Story Notes:
ATTENTION NEW READERS: MAKE SURE YOU HAVE READ THE FIRST STORY, OR THIS CAN BE VERY CONFUSING.http://agn.ph/fics/viewstory.php?sid=3420Visit my blog here:thefairviewchronicles.blogspot.com
The Sacrifice
14:00
The black unconscious of Chris' mind slowly faded, the flickering lights above him waking him up. He took his mind back to what had just happened, glad no infected had come along while he was unconscious.
"God damn, I knew I should have aimed for the head..." He mumbled, trying to shake his mind of the events. It was at this point he remembered about Ed. "Wait, where the hell's Ed? Ed?!?"
While he was calling this out, he started checking the rooms, trying to find where his friend had gone. Jake and Rina were still searching, to no avail.
"Surely Chris and Ed would have found it by now..." Rina complained to Jake, continuing their search. "I hope those zombies didn't come back..."
Jake didn't say anything, instead kicking a door open. Chris, who had come across the locked door Ed was in, pulled out his 12-gauge. Checking for signs of nearby zombies, he proceeded to literally shoot the door down. He was met by the sound of a faint, struggling voice.
"Chris... is that you?"
"Yeah, is that you Ed?"
"Don't... don't get any... closer..." Ed said weakly, shuffling away from his position.
"Are you injured? If you are, Rina can heal you up, She isn't that far awa-" Chris' question was interrupted by the sudden roar of a generator, the bright light of the storage room's floodlights revealing the horrible sight. There were no zombies, but Ed lay dying on the floor, his body crippled. Blood was covered all over him, bit marks everywhere. His weak stare at Chris resembled self-pity and despair. "Ed... no..."
Ed turned his head to the floor, trying to usher out even the smallest of words.
"It... it doesn't hurt... a single... bit. I'm... I'm already dead Chris..." He said, tears falling down his cheeks. He used the last of his strength to push his revolver to Chris, before lying back against the boxes, his left arm still on his chest. "You... you know what to do Chris..."
"Ed... I can't..." Chris stuttered, the sense of hopelessness entering his mind. Ed was his best friend, the man who had saved him before. Chris struggled not to think back towards the times he had with Ed.
"Chris, you have to..." Ed said, looking back up at him. "Don't.. don't let me become... one of them."
"I'm going to miss you Ed." Chris said, closing his eyes after aiming Ed's revolver at Ed's face. After what had seemed an eternity, he gathered the strength to pull down the trigger. The gunshot echoed throughout the basement, everything falling into silence. Chris immediately slumped next to the door frame, his hands over his eyes, as he, a grown man, burst into tears at the death of his friend. "Ed... why..."
Chris remained like this for several minutes, until the footsteps of Rina and Jake arrived at the scene.
"Chris..." Rina said sympathetically, upon seeing the scene in front of her.
"I had to Rina, it was a mercy killing..." Chris sobbed, before staring at Rina in anger. "This isn't revenge... it's an all out mother fucking war!"
"Chris, we have to go now. Zach's running out of time." Rina said. Chris nodded, wiped his face, and walked to the elevator. As the door slid open, Chris knew what to expect: A whole group of infected. Blasting the group down quickly, they stepped into the pile of flesh and blood that had been left behind by them. "Ugh. I seriously need to get this dress cleaned soon."
The lift rapidly slid down the island, going below sea level. Chris started talking to the others to take his mind off Ed.
"So, did you happen to come across that psycho again?"
"Yeah. He's dead." Jake answered.
"I thought I god damn killed him." Chris said, picking up his transceiver. "How long has Zach got left?"
"The doc's put it at about an hour, you guys need to seriously hurry up." The sniper said. "We seem to have killed all the zombies, so it's a clear run back for you guys."
"Thanks." Chris said, nodding his head at the others. "Rina, you can teleport us back, right?"
"Only to the entrance. Our priority is getting the cure, and secondary is finding out what happened."
"Actually, scratch that second one, I think I might have a good idea who it was." Chris said.
"So, who are the suspects."
"Well, it's not a long list. There's that psycho from earlier, Dan, the doctor, and Jake."
"WHAT? I'M A SUSPECT?" Jake shouted in outrage.
