Author's note: Not to spoil anything in this chapter, but this is the final installment. The story is now complete. Please, review this piece, even if you've already reviewed a previous chapter. Thank you for reading; enjoy.
Red Crown command had gone completely dark. Marines were pushed away from the compound, ordered to reinforce the military bases scattered across the island. That was merely to keep their ears away from Battery Park. The power in the compound was completely shut off, and all radio contact had been ceased.
The most secure room in the Red Crown compound was slowly being filled with the remaining Blackwatch troops, guards keeping watch on the single entrance. The guard consisted of two Blackwatch troops, and a single D-code soldier. Every trooper that came up to them was scanned by the D-code intensively. If he found something he didn't like, one of the other guards would shoot the soldier on site. So far, over fifteen Blackwatch troops were discovered to be infected carriers. Their bodies were unceremoniously discarded into a corner of the hallway, awaiting disposal.
There would be no leaks in this briefing.
Once everyone had been sorted, executed, or approved, the single door was locked, and everyone stood at attention as the General made his presence known.
His name was General Stevens, Randall's replacement.
"The Wisemen team has been obliterated, no survivors. And it has been confirmed that Greene is not only still active, but is now in possession, and manufacturing an extremely dangerous variant of the Blacklight virus.
"Every single one of you in this room, will die."
There wasn't even a flutter of displeasure at this information. Every soldier stood at attention, waiting for their orders.
"Zeus halted operation Fire Break under Randall's command. That wont happen again. We are calling in every single Blackwatch operative from Fort Detrick to assault three targets. Zeus, Mother, and the subject from Carnival III."
Carnival III had been revealed to the remainder of Blackwatch on the island after the Wisemen team had been destroyed, as Stevens had already made the decision to sacrifice everyone on the island.
"As you are all aware, the assault is merely a distraction. You, and many other soldiers, are about to make the ultimate sacrifice for your country. I am proud to call you my troops, and I am honored, to be the one to give the order."
General Stevens saluted the troops, the entire room reciprocating the action.
A true testament to a single minded goal; these soldiers, whose existence is beyond top secret, were more than willing to die by the orders of their superior.
Finding Mercer was extremely difficult. He was more than just elusive, he was a goddamned spook. An intangible spirit that had no basis in reality. It was made all the more difficult when the hives began freely producing these wraith creatures. I had no weapons, biological or otherwise, that could destroy the hives, so it was impossible to stop the wraiths from being spawned.
All I could do was avoid them, or attempt to destroy one if it was too persistent.
They were getting stronger, and each one was unique in some way. They adapted beyond simply making themselves stronger, or developing weapons to combat the poor Marines who accidently stumbled onto them. They were independent, intelligent, and biologically single minded. The hive mind went beyond simply guiding them; it created them for the purpose of destruction, and left no room for rebellion.
Which made it easier to give them high degrees of intelligence. They thought tactfully, and even had a sense of self, giving them the capability to not only change their forms, but also their minds on the fly. Yet none of them questioned the authority of the central mind.
It was dangerous to consume them. Since they appeared, I had fought and consumed three of them, and every time their minds became one with mine, I risked being overtaken by the hive mind mentality. It had become a completely different game from fighting walkers and hunters. Their minds held nothing more than an animal's would, and they could be consumed safely. I could touch the hive mind without it trying to reprogram me.
The wraiths were too strong. Not just physically, but mentally. They attempted to consume, even while being consumed. I don't know how many of them I could take into myself before my mind was over written. But it was the only way to kill them. If left unconsumed, they would regenerate, and come back stronger than ever. I made that mistake with the third one, and almost died.
The air had changed. It wasn't just infection that covered the island. It was the cessation of wind, of all movement, including sound waves. The island was already dead. It was just waiting for the moment to come now.
I hadn't seen a civilian in days, and the marines were dwindling. Blackwatch was completely absent, in retreat before something horrible happens. I wouldn't be surprised if they were preparing to nuke the island, successfully. There would be no way to stop it, and I am forced to accept this. It would be the only way to stop the infection now, even if that includes my destruction as well.
But if I could just destroy Greene, consume her, and take control of the infection, maybe I could reverse it. Deconstruct it from the inside. Mercer has to come to this conclusion as well. Despite the wraiths having no knowledge of Greene's location, or plans, they still had a latent understanding of the basic idea. Greene would make her presence known, and she was going to do it soon.
If Mercer was out fighting these wraiths, he would understand this as well. When the time comes, when the apocalypse begins and the veil is lifted, Mercer and I will fight alongside each other, attempting to save the island; the very island we have fucked over innumerable times.
Mother had retreated back into the ground, festering upon herself, feasting viciously on any biological matter she could find. She could see everything now, through the wraiths and the remaining infected carriers in the marines. All contact with Blackwatch had died, but she didn't worry about this. She was too strong to feel that childish emotion now.
Greene waited patiently, knowing the perfect moment to surface was coming soon.
She would finally see her baby again, after being separated for so long. She had endured unimaginable torture for so long, losing everything in her, except for her desire to hold her child just one more time. It was the last bit of human in her, and even that little fragment was twisted and bastardized by the virus. It was the only thing that was strong enough to withstand the virus, even after it consumed her.
