"Devlin?" said Clem expectedly. "Can you hear me?" Clem waited for a response, then sighed when she didn't get one. She took a deep breath, then held the talk button on her radio again. "Patty, Jet, if any of you can hear me, Sarah and I are at the meeting place, the one we all talked about if we couldn't meet anywhere else and had to move again. We left the code on the road signs so you can find us. Just please… please say something if you can hear me." Again, Clem waited for a reply, and again, she didn't get one.

In the days following Anthony's death, Clem had realized if Devlin was still alive, he would know to try to contact them over the radio and warn them what Anthony did, and yet they had heard nothing. Her first thought was she had been wrong, and that despite all of Anthony's lying he wasn't lying about Devlin's fate. Then she remembered, he somehow lost his radio after returning from the farm, and Clem wondered if he didn't somehow 'lose' Devlin's as well.

Clem changed the channel on the radio and repeated her message, always waiting for a reply at the end of it. For two weeks now she had done this, every morning after she woke up, every afternoon after she ate lunch, and every night before she went to sleep. And for two weeks she hadn't received an answer, on any channel, at anytime of the day, from anyone. Yet she persisted, holding onto hope that her friends were still out there, if just because there was little else for her to do while she lay in bed every day.

When not trying to contact the others, Clem was forced to sit and think about everything that had happened. The more time passed the more confident she grew had made the right decision. If Anthony could so easily try to murder her after pretending to be friends with them for so long, she couldn't imagine what else he could do if left alive. But Clem wouldn't have believed he was capable of that if she hadn't seen it herself, and Sarah hadn't seen that, but she did see Clem kill Anthony right in front of her, and that had changed everything between them.

Sarah still tended to Clem's needs; bringing her meals, reminding her to take her medicine, and occasionally checking on her wound, which she said appeared to be healing properly. But that's all she would say, and her words had become cold and detached. Clem barely saw Sarah during the day anymore, and despite her assurances that she was getting healthier, Sarah always remained in the other half of the Brave, sleeping on the foldout couch and leaving Clem alone at night.

The changes were most obvious when they were around Omid, who had become the single source of joy to both girls in these bleak times. It had been a lot like there time back in Spokeston, spending all day and every day playing and talking with the boy they loved. The difference was they never spent time with him together anymore, practically taking turns being alone with Omid. Sarah was with him right now, and Clem had little to do but call into her radio until it was her turn to be with Omid again.

Clem changed the channel and prepared to repeat her message, but couldn't summon the will to do it this time. Every time she said their names she was forced to think about them, and how much she desperately wanted them back, and every time she used her radio, they felt even further away. After two weeks of this routine, Clem finally couldn't bear to go through the motions anymore and set her radio aside.

Sick of lying in bed, Clem stood up and looked out the window. After snaking their way across the backroads of Kansas, Sarah had found an isolated intersection in Nebraska that connected with Interstate Eighty. She had taken the time to paint the word 'Ceres' on road signs several miles in both directions, pointing the way to a large truck stop. The abandoned semitrailers there helped to camouflage the Brave from sight, while painting the word 'CERES' on a nearby billboard would signal the others where they were, if the others were indeed still alive.

Clem wasn't sure what she was expecting to see. After a week with nothing but a parking lot to stare at, Sarah was kind enough to turn the Brave around so Clem could at least watch the intersection. Sometimes, when she wasn't with Omid, she would just stare at the road and hope she'd see the Sunseeker driving by, but it never happened. Nothing ever seemed to change in fact. Every day just rolled into the next one.

With no signs of hope out the window, Clem sat down. She groaned as she felt a stinging sensation in her side. The pain was less severe now, more of an irritation than a handicap, but a constant one when not medicated. Clem grabbed the bottle of painkillers but a pill didn't roll out when she tilted it forward. Looking inside, Clem saw there were still pills but not many, just barely enough to cover the bottom of the container. This unnerved Clem, but not as much as the pain did, so she carefully removed another pill and popped it up her mouth.

