Chapter Text
—Around 11 months Ago—
He sees the walkie talkie on the ground.
Swiftly, quietly, he walks towards it and reaches out to pick it up, hearing the slight static hush from it.
He flinches as a walker grabs his arm and yanks him forward, his body weight shifting him onto his knees towards it.
He pushes it back with his arms and tussles with it. With force, using both arms, he shoves it towards the sharp edges of the wood base near the bins and smacks its head against it, making it fall to the ground.
Groaning to itself helplessly, Lee moves forward with a blank sense of anger.
And shoves the heel of his shoe into its face, blood squishing around its features.
Lee breathes for a moment, before spotting Clementine's hat.
He picks it up slowly, eyebrows arched as he looks at it and thinks of her.
Feeling a slight sting on his arm, he looks at his wrist…and sees gruesome, blooded teeth marks.
A walker bite.
He shakes his head slightly, Grabbing it with his other hand gently to not cause more pain.
"No…No No No…No! Fuck…Fuck!" He hisses, nearly into a sob.
"Lee…Lee?" He hears Christa's voice call out,
"Lee, are you out here?"
He looks back to the bite mark, staring at it thinking on what to do.
He closes his eyes tight before opening them again, feeling another little sting.
"Are you crazy? What are you doin' out here? It ain't safe!" Kenny stubbornly states, Lee looking over to see the whole group walking up to him, slightly concerned.
"Lee, Where's Clementine?" Omid brings up,
"She's not in a room…"
"Vernon ain't in the house either, what the hell is goin' on?" Kenny presses.
They all crowd behind him, his back still turned and holding Clementine's hat, staring at the bite.
Christa grows more worried.
"...Who's blood is that?"
He deeply sighs and turns around.
"It's mine…" he utters, letting the walker bite show to them.
All of their eyes widen.
Christa slightly covers her mouth, Kenny's eyebrows scrunch.
He shakes his head.
"N.No way…No fuckin' Way!!"
"There's no time to worry about me. Clementine's gone."
They all look at each other.
"Th.There's no way she could've just gone away on her own?" Omid questions.
Lee shakes his head.
"No…"
"Then who the hell took her?!" Kenny crosses his arms.
"…Vernon did come up to me and said somethin' about Clem…offered maybe taking her and going along with him. Sayin' she'd be better off-"
"Son of a bitch…I KNEW we couldn't trust that fucker!"
Lee lowers his head.
"Wherever she is, I HAVE to find her."
They all look at him with worry.
Christa nods.
"Alright…what do you need from us?" She finally asks.
He breathes deeply.
"First…I need to stop this from happenin'..." He looks down at his arm.
All 3 look at it.
Omid flicks between him and his arm.
"Wh-What you're just gonna…you're just gonna get rid of it? How?"
"The only way I can…cutting it off."
Kenny places his hand on his shoulder, wide eyed.
"You…Lee you can't be serious…that's possibly fucking suicide man!"
Lee looks at Kenny.
"I am. If I wanna save Clementine, it's the only way."
They all look at Christa, waiting for her response.
She sighs.
"Let's do it then…"
Omid stares at her, very concerned.
"I'm sorry what??"
"Look, are you both gonna stand there while Lee slowly dies right now? Or are you going to help him like he has with us?"
They both shrug their shoulders as they vault it past the metal fencing of the house they have stayed in for a few days, and Christa grabs the shovel Lee used earlier.
She dusts off some of the dirt, but knowing it won't do much good.
Omid backs away not liking the idea of the shovel.
"Are…you sure you wanna get it cut off with a shovel?" He squeaks,
"Could get some nasty shit from that thing…"
"No kiddin'..." Kenny Mumbles.
Lee shrugs.
"If you guys wanna see me turn…then I suggest you use that damn shovel on me right now" Lee sassily states back.
Christa nervously smiles, it quickly drops as Lee gets his arm into position on a thick tree log and looks away.
"Do it as quick as you can…" He instructs.
Christa nods firmly.
