A new Dawn (Clementine x Louis)

Chapter Seven - Stuck in the middle of nowhere

Clementine and Louis walked down the old corridors, their footsteps echoed off the dark brown wood panels along their sides. If she'd been new to this place she'd turned around every two seconds, it sounded like someone was creeping behind her, imitating her footsteps but it was pure imagination. They met Willy, Ruby and Violet, they all had awoken early and didn't want to wake up the rest of the group so they went to the musics room and held their talks in low voices.
The young woman entered the room, the teenagers' talks got quieter until they died, everyone turned their attention towards the girl in charge.
"Hey guys, have you seen the newbies by any chance?", Clem asked them after silence had fallen, a little smirk on her lips showed how amusing it was that they treated her like an adult.
"Yup, they're all waiting at the front door already. Better go there quickly, they seem to be in a hurry.", a blonde girl in the back corner replied, the white bandage over her eyes was illuminated by the sun glowing through the broken window behind her.
"Thanks Vi."
Clementine nodded towards her in thanking and turned around in a hurry, Louis did just the same, mirroring her trace.
The two teenagers hurtled onwards with rattling breath and racing hearts, they didn't want to be left behind. When they arrived at the door, Frank, Anne and Adrian were waiting there indeed.

"Good morning sleepy heads! We thought you would join us eventually.", the scientist commented on their half closed eyes and crumpled clothes, a grin covering most of his face.
Louis walked up to him and gave Adrian a friendly slap on the back.
"It's all a question of the perspective, maybe you just woke up to early and we are the ones in time."
Clementine looked at both of the guys, they seemed to have formed a bond of friendship in the short time they had spent together.
-Well, they are both so similar to each other, I knew they would become friends someday- she thought, smiling at the funny scene in front of her. Frank however looked a little bit sour as he rolled his eyes and tapped his biceps rhythmically.
"Let's fucking go already, it's getting late."
And with that he stamped off, almost leaving them behind.
Anne turned back to the two, her face riddled with concern about her friend.
"Sorry, he got up with the wrong foot today. I don't know why, you know how he is sometimes, just give him some time to sort his feelings."
"That shit happens sometimes, everyone has his days.", Louis replied with a short shrug and a grin, Anne nodded thankfully at the young mans words.

This time the walk to the location of the caravan was a bit more complicated. The herd, that had followed them the days before, had lost some of it's attendees. Dozens of lonely walkers strayed around the area and the group had to stop many times to clear their way.
"It's taking us way too long goddamnit, it'll be midday when we reach that damn truck!", Frank exclaimed while yanking his blade out of a walkers head, the crimson red blood spraying over his face.
"Oh come on Frank, we knew that would happen. The horde clearly walked this way, don't be such a dick right now.", Anne commented, "We all have our bad days but you are just overreacting. Get your shit together!"
Frank stopped and turned around. There wasn't the expected fury blazing in his eyes, he looked rather sorry. An emptiness filled the normally so agitated orbs as he realized how he was behaving.
"Yeah I know, I don't know why I am angry anyways..."
"Then don't act like a child and be normal.", the woman added and stepped to his side and got to the tips of her toes to reach his cheeks, leaving a little red t mark as she kissed him there.
"Sorry, I will try to..."

He couldn't even finish his sentence. Something very fast hit the tree next to him and left a small hole inside of the trunk. Bits and pieces of wood sprayed out of the gaping wound in the trunk, as if this plant had its own kind of blood. The fragments hit Clementine in the chest, making her hiss in sudden pain as the sharp edges cut her exposed skin.
"Shit, Sniper, take cover somewhere!", the man yelled and threw himself to the ground with a mighty thud.
Clementine was shocked, who would shoot at a small group like theirs? It was clearly visible that they didn't have anything valuable on them, so why shoot without a warning? She was trapped in a catatonic state, her legs wouldn't move on her command. The seconds turned to minutes as she realized that the next bullet would hit her, take her life in only a moment and leave behind an empty shell.
Louis pulled her behind a fallen trunk just in time. The bullet raced past her ear like a mosquito, leaving behind a trail of burning hot air that stung like an insect bite. Louis pressed her to the ground, shielded her against the deadly weapon pointed at them. She could feel his heart against her body, the quick pumping of blood through his veins that carried his worry and love for her right to his heart.
"Better don't move, he still has an eye on us.", the young man warned her, his gaze found hers, worry glowing beneath the chocolate brown color.
Clementine rolled her eyes in response, smirking to relief the atmosphere from the tension it had.
"Well duh Lou, I'm not that dumb."
"Only checking you.", he said and grinned, giving her a quick kiss of the cheek.
Suddenly they heard someone let out a scream of agony and fear. The air turned cold and the two teenagers' hearts got heavy as they recognized the voice. Clem and Louis turned around to see Anne holding her shoulder, blood spilling out of it. The stream of crimson red painted the white of her shirt, taking away its purity drop for drop.
"Fuck, this asshole got me!", she swore, her face twisted into a mask of pure pain and terror. Clementine looked around, seeing that the undead had smelled the fresh blood, moving in on their position. The groans that left their mouths sent shivers down her spine, the bloodlust in their empty milky eyes was enough to send anyone running. But she resisted the call her brain gave her, she stood her ground and remembered something she had once done to save her friends.
"I've got an idea, it may be risky but we could use the walkers as shields, I've done it before", she suggested to the groups members, "just cut off a walkers jaw and hold them in front of you, switch every time a bullet hits the walker you use, they don't take that many shots!"
Frank, Adrian and Louis nodded in unison, they trusted her with their lives. Clementine waited for a walker to pass her hiding spot, then quickly grabbed him and cut off its jaw with a swift motion. The bone was loose already, only a little bit of pressure was needed to disarm it from its deadliest weapon. The rotting smell of its flesh dug deep into her nose, leaving behind a trail that wouldn't leave for days. Clem's breath quickened as she waited for the impact of lead into the body in front of her, the twitching shell of a former human was not hit though. No shot was fired at her, either meaning that the sniper didn't see her action or simply left his position. The others followed her example and still no shots were fired. Louis stabbed the walker in front of him into the temple and left it in the dust, the dark red blood spilling over the forest floor as it left its hosts body for a last time.
"Where did that son of a bitch go?", Frank asked, confused, scared and furious at once, "There's no way he just left."

