Just One Person

by Rockgod96

Scout is sent to do a grueling job on Halloween night. But things get more interesting as time goes on. It also awakens feelings inside him that he has not felt in a long time.

Hey guys! Rockgod here!

Now, I know what some of you are saying, "Rock, where's the next chapter of Meet the New Life? It's been over a month already, and you said you wouldn't keep us waiting that long!"

Yes, I know it's been a long wait, and I am very sorry about that, but some things came up between the end of the last chapter and now which have unfortunately delayed the next chapter for a while. I'll talk more about them at the end here.

This story was an idea of GameQ's. He and I worked on separate Halloween stories which take place in the same universe. You've probably noticed that we uploaded our stories at the same time. We timed it.

Anyway, here's my new Halloween story, and once you're done with that, go read GameQ's story, Engineer and the Dragon, if you haven't already!

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"I can't remember anything

Can't tell if this is true or dream

Deep down inside I feel the scream

This terrible silence stops with me.

Now that the war is through with me,

I'm waking up, I cannot see.

That there's not much left of me.

Nothing is real but pain now.

Hold my breath as I wish for death.

Oh, please, God, wake me!"

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It was a dark night in the small town of Ghost Town, a place where the Machine Wars took place, just one of many. Gray Mann had long since been defeated, so the town was abandoned, like every other place where the battles were fought. The buildings there were falling apart, metal was rusting, wood was rotting, there didn't seem to be much of a future for Ghost Town. Its' name very aptly described its' current situation.

But tonight was a different night. Someone was there on this cold, dark night. This was odd as no one had been in Ghost Town for years now.

Jeremy Livingston, better known as the RED Scout, had been dropped off here by his Engineering friend, Dell Conagher, to investigate possible buried Australium in these lands. For a while, it was suspected that there was nothing buried in the ground in Ghost Town, aside from leftover robot parts, but Mann Co. reported something unusual going in beneath the ground at or near Ghost Town. The signals they picked up indicated possibly more Australium buried there than originally accounted for. Someone from RED had to go over there and investigate. The nine mercenaries on RED drew straws to decide who had to go over and do it. Scout drew the short one.

Scout may have been chosen to inspect the abandoned grounds, but he was not happy about it. What was the point of this? What made them think that there would be anything of substantial value still in this wreck of a RED base? Surely they cleaned out the area already and would have found something here already, why was he needed? And that metal detector that Engineer gave him wouldn't help make things any easier. Robot parts were buried everywhere. He didn't have time to dig up every single bit of the ground that alerted him of metal buried there.

"Oh well, maybe there's some buried treasure in the ground here for me to take," he said, pointing out something besides the Australium, of which he wouldn't get any.

Hours passed. Grueling hours passed. As expected, the metal detector picked up several metal-heavy areas, but also as expected, they were nothing but robot parts. Scout, growing increasingly angry, threw all the robot parts into an old shack on the property.

More hours passed. It had now been 14 hours since Scout began working. Night fell. But there were still parts of Ghost Fort which had not been dug up, and Scout wasn't allowed to leave until the entire fort was cleaned out and it was known for sure if there was Australium there or not. "Man, this job frickin' blows. What are they expectin' to find here? Nothin'! And that's all there is! There ain't a damn thing here!" He threw his shovel down. He was pissed. He didn't care whether he was told he could or couldn't, he sat down and took a break.

He turned on his headphones and a local radio station came on. There were playing Jimi Hendrix. It was none other than "Voodoo Child (Slight Return)":

"Yeah, that's a good song," Scout said. It was such a shame that Hendrix died not too long ago. Feeling hungry, he took his backpack off, and dug a sandwich out of it, but not without digging a few other things out first, namely a few comic books (since that was the extent of his reading abilities), some cans of Bonk! – some full, some empty – a flashlight, a Swiss army knife, extra scattergun shells, extra pistol clips, and a first aid kit.

It was a nice night outside. There was a light breeze blowing through the old fort, there were a lot of clouds in the sky, some big and some small. Their silhouettes brightly lined against the light of the full moon that was out on this evening. It looked very beautiful. Scout decided that now that he was alone, he would do something he always wanted to do at a time like this. He cleared his throat and cried, "Awhoooooooooooo!", trying to sound like a werewolf.

