Salvation. The Walking Dead: Season Five.

A Last Stand - Part One.

* WARNING. SHIT IS HARDCORE IN THIS CHAPTER AND THE NEXT. If sensitive subjects graphically depicted are too much for you as a reader, then please, think twice.

The floodgates opened for all three as they collided into each others arms, clutching each other like their survival depended on it.

She breathed them in and her mind cleared immediately. Cleansed of all the anxiety and fear she had been unable to keep from conjouring up in their absence.

But they were together now, and those fears would never come to pass, nobody would breach her defenses. She would die first. And she might have to.

There was a flurry of disturbance around her but the pure comfort she felt in the touch and smell of Violet and AJ had essentially shut down her other senses and she heard nothing but muffled voices from the others.

Just a few more minutes Clementine thought. She needed this. It was healing her soul after being torn at, and judging by Violets unwavering hold around her she needed it too.

But the others didn't comply with her internal monologue. They were being pulled apart against their will, and Clementine clung for dear life as the voices came back into focus as much as she wished they hadn't.

"Look, this is very fucking endearing but we have to move now! Or soon one of you will be hugging a corpse!" Came Lilly's aggressive tone. You could always count on her to keep her head in the game.

Clementine knew she was right as the loud rumble of voices from behind her grew with every second, still she found herself fighting the rough pull on her shoulders, only opening her eyes when they succeeded in prying the three of them apart.

Violets over flowed, tears still spilling down her cheeks at being reunited with Clementine, who kept eye contact as long as she was able while being shook by Ryan to come back to the periless situation they found themselves still in.

"Clementine! Lissten to Lilly! We have to go now, you can half thiss later!" She heard her say, though she did not leave her stare anywhere but on Violet.

She had so many questions, and so many to answer no doubt. She wished she could suspend time where it stood, forever if need be. Clementine needed Violet to feel how deeply her soul burned with nothing but passion for her.

However for now, she would just have to settle for an 'I Love You' which Clem mouthed silently, not trusting her voice to hold long enough to express it out loud.

She waited for Violet to return the gesture before truly snapping back to the nightmare. "They are right on top of us!" Lilly said, breath escaping from her mouth and dissipating in the frosty air.

"And I don't have the bullets!" She added, urgency in every word. Clementine didnt dare look behind her as flight mode started to take over, as it did in everybody else.

AJ, who had been able to cling to Clementine at the waist after she and Violet had been pulled apart finally let go enough for Clementine to instead take his hand in her own and set them both following the rest onto the bridge.

She could hear the ruckus behind her as The Hunting Party had surely taken to a run themselves and she had to wonder how far they would be able to get before they were taken down.

Not far it turned out to her horror as she caught up with everyone half way across the bridge, suspended high above a wide river running below.

They had stopped almost as instantly as they had started and Clementine was about to spit hell fire asking why when it became apparent, even through her teary-eyed vision.