They made their way to the trucks without enemy fire raining down upon them. Every step they took was marked with caution, the crack of dry twigs made them jump every time but still, no bullets pierced their surroundings, neither did any walkers topple over from unseen shots. Frank opened the armored trucks back door and let them in as they sneaked up to its back, barricading it behind them. The sounds of angry walkers were coming through the walls, angry thumps of fists were all around them, the moans of bloodthirsty monsters behind the borders of the metal box.
"We are trapped now, gotta wait till tomorrow if we want to avoid the walkers outside", Anne concluded while clutching onto her wounded shoulder, her face still contorted into a mask of pain.
The scientist next to her stood up and pulled out a bandage and a bottle full with a alcoholic smelling substance. After a short examination and after he had bandage the wounded flesh, the man turned around, catching Clementine's gaze in the process.
"That was close", Adrian said, "who was that sniper? We didn't do anything..."
Frank frowned. "It may be very soon to make the call, but that was a high caliber rifle, it left big holes where the bullets hit. Those are very rare to be used by "normal" survivors. It could be possible that we have been followed by... you know whom."
Clementine knew whom he was thinking off. "Are you sure the Deltas followed you?", she asked them, fear for her friends at the school was building up inside her chest.
"It could be them, I don't know..."
"Lets think logically for a second, there is a possibility of them following us, but didn't we make them believe we were dead? We even planted fake corpses! They can't know it's us.", the scientist threw in, his eyes widened.
A horrible idea started to form inside Clem's mind.
"Wait.... do they have some kind of leader?"
"An old general of the U.S. army, why do you ask?"
"Before I tell you, have you heard the name Lilly in their ranks before?"

The name floated in the air, making the atmosphere become toxic. It was hard to breathe for all of them, the silence had been enough of an answer for Clem. The newcomers stared at her, their faces filled with confusion.
"Where do you know her from?", Frank asked, suspiciously raising his eyebrow.
The world started spinning, Clementine had to support her weight on a table.
-Could it be a coincidence?-, she cried out in her mind, -Did she call a killer commando on us? Last time we saw her she was standing on a raft, looking rather ashamed of what she had done to me and the schools kids.... Was that just a trick?-
"What is it, hey, don't you pass out on us!", Anne pleaded and reached for a small bar stool, placing Clem on it.
Louis stepped up, his eyes full of rage and bitterness. "That bitch stole kids from our school, she attacked us, killed Mitch, blinded Violet! We blew up her boat and killed her crew, she was the only one to escape."
Silence filled the room once again, intensifying the dampness it had left only seconds before.
"I hope you're kidding, are you?", Adrian asked, even if he seemed to know that it was Louis' pure seriousness. He didn't want to believe what he was hearing, it just wouldn't get in his head.
"I wish I could joke about that, no it all happened some weeks ago. She and one of her henchmen are responsible for Clem losing her leg!", the boy yelled with pain in his voice, all his emotions overcoming the wall he had built to keep them in.
The group looked shocked, understanding the kids situation. When Clementine's strength returned, she rose from the stool.
"I...I knew her, she was part of a group I was in after the beginning. We were friends, she was nice to me, but when her father died because of a heart attack and nearly turned into a walker, she never forgave my friends. She grabbed a gun and shot Doug, a friend of mine, who was protecting somebody Lilly was angry at. We kicked her out of the group, since then, we never heard about her again..... well that was until she showed up with a group of raiders in front of the school."
Louis walked to her side, putting an arm around her to comfort his girl. She shivered at the bad memories, everything she had lost because of Lilly.

The first one to speak was Adrian, putting his hand on Clem's shoulder he told her:
"You've had a rough time because of her. I hear you, we've had our differences as well."
It was as if something had taken grip of her brain, her heart and her very soul at the same time. Clementine jerked her head up and pulled her gun on the man. Rage burned in her eye sockets, two small orbs of fire glowing out of her pure face.
"You know her better than you let us believe, don't you?! I knew you were hiding something! Why should we even trust you guys? We only get tiny pieces of information out of you every time we ask, we don't know what your story is. You either tell us everything about you or were gonna have to reconsider our choice of letting you stay! Talk!", she bellowed, taking several steps towards Adrian and the others, still pointing the barrel of the deadly weapons towards their direction.
Guilt showed up in the faces of the three in front of Clem and Louis.
"Well then, we will tell you our whole story, one by one. Sit down, it's going to take a while.", Adrian announced guiltily, the banging of the undead getting more silent in the background as he started to talk about his life.