Days We've Lost
is a story based on The Walking Dead by JohnLocke4.
In The Walking Dead (Telltale), Lee Everett was a convicted murderer who killed a state senator that his wife had an affair with, only for the cop car that was transporting him to crash while he was on his way to prison at the beginning of the apocalypse. But, what if that crash never happened? The cop carrying Lee to prison never crashed, and Lee spent several months in prison while the apocalypse continued outside, until Rick Grimes and his friends arrived at the prison looking for a safe place to stay.
This story takes characters from both the comic series and the Telltale video game series, who were all confirmed to live in a Shared Universe, and puts them together to go through events together, rather than only sticking around as short cameos.
- Alternate Universe Fic: This story follows the events of The Walking Dead universe in the comics, but with Lee Everett having made it to prison instead of the cop crashing the car on their way there. Other changes also occur that leads the characters from the Telltale games meeting and interacting with the characters from the comics.
- Anyone Can Die: Just like in the comics, nobody is safe here. Anyone can die at anytime, including characters that survived to the very end of the comic series like Maggie and Michonne.
- Dies Differently in Adaptation: This happens to several characters.
- Allen is absent from the group because he died along with his wife Donna at the Wiltshire Estates, rather than dying due to blood loss from his amputated leg.
- Chris is shot and killed by Julie to protect Ben from him, instead of him being murdered by Tyreese for having killed his daughter.
- Kenny's wife Katjaa is murdered by Thomas, having her head cut off and reanimated before being put down, instead of being Driven to Suicide and shooting herself in the head.
- Kenny guns down Andrew instead of Andrew running off from the prison and dying off-panel to a Walker.
- Carol successfully commits suicide via slitting her wrists and is put down by Lee before reanimation. In the comics she tried this and failed, only to later commit suicide by allowing a Walker to bite her on the neck and being put down by Andrea after reanimating.
- Glenn has his throat slit by Oberson during an interrogation and his head is removed afterwards, instead of his infamous death at the hand of Negan in the comics, where his head was bashed in.
- Downplayed with Patrica, who is sniped in the back of the head by Oberson right before the first assault on the prison, instead of being shot in the back of the head by The Governor during the final assault on the prison in the comics.
- Gabriel is gunned down by Billy during the first assault on the prison, rather than being sniped by Andrea during the final assault.
- Hershel Greene is gunned down by Woodbury soldiers while trying to rush to his son in a panic, instead of crossing the Despair Event Horizon after the death of his son and being executed by The Governor after begging to be killed.
- Ben Paul dies here when he is shot in the head by Woodburry soldiers while trying to run with his girlfriend Julie to escape in the RV. In the games he is either dropped from a bell tower where he is devoured by Walkers, or impaled through the stomach on a metal bar and is shot in the head by Kenny as a Mercy Kill.
- Julie dies when she crosses the Despair Event Horizon after witnessing the death of her father Tyreese and boyfriend Ben in short-order, and begs Oberson to kill her too, which he does, seemingly as a Mercy Kill. In the comics she was killed in a botched murder-suicide by her boyfriend Chris, who also put her down after her reanimation.
- In Spite of a Nail: Despite multiple changes happening, some events remain the same.
- Lee still bonds with Clementine and becomes her guardian, despite not being the first person she met during the apocalypse.
- Despite his daughter still being alive, Tyreese loses his cool and goes on a rampage while clearing out the Walkers in the prison's gym, with everyone being forced to leave him behind and thinking he's dead before discovering him alive afterwards.
- Someone is bitten on the leg when exploring the prison and has their leg amputated. The only differences being that here it happens to Otis instead of Allen, and unlike Allen he survives the amputation.
- Rick still gets his hand cut off by The Governor in their first meeting.
- While the group escapes from Woodbury, Michonne stays behind to take revenge on The Governor by mutilating him before eventually catching up to the others.
- Dale gets bitten on the leg while trying to keep the generator to the prison going, and survives having his leg amputated.
- Otis is devoured by a herd of Walkers that infiltrate the prison and is put down by Rick.
- Tyreese, Axel, Lori, and The Governor all die the same way they did in the comics during the final assault on the prison.
- Party Scattering: By the end of the prison arc, the surviving members of the main group are split up into multiple smaller groups as they abandon the prison.
- The group that leaves the prison and heads back to the farm before the climactic final battle includes Andrea, Dale, the twins, Sophia, Molly, Billy Greene, Carley, and Clementine. Andrea and Billy return to aid the group during the battle but their fates are left unknown.
- Lee, Kenny, and Chuck escape in Kenny's RV but are forced to leave the others behind due to being under heavy fire.
- Rick, Carl, and Duck escape the prison on foot together. Doug and Alice escape not far behind them, with Doug stopping to save Judith before continuing.
- Mark, Martinez, and Dr. Stevens are last seen in the prison and don't escape with the others, leaving their fates unconfirmed.
- The Stations of the Canon: The same events from the comics since Rick's group arrived at the prison have been covered in this story.
- Mythology Gag: Lilly and her dad Larry are residents of Woodbury and part of The Governor's militia against the group in the prison. This references how the Lilly in the Telltale games was originally meant to be the same Lilly Caul from the comics who was responsible for killing The Governor, until the release of The Road to Woodbury made this impossible due to the two having different backstories.
- What If?: The main premise of the story is that the cop that was driving Lee to prison avoided crashing the car and got Lee to prison safely. Other changes are also noticeable that lead to other characters from the games meeting the characters from the comics, including Chuck being a prisoner with Lee, Kenny's group meeting Rick's, and Larry and Lilly being members of Woodbury.
