The Division

Chapter 18

"Stop!" Cried Brittany. But I kept slamming the butt of the gun into his face. He bled all over the floor. Brittany grabbed my shoulders and pulled her face close to mine. "Hey, he's had enough." "You're right." I dropped the M16 and untied the soldier's hands. "Get the hell out of my sight." He ran like he was on fire. I heard footsteps and then he was gone. I looked over at Trager, to see him shaking with fear. I would never hurt him. He was just freaked out after what I had did to the soldier.

"Trager, what did the minister do to you?" He looked like he had just remembered a traumatized memory. "He killed my family...." He trailed off. Then he looked at me. "Why?" "I hadn't cooperated with him, so he took away the ones that I loved." His expression then turned to anger. "Where is he?" "On the floor, playing dead." Harold looked at me with his mouth open but I then acted calm. Everything would fall into place. Trager looked at the machete handle sticking from behind my back. "Give it to me, I will avenge my family." I did what he asked. We all followed Trager into the room where the minster was on the floor, playing dead. Harold came close up to my ear. "What the hell are you thinking?" "Just watch." I paused for a second. "Let's leave him alone with the minister." Brittany and Harold agreed. As I shut the door, I could hear the minister scream.

Five minutes passed. It was a blur of shrieking coming from inside the room. I sighed and looked at Harold. "Let's go in." Brittany opened the door to expose the horror of what was left of the minister. His head was cut off, blood was everywhere. Gore surrounded his body, along with what was left of his limbs. Brittany gasped and latched onto me. She started to cry, I held her with comfort. Trager was panting with my machete. He looked like a serial killer. He was now a serial killer. "He beat my sister to death in front of me. She cried for him to stop, but he wouldn't." I looked at the arm on the floor. I kicked it across the room, as if it were someone's dirty underwear. Harold pinched his nose and threw up. I would have thrown up too, but the smell of Brittany's hair covered it up. "Let's go, this shit is nasty." Harold wiped his face and nodded.

Trager came out of the room with glee. "Give me my machete." He held it at me. "No, I won't let anyone hurt me." "I'm not going to; I let you kill the minister, did I not?" Trager looked satisfied. He handed me the bloody machete as I put it back in it's holder. Blood got onto my hands, but I didn't care. We had Trager. That was the important thing.

By the time we had gotten out of the bunker and onto the streets of city hall, Edgewood looked deserted. Buildings were on fire, blood was everywhere, and dead bodies lined the streets. "Gross." Brittany said as she stepped over a dead body. "It's exactly like outside of the walls." I replied. We walked back to my apartment, in search of Paul. "PAUL?" I yelled. No response. "It's me, Riley!" He came out with a shotgun. He had a cigar in his mouth, looking angry. "Everyone is dead; this whole town is shit now." "I know, Paul." He looked at Brittany and took no notice. "Where's Jess?" That question just brought tears to my eyes. "Dead." I wiped my eyes and looked up at Paul. I could see that he was crying too. "He was a good man." "I know." Paul hugged me for a bit, and then let go. "Alright, let's go get this cure."

Trager's lab was in city hall. That meant that we had to go back into that bloody hellhole. But hey, anything for the cure. On the way to city hall, I had asked Trager about when he knew my parents. He said that they were good people to work with, he had liked them. But my parents were always likable, no matter what. He also explained the reason why he had refused to make the antidote for the minister. The minister wanted to mutate the antidote, and that would instantly turn infected into volatiles. The minister was literally a sociopath. I had realized how evil this place was.

Once we had gotten to the lab, Trager started to work. He worked for hours, until he got it. I hoped he made it right. The sun was about to go down. I hoped that we could try it out on a zombie before the volatiles came out. "Finally!" He cried as he held up a viral with a blue liquid inside of it. "That's the cure?" Harold asked. "Yes!" Trager exclaimed. "It has to be right; I had reviewed the notes ten times. If this doesn't work, then there is no cure. We shall see if this cure works." We followed Trager out onto the steps of city hall. We saw an infected by a building. "Perfect." Trager said. It saw us and charged. "Give it!" I yelled. Trager handed the viral to me. "Splash it onto it's body." He said "Got it." I replied.

When the zombie got close enough, I splashed the viral on it. It fell back, shaking. Then I had realized who it was. Tobias. He had gotten infected somehow, and I was about to cure him. I had mixed feelings at that moment. I was kind of mad because he had gotten infected, but I was glad that he was about to be cured. He shook for another thirty seconds, and then got back up. I could hear Trager gasp, but I didn't get the chance to glance at him when Tobias jumped on me. "NO!" Yelled. "I WILL NOT KILL YOU, TOBIAS!" He ignored me and pinned me down. I saw his head get blown off. Paul just killed him. I hated that. He was a great friend and cared for others. But it was either him or me. Still, I had just seen too many people die. "Dammit!" I screamed. I cried. Tobias didn't deserve to die. I learned that dying was a natural part of a zombie apocalypse.

I pushed him off me and stood up. I rubbed my eyes; as if this were a bad dream and I could wake up from all of it. I sat down, hunched over. "I'll be back." Harold said. Brittany sat next to me, tousling my hair. "He was a damn good soldier." I said. "I bet he was." She replied. "Listen, we have to move on." "You're right." I said. I just sat there, for ten minutes, thinking about nothing. Harold came back with a case of beers. I looked up. He was already one step ahead of me, holding out the beer for me to grab. I took it and drunk all of it. It eased the pain, numbing all the bad from the world. I stood up and kissed Brittany. The sun was setting. What a perfect time to do it. "I love you." She looked at me. Then she rested her head on my shoulder. I dropped the beer and put my arm around hers. I could somehow tell that she saw smiling as I watched the amber skyline transform into an abyss of darkness.

                                                                  The End