Those Who Survive

What Needs To Be Done In The Name of Survival

Cry glances at the gun held to his head. This is bad, this is really bad.

"Come on," the man with the gun sneers, "Out. Nice and slow like, got it?"

No one in the truck moves and the man with the gun cocks it, "You think I'm playing? I ain't afraid to shoot."

"Okay, okay." Cry says, slowly gripping the handle of the door, keeping his knife hidden by his side. Dan starts doing the same and Thomas and Minx follow suit, the two in the back moving slower than Dan and Cry. The men outside the truck step aside to avoid the doors as they open. Cry steps out of the car, the door between them. He steps lightly to the left and starts to shut the door. Before the door is full shut, he lunges forward and grips the man's wrist holding the gun, pushing his hand up as the man shoots and then Cry drives his knife into the man's chest repeatedly.

Dan attempts to repeat Cry's movements as well, knocking the man before him's gun aside and stabbing him with the knife. Minx slams her car door open, right into the man before her, causing him to stumble to the ground long enough to give her time to get out of car, keeping her weight off of her injured leg as much as possible. As the man starts to get up, Minx tackles him back to the ground, his gun lying a few feet to the right of them. Lying on top of him, she struggles to pin him long enough to finish him off.

Thomas puts his hands up by his head when the last man standing threatens to shoot him. Thomas' knife still lies on the floorboard next to him, his door partially opened and the man holding the gun to the door's window. Thomas smirks his eyes darkening as he kicks the door the rest of the way open as hard as he can. This causes the gun to fall from the man's hand. Thomas quickly snatches up his knife and jumps out of the car and swiftly stabs the knife into the attacker's throat. The man falls to the ground, bleeding out and gurgling on his own blood. Thomas wipes the blood from his knife on his pants, looking around, "Do you think we should expect more of them?"

Dan looks at Thomas in surprise, "Damn.. I didn't expect that kind of stuff out of you.."

Thomas shrugs, "Yeah, well Thomas isn't exactly in control right now. My question still stands, should we expect more to come after us?"

Dan blinks, "Oh, uh.. I don't know. These guys could be on their own, or not.. There's no telling."

"Let's not stick around to find out." Cry says as he comes over to Dan's side of the truck.

Minx suddenly screams and the three men run over to her, seeing the man beneath her, an infected, pulling her hair to try and pull her close enough to bite and she's holding the infected down with one hand, her other hand trying to hold back another infected, the very man that Cry had killed. Cry rushes in and grabs the man he had killed and throws him back away from Minx and Dan kneels by Minx and stabs his knife into the infected's eye with all the strength he can muster. Cry finishes off the other infected and Thomas backs up towards them as the other two men from the skirmish come around to them, now among the infected as well.

Minx rolls off of the infected Dan finished for her, pulling her knife from his chest as she does so and Dan stands and turns back to Thomas. Seeing the infected closing in, he and Thomas rush in to take them down. Cry walks over and helps Minx stand, looking to Thomas and Dan, "Are you both alright?"

Dan sighs, stepping back as the infected falls to the ground. He nods, sniffling, "All good."

"Me, too." Thomas assures, turning back to them after finishing off the threat to their lives.

"So, are you Virgil, or?" Dan asks.

Thomas chuckles, "As if."

Dan purses his lips, not liking the attitude.

"So, what is your name then?" Cry asks.

"Wouldn't you like to know?" Thomas smirks, shaking his head, "Sorry, I'm not one to share my name on a first appearance."

"Okay.." Minx sighs, "Can we just have Thomas back then?"

He shrugs, "He'll be back eventually. Try not to worry about it too much. All you need to care about is that I'm on your side."

He claps, looking between the three people in front of him, "So, are we getting back on the road then?"

Cry chuckles lightly and nods. He helps Minx back into the truck, "We'll find somewhere to stop and get supplies for your leg."

She nods and he walks around to the passenger side to get in. Dan's already in the driver seat and Thomas gets back in the truck as well. Everyone is silent as the truck is started and they drive away. This is the first time they've killed living people, well besides Minx who's done it three times now. It was weighing on Cry's mind, It was in self defense, but does that really make it right? He sighs softly and stares out the window into the darkness. This is something he'll have to get used to, he's sure.

Those people were going to rob or kill them, that much was clear so they did what they had to do. Is that justified murder? Can you even justify murder? I don't know. He knows he'll have to make peace with this, that killing those who would do you harm before they can is how to survive. But Cry is unsure of just how much of his humanity he should let go of in the name of survival in this new world. He just doesn't want to end up someone completely different from who he was when this all started. That's what he keeps telling himself, but is it doing him any good to cling to the slightest fathom of the past life he lived? I suppose when I know the answer, all of this will make more sense.