Season Three: Episode 5 -Too Far Gone- The Fog Around Us

A/N- Here we are guys, the last chapter. Before we get into this, this Season Three has TWO alternate endings, and this chapter will only show one, the one we got, got it? Okay :)

They'll be something at the end after this, credits chapter to thank everyone, and put up some character stats too. Well, enjoy...

(o) Shoot Michael.

She squeezed the trigger, and the back of Michael's head erupted shortly after, while some of his blood splattered on Lucas' face.

"NO!"

(?) Lucas will remember this.

After the noise subsided, Lucas just knelt there, still and silent, completely shell shocked. After a brief moment, he picked up Michael's body and cradled him in his arms. He buried his face into Michael's soaked shirt as he began to sob.

"I'm sorry, Lucas..." Clementine apologized as the gunshot made AJ cry. "He was going to turn... I couldn't let that happen. I didn't want him to hurt you."

Lucas lifted his head and rose to his feet. "I have a shovel... I'm gonna- fuck..." The grieving father whimpered.

"You do what you have to, man." Dusty responded sympathetically. "We'll take care of the rest."

The older man turned, avoiding their gaze as he made his way over to the door and walked downstairs, carrying Michael in his arms. Clementine watched him go before looking up a Dusty. He gave her a weak smile and rested a hand on her shoulder. "You did the right thing for him." He consoled. "God know's what would've happened if he turned..." He paused, giving him a one over of her with his eyes. "Do you... Wanna talk about it? Earlier, I mean... When I came in here?"

She put her thoughts of her own recent trauma and well being on the back burner of her mind, at least for now. "Maybe later... Lucas needs us. We can't let him do this alone." She replied to him as she quieted down the baby.

"Yeah, you're right." Dusty glanced down at Hazen's body and grimaced. "Let's go."

About an hour had passed, the storm had finally stopped completely, leaving behind a mild mist. Clementine could hear birds chirping and she could see some faint rays of sunlight through the thin cloud of fog.

Dusty and Clementine paused outside the lighthouse once they spotted Lucas on the edge of the woods, filling in a hole. "I'll go talk to him... You wait here with AJ." She told Dusty. He simply nodded in response.

Clementine swallowed hard and began to approach Lucas, the damp blades of grass brushing against her legs as she walked. She took her eyes off of him for a moment and took in the scenery. The trees Lucas was burying Michael under had rain droplets dripping off their leaves. It almost gave off the effect that it was still raining.

Lucas had only just finished off the grave when she reached him. He stabbed the shovel into the ground and mopped his sweaty brow. His hands were still caked in Michael's blood, but the blood splatter on his face was gone. There was dry blood on his jacket too, the source once being the wound in his shoulder that Zach had taken a look at. Even so, the stitches must have been causing him discomfort, since he let out a small groan and rotated his shoulder.

He glanced at her briefly and then wiped his hands on his pants. Once he was done, he checked his palms and grimaced at the sight of dry blood that still covered them. Giving up on his event to clean his hands, he simply stared at the mound of fresh earth and sighed. Clementine somberly stared at the grave with him.

"He was heavy, you know..." He commented after a brief moment of silence. Clementine looked up at him curiously. "When I carried him down here, he was heavier than I thought..." He explained. He paused and pinched his nose. "When he was born... When I first got to hold him, I never thought... That I'd be the one to bury him. I thought he would be the one to end up burying me..." He trailed off for a moment.

"I-" He began. Clementine's full attention was on him. "I failed." He stuttered "I failed him. I failed Rachel... I should have been here to protect him... Or hold his hand while he-" He stopped himself. "Instead I was back at the bridge getting fixed up after saving a mother and her child that I barely know."

"You saved Rachel and her baby... You were trying to do a good thing... You couldn't have known this would happen." Clementine comforted him. "This isn't your fault, Lucas."

(?) Lucas will remember that.

He looked at Clementine "I wish that were true..." He muttered. "Listen, I'm sorry for yelling back there... You were trying to help but I made things worse. I thought I could save him, but... He was already dead. I guess I didn't want to believe that he was dead... But you, you stopped him from turning... You ended it... I couldn't even do that... My own son."

