Three Orphan Pilgrimage (The Alternative to TWDG's Final Season) [Walking Dead]

23. We Have a Problem

The Brave crept along slowly while Clementine and Sarah kept their eyes glued to the window. They weren't sure what they were expecting, but they both were wishing they'd find it already. Despite being terrified of what awaited them, Clem now found herself growing bored by her surroundings. There was nothing but open highway surrounded by short trees wherever she looked. And there wasn't even any cars stalled on the road, as Clem had grown accustomed to seeing.

Something that was scaring Clem was the flat tire. Sarah had removed the barbwire so it wouldn't do further damage and tried patching the holes with duct tape. When Clem asked her if that would work, Sarah admitted she had no idea. She also admitted that even if it did, it probably wouldn't help much now since the tire was already flat.

Moving along the road, Clem couldn't tell if it felt like the Brave was leaning to one side now or if it was just in her mind. She also wasn't sure if she could hear the flat tire making a slight thumping noise or was that just a noise the RV always made and she just didn't notice until today. Either way, she couldn't stop thinking about the flat. Clem had no idea how to change a tire and it sounded like Sarah didn't either.

For now, the Brave seemed to be moving along just fine at a modest pace, but Clem was afraid that was going to change any minute. And the deeper they moved into this remote island, the more of it there seemed to be. It was several minutes before Clem finally spotted their first point of interest, and it was just a split in the road.

"Which way?" asked Clem.

"Um..." Sarah eyed their road atlas.

"You don't know?" asked Clem.

"There's a lot of these islands near the coast, but it looks like there's a main road running south through them that goes back to the interstate." Sarah set the atlas down and grabbed the steering wheel. "Do either one of these go south?"

Clem removed a compass from the glove box and held it out. "I think the one on the left goes northeast, and the other one just goes east."

"Well, we want to go south, so let's not go north." Sarah turned the Brave towards the right road and started moving forward.

"You're sure we're going the right way?" asked Clem.

"Um... pretty sure." That answer didn't do much to reassure Clem, but she had no idea where they were either, so she didn't argue the point. Moving further down the road, all they found were more trees and even smaller roads. Some of them did go south, but Sarah said they needed to find a highway and not just some small off-roads. But all that seemed to lay ahead of them was more woods.

"Maybe we should go back," suggested Clem.

"Why?" asked Sarah.

"Because, we don't seem to be getting anywhere," said Clem.

"But where would we go if we went back?" asked Sarah. "We barely got out of there, and now we got a flat tire."

"I just don't want to get stuck on this island," confessed Clem.

"I think being stuck here would be better than being stuck back there where all the lurkers were. It looks like no one is living here, and we're so far from the bridge now that those lurkers following us probably can't hear us anymore."

"Yeah, but there's nothing we need out here. Nothing to eat."

"Couldn't we, I don't know, fish or something?"

"I thought you didn't like fish."

"I don't like lurkers a lot more."

"Do you know how to fish?"