Don't Stay Mad at Me

18. Quadruple the Trouble

You think quickly, stopping your sliding body by grabbing onto a bit of the ship railing that hadn't fallen yet. You look down as your body dangled over about ten or more walkers who were swimming over to you. Some disbanded, wading over to something else. You look up and over at Clem, who was pressed up against another bit of ship railing, it looked way more unstable than where you were. "Clementine!" She seemed unconscious for a second before she quickly came back, opening her eyes and looking around. Her eyes stopping on you. "Shit!" She curses and looks next to her, tensing as you notice why. Lilly's body slowly drifted, almost falling off if it hadn't been for the metal piece keeping her body safe. "Clem!" You both look at AJ who was dangling from a destroyed piece of metal, gripping it tightly to not fall to his death.

"AJ!" She shouts, trying to move her body. Your knuckles turn white, suddenly gripping the railing harder. You try to pull yourself up, raising your legs to hook through the railing bars but instead your bit of strength wasn't helping. All you could do was dangle. But, you could move down the railing. And that's where you would start. "Hang on! I'm coming!" Clementine assures AJ, she also seemed to be coming your way. Maybe to try to help you both. She made a risky jump to the boat in between you both, yet she made it. "Perfect jump!" You would've given her a thumbs up to complete your sarcasm if you didn't need both hands at the moment. She doesn't respond, making her way to the end of the boat, right where AJ was dangling. "AJ, you have to trust me! On the count of three, let go!" You move closer towards the boat, as extra backup in case she missed him. "Promise?" AJ asks, looking down at you both. "Promise." Clem confirms, holding out her arms as she steadied herself. Another small explosion erupts, making her steady herself once more. "One. Two. Three!" AJ let's go off the metal with a small fearful scream. You moved one of your hands out from hanging, just in case. Clem grabs one of his hands, he dangled over the boat edge. The hungry walkers below started snapping their jaws greedily. "Hurry Clem!" He shouts as she drags his body into the boat. You quickly grab the railing again, to ensure you didn't fall. The boat creaked with the added weight of Clem and AJ. Clementine then looked over to you and held out her hand, "Come on!" The railing was making small sounds, but if you got on the boat it could fall into the water with so much weight. You notice it had already started to lower a small bit. "It'll be too much weight! Doesn't matter how light or heavy I am. I'll manage. Don't worry." She didn't look convinced. AJ tugged on her shirt, "What now?" Clementine looked around nervously, "We need to find a way down! This ship isn't gonna stay afloat much longer." You couldn't agree more. Way too many explosions have already gone off. Another eruption sounded, alerting all of you to be quick. "There! We can climb down from there!" AJ points to the entry way covered by a tarp. It seemed like a fine way down. "You able to move over?" Clementine asks you, "Yeah, yeah I think so." You were able to earlier anyway. You carefully grip the handles, inching further away from the boat. "If you're hopping on though I'm not sure how much weight it'll take." You yanked on the bars a bit, testing your luck, it seemed stable enough though. You take a moment to listen to your surroundings. It was mainly filled with walkers groaning and the ship creaking. Man, if this were the titanic movie, you'd all be great actors.

"We've got to jump." Clementine says, pointing at you, looking at AJ. "It's far.." AJ seemed unconvinced. "AJ, what do we do when we're scared?" He went silent for a second, but he didn't need to think long. "We tell fear to fuck off!" Clementine nods happily, "Yes we do." AJ got up and backed up, "I won't let you fall little dude." He gave you a small smile before running and jumping onto the railing. He held out his hand but you shook your head. You didn't want him to fall in by trying to help you. Although he seemed determined. But regardless, he looked over at Clementine. "Come on Clem!" AJ shouts, you barely have time to register the rope snapping. The boat falls, luckily the other rope was still in tact and Clementine was a quick thinker, holding onto the boat. "Fuck! Clem, I'll try to get you!" She shook her head right as the words left your mouth, "Get to the pier, I'll meet you both there!" AJ instantly denied it, but Clem was persistent. "There's nothing either of you can do, I'll find a way now go!" AJ grabbed on tight to a piece of metal and held out his hand towards you still. You sigh, and try to pull yourself up to get better leverage before taking his hand. You get your torso through the bars, enough to hook your arms around them and grab AJ's hand. He was surprisingly strong for a kid, but you did the rest of the work, using your arms to push up and finally stand on the bars, and then the deck. "Thanks kiddo." AJ gives you a signature grin before moving over a little bit away, hopping onto the tarp that was used as cover for the dock. You follow after him, landing with a soft thud. The tarp was way more stable than you thought originally. You looked around, not seeing anyone except walkers. That wasn't good. "Where are they?" AJ shrugs, looking around as well. "I don't know.. maybe they went to get help from everyone." You nod. Maybe they did..