"We need to sneak through them," I decide, not seeing how any of these options would classify as 'safe'. That ladder looks like it would collapse almost upon impact, and I'm not feeling quite bold enough to take them all on at once. "Drop the bag… I'd rather get there alive."

"What's the magic word?"

"Really?" I say to him, rolling my eyes as we both share a small laugh. "Fine… please drop the bag so that we don't die?"

"Strangest use of the word that I've ever heard," Lee sighs, leaving the bag in the snow. "This sucks… We could really use that food."

"We'll find something else," I encourage, glancing out at the sea of monsters. I'd really appreciate it if this went smoothly. "There's gotta be some food left around here somewhere, but – "

"We'll cross that bridge when we get to it," Lee adds, finishing off my sentence as he lures one of the walkers towards us with a rock to its head. Quietly motioning for me to get behind him, I shake my head – but he doesn't seem to notice this. I can do these kinds of things myself, you know! So instead of being an obedient little kid like he wants me to, I pull out my screwdriver and smash it into the eye of one of the walkers before Lee can get to it… Unfortunately taking out its eyeball in the process.

"I think I'm gonna be sick…" I groan, looking disgusted as the eyeball rolls lazily near my foot. Instantly I kick it away and cringe as it makes a squishy sound. So gross.

Lee, for his part, doesn't look too impressed with me, and I sheepishly shrug my shoulders as he glowers at me. "You're lucky that went smoothly," he comments, shaking his head as he starts to cut open the body and shower himself in walker guts.

"You seem like you know what you're doing with these things," I notice, slightly disturbed at how non-chalantly he rubs the stuff on himself.

"I've had a bit of practice," he says, not going into any more detail than that. "Turn around and I'll get your back."

…..

Just stay calm… and everything will be fine. Walk just like a mindless, flesh-eating walker and they won't notice you. Act like you belong, and you will belong.

That's what I keep telling myself, at least.

We're in the belly of the beast – surrounded by dozens of walkers as they parade around hoping to find their next meal. Sometimes I wonder if they're just hungry all the time, or if whatever has caused them to come back from the dead is causing them to do this. We still have no idea what actually causes this to happen – just that it's inside all of us. Lee seems to think it's some sort of virus or something… as for me, I'm not really sure what to believe anymore.

It's not as if we can just cook up some cure ourselves, am I right?

We slowly make our way towards the parking lot in front of the apartment without incident, although some of the walkers have bumped into us which caused me to go as white as a sheet. Other than that, though, our plan has gone rather smoothly. The hard part's going to be getting us inside without drawing all of their attention on us.

"…stay close to me…" Lee whispers as I fall behind a little bit, causing him to turn his head around to look towards me. "…we'll make it through this. Almost there…"

"Okay…"

Marching through, both of us have our eyes peeled as the front doorway to the apartment comes into view. It's rather dull in colour, with a brown exterior for the brick of the apartment and a greyish door matching the equally-depressing inhabitants outside. However, we don't give two shits about it being fancy – all we need is for it to be safe enough to stay in. Because as Lee said before, turning back now would just be suicide for the both of us.

"Watch my back…" Lee whispers as he slowly makes his way to the door without incident. Doing as instructed, I slowly turn my body 180 degrees so that I can see the rest of the herd.

I swear to god, it looks like a family reunion out here. I mean, they all look… the same now! Their faces certainly do at least, as their rotting faces all have a grotesque look to them and they all move the same way. When an older couple look towards me (and I feel really silly for doing this), I try to roll my eyes back and groan like one of them; hoping that my cover hasn't been blown.

Thank goodness these things are so stupid…

"I'll have to bust open the lock…" Lee mentions while still holding the hook at his side.

"How will we keep them from getting in?"

"We'll figure it out once we're inside. Keep them off of me…"

With that, I try to block their view of Lee as he sets to work on breaking into the apartment. I straighten my back and hold my arms a little further out at my sides, but it won't do much when they hear all the noise he's about to make.

And sure enough, when he starts smashing through the side of the doorway, Lee's inadvertently attracted some of their attention.

"Lee… they're coming…" I murmur, trying to get him to hear me as the older couple from earlier starts wondering what's going on. This is incredibly dangerous… Why didn't we pick either of the other two options?! What's the worst that could've happened?!

Holding the screwdriver at my side, I silently pray that Lee somehow miraculously gets the door open and I won't be forced to use this thing…

But knowing our luck, you should already know what happens by now.

I slice open the lady's head with the screwdriver, and her husband stumbles over to attack me as the rest of their posse looks towards us. Mr. Walker sure isn't happy that I've just killed Mrs. Walker, and abruptly ended their undead relationship, so he flails at me before succumbing to a screwdriver to the face.

