A Meeting of the Joels
"So," Joel A said tentatively, "you're me."
"And you're me," Joel B replied.
They had tossed a coin to decide who would be referred to as Joel A and Joel B, respectively. The Joel that had won was from the reality where Sarah had given Tommy the Death Note. The Joel that had lost was from what was called the Most Common Timeline.
For they were both dead, and in the place where all people from all realities eventually went: the Multiuniversal Afterlife. Joel A had the good fortunate to be from a unique timeline where humanity had triumphed over the infection. Sarah (the most famous version of her) had come to his world to give his brother a Death Note. The latter had given it to Marlene, who used it to win the world for the Fireflies. Now humanity was back on track.
Joel B did his best not to let his jealousy show, but it was difficult. Sarah had been taken from him on that horrific night in September 2013, and he had never truly processed losing her until Ellie (who hadn't died yet) had arrived in his life. For a while things were good: they had found Jackson, and he had remade himself as a pillar of the community.
Then that vengeful bitch had beaten him to death with a fucking golf club. He still shuddered when he thought about it.
"So…" Joel B began, but couldn't finish.
"So?" Joel A prompted.
"So what was it like?"
"She was different." Joel A understood the question without any context. "Real different, honestly. And…"
To Joel B's surprise, his counterpart winced.
"…and she saw everything we ever did. All of it."
"Jesus…" Joel B shook his head, suddenly looking at his counterpart anew.
"Wait, that's not the worst part." Joel A continued. "Not only did she see every goddamn thing, but she was real determined to hold me accountable for it all."
"Really?"
"Yep. Grilled me about the Family, and why I didn't leave after Judge died. I was fixin' to get up and walk away more than a few times."
Oh, crap. Joel B suddenly realized that Sarah returning to his life - as an immortal genius with complete knowledge of everything he did post-outbreak, no less - wouldn't just be joyful.
It would be immensely uncomfortable. He had never truly come to peace with the horrible things he had done to survive after 2013. He had tried, but in retrospect it was clear he was suppressing his trauma by building a second life in Jackson.
"It ended up working out, though." Joel A seemed relaxed now.
"How's that?" Joel B asked.
"She wanted me to 'move on and become a better person'. Her words. So I did. Got kind of soft towards the end, after we'd cleared out the infected." He grinned. "Sure as hell still knew how to use a gun when it came time to reclaim New York City, though!"
"New York City? Jesus, how the hell did you manage that?"
"With considerable difficulty."
Joel B wanted to say something profound, something incredibly important, but found he could only come up with the following while raising his glass of beer:
"To being dead."
"To being dead," Joel A agreed.
And then they both got to work getting extremely drunk.