Chapter 11 - Never Mind the Darkness

My body starts to lurch as I finally come to. I open my eyes to the sight of a towering inferno and smoke, lots of it. With a cough, I slowly get to my feet, taking a moment to look at the damage around me.

Willy wasn't kidding. This bomb packed a serious punch. The boat, up in flames, slowly sinks into the water. I try and stumble to the side of the boat, towards the pier, and I look out at what's going on.

The only ones I can see are Clem and AJ, looking down the river from the pier. Lilly, who also survived, paddles away on a raft, looking back at Clem, and I can only imagine what they're saying to each other right now. The boat lurches once again, and it starts tilting towards the pier. I look for an escape, only seeing one option in this dire situation.

I have to jump for it.

With the boat continuing to tilt more and more forward, I try my best to get towards the front of the boat, where I can dive into the water, hopefully where it's deep enough.

I find the spot, what looks to be a deeper area. With any luck, I can just jump in, swim ashore, and find everyone else. If I'm not lucky, well, I don't think I need to describe what can go wrong. Nevertheless, I walk toward the railing, now almost parallel to the ground. It's now or never.

With a deep breath, I approach the railing, standing on it, and my stomach churns as I look down. I get that familiar feeling in my legs where my mind wants to go, but my body freezes. That drop, one thing goes wrong, I break my legs, I drown. But if I stay here, I die in the boat crash. I've gotta risk it.

"Come on, Brett. You got this. Do it. Do it." I whisper to myself, trying to hype myself up. The boat rumbles again as I feel a slight drop. "Fuck." Fuck it. I take the leap of faith.

Thankfully, the water is easily deep enough for me, as I splash into the river, swimming toward the shore as I'm not noticed by any of the walkers on the pier or the shoreline. I crouch behind some foliage, a massive crashing noise comes from where I just was. The boat crashes into the pier, turning the pier and ship into a massive flaming mess. If I hesitated another second, I might not have made it here unscathed. I fish my Brewers cap out of the water, soaked like the rest of me, and I keep moving forward.

Gunshots start coming from further down the shore, and the last remaining Delta troops try to hold them off, attracting the attention of any walker in the area. I creep behind a crate on the shore, and there they are. Clem, AJ, Louis, Violet, Aasim, Omar, and...

Benji. I grin. He made it out. Thank God.

While everyone else is preoccupied with the Delta and the Raiders. I slowly creep over toward the others, keeping an eye on everything that's going on. Finally, I duck down behind cover next to Benji. "Howdy folks." I say with a confident grin.

"Brett!" AJ exclaims as he runs over to hug me. "You made it!"

"Damn right I did, little buddy. Did you think I was just gonna leave you like that?"

My brother pulls me in for an extremely tight hug. "When I heard you were out there, I wasn't sure what to think. What the hell happened?"

"I saw Tenn out in the middle of the crossfire, I had to defend him." I explain to him. "Long story short, we were surrounded by Delta, interrogated by Lilly, boat go boom."

He nods as our attention goes back out toward the Delta troops fighting for their lives. Clem turns to the right, pointing out into the darkness. There they are, Willy and Ruby, with one of the carts they took us away in, and one of the horses, too.

Willy notices us, waving over. "Come on! Let's get out of here!"

The blonde, noticing Willy, starts taking shots at the boy with her rifle. He ducks behind the cart as she shoots a few more shots.

Clem gets out from cover, raising the bow she got back and firing a single shot, right into the blonde's neck. The other Delta troop, taking note of this, pulls out her sidearm, walking towards us and shooting once again. We duck behind cover, only to hear her scream out in pain.

We peek back out, and she's pounced on by three of four walkers, all chomping on various limbs as she also drops to the ground, her handgun dropping in the sand next to her.

All that remains is Minnie, looking completely dumbfounded at the sight before her. She picks up the blonde's rifle, using the last of its ammo to hold them off, before dumping said rifle and using the same axe I saw her using when we first met.

"The Hell is she doing? She's gonna get herself killed." Violet angrily and desperately remarks about her ex(?)-girlfriend, swing her axe and actually doing a pretty effective job at killing.

Although, it's not enough. As she tries to dig the axe out of one walker's skull, another grabs her by the arm, and sinks his teeth into it. As if nothing even happened, she pulls her arm away, kneeing it in the head, and swinging the axe into its brain as it drops to the ground.

