The following contains major spoilers for The Nice House on the Lake #12, available now from DC Black Label.
The Nice House on the Lake has taken readers on a harrowing ride through the end of the world alongside the few who were chosen to survive it. Now, even their story has come to an end, or at least this particular chapter of it. Apart from setting itself up for a sequel, The Nice House on the Lake has also promised that things are only going to get worse for the people who call it home, and there are already a few hints as to exactly how that will happen.
In the time since being brought together at the end of the world, the survivors of The Nice House on the Lake #12 (by James Tynion IV, Alvaro Martinez Bueno, and Jordie Bellaire) have all but fallen apart entirely. After the accidental death of Naya, the group are split between finding some way of taking revenge and coming to terms with the post-apocalyptic world. As their alien captor Walter explains to his favorite artist Ryan, this tragedy also provides a glimmer of hope, as it has brought the number of people in this enclosure to what his fellow overlords expected. Apart from every other development, the idea that the survivors under Walter's purview aren't the only ones left is more surprising than anything else. It also opens the door for horrors yet to come.
The Nice House on the Lake Sets up a Terrifying Sequel
Ryan is shocked by the revelation that she and her friends aren't the only humans left at the end of the world. As far as any of them knew, they were only kept around because Walter had grown close to them. Now it is clear that isn't the case, although there is no telling what the other ecosystems near them might look like. Presumably, each of these other groups of people are composed of the same eclectic talents that the primary cast are, which doesn't bode well for any of them.
Just because there are doctors and artists and writers among them doesn't mean they have handled their new reality with any grace, not that any should be expected. Considering the entire world has burned down around them, the panic that has set in is more than understandable. Based on what Ryan and the others have been through, it would make sense that the inhabitants of the other ecosystems would be struggling similarly. In fact, with Walter making a concerted effort to look after them, the main cast of the series are likely doing better than other ecosystems, which makes the prospect of encountering any of them all the more horrifying.
The Survivors Are in More Danger Without Walter
Although things end with the inhabitants of the eponymous house assuming that Walter has been killed and that they now live under some semblance of freedom, that couldn't be farther from the case. Not only is Walter still alive, but he knows that things are about to get harder than ever for his so-called friends. Even if his alien masters aren't aware of the trouble that has been caused in Walter's ecosystem, it is only a matter of time before they are. This is because the humans within it are so close to colliding with their fellow survivors elsewhere.
Assuming that is where the story is headed, it certainly wouldn't be the turn that most readers were expecting. It might not be the turn that its cast deserves, either. Walter's help has kept them alive, but there is no telling what the other ecosystems have been through or what those experiences have done to them. What is all but assured, however, is that any unexpected interference would be met with a swift and gruesome hand by Walter's fellow aliens. Without Walter lingering around to aid them, the people he saved might only be one chance encounter away from ensuring the total annihilation of the human race, especially when they are so far beyond any hope of saving it.