"So then," the young man muttered to himself, staring into the vast and deserted landscape that stood in front of him. He interrupted the dead eerie silence in the once bustling town. "All I'm supposed to do is take pictures?" he asked his partner. "Yep, just pictures. We aren't supposed to do anything else," the other said, shielding his eyes from the sun. "That's stupid."
"What do you mean by that? That's our job. Artie, if we do something we could put ourselves in danger too," he said to Arthur. "But as human beings, isn't it our compulsorily instinct to save and or protect another human life if needed too?" he asked, feeling a little frustrated at the situation. "Maybe this wasn't such a good idea after all," he said to himself. "Well, not much we can do about it now," the other said with a sigh, grabbing the powerful camera out of the knapsack and snapping a quick picture. "This isn't right," Arthur muttered to himself, following the other.
The windows in the old buildings were either broken or boarded up. All the doors were bolted shut and there were no points of entry anywhere to anything. "Geez! I can't believe we can't even go in anywhere to check things out!" "Alfred, what ever happened to 'Leave only footprints take only pictures'? I believe our only task here is to take pictures, is it not?" Arthur asked in a taunting voice. "Dude, that is so not funny," Alfred said, pouting at the other. "Your words not mine,"
Eventually the two actually found something that was worth while. There were living things in this so called 'abandoned town'. "Well… they /were/ living. If you could call that living…" Alfred muttered to himself with a grimace. Arthur had absolutely nothing to say to the human carcass that was in front of them. "What on Earth happened here…?" Alfred asked, feeling a little nauseous at the thought. "Alfred, I don't want to know. Can you just take the picture so we can leave?" Arthur asked impatiently. He gulped slightly and brought the camera up to his eye to take the picture, and hesitated. "Alfred." Arthur said again, his patience growing thin. "Just, go on without me for a minute, okay?" Alfred said, pulling the camera away from his face. Arthur shrugged and walked off.
Alfred couldn't find it in him to actually do this. Arthur had been right all along. This was a bad bad idea. "Artie?" Alfred called, half terrified. No response. "Arthur! Seriously! Don't do this man…" he called again, running out of the alley where he found the so called 'photo op'. "I haven't gone anywhere, git…" Arthur said, walking back, with his own camera in his hand. "W-What did you find?" Alfred stuttered, afraid of what the answer may be. The Brit gave him a confused look at first, and he didn't offer any information at all. "M-Maybe… we should go home…" Alfred said, his voice shaky.
"What? Go home? Alfred… We've been given a job to do… And we can't go home until we are done," Arthur said, rather coldly. "Please Artie… I don't want to be here anymore… And I don't want to leave you here," Alfred said, glancing at the ground. Arthur wanted to leave. They both did. Badly. But then again… They would both lose their jobs and that would be the end of that story. But the price to pay wasn't as heavy as a toll if they ended it all now. Hell, if that valued their sanity, they would stop now. They would-
Suddenly, they both heard a loud bang. Almost like a gunshot. Arthur jumped, nearly dropping the very expensive camera in his hand. Alfred's eyes widened. They both looked in the direction of the noise. "That was a gunshot," Alfred said, nearly a whisper. "We should definitely leave before it's too late," he persisted. "Agreed,"
They both snuck past where they heard the gunshot. Quietly, Alfred signalled Arthur to follow. He knew that it was safe to follow. Or at least, he saw that is was okay to follow. "Just stay quiet," Alfred muttered quietly as Arthur passed him. He nodded, his green eyes filled half by terror. So much for take only pictures.
As Arthur ran past, he saw the man who held the gun. He held Arthur's gaze for a moment and loaded his handgun. He didn't know what to do. For a split second, time froze, and before he thought of anything logical, he simply pushed Alfred out of the way.
There was a loud bang. Followed by silence. The silence was deafening. It seemed like it was ringing for hours and hours. But what seemed like hours, was only a few minutes. And those minutes were red.
A red haze.