As he was eating, Scout heard a noise in the distance. He paid no attention to it. It was probably some truck driving in the distance. There was nothing going on in the abandoned fort here. No one came here anymore. Disregarding it entirely, he went back to eating. He was thirsty now, but he had some bottles of water and Coca-Cola in his bag. He never drank Bonk! while eating, since he was told strictly to save it for the battlefield, where it was needed. Scout didn't need to drink it while eating.

He was just about to do another werewolf cry when he heard another noise, this one sounding closer to him.

"Ah, what the hell? There's not supposed to be no one here. I ain't supposed to be here. I'm just doin' this 'cause they said I had to!" Scout decided now that he had to go check this out. This was something which couldn't be ignored. "Aw, jeez. What if there's an actual werewolf here?" That did seem likely now. OK, maybe not a werewolf, but some other kind of creature, like a real wolf, or a coyote, or something like that. This was the place where creatures like these roam. It shouldn't be surprising.

Scout decided to go investigate the noise, bringing his flashlight and pistol with him, just in case any accidents happened. He decided not to run, so that he wouldn't give himself away. If he had to get into a fight, he preferred to see whoever or whatever he was fighting before it saw him.

The noise happened again. This definitely sounded like a wolf digging through a garbage can. Now Scout's theory seemed more likely. There was definitely the sound of a garbage can being knocked over. Scout never forgot that noise. It reminded of the days when his brother Jessie played pranks on the neighbors by setting their trash on fire. It was no surprise that he grew up to be in a criminal gang. Scout never liked him for making that choice, but then again, he himself became a mercenary killing people for money, so what right did he have to talk?

Scout ducked inside an old building, close to where he heard the noises. He crouched under the windows and crawled up a staircase. He quickly peaked out the window and true to what he heard, he saw a trash can knocked over, and some footprints around it that weren't his. And these weren't the pawprints from a wolf or coyote, these were human footprints. Oh my God, he thought. Someone besides me is in this place.

He heard another noise, this time much more of a yowling noise. The voice sounded sinister, but also quite pained. Scout wasn't sure what this was he heard. "OK, that's either a really exotic bird here for…I don't know what reason. Maybe the same reason that coconuts migrate or African swallows show up in Europe. Or maybe it's…damned souls crying out to be released from their eternal sufferin'."

Scout stayed crouched, below the windows. He remembered to close the door behind him, so that if whatever that was came in here, he'd know it ahead of time. Then he decided it would be a wiser idea to go outside and fight whatever it was that was out there before it decided to walk in and find him in there.

He loaded up his weapons and got his bat armed and ready. Nothing was going to stop him now.

He slowly tiptoed downstairs, and over to the front door. He silently opened it. There was nothing to see outside but from footprints in the ground. There were way too big to be his. They obviously had to have come from this strange thing that was here. Slowly, Scout followed the path that the footprints led in. He frequently checked around all his sides in case this thing was about to ambush him, but he kept seeing nothing. The trail went in a few circles, but it kept going. This thing was still here.

Suddenly, Scout heard a loud noise. He turned around and saw something very strange and scary charging towards him. It looked a lot like a very possessed person. But this was no ordinary person. This one was very short, had a long beard and a giant claw for a hand, parts of his skin were missing, and some things, such as his ribcage and stomach, were exposed. What little skin remained on him was a sickly greenish-purple color. It was now running towards Scout as if someone or something was controlling it. Without thinking, he unloaded his pistol and scattergun into the demonic-looking thing, and it dropped dead.

As the thing gave final gurgling noises before dying, Scout looked very scared. He had seen strange things from Merasmus before, but nothing he ever did was quite like this. Once he was certain it was dead, Scout shouted, "OK. What the FUCK did I just shoot? I'm totally justified, whatever this is." He poked it. Still no reaction, but now some intrigue arose from Scout. He was now very interested in what this was and how it became this.

"This looks like…Some sorta zombie. Wait. Zombies are real? But…No. They can't. That's Twilight Zone crap." Scout couldn't believe that what he was seeing was real, even though it so obviously was. He didn't even know why he was so scared of it. He saw scarier things on Alfred Hitchcock Presents. A zombie was nothing compared to that.

He didn't have much time to think of over, however, as he heard more strange yowling noises like the one that this claw-handed monster made.

"Aw, crap. More?!" He shouted. "What are these things?! I'm not gettin' paid enough for this job! No one told me there'd be zombies here!" He sprinted. He didn't care if he got caught now. Sure enough, as he was running, he saw more. One of them was wearing a cowboy hat, another was in a very large and torn winter coat, and one, Scout swore, looked as large as an ape." They saw Scout and were charging straight at him.

"AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAHHHHHHHHHHHHHH!"

Scout ran and ran. He was easily outrunning the zombies, but he had no idea how he was going to leave the fort. Engineer dropped him off a long time ago, and there were probably no plans made to get him back at this time.

He reached the base where he and his teammates stayed to prepare for waves of robots and upgraded their weapons. He knew the entrance doors there would be strong enough to withstand this horde of zombies, so he quickly ran inside, closed the doors, and locked them.

Panting heavily, Scout decided that he needed to make a call back. He didn't care if he wasn't finished with his job. He wasn't staying here any longer. Fortunately, there was still a phone in there, but Scout wasn't sure if he could get it to work. The phone cables made have been broken since the place was abandoned, or maybe the coverage didn't reach here anymore. Regardless, it was his only option that didn't involve him getting his brains eaten out by zombies.

He picked up the phone and dialed back to the main RED base in 2Fort. "Come on, come on, won't one of ya morons pick up the damn phone?! This is an emergency!" All he hears was more ringing. He grew increasingly impatient, tapping his foot on the ground and tapping his fingers on the table he was sitting on. Finally, someone picked up.

"Howdy. This is Mr. Conagher on RED. What's goin' on, partner?"

"Hey, Hardhat! Nice job lettin' the friggin' phone ring, dumbass!"

"Whoa, whoa, whoa! Slow down, boy. What's goin' on?" Engineer did not need to ask who was calling after hearing that.

"I'll tell ya what's goin' on! Zombies are here in Ghost Fort tryin' to eat my brains!"

"Whoa, what? Zombies….are…"

"Here! In FUCKING GHOST FORT! TRYING TO EAT ME! I NEED OUTTA HERE!"

"Son, this sounds very far-fetched. Zombies-"

"IT AIN'T! I'M SERIOUS!"

"OK, OK, all right. Don't…don't worry. We'll get ya outta there. Where are you now?"

"I'm in the base where we upgraded our weapons. Closed the door. They can't break that down."

"Good. Now just stay there. I'll send someone to help ya plow those zombies down."

"WHY CAN'T YOU DO IT?"

"Well, uh, you see, I got a…sorta unusual event of my own over here."

"LIKE WHAT?!"

"Well…You wouldn't believe it, either. Let's just say things are really heating up over at my end."

"Oh….fine," Scout sighed. "Just tell whoever's comin' to hurry the crap up!"

"OK, all right. I got it. See ya later."

"I just hope I'm still alive when you do." And Scout hung up.

He sighed. Maybe this wasn't as bad as he kept making it out to be. After all, he was in a safe house. No way those zombies were going to punch through those solid metal doors. And hopefully someone was coming. In the meantime, he just had to sit back and wait for whoever was coming to show up.

"Oh well, at least I still have my-" He looked in his backpack and groaned. "Ah man. I left my sandwich out in that field. Well, I ain't goin' back for it now. Not until someone comes by and helps me."

He sat down in the corner, trying to listen to more music on his headset, but couldn't, as he was getting so much interference in the signal to tell what was playing on the station. Then he remembered that FM radio signal was very weak in the resupply room of Ghost Fort.

"Ah, crap…" With no other options, Scout pulled out one of his Incredible Hulk comic books and began to read it.

Then, he heard a noise. And it didn't sound like a zombie pounding on the building outside. No, this sounded like it was coming from inside the house. "Aw, no…" Scout groaned. "Not in here, too! OK, in a house. That means there ain't much room for them to move around in here. Fine. I can just blow their heads off with this gun." He readied his scattergun and prepared for another fight. "And this ain't that big a house. How many zombies could be in here?"

He turned around a corner, expecting to see a zombie, but there was nothing there. "Wha…? What was that? I heard somethin'. There's somethin' in this house besides me! All right, whoever ya are, whatever ya are, get out here!" Bet this thing doesn't know I'm holdin' a gun. Come out here so I can blow your friggin' head off!

But as he was scanning the area around him, looking for a monster, he heard a voice. A clear, human voice.

"'Ello there!"

"WAAAA!" Scout jumped around. What he saw wasn't a pure human, but rather, what looked like a transparent human, or rather, a ghost. "Wha-What the hell? Who are you? WHAT are you?"