All Lee heard were the sounds of his own scream, Omid and Kenny Freaking out and the sound of the Shovel whacking against the wood as it sawed through his skin and eventually through his bone too, slowly feeling it grow from immense stinging pain to going numb into nothing.
White noise filled his ears as his vision swirls around like a confusing blurry motion picture.
His vision fades to black as his body becomes heavier.
…
…
…
"...Lee? Lee, stay with us" a distant sounding voice Mumbles.
"Is he alive?"
"I don't know…" "I think so, he's still breathin'."
"I managed to stop the bleeding with what little we have…so…Hopefully he.."
As Lee slowly gets up, his head pounding like absolute shit, the colour of the world comes back into his vision.
And so does Christa, Omid and Kenny, and eventually Ben too when he decides to come out of the house after hearing the commotion.
"I…Is it over?" Ben meekly murmurs.
"The blood is still here, just wait inside a few more moments Ben" Christa instructs.
Ben immediately nods and shuts the door.
Kenny stares off after him as he does so.
Unamused.
"Wh…What?" He manages to blurt out.
Christa slowly helps him up.
"You're okay Lee. We've done it. It's done."
"Are you alright?" Omid questions with a slight hopeful smile.
Lee looks down at where his arm used to be, to see it is now a stub, covered up with a very blooded over layered bandage and cloth and who knows what else.
It felt weird to him to have a stub that he can control instead of just his hand but he is willing to get used to it if means he can save Clementine this way.
"Thank you…"
Christa nods.
"Now what do you wanna do now? Clementine could be who the fuck knows where" Kenny puts his hands to the sides tiredly.
Lee looks at all of them, including Ben who peers through the door again.
"...We save her together. If we do it together we have better chances of reaching her that way. You in?"
They all look at each other.
A lot of things happened after that moment…
Including getting Clem back, a happy moment for all of them.
But of course she was worried about his arm and where it had gone.
Ben got impaled by a shard of metal whilst trying to jump over to another building, being the last one to do so.
Kenny was determined to help him, despite the shit he gives him.
Lee tried to get him to leave him, but there was no use.
Together: Lee, Christa, Omid and Clem ran off. Far away from where they were, in search of refuge like every other day. Back to the train.
—2 months ago—
They walk through the trail of trees, the clouds hanging over them gloomily.
Christa and Omid hang in the front, Christa holding a gun.
Lee and Clem still had their supplies, Lee now obtaining a bag at some point that now lies on his back.
They all hide behind a long thick trunk that has fallen from its roots and lost its top, spotting a small building-like structure.
Christa sighs.
"Omid, you can't be serious…"
"I am" He chuckles.
"We are NOT calling our baby Omid."
"Why not?"
"One of you is enough."
Christa sighs and looks at Lee.
"Lee…a little help here."
He chuckles.
"What if it's a girl?" He questions.
Omid grins.
"Then we name her Christa."
Christa stares at him and stands still.
"But I'm Christa. I'm not naming my baby Christa that's just- Confusing…Clementine your opinion?" She questions.
Omid looks at Clementine, so does Lee.
She fiddles with her hands.
"I don't know…I think both names are good," she meekly smiles.
Christa chuckles and shakes her head.
"You're not taking this seriously…"
"I take EVERYTHING seriously. I care very much about, ESPECIALLY, lil' Omid's Future" He smiles warmly.
Christa folds her arms.
"Keep talking and you'll be sleeping in the rain tonight."
"Come now Christa, this ain't no way to treat the man who wants to treat his new child good" Lee states.
Omid pat's him on the shoulder and stands by him.
"Exactly. Thank you Lee."
Christa walks into the men's room rolling her eyes with a smile, the door shutting behind her.
Lee and Omid look at Clementine, who is examining an empty can.
Lee crouches down to her.
"Hey, Sweet pea, how about you go get cleaned up in the girl's room? Omid, Christa and I will be right next door if you need anything" He gently smiles.
Clementine nods.
"Okay…I hope the sink works in there" her eyes sparkle with hope.
