The son and the wheat field
When Lee opened his eyes, he was standing at the edge of a wheat field. Golden stretched on for miles, as far as the eye could see.
"What is this?" he murmured.
"My little piece of heaven." Answered a voice behind him.
Lee turned to see the presumed edge was actually a small clearing, complete with tree trunk.
There sat Shawn, the son he hadn't saved…. Or couldn't.
"Looks more like a grain field to me." Lee walked up to the much younger man.
He looked good, normal. Not all bloodied as Lee had last seen him just before Hershel send them away.
"Wheat." Shawn corrected him. "There was one behind the farm. I used to play there when I was little." His green-gray ayes stared towards it nostalgically.
"But at least I'm not stuck here like your friends are."
Lee raised an eyebrow. This again. He wasn't even sure if this was really happening. Maybe the fever had him hallucinating.
But that was just wishful thinking. Clementine had shot him. He knew that.
"Why are you here then?" he asked.
Shawn laughed, it sounded amused and hollow at the same time.
"Because I changed your live." He simply said.
Lee was now sitting next to him, watching the wind rustle through the wheat.
Silence rested between them, Lee was uncertain what to do about it. What could he say tot his man?
It was Shawn who broke it first.
"Do you feel guilty?" he asked. The question seemed so innocent, but it made Lee gulp.
"Of course…" He answered. He could see it all happening again now. He had meant to help them both.
Shawn to his left; his legs were trapped underneath the tractor, walkers were up against the fences with hands pushing through the holes he was just trying to fix.
On his right was Duck, almost toppling from the other side of the tractor by the force the zombies were pulling him.
Subconsciously Lee had known he had a choice before him that would never please everyone.
Save one son, destroy a fathers live.
It wasn't like in the movies. No slow-motion, not even a real choice, just instinct.
So Lee had darted to his right. It just made sense in the moment.
Duck was just a kid.
By the time Kenny had helped him and Hershel had returned with his gun, it was already too late.
It was the first real victim the walkers had made in Lee's eyes and he had spent many nights contemplating if he should have done it differently.
Would it have mattered, would it have been worth it?
"Don't." Shawn's voice snapped Lee back to reality.
"Don't feel guilty. Don't blame yourself for my death."
Shawn rustled his hair in a nervous manner.
It could be a habit he had always possessed, but lee hadn't known him long enough for such familiarities.
"I know now that it couldn't have been avoided. And I think you did the right thing."
A certain feeling washed over Lee at this point.
Relief over something he hadn't noticed bothered him that much in the first place.
"Well, I'm glad that's of my chest." Shawn sighed, sounding every bit relieved that Lee felt.
"I think you should go now. There is much more up ahead." The boy concluded.
Lee nodded, placed his hand on Shawn's shoulder for a moment and then closed his eyes.
And immediately the son and the wheat field were gone.