She will Live, I'll make sure of it

 The cop's body slumped forward with the upper half of its head turned to mist vaper. Lee felt terrible about it but not regretful as the position he was put in had him choosing himself or that 'Thing'; He chose himself.

 Sighing to himself, he propped himself up with the shotgun, using it as a makeshift crutch. Lee had debated whether he should take it or not but decided there was no use abandoning the shotgun because even without ammo, it made for an acceptable blunt weapon.

 With one last look, Lee walked over the now headless body and proceeded further into the woods, trying to get further away before anything else unsavory showed up.

 With a paced breath, Lee sighed. "What am I gonna do now?..." Lee pondered as he made his way through the underbrush of a tree.

 When he was further along, he noticed some color glaring through the trees. Letting him know that civilization wasn't too far away. But the change In the background also keyed him in on something else, or rather someone else, a little girl.

 Not wanting to scare the kid, he called out. "Hello?".

 That was a mishap on his part as the little girl jumped a little before taking off down one of the paths. Lee didn't even get time to tell her he wasn't going to hurt her or anything like that.

 With a subdued sigh, he followed the path the girl took as it was the best chance of getting some help with his leg; keeping a slow pace, he walked through more underbrush and past fallen trees. He's happy he decided to take the shotgun because making it through all this brush and stuff would have been far more difficult without a crutch to support him.

 Walking just a bit further, he ran into someone, a man from what it looked like. "Hey, could you give me a hand over here?" he called out.

 The Man? responded to that by making his way over, albeit very slowly. Thinking nothing of this, I started to make my way over so we could meet in the middle.

 The closer he got, the more uneasy I became; this entire time, he hadn't made a single sound except for a few groans. That was when I noticed something I probably should have noticed earlier... He was missing his gut.

 I had already stopped in my tracks, gobsmacked about this development. "What the hell..." he was stunned.

 'What the hell are you...' I uttered in a whisper.

 "Hgghh...' was its only response.

 The thing was getting closer, so I had to make a decision. Kill the thing or just run past it; both weren't the worst options, but they could've been better.

 Seeing as the thing was already dead at this point, yet still able to move, killing it wouldn't have affected me as much, but running past it wasn't a bad idea either, as it lowered the chances of getting hurt and made the situation far more manageable.

 While pondering on what to do about the thing still making its way to me, my choice was forcefully chosen by numerous footsteps coming from the path behind me. Looking back, I was almost horrified at what was there; more of those things, all with varying wounds.

 Their mangled forms were unsettling and made me queasy.

 Not wanting to imagine what they would do if they caught me, I limped forward and marched straight past the one in front of me.

 It couldn't do a thing because of how slow it was; that and I may have bashed its kneecap in with the butt of the shotgun.

 Leaving the now crippled thing and rest behind, I continued moving as swiftly as my leg would allow. And biting down any time the pain becomes unbearable.

 Upon making it to a fence. I took another peak behind me. Watching as the things slowly made their way over.

 They were slow but made up for that in their sheer numbers advantage... "Would still like to know what the hell those things are..." the answer wouldn't be revealed to him until much later.

 Looking up at the taller-than-I-thought fence, I got a good grip on the gun before tossing it up and over; when he heard it land on the other side with a soft thud, Lee hoisted himself up and over as well. Landing on the other side with mild pain due to the landing and gash acting up from the strain.

 Before I could reach the gun, some shots went off in the distance.

 They didn't last long because the shots went silent a moment later... "Man, I wish someone could tell me what the fuck is going on already." reaching over for my temporary crutch, I stood, keeping an eye out for any of those things.

 But instead of finding one of those things, I noticed a singular eye peeking out from the tree house. Upon closer inspection, they looked familiar... That's when it hit me; that was most likely the girl I saw in the woods.

 Not wanting to spook her again, I merely waved, but once again, that backfired, and she was frightened.

 Before anything could be said, she closed the treehouse door.

 Sighing to myself, I resigned to try and talk to her later when my leg was reasonably patched up.

