#thank goodness i got a cage for my tomato plant so its doing fine

[sakizm]

waking up at 7am to rescue my lil plants from the brutal storm winds is becoming a thing this summer

[threeorphanpilgrimage]

Chapter 74 - Safety

Clementine steadied the hammer in her hand and took aim at her target. She landed a single firm tap on the lowest rung of metal wiring that formed the tomato cage she was kneeling in front of. Her strike didn't seem to drive the cage's legs any further into the soft dirt, but she hit it once more for good measure before moving a few inches to repeat the process in a different spot.

Her entire morning had been methodically reinforcing the stability of tomato cages a few taps at a time, even though the tomato plants themselves still were too small to make any use out of them. Even having grown from sprouts to proper plants, the few limbs they had were too short to reach the cage, which was narrowest at the bottom. However, with the approaching weather, Sarah said they should make sure everything was secure.

There was a crashing sound in the distance and Clem looked up expecting to see a flash of lightning. The thick gray clouds hanging over the area had been seen as a good omen by everyone. Rain would not only water the crops for them, but it'd refill the tanks on their RV's and the barrels they had set out under the houses' gutters. Clem was also grateful for the comforting shade it cast over the field, sparing her another morning baking in the sun.

There was another distant crashing sound but Clem saw no lightning. Adjusting her view downward slightly, she saw the backhoe on the edge of the field, further digging out the now severely shrunken pond. Sin had wanted to work on digging a trench the lake, but seeing it was overcast this morning, decided enlarging their pond before it rained would be a better use of his time.

Watching the backhoe move back and forth, its equipment crashing loudly as it did, Clem realized there had been no thunder, yet. After settling in place, the mechanical arm started digging again and Clem went back to work herself, reasoning she had time to finish before the rain arrived. She didn't make it much further before she noticed Anthony moving towards her.

"Need a hand?" he asked with a shrug, a hammer in his hand.

"You're done with the bean poles?" Anthony nodded weakly, to which Clem made a slight gesture with her head and he knelt down by the tomato cage next to her to begin tapping the wrung nearest the cage's legs.

"Really starting to wish Sin never told us about mercury poisoning," mumbled Anthony.

"Really?" asked Clem. "But then—"

"Getting sick and maybe dying while getting fat on fish is starting to look preferable to this bullshit," mumbled Anthony. "That lake is huge. I bet I could pull in two or three pounders every day if I actually went fishing instead of just pulling in those cages. I mean, how long would you have to eat fish before that shit would actually kill you? Weren't there people before who ate fish every day and they were fine?"

"I don't know," shrugged Clem as she moved onto to the next tomato cage. "My mom sometimes made me tuna sandwiches."

"And you're okay. I mean, the old man even said he's not an expert on this stuff; we could eat a lot of fish and be fine for all he knows."

"Or we could get sick, and then none of us know what to do because none of us are doctors," retorted Clem. "I met someone once who told me they knew people who tried avoiding the land when the walkers first showed up. They stayed on a river and just ate fish, and some of them got scurvy."

"The hell is scurvy?"

"Sarah looked it up and it's a disease you get when you don't get enough vitamin C, which fish don't have," said Clem as she tapped the tomato cage with her hammer. "She said it makes you really tired and your arms and legs sore and your gums start bleeding."

"Holy shit," said Anthony in a whisper. "Couple of days before I met you guys, my gums had started bleeding."

"You should have eaten those green beans," said Clem as she stood up.

"Huh?"

"Those cans of green beans you left in front of that… weird trap you made," reminded Clem. "You should have just eaten them."

"Why's that?"

"They're full of vitamin C." Anthony looked at Clem, baffled. She just smirked at him before moving onto the next tomato cage.

"How do you know what does and doesn't have vitamin C in it?" asked Anthony as he knelt down by the next cage.

"When we first started taking care of OJ, Sarah was really worried about what we'd feed him when he stopped drinking formula and we spent like three days just looking up different vitamins and checking the labels on cans to know what had what." Clem knelt down and started working on the next tomato cage. "And nothing really has everything you need, so even if we don't have to worry about mercury, we couldn't live off just fish."

"What about deer?" asked Anthony.

"I don't think we could just eat them either, and even if we could, we haven't seen a deer since the one you shot. That's why we need this farm."

"Yeah, yeah, I figured that. It's just this farming stuff is such a hassle," said Anthony as he tapped the cage with his hammer. "Sarah said once the corn stalks get sturdy enough, we're gonna have to carefully untangle the beans' vines, then rewrap them around the corn stalks because she's afraid the bean poles might get in the way of the corn once it starts coming in."

"Sort we're gonna have to do for the beans and corn what she said we'd have to do with the cucumbers and those weird wire tent things we setup?"

"Yeah. Thank God we did those just yesterday or Sarah would be telling us to double check them too."

"She's just being careful," insisted Clem. "After our first garden—"

"I know, she told me," said Anthony as he stood up and wiped his face with his sleeve. "I just hope we're not doing all this just to repeat what happened with it."

"Yeah, me too." Having reached the end, Clem stood up and looked out over the rest of the field. There were rows of cages, wooden poles, and tall wire structures shaped like sign boards neatly lined up across the rows of dirt, while the plants they were set out for were still tiny and frail. The cucumbers were currently just a mess of short leaves, the tomato plants were dwarfed by the cages that encased them, and the beanstalks still appeared to be little more than curly weeds. The only thing that resembled a finished vegetable were the lettuce plants, which currently looked like miniature versions of the finished product.

"Hey, take a look at this." Clem turned to find Anthony's face hovering an inch away from one of the cages. "This one's actually got a tomato on it."

"Really?" Clem knelt down to look herself, and under one of the plants leaves she could see a tiny green bump hanging from a thin vine. "I wonder how long until we can eat it."

"Probably a few weeks," said Anthony. "These are early girl tomatoes, so they'll probably be the first thing that's ready. The cucumbers shouldn't be far behind them."

"How do you know that?" asked Clem.

"Sarah's out here every morning at dawn checking everything in this field, and the second she needs a hand she wakes me up," explained Anthony.

"Really?"

"Yes really, who the hell do you think carries fertilizer for her or helps get more dirt to top off the potatoes' row?" asked Anthony. "I spend so many early mornings out here with her I can't help but ask when the hell this stuff is going to be ready."

"It's just… why does she come to you?"

"She says you're always busy in the morning taking care of your baby, and Devlin is always getting picked for some kind of construction project. I was hoping he'd finally be free today to help but apparently now is when he needs to go back to Tulsa to see if anyone has visited since we left."

"He said he'd go on the first of every month, and today is April first."

"Leaving me as the lone strong back around here; happy April Fool's Day," griped Anthony as he stood up. "Speaking of indentured servitude, I'd better go fetch some water."

Clem followed after Anthony as he headed for the pond. Running along the edge of the field was a thick white plastic pipe suspended about half a foot off the ground by blocks of wood. Looking to her right, Clem could see the pipe ran towards the rainwater collector built up against the side of the barn. Anthony stepped over the pipe with ease while Clem had to be more careful not to trip over it. Anthony grabbed a couple of watering cans tucked away by the barn door and started walking towards the pond.

"Wait, it's going to rain," remembered Clem. "Sarah said we won't need to water the field today."

"The field, no," said Anthony. "That little greenhouse Devlin put together for Sarah, that still needs water."

Clem wanted to ask Anthony something else, but as they neared the pond, the sound of the backhoe's engine drowned any attempt at conversation. Looking over at the cab, Anthony held up his hand and Clem could see Sin inside nodding. The arm pivoted away from the pond, dropping off a load of dirt near a large pile beside the vehicle, then the arm retracted and the backhoe's engine went silent.

"Why don't you go check on him?" suggested Anthony as he hopped into the wide ditch the backhoe created. "Figure out if his damn irrigation system works yet or not. I'd love a break from watering tomorrow too." Anthony moved through the ditch until he reached the edge of the dried pond, then kept walking until he finally reached what remained of the water. Turning away from Anthony, Clem noticed Sin exiting the cab of the backhoe and sitting down on the step just below his seat.

"Are you okay?" asked Clem as she approached the man.

"Huh?" said Sin as he looked up, as if he just noticed her.

"I just asked if you're okay."

"I'm fine," assured a tired Sin. "It just gets hot in there, and the constant sound of the engine probably isn't good for my hearing."

"We've got some special earmuffs that stop noise," said Clem. "We took them from a gun store so whenever we practiced our aim it wouldn't bother Omid, but he always takes them off when we put them on him."

"I think I could use those," said Sin as he looked over his shoulder at the rest of the backhoe. "Just digging out the pond is taking a toll on me. It'll probably take several days to dig a trench from here to the lake, maybe a week, and longer still to solidify it with concrete." Sin looked over at the pond as Anthony carried a couple of full water cans out of it.

"He's not going to water the field today he is?"

"He's getting water for Sarah's greenhouse," explained Clem.

"I haven't even looked at that yet," said Sin.

"I haven't either," admitted Clem. "Devlin finished it yesterday I think and by then I just wanted to go to bed, and this morning Sarah wanted me to come out here after feeding Omid to make sure the tomato cages weren't going to blow away." There was a sudden flash followed a few seconds later by a distant clash of thunder.

"Seems like you finished just in time." Sin closed the door to the backhoe and moved towards Clem. "We should probably all get in before the rain starts. Besides, Jet insists I come to this party Patty wants to do for our first rainy day."

"Oh yeah, that should be fun," said Clem as she walked with Sin across the dirt, eyeing the long water pipe that spanned the short side of the field. "Although, Anthony wanted to know how this rainwater collector works," said Clem as she looked over at the large stacks of barrels connected to each other by a mess of pipes. "I would too. I saw something like this once that collected lots of rainwater, but it different. It was just a shipping container they put gutters on that emptied into barrels, then they'd use one of those little mover things to carry the full barrels away."

