Infection Kills 2: Reaper

Chapter 7 - The Decision


'I found it very awkward traveling with a Witch. Not only did I jump whenever she made any sudden movements, but she also had to stop and rest so many times I quickly became annoyed.'

'In the end, I'll probably never get over my fear towards Witches. And I guess that's for the best.'

-Reaper, formerly known as Hunter


We travelled off and on all day for two days. It took us longer than we originally thought due to Abigail's constant need to stop and rest. This morning she even threw up and I began fearing that whatever sickness she had would get worse.

"Is this the place Scratch?" I say as I look into the distance and see a building surrounded by giant vats of dirty water. I sit on a fallen log to relax.

Scratcher gets up from tending to Abigail and walks over to me. "It sure is. I instructed the Charger to get here before us, he should be waiting at the facility. I hope he didn't leave because it took us one day longer than what was expected."

"If he did..." I begin. "I'm sure with some 'convincing' I could rip the grate open myself."

"What do you mean by 'convincing'?" Scratcher asks.

"You will probably find out during our stay in the city." I say.

Instead of replying, Scratcher just rolls his eyes and goes ahead to investigate, Claw follows him.


"You know something?" Scratcher asks Claw. Claw looks at him. "I still can't figure out your friend." Scratcher stops talking as he drops down into a small ravine leading to the tunnel entrance. "He tends to be reckless, I get that." He begins. "But, he doesn't seem to have the traits a reckless person has. He cares about you, cracks a few jokes once in a while. Has fears and inhibitions... a reckless person either doesn't have or doesn't show a lot of these things. It's kinda like he's two different people!"

Claw crosses his arms as he thinks about this. "Reaper has been through a lot. From what I know, he wasn't always like how he is now." Claw drops down into the ravine himself. "He used to be more careful, less reckless, and he actually liked humans. He was even in love with one for a while if what Rose says is true." Claw put his hands behind his head. "I've never seen any evidence of this at all, though."

They continue deeper into the depths of the the tunnel looking for the yet-to-be-seen Charger.


Abigail looks nervously at Reaper, unsure if she should say something or not. She watches as Sion stands up, lights a cigarette, and walks into the woods as to not annoy Reaper with the fumes.

Abigail could tell Reaper was keeping an ever watchful eye on her, he didn't trust her. Despite everything both she and Scratcher had done to prove otherwise. Abigail begins to talk, but before she can, a Charger rushes past heading straight for the water treatment facility. He trips over a bag Claw had left and flies several feet and slides on his face for a few more.

Abigail and Reaper watch as the Charger stands back up and continues running. They also look towards the woods to see a battered Sion walk out of it.

"That idiot ran right into me, dropped my cigarettes into a stream." Sion says in anger. "I'm gonna kill that Charger."

Abigail laughs and Reaper just watches her.

"I'm sorry." Reaper says.

Abigail stops laughing and looks at him, "What are you sorry about?"

He looks at the ground. "I'm sorry I'm being so... cold? I guess? It's just I'm trying to ignore you, because I'm scared of you. And... I know it's wrong. So... sorry."

Abigail smiles. "It's alright. You have your reasons for being afraid. I used to get frightened by Hunters, if that helps at all."

"Yeah but... Witches are much more terrifying." Reaper says.

"Scratcher thinks I'm kind of adorable, though."

"How can someone find a Witch adorable?! ... No offence." I say.

Abigail sighs and folds her arms behind her back so he can't see the claws.
"Ignore the fact that I'm a Witch, and look at me," she says. "Am I really all that different to a normal woman?"

I look at her for a few seconds before saying: "Well, besides the slight glow to your eyes... y- you don't look very much different... from a normal woman." I pause for a second before looking down and saying. "But it doesn't change the fact that you are a Witch. It is not about how you look, it's about what you are."

"But why? Why are Witches so scary to you?!-" She was beginning to get sad.

Memories of my encounter with the Witch that injured me came flooding back.

"-I was almost killed by a Witch. Stabbed me right through the stomach." I say as I lift my jacket to show the scars. "After I was treated and woke up, I was so delusional I even thought some people were that very same Witch. But I had already killed it, I just couldn't remember through the panic."

Abigail says nothing.