"My name is Lena Oxton," the ghost said. "I go by the name Tracer, though."

"What are you? Are you a ghost?" Scout was still beyond shocked at what he was seeing.

"Yes, luv," she said. "I am a ghost. I'm removed from my body, but my body is still alive, and while that is true, I cannot die."

"Wait. Your body?! How can ya be removed from your body and not dead?!"

"Well, you see, we don't entirely know, either."

"WE!? There's MORE of ya?"

"Indeed there is," another voice said. Scout turned around to see the ghost of a giant silverback gorilla with armor. "My name is Winston."

"My name is Jesse McCree," another one said.

"I am Hanzo," another one said.

"My name is Lucio. Nice to meet you, man."

"I'm Mei."

"Jack Morrison."

"Reinhardt."

"Name is Zarya."

"My name is Ana. Nice to meet you."

"Whoa, whoa, whoa!" Scout shouted. "How many of you are there?!"

"About twelve," the one named Winston said. "We are under a curse from a wizard."

"OK, OK, OK, all right," Scout said. "Who are you people? You're wearin' all this fancy high-tech shit to be from this year."

"You are right," Hanzo said. "We are from the future. The year 2076, to be exact."

"OK," Scout said. "So, you're from the future. All right, somehow I buy that. I've had stranger shit happen here. How did you get here? And how did you all become ghosts?"

"Well, you see, we are agents of an organization called Overwatch," Winston said. "Or rather, we were, until a meeting with our enemies made us who we are today."

A ghost of an angel said, "We were fighting against a terrorist organization called Talon. They are led by a sinister man named Gabriel Reyes, who was known as Reaper. One day, we were fighting a battle against him, and we were winning. In a last resort, Reaper told us that he had connections to people that were unlike anything the world has ever seen. We just didn't expect that those people included wizards. People actually capable of dark magic."

"Wow. You guys have wizards, too?"

"Yes," Winston said. "I know that must be surprising to someone like you, but it is true."

"Naw, it ain't surprisin' at all. We got a wizard over here, too. He's large, he's Scottish, and he likes to use us for his freaky Halloween games every year."

"Wait," Hanzo said. "He's Scottish?"

"Uh, yeah. Why?"

"Did he have horns on his head?"

"Yeah! Is that…"

"Yes," Winston said. "Whoever that wizard was, he did this to us."

"Whoa, Merasmus can time travel?"

"Merasmus, that's his name?" Tracer asked.

"Uh, yeah. At least that's what my friends tell me. One of 'em got his eye stolen by him, and another was his roommate. Actually got him kicked out. Don't know how he did that.

Anyway, what did he do to you guys?"

"He…" Mercy said slowly. "He put a curse on us. He did different things to each of us. He turned one of us into a dragon. He turned another into a vampire. Many of the others in our group suffered all kinds of fates, some which we don't even know of. As for us, he made us undead."

"Yes," Tracer said sadly. "Our souls have been removed from our bodies, but our bodies are still alive."

"So…" Scout began to put two and two together. "Those zombies outside are…"

"Yes," Tracer said. "They're us. We're not dead, and we're not alive. And because we're in this state, we cannot even rest in peace. We're trapped here on earth, but we cannot speak to anyone, and we're in another time, away from all our friends and loved ones." She started to cry at this time. "My girlfriend isn't even born yet, so I can't even see her."

"I don't know what happened to my daughter," Ana told him. "I can only fear the worst has happened."

Hanzo added in, "My brother is in 2076 still, at least that's what I think. I can never see him again, unless he's already dead. That evil wizard might have dumped him in a steel mill for all I know."

"Oh…Wow." Scout said. He started feeling a little sad himself. "Man, that…that's really awful. That must really suck."

Tracer sniffled. "It does. I can't see my bloody girlfriend anymore! And I can't even tell her what happened! She's going to live her life with me gone and no clue what happened! She's suffering right now, and I can't even be there to comfort her!"

"Well…I wish I could help…" Scout said. He tried his best to stop himself from crying. He believed that crying was the difference between a boy and a man.

"Well…" Winston said, "Maybe you can."

"What?" Scout asked. "How?"

"Well, there was another one of us here, but he's gone now. His name was Torbjӧrn. He was very small, he had a beard and a claw for a hand-"

"Hey, I shot something like that before I got there! Are you sayin'-"

"Hmmm…" Winston pondered. "If you shot him, and he disappeared, then he must have truly passed on now."