"I suppose now is as good a time as any to field any questions about this device," said Sin as he walked over to the stacks of barrels stacked upon other barrels. "There's no carrying these barrels away. Devlin and I went to great lengths to anchor them in place and to each other to form a single large reservoir we can use to water our crops," explained Sin as he gestured to the pipes running between all the barrels.

Looking carefully, Clem could see there were two types of plastic pipes linking the barrels together; one thick and one thin. Both sets of pipes connected every barrel to every other barrel, even extending upwards in a few places to link the top and bottom rows. The larger pipes connected to tall tubes on each side of the collector that ran up to the barn's gutters. But the thin pipes only connected the barrels to each other, barring a few short lengths of open pipe sticking straight up past the top row of barrels.

"So… what are these for?" asked Clem as she pointed at the thin open pipes that looked like tiny chimneys, complete with small plastic covers that left space for air to escape.

"Those are the vents," explained Sin.

"Vents?" asked Clem. "Why do water barrels need those?"

"So there's somewhere for the air to go as the water comes in."

"I don't understand. Why does the air have to go anywhere?"

"Because if the air in the barrels couldn't get out, then the water could never get in."

"Really? If those weren't there the water would just, what, stay in the gutters?"

"Well no, some water would get in, but…" Sin scratched his chin. "Did you ever take a glass, turn it upside down, and hold it underwater in a sink?"

"Our teacher did that in school once with a bottle," said Clem. "I thought it was weird the water wouldn't go inside."

"That's because there's air trapped inside the bottle and has nowhere to go, which means the water can't enter the container because it's filled with air, which takes up space even if we usually can't see it," explained Sin.

"But what about when you just pour water into a bottle?" asked Clem. "There's air in there then too. Why does it work then?"

"That's because liquid particles aren't as densely packed as the solid ones a bottle is made out of, and air can push through water much like how we could swim through it. When you hold a bottle underwater with the top facing up, you see as air escapes the bottle in the form of bubbles being pushed up through the water."

"Well, then why do you need the vents? Wouldn't the air in the barrels do the same thing and just go up the pipes like bubbles out of a bottle?"

"What's a faster way to collect water: using a cup or using a bottle?"

"Probably the cup."

"Why?"

"Well, because the water goes right in. If you hold a bottle underwater, it makes this glug-glug sound while the bubbles come out and it takes longer."

"Exactly," said Sin with a smirk. "The cup has a wide opening that allows water to just push air right out, whereas a bottle has a narrow top that both the air and water have to pass through, which slows both of them down."

"Oh… but the pipes for your vents are narrow," noted Clem.

"Ah, but water won't be coming in that way," said Sin as he pointed at one of the larger pipes connected to the gutter. "The water will be rushing in from that pipe and come flowing into the bottom barrels, and the air will have to go somewhere. Where do you think it will go?"

"Um, I guess up and out through your vents?"

"Why?"

"Because… it's easier than trying to go through all the water coming in the bigger pipes?" guessed Clem.

"Exactly, the air will follow the path of least resistance. Without those vents, the main pipes would be a bottleneck for the escaping air and the incoming water."

"What's a bottleneck?"

"It's a part of a machine or system where very little can pass through it at once, which is a problem because most systems are only as efficient as their weakest components. Imagine if your watering can's spout was as narrow as a drinking straw. It would take a very long time to pour out the water we need for the crops."

"So… it's like a bottle's neck?"

"Huh?"

"I mean, you said the water takes longer because the top of the bottle is narrow," reminded Clem. "So, a bottleneck is like a bottle… neck."

Clem was surprised to see Sin stifle a laugh and try to hide the fact he was smiling. "For me, that word has been synonymous with production problems for so long that I never even considered its very appropriate literal meaning."

Clem couldn't stop herself from smiling as she thought about how she had actually taught Sin something, even if it was only something trivial. "So, is that why the water pipes connect to all the other barrels? So there won't be a bottle neck?"

"Yes, by giving the water multiple paths, it'll help maintain a steady flow and hopefully keep the pipe from backing up and wasting water during a heavy rain. I had wanted to have more than two pipes connect to the gutters to help, but the barns angular roof means we had to build the collector on a short side where we could run pipes from both halves of the roof. Otherwise, we'd miss half the water we could collect."

"What about this bench thing?" asked Clem as she pointed at the simple wooden structure that supported all the barrels. "What's it for?"

"It suspends the barrels a couple of feet off the ground so gravity could allow the water to flow out easily. Like I said, I can't make water move uphill without pressurizing it."

"But, then how would the top barrels ever get filled? None of them are connected to the pipe coming from the gutter, only the bottom barrels. Wouldn't the water just stay in the bottom barrels then?"

"The weight of the water in the pipe creates a small degree of pressure, enough to raise the water level," explained Sin. "However, it can't raise the water higher than the source of the water exerting that pressure, and the rising water goes slower as it approaches the height of its source."

"Is that why water towers are so tall?" asked Clem. "So they create lots of water pressure?"

"That's right," said Sin, sounding pleased. "That much water that high up creates a significant amount of pressure just from gravity."

"But, how did the water get up there in the first place?"

"Usually it's pumped in from a treatment plant."

"Oh, so they need electricity?"

"Generally. There are other means, like—"

"A windmill?"

"Yes," said Sin, sounding surprised. "How did you know that?"

"I met someone once who said she was going to build a windmill so she could have running water again," explained Clem, trying to keep her voice from sounding too bitter. "Could you build something like that?"

"Theoretically."

"Theoretically?"

"I understand the fundamental principles of windmills and how we could connect one to a pump, but actually designing and constructing such a thing under these circumstances is a different matter," explained Sin. "I'm still yet to even properly test our irrigation system."

"What is our irrigation system?" asked Clem. "I saw that pipe near the field, but what does it do?"

"We took as many drip lines and soaker hoses as we would come from Tulsa and I installed a valve with a connector for a hose on each section of that pipe over there. In theory, we should be able to connect the hoses to the pipe, unroll them across the field for each row we're growing, then just turn the handle and let the water from the collector flow out to our plants."

"But?" asked Clem, knowing it couldn't possibly be that easy.

"I'm not sure if the collector will provide enough water pressure to cover that many hoses over that great a distance. Even if they do, we'll only be able to use it after it rains."

"That's still better than having to water the crops every day," said Clem. "What about the trench from the lake you want to make?"

"I'm still working on what would be the best way to distribute the water, assuming we can make a trench through that terrain. Currently, I'm thinking it might be best to just install a hand pump near the end of the main pipe near the pond, just pump water into it and let the hoses distribute it, but—"

There was a sudden flash followed by a clap of thunder. Even if she hadn't noticed that they were closer together than the last time, Clem could tell the storm was nearer because of how much louder the thunder was.

"We should probably go in," concluded Clem.

"I'm going to double check everything. I'd hate to think I left a valve open somewhere and our first rain of the season goes down the tubes, literally," said Sin as he moved in close to the collector. "You go ahead, unless you want to stay and help?"

"That's okay, but this was kind of fun, learning how stuff works."

"If you ever want another lesson on basic engineering, just ask."

"I might do that," said Clem, thinking that sounded fun. Sin must have thought the same thing as it looked like he was hiding another smile, easily making this the most Clem had seen him smile since meeting the man. Leaving Sin to work, Clem headed towards the house just as another clap of thunder sounded. Crossing past the fence, Clem spotted Jet hurrying into the shed in the middle of the yard. Needing to return a hammer, Clem followed in Jet's footsteps only to almost crash into him as he came racing back out.

"Whoa!" said Jet as he jumped several steps. "Where did you come from?"

"I was just bringing my hammer back," said Clem as she held up the tool.

"Oh, perfect, I was just looking for one of those."

"What for?"

"I was just going to put this up." Jet removed a thick wooden sign from under his arm and held it out for Clem to see.

"Ceres Acres?"

"Ceres was the Roman goddesses of agriculture," explained Jet as he turned the sign around. "Also the biggest asteroid in the asteroid belt is named Ceres… plus it sounds cool."

"Why'd you make this?"

"I figured this place needs a name, so when we went to Pawhuska I made sure to grab some stencils and paint and a sign from the hobby store we found," explained Jet. "I've been working on it in my room at night whenever I get a chance. Do you like it?"

Showing her the sign again, Clem could tell Jet had spent a lot of time on it. There were painted images of leaves in each corner; the top ones green and rounded, the bottom ones orange and pointed. A pair of short chains ran through a couple of holes in the top. Thick black lines ran with little swirls growing out of them ran between the corners to create a border. Near the bottom in tiny lettering it read 'EST. 2 A.O.' while in the center was 'CERES ACRES' spelled out in big, black ornate letters.

"I like it," said Clem.

"Really?" asked Jet, sounding a little surprised. "I was about to go hang it over the front porch. You want to help?"

"Sure." Clem went with Jet to the front of the house, heading up the steps into the quaint veranda. Discovering they had never collected any furniture to place on the porch, Jet hurried inside to collect something to stand on while Clem made a mental note to get a few cozy chairs next time they went into Pawhuska. Jet hammered a couple of nails into the roof of the veranda while Clem held the stool he was standing on steady. When he was done, she passed up the sign and he looped the chains around the ends of the nails.

Hopping off the chair, the pair immediately ran down the steps to admire their handy work. The sign hung neatly in front of the entrance, christening the property with its new name. It even swayed a little as the wind picked up, and Clem suddenly found herself tickled by an image of her and Sarah as old ladies in rocking chairs, just watching the sun set together from the veranda.

"Hey, I think Devlin's back."

Clem spun around in time to see a large red semi-truck turn off the driveway and pull up next to the other semi hitched to the trailer they had used to move the backhoe. Clem went with Jet as they rushed out to meet the man. Arriving at the truck, they watched as Devlin slunk out of the cab, a forlorn look on his face as he leaned up against the vehicle.

"Devlin?" greeted Clem as they inched closer.

"Did something happen in Tulsa?" asked an anxious Jet as the man turned to look at the pair.

"Nah, nothing happened," Devlin said with a half-hearted shrug. "If anyone had come since we left, they didn't touch anything we left out for them at the Sam's Club, least not that I could tell."

