guys good to go?" She asked, drawing her own knife.
"About as ready as I can be for fighting a herd." Louis said.
"As long as we stick together we'll be fine." She reassured.
They all went through the rear entrance to the admin building and opened the makeshift gate, leaving the walls. They could hear AJ and Tenn beginning to shout and bang on the gate, getting the attention of the herd. Clem waved them forward as they got closer to the back of the walkers. She drove her knife upwards into the skull of one, tossing its body aside. Everyone else began killing as many walkers as they could before the rest of the herd noticed.
Louis swung 'Chairles' like a baseball bat, cracking into the side of a walker's skull and sending an eyeball flying through the air. Asim lunged in with a homemade spear, prodding the bladed end into the eye socket of an advancing walker.
The rest of the herd had begun to take notice by this point, turning away from the school and chasing after the group of teenagers.
"Go back, lead them into the traps!" Clementine yelled, finishing off the walker she was grappling with before jogging backwards into the trapped area.
The group formed up onto a ring, facing outwards to cover every possible sight line. As anticipated, the walkers shambled under the suspended boulders.
Clem waited until three of them were bunched up underneath the boulder, she broke formation and drew her knife across the rope. It snapped and slipped up through her fingers, leaving nothing holding the boulder up. It fell in front of her, crushing the walkers into a thick, red paste with a sickening crunch.
"They're spreading out!" Violet called out from the left of the circle.
Minnie decapitated a walker before kicking another to the ground, bringing her boot down on its head to finish it.
"Keep moving, but stay in formation. We can't let them surround us!" Clementine instructed.
The group slowly backed further into the trapped woods, killing any walkers that got too close to them. A rope was cut, loosing a log from the trees. It swung across, bowling over several walkers, one of which was split in half leaving a trail of entrails from its legs to its torso.
Minnie took a heavy swing at a nearby walker with her axe. She overextended herself however, the axe swung wide and embedded itself in a tree with a deep thunk. She swore, trying to pry it free before the walkers caught up. Clementine shoulder charged the one nearest to Minnie, knocking it to the ground. She drove her knife into the face of a second walker before finishing off the one on the ground.
Minnie finally pulled her axe free and the two of them moved back into formation.
"Thanks." The redhead said with a nod.
"Don't mention it." Clem shot her a half smile.
Asim thrust his spear forward into a walker's head. It fell to the ground, bending the spear with its weight. The shaft of the weapon snapped, leaving Asim with nothing but a sharp stick. He discarded it, drawing a small boot knife.
A pack of three walkers broke off from the left flank of the herd, making their way towards where Violet was. She raised the kukri above her head in anticipation, waiting for the walkers to come closer. She brought it down in an arc, taking the head clean off the front walker. Two more lunged at her but she kicked them back, sending them sprawling into the other two. Violet shoved the blade forward with as much force as she could, impaling the head of one walker and cutting the one behind it. The walker fell backwards limply, gravity did the rest and the blade was pulled free. Violet slashed horizontally, cutting the head of the injured walker in two. As the other two advanced on her she put a hand to her side, feeling a sharp, shooting pain. Her gunshot wound was always aggravated when she fought, but she would have hated herself if she didn't help out with the herd.
Before they reached her, Louis broke formation and clubbed one of the walkers to death, leaving the other open for Violet. She quickly dispatched it with a strike from her kukri.
Neither of them said anything, she gave him a curt nod and he returned it before joining back in the formation.
"We're thinning them out, keep going!" Clementine yelled to the group.
It took a further hour of solid fighting until the herd was down to a manageable size. The group retreated back to the school, let through the gate by AJ. They collapsed on the ground in the courtyard where the snow had been cleared. Their hands shook, their muscles ached and they were covered from head to toe in blood and viscera. Clementine lay down next to Violet with a slight squelch from her blood soaked clothes, she placed her girlfriend's arm around her own shoulder. Clem's eyelids already felt heavy, in spite of the fact they were laying in the dirt, she struggled against the wave of sleepiness that threatened to overcome her.
"You can sleep if you want to." Violet said.
From the tone of her voice it was clear that she was just as exhausted.
"Hm? No I'm good, I just need to relax for a minute."
"Really? Because I just saw you close your eyes like six times." She chuckled.
"I...I was just resting them." Clementine said, rather unconvincingly.
"Come on Clem, get some sleep. Even if it's for a few minutes it's better than nothing. I kind of want to sleep too actually."
All the talk of sleep forced a yawn from Clementine. Violet was undoubtedly right, after the day they'd all had it would be smart to rest up. She turned herself towards Violet, curling up with her arm around the blonde's waist.
"Alright, you win." Clem said, not opening her eyes.
Violet kissed the top of her head, closing her own eyes. It wasn't long before everybody was fast asleep on the ground, taking no notice of the groaning from the few walkers that were left outside.
Minnie however, lay awake. She leant on her side and stared at Clementine. Minnie sighed, catching herself staring. She pulled her gaze away but it inevitably kept returning to Clementine's sleeping face. Minnie let out a sigh.
Shit.