Apocalypse Dreams

Bloodshot

"I put my trust in you, boy," Hugo yelled. His red complexion had begun to dissipate as he tried to assess the situation.

"Hey listen," Jack started. "I owe all of you an explanation."

"That's an understatement," Red muttered. He had tears in his eyes. People who he considered to be like his parents were laying there helpless, and bloodied. "I can't believe it."

"Let's just put the gun down first, Hugo," Jack continued. "Like it or not, we are the only ones that are left. If we lose sight of that, then we'd be better off alone."

Hugo calmed down completely and began to put down his weapon. Jack then started putting his hands down slowly, while still carefully studying Hugo's facial expressions. He then took a deep breath, and began:

"I found out about a month ago. I couldn't do it. I couldn't kill them. I knew you would convince me..."

"No, Jack," I began. "I couldn't possibly."

"A part of me was going to kill them," Jack continued disappointingly. "They looked so helpless. But..."

"I convinced him to not," Lydia interrupted as Jack began to tear up. She was trying hard to comfort the baby, who I had forgotten about in the heat of the moment.

"They were my parents too," Red finally spoke. "You could've told me."

"We would've figured it out," I said.

That's when it hit me. The blatant hypocrisy. We killed other virus-infected people like they were ants. We slaughtered them. Raided houses, stores, and clinics. Now, there was a struggle with this?

"Mrs. Brannigan died peacefully in the end," Lydia mentioned. "Despite the rest of the period."

"What do you mean the rest?" Red asked angrily.

"Well, they had the typical symptoms of the virus," she replied. "Becoming... aggressive." She chose her words carefully in order to refrain from saying "crazy".

We had seen these people going crazy. Something that Dr. Parkinson could not explain. He had worked with mentally ill patients before, however, none like this. He described them as dangerous to themselves and their environment. This justification seemed to work for us... we needed any reason we could to get rid of them.

"I apologize," Jack said sincerely. "I give you my word that something like this will never happen again."

"Damn right," Hugo mumbled.

"Now what?" Red asked while wiping his tears with his shirt sleeve. Both sides of the sleeves were now drenched.

"Now we just move on and find out more about this virus," Jack replied while staring at the dirty floor in order to refrain from making eye contact with Red.

I guessed this had been for the best, whether Red and I had liked it or not. Nobody knew what the future was and there was no plan. All we knew at the moment was that we should just stick together until the generator blows out. We could stay here forever if we wanted to. .However, the thought of spending our lives in a hospital bothered Lydia and Jack. Eventually, they realized that sooner or later, it would be wise to keep moving forward. Everything seemed to have calmed down a little, however, the thought of seeing the two helpless victims sent shivers down my spine. All the while, I could not imagine what Red must have been feeling...

"Tom," Jack said, turning towards Tom who had been standing still. Tom quickly stared at Jack, while still seemingly being spaced out. "We have work to do."

Hugo turned the other way and declared, "You do what you have to. I'm going to sleep."

"You should get some sleep too," Jack said to Lydia, who was trying endlessly to make Little Jennifer fall asleep. "I'll be there shortly."