"Then what's wrong?" Clem's question was met with silence as Devlin looked away. "You can tell us."

"It's just… being back in that big empty city, all by myself," spoke Devlin in a quiet voice. "Brought back a lot of bad memories of living there, alone, thinking I was the last man alive on Earth."

"I'm sorry," spoke a sympathetic Clem.

"There… there were more than a few nights there I thought about pointing the line launcher at my own head," admitted Devlin in a hushed whisper. "I think the only thing stopping me was knowing since it didn't use a regular bullet, there was a good chance it wouldn't actually kill me."

"Devlin…" spoke a visibly disturbed Jet.

"Never mind, just forget—"

"Don't," said Clem as she grabbed the man's sleeve as he tried to turn to back to the cab. "Don't tell us to just forget about something like that. Talk to us."

"I'm… I'm not used to talking to people about stuff like this," admitted Devlin. "Especially not kids who got enough to worry about as it is."

"Like I told you before, talking to people isn't nearly as bad as a lot of things we have to worry about now," reminded Clem.

"And I'd worry less if you just talked to us," said Jet, almost pleading.

"If you don't want to talk about something right now because it makes you feel worse, then just tell us that, but if it's us you're worried about then you're better off telling us."

Devlin took a deep breath. "I guess I'm just terrified I'll wind up alone again," he confessed. "Been my worst fear for a long time. I never really knew my dad, and my mom died not long after I finished high school. Just had a heart attack one day… she wasn't even that old. She… she had been my whole life up until then."

"You didn't have any other family?" asked Jet.

"Like I said, I don't know where my dad is, I was an only child, no grandparents or aunts or uncles, not that I know of; losing her was like losing everything. If I hadn't already enrolled in college, I don't know where the hell I would have gone next. And once I graduated I immediately looked for something else, anything so I wouldn't be alone. I had a lot of student debt, and I didn't really feel comfortable with the regular military, so I joined the Coast Guard.

"Might sound strange, but the time I spent with Simmons and company was probably the first time I felt like I really belonged, like I had a purpose, and a family again. As hard as things were in Tulsa, I don't think I had ever felt closer to people than I did with them. When we drew straws to find out what order we'd take lingering survivors out of Tulsa in, each time I drew the short one it felt like another punch to the stomach, until I realized I'd have to be the one who stayed the longest, by myself."

"That's terrible," said Jet. "You… you just had to watch them leave one by one?"

"The Chief went before the rest of us, taking whoever was left downriver to hopefully be safe in New Orleans. A family of four came to Tulsa not long after that; John took them downriver. Next was Jorge and this brother and sister who couldn't stop arguing. For over a month it was just me and Gina, this older woman who loved to swear. We used to joke she was around when the Coast Guard was founded. She heard us once and snapped 'And the recruits get bitchier every fucking century!"

Jet had to stifle a laugh. "Yeah, it gets less funny when you spend a whole month alone with her. But still, the day some starving old man with torn up shoes came stumbling into the citadel, I was sad to see her go with him to New Orleans. Then it was just me, waiting for my chance to go home to them… but they're not there anymore."

"I know how you feel," spoke a sympathetic Clem. "After everything changed, I just wanted to find my parents again. I met a lot of people who made me feel like I belonged, and eventually we went to the city my parents were in… They were dead, and everyone else I had ever met was dead or gone by the end of that day. I walked for miles, covered in blood and guts, not knowing where I'd go or what I'd do because there was no one left."

"What did you do?" asked Jet, transfixed by Clem's story.

"I got lucky. OJ's parents survived and found me outside the city. If they hadn't, I don't know what I would have done. I was so sad that if they hadn't of said we needed to move, I might have just sat on that log forever."

"Sounds like how I felt like when I met you people," said Devlin. "After you told me New Orleans was gone I just thought 'That's it, there's nothing left'. Then you guys talked about taking back the shopping center, and I was suddenly part of something again."

"Is that the only reason you came with us?" asked Jet.

"In a way," admitted Devlin. "I was just kind lost in the moment, and you people needed an extra hand. I'm happy I'm here now, but part of me wishes I just told the Chief I wanted to stay with her when she left for New Orleans for the last time, but I never said a word."

"Why not?" asked Clem.

"I guess I felt like it was my duty, not because I was in the Coast Guard, which didn't mean much after going AWOL, but to my mother, who told me the best thing you can ever do is be there for other people. Seeing as she died raising me, I always thought the least I could do is honor her by making sure her son was there for anyone who needed it, even when it meant giving up what I wanted."

"But you can't give up on everything you want," said Jet. "If you really wanted to be with your friends again you should have gone after them."

"If I had done that, I wouldn't have been there for you people when you came to Tulsa," reasoned Devlin.

"You said you thought about killing yourself while you were waiting. If that had happened, you wouldn't have been there for us or for anyone ever again." Devlin's stoic expression cracked upon hearing that. Clem watched as his eyes shifted in place and he sat up slightly, as if Jet now had his full attention.

"Anytime I was worried about something I couldn't control or was so far away I couldn't do anything about it, my dad would tell me to do something that made me feel better instead. He said if I don't stop to help myself every now and then, then I won't be in any shape to help someone else when the time comes."

"Your dad sounds like a smart man," said Devlin with a smirk.

"He and mom are both smart… I wish they were here." Clem placed her hand on Jet's shoulder as he sighed. "But, people like you and Clem and Patty help make it okay."

"Although, if you did want to go find your friends, I'd understand," Clem told Devlin. "I told you back in Tulsa I don't think it's a good idea, but it's not fair to you say you can't go. You've done a lot for us Devlin, the least we could do is let you do what you want most."

"I… I really appreciate that, both of you," said Devlin with utter sincerity. "But the whole time I was in Tulsa today, I just wanted to be back here."

"Really?" asked Clem.

"Yeah, really. I could barely stand being back there today… I don't think I could handle seeing New Orleans the same way."

"If it's that hard on you maybe you shouldn't go to Tulsa every month," suggested Jet.

"No, I'd feel even worse if I didn't. I mean, we left out instructions and everything. Being pretty cruel leaving people to wait in false hope like that."

"Well, what if I come with you next time?" suggested Clem. "That way the trip won't be so lonely."

"I appreciate that, but—"

"It's dangerous and I could get killed and a bunch of other stuff people always say when I say I should come with them," dismissed Clem. "Just let me go with you next time. You'll have someone with you so it won't feel lonely, and it'll be safer with two people who can watch each other, and I could get time off from watering plants and double-checking tomato cages."

"Damn, you just lay it all out there," noted Devlin with a smile. "You sounded a little like the Chief just now."

"So that means I can come with you when you go back there in May." said Clem, not so much asking as assuming.

"It doesn't sound like you're going to take no for an answer," observed Devlin. "And truth be told, I really would like the company."

"Great, so it's a deal," said Clem.

"And in the mean time, you're coming to Patty's party right?" asked Jet.

"Hell yeah," said Devlin with a smile. "I didn't spend an extra hour at the Sam's Club getting everything on her list just to not come. When's the festivities begin?"

"She said as soon as the rain started, so that way we've all got something to celebrate." Just after Jet said that, there was clap of thunder followed by the gentle patter of raindrops.

"Perfect timing," said Devlin as he spun around and reached into the cab.

"Here, first, this is the stuff Sarah asked me to bring back for her new greenhouse," said Devlin as he handed a couple of heavy plastic bags to Clem. "And Jet, you and I can bring in the rest before the bottom drops out."

"Do you know where Sarah is?" Clem asked Jet as she adjusted her grip on the bags.

"I'm pretty sure she's still behind the house in that plastic tunnel thing Devlin set up," said Jet as he took a large bucket with both hands. "I was bringing her pots of dirt all morning, and she didn't even look close to finished with… whatever she was doing."

Clem started running back towards the house as she could hear drops of rain falling on the brim of her hat. Running around the corner, she found the narrow space between the side of the house and the fence had been filled with a very long tent made out of a see-through material. It looked a little like the one Shaffer's used for a greenhouse, but much shorter and narrower.

After spending a minute trying the peel back a flap while juggling two heavy bags, Clem emerged inside the tent and found herself standing in a narrow aisle between the long tables that ran down the length of both sides of the tent. Sitting on top of them was a variety of different pots and planters all full of dirt. Hearing the gentle patter of rain suddenly erupt into a crude battering compelled Clem to look up and see the torrential downpour that had broken out in the short time since she entered the tent. Thinking she should get inside soon, Clem hurried forward and discovered Sarah standing at the opposite end of the tent.

"Sarah," said Clem as she approached her. "Sarah!"

"Hmm?" Sarah looked up from the pot she was staring at. "Clem, what are you doing here?"

"What are you doing here?" repeated Clem. "I haven't seen you all day. I'm here because Devlin is back and said you wanted this." Clem passed the bags to Sarah, who immediately set them on the table and started digging through them.

"Finally." Sarah whipped out a large plastic bottle, hastily eyed the back label, then twisted off the cap. Clem watched as she poured tiny yellow flakes across the dirt under the table, then kept moving to do the same under the next table. Briefly eyeing the label, Clem noticed the words 'Kills Fire Ants', and checking the bags, she spotted several other containers, pouches, and aerosol cans with scary words like 'RAID' and pictures of dead insects lying on their backs.

"I guess we have a bug problem now," concluded Clem as Sarah returned to the table and set the poison down.

"Yesterday, when I was setting up the tables after Devlin finished putting up the greenhouse, I suddenly felt something stinging my legs. Stupid ants climbed all the way up my sock just to bite me," groused Sarah as she grabbed an open container already sitting on the table.

"You… you had ants in your pants," said Clem, trying not to laugh.

"Then I thought, bugs might just eat all our plants before the stuff that's supposed to get rid of them finishes growing, and how stupid it was not to bring something to deal with them," rambled Sarah. "And then I realized I haven't read up on pesticides at all, even though I really should have, so just before Devlin left for Tulsa I told him to bring—"

"Sarah!" said Clem loudly but not angrily. "Calm down."