Omid sighs gently.
"I wouldn't count on it Clem. Make sure to keep a hang of your stuff" He reminds, then proceeding to walk into the men's room.
Clem nods.
"Okay."
Lee stands up straight and Clementine walks into the girl's room.
He proceeds to walk into the men's room after Omid.
A bunch of urinals and sinks line the walls with some dirted up, slightly broken mirrors.
There are 2 stalls, one of them locked from the inside.
Christa is staring into the mirror looking at herself.
"I just hope we can make it with them on the way…" Christa sighs.
Omid hugs her from the side gently.
"Hey, You know we can work this out. Omid Jr. Is gonna grow up big and strong-"
"Oh please. We are not naming the baby Omid!" She gently shoves him off her.
Omid chuckles.
"Fine, Fine, what do you suggest then?" Omid crosses his arms with a smile.
Christa looks at herself again, Lee just observing the situation as he also walks to a sink beside her.
Omid turns to face the wall.
"I'm…gonna check on Clementine real quick" He nods, before swiftly walking out.
Christa sighs.
Lee tries the faucet, only small drops of water come out.
Still he uses it, putting his hand under and wiping his face off some of the dirt scraped on it.
"Lee…"
…
"Yeah?"
"Do you think we'll be able to make it…with this baby on the way?" Christa utters.
Lee looks at her, she is still staring at the mirror.
"Because I don't know…whether I'll be able to do this-"
They hear a gunshot, snapping both of their attention.
Christa immediately grabs the gun and Lee rakes out the pistol from his pocket and they bolt it out to the girl's room.
As Christa kicks open the door, they are both greeted with Omid lying on the floor, a woman with a pistol, wide eyed and Clementine tearing up.
Both of their eyes widen.
The woman immediately puts her hands up, dropping the gun to the floor.
Another shot rings through the sky as Christa shoots a bullet into her chest and she stumbles backwards into the wall.
Slowly, she falls down the wall losing consciousness.
Clementine flinches, her little tears dripping down her face.
Christa drops her gun and reaches down for Omid's body, starting to sob.
Lee runs to Clementine and hugs her.
"Are you okay Sweet pea? Did that woman hurt you?" He utters.
All Clementine could do was shake her head.
"N…No…No she didn't hurt me. But…she…she threatened me and took m.my gun. She took my hat as well…" she sobs.
Lee looks to the sink where her hat lay, he grabs it and slowly places it back on her head, giving her gun back to her as well.
They both look to Christa who is sobbing quietly over Omid's body.
She looks up to Clem, devastated.
—Present Day—
They all sit around the slow dying fire, the wet wood refusing to burn into flames.
The clouds grow ever more gloomy as the cold wind rushes past them, making Clem shiver.
All spirits were low after Christa's miscarriage…and Omid's death.
After they had to deal with a massive hoard drawn to them by the gunshots.
They all ran out of ammo, having no choice, they left their guns.
Christa pokes at the dying flames with a stick with a deep sigh. Lee and Clem huddle together, Lee wrapping his arm around her closely.
Clem wanted Christa to talk to her again, she hardly said a word to her after Omid's death, which made her worry.
"C.Christa…talk to me" Clem states.
They both look at her, she stares off at the dying fire.
She gets up and pokes it again.
"This…is pathetic. The wood's too wet to burn, it's more smoke than flame.
At this rate we won't be able to eat this thing…" she mumbles.
"What else can we do?" Clem lowers her head.
Christa looks to her.
"Find some more wood maybe, I don't know. It won't be easy in the dark and in the rain."
Lee leans forward.
"I'm sure we can make it through this.
We made it this far."
Christa sighs and stares at Lee.
"We have made it this far, but you need to stop cuddling Clem so much.
She should be doing this, not us. She needs to know how to tend a fire, how to find food and stay warm. It's something she needs to be able to do, otherwise…"
She trails off, looking away.
"And I'll teach her. I can assure you that" Lee smiles with hope.
"Good."
"I'll go and get some wood" He states.