Mercer was running away from the newly created wraiths, no longer willing to consume anymore, after having done so over five times. Fighting the infected like this wouldn't work, he already knew this. His single motivation was to destroy Greene, angered beyond belief that she evaded him twice now. He had almost forgotten about the soldier from Carnival III, and barely noticed that Blackwatch had retreated from the island. He couldn't afford to worry about anyone else but Greene.
Blackwatch was mobilized, every single soldier armed and briefed, even those fresh out of training. The experimental group designated as D-code were hastily finished and shipped out to Manhattan, some still recovering from surgery, despite their incredible regeneration.
Every soldier was outfitted with the best technology that DARPA could give out, short of plunging every citizen in the U.S. into poverty.
Blackwatch would cease to not exist, and they were going out with an atomic bang. Hooah.
It was getting closer. The moment Greene was waiting for. I wasn't sure what to look for, what would set off the bomb that was the hive mind.
But it isn't often that you see hundreds of vehicles, both grounded and air born, slowly making their way through the city, shooting literally everything that moves, infected or otherwise.
Blackwatch had completely mobilized, using the heaviest gear I had ever seen. Thermobaric tanks fired upon the hives, fracturing the black armor and angering the wraiths. But they weren't after them. Every time they stirred up a hive, they moved on, as if searching for something.
They must have been after Greene. I stayed out of site, hiding in buildings as helicopters passed over. They left no room for error, hitting everything they saw with full force. They even managed a system for destroying the wraiths, even if only temporary. The soldiers would hit them with everything they had, and D-codes would pile up their remains to be incinerated by flamethrower troops.
They were going to burn down the whole city, one infected creature at a time.
I had never seen Blackwatch behave like this. They were ruthless, and destructive, but never stupid. There had to be some reason for their fearless presence in the face of such a dangerous situation.
Fuck…
They were calling out Greene. Causing so much damage to the members of the hive mind that she would have no choice but to surface to destroy them. All of these soldiers were nothing but fodder. Shock troops. Once she surfaced, they would nuke the island, destroying the infection, Greene, Mercer, the remaining Blackwatch operatives, and me. These soldiers were committing suicide, that's why they fought so well.
There were too many of them, and they were too well armed for me to face alone. I could only hope to find Greene before a tactical nuke turned the surface of this island into glass.
I dropped down to street level and began running, faster than I had ever run before. The helicopters and tanks that spotted me saw only a flash of an alert before I disappeared. No one bothered to chase me. I might have even broken the sound barrier a few short times.
I searched frantically for some sign that Greene was above ground. Running from hive to hive in progress, pushing past wraiths and rarely encountered hunters. My vision had become almost completely blacked out, my eyes searching for Greene's unique infected signature.
I began running up the side of the tallest building I could find, scaling its vertical incline with such force that I left a visible scar on the building's face. I reached the top, and began searching as far as my eyes could see, scanning every relative inch of the island in my view.
I was about to jump down from the sky scraper, returning to my frantic searching. That's when I felt the booming whisper scream through my biology.
"Now!"
The building began to shake, every window breaking almost simultaneously. Cracks appeared in the concrete; metal was fractured and stressed to the point of curling into itself like ribbons on party balloons.
The entire building seemed to sway from side to side, causing me to lose my balance. I nearly fell as biological structures began to emerge from the stressed structure. Fierce spires of red and black burst from the building, reaching higher and widening. I fell along with the concrete and metal as the building was shed like a dry layer of dead skin, a new structure taking form. A massive tower of biomass, straight out of some horror fantasy story. Its roots began to spread viciously, knocking down buildings in the same manner as the former sky scraper.
I hit the bottom of the tower, landing on my back. It took me a moment to right myself, my spine broken. The surface I was on slithered and reacted, the tower continuing to reach skyward. I looked around as it continued to spread out width wise, taking over the central area of Manhattan Island. The tower's structure began solidifying, hardening into a true tower. Some areas remained exposed, becoming sores like those found on hives.
This was Greene's master piece. A true foothold in the island. No amount of military technology, short of a nuclear device, would ever crack this thing open.
I didn't have much time. Greene had to be on or in this disgusting tower. I had to find her and consume her, before Red Crown incinerated everything.
"I believe we're both thinking the same thing."
I turned to see Mercer standing near me. In the past, I would have reacted instinctively, attempting to kill him for Blackwatch, for myself. Now I needed him, more than I needed the destructive force slowly burning through the infected only a couple miles from our location.
"We are. Greene needs to be stopped. If we don't reverse the infection, this entire island is dead."
He nodded, looking up at the tower. I looked as well, seeing the sores pulsate to the point of bursting. A wraith sprung from it, the creature formed so rapidly that it was imperfect. Its body was misshapen, mass in its torso disproportionate to the rest of its body. When it shrieked, it was guttural, like a hunter. Multiple shrieks of various types told me there were more wraiths. They were converging on the now central hive of the city.
