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

27. Learning Curve

Clementine removed the last couple of bags from her backpack and stuck them on the shelf. After finding most of the visitor center undisturbed, Clem had hoped its restaurant would have a veritable bounty of unclaimed food waiting for her. Instead, all she found was a small stash of dried pasta and a lot of things that went bad when the freezer lost power over a year ago. She couldn't even find any spaghetti sauce, and since they didn't know how to get propane for the Brave, they couldn't even use the stove if they wanted to boil the pasta. And for the second day in a row, it seemed unseasonably cold compared to the rest of the time they had spent in this part of Florida.

Clementine reached into the bag sitting on the shelf and pulled out a peppermint. Before Clem had checked the restaurant, Sarah had checked the gift shop again, finding a bag of individually wrapped candies and another box of freeze-dried ice-cream in the back, along with claiming some extra film for their new camera.

Candy staying good had been hit and miss in Clem's experience, but she thought these peppermints tasted as good as she remembered. As nice as having sweets was, it still paled in comparison to a good meal. The taste of peppermint helped Clem ignore her hunger pains for a while, but it couldn't quite quell them, and with relatively little food left, the girls had started rationing what remained to make it last longer. Freeze-dried ice-cream was good, but they couldn't live off it alone.

Clem closed the closet and headed to the bedroom. Omid was pulling on the top of his crib, almost as if he was trying to escape. She watched as he managed to take a few steps while holding onto the crib before letting go. Clem looked on in surprise as Omid stood on his own for a moment, then fell on his bottom.

"You're getting so big and strong," said Clem as Omid used the crib's rails to try to stand up again. "Before long you'll be walking, and then maybe you'll start talking..."

"Dah-boo," mumbled Omid as he tried walking while holding onto the crib again.

"And then... and then I won't know what to say." Omid let go of the crib again and Clem watched intently. The boy stood there, wobbling slightly, then moved his foot to take a step, only to fall.

"Good boy," praised Clem. "You deserve a treat for trying so hard. I'll get you something sweet." As Clem collected a peppermint from the bag in the closet, she heard a loud stomping from above. "I guess Sarah's ready to come in." Clem moved to the door and unlocked it. Right after that, Sarah came in carrying the other thing she took from the gift shop this morning.

"Any luck with that thing?" asked Clementine as Sarah set the telescope in the corner.

"I had to mess with it for a while, but I think I got it now," said Sarah as she leaned the telescope against the wall. "I can see a lot further with it than the binoculars, especially on the roof."

"What did you see?"

"Well, not much here, but there's a bunch of trees and buildings blocking my view in the parking lot. Once we get out of here, I can probably see more."

"Let me just give OJ his peppermint and we'll go."

"You're giving those to Omid?" asked a concerned Sarah.

"I was about to," said Clem as she held up the peppermint.

"He could choke on this," said Sarah as she snatched the candy from Clem's hand.

"Oh, I... I didn't think about that."

"You never give babies anything hard and small because it could get caught in their throat. That's why they always put those choking hazard warnings on toys with lots of little parts."

Clem sighed and looked down at her feet. "I'm sorry."

"It's okay," assured Sarah as she placed her hand on Clem's shoulder.