Of course, Neil remembers. He knows the choice that Alex speaks of: to walk alone or to walk with another. To be driven to insanity or to permanently embrace solitude, it was an uneasy decision, and he had put that off as long as he could.

Now, much like everything else, he lost that chance. So aptly put and not reassuring at all, to tell someone losing his volition that there's yet another decision out of his reach.

Instead of jumping to assumptions, Neil thinks only to question. To probe. For what purpose, what reason-- All and nothing. "No matter where it leads?" To Heaven. To Hell. To that city by the shore, its radioactive water sparkling in the sunlight.