She reached for the bottle of water, only to discover it was empty. Clem groaned, then headed for the door. She inched quietly out of the bedroom, not wanting Sarah to notice her. Clem saw her on the couch with Omid, making the boy laugh with funny faces. Clem couldn't help smiling as she listened to Omid's giggles, but then frowned a little as she remembered she couldn't join them. Instead, Clem quietly snuck into the bathroom, hoping they didn't notice her.

Clem went to the sink and turned on the facet. Water started spurting out in tiny intervals and kept splashing out of Clem's cupped heads. With no signs of the problem abating, Clem quickly swallowed what little water she had along with the pill in her mouth, grimacing as she felt it nearly getting stuck in her throat.

Wiping her lips, Clem spotted the bottom of her bandage in the mirror. The bit sticking out from under her shirt was peeling and Clem could see a bit of reddened flesh underneath it. Finding her curiosity getting the best of her, Clem lifted her shirt and slowly peeled the bandage off, grimacing as she felt it tugging at her skin. Tossing away the dressings, Clem was relieved there was almost no blood on them, but still hesitated to look at her wound.

When she finally summoned the courage to examine it, Clem was most surprised by how small it was. It wasn't much bigger than a quarter, and just looked like a faded red dot that had been sewn shut by a couple of crude stitches. Noticing the black threads stuck in her flesh, Clem realized the stitches were probably more of a source of her pain than the wound anymore. She located a small pair of scissors they kept in the bathroom for their hair and took another breath.

Snipping the threads was painful, and pulling them out of her side was even worse. She could feel them tugging on her tender flesh as she removed the stitches one at a time. She had to bite her lip to keep from yelping out in pain, and anytime it felt like she was nearly done she'd discover there was more thread to remove. Finally tossing the final stitch away, Clem breathed a sigh of relief, then noticed the several more stitches on her back and the larger gash in her back.

"You want more?" giggled Sarah as Clem stepped out of the bathroom. "Tell me if you want more."

"More!" cheered Omid as Sarah made another face. Clementine thought about just returning to bedroom, but just turning in place caused her to feel the stitches in her back stinging the area around her injury. Instead, Clem took a breath and approached the pair.

"Kem-men!" Clem's blood ran cold as she watched Sarah's smile disappear. Slowly she turned her head and looked over at Clem.

"Hey," spoke a nervous Clem.

Sarah turned away. "Hi," she answered. "Are you okay? Do you need something?"

The tone of Sarah's voice hurt Clem more than her side. "My… my stitches are bothering me. I took out a couple of them out, but—"

"It's probably time to remove them" Sarah paused for a second while she stroked Omid's hair. "Let me find something to keep him distracted for a minute and I'll come into the bedroom and take care of you."

"Okay."

Sarah turned back to Omid while Clem stood there awkwardly for a second before shuffling back to the bedroom. She sat down on the bed and waited patiently as she could hear Sarah and Omid laughing in the other room. Eventually, the laughter stopped and a little while after that Sarah entered. She instructed Clem to turn onto her uninjured side, and then she spent the next several minutes trying not to yell out in pain while Sarah removed the stitches.

It was far from the worst thing Clem had endured, but only because she had suffered so many terrible things by now. The sensation of tweezers pulling on a thread that then yanked on her already sore flesh was yet another miserable experience Clem added to her growing list. The only thing that made it a little better was Sarah's occasional apologies. Every time she said she was sorry, Clem could tell just meant it, and that made it clear she still cared about her.

"Okay, that's the last one," said Sarah as Clem felt a final painful tug. "How do you feel?"

"Better now," said Clem as she took a breath. "And I think the painkiller is working, so it's not so bad at this point."

"That's good."

