AM13 Outbreak Shorts

Crackdown - Five

Gun shots fire off all around me and I turn to see Enrico already in the thick of the action. I'm right, this is something much more, it's terrible. The specialist medical facility set up to put all of this to bed has been overrun. I suppose it was obvious this would happen, but seeing humanities last hope completely fall apart is hard. The people supposed to be rescuing us are now more victims to add to the ever increasing-numbers.

This is where they were supposed to find a cure, I think morosely as my eyes drink in the blood splattered all up the wall and the numerous bodies slumping to the ground. Now, it's just another graveyard.

I've been searching desperately, trying to find a reason to keep on going and I keep getting knocked back. It's okay fighting for the world if it's a worthwhile battle, but this is something humans can't survive, I'm sure of it. Maybe it's time to drop our weapons and cave to what seems to be the thing to take over top spot. Humans are no longer top of the food chain, and there isn't anything we can do about that anymore. We had a good run, I suppose.

But then I think about giving up, walking into the crowd of the infected and allowing them to bite me, to turn them into one of them, and every fiber in my body protests it. Fighting this is obviously the more challenging option, but I cannot give up on humanity, not just yet. If that means I need to remain alive to fight this, then so be it.

"Oliver, do something!" Enrico screams at me. "We need to fix this."

I glance down at the gun in my hand, wondering how much use it'll do. Only a temporary amount, that's for sure. If we're really going to continue battling this then we need to get everyone unharmed out of here. They need to escape this hell.

"Get out of here!" I yell loudly, hoping everyone can hear me above the noise. "Everyone who isn't infected needs to get out of here and come with us."

I fire my gun, using my precious bullets to take out the people who are clearly riddled with infection while trying my hardest to find anyone who looks like they might be okay. One of the men in medical scrubs points me to a bus out in the parking lot which I send people to for the time being.

"What's happening?" a pretty blonde nurse asks me while clutching onto my arms. Her voice is cracked and her body dirty. "Where are you taking us?"

I don't know whether I should tell her or not because she's somewhere in the middle. I can't be certain that she isn't infected, but I don't know if she one hundred percent is either. If I make the wrong call, I condemn either her to death, or a bus full of people.

"I don't know where we're going," I admit. "But for now everyone who hasn't been bitten is headed to the bus outside. Have you...?"

I don't get my answer because she slumps to the floor, piling up over herself as she passes out. Her blonde hair splays out around her dipping in just some of the blood that pools there.

"Hey..." I grab the most coherent-looking doctor I can see. "When you get out there, you need to check over everyone before they get on the bus. Make sure they aren't infected." I glance down at the nurse, knowing that I'll never be able to stop thinking about her if I leave her there, and I really don't need to add more guilt to the stack I already have. "And take her, please."

He goes, but I can only relax a little. I trust him enough for the moment, but I'm still going to have to check everyone over myself before I set this bus into motion, especially if we end up heading anywhere near the police station. I cannot bring the disgusting illness with me.

The world is in a horrible mess, I tell myself with absolute clarity. Carrying on means finding a way to make that okay...at least for the time being.

Are we capable of that? Not just me and Enrico, but all of us? I'm not too sure about that one...