Don’t Be Afraid | TWDG Clouis
CONTAINS SPOILERS FOR THE WALKING DEAD THE FINAL SEASON EPSIODE 4
Using every ounce of strength and each piece of muscle inside me, I slam the axe down as hard as I can. Clem screams like I’ve never heard before and the sound pierces through my ears. I bring myself to open my eyes, finding blood everywhere. I scramble over to the monster nearby and rip the material of his shirt off.
“What did you DO?!” Clem screeches as I struggle to tie the cloth around what has been left of her leg. I snatch the knife off the ground and slice off a piece of rope to use as a tourniquet. Glancing around, I take one of the broken rods from the pen doors to twist the rope tighter than I could with my hands, her screaming her head off all the while.
I don’t even know if he is anywhere nearby, but I know that I have to try.
And with that, I start screaming, too. “LOUIS! LOUIS!” Whilst yelling as loud as my throat will let me, I begin covering Clem with guts from the monster. She suddenly falls onto her side, eyes shut and breaths shallow. “CLEM IS BIT!”
I use the wheelbarrow as a stepping stool to kill as many of the walkers that are sticking their arms through as possible. “LOUIS, HELP!” One of the monsters grabs my wrist, but I manage to rip from their grasp and stick the blade into their head.
“AJ?!” A voice suddenly calls from somewhere nearby.
“Louis!” I shout back. After checking on Clem one last time, I leave through one of the pen doors where I had gotten all of the monsters to see Louis sprinting his way over. “Come on!” He barely makes it through the gap before one of the walkers gets him.
“Where is she?” He pants, out of breath.
“In here!” I lead him into the main part of the barn where she is laying. Blood is pouring out through my makeshift bandage. She’s not going to last here.
“Holy shit!” Louis rushes to her side. “What happened?!”
“She wanted me to kill her, but I couldn’t do it!” I exclaim, finally taking the time to wipe the tears from my face. “I had to cut it off!”
“We need to get back to the school.” Louis states the obvious, turning to the monster to cover himself with the guts. “Has this worked every time you’ve used it?”
“Except for when it rains.” I answer while making sure enough covers his back as well. “Or when someone makes too much noise.”
“Then let’s hope she stays unconscious.” Louis replies and slowly lifts her up into his arms. “I could hear you two from forever away.”
After putting down a few more monsters to give us a place to exit, we manage to leave the barn without drawing any attention. The two of us make our way to the school as quickly as we can while at the same time, going slow enough that we won’t be noticed.
The minute the gate comes into view, I sprint ahead and bang my fists against the bars. “OPEN UP! CLEM WAS BIT!” Immediately, it swings open. Ruby, Aasim and Willy all rush out.
“Oh my God!” The three gasp at the sight of Louis beginning to jog towards us with Clem’s limp body in his arms.
“Ruby, you’re gonna need to work some miracles!” Louis proclaims as we run into the school.
“What the hell do you expect me to do?!” Ruby squawks, watching as Violet and Omar bring over the medical supplies and Louis sets Clem down on one of the picnic tables. “I know how to do stitches, but she has no leg!”
“You have to fix her!” I demand.
“AJ, listen to me.” Louis comes over, crouching down and resting his hands on my shoulders. “You can’t stay here while she works on her.”
“I won’t let you!” Louis cuts me off.
“You can’t stay either.” Aasim grabs both of our arms, pulling us towards the admin building.
“What?! Why not?!” Louis complains.
“You told me what happened between you two, that’s why not.” Aasim practically has to force us into the room with the piano. “Stay.” He shuts the doors on his way out and when we try to open them back up, they don’t budge.
“Dammit!” Louis huffs in anger.
“What are we gonna do?!” I fret.
“There’s nothing we can do.” Louis groans. “He told me he found that damn master-key.” I lean my back up against the doors and slide down to the floor before pulling my legs to my chest.
Since I can remember…Clem’s always been there with me. She taught me to be careful. To be quiet. To be strong. To save the last bullet for myself. To atone when I do something bad. To show mercy, sometimes.
I always listened to Clem. Always. But…I’ve been thinking more. I don’t know if she’s right every time. She told me to kill her if she got bit. That doesn’t feel right. We did a lot of bad things to save our friends, to protect our home.
And when Clem told me not to shoot Lilly…and she…she killed James, I got mad. So mad. I don’t…I don’t know what I feel anymore. I don’t know if Clem knows either. But I remember all the rules, and the first one…is never go alone.
There is a sudden blood piercing scream that comes from outside that I instantly recognize as Clem. She’s awake, and she’s in pain. She’s not alone, but it feels like she is. Others are yelling, trying to get her attention and calm her down, but she doesn’t stop.
Louis gets up from the piano and comes to sit next to me, wrapping an arm around my shoulders. “She’ll be okay.” His voice sounds different than I’ve ever heard it. It doesn’t sound happy or silly, it sounds afraid. Like he doesn’t believe what he’s saying.
“She’s strong.” I repeat what she has said about me time and time again. Her screams grow louder, and I can’t help but cover my ears with my hands. “She’s brave.”
Louis pulls me closer. “What do you do when you’re scared?” I look up at him with teary eyes, finding that his are glistening with them, too.
“We don’t let it take over.” I cling onto one of his arms, pulling him to me, despite how bad the guts smell. The screams come to a stop and my head snaps up to look out the window. And that’s when the tears started to fall.
“Never mind the darkness…”
