A/N: 90 reviews guys! I can't be more thankful for the continued support for this story, I know it's a small fanfic base, but this story is now on the first page for most number of reviews! I'm chuffed! (Or just sad... anyway...)

Obsessed naruhina fangirl- Discussion time! Yeah I got the season pass and playing them through and making the decisions myself makes it a hell of a lot more intense (especially on a first play through). And your review on Christa helped me write that flashback scene, as I was planning to add a few references to Christa anyhow, but when you mentioned about Christa and Omid dying I thought "Hey, why not add a flashback there?" and I'm glad it made you want to find a story where the baby does survive.

Like I said above, the game is incredible, with so many characters and paths it could have taken, so why on earth it has such a small fan base (especially on this site) is beyond me. Either way your compliment on this story being a gem really made my day! Seriously I know what it's like wading through tons of bad fanfics just to find a gem of one, and to have this story considered a gem means a great deal! And about Sarah... yeah she could be a bit annoying, but I never wanted her dead. I hate it that people only like the badass characters like Kenny or Clem. Sarah was right in a sense, not everyone can be like them...

Emily Carver- We think alike, I thought the ultimate kind of revenge Carver could suffer at this point would be to miss the birth of his son. The son he chased the cabin group down for, the son he murdered people to get... and his so called "loving daddy" wasn't present at the birth. It will be a real kick in the teeth for Carver. But a sort of Karma he deserves.

XXXWOLFLOVERXXX- Although I disagree with you about Kenny (to some degree) I agree with you on Christa. The whole Christa giving birth thing is completely omitted when it could have easily been referenced too or referred to again )especially regarding Rebecca.

Rebloxic and AquaDestinysEmbrace- Thanks as always! Both of your support means a great deal!

Right then, you have now reached bottom of this author's note. I do apologise for going on, but for now enjoy the chapter.

The footpath seemed to lead on through the endless woods as the overcast sky seemed to turn darker with each passing second. Sarah was too preoccupied thinking about her father... and hearing his dying screams, the last words she had ever heard from him.

"GO SARAH! MOVE! I LOVE...!"

His sentence went unfinished as the walkers collapsed upon him and his horrible dying screams ricocheted through the still morning air, Sarah could only back into a corner herself screaming herself as the walkers sharp teeth ripped through her father skin and his crimson blood sprayed all over the place... she couldn't move... she couldn't breathe... she could only curl up a few feet away from him, the hammer in her hand shaking wildly...

If only she had used it. Why hadn't she used it?

Now that the shock of her father's death was wearing off, she was entering the second stage of grief... unbeknownst to her If Clementine hadn't had prepared her through the horrors of the outside world through her true stories... than Sarah would have taken his death a lot harder than she already had (if that was too be believed) never the less now that the shock of it was wearing off. She couldn't deny his death that occurred right in front of her... people Clementine had cared about how died too, right in front of her with no warning.

"sometimes a person you love just dies with no goodbye" were Clementine's words of advice to her. These words had prepared her very thinly for what was going to occur to Carlos, yet despite the crushing grief she couldn't face denial of events.

Besides, Becca's death beforehand had already pre-prepared her.

One minute the mean spirited girl was taunting her "Just work Sarah you fucking pansy... Jesus, you're useless you know... God, I wish you just died out there" she kept on repeating, Sarah tried to work, but her thin fingers kept fumbling and she found herself drooping the clippers she held as Reggie's death replayed in her mind from the previous day.

"WORK ALREADY!" Becca screamed losing her short patience with Sarah.

"I-i'm trying B-b-becca, but it's h-hard" Sarah told her shakily feeling the tears fall from her eyes.

"It's a simple task baby! What the hell is wrong with you!?" she demanded to know, as Sarah could only shake and sob and when she dropped her clippers once again, That was when Becca lost her patience and hit her...