"Jesus Christ, calm down Jake. This list is from the POSSIBLE starters. Anyway, get ready, there'll be loads of infected down here." Chris explained, pumping his shotgun. However, when the lift passed a glass screen, they saw what they were truly dealing with. "Holy shit..."
Hundreds of infected were idly standing in a mob across the corridor. Rina looked around for a route of escape.
"Hey, there's the cure! To the right!" She shouted out, spotting the research table. "But they'll catch up with us before we can get back to the lift!"
"... I'll hold them off." Jake said to Rina. Rina turned pale at this thought.
"But Jake, you'll die!"
"One of has to do it Rina, and let's face it, I'm the least valuable person here. I have nothing now, not without Ed..."
"Jake..."
"Don't worry Rina. I promise you'll make it out of here alive. It has to be done." Jake said to her, before kissing her one final time. Rina nodded in acceptance, and picked up her gun in preparation. The elevator dinged to signify it's arrival, as the group nodded to each other. Jake ran straight at the crowd, fire blazing from his fists, setting the infected on fire. Chris and Rina shot the ones to the right, and made a dash for the cure. There was a syringe and test tube, labelled 'Cure. Needs testing.', and a laptop as well.
"Hey, maybe we can find out who's behind this!" Chris said, grabbing the laptop, while Trina plunged the syringe into the cure, extracting enough for Zach. Chris shot down a group of zombies with one hand, like something out of a movie. Running back to the lift, Rina called out to Jake.
"Jake, we've got it! Let's go!"
"Go on without me! I've got nothing to live for, and I have to destroy everything, no matter the cost! Remember me Rina!" He shouted back, before turning back to the undead. As the duo ran into the elevator, and pressed for the basement floor, Rina turned back to Jake. He bravely fought off the hordes, and before they could see what would happen to him, the grey part of the shaft blocked their view.
"Do you think he'll make it out Chris?" Rina asked. Chris shook his head in honesty, as Rina put on a brave face to hide how upset she was.
"We both lost someone close to us Rina. But we're safe now. Teleport us out of here." Chris said. Rina obliged, grabbing Chris' hand so he would teleport with her. Re emerging at the top of the stairs, Chris shot off any zombies from earlier. As they walked towards the exit, frantic banging on a nearby locked door was heard. Chris listened in, and determined it wasn't a zombie. "Get out the way of the door, I'm going to shoot it down!"
The bullets pounded through the door, as they peered inside to see who the captive was.
"That's... that's the Lucario from the tournament!" Rina gasped, as he looked up in surprise.
"... Of all the people to rescue me, I did not expect you two. I'm Will, and that ass hole Ryuji abandoned me in here after the outbreak. You guys really pissed him off..." He said, in a light hearted tone, before walking towards them.
"Umm... sorry about the tournament." Rina said to him.
"Rina, we're running out of time. Let's go already!" Chris said, running through the doors. Will and Rina followed after him.
"What's wrong?" Will called out to Rina, as they ran behind the hotel to the fire escape.
"One of our friends has been infected somehow, we had to go straight through hell to get the cure."
14:50
Kristy sat next to Zach. She looked at the time, and she was worried.
"Kristy, if I don't make it..." Zach said, smiling at her.
"Zach, you'll be al right. You held out this long, they just need more time." Kristy said, before the door was thrown open. Chris stood at the doorway with the Syringe Rina had picked up, panting.
"We said we wouldn't come back without the cure, didn't we?" He laughed, injecting the syringe into Zach, and releasing the cure.
"Thanks Chris, I knew you'd come through for me. But... where's Ed and Jake?" Zach asked. Chris looked out the window in exhaustion.
"Ed... Ed's dead. He got infected, and he started turning. I had to mercy kill him. We don't know about Jake. He stayed behind to save us two, but we never saw what happened to him. It's unlikely he made it out. However, we DID get this, and we saved another person." He panted, putting the laptop he was carrying on the desk in the room. Kristy jumped up onto the chair to see the laptop.
"Just lemme turn this on, and..." Chris said. A database of people came up, all hired under one company: Secrenom. He reminded himself of the list of suspects, and typed in the first one: Dan.
"No match found." Computer replied. Chris typed in the next one: Sam.
"Not damn happening Chris." Chris turned around to see a handgun pointed at his head. Sam had a cold look on his face, before taking the laptop from them.
"You! You're working for Secrenom, aren't you?" Chris said to Sam.