"I didn't want him to hurt you." She explained.

Lucas knitted his eyebrows with sorrow. "I know... I know. I appreciate what you did... Must have been hard... I'm real sorry you had to do that... And I'm sorry for whatever you went through back there."

"He tried to save me." She stated.

Lucas murmured. "He always did try to be the hero... He acted tough a lot, even when he was hurting inside."

"He's with his mom now."

Lucas choked up. "Yeah... Yeah, he is."

Clementine reached behind her back and held out Michael's knife. "Here... Take it."

Lucas glanced down at the knife. "Keep it. I'd like to think that he'd want you to have it."

Clementine clenched the handle, noticing something she'd never acknowledged before. There were some engravings craved in to handle, two letters to be exact. She ran her thumb over hem and read it aloud "M.P."

"Michael Perkins." Lucas informed her. "He had his mother's second name, since we weren't married. I doubt Wright would've suited him much better."

The two fell into silence once again as Clementine slide the knife into her pocket. Lucas dug his hand deep in his pockets, retrieving a piece of crumpled paper. "Oh, here, have this too." He stated, holding it out to her. Clementine took the paper and opened it up. "It's that list of outposts he kept. You could probably find a settlement on there, maybe a place like Wellington"

"What about you?" She questioned.

Lucas sighed. "I think it would be best if... We went our separate ways."

Clem's eyes arched at that. "Michael wouldn't want you to be alone."

"I won't be." His gaze shifted from Clementine to a group of people off in the distance. Clementine hadn't spotted them within the fog.

It was the bridge survivors, all three of them alive and well waiting for him she guessed.

"Where's Lilly?" She asked. "The woman who helped us with the bandits?"

"I don't know, she disappeared after we all got separated. I'm sorry, darling... Maybe you could find her again, I mean, she's gotta be out there somewhere, right?"

"Maybe..." She trailed off.

"These people, they need me. I want to help them in any way I can. I would love to come with you and Dusty, Clem, but... I can't leave them. I just can't. I need to stay."

"I understand." Clementine reassured him. "You do what you have to do, Lucas."

He tried to smile, but failed miserably. All he managed to do was twitch the corner of his lips. He dug into his pockets again and pulled out another piece of paper. This one was neatly folded this time "It's a map, it'll help you when it comes to finding where you wanna go."

"Thanks." She replied gratefully, taking the map off him.

Lucas lowered himself to Clementine's level. "Listen, Clem, if anything happens to Dusty, you come straight back here, okay? We won't be too far, alright?"

Clementine nodded. "Yeah, okay."

"Great, good." He patted her shoulder and rose to his full height. "Anyway, you best get going..."

"Are you sure about this?" She questioned.

He nodded. "I'm sure. Don't you worry about me, darling, I'll be fine." He assured her.

He held out his hand. Clementine didn't know what he was asking for, but once she realized, she shook his hand. "Goodbye, Clem."

"Goodbye... Lucas." She turned and walked away slowly. As she walked back towards Dusty, she glanced over her shoulder to get one last look at Lucas. His gaze was still fixed on the mound of earth, his eye's clouded with tears.

Lucas had stayed strong for Michael and had comforted him on several occasions, but no one had really been there to comfort him. He needed someone to be there for him now more than ever... Maybe Clementine could be that person.

[Hug Lucas]

[Walk away]

Clementine turned and ran back towards Lucas. Once she reached him, she wrapped her arms around Lucas' waist and held him close. He was surprised at first until he realized what she was doing and embraced her in the hug. "Michael loves you... He told me to tell you that."

(?) Lucas will remember that.

Lucas let out a stifled sob as they both held the embrace for a little while longer. Once the moment had past, Clementine pulled away gently and looked up at Lucas. He gave her a weak smile and sniffed before wiping his nose on his sleeve.

"Thanks, Clem... I needed that. I'm glad Michael had a friend like you." He smiled gratefully. "Go on, now... AJ's waiting."