The pain wasn't the worst thing. It was seeing her tormentor dead on the floor merely a minute later. With all this in mind, and Becca's harsh words replaying in her head, mingled with Carver's criticism made the shock of her grief fade. The trauma made her cry and scared her still, but reaching the second stage of grief was anger at herself...

Carver had ordered her to be slapped.

She had gotten Reggie killed by failing to do the work.

She had gotten Becca killed by failing to do the work.

The group were clearly talking about what was wrong with her a few nights back.

She had gotten her father killed by failing to do a damn thing.

3 people, 3 people were dead because of her. The amount of self loathing she had developed for herself is what caused her sadness now, at first it was the fear and the shock but now... now she knew she was to blame. She could almost see herself getting Nick killed as well if that happened Sarah didn't know what she would do. Not only would she be alone without his comforting arm around her. She would have another death on her frail shoulders.

"I don't want to hurt anybody" she told Clementine, yet despite her best efforts three were dead in her wake.

"Hey, you okay?" Nick finally asked looking down at the girl, both were still drenched in walker guts and the colder winds of the retreating day and the silence were getting a bit much for him and to break out of his own depressing cycles of thought he decided to speak to the girl he barely knew. Back at the cabin they barely interacted as she was stuck in her room, whereas he was out collecting fish from the fish traps. He was an abrasive young man, whereas she was a timid teenager. Their polarised personality's made them indifferent to each other.

Now they were grouped together over one thing. Their failures. Which stuck out like a sore thumb compared too everyone else.

"Look" Nick began rubbing the back of his black mullet with his free hand "I don't know what to say to you about Carlos other than... I'm sorry Sarah... really I am. If you want to scream at me, or blame me or whatever go on ahead. I'll take it on the chin because I know it deserve it"

Through her fuzzy vision Sarah looked up at him oddly, he was blaming himself for what she had done? Was this just another way to make her feel better? Well she wouldn't have it.

"Don't try to make me feel better, My dad's dead because of me" She said flatly, she was surprised at her own words as they sounded so flat and so... emotionless. This wasn't how she usually spoke.

"Don't blame yourself" Nick snapped sourly at her, yet something about this rubbed Sarah up the wrong way and she found the anger at herself could no longer be contained.

"NO!" She screamed suddenly causing Nick to jump as she broke out of his grip and froze in her tracks as she glared at the leaf strewn floor of the pine forest "IT'S MY FAULT! REGGIE! BECCA! DADDY! THERE ALL MY FAULT NICK!" She was crying now as she collapsed to the floor and the salty tears fell from the bridge of her nose to the floor. "Just leave me to die, I don't want you to die because of me either" she sniffed as she let herself sink into the dirty forest floor... covered in guts and feeling like a dead weight on him.

"Hey! C'mon you'll draw walkers!" Nick snapped trying to holster her up off the ground by wrapping his arms around her waist.

"NO! LET ME GO!" She screamed as she tried thrashing out of his grip as he lost his temper "DAMMIT SARAH STAY STILL! He roared as the girl wriggled from his solid grip.

"NO!" She screamed and sobbed again, as Nick looked around again if they kept up the way it did, Walkers would descend upon them in no time he had to try and calm Sarah down... but how? Only Clementine could do that...

Clementine.

"Sarah, if you stay here you'll die, you don't want that do you? You need to get back to Clementine, she's your friend" He told her as Sarah's sobbing subsided a little.

"Clem" she remembered, the friendly face of the 11 year old filled her mind, she pinkie promised she would come back for Clementine and not just her, she wanted to be surrounded by all those friendly faces in the pen. All those people she liked so much...

But it was so, so hard to come back to them, when she knew she was nothing but a liability for them.

"Maybe it's best if I just die out here, than I don't have to worry about getting Clem killed too" She muttered sadly positioning herself on the forest floor with her legs crossed having a sort of childish strop that made Nick's blood boil.

"Sarah! We don't have time for this!" he hissed at her.