"Yeah. And you're working for the government. I have to say, this whole ordeal didn't go quite as planned. You weren't supposed to survive Chris. None of you were supposed to survive. I was here to make sure that happened. Our objective was simple. Produce a threat, then create a cure to sell to the masses. Every single person in the world would line up at their local pharmacy: all for our cure. But that just isn't happening any more, is it Chris? Because you wasted the damn cure on an animal!" Sam spoke in a sinister tone.
"How dare you!" Kristy said in outrage.
"Shut it, fleabag! You treated your god damn pets as human beings. You disgust me Chris. I don't care about this whole 'team work' bullshit. Work together, and you do it well. That's why you struggled to kill Ed, isn't it? You were so caught up in your friendship you just didn't have the guts to end his life. Man, you've really lost your reputation, haven't you Chris? You used to be a feared assassin, an all destroying anti hero. But that changed when you started to think about who you were killing. You lost your pace, you lost your passion. It's a shame to have to resort to this Chris, but it's the last resort. Now if you have any care for your lives, I have a helicopter to catch. And before you ask, yes, Ryuji was part of our operation as well. So long!" Sam ran for the rooftops.
"We can't let that ass hole escape!" Will talked to Chris.
"Don't worry, he won't make it out alive." Chris said, picking up a box of fireworks from one of the rooms.
"What's he doing?" Zach said, watching Chris run up the stairs after Sam with the box and some matches.
"Just preparing our fireworks!" Chris yelled back, kicking the door open. Sam jumped onto his arriving helicopter.
"We were going to be the heroes here Chris. Not you!" Sam said, signalling the helicopter to take off.
"No hero will die an end like yours." Chris said in hatred, lighting a firework. He sprinted towards the helicopter, grabbed the laptop back, and threw the sparkling time bomb into he chopper.
"What the fuck?!?" Sam said in alarm, as the firework spun around the helicopter, disorientating it out of control. Exploding at the front of the cockpit, the helicopter burst into a flaming wreck as it crashed into the island below. The explosion could be heard from miles off, as Chris walked through the building again.
"That was for Ed and Jake, you son of a bitch." Chris said. The survivors rejoiced in the knowledge that the starter of the outbreak was finally dead. Chris just laid down on a spare bed, and rested for the rest of the entire day, safe in the knowledge it was all over...
The black unconscious of Chris' mind slowly faded, the flickering lights above him waking him up. He took his mind back to what had just happened, glad no infected had come along while he was unconscious.
"God damn, I knew I should have aimed for the head..." He mumbled, trying to shake his mind of the events. It was at this point he remembered about Ed. "Wait, where the hell's Ed? Ed?!?"
While he was calling this out, he started checking the rooms, trying to find where his friend had gone. Jake and Rina were still searching, to no avail.
"Surely Chris and Ed would have found it by now..." Rina complained to Jake, continuing their search. "I hope those zombies didn't come back..."
Jake didn't say anything, instead kicking a door open. Chris, who had come across the locked door Ed was in, pulled out his 12-gauge. Checking for signs of nearby zombies, he proceeded to literally shoot the door down. He was met by the sound of a faint, struggling voice.
"Chris... is that you?"
"Yeah, is that you Ed?"
"Don't... don't get any... closer..." Ed said weakly, shuffling away from his position.
"Are you injured? If you are, Rina can heal you up, She isn't that far awa-" Chris' question was interrupted by the sudden roar of a generator, the bright light of the storage room's floodlights revealing the horrible sight. There were no zombies, but Ed lay dying on the floor, his body crippled. Blood was covered all over him, bit marks everywhere. His weak stare at Chris resembled self-pity and despair. "Ed... no..."
Ed turned his head to the floor, trying to usher out even the smallest of words.
"It... it doesn't hurt... a single... bit. I'm... I'm already dead Chris..." He said, tears falling down his cheeks. He used the last of his strength to push his revolver to Chris, before lying back against the boxes, his left arm still on his chest. "You... you know what to do Chris..."
"Ed... I can't..." Chris stuttered, the sense of hopelessness entering his mind. Ed was his best friend, the man who had saved him before. Chris struggled not to think back towards the times he had with Ed.
"Chris, you have to..." Ed said, looking back up at him. "Don't.. don't let me become... one of them."
