"NOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!"

My scream is muffled out by the roar of gunfire and bloody screams of agony ripping across the camp, as everything happens in a blur. Kenny manages to take out Becca with a headshot before collapsing onto the snow; with the young girl's head ricocheting back as her sister, Shel, is shot dead by Bonnie. The redhead looks really saddened by the act that she just committed – perhaps the two of them knew each other in the past.

Luke puts about six bullets into Tavia – all direct hits. She dies almost instantly as he quickly hides behind one of the fallen totem poles to reload, though somebody's bullet grazed him on the left arm as he winces in pain. Blood pours out of Tavia's eye sockets as Nate turns away, disgusted. It seems that he truly is the supreme ruler of these assholes now… however many will be left after all of this is said and done. At least Tavia's out of commission now, though – she seemed to be the smarter one of the two.

With nowhere really to hide, Mike tries his best and fights valiantly; killing off at least two people and freeing up one of the ATVs. But even he can't fight them all off by himself. Vince guns him down with a few bullets to the chest, and he too collapses in a dying heap – his eyes growing dim as Jane cries out bloody murder. She slaughters Vince with an array of bullets, and then takes out a few more people… before Wyatt sneaks behind her and snuffs her life out with a knife in the back. Quick, silent and efficient. Jane writhes around in agony as Wyatt pulls the bloody knife out of her back and turns tail.

I can't tear my eyes away from Kenny; even as Lilly starts to drag me away with her down the steps of the observation deck. He's not moving! You can see the bullet wound he sustained moments ago, as blood stains his green-coloured jacket that I've grown so accustomed to. I can't see his face, but I'm sure that it's contorted into a mix of pain, shock and anger. Kenny's probably pissed that Nate got the first blow.

Speaking of which…

That little shit has cowardly taken cover with Hank while the rest of his soldiers are continuing to fight. He's hiding outside the main gate, reloading his weapon as his army crumbles around him.

"THAT BASTARD!" I yell out barbarically, swinging my arms around and wanting nothing more than to snap his neck clean in half.

"There's nothing you can do!" Lilly retorts, grasping onto my arm with an iron grip. "The camp's lost, Clem! You need to get out of here!"

"NO!" I scream, trying to kick my feet into the dirt like a two year old to prevent Lilly from dragging me further. "I need to stop this…"

"If you give yourself up now, then they'll have all died for nothing! Do you really want that?!" Lilly yells, shaking my shoulders roughly as we come over to a pair of canoes that we used as a barricade. What she's saying shakes me up a little bit, and tears fall down my face as the realization kicks in. That wasn't just an illusion – they really killed Jane, Mike and…

"K-Kenny…"

"Shh… I know, I know. But you've got to be strong, alright?" Lilly soothes, rubbing her hand in my hair while all of the chaos ensues. "I need you to be strong! Think of something else – something hopeful!"

"There's nothing left to hope for!" I yell, my hands balling into tight fists. "Everyone's gone! My parents, Lee, Duck, Sarah, Kenny… maybe even you! I… I can't do this anymore…"

"…hope for life. Hope that somehow, we'll make it through this and live to see another day."

"BONNIE! NOOOOOO!" we both hear Luke screech out as another ray of bullets pierces the sky. In that moment, we both know that Bonnie's got to be dead. There's no way that Luke would've ever yelled like that otherwise. There goes another person lost to this pointless war… We both cringe as Luke's cries echo around us.

"Go," Lilly instructs, embracing me tightly before quickly helping me place the canoe in the freezing cold water. "Remember the plan, alright? Find somewhere safe, drop the canoe on the side of the lake, and we… I'll come find you, understand? I've shown you how to hunt for food, and it shouldn't be too hard to find fish out here. You're smart and I know you can do this."

"Lilly…"

"Goodbye, Clem."

"Lilly!"

With one last push, she shoves my canoe into the lake, takes one last sad look at me, and disappears into the camp – probably to try and kill Nate before he can cause any more harm than what's already been done. I haven't yet started to paddle, because I don't think I have any real strength left.

I'm going to be perfectly, horrendously honest here – the only reason I'm still alive and trying to survive out here… is because of Lee, Lilly and Kenny. It would be a dishonour to their memories if I just gave up and let myself get killed, but I keep asking myself this one question. What the hell is the point anymore?