"Oh, my god." Omar whimpers at the sight of her, going back to killing as if she wasn't bitten at all.

"Make a break for it, now." Clem orders us. And we all agree, and we watch on as Minnie takes on as many as she can, even though she's done. In the sand, I see the woman's handgun sitting there, by a couple walkers feasting on her remains. But, a smart and kinda reckless idea crosses my mind. I break away from the group, running towards the walkers feasting. I snag the handgun and kick one of the walkers away as the others take notice. Before they can do anything, arrows fly in, and both of them drop as I stomp on the third one's skull. I turn back to Clem, giving her a gracious nod as gunshots turn my attention back towards Minnie.

She's completely surrounded, but she's fighting to the bitter end, popping shots until she's overwhelmed. One walker, as she's popping shots in front, sneaks up behind her, grabbing her head and tearing a chunk out of her cheek. Without a second of hesitation, she points her handgun right at it, and fires a round right next to her head, dropping the walker.

She turns to us, a nasty chunk missing from her cheek and I run back behind cover.

"CLEMENTINE!" She yells out at her. "Fuck you!"

As I try to peek out at what's going on, Benji immediately drags me back down behind the cover, and a few moments later, a smaller explosion. The horse cries out in surprise, and the cart drives away, leaving me, Benji, Clem, and AJ behind.

"What happened?" I cough to my brother as I stand back up.

"She threw a fucking grenade. Can you believe that? A damn grenade." He spits as we all look at Minnie who, while swinging the axe, is able to run away from the situation, and most of the walkers follow.

"We don't have time for this." Clem scolds us. "Let's go."

She leads us through the walkers that remain, dodging and weaving through their outstretched arms as we avoid getting eaten alive. Further down, by the rocks, Tenn crouches behind them, waving to us. As we pass by the last few walkers, we leap behind the rocks, getting to breathe for a moment.

I'm ambushed by a pair of hands grabbing me, and I quickly turn as a walker tries to pounce on me. Holding him back as hard as I can, I can't reach for a weapon. Suddenly, the attack stops, as it immediately collapses on me.

I shove the corpse to the ground, and Tenn retrieves his knife. He and I both nod to each other as I cheat death again for the eight thousandth time tonight, it feels like. The five of us run off into the woods, the walkers still pursuing us. After a few minutes of running, we find a cave entrance, not very wide, but we can squeeze through it.

"We have to go through here." Clem tells us as she goes in first.

"But, we don't know where it goes." Tenn protests.

"Well, we know there's walkers in the opposite direction. If you want to go that way, be my guest." She coldly responds to the boy, continuing into the cave as the rest of us follow.

"But-"

"Move it, dummy!" AJ yells to his friend as Tenn finally decides to follow us, not wanting to get torn to shreds.

"Damn it, it's so dark in here." Clem remarks as the five of us regroup in the cave. She tears a piece of cloth from a dead walker lying on the floor, tying it onto a stick as she tries to light it on fire and make a torch. After a few sparks, the cloth lights, and we have some light.

"So, there's another tunnel over there." She points, just beyond a small river that's flowing way too fast for us to swim across. It's too far to jump across. Well, shit.

"Those walkers are getting closer, too." Benji warns us, and we turn to see that they're almost getting through the tight entrance. If they knew how to form single-file lines, we'd be dead.

"Brett, help me with this?" Clem calls over to me, pushing on a log propped against the cave wall. I join her, putting my whole effort into pushing it, and it finally dislodges, landing in the river, and catching itself on some rocks, forming a makeshift bridge across the river.

Tenn cries out as we get the bridge made, as a walker grabs him. But this isn't any walker. It's James, this time actually a walker, not in walker skin. Benji wrestles him away, and the two of them head for the bridgeu, but AJ stays there, awestruck at the sight of James.

"Look at his eyes." I hear him remark, walking closer to look at him.

Before walker James can do anything, Clem spartan kicks the walker away and pulls AJ with her as the two of them join Tenn and my brother on the other side. Once the bridge is clear, I slowly shuffle across, leaping to the other side as a couple of walkers knock the bridge out, sending them and the log down the rapid, down a waterfall.

