End of the world.

Words failed to describe it really, we could tell it was a former scientist thanks to the barely visible lab coat soaked in its ooze. It was fat, looked as bloated as the tubby kid after he tried to eat the entire kitchen. Despite this it was still tall, struggling to stand under the weight, yet seemed to have so much power behind it.

Naturally, Kana put a round in its fathead before any of us could open our mouths. It fell like a dead tree, splatting on the ground and leaving branches of blood and brain matter on the ground.

It didn’t move…

“Well… that was anticlimactic…”

“Doesn’t matter.” Kana replied “Get someone to fix the wall, we need to take out the ones still in here!”

None of us moved an inch, she just looked at us like we were idiots, “hello?! What are you doing?!”

“Uhh… Kana…”

She heard it move again. Much to our dismay, it wasn’t going to be that easy. Any other walker we had found were like anyone else, they die rather easily, a stab or a shot takes them out of commission. The biggest threat they brought was their numbers and their killing capabilities. Even then though, the easiest way to clear them out is to find a rooftop, a rifle with a good amount of ammo and pick them off. Yet here was one that refused to stay down as half its head was hanging off.

She fired another one yet it kept moving. This time it refused to fall and continued laughing.

Junichi had rushed out of his office, dodging past walkers on the way with the agility unexpected of a man his size.

When he reached us, he unveiled a shotgun held behind him. Aimed at the beast, blowing it apart yet, again it stood back up. Was it fucking immortal?!

“Back up!” Alex cried. The beast reached for Junichi, luckily Oran had pulled him away quickly enough before it could slice through his throat. We followed suit and found a bit of distance.

It was a group battle now. As much as we wanted to finish this quickly and save those in danger, we were surrounded.

One handgun, a bolt action rifle, an automatic, a shotgun, and a few blades. Just one canister of gas remaining, not that that mattered, using one here would surely kill us all. Alex had the supplies we had taken with us as well as the samples we had gathered. He was the number one person we needed to protect here, if just one of those cells leaked out it would spell the end of us all.

When we weren’t watching, one of the other walkers rushed over. Oran managed to crack its skull easy enough but it had managed to grab a hold of Kana’s suit and ripped the protection from her arm. Luckily she didn't have rot on her, but that hazmat suit wouldn't do her any good now, we needed to focus on the one in front of us without the worry of those behind us.

“Oran!”

He didn’t respond, instead choosing to finish the invader first.

“We won’t last 5 minutes with this thing if those walkers keep taking us by surprise.”

“We ain’t lastin’ 5 mins anyways, ya got a magic gun or sumthin?”

“We’ll figure something out. Watch our six, if we’re in trouble let us know and we can move. If you get cornered we can back you up.”

Every move it made we tried to counter to the best of our ability. Kana was the athletic one, able to move around quickly and fire from range with her rifle. Junichi was stronger than we gave him credit for, but even then he was a bit of a coward, he would overreact and rush away when he had a perfectly good chance to attack. Any time he could he would try and find a gap in the horde so that he could run away but Oran kept that at bay.

“Alex, you got it ready?!” Thinking back to a few minutes ago, we had asked Alex to use the research we had accumulated a few hours back. We had trialled a few different wavelength rays, at least the ones we had access to but none seemed to work that well. What we had gathered knowledge of was that the best weapon was still the Mustard Gas. However, just as we were about to give up, we noticed one of the cells had lost its colour. Upon further inspection, we noticed that the oxygen levels in the area it was placed in were a lot higher than the rest. That along with the heat seemed to kill it off…

We trialled it a few times, it wasn’t perfect, it was never going to be, but it was consistent.

The MK II of the MG bomb was born… a mustard gas filled Thermobaric Bomb, combining the cell targetting of the gas, the heat of the fuel and the enhanced oxygen to completely obliterate the dead cells.

Alex passed it along once he had finished it, we had found a little bit of gas here and there from cars around the area on our way back to camp. Alex summarised it was enough for about 3, one was ready now!

“Kana!” I signalled.

She zigzagged through the horde and found the high ground she needed. There was no fuse on this one, only one way to light the spark.

The grenade followed an arch, at it’s precipice, the bullet exploded through.

*-*-*

The explosion melted away the rot inside and launched the outer layer as far as the far walls. The mutant dropped to the ground, smashing its head into the floor and letting out a guttural moan as it perished.

For a moment we waited for the monster to stand back up as it had done many times already, but it did not move, it stayed in place. It would have been good to take a breath, but there were others in the camp already, and more were attracted by the gunshots and the smell of fresh blood. It was up to us to destroy the remaining threats and stop more from coming in. This place was finished, no matter how you looked at it but at least we could salvage what was left.

