An ageing Tommy and I just buried Joel next to the grave of his daughter Sarah. His last journey to be with his true daughter who . He done a good job considering he's in his late sixties. He introduced Ellie and myself to her before collapsing on the ground holding the cross that marked where she rested.

It was peaceful. An open meadow with flowers growing around the graves. Ellie made the last gesture by strapping Joel's destroyed watch on his cross and placed the photo of him and Sarah covered in plastic in between them.

I sat next to Ellie, who had her back to the graves looking at the nearby bridge, "Apparently she died in his arms somewhere over there," she said as I wrapped one arm around her waist, "Must've been hard."

"It would be," I replied, "No parent should have to watch their kid die."

"It was," Tommy came and joined us, "For both of us."

"I hope we wont lose John or Riley," she said as she hugged me tight.

"We wont. I'd be dead if someone got at them."

"I thought you'd say that."

We'd all lost so much. Our would be homes, our safety, our family, our humanity, some of us even our lives. Rarely did anyone get as peaceful of a death than Joel's was. Or would they get the choice of where they'd end up. A rotting corpse on the ground was by far more common than a few feet underground next to your daughter. We've all nearly ended up being the former.

But that's how it is now and has been since the first day I can remember.

At least I have Ellie and the kids and a large number people around me who'll stop at nothing to keep each other safe from anything ranging from Fireflies to Clickers.

I guess the way we live at the dam is about as close as possible to what life was like before September 2013.

I always had mixed feelings about the old man who now lay in the ground. We met with him pointing a gun in my face after all and I had to help save his life to earn his trust after he left me behind. But he still let me travel with him in the first place. And he helped with the kids I guess bringing him here was my way of saying thankyou.

Before long we said our goodbyes to the pair and started the couple of days ride back to the dam.