"Lead the way boss" Louis joked with a cheeky smile on his face.

Violet rolled her eyes as she nudged passed him. This was going to be a very long journey. At that same moment Marlon put Louis in a choke hold.

"You sure about bringing them along?" Gael whispered.

"No, no I'm not."

"It's not too late to send them back." He pointed over his shoulder to Richmond's gates behind him that were slowly getting smaller the longer they walked.

"I say send them back" Larissa grinned. Gael on the other hand muttered something under his breath causing the grin to fall off her face and her fist coming up to clobber him." Jerk!" She exclaimed and walked on ahead.

"I'm surrounded by children" Brice crossed his arms.

Clem already felt a headache coming on. "Let's just go" she massaged her temple.

"Damn, we haven't even left and we already caused her a headache." Marlon chuckled.

Clem simply flipped him off and continued to walk. This was an important mission and she couldn't allow anything to mess it up.

Anything could go wrong in a matter of seconds, so while everyone talked quietly among themselves she listened to the crunch beneath her feet and the howling of the wind.

She couldn't shake the sinking feeling in her stomach nor the way her skin prickled. "You doing alright over there clemster?" Louis smiled as he nudged up against her.

"Yeah..." she breathed out. Her hands clenching before stretching out and resting at her sides. "A storms coming" she added off handily.

"The sky is clear" he raised his eyebrow. "You sure your good?"

"You haven't been on the road as long as I have" she shrugged and dropped it at that.

Louis got the hint and slowly stepped into the background. Brice must have said something regarding their interaction because everyone bursted out laughing.

She on the other hand wasn't paying close enough attention to register it. She kept her eyes on the road and thought back to her goodbye with Kenny.

He stood with his hands crossed and lips pressed into a thin line just a little bit away from her. "Just be safe out there kiddo"

She snorted, but nodded anyway. "I'm tough as nails remember?"

That brought a smile to his face. "I still don't approve"

"I know, I know" she waved him off.

"Keep that Louis kid away though" he growled and her cheeks pinked. "S-shut up!"

"I better not hear any funny business happened" he continued on without a care in the world.

"I can't have Lee murdering in my sleep then again in the afterlife."

"Oh my god" she groaned into her hands.

"Off you go now" he pointed behind her with his head.

"Take care Kenny" she smiled before turning to her team.

Clem's feet ached from their long journey. A few more hours and the sun would set. The storm on the other hand would be here sooner than night fall. "Let's set up camp for the night over there." She pointed to a run down RV.

"It's not even close night." Louis frowned.

"Maybe the nerves are getting to her" Marlon attempted to whisper.

She was not impressed. "Just follow my orders" The teens begrudging began to clear out the RV and set out their supplies for the night.

"Ducklings am I right" Larissa grinned, then took off to scout the surrounding area.

Brice and Gael on the other hand stayed close to the RV and made sure that when the storm hit they would come out on the other side alright by patching up any windows.

"It smells like someone died in here" Louis groaned.

"That's because someone did" Violet deadpanned. Her cleaver already embedded inside a walkers skull. You can never be too sure with things. She then smiled and pushed it on him.

Louis screamed "BRO! WhAt THe fUck!" That gained him a slap on the back of head by Marlon. "WALKERS YOU DUMBASS!"

Clems eye twitched at the scene in front of her. She was really regretting bringing them along. She watched from a far as they started to playfully argue between the three of them.

The more it progressed, the more she could tell Louis was beginning to feel
Insecure about the event that just progressed.

Things can't be helped now, so much for staying focused on the task at hand. "Alright, alright, enough picking on poor little Prince Charming." She nudged his shoulder with a small smile. "Marlon you tripped over your own feet three times in a row and ended up stepping on a poor squirrels tail. Violet you got scared of a tree branch that touched your neck." Her smile was tight lipped, her eyes crinkled in amusement more than anything.

Violet looked at her speechless, she barely managed to utter a small "I-" before her jaw snapped shut.

"Well, I'm just going to go" Marlon back tracked into the RV. Violet following suit shortly after.

Louis relaxed the moment they stepped away. "Thanks" he grinned, but it lacked its usual cheekiness.

"Eh, don't worry about it" she shrugged then brushed her hand against his shoulder as she walked away.

