145 - IT'S THE FINAL COUNTDOWN [Video]

[major_west]

This. [The shot is of the neighbourhood, first one way down the street, then the other, then to the house that West and Billy have occupied for the port. The camera's a bit shaky, as West has already had a few drinks before busting it out.]

This is what I fought for, what I would have done anything to protect.

[He moves into the house. SO

Comments

private.

[453gof_flesh]

I understand.

I sit here and think, even if I don't have my daughter, and my crazy tenants here, but I have a wife, and so much of the things that I had before the war. I think... I should have fought for this. This is how the world should be, this is what you should have.

Instead, in trying to survive, I just made it worse.

But other people take so much for granted.

private.

[major_west]

This is the life I've never had. I devoted everything to my career, thinking... one day. One day I would retire and have this. It never panned out as expected.

I used people the same way I accused you of having done. Different in execution, but I regarded them as... a means to an end. Survival makes desperate creatures of us all.

Re: private.

[453gof_flesh]

Things never quite pan out as you expect.

It does, but how much choice do we ever have? How much... option is there, when we've got to survive? We might have used people, but we protected people too. I think.

Re: private.

[major_west]

In trying to give them a future, I led my men to their deaths.

[Pause.]

But your daughter... Is she well? Did she survive?

Re: private.

[453gof_flesh]

But if you hadn't have done it, wouldn't they have died anyway?

[long pause]

She is alive. She survived past my death. I don't anticipate she'll last much longer, unfortunately.

Re: private.

[major_west]

Likely, yes. One of them tried to kill himself, weeks after the Infection spread and the cities became empty of life, because he said there was no future. As far as any of us knew, we were the only survivors left. Nine men. What can nine men do, even if the Infection passes?

What will you do if you graduate? Return to her? Ask the Admiral for her safety? It's something I've often wondered for my own boys.

Re: private.

[453gof_flesh]

...They can keep living. That's about all they can do.

I'll go back to her. Make sure she's safe. ...And earn her forgiveness.

Re: private.

[major_west]

Until they die, and then it's as though they've never existed at all.

I wish you luck with that.

Re: private.

[453gof_flesh]

But, in the end, when you get to that point, just being alive in the morning is an achievement of itself. You have to take what you've got.

Merci. I wish... you look with your boys.