Closed; Girl meets zombie

[smarterthanthem]

Who| Clementine and R
What| Who knew there was a Walker, or close enough, as a tribute? Clem's about to be very disturbed.
Where| One of the old town houses.
When| Backdated to week 1
Warnings/Notes| Possible threat of violence

Clementine sits on the back step of the house. Ellie's inside, sleeping, it's Clem's turn to keep watch. Bundled up inside her coat and Ellie's knife in hand she huddles up under the fabric, trying to keep as warm as she can against the cold fog. The front door is barricaded and so this is the only exit (excluding the windows) of the house, it had seemed secure enough to make a resting place for the day.

They've been lucky so far, aside from a couple closely avoided encounters with some of the monsters (and the woman Clem had hit with the brick) they haven't really run into trouble yet.

Comments

[shambler]

R's not yet at that stage where he'll start ripping out throats left and riht until the hunger's sated. He is at that stage where he wanders around bumping into things, miserable, feeling that emptiness pulling at his gums and turning into a ball in his stomach. It's not a good feeling.

He stumbles through the fog with the stump of his arm swinging at an awkward angle. Without both arms to compensate, he's lurching along at an uneven angle, listing to the side like a ship keeling over in slow motion.

R comes across the house by smell rather than sight: he smells Living with that sixth sense a corpse has, a stabbing, pulling sensation in the back of his brain, and he follows it out of instinct. One of them's familiar. Maybe a friend. He thinks he could use a friend. He materializes out of the fog bank a few feet away from where Clementine sits, still listing, still dragging his feet in that shuffle that will sound just like the walkers from her world.

[smarterthanthem]

Clementine sighs, poking the ground idly, pushing at the dead grass with her feet. She's trying to stay alert and on guard but honestly after the first hour the boredom had started to set in hard. It's not like she isn't used to it but -- she must have gotten used to the distractions of the Capitol more quickly than she realised.

But then she hears something, something that's familiar in the very worst way. Clementine's head shoots up, then she's on her feet, a short gasp of instinctual and well trod fear escapes her at the sight of a Walker -- a Walker here (hadn't Sabriel said there was one?). It's coming right for her.

She doesn't go for the house, instead moves from the porch, hoping it will continue to follow. It's just one, she can take one, she's got a knife and she moves it ready, teeth gritted.

[shambler]

The gasp drags R's attention to Clementine: it's the little noises like that, the ones that zombies don't make because it's not in their nature. They wheeze and groan and that's pretty much about it for the average conversation between Dead. His head swings toward her as he stares.

She doesn't immediately come at him, like that woman closer to the Cornucopia had. R's hoping this is a better sign than last time because at the rate people are knocking his arms off, he's going to run out before the week is over. His other hand flutters up in this feeble attempt to go I won't rip out your throat, promise.

Well. Maybe not promise. R doesn't feel like he's starving just yet, but he's a zombie. He can't keep that promise.

"Wgh...." R wobbles to a gradual stop a few feet away from the porch, swaying gently. "Wait."

He peers anxiously at the girl, who's small enough to be almost bite-sized to a zombie, and she's maintained a healthy distance between them. The new hunger grits its teeth

[smarterthanthem]

She holds the knife up higher, trying to work out how she's going to bring his head down low enough for her to hit the brain. It would be better if she had a bludgeoning weapon, something like a hammer or a crowbar which she could use to knockout his legs.

Clementine can't affort to think like that though, not unless she wants to get bit.

Even through the string of tactical thinking though she can't help noticing that something is odd. Maybe it's the motion of that remaining arm, not trying to reach and grab -- then all thought screeches to a halt when first the Walker stops. They never stop, they just keep coming, that's how they work, one big desire to eat.

Then it talks and it's like the whole world screeches to a halt.

Clementine's eyes grow huge in her face, her mouth hangs open and her grip on the knife fumbles as she hears it. Did she hear it?! "... what?" it takes a moment for her to say, the shock gives her skin a distinct pallor.

[shambler]

R can see that moment of shock bloom on the girl's face: it's the same one that happened with Julie, with Perry when he realized the zombie who ate him could string together a sentence. Maybe this kid is from the same kind of world? Or she could be like Ellie's, different, just as dangerous, but same in a lot of other ways and one of those was the Infected? They're supposed to be mindless, they're supposed to be incoherent. Anything other than that and suddenly it throws off all kinds of assumptions.

To be fair, R thinks a lot of them are fair enough. His kind does tend to bite first and ask questions never. He can't blame the Living for responding in kind.

"Wait," R wheezes. His good hand flutters like he's not sure what to do with it. A little bit of oozing drool edges out the corner of his mouth, blackened by death. "Don't want...hurt. Rr..."

He touches his chest with his hand, trying to emphasizes that they could be on a name basis and it's not just groaning. This had worked with Ellie. He hopes trying to communicate will also work with this girl.

[smarterthanthem]

It might have been a figment of her imagination, sometimes the groans did sound like words. Clementine scrambles for the explanation but even if she passes the word off as coincidental sounds she can't ignore the fact that the Walker isn't coming for her. It goes completely against everything she'd ever seen off them.

But then it talks and this time there's no way she can excuse it as anything but talking.

"H-how... y-you talked. How are you doing that?!" It comes out as a demand because the Walker is talking! "You can't!"

[shambler]

R's head wobbles in an approximation of a nod.

"Re...member." Don't ask him how, because he still hasn't worked out why he and M can manage words but others can't. "Still...hard."

Basically he doesn't think he's up for long, heavy conversation: verbally, at least. He knows mentally he's more or less there, it's just that it's distracting with the hunger always brimming under the surface and the inevitable stage fright trying to talk in front of Living like this girl.

[smarterthanthem]

The knife is still up, Clementine's nerves have become even higher strung in the face of this revelation. "Walkers don't talk!"

She spits it out like an accusation more than a statement. Walkers don't talk, they don't think, they're nothing but an instinct to eat. That this one can do those things is shaking one of the core principles of her reality.

[shambler]

This isn't going too well, predictably. With Julie and Howard and even Perry, it had been special cases, different circumstances. Julie thought she was going to die, Howard had issues with making friends and identifying that line between dangerous/not dangerous, and Perry had wanted to die anyway. He'd had nothing left to lose. There hadn't been a sense that he'd shaken his worldview. This girl is taking it much worse.

Leaves a dead boy to wonder how many friends and family she had to kill.

"Most..." R shakes his head to show he gets that. Majority don't talk, but... "Some...can. Feel...here."

He touches his still heart, his fingers point at his brain in a perpetual state of decay. Maybe he should shuffle off back into the night instead of rubbing this in her face. It might be kinder.

[smarterthanthem]

Clementine keeps shaking her head. "But if you... can... then..."

It's that moment of thinking back to every Walker she's ever had to kill, to all the people lost -- turned and then dealt with or mercy killed before it could happen. Too many faces and she's trying to get a handle on herself before the whole vast horror of what could be at home overwhelms her.

Breathe, just breathe.

She can't deal with this she realises. "Go away -- please... just... go away!" Clementine moves the knife in a definite warning.

[shambler]

R waffles, because zombies usually aren't decisive thinkers. He stumbles backward, head hanging down, eyes on her and wondering if he should keep trying to talk to her or maybe the kinder thing to do would be to beat a retreat. Thinking about it, R's going with option 2: dropping his eyes, he wheels awkwardly around and does exactly what Clementine says.

He goes away.

[smarterthanthem]

Clementine swallows and as soon as he's out of sight collapses down onto the step, putting her head in her hands.

Their singly encounter was brief but it'd definitely left her with a lot to think about.