 Making my way over to the deck, I climbed the slightly rotted stars and strolled to the sliding door. Looking inside showed me it was a mess, but I still held out, hoping that someone was still there.

 Knocking on the glass door held no response.

"Hello, is anyone in there?" No response.

 ..."Alright, I'm coming in." Sighing to myself, I grabbed the handle and slid the door open...

-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------

 With Clementine

 Clem watched as the stranger from earlier threw his stick over the fence and then climbed over himself.

 When he landed on the ground, he seemed to be in pain.

 She wanted to go down there and help him, but she was scared.

 Yesterday, when she went down there to help someone, they attacked her; they were so mean and even tried biting her for some reason, and they would have if not for Mr butterfly, or at least she thought so because when it had tried to bite her; her skin turned the color of Mr butterflies wings, and when the person went to bite her again their jaw was blown off.

 It was super scary and gross, but the person seemed ok because they got back up a bit later. I ran away after that, going back to my tree house. 

 Climbing up the latter had been a lot easier than this time around. It was so easy that I accidentally tore off one or two of the latter pieces; I shrugged it off as them being already broken and continued to climb.

 When reaching the door after what felt like forever, I went to tell Mr Butterfly about the mean person who tried to bite me and about how there wasn't any paper in the shed, but... I couldn't see him. I looked for hours trying to find Mr Butterfly but had no luck in doing so. There was a lot of crying after that.

 Clem had her thoughts interrupted when she heard the familiar screech of the sliding door opening. Rushing to the tree house door, she cracked it open enough to get a view of the deck and, unfortunately, the open glass sliding door. 

 'Why? Why? Why, why, why, he shouldn't be in there!' that mean thing is still in there somewhere. Should I tell him, but what if that mean thing gets me instead? What would I do then? Would Mr butterfly protect me again? But Mr Butterfly wasn't here, so how could he protect me?

 Clem was on the verge of having a full-blown panic attack when she noticed something through the window. The stranger had found the other walkie-talkie, and on queue, her walkie-talkie she kept up here sparked to life. And she suddenly didn't feel so alone anymore.

-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

 Back To Lee

 "God Damn! What died in here?!"

 Upon entering the house, he could immediately tell something was rotting. Stale air wafted around, bringing a foul smell with it. I couldn't stop the gag that escaped my mouth; it was so bad that puking would probably make it smell better.

 But even if it smelled like shit in here, he still needed to get something or someone to help him with his leg, so he pushed forward, doing his best to ignore the smell.

 "Well, let's hope they have a medkit somewhere around here."

 I opted to find the bathroom, as that's usually where most people keep medical supplies, or at least that's where I kept mine. With a kitchen and a mix of a dining room and living room to both my left and right, I concluded that the bathroom would have to be somewhere further in the house. Starting with a steady pace toward the hall in the living/dining room quickly informed me of where the 'rancid' smell was coming from.

 A woman's lifeless body covered most of the hallway, and a dried puddle of blood blocked the rest. I was both disgusted and horrified at the sight. Her eyes had turned yellow, and her body was starting to decompose, leaving patches of slightly decomposed muscle exposed to the open air; flies had already begun to swarm her, like a moth to a flame.

 That was the breaking point, as the next thing I did was turn around and throw up what I had for whatever the guards gave me for food yesterday, which thankfully wasn't much.

 After relieving my stomach contents, I decided I didn't want to step over the body for fear of falling on it or the blood. Wanting to keep myself from smelling bad and wanting to avoid any sight of it in general, I turned away and hurried back to the sliding door. 

 "Let's hope they aren't like me and keep the medkit in the kitchen or something."

 Looking over the dining room, I found no sign of a medkit or other medical supplies. So I could only hope the kitchen held more luck. Making my way to the relatively small kitchen and avoiding the small blood puddle on the floor, I started looking through the drawers, hoping to get lucky with one of them. Drawer after drawer was opened, and the only thing of potential use I even noticed was a cleaver. Moving onto the last drawer, I opened it to find nothing of medical use but something of some use.

