One night, Clem and I are on the side of a run-down road. We have been following a truck with lots of supplies for some time, and finally, we pushed down an old tree. The tree falls in front of the supplies truck and the driver turns into a bumpy area, which causes the truck to flip over onto its side.

Quickly, Clem and I approach the vehicle as a man in handcuffs picks up a gun and aims it at the driver who is trying to escape.

The man aims his gun at the guy, and we watch as he shoots him and kills him instantly. Clem aims her shotgun at the back of the guy's head, and he drops his gun.

"That's good," I mutter, "just keep looking forward."

The man sighs, "Look, I'm no threat to you, alright? I surrender!"

Clem and I chuckle, "No threat, huh?"

"Tell that to the dead guy." Clem responds, as I pick up the pistol that the man had, "Now don't do anything stupid."

I grin, and we speak in unison, "'Cause we're not as nice as you, we'll shoot a lot quicker than you did."

As we turn away to inspect the truck, the man mutters and follows us, "Holy shit, you're kids!"

I scoff, "Not a kid, teen. And you're a grandpa, congrats!"

The man rolls his eyes at my statement, but continues, "Wait, did you two do that? With the tree?"

"We were trying to stop the truck." Clem responds.

"Shit." I mutter, as we enter the truck and find some food.

"Hands up, eyes closed." Clem orders, taking some food from the guy's backpack.

When she pulls out a chocolate bar, the man is quick to retort, "Hey, that's for my niece. She loves chocolate more than anything. I promised it to her, please."

Clem and I exchange a glance, and I nod with a reassuring smile at my best friend, she places the bar back in his bag.

"Count to 100 before you start going." I add, placing my hands in my pockets.

Over the years after AJ was taken and Kenny was dead, I was getting bored with walkers. It was the same routine everyday, wake up, eat, search for more food while avoiding walkers, go find a new home for the night, sleep, repeat. Clem said it made me look more confident in my abilities though, except, I already knew that.

"Wait just- my family. I need to get back to them. We were attacked and I don't know- I just need to know where I am. We were driving down the 522, that's where we found the junkyard. They're still there, at least..I hope they are." the man says, turning to us.

Clem glances at me, knowing that I've memorized most of the map for this area, "I know where that is. You said you were driving?"

"In our van, yeah." He responds.

"We'll take you to the junkyard, if, you let us take your van." I smirk, winking at Clem quickly.

The man nods, "You got a deal."

"Let's go."

As we walk down the road, the man asks if being tied up with the gun at his back is really necessary.

I reply first, "We don't know you."

Clem adds on, "We don't trust you."

Then, we speak in unison, "And we're not taking any chances."

"I understand." He mutters.

"Glad that we understand each other." I mutter, glancing at my beat up fingernail beds.

"The name's Javier, by the way. People call me Javi."

"(Y/N)." I bluntly respond.

"Clementine."

Javi smiles, "Cool names."

I turn my head to get a good look at him for once, his dark hair and even darker eyes. He looks to be older than twenty but younger than thirty. He smiles at me as I stare at him, but I don't return the gesture and keep my face blank. I have a feeling that we can trust this man, but of course, I can't take any chances. We have to find AJ first, that's all that matters.

We all walk down the road together for a few moments, before a walker appears and I take out my machete and slice their head clean off.

"You're good at that." Javi complements.

I slide my machete back into its holster and turn to stare at him with my typical blank face.

The man sighs, "Look, you two don't want to talk? Fine. But can you give me my pistol back so I can at least defend myself?"

Clem rolls her eyes, "You could easily turn around and use it on us."

"I'm not gonna shoot you."

"You shot the other guy." I point out, pointing to my temple and making a gun gesture.

"Well, you two didn't tie me up stick me in a truck." Javi responds.

At that moment, we turn a corner and realize that a large herd of walkers has caught up with us.

Javi ducks and the three of us shimmy across the road until we find some cover, "Muertos, they caught up with us."

I tilt my head in confusion, "Muertos?"

"What do you call 'em?" Javi replies.

"Walkers."

"What do you call the ones that run?" He questions.

"They're all fucking walkers, alright?" I hiss, glaring daggers into the back of his shirt.

We get back up and continue to walk.

"Who's at this junkyard, anyway?" I ask, placing my hands on the back of my head boredly.

"My brother's kids, and his wife." Javi responds.

