System Of The Undead

Chapter 163: Saved... Or Not?

Clementine had taken down the main threat and she went in to check on Glenn, this was when Jason used the opportunity to retrieve the fragment that existed within the carcass of this body.

Unknown to Jason, Clementine was watching him from the entrance of the tent, she noticed how he didn’t want to leave the zombie’s side and was instead, hovering.

He was stalling and this was why Clementine left him, it was to see why he was.

"What’s that?" Clementine thought to herself, she saw Jason retrieving some sort of stone from the zombie’s corpse.

She wanted to barge out and ask him what it was but Clementine knew she would get more information observing as opposed to confronting him directly.

This was a smart move and Clementine hated to admit it but she couldn’t trust Jason anymore.

"W-What?" Clementine thought to herself upon seeing what Jason was doing with the fragment.

He had consumed it whole, why the fuck was he consuming something so disgusting.

"Clementine..." Glenn called her and this reminded her as to why she was here in the first place.

Clementine was glad that she had seen what she just saw but Glenn’s health was also a priority.

"Glenn, I’m so glad you’re awake. Can you stand?" Clementine asked and the man nodded to confirm that he could stand.

"I need you to get up Glenn, this place is currently under attack," Clementine was blunt and Glenn looked visibly worried by this revelation.

That would explain the ruckus going on, Glenn was hearing distant gunshots but he didn’t think anything of it.

"Damn! Is everyone okay!?" Glenn said, managing to get on his feet, he was wobbly but he could stand. That was the most important thing.

"Where is Jason?" Glenn asked and before Clementine could answer him, Jason appeared.

"Welcome back to the land of the living man," Jason greeted him.

"I’m glad you both are safe. I don’t know what I would have done if anything happened to you guys," Glenn said but now wasn’t the time to get in his feelings.

They were in trouble, the longer they stayed here, the more dangerous things could get.

"We need to leave," Jason said, this was a strange comment coming from him seeing as they needed these people to help them in getting supplies.

"What are you talking about Jason?" Clementine confronted him.

"We don’t need these people to help us raid because what’s stopping them from fucking us over?" Jason asked.

"Now isn’t the time for this discussion," Clementine tried to dismiss it but Jason wasn’t letting it go.

"Then when? Do you trust these people?" Jason asked the all-important question.

"Of course not but even if they were going to screw us over, they would need us to get the goods first..." Clementine said; she didn’t want to agitate Jason.

"Clementine, I cannot die... No matter what it takes, I will survive and get back to Rachel..." Jason said with a resolve not previously seen.

"You won’t die, we will make sure you get back home. Right, Glenn?" Clementine asked but Glenn was lost in his own thoughts.

Clementine nudged him lightly to bring him back to reality, she knew that they had just fed him too much information and he was still processing that this place was under attack.

The fact that Jason and she were talking about the prospect of dying made him uneasy.

"Huh?" Glenn responded, showing that he wasn’t following the conversation.

"We will get Jason back home safe, won’t we?" Clementine repeated herself.

"Oh! Of course, we will!" Glenn was as energetic as ever, he thought that Clementine needed this enthusiasm to reassure Jason.

Jason sighed, he was worrying for nothing as he knew that the zombies should be easy to take care of and he was right.

It didn’t take long for A and Co to return to the camp after disposing of the zombies that were there.

They suffered little to no casualties even though one of them had been bitten.

A didn’t bring him back to camp and opted to put a bullet right through his head to stop him from becoming an abomination.

Shantel and everyone present was surprised that they had removed their mask, this was something that they thought would never happen.

Jason was even more surprised by his age, he looked young yet possessed such great leadership even though he didn’t know the repercussions of removing the mask.

Jason looked around and noticed that everyone looked somewhat panicked, this was something that caught his curiosity.

"A?" Jason asked, he could tell it was him by what he wore and his physique.

"Please, call me Andre," A said, and Jason finally understood what the A on his mask meant.

It wasn’t some representation of authority but rather, his name.