Clementine returned the smile, nodded, and went to join Dusty. This time, however, she didn't look back. When she approached the two, she found Dusty was staring at a mound of dirt of his own work. These efforts were a grave to place Brooke's and Hazen's bodies in. He made sure to separate a lot of dirt between the two of them though. Dusty let out a loud sigh and shook his head. "How did this happen?"

Who was to blame? Hazen of course, but was it all really his own fault? "I... I don't know." Clem had told Dusty everything that happened after they parted ways in the walker horde. How she found Brooke, the dead walker baby, the whole fight between the boys, and Hazen's assault. "Hazen just lost it... he went crazy."

Dusty shook his head again. "Why didn't we see this? Why didn't I see this coming?" He whispered to himself more than anything else. "As soon as he came back from running away this morning I should have know, he was so fucking outta it, I should have fucking known. Goddammit." He gritted his teeth at his own ignorance.

Clementine was thinking about a different topic. She remembered what felt like a long time ago back when she first met Hazen. She and Dusty picked him up when he was just sitting there next to his dead sister, ready to die.

We should have just left him there.

Then maybe some people might have be still alive. But then again, maybe not. You never really know anything though, do you? So how could they have known this was what was meant to be? That was it though, they never could have predicted this.

"Are you okay, Clem?" She was brought out of her thoughts when Dusty grabbed her shoulder, she flinched and jumped back, nearly slapping his hand off of her. She was real jumpy now and Dusty could see that, so he obliged to her wishes. "Sorry, sorry. Didn't mean nothing."

Weirdly enough, Clementine still shivered from the unexpected touch. She felt the ghost of something slimy in her ear too, so she rubbed it to make sure it wasn't real. After a moment, she calmed down. "I... No, I'm sorry Dusty. I just... I just... *hic* *sob*" This recent turn of events all finally caught up to her again and it just hit her like a train. Her friend that she trusted with her life killed her other friends, then tried to kill her... and for minute up there in that lighthouse, she wanted to kill herself too.

She was just so fucking tired of people dying...

Nearly all her life, as far as she could remember, it was people dying, going to a new place and then someone else would die.

It was never going to change.

They had lost Vaughn and Edith, dearest Kenny, Maree, Wayne and Helga, Brooke, Michael, and Hazen. They lost them all within the course of around a couple of weeks. This wasn't supposed to happen. When they all left Wellington, no one was supposed to die.

But nearly everyone died.

"Clem, Clementine, honey, it's okay, it's okay." She was brought out of her thoughts with Dusty's arms down on her level wrapping around her, little Alvie between them, placed on the grassy ground. "I know it's hard, I know that it's so hard sometimes..." He shushed her as he rubbed her back with one hand. "...and I'm so so sorry for everything you've been forced to do, look see?" He pulled away from her to show that he had tears falling down too. "It's okay to cry, let it out baby girl, it's okay... it's okay."

Clem sniffed as she wiped away the salty drops on her face. "Dusty... I don't think I can keep doing this."

And that timing could not have been timed better because Dusty and Clem heard a little voice between. "...clem..." Both of their eyes widened when they saw for the first time ever, AJ standing on his own two feet. He smiled up at her, and held her arms out for her.

Dusty realized this with a gasp. "He just said his first word." He looked at Clementine. "And he's standing! Holy shit! Clem, this is a double whammy!"

The tears were sucked back into her eyes as Clementine felt a new feeling fill her up. It felt great as she stared at her adopted little brother. She definitely felt pride, a real good feeling of pride, she was sure of this because automatically she stated elatedly. "Oh my god, AJ! I am so proud of you!" His first word was her name! Alvie's first word was her name! Clem picked him up and gave him a tight hug.

Dusty chuckled at the scene before him. "You see? How can you quit doing this when we got this little miracle to raise?" He paused while they both settled back down. "The three of us are not too far gone Clem, not by a long shot. We all may have lost people we really cared about, but you can always find your way back home with one of us, it's never hopeless."

