Forever Fighting: TWDG Fan-Fiction

Part one. Season Four, Episode Four: Take Us Back, extended version.

The hisses and moans of a gory herd of walkers surrounded an old abandoned barn. Clementine leaned up against a hay bail and heaved a sigh of pain and exhaustion. Beside her, AJ was crouched low, looking at her. Tears formed in his deep brown eyes as he looked at his world dying right in front of him. Clementine, his friend, his caretaker, his family, leaned in and booped him on the nose.

"Gotcha." She teased, sounding a bit out of breath. AJ leaned away a little.

"Please...don't ... don't be silly right now. Not right now." He said, looking at the ground. She looked at him, a little hurt by his rejection, and retreated her hand.

"I just wanted to see you smile, one last time." Clementine said, her voice shaking a bit. AJ snapped back at her, scared that it might be the truth.

"Don't say that! Please, don't say that." His brows furrowed on his forehead in anger and sadness. Clementine's face became more serious.

"I need to make sure you remember." She Looked away, her skin pale and her amber eyes fading.

"Remember what?" AJ asked.

"The rules, what's number one?" She looked him in the eyes.

"Never," he hesitated. "Never go alone." AJ's eyes averted from Clems. "So... so I can't leave! Not without you!" He met her eyes again, pain reflecting hers.

"AJ!" Clem pleaded.

"It's your rule!"

"You won't be alone, not for long. Get back to the school."

"I don't know how." AJ said in defeat. His voice lowered a little.

"Sure you do! One of the first things I ever taught you." Her eyes scanned her surroundings and landed on the body of a walker. "You need to make sure they can't smell you so, there's a fresh juicy walker just waiting to be gutted!" Her mouth moved to form a weak smile for AJ. Her eyes then darted to a red axe sitting in front of her. "Grab that axe. You know what to do with it." AJ looked at the weapon then at Clem. He frowned at her then slowly stood up and walked over to the axe. Without a word he headed over to the body. He threw the axe over his shoulder and without hesitation sliced right through the decaying corpse. He dragged the blade across its chest and threw the axe aside. He then dug his hands into the opening, bringing out strands of its guts to smear all over himself. When he finished, he was covered from head to toe with dark red, smelly walker guts. He slowly stood back up and grabbed the axe. He didn't turn back around.
"Next rule: what do we do when the monsters come?" Asked Clementine.

"Clem..." AJ's voice shook.

"AJ..." Clem said with a firm tone to her voice. He finally turned to look at her. Sounding more confident, he said, "Shoot them in the head". Clementine looked at the pistol in her hands and turned it over a couple times."Got any ammo?"

"There isn't anymore." AJ responded. His tone was low and disheartened. Clementine laughed under her breath.

"Okay then. Fuck." Her voice trailed off. "And, the last rule?" She asked. AJ hesitated a bit, his next words, broken.

"I want to stay. With you. I know what will happen. And...and I don't care. I don't want to go. I just want to sit next to you and stay; Like that monster couple, from the train station. No one would hurt us. Just sitting...forever. Please, let me stay!"
Shaking her head a little, clementine looked at him with hurt, pain and guilt swimming in her eyes.

"Sorry kid, but no. I have a job for you. I need you to get back to your room. I need you to sleep in your bed and have friends and grow tall." Her voice cracked a small bit while trying to hold back the tears. "Taller than I ever was, I hope. I need you to live AJ. For me. That's your job now." She swallowed hard and waited for him to say or do something to show that he understood and to show that he'd be fine. She just wanted peace knowing that he would try to make it. AJ slowly nodded his head and looked into her eyes.

"Okay clem, that's my job". The walkers around them grew louder as more showed up to join the rest of the horde. Clementine's voice when she spoke was low.

"Last rule." AJ looked away and shook his head. Tears formed in his eyes. His voice broke when he spoke.

"No." He said. She pushed aside that feeling of guilt for making him answer these unfair questions. Her next words were slow and clear.

