Waaaaah the end of the story is near! An extra long chapter with a hopefully satisfying ending! Here it is!

(Disclaimer; I do not own The Walking Dead)

Enjoy the last chapter! ;)

Chapter 25: (Un)happy (n)ever a(be)f(ore)ter - Alexa

There is this high pitched tone in my ears that just won't go away. It's all I can hear, everything else just passes me like it's nothing. I can feel myself falling on my knees, everything's so cold. My sight's blurry, but there is one thing in the mess I can see clearly; Ash's dead body. He smiled at me before. He was happy to see me. I was happy to see him too. But not anymore. I don't want to see him like this.

I feel hands trying to get a hold of me, but I shake them off, crawling towards Ash. A pool of blood is forming around his head, his hair is soaked in red. He has his eyes closed, his face sideways on the ground. For a second, I imagine he's smiling. But he's not, because he's dead.

I feel someone is lifting me up in the air. The person is dragging me away from Ash. I scream, I don't wanna leave him. People are blocking my vision, and before I know it I've lost sight of him.

When the person lets go of me, the high pitched tone in my ears has finally faded away, and I can almost understand what he's saying.

"…no idea you knew him. If we did, we might've been able to organize a trial or something, like decent human beings…We're so sorry about this, Alexa, but we can't let you leave just yet…"

"Alexa! Alexa!" Another voice is forcing itself through my mind. I glance over my shoulder to see a boy about my age, with a sheriff hat, being dragged away by two other guys.

"Carl…Carl!" I shout, getting up from my chair. The guy in front of me, Jason, carefully pushes me back in my seat.

"Just…calm down. We won't harm him, we just wanna know a few things."

I turn around, pushing his hands off me. "He's done nothing wrong. He's my friend."

"But that guy we just killed was also your friend, right?" Jason said calmly. "According to one of our group members he was with the people that killed her husband."

I suddenly hear Ash's voice telling me the truth. "I did…too." Ash was a killer, and I'm mad at him for that, but I never wanted him to die.

"How many people have you killed, then?" I hear myself say. "You just killed a person too, right?"

Jason grins, which makes me even more angry. "What's so funny?"

He shakes his head slowly. "It's just that….we were only returning the favour. No hard feelings."

I can't believe this guy, and it frustrates me so much.

After they helped me recover from my trip, I thought these people were the good ones, not the killers. I thought I was safe, and almost felt accepted. I almost told them about the community in the prison, but now I think I made the right decision not to.

"Tell me, Alexa, how many people have you killed?"

"None" I say without hesitation. Jason seems impressed for some reason.

"And here I thought all innocence had disappeared from this world. Well, it could also mean you're just a coward, or you let other people do the dirty work for you, like that friend of yours."

I bite my lips. I feel so frustrated. This guy won't believe a word I say.

"Look, Alexa, there's something I'd like to know" Jason continues, as he leans forward, bringing his face close to mine. "This might come as a personal question, but….do you happen to have a scar at the right side of your lower back?"

I frown. What kind of question is that? And how does he know about that? The only ones that do are the people that saw me get injured that one night, and those, with an exception of Carl and Ash, are all still at the prison. No, wait, that's not right. There's one more person that knows…

"You…" I gasp, and Jason grins.

"Don't look at me, I wasn't the one that hurt you. One of my pals did, to be exact. But I was there that night." He takes a step back, throwing his hands in the air as a sign of innocence. "I thought I recognized your face from somewhere, but I had to make sure. And it seems my suspicious were correct."

"Bastard!" I jump up, the chair falling down behind me. All he does is grin.

"We actually had our eyes set on your friend, but we thought if we could get you we'd hurt him even more." Jason sighs. "But you recovered, which we hadn't anticipated at the time. We still couldn't forget what your pals had done to one of ours. Luckily, we got one of them already. But what I like to know, is where the others are."

I take a few steps back as I feel my confidence from earlier slip away. I'm not sure what 'pals' he means; Leighton and Marc, or Carl's father and the rest of the prison group.

"They're both dead" I say, and Jason lifts an eyebrow. "The father of the guy with the hat killed them."

Jason chuckled, shaking his head. "You honestly think I'd believe that? They kill your friends, and you just so happened to be living with them for the next couple of months?"

"It's more complicated than you think" I say, almost begging him to understand. He shakes his head again.

"If we're talking complicated, how about I make this conversation more interesting for both of us?" With that said he glances over his shoulder and shouts; "Jerry! Bring him in!"

From behind a couple of trees, a big bald guy holding a beaten up Carl in his arms appears. Carl's face is all swollen, one eye is swollen and black, blood is dripping from the corners of his mouth and he can barely stand on his feet.

"O my god" I gasp out loud, while running over to him. But before I can get to him, Jason steps in to block my way.

"No, it's not that simple" he says with a low voice. From over his shoulder I see the bald guy tying Carl to a tree. He's barely conscious. "The interesting part hasn't even come up yet."

As if it's their que, I hear the moaning of walkers come closer. I look around anxiously, desperately looking where these undead just magically appeared from.

There are two guys each holding one walker in chains. They can't get bit, since they've gotten hold of the undead's hair and force them to keep looking forward.