Clem rolled over and looked at as much of her injury as she could see. Small or not, it still unnerved her; the red circle of misshapen flesh and the uneven gash dotted with small holes from where the stitches used to be. Despite feeling better, staring at her uncovered wound made Clem feel like she had just been shot all over again. In addition to being yet another reminder of how close she came to dying, it also forced Clem to think about the damage the bullet did just below the skin; the damage that could still be there, and that Sarah couldn't fix.

"All right, if you need me just say something." Sarah quickly headed for the door.

"Wait." Sarah stopped but didn't turn around.

"Is something wrong?" asked Sarah, a hint of concern creeping into her voice. "Are you okay?"

"We…" Clem bit her lip before saying anything else. "We're running out of painkillers."

"Yeah, I know, and we're half out of Xanax too," said Sarah with a sigh. "But there's nothing we can do about that, so we'll just have to make them last until you're better."

"Can't we get more?" asked Clem.

"I wouldn't even know what to look for."

"We can't just go to a pharmacy and—"

"They didn't sell painkillers in regular stores, you'd need a prescription, same for the Xanax. And their real names are really long and weird, and not always the same one."

Clem picked up a bottle and looked at the label. Someone had written 'XANAX' in marker at the top, but the actual name printed on the faded label was 'ALPRAZOLAM'.

"That… that doesn't make any sense," spoke a baffled Clem. "Why would they put a name on it that's different from what it's called?"

"I'm not sure. I asked Patty once and she said something about there being 'generics' and 'name-brands'. I wish I'd paid more attention to what she told me…" said Sarah as she lowered her head.

"And there's a lot of different types of painkillers, but I don't know the names of any of them but the ones in that bottle. Devlin said someone in Tulsa knew and had labeled them for everyone else, but I don't know how they knew and none of the books I have are about medicine itself."

"I didn't know it was that complicated," said Clem as she set the bottle down.

"Yeah, me neither until recently," spoke a weary Sarah. "Anything else?"

"Um, yeah… we… the sink—"

"Is acting weird," finished Sarah. "I know, I looked at the water pump, as much as I can see of it, but I don't know what's wrong with it."

"Maybe the water tank is just running low?"

"No, I checked the tank and even used a few bottled waters to make sure it wasn't empty, it's just… acting up, sort of like the shower has been for a while now," said Sarah, sounding more tired with every word she said. "Maybe if Sin was still here, or Jet even."

"Oh…" said Clem, feeling even worse for having asked.

"Anything else?"

"No."

"All right." Sarah opened the door.

"Wait," said Clem. "We… we need to talk."

"I don't want to talk," answered Sarah immediately.

"Well we need to," demanded Clem. "We can't just wait here forever."

"We're just waiting until Patty and Jet get here," asserted Sarah.

"And Devlin," added Clem.

"Devlin's dead," insisted Sarah as she spun around. "You know that."

"We don't know that. He—"

"He's dead! Just like how Patty and Jet are probably dead, just like how Anthony's dead… because of you!" Those last three words stung Clem as Sarah suddenly covered her face with both hands. Clem had been dreading this conversation for a while and had hoped if she just waited long enough, Devlin would arrive and explain everything to Sarah, but he hadn't.

"How… how could you do something like that?" Sarah sobbed at Clem. "After everything that's happened, everything we've been through, and everything we've lost, you killed the only person we had left… why?"

"I told you, he—"

"There's no way he tried to kill you," dictated Sarah.

"You think I'd lie about that?" asked a shocked Clem.

"Of course not," assured Sarah, her tone softening slightly. "But… but that can't be what happened. It doesn't make any sense."

"Well, then what?" asked a nervous Clem as Sarah stared at her. "What do you think happened?"

"I think… I think you were confused."

"I wasn't—"

"Or having a nightmare."

"I wasn't."

"Yes, yes you were, like the one you had after we caught Pedro, or that other one the morning we left Spokeston. You remember that? It was so bad you just ran out of the house and when I found you in the yard, you were yelling about someone breaking in." Sarah's glare suddenly morphed into a look of concern. "I… I know how much you worry about us and… that wouldn't have been the first time you've woken up with someone pointing a gun at you. Things are so bad that… even the worst nightmares can come true now."

