Episode 7 "At Peace"

5 Years Later:

Wilmington was a large community with many people happily living their lives, trading with Lamar as it's leader, filling in the shoes Hailey left behind. Jack was going around training people to survive with as Mandy and Alex were going around mingling with people. Monroe was rebuilt and expanded as people like Noah, Mia lived in complete happiness there. Sarah stood on the balcony of her house overlooking the place with a smile, she glanced over at the street and saw Kate returning on horseback from a supply run. Sarah walked out of the house and walked to the entrance where a little boy ran up to her, "Hey Will, you have fun?" Kate climbed off the horse and walked up to Sarah and said, "it's like the dead just vanished, I don't even know how, it's nothing but corpses there." Sarah looked at them and took a deep breath and said, "well that's good, get ready, we got to be at Wilmington soon for the celebration of life for those we lost along the way." Kate looked at her and nodded and turned to Will, "go with Sarah okay, I got some stuff to take care of before the event begins." Will looked at her and walked to Sarah right away, Kate climbed up on her horse and turned it, "I'm gonna go and get some things done first, I'll be there." Sarah smiled and said, "be safe." Kate looked ahead at the road and said to herself, "always…" She sped off on the horse down the street to begin running her errands.

Kate sped down the overgrown street, ignoring the nature overgrowth in the street, the horse was as energetic as her. Kate smiled as she pushed the horse to go faster, she took a turn and passed the old building Sarah and Dex met in, the building was in good condition compared to the rest. Kate just kept going, passing the police station and the town as she zoomed past and went into the town, lights were hung around the street as some people walked around trading with each other, she eventually came to a stop and climbed off her horse and walked up to Riley who was talking to some people, "hey Ri!" Riley turned to her with a smile and walked up, "Hey!ready for later?" Kate smiled as she picked up an apple from the ground, "more than ready, how's the Caravan doing?" Riley looked at all the smiling people and said, "so many have joined, it seems like after whatever happened in Virginia we can't contact those people anymore, but those helicopters seem to pop up more often." Kate looked at her and took a deep breath, "Marcus was going to go out and see where they lead to, he just left about a few days ago, New York is where he said he was going." Riley took a deep breath and said calmly, "I'm surprised he stuck around for so long, I guess living the drifter life around here got boring."

Kate turned and fed the remainder of her apple to the horse as she climbed on, "I don't have too much time, I got a lot that needs to be done before the event, I'll see ya there." Riley smiled and waved as she sped off once again. Kate looked at Mel's journal which she had beside Sarah's as she stopped by an old water tower not far outside the town. Kate got off the horse and tied it up safely inside the fenced area as she climbed up. Once she got to the top she opened Sarah's journal which was full now, she looked at it and skimmed through it and the adventures they went on. "It's been about 3 months since we left Gate City… We went home, there was nothing left of it, the rumors were true… After me and Will evacuated Austin, our parents were still in there helping people… I didn't want to believe it when I heard it was carpet bombed not long after we had left, but… We're heading north now, we've been south, east nothing left there, Dex has been west and nothing was there, north is all we have left…" Kate smiled and said to herself, "the cross country journey… my favorite…"

Kate flipped a few pages and read out loud again, "We have been travelling for about a week now, we started in Texas, now we are in Nevada. Just half way there. We have been through quite a bit since we started, helicopters, storms, frozen walkers, a town full of traps and supplies. Just a couple of hours ago we got a glimmer of hope when we saw a helicopter fly by, looked like it landed somewhere around where we are… Vegas…" Kate smiled as she continued to flip pages, "It's been half a year now, we've finally settled into this new life that we found ourselves in, the dead are dying and the remnants of Ryker's crew haven't been seen or heard of in over a year. We have finally made contact with Gate City, we are states apart but with the connections with groups like the one in Vegas or San Francisco, we were able to get letters to the New Mexico outpost and straight to Gate City from there. If I'm going to be honest, I'm a bit homesick, I miss Gate City, I think of people like Clara at the new compound and James, Louis, all of them. I hope to be able to see them once again, that day at the original Compound when we attacked... It still haunts me to this day with what we did that day, who we lost, what we lost, I guess sometimes you just can't escape your past, no matter how hard you try."

Kate pulled Mel's unfinished journal out and grabbed her pencil, she got her inspiration, now she needed to write, she had gotten good at it after a while. "Today is the day when we remember the ones we lost, I hardly knew any of them except Dex, I remember that night, I didn't understand… Or I guess I just couldn't accept it… But the past is the past… It's time to move on, start fresh, this new world we are building is looking great, this place is finally returning to it's original state…" Kate stopped writing and looked up at the sun and put the journal away and stood up and began to climb down, she jumped past the last few feet of the ladder and ran to the horse and instantly got ready to take off with it once more.

Kate sped past a few walkers as they were eating away at a corpse in the grass, Kate knew she only had a couple hours left until she needed to be at Wilmington so she decided to make a few more stops along the way. Kate decided to go and catch up with the Gate City group who was making their way over with some people from the Vegas Strip. Kate had a smile on her face when she noticed Max catching up to her in the field, "I see you guys are close now." Max smiled and said out loud through the sound of horses, "race you to it!" Kate sped up along with Max as they raced through the field, ignoring all the walkers that roamed it, they were enjoying the nice winter breeze in the air as snow began to fall. Eventually they both forgot about the race as they slowed to enjoy the weather, eventually Kate noticed Clara's big medical wagon she always had with her, they caught up to the big group and rode with them.