"I'm… I'm sorry," said Sarah as she scooped a tiny bit of blue powder out of a container and started sprinkling it over the dirt in the pot.

"It's okay, you don't need to be sorry. Just, take it easy."

"It's just, I didn't even think about pesticides until those ants bit me and it's getting warmer every day, so there will be probably more than just ants before long, so I need to start figuring out which pesticides do what and how to use them," rambled Sarah as she sprinkled the powder onto the dirt.

"Is that what you're doing now?" asked Clem.

"No, this is just fertilizer, which is something else I'll need to read up on," said Sarah as she grabbed a small watering can.

"Don't you just throw stuff that rots into a big bin or something?" asked Clem. "That's what I did at a friend's house whose parents had a compost heap in their yard."

"It's more complicated than that," said Sarah as she carefully poured some water onto the pot. "For good fertilizer, you need to make sure there's twice as much carbon stuff as nitrogen stuff, and you need to mix it right, and don't throw in things that attract pests."

"Don't we have a ton of fertilizer in the trailer… like literally?"

"Yeah, so we've got time for now, but eventually I'll need to figure out how to make our own before we run out," said Sarah as she set her watering can down. "Right now, it's more important I just get this stuff to grow."

"Are these the strawberries?" asked Clem as she looked at the pot.

"About half of them. The other ones are onions, carrots, and potatoes."

"You're growing those for the seeds, right?"

"Sorta," said Sarah as she moved onto another pot and started watering it.

"Sort of?"

"Well, from what I read, you can make more potatoes by cutting up grown ones into little cubes that each have their own eye on it. If you plant those, they'll grow into full-sized potatoes."

"Really?"

"Yeah, in fact, most of the books I read said you plant parts of a potato to grow into potatoes, not seeds anymore."

"But we planted—"

"That was our only bag. I think Devlin mentioned one of the people in Tulsa was an actual farmer who brought his stuff with him and he must have had a bag for growing what are called seed potatoes, which are potatoes you grow just to use to plant more potatoes. I didn't even notice it was the only bag for potatoes until after we used up most of them in the field…" Clem watched as Sarah's hand trembled as it scooped out more fertilizer.

"So, I'm growing most of what's left in here, hopefully so I can either get more seeds out of these potatoes, or just use the ones I grow to make more. If I don't figure it out… we'll probably never be able to grow potatoes after this year… assuming the seeds we had were even good in the first place."

"I… I had no idea," confessed Clem, feeling a little anxious as she thought about what Sarah said. "Are the carrots and onions like that too?"

"Not really, they just take a long time," said Sarah. "Although, you remember how we grew carrot tops like Dr. Bostwick said? You can do something like that for onions too. If you cut off the bottoms of onions and replant them, they'll grow roots and eventually grow into a whole new onion, sort of like the potatoes, except you can only get onion since they only have one bottom." Sarah finished sprinkling fertilizer on a pot and took a step back from the table. She took a deep breath as she looked out at all the other tables. "No wonder she was so mean."

"Who?"

"Dr. Bostwick," said Sarah. "She said she grew that whole greenhouse by herself; she must have worked all day every day on it."

"That didn't make it okay for her to be an asshole to us," stated Clem.

"No, but… probably nobody at Shaffer's really knew how hard it was to grow all that stuff. I mean, I never thought about it until I saw her greenhouse, and even then I didn't really know how hard it was until after we started that garden and I made so many mistakes and—"

"We both made mistakes, not just you," insisted Clem as she approached Sarah. "And we'll do better this time. And we got a lot of help."

"Who all need to eat too."

"And that's why we planted a lot more, and it'll start making food soon."

"Hopefully."

"It will. Anthony even found our first tomato today."

"Really?" asked a surprised Sarah.

"It was just a little green thing, but it was definitely a tomato."

"I'm glad we got the cages in now then," said Sarah. "You—"

"We made sure they were good and stuck in the ground, and he made sure the bean poles were too before it started raining."

"Raining?" Sarah looked up and saw the water rushing across the top of the tent. "I didn't even know it had started already. Did Sin—"

"He said the rainwater collector was ready."

"But the pond, did—"

"He dug it out as much as he could with the backhoe. Everyone's doing what you ask them to. It's okay," assured Clem as she grasped Sarah's hand. "Devlin just got back from Tulsa, and we were all going to have a party inside while it's raining. Why don't you come in already? You've been out here all morning."

"Oh… okay."

Clem breathed a sigh of relief as Sarah tossed off her gloves and apron and headed for the end of the tent. Even rushing through the rain to the door, Clem could feel herself getting soaked as the wind was whipping at her face. Bursting through the door and hurrying into the living room, Clem found almost everyone was gathered around a roaring fire in the fireplace.

"Kem-men!" Clem looked down to see Omid rushing up to greet her. "Sah-rah!"

"Hey there Oh—Omid," corrected Clem as she scooped him off the floor.

"Did you miss us?" asked Sarah, some of the weariness melting off her face as she smiled at him.

"Chai-yo!" he cheered.

"Chai-yo," answered Clem back.

"There you guys are," said Jet as he approached the pair. "He was saying your names so much I was just about to come looking for you."

"Sorry," said Sarah. "I just wanted to finish with everything in the greenhouse before I came in."

"Ah-mah-dah-pay," babbled Omid.

"You want something?" asked Clem.

"Actually, I think he was saying he made this." Jet handed Sarah a piece of paper while Clem set Omid on the floor. Looking at the paper, Clem saw it was a messy smear of colors that collided in the center of the page to form a large brown blob.

"Patty let Omid try finger painting today," said Jet as Sarah handed Clem the paper. "She said it took him a few minutes to make that, and almost an hour to clean up everything else he touched, including himself."

"Pay! Pay!" cheered Omid as he slapped his hands across the paper in Clem's hands.

"Ah, he made his first drawing," said Clem as she handed the paper back to Sarah. "Isn't that great?"

"And I missed it," realized Sarah.

"Don't worry, Patty said he wanted to make lots more," assured Jet. "You can ask her about it as soon as she—"

"Clear a path, here comes the post-apocalyptic party ball!" Patty and Anthony burst in from the front door, the former toting a very large bucket and the latter a pair of large fire extinguishers, all of which they set on the floor.

"What happened?" asked Sarah as she approached the pair. "Was there a fire?"

"Other than in the fireplace?" clarified Clem.

"No, but we really should get some extinguishers for such an occasion," said Sin without looking away from the window he was staring out of.

"Add it to the list for my May trip," suggested Devlin as he kicked his feet up onto the couch's armrest. "Patty already tapped me out on her party supplies for this last trip."

"Which was totally worth it," said Patty as she knelt down over her bucket. "Because fire extinguishers aren't just good for putting out fires."

Peering into the bucket, Clem could see a case of beer stacked on top of another case of beer being flanked by a couple of taller bottles. There was also a simmering white fog settling in the bottom of the bucket.

"Want a cold beer partner?"

"Cold?" Clem reached into to bucket and was shocked to the find the bottles were frigid to the touch.

"Freshly cooled by yours truly," announced Anthony as he gestured to the fire extinguishers he set on the floor.

"You can cool things with those?" asked Sarah.

"If they're the type that use carbon dioxide," explained Jet.

"Sure glad you spoke up about that earlier when I told Devlin to just grab any extinguishers. I thought the people I saw do this on TV said any kind would work," said Patty as she pulled a couple of beers out of the case. "Now let's drink up while it's still cold," said Patty as she offered the beers to Sarah and Clem. "These aren't like that that cheap crap we had on New Year's, I made sure to tell Devlin to grab a couple of my favorite ales."

"Wait, you're not giving them beer?" asked Sin as he turned away from the window.

"We've had it before," assured Clem as she took the bottles. "And we've had to kill walkers, and worry about people hurting us, and learn how to take care of a baby."

"And keep this whole farm thing going," added Patty. "Pretty sure if anyone has earned a beer, it's them."

"Yeah really Granddad," said Jet. "Everything that's happened and you're still worried about us drinking beer?"

"For real man, I had my first beer when I was twelve," said Anthony as he twisted a cap off a bottle. "And I turned out okay."

"You should mellow out and have a drink yourself Sin," suggested Patty.

"I don't like beer," he said as he looked away.

"What about wine?" asked Patty as she pulled the taller bottles out of the bucket. "We got white and red."

Sin stared out the window for a second, then looked over at Patty. "What kind of white?"

"It's just some fancy for Sam's Club standards wine but I remember it being pretty good at our Christmas bash in Tulsa," explained Devlin as he sat up. "I prefer red myself but it's good if you like white wine."

"And Devlin grabbed us some wine glasses too, which we also put in the bucket, so we got chilled wine in chilled fancy glasses."

Sin turned back to the window, only to turn back to Patty. "What the hell," he said as he took one of the bottles from Patty and examined the label.

"Here." Clem offered a bottle to Sarah, who hesitated. "Come on, it's April Fool's Day."

"Do people drink on April Fool's Day?" asked Sarah.

"I don't know," shrugged Clem.

"How about we drink to finally getting a rainy day?" suggested Jet as he joined the girls' conversation. "Which means we get an afternoon off from having to haul water across the field a few cans at a time?"

"Yeah, let's drink to that." Clem watched as Sarah's expression slowly morphed from one of apprehension to a cautious smile.

"Why not?" Sarah took the bottle and twisted the cap off, prompting Clem to do the same, which took a lot more effort than she was expecting.

"Oh, we should clink glasses—or bottles I guess," suggested Sarah.

"And say cheers," added Clem.

"Or chai-yo, which is Thai for cheers," suggested Jet.

The trio thrust their bottles forward. "Chai-yo!" they said in near unison with the clinking of glass. Clem threw her head back and swallowed a few big gulps of ale. The taste was pungent, but not nearly as bad the beer she tried on New Year's. It was an odd mix of something hardy, almost wood like, with something sweeter, like bubble-gum. Clem didn't exactly like it, but she could probably stomach to drink more of it, and looking at Sarah's and Jet's faces, she suspected they felt the same.