Clem was surprised to hear Sarah actually sound sympathetic to her again, but it lasted only a moment before Sarah scowled at her. "But because you didn't like Anthony, you didn't even think it was a nightmare when he told you."

"That's not true."

"And you wouldn't listen to me when I just told you to put the gun down!"

"Because you weren't listening to me! He was going to kill me!"

"He was leaving, because he actually listened to me!"

"Then he grabbed you!"

"And then you shot him!"

"Because he was going to take you away from me and Omid!"

A loud shrieking suddenly cut through the air. Clem and Sarah looked over to see Omid standing at the door, choking for breath as tears and snot ran down his face.

"Omid, we—"

Omid took off screaming into the other room. Clem and Sarah both hurried after him as he tried to climb into his crib.

"Omid," said Sarah. "Don't cry, we—"

Omid shrieked at Sarah when she touched him, clumsily swatting his arm in her direction before falling onto the carpet. He started crawling forward towards the front of the Brave next, trying to escape the pair as they pursued him.

"Please, Omid, just—"

"Nooo!" Omid yelled at Clem, practically choking for breath as he pulled free from her grip. The pair watched in horror as Omid started crawling down the steps and to the door.

"Omid, no!" Sarah moved forward and grabbed him, prompting Omid to start screaming in protest.

"Noooo! No! Nooooo!"

"We're sorry," pleaded Clem as she moved in close as Omid thrashed about like mad in Sarah's arms.

"Please stop crying, we're not mad at you."

Omid opened his eyes and his crying abated slightly as Clem placed her hand on Sarah's shoulder.

"Don't," said Sarah as she pulled away from Clem's grip, which prompted Omid to start crying louder.

"Wait," said Clem as she moved in closer to Sarah. She put both hands on Sarah's shoulders and after a few seconds, Omid started crying less. "He wants to know we're not going to fight anymore." Clem wrapped her hands around Sarah's waist and felt Sarah briefly try to pull away. Omid stopped crying and Clem felt Sarah wrap an arm around her, or more specifically, Sarah moved her arm around Clementine while holding it just far enough away to not make contact.

The illusion was enough to pacify Omid, who finally stopped crying. The pair then worked together to clean Omid up, give him something to eat, and just be as friendly as possible to get him to calm down. It was a bittersweet experience for Clem, this was the first time she had gotten to be with Omid and Sarah at the same time in a while. It felt great playing with Omid together again, but there was a forced enthusiasm in the way Sarah spoke that made it clear she didn't share Clem's view of the situation.

Eventually, after countless games of peek-a-boo, funny faces, and stacking things for Omid to knock over, he was finally tired enough to be put down for a nap. Watching Omid sleep in his crib was a relief at first, but the sight was also a concerning one. He barely fit in his old crib anymore and Clem couldn't help noticing he still looked distressed even while asleep, like he was having a nightmare, not much different than how he had looked after she shot Anthony.

Eventually, Sarah yawned and headed off to the bedroom with Clem following behind her.

"You can't keep avoiding me like this," said Clem as she shut the door behind them. "Omid doesn't—"

"Don't bring Omid into this," dictated Sarah in an angry but hushed voice. "We're not gonna fight in front of him again, but that doesn't mean I just have to forgive you."

"Forgive me?" repeated Clem, finding it hard to conceal her irritation at Sarah anymore.

"You just shot Anthony right in front of me, in front of Omid! I… I don't even know if I feel safe around you anymore."

"Sarah…" spoke Clem, utterly devastated by her words. "I love you. I'd never hurt you. You… you have to know that."

"You love me…" repeated Sarah.

"You don't believe me?"

"It's just, you sound like my dad anytime I asked him about stuff he did that I knew wasn't right."

"It's not like that."

