It had been a few hours since the incident, but the group remained on edge. Everyone stayed alert, eyes constantly scanning the road and the dark treeline pressing in on either side. Every few minutes, soone glanced over their shoulder to check they weren't being followed.
Molly and Clentine couldn't shake the image of the vans.
The people packed inside.
The restraints.
The wounds.
The sll.
Hundreds of thoughts churned through their heads, but neither of them could make sense of what they'd seen. No explanation felt right. No explanation felt safe.
But both of them knew one thing for certain:
Whatever was happening out there was bad.
Clentine's eyes drifted toward the bandage wrapped around Molly's arm.
"You're lucky the bullet didn't hit anything vital," she said quietly. "A little farther over and you could've lost the arm."
Molly glanced down at the wound and grimaced. "I don't feel lucky. Goddamn, this hurts."
She reached into the bag beside her and started digging. After a few seconds, frustration carved itself across her face.
"Where's my booze?"
Her eyes cut imdiately to Jane and Michonne.
"I don't drink and drive," Michonne said flatly, not even looking up.
Molly turned to Jane.
"You better tell where it is."
Jane raised her hands. "Listen—"
"Just tell ."
Jane sighed. "I drank it two days ago. Sorry. I'll make it up to you ... two bottles when we get back to camp. Promise."
The apology landed like a stone in still water.
Molly grabbed the bag and hurled it at her. "You thieving bitch. I don't want your shitty promise. Next ti you touch my booze, I will drown you in it."
She clenched her teeth as another wave of pain burned through her arm. Even through the painkillers it still felt like a hot coal pressed against bone. She forced herself to breathe, then turned back toward Clentine.
"Hey, Clam." Molly's voice shifted softer now, probing. "You still losing sleep over the bald guy?"
Clentine slowly shook her head. "Can you stop calling him that?"
"I call him bald because he is bald. Good-looking, sure. But you can't argue with reality."
Clentine stared at her for a long mont, then let out a slow breath. "Molly. Are you seriously doing this right now? You know how worried I am about him."
Molly shifted in her seat. "Why? He's a max walker. The man's practically a walking plague. You're the only one losing sleep over this... and your whole plan to go after him is insane."
She waited.
Truthfully, everyone in the car was a little worried about Max. But they also knew what he was capable of. Even if a hundred n ca after him, all of them believed he'd walk away.., and leave every last one of his enemies dead in the dirt behind him.
What fascinated Molly was Clentine herself. Her concern for Max was pushing her toward risks she never would have taken before. Molly had watched everyone try to talk her out of it. But Clentine brush every argunt aside, even willing to go alone without them. There was sothing underneath all of it, sothing she was hiding and Molly couldn't stop wondering what it was.
For a long mont, Clentine said nothing.
Molly noticed Jane and Michonne listening too, both doing a poor job of pretending otherwise.
"What is it that's really bothering you, Clem?" Molly finally asked, her voice low. "You can tell us."
Clentine looked around the car. These were people she trusted with her life.
Then she lowered her eyes.
"The truth is," she said quietly, "I want to save Max from himself."
The car went silent.
"What do you an?" Jane asked. It was the question everyone had.
Clentine looked at each of them for a long mont before she spoke. Her voice was careful. Almost fragile.
"Max hates himself more than anyone," she said. "He's been slowly destroying himself for years."
Michonne eased off the gas and glanced back at her, stunned. "What are you talking about?"
Clentine lowered her gaze. "When he lost his mother, he blad himself for her death. He blad his own weakness." She swallowed. "After that, he started burying everything. He stopped trusting his feelings... because, in his mind, emotions were the weakness that had gotten her killed."
Her fingers tightened slightly around her sleeve.
"When I first t him, he barely spoke. He avoided getting close to anyone because he was terrified of losing soone again." A faint, sad shadow crossed her face. "I used to see him wake up from panic attacks in the middle of the night."
The only sound was the road beneath the tires.
"When I saw that," Clentine continued softly, "I realized he was just like ."
Her eyes drifted toward the dark window beside her.
"Alone. Scared. Looking for a family."
A small smile passed across her face and disappeared just as quickly.
"So I tried to beco his friend. Slowly, he started opening up." She paused. "When everyone was trapped at the train station, I finally saw who he really was." Her voice softened. "He was kind. Compassionate. Thoughtful."
She gave a faint, almost helpless laugh.
"And very impulsive."
Jane quietly raised an eyebrow.
"He was willing to risk everything to save from Amir and his soldiers... even knowing he might die doing it." Clentine looked down at her hands. "That was the mont I fell in love with him."
For a beat, she disappeared sowhere inside the mory.
Nobody interrupted her.
"I wanted Max to open himself up to the world," she continued, her expression slowly darkening. "I wanted people to see who he really was, I wanted him to love himself. I want him to live... again."
Her voice beca quieter.
"And for a while… I thought he finally did."
The mood inside the car shifted.
"But that changed in the Savannah library."
She stopped for a mont.
"The blood. The piles of bodies." Her eyes went slightly unfocused. "That was the first ti I understood how far he could fall."
She drew a slow breath.
"Before Lee died, he told to stay close to Max. He warned not to let him lose his humanity."
Nobody spoke.
"When Max was about to kill Christa and her unborn baby…" Her voice trembled. "I stepped in terrified he was abandoning the person he used to be."
Silence.
"Over the years, I watched him beco colder. More ruthless like he'd stopped listening to anything except fear." She shook her head. "I kept trying to pull him back. But eventually I understood sothing I hadn't let myself see before."
Her eyes fell.
"He was becoming that way because of ."
That landed like a blow. Everyone tensed.
"He's terrified of losing the way he lost his mother. So he keeps trying to protect ... no matter what it costs him." Tears slowly gathered in her eyes. "And little by little, it's destroying him."
Molly stared at her. All the teasing had drained out of her completely.
"His fear of losing keeps pushing him further from who he really is." Clentine's voice weakened. "But I realized sothing else, too."
She rested one hand against her stomach.
"His love for is the only thing that makes him feel human. So, I wanted to give him more people he could love."
The realization spread slowly across every face in the car.
"That's why I wanted a family with him," she admitted quietly. "That's why I got pregnant."
Even Jane looked stunned.
"I wanted him to have sothing more than fear. Sothing real. Sothing worth living for… our family."
Her breathing beca unsteady.
"And now the camp he built to protect the people he loves has been attacked. I haven't been able to reach him in over a week." Panic began creeping into her voice. "And if he hears about it before I get to him…"
She stopped herself, struggling to continue.
"I'm scared I'll lose him completely."
The fear in her eyes was raw now. Unguarded.
"Without the people he loves nearby, Max becos soone else. Cold. Controlling. Calculating." Her voice dropped to barely above a whisper. ""He starts treating people like pieces on a board. Soone who starts seeing everyone around him as either a threat… or sothing to use."
No one moved.
Clentine looked down, holding herself together by a thread.
"And if that keeps happening…" A tear finally slipped down her cheek. "I'm afraid the person I love will never find his way back to ."
"Sotis I forget," Michonne said quietly, "that the person people call 'Lord' is still just a teenage boy."
The weight of those words settled heavily inside the car.
No one argued with her.
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