"Bah-bah!" demanded Omid as he stretched up to take the beer.

"Tell me we're not giving a baby alcohol," pleaded Sin as he stopped pouring wine into a tall glass.

"Of course not," said Sarah as she raised her bottle out of reach.

"But I did grab something for the little guy." Devlin removed a bottle of cola from the bucket and twisted the cap off. "Patty mentioned you gave him one of these on New Year's."

"Did she mention it was almost impossible to get him to sleep after that?" asked Sarah.

"It's… like one in the afternoon," said Clem as she checked her watch. "And besides, he wants to party too."

"Bah-bah!" demanded Omid as he stretched out his hands for his treat.

"Here you go buddy, have something sweet on us." Devlin handed Omid the bottle and Clem helped him lift it up to his lips. Cola dribbled onto his shirt as he lifted his head back to drink more. Clem was afraid he was going to spill half the bottle before he finally lowered it and took a breath.

"Ah-lah-dah-ah-bree!" he said before immediately drinking more.

"All right, now that we're all getting nice and buzzed, I say we sit down, listen to some music, play some poker, eat some choice junk food I managed to dig out of our trailer, and just kick back for the rest of the day."

Patty tossed a pack of cards and a wad of worn bills on the table in front of the couch while Anthony hauled over a big box. The box had wrapped jerky, sugary candies, not-entirely stale chips, and a single pack of freeze-dried ice-cream in it. While Clem fished out something to eat, Patty turned on their CD player. Between the warm sensation brewing in her stomach and the literal warmth of the fire drying her clothes as rock music filled the air and sweet treats filled her mouth, Clem felt her worries melting away as she sat down to spend an evening with friends and family.

Everyone initially joined in the poker game while alternating between sipping their drinks, enjoying their snacks, and making small talk with each other. Sin dropped out after only a few hands, admitting he wasn't a big fan of poker, and Sarah followed not long after that for the same reason. While playing poker, Clem could overhear the two talking, and distinctly heard Sin telling Sarah his wife had been a fan of Pink Floyd too.

Omid kept moving around the room at a frantic pace, likely still deep into his sugar rush. He would shout things, climb on and off the couch, and even try to take cards from people as they played. Eventually, Devlin managed to pull the toddler into his orbit by letting him choose cards. It only took three hands for Devlin to lose all of his money, which he didn't mind. Tapped out he went to converse with Sin while Sarah played with Omid with a renewed sense of vigor.

Clem did her best to stay in the game, but her head feeling lighter with every sip of beer she took and the generally relaxed mood of the party made it hard for her to stay competitive. After gambling the rest of what little money she had left on two pair only for Jet to call her bluff, Clem left the game broke but no poorer in any way that mattered to her.

Looking around, Clem saw Omid running back and forth trying to catch a ball Sin and Devlin passed between them while Sarah was spread out on the couch. Not wanting to interrupt Omid's fun, Clem headed for the couch and very careful lied down beside Sarah. She wrapped her friend's arm around her waist and soon felt the arm tenderly squeezing her. Lying there in Sarah's grasp, listening to her soft breathing over the music while watching the others laugh and smile, Clem felt like she was finally home.

"How'd you do?" whispered Sarah.

"You weren't watching?" whispered Clem.

"I was resting my eyes."

"I lost, bad. Patty's a lot better than me, and so is Anthony, and Jet too."

"I'm sorry," said Sarah.

"It's fine, I don't really care, but I would like to know who wins." Clem sat up, prompting Sarah to as well. Clem watched as Anthony raised his bet and tossed a few more bills into the pile.

"All right, I'm out," said Patty as she lowered her cards. "I'm not throwing away any more money this hand."

"That just leaves you kid," said Anthony with a confident smirk. "You in or out?"

"I amm…" Jet deliberately drew out the word 'am' while he clearly stalled for time. What Clem found odd was he didn't actually sound unsure, as if he was just trying to keep Anthony in suspense. "All in!" Jet suddenly pushed his entire pile of money into the pot.

"Whoa, what?" said Patty as she sat up. "Mister minimum bet only must finally have a hot hand."

"Or he's bluffing," added Anthony.

"Only one way to find out," said Jet in an uncharacteristically cocky tone. "You in or out?"

"I think that beer has gone to your head kid," speculated Anthony.

"So does that mean you're in?" asked Jet, sounding no less confident while Anthony continued to stare in response.

"Guess I'm playing one on one with whoever wins this hand," noted Patty as she watched Anthony slide all his money into the center.

"I'm in," he stated with no uncertainty. "So kid, show me—"

A large crash cut through the music as everyone jumped to their feet. Patty shut off the music while Devlin rushed over to a now broken window.

"Shit, where are the guns?" Clem heard Anthony ask as she hurried over to the window for a better look.

"They're all in our vehicles," answered Sarah as Clem arrived in time to see Devlin pick up something lying amongst the broken glass.

"What is it?" she asked as she moved in for a closer look.

"I… I think this is one of our spatulas from the grill," said Devlin as he held up the utensil.

"How did—"

"Oh God." Sin's words prompted everyone else to crowd around the broken window he was looking out of. Just getting closer to it sent a chill down Clem's spine as a frigid gale blew through the broken glass. Looking past Sin and Devlin, Clem watched in terror as she saw trees violently swaying in the wind while what sounded like a massive train barreled out of control somewhere behind the black clouds that had blanketed the sky.

"Jesus," spoke an awestruck Patty. "If I didn't know better, I'd say a hurricane was coming."

"Or a tornado," announced Anthony, terror grasping his voice.

"We should go to the storm shelter," realized Sin.

"He's right," said Devlin he backed away from the window. "Let's move, now!"

Devlin's order sent everyone scrambling. Sarah grabbed Omid while Jet grabbed one of the fire extinguishers. He tried putting out the fire in the fireplace, but nothing happened, forcing him to try the other extinguisher which produced just enough of a squirt of chemicals to douse the flames. As he set the extinguisher down, Clem noticed the crestfallen look on his face.

"It'll be okay," assured Clem with as much courage as she could.

"It's… it's not that," said Jet, slurring his words slightly as he spoke. "I was going to win."

"Huh?"

"I noticed Anthony doesn't blink when he bluffs, like he's worried we know he's hiding something, and he didn't blink once when—"

"Clem, Jet, come on!" Patty's yell sent the pair racing to the backdoor. Taking a single step outside, Clem felt the wind hit her with such force she was nearly knocked backwards into the house along with the hat it blew off her head. She only made it a few steps forward before being forced to step to the side and be shoved up against the house by the unrelenting wind. The terrible rumbling she heard was even louder now while an uneven chorus of wood cracking and snapping sounded from every direction.

"Everyone!" yelled Devlin over the noise. "Head for the fence! Use it to pull yourself towards the shelter!" Clem watched as Devlin struggled against the wind for a few seconds before crossing from the house over to the fence. The man dug his hands into the gaps in the chainlink, then waved to the others. "Come on!"

Anthony crossed next and Sin struggled to follow behind him, falling to his knees as he reached the fence. Clem's heart was in her throat as she watched Patty and Sarah group together to go next. The pair locked hands, while Sarah used her free arm to keep Omid tightly grasped against her chest. Clem's heart skipped a beat as they both stumbled forward, looking ready to be bowled over by the wind at any second. It wasn't until Patty grabbed Devlin's arm did Clem finally hear someone shouting in her ear.

"Come on!"

Clem looked into Jet's eyes for a moment, then locked arms with him. She felt her stomach drop as they let go of the side of the house and the full force of the wind felt stronger with each passing step. The pair had to lean into to wind and let their weight push against it just to avoid being knocked off their feet. With the rain blinding her as she moved, Clem could only trust Jet knew where they were going as she felt him leading her arm first to what she hoped was the fence.

Clem suddenly felt herself slamming into something metal and threw out her free hand to find the stiff chainlink between her fingers. Releasing Jet and looking ahead, it felt like sharp pebbles were being tossed at Clem's head as the rain stung her face. Keeping her head down as she pulled herself along, Clem could hear that horrible rumbling sound grow even louder. Looking up, she watched as a lightning strike lit up the sky just long enough to make out the outline of a giant swirling mass of inky blackness just past the edge of the forest.

"Oh God…" The light faded and Clem found herself transfixed by the sight of the dark sky, now knowing what was out there hiding just out of sight. Forcing herself to look back down, Clem saw Devlin had reached the storm hatch buried between the guest house and the fence. Clem started pulling herself along as fast as she could, the roar of the wind becoming deafening as she caught up with the others all lined up behind Devlin as he tried to reach the hatch.

Devlin tried pulling open the hatch with one hand while clinging to the chainlink, but the wind almost immediately slammed it shut. Another, louder chorus of cracking and snapping sounded over the roar of wind as Clem spotted trees on the horizon falling over almost in sync with each other. Clem instincts drove her to move forward but she couldn't; Jet was right in front of her, who was stuck behind Patty and Sarah, who were waiting behind Sin and Anthony, who were all watching in vain as Devlin tried to juggle the impossible of opening the hatch against the wind while clinging to the distant fence for stability.

After another failed attempt, Clem watched as Sin moved past Anthony and hurried to Devlin as quickly as he could through the wind. The two men seemed to confer for a second before Devlin moved a little further along the fence and grabbed the post instead of the chainlink, then Sin moved forward and grabbed Devlin's free hand. Clem watched as the older man moved against the wind just long enough to grab hold of the storm hatch's handle, then Devlin pulled on Sin's arm, effectively using him as a human hope to pull the hatch open.

As soon as the hatch was wide enough to pass through, Anthony bolted from the fence and hurried inside. Patty followed behind him, doing her best to lead Sarah by the arm while she clung to Omid for dear life. Clem's heart was in her throat as she watched them struggle to move against the wind, terrified it would topple them at any moment or that the funnel cloud would suddenly appear on top of them and suck them away into dark sky never to be seen again.

