Rot || ONC2024

──●Twenty One●──

   That night, I remained awake. Sera told me to leave for my 'camp' in the morning. She offered me a meal of venison with some sort of herbs on it. Compared to what we were feed at home, this was way better. Anything was better than musty, old, rotten meat.

    I sat on the top bunk, a blanket draped over my knees. I clutched my paper tightly.

    Since the last vision, no more came. So much things were confirmed. The weird turning liquid did indeed exist, and it worked. I was the living proof.

    My heart remained heavy with a feeling that was unfamiliar to me. I was mourning who I was, and who I became. All this life, I was taught humans were to be eradicated. That they were up to no good. Now, I realized that we were the ones that need to be eradicated. We were the no good ones.

    The tears that I had been holding in all day finally were set free. I was taught to fear humans, only to find out I really should have been fearing the Walkers.

    Who knew how much humans were turned. Hell, who knew if my whole camp used to be human. So much questions lashed around in my head, it made me sick.

    I looked down at my wrist. Turns out, the tiny spot that I had always thought was a birthmark was actually a scar. This mark took away my humanity. This mark took away my life.

    A sense of betrayal had settled upon me. I was betrayed. My old camp was betrayed. As much as I already knew, it was now confirmed. Alastor never cared for us. He was just doing as he please; getting new soldiers and maintaining the ones he had. We were all just savage, mindless killing machines.

    I regretted not questioning further, not pressing Alastor with more questions. He tried so, so hard to keep my past under lock and key. He almost succeeded with it, too. As I had told him that day, I would find out. In the end, I did. Now, I'd make him regret everything. Regret turning me, regret betraying the humans I had loved so dearly.

    I couldn't tell them I was Camille, it would be too risky. Plus, Walkers and humans didn't mix. I wasn't a human now, I was a Night Walker. I turned into the creature I was taught to fear.

    Now, with the person in my visions finally being discovered, I had a lot to think about. If I were to go back to the Walker camp, I'd be expected to report to Alastor about the upcoming war. That's what it basically was. As soon as the humans attacked, we'ed be expect to fight to protect.

    I could stay with the humans.

    I chuckled to myself and wiped my tears with my arm. If they found out I was a Walker, Camille or not, I'd be shot. Plus, I couldn't do much when I burned with even the simplest amount of light. Candle light wasn't bad, but sunlight was a different story.

    I sighed. There really was no simple way out. I'd either have to pretend like this secret never existed in the first place, or I'd have to risk being killed. Both outcomes I didn't like.

    As one of my grenades caught my eye, an idea came to mind. I could bomb my camp.

    "It could be my way of getting back at them," I whispered to myself. "It would be the revenge I want, and I could destroy that liquid. I'm the only one, besides Al of course, that knows the exact location. I could make sure it's destroyed once and for all."

     Where would I go? Once camp was dead, I'd have nowhere. Yarrow would have nowhere.

     "Who knows if he even wants to be around me after he finds out everything. I hope he does, it would suck being killed off by my own best friend."

    I jumped off my bunk and began to head towards Sera's office. I'd find a place to go. If Yarrow wanted to come with me, I'd let him. If not, I'd take on the world by myself. Throughout this whole journey, I had found out that you could only trust yourself on this bitch of an earth.

    When I approached her door, I gently knocked.

    Sera turned to face me. She was currently hanging the map back on the wall.

    "Oh Mara, hey!" She sounded surprised. "What brings you here at this hour?"

    "Hey, uh." I set my crumpled, tear stained folder on her desk. "I'd thought you'd want that."

    "Oh, yeah! Thank you!" She picked it up and set it back in the cabinet.

    "Yeah, no problem."

     "Is that all you needed Mara?" Her voice softened and her eyes lingered on my tear stained cheeks.

     "I'm gonna bomb the Walkers tonight. Just... learning about everything. I never knew that stuff. Finding out the truth, I wanna play my part."

    "I admire your bravery Mara, but you'll get killed, dear. Your camp needs you."

    "I'm by myself now. I wanna pay my respects to Camille."

     Sera sighed. "Sounds like you're pretty set on this. Is there anything we can do to help you?"

    "At nightfall tomorrow, check for any survivors. I won't make it to the camp until the morning, I'll wait until night to strike."

    "Be safe Mara, okay? We'll be there."

    I nodded. "I'll try."