"Yes," Hanzo said. "When you shot him, did he move at all?"

"Uh…no. I poked him with a stick, kicked him, punched him, and he didn't move at all."

"Then he must be dead. That would explain why his ghost vanished. He must have truly passed on now."

"Well then," Winston announced firmly. "It's settled. You," he pointed at Scout. "What's your name?"

"My name is Jeremy," Scout said, "But I prefer to go by Scout. That's what everyone calls me."

"Well then Scout," Winston said. "That's the answer. You must go out there and shoot those zombies dead. It's the only way we can truly pass on."

"Wait, what? You want me to kill you guys?" Scout couldn't believe what he was hearing. "Like, seriously? Shoot you guys friggin' dead?"

"Yes," Winston said. "Please end our suffering."

"But…But…You guys seem real cool. I can't just kill ya."

"Boy," Hanzo said. "There's nothing left here for us now. We've left our bodies, and the only one who could possibly reverse this has left her body, too."

"Yes," Mercy said sadly. "I could revive people, but now I am dead, too."

"There's nothing you can do to bring us back. You just have to send us on now. That's how you can help us."

"Yes," Ana told him. "If you want to help us, then end our suffering and send us to the next world."

"Well…" Scout was real close to breaking down now. They seemed like good people and it seemed so unfair that their lives had to end so prematurely. Finally he got himself together and said, "Alright. I'll do it."

"Thanks you, boy," Hanzo said.

"But I'm doin' this carefully. I'm not gettin' myself turned into a zombie, either," Scout said.

"Please do be careful," Ana said. "We do not wish to have you endure this pain. It is unbearable."

"OK, alright. Lemme go upstairs. Maybe I can snipe some of ya down."

He walked upstairs. This area was forbidden to everyone on RED when it was being used, but now the rules didn't make any difference. The ghosts followed Scout.

The upstairs area had a balcony, which allowed Scout to see the zombies from a distance, where they could not catch him. Sure enough, there were lots of zombies outside the entrance, pounding on the door, trying to get in. They didn't seem to notice that their target was right above them. This gave Scout a perfect chance to line up his shots.

He fired a shot at the zombie that looked like the angel. The ghost of that angel flinched upon feeling that.

"Ow! Oh, you really can feel that."

"Wait, you can feel pain when dead?!" Scout asked. "I didn't think ya could."

"Neither did I. This means I was wrong."

"You know, ya seem like a really sweet person. I actually don't….know if I wanna kill you."

"Please do, Scout! This is torture! I can't take this!"

"But…don't you have someone back in your time you care about?"

"Of course I do! But I can't do anything about that now! Please put him in peace, Jeremy!" she begged him.

"Oh…OK…" Hesitantly, he fired a shot at Mercy's zombie corpse, and blew her head off with his scattergun.

Mercy's ghost gasped. She felt something happening to her. A smile came on her face, and she said, "Danke, Jeremy." And she began to fade away until she could no longer be seen. She was now dead.

Scout was feeling very shaken up from seeing this. He didn't know Mercy very well, but he could tell that she didn't deserve what she got.

Before he could put any more thought into it, he noticed one of the zombies climbing on a pipe outside the house. Up to the balcony. It saw Scout.

"That's me," Hanzo said. Only he had the ability to climb up buildings like that. "Do it!" He shouted. "Do it! Please! Kill me before I-" But by then the Hanzo zombie jumped onto Scout and tackled him.

Scout was beyond scared at that point. He screamed loudly like a little girl. Hanzo wanted to help save Scout from himself, but as a ghost, there was nothing he could do, especially since at one point, he almost split Scout's head open and took his brains out. Fortunately, Scout pushed him off just before that happened. When the Hanzo zombie came to, he tried to leap at Scout again, but Scout picked up his gun and blew his head off. Like with mercy, Hanzo sighed, knowing that he was soon to be at peace again. He personally thanked Scout for his bravery and honor, before vanishing into nothing.

Scout wasn't sure if he could do this anymore. Now he knew that these were good people who didn't deserve to die, but yet they were begging him to kill them. "What are you waiting for?" Winston asked. "You're not done yet. Some of us still need to die."

Scout gulped. "OK, all right. I can do this. I'm…doin' 'em a favor. Yeah, that's it." He took some deep breaths, then he said to them, "OK. I got something in my bag that can probably kill all of ya at once."

"That's good!" Winston said. "What is it?"

