A new Dawn (Clementine x Louis)

Chapter Twenty-Three - Betrayal

The bullets followed them on every step, down the stairs and onto the street, they hit the ground in front of them and sprayed stone particles at their faces. The adrenaline in their blood made their hearts pump at a very high rate, their feet carried them as fast as they could. The soldiers shouted after them but it was too late for them because the group had already disappeared behind the next buildings, the gunfire was dampened by the walls surrounding them.
"Fuck this, we're still not safe!", Javier yelled and nodded behind them with his head.
A big shadow covered the street behind them before they saw the impending doom coming their way. A big part of the herd had followed their scent, the blood on their clothes had dried and Gabe wasn't cloaked anyway.
"Shit, RUN!", Clem screamed, without hesitating everyone obeyed and started running.
It didn't take long until Clementine took the lead, the suspension of her artificial leg proved to accelerate her even more than before the amputation. Behind her Louis helped Javi to piggyback Gabe and followed her on her heels afterwards, his breathing was fast and sharp, his body tried to comprehend the situation.
"Hey, don't leave us behind!"
Clementine slowed down and turned around to answer when her leg got grabbed and she fell down to the ground. She hadn't noticed the small alleyway to her right where a car had crashed into the wall, the passengers hadn't made it. The top half of one of the corpses had turned and crawled out on the street, thirsty and hungry for human flesh. Clem let out a short scream of surprise and kicked the walker's head as hard as possible but it didn't help, it was clung to her foot until Louis took care of it. The blunt weapon in his hands made a wide arc before crashing down on the rotting face, bits and pieces of the skull and brain splattered on Clementine's clothes. Louis put his hands beneath her arms and pulled her to her feet.
"That was close, thank you Lou."
He grinned and pushed her gently to make her run again.
"Don't thank me, thank Chairles!"

It took them less than ten minutes to reach the gates again, they didn't even stop sprinting until the guards saw them arrive.
"Open the goddamn gates and get some gunners up there, horde's incoming!", Javier yelled at the men who obeyed when they saw who was speaking to them.
The metal doors started to rise, the scraping noise of metal on metal echoed through the streets. Behind the four the herd started to catch up, the moans from their rotten throats got significantly louder when they realized that their prey had stopped.
"Can't this go faster?!", Clementine asked furiously as she saw the undead on their heels. The gates had opened up a small space between the ground and the protective metal, it was the groups last chance, they threw themselves to the ground and crawled through right as the walking corpses behind them were stopped by the hail of bullets raining down upon them. With a loud noise the gates fell back to the ground, cutting Clem, Louis, Javier and Gabe off from the danger outside.
"That was way too close...", Louis murmured out of breath, he didn't even have the power to stand up, just like his friends, they laid on the ground as the soldiers of the New Frontier rushed to their side to see if they were hurt.
"We're fine guys, nothing to worry about, better bring Gabe to a doctor, he's still unconscious.", Javi told the men as he started to rise, offering his hands to Clem and Louis.
They accepted and stood up, their feet hurt (In Clem's case her foot hurt) from the constant running. Clementine's mind was blank, no thoughts no nothing went through it, she was too exhausted. She felt like a hollow puppet while she followed the soldier that carried Gabriel. He hadn't awoken till now, she was worried why, it could be a serious head injury inflicted by the ruthless treatment of the Deltas. There was a thought though that didn't leave her any peace, it concerned her relationship with the young boy.
-How should I see him now, as an ex-boyfriend or just a close friend and most importantly, does he still have feelings for me? I don't know how he will react to me and Louis, this could cause some serious kind of trouble...-
She sought the hand next to hers and grabbed it, her small palm pressed against Louis' big one.
The hospital was the same that she remembered, the same that she had been brought to a long time ago when she first arrived here with the infant AJ. The white color had worn off though, the hospital had seen better days but Clem knew that appearances could be deceptive. What mattered was how good the doctors inside could treat patients and she knew there was a doctor that could help anyone with the right supplies: Eleanore.