He stood there for a moment with rosy cheeks, his eyes following her until she was out of view. Not that she noticed mind you.

Clementine on the other had was oblivious to what her actions caused leaving three adults to start placing bets on how long it would take till they realized the spark.

The wind picked up significantly by the time the RV was fortified. The teens couldn't even believe that the nice weather they were enjoying only hours prior was suddenly replaced with an angry sky.

Clementine only wished that they had found a house to settle down for the night instead of a cramped RV, but it was better than nothing.

The RV also brought back memories of her first group. How they all had to pile into one when they were attacked because Ben had been giving their supplies to some bad people.

She pushed away her thoughts of Lee to the deepest parts of her brain. It wasn't the time to unbury them.

"Anyone up for a card game? I'm not sure about all of you, but I'm a bit too jittery to fall asleep." Louis grinned.

"Eh, why not" Gael shrugged.

"Count me on too!" Larissa grinned back.

Violet pondered for a bit before she ended up agreeing because there was literally nothing else to do. "Fine." She grunted.

"Sure"

"I'll join"

Marlon and Brice said at the same time. They stared each other for second then looked away, both silently agreeing to pretend that nothing happened. 

"What about you Clem?" Violet nudged her shoulder. She hummed then moved slightly closer to the group. "What game are we playing?"

"How about mafia" he suggested

"Never heard of it" Brice and a couple of others replied.

"It really fun when you have a big group, and seeing as we have 7 I say that's a pretty decent size. You don't necessarily need cards to play Mafia, but it helps keeping peoples roles a secret." He explained as he shuffled through his cards looking for specific cards. 

"So Mafia is a game about a small town where murders randomly begin to happen, the towns people must weed out the murderer before they all die, but the murderers need to kill off most of the towns people in order to win."

"Oh goodie" Violet did her signature whole body eye roll.

Louis ignore her in favor of finishing his explanation. "I'll be the moderator, so I'll hand out roles and make sure everything runs smoothly. Anyone who gets a heart card is the mafia, they can only kill during the night. The king will be the sheriff, they can investigate one person to figure out if they are the killer during the night. The queen will be the doctor, they can travel to someone's house during the night and protect one person of their choosing. Anyone else is a villager and must sleep through the night. In the morning you'll vote to execute someone. Since we have seven people we'll have 1 mafia, 1 sheriff, 1 doctor, and 3 villagers. Any questions?"

Everyone shook their head. He smiled and shuffled the 6 cards before distributing them randomly among the group. "Look at your cards but don't show anyone."

Once they saw their cards a few people gave suspicious glances around the table. Louis could help but snort. "Alright since it's day one and there's not much to talk about, go to sleep, so close your eyes no peeking and no talking, point."

He waited a few seconds to make sure they all had their eyes closed then continued on. "Alright, Mafia wake up and select your victim."

Marlon opened his eyes and smirked as he pointed towards Larissa.

Louis took a mental note of who died before moving on. "Mafia go to sleep. Sheriff wake up." Violet opened her eyes. She scanned everyone before pointing towards Gael.

Louis shook his head. " sheriff go to sleep, doctor wake up" Larissa opened her eyes then pointed towards herself in a silent question, she totally forgot to ask if that was allowed.

When Louis nodded she smiled happily then closed her eyes. "Alright, everyone can wake up." He waited patiently until everyone opened their eyes to explain last nights events. "During the night, the mafia decided to assassinate Larissa by dropping a piano on her while on her late pantry raiding, fortunately Larissa headed back to her house early which saved her life."

Larissa let out a scandalized gasp. "Death by piano, my love for food is my own undoing."

"You survived." Brice deadpanned.

"Shouldn't you happy she lived," Violet pointed out.

"Oh shit." Gael looking between all three.

"That's true, but Clementine has been awfully quite." Marlon pressed his lips into a tight line.

"So have you" she narrowed her eyes.

"I technically talked before you and gave some insight, thank you very much." He smiled, only there was no warmth"

"So who do you want to execute on the bases of suspected murder."

"Marlon" Clem glared at him.

"Two can play at that game, I pick Clementine." Marlon glared back.

"I'm going with Clementine." Gael looked between the two warily.

"I'm not the mafia he is." She pointed towards him.

