So I might have included a bit of sadness in this chapter.

We took refuge in a house outside of the town. The kitchen was empty of food, so it was lucky that we'd managed to get into the shop for supplies. The electricity and water didn't work, but it had been a long time since they did anywhere.

The house had two bedrooms. One had a double bed in, the other had a bunk bed. There were family pictures framed on the walls and tables, some featuring just a few people and some including extended family.

"Must have been a family living here," I pointed out to the younger girl that was examining the house with me. "Maybe they evacuated together. I wonder if they made it to somewhere safe."

"Let's hope they did," Clem sighed.

I looked down at the little girl, who was suddenly not so little anymore. She had already seemed to grow up so much since when I'd first met her, but more noticeably she had grown up since Savannah.

Clementine looked back up at me and gave a forced smile. "What?"

"I'm just glad we've made it this long," I said. "I think it's only a few more months until three years, if I've counted seasons right."

"You're right," she told me. "In July it will be three years since we met."

I smiled, then considered what she'd said. Three years since we met would mean that it was three years since the original group was established. Now there was only Clem and I. The others had been picked up later in the year.

Clementine must have thought about this too, and frowned. "I miss Lee."

I crouched down slightly so I was closer to her height and put my arms on her shoulders. "I know, Clem. I do too. He'd be so proud of you though for making it this far, your parents too."

Clem nodded and her eyes became tearful, before she wrapped her small arms around me into a hug. I hugged her back and tried to keep my own emotions away. Lee would be proud, but he should have been with us to survive this long.

Travis walked into the room and stopped in the doorway, his face falling at the sight of Clem and I upset. I wiped my eyes and released the girl from the hug, and she stepped back to wipe her own tears away.

"You tired?" I asked her.

Clementine nodded her head and didn't speak.

"There's a bed upstairs," Travis informed. "Bunk bed. Christa and Omid claimed the big bed and they're gonna sleep now, so Marcey you can have the bunk bed with Clem while I stay watch."

"What happened to not needing to stay on watch when we're in houses? Just block the doors, you said."

Travis smiled slightly. "Not enough beds anyway, I might as well just make sure we're safe."

I rolled my eyes and stood up properly, putting a hand on Clementine's shoulder.

"You go to sleep, Clem. I'll be up there in a minute."

Clementine went away upstairs, leaving Travis and I alone.

The boy turned to me as soon as she had left. "You okay?"

I shrugged. "Just thinking about Lee- the group formed back at Macon. Now it's only Clem and I remaining. Everyone else is dead."

"I'm sorry."

I closed my eyes and covered them with my hands in an attempt to block out the memories. I felt them be moved them away from my face and I was engulfed in a warm hug.

"What can I do?"

"Nothing," I sighed, putting my arms around Travis' back to return the hug. "Just don't die."

There were footsteps and Christa arrived, her face looking restless. I let go of the hug and turned to the woman.

"I'll join on watch tonight," she stated.

"You've not slept for ages, Christa," I said. "I got you something."

I moved to my backpack and opened the zip, pulling out a box of sleeping pills and giving them to her. "They might help."

Christa looked at the box and nodded when she read what they were for. "Thank you."

I smiled slightly and the woman left the room again, hopefully to get some real sleep.

Travis raised an eyebrow to me and nodded his head to the backpack. "You got a whole drugstore in there?"

I giggled and shook my head. "I didn't know how much we'd need or when we'd find more. No harm in taking it, I guess."

"Yeah," he agreed.

We stood in silence for a few seconds and it became slightly awkward, so I pointed to the door and began to leave the room. "I... I'm going to bed now."

"Wait."

I turned back around and he looked conflicted, like he was considering speaking. "I, uh... goodnight."

I smiled back. "Night, Trav."

Clementine was already in bed, though not sleeping; she just lay staring at the ceiling as I took my combat boots off, placing them on the floor.

"What are you thinkin', Clem?" I wondered, looking up at the bed above me.

There was a bit of a silence before she spoke. "I was just thinking of my parents."

"Wanna talk about it?"

"No," she whispered sadly. "It's okay."