Christa nods as he gets up and walks off a short distance from where they were.
Leaving Christa and Clem alone.
Clem shivers as the wind blows harder.
"I'm freezing…"
Christa Scoffs.
"You think this is bad? Wait till we get up to Wellington, THEN talk to me about the cold."
Clem sighs, her shoulders lowering with her breath.
"We've got a rough few months ahead of us…this rain will change to sleet. Then ice. Then snow…it won't be easy" she explains, still poking around the fire to get the flame up.
"...Will it be safe there?" Clem questions, lifting up her head slightly in hope.
Christa looks into her eyes, wanting to give her a solid answer.
"It's safer than here because of the cold. Or…so they say."
Clem nods.
Silence takes over, the small crackles of the fire spitting out some of it.
Lee comes back with 2 small logs of wood in his one hand.
"This is all I could get" Lee sighs, grunting as he places them onto the floor by the fire.
Christa sighs and gets up.
"Thank you Lee. Sit down and have a rest. Must be hard with one arm" she mumbles.
Lee nods.
"It's no trouble."
He sits down next to Clem, he sees her shaking still from the breeze.
He wraps her arm around her again, hoping some of his warmth may help her.
"Are you-?"
"I miss Omid…"
They both look at her, then look at each other, eyebrows arched and heavy chests.
Christa closes her eyes.
"I'm…sure you do. I miss him too…"
…
…
The silence continues.
Eventually, Christa starts to walk off.
"I'm gonna go look for more wood. Keep the fire lit" she instructs.
They both nod as she walks away.
Lee looks at Clementine as she grabs her bag and zips it open.
He chuckles Softly.
"Do you still have that lighter honey?"
Clem nods.
She rummaged around for the lighter, finding the picture of Lee and also the drawing of Kenny's family.
Lee stares at it for a moment.
Clem grabs a small piece of cloth.
Clem leaves the drawing in her bag, frowning and hanging her head, as she zips the bag closed.
"It's okay Sweet pea…It's okay" He tries to soothe.
Clem nods and gets up.
Lighting up the cloth she chucks it into the middle of the nearly died out fire.
Lee sits down next to her on his knees and grabs one of the logs he brought, and slowly puts it down to the side of where the fire starts catching.
He hands over the poking stick that Christa left and lets her poke the fire.
"That's good. You're doing good Clem."
She doesn't respond.
She leaves it to burn up for a moment, watching it intently.
"Lee…?"
"Yes Clem?"
"Does Christa still hate me…because I'm the reason Omid is dead?" She questions.
Lee's eyes widen slightly before he turns her to face him.
"N.No no honey, Christa doesn't hate you at all. And you are not the reason Omid is dead. Nothin' could've been done."
"But…he was killed with my gun" Clem sadly looks up at him.
Lee's chest aches seeing her expression.
"I…I know…but you were stolen from Honey. That's the stranger's fault he's dead…not you. Don't be so hard on yourself Clem."
Another silence.
He takes the poker and pokes around the fire again, Whilst Clem grabs the other log Lee brought over and pushes it on the flames that start to grow slightly more now.
"Sometimes you need to remember that you, Clem, are just a child.
People need to be less harsh on you.
You're still growing. And you will learn in time, and make your own decisions. You've done well to make it far, and I'm sure most are impressed on how such a tough little girl has made it to where you are now" He goes on.
Clem looks at him and slightly smiles with what slight happiness she could muster.
They let the slow growing crackles of the fire break the coolness of the breeze, as they sit together.
"...Are you fucking me?!"
"You're lying!" "I'm not, I swear-!"
Both Lee and Clem look to the direction of the distant voices, Lee swiftly grabs his bag and pulls Clem close.
"That doesn't sound good…" He whispers.
Clem shakes her head.
"What if Christa's in trouble?" Clem questions,
"We need to help her!"
Lee nods.
"If she is, then we'll distract them okay honey. Stay close to me."
They slowly drift away from the fire and towards the distant voices who consistently yell, louder and louder, more and more pissed off.