Everyone I have ever loved is either dead or close to it. My life has been ripped out of me, and I'm but a shell of the former person that I used to be. Hell, am I really any different from the walkers? I kill things, don't have a purpose in life anymore, wander around from place to place aimlessly… The only real difference is that I'm still alive and breathing. What kind of life is this? Just to experience more heartbreak and pain, move somewhere else, and then repeat the cycle all over again?

But then I remember what Lee once told me…

Flashback…

"Are you alright, sweet pea?"

"Nuh-uh."

"Come here, kiddo," Lee tells me, wrapping his arm around me comfortingly as we dangle our legs over the second deck of the motor-inn. We've just returned from the St. John's dairy, and the emotional trauma of it all has finally started to sink in. Watching Mark crawl down the stairs with no legs… and watching Larry get his face smashed in with a salt lick… It's a lot to take in for anybody, let alone an eight year old girl.

"I miss my mom and dad…" I whisper to him as I breathe in sharply.

"I know, Clem. I know."

"Do you… ever think about your parents? Or your brother?" I ask quietly, not wanting to upset the man in any way.

Nodding sadly, Lee rubs comforting circles on my back that help ease me a little bit. "All the time," he explains, looking up to the stars as the rain claps against the roof above us. "Your family is the most important thing that a person's got, so you need to believe that yours is going to make it."

"I hope they're alright."

"Good – make sure you hold onto that hope. It's the one thing that none of this can take away," he tells me as I lean my head against his shoulder. This is kind of like our little ritual that we do whenever one of us is sad. We've got a connection with each other – somehow we know what the other is feeling.

"I don't want people to die anymore… but it happens all the time. Is it ever going to stop?" I wonder aloud, looking up into his brown orbs.

It frightens me a little when he shakes his head.

"I won't lie to you, Clem… No, it's still going to happen," he remarks; the both of us watching as Kenny makes his way up the RV to relieve Ben of his lookout duty. "It happens to everyone… Kenny's going to die, Lilly and Carley… and I'm going to die someday. We can always defend ourselves to stop it from happening, but when it comes for us there's not a whole lot we can do. That's why we need to always be careful, and treat every day like it's our last. We always need to find something worth living for… something to fight for."

We talk for a little while more, but eventually I succumb to sleep's embrace and wake up the next morning in my bed.

I never fully understood what he meant back then, but I certainly do now. Find something to fight for… I have to believe that Lilly and Luke will make it out of this. It would be a cruel sting of fate if they were to die now, but I will keep hope alive.

It's the least I can do for Lee.

"Wyatt…" I whisper, my eyes wide as he approaches me with his gun raised. If I don't do something quickly, then I too will be dead among the rest of them. This lake will become both Sarah and I's watery grave. "Please…"

He studies me for a long, hard while, as if he's totally conflicted about what he needs to do. There's no point in handing me over to Nate, because there won't ever be a peace treaty now. Too many people are dead for any terms to be hashed out anyway. If he shoots me, then I'll be one less problem for them. But…

"You saw what Nate did to Eddie… your friend…" I say to him quietly as my canoe floats in the lake near him. "He forced Lee to kill him… you know that. None of us wanted him dead. Eddie would want you to be happy, Wyatt. Doing this won't change anything – it won't bring him back. I'm so sorry for your loss, Wyatt… but you have to let me go."

"I didn't want any of this shit to happen," the blonde-haired stoner confesses, lowering his weapon to the side as his gaze saddens towards me. "Just… get out of here. I never saw you, and I never want to see you again. Just leave, alright? Get lost before Nate finds you."

"Thank you," I tell him before vigorously paddling my way out through the lake. This is going to take an extremely long time to get anywhere, but it has to be done.

But god damn it! There's a leak in the boat!

I have to act quickly, or else I'm going to sink – and there's no way that I'll be able to get far with this fake foot that I've got on me. Not seeing any other options, I groan before taking off my jacket (err, Sarah's jacket anyways. I wanted something to remember her by) and stuffing one of the sleeves in the hole; hoping that it could at least buy me some time.

