WE ALL DIE ▸ NICK CLARK

xxix. black

We were walking without destiny. The silence was all that it could be heard. Out of a sudden, Nick breaks it.

"They're gonna wonder what happened to us when they come back."

"I left Al a note." I say shortly. "She'll find us."

"How did you met?" Nick questions and I scoff playfully.

"She saved my life in exchange for my story. When we blew the dam I got pretty fucked up, she healed me, and when I was about to leave I passed out and couldn't move for some time. She took care of me and we became friends." I tell him when I see five walkers leaving a store and walking towards us.

I take the elastic band I stole from Al's van, taking it from my wrist and tye my hair, not wanting more blood on it. When I fix it, I take my knives and run towards them, killing the two closer to me. I stuck each one of my blades into the heads of the other two on my side. I notice that the fifth one is walking towards them, and throw one of my knives onto its head.

They both looked at me impressed, Nick more than Morgan, as I take my knife from the corpse's head.

"What?" I ask cleaning my knives on my jeans and my face with my shirt, only then letting go of my hair again.

"Nothing." Nick says looking away with wide eyes.

***

Morgan was wrapping a piece of gaze around his wound.

"You want a hand with that?" Nick asks him but he refuses it.

"You should let him help you, he used to be good with that type of stuff." I add but like usual, Morgan brushes it off and refuses. "I'm only trying to help. I'm gonna see if there's any walker around here." I walk away.

"Nick." I call and he looks at me. "Don't kill him." I smile sarcastically and he nods smiling back.

I walk around the place but no walker is in sight. I do think I saw a girl walking by but I couldn't get a right look at her and when I run after her, she was gone. As I'm walking back, Morgan's walking out of the store we were in.

"If you want to hunt them down, it's your business." He tells him and walks away.

"Who are you hunting down?" I ask Nick and he takes a deep breath.

"It doesn't matter-"

"Yes, it does. Look, I didn't ask earlier, but..."

"She died to protect us. The blue car. The man inside of it killed her." He explains already knowing what I'll ask him.

"He killed Madison?" He only nods. "Then let's find him so that you can end this for once and for all." I put my hand on his cheek and he rests his face on it.

__

We see the man and Nick grabs his hammer tighter.

"Holy shit." The man says looking at Nick. "I didn't think I'd see you again."

As he says this Nick starts running towards him but Morgan sees him and stops him.

"Step away. I said step away." Morgan warns.

"You should listen to your friend. It's good to see you, Nick." The man says walking into a little house. "But, uh, I gotta get these pimentos uploaded. Unless you wanna give me a hand."

"Don't." Morgan pushes him away again.

"Or what? You gonna do what it takes to stop me? You can. You did." Nick snaps at Morgan and I keep my mouth shut.

The man killed Madison. He deserves to die. I won't stop Nick. I know what he feels towards that man. I felt the same towards the people who killed Paulo, I killed them and it made it better, even if it was just a little bit. The fact that they don't get to stay here while our loved ones are not. Finishing their life takes a little bit of the pain, it became more bearable.

Nick enters behind the man, and not long after, gets out, his hands dripping blood.

"What do you want?" He asks Morgan.

"You asked me who I lost, it was my wife, my son, and my friends." Morgan tells Nick and I swallow hard. "That's who I lost before losing myself. I know where you are, Nick. 'Cause I was there." I look away. "I didn't know how to make it stop. I didn't know if I wanted to make it stop. I just didn't think I could ever find a way out. Then I met someone. Man didn't have to help me but he did. He... he gave me something, Nick. H-He told me... he showed me that all life is precious. And that helped. It- It still does."

"Uhm... okay, how exactly?" Nick sighs finally speaking up.

"Right..." Morgan takes a little book I had seen him reading before. "...this is part of it. You wanted to know what I was reading." he handles the book.

"Too late." Nick says.

"Believe me... believe me, it's not." Morgan tries again.

"Take it," I tell him. "Please..." I mutter and he looks at me.

Morgan's right, Nick lost himself, maybe this would help.

"Here, we can talk about it. We can talk about anything, Nick." Morgan assures him and I smile a bit at the two of them.

Nick finally takes the book from Morgan. Grabbing it with his bloody hands and walking towards the back of the house, with a flower in his pocket.

"Hi..." I call and he looks at me as I walk in his direction.

"Hey..." He comes towards me and I hug him.

"You know- you know y-you have... you have me, right?" I ask into his shoulder.

"I know, baby." He mutters and I push away, sitting on a bench as he sits on my side.

I take his bloody hand into mine, slightly drawing imaginary figures with my fingers.

I look into the distance and see a girl, this time I'm sure she's there. With a gun.

I push Nick to the side and a sharp pain begins in my abdomen. I put my hand on it and I notice the blood.

"Kat!" he sits me up straight noticing the wound and laying me on the grass. "no, no, no!" He cries.

I feel tears on my face.

"T-" I try to speak as Althea comes running in our direction.

"Katherine!" She puts pressure on my wound.

"W-when this began. A-at y-your h-home, you said- you tried to steal-" I groan in pain. "Yo-your neigh-neighbor's shotgun, y-you said you- you would tell me a-about it." I look at Nick as tears fall down from his face.

"I-I was high. I wanted to do something exciting and- I wanted to shoot cans in the woods." He explains as I look at him.

"I saved you once, I can save you twice." Althea said pushing Alicia and Lucy, who I hadn't even noticed was there, away. "Help me!" She tells Nick and with John's help, they take my almost lifeless body to the van.

"I love you." I look at Nick and everything goes black.

Was it this time? Am I really dead now? I did this before.

At the end of the day...

Real freedom comes when everything turns black.