Gone.
Everyone and everything he had ever loved was gone.
Just gone.
After losing his son to yet another sadistic asshole hell bent on destroying what he had, Rick hadn't hesitated before tasking the safety of his young daughter to Maggie and her little boy before sending them off with Carol and Tara for protection. Michonne and Daryl hadn't left his side as he prepared to take on the current threat to their lives- Sure, they were out manned and out numbered in weapons, but they had gotten by with less.
"I'm sorry."
Daryl went down first; he was a master with those arrows, but he only had so many.
"I'm sorry."
Michonne was next; she was pretty decent when it came to fist fighting, but she could only keep that up for so long with multiple opponents after being disarmed.
"I'm sorry."
Now, there Rick was; laying on his back with six different bullets in his body, staring up at the clear blue sky as the people who put them there began to disperse, deciding to leave him for dead. Either he would succumb to his wounds or walkers would get him, either way it wasn't their problem.
"I'm sorry."
This was the end; they made it so many years together before things went so wrong. They had lost more than their fair share of people along the way and all Rick could so was apologize.
"I'm sorry."
He failed all of them. Everyone whose lives had ended...he failed them.
"I'm sorry."
Amy, Jim, Jacqui, Sophia, Dale, Shane, T-Dog, Lori, Andrea, Merle, Herschel, Beth, Tyreese, Abraham, Glenn, Sasha...the list went on and on, but Rick remembered every single one of their names- not that he could forget them knowing that most of their deaths occurred because of the choices he made.
"I'm so sorry."
He deserved this; he deserved to die. God knows how many times Rick had stayed alive by sheer luck, but he had been grateful. Now...now Rick simply wished that God had taken him sooner. No man should have to watch their family die. No man should have to see half the things Rick had.
"I'm sorry."
He could feel his body getting weaker. He was about to meet his maker. Maybe God would have pity on him and let Rick see his wife, his beautiful boy, and the rest of his family before he was cast down to hell. There was no way Rick was going to Heaven after all the blood he had spilled, despite the fact that most had been unintentional.
"I'm sorry."
With one last breath, Rick Grimes closed his eyes and waited for death to take him.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
"Hey you." Whose voice was that? Rick knew that voice- Rick knew those words. "Dumbass...Hey, you in the tank." It couldn't be... "Cozy in there?" It was.
Opening his eyes, Rick couldn't believe it when he found himself sitting upright in the same tank he had taken shelter in two years ago. With a gun in his hand, Rick sat across from the dead body of the soldier and he heard the voice come from the speaker.
The speaker.
Rushing over, Rick pressed the button to communicate back. There was so much that he wanted to say; he wanted to tell Glenn how beautiful his son had turned out to be, that Maggie told their son about him every chance she got, he wanted to tell Glenn that Daryl regretted being the cause of his death and that no one in the group had been the same after. But once again, there were only two words Rick could think of...
"I'm sorry."