Day 970 – Midday

Vince

Vince, Sully, Em and Mitchell ducked into the trees at the side of the pathway in an attempt to hide their presence from the walkers, or at least use the undergrowth to slow the dead down if they were noticed. Vince led the group, keeping an eye out for Bonnie, Wyatt, Annie or Becca. He had not seen hide nor hair of them since he had told them to run from the walkers and it was starting to worry him. Having not yet heard screams of pain he assumed they were safe for now unless Sanctum had spontaneously appeared and killed them quietly.

Mitchell was in a sorry state; the poor teenager was suffering the worst of the infection now and soon enough he would be dead. It was playing on his older brother's mind; Sully looked panicked and knew he didn't have much time before he lost his little brother.

As they crept through the undergrowth Vince shivered, aware that dozens of the dead were metres away from him. He kept checking to make sure that the others were behind him, finding himself glancing around and expecting to see Hector. The man was gone; he had disappeared in the ditch and his bum leg had probably slowed him down to the point that walkers could catch up to him. His likelihood of survival wasn't that high.

It didn't take long for the four of them to hear cries for help. Forgetting those behind him, Vince broke into a sprint and dashed over a fallen tree before emerging in a were five walkers in the vicinity, but that was enough to take down Lowell and Tessa. The one-armed man was trying to get to Tessa but a walker was reaching between two trees and had hold of his single arm. Unable to bat it off, the man was trapped. Similarly, Tessa's body was strewn across the floor, her crutch nowhere to be seen. Her remaining leg was being grasped by a walker and she was desperately trying to crawl away from it.

Vince gulped. He could only save one.

He looked over his shoulder; Em, Sully and Mitchell had not yet caught up. He needed to do whatever he could. If he had been standing on a clock Lowell would have been at three o'clock and Tessa would have been at ten, meaning Vince would have a better chance of saving Lowell as he could reach him first.

Vince raised his machete and dashed forwards, slicing through one of the dead and then ducking behind the trees. He smacked the walker that had hold of Lowell but it was not instantly disabled, instead turning its split head to face him. Vince took another swing and killed the creep, causing it to fall limp.

Lowell jerked forwards and collapsed to the ground. Vince ran around the tree and helped him to his feet but the man tried to run again. "Tessa!" he cried, "Vince, help Tessa!"

Vince shook his head. The walkers in the clearing were gathering around Tessa now. There were too many to deal with and Vince couldn't see any way of getting through them without being torn apart in the process. Sully, Em and Mitchell ran into the clearing, briefly scowling at Vince for leaving them behind but becoming surprised when they recognised Lowell.

"Tessa!" Lowell yelled, "She's over there!"

Sully's head jerked in the direction of the screaming woman as the dead advanced on her. Em lifted her weapon to strike at the walkers but Sully batted her hand away and gripped her wrist. "I'm not going to let you do this." he told her. "Not after I almost lost you once." He looked at Vince. "What do we do?"

Vince opened his mouth to reply but he was cut off as he saw Mitchell staggering towards the group of walkers with his switchblade in his hand. Sully darted forwards, grabbing his brother's right shoulder which caused him to flinch in pain. "Mitchell, don't do this!" he wailed.

Mitchell turned to face him sluggishly. "You just touched my bite, asshole," he growled. He paused for a second, and then smirked. "I'm already dying, man. I can do this, you just have to let me. Don't help – none of you."

Without waiting for Sully to reply, Mitchell turned and crept towards the walkers, drained of energy. "All my life I never... did a thing worth doing. Now I can actually... do something worthwhile. Time to be a hero."

Sully collapsed to his knees, tears forming in his eyes as Mitchell sliced at the first member of the herd. It jerked to the left but he managed to kill it on the backswing. He raised his hand to strike the second and thrust his knife into its eye but the third reached for him and grabbed his shoulders. Mitchell ducked away but not before its claw-like hands tore at his neck, creating a nasty gash as he fell to his knees. He reached for the eyesocket which contained his knife and pulled it out, turning and stabbing the walker that had scratched him as it fell behind him, pulled by his weight.

The older Sullivan tried to run to his brother's aid but this time Em held him back by his elbows. "Let him do this!" she cried, "I can't lose both of you!"