We look back at the walkers, a couple dozen or so now crowding the other riverbed, James included. Poor guy, I barely got to even know him. He didn't have to get caught up in all this, but he decided to help anyways. And he died because of it.

But still, if AJ had shot Lilly, he'd still be alive, Lilly wouldn't be a problem, and maybe things would be different.

But maybe James was concerned for AJ. AJ is a ruthless kid. I know he's only five, but he's already killed a man in cold blood. Killing someone like that, at that age, it messes you up, and maybe James was worried about that.

As we reach another chamber of the cave, we find that this room has several different exits.

"Alright, which way do we go? Tenn, do you see a light down any of these tunnels?" Clem asks him, but he doesn't respond. Instead, he just stares. He stares at AJ, looking down one of the tunnels, almost living in his own little world.

"AJ, you still with me?" She asks him, slowly approaching him. He doesn't respond, still staring down the tunnel. "AJ, come on." She nudges the boy. "We need to keep moving."

"There's… There's nothing after this." He stammers out. Clem looks at him, confused, but he continues. "James isn't in there. He looked right at me and… and his eyes were empty. There's nothing after we die. Nothing but empty eyes."

Clem looks at her boy, absolutely stunned at what he says, and he angrily snaps at her. "I wish you would tell me the truth". Still with nothing to say, she puts a hand on AJ for support, but he angrily nudges it off and shoves her down. "Why did you make me make my friend go away? Everything is all wrong now. Like something spilled on the floor, and you just can't get it back. Because you didn't let me shoot her."

"James' death is not on you." She assures him. "I made the call, and Lilly is the one who stabbed him. He shouldn't have been there, AJ. None of this was supposed to happen."

"What? I… I can't hold all of this in my head!" He complains.

"It's ok to be confused."

He shakes his head at her comforting remarks, walking back over to her. "You always say don't be soft, but everything you do just messes up my head. Be strong! Be brave! Never hesitate to kill people that want to hurt us!"

"AJ, you're five. This world isn't supposed to make sense. Hell, I'm nineteen and this barely makes any sense to me. Life is not about absolutes. It takes context to know when some things are good, and some things aren't." I try to explain to him, but that only pisses him off more.

"What do you mean? You wanted me to kill her! You said it yourself!"

"I know. I did." I sigh. "But, I also see why James and Clem didn't want you to. You're five, you don't need to be doing that when you're that young."

"What about Marlon? You said you would've killed him yourself, so why is it so bad that I did it?"

"Marlon murdered my girlfriend. I had a reason to want him dead. He made it personal with me. He hadn't with you. When you killed him, you had no reason to. I did. That's why it was bad when you did it. I'm not saying it would've been good if I did it, but you doing it was a whole lot worse for a number of reasons."

"But you said-"

"AJ, please! That's enough." Clem pleads to him, with a hint of desperation and tears, the first I've ever seen from her. After everything she's been through, I wasn't sure if she had any left in her.

"I'm sorry." He concedes, "I'm just scared something will take you away. Aren't you scared of that, too? Having to leave the world behind."

"Listen, kiddo, everyone is scared of dying. Of what happens after. Especially if it's nothing."

Aj frowns, walking over to one of the walls in the cave. "I don't want people I care about to leave, Clem. I have to kill anyone that tries to take them away. I do. You told me I was wrong to kill Marlon, but I think you were confused. It was murder, but I was still right. I don't think murder means the same thing as it did when you were little." He tells her, looking into the fire. "That world's gone now. I think murder now is just... protecting the people around you."

"Enough, AJ." She scolds the boy. "Murder is murder, nothing else. A human life is precious."

The boy angrily shakes his head once again. "No. Food is precious. Bullets are precious. We need those to live. But we don't need bad people who make things wrong."

"You're too young to understand." She softly responds. "You're just a child."

"So are you." He scowls at her. "I know you want to be big for everyone, but you're just a kid, like me. Sometimes, you're scared, just like any other kid. So, I'll help. You said all the policemen and firefighters died. So, I'm gonna be a new one. Even if I don't get it just right, I am. Because all it means is killing bad people who hurt other people. And I'm good at that." That last part, he says with a malicious smile. I glance at my brother, who has a similar concerned expression on his face, and I mouth the phrase "What the fuck" to him. He just blinks twice and slowly shakes his head.