"Well….I got this," he said, pulling out a frag grenade that Soldier gave him in case of dire emergencies. "If I throw it at the right spot, I can blow ya all up at the same time."

"Good! Do it!" Winston said.

"OK, but this is my only one."

"Throw it."

"OK."

Scout pulled the pin out of the grenade and tossed it on the ground below him. To his surprise, all the zombies ran towards the grenade. The thought of something falling in front of them seemed to interest them much more.

The ghosts of the remaining Overwatch agents sighed. Scout knew by now what was going to happen. "Thank you, Jeremy," Winston sighed, as he vanished.

"Yes, thank you, young one," Ana repeated, before she was gone as well. All the remaining Overwatch agents said their goodbyes to Scout before they vanished.

Scout was left alone. The zombies were gone, but Scout felt really sad now. He felt sorry for all those people who had their lives so cruelly cut short due to the actions of one evil man. He felt weird feeling sorry for those people, but then again, whenever he felt sad over people dying, he reminded himself that the only people he ever killed were bad people. At least that's what he was told. But these weren't bad people. These were good people who had their lives ruined to the point where killing them was the only way to put them at ease. It was so cruel. Why would that Reaper guy ever do something like that? Why would Merasmus agree to it? So many questions ran through Scout's head.

He opened the door. All the zombies were now dead. He could now stand out and wait for the RED Team to come for him. And once he got back to 2Fort, he was going to chew out Engie for not coming here for him.

Just as he stepped out the door, he heard another voice. "Wait!"

Scout knew that voice. "Tracer?" He asked.

Sure enough, the ghost of Tracer stood right behind him. Somehow she wasn't affected by the grenade. "Scout?" she asked. "What…what happened? Why didn't I die?"

"I…I dunno. I thought your body was…with…"

Tracer gasped. "Oh no," she said.

"What?"

"What if my body is somewhere else? What if I'm here, but my body is still in 2076?"

"Well, I dunno. Could be," Scout said, trying his best to come up with an answer to her questions.

Tracer broke down crying. "No…no…I will be like this forever? NOOOOO!" She cried.

Scout felt so bad for her. He wanted to hug her and comfort her, but he couldn't touch a ghost.

"No…" she sobbed. "I'll never be able to touch anyone again. The world needs me, but I can't do anything! And Emily…She could see my body, and…" She couldn't even speak anymore at that point.

"Aw, now…don't…don't cry…" Scout said. "Maybe…maybe…I can get Merasmus and force him to undo what he did to ya…" But Tracer's ghost simply floated away. She didn't want to hear more of this.

Scout felt something on his nose, but quickly sniffed it away. He refused to cry. Crying was for boys. He wasn't a boy. He was a man. Straightening himself up, he ran after her. "Hey! Hey, wait! Where are ya goin'?"

He found Tracer's ghost floating above a building. Being who he was, he quickly climbed up and met her there. "Aw, hey, Trace. It's OK. I…I kinda like ya. I'd be happy to stay with you."

Tracer sniffed. "There's no use in that, luv. I already love someone else, and I can't see again. Even if I did love you, I can't touch you. What good is that?"

"Hey, at least ya still have someone. I'd like to sit down and talk with ya. I'd do anything to make ya happy again."

"Thanks, luv, but the only thing that would make me feel better is if I was dead. I wish I could make you understand how this feels."

"Yeah. I wish I could, too," Scout said.

The two sat on top of the roof for a while. Tracer had to admit, it was nice having someone who actually seemed to care about her stand by her side, but it reminded her that she was unable to maintain contact with anybody anymore.

Suddenly, Scout noticed something moving below. "Hey, what's that?" Tracer didn't care. Nothing could possibly make her feel better now, unless it was…

"Hey, Trace! I think I see ya down there!"

Tracer quickly looked around after hearing that. "Really?"

"Yeah, that looks like ya! Yellow suit, goggles, wonderful ass…" Tracer would have slapped him after hearing that if she could. Still, the fact that her body was there made her feel so much better. She and Scout both dropped to the ground.

To their surprise, Tracer's zombie body, unlike the others, wasn't charging after Scout. It just slowly limped along. Now Scout really didn't want to kill her, since she wasn't attacking him like the others were.

"Come on, Scout, finish me, luv!"

Scout raised his gun, put his fingers over the trigger, but couldn't bring himself to do it.

"What are ya waitin' for, luv? Kill me!" Tracer's ghost sounded anxious.

