Young and Young at Heart (The Rewrite of The Walking Dead Game: S2) [TWDG/TWD]

60. Parting Lessons

Clementine covered her mouth and coughed. Her throat had been feeling scratchy ever since she woke up this morning, and it was really starting to annoy her. Gene's lesson on someone who got lost in the Antarctic wasn't doing much to comfort her either. Looking around, it didn't do much for the others. Bridget was clearly bored, Matt looked like he was sleeping, and Sarah was lying her head on the desk. Seeing that Gene was busy writing something on the whiteboard, Clem sensed an opportunity.

"Sarah?" whispered Clem. "Sarah," repeated Clem a little louder. Sarah didn't move, simply remaining still with her head on the desk. "Sarah, I'm sorry about yesterday. I—"

"Clementine," called an annoyed Gene. "Can you please not talk during my lesson?"

"I'm sorry." Looking at the rest of class, Gene realized Clementine was hardly the only one not paying attention.

"Okay, apparently none of you are all that invested today, so I'll just give you the short version." Gene took a deep breath. "Douglas Mawson charted an expedition to Antarctica. He and two others went out, one of them stepped over a hidden crevasse, plunged to his death, along with most of their sled dogs and supplies.

"That left Douglas and his friend with almost nothing to cover over three hundred miles across the most inhospitable terrain on the planet to their expedition's base on the coast. His friend made it about two hundred miles, then died, leaving Douglas to make the rest of the journey alone. At one point he fell into a crevasse himself, saved only by his sled being stuck on the snow. And—"

"And he lived," grumbled an annoyed Matt. "Big fuckin' deal. The other two guys didn't. Nobody remembers them."

"Their names were Xavier Mertz and Belgrave Ninnis," retorted Gene. "They had crossed several crevasses that day, and Mertz was signaling Mawson about yet another one, right before Ninnis fell. The two men spent hours calling into the abyss, hoping against all hope Ninnis was still alive.

"Mawson and Mertz had to survive by eating the sled dogs that collapsed from exhaustion, and feeding what was left to the surviving dogs so they could keep pulling the sled. Eventually it was just them, and Mertz was the one who couldn't go on. Mawson pulled Mertz along on the sled during the day, tried feeding him that evening, only for Mertz to die the next morning.

"After burying Mertz, Mawson had to go on alone. His body was covered in sores, his hair falling out, the soles of his feet had simply come off completely. He had to tape them back on, then put on every pair of socks he had left just so there was enough cushioning to make the pain slightly less agonous." Clementine watched as Sarah lifted her head up, her face making it clear how disturbing she found this story.

"When he fell into a crevasse, and found himself hanging over an abyss, Mawson forced himself to climb back to the edge of the cliff. When he reached the lip, it broke off from the rest of the ice, and took Mawson with him. Once again he was hanging over an abyss just by the rope tied to his sled."

"But he got out anyway," mocked Matt. "Because he so's badass."

"Actually, by his own account, Mawson said he thought about just letting go of the rope," narrated Gene. "He only had a few scraps of food left, eighty miles left to go, and the Aurora, the ship that brought the expedition team to the Antarctic, had been scheduled to leave by now. And because of how dangerous just sailing to the Antarctic is, the ship wouldn't return until next year. Between that and the agony he was in, letting go and ending everything seemed like the natural choice."

"Why didn't he?" asked Clementine.

"He said he recalled a verse from his favorite poem. 'Just have one more try, it's dead easy to die. It's the keeping-on-living that's hard."