"AJ, that's not the future I want for you. I love you too much, and I see you slipping away. Getting more violent, more angry, more lost." Clem confides in AJ.

"You shouldn't be afraid of that." AJ tells her. "I won't let it happen. I need you to trust me, Clem. That I can tell the good people and the bad people apart. That I know when to use my gun. And that you'll let me decide on my own."

She sigh. "Okay."

His face lights up. "Really?"

"You're growing up too fast, AJ, and that scares me. But, you've seen things and done things that no one your age should have to do. You've earned my trust. If you say you won't ever enjoy killing, I believe you."

"I won't, I promise."

A strong breeze starts pouring in from one of the tunnels, and Benji turns towards the source. "Feel that?"

"That's the way out." Clem confirms as she grabs her torch. Raspy groans come from the tunnel we came in from. Somehow, the walkers made it across the river. But, I don't wanna sit around wondering that.

"Let's book it. We've got company." I mutter as the five of us start running down the tunnel.

Cool, refreshing air hits all of us as we finally get out of the cave, a nice early morning breeze flows through the trees as Clem extinguishes her torch. We keep walking down the dusty path, which should lead us close to the school, according to Clem.

As we make our way back down the trail, Clem hears a noise, some rustling from behind a tree. We all stop dead in our tracks as she pulls out a knife, slowly approaching the source of the noise.

Strolling out from behind the tree is Louis, sporting a cheeky grin as he sees all of us.

AJ is the first to react, running right into his arms.

"You're not dead. That's good." He remarks as we all giggle back.

Not yet at least.

"Did everyone else escape?" Clem asks him.

He nods with a sharp smile. "Damn right. They took that cart and hauled ass back to the school."

"But you came back and looked for us."

"I thought I lost you guys."

"Only for a minute." She warmly smiles to him.

"It's over. The raiders are gone, and we got everyone out of it alive. Almost totally unscathed." I look at him, confused.

"Almost?"

He nods, albeit less cheery. "Violet, she uh, got caught in the blast. Really bad burns on her face. Ruby thinks she's lost vision in one of her eyes entirely. But, her life's not in danger and everyone else is safe, so yeah."

I sigh. "Damn. That's fucked. But at least we're safe. Unless Lilly gets any bright ideas and she brings more raider friends next time. But, I like to think she got the message."

"Well I guess we'll have to see then. But in the meantime, everyone's waiting for us back home."

"Any idea where the fastest way home is?" Clem asks him. He ponders that for a second, looking around the area, the treeline, and such, before pointing out deeper into the woods.

"I haven't been out here in awhile, but I think there's a bridge that way. It should be the fastest way back."

Let's go, then." Benji says. "I am in dire need of a nap."

The rest of us laugh as Louis leads the way. Me, too, Benji. Me, too.

As the sun barely starts to poke over the horizon, the bridge comes into view. Covered in foliage, it's a miracle it's still standing after seven years with no upkeep. In fact, I wouldn't be surprised if this thing was completely unstable.

Clem senses some tenseness, especially from Tenn, so she gives us some words of advice. "Just take your time. Keep moving forward."

The six of us start moving forward, and sure enough, it's not entirely stable, but it's good enough to keep us moving. It slowly creaks as our footsteps cross it, leaving a very uneasy feeling in some of us, myself included.

I've never been one for heights or extreme danger. Jumping off the boat was one thing, but that was life or death. If I didn't do that, I was dead regardless. Here, though, one wrong move, and I fall into the river deep below us. I'd be done.

As Clem and the rest of us walk over an old truck blocking the way, we finally approach a gap in the bridge. It's within leaping distance, but one wrong move, you fall to your death.

I look down the gap to see how far it is and all I can do is gulp. It's a long fucking drop, right onto some rocks.

"I think we can jump it." Louis says with more than an ounce of confidence in his voice.

"Yeah, I think we can." Clem agrees, "We just gotta be caref-"

"Never mind the darkness." A woman's voice sings from behind us. "Never mind the storm."

We all slowly turn around to see who sings the song, and I feel chills run down my spine as she continues.

"Never mind the blood red moon."

She finally comes into view. Walker guts all over her, the axe perched up on her shoulder, that bite mark on her cheek more pronounced than before.

Minnie.

"The night will be over soon."

"Minnie?" Tenn asks as he sees his sister, slowly walking to her.

