The following article contains spoilers from DCeased: War of the Undead Gods #1, on sale now.
DCeased: War of the Undead Gods #1 (by Tom Taylor, Trevor Hairsine, Andy Lanning, Rain Beredo, Said Temofonte) opened on a surprisingly hopeful note. Most of the heroes and people infected by the Anti-Life virus have been cured, but one survivor of the original plague is heartbroken by the news of a cure -- Alfred Pennyworth. While he is happy that so many have been restored, he feels nothing but guilt because three of his sons will never come back.
When the plague first began, Batman, Nightwing, and Tim Drake were all infected, and Alfred, in a moment of heartbreaking resolve, gunned them down to protect himself and the world. Learning that there was a cure after the fact must have been soul-shattering. It also creates a reversal of his fate in the main universe, where it is the surviving Bat-Family that mourns Alfred -- only his situation is infinitely worse.
Alfred's loss takes a devastating toll on everyone when he says the words "I killed my sons". He raised each and every member of the Bat-Family, loving them like they were his own children. The only reason he would have shot them as he did was that he believed there was no alternative, no matter how much it hurt him to do so. His belief that it had to happen probably sustained him through the years, along with raising Damian.
To learn otherwise must be indescribably painful for him. To learn that there was another way all this time and that he had given up too soon, all he can do now is blame himself, even though it is undeserved. His situation, however, creates an inversion of what happened to him over on Earth-0. There, Alfred was murdered, leaving the rest of the Bat-Family to agonize over his tragic demise.
Alfred's predicament is far worse, however, because he was the one responsible for their deaths. In the main DCU, it was Bane who killed him, not one of his family members. Here, Alfred must grapple with the guilt of his decision. The Bat-Family could console themselves, knowing that Alfred would want them to carry on, live their lives, and enjoy the future. In this reality, Alfred knows he has lived his life, but he also ended three that had so much more to offer.
While heartbreaking, it wasn't for nothing. His actions led to others surviving, and by raising Damian he enabled the new Justice League to go and find the cure, saving countless more. Because of Damian, Alfred still has a family, any good he may feel he snuffed out has been returned tenfold in the young man he raised. Unfortunately, it's unlikely that Alfred will be able to recognize this for some time.