"Mercy and Wrath" - Memoirs of the Veteran

**"Mercy and Wrath" - Memoirs of the Veteran** is a book written by Harry Edwards in the '*New Age*' Extension of *The Walking Dead by EDStudios*. Written after he retired onto Veteran Ranch, it details his complete experience of the apocalypse, from his emigration from the UK, to his life in Greencole and his role as the leader of the Commonwealth of New Graystone.

## Transcript

> **Intro**
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> "*One thing I've noticed, is when you grow old, you get your way. That's the one good thing about growing old, I'd say. Over the last few years, my closest friends have been ordering me to write something down about my experiences. This isn't something I'm comfortable with, but you're reading it now, so at some point, I must have found some method in their madness. But I will write it my way...and I'm old enough to get my way.*
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> **The Outbreak**
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> *I'm old enough now not to remember much about the outbreak. All I remember is being scared and confused. Those emotions tend to ruin your memory of such events. I was with some people, that I remember. Good people. People I considered brothers and sisters. They're all gone now, bar one. And me, of course. There was this one girl who I remember clearly. She gave birth to a little boy: Alex Junior. I owe her a lot for that.*
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> **The School**
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> *I remember the school. It was my home for the first year, as well as my friends. We built our own walls, grew our own food, pumped our own water. After the first year, someone made a mistake, and we all had to leave. We found shelter in a house, then we made a plan. Most parts of that plan escape me now, but I remember that city of the dead. I lost my friends in that city. I almost lost myself.*
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> **The Long Walk**
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> *A year later, I was with this girl. She meant a lot to me. It was just me, the girl and little AJ. Some people came to us. Bad people. They took them from me. It took me a long time to find them, but I did. When I did, I met some new friends. Little did I know I would come to see them as family.*
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> **Greencole**
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> *It's hard not to remember Greencole. It was our home for more than ten years. It is the place I found myself, who I truly was. I admit, at one point I had hidden who I was, who I was supposed to be, behind a mask of peace, of luxury. When our home came under threat from within our own group I realized I had been fooling myself. I am ashamed to say it was all downhill from there. I lost the woman I loved to a disease we thought we had defeated. In came my failures as a boyfriend, as a father figure, as a friend. The poison I insisted on slipping into my veins. I failed my group, as a leader, as a friend. I let them down in their darkest hour. It was only through the needless sacrifice of many that I retreated from my destruction. It was then I discovered my special bond with the woman who would become my wife. Not soon after we lost Greencole. We lost everything we had built. We did not yet know as we left for a place far to the north-west that the fall of our home was the catalyst of our destinies.*
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> **The Future**
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> *The Capital...even as I sit here in my study penning these memoirs I can clearly imagine its towers, its wall, its sprawling crop fields. A beacon of hope, the heart of the Land of Light. Many give me credit for building it, for transforming it from a lockdowned air force base into what some may call a city, bustling with people carving out their lives, safe from the dangers of the New World. It used to be called Adams Air Force Base; when we were on our journey searching for it some believed it to be a myth, a lie. We fought a long, hard battle to get to it, and when we did we made it our own.*
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> **The War**
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> *I am a man who will fight with everything I have for something I believe in. When I saw the atrocities committed by the Monster of the East, I knew something had to be done. To protect the Commonwealth. To protect everything we had built. So that everything we sacrificed would not be for nothing.*
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> **Epilogue**
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> *Over these last few years, I've had plenty of time to sit and think. About the people I've met. The people I've loved. The people I've lost. So many come to mind. It is a shame that I cannot remember most of their faces, but I remember their voices. Their heroism. For some, even, their villainy. But of the few faces I can remember, the one that is most important to me is my love. My dear Bethany. She passed two years ago, and not a day goes by that I do not think about her face. Her eyes. My love for her. I feel it every time I look at our children.*
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> *Some time ago, a man taught me about legacy. He told me that my legacy was pain. That my pain would make those around me stronger. For a long time I believed him. But now, in this very moment that I write this, I realize he was wrong. That I had been wrong. I know now that my legacy is this book. My legacy to my children, and their children, and all of their children. To the people of this great Commonwealth.*
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> *This is my story, told my way. And I'm sticking to it.*
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> *-- The Veteran"*
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## Trivia

* The text above is all that is physically shown in the series, although the book itself is fully written at nearly 300 pages in-universe.
* The book's title comes from David's motto: *"May my **mercy** prevail over my **wrath**,"*
* It is the first work of literature to be published after the outbreak.
* As revealed in the '*New Age*' Extension, Edwards wrote the book on purpose to give Hope the knowledge and determination to live her life outside the Commonwealth of New Graystone and ultimately combat the New Buckingham Corps. The book contains several hints to direct Hope to certain places.
	+ As shown in Dominic's flashback, this is Edwards' interpretation of the manipulation techniques used by Gaunter O'Kyle.
	+ In addition, the book was also written to guide James Edwards to his mother's grave.