"It isn't?" snapped Sarah. "I still remember him pointing that gun at Christa because he was supposedly protecting me."

"Christa wasn't Anthony."

"Yeah, she was pointing a gun back him," retorted Sarah.

"I was holding Anthony's gun," reminded Clem through clenched teeth. "How do you think I got it if he didn't have it out?"

"I… I don't know." Clem watched as Sarah's face suddenly twisted to one of pain, as if that question physically wounded her. "What… what did you think Anthony was going to do me? What… what could've been so bad that you thought you had to shoot him when he grabbed my hand?"

"I don't know Sarah, that was what was scaring me."

"That's not good enough. Anthony would never…" Sarah bit her lip. "We could have worked it out, whatever happened or whatever he did, we could have worked it out; you didn't have to shoot him."

"I'm sorry Sarah," apologized Clem with utter sincerity. She didn't regret killing Anthony, but she regretted how much it clearly hurt Sarah. "I know you liked him and—"

"This isn't about me liking him," insisted Sarah. "You think I haven't noticed the sink is messed up or that we're running out medicine. Not to mention we're not getting any more food, and the food we do have is probably going bad."

"It is?" asked a frightened Clem. "I thought canned stuff never went bad?"

"I did too, but lately I feel sick after eating it and can't stop thinking about what if there's something wrong with it, some other horrible thing no one has told us about yet," rambled Sarah. "And those cans are all the food we got. Once that runs out, then what?"

"We'll get more, together, like we used to."

"You mean like how we used to almost got eaten by lurkers all the time, or like how someone almost stole our RV, or we nearly broke it running away from more lurkers, or all the other horrible stuff that went wrong when it was just us? And that was all before Omid started walking."

"What does that have to with any of this?"

"He's getting bigger and he hates being in the RV all the time. That wasn't the first time he tried to use the door, I caught him trying to do that just yesterday, and eventually he's gonna be tall enough to use the handle and he'll get out like… that one time he actually did, except there won't be anyone but us now, and whatever's out there probably won't be as nice as those people we met in Texarkana."

"I… I hadn't thought about that," admitted Clem.

"Even with Anthony and you getting better it was going to be really hard, and now he's gone and you're still hurt and… I have no idea what to do." Sarah started crying into her hands and Clem moved into to comfort her, but again she just pulled away from Clem's touch and looked up with a renewed anger. "I'm not stupid Clem, I know Anthony could say mean things, and be really annoying, and do things that he... he really shouldn't have, but we needed his help right now."

"Sarah…"

"And whatever he did, he didn't deserve to die for it."

"What if he did?" This question disturbed Sarah, and Clem watched as the anger in her eyes disappeared in a single blink. "You say I was confused or having a nightmare, but what if I wasn't, and everything I said happened really happened? Then what?"

Sarah turned away suddenly, but not before Clem got a glimpse of her face; she was utterly horrified and Clementine felt guilty for saying what she said, even though it was true. Clem had never even gotten along with Anthony and even she had found the revelation of who he was terrifying. For someone like Sarah, who always did try to see the best in people, Clem couldn't imagine how much more painful it would be to face that.

"If…" Sarah turned back to Clem, her eyes quivering and her face racked in pain. "If you can look me in the eyes, and honestly say that Anthony, all this time, was just… lying to us, and didn't care about us at all, and was just… some… monster… who tried to kill you one day for no reason, then… then I guess… I… I…"

Clem looked deep into Sarah's eyes. It was clear she was beginning to process the possibility of what Clem had told her, and it was tearing Sarah apart. Her eyes were wide-open in anticipation of Clem's answer, while her breathing was getting shorter and faster every second, like she was on the verge of a panic attack. And with every passing second, her face grew more twisted with pain, until it looked like she was ready to scream out in agony.

"I…" Clem turned away from Sarah suddenly, unable to bear the sight of her suffering anymore. "I could have been wrong…" lied Clem in a quiet voice.