"I did it! I found you! Oh Tenn!" She laughs at the sight of her brother, partially in relief, partially in delirium. "My sweet little brother. Come with me."

Behind her, the raspy moans of walkers start to come into earshot. A lot of them, very quickly. A few dozen start to emerge from the woods as Minnie walks closer to us.

"You're dying…" Tenn observes, backing away, which only makes her grin wider.

"Yes! Yes, I am! I'm finally going someplace better. I want you there with me." She tells her brother.

"Where everyone gets to be a person again…" He starts to walk towards her again.

"We're gonna go with Mom and Dad and Sophie. Together." She assures him, the two quickly getting closer and closer. "It won't be real if you're not there."

"Tenn, look at me." Clem reminds him. "I know that looks like her, but your sister is gone."

"I'm-"

Tenn's cut off by a single gunshot, fired straight in the air. Minnie points the gun at each one of us. "Don't you fucking speak to him! Any of you!" She yells to us as more walkers take notice of us.

We all take cover behind the truck, and Louis tries to reason with her. "Minnie, c'mon, stop!"

"He needs to be with his family!" She groans out to us, walking closer and starting to blend in with her mini-herd. "Don't worry, Tenn. They can try and stop me. But I am not going anywhere without you. The night will be over soon."

I check the handgun I swiped off the raider's body, a few bullets remain in the magazine. "I've got six shots. Should I take them?" I ask my brother. He quickly nods back.

I pop out from cover, trying to find her, but just as I see her, I'm met with shots back at me, so I immediately duck back down.

"I'll get the others across the gap. Don't let the walkers get close." Louis tells us. We nod back, Clem and I popping back out to deal with the walkers, and Minnie if we see her. Clem, using her bow, starts shooting shots into the crowd, dropping a few as Minnie starts firing back, forcing us back behind cover. I pop out when she's done shooting, firing two shots into the crowd, neither hitting Minnie but both killing walkers. She shoots again, and I duck back down. Louis crouches back down next to us.

"I got AJ across, but Tenn won't do anything." He tells us, and the three of us turn. Tenn holds his head in his hands as Benji tries to comfort him.

"Keep trying. I've gotta stop Minnie." Clem says as she pokes her head out, only to get a hard kick to the forehead, knocking her back. Minnie leaps down with a roar, swinging her axe and lodging it in the floor as Clem rolls out of the way.

"You are not his family!" She yells to Clem, pointing her gun and pulling the trigger. All that comes is a click. She's out of ammo. As she reloads, Clem springs up from the ground, trying to wrestle the gun from her hands. Clem overpowers her with a headbutt to the nose, and points the gun back at her, ready to execute her.

Minnie spits in her face, blood getting in Clem's eyes as she misses. Minnie jumps back to her feet, running to the axe still lodged in the ground, shoving me aside as I try to get a clean shot on her. My gun clatters to the side as she picks up her axe, walking back over to Clem. With a powerful raise, she swings down.

Benji pushes Clem to the side, and pays the price for it, the axe slicing open his shin as he falls backwards, next to her. He cries out in pain, holding his bloody shin.

"I'm taking Tenn home!" Minnie screams as she grabs her axe once again, ready to finish the job. I stagger back to my feet, and I grab my handgun, evading the few walker hands reach toward me.

Minnie raises her axe once again to my brother, and I finally take the shot. A single round pierces her chest, and she stumbles backwards, out of pure shock. Before she can do anything, walkers grab her by the arms and shoulders, pouncing on her and devouring her alive. I take the commotion as a chance to run toward the gap, leaping to the other side. My gun drops to the ground, right to AJ's feet, and I turn back.

"Guys! Come on!"

Clem and Benji both walk over, Benji stumbling to the ledge. Clem leaps across first, easily makes it across with Minnie's axe in hand. "Come on, Benji!" She urges.

My brother hesitates, but with a hobbling start, he jumps off his good leg, Clem and I catch him as he gets across.

"Tenn! We have to go, now!" Louis yells to Tenn as he holds him back from joining his sister in the walker horde.

"Let him go! You'll die if you don't!" AJ tells Louis as he raises my gun to them. I turn to AJ, a determined look on his face.

