He doesn't have anything to say to that. What is he supposed to say? That life isn't fair? That now he has something to die for instead? Nothing he can say has any meaning, or any usefulness. It never did, which is why he kept it all to himself. No one needed to be told that things were hopeless. People could be better than he was.

But there's nothing else to say. He's all out of dumb jokes. There's nothing between that empty feeling and the world outside anymore.

So, he doesn't say anything, because nothing he could say would have any value. Instead, his gaze just flickers down towards the ground, and goes dim.