Author's Note: good golly gee whiz i can't remember the last time i wrote a serious fan fiction, but here u go have some zombies
"Cry, get up! We need to take you to the medic tent! We need to stitch that! We need the pills! We have to something, please!" Felix divulged as defiantly as he could, tears blurring his vision. His gun was in a satchel on his right side, but he had placed a trembling palm on the handle for one reason. He sniffled, "Cry, c'mon!-"
"Damn it, Felix! Don't try to help, I'm too far gone!" Ryan yelled, but his voice was far too dry, and as the last syllable escaped his chapped lips, his throat caught on his saliva and he began coughing and hacking on his own blood. All Felix could do was watch, letting the tears burn his eyelids and letting some ebb down his bloodied face.
Ryan steadied himself, wiping the blood from his lips with his free arm, but when he thought he would get a break, came the worst. After that event, the gaping hole where the flesh had been torn from his forearm began to sting again, sending incredibly painful jolts of discomfort throughout his entire fragile body. As bad as he already hurt everywhere, he winced loudly and shut his eyes, "It's okay, it's okay, it's okay," he thought to himself, trying to bear with the extreme burning, "It'll all be over soon."
Felix almost couldn't bear to look at Ryan this way, so he fixed his eyes on his wound, because that was so much better. It was throbbing grotesquely with every hitched breath Ryan grasped, spilling large amounts of warm blood on everything in its way. The bite was nearly deep enough to see his bone, so a thin layer of tissue blanketed it. It made the sight that much worse.
He flinched and broke sight with his arm when Ryan screamed and lurched forward, spitting blood in Felix's legs as he was sat on his knees. Felix began sobbing, putting his arms on both his shoulders and being careful not to touch the wound. He stubbornly refused to believe that Ryan was dying, that he was wanting to die right before his eyes, even if it meant putting himself at risk to wait it out with him.
"Felix…" The Swede pulled his gaze to Ryan's blue eyes, which were turning rather glossy. Ryan spoke again, "Felix…F-Felix, it hurts!" Ryan grappled for the blond's shirt collar, which he found and yanked him closer. "It hurts, it hurts, it hurts! Please!" he screamed.
Felix reached for his handgun and Ryan suddenly resisted, slapping his arm away from his satchel. "No, not like that! I don't-" He abruptly screamed in agony once more, and Felix was conflicted with emotions. Ryan sat in front of him, screaming and wailing and in so much pain, yet he wanted so, so badly to stay with Felix until he passed on and became one of Them. Felix didn't want him to turn, but Ryan was the one dying, after all.
It should be his decision, he told himself, and it took all of his paucity of strength not to slap the thoughts from his conscience. It was just because of this he didn't notice that Ryan's clamors had died down.
"Fe…lix…"
Said Felix gandered once again at the sufferer, now exhausted and lying impossibly still, as if he were actually dead. He was seemingly struggling to keep his eyes open to see Felix. His hand grappled for Felix's and he took his fingers in his.
"Felix, give… give me the gun," he bayed weakly, causing Felix to shift away to keep his gun out of his grasp. "Give me the gun, please, oh please-"
"No, Cry. You're not-"
"Felix, stop! Don't you see how much pain I'm in, how much pain I'm causing you? Do you?" he screamed as loudly as he could manage, but his last syllable caught in his throat. He began to cough again and the hacking was noticeably dryer than it had been before. Felix cringed.
Ryan breathed again, as if to make sure he was done. "I'm going to die. I'm going to die, Felix, and I'm all ready for it… But I don't want to become one of Them. A screecher." He sat upright; it was as if the pent-up energy he apparently had was being released, and there was nothing Felix could do to stop it. Ryan clenched Felix's shoulder with the wrong arm, and Felix saw the expression that covered his face before shape into a painfully terrified one. A few tears sipped down Ryan's bloodied cheeks. "I'm done for good, and if you won't finish me…" His eyes were glossier now, filled to the brim with fiery, salty water and a hazy blue color. The bright, determined demeanor Felix had once known was becoming dull and faded. He savored every last bit of it, because it was nearly gone.
Ryan took a deep breath. "Give me the gun, and I'll finish the job myself."
Felix couldn't have it. "I'm not going to shoot you, and you're not going to shoot yourself!"
"Kill me. Do it. Shoot me," he pleaded with a twisted grin. "You're the only one holding you back. You can change that."
Felix grappled for his gun, unsheathing it from its case. He hadn't realized how much his hands were trembling until his looked down upon the weapon, covered in blood, asphalt and memories of the horrors they've had to endure. "I…I can't do this, Cry."
Ryan laughed, bringing up a more pained demeanor. "I'm too far gone, Pewds. You're only killing someone who's already dead."
"But I'm killing you, my best friend. Don't you understand how hard this is for me?"
"Just get it over with, then," Ryan snapped.
It took a minute to register what he had said and what was actually happening, but eventually, Felix took a breath full of bloodlust and regret, raising his weapon the slowest he could.
Ryan smiled again as the gun was pressed against his forehead. "Please. Kill me. Get me out of here. I want to be free."
Felix felt the familiar feeling of warm tears spilling down his cheeks. His own gun was pushed against his best friend's forehead, and he was preparing himself to pull the trigger. He didn't think he could do this, but this is was Ryan wanted most in the world right now. He didn't want him to suffer any longer- he was finally willing to give him what he deserved.
Ryan hummed, closing his eyes for the last time. "Free…"
And with a concise flick of his thumb, Felix had clicked the gun.
"Free…"
He pulled the trigger.
As he jumped back in panic and fright, he couldn't pull his gaze away from the sight he saw then. He saw the way his eyes burst open again and how they rolled into the back of his skull, the blood that carelessly splattered everything behind him and stained Felix's hands and clothes, and how Ryan's body went limp and lifeless, sliding to the ground.
Felix could only stare in absolute horror, the only words that kept him sane, "I want to be free...", playing over and over again in his conscience like a childhood music box. The gunshot most likely alerted the closer screechers of his presence, but his mind raced with thoughts that didn't include his own inevitable death.
This is was he wanted. He wanted to be free.
And so did Felix.
His hopes, his dreams and his life were crumbling beneath his feet. A dark abyss of remorse and sorrow opened before his eyes, taunting Felix with the factory of never-ending sobs creaking and groaning to life. He convinced himself he had no choice anymore. The smoke rose from the machine, polluting his aspiring air and suffocating him with an unreal amount of force.
And so, without a thought and still staring wide-eyed at the body that laid beneath him, Felix raised the gun to his temple and pressed the trigger.
With a deafening BANG, Felix was sent on his way to be with Ryan, to be with his best friend.
Felix was free.