"I…I can't. I can't kill pretty gals like you. You're…You're gorgeous, Tracer."

She giggled. "If you think I'm cute, you should see my girlfriend. She's a goddess."

"Yeah," Scout said sadly, knowing that even if she was alive, he wouldn't have a chance with her. Still, he just couldn't shoot her. That would mean robbing her from the life she deserved.

"Come on, luv. Do it!" She said impatiently.

Scout's fingers trembled. Now his tears were really coming down, and for once, he didn't try to hold them back. "No…It…It's not fair. It's not right."

"Leaving me here to suffer his even worse!" Tracer begged him. "Please, luv. End this. End my misery." She stood just in front of Scout, with big, pleading puppy-dog eyes. "I'll never forget you, luv. And if I ever see you again, I'll be sure to let you be with me and my girlfriend forever."

Scout tried his best. He aimed at the zombie, and got a little boost in encouragement when Tracer said, "It's better for me, luv. You'll save me and many others if you kill me. Do this for the world. Do this for the people you care about. It's not over. We'll meet again. I know we will now."

Finally, Scout stood up, shoot a pistol bullet at Tracer, getting its' attention. Now the zombie was charging towards Scout, it was just about to leap on him, when he pulled out his scattergun, and shot it right in the heart, causing it to fall over. Then he walked towards it, and, although with some hesitation, shot in directly in the head, killing it.

He looked back over at Tracer, and she felt that her body was dead. She slowly started to fade away, but she looked happy. Even though she couldn't touch him, she still floated over to Scout, made a motion as if to kiss him on the head, and said, "I love you, Jeremy, and I'll see you again someday, preferably with my girlfriend. Goodbye." And she vanished.

Now Scout was alone, in the same spot he was at before. Despite saving Tracer, he felt miserable. Pretty girls like her weren't supposed to suffer fates like this. He would have given anything to bring her fully back to life. He wanted to save her, and not by killing her. She deserved to be saved. She deserved to go back to her time and live with her girlfriend, but instead, she would a zombie, and now dead.

He slowly walked back to the Ghost Fort base. The RED Team still wasn't there, but he preferred that, because with no one around to see him, he sat down and cried his eyes out. It was so unfair, but there was nothing he could do about it. "Why?!" he sobbed. "Why did it…" He couldn't speak anymore. He wailed so hard he couldn't even think properly.

His crying didn't stop for a long time, not even when Heavy and Soldier finally came, ready to kick some zombie ass, only to find a pile of dismembered bodies, and Scout curled up into a ball, crying. They knew something serious had happened, but when they tried to get Scout to talk, he couldn't, so they took him back to base instead and waited before questioning him. When they finally did, they could not believe what they heard, but knew it was true, since Scout never cried, least of all over nothing.

It took just one person to ruin Tracer's beautiful life. It took just one person to end Tracer's horrible life. And it took just one person to have Scout reveal feelings that he never knew he had.

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So, that's my Halloween special. I've really been scrambling to get this one out the door just before Halloween was over. As of the time I'm writing this, it's 9:15 PM Pacific Time, so I hope I made it just in time for some of you.

Anyway, now on to the topic some of you are wondering about: What the hell is going on with the next chapter to his story? Well, you see, a bunch of events popped up at once, which prevented me from getting any further progress done on my main story, Meet the New Life. They're very personal details, so I won't go too in-depth about them, but the long story short is that all those problems are now past me, and I've resumed writing my main story. I should hopefully have the next chapter up within a week.

Anyway, onto some better news: TF2's Jungle Inferno update has hit the web, and IT! IS! AWESOME! I'm back to playing TF2 again, and I am LOVING IT! In fact, I'm now willing to play against anyone reading this, so if you're interested in playing in a match with me, send me a friend request to me Steam account (which is just Rockgod and has the same profile picture as I have here), and depending on my schedule, I would be happy to engage in a match with you. I would like to have several more friends. I have slots for 340 right now, and I need 7 friends in a match with me at once to help me earn an achievement.

Or, even if you don't play TF2, you can send me a friend request to ask me about other things, such as questions about my stories or even about me personally. I may not answer all of them, though.

So that's it for now. Special thanks to GameQ for giving me this idea. His story, Engineer and the Dragon, is a companion piece to mine. Go read it!

Thank you all for reading this, and I hope to be back soon!

Thanks,

Rockgod.