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

93. Unknown Unknown

Clementine opened her eyes. It was still dark, and she was fine with that as she was still tired. She rolled over onto her side, happy to remain under the covers all morning. She reached over to hug Sarah, only to discover her hands were tied behind her back. Looking around, Clem realized it wasn't dark but pitch-black, and she could feel her own breath on her face as she realized there was something covering her head.

She panicked, pulling against her restraints to discover they were made out of metal and then began to thrash about in the darkness in desperation to remove whatever was covering her face. Her head felt like it weighed a ton and she could barely recall what happened before waking up just now. She remembered getting in a truck after being blindfolded, that was after she had met a woman who said she could help them.

"Sarah!" Clem had told Beth where to find her, as well as something to convince Sarah she hadn't kidnapped her, all the while planning to do just that. If they just wanted to rob them Clem would be dead already, which meant they wanted her alive for something, which meant they probably wanted Sarah as well. For what Clem didn't know, and thinking about it just filled her clouded mind with terrible thoughts.

"Oh God..." croaked Clem as she realized Beth might already have Sarah in her grasp, she and Omid both. They could even be here right now, in this dark place they had trapped her in. "Why?" Clem asked herself in despair. "Why is this..." Clem gagged slightly as she tasted the fabric of her hood as she spoke. Frustrated, she shook head back and forth in a clumsy attempt to throw it off.

Almost immediately Clem felt exhausted, her muscles refusing to cooperate; whatever they drugged her with hadn't fully worn off. Falling on her back, gasping for breath, alone and afraid, Clem wanted to give up. She just wanted to go back to sleep, forget the world, and pray for a painless death, but something wouldn't let her. It was a light, distant and incredibly faint, but it was there, just barely visible through the fabric covering her face.

"I promised..." Despite the exhaustion, Clem tried shaking the hood off again with a few more sudden twists of her head. It did little but tire her further and hurt head when it banged against a wall. "God damnit!" Clem slid down the wall in defeat, feeling even more helpless than before. Whatever was on her head was on firmly and wouldn't just come off. It felt like a ski mask except with no eye or mouth holes, and sliding down the wall just caused some of the material to bunch up around her mouth, making it even harder to breathe.

"Wait." Clem rubbed her head against the wall, pulling the material away from her mouth as she did so. She thought to herself for a second, then planted her forehead on the wall and pushed on it as hard as she could. The wall was smooth but the mask wasn't, so when she pushed it against at just the right angle, the material would bunch up and get stuck as Clem slid her head downward, allowing her to peel the hood off, if only slightly.

It was imprecise to say the least, constantly rubbing your face against the wall in hopes of ever so slightly pulling up a hood covering your head. It felt like blindly striking a stubborn match against the carpet in the vain belief it'd suddenly light if you did it enough times, except she was using her own head instead of a match and her life depended on being able to see again. Clem couldn't even be sure she was actually accomplishing anything other than making herself woozier.

Feeling the hood's edge suddenly slide up to her chin, Clem got a second wind and forced herself to push harder. Her whole body was resisting her every attempt to move but the anger burning inside her forced it into motion anyway. She thought about how she had been lied to again, kidnapped again, treated like a damn animal, how much it fucking pissed her off and put all of that in a single forceful thrust against the wall.

The hood slid past her mouth, giving Clem her first breath of cool air. A few more forceful motions and she finally managed to pull the hood past her nose, letting her literally breathe easier. One more slow and hard tug and finally the hood slid up past her eyes. Feeling it flopping loosely on her head, Clem moved away from the wall and jerked her head back and forth a few times until she finally flung it off.