"AJ, what're you doing? Don't-"

I'm cut off as AJ squeezes the trigger, firing a round directly into Tenn's neck. Tenn turns back to us, his eyes showing the pain as blood spurts from the holes in his neck. With his final breath, he drops to his knees and falls back as the walkers start to feast on the boy.

Louis, in total shock, screams at Tenn's mauled body, looking back in total shock.

"JUMP FOR IT!" Clem orders him as he snaps to his sense, leaping across the gap to safety with the rest of us, immediately looking back at Tenn, now barely visible as more walkers feast on him and his sister.

"What the fuck?" Louis gasps angrily, catching his breath. "How could you just shoot him like that?"

"I had to!" AJ justifies. "You'd have died if I didn't. I did it for you."

"Tenn's dead! He's DEAD! Do you realize that?" Louis angrily asks him. Before he can answer, he turns AJ to look at the scene. "Look! He's gone, because of you."

"AJ saved your life, Louis. Tenn was gonna get you killed." Clem reminds him.

"So what, we just cut him loose? Gun him down like he was nothing?" He fires back.

"Louis, I think she's right." I tell him. "This is gonna sound super fucked up, but I think AJ made the right call. If it was you or him, I'd have done the same. But Jesus Christ, Tenn…"

"I didn't want to shoot him!" He angrily adds. "He was my first real friend. But, he was messing up again, just like when he got Mitch killed. So I had to decide."

Louis stares on in stunned silence, shaking his head. I turn to my brother, writhing in pain at his split open leg. "Hey, how're you feeling?"

"I've had better days." He groans, pointing outside. "But we need to go, we've got company."

We turn to where he's pointing, walkers slowly stumble towards us, drawn over from the commotion Minnie caused. The road is flooded with them, but some fast thinking from Louis leads us to a metal fence, which he starts scaling instantly.

"Come on. I'll help you down." He tells us with urgency as he drops down on the other side. Clem and AJ start climbing, but with Benji's leg the way it is, I stay back, shaking my head. "What're you doing?" He asks as we start walking in a different direction.

"With Benji's leg the way it is, he wouldn't make it halfway up. We'll find another way, trust me. He's a hard bastard, we'll be fine."

"We better see you back at the school." He tells me as he helps AJ down. Clem yelps as a walker grabs her leg. She desperately tries to kick it off, but he won't let go. I raise the pistol, sights on his skull. I pull the trigger and he finally lets go as he drops dead.

Clem drops on the other side, before tossing the axe back over to me. "You'll need it." She assures me, and I nod. The three of them run down the open road and Benji and I try to find a different way to get back. I lead the way, swinging the axe wildly at any walkers that come near us, decapitating as many as possible.

"There" He points at a ridge that would take some climbing, but would give us space from the walkers.

"Benji, your leg." I remind him, and he groans in protest.

"Damn it, forget my leg. Give me the axe, and I'll hold them off while you climb. Then, pull me up and I'll do what I can to make it easier."

"Fuck." I snap. "Alright. Alright, let's fuckin' do it."

I run toward the ridge, handing him the axe and I start climbing with haste. It's about a ten-foot climb. With extreme haste, I pull myself on top of the ridge, turning back to Benji, who chops through another walker with relative ease.

"Come on!" I call out to him, "Get over here!"

He turns back to me after killing one more walker, quickly hobbling toward the ridge. He tosses the axe to me as he starts climbing. Even with his bad leg, he manages to get a few feet up the ridge as I reach down, trying to pull him up. As he works his way up another foot or so, his hand grabs mine, and I pull with all my strength, but I'm met with a lot more resistance than expected.

A walker grabs Benji by the foot as I try to pull him to safety. Despite my best efforts, the walker holds an ironclad grip on my brother's leg, and I watch in horror as the walker gnaws at my brother's foot, partially exposed from Minerva's axe slicing his jeans and boot open. He screams in pain as I loosen my grip to grab my handgun. With my last bullet, I aim at the walker, and I squeeze. It drops to the ground, and Benji desperately climbs up next to me, the both of us collapse on the ground next to each other as we catch our breath.

He rolls onto his back, looking up at the sky.

"Benji…" I say to my brother, breathing heavily. He doesn't answer, sitting up, a stunned look on his face. "Benji…"

Once again, he doesn't answer. Instead, he rolls up his jeans, pulling aside the split parts of his jeans and then his boots after. Minerva's axe did a number on him, a massive gash going down his shin seeps blood out of it.

