The parking lot of the Kennedy Space Center appeared deserted. There were only a couple of cars left and no bodies or blood stains littering the asphalt as far as Clementine could see. It'd be eerie if the girl hadn't learned to fear places where people had stayed before. Finding somewhere truly abandoned seemed more like a godsend than a cause for alarm nowadays.

The lack of recent activity, from the dead or the living, didn't seem to concern Sarah either as she volunteered to investigate the surrounding area. Maybe it was the prospect of visiting the Kennedy Space Center, but Clem never saw the older girl so excited to leave the Brave, hurriedly collecting her gear and practically skipping across the parking lot.

While Sarah investigated, Clem retrieved Omid's orange jumper and helped the boy into it, despite his constant resistance. Then she treated the boy, and herself, to some peanut butter. Not long after getting Omid's shoes on, Sarah returned, confirming that the visitor center was the same as the parking lot; no walkers, no bodies, no signs of struggle or recent visitation. The girls briefly debated if this area had been evacuated or not, then agreed the best way to know for sure was to check out the space center together, preferably while enjoying everything it had to offer them.

Confident it was safe as could be expected, the girls moved Omid's stroller outside and plopped the boy down into it. They elected to leave their raincoats and respirators behind, but brought pistols and melee weapons as a precaution. Clem also set Omid's stuffed elephant in the stroller with its owner, who was happy to paw at it while they all moved towards the main plaza.

Stepping out of the parking lot and onto a path paved with red and blue stonework, Clem couldn't help breathing a little easier. The noon sun had warmed the air, and in the distance Clem could hear birds chirping. If not for the palm tree planters being overrun with weeds and tall grass, it'd look like this place had been preserved just for them to visit.

"This is so great," awed Sarah as they walked past a giant blue globe of the NASA logo, which was now surrounded by unkempt and overgrown shrubs. "I can't believe we're really here."

"This is pretty cool," said Clem as she pushed Omid's stroller. "OJ, what do you think?" Omid happily babbled in response. Watching the carefree boy constantly laughing as he stared up at the sky, Clem realized he was just excited to be outside at all.

"I think he likes it," said Sarah.

"So, where should we go first?" asked Clem.

"Let's check out the rocket garden."

"The rocket garden?" Sarah pointed at a large entranceway with the word 'EXPLORE' hanging above it in big blue letters. Just beyond the sign, Clem could see the tops of tall spacecrafts pointing up towards the sky. The pair hurried past the entrance and into an open courtyard adorned with fully erect rockets on display. "Oh, rocket garden, I get it," said Clem as she finally understood the pun.

"Aren't these amazing?" asked Sarah as she craned her neck backwards to see every bit of a massive white rocket standing next to her. "I didn't get a chance to really stop and look at any of these before when I was searching the area earlier."

There appeared to be six rockets standing in the courtyard, practically surrounding the girls as they moved between them. Each of them absolutely towered over them, almost if they were redwoods made from metal instead of wood. And yet the relatively thin cables tethering them to the ground suggested they could be toppled if neglected for too long.

Stopping to admire one of the smaller rockets, Clem found herself straining her neck trying to see all of this man-made marvel. Looking at the very top, the rocket's tip appeared to pierce the sky itself, as if to state its builders' intentions. Hearing a soft gasping sound from Omid's stroller, Clem looked down to find the boy was stunned by the sight of the rocket, his eyes wide with interest and his mouth agape with awe

"Sarah look," prompted Clem. "He really likes it."

"He's never seen something so big before." Sarah unstrapped Omid from his stroller and collected him into her arms. As she moved closer to the rocket, Omid held out his hands, clearly wanting to touch it.

"Clem, go over the rail so he can get even closer." Clem climbed over the waist-high fence meant to keep visitors from getting too close and Sarah passed Omid to her. Clem moved the boy right up to the rocket and he immediately slapped his hands against the metal. Omid seemed dumbstruck that he was actually touching the rocket, but only briefly. Soon after that, he was knocking on the side of the vessel, laughing at the noises he made.

"This is a Mercury rocket." Turning her head, Clem saw Sarah was reading off a plaque bolted to the railing. "It says this was one of the first rockets to take a person into space."

"Isn't it kind of small?" said Clem.

"Small?"

"I mean, for going into space. Where did they even sit?"

"I think they sat in this thing." Clem looked over to see Sarah gesturing to a black metal capsule seated on the ground. "Let's check it out." Clem passed Omid over the fence and back to Sarah. Hopping over the railing, the younger girl circled around the object and found a few steps that led up to an opening.

