The Damage Has Been Done (Markiplier)

Chapter 25: Markiplier's Last Words

Mark's POV.

I had absolutely no objective or direction, but I kept walking. I had to think of what I was going to do. I'm bitten. I'm a dead man walking. I have to take a little time to wrap my head around all this. I had to figure out what I was going to say to everyone. Would they be angry with me for not telling them sooner? Would they kill me? I'm sure they would. I wouldn't be surprised if they thought about it. I had so much to think about with the consequences of this bite on my shoulder. I just kept walking around. I must've been out here all day. The sun was about to start setting on the horizon line made of city buildings, as I could see from the roof I sat on the edge of. No, I wasn't planning on jumping off to my imminent death, I just sat on the rooftop, looking over the city of Anderson. At least I believed I was still in Anderson. I should be.

I looked down at the infected who roamed the alleys and main roads, searching for their next bleeding meal. Strangely, it was a calming sight. The infected had no fears, no worries, no need to do anything but simply persevere. That's the simplistic beauty of the sight I currently get to look at before me. And the infected aren't even really after humans in particular either. They don't 'have it out' for them. They're just doing what the disease genetically engineered them to do. Have no other priorities but find nutrients to keep going. People see the infected as purely cannibalistic. But, they aren't. Humans are really just another life form that infected are able to perceive as edible. It's what helps them thrive on.

I threw down a piece of rotted steak I had in my bag and it hit the asphalt with a smack. The infected took notice and went after it. I had the meat in my bag to distract them long enough to get me out of a tight situation, but I guessed I wouldn't be needing it after today. The infected pulled each other away from the gross steak just to try and get some for themselves. There wasn't enough there for all twenty or so of them, so they fought for it. Doing exactly what they knew how. Just eat anything they could that had flesh and blood. If I had more, I would've thrown that off the building too, but that was the only piece I had with me. Soon enough, three of them got their fair share and the rest had their attempts proven inferior to the others. I watched then as they slowly separated from the group and went back to their usual stumbling and shuffling down the alley way, looking for more to eat.

I could feel myself begin to become hot, as if my internal body temperature was rising. My hearing sharpened a little bit and my vision went cross eyed for a split second. I felt sick, dizzy and like I was going to throw up. But there wouldn't be anything to come back up from my stomach, because I hadn't eaten a fair amount in the past week. I let my legs dangle off the edge of the ten or so story building I was on and I laid on my back, staring up at the sky. My bag hadn't any weapons or supplies but the meat I'd thrown and my notes and pen, for the only reason being I wouldn't need the important things anymore. I'd left them with everyone at the office building. They'd need the items more than I ever would, surely.

A dead man can't fight. A dead man can't swing a crowbar. A dead man can't defend the only people he has left. A dead man can't save anyone from the infection that murdered him. I'm the dead man. These are my last hours to reminisce on the ones I love, the ones I can call my friends and my family, the ones that were the last of the pure that truly cared about me no matter what I said or did. I'll never say goodbye, I'll never let them know how much I truly care about and love them, I'll never be able to hug them, make jokes with them, walk with them to the new beginning of the old world we so desperately needed and longed for. I knew I made a mistake. Somewhere, on the way to this moment, I screwed up, and it costed everyone. My actions were stupid, undirected, done on a whim, not given a second thought.

That's what I wish I could've changed. Fix all my wrongs from the first day of this hell on earth. To say sorry to my friends and family for being so stupid and immature about everything. For not showing how much I needed these people and how much I appreciated everything they'd ever done for me. Things I did, everything I did, had a loss to it. I lost my nieces, sister in law and my own mother to save a child holed up in a school, never having met her before in my life. That little girl has to go on without her family because I was more focused on saving her, rather than helping the others. I separated from my brother, to get an early start on my quest to change the world back. I murdered two people in an alley, to save my life. And I'm hiding my body on top of a building, so I don't hurt anyone with being bitten, becoming an infected monster.