A New Beginning

Chapter 1

Two weeks earlier....

"AAAGGGHHH!" Clem screamed suddenly, blindsided by pain unlike she'd ever known before. She opened her eyes slowly, not wanting to see what she already knew happened, but thankful it was happening none the less. She looked down at her left leg, and there it was, severed just below the knee, blood pouring out at an alarming rate. She then looked up at AJ, there he was, the axe still clutched in his hands, this arms and face covered in Clem's blood. looking down at what he had just done, he was frozen to the spot, he had known he had to take a desperate gamble, if he lost Clem it would've had to be only after he had done everything he could, Clem was like his mother, big sister and best friend all rolled into one, and he damn sure wasn't going to lose her, not like this after everything they'd been through.

But now what? Clem was writhing in agony, and blood was rapidly pouring out of her onto the dirt of the barn. "Clem what do I do?" AJ asked, His voice shaking with nervousness and fear.
"Ugh.....AJ....use the rope..." Clem raised her hand and gestured weakly to the right side of the barn, where the piece of rope was AJ had had to cut down earlier to close the doors and keep the walkers out. As AJ went to get the rope, Clem kept giving him other instructions.

" I.....need you....to tie it.......around my leg...as tightly as....you can." Clem said feebly, her strength was leaving her fast. Aided by the fact she was already hurt on that same leg. AJ quickly began tying it around her leg as quickly as possible, cutting off the blood flow from leaving her leg. The pain however was far too much for Clem to bear anymore though, and she passed out. She remembered fading in and out of consciousness, seeing brief flashes of people, AJ included, killing the walkers that surrounded the barn, she also remembered Louis picking her up and carrying her out of the barn, and making it back to school and seeing briefly Ruby working tirelessly to patch up her leg before to much blood was lost......

......
Present day

"Ugggh,"Clem woke up groaning, remembering the fresh pain as AJ sacrificed her lower left leg to save her life. The leg still throbbed now, despite Ruby's best attempts to numb the pain with some of the homemade painkillers she had figured out how to make with the greenhouse herbs. It always gave Clem a brief panic attack looking a her legs and expecting them both to be there, and today was no different.

To make matters worse, she was nervous, yesterday she had trusted Louis and AJ with a very important mission. Aasim and Willy had seen a new, unknown group of survivors just out side the old "safe zone" Marlon had imposed during his leadership tenure. Who were these people, were they friendly? Would they shoot AJ and Louis on sight? There were so many questions it gave her a headache as well as made her leg throb. She wished she had her leg back so she could've joined them on the mission, but she knew if she still had it she'd be dead, unable to worry about AJ and Louis at all.

......

AJ was ready, he had his trusty little revolver, with only 6 shot left in it, (bullets were getting so much scarcer, he was lucky to find any af the raiders supply depot by their boat) and he also had Clem's trusty knife, since she was not ever going to leave the walls of the school again except in dire emergencies. He ran a finger along the back edge of the knife blade and smiled grimly, remembering all the walkers, and humans, who had met their fate on its sharp, serrated steel blade. Now, it would be his own, he would be the one who would have to kill with it.

"You'll have to be strong for both of us now." Clementine had said the evening before. No truer words had ever been spoken, AJ had been plenty strong with her, and making the decision to cut her leg off was one of the strongest choices he ever made, directly disobeying Clem's order. But he was starting to think on his own a lot more, so Clementine had been willing to trust him to make tough decisions when she couldn't, and that's why he was here now, about to embark on a critical, and perhaps very dangerous mission.

Knock! Knock! Knock!

"What's up little man?"
Louis said, walking into AJs room and snapping him out of his thoughts. He had Chairles proudly resting on his right shoulder and Marlons bow across his back.

"You ready for our top secret mission?"

"Yeah, Louis" AJ said, grinning from ear to ear, "hopefully these people don't kill you for telling them too many terrible jokes."

"Hey!"

With that, they left the room without another word, ready to begin their crucial mission.