"God Clem…"

"I didn't like Anthony, but that's not why I shot him. I was scared, and I really thought he was going to kill me, and when he grabbed you I… I was afraid of what he might do to you." Clem explained hastily before turning back to Sarah. She was relieved to see the agony that had been gripping Sarah's face was gone now, but that had been replaced with a stern look of condemnation directed right at Clem. "I'm sorry. It was a mistake but—"

"That's a pretty big mistake Clem," spoke Sarah in a harsh voice. "You killed someone, because you were scared."

"I… I know…" mumbled Clem as she found her chest tightening.

"I mean, how do you kill someone by mistake?"

"It… it just happened," confessed Clem without thinking as Sarah's words brought to mind a different murder.

"How could you just—"

"I was scared, okay!" cried Clem. "I was so scared I was going to die, and I was even more scared that then you and Omid would die, all because I didn't do and so I did and… I wish I could take it back."

Clem started crying into her hands as she thought back to the day before they moved. Sarah was judging her for Anthony's death, but everything she was saying applied to the woman she shot. As she wept, Clem kept hoping Sarah would finally comfort her, take her into her arms and forgive her, but it didn't happen. Eventually, Clem wiped her eyes and looked up at Sarah. She wasn't angry anymore and looked sympathetic even, but there still was this hint of disappointment hanging on her face that Clem couldn't ignore.

"Well... what's done is done," mumbled Sarah under her breath. "So now what? What do we do?"

"We…. we can't stay here forever," concluded Clem.

"No, but, we could probably wait a bit longer," reasoned Sarah. "We don't know, maybe Patty and Jet are still coming."

"They could have forgotten about the interstate," suggested Clem. "We barely remembered it, so maybe we should go back to Tulsa, see if they're waiting for us there."

"No, that's not a good idea."

"Why not? They may have forgotten about the plan, or maybe they missed the code we left for them." Clem had suspected Anthony never actually left the code on the Sam's Club door, but didn't dare say that out loud. "We didn't even check the Citadel, and—"

"It's too dangerous," insisted Sarah. "We don't know who took the food from Tulsa, but whoever they were they didn't care at all about the signs we left telling them to wait. We left instructions, guides, and a big banner saying we'd come to help them, and they didn't wait for us."

"Yeah, that's true, but maybe they were afraid of us, afraid it was a trap."

"Maybe, but whoever they were had to be a really big group to pack up so much so fast," added Sarah. "I was thinking about what Sin and Jet said, about Houston, and also what Devlin said about the army from Oklahoma City; what if the troops in Houston had to leave, and they were the ones who found Tulsa? Do we want to risk running into them?"

Clementine thought back to her time in Mobile, and the ghoulish sight of an entire arena of people melted into a mess of wailing charred corpses. Then she thought back to the time they fought their way into Tulsa, and the image of Devlin beating the corpse of one of the soldiers. He was always such a calm and understanding person, except in that moment; he was filled with nothing but rage.

"You're right, it's not worth the risk," realized Clem. "I guess we should just go then."

"Go? Why?"

"Like I said, we can't stay here forever."

"Yeah, I know," spoke Sarah, sounding nervous suddenly. "But I figure we could wait a little bit longer."

"There's no point," said Clem. "If Patty and Jet are out there we can leave codes on Interstate Eighty for them to find us. It's possible they're already on the interstate ahead of us, and might be leaving signs for us to find. I mean, this wasn't the only road that led from Tulsa to Nebraska, right?"

"No, there were a lot of them actually," admitted Sarah. "I wanted to avoid going near any big cities and—"

"Patty and Jet could have taken a different road, and be waiting for us further west," suggested a hopeful Clem.

"What if they're not?" asked a less hopeful Sarah.

"Then… we just need to go already, because no one is coming."

"But where? Where can we go?"

"Like we said, we'll go west, hope there's something still out there while stopping to look for food along the way," explained Clem.

