Era of Madness

They were drinking tea

(Tyler's viewpoint)

After waking up, I curl up in a ball as I'm laying on the cold floor, my body becoming spastic for a few second. Fortunately, these stop quickly, and I eventually manage to get up. My whole body hurts more than I thought it could, and I can barely stand, yet I still manage to. Even then, I would probably faint again due to this horrible pain in normal circumstances.

But right now, even though the pain doesn't go away, I can't even pay attention to it. All I can focus is this undescribable grief filling my mind like the most vicious of plagues.

No... no... I have to hold on a bit more. Just a little bit more. Until I get John out of here, find Erica, and we get away from this hellish city.

But I can't... I can't ignore all this anymore... no, I can. I'm just a rotten piece of shit after all, if I'm terrible enough to be chosen as an apostle, I sure am terrible enough to ignore the guilt... just a bit more...

I turn my gaze toward John, still unconscious. My vision is still slightly blurry, but I see it very clearly: the rip in his large hermetic suit, the one I made to repair... it's now once again open. But how? How could it happen?

The answer is obvious: Saginus. He did that while we were unconscious.

I quickly think about my options: repairing the suit once again is impossible, considering how large the rip got. Dragging John out of the clock tower and outside the mist is even more impossible: he seems like he's already been contaminated far too much by the mist to wake up and walk there. I'm not even sure if walking out of the mist in time would have been possible, but if I have to drag him he'll clearly die before we even exit New Big Ben.

Yet it seems like he can still be saved if help is provided fast enough. I know that Saginus did it intentionally: he wants me to choose between saving John and saving myself.

Of course, I have to choose myself. All this time, how many of my close ones lives have I ruined, how much have I played with their feelings simply to survive and make sure my life would not be shitty? It will just be one more. Plus, technically, it's Saginus' doing, not mine.

It's not my fault. It's not my fault. IT'S NOT MY FAULT!

...

"No, it is..." I say even though I know nobody is listening to me. "Everything is my fault"

Saginus plan is working perfectly: even though I'm conscious of what he wants, I still give it to him on a silver plate.

I take off John's suit and mine. I look at the latter with hesitation, but eventually, I make my choice. Despite the small size, the suit is relatively flexible, I manage to put John in it.

Haha, poor John. Bad things always happen to him. Poor, poor John... even if I don't think he'll die as long as he keeps the suit on, it seems like even in his sleep, he can't get peace.

Amanda told us that the creatures in the mist were only hallucinations caused by it. Even if there was actually zombies in here, it seems like the spores in the mist can indeed provoke hallucinations. While unconscious, John is shaking, his jaw is contracted, and he emits some words that don't seem to connect with each other: time, 48th, Clark, Tyler... heh, look at this, he pronounces my name in his sleep.

Uly... Ulysseus? Did he just say... Ulysseus? Maybe my ears are actually starting to disfunction? Indeed, without my suit, even if I covered my skin and face as well as possible, the spore is still going in, so hallucinations are inevitable... but, even then, isn't it a bit too fast?

Or maybe I'm simply loosing my mind... Actually, it might actually be it.

The last words I can hear are 'light', 'judgement' and 'white'... heh, what can you be hiding, John? Not that it matters anymore, anyway.