"Your the one riled up"

"Because I'm been falsely accused." she batted her eyes lashes, gaining a snort from Violet.

"I'm going with Clementine too, you seem like the type of person who'd drop a piano on someone."

"Hate to say it, but she has a point, Clementine." Brice stated.

"Fuck you all" she rolled her eyes.

"I'm going to vote for Brice, he seems suspicious." Violet stared at him.

"Well, Clem has the most votes so she has sadly been burned at the stake. "Welcome to the land of the dead." He added with a coy smile.

"Whatever" she smiled fondly.

•̶•̶•̶•̶•̶•̶•̶ ❤︎ •̶•̶•̶•̶•̶•̶•̶

"Violet has been pushed into a grinder while out on a stroll."

"Violent . I like it!" She grinned wickedly.

Louis rolled his eyes and continued narrating the second match.

•̶•̶•̶•̶•̶•̶•̶ ❤︎ •̶•̶•̶•̶•̶•̶•̶

Clementine smirked as she held up her card between her fingers revealing a heart card when she officially won the third match.

•̶•̶•̶•̶•̶•̶•̶ ❤︎ •̶•̶•̶•̶•̶•̶•̶

Louis was by far the worst mafia to ever exist having outed himself during the second meeting.

Violet had a fun time narrating this round. She especially loved making fun of the mafia.

•̶•̶•̶•̶•̶•̶•̶ ❤︎ •̶•̶•̶•̶•̶•̶•̶

In match five Clementine was narrating and the deaths were gruesome to say the least.

•̶•̶•̶•̶•̶•̶•̶ ❤︎ •̶•̶•̶•̶•̶•̶•̶

By the time they started match 8 they were all slowly drifting off to sleep. Before they knew it many of them were passed out with their cards still in their hands.

Louis chuckled quietly to himself when he noticed he was the last one standing, or at least he was before he accidentally nudged Clem while collecting the cards.

He held his breath when she yawned and stretched her hands above her head. "Sorry, you can go back to sleep" he offered her a small guilty smile.

"No, it's okay." She paused for a second to yawn. "Someone a has to keep watch."

"I don't think the delta will come out in a rain storm." He pointed out.

"Well, people are unpredictable that way." She retorted.

Louis sighed tiredly. "Out of all of us here you need the most sleep. Have you even slept more than three hours in the past few days since we decided to attack the delta?"

Clem stayed silent. "Of course you haven't" he groaned, then stood up and sat next to her.

" Come here" he wrapped an arm around her shoulders and pulled her close to his side.

"Louis?" She question, her voice a pitch higher.

"Sleep"

Clem simply hummed and nuzzled into his chest.

•̶•̶•̶•̶•̶•̶•̶ ❤︎ •̶•̶•̶•̶•̶•̶•̶

Clem slowly opened her eyes with a small groan. She blinked a few times before she noticed she was pressed right up against Louis's neck.

Startled she immediately pulled herself away. Louis let out a tired grumble from being jolted before his breathing evened out again.

Luckily for her no one else was awake to see her passed out on him or how she used her hands to fan her face. The bright blush on her face slowly faded as well as her heart beat slowing down to its regular pace.

Once her cheeks returned to their original color she began moving the logs they had placed in front of the RV's door and began walking the perimeter she marked the day before.

The petrichor reminded Clem of a time before the walkers. It felt refreshing not to smell the decay of corpses everyday. The squelch underneath her feet brought a smile to her face. For once it wasn't blood covering the soles of her shoes.

By the time she completed her patrol she returned to find her group slowly packing up their belongings, each of them in a different state of drowsiness.

Violet looked like she was about to punt Marlon into the sun if the way her eye twitched was anything to go by. Louis was unhelpfully draped over the hood of the RV, sleep weighing heavily on him.

The others, excluding Larissa were very much awake and alert. Brice nodded at her when he spotted her, but continued on as if she was never there.

Gael noticed her shortly after, his eyes narrowed for a brief second to process if that was her or a walker who somehow managed to sneak up on them.

The others didn't notice her presence right away, which made it extremely easy to walk right up behind them and scare the ever loving shit out of them by standing behind Marlon with her best icy glare until he felt her staring at him and turned to see her mere inches away from his face.