The young doctor was at their side right from the start, the guards had woken her up after they realized that she was still asleep in her and Tripp's house next to the clinic. She had rushed to the hospital as fast as she could but she had brought someone else along too. She had met Adrian on the streets and convinced him to help since he had much experience on medicine as well. Clementine and the others had waited next to the bed Gabe was placed in when the two medics arrived. Adrian had started to examine the wounds on Gabe's head while Eleanore shushed them out of the room to look at the other wounds on the boy's body. Now the trio was waiting in front of the emergency room on the chairs positioned for exactly that purpose, their minds dwelt upon what had happened.
-This asshole Clint betrayed us from the start, I knew it. He worked with the Deltas all the time, that's why the Humvees didn't follow us when they pursued him, I suppose this was a show as well.-, Clem thought, she had never trusted this man.
She had seen what he had done in the name of the old "New Frontier", he had been the one that judged the people that had rebelled against their regime, 90% of his sentences had been death penalties. She turned her head to the left, in the direction on Javier who was sitting there with his head in his hands.
"You know who betrayed us, you heard me back there didn't you?", she asked the man.
"I heard it and I still can't believe it, Clint helped me so much in the last year, he did everything to bring this community to the top again... I trusted him, I never thought about him being a traitor...", he answered in a downcast way, his eyes were turned towards the ground.
"I suppose that he saw some kind of chance alongside the Deltas, he always thought about the greater good. This son of a bitch, next time I see him he takes a bullet to the head!" Louis and Clem looked in each others eyes, they knew how it felt to be betrayed, Louis had made this experience even more recently. He put his hand on Javier's shoulder and tried to comfort him.
"Dude, I know how you're feeling, the feeling of trust getting broken by someone you've known a long time, that shit hurts. I would have liked to put a bullet to the head of the person that betrayed me and my friends back at the school but, you know, there was somebody else who took care of that."
He gave Clementine a pained grin.
"But revenge and this thinking you have right now, it changes you. You told us about your experience once already, the time you lost control..."
Javi's head jerked up, he hadn't told Louis about the details yet, Clem must've been the one that talked about it. Louis saw his gaze wander to his girlfriend.
"Don't worry, I know about it but I don't know every detail. I actually don't even want to hear any, there's some very bad and disgusting imagery in my head that won't leave whatever I try, yikes. But my point is that you should not let yourself get consumed by hate, it's bad for all of us."
The man nodded slowly, he looked straight through the wall in front of him, his mind dwelt on the past.
"Thank you, both of you, the support you're giving me is unbelievable, haven't had it for a longer time from people that are not Kate."
He smirked at her name, both of them shared a similar kind of bond like Clementine and Louis did.
"That's what friends are there for Javi, we'll never let you down.", Clem assured him while including him into a close hug.
When the doors to the emergency room opened Clem almost jumped in her seat, she had dozed off while leaning onto Louis' shoulder. Eleanore came outside to them and her facial features indicated that there were good news.
"Sorry to wake you up but we have news: Gabe's gonna be fine, he has a bit of a trauma and just needs some rest, Adrian gave him some medication to sleep better and we've treated the rest of his wounds. The Deltas didn't do that much harm to him, only small cuts that could be from falling to the ground, nothing to worry about."
Their mood started to rise, Clem was happy for Javi's nephew, he had deserved better than to die from injuries inflicted by terrible men and women that helped the Delta. Javier smiled and hugged the woman, thanking her all over again.
"Can we see him?", he asked happily like a small child that wanted to visit its parents.
"I'm sorry but no, he needs rest, you can come back tomorrow, he should be fine till then..."
Their conversation was rudely interrupted when her last words were nearly drowned out by the loud noise of a door getting opened with too much force, it crashed into the wall and a group of people came through it. One of them stepped forward and looked at the four persons in the hallway.
"Javier Garcia, Clementine Everett? I need you to come with us, the council awaits you, your in big trouble now."