"What are you doing?" I ask, almost a whisper. I can't think straight, this is all just too much.

The guys both chain the walkers at two trees which happen to stand near the one Carl is tied at. The chains seem to be way too long to hold the walker to only a tree, but the guys hold the remaining court in their hands, adjusting the tidiness off the chains at will.

"We're gonna play a game, ok?" Jason says, still holding me back. I want to fight, but I'm too weak and scared to do any damage. "I'm gonna ask you some questions, and each time your answer is wrong, the chains will loosen up a bit. Once they reach your friend, you've lost. If you answer the questions truthfully, we might consider letting you leave this place. If you try to escape on your own, we'll also loosen. If you try anything funny towards one of us, your friend's dead. Understood?"

I can't do much but nod. I look at Carl, who's really losing consciousness, he can barely keep his head up.

"Question number one" Jason starts off, as if it's a weekly quiz show on Friday night. "Where are your pals?"

"They've been killed about six weeks ago."

"By who?"

"Rick Grimes and Daryl Dixon."

"Where?"

"In this forest, not far from this place, just over the hill."

"How?"

"Shot through the head with a gun and the other with a crossbow."

Jason stares at me for a while, and I try to keep my face as emotionless as possible. He then looks over his shoulder to his comrades holding the chains. "Do you believe a word she says?"

One of them shrugs, the other sniggers, while shaking his head. Both of them let about an arm length of chains slip through their fingers and both the walkers are only half a foot away from Carl. They can almost touch his hat with their nails.

"Second round, try harder this time. Where are your pals?"

"They've both been killed by Rick Grimes and Daryl Dixon, six weeks ago, in this forest."

Jason shakes his head. "Loosen up, boys."

Half an arm they get closer to him. They're almost breathing in his face.

I suddenly feel very cold, even my hands are shaking. "I'm telling the truth! They're dead!"

Jason shrugs. "I don't think so, they don't either. Third round. Where are your pals?"

"Dead, killed 42 days ago by Rick Grimes who used a gun and Daryl Dixon who used a crossbow."

Now the walkers can basically scratch his face. I'm starting to sweat. Why can't they just believe me?

"Final round!" Jason says loudly. "Where are your pals?"

"Dead, killed 42 days ago by Rick Grimes who used a gun and Daryl Dixon who used a crossbow, in this forest just over the hill where our campsite was. I wasn't present at the time, but Ash was and he came to an agreement with those people."

Jason sighs, shaking his head. He opens his mouth to say something, but doesn't get a chance. There's a soft whistling sound, and a second later, one of the walkers collapses on the ground, dead. Next thing I know, Glenn has stabbed the other one in the back of the head. Rick rushes forward, pointing his gun at the back of Jason's head.

"I think that answer was pretty accurate" he says. Jason smiles.

"Well, you're not the game leader here, aren't you?"

I take this chance to run over to Carl, who's being untied by Sasha. As soon as he's loose, he falls on his knees. I'm just in time to catch him before he hits the ground.

"Get him out of here" Rick grumbles. He's not even looking at his son, but I can feel that he's angry. The whole air around him is trembling.

I swing one of Carl's arms around my neck, Sasha takes the other, and so we drag him away from the scene. Tyreese follows us, backing us with a shotgun in his hand.

I look over my shoulder once more, to see Rick lowering his gun for some reason, and Jason smiling.

"Just keep running" Sasha says. "We'll stop once we're close to the prison."

I nod, and I concentrate on not dropping Carl on the ground or not tripping over any branches as I fasten my pace. I hadn't realized before how deep I was in the forest, because it takes a while before we can finally see the prison in front of us.

We carefully lay down Carl in the grass, where he seems to regain a little consciousness. Tyreese keeps walking around, knocking out a walker here and there that comes too close.

"How did you find us?" I ask Sasha.

"A couple of kids noticed Ash was gone, and when we started looking for him we found out that both you and Carl weren't at the prison either. Daryl's the best tracker out of all of us, and it seems we made it just in time for you guys."

"Yeah" I say softly. I'm not sure if she knows what happened to Ash. But I think my face says enough.

"A-lexa" Carl suddenly whispers. He weakly lifts his hand, and I fold both mine around it. He smiles. "You're here."

I feel my eyes burning, not only of tears but also of guilt. This all happened because of me.

"Yeah, I'm here. Sasha's here too, and Tyreese."

He closes his eyes for a little, and takes a few trembling breaths. "I'm sorry…about Ash."

"I know" I say, trying to sound comforting, but I sound more like I'm about to throw up. I softly with my thumb over the back of his hand. "But everything's gonna be fine now. Your dad's gonna be back in a minute, and we'll all go back to the prison."

"Could you make that a promise?"

I smile. "C'mon, you're almost making me act nice, and you know I'm way too hot headed for that stuff."

"For me, please?" Even though his entire face is swollen mess, he manages to smile a little. It makes my heart jump up a little.

"I promise we'll all go back to the prison together. I promise that everything will be fine."

Carl closes his eyes, as if he's relieved. "I'm glad to hear it."