 Picking up the walkie-talkie, I looked it over, trying to see if it had an off-and-on button or took batteries of some kind. Before I could put it back or even turn it on to see if it worked, it sparked, Green, and turned on itself.

 Finding this odd, I tried turning it back off. But soon found that it wouldn't turn off. When trying to turn it off again, the thing sparked to life with static buzzing from it. That meant someone had turned the other walkie-on.

 "Hello?" There was a slight pause before someone responded.

"You should be quiet." The voice that replied sounded frightened and somewhat hopeful.

 "Who is this?" was the reply I gave them.

 There was another pause before she replied to me. "I'm Clementine."

 ..."Well, Clementine, I'm Lee." That got no response.

"Why do I need to be quiet, Clementine?" The static flickered a few times before she responded.

 "If you don't be quiet, one of those mean people might get you." She sounded a bit scared.

 Lee went silent; he knew what she was talking about. But he wondered if she knew what she was talking about.

 "ok, Clementine, I'll be quiet, but could you tell me where you are?" I asked, hoping she would tell me. She sounded way too young to be on her own.

 There was another pause.

"I'm in my tree house."

 Going to the kitchen window, I saw Celm peeking out the door of her treehouse; she looked happy... until she didn't. I watched as she fumbled with the radio before getting a hold of it.

 "BEHIND YOU!"

 Zipping around, only to see the dead girl I had seen on the floor earlier lunging at me; managing to bring the shotgun up in time, I managed to avoid any damage.

 Pushing her off shouldn't have been hard, but she caught me by surprise, and the quick movement caused my leg to ache uncontrollably. 

 With a shot of adrenaline, I was able to push her off and make a run for the sliding door, but luck didn't seem to be on my side because I was limping one second and falling over the next, having slipped on the puddle of blood that led in and out of the kitchen.

 My head hit the counter with a loud thud, and the shout gun went flying toward the glass door. The small bouts of sight I had while trying to recover my vision allowed me to see the thing starting to crawl toward me, so, just like with the cop, I backed away while using my leg to keep the thing at arm's length.

 He'd give the thing credit; it was persistent and most definitely very terrifying. Soon, he had backed up close enough to the door that he could reach for the shotgun, but when he did, the thing lunged again, pinning him to the ground and making him focus on it instead. "Daamn... What the hell is up with your strength..." I said while struggling to keep the thing away from my face.

 I was seconds away from losing my grip on the thing when the glass door was ripped open; having no time to look at what had done it, I could only try harder and hope whoever came in was nice enough to help.

 Redoubling my effort seemed to be the right move as one second, the thing's head was inches away from my neck, and the next, its head was gone.

 Its headless body slumped forward, covering my shirt with the blood it was spewing out; pushing the thing off was a relief I'd gladly revel in.

 Upon taking a breather, I slowly sat up to thank the one who helped me, only to be shocked when I saw that the person who helped me was none other than; "Clementine?!"

 The little girl seemed to be on the verge of tears.

 "Hey, it's ok, it's over now; you don't have to worry anymore." 

 She started sniffling

"I-I'm s-sorry... I'm so sorry..." she began to cry.

 "Sweety, it's ok; none of this was your fault; you don't need to be sorry for anything."

"Yes, it is! I knew there was a mean person in here, and I didn't tell you; I wanted to, I really did, but... I was scared, and I didn't know if you were one of those mean people, and now look what happened; you are hurt, and it was all my fault. If I had just gone down and-"

 I didn't let her finish as I pulled her into the tightest hug I could give, letting her cry away all her worries and regrets.

 "It's ok, Clementine, none of it was your fault, and I won't let you sit here and tell yourself it was. You're a kid; it's ok to be scared of something, and it was ok when you were scared of me. And if I'm being honest, I'd be more worried if you weren't."

 "But-"

"No buts. It wasn't and will never be your fault, understand."

 Stepping out of the hug, she dried her tears and nodded.

"Good."

 "Now, could you tell me why you're all alone?"

Clem went a bit stiff at the word alone, and I noticed.

 "You don't have to tell me if you don't want to."

