Salvation. The Walking Dead: Season Five.

A Last Stand - Part Five.

*

The information acted like a whirlpool seeking to take Clementine under. She? It made no sense.

No women resided with The Homecoming. They were only imprisoned by.

The unconsolable sobbing grew to its highest pitch as Minerva and Sophie both crawled into Clementines eyeline, coming to a stop next to their lost brother, and together draping an arm each over his chest.

Instinctively Clementine looked to get a visual on the fatal wound that had befallen Tenn. The twins were in no fit state of mind, but somebody had to be.

To be sure he would not rise.

She was able to briefly clock the wound at the base of the neck as Minnie lifted Tennessee's lolling head from AJ's bloodied hands.

There would come a time when one of them would have to put him down for good.

Clementine would have to stay alert as the twins grieved and only hope they were afforded enough time to comes to terms with the action before it was needed.

Watching the tears flow she was reminded of AJ's admission. Someone had taken the life of that child, someone unexpected.

As she edged him away to the fringe of the massacre, she found herself shepherding a lost Violet along behind with her other hand, tightly.

She knelt down before AJ as he stood rubbing sore eyes with his sleeve, and tried to keep her voice low until she knew exactly what had happened at the scene before she'd arrived.

Clementine could sense that he was trying to subdue a wrath simmering within. She made sure he knew he had her full attention before pressing him.

"AJ.... what do you mean by what you just said?" Clementine asked carefully, this time trying to retain clarity of mind.

"She killed him-" He started.

"Who killed him, AJ??"

He appeared to lose control of his emotions then as the resentment over took his sadness, mixing to form a volatile outburst.

"RYAN!" He shouted, turning around and using one of his balled fists to point out her deceased body splayed out on road. "SHE did it!"

It was hard for Clementine to properly take this on board. Why would she? She had been nothing but helpful to their cause aside from the odd instance of a flight response when faced with peril.
But that was natural....

"Okay, AJ... did you see her do it?" She asked, trying to get a picture of why Ryan would commit something so brutal and out of character.

Before he could reply however Clementine felt the hand in her own tense, with the owners voice accompanying the motion.

It was weak and weary as she answered on behalf of AJ.

"We both saw, Clem..." Violet said.

Clementine was forced to split her attention between the both of them then, her head ticking back and forth between the two as she grasped for a reason that wouldn't jive with what she knew.

"Maybe it... was an accident? During the attack?" Clementine said aloud, knowing how blindly reactionary the adrenaline in ones body could make the senses in extreme situations.

But Violet shook her head no as Clem noted the chained girls in her peripherals, standing off in the near distance. Empathy was clear in each of their withered faces as they exchanged conversation that Clementine could not hear.