With that, he falls asleep. At first I'm afraid he's going to die, but I keep my eyes carefully on his chest, to see if it's moving up and down.

It's already late in the afternoon when Rick, Daryl and Glenn return. They seem to have gotten in a pretty bad fight, but no one asks about it. Rick kneels next to his son, softly awing his face.

"Peace treaty" he chuckles. "What a joke."

"Is that what they wanted?" Sasha asks. Daryl nods and spits in the grass.

"They want to continue living in peace without any interruptions. They're saying they already had their revenge on both Ash and us for taking Alexa and him in. Bullshit, if you ask me."

"None of us can live in peace anymore" Rick grumbles as he stands up.

Again, I feel this kind of coldness come over me. It's all my fault. It's been my fault from the beginning. I went out in the woods and got myself caught, Ash went to look for me and died, Carl went with him and got his face messed up. And what did I get? An 'are you alright?'. But there's nothing wrong with me. Everything's wrong with me.

"Alexa" Sasha suddenly says, grabbing both my shoulders. "You need to calm down, you'll faint if you keep breathing like that."

I suddenly realize I'm actually hyperventilating. I feel dizzy and my sight gets blurry. Sasha starts counting, hoping she can help me get my breathing under control, but her voice seems to get farther and farther away from me.

I feel hot tears rolling down my cheeks and I hear myself scream. I can't handle it. All this time, I just felt like I had to do one thing at the time.

Ash died, I felt sad, but I couldn't think about that, because I was in danger. But I couldn't think about that, because Carl was in danger. Now everything I felt during those times but couldn't make room for, has come rushing back enormous waves. I feel a pain in my chest, as if someone put a knife in there and twisted it around a few times. Everything just sucks.

"I'm so sorry, I'm so sorry" is all I can say.

When I wake up, I'm lying in a bunker bed in my own cell. It's really dark, it must be night time.

My back is wet of sweat and my shirt sticks to my skin like glued paper, yet it's kinda cold in here.

I swing my legs over the side of the bed, I feel immediately awake. Faint memories of what happened before I passed out flash before my eyes, and all I want to do is just smash my own face in. I'm such an embarrassment to myself.

I hold my face in my hands, throwing the hairs out of my face. The pain in my chest is gone, but instead, there's this really empty feeling. Like there's a hole I could stick my hand in, and the fingers would come out at the other side. That's what Ash left me with.

When I look around my cell, I realize I have no pictures of us together. I have nothing that reminds me of him, only mental images. Maybe that's for the good, I've been surrounded by death for too long. I have to get some change of scenery. I have to get out of here.

Suddenly, it's loud and clear in my head. I have to get away from here. Away from the prison, away from these people, away from everything. I have no idea where I'll go, just anywhere.

I quickly stand up, change clothes, grab my backpack and quickly stuff it with everything I find important enough to take with me.

When I feel like I'm ready, I look around the cell once more. I really left a mess for them to clean up, but I don't have time to do it myself. It's a good thing it's night time, because I won't have to say goodbye to many people. None, to be exact.

That's not true, though. There is one. I owe it to him. In fact, I made a promise, and I'm fulfilling it. When I leave, everything will be fine.

I find him in his own cell, his face wrapped in bandages, softly snorting. He almost looks like a small child, innocent and sweet. I put down my backpack next to the entrance and enter the cell walking on my toes, as silent as possible. I kneel down next to the bed, next to his face.

I just look at him for a while, like a creepy stalker. But I don't know what else to do. I think just staring is enough. One last stare.

I lean forward, planting a soft kiss on his forward. I'm kinda caught up in the moment, I just had to do it. I feel my cheeks turning red, even though there's no one who could've seen us.

I stand up, taking a deep breath. Now it's time to go.

After one last glance, I turn around. But the moment I want to walk away, a hand grabs my arm. I look over my shoulder to see Carl staring right at me. He licks his lips, as if it's hard to talk.

"Could I have one more, please?"

I roll with my eyes. "I should've known."

Carl smiles, and then looks at my clothes, and at my knife at my belt. "You leaving?"

I nod slowly. "Yeah, I have to. I can't stay here any longer, after Ash…"

He takes stronger hold of my arm, and I'm afraid he won't let go that easily. "Will you come back?"

I shrug. "Maybe."

"Then, just if it were to happen that we're never gonna see each other again, can I give you something?"

He lets go of my arm, so he can help himself sit up. He grunts when the pain strikes his head, and I feel even more guilty. I help him sit up straight, and then sit down on the side of the bed. Carl pants weakly, and it looks like he's almost falling asleep again.

"I want to give you something" he whispers. "Come closer."

I lean forward a little. "Closer."

I have to grab the side of the bed not to fall on top of him. "What are you-"

Then he plants a kiss on my lips.

- The End -

So, how's that?

For those who don't know; this was a request of Computer Breeze, who sent me character descriptions and a summary which I adapted into 25 chapters. Much love to you, girl.

And I'd like to thank the people who read and reviewed this story despite my crappy uploads. Thanks for the love!

- LaurenRoover

Update 4/25/2016: Hey me again. Enjoyed the story? Consider reading the sequel, the prologue is up now!