But on his ankle, clear as day, a bite. A fucking bite. I feel my heart shatter the same way it did when I lost Dad, when I lost Sierra and her family, when I lost Brody. And now, I'm losing my brother.

He takes a deep breath in, and then slowly exhales as he comes to terms with what's happening. "I'm bit." He bluntly puts.

He and I don't say a word to each other, just staring each other in the eyes. In mine, tears start falling. I've lost so many people, but Benji, he's been my side through all this. He and I survived this mess together for seven years. My best friend, my brother, and now he's gonna die.

He slowly struggles to his feet, using the axe for support. "Come on. We can't stay here". He slowly hobbles toward the woods.

I get under his arm to give him support on his hurt leg. "Come on. Just keep moving. Keep moving forward." I encourage him. With a pained expression on his face, he nods, and we move into the woods.

After half an hour of walking, a clearing comes into sight. An old, worn-down barn, seemingly empty. Benji nods to me as he and I walk over, just to get some rest. I creak open the barn door, and sure enough, it's quiet. I open up one of the stalls, walking Benji over to a hay bale where I set him down, so both of us can get some rest for a moment. I take this chance to take a look at my brother. His skin already pale, bags forming under his eyes, it's not good, and he and I both can tell.

"So, what now?" I ask him, trying to gather myself.

"Find a way back to the school." He weakly tells me, with a rough cough that follows.

"Yeah, good idea." I agree. "We gotta get back. I think I know the area. Come on, up and at 'em." I urge him desperately.

He just weakly smiles and shakes his head. "You. Not we. This is the end of the line for me. I'm sorry."

This time, I shake my head. "No. No. Benji. Come on. You gotta try! YOU GOTTA FUCKIN' TRY!" At this point, I'm yelling, trying to urge my brother and, to his credit, he does try, but just groans as his leg forces him to the ground. He accepts defeat, sighing as he stares forward at the barn wall.

"I need you, Benji…" I cry to my brother. "You've been by my side all these years, I can't lose you. Not now, not ever."

Benji frowns to me, shaking his head once again. "No… you don't. You're strong, Brett. You're the strongest person I know…"

"Benji…" I look down at the ground, tears streaming out of my face.

"Hey, look at me."

Teary-eyed, I look up at him, and he softly smiles back at me.

"I need you to do something for me. I need you to go back to the school. Tell everyone what happened. Tell them I love them. Then... I want you to keep fighting. Keep fighting for me, Brett. I want you to survive for a long... long time… You're gonna meet someone down the road, a great woman… You're gonna have some kids… And I want you to tell them all about their Uncle Benji. Raise them to be strong, like you. I need you to do that for me, please…"

I wipe the tears from my eyes as my breathing shakens, but I nod to my brother, looking at him with puffy eyes. "Yeah, you got it."

"Good… Good… You got any rounds left in that gun?"

I shake my head. "No. I used the last one to kill the one that got you."

"Damn." He sighs, turning to the axe. "I guess there's only one way to do this, then."

I already know where this is going, and I can't do it. I turn away from him, shaking my head. "You know I can't do that."

"I'm not asking you." He sternly tells me. "Brett, you know what you have to do."

"Benji…"

"Brett. You have to kill me. Don't let me become a walker. That's all I'm asking of you. Please…"

He looks me dead in the eyes, and I know what I must do. I turn around to get the axe, lying on the ground behind me, and I pick it up. I turn back to him, his eyes begging for death's sweet release, and with a grimace, I walk back over to him.

"Thank you… For being the best damn brother in the world." He looks up at me, a final smile in his last moments.

"Wouldn't have given it up for anything." I smile through the tears, "I love you, Benji."

"I love you, too. Want me to tell Mom and Dad anything when I see them?"

"Yeah. Tell 'em I love 'em. And if you see Brody, tell her I love her, too."

"Sure thing."

He and I stare at each other, for one last time, before he lowers his head, and whispers a prayer. That's how I know it's my time. I raise the axe above my head, and with one last moment of clarity, I say one last thing to him.

"I'm sorry, Ben."

And I swing down.

Happy Friday everyone. The story is winding down, and there's a lot to take in from this chapter as the end approaches. Hope you guys enjoyed, and reviews would be appreciated. See you guys next week.