Sully collapsed to his knees as Mitchell clamped his hand to his neck. Vince started forward, aware that there were only two walkers left. He sliced at once of them, killing it instantly, and then crouched to pull Tessa up. Fortunately the woman had not been bitten.

Mitchell was busy dealing with the last walker but it managed to get the upper hand, taking advantage of his lack of strength and knocking him flat on his back. Vince's hands were full with Tessa as Mitchell half-heartedly tried to push the walker away. It placed his hands on his stomach and pressed down into the soft tissue of his abdomen, cutting through him and causing blood to spill all over the place. Sully pulled himself away from Emily, causing her to fall forwards and land on one knee, and he kicked the walker off of his brother, stamping on its head several times more than was required to kill it.

Lowell arrived to take care of Tessa and Vince crouched over Mitchell. The teenager's neck and stomach were torn up – combined with his bite it was the end for him. "Fuck this," Mitchell groaned, placing his hands flat on the ground and pushing himself backwards so that he was leaning against a tree trunk, "I'm not taking this... lying down."

Sully crouched in front of him, tears streaming down his cheeks as Em grabbed his shoulders comfortingly. "Why did you do this to me?" he stuttered. "Why didn't you let me help?"

Mitchell looked at the hand he had pinned to his neck. "I wanted to do something right, on my own... I was dying anyway, man."

Sully wiped his nose with a finger and then reached into his pocket, withdrawing a small, polaroid photo. "Becca told me you wanted me to have this." he said. The photo was of a young girl who was around ten years old and shared similar characteristics to both Mitchell and Sully. "You should keep it."

"No," Mitchell gasped, "I see her... every time I close my eyes. You keep it. Remember her... forget me."

Sully shook his head and grabbed hold of his brother's hand. "No, I..." he took a sharp breath, "Goddamnit, Mitch, I'm not going to forget you. Never. Not after this. You saved Tessa."

"I guess."

"Do you want me to... y'know...?" He wiped his face with his hand and gulped. "After you're gone, do you want me to stop you coming back?"

Mitchell grinned, his mouth filled with blood. "Fuck it. Not worth making the noise." He chuckled, "I want to experiment... see what it's like when you come back. Maybe I'll find my way to Sanctum... or something, who knows?"

"Okay," Sully sighed, slightly relieved he wouldn't have to shoot his brother. His grip on Mitchell's hand tightened as the teenager's eyelids fluttered. "Mitchell?!" he cried. "Are you okay?!"

Mitchell snapped back, his head tilting to his right. "Yeah, I'm fucking fantastic." he croaked. "You and Em really need to fuck by the way."

Sully grinned under his breath, looking at Emily over his shoulder. He turned back to Mitchell, then muttered "I love you, bro."

"You're pretty awesome too," Mitchell sighed. "I'm... sorry about... Lucy..."

Sully gasped as Mitchell slumped to one side, his body losing all of its strength. Blood was surrounding Sully's knees as he knelt next to his brother, but the man didn't care as his shoulders started shaking and he began crying, a deluge of tears littering his face. He was trying to mutter words but nothing audible was coming out. Emily lifted him to his feet and wrapped her arms around his back, placing her head into his neck. "It's okay," she groaned, patting her friend's back. "I'm here, I'm here for you." she took a deep breath before snuffling into Sully's shoulder – it seemed that she was crying too.

Vince looked at Tessa and Lowell, who were staring at Mitchell sadly. Tessa had guilt in her eyes, but she couldn't be blamed for slipping and falling; it had all just been bad luck. Vince noticed her crutch lying on the ground and handed it to her so that she no longer had to rely on Lowell to remain upright.

Staring sadly at the crying remainder of the Gas Station group, Vince looked at the ground as the rain pounded on. He had never come to like Mitchell but in death the poor kid had been a hero. He had saved a life, which was more than could be said for many.

He wasn't going to rush anyone, but he didn't want to stick around for Mitchell to turn as requested. "Come on, people," he grunted, "let's find the others. We don't want to see what comes next."

Sully and Emily let go of each other and turned to follow the rest, remaining shoulder to shoulder as they staggered in sorrow. After all they had been through today Vince hoped things wouldn't get worse, but he could only assume that they would.