Patty reached the hatch, then dragged Sarah far enough forward that she could reach the edge. Clem watched anxiously as Sarah threaded her legs into the hole, then disappeared underground, Patty following right behind her. Without a word, Clem felt Jet grabbing her arm and they moved in tandem as they tried to cross the short few feet from the fence to the hatch. Clem wasn't so much walking anymore as being dragged forward as it felt like the wind would pull her out of Jet's grasp any second now.

Crossing in front of the open hatch, the door blocked most of the wind and Clem almost fell forward as the sudden break from it caused her to nearly lose her balance. Edging towards the hatch, Clem briefly caught sight of Sin and Devlin and the agonized expressions on both their faces. The door to hatch shook in place as the wind tried to wrest it from Sin's aged hands. Jet let go of Clem's arm and hurried into the open hatch, Clem following right behind him, threading her legs through the opening and dropping into the dark pit without a second thought.

"Come on!" Clem didn't know who was yelling until she saw Patty move into the light and start climbing back up the ladder. "We gotta keep the door open long enough for Sin and Devlin to get in here!"

Clem felt someone brushing past her in the dark and watched as Jet climbed the ladder after Patty. Patty tried pushing against the door with one hand while clinging to the ladder with the other, but Jet climbed past her. He stuck the upper half of his body past the top of the hatch, then carefully pivoted in place on the ladder until his back was pressed against the door. Jet stretched out his hands and braced himself against the opposite edge of the opening while his back pushed on the door. Patty quickly emulated Jet's tactic, moving up a little further and turning herself around to do the same.

"Granddad!" yelled Jet at the top of his lungs. "Hurry!"

Clem watched in horror as the hatch nearly slammed shut as it knocked Patty off the ladder and nearly Jet too. Clem was about to race to Jet's aid as he strained with all his might to keep the door even cracked, but Patty scurried back up the ladder and put herself in position. Working together, they managed to push the door open just enough for someone to come tumbling in between the pair's arms.

Sin fell forward onto the ground, landing on his shoulder before crumbling onto his side with a painful yelp. Clem hurried over to the man and pulled as hard as she could to help him off the floor. Slowly rising from where he fell, Clem managed to guide Sin forward on his knees towards the nearest wall just as Devlin dropped feet first into the shelter. As soon he landed on the floor, Patty and Jet both fell off the ladder, collapsing into a mess of agonized human bodies as the hatch slammed firmly shut and the shelter was plunged into darkness.

Clem couldn't see anything but could hear voices all around her, some groaning in pain while a couple other breathed loudly while. The sound of Omid crying in a corner cut through all of them, and behind that was the roar of the storm, sounding more like an angry ocean surging above them than the wind anymore. Clem just stood there in the darkness, unsure what to do until she heard a voice call her name.

"Clementine," spoke Sin just above a whisper.

"Yeah?" she responded in the direction she thought she heard Sin speak.

"I have a flashlight… in my right hip pocket," spoke the man in-between deep breaths. "I need you to get it."

"Why me?"

"Because… I can't feel my fingers right now." The words felt like a pin had just pricked Clem's stomach. She reached out into the darkness, finding something that she tried locating the side of. "My right, your left." Clem started feeling her way down the other side of what she assumed was Sin, feeling strange as she did. Eventually, her fingers brushed past what she was fairly sure was a belt, and with a bit more work she located a pocket and the tiny light stuffed inside. Pulling it out and feeling around for the button, she suddenly found herself looking directly at Sin as he held up his hands to block out the light.

"Sorry," said Clem as she lowered the flashlight.

"It's okay." Clem noticed a series of dark bruises running across the fingers on one of Sin's hands, while there were purple and red marks around the wrist on the other.

"Speaking professionally," mumbled Sin in-between deep breaths as he did his best to rub his stiff hands together. "Whoever designed this shelter… overlooked some critical design flaws." Clem wanted to laugh, but couldn't as she watched Sin wearily try to regain feeling in his hands.

"Is everyone okay?" called a shaken Patty through the darkness. Following her voice with the light, Clem saw the woman sitting on the floor near the ladder, rubbing her shoulder. Not far from her was Jet doing the same and Devlin on the ladder fiddling with the hatch until it produced a loud click. Eventually, the light fell on Sarah sitting in the corner, a sobbing Omid still cradled in her arms.

"It's okay," Clem struggled to say as she crawled across the ground to them. "It's okay, I'm here." Clem held up the light and moved in close so Omid could see her face. "I'm right here, it's okay, we're all okay." Omid turning his head and meeting eyes with Clem seemed to settle them both; Omid stopped crying and Clem started breathing normally again.

Adjusting the light a little, Clem finally could see Sarah's face. Her eyes were bloodshot and bugged out, seemingly frozen with the rest of her face in a state of wide-awake terror. "Sarah." Clem's whisper received no answer. "Sarah," Clem said a little louder.

"Sah-rah." Omid's voice finally seemed to reach her. Sarah blinked a few times and looked around, as if she had just woken up.

"Are you okay?" whispered Clem.

"I… I think so," answered Sarah, sounding confused. She adjusted her grip on Omid, then started stroking his hair with her free hand, whenever to soothe him or herself Clem wasn't sure. "Is… is everyone—"

"Oh God!" Anthony's panicked yelp caused Clem to spin around. Her light found its way to the young man as he seemed to be pacing back and forth across the short distance between walls, almost like he was looking for a way out and couldn't accept there wasn't one. "I… I'm gonna die down here!"

"We're not going to die," refuted Clem.

"You don't know that!" Clem flinched as Anthony raised his voice, yet it was the look of absolute terror on his face that frightened her more. His eyes looked like they were ready to pop out of his head while every muscle on his face looked pulled taut. "This—this—this isn't a shelter, it's a god damn prison cell, or a coffin!"

"Anthony, calm down," urged a nervous Patty as she stood up.

"I mean, it's just four walls, there's not even any lights or—fuck, there's not even any vents! I'm gonna suffocate!" Clem found herself aiming the light up at the ceiling and was disturbed to see Anthony was right.

"No one is going to suffocate," stated Sin, raising his voice as he did.

"How would you know!"

"Because I've worked in civil engineering twice as long as you've been alive!"

"Yeah, and—and did you ever examine this death trap before we came down here today?" asked Anthony, more panic creeping into his voice with every word he said.

"There's no way they'd sell a shelter that suffocates people," argued Sin. "That'd be a liability lawsuit just waiting to happen."

"Maybe they figured they could get away with it because most people would never use this damn thing! Companies did shady shit like that all the time right? We could run out of air any minute!"

"If you don't shut up we might," suggested an irate Patty.

"We're not going to run out of air," interjected Jet. "The door isn't even air tight. I could hear this whistling sound above me after it closed so there's at least some air moving in and out of it alone."

"Oh that's great, that damn door is probably defective and the tornado will rip it right off!"

"I locked the door," announced Devlin. "Anthony, man, just relax, okay?"

"Relax!"

"Yeah, we're safe down here, and even if we needed air, which we don't, but if we did, we could risk opening the door for a second to let some in."

Devlin's words suddenly halted Anthony's pacing. He turned and stared at the man for a second, then charged right past him.

"What are you doing!"

"Leaving!" announced Anthony as he rushed up the ladder.

"Shit, stop him!" ordered Patty as she lunged forward and grabbed one of Anthony's legs.

"I'm not staying down here!" yelled Anthony as he tried to reach the door's latch. "I'm going back to the house or my truck! Anywhere but here!"

"You're gonna get yourself killed!" said Devlin as he pulled on Anthony's other leg.

"Or all of us!" added Patty.

Jet sprung forward to help and Clem was about to join him when Anthony fell off the ladder, knocking Patty to the floor with him and nearly toppling Devlin as well. Anthony sprung up in a flash and tried to reach the ladder as Devlin stepped in front of him, grabbing Anthony by the shoulder and collar of his shirt.

"Sit down!" demanded Devlin.

"Let go of me you crazy nigger, I gotta—" Devlin's fist slammed into the side of Anthony's face, knocking him to the floor. Before he could get back up again Devlin put his knee in Anthony's back while he removed his belt. Despite his flailing about, Devlin managed to loop his belt around both of Anthony's wrists and bind them with a forceful tug before tying the end of the belt, and Anthony, to the bottom rung of the ladder.

Anthony demanded to be let go as he struggled against his bonds, a demand no one was willing to entertain. After nearly a minute of cussing and fidgeting in place, Anthony finally stopped, seemingly accepting his fate as he sat there and quietly mumbled to himself. A tense hush fell over the area and everyone seemed to retreat to a different corner to sit out the storm in whatever peace they could muster. Clem left the flashlight on the floor at an angle the illuminated most of the room, then returned to Sarah and Omid.

They didn't say anything, no one did, everyone just sat in silence as they all listened to the constant rumbling above. Every so often there was a loud bang or hard thud against the door that filled Clem with dread. Every time it happened it felt like the storm was announcing its intent to invade their shelter and finish them off. Eventually, the frightening rumble became a less intimidating rushing sound, and then even that faded away as light started streaming into the shelter through the narrow cracks in the door.

Checking her watch, Clem was surprised to see it wasn't even three in the afternoon yet. With the storm seemingly subsiding, there was a long pause before anyone moved to do anything. Eventually, Patty looked at Devlin, which was enough of a signal for him to take action. He maneuvered around Anthony as he climbed up the ladder, then reached for the latch. There was a loud click as he unlocked it, then light came flooding in as he pushed the door open.

"Well?" asked Patty in a quiet voice as she looked up expectedly into the bright light.

"It… it looks clear," reported Devlin, sounding relieved before he climbed out of the shelter. Clem looked over at Sarah and Omid, the former looking exhausted while the latter was quietly whimpering.

"Come on," urged Clem in a calm voice. "Let's go."

Clem helped Sarah to her feet and the pair headed for the exit. Sin and Jet approached the ladder as Patty climbed out.

"Are you okay?" asked Jet as Sin stretched out his trembling hands.

