An: Old habits die hard eh? Took me six more days to complete because I was of course, playing games with dah boys. Well this is what happens when you by battle passes for 3 different games.

-Review response-

MedicusAestus: I apologize lmao. That's just me being an idiot XD.

ActualGreekman: Thanks man really appreciate your understanding. Sometimes you just gotta rise and grind.

Thepurplegoo: I'm *cough* a bit late but I got you bro.

jakobkevin: Perhaps.

JauneJoanArc: Glad you are! I hope you're still reading.

CRed1988: She does indeed! I'll try to next time.

SpinelSpinel8: This might be a spoiler but only Lee will remember. People that were close to Clementine like Kenny or some others will experience a sense of kinship or familiarity with her.

Arbiter8991: Thanks for the constructive criticism. I'm trying my best to improve and I hope to grow along the way.

Worker72: I hope to stomp out some of this unpredictable update pattern. So I'll try to make a schedule.ronnie19: Ah, another gamer!

-Line break-

"That shotgun isn't our only defense."

"I know. We have that hammer and your screw driver. Its just that holding it makes me feel safer." Sandra said trying to predict the girl's intention for bringing it up.

Sandra knew the girl was quite observant so she guessed that Clementine noticed how clingy she was with the firearm and wanted to remind her so she wouldn't go fire it off hastily. They did only have one shot after all.

"No," Clementine said with a shake of her head."I'm talking something else Sandra."

"Oh..." Came Sandra's unintelligent response. "So what is it?"

"I need you to promise that you won't take it when I tell you."

Those words set off red flags for Sandra because she knew Clementine was an intelligent girl and if she was acting like this, that probably meant she was talking about something dangerous.

"What is it Clementine?" Sandra asked cautiously

"Promise." The girl said firmly.

Sandra knew that Clementine wasn't going to give any information until she met her criteria so she decided to do as she asked.

"Okay I promise. Now what is it?"

Clementine waited a moment before forcing herself to continue talking.

"My father owns a gun." She managed to get out.

"That's really good news us. Why haven't you told me earlier?" That really confused her. Clementine was so helpful so what made her hold out on such vital information?

"Because its mine now." She said simply.

"No. I know that you're very intelligent for your age but I can't let walk around with something like that."

Clementine felt like facepalming. She knew that kind of information was sensitive and she should have just kept to herself. But because of the incident earlier she had a change of mind. That thing that attacked caused them some real trouble and it proved to be difficult to handle in melee combat. She was not suited for such engagements because of current predicament and Sandra wasn't well off either. Not only was Sandra inexperienced, she also lacked the physical strength needed to defend herself. That meant Lee is the only one able to fight back and he is currently at a disadvantage because of his injuries.

His leg injury would greatly impact his agility and make it difficult to avoid attacks. This also meant that his head and ribs would be further open for attack. On top of this there was the possibly for him needed to defend for the both of them. On top of that, that thing managed to pull Lee around the room like he weightless which meant that even if Lee was in top condition it wouldn't have changed much.

This meant that if another one of those things showed up they would likely have to fall back on the shotgun. And with the last of its ammo spent they would be practically defenseless as countless walkers and possibly more of those things converged on there possition. This would only give them a short window of time to escape. They would probably have to leave most of their things and Lee would have a difficult time keeping up.

Clementine already felt a headache coming on and this didn't even include the possibly of Sandra fucking missing.

Some would say she was putting the way too much thought into this and that she was paranoid. But that's why she and AJ lasted so long out there and the same reason those fools laid with the maggots.

The times she strayed from those thoughts terrible things happened. First was the Frontier who stole AJ from her. She at first thought that they could help her keep AJ safe and ease her burden. But when AJ took a turn for the worse they fucking turned their backs on him saying that did "everything" they could to help him and that any more drugs used on him would be wasted. Then they turned their backs on her for taking initiative to keep him alive. She thought that would have been her last mistake because it wounded her deeply.

However she was wrong.

She made another mistake which was staying with those kids at the school. She should have left as soon as she recoved from the car crash. The delta taking children wasn't her problem it was the school's. But she stuck her own neck out and she died because of it. At this point in time she still didn't know why she did it. Maybe because of the personal stake with Lily or perhaps she saw some of herself in those scared kids?

Or maybe because Lee would have?

The reason didn't matter because in the end, she still died.

She wouldn't make anymore mistakes that she could avoid. Especially if her life depended on it. That is why she would be better to tell Sandra about the gun because if worse comes to worse they would at least have that ready at a moments notice. Even if it wasn't her that was using it.