As he pauses at his brother's wife, I giggle. Then I stand in front of him and smile widely, "You like her, don't you?"

Javi blushes, and avoids eye contact. Two signs that my claim is correct, I giggle once more and wave him off, "No need to reply, I already have my answer."

I stand back over with Clementine.

"It's impressive, surviving this long." She adds, "Not sure how you did it. Just keeping them all together like that."

"Keep them out of trouble, the best I could." the man responds, "How about you? You both must've been pretty young when this shit started."

"We were." I respond, "But we had some people that looked out for us too."

"What happened to them?"

"Same thing that happens to everyone." I mutter.

When we reach the top of a small hill, I glance down to see the herd of walkers from earlier, "There's a town up ahead, we can stay there until this herd of shitheads pass us." I point.

"Lead the way."

Slowly, I approach the man and cut off the ties that keep him from using his hands. The three of us start running until we find the town and rush over, pushing and shooting walkers. We have to clear them out first. I smile and giggle under my breath, taking my machete out and rushing at the walkers. I cut three of their heads off before Clem is attacked by a walker, and tries to shoot them but her bullets are blanks.

That asshole from Prescott was lying.

I rush over and stab the creature through the head before it can hurt my sister, then Tripp opens the gate and we're allowed inside.

He smiles at the sight of us, "(Y/N) and Clementine, right? You two staying a while this time?"

I shake my head, "No, we're staying until the herd passes then we're taking this guy to the junkyard off the highway."

"My family might be trapped there, hiding from very bad dudes." Javi adds.

"Well shit, I'm sorry to hear that." Tripp responds, "This herd approached really fast, and we're hoping that it'll leave just as quick. So just keep your heads down, and steer clear of trouble."

"Well be cool, just need a place to ride out the herd." Javi says.

"Alright, I'll hold you all to that. And I wouldn't recommend changing your mind." Tripp adds.

He turns away and Clem welcomes Javi to Prescott and we tell him about the past here.

"Now come, we have to go talk to someone about some bullets." Clem mutters, and I smile again.

Javi heads to talk to the other people, while Clem and I head in to talk to the man she bought bullets from.

"So, these bullets you gave my sister are blanks." I hiss, slamming them on the table, "She almost got killed out there because of them!"

"Calm down, (Y/N)." I hear, the three of us turn to see Javi standing in the doorway.

"Hey, what's the point in talking when I already told you, a deal is a deal. And it's done." the man replies.

"What's going on?" Javi asks.

"This guy ripped my sister off." I reply.

Clem holds in a growl, "I traded him a create of perfectly good batteries, and he gave me a box of bullets that won't fire! He could've gotten all of us killed!"

Javi sends him a chilling glare, but the man isn't fazed, "Oh yeah? And who the fuck are you? Their bodyguard or something?"

"They don't need a bodyguard." Javi responds, crossing his arms, "They can take care of themselves, believe me."

"Oh well, you can't even prove those are the bullets I traded you." the trader replies, smirking.

I groan, rolling my eyes as I take Clem's gun from her holster and aim it at the man's head.

"Wow, (Y/N), come on!" Javi yelps, backing up.

"He knows these bullets don't work. Listen to him, he's not even nervous." I hiss, pulling the trigger.

The gun only makes a clicking noise and produces a small amount of smoke, but doesn't fire the bullet inside.

"I could've died because of his bullets, or Clem, or you, Javi!" I yell, turning away for one second.

When I turn back, the trader stands up from the chair and attempts to cut me with a blade. Javi, thankfully jumps in the way and gets stabbed right near the eye to protect me. He pushes the man back into the chair after kicking him harshly in the gut.

I aim the gun at his head once again.

"Listen, let's all cool down, huh? You were acting crazy..I was too. We just got a little outta hand, that's all." the trader says.

"Just give my sister what she's owed!" I yell.

"Jesus, you gotta get her under control, man!"

Javi chuckles, "You have it wrong, buddy. I don't control either one of them."

"We had a deal." Clem says beside me.

I cock the gun and aim it again, gritting my teeth.

"We'll trade back, I'll find some batteries!" he hisses.

"We don't need batteries. We need bullets that won't get us killed!" I reply, pulling the trigger again.

This time, though, it fires. The trader's dead body slumps over to the side, and we can hear people start rushing towards us.