A new Dawn (Clementine x Louis)

Chapter Sixteen - Forgive me (Part 2)

"What do you mean, what should I forgive you Soph?", Violet asked her, examining the room suspiciously.
Sophie saw her behaviour and realized how this sentence must have been understood by her friend.
"No no no, I'm not fooling you, we are alone, there's no trap or something.", she told Violet, calming her down.
"Start talking then, please... what happened to your f... I mean to you."
The girl held her hand to her face, touching the long burn mark.
"That was my sisters work... Minnie did this to me."
"Why, how...?"
Violet wasn't surprised by who had done this, she was surprised by why and how Minnie's sister had survived.
"Let us start at the beginning, shall we? What did Brody and Marlon tell you back at the boarding school, how did they explain our disappearing?"
"They told us you got killed by walkers at first, but a girl and her little boy found out what they really did, we know they traded you off like cattle."
Sophie looked down, sadness was lying in the air.
"You found out then... Where are Marlon and Brody right now?"

It was Violets turn to stare at the ground this time, remembering the night when everything had turned to shit.
"They are dead, Marlon killed Brody after she confessed to Clementine, the girl we helped, afterwards he claimed that she'd done it, threatening her with a gun. AJ, Clementine's adoptive child killed him, shot him right in the head... he deserved it after all."
Shocked by the news, Sophie widened her eyes, seeking some kind of humor or irony in Violet's eyes.
"Jesus! When did that happen?"
"About a month and a half ago, don't feel sorry for Marlon, he got what he had earned himself, karma is a bitch.", the girl in front of her answered, hatred and fury in her voice.
A moment of silence arose, then Sophie continued.
"After we were traded in for your safety, the raiders brought us here, trained us like they do with you now. It was even more brutal back then, they tortured everyone that disobeyed. They brainwashed us, told us we had no other home than the Delta, that our families were gone and replaced by them. Many kids broke after the first three weeks, others withstood for a longer time. Minnie was broken after the fourth week, she did everything the Deltas asked her to do. I was a different matter, I stirred up trouble anywhere I could, broke rules, the whole repertoire of rebellion. Sometimes I had to sleep in a cell on the boat for a whole week but I didn't mind that much."
She looked sad and scarred by the happenings in her past, by what the Deltas had done to her and her family. She continued after a short second.
"It took me another month but one day I convinced Minnie to..."
"...steal a raft, you tried to convince her to paddle down the river back home.", Violet completed her sentence.

Sophie met her gaze, confusion was written into her eyes.
"Where do you know that from?"
"Minnie, she showed up a month ago at the school again, her raider friends at her heels." The redhead's eyes widened again.
"You have seen her a month ago? Thank god, I thought she was dead already... I hope she won't do anything stupid, have you any idea where she is now?"
-Shit, that's bad-, Vi thought, -she doesn't know her sister's dead, how am I going to explain that to her?-
Worried by the girls hesitation Sophie put one hand on Violet's shoulder.
"What is it?"
"Nothing", she lied, "I didn't see her again, I'm sorry, I have no idea where she went."
"I hope Minnie is okay... Anyways, what else do you know about my escape?"
"Minnie told us that you were successful with stealing the raft, you made it down the river until..."
She stopped, remembering the shock that she had gotten when Minnie finished the story.
"...she told us that she killed you. We were so shocked, I would have liked to slap her so hard back then, I could have done it, if she wasn't pointing at us with a crossbow..."
Sophie walked up to Violet, giving her a big hug.
"I'm so sorry, I caused you so much guilt and troubles..."
"It wasn't your fault Soph, it was Minnie's."
"Don't judge her that quickly, there might be something good still left inside her...", the girl exclaimed, she had faith in her sister, she didn't want to give up her hope.
"There isn't anything there anymore Sophie, she got so many people killed!"
Violet didn't want to upset her old friend, but she had to prove that Minnie had been evil.
"SHE KILLED TENN SOPHIE! SHE KILLED HIM WITHOUT HESITATION!"
Sophie's knees started to wobble, her legs slipped away underneath her.
"No, no no no. She didn't, please tell me she didn't kill him.", she whispered, rivers of tears coming down her cheeks.
Vi regretted her action immediately and took the girl into her arms.
"I didn't want you to learn it this way but it's true. There's... there's even more, I'm so sorry Sophie."
The woman in her overall looked up, her eyes puffed from crying. "What?"
"She is dead Soph, Minnie died in the same night she killed Tenn. She was bitten and wanted to kill Tenn so she wouldn't be alone. A herd was on their heels and Louis, Clem and AJ were there, he died through a bullet wound in his neck, Louis held him back then, he would have died if Tenn hadn't."
The sobs were getting louder, the agony in her voice was heartbreaking.
"How could she, my little brother... This bitch!", she screamed her last words which were luckily dampened by Violets body.

