Chapter One – Lost and Found.

Her heart almost stopped as she gazed up at the horizon. Silhouetted against the setting sun, were two shadows making their way over the field. She gripped the gun tightly in her tiny, quaking hands and mentally readied herself to use it if need be. She was torn, should she risk the danger and call out to them for help or should she run in the opposite direction ? She thought about the time she was taken by a stranger and how he had locked her in a closet, all because she had trusted him. She thought about how Lee had been bitten by those…things…all because he was looking for her. She thought about how she had to put him down before he turned, it killed her inside…

At only 9-years-of-age, Clementine had seen more than her fair share of violence and it had definately taken its toll on the scared little girl. She so wanted to run up to those shadows, she desperately yearned for their companionship as she was terrified of spending the night alone. Sure she'd managed to do it before back in her tree house but out in the open she felt far more vulnerable.

She gripped the gun even tighter and pulled herself off of the log she had been resting on and forced herself to her feet. She took a couple of steps forward but stopped herself after a few seconds. She couldn't do it…she was far too anxious about the whole thing. They must have been bad people, they were strangers after all, or were they? From that distance they could've even been walkers, she couldn't tell.

Suddenly, she noticed that two figures were getting closer…faster…scarier…

Panicking, she ran away as fast as her tiny legs could carry her, still holding the gun in her hand. As she ran, she looked over her shoulder to see if she had put enough distance between her and the strangers, only to see that they were catching up to her rapidly. She ducked behind a growth of bushes that was on the side of the dirt road she had been running along and hid amongst the thorny branches and leaves. The strangers were close enough for her to hear them now; they were both males who sounded as if they were in their mid-to-late thirties.

"You sure you saw somethin'?" asked one, who was wearing a sleeveless vest and was carrying a large, intimidating crossbow.

"It was a kid. A little girl, I'm sure I saw her…" the other one, who looked as if he was dressed as a police officer, replied.

Clementine was physically and emotionally drained at this point. She began to panic and fidget around in the bush, causing the branches to scratch against her skin which caused nasty little scratches on her face. She whimpered in discomfort which seemed to attract the attention of the two strange men.

"You hear that?" said the man with the crossbow as he glanced over at the bush "In there."

He began to rummage through the bush, causing her to panic even more. She went as low as she possibly could in order to avoid being discovered but she knew that she was only delaying the inevitable; he was bound to find her sooner or later. Gripping the gun in her hands once more she pulled the trigger, sending the bullet straight into the man's foot with a loud BANG!

"ARGH! SON OF A BITCH!" howled the man as he fell to the floor, still gripping his injured foot.

"Shit! Daryl! You okay?" fretted the other man as he rushed to his companion's side.

They didn't seem like bad people…still she knew she couldn't take any chances. Swallowing all of her fear and readying her gun for another shot, she forced herself to stand up whilst pointing the gun directly at the two men.

"Goddammit Rick! She has a gun!"

Rick was shocked at the appearance of this young child who was aiming her weapon directly at his head. Her pink hoodie was covered in blood, her face covered in scratches which were clearly from the thorns in the bush and her arms and legs were shaking like leaves on a brittle branch. Seeing how clearly terrified she was he decided to be as calm as he could so as not to freak her out any more than she clearly already was.

"Hello." He said with a friendly but forced smile "You okay out here by yourself?"

As he spoke she continued to point the gun directly at his head.

"Put down the gun, okay sweet-pea?"

His voice was reassuring, and he called her "sweet-pea", the nickname that Lee gave to her. She so wanted to trust this man but she still felt cautious.

"J-j-j-just go away!" she stuttered as terrified tears began to fill her big, brown eyes. "Leave m-me alone!"

"We're not gonna hurt you" Rick said, still smiling "We just want to help you."

As he spoke he inched a little closer to her. Daryl was still gripping onto his foot, writhing in pain.

"We got a group!" he said painfully "We can take care of you!"

"Are you by yourself?" asked Rick as, once again, he inched a little closer.

She said nothing; she simply nodded in response to Rick's question.

As Rick tried to reason with the armed little girl, Daryl, despite the pain shooting through his foot, managed to hobble behind Clementine without her noticing. His plan was to grab her from behind and get the gun out of her hands, maybe then she'd be easier to reason with. Noticing what Daryl was doing, Rick decided to distract her with more questions.

"What's your name?" he asked her

"C-Clementine…" she whimpered, she still didn't trust this strange man fully.

Meanwhile, Daryl was getting closer.

"That's a pretty name. How old are you, Clementine?"

"I'm 9"

Slowly, she began to feel herself trusting this man more and more. He seemed kind and rather fatherly, much like Lee was, and maybe this stranger even had children of his own. Feeling more at ease, she carefully lowered her gun but as she did, Daryl came from behind and grabbed her, picking her up from the ground and causing her to drop her gun. Panicking, she began kicking and waving her arms violently.

"No! Let me go!" she screamed

"Let's get her to the car." Rick said hastily as he picked the gun up off of the floor.

On that note, they carried the terrified child back to the silver Hyundai they had parked on a secluded dirt road, far from the view of anyone who would want to hijack it. They opened the left rear door and placed Clementine gently on the back seat. Still panicking, Clementine pounded on the back window with her fist, as if she was desperately trying to shatter the glass. Rick got behind the wheel and Daryl climbed into the passenger seat, worried about how much noise the child was making, they tried to calm her down.

"Clementine, it's okay." Rick said softly as they began to drive "We're gonna take you some place safe, it's okay."

As they drove, Clementine could feel her heart bashing against her chest. She lay down, rested her head and curled up into a trembling, little ball. Daryl glanced back at her, his heart almost melting at the pitiful sight. He felt bad for her but he couldn't help but feel a sense of dread.

"You really think she was by herself?" She asked Rick "I mean, we might have just kidnapped her."

"Look at her clothes…there's blood all over her." Rick answered. As he spoke, he could hear Clementine sobbing softly to herself. "She's lost someone for sure…"

AUTHOURS NOTE: Well, started another fanfic. (couple this one with the 5 that I still haven't finished and you can clearly see I have punctuality issues) I just finished playing through the game (and I cried like a baby!) and I just liked the idea of the game and the tv series overlapping so…yeah that's how this fail-of-a-fic came to be :) I hope you enjoyed it so far :) Thank you for reading :)