They hide behind some trees and bushes to see Christa surrounded by 3 people in camouflage and hoods.
"Stop lying to us, lady."
"Answed our fucking question- WHERE IS YOUR GROUP?!"
Christa puts her hands up, backing away slightly, shaking.
"I…I'm by myself" she utters.
One of them groans.
"BULLSHIT!!" "We're not gonna ask again."
"Lee…we need to do something!" Clem hisses.
Lee nods and hands her a stone.
He gestures a throwing motion and Clem nods in understanding.
She throws the rock hitting one of the guys in the eye, he jolts back, dropping his gun.
"CHRISTA, RUN!!" Clem shouts.
Lee picks up Clem so she stands and starts running, Clem gets the gist. They both bolt it, hearing the bandit's loud growls of anger.
"Don't let her get away!!" One of the guys shouts back, as they bolt it to chase after Lee and Clementine.
Clem hides behind a tree, and Lee hides behind a boulder.
The guy stops and looks around, anger taking him over.
He deeply sighs, his raspy voice taking over.
"Where are those stupid fucks…?"
As he turns around to look where they could've gone, Lee signals Clem to run, which she does, bolting it past him.
He quickly follows.
They hear his angered groan and his boots swiftly catching to them.
"Clem! Walker!!" Lee shouts, Clem turns to face forward and sees a walker looming over her.
Unable to move out the way in time, Lee swiftly shoves it away into another boulder and they both start bolting again.
They stop to a halt as a long rushing, gushing river greets them, sharp rocks and boulders looking like swords.
Lee stares at the fall.
"Ah Shit…"
Clem's scream made his head turn, the guy had got her from behind and started dragging her away.
"CLEM!!"
"Stop squirming little shit!!-" "Get off of me!!"
Lee kicks his leg from under him, tripping him over.
Clem is free and she swiftly wriggles away with the assistance of Lee.
She tries to get away near some boulders near the corners of the river but the bandit is insistent, Grabbing her again this time, with his arms wrapped near her neck and starts dragging her back the way they ran.
Lee rushes to him again, ready to beat his ass, but he elbows Lee in the eye, whacking him to the floor.
"Get off of me!!-"
"Goddammit STOP SQUIRMING!!"
As Lee regains the sense of where he is, he sees Clem open her mouth and bite down on the guy's thumb, blood slowly starting to spit out from where her teeth sank in through his skin.
Lee uses all the force he can muster in his legs and kicks as hard as he could at the knees, sending the bandit to the floor and his thumb being ripped almost entirely off.
As Clem and Lee get away slightly again, Lee has time to examine the river.
He sees a form of pattern in the rocks that they can possibly go across, if they set their footing right.
"L.Lee…" Clementine mutters.
"It's okay Sweet pea, he can't hurt you now-"
"Lee. Look" she tugs on his jacket.
He finally turns around.
The gurgled sounds of walkers slowly rise behind them, as more of them slowly but swiftly pop into view.
As the bandit regains his sense of consciousness, he gets demolished by walker bites, them crawling over him and feeding off of his body.
Lee holds his stub in front of Clem in protection, as Clem grabs a stone and flings it at one of the walkers.
It didn't do anything, except make her panic more.
"L.Lee-!"
"C.CLEM!!" He shouts.
It felt like it went in slow motion, as he turns his head to see Clementine rolling down the sharp side of the rocks and splashing into the river.
He swiftly heads to the rocks he observed as a pattern and carefully but hurriedly passes over to the other side of the river, some of the walkers trying to follow but falling into the river instead.
As he makes it to the other side, he breathes deeply as he tries to bolt it the way Clementine was pulled away.
"CLEMENTINE!!" He shouts again.
Knowing he wouldn't be able to catch up to the river's speed of the waves, he worriedly looks at the other side, filling to the brim with walkers, to the river, then to the forestry on his own side.
With nothing to lose, he starts running.
Nowhere in particular.
Just running.
Running and running.
All with hope that Clementine is safe.