"Mercury capsule," Sarah read from the sign as Clem moved up the steps. The young girl almost had to duck to squeeze through the opening, and once inside she found there was only one position she could even sit in, partially lying on her back while bending at the waist like she was seated in a chair leaning backwards. Looking up, Clem saw a display bolted on the ceiling with a diagram showing where the multitudes of complicated gauges and controls would have gone if this was an actual spacecraft.

"How is it?" called Sarah from the bottom of the steps.

"Cramped," said Clem as she wormed her way back out.

"Really? Even for you?" asked Sarah.

"Yeah, really." Clem stepped outside and looked at the Mercury rocket again. Studying it carefully, she spotted an identical black capsule seated on top that was the same size as the one she had just climbed out of. "They had to sit in this thing all the way to the moon?" she asked.

"I think this one just went around the Earth," said Sarah. "I think that one went to the moon." Sarah gestured to the one rocket too big to be stood up, resting on its side near the edge of the garden liked a beached whale on the sand. "Come on." The girls set Omid back into his stroller and moved towards the biggest of all the rockets.

Passing by the other, smaller but still incredibly tall rockets, Clem felt like they were almost watching her. Already they were casting shadows that would only get bigger as the sun set and they so loomed over the area that they almost appeared as the keepers of this now forgotten site dedicated to human innovation.

Rushing ahead, Sarah ran up to the side of the gargantuan rocket and moved to the nearest sign. "Saturn Five rocket," she read. "This was the one they used to go to the moon."

"This is what I meant by the other ones being small," said Clem as she looked up at the white rocket set on its side. It was so enormous that it appeared more like a literal tower that had fallen over than a spacecraft. "I thought all space rockets were really huge, like this one."

"This isn't even the whole thing," said Sarah. "The sign says there's a bottom piece that's almost as big as the rest of it."

"Really?" Clementine was stunned at how long it was taking her to stroll Omid past the length of just the rocket sitting in front of her; picturing it as being twice as long was almost unimaginable to her.

"And apparently this part of the rocket broke into an even smaller rocket after it got high enough in the air," said Sarah as she hurried to catch up with Clem. "Until it made it into space and was just a tiny rocket attached to the part they sit on."

"You mean, like that?" Clem pointed to a white metal capsule seated on the pavement near the end of the Saturn rocket.

"Yeah, that must be what they rode in to get to the moon," said Sarah as she hurried over to the stairs leading into the capsule. "It's got three seats, we should all get in."

"Okay." Clem collected Omid from the stroller and the trio moved up the steps. The seats were tilted ninety degrees, requiring the girls to lie down on their backs to sit inside.

"These are cramped," said Sarah as she wedged into her seat. "And I should have taken off my machete before I got in." Clem set Omid on his back on the right seat and climbed into the tiny seat between him and Sarah.

"I think this might actually be smaller than the other one," said Clem as she turned to Sarah. "At least with three people in it."

"And to think, they rode in this all the way to the moon," said Sarah. "It's… it's like the craziest thing ever."

"Crazier than dead people trying to eat everyone?"

"Kinda, yeah," said Sarah. "I mean, think about it; sitting here in this tiny little thing on top of a rocket that's as big as a building as it goes off and shoots out tons of fire to push you all the way through the sky and into outer space. It sounds crazy, like something a cartoon character would try. Just sitting on a giant rocket and riding it into space."

"Huh. When you say it like that, it does sound crazy."

"And… it worked," said Sarah with a strange smile. "People actually went into space and even to the moon, and came back, all in this tiny thing we're sitting in right now."

"Too bad no one else will ever get to go."

"Don't say that."

"Why not? It's true."

"No it's not. Things will get better eventually."

"You really think so?"

"Of course. This place proves things will have to get better someday."

"How?" asked a curious Clem.

"Well, think about it," said Sarah. "People a thousand years ago never would have thought we'd ever go to the moon, or that it was even possible."

"So?"

"So, we did. People went from riding around on horses and stuff to making spaceships and lots of other amazing stuff."

"But it's all gone now," said Clem.

"But not all the people," said Sarah.

"But how many people left would know how to do something like this?"

"How many people knew how to do it a thousand years ago?"

"Um…"

"None; it was something we figured out. And people can figure out how to do it again. It wouldn't even be as hard this time because there's probably still tons of books explaining how still lying around."

"I guess so, but what about all the walkers?"