"I’m glad to say that we have gotten rid of the stray horde," Andre announced and everyone looked visibly relieved.

"But I cannot exclude the contribution of Franklin here, he played an important role in our fight," Andre gave him credit, which was strange.

The fact that he felt the need to single out Franklin either showed that Franklin played a crucial role or Andre was up to something.

"I did what I needed to do," Franklin said, meeting Clementine’s eyes.

"Don’t tell me...!" Clementine thought right before Franklin broke eye contact with her.

"And because of Franklin, we have found a new way to fight the zombies!" Andre exclaimed and everyone looked curious as to what this new way was, especially Glenn.

But Andre wasn’t about to make it general knowledge, he didn’t reveal what it was as he had already said enough.

The people there were glad as this would mean that they didn’t need to defend themselves.

Andre noticed that they were with weapons and he didn’t appreciate this sight one bit.

"Why do you all have weapons in hand?" Andre asked and they all kept quiet.

They didn’t want to tell on Jason because they knew what would happen to him.

But they also knew that they couldn’t keep quiet or they would be punished and one of them went forward, ready to reveal the name of the person that told them to take arms.

Jason’s hand reached for his back, he knew that he might be in trouble as there was no reason for them to panic over such a thing.

"It was me..." A feminine voice said, Jason looked over his shoulder and realized it was Shantel.

"Shantel? But why?" Andre asked to which Shantel stepped forward in response.

"Look around you, Andre... What do you see?" Shantel asked.

There were corpses of zombies littered around and Shantel was implying that if they didn’t defend themselves, that would be them.

"Are you saying that you killed these zombies?" Andre asked to which Shantel nodded.

"Is that true everyone?" Andre asked and they were hesitant at first but they all supported Shantel.

"Is that so..." Andre said with what looked like a defeated smile, he looked so innocent but Jason knew better than to judge a book by its cover.

"I’m glad you all defended yourselves, you were all brave!" Andre praised them and Shantel was glad that her lies were successful.

She snuck Jason a glance and she could tell that he was appreciative of her gesture.

Shantel knew she had to show Jason she had his back so he would take her with him.

"So tell me..." Shantel heard Andre’s voice as he wrapped an arm around her.

"What weapons did you people use to kill these zombies?" Andre asked and Shantel froze.

Andre wasn’t stupid, whoever killed these zombies was skilled and there was no way that any of them possessed such skills.

The weapons they had were blunt, Andre made it a rule not to allow dangerous items to lay around or there was a chance that crime could erupt.

Yet, these zombies were cut open by something sharp so this either meant that someone among them had something they weren’t meant to have or they were all collectively lying.

Either way, Shantel had unknowingly shot herself in the foot metaphorically as she only raised Andre’s suspicion.

"What are you talking about? I wouldn’t check everyone’s weapon..." Shantel responded; she was calm and collected.

Jason was amazed by how good she lied, even if he would have believed her if he wasn’t the one.

"I see," Andre said as he let her go but unknown to Shantel, he saw her when she glanced at Jason. Andre knew that when asked about something, a person subconsciously looks at the direction in which they hid that thing in some cases.

This was the logic he was applying here, he walked right up to Jason but Clementine blocked his path.

"What do you think you’re doing?" Clementine asked him, she didn’t want any trouble but she was ready to fuck him up if he wanted that.

But a scream soon echoed, it was so loud that it startled everyone, even Clementine.

She looked over her shoulder only to see Jason on the floor, clutching his head in pain.

"JASON!" Clementine exclaimed.

"Yeah?" Jason stopped screaming immediately and responded to Clementine. Clementine didn’t even know how to react so she just stared at him blankly.

"What the fuck is wrong with you!?" Andre screamed.

"I swear, it was a lot funnier in my head," Jason responded as he awkwardly scratched his head which made people inadvertently giggle but Clementine knew exactly what it was that he was doing.

"That was smart, Jason," Clementine thought to herself as he had managed to not only lessen the mounting tension but portray himself as unserious.