"Afterwards I had always been frightened by Witches. They were the only things at the time that could effectively take me down, besides... bullets." I laugh and fold my arms. "Just, seeing the familiar contour of the face, the- the structure of the body. It just gives me visions of me standing there as the Witch shoves her claws through my stomach and screams in my face. I feel life drain from my body and I'm scared because I know that they can do the same thing just as easily."

Reaper sighs and says, "In the end, you think you are safe to be around? That you wouldn't hurt a fly? That you are innocent? Every infected has the urge to kill within them. You can try fighting it... but it will just make you more violent in the end."

Abigail remains silent and looks at her hands. She doesn't speak until Scratcher and Claw arrive minutes later.


"We're back!" Scratcher says as he takes off his pack, and Claw realizes he forgot his.

"Why is all my duct tape all over the ground?" Claw says.

Sion stands up and says, "The Charger ran by rushing towards the plant, he tripped over your bag." Sion approaches Claw. "He also made me drop my cigarettes!" He says angrily. "God damn Chargers."

Sion's eyes go wide as he sees the Charger appear out of the clearing.

"Hey you ass! Get over here!" Sion yells. "You owe me some smokes!" Sion proceeds to chase the Charger, to which the Charger decides he wants nothing to do with, so he runs away.

"When I catch you, I'll kill you! You hear me?!" Sion yells.


"We found the Charger running down the tunnel. He had gotten caught up trying to hide from a human caravan group traveling the interstate yesterday so he couldn't get here until now, which is fortunate for us." Scratcher says.

"So, when are we going to head into the City?" I ask.

"Right now. If everyone is ready." Scratcher says.

Once we had determined that everyone was ready, we began our short walk to the facility and left the campgrounds behind. The sun was almost directly above us, we were burning daylight.

Once we got close the the water treatment facility, my nose almost couldn't take the smell. All of the filters and purifiers that had been cleansing the water of sewage had, unfortunately, stopped working. Leaving the stench of the waste to multiply as it gathered in the vats. I gagged for a few seconds, but was able to slightly get over it. No one else had this problem, however, just proving how my mutation was at a more advanced level.

We arrived at a ravine, filled with stagnant waste water, with sidewalks on both sides for maintenance. We jumped down, careful to not land in the waste. Sion and the Charger both took a ladder down, and Abigail jumped on Scratchers back as he jumped down. A few rats ran by our feet, and one even tried to bite my exposed foot, but instead it was crushed by it. The crunch of its bones breaking was satisfying, and it's little squeak of pain was hilariously pathetic.

"So, how far does this tunnel go?" Claw says from the back.

"It's a five minute walk to get to the grate. Then after that about ten minutes to get to the storm drain." Scratcher says.

"Then you and Reaper have to climb the storm drain to restore power to the elevator that will allow me and the Charger to come up." Sion says.

"Exactly." Scratcher says.

I didn't like being in this small tunnel. We were too vulnerable here. If a group of humans had taken out the grate and were walking down this way, we would all be dead. It made jumpy, and paranoid. I was ready to jump behind Scratcher so he took the bullets. I couldn't dodge bullets with the little amount of room we had.

To my relief, there was no sign of humans at all once we got to the grate. Scratcher wouldn't be a human shield today. Or rather, just 'shield'.

"You ready big guy?" Scratcher says to the Charger, and the Charger replies with a grunt and begins backing up.

I jump across to the other sidewalk and the others follow. We needed to give the Charger all the room he had. We also backed away from the grate, just so no one got thrown if the grate decided to become a revolving door once the Charger hit it.

The Charger puts its giant, fleshy fist in front of itself and begins running. It let's out it's very familiar roar, which bounces around all over the room and causes all Hunters nearby to cover their ears.

The Charger has to hit it twice for it to completely give out. The grate falls with a ear-wrenching crash, and we quickly go through the hole it made.

"This is giving me so much déjà vu." Scratcher says. "This was right before I met you, Abigail."

"I know, I think you've told me before." Abigail says. "I didn't think it would have looked, or smelled, quite like this though." She laughs weakly.

We walked for a few more minutes and eventually came to this giant chasm filled with giant concrete support blocks. This is where the floodwater went.

"Why are so many of these pillars broken?" Sion says as he notices first.

"Oh..." Scratcher says. "About that..." He walks to the edge and looks over. "There's a Tank in here."

"He'll bring this whole place down if he takes out a few more of these pillars, we have to get rid of him." I say.

"Good idea." Scratcher says. "And, speaking of Tanks, I can see him over there."