"They won't last forever," shrugged Sarah.

"You sure about that?" asked Clem. "Because I don't think they ever die."

"Not on their own, but they get killed all the time. You've killed a bunch of them, I ran over a lot of them just on the way here, and we're just two girls. Eventually, whoever's left will kill them off."

"Maybe…"

"And after that, things will start getting better."

"I want to believe that," professed Clementine. "But, I just can't."

"Why not?" asked Sarah.

"Look at what happened earlier; there's still tons of walkers left and they could have killed us even though we know a lot about them. I don't think people will ever get rid of them all."

"It's only been like a year and a half and we're still learning. Before I met you I'd never even seen a lurker up close, now I know how to kill them. In a few years, everyone left will probably be really good at killing lurkers. In like ten years, I bet people will have killed most of the lurkers. And there's no way there'd still be tons of them left after a hundred years."

"That makes sense, but…"

"But what?"

"I… I just hope we live long enough to see that happen." Clem looked into Sarah's eyes, seeing the same fear in them as Clem felt in the pit of her stomach. But then Clem felt something else; Sarah's hand squeezing hers.

"Me too," whispered the older girl.

"Maybe… maybe if we're lucky, OJ won't ever have to know just how bad things were," said Clem, trying to sound hopeful. "Maybe when he's old enough to—" Turning to look at the boy, Clem was shocked to see Omid grasping the edge of the seat as he tried to remain standing. "Sarah look."

Sarah sat up in a hurry. "He's trying to walk."

"Come on OJ, you can do it," cheered Clem.

"Come to us Omid, it's not far," added Sarah.

The pair watched the boy, their hearts in their throats as he moved his foot. Omid stumbled slightly, but managed to hold onto the seat and not fall.

"Don't give up, you can do it." While hanging onto the seat for balance, Omid moved his foot again and set it down a few inches closer to Clem.

"He did it, he took his first step!" exclaimed Sarah.

"Keep going, you can make it." Clem quickly turned on her side and held out her arms, prompting Omid to look at her. "Come on OJ, I'm right here, you can do it." Omid smiled at Clem and took another step forward, then another. Clem watched in stunned silence as Omid moved his hand to grip the seat better, then quickly took another few steps before falling forward. Clem stretched out her arms and scooped the boy into her arms.

"He did it!" she announced as she lifted him into the air, prompting Omid to giggle excitingly.

"That's… that's one small step for man, one giant leap for Omid!" Clem looked at Sarah, and then started laughing along with her.

"Ah-duh-bee!" said Omid.

"Yes you did," teased Clem as she drew Omid closer. "We love you, our brave little boy." Clem kissed Omid's forehead, causing him to giggle. "Don't we?" Clem moved Omid closer to Sarah.

"Yes we do, we love you." Watching Sarah kiss Omid, Clem had a sudden urge to be closer to the older girl. Leaning in, Clem was startled when Sarah turned to look at her, bringing their faces within an inch of each other.

"Well?" said Sarah with a smile.

"Well what?" asked a nervous Clem.

"Should we go?"

"Huh?"

"I think we've spent enough time in here," said Sarah as she dislodged herself from the space capsule. "There's still so much left to see."

"Oh. Yeah."

Clem handed a still giddy Omid to Sarah, who placed him back in his stroller. Moving out of the Rocket Garden, the girls returned to the main path and started heading towards what Sarah said was the center of this space themed attraction. Looking at a building on the right, Clem noted its now useless electronic sign and couldn't help thinking it was a pity they couldn't come here before things changed. But looking to her left, Clem saw Sarah eyeing a huge wall with a massive mural painted on it.

The overgrown weeds and trees partially obscured the sight, but Clem could make out an image of a complex structure of metal tubes branching out in several directions. The ends of each section were adorned with numerous long and flat solar panels that looked almost like sails on a ship. And the striking shade of blue used for the Earth behind the vessel looked like the ocean on which this space faring ship sailed.

"International Space Station," read Sarah off a sign on the far left on a short wall in front of the mural. Past the sign were images of flags stretched from one side of the display to the other. The first one was made of black, yellow and red vertical stripes. "Belgium," read Sarah.

"What's Belgium?" asked Clem.

"It's a country."

"Where?"

"Somewhere in Europe, I think." Sarah turned to the next nearest flag. "Canada," she read as she moved down the display. "Denmark, France, Germany, Italy, Japan."

"All of these countries work on a space station?"