"I… I'm all right," insisted a weary Sin as he slowly wrapped his fingers around the ladder. "My hands are just very sore… as well as my arms… and my shoulders."

"Take your time," urged a sympathetic Devlin. "We wouldn't even have made it in here if not for you."

Slowly, and only somewhat surely, Sin climbed out of the shelter, with Jet right behind him. Next Clem urged Sarah forward, who carefully scaled the ladder with one arm while cradling Omid in the other. Looking down at Anthony while Sarah climbed, she noticed his expression was oddly vacant, his head listing to one side like he was a rag doll. Looking at the red and purple bruise on his cheek, Clem could actually see the outlines of at least two of Devlin's knuckles.

Looking up, she noticed Sarah stepping off the ladder and out of sight. Clem stretched up her leg to pass over the rung Anthony was tied to and climbed up herself. Emerging from the hatch, Clem found a sudden swell of relief in breathing in the fresh cool air. She hadn't even realized how hot and stuffy it had been in the shelter until now. Looking up, the sky was clear and free now, with a bit of orange on the horizon as the sun began to set. Turning her head, Clem could see dark storm clouds to the east and reasoned that was the storm had passed far over them, hopefully.

"Clem?" Clem looked at Sarah, who's face was such a jumbled mess of mixed emotions Clem couldn't be sure what she was feeling. "Can… can you take Omid? My arm is really starting to hurt."

"Oh, sure… sorry," said Clem as she took possession of a still whimpering Omid. "You—" Sarah marched off towards the house, a sudden urgency in the way she walked. Before Clem could go after her, Devlin emerged from the hatch. He looked down at Anthony still tied to the ladder, who could only look back up in response.

"You didn't untie me." Devlin stared at Anthony in response. "Oh come on, is… is this about what I said? I… I'm from Mississippi. I've heard bumfucks say shit like that so often it just kind of gets stuck in your head and I was freaking out and—"

Devlin slammed the hatch shut.

"What are you doing?" asked Clem.

"Giving him a couple of minutes to think," said Devlin as he looked over at Clementine.

"About something he said?" Devlin only stared at the ground in response. "What did he say?" Devlin said nothing. "Was it that word? I've heard it before; nigger."

"From who?" asked Devlin, sounding almost angry. "Did Anthony say that to you before?"

"No, it was a long time ago, and by someone who said all kinds of horrible things I didn't understand," said Clem. "I asked OJ's mom about some of them, and she just told me there's a lot of bad words even adults should never say. I guess that was one of them?"

"Yeah," said Devlin in a low voice.

"What does it mean?"

"It means you’re less than a person, just because of the color of your skin."

"Your skin?"

Devlin held out his hand. "Mine." Devlin gestured to Omid. "His. Your skin. All darker than Anthony or Patty's."

"So?"

"So… some people see that and think that they know you; know that you're no good, know you're a liar, know you're lazy, know you're stupid, or a crook, or a thug, or a killer, or some dumb animal, or any number of horrible things. Just from taking one look at you and seeing your skin is darker than theirs, they know you're a god damn nigger."

"One word means all that?" asked a confused Clem.

"Yeah, it's an ugly word meant to hurt you, made worse by it having nothing to do with who you are but just because of what you look like."

"That… that doesn't make any sense," said Clem as she adjusted her grip on Omid. "I mean, how can someone look at a baby like OJ and think stuff like that about him? That's crazy."

"Yeah, well… some people are crazy," said Devlin with a sigh. "Did… did your parents ever talk to you about something like this? About… what happens when someone says something like that to you?"

"Um… my mom did, on my first day of school," recalled Clem. "Before we left the house, she told me that if any of the other kids called me any names or words I didn't understand, or picked on me because I was a girl, or because I looked different, she wanted me to tell her as soon as I got home."

"And did anyone ever call you anything?"

"Some boys said girls had cooties, and my mom said that was just boys being stupid," said Clem. "There was one boy in the first grade at my old school who always called me an idiot, and I never understood why… do you think he was calling me an idiot because of my skin?"

"I don't know," said Devlin as he shook his head. "People can be ugly to each other for a lot of reasons, and sometimes you're not even sure why. I don't know if Anthony is a racist or just blurted out something he didn't mean while panicking. I'd like to think it's the second one, but either way it's a painful reminder of no matter what I do, I'm still gonna be just a no good nigger in some people's eyes, even now."

"And… what about me? And Omid? Are there people who'd think we're no good because our skin is darker than theirs?" Devlin looked up at Clementine, a bit of sadness in his eyes betraying the sternness he was trying to keep. "Oh…"

"How old were you when the outbreak started?"

"Eight."

"Your mom was probably hoping there be a few more years before she had to tell you… I know mine said she wished I had gotten a little more time before I found out." Devlin took a deep breath. "Take some comfort in one of the few silver linings to everything going to hell is not having to worry about this shit all that much anymore; end of the world tends to rearrange most people's priorities." Devlin looked down at the storm hatch. "But not all of them."

"So, what are you going to do?" asked Clem.

"Nothing really. I'm pretty sure Anthony already knows how I feel about this, so there's nothing left to do but untie him and get back to work, of which we probably have plenty more of now."

"Even though Anthony might think terrible things about you because of the way you look… or because of the way I look?" Clem felt her already racing mind being invaded with disturbing new possibilities as she began to process everything Devlin just told her.

"I had to work around a lot of racist bullshit before the fucking Rapture happened," said Devlin as he opened the hatch. "This is just a drop in the bucket compared to that."

"Can I come up already?" Clem heard Anthony's voice echo from below. "Seriously, I gotta pee and if you leave me here much longer—"

"Yeah, yeah, I'm coming; I want my belt back." Devlin climbed down the hatch while Clem headed back towards the house, her mind moving from one disturbing revelation to another as she surveyed the damage.

She could see fallen trees in the distance, while large branches and what she could only guess were tiles from their roofs were scattered across the grass both in and outside the fence. Heading for the center of the yard, Clem saw the picnic table they ate at had been blown into the side of the house, one of its benches broken in half. Their grills had all been knocked over and were badly dented all over, and Sarah's greenhouse was gone now.

Looking ahead, Clem could see the entire tent and had been flipped over and was now precariously resting upside down on the far end of the fence, a hundred feet away from where it had been before the storm. Many of the legs were twisted at odd angles and the plastic top torn in numerous places where it had been bent over the fence. And where the tent used to be was Sarah, kneeling in the mud, looking at the pots, tables, and containers of pesticides strewn all across the grass.

"Sarah, I—" Patty came bursting out the back door and immediately hurried over to Clem. "What's wrong?"

"Wrong? Nothing—I mean, not too much—oh, and here's your hat," babbled Patty as she handed Clem her hat back. "The vehicles are okay, and the house looks all right, except that window is still broken, and I think the roof sprung some leaks judging from the puddles I saw." Patty turned her head suddenly, and Clem looked over to see Jet and Sin approaching from the gate bordering the field. "How are the crops?"

"They're mostly all right actually," said Jet. "A lot of the bean poles blew over, and some of the cucumber and tomato cages, but the plants look okay."

"They're small, right on the ground, and probably didn't create much wind resistance," reasoned Sin as he rubbed his head.

"But something did," said Patty, noting the pessimism in Sin's voice.

"The rainwater collector," concluded a downcast Clem.

"It's… technically still there," said Jet.

"Technically?"

"It's intact… but the roof of the barn is gone," announced Sin.

"Gone?" repeated Clem.

"How's that possible?" asked Patty as she looked around. "None of the other buildings got hit that bad."

"Big open doors on both sides, angular roof… wind probably caught it just right and tore it off." Clem hurried across the yard as fast as she could while carrying Omid and looked through the fence at the barn. Sure enough, its roof was gone, and now there were just four battered and mismatched walls standing around each other. Dismayed by her discovery, Clem slowly walked back to the center of the yard where everyone else was standing.

"The actual barrels and pipes we built are all still there," reported Sin. "But without a roof to collect water for them, they're—"

Sarah started shrieking at the top of her lungs, startling everyone. Looking at her, Clem watched as Sarah started choking for air before collapsing into her own hands, crying hysterically. Just in the time it took for Clem to rush over to her, Sarah fell forward into the mud, keeping one hand on her face while pounding the wet soil with her fist.

"Sah-rah!" Omid tried kicking free from Clem's grip, forcing her to set him on the dirt. "Sah-rah!" he repeated as he hurried over to where Sarah was writhing in the mud, making pained sobs through one hand while beating the ground with other. "Muh-boo! Muh-boo Sah-rah!" cried Omid as he threw himself onto Sarah, wrapping his tiny arms as far around her body as he could. "Muh-boo!" he repeated as loud as he could. "Muh-boo-ah-ha-ha…" Omid's words collapsed into a series of loud cries as he clung to a still hysterical Sarah.

Clem knelt down close as Sarah struggled to breathe through her own sobbing. "It's okay," Clem whispered in her ear as she placed her hands on Sarah's shoulders. "It's oh—"

"Not it's not!" shrieked Sarah as she raised her head, revealing her face was racked with pain and covered in mud before immediately burying it back in the dirt as she started crying again.

"Okay, it's not," admitted Clem, fighting her every instinct to cry herself. "But… we still got each other. Okay? That's all I want right now, not a farm, me and OJ just want you to feel better. So please… please stop crying. I'll do anything for you, anything, because I love you more than anything, so please… please just stop crying…"

Clem felt herself beating back her own tears as she listened to Sarah continue to shed hers. She was just about to break down herself when she noticed Sarah's free hand had stopped beating the ground and was just laying there now. Clem reached for it, trying to wrap her fingers around Sarah's, only for Sarah to grasp Clem's hand first, squeezing it so hard it hurt.

"Come on," said Patty as she knelt down beside Sarah. "The Brave surely has plenty of water right now. Why don't you go get cleaned up, then lie down for a while? The rest of us can handle cleaning up in the mean time, and… we'll figure out how to fix this shit tomorrow morning after we've all had a good night sleep. Okay?"

