Came here via the link in MEN.
This is so dark, but not actually such a stretch from Tolkien's Sam. And this: Silence descended on both their emptied souls, and stayed with them as they got up, as they picked up their packages and their spirits and their bodies, and carried on, towards the center of this dead land, blood in their footsteps, desire dead in their chests. is probably the most powerful ending to a fic I've ever read. Thanks, I'm glad I came over to look!