 She went to speak a few times but stopped right as she was going to say something. When I went to remind her that she didn't have to say anything, she spoke.

 "That... That bad person who attacked you was Ms Sandra... she was my sitter..."

 "Sitter?"

 "Ya, my Mommy and Daddy went to Savannah and left Ms. Sandra to watch over me until they came back, but I think they forgot about me because I haven't seen them in a while."

 After pondering this for a moment, I spoke. "Well. Sweetpea, I don't think they did."

 At this statement, Clem seemed to cheer up a bit.

"You mean it?"

 "I mean it."

Clem seemed to think something over for a moment before speaking.

 "Can... Can we look for them?"

 I was a bit shocked by this request but still answered.

 "I can't guarantee we'll find them, but sure, I'll help."

 "Really?"

 "Really."

 "Thank you..."

"Don't thank me yet; we haven't even started looking for them yet."

 "I know... but thank you anyway." She gave me a small smile when she said that.

Sighing, I accepted her thanks.

 "Hey Clem, could you hand me that?" I said while pointing to the shotgun.

 Clem responded by going over and picking it up from where she had dropped it a minute ago. Upon handing it to me, she asked what it was, and I gave her a half-truth, telling her it was something I used to help me move. 

 Not wanting her to ask much more about it or the dreaded question of where I got it, I asked her something.

 "Hey, Clem, how old are you?"

She gave me a puzzled look before responding. "Eight."

 "How old are you?"

 I contemplated lying and saying I was Twenty or something like that but decided not to. "Thirty-Seven"

 She honestly looked surprised to hear that.

"Are you really that old?"

 I couldn't help but smile at her, "Yep."

 With everything taken care of, I hobbled outside and back onto the deck, motioning for clementine to follow. When we stepped off the deck, I heard some commotion out front.

 Taking a peek around the corner, I found two men trying to push a car out of the way. Seeing as they looked to have some form of intelligence, that meant they weren't one of those things but people like them.

 "Are those mean people?"

Looking down, I answered, "From the looks of it, no. But keep close anyways."

 She nodded and moved just a bit closer.

 Once we walked out of the gated yard, I could immediately tell they weren't the perspective type, given their lack of reaction to the gate being opened and the fact that they weren't doing anything to distract them from any noise they may have heard, had me tripling down on that fact. 

Not wanting Clem to get involved if things went south, I told her to stay behind me just in case.

 "Hey!" 

 "OHH Shit!"

 "Please don't eat us!"

I thought of them both as stupid because of how they reacted. "Calm down; we're not going to hurt you." 

 "Thank god; I thought you and the little one were gonna tear our guts out."

 "Ya, now that we are on the topic of guts being ripped out, do either of you know what the hell those things are?"

 It took a moment for the thinner one to respond, "Not a clue, sorry."

"Ya, we're just as new to this as you are." the larger one chipped in.

 "ok, before we continue this conversation, we should introduce ourselves. I'm Shawn; nice to meet you."

 "The name is Lee, and this is Clementine."

The bigger one kneeled to Clem's level and waved, "I'm Chet."

 "Now that we are done, would you mind giving us a hand with this?" As he gestured to the car behind him.

 "I can, but what for?"

 "Well, we originally came into town for some gas, but when we tried to leave the way we came, those things blocked our path; we took this route to get out of town, but without moving a few of these cars, we can't get through; we already have most of them moved, but this one is being stubborn." he once again gestured to the car behind him.

 "ok, sure, let me-" 

 "OHHH SHIT! We got monsters coming!"

"Shit, Lee, Give me a hand!" 

 I gave Clem another look before telling her to go over to Chet.

 "LEE!"

 With the final reluctance taken care of, I limped over to Shawn's side and began to push.

 "Guys! They're almost here!"

 With one last big push from me and Shawn, we managed to pry the car free of whatever grip it had on the road, leaving a clear path for the truck to take.

 "Alright! Hop in!"

Tossing the gun into the back with Chet, I hoisted up Clem and Climbed inside the cab. Shawan started the truck, and we were gone.