It took Sophie ten minutes to stop crying and start talking again.
"T..Thank you Vi, thank you for being here. It's just so unfair, I trusted her, even if she shot me back on the raft..."
"What happened back then, how did you survive?" The girl pulled herself together, it took her a minute but she continued afterwards, still having to explain her story.
"We were halfway down the river when she turned back to me, she was confused and scared. She asked me when we would return home, I answered that it would take a while to shipper back the way we came from after being captured and reach the school. She repeated her question, this time with more force:
"Sophie, when will we return to our real home?!"
I realized too late what she meant, I had repeated my answer already. She meant the Delta, Vi, she thought the Delta was her home! Minnie didn't even hesitate, she pulled a gun, I still remember how it went of and I fell to the ground next to the small campfire we had made on the raft, bad idea I know but we were cold back then.
I remember the pains, one in my stomach and one on my face, it was a horrible feeling. After I fell, Minnie walked over to my body, pushing me into the ice cold water. Everything turned black, I woke up the next day back at the Delta hospital, with my head bandaged completely, the current had pushed me back to this place.
A doctor realized that I was awake and I still don't know why... he was so young, a little older than me, blonde hair, tall and so polite, I instantly liked him...", she blushed shook her head and blinked repeatedly,
"Uhm, back to the point, he shushed the other doctors out of the room and came to my bedside, asking me how I was feeling. I was still weak and couldn't answer so I just rolled my head a little bit. He seemed worried and told me to say that I had lost my memory, this might be a way to save me from getting executed.
Since he was my last hope I agreed, best decision I have ever made so far. It took the soldiers a long time to believe that my head wound really caused a loss of memory, I even pretended that I needed to learn talking again.
I and the doctor spent much time together back then but after my "recovery" the Deltas decided to use me as a puppet, they told me I had always been the trainer for the kidnapped children and that I needed to proceed. I did, even earning much respect from the soldiers around me while doing so."

Sophie was downcast by what she had to do to survive, seeking comfort in the arms of her old friend. Violet gave it to her willingly, she could understand Minnie's sister, understand the pain that came from the way she had to act around the base.
"That's why you need to forgive me Vi, I joined the enemy, I live beneath them, do horrible stuff with kids to protect myself, I'm no better than Marlon was.", she told Violet. "
Don't say that, you are still the same inside this shell you made yourself, you can help us to escape, you deserve to be with your friends again, with your family. I don't want to see another life that gets destroyed by Minnie!", she answered, she meant it, really, Sophie shouldn't have to live a life without joy and freedom in it.
"Are you serious, would you forgive me, even though I treated you like dog shit out there on the training fields?"
"Yes, you only need to explain everything to the others!"
Sophie held out her hand, asking for help to get up. Violet helped her and afterwards her quasi sister held out a paper, a plan with many names on it.
"I need you to explain it to them. I have arranged it so you are in one group together, even this AJ you told me about, I can let him join you if you wanna..."
"That would be great Soph, thank you." She quickly scribbled something on the paper and hid it in her pocket again after that. "If you need something just ask Lars, he's my man don't worry, I trust him, he was the only one that treated me good after getting captured and hes very loyal to me as well." She turned to the door but hesitated.

"I need to add something to my story to top it all off. The doctor that saved my ass died in an explosion about a year ago, he deserved better... We were friends, maybe even a little bit more than that... Well, it doesn't matter anymore, he's in a better place now."
A terrible idea came into Violets mind, a name and a face that could fit each other, a new person that came to the kids school recently.
"Can you tell me the name of the guy, the doctor I mean?" Sophie smiled sadly:
"His name was Adrian."