Kate caught up to Louis and Cal who were leading the big group, "you guys finally made it!" Louis had a big smile as he turned to her, "you've grown a lot since last year, didn't realize it was you!" Cal chuckled and continued where Louis left off, "we aren't too far off from Wilmington, feel free to mingle before we get there." Kate nodded as she lagged behind to catch up to Dr. Green and Clara who were walking together, "any injured yet?" Clara looked up and tossed Kate a bag full of meds, "nothing we can't handle yet… Give those meds to Sarah, I saw her letters, everything should be in there." Caitlin got Kate's attention when she realized she was close, "you hear about the big finale planned for this event?" Kate shook her head and said, "nothing yet, all I know is we are meeting at Wilmington and heading for the town, it's all set up." Caitlin nodded as they all continued to ride down the cold pavement.

The End:

Lamar had left the gate open at Wilmington for anyone to enter, everyone was already there waiting. People ran up and greeted each other as Kate jumped off her horse, the journals fell out of the bag and Sarah rushed over to pick them up. Sarah looked at the open journal and a wave of emotion hit when she glanced over some of her best memories written in there with people who are no longer around. "Here Kate, don't wanna drop these." Coco ran up to Kate wagging her tail, the old dog was happy to see her best friend again, Kate kneeled down to pet Coco and looked up at Kate and said calmly, "we ready?" Sarah smiled and said, "yeah, Will has been wanting to ride with you since I guess you take the dangerous path, but you can only do it this once and take the dog with you." Kate stood up and called Will over, "we'll meet you slowpokes there, try not to lag behind too much" Kate jumped on her horse as Sarah helped Will onto it, Kate turned the horse slowly and took of with Coco chasing them. Sarah looked at her speeding off as Jack slowly stopped beside her, "she really is a lot like Dex." Sarah smiled and responded saying, "well she did read both of those journals through, come on we got a fun event to go to." Jack nodded as everyone got their stuff together and prepared to leave.

Later that night in the big town lights lit up the streets as people gathered around and talked, ate, drank, enjoyed time together. Mia and Sarah were standing on the police station over looking the town as people were waiting to hear what Sarah had to say. "Just speak your heart out, we all lost so much together, it's time we mourn and celebrate together. This is it, all those years led us to here." Sarah looked into the crowd and saw Cal, Louis, Dr. Green, Clara, Kate, Lamar, Luis, Tom, Mandy, Alex, Mary, Amir, Oliver, Caitlin, Max, Joe, Mike, Jack, everyone they have been with for so many years was there, Sarah smiled as this was one of the few times they all could get together, she stood up and looked at the crowd of people as they got quiet and looked up at her.

"It's been 12 years! 12 years we have spent trying to find our humanity again and to rebuild this broken world! In those 12 years we did just that, we come from here to Vegas as family, we have been all over, and now our world is getting larger with the Civic Republic… Wherever they are based, we have had small bits of protection from them over the last 4 years… It's crazy to see where we all began and to see where we are now, helicopters and shit… But tonight we honor the dead… Not just the shambling corpses out to kill up but the ones we lost along the way… James, John, Rachel, Knox, Hailey, Matt, Nick, Josh, Grace, David, Christy, Ada, Al, Iris, jim, Dom… Mel… Will… Dex… Those are just some of many we lost, all dying for a better future… A better future for all of us, it's time we celebrate that… We have prepared something a year in the making… Below you are lanterns, each will fly away, but each symbolizes letting go of the past, and moving forward, moving on… " Sarah watched as the many lanterns flew up into the sky slowly, many people grieving for the dead, Sarah let a tear fall as she began hearing Dex's voice calling to her.

Later:

At Gate City Louis helps Dr. Green expand the community with so many happy people living their lives there. James' grave sits in the field overlooking the community he helped to build, watching it grow.

At the new Compound Clara sits on the balcony overlooking the farming community, people were trading, blacksmithing, doing so much for the communities.

At Vegas The community spans across the strip and grew into a big connected network. Cal was trying to help build something big for the future in the West.

Over at WilmingtonLamar sits inside the main house looking at a picture he took with Jack and Hailey at the start with their last camera with a big smile. Outside Jack helped Mandy and Alex with training people, preparing them for the future. Tom helped with the people farming in the community as Dex and Will's graves sit with everyone else's, overlooking the growth of the place.

Over at Monroe Sarah sat on her balcony watching as Kate was watching the sunset with Mel's journal in hand with Will and Coco playing in the background. Tom was helping build new houses in place of the old, rundown ones, Mia and some others worked on vehicles there as Oliver, Ava and David sat around a fire talking, Luis was walking around making people laugh as always. Sarah smiled as she saw the future they worked so hard to build work out.

Epilogue:

Dex and Sarah sit beside each other on a porch at a nice little farmhouse in the middle of nowhere, no danger in sight, they were a bit older and happier. They watched as Kate and Will played with Coco in the field with little Will playing with toys on the porch. They were all happy together, all happy to be together.

"When I read through these journals I always stop at the part where Sarah wrote about how she and Dex planned on running away to a nice place in the middle of nowhere. I like to sit there and imagine what that would look like with everyone, occasionally I'll add everyone… Like everyone… I wish that could be our life but I guess we have to live with what we have… What we have is each other, that's all we truly need in order to truly be happy… I'm running out of space in Mel's journal, maybe I should find a new one, write my own adventures in there… Create stories for many to see, sometimes I wish to have been there for those adventures, Sarah always gets sad when she sees what is there, maybe it's because everyone is dead but it's like she said, it's time to move on, move on into the future… Together… Never Alone…"