Sarah finally stopped crying, although Clem couldn't be sure if it was because of what Patty said or she was finally too tired to cry. Either way, she didn't resist Patty's attempt to help her to her feet. Clem collected Omid, who clung to Sarah for as long as he could, then Patty helped Sarah stand up. She was covered in mud now and just followed quietly behind Patty and Clem as they all headed across the yard to the driveway.

Reaching the Brave, Clem was glad to see it looked intact, but stepping inside after Patty, she immediately noticed there was a massive crack on the right side of the windshield. Examining it further, the glass didn't appear in any danger of actually breaking, but the crack was yet another reminder of what was quickly becoming a terrible day. Hearing Sarah coming up the stairs behind her, Clem hurried over to her and stood between Sarah and the front, hoping she wouldn't notice the windshield. She didn't and just kept shuffling towards the bathroom as Patty came running out.

"Okay, I rigged up this little bucket over the shower head like a week ago, figuring it can collect water than I can dump out in occasional big bursts instead of that annoying ass on-and-off squirting the plumbing has been doing lately. Guess you'll be the first one to test it since this is the first time we've had water in here in a few weeks."

"Okay…" said Sarah in a barely audible whisper.

"And… I think you should take one of these." Patty opened her hand to reveal a small green pill. It wasn't a gel-capsule like the cold-medicine Clem had seen, but flat and made out of a chalky substance.

"What is it?" asked Sarah.

"It's a chill pill." Clem and Sarah just looked at Patty in confusion. "It's a Xanax, and it'll help you relax and feel better, trust me." Sarah looked at the pill with apprehension. "Look, doctors give these to people who have problems with anxiety, and if one had seen what we just saw outside, they'd tell you they'd want you to take this to feel better. I'm not going to make you take it but I honestly think it'll help right now. Not all medicine is for diseases and physical pain, there's ones like this for when you're miserable and just need some relief."

Sarah looked up at Patty, then took the pill. She popped it in her mouth, then took a swig of water from a cup Patty handed her. "Thank you… both of you," said Sarah in a barely audible whisper.

"It's fine," assured Clem, forcing some optimism into her voice for Sarah's sake.

"Just go get cleaned up and you can just lie down in the bedroom afterwards, all right?" Patty gave Sarah a gentle pat on the shoulder and a smile. Sarah headed into the bathroom and closed the door behind her. The pair stood there in silence for a few seconds, then they heard the sound of intermediately running water and let out a collective sigh of relief.

"Jesus…" mumbled Patty as she rubbed her head. "Everything is so fucked right now."

"I know," said Clem.

"We can fight off hordes of the dead but get our asses kicked by a fucking tornado," groused Patty as she dug through one of the cabinets.

"And a flood before that," added a downcast Clem. "I'm starting to think it doesn't matter if we ever get rid of the walkers or not, things are never going to get better because of all this other stuff we can't do anything about."

"Come on, don't say that," insisted Patty as she pocketed something. "We'll… we'll figure something out. Our plants looked like they survived, so we just got to fix… everything else so we can keep taking care of them."

"But how we fix this stuff?" asked Clem. "And so much of it."

"Yeah, really, I don't even know where to start," admitted Patty.

"Me neither." Adjusting her grip on Omid, Clem smelled something. "Okay, now I do. OJ needs changing."

"I'll go get your baby supplies from the house."

Patty headed out while Clem took Omid into the bedroom. She undressed him, and Patty returned with everything she needed to change him as well, something Clem found oddly relaxing in light of everything else that had happened today. After fitting him with a new diaper, Clem used a baby wipe on his face next, cleaning up his dried tears and crusty nose. Omid was strangely cooperative the entire time, which Clem found concerning.

She was about to take him out when the bedroom door slid open. Clem was surprised to see Sarah standing in the threshold, dressed in nothing but her underwear. Before Clem could say anything, Sarah immediately headed for the bed, ducked under the covers, and wormed her way up to the pillows resting at the top of the bed. Seeing Sarah so forcibly place herself in bed, Clem picked up Omid and prepared to leave when the toddler finally started to stir.

"Sah-rah… Sah-rah!" he repeated as he reached his arms out towards her.

"Just let Sarah rest, we—"

"It's okay…" Clem heard Sarah slowly say from under the covers. She moved her head and arm out from under the blanket and gestured to Omid. "Come Omid, you want to take a nap too."

"Sah-rah." Clem set Omid on the bed and he walked over to where Sarah was lying.

"You're worried about me too, aren't you?" The way Sarah spoke sounded uncharacteristically at ease, and even the way she took hold of Omid seemed different; slower and without the kind of deliberate energy she usually applied when handling Omid.

"Are you okay?" asked Clem as she walked over to the edge of the bed.

"Yeah," said Sarah as she cradled Omid against her body.

"Really?"

"Yeah."

"So, that pill helped."

"Yeah," repeated Sarah. "It made me sleepy and my whole body feels… sleepy."

"That sounds kind of like when we drink too much whiskey," noted Clem.

"Sorta," mumbled Sarah. "But my head feels clear, instead of all foggy."

"What do you mean?"

"Just that, I'm not thinking about anything right now, and if I try, it just kind of fades away real quick."

"That doesn't sound good."

"No, it's really good," insisted Sarah without much authority in her voice. "Most of the time, I can't stop thinking when I go to bed."

"About what?"

"About stuff we need to do or that will go wrong. I try not to, but I'll keep thinking about it and sometimes, most of the time, I don't get much sleep."

"I… I didn't know that. Why didn't you ever tell me?"

"I don't know. I guess I didn't want to worry you," mumbled Sarah. "I didn't think there was anything you could do. I didn't know Patty knew there was a pill that helps."

"Me neither." Clem watched as Sarah turned her head to look directly at her.

"I really miss it…" confessed Sarah, sounding half asleep already. "Miss what?"

"Just… not having to think about all this stuff," said Sarah as she turned away, burying her head in her pillow. "When you told me my dad was lying to me… I hated him for it."

"He—"

"He was trying to protect me," recited Sarah. "I didn't used to believe that, at least, not entirely. But now, thinking about all this stuff we have to do, how dangerous everything is, not just walkers or people, but how easily we could just lose everything…" Even in her sedated state, Clem could hear the tension rising Sarah's voice. "I… I'm starting to think I'd do the same thing." Clem noticed Sarah stroking Omid's hair when she said that.

"I know how you feel," said Clem. "I lied and told Omid the deer would be okay after Anthony shot it, and I didn't want to tell him he was eating it later. Right now, he's probably too young to even understand, but when he gets older—"

"Are we really going to tell him all this stuff?" mumbled Sarah.

"I… I don't know Sarah. Devlin just told me something I hadn't thought about before, and I think my mom tried to tell me about it once, and now I'm wondering what else she wanted to tell me but didn't get a chance to because she was waiting for me to be older and…"

"What did Devlin tell you?"

"It's… complicated. I'll tell you tomorrow," assured Clem. "And it'll be a while before Omid is old enough to understand these things, so we can worry about that later. Maybe by then, things will be a little better and there won't be as much to worry about for him… or us."

"I hope so…"

Clem looked over to see both Sarah and Omid's eyes were shut now as they breathed softly under the covers. She leaned over the bed and kissed Omid on the forehead, then did the same for Sarah. "I love you both."

"I love you too…" mumbled Sarah without opening her eyes.

Clem left the pair to rest, then headed back outside.

"How is she?" Clem turned her head to see Patty standing by the door, lit cigarette in hand.

"She's okay for now I think," said Clem. "She said the pill really helped."

"That's good," said Patty before taking a drag off her cigarette.

"She said she has trouble sleeping because she can't stop thinking about all this stuff that needs to be done," continued Clem. "And that pill cleared her mind and now she's not thinking about it."

"Yeah, Xanax are usually pretty good for mellowing people out."

"Do we have any more of them?"

"You don't want one, do you?" asked Patty.

"No, I just thought if Sarah has trouble sleeping, maybe they could help."

"If she just has trouble sleeping I can probably dig out something lighter for that. We really can't be giving her Xanax every night though."

"Why not? Will it hurt her?"

"Possibly, but probably not, other than she might feel a bit hungover in the mornings."

"Hungover? Like when you drink too much whiskey or beer?"

"No, not anywhere that bad, just a little groggy," said Patty before she took another drag off her cigarette. "It's just, we only got a couple of bottles of them, and once they're used up it'd be hard to find any more, so we should probably save them for… well situations like this. I mean, you saw that pharmacy I tried to raid back on our first outing together. They put up damn walls because one the first things people want when shit gets bad is drugs. And why not, drugs numb the pain of life, and there's no shortage of pain right now."

"Is that why you smoke?" asked Clem as she watched Patty take another drag off her cigarette. "You usually seem to do that when you're upset."

"Yeah, they help calm me down," said Patty as she took the cigarette butt out of her mouth and examined it. "Problem is when you use them so much you start to kind of need them to get by. I actually thought I had quit smoking; I haven't had a cigarette since we left Tulsa. But, I still stashed away a pack from the Sam's Club because I think I knew if I didn't have any smokes around to even me out… I might lose my shit when things got bad."

"You mean like Sarah did?" asked Clem.

"Something like that." Patty dropped the butt on the ground and stomped it out. "All right, we got a couple hours of daylight left, might as well not let them go to waste."

Patty headed for the gate and started moving towards the field, where Clem could see Jet and Devlin were standing up bean poles. Clem moved to follow Patty when she noticed something lying against the fence. It was a large piece of wood, and flipping it over she discovered it was the sign Jet had hung earlier. One of the corners was badly dented now and there was a large crack running across it. Looking over at the Brave, Clem realized the sign was likely what hit the windshield, but looking past that she noticed the front porch of the house.

Clem moved up the steps, grabbed a chair from inside, and hung the sign again. Taking a step back to examine it, she found it was less pleasant to look at now with the large crack in it, but Clem reasoned it was better than just tossing it out. She sighed, then headed towards the field and figured she could start with checking the tomato cages, just like she had done this morning.

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