Maybe using these canoes as protection from bullets wasn't such a great idea…

…

Teeth chattering, nose running and goose bumps covering my exposed skin, I continue to paddle through the rough waters of Lake Michigan – hoping that by some miracle I can find a safe enough place to retire for the day. That leak has proved to be troublesome, as on numerous occasions I've had to readjust my jacket sleeve to prevent me from sinking down to the bottom of the lake. I'm going to freeze my ass off in that thing when I land… I haven't had any time to grieve over my fallen friends, but maybe that's a good thing right now. I need to stay focused, and not let my emotions get in the way of my goal.

The water has been my only companion for the last couple of hours… or at least it's felt like hours, I can't really be sure anymore. Whatever the case may be, I've long since rowed away from Wellington and all of that death. There's no going back… not to look for friends, or say any last goodbyes.

Spotting a suitable location, I tiredly paddle my way over to the shore and collapse onto the ground, exhausted. And now that I'm at a suitable distance away from danger (at least for the moment), I finally get the chance to fully process what's just happened.

Lee, Kenny, Mike, Bonnie, Jane… and probably Luke as well as Lilly… all gone. I'm officially on my own, and I haven't felt this grief-stricken since my parents died.

A mix of hot and cold is felt on my face as I sob into the snow. The tough, little survivor girl has broken.

Nate's POV

I trip over a dead body but regain my balance, whistling at the ghastly scene as the dust settles and the gunfire stops. Blood and gore sprawl about rapidly, as I fire a bullet into the throat of Vernon, who's practically begging for me to do it.

"Fuck sakes," I mutter, wiping the blood away from my face as the crimson liquid travels down from the cut across my eye. That fucking Bonnie bitch got me good… but I shot her dead before she could do any more damage. She did a number on me, since it still hurts like hell.

"Hank!" I call out, causing him to turn towards me as he prepares to shoot Mike in the head. "Leave 'em be."

"But Nate… they'll just come back as lurkers…"

"Serves these fuckers right, then," I reply, examining the carnage as that Kenny bastard still struggles on the ground. Seems that he's not dead yet… I'll let his friends devour him. "That'll teach them for not cooperating like nice little children! Where's the murderer?"

"Who? Clementine?" he asks dumbly, joining me as what remains of our crew gather around. Eight of us left… this is such bullshit. I guess they wouldn't appreciate celebrating a victory party now.

"Do you know any other murderers around here? And who the hell names their kid after a fruit?" I ask, grinning as the woman we stole from all that time ago is presented to us – her hands tied tightly by a rope.

"The last of your kind," I announce, bending down to her level and chuckling as she glares intensely at me. "It's Lilly, right? Looks to me like you're out of options. Why don't you tell me where your little friend is, and everything can just be right as rain?"

"Fuck you."

"Not yet, my darling! We should probably wait for the first date, at least!" I mention dirtily, wiggling my eyebrows as she spits in my face. Wiping the saliva off, I smack her once straight across the mouth and stand up, ready to straight up murder the little girl she's got with her.

"Luke got out, too," Hank reports, shrugging his shoulders as I look over at him. "Pretty much everyone else is dead, though. Wyatt took off a while ago… mentioned something about having a better chance on his own than with us. One of our guys say that they saw a kid paddling away in one of the canoes to the north, but who knows, really?"

"That motherfucker," I snarl, hoping that Wyatt falls into a pit of walkers and suffers a slow, agonizing death. Make that seven people left from our camp. "We can't let them escape – I'm going after the kid. Take our guest here back to camp, and leave the rest of these bastards here to turn. It's no better than they deserve. Oh yeah, don't forget to burn down the rest of this place before you go – don't wanna risk them getting themselves resupplied or any of that fun stuff."

"You've got it, Nate."

Hopping on my motorcycle, I twiddle my fingers mockingly at Lilly and zoom away. She looks completely broken and utterly defeated, which is exactly how I want her to feel. Not only did I take over their camp, I destroyed it. The few patrons left are in no position to do anything… and there's no way that Lee made it out of that herd we cornered him off to. I've lit the match and started the flame… and burned everything to the ground. Momma would be so proud of me!

And as Tavia's last wish, I will see to it that Clementine dies for her crimes. Admittedly, I do feel a little bit bad for having it come this far, but my guilt is absolved when I think of the best interests of my camp.

It's almost over – I've won this war.

