Young and Young at Heart (The Rewrite of The Walking Dead Game: S2) [TWDG/TWD]

68. Childish Things

Clementine approached the front door of the house. It was a long single story building with a red door. Clem tightened her grip on her gun while Sarah moved up behind her, holding out the lantern as Clem had instructed her. Pulling on the knob, the door swung open. Looking at the lock, it was clearly broken, probably someone from Shaffer's doing.

Moving into the dwelling, Clem started slowly scanning the area as she passed through a dining room, kitchen, bathroom, two bedrooms, and several closets. In addition to not finding any walkers, Clem couldn't help noticing how empty this house was, again, likely because of Shaffer's.

After finding nothing of interest, dangerous or otherwise, Clem breathed a little easier. She tucked her gun into her pants and moved back into the living room, sitting down on one of the couches. Sarah sat down next to Clem, still holding the lantern. Clem sat there quietly for a moment, then looked up at Sarah.

Her eyes still look glazed over like she didn't know where she was, much like Adam looked most of the time. Thinking about it, Clem realized she didn't really know where she was either. Just that she wasn't at Saint Christopher's, and she didn't really know where that was either. Looking at the lantern, Clem saw Sarah was still holding it out like she had told her to.

"You can set that down now." Clem put her hand on Sarah's arm, who then lowered the lantern. Looking around, Clem spotted the fireplace across from the living room.

"Maybe... maybe we should get a fire going." Looking at the fireplace, Clem saw there was no wood in it. "Let me have that." Clem took the lantern and moved into the dining room, where she noticed some wood chairs.

She grabbed one and pulled it over to the fireplace. It was too big to fit inside, so Clem picked up the chair, which was difficult to do because of the size, and tried to toss it hard enough to break it. The chair bounced off the stone mantle, completely unharmed.

"I guess it doesn't matter," realized Clem. "We don't have anything to start a fire with." Clementine watched as Sarah moved her shaking hand into her pocket. She pulled out the fire starter she used back at Shaffer's, but dropped it as she moved her shaking hand.

"Do you think you could break that chair?" asked Clem as she picked up the fire starter.

"How?" asked Sarah in a quiet voice.

"Just... I don't know, bang it against the wall or something." Sarah slowly moved over to the chair and grabbed hold of it. She lifted the chair up over her head and knocked it against the wall, making a cracking sound. "Keep doing that, as hard as you can." Sarah slammed the chair against the mantle. There was another cracking sound, followed by a louder one as Sarah kept banging the chair against the mantle. A few more swings and one of the legs snapped off. "It's working."

Sarah repeatedly banged the chair against the wall, over and over with great force. One of the other legs broke off, then the last two, then the seat broke off from the back, which Sarah kept slamming against the wall, splintering it into smaller pieces with each successive hit.

"Okay that's good." Sarah kept smashing what little remained of the chair against the hard mantle, whittling it down to a couple of small chunks of wood in her hands. "Sarah stop." Sarah started pounding her fists against the stone, still gripping what little wood she had left, tears running down her face. "Sarah!" Clementine put her hands on Sarah's shoulders.

"It's okay. It's okay," whispered Clem in a worried voice. "You can stop now." Sarah dropped the fragments of the chair. Clem found it odd that despite the tears running down Sarah's face, she didn't seem to be crying. It was as if the sadness was just flowing right out of her without the need to express it. "You... you did a good job," assured Clem as she rubbed Sarah's back, trying to relax her.