I take out a pair of binoculars from my bag Sion packed and look through them. In the distance a Tank could be seen tenderizing the dead body of a human. Probably turning it into the equivalent of mush, so it could actually eat it with it's broken jaw and all.

"We can get the jump on it." I say. "Sion, run along these platforms until you are above it. When we attack it shoot it a few times with your revolver. If we get in danger we are relying on you to use your tongue."

"Got it." Sion says.

"Charger, I want you to come down here with us. Sion will lower you down." Sion proceeds to lower him down with his tongue.

"The rest of us will come down and attack it head on. Circle around it and confuse it, and make sure you are outside of arms reach."

Everyone agrees to the plan. Except Abigail.

"I think I'll go with Sion, he can't go off alone." She says.

I am reluctant to the idea, seeing as Smokers prefer being alone in combat. But she did have a point. So I let her go.

"You guys ready?" I say to Scratcher and Claw. They both nod. "Let's go!" I say as I leap off, with Claw and Scratcher following suit. We are in a free fall for 2.5 seconds. Quite an impressive size for a room. I land first, absorbing all the force of the fall into my legs instead of rolling. It didn't make much of a difference. Claw rolls as he lands. And Scratcher lands similarly to me, only more elegant.

We begin running towards the Tank, we look up and see Sion and Abigail running into position. To our side the Charger had been able to circle around the Tank and was ready to charge.

This was perfect.

"SION, NOW!" I yell. The Tank looks towards us and roars, but all we see were two bullets blow through its head, but he's too strong to die from that.

"GO CHARGER!" Scratcher yells. And the Charger rams into the Tank from behind in full force.

The Tank raises it's fist and turns around quickly to hit the Charger, but misses and hits the pillar. As the pillar collapses, Sion is forced to jump to a new pillar, and as Abigail scrambles to follow, she slips and calls out his name. Sion throws out his tongue to catch her, but as she reaches out and grabs it, her claws slice through it like butter.

"Agh, damn it! Reaper, catch her!" Sion yells quickly.

With no time to waste, I jump up and hug the concrete pillar, and then push myself off of it and meet with Abigail flailing around in mid air. In her panic as I catch her, she stabs me in the stomach.

I land on my feet and quickly drop her as I grip my bleeding stomach and fall on my knees. I fall and lay on the ground.

The Tank smelled my blood, and noticing my weakness he runs for me. The Tanks tunnel vision couldn't be taken off of me. Sion is unable to save me as his tongue had yet to regenerate. The Tank pushes his fist off the ground in a sweeping motion and throws me 40 feet into another pillar. On top of my bleeding out, I also couldn't breath. It's a pretty good feeling.

"This... is what I get... for helping." I say as I cough up blood. I take out a rag from my pocket and put it against my stomach and apply pressure. The bleeding slowed down a little.

In the distance I could hear the Tanks death cry, and I could also hear the others running towards me. But then I black out.

"Is he okay?" Claw asks as Scratcher examines Reapers body.

"No, he's not." Scratcher says. "He needs medical attention and we don't have the supplies he needs." He sighs. "He might not make it."

"He has some bandages in his bag, would that help?" Sion asks.

"It would give him some more time, but we need to find some real medical supplies." Scratcher says. "Hey, Charger. Carry him on your back, I can fasten him pretty securely, and I'll pay you double my original offer."

The Charger happily agrees, but declines the pay increase.

Sion slides down the fallen pillar and joins them.

"Sion, let me see some of your tongue." Scratcher says. Sion complies and Scratcher cuts off a good length of Sion's tongue to use as rope. Once he had finished, Reaper was hanging comfortably from the Chargers back.


"Where am I?" Reaper says as he looks around.

He was in a long hallway. In front of him, a person was watching him, but it runs down a corner.

"Hey! Wait!" Reaper yells as he runs after it. "Where am I?!" He yells. There is no answer.

He turns down the corner and runs straight into a solid wall. "Wha- where did he go?" He looks down the hall and sees the person on that end.

"H-hey! Hold on! Don't run away!" Reaper yells as he gives chase again. The figure runs around a corner again.

This time when Reaper turns the corner, he sees the person standing relatively close to him. He runs towards him, and once he gets close he is stopped by a thick pane of glass.

"Hey, let me out! I just want to talk to you!" Reaper says as he punches the glass and it begins to shatter. The figure begins to run.