The moment they made eye contact he screamed so loud Louis shot up and knocked Larissa over onto Violet. "Do better." She huffed and turned on her heel to where the boys were picked up their stuff.

She swung her own bag over she shoulder and started walking in the direction of the delta. Not caring one bit of the chaos she just caused.

Both Brice and Gael followed her while trying to stifle their laughter as to not attract more walkers.

It took them a total of five hours to reach the delta. The exhaustion that weighed on their shoulder vanished in an instant.

Clementine couldn't get over the sinking feeling in her stomach when they first laid eyes on the boat and it only seemed to worsen as the seconds ticked by. She was at least grateful the trees provided lots of cover.

However the trees dwindled near the shore. That was definitely going to be a problem. "Let's get a bit of distance and figure out how to lure some walkers out here."

The others nodded and slowly backed away from the shore. The delta members stayed quite a few feet away from the tree line, which was why they felt fear shoot through their bodies when they hear voices coming close to where they retreated.

"Get down!" Brice whisper yelled.

They all scrambled to duck down behind trees and bushes as an older women with a deep purple jacket walked towards the small clearing with a younger boy being dragged behind her.

The sound of the women clicking her tongue could be heard followed by a loud thump. "Honestly, what is wrong with you!?!" She hissed. "How many times have I told you to stop this madness! You'll get yourself and me in more trouble than your worth! I was a fool to bring you back."

The boy refused to speak and continued to keep his eyes downcast throughout her rant. Clementine on the other hand felt the blood in her veins grow hotter by the second as she watched the women pace. He didn't choose to join the delta. That much was clear from the way she spoke.

"Well speak boy!" She hissed yet again, her pacing coming to an end when she was standing right over him. "What the hell is this disgusting crap for!" She thrust what looked like a mask made out of some unknown material.

"Nothing that would interest monsters like you." Even from the spot behind the bushes where Clementine hid she could see the amount of hatred in his eyes. "You take people against their wills. Use them. All for your own selfish desires. I would rather die than to join your war."

The women scoffed. "We provide people with everything they need to survive and only ask for their contribution." She reached down and yanked him up by his hair.

The boy let out a soft grunt but refused to show her that he was in any pain. "You better start shaping up or you'll get a fate worse than death. Now get rid of that thing, check the perimeter and head back to the boat, keep in mind what happened last time you tried to abandoned us." She spat angrily, she then pulled his head higher before shoving it back down into the dirt. 

The mask she held landed a few inches away from his face. She scoffed one more time before marching down the way she came.

The boy let out a small puff of air as he pushed himself off the ground so he was kneeling on the floor with his hands supporting his body.

Against her better judgement, Clementine stood up from behind the shrubs she was hiding in and walked towards the boy.

She heard a few people whisper her name, but she ignored it and instead choose to pick up the discarded mask. He flinched at the sudden appearance and threw himself backwards.

Clementine looked him in the eyes before offering him a hand. A ghost of a smile grazing her lips. He stared at her with hidden fear in his eyes before tentatively reaching out to grab her hand.

"Are you alright?" She asked after handing him the mask.

"Fine." He replied curtly. "You're part of the war."

"I am." She replied, her eyes gaining a bit of sharpness, but the boy remained unfazed.

"They talk about you, you know." He sighed. His hands tracing over the stitching on the mask. "The girl who is more of a solider than a person. Shows mercy only to a few." His voice was monotone and devoid of any emotion. If it weren't for the slight twitch of his mouth she would have thought he'd lost the ability to show any.

"You're different. You aren't completely gone like them. Even now."

"Even now?" She raised an eyebrow.

"Even in the war you don't kill aimlessly. You spare the children or those with no will to fight. Take them in and shelter them. I know why you stepped out, I cannot help you. There's nothing I can do."

Clem opened her mouth, but before she could get a word out, Violet stepped out from behind the tree she ducked behind with fury all over her face. "You have a chance to get free and you won't do anything!" Although she acted based on emotions and grabbed him by his vest, she was still mindful of her volume.

"Violet!" Marlon hissed at the same time as Clem.

Slowly one by one the rest of her team stepped out. Brice, Gael, and Larissa all spread out in order to keep watch, while Marlon and Louis both rushed to pull Violet away.

"I can't do anything." The boy replied with the same Monotone voice he's been using.