"We're out of time!" I hiss quietly, turning my head towards Lee for just a moment as fear occupies my mind. "You need to get us in there!"

"Use your gun if you have to, Clem! Just keep them out of here!"

"Damn it…" I murmur, pulling out my pistol and firing the last two remaining bullets into a couple of walkers. They're providing a sort of road block for the rest of them, but it's only temporary, and there's no way that I'll be able to take them all on by myself. As they inch closer and closer to me, I get prepared for the worst.

Well, this plan has gone to shit, hasn't it?

"Lee?! Are you – UGH!"

He yanks me by the collar of my jacket and tosses me onto the floor as he struggles to hold the door in place. At least we've made it inside.

"Find something to block it with!" Lee orders, grunting as he pushes against the frame with his back. Okay, bossy pants!

Quickly scanning the room, the very first thing that I notice are the couches – unfortunately way too big and heavy for me to move by myself. But that rocking chair might do the trick!

"How about this?!" I ask him, getting behind the chair and moving it a little so that he can see.

"Perfect," he tells me, motioning with his head to the floor. "Bring it over, Clem! Hurry!"

"What's the magic word?"

"NOW, CLEMENTINE!" So much for manners, I guess.

Scrambling to drag it across the floor with a deafening screech, I grind my teeth together as time seems to slow down; the walkers have busted their hands through the tiny, little window near the front door. It's small enough so that they can't get in, but Lee's safety just dropped down significantly. He sees it too, but he can't afford to deal with it right now.

Finally, after what feels like forever, I bring the rocking chair all the way over as the two of us work as a team to lean it up against the door. When Lee moves to push it with me, the door slightly swings open and we can both see the walkers trying their hardest to barge in.

"They're breaking through!" I shout; fear paralyzing my eyes as one of the walkers almost manage to grab onto me. Good thing that my hair's so short!

"No… they're not…" Lee wheezes, pushing against the frame with all of his might before shutting the door completely. Using Lee's hook, I cut off their hands trying to break in through the window and gag as the limbs fall onto the hardwood floor. We lock the chair securely into place underneath the door handle and sigh in absolute relief – we've done it.

"That…" I huff out, sliding down to the floor beside him, "…was too close…"

"You said it," Lee agrees chuckling slightly at our uncanny luck as he leans his head backwards.

"We made it, though! We're both safe!"

"Damn right!" he agrees, his chuckling turning into full-scale laughter. "We ain't exactly out of the woods just yet, but man does it feel good to be here! I think our luck's finally starting to come around! I told you, Clem – you're my good luck charm."

"It must be the hat," I comment, giggling as he takes it off me and tries to put it on himself. "I think it looks better on me, though."

…

"Find anything yet?" Lee calls down the stairs; his loud voice coming in clearly.

Scanning through the cabinets, my heart soars and my mouth waters as I pull out two Rice Krispie Squares – one for each of us. I don't really care that they're expired; just that I can enjoy the mouth-watering goodness of one after not having anything like it in the longest time.

Besides, it's the only food I could find in this place anyways.

"Not much, but yeah," I respond, heading up the stairs to see Lee preparing the sleeping arrangements. "You don't snore, do you?"

Looking indignified in a joking way, Lee scoffs at the very idea. "No way," he huffs, sticking his tongue out at me playfully as he tosses me a small, worn-out blanket. "But if I do, just chuck a pillow at my head or something. That might work."

"Great."

Smirking, Lee sighs contently as he rests upon his lumpy mattress and gazes up at the ceiling with his hands behind his head. Looking at him now, I've got to say that I've never seen him this relaxed before. Maybe it's just the fact that we no longer have to worry about Nate and his crew coming after us, or that we're finally staying in a place that's actually secure. There aren't that many walkers around these parts, even though their incessant banging against the door is probably gonna keep me up for most of the night. But I'm glad that Lee's finally starting to let some of his old self show again – it's been far too long.

Walking over to my sleeping area, I plop a squat on the mattress and try to roll out all of the kinks. The springs in it squeak every time you move too much, but luckily I'm light enough that it probably won't be a problem for me. It's one of those pull-out cots that you find in a lot of hotels, so it's not the most comfortable thing in the world, but it certainly beats the crap out of the Wellington beds. I'm pretty sure those things were made of rocks.

"Isn't this better?" Lee asks, not moving his view away from the ceiling as I toss a Rice Krispie square his way. "We're finally out of the cold… I never thought that it'd be this easy."

"It never is," I quip, snuggling myself up underneath the covers as I begin to eat a very stale treat. Hey, it's better than nothing.