"I'm going to miss you Ed." Chris said, closing his eyes after aiming Ed's revolver at Ed's face. After what had seemed an eternity, he gathered the strength to pull down the trigger. The gunshot echoed throughout the basement, everything falling into silence. Chris immediately slumped next to the door frame, his hands over his eyes, as he, a grown man, burst into tears at the death of his friend. "Ed... why..."
Chris remained like this for several minutes, until the footsteps of Rina and Jake arrived at the scene.
"Chris..." Rina said sympathetically, upon seeing the scene in front of her.
"I had to Rina, it was a mercy killing..." Chris sobbed, before staring at Rina in anger. "This isn't revenge... it's an all out mother fucking war!"
"Chris, we have to go now. Zach's running out of time." Rina said. Chris nodded, wiped his face, and walked to the elevator. As the door slid open, Chris knew what to expect: A whole group of infected. Blasting the group down quickly, they stepped into the pile of flesh and blood that had been left behind by them. "Ugh. I seriously need to get this dress cleaned soon."
The lift rapidly slid down the island, going below sea level. Chris started talking to the others to take his mind off Ed.
"So, did you happen to come across that psycho again?"
"Yeah. He's dead." Jake answered.
"I thought I god damn killed him." Chris said, picking up his transceiver. "How long has Zach got left?"
"The doc's put it at about an hour, you guys need to seriously hurry up." The sniper said. "We seem to have killed all the zombies, so it's a clear run back for you guys."
"Thanks." Chris said, nodding his head at the others. "Rina, you can teleport us back, right?"
"Only to the entrance. Our priority is getting the cure, and secondary is finding out what happened."
"Actually, scratch that second one, I think I might have a good idea who it was." Chris said.
"So, who are the suspects."
"Well, it's not a long list. There's that psycho from earlier, Dan, the doctor, and Jake."
"WHAT? I'M A SUSPECT?" Jake shouted in outrage.
"Jesus Christ, calm down Jake. This list is from the POSSIBLE starters. Anyway, get ready, there'll be loads of infected down here." Chris explained, pumping his shotgun. However, when the lift passed a glass screen, they saw what they were truly dealing with. "Holy shit..."
Hundreds of infected were idly standing in a mob across the corridor. Rina looked around for a route of escape.
"Hey, there's the cure! To the right!" She shouted out, spotting the research table. "But they'll catch up with us before we can get back to the lift!"
"... I'll hold them off." Jake said to Rina. Rina turned pale at this thought.
"But Jake, you'll die!"
"One of has to do it Rina, and let's face it, I'm the least valuable person here. I have nothing now, not without Ed..."
"Jake..."
"Don't worry Rina. I promise you'll make it out of here alive. It has to be done." Jake said to her, before kissing her one final time. Rina nodded in acceptance, and picked up her gun in preparation. The elevator dinged to signify it's arrival, as the group nodded to each other. Jake ran straight at the crowd, fire blazing from his fists, setting the infected on fire. Chris and Rina shot the ones to the right, and made a dash for the cure. There was a syringe and test tube, labelled 'Cure. Needs testing.', and a laptop as well.
"Hey, maybe we can find out who's behind this!" Chris said, grabbing the laptop, while Trina plunged the syringe into the cure, extracting enough for Zach. Chris shot down a group of zombies with one hand, like something out of a movie. Running back to the lift, Rina called out to Jake.
"Jake, we've got it! Let's go!"
"Go on without me! I've got nothing to live for, and I have to destroy everything, no matter the cost! Remember me Rina!" He shouted back, before turning back to the undead. As the duo ran into the elevator, and pressed for the basement floor, Rina turned back to Jake. He bravely fought off the hordes, and before they could see what would happen to him, the grey part of the shaft blocked their view.
"Do you think he'll make it out Chris?" Rina asked. Chris shook his head in honesty, as Rina put on a brave face to hide how upset she was.
"We both lost someone close to us Rina. But we're safe now. Teleport us out of here." Chris said. Rina obliged, grabbing Chris' hand so he would teleport with her. Re emerging at the top of the stairs, Chris shot off any zombies from earlier. As they walked towards the exit, frantic banging on a nearby locked door was heard. Chris listened in, and determined it wasn't a zombie. "Get out the way of the door, I'm going to shoot it down!"
The bullets pounded through the door, as they peered inside to see who the captive was.