She didn't respond, with this Nick sighed and looked up. They truly were pathetic, the two liabilities of the group covered in head to foot in walker guts and crouching in the middle of an exposed wood. He couldn't even move a 15 year old girl, or get her to move. What sort of man was he? He was the worst kind he knew that for sure.

"Damn it Sarah, come on... just move!" he was practically pleading this of her now, but the teenager remained motionless in her depression. Nick couldn't do this anymore, he felt himself opening up as a last ditch attempt to get her to move.

"Sarah, look" he began in a much calmer voice "It's both our fault that your dad's dead" this sentence seemed to get her interest as she turned to face him as he carried on "If I'd have just fixed than damn barricade properly and if you'd have hit one of those lurkers, Carlos wouldn't be dead. But what happened, happened and Carlos is dead we can't change that now".

She blinked, curious to hear what he had to say next.

"I can't forgive myself for Carlos' death, the only thing I can do is make sure I don't fail his daughter the way I failed him. So... you gotta move Sarah, because if you don't move than I won't move either and then you've got us both killed" he told her as eyes widened in panic.

"But... I don't want to kill you too!" she squeaked.

"I know you don't and you won't Sarah. Look Luke, Clem and all the others are counting on us to get back, we have to try, for them" Were his words, as he did Sarah finally seemed to stand up. Nick followed her example.

"I... I did pinkie promise Clem I'd come back" she stuttered, she didn't want to kill anyone else and if she was planning to die she didn't want to drag Nick down with her.

"You can't break a pinkie promise" Nick told with a touch of awkward humour which Sarah didn't pick up on.

"Yeah, but this is really, really hard Nick" she moaned to him.

"I know it's hard, but we gotta make the best of it. It ain't gonna get easier Sarah, but we have to be tough" Nick told her.

Sarah thought hard about this, she was angry at herself for being weak, back when Becca had died she had steeled herself to become stronger, but she learned she couldn't just "become strong" in a matter of days. No... but this time she swore to herself... she would become "tough" no matter how long it took. Her father's death had spurred her to think so negatively about who she was... she wanted change. She wanted to be stronger.

With a deep breath, she looked at the blurry path ahead of her. "Let's go then" she said trying hard not to sniff or sob (although she failed).

"Good girl" Nick said as he took the lead, they slowly proceeded into unknown foliage. But barely a minute had passed before they suddenly came across a very familiar opening as they gazed ahead.

"Is that...?" Sarah asked not seeing clearly through her bad eyes.

"It is! Holy shit Sarah! Were back at the civil war site!" He exclaimed in disbelief.

The two shared a smile, they had found a familiar place and plans were forming in Nick's mind.

Maybe... just maybe, they weren't doomed.

Or that pathetic.

"Supper, get your asses back to the...!"

Tavia's words froze on her lips, looking around she saw nothing but the finished barricade looking back at her. Luke, Bonnie and Clementine were alarmingly absent, disgruntled she lifted the walkie talkie to her lips, "Troy are Luke and Clem back in the pen? and have you seen Bonnie lately?"

"There ain't no one in the pen other then those two screw up's" Came Troy's gruff response.

"Well, Bonnie, Luke and Clem aren't here" She informed him as Troy swore "You don't think they've run off do you?" he snarled, hardly daring to believe they could slip under their noses just like that.

"I don't think so, I'm going to try and contact Bonnie" Tavia told him he muttered "okay then".

"Bonnie, where the hell are you?" she asked through her walkie talkie she waited a few minutes yet there was no response, just empty static that reached her ears.

"Shit" Tavia cursed, as she turned back into the compound, her eyes locked upon Bill's office, he needed to know that these people had just vanished. Although he would be fuming as it seemed he was having a bad day today...

"Remember when we were last time?" Nick asked Sarah as they approached the statue of the two soldiers, one carrying the other "Fallen but never forsaken" a plaque beneath it read. Could those words apply to him and Sarah as well? Either way he proceeded forwards, his eyes peeled on the trees for any signs of movement but so far... everything seemed quiet and still. There was even a lack of walkers.