Nodding silently, Lee rubs a hand over his tired eyes and yawns. "I haven't had a good night's rest like this since we left the motor-inn," he reminisces, also taking a bite out of his food. "Ever since we got separated, it was always just about surviving. There wasn't any time to get comfy – Molly and I never stayed in the same place twice, so we were on the move all the time. And after she was gone, I just became so restless. Somehow I managed to get by on just a few hours of sleep per day, and now… to come to this, it's a bit mind-blowing, really."

"It was the same way when I was with Lilly and Duck," I explain as he turns to listen intently to me. "She just kept on saying how we needed to move north, and that nothing else was more important. Lilly hardly ever let one of us take watch, so I had to force her just so that she'd be able to stay awake sometimes. I think she was still coping with losing her dad like that…"

"That must have been hard."

"Yeah… it was," I reply sadly, embracing the small amount of warmth that this thin blanket can provide. "She was sad a lot of the time – we all were."

Lee says nothing for a moment, as if he's recalling that fateful day when he had to put down my parents. It was the single most devastating experience I've ever had to deal with, and I'm not afraid to admit that I still get nightmares about it from time to time. It just wasn't fair – life never is. I learned that lesson a long time ago.

"Look how far we've come, huh?" Lee says suddenly, trying to brighten up the mood. "Even after everything that's happened, after all the nonsense and BS we've been through, it's you and me on the other side."

"Yeah…"

"We're gonna make this work, Clementine," Lee says softly, noticing my depressed mood. "Nothing's gonna be perfect – hell, nothing ever is. But this place… we can turn this into a home, sweet pea! Once the walkers are dealt with, we can go scrounging for supplies around here, maybe board up some of the windows. And… if you want, we can go launch off that last firecracker."

"Really?" I ask, surprised that he thinks there's still a chance.

"Yeah… if they've been following the other two, then we've gotta light up the last one just in case."

"Since when did you become so peppy?"

"Since I met you, sassy pants," he snidely remarks before leaning on his side. "Goodnight, Clem."

"Night, Lee…"

…..

Two days and nights have passed, and I still can't sleep. We set off the last firecracker yesterday, after fighting our way past some of the walkers, so my mind should be at relative ease. But, obviously, it's not.

Throughout the night, I try my hardest to fall asleep, but to no avail. I shouldn't be having any problems with this – in fact, I should've passed out like a light as soon as my head hit the pillow. But I just can't do it. The combination of the constant thumping of the remaining walkers downstairs along with the million other things going on in my mind is preventing me from having a restful slumber.

I still haven't forgiven myself for their deaths – Kenny, Mike, Bonnie, Jane and everyone else at Wellington. Hell, even Sarah's still continues to haunt me; as if she's jeering at me from beyond the grave about how I let her and the rest of my friends down. I admitted this to Lee on the walk over to this place, and he tried to assure me that it wasn't my fault in any way.

But the last thing that I had said to Mike, Bonnie, Luke and Jane was that I didn't want anything to do with them.

What could they possibly have thought of me in their dying breaths? Even though I was totally upset at them for kicking Lee out, it still didn't give me a reason to say that they were dead to me. And yet, even as they were faced with terrible odds at the hands of Nate and Tavia's army, they still stood up for me.

I don't think that I deserved such good friends.

Scratching those thoughts aside, I sit up and look to my left as Lee tosses and turns in his sleep; making occasional grunts and unintelligible moans as he dreams. Sweat's already starting to form upon his brow, and he gasps for air as he awakens, looking around the room for any would-be assailants.

"Nightmare?" I question simply, receiving a nod from the older man as he rubs his eyes in thought. "I hate bad dreams…"

"Preaching to the choir, Clem," he sighs, no doubt trying to shake off whatever's been troubling him. "But god damn, it felt so real…"

"What was it about?" I ask, going over to the drawer and pulling out a couple sheets of paper as well as the crayons that we found in one of the houses earlier today. I forgot how much I loved to draw, and it's not as if either of us are going to go back to sleep any time soon.

"Eddie…" he admits; surprising me as he hasn't brought it up since it happened. "It was about Eddie… after he died, everyone looked at me like I was some sort of monster. But I don't need to bother you with this stuff, you're still just – "

"Your friend," I remind him calmly, meaning that I'm not just some random kid that he can't explain his problems to. That being said, the fire-breathing dragon that I've just begun to draw says that I'm still a child at heart.

"Yeah… you're right," he admits, slowly nodding his head as he watches my handiwork. My drawing skills have declined rapidly over the past two years, since I didn't really have the time, materials or desire to do it anymore. But now… it just feels like I have a sort of obligation to my younger self to start this up again. Call me crazy if you like, but it's true.

"He's in a better place now," I tell him, knowing that he probably doesn't want to be told that it wasn't his fault. "They would've ended up killing him anyway – better to come from someone he liked."

