Clementine x Male reader : We Are Monsters

Chapter 64

A little more than a week passed since Clem came back from her little expedition. After some careful consideration of the area and a few hours spent looking at the map you had, you concluded that for now, leaving the camp would be very hazardous. Your food reserves are decent and varied enough to give you some time to breathe, so there's that. Besides, you have to admit you're getting tired of wandering out there and worrying so much for so little. Everything has been dried out around here.

On the plus side of things, the fact you stopped picking mushrooms for a little while allowed some of them to regenerate, and once again you had some nice and tasty mushrooms at the table from time to time.

Your hand also somewhat healed. Removing the bandages was still not an option, but at least you could move your fingers around while only feeling a very sharp pain when you tried to clench some objects. You could wield some stuff around, but your grip strength has definitely taken a heavy blow and you doubt it'll ever get back to normal. You even started to worry you'd have to start learning how to handle and use all the weapons you have like if you were a lefty. Sounds like torture.

You did some stuff around the camp too, like rearming the traps sent by wandering biters, animals, fallen branches or the wind. You took care of the garden too, and it looked like it'd be ready in about a week. You can't wait for those potatoes. You already see yourself cutting them in fries, even though you know it won't be that well made with the lack of oil you have.

Speaking about the biters, they started to stumble into the camp at regular intervals, every two days or so. They'd always come in small groups of three to five, then spread out around the clearing to make for some easy targets. Clem always took care of them, while you stayed a little bit behind to watch over AJ and the surroundings.

At least, now you know why there are biters coming up here in such a slow and steady line. Following the direction in the forest a few you killed came from, you eventually stumbled upon a small ravine downhill which you smelled before you could see it. As you stood on top of one of the ridges, the low and deafening combined growls of all the biters amassed down there resonated within your chest.

It seems that a herd did get formed and attracted by AJ's target practice, then simply fell down this little ravine as they were making their way up the slope. Too dumb to avoid it, they simply all fell down it and piled down at the bottom. Seeing so many limbs moving around, hands and mouths opening and closing aimlessly under at least two dozens corpses, was something that sent chills down your spines.

That heap of ragged and disarticulated bodies seemed to have formed one single creature, pulsing in unison with the growls of anguish and frustration coming from the biters crushed under their congeners. It was unnerving to look at, but at the same time so fascinating to see how the individuality those biters had when they were alive was stripped down from them. Now, they were nothing but a skeleton of their former glory, mindless, clumped at the bottom of a ravine with so many others who share the same goal of quenching their insatiable hunger for flesh.

But, since there were that much biters and that the ravine wasn't that deep, the ones on top of the pile were able to slowly climb over the others, and if they were lucky and strong enough, crawl out of this mess. A few tried to do so when they noticed you standing at a few feet, and that was not something you wished them to succeed. So, you looked around the forest until you found a few large and solid branches.

With those, you pushed the biters down the slopes when they were getting too close, and also used them to make the slopes more steep by picking some dirt off. The soil was pretty humid as it had rained over the past days, so that made your task easier as not only the dirt was coming off pretty nicely, but the biters that tried again to climb over the slopes actually destroyed them even more by themselves and couldn't get any good grip.