"Yeah, I remember how we were all here last time" Sarah recalled, but upon her words both of them dipped their heads sadly remembering the fallen, Nick's own mother, Pete, Carlos, Alvin...

With the memories of the dead keeping their spirits down, Nick and Sarah rested their aching legs on some nearby benches, they had been walking all day to get to here and now they were here they needed to catch their breath, recovering from their fatigue for a few minutes, Nick became aware of how quickly it was getting dark and how much colder it was getting...

"Were gonna have to find a place to stop the night" he muttered to Sarah who, (to his surprise) gave a logical answer "Well we stayed at the observation deck last time, before we moved again. We should stop there for the night and then see what we can find tomorrow" She didn't seem aware of what words had tumbled out of her mouth, yet she seemed to flinch slightly when she saw Nick gawking openly at her.

"What?" she asked defensively bringing her legs up to her chest.

"Nothing... just... It's just not the type of thing you'd say" He eventually replied.

"Well... you guys never told me anything and I just want to help for once" she said sadly, as Nick stood up and looked at a nearby map of the civil war site, determining the location of the observation deck, he smiled and proceeded towards a brick arch "Observation deck's this way! Unless you wanna freeze out here tonight you better haul ass!"

Springing up Sarah followed him, as they proceeded across the empty car park towards the lone observation deck, climbing the stairs Nick found nothing but a closed shutter staring back at him, he had nothing to help open these shutters other than the shard of glass in his fingers. "I'm going to try and open this Sarah, see if you can find anything"

Sarah looked around blankly, more so admiring the view of the nearby river as her stomach rumbled and her fingers stung from the cold. She hoped to find food soon, or even something to drink... she was starting to get dizzy. But beside that listening to the tranquil flow of the river and gazing at the ruby red sky filled her with a sense of ease... there were no bandits... no walkers to worry about as of now. She could just enjoy what she was witnessing.

"I wish you were here dad" she murmured sadly. Remembering the last time, she and the rest of the group were camped up here and she was snuggled next to her father trying hard to gain some sleep while gazing at the starry sky with him. Already the world felt like such a sadder and emptier place without him.

But she couldn't keep daydreaming if she wanted to survive in a world that demanded her to be "tough" with a sigh she came back down to earth as Nick continued to grunt from behind her, no doubt trying to open that unmoveable shutter. While he was busy with that Sarah gazed at the floor... nothing. She gazed at the large cannons for a while in curiosity... nothing. She even willed herself to reach into the dark hole in the cannon, only to discover that it was filled with cement.

"Nothing in there" she thought in a growing frustration as she sighed and peered into a nearby bin.

"GOT IT!" Nick yelled triumphantly as there was a defining click as he lifted the shutter using his fingers, he gazed inside at the almost cosy interior. Well almost cosy, if a bare wooden floor accounted for "cosy" these days. But at least they had a roof over their head, which was more than he could say about the pen.

"Hey Sarah, were in!" He shouted in glee to the teenage girl who didn't respond.

"Sarah?" he replied again nervously, he was worried about her state of mind since Carlos' died. Regarding her breakdown earlier and her sudden change of mind to try and be tough. She might have tried bottling up what she felt, which was something Nick himself did often and he knew it wasn't the best way to deal with things...

"Nick" she finally replied as she looked up at him from where she was peering into the bin, to his surprise there was a massive grin on her face "I found us some supplies" she mused.

"Get outta here" Nick muttered in doubt as he peered into the bin himself, he could barely believe what he saw. Tons, and he meant tons of meds were just dumped there. Right there for him to take. No one was around and he wondered who on earth would leave such supplies behind? But right now he couldn't help himself, he found himself laughing hysterically as Sarah followed suite.

Either they were going crazy or...

They just received the moral boost they so desperately needed.