Lee's POV

I should've ended it right there… The gun was right there in my hand, but I couldn't force myself to pull the trigger. I was naïve to think that they'd just let me go without incident, as I was taken out of the frying pan and tossed straight into the fire. That back exit just lead straight into a walker herd, and the bastard locked me out as soon as I stepped outside. So much for not wanting to go through the front and risk being mobbed down by the camp… It's probably ten times worse out here.

But how the hell could I have forgotten my stuff on that desk… how could I have been so careless?! Both of my mementoes as well as my pistol are gone, and all I've really got left is Molly's old grappling hook. Better than nothing though, I suppose, but I used to think that Clem's leaf drawing was my one source of luck.

Or maybe it was Clementine herself who was my good luck charm?

I'm dealing with the last of them now – walkers aren't too tough to take down once you get the hang of it. A swift kick to the knee sends them down, and then all you have to do is go for a headshot. Quite simple, really. Molly's hook really does wonders on these guys.

As the last of this group goes down, and I dislodge my weapon from the back of its skull, I realize that I've been stuck out here for way too long. I need to get back to the camp and warn all of them – get Clementine to safety! Those shitheads are coming for her, and I WILL NOT let that happen!

But first I need to figure out where the hell I am right now. Nate's camp shouldn't be too far away, but I had to move around quite a bit due to the walkers coming for me. I haven't ever looked this bad before, since my clothes, face and arm are all completely covered in walker blood and guts. This made it much easier to deal with those sons of bitches, but I had to be careful not to get any of it in my eyes or mouth. Who knows what could happen if I got actual walker blood into my system?

Panting heavily, I make my way over hills and around trees; avoiding loitering walkers whenever possible. As nice as it would be to have someone go around and just try to kill all of the walkers around, it's just not physically possible. America's population was well over 100 million if I recall correctly, and there's only so much danger that I'm willing to put myself in.

Okay, so there's Nate's camp… but where is everybody? I can only spot one person coming back into the camp… but he looks really familiar. Is that Wyatt?

Whatever… if I go ask him if the rest of his group has already gone to Wellington, the best response I can get is a bullet to the face. That guy's been through enough trauma I'd say – and if the nervous way he's gathering up his stuff is any indication, I'd say that he's ditching these assholes.

It's a little late to be doing that, don't you think?

….

Stopping to catch my breath, I huff and puff while leaning my good arm against a tree. I'm pretty sure for most people if they had lost an arm, they probably wouldn't have lasted very long – especially out here. But I'm not like other people – I'm a survivor. Don't mistake my words for gloating, because I'm not. It's the truth. As long as I still have something to live for, then I won't give up. It's just that simple.

Taking a moment before heading out again, my nose catches the faint smell of… death. Are those walkers, or maybe it's…

Fuck.

Jogging at a steady pace as to not wear myself out even further, my gaze lands at the top of the hill, where the front gate has been bent out of shape and pretty much thrown open. It looks as though the metal fence was crashed into by a vehicle of some kind, which can only mean one thing: Nate and his goons showed up.

Cursing my slight malnutrition, I slowly make my way up the snow-covered path to Wellington, all the while wondering what might have happened. The smell is getting much more intense, which really isn't a good sign to begin with. But what will I find there? Will Kenny and Luke just shove me back down the hill before I even make it five feet inside? Or will Clementine be waving at me while playing a game of cards with Lilly; both of them smiling as they see me? Maybe the rest of the camp will have a change of heart and welcome me back with open arms… well, Kenny won't, but you never know.

Reaching the last stretch of hill, I groggily look upwards to see my old home of Wellington.

And in an instant, all of my hopes are dashed away; as my heart sinks to my stomach. Mike stumbles his way over to me… as a walker with no feelings other than an unrelenting hunger for people like me.

AN: Don't shoot me, please! I know that I just killed off quite a few characters here, and that you're probably going to have me on wanted posters all over town… but I come in peace! This is a part of the story, albeit a very sad part! I hope you guys are enjoying this so far, and by all of the positive reviews I've been getting, I'd have to say that you are :) If you guys have any problems with how I'm doing things, then be sure to say so in the reviews! Constructive criticism helps me improve!

BTW I DIDN'T REALIZE THAT THE NEXT EPISODE WAS COMING SO SOON! TOMORROW?! WOOHOO!