Chapter 28 - End of the Line

You ever have that feeling where you've done something really wrong, and you can immediately feel it in your gut? Yeah. That's what I'm going through with this. I've felt sick to my stomach since we left Clementine to bleed out in the snow with her in Kenny's arms, and it's hard not to look back and think about it. But what I've done, there's no forgiving someone for that. Nope. That ship has long passed.

I'm not the only one that feels this way. Bonnie and Mike have both shown signs of discomfort thinking about the events of several hours ago. Arvo, on the other hand, hasn't really shown much emotion in general. I don't know if he understands what happened or if he knows, but he's happy about it. I really can't tell, and I'm not exactly inclined to ask.

But despite this, it's been a quiet ride. No one's said much of anything. What exactly is there to say? We stole a truck, shot a little girl, and abandoned half our group. We're awful people. I'm a selfish asshole for going along with this. But I can't leave them now. Like I said earlier, there's no forgiving someone for this. I made this decision, and now I need to live with the consequences of it.

"She's a strong girl. I bet she pulled through." Bonnie says.

"I hope you're right." I reply, looking out the window at the frozen landscape around us. "Hey Mike. Are you sure we're going South? It looks like there's more snow on the ground than where we left."

"I have no idea. The damn GPS in the truck is broken. I can't tell if we're going North, South, East, or West."

"Ian's right. I think we're heading North." Bonnie agrees with me. "The snow's getting thicker. We might be in Indiana by now."

"We're gonna be fine." Mike tells us as the car lightly swerves on the snow.

"Careful." Bonnie warns Mike. "This damn snow is dangerous."

"We're fine Bonnie. Don't worry. It's a bit slippery, but we'll be good." He assures us, despite the thickening snow and the increasingly thicker snowfall. But just barely, a little gray outline. Is that a..?

"Look out!" I yell as a walker immediately comes into full view.

"OH SHIT!" Mike yells as he tries to swerve to avoid the walker, to no avail. The truck starts spinning on the ice and snow, and all I hear is a loud crash before I black out.


I come to in a daze, slowly looking around dizzy before my mind snaps back to normal. During the crash, the truck must've flipped over. I sit upside down, my seatbelt keeping me suspended in the air.

"Mike?" I cough. "Bonnie? Arvo?" I cough again as I undo my seatbelt and slowly step out of the truck. "Guys? GUYS?"

I walk around, taking a look at the wreckage. The truck, completely totaled, struck a tree after we swerved off the road. So now the question now becomes what happened to the rest of them.

I find the first answer to my question as I look just beyond the tree, Mike's body lays limp in the snow. Shit. He must've gotten thrown out of the truck when we crashed. Is he alive?

"Mike? Are you ok? Mike!" I call out to him. Nothing. I slowly walk over, drawing my knife and fearing the worst, and I kneel down behind him. I put two fingers to his neck, checking for a pulse or any sign of life. I feel nothing but the cold of a body that's been in the snow for a while. Nothing. He's gone. "Fuck. Shit. Damn it." I curse to myself as I take my blade and plunge it into his head so he doesn't come back.

I walk around a little longer, looking for any sign that one of them is alive. Anything. Anything to show I'm not alone.

A set of footprints in the snow, right next to some droplets of blood, leading down the road. That's gotta be either Bonnie or Arvo, right? I follow the footsteps down the road, praying for a sign of either of them. Please. Somebody. Anybody.

Just be alive.

After several minutes of walking, I finally see someone. Standing there, her red hair standing out as much as possible. Bonnie.

"Bonnie!" I call out to her. "Bonnie! You alright?"

Bonnie turns to me. Oh no. She's not alive. Far from it. She's turned. A bite mark on her cheek, clear as day.

"Bonnie no!" I yell out. She's gone. And with no sign of Arvo, I really am all alone. "God damn it!" I yell as loud as possible as I pull out the glock. Bonnie slowly stumbles towards me in the snow, and I watch myself pull the trigger and her corpse slumps over.

My gaze pans around, looking for any sign of Arvo. But nothing. Just a cold, snowy landscape around me. The quiet, frozen hell, I'm all alone.

Without another word, I start walking in a single direction, with no intention to stop until I find someone or I die. With any luck, it won't be too long before one of those.

HOURS LATER

Walking through the snow for hours, I've hit my breaking point. This is it. I'm gonna fucking die here in this cold.

I could drop dead any minute from this, and yet, I'm not nervous. If anything, I'm calm. Maybe this is for the best. I can see Carley again, I can see Mia, Mick, my parents, everyone I've lost.

To not have to worry about this anymore, knowing that soon enough, I can be done with this forever, there's something peaceful about it. I've fought the good fight, did the best I could to make it two years in this mess, but it's over. I've got nothing left to fight for, so what's the point of fighting?

My legs start to feel heavier as I continue to trudge along. My vision blurs and I crack a small smile. Death's sweet embrace will soon overcome me. Most people fear death. Hell, I feared it at one point, but now I welcome it. I encourage it. Come on, what's taking so long? Let me go. Let me slip away for good, so I can see the woman I love again.

My knees wobble, and my knees collapse into the snow. This is it. It's been a hell of a ride. 23 years, and only one single regret- that I got my sister killed. But that doesn't matter now. Cause it's all come to this.

I take one last look up to see a bright light coming to me, as though it were headlights from a car coming right at me. But before I can do anything, everything fades to black, and all I see is nothing.


I curled up on the couch, a recording of the 2009 Independence Bowl playing on the TV in front of me. Just two weeks ago, I had been drafted by my childhood team, the Atlanta Falcons. I had driven into Atlanta, met the ownership and several coaches, and had countless media appearances and interviews. The whole process with my second love, football, was so exhausting, I barely had time for my first love, Carley. With her working her internship and me going into Atlanta, we barely had any time to see each other anymore. But today, I had nothing going on and she had the day off, and for the first time in a while, we could just lay down together and do nothing. She, curled up next to me and going to town on a bowl of popcorn, and I watch what I didn't know to be my last football game ever.

"Cox. Got a man over the middle. It's Sullivan. Touchdown Georgia!" The ESPN announcer says on TV. Carley squeals with excitement as she sees me catch a Touchdown pass over the seam. The scoreboard flashing text saying "Touchdown Bulldogs", bringing the score to 23-14 over the Texas A&M Aggies. Seeing this only made me more excited about the NFL. Getting to do that regularly on national TV, it's been my dream. And I was about to fulfill that dream.

Knowing that everything I had worked for, everything I wanted in life, was all coming to me, it was the most satisfying feeling in the world. I had worked for years to get to this point, and reaping the benefits of it as a 21 year old kid, I was on top of the world. It would take all of hell itself to come up here to bring me down.


Well, 2 years later, I'd lost everything. NFL career, gone. My family, gone. My wife, gone. My friends, gone. And most recently, my hope, gone. Hell itself had come up and dragged me down to a point I wouldn't have been able to imagine 2 and a half years ago.

But it was finally over. The pain and suffering. All those losses I had to endure. It's all over. I can just relax and let myself slip away from existence. I can almost see it all now. The bright light, as though it were a sweet voice, beckoning to come to me. Mia and Carley, my parents, my friends, I can finally see them all again.

Life had kicked me down, and left me out to die on some road. I had nothing, nobody. My fight, it's over.

The first of a couple filler chapters. These are gonna be shrter than a normal chapter, but hopefully you guys still enjoy. :]