Clementine gave a gracious look towards the burned man. Dustin was strong, level headed, and he and AJ brought her back just like she helped him with his darkness. And then her golden orbs looked into that of AJ's brown orbs, and there was a connection, a powerful, loving, emotional connection between them. Things were going to be okay for them. Clem sniffed again. "I- thank you Dusty, you're right."

"Of course I'm right." He cheekily smirked at her to which she returned. "You and AJ here are the only family I got left..." He then glanced up and saw Lucas off in the distance, leaving to join the others. They exchanged looks and respectfully nodded until he disappeared into the fog. His attention then went back to the kids, putting his hands on his hips. "So here's what were going to do, we're going to get as many supplies as we can carry and go somewhere YOU want to go, Clementine."

Clem felt a bit surprised at the notion. She got to decide where they were going to go now? "Dusty, I don't know where I want to go." Until an idea popped in her head and she placed AJ on his feet. Clem pulled out the map that Lucas gave her and unfolded it. "Where are we here?" She asked of him.

Dusty scanned the map and pointed to a spot on the coast. "There, that's us." Dusty analysed where they could go, but still was waiting for Clementine to make the decision. "We can go East, West, or South. But we should avoid the cities though, stick to the countryside."

Clementine's eyes widened when she recognized a familiar spot on the map and instinctively pointed to it. "There! I wanna go there please."

"Here?" Dusty examined the place she picked. "You sure?"

"Yes. I'm sure." Clem grinned at her, he had never seen her this excited in a while, if at all. He wondered why.

But he still agreed with her choice. "Alright, sounds like you have plan." He folded the map back up and placed it in his pocket.

She nodded, keeping her smirk up. "I do have a plan. Think you can handle it?"

Dusty scoffed at her remark. "I think so. But you better tell me it along the way, probably tonight." He then bent down to pick up AJ, but he was surprised when he actually saw AJ walking away from them, albeit he was a little wobbly and he fell down a couple times but still. "Geez... hope he doesn't run away from us."

What a day, up and down like an emotional roller coaster. But still Clementine went after Alvie, playfully chasing him now. "He's not getting away from me."

The child squealed with delight when the little girl caught him, and Dusty smiled contently until he turned around. He saw that the sun was hiding behind the lighthouse while he was in its shadow, giving it the appearance of a dark menacing tower. They were going to leave this place... but perhaps they might come back to visit Lucas he guessed. Yet, there was no doubt in his mind that he needed to get Clem away from this place where she almost shot herself, where she met so much trauma today. And too many bad memories were here for him too.

They needed to get away, at least for a while, and he knew Clementine wanted to leave this place behind as well. "Come on." Dusty turned to see Clem putting on her backpack and carrying AJ. So he decided to put his gear on too. "Follow us, Dusty." Maybe they could sleep in the nearby outpost for the night.

But at this moment, it was the three of them against the world now...

"Lead the way, kid."

Clem whined back. "Hey! I'm not a kid!"

Another day, another night... time to get moving.

"Way to go sweet pea."

"Atta girl darlin'. I'm watching you, soldier boy."

END: You and AJ are with Dusty. (1/2)

A/N- And that's it. That's the end. There will be a credits chapter after this where any and all questions asked will be given there fully answered.

Where does Clementine excitedly want to go on the map? What will Alvin Junior's second word be? Is Dusty worthy enough to fill Kenny's shoes? Well, that could be up to you!

So who were your favorite characters? What were your favorite episodes? Favorite parts of the story? Thank you all so much for reviewing, faving, and following. It means a lot to us, and we're sad to see this season end. So await the credits and answers to any questions you have if you want. THANKS! :D Stay tuned for other stories from either/both us.

And give a round of applause to TWDGamerKenny'sBro for being the best co-author! Seriously man, you deserve as much credit as me! :) THANK YOU! (Go check out his stories too!)

Friendship: Would you have sided with Hazen or Michael?

Comrade: Would you have tried to talk to Lilly on the bridge?

Vengeance: Would you have shot Hazen?

Pain: Would you have picked up the gun and put it to your chin?

Goodbye: Would you have hugged Lucas?