"What do you do, if I get bit?" Clementine's last question hung in the air as AJ's shoulders started to shake and the tears rolled down his round cheeks. Clem spoke up. "Are you gonna make me say it?" Sounding more annoyed than she meant to. AJ didn't answer but continued to cry. Clementine leaned back into the hay bales, she knew time was running out. "Fine." Knowing that AJ would refuse to kill her, she sighed. "Just leave." AJ looked at her, his eyes widening at her response.

"I can't let you turn into a monster." He said through the tears.

"You have to." She responded, sounding more tired than from when they first arrived. AJ stared at her a little while longer in disbelief. Eventually, he began to slowly turn around to find a way out like she wanted. But something grabbed onto him, a feeling, a realization and Instead of walking away, he turned back towards clementine with a determined gleam in his puffy brown eyes.

"No!" He yelled. And lifted the axe high into the air. Clementine flinched in surprise as the axe sliced right below her knee. She screamed in agony as he attempted to pull it back out of her leg then she fell limp against the hay. AJ swung the axe a few more times to get the leg fully off, a sight he'll never forget. Formulating a quick plan, he remembered the flint Clem found in the cave they were in not to long ago. He searched her pockets for it and found it in her left front jean pocket. With enough friction, he started a fire using pieces of wood and hay that was lying around in the barn. He heated up Clementine's knife using the fire while he used the inside of his jacket to put pressure on the leg. As soon as it glowed red he snagged the knife and placed it on the freshly cut wound to cauterize it. The blood sizzled and the smell was horrendous but AJ kept it on the wound until it stopped bleeding. He felt Clementine's forehead, checking if she had a fever or not. Luckily she felt okay, just a bit grimy and clammy. He sat on the ground in front of her with relief, his hand rubbing his forehead to stop the slow forming headache, but this feeling was short lived as he began to realize what he had just done and what he had to do.

Everything that had happened came rushing back to the front of his mind, bringing waves of tears with it. The walkers had become an unbearable cluster of sound which is what brought AJ back to reality. He sat up and wiped his tears away. "I have more work to do." he told himself. AJ rushed over to the rope he had cut earlier and tied it around her stump. A trick he had learned when he saw Abel do it to himself to help regulate the blood.

When all that was said was done, he turned around and examined all the walkers that were piling up around the barn doors. He looked around the barn to find something, anything, to help start a plan. He spotted the wheelbarrow across the room that he had used to reach and cut the rope. He ran over to it and moved it close to one of the stall doors. He climbed on top of it and used his knife to stab every walker in the head that came into view. Then, he moved on to the next door and did that exact method. There were 4 doors in total and tons of walkers.

AJ panted, exhausted from the constant go, go, go that kept nagging at his brain. He finally finished off the last bit of walkers. Re-checking that no walker was left astray, he looked over his shoulder at Clem. She was still unconscious and her light brown skin was still unbelievably pale. He got off the wheelbarrow and pushed it over to get rid of the dirt that filled the inside of the wheelbarrow then rolled it over to where Clem sat."Alright AJ, you can do this." He said to himself. He slowly lowered himself to the ground and slipped his arms under Clementine's armpits. He attempted to heave her off the ground but all he managed to do was lift her a few inches above the floor before she sagged back down. It was almost impossible to do at this point, his body ached from all the strain he'd put himself through to get to this point. He was still only 6 years old and not quite bigger than Clem yet but he couldn't give up, not now, not when he was so close to getting out of there. He shook out his hands and lifted her up off the ground many times before one last attempt that managed to get her into the wheelbarrow.

He sighed with relief as she finally fell in. He checked her temperature one last time, she was still warm to the touch but was not deathly cold nor hot. This was a good sign, a really good sign. This gave him hope and enough strength to push her out of the barn. Before going much further out, he checked his surroundings for any strays. Luckily, no walkers were near the barn and with that, he pushed the wheelbarrow out of the barn and in the direction of the school.