"Alright, Clementine. Goodnight."

A few more months passed of heading to Wellington. We were surviving well, I thought. The last time the group had witnessed death was two years ago, since it was around November time I presumed. We had traded some medication for food with people we passed in a small town, and we were lucky enough to find more to eat in other places. We did have a new problem- Christa had used every box of sleeping pills and was reliant on them. She couldn't sleep anymore, her eyes were sunken and dark, she was just weak.

"How much longer until we reach Wellington?" Omid complained.

We'd been walking for so long. It was all we ever did and it was ridiculously boring, but there was not much else we could do. We needed to get to Wellington and there was no other way.

"I would say we're about a month or two walk away, maybe sooner," I answered, keeping my eyes fixed on the surroundings.

Between the five of us, all we had was a knife, a gun with one bullet left, and a hammer for weapons. All the ammo in the other guns had run out from the walker fights. That meant as a whole, the group had three weapons, a few boxes of meds, and our brains. Not too brilliant, though better than nothing.

"I think we should rest for the night," Omid suggested, glancing over at Christa.

"Me too," I agreed.

"We can set up a tent or something here, and then-"

Omid's voice cut off from a panicked scream belonging to Clementine.

We had all been so distracted in talking and believing we were safe, a walker had approached and caught us by surprise. It grabbed onto Omid, and everything went in slow motion.

Christa cried. Omid swore loudly, pushing the monster off his arm. I ran for Clem who stood beside Omid and grabbed her, moving her away as quickly as possible while Travis cracked the walker's skull.

"Omid," Christa sobbed, holding her hands out above his arm like she couldn't touch it. His bitten arm. "Omid it's okay, we can fix this."

"We need to cut it off," Travis stated.

"What can we use?" I asked.

We had nothing.

Omid was staring at everyone in horror, as well as his arm. I was getting horrible memories of the moment Lee revealed his walker bite.

"This isn't happening," I whispered, moving away and trying to think straight. We had to do something.

"We need to do something now!" Christa shouted.

"Christa," Omid said, his voice sad and broken. "There's nothing here to cut this arm off that wouldn't kill me anyway."

"Don't say that."

"It's true."

Clementine had a single tear rolling down her face, and I could guess it was because of how much Omid meant to her after everyone being together for so long. It was probably also bringing back the same memories I was witnessing.

"We have to leave it for now," he continued. "There's nothing here, so unless we find something soon then... you're gonna have to kill me."

Christa cried again, her arms around the man while his were around her. I'd never seen her this sad, not even when she lost the baby. Everything would be even worse now. Fucking apocalypse.

"Let's get looking for something," I demanded in a desperate tone, moving away to begin walking. We had to find anything that could chop the arm off. This was the moment I wished we had stayed walking through cities.

"We need to stop."

Clementine and I turned around, faced with Travis.

"What?" I asked.

"This walking isn't doing any good," he told us, looking at me in particular. "We've been walking for almost two hours. We aren't finding anything. Omid... he wants us to stop it."

"Stop it?"

"Yeah... Christa is gonna..."

"Oh. Okay," I replied, cutting him off. Clem didn't need to hear it.

The three of us went back to the tree where Omid and Christa had stopped, and my heart broke.

Omid had his head resting on Christa's shoulder as she comforted him, or at least tried to. His skin was a sickly colour and his eyes were yellowing when he opened them. Clementine held onto my hand.

"Guess this..." He tried to speak. "Is the end of the road, huh?"

I felt a huge lump in my throat as I crouched down on the floor beside him.

"I'm so sorry I didn't see that walker."

"It's not... your fault."

Christa moved away, wiping the tears from her eyes. Clementine went with her, her small body shaking with her crying. Travis sat on the other side of Omid.

"Look... after Christa... for me."

"We will," I assured him. "Goodbye, Omid."

"Cya, Marce."

I walked away through the trees to where Christa and Clementine were while Travis said goodbye. When he came back with slightly red eyes, Christa inhaled the air deeply, collecting herself. We said nothing as she disappeared back to Omid. Then we waited.

A gunshot rang through the woods, and I knew it was the end.

I'm sorry.