"Stop!" Reaper says. He breaks the glass and gives chase. The hallway turns into an obstacle course, with hundreds of common infected running past him. Through the group he can still see the figure, a Hunter, running away. He gives chase.

The commons soon reduce in number, and it looks like he is running through some sort of laboratory. The Hunter is waiting for him.

Reaper approaches him. "Why were you running?!" He asks. "I needed to ask you something."

"You are lost." He says.

"What?" Reaper says.

"The answer to your question. You are lost."

"I know that, but where am I?" Reaper asks.

The Hunter says nothing, and begins walking away.

"Hey, hold up!" Reaper says as he follows him.

Reaper follows the Hunter through a door that leads to a room with two infected locked in some glass tubes. Both asleep, floating in water. One had blue water, the other had red.

"You are lost. And need to be found." The Hunter says.

"What do you mean?" Reaper asks.

"You are conflicted. You have two separate personalities locked away within you. Both fighting constantly for complete control." The Hunter begins. "I represent you, when both sides are balanced."

"But, who are you?" Reaper asks.

"My name is Hunter. And you must find your true self." Hunter says.

"But what am I?" Reaper asks.

Hunter smiles. "You are me, and I am you. We are both Hunters, for we are the same."

"And what are these vats for? Why are they two different colors?"

Hunters smile disappears and he walks to the blue vat. "It's simple. This blue vat contains your heroic nature. Your humanity. What makes you kind and compassionate. As well as give you the patience and focus required to dodge bullets."

'The part that I no longer am... at least not very much...' Reaper thinks.

"You relied upon this side heavily when you saved humans. But still had to revert to your red counterpart at times."

Hunter walks to the red vat. "This red vat contains your sadistic nature."

Reapers hands ball up into fists.

"Your infected side. What makes you a Hunter. You relied upon this side heavily when you killed all those humans at the camp in Alaska. It gives you your will to fight. However, you still reverted to your blue counterpart when your friends were involved. Or when you wanted to avoid harm or conflict."

Hunter walks right in front of Reaper and points towards himself.

"I contain your neutrality. I am a perfect balance between blue and red." I then realize his eyes were purple. "I am dying, I cannot maintain this neutrality forever. Even now, I let one side inadvertently take over for periods of time."

"So, you want me to choose?" Reaper asks.

Hunter nods.

"But how can I choose just one without the other? I need both!" Reaper says, outraged.

"Your mental state does not allow this." Hunter says. "There is a way, but you will have to discover this on your own. You will need help before you can discover a true balance between the two, like you used to. For now, you must deal with one at a time. Many will notice your personality shifts."

Reaper looks at his choices with uncertainty.

"If you choose, you can change later, but you can never return to using both at once." Hunter says. "And, you don't have to choose now, I can tell you when I can no longer sustain myself."

"No." Reaper says. "I'm choosing now."

Reaper walks over to the blue vat, and puts his hand on the lever that will wake this side up.

"Wait." Reaper says as he turns to Hunter. "What will happen to you when I pull this lever?"

Hunter smiles. "Pull it and find out."

Reaper keeps his hand stationary for a few seconds, but in the end, he pulls the lever. An alarm rings as blue water begins to rush out of the vat through vents and into the room, coming up to ankle depth.

Inside the vat, the person inside wakes up, and I am surprised to see that he looks exactly like a human. He is human.

"Thank you." Hunter says. Reaper turns to look at him. "Now, I can finally rest." Hunters eyes slowly turn red, and just as he begins to show his savage side, he pulls out a handgun. His handgun. Takes out the bullet with his name on it, slots it into the chamber, pulls back the hammer, and sticks it into his mouth.

"Wait!" Reaper yells. "Don't!-"

Hunter pulls the trigger.


-(CHAPTER END)-


(A/N): It took so many revisions to finally be happy with this chapter. I deleted this chapter and started over three times! This being the fourth attempt. But, I am happy with this.

Question of The Chapter: What do you guys think of Reaper picking blue over red? What do you think that says about his character?

(I swear if any of you say because he likes the color blue better I will TOTALLY... PROBABLY kill you. No joke.)

Anyways, that's the chapter. Plus, all of my previous chapters I typed out that were saved on my iPad were deleted. So, that's a thing that is very unfortunate, especially if I want to go back and redo some chapters. But I'll just have to deal with that later.

Anyways, thank you for reading! And, as always, I'll see you all in the next chapter!