But that didn't mean she would give it up easily.

"The dead are walking the streets, killing everything their sight, and you're worried about me having a means to protect myself?" Clementine said incredulously.

Sandra opened her mouth like she was going to say something but her response seemed to die in her mouth. At first she was going to shut her down immediately but then she froze up as she thought about what good came from her own decision.

She realised that she would have been dead for multiple times already if it wasn't for Clementine.

"...Do you know how to use it?" Sandra said slowly.

Clementine was actually surprised by that response. Apart from her eyes widening a bit, she exhibited no other visible indications.

Why was Sandra considering this? This was the first thought that came to her mind. She was almost certain that she would have lost her possession immediately because she was merely bluffing after all. Did she leave a better impression on her than she had expected? Well, she did save her life multiple times and show of quite a bit of her intelligence and foresight before hand so maybe that had amounted for more than she had first thought.

Recovering quickly from her momentary surprise, she gave Sandra a look of utmost confidence.

"Yes." She replied with a certain firmness in her voice.

Her reply was all Sandra needed for now.

-Line break-

The next few minutes went by quickly.

Once Clementine was in the clear with Sandra she wasted no time retrieving her father's gun. She sat at the counter on one of the tall chairs and infront of her was her weapon. She sat quietly fiddling with the thing on her own. Being within close proximity of the thing seemed to put her in a good mood because as she was working with it, her legs started to swing back and forth, unbeknownst to herself.

Lee enters the living room by this time and sees that Sandra was sitting on a single seat recliner. He looks at her for a couple moments while thinking about that strange hallucination that he saw while he was in the bathroom. He shakes the eerie feeling off.

"Ahm" Clementine coughed to get their attention.

"Now that's everyone is here we can now discuss our next course of action."

She hopped off the tall chair went over to Lee and Sandra.

As she was walking toward him, Lee noticed something in her hand. Upon recognizing the object, his eyes widened and he began to speak.

"Is that a-"

"Yes." Clementine cut him of because she knew what he was going to say.

"Why do you have-" He stopped himself from scolding the 8 year old and turned to Sandra, the person who was allowing this to happen. "Why are you letting her hold that thing?"

"She knows how to use it." Sandra like that made it any better.

"But she's just a kid!" Lee whisper shouted.

"And it's the end of the world." Sandra shot back.

"We don't have time to argue, we need to discuss our next course of action." Clementine stated calmly.

Sandra quieted down and looked at Clementine. Seeing Sandra do this, he decided to let it go for now and listen to the girl.

"We need go get out of here. It's not safe anymore."

"I thought we were gonna hold out for the military?" Sandra said.

"There's been a change of plans. The perimeter of the house has already been breached and we are in the middle of a neighborhood full of dead people which, in turn, are probably those shambling monsters outside." Clementine explained.

"What you're saying is making sense, but how are we going to get out of here? Those things are crowding the fence back there and I can only assume that there are more of them out that front door." Said Lee warily.

"We wait for now. Those things outside are mostly attracted by sound so if we stay quiet and out of sight for a while, they should start leaving." said Clementine.

"Now that you mention that, that thing earlier didn't follow seem to you said right now."

"That's correct. That's the first one that we have seen act that why. What you saw earlier was not the usual occurrence. When you allowed me to look at the corpse, I came to the conclusion that he ended up that way because he was bitten."

"But that doesn't make any sense. If that was the cause, why didn't the cop or the other act that way?" Sandra interjected.

"You didn't let me finish. He was bitten and survived. The monsters that we have seen before are either entering the later stages of necrosis or they have fatal bodily wounds. This thing that attacked us suffered from neither of the two afflictions." Clementine explained thoroughly.

"Are you sure its a good idea to go outside if their are more like that?" Sandra questioned.

"Yes because I don't believe there are more in our general vicinity. If there were, then we would have had quite the welcome party. Fortunately for us, we were only greeted by the shambling ones outside."

Sandra sighed in relief.

"Finally some good news."

"Well since we went over I would like to go back to our previous topic. Since Lee is injured we aren't gonna be able to go by foot. Sandra, do you have your keys?" Clementine asked.

Sandra felt her pockets before laughing anxiously.

"...What's wrong?" Said Lee.

"I think I lost them."

-Chapter end-

An: Clementine gets to keep her father's pistol for now. Sandra ended up letting her keep it because she knows Clementine is smart and right now Sandra isn't confident in her own decision making. Lee on the other hand has already voiced his displeasure the matter but set it aside because there are important things to do.