Young and Young at Heart (The Rewrite of The Walking Dead Game: S2) [TWDG/TWD]

4. Danger and the Deep Woods

Clementine kept moving forward, carefully observing her surroundings as she did so. The woods here weren't any different from the ones she walked through earlier, yet Clem couldn't help but feel a little excited. This was the furthest she had been away from her new home since settling here months ago. She had spent so much of the winter cooped up in the cabin she had almost forgotten the rest of the world was still out there.

Clementine continued further into the forest, stopping to check the various flora. She was really hoping to find something other than mushrooms to eat. She had never liked them, and eating them almost every day for the last month had just made her further hate them. Clem checked the sky again to make sure she was still moving north. It was getting cloudier, but she could still see the sun.

Continuing deeper into the woods, Clem heard a distinct chirping sound off in the distance. It was a cricket, and possibly future bait as well. She started moving towards the source of the chirping as quickly as she could. As she neared the source, the chirping suddenly stopped, as if her prey had detected her presence. Clem held perfectly still for a moment, and another chirp sounded. Clem very carefully tiptoed towards a fallen log. The chirping stopped again, but Clem continued her approach.

Sitting on the log was a particularly fat insect. Clem slowly reached out her hand, ready to catch it. Just as she grabbed for the bug, it hopped away. Clem scrambled over the log and tried again to snatch the cricket, but no luck. It kept hopping for dear life as Clem tried to chase after it. She lunged at it again and managed to grasp the fat cricket before it could hop away once more. Clem carefully opened her hand to confirm her catch, and found a somewhat smooshed bug resting in her palm.

"Eww." Clementine peeled what she could off her hand and put it in her backpack. Then she wiped her hand on the grass, trying to get off some of the sticky bug blood. Normally she didn't really think much about bugs, but something about the way it was hopping away from her made Clem feel a tiny bit guilty about killing it. It really didn't want to be caught. But mostly she felt proud of having something to bring back, even if it was just a bug.

Clementine started to zip up her backpack when she heard a nearby rustling sound. She quickly darted back to the fallen tree for cover and watched closely as the rustling grew louder. Clementine pulled her gun out of her backpack, her heart racing as whatever was coming grew louder. She watched in terror as something stumbled out from the brush.

It was a big, old, red, dog. Clem's fear quickly turned to wonderment. She hadn't seen a dog since before everything changed. People didn't really keep pets anymore, or if they did, she never got to meet any of them. It made Clem stop and wonder about what else was still out there, until she noticed the dog was moving straight towards her. Clem tried to hide but the dog had already picked up her scent. It came over the downed tree with some difficulty and looked right at Clementine.

"Umm, good boy." The dog seemed a lot older close-up, and a lot bigger too. Clem noticed it was missing one of its eyes and half of its tail had been cut off. Both looked to be old injuries. The dog also looked very hungry. "I'm sorry. I don't have anything to eat." Clementine couldn't help but feel sorry for the dog as it kept staring at her with its one remaining eye. "You poor thing." She slowly offered her free hand to the dog, allowing him to sniff it. "I wish there was something I could do for—"

The dog snapped at Clementine, biting her arm. Clem pulled her arm free of the dog's jaws, badly cutting herself as she did so. She recoiled in horror at the sight of the bloody gash running across half the length of her arm. She tried to cradle the painful injury with her other hand, but the gun she was holding made that impossible.

The dog however just continued to stare at Clem, as if nothing had happened. Clementine started backing away from the animal, which kept moving towards her.