"I guess you're right. You usually are about things these days."

"Hmph, more like I'm always right!"

"Don't push your luck, kid," Lee jokes, until his gaze lands upon the old portable CD player that we had dug up in the same house that I found the crayons. I stil can't believe that the thing still works. "Man… I used to have one just like this when I was growing up, until everyone started using their cell phones instead."

I don't comment on that matter, since I was never at an age where music was really a hobby in my life. I was always content with my drawings, or playing games up in my tree house.

"I found that CD you were carrying around in the gym bag," he explains, and I look upon the player for just a split-second. "O' Children" by Nick Cave… why does it always come back to this song? The same one my mother played for me, is now being played by Lee. I guess that Lee's sort of like a third parent in some sense… the way he cares about me certainly proves that. With a quick snapping shut of the case, Lee presses the play button and waits for the song to commence.

The initial melody plays upon his ears, and he slowly starts to rock himself back and forth to the beat. I've heard this so many times that I don't even look up from my drawing. Now to draw the castle…

"It's pretty nice," Lee comments quietly, tapping his fingers along as he looks at a face-down picture just sitting there on one of the shelves. Picking it up, he blows the dust off and wipes away some of the dirt, revealing a young girl with long, flowing brown hair that went down to her shoulders. She's got her arm wrapped around some dorky-looking guy in a baby-blue suit, but the both of them look really happy together.

"What's that?" I ask absentmindedly, still doodling away.

"It's a prom picture, by the looks of it.

"Prom?" I ask, the word sounding foreign to me. "What's that?"

Cracking his back, Lee studies the picture for a moment before handing it over to me. "It's a high school dance for kids who are graduating," he explains, examining my drawing despite my protests. "It's basically just a big party for celebrating their years at high school."

"I suck at dancing," I explain, getting a low chuckle out of the man. "What? It's hard! And the only thing I ever knew how to do was the chicken dance!"

"C'mere," he tells me, offering me a hand as I look at him questioningly. What's he doing? "I'll show you how – it's not so bad once you get the hang of it."

Extremely hesitantly, I take his hand and stand in the center of the room as he starts to sway back and forth. This… is kind of awkward. Not weird awkward, because I know Lee really well and love him like he's my own father. But… it's because he's only got one arm, and my prosthetic leg is making me even more self-conscious than I would've been normally.

Lee doesn't seem to care though, as he makes funny faces at me and looks as though he's the happiest guy in the world.

Given the world that we live in, I wouldn't be surprised if he was.

But his enjoyment has always been infectious, and I can't help but giggle a little as I clumsily try to match his movements. He twirls me around a little bit, and suddenly I feel like the apocalypse never happened – as if right now, none of the problems outside even matter. Society has returned to normal, and none of my anxieties have any weight to them.

This reminds me so much of being with my Dad that for one second I forget that he isn't here anymore. In fact, both of my parents are smiling down at me; proud at how far I've come and matured over such a short time, and happy that I've got a father-figure as awesome as Lee looking out for me. Deep down, I also feel a small sense of pride that I've grown to an extent where I can protect him as well.

As the song dies down and we both return to what we were doing before, I smile happily for the first time in quite a while. Lee's got a talent for making things look less bleak than they really are.

About thirty minutes have passed (or at least it's felt like that), and I'm still trying to think of what to add to my drawing. Tonight's been really special – and it's given me a much-needed distraction from worrying about surviving all the time.

But GRRR! What in the world is this thing missing?! I've got the dragon breathing fire against the castle, as well as the knights trying to fight him off, but the drawing still looks kind of crappy. Not my best work by any stretch of the imagination.

Suddenly, I hear the sound of Lee chuckling so hard that I think he's going to cry. What's so funny? It better not be about how shitty of an artist I've become over the years!

"What is it?" I ask inquisitively, not bothering to show my annoyance at being interrupted from my work. Not bothering to explain it to me, Lee simply gestures to the window with his thumb and smirks as I walk over to the window.

And what I see gives me a small glimmer of hope that things will be alright – I see what Lee was chuckling about.

What are the odds that Lilly and Luke actually managed to travel towards the firecracker and find this place, even though the thing disappeared moments after we set it off?

Smiling towards Lee, he nods his head as the two of us go downstairs to finish off the walkers and rejoin our companions. We can finally have a real family once again.

AN: Welp, that's it! Three endings, just like I promised. Hopefully you found them interesting, even though you probably want to shoot me over the second one lol. Anyways, I just wanted to thank you guys for all your constant support over this series. It's been an absolute pleasure to write this, and hopefully if school doesn't become too much of a hassle then I might be able to write something else. Until then, thanks for reading!

Leafs Nation