"That's... that's the Lucario from the tournament!" Rina gasped, as he looked up in surprise.
"... Of all the people to rescue me, I did not expect you two. I'm Will, and that ass hole Ryuji abandoned me in here after the outbreak. You guys really pissed him off..." He said, in a light hearted tone, before walking towards them.
"Umm... sorry about the tournament." Rina said to him.
"Rina, we're running out of time. Let's go already!" Chris said, running through the doors. Will and Rina followed after him.
"What's wrong?" Will called out to Rina, as they ran behind the hotel to the fire escape.
"One of our friends has been infected somehow, we had to go straight through hell to get the cure."
14:50
Kristy sat next to Zach. She looked at the time, and she was worried.
"Kristy, if I don't make it..." Zach said, smiling at her.
"Zach, you'll be al right. You held out this long, they just need more time." Kristy said, before the door was thrown open. Chris stood at the doorway with the Syringe Rina had picked up, panting.
"We said we wouldn't come back without the cure, didn't we?" He laughed, injecting the syringe into Zach, and releasing the cure.
"Thanks Chris, I knew you'd come through for me. But... where's Ed and Jake?" Zach asked. Chris looked out the window in exhaustion.
"Ed... Ed's dead. He got infected, and he started turning. I had to mercy kill him. We don't know about Jake. He stayed behind to save us two, but we never saw what happened to him. It's unlikely he made it out. However, we DID get this, and we saved another person." He panted, putting the laptop he was carrying on the desk in the room. Kristy jumped up onto the chair to see the laptop.
"Just lemme turn this on, and..." Chris said. A database of people came up, all hired under one company: Secrenom. He reminded himself of the list of suspects, and typed in the first one: Dan.
"No match found." Computer replied. Chris typed in the next one: Sam.
"Not damn happening Chris." Chris turned around to see a handgun pointed at his head. Sam had a cold look on his face, before taking the laptop from them.
"You! You're working for Secrenom, aren't you?" Chris said to Sam.
"Yeah. And you're working for the government. I have to say, this whole ordeal didn't go quite as planned. You weren't supposed to survive Chris. None of you were supposed to survive. I was here to make sure that happened. Our objective was simple. Produce a threat, then create a cure to sell to the masses. Every single person in the world would line up at their local pharmacy: all for our cure. But that just isn't happening any more, is it Chris? Because you wasted the damn cure on an animal!" Sam spoke in a sinister tone.
"How dare you!" Kristy said in outrage.
"Shut it, fleabag! You treated your god damn pets as human beings. You disgust me Chris. I don't care about this whole 'team work' bullshit. Work together, and you do it well. That's why you struggled to kill Ed, isn't it? You were so caught up in your friendship you just didn't have the guts to end his life. Man, you've really lost your reputation, haven't you Chris? You used to be a feared assassin, an all destroying anti hero. But that changed when you started to think about who you were killing. You lost your pace, you lost your passion. It's a shame to have to resort to this Chris, but it's the last resort. Now if you have any care for your lives, I have a helicopter to catch. And before you ask, yes, Ryuji was part of our operation as well. So long!" Sam ran for the rooftops.
"We can't let that ass hole escape!" Will talked to Chris.
"Don't worry, he won't make it out alive." Chris said, picking up a box of fireworks from one of the rooms.
"What's he doing?" Zach said, watching Chris run up the stairs after Sam with the box and some matches.
"Just preparing our fireworks!" Chris yelled back, kicking the door open. Sam jumped onto his arriving helicopter.
"We were going to be the heroes here Chris. Not you!" Sam said, signalling the helicopter to take off.
"No hero will die an end like yours." Chris said in hatred, lighting a firework. He sprinted towards the helicopter, grabbed the laptop back, and threw the sparkling time bomb into he chopper.
"What the fuck?!?" Sam said in alarm, as the firework spun around the helicopter, disorientating it out of control. Exploding at the front of the cockpit, the helicopter burst into a flaming wreck as it crashed into the island below. The explosion could be heard from miles off, as Chris walked through the building again.
"That was for Ed and Jake, you son of a bitch." Chris said. The survivors rejoiced in the knowledge that the starter of the outbreak was finally dead. Chris just laid down on a spare bed, and rested for the rest of the entire day, safe in the knowledge it was all over...