Where do they go from here, now forced back into the barren wasteland of the dead?
As it happens, thats where he finds himself now.
The first is a pair of abandoned cars.
Credit: Richard Foreman Jr/AMC
His friend suggests starting with his dad, though Nick says hed much prefer his mom.
Ignoring the bait, she refocuses his attention.
I guess the world is too much for you.
The memory breaks as the sun sets over the desert.
Walking down a dirt road bordered by barbed wire, Nick comes across a one-level home.
However, hes later jolted out of sleep by a woman with a baseball bat.
Inured from the blows, he stumbles off into the night without his supplies.
He finds himself back on the highway, which is littered with more abandoned vehicles.
A radio lies on the cars dashboard.
Again ignoring the walkers advances, Nick fetches the gear and fiddles with the white noise of the channels.
The sound is quickly drowned out by a Jeep pulling up to the scene.
They make quick work of the straggler walker and proceed to search the cars.
Tragically, the plant is bone dry.
His dirtied, bloodied form hunches over animal-like to cut into the cactus with a sharp rock.
He attempts to eat the innards, but easily vomits everything back up.
Desperate, he urinates into his own hand before ingesting it back into his body.
He shutters at the taste before dusk welcomes another night.
NEXT: Ghosts of girlfriends past
Nick dreams of the girl again.
This time they are both waiting for their parents to pick them up.
He wishes the girl luck, to which she replies, All will be well in the garden.
Before Nick can go, a woman informs him that his mom needs to speak with him privately.
Nick initially retracts from Madisons touch, but she clutches her son as he wails in pain.
When he wakes, Nick finds two snarling dogs ready to pounce.
One tears into his leg, though hes able to bash the animal away with a rock.
As Nick gasps at the gash, the dogs go silent.
A pack of walkers shamble toward the car, likely drawn from the barks.
The animals attack the dead, who descend upon the animals as whimpers pierce the desert.
The pack eventually refocuses on Nick when his movement causes the roof beneath him to squeak.
With a fresh coat of walker blood, Nick now limps along with the walker pack.
His vision begins to blur as he falls into a brief hallucination.
Ill take you home, she says before Nick snaps back to reality.
Another sign indicates hes now 40 miles from Tijuana.
The pack makes its way to the source of the sounds: the four men from the Jeep.
They exit the car and begin shooting at the walkers.
Bullets rip into the dead around him, but Nick keeps lurching forward.
One of the men in a black tank top takes off his sunglasses and catches Nicks stare.
The two men with her identify her as Luciana.
Its not him, she says in Spanish, ready to move on.
Nicks third flashback is another memory of the girl.
The girl jokes its a page-turner, which Nick notes is something his mom would say.
Mother Nature offers Nick a gentler awakening this time, rainfall, which he gleefully drinks in.
Moments later, we find him in a city (presumably Tijuana).
Luciana appears at the door holding a gun; shes followed by Francisco and the other man.
Nick fearfully raises his hands in surrender, though they mean him no harm.
She attempts to explain that the tape will only make it worse, but Nick doesnt fully understand Spanish.
I know someone who can help, Luciana says as she leads Nick out of the shop.
We find him next in an infirmary.
The man examines Nicks wound and explains he couldve died from infection.
I wouldnt mind that, Nick responds.
The man says Luciana called him brave, but he now sees him as foolish.
Death is not to be feared, but it shouldnt be pursued, he says.
To that, the man leads Nick out of the room, revealing a walled-in community filled with people.
