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

88. Fear Itself

Clementine tried to turn her head. The person holding her adjusted his grip as she did so, keeping the knife near Clem's face, but she could see him now. The side of his scarred face lit by the lantern, his empty eye socket now bloodied from where Clementine had stuck her fingers in it, and his skin and clothes smeared with rotted flesh.

"Sarah?" whispered a confused Adam. "Why are you here?"

"What?" asked an equally confused Sarah. "What... what are you doing here?" Sarah looked at Clem, horrified at the sight of Adam holding a knife to her. "What... what are you doing to her!" Clementine watched as Sarah clicked the gun's safety off.

"It was you the whole time, wasn't it!" realized an infuriated Clem. "Matt wasn't attacking us, you were! You're the one who threw those firecrackers! You killed Nick! And Christa!"

"Is that true?" asked a disgusted Sarah. "You were the one trying to kill us?"

"I... I didn't know it was you," spoke a confused Adam. "I thought you were Matt."

"What?" asked a bewildered Sarah. "What does that matter?"

"I didn't want to kill you," whispered Adam, sounding more disappointed than remorseful.

"What about Christa's baby?" asked an indignant Clem. "Did you want to kill him?"

"It's just gonna die anyway," said Adam in a quiet voice.

"No he won't!" denied a furious Sarah.

"It was you at Saint Christopher's too. You're the one who tried to get into the basement," realized Clem. "You were trying to kill us then too, weren't you?"

"I was just looking for food, then I heard you on the other side of the door," said Adam. "I hid until you went away, then I went away, but when I was leaving, I saw people carrying bags back inside, and figured they must have food."

"You were the one who locked us inside and then let the walkers in," accused Clem. "So they'd kill us all."

"Why!" shrieked a horrified Sarah. "Why would you do that?"

"I told you," spoke Adam. "You had food. I needed it."

"That's it!" yelled an appalled Sarah. "You... you tried to kill us all, just because you wanted our food?"

"That's just how it is now," spoke an indifferent Adam.

"No it's not!" dictated a frenzied Sarah. "That's... that's bullshit!"

"That's just what people like you always say to pretend like it's okay to do terrible things!" accused an infuriated Clementine.

"People like me?" asked a confused Adam.

"Bad people," growled Clem through clenched teeth.

"I... I just don't wanna die," confessed Adam, his cold voice wavering.

"So you kill people first?" asked Sarah.

"It's... it's the only way to be sure," lamented Adam, a hint of regret lingering in his voice. "That is... until Pete took me to Shaffer's, where they'd always feed me if I did what they said. But... it's gone now."

"You... you told Bill that we were going to escape. That's why he was asking us if there was anything he should know that day," realized Clementine. "And, you probably told Bill about how Pete wanted you to come with him too."

"Is that true?" asked Sarah.

"Gene would feed me more if I told him what I saw," said Adam.

"You... you did all those horrible things, just because you were hungry?" asked Sarah in disbelief, the gun trembling in her hand.