There were still a few fighting, still a few hanging onto their lives. And this base still had things to take. We could travel back to the bunker and make a lab there, Alex still had the samples, and we had the Solipsys system there! That’s it, we could have Alex use it to talk to Koziol and finally make a cure for the rot. We already had the canisters and the test subjects, it may take a few months, a year maybe more but, we had that time!

Or at least that’s what we wanted to think.

The monster struggled back up, he bulged out and was torn apart, with rot filling the gaps. It’s entire right side was gone, the edges burnt like charcoal. It took shape, a mangled mess, eerily eyeing us as a 5 star meal as it hobbled along. But suddenly it shuddered and dropped to the ground, started to violently shake, convulsing even. Blood poured from its mouth, dark and pungent. It wasn’t done yet.

I fired a round into its head, to our horror it simply laughed it off and continued moving. More and more rounds were fired and even though we saw them pierce through and tear the rot apart, it just didn’t die. Instead it just fired the rot in its mouth. Both Kana and I managed to avoid it, but it kept going and splashed ever so lightly on one of the survivors, just a drop on the ankle.

All of a sudden he started convulsing and crying. Soon enough he stood again, but now rot covered his skin.

It readied another shot of the vile fluid, and we split up firing on both sides. Bullets weren’t doing a damn thing but it was risky to get too close to this thing, if we were going to do that we would need the grenade, and end it like we did the last one.

The next shot fired, just barely evaded by me, instead it hit the brick wall behind me and completely melted it. Seemingly invulnerable to everything we threw at it and now a simple attack that could wipe us away with just a touch… how do you even win in that scenario?

*-*-*

“Two more left!” Alex cried, seeing how one was only powerful enough to injure it, he was panicking, questioning if there was anything else that he could add to it to make it a bit more powerful.

Little did he know that there were two walkers that had wandered past Oran and reached for him.

“Doc!”

Oran somehow managed to spin around and shoot them both before they reached Alex.

“Get ya head in the game doc!”

Oran was struggling, he might have managed to conceal it from us but there were too many of them, for every 10 or so he killed, there were another 10 that joined the fight, either from the crack in the wall or from the fresh corpses piling up. There were many that had gotten way too close to making him one as well, but there was no chance that we could help him out, we were only just able to dodge its attacks when paying full attention to it, Alex could fight them, he had no weapon and we had none to give him. Junichi was almost out of ammo and the pair of me and Kana were struggling to find the space to attack.

Just when I found an opening, ducking under its massive wing and firing a full 6 shots into its side, it caught me off guard. Out of its fat, came another rot arm that hit like a truck, sending me sailing into one of the supply sheds. Not that I knew, I was out when I hit the thing, I only woke up again when I heard Kana shouting out.

I got back to my feet quickly enough, but something didn’t feel right. Everything spun, when I looked down… there was rebar sticking out of me.

*-*-*

My legs gave up, and the blood slowly trickled out. It wasn’t bad for now, it’d gone through my shoulder and one through the lower back on the left. Must’ve hit the wall hard enough to crack through, either way it didn’t matter right now. All that mattered was getting the pulse activated and melting the fucker, even if I felt faint it wasn’t the time for dying!

“Hajime!” She called out, I got back to my feet as soon as I could, ignoring my pain for now and returning to their side while firing at the beast.

She noticed the blood immediately, looking at me as if I was a struggling pup. “I’m fine. We can deal with it later”

“Will you last til later?”

“... just focus on the fight”.

Even when we were fighting for our lives, we lost so much already, this thing continued on like it’d hardly broke a sweat. We knew it was an impossible feat, it was so frustrating. Everything seemed so certain, so against us that it was hardly worth fighting for anymore. The idea of death is something that no person should consider, here we were facing it, so closely it was breathing down our necks. Would it come swiftly? Or would we be forced to feel the agony before the sweet release? I’d always wondered what it was like, were those following religion right? Would we continue onto the great halls and celebrate with those we had loved in the past? Or were we doomed to a future of nothingness, devoid of feeling and conscious, devoid of even darkness. When I was young, I’d barely sleep thinking about it, about how death comes for everyone, and no matter what we do, it will come for us.

“Hajime!” Kana snapped.

Suddenly I was back in the fight, away from the darkness and once again facing the darkness.

“Junichi’s gone”

“What?!” I yelled.

“He took his chance and left, took the shotgun and the last few bullets we had. It’s just me and you left to fight this thing, I need you to focus!”

That slimy fuck!

No, it didn’t matter, if we survived here, there would be time to get angry but right now, none of it mattered.

Alex flung another bomb at the monster and Kana took the shot, this one was more impactful, ripping its head clean off, yet it continued moving. The explosion was powerful enough to knock me back even at this distance, yet it still walked forward and reached for us.

We both circled the monster, searching for any possible weak spots, maybe there was a way we could defeat it quickly without risking another though, it didn't look too good.