"I guess so," shrugged Sarah. "Netherlands, Norway, Russia, Spain, Sweden, Switzerland, United Kingdom."

"I haven't even heard of some of these places."

"Do you think they're like here?" asked Sarah.

"Here? You mean the space center?"

"I mean, where there're lurkers everywhere," clarified the older girl.

"Oh." Clem looked at the flags, trying to picture these other lands. "I don't know."

"I bet some of them are okay," said Sarah. "I bet the lurkers never even got to some of these places."

"I don't know, they seem to be everywhere," said Clem.

"Everywhere we've gone so far, but we haven't been to any of these countries. Most of them are across the ocean, so what happened here probably never even got over there. I bet things are still normal in some of these countries, with people just watching TV and going to school."

"Maybe, but we're not in those places," reminded Clem as she looked at the American flag at the very end of the display.

"Yeah, but we don't know if the rest of the country is messed up either. We've only been to three states so far; things could be totally different all the way on the other coast."

"You mean, like California?"

"Yeah. Maybe California isn't so bad."

"Christa and Omid were from California," said Clem. "I still remember how she said she wanted to go back there."

Sarah smirked at Clem. "Maybe we should go there." Sarah looked down at Omid, who seemed intoxicated with the mural in front of him. "And Omid can see where his parents came from."

"I'd like to see where they came from," said Clem.

"Me too." Sarah skipped past the end of the display. "Come on."

Clem pushed Omid's stroller along, moving through an open plaza. The girls passed through a building advertising a mission to Mars that would likely never happen now, toyed with a rotating sphere that listed all the constellations, and checked out several other exhibits before eventually arriving at a large black wall with the names of astronauts who had lost their lives etched onto the granite panels.

Unlike the other exhibits, this one was tucked away far on the edge of the visitor center, surrounded by a park and a lawn that had grown into fields that threatened to swallow the area someday. Examining the memorial carefully, Clem noticed something odd about it. "There are a lot of blank spaces," she said.

"I guess not many people have died going into space," reasoned Sarah.

"Yeah, but why make such a big wall if there's only a few names?"

"Well, it looks like they put the names on those big squares, so I guess they left a bunch of them blank in case someone else died, that way they could just swap out a blank one with a new one with the names on it."

"That makes sense, but did they need so many blank squares? Most of the wall is empty."

"I guess they figured they only wanted to make one of these, so they should make it big, just in case a lot of people died after it was built." Sarah sighed. "Come on, I think I've seen enough of this one." Sarah moved back towards the rest of the visitor center, Clem pushing Omid behind her. Looking at the boy, he seemed content to be outside but not quite thrilled anymore.

"So, where are we going next?" asked Clem as they exited the memorial's plaza. "What's left for us to do?"

"I don't know, we've checked out most of the stuff that doesn't use electricity," said Sarah. "As cool as this stuff is, there's not much to do but look at it."

"Yeah, and we've looked at most of it by now," noted Clem as she eyed the small jet mounted on a large stand beside the path they were walking on.

"Too bad there's no power. It'd be great to watch a movie again," said Sarah as she looked up at the theater they were passing by.

"We could take out the generator and watch one in the Brave."

"Nah, I haven't been in the mood since… well you know."

"Yeah, me neither." The girls hung a left past the theater and moved further into the main plaza.

"Do you want to check this place for food?" said Sarah as she gestured to the Orbit Cafe just ahead of them. "It doesn't look like anyone has been here in a long time, so there might be something left."

"Maybe later, I don't even have my backpack right now," said Clem as they walked past the empty tables with umbrellas. "Or my gas mask. Even if there is something we can take, there's probably a ton of rotten stuff too."

"That's a good point."

"We could head back and get our gas masks and backpacks," suggested Clem. "I mean, unless there's something else you wanted to check out."

"Yeah, I guess we could do that." Looking over at Sarah, Clem could see the older girl was disappointed. Their diversion here had been fun but fleeting, and now the prospect of returning to their routine suddenly loomed over Clementine, like a cloud blotting out the sun. Shuffling along through the center of the main plaza in silence, Clem started looking around for anything that could prolong their outing just a little longer.

"Wait," said Clem as she stopped. "We never even went in there."

Sarah looked at the building Clem was pointing at. "The gift shop?" asked the older girl. "You want to check out the gift shop?"

"Sure, why not?"

"What do you expect to find?"

"I don't know, but we're already here, we might as well check it out."

Clementine smirked at Sarah, which seemed to melt the frown right off the older girl's face.