----------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 

 Lee was a teacher at one point, yet despite being a teacher, he never thought of having kids; would she have even wanted that? Looking at Clementine, fast asleep on his lap, was like looking at still water; it was calming. It almost made him regret not trying for some of his own.

 "So, Lee, what were you and your daughter doing before you found us?"

 Turning to him, I spoke, trying to clean up his info, "Ok, one, she's not my daughter. I'm just some guy who found her hiding in a tree house."

 Shawn looked a bit baffled about this, "Just some guy? But I swear on my life, you look identical."

 It was my turn to be a bit baffled. "Do we really look that similar?"

 "Ya, but not just similar, Identical; you look like you could be her biological father. And now that we are on the subject of parents, where is hers?"

 Giving a small sigh, I answered, "From what Clem has told me, I'd say they are somewhere in Savannah, but I'm not too sure yet."

 "Savannah, eh. Can't say I know the place."

 I decided to give context, "It's the place where you would go boating or swimming or something like that." That seemed to help.

 "Oh, you mean tuna bay."

He must have noticed my confusion as he started to add his own context.

 "Don't mind the name, Pa, and I just like to call it that."

 Giving him a nod, I turned back to Clem, a bit jealous of how she could sleep so peacefully. But at the same time, happy. Happy that she was safe and happy, that she was so freakishly strong; otherwise, he might've had a chunk of his neck missing.

 Sighing, he started to find some more interest in the car window, watching as pavement, trees, and grass passed them by, "everything will be fine," was said to no one but myself.

 I think I'm going to rest my eyes for a bit before waking up Clem...

 "Hey, Lee, you think you could hand me that-" Shawn stopped talking as he glanced over to see Lee And Clementine both asleep. With a slight shake of his head, he went back to driving.

 "Man, if only I had a camera."

---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

  Planet Zero

 Clouded Emerald eyes stared into nothing as they continued making the modifications. It was like they were awake... but they weren't. 

 If one were to see inside their mind, one would see him watching a little girl sleeping on someone's lap. 

 "Soon, Clementine... Soon, you will be just like me. What will you hate, I wonder."

------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

 "L... Le... hmmm... Lee... Hmm, what?..."

"Hello, Yoho; anyone in there?"

 "Come on, we're here."

 I wanted to go back to sleep, but Shawn wouldn't let me, so I reluctantly woke up. 

 "What is it, Shawn?" My voice was tired and scratched.

 "Hey, don't be like that; I was just trying to be nice and let you know we're here," Shawn said in mock hurt.

 Looking him over, I continued, "And where might 'here' be?"

"Ahh, ya, I didn't tell you, did I?"

 "No, you didn't."

 "Well then, let me introduce you to my father's farm; over there is a barn, and that's the fence, and that is the house; the rest is pretty much just corn," he said while gesturing to different things around the yard.

 There was a soft voice that spoke up next.

 "Lee?" Clem said as she rubbed her eyes.

 Putting on a small smile, I answered back. "Yes, Clem?"

 "Why-why's the car... stopped?" She was having some trouble waking up, which he found slightly surprising, considering she hadn't done anything too straining since the house, but maybe it was because she was still a kid.

 He knew why they were stopped, but for one reason or another, he couldn't figure out how to put it into words, so he pointed to his left and said, "We're going to stay here for the night."

 He waited for her response but noticed a second later that she had lost her fight against sleep. 

 Cracking a smile, I picked her off my lap as gently as I could before stepping out of the truck; the gash on my leg didn't feel as bad as it did earlier, but I would still prefer to have the shotgun for convenience, cause you never know when you're going to find some shells.

 Using one of my arms to carry Clem, I made my way to the back to get the shotgun out of the bed of the truck; after grabbing it, I made my way to the front porch of the house, careful not to trip on the way there.

 When I was on the porch, I took a seat and thought about all that had happened that day, the cop, those things, and Clem. Clem was probably the only good thing that had happened to him today.

 Lee was so lost in thought that he didn't see Shawn and another person approaching from the house. It wasn't until Shawn spoke up that he realized they were there.

 "Hey, Lee."