It swung around, spitting its venom at me in an arch and whipping its forearm at Kana, both of us were able to dodge and attack. I went in close, slicing away with the blade I took from Alex, it was like cutting an elephant with a piece of paper, but it was necessary, we needed another method to kill it, maybe this was it. Kana had both her own and my gun, firing and reloading one after the other, aiming at key spots. Eyes, throat, forehead, legs, heart, liver, spine, between the legs… he just laughed em off.

Alex passed the last one we had. “One last chance! Make it count!” He pleaded.

“But, how do I make it count?! We’ve already hit it with everything we had, how is it going to be different this time?”

“Both times we hit it it just regenerates the cells and reforms itself.” Kana replied. “If hitting it from the outside won’t work…”

The suggestion was crazy, Oran and Alex were without anything to protect themselves from the rot, and our hazmats were useless now, what with Kana missing the sleeve and mine being torn open by the rebar just minutes ago. Not to mention the fact you’d be planting a live bomb!

“There’s no way we can do that. It’s too risky!”

“Hajime.” Doc called. “She’s right, if we just do the same thing again and it doesn't work we’re all dead.”

“And whoever goes in is dead! I’m not risking it! There’s no guarantee you’ll get out after planting it!”

Kana looked at me with a solemn smile. Alex threw the last MK, but she grabbed it out of the air before I could and started sprinting. I reached out for her, missed her hand and felt the blood loss.

“KANA!” I cried out.

She dodged its attacks, one after the other. It used its vomit attack and she just barely scraped past it.

All three of us were useless, watching the youngest amongst us risk everything she had to save us. I hated it, I hated the thought of losing another one, losing someone I cherished… I can’t let you go!

She jumped up high, falling on top of it and spearing the grenade deep into its mass. She cried out, feeling the rot squeezing at her arm. She was stuck.

“FIRE!” She screamed. “Oran! Fire!”

Oran was readying the next round, pausing when he saw me reach in and grab her arm.

“Hajime!”

“I’m not letting you do this alone!”

“You fucking idiot! I’m doing this so you don’t have to die”

“And I’m here for you.” I replied. “You told me that if I die, you’re going too. Well you’re gonna have to rain check that cause I’m getting you out of here!”

Pulling with all my might, it felt like she was hardly budging.

“It’s fine, go! Get out of here!” She begged.

The shot fired, but it was low, instead aimed at the rot around us. Oran readied another shot and fired into its rot, loosening us.

With everything we had we pulled, enough to rip her hazmat again, but we were free!

“FIRE” Alex bellowed, and the shot erupted from Oran’s gun.

The blast rang out sending us flying, filling our vision with a pure white.

When I finally came to, I could see the monster, much further away from where it was before. It was completely charred. Finally… it was vanquished.

But the fight was far from over!

The pain in my stomach was unbearable, enough to stop any feeling I had in my legs, but I could still crawl.

“C- C’mon… Kana, we need to”

I could see it. Something I feared for so long. She had drops of rot on her skin. It had left a scratch in the sleeve when it last vomited, when she plunged her arm into its body, the rot seeped in…

It was just like back then.

All I wanted to do was cry out, but she managed a whisper. “It’s funny. Us ending up here, next to each other at the end.”

She stared into my dying eyes and I into hers.

“Hajime…”

Everything we had been through once again replayed in my head, the first meeting, our peaceful times in the base, the pain she felt at the fallen fort, the silly arguments… the nights spent just being there for each other. I didn’t want to lose them… but, it was over. Maybe I was tired of it all, all of the pain. I accepted it.

“I’ve come a long way, haven’t I? Far from the coward hiding in his bunker.” I commented, she laughed weakly.

One last look at everything around me, in the stars I could see the ones I once lost. The days spent with friends and family that were now waiting for me, the tears of parents and the words of a sister, all replaying in my head.

“I love you.”

Those words still echoed like she was right next to me saying them again.

“I’m sorry” I whimpered. “I couldn’t do anything. I couldn’t save my parents, my friends, my sister, I couldn’t protect you. I”

When I looked her way, she was crying like I was, but she smiled. I guess this was the last time we would see each other. Weakly, I held my fist out to Kana one last time.

“See you again, partner.” I uttered, grinning through the tears. I felt her hand against mine as the rest of me faded, saw her try to smile, fighting her sadness.

Everything felt numb, and cold. But I still felt her hand, still felt the warmth. And when things went dark.

That light, it’s so inviting yet, cold…

Is this the afterlife? Am I dead?

What about Kana?

Is she here with me?

No. She doesn’t deserve to be here, she should be living as she wanted to. Going to school with her friends, falling in love and dying old and grey next to the ones she loves. Not here in the dark with me! Send her back… don’t let me lose another one.

“Hajime.”

Ah… it’s finally over. She’s calling me.

Goodbye.