⊱ 03 ~ ❝ base camp ❞ ⊰
〖 season one, episode two 〗

The RV's radiator hose was in rough shape. It occupied most of her father's time, trying to jerry-rig it for Dale, but only managing to patch it with some tape. No other vehicle in camp had what was needed to get the RV going if need be.

It was a worrisome fate, not knowing if they would be able to leave with everyone if they couldn't take the RV. Even with the RV, all the people in the camp would struggle to pile in all the vehicles ⎯⎯ making it more critical for the RV to be driveable. But Dale and Jim had little hope it could make it down the hill without puffing smoke.

While Jim worked on it, he had insisted his daughter sit in a camp ⎯⎯ in the eyesight of Dale at all times. Every time he looked over to make sure she had listened, he found her unmoving, by the put-out fire, sitting in her silence.

No one in the camp heard the C.B. go off again, but Dale moved it up on top of the RV, so he could quickly respond if a voice did come through ⎯⎯ a hopeful gesture with no outcome for hours.

Clementine just looked around, watching everyone go about their lives like the state of the world had become a normal thing. People did their laundry, lounged in seats, read books, or listened to music on their slowly dying devices. They fell into a rhythm of caring for the space they lived in, preparing for the nightly campfire people would cozy up around, or looking for any form of food other than the pitiable mushrooms and squirrels they had been barely surviving off of.

Despite Shane of all people being firm on everyone playing their part in the camp, he sat on an overturned bucket, next to Carl ⎯⎯ Lori's son ⎯⎯ showing him how to tie some knot with a piece of twine.

If Jim hadn't just told her to stay out of people's business, she'd be asking the two of them why on earth they need to learn how to tie a knot when everyone else is doing useful things ⎯⎯ like making food or doing the laundry of other people's families.

Both Shane and Carl stared at the twine, Carl intensely trying to follow Shane's instructions, and Shane trying to coach the boy how to turn it. Left, he motioned with his fingers in a twirl to the left, but Carl failed to comprehend the way to turn it and kept attempting it the other way.

Just behind the two, stood Lori hanging wet clothes on a makeshift clothesline, watching the two boys happily. A look of a happy mother sent a chill down Clementine's spine, and she forced her gaze back to Shane and Carl.

"Attaboy," Shane mumbled when Carl managed to flip it the correct way. Finally, Clementine thought, she was close to ripping it out of the kid's hand and twisting it herself.

From the roof of the RV, the C.B. squawked to life with a loud static. Dale hurried around the RV ⎯⎯ he was in mid-conversation with Jim about the radiator hose and quickly moved to climb up the ladder.

"Hello, base camp!" A roughly familiar voice crackled through the speaker. "Can anybody out there hear me?" Clementine leaped up from her seat, following after Shane and Lori who were quickly approaching the RV, stopping in front of it when Dale reached the top of the ladder. "Base camp, this is T-Dog. Anybody hear me?"

"Hurry, Dale. Say something before it cuts out," Clementine shouted from the ground, knowing the name T-Dog as the gentle soul who was always trying to help out everyone in camp ⎯⎯ but she hadn't spoken much to him.

"Hello? Hello? Reception's bad on this end... Repeat. Repeat."

Another loud squeak cracked through the speaker, signaling they were starting to lose the connection. "Is that them?" Lori questioned, disbelief clear on her face, trying to hold her composure for Amy ⎯⎯ a woman with a family member currently in Atlanta.

"He said, T-Dog..." Clementine interjected, looking up at Lori hopefully, but just to the woman's right stood Shane with a sorrowful look, like he didn't believe her. "I swear, I heard it."

More static-filled words sputter out in a jumbled mess of incoherent letters, only a few words breaking free from the static and being audible. "⎯⎯some deep shit... ⎯⎯ We're trapped in the department store⎯⎯"

An anxious lump formed in the base of Clementine's throat, the sound of the situation bringing immense discomfiture in Clementine's mind, imagining them being trapped ⎯⎯ most likely around the dead.

Shane lowered his head, running his hand over his face, distressed with the information as he mumbled the words spoken through the C.B. back to himself.

The supposed strong cop who knew what was right and best for everyone expressing a worry only managed to scare the shit out of Clementine. People she didn't speak much to but knew were trapped somewhere ⎯⎯ in a department store ⎯⎯ whatever that was. Even if Shane let anybody in camp go search for the six people ⎯⎯ out of all the buildings in Atlanta ⎯⎯ how would they ever find the one with the missing people?

Even if they did narrow it down to possible department stores, there would still be hundreds of options, and thousands more of the dead for them to get through just to save their people.

Being in the position that the six people were in ⎯⎯ it plagued Clementine's nightmares. She'd awake in a reality where she was stuck in an alleyway pinned between a wall and millions of cannibalistic monsters, craving the very flesh on her bones. But those petrifying visions of grimy teeth, foggy eyes, and bloody hands showed so often in her sleep it had become more bearable, and normal.

Some nights those dreams would appear more vividly recognizable ⎯⎯ as an experience she had already lived ⎯⎯ just more brutal. Her family of five walked out as two, and that day would replay in her mind for as long as she would live. Jaws were snapping for her delicate and pale skin desperately ⎯⎯ their ever-decaying hands grabbing onto her with a vice-like grip. Their brains were no longer programmed to let go when given resistance.

What was lost that day was beginning to blend into her current state of time ⎯⎯ the people turning into the names of those who decided to risk their lives for the camp ⎯⎯ and Merle.

It became too easy to compare past and present situations, and yet in both scenarios she found herself being one of the survivors at the end of a catastrophe, but for what?

She would lie awake at night, mulling over the possibilities, and how many times she'd have to live through the unthinkable for her survival rate to plummet. To truly survive, was something Clementine couldn't imagine her being able to do, definitely not on her own. If her father hadn't been holding onto her hand that day ⎯⎯ she'd probably be lost with the rest of her family. If her hand didn't manage to slip from the dead man's grip ⎯⎯ she'd be something else.

Amy was distraught, Shane implied her sister was long gone, and it sent the woman running off, most likely looking for a secluded place to let her tears go. Clementine never knew what having a sister was like, but she imagined Amy felt lost without Andrea in camp.

Her wild imagination could go far, picturing herself in Amy's shoes and packing her pain into her chest just to get a feel of how utterly horrible the woman must feel if Andrea was to never return. To live without the last piece you have of your old life.

Andrea was Jim to Clementine, someone she'd speak up for the same way Amy was for her sister. This only upset Clementine further when the thought occurred to her that Jim could live without Clementine one day, and have nobody left. She didn't anticipate that perhaps she would outlive him ⎯⎯ because nothing scared Clementine more than outliving everyone and managing to do nothing with the life other people deserved.

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〈〈 𝐀𝐔𝐓𝐇𝐎𝐑𝐒 𝐍𝐎𝐓𝐄 〉〉

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Hope you liked it <3

This is by far one of the shortest chapters you will ever see me write. I love going into detail and making side stories but this episode had NOTHING TO GIVE.

That was one of the main reasons in the original version I combined this episode with episode one because I hated how little I had to work with. Also combined them because I wanted there to be a chapter for every episode and the fact that episode six was chapter seven bothered me, but I don't care anymore.

I post edits for this story on TikTok!

Fanfic Editing Account: thinn.skinned.wp