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

37. Trial by Fire

Clementine groaned as she opened her eyes, finding herself staring at darkness. She had a horrible throbbing pain in her head and her ears were ringing. As she tried to move her arms, she discovered there was something on top of her. There was also a thick heat in the air coming from all directions that was causing Clem to sweat. As she struggled to sit up, the ringing in Clem's ears faded and was replaced with a low roar that seemed to be surrounding her.

Pushing on whatever was covering her, Clem saw a small ray of light shine in from the sides. Summoning as much strength as she could, Clem managed to toss the heavy object aside. The girl found herself blinded by a sudden overabundance of bright light and everything appeared blurry. Clem's head felt dizzy and she had trouble seeing, but after a few seconds her vision cleared and Clem saw where all the light was coming from.

"Oh God..." A red hot blaze had consumed the entire wall bordering the backdoor, black smoke filled the room, and the fire burned so intensely it practically roared at Clementine, like a mad hell beast mocking the poor girl. Looking down, Clem saw the object she had just thrown off was the entire back door. Spotting her radio a few inches away, the girl grabbed it and tried hurrying out of the room, but felt a sharp pain as she put weight on left foot.

The girl stumbled but maintained her balance. The pain was sudden, but not overwhelming, leading Clem to think she had a sprained ankle when whatever set the house on the fire and knocked her out. She limped out of the dining room and back into the foyer, doing her best to avoid applying too much pressure to her bad ankle. Heading for the front door, Clem couldn't see anything but black smoke through the windows.

Opening the door, the girl discovered the entire front yard was burning now, the weeds and dried grass all ignited as a part of a raging wildfire that was spreading to the walls of the house; and in the distance, walkers were pouring in. Clementine watched in disbelief as a lone walker stumbled over the smoldering hedges and into the flickering orange haze that was now the yard, just to stand back up, burning from head to toe now like a living torch, blissfully unaware of the flames consuming his clothes and flesh.

Following a loud moaning with her eyes, Clem watched as walker marched out of the burning grass and right towards the door. She scurried backwards as the walker crossed into the house. The flames enveloping its charred and blackened body began to spread to the wallpaper as it lurched towards the dining room, chasing after the bang from earlier or perhaps the roar of the fire as it willing walked into the smoldering blaze.

Panic gripping her now, Clem hurried back to the front door in time to see more flaming walkers moving right towards the house, appearing to her like a burning army of the damned ready to seize this place. Her foot was still bothering her as she marched forward on the path, surrounded by flames and the eerie cries of the living dead.

The heat was intense and it was everywhere, like walking through an oven. Sweat was beading down Clementine's face as the black smoke caused her eyes to water. The respirator spared the girl from having to breathe those horrid fumes but the blinding blaze of the flames and the smoke made it impossible to see the end of the path, forcing Clem to hobble forward on the curvy stone walkway and pray that it would end before she was overwhelmed by the fire.

Suddenly, a flaming beast lunged out of the blaze and right at Clementine, forcing the girl to dodge to the left. She felt an intense burning coming from the side of the path and weaved back to the center in time to see her attacker had been a single walker that had collapsed onto the walkway and likely was never even aiming at her.

Forcing herself to hobble faster, Clementine weaved past another couple of burning bodies content to march towards their own doom. The girl turned her head to slip past one of the walkers without running into it, the fire enshrouding it almost like a protective forcefield whose intense heat burned the uncovered skin on Clem's face. A few more steps forward and Clem finally saw it, the end of the path cutting through the walls of flames that used to be the hedges.