"You can!" Violet scowled, desperately trying to get the boys to let go of her.

"I can't. I don't have a good standing. I don't behave. They don't trust me to do much." He shook his head, before beginning to walk away from the clearing.

"Hey! Where are you going?!?" Marlon shouted as quietly as he could, while holding one of Violets arms.

"Patrol." He replied curtly. "Follow if you want."

"Come on" Clementine ordered as she jogged up to him. "I'm sorry about Violet, her little brother is on that ship and she just wants him back." She smiled sheepishly.

He nodded understandingly "Family can make anyone go crazy."

"Do you have any?"

The boy frowned for a split second. "Gone now. Left my group a long time ago."

They walked in silence for a bit. Clementine wasn't quite sure how he could help them given his standing with the delta.

"What were you guys planning on doing before meeting me?" Clementine paused for a moment

Can I trust you?

Before she could dwell too much into her thoughts she shook her head and looked him in the eyes. "We planned on causing some kind of distraction on the shore in order to lure enough delta members off the ship and having a few people sneak on board."

She glanced back at her small group who lagged behind. "I'm going to take out Lily since she's an important figure head, violet and Louis are going to break our people out, Gael is going to use a bomb to destroy the boat from the inside, while Larissa, Brice, and Marlon are going to keep the delta occupied on the land."

"That's very risky." He looked down at the at the ground, then met her eyes. "You plan sounds incomplete."

Clementine couldn't help but snort. "It is, it was pretty short notice, plus I didn't expect so little cover."

"Wouldn't more people be of help?" Something flashed in his eyes, but Clem couldn't tell what.

Clementine focused her eyes straight ahead, her teeth lightly nibbling on the inside of her cheek. "No, too many people can cause us to get caught, plus I don't want to leave anyone behind because there's too many people to keep track of."

This time the boy was at a loss of words. He looked conflicted about something. He refused to look at her for many minutes and decided to walk in silence until he came to an abrupt stop."Three people, your people have already been killed."

Clementine felt her heart stop. Her breath catching in her throat, while the color slipped off her face. "What?" She questioned in disbelief.

She desperately hoped she heard wrong. She prayed to whatever god was out there she heard wrong. The boys eyes softened, his hand twitched and for a moment he looked like was going to reach out to console her before deciding against it.

"Two adults, one kid." He continued on, and in that moment she felt tears well up in her eyes. And all she could think was what if that kid was Tenn or Omar.

"Who was it?" She asked hoarsely.

"I don't know their names. The first to go was a women with spiky brown hair, a long scar across her shin."

"Angie..." Clem said quietly.

"The second was an older man, much older than uh Angie. He had a buzz cut with a lighting bolt etched on both sides of his head."

Clementine dug her nails into her palms. "Cal.... And the kid?"

The boy finally looked up from the ground to look her in her eyes. "He's about our age and has an Afro, he's on the r-rounder side?"

Worry immediately flashed in his eyes as he heard the choked sob that left her mouth. "I-I'm sorry, I just need a minute." She turned her head away from him. One of her hands coming up to cover her mouth.

This was not time nor place to break down. She repeated that one sentence in her mind like a mantra till she felt the sting on her eyes die down and her tearful eyes dry.

Clem cleared her throat before turning back to the boy."Thank you for letting me know."

He nodded, his eyes downcast.  "Are you going to tell the rest?"

She bit her lip. "Only Gael, Larissa, and Brice." She paused, looking at her group that were standing a few feet away. "Louis, Violet, and Marlon aren't trained to push everything aside till they're alone. It's for the best." She wasn't sure if she was trying to convince the boy or herself.

It was for the best right?

Whatever the case was he nodded yet again. "Are you sure there isn't anything you can do to help us?" Clem asked again after a few minutes of silence.

"I don't kno—"

Numerous growls cut him off.

❤︎ E N D  O F ❤︎
❤︎ C H A P T E R ❤︎
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❤︎ W O R D  C O U N T ❤︎

4366

❤︎ N O T E ❤︎
Never mind i lied, there are now two chapters left. I decided it would be better to split the second to last chapter into two parts, on the bright side you guys get to read the next part of this book after months of nothing. I Hope you have a wonderful day or night

❤︎ ꪶꪮꪜꫀ ꪖsꫝ ❤︎
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