 He wouldn't admit it, but he jumped a bit.

Clearing his throat, He answered back. "What is it, Shawn?"

 "Someone still cranky that they were woken up?" 

Not wanting to admit he was, he said, "No."

 "So you are still cranky. Got it."

 That remark annoyed me. "What did I just say."

Shawn smiled deviously before replying, "That you were still cranky."

 With a drawn-out sigh, I spoke, "No, Shawn, I am not Cranky about being woken up."

 "There's no need to lie; I can tell you are."

"No, I'm not."

 "Yes, you are."

 "Nope."

 "Yep."

 Before Either of us could continue bickering, the person beside Shawn cleared their throat, seemingly reminding Shawn of why they were out there in the first place.

 "Ohh! Lee, let me introduce you to my father."

"That's quite alright, Shawn; I can do that myself."

 "My name is Hershel Greene; it's a pleasure to meet you."

 "Lee... Lee Everett."

 A flicker of recollection seemed to appear in Hershel's eyes for a moment before fading away, returning to the almost blank expression he wore before.

 "Shawn, could you go inside and grab some disinfectant, wipes, and bandages for me."

 "Sure thing, Pa, but can I ask why?"

 "Well, I don't know if you noticed yet, but Lees's leg has a gash in it, and if not treated properly, then he is at risk of either losing it or dying from infection,"

 Shawn looked surprised at what was said before snapping out of it and rushing inside to get medical supplies. This left just Lee, Hershel, and a still-sleeping Clementine outside.

 Getting onto one knee, Hershel started inspecting the gash before speaking, "So, Lee, how'd this happen?"

 Lee was tempted to lie but didn't see the point of doing it, as it seemed Hershel already knew who he was, so I spoke the truth.

 "I was in a car crash."

 "Is that so... Where were you headed before the car accident."

 Not wanting to say prison, I went with the half-truth. "Out of Atlanta..."

 "And who were you with?"

 Another pause... I sighed. "I was with a police officer."

 That seemed to confirm whatever Hershel was thinking because the next thing he said wasn't a question, "ok, I think that's enough interrogation for now."

 I nearly bulked at how blunt he was.

 "So until Shawn returns with the medical stuff, how about we talk about where you'll sleep tonight? Now, since there wouldn't be enough room for you or the little one in the house, you'll probably be staying In the barn with the other family."

 Being slightly confused about the other family part, I asked. "Other family?"

 "Ya, there's a displaced family of three in the barn, and that's most likely where you and your daughter will be stayin'. And, now that we're on the topic, what's the little one's name?"

 "...Her name is Clementine..."

 "that's a lovely name."

"PA, I got the stuff."

 Hershel huffed a bit before turning away from me to face Shawn, "If you got it, why haven't you brought it over then!"

 Even from here, you could tell Shawn felt embarrassed.

 "Right, Pa, I'll bring it over now."

 With a sigh, he turned back. "That boy can be a handful sometimes."

 Not knowing how to respond, I kept quiet.

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

  A Bit Later

 Lee lay there in silence as he listened to the night as it chirped on, unimpeded by what had happened to the world he once knew. It was almost comical to him; humans have slowly been destroying this planet for generations; we've decimated so many things, but when faced with the same decimation, we start to call things unfair and unjust, as if we didn't do anything wrong. But we've done many things wrong; we refuse to accept that this was our fault. We Refuse To Accept That Our Filth Is Going To Be Wiped Out...

 A small form interrupted Lee's thoughts; it moved closer to him while shaking; his 'Emerald Green?' eyes recognized the small form as Clem.

 "Clem, what's wrong?" she responded by inching closer.

 "Are you cold?" there was a hesitant nod.

 Getting up on my recently bandaged leg, I crossed the last bit of distance between us and sat down next to her; tapping my leg, I motioned for her to lie down, and she obliged.

 "Lee.."

"What is it, Sweetpea?"

 "...Thank you..."

"For what?"

 There was no response. Looking down, he could see that she had fallen asleep.

 Giving her a smile she would never see. He closed his eyes and joined her in the land of dreams.