"You mean, I'll need to stop and look for food, by myself." Clem could hear the terror gripping Sarah's trembling voice. Her eyes briefly darted down towards Clem's side, then sighed. "I guess… I guess I don't have a choice; you're still hurt, and we're gonna need it."

"Well, we don't need to look right now. We have enough for—"

"It'll run out and when it does we'll regret we not looking for food when we could." Sarah took a deep breath as she slumped over, like she just felt the great weight being placed on her shoulders. "So we're just gonna wander around and hope we find something? Somewhere safe, and not somewhere terrible, like we usually find. We're… we're right back to where we started."

"We… we are." Clem felt herself becoming sick as she realized what Sarah said was true.

"What's the point anymore?" mumbled Sarah. "Everything always goes wrong, no matter what we do."

"We… we can't give up," Clem forced herself to say. "You told me that just a few weeks ago."

"Well, maybe I was wrong," said Sarah with a shrug.

"You… you weren't," insisted Clem, finding it difficult to muster much conviction in her words. "And…"

"And what?"

Clem thought hard, then stood up. She pulled open the door and walked over to Omid's crib, where the boy was still sleeping. "We both promised Christa we wouldn't give up on the world before it was over," said Clem as she rubbed Omid's hair.

"That doesn't matter." Clem was shocked to hear Sarah say that. She turned and watched as Sarah knelt down to get a better look at Omid. "Even if we hadn't, we can't give up on him. Like you said, he deserves better than just living in an RV his whole life." Sarah reached down and gently stroked Omid's face. "I'll go update the code I wrote for Jet and Patty to see, so they know we're going west if they're still alive. We can update the other ones I made west of here along the way to point them the right way, and then… we can start looking again."

"Okay."

"Just watch Omid, I'll be right back." Clem watched as Sarah retrieved a can of spray paint from the closet, then headed outside. Clem went back to Omid's side and watched him sleep. He still looked bothered, but also so sweet and innocent as he slept. With all the tragedy and loss she's had to endure over the last few weeks, Clem only now realized they also had lost the future they had been building for him.

All the time they spent tending fields, carrying water, and building things, she hadn't time to really think about what it all meant for Omid. That he would have had a home, could eat well, be safe, and live happily. It was everything Clem wanted, and now she realized it was also everything she wanted to give Omid, and losing that for him hurt even more than losing it for herself. And as she watched him sleep, Clem struggled to think how she could possibly give him all that ever again.

Sarah returned and put the spray paint back in the closet. She then turned to Clem, as if she was expecting guidance, but Clem had no idea what to do, neither of them did.

"Are… are you done?" asked Clem, breaking the awkward silence.

"Yeah," confirmed Sarah with a slight nod.

"So… now what?"

"Now… we go I guess," Sarah sounded more like she was asking a question. She stood there for a second, as if she was expecting an answer from Clem, then headed over to the driver's seat. "There's no reason to stay here," said Sarah as she grabbed the keys off the dashboard. "There's no reason to stay anywhere right now."

"Yeah, let's just… keep moving."

Sarah turned the key, which produced an uneven rumbling sound for a few seconds before becoming quiet. She had to turn it twice more before the engine finally started. Sitting down next to Sarah as she pulled the Brave out of the truck stop, Clem caught sight of the billboard she used to signal the others. It still said 'CERES' in giant yellow letters painted over whatever faded ad used to be there. Sarah hadn't underlined any of the letters before because they were staying here, but now there were two big lines under the first 'E', where the 'W' in Owens would have been, signaling they were heading west.

After watching the billboard disappear into the horizon, Clementine turned around to once again find herself looking out over an empty road that went on seemingly forever. She only just now realized how much she hated this sight. No matter how far they traveled, the road had only led them to reprieves from danger or danger itself. All Clem could do is pray this time would be different as she couldn't bear the burdens of this voyage for much longer. If the road didn't end soon, it would end her, and all she held dear.