As the hive finally finished ascending, it became like a true fantasy structure, a rudimentary stairway forming in a spiral wrapping around the tower. Green was challenging us, knowing that we were here.
The mutant wraith shrieked a second time, leaping at us from its vantage point. I saw Mercer spring upward, meeting it in midair with a blade strike through the torso. He pinned the creature to the tower and began beating into it.
I heard another shriek, a more balanced wraith charging at me, claws formed. I met it with a kick to the head, sending it flying backward. Moving as fast as possible, I charged at it, combined powers of claws and muscle mass formed.
I had to finish it quickly, ripping into its body and consuming it before it could retaliate.
"Your bodies are so beautiful! Holding so many souls within yourselves. You'll make delicious snacks for my children."
I had to physically force myself away from Greene's influence, my mind so dangerously close to being taken over. Looking over, I saw Mercer in the midst of the same struggle. She was actively seeking our obedience now, diving into our minds every time we were close enough.
I looked down from our location on the tower, seeing hundreds of wraiths closing in on us, Blackwatch trailing behind them.
I didn't give myself the luxury to hesitate. I sprinted up the crude staircase, Mercer already ahead of me. He was faster, but it didn't matter. The tower was so massive that it would take at least ten minutes to reach the top, even with both of us running at top speed. And that didn't include the distractions bursting freely from the hive's sores.
The wraiths were unstable, and easy to counter, but consuming them had become a gamble. There was a 95% chance that Greene could take over during the consuming process, and our odds of survival were fading rapidly.
One wraith was too strong to simply punch and run. I was forced to consume it, ripping it up and absorbing its body.
"Yes! Come to me. Mommy missed you."
"Argh! Fuck!"
I squeezed my skull so tightly that I hurt myself.
Mercer was still near me, fighting off two wraiths that had snuck up on him. He threw one off the edge of the tower, consuming the other one.
He clutched at his head, biomass unstable. I watched as he fell to his knees, physically thrashing and fighting off Greene's control. He was stuck in between obedience and rebellion. I punched him in the face, forcing him out of the trance.
He came back into reality, pushing me away and sprinting back up the tower. I followed.
Too much time had passed by. We were delayed too long, and any moment could have been followed by a blinding flash of nuclear light. Red Crown wouldn't delay for long, and were probably already in the process of launching.
We reached the top of the tower, the peak was leveled off and surrounded by massive spires of black and red that reached even further into the sky. The ground was moist and yielding like flesh. It was sickening.
I looked around, seeing what looked like a maw in the center of the tower, teeth sealing it shut.
The wraiths were closing in, finally catching up to us from the staircase. I turned, claws at the ready. A mass of black, shadowy figures were charging at us, eyes so wide they were perfectly round, fanged maws open and searching for flesh.
Once they saw us, they stopped.
I waited for them to resume charging, but they stayed put, despite the wild look in their eyes.
I turned back around, hearing a rumbling sound. The maw in the center of the area opened up, a figure climbing out of it.
Greene. She still looked the same. Disheveled hair, blood stains of unknown sources, and a Gentek project suit. She looked at us with the same intent of the wraiths, only her hunger seemed to stem beyond the simple need for food. She needed something else, something that Mercer and I had.
Her right arm transformed into something similar to the whipfist, the tendril reaching out to impale me. I dodged it, using my blade arm to cut it off before it could retract. Looking forward, I saw Mercer charging, blade also formed. She used a second whipfist from her left arm to keep him away, striking him with a powerful slash.
I thrust my left claw forward, recalling something I learned from the wraiths. I launched a spear of black material from my palm, the piece aimed perfectly at Greene. Before it could strike her, she formed a shield to block it.
Her shield was much stronger than my own, the spear shattering on impact.
Mercer was back on his feet, and now close enough to strike at Greene with a flurry of blade attacks. She blocked as best as she could, shield barely holding up.
I charged as Mercer attacked, seeing an opening.
As Mercer managed a slash across Greene, I struck the shield, shattering it. She seemed to panic for a moment, before releasing a large amount of biomass from her body.
Tendrils erupted from her, piercing through Mercer and I instantly, pushing us back and continually damaging our bodies.
I fell to my hands and knees, throwing up the damaged material within my body.
Looking up, Mercer was already up and fighting, already recovered from that horrible attack. He was much stronger than I was, and he was holding his own against Greene, much better than I was.
Heaving and evacuating the last bit of blood from my internal wounds, I got back up, my body already regenerating.
I ran toward them, jumping high into the air, blade above my head. Swinging down, I aimed for Greene's head. As I was coming down, I saw her eyes widen. She performed a series of nimble back flips to avoid my devastating strike, Mercer almost caught by it.
He jumped over me, leaping more directly into Greene. He managed to stab her in the shoulder with his claw, blade arm held of by her own set of claws. I ran to them, skidding through her legs, causing her to fall.
As she lost her balance, Mercer got on top of her, blade dangerously close to her face. She struggled against it, claws pushing back with all the strength she had.
She turned to the group of wraiths, calling out in her raspy voice.
"Help me!"
Four wraiths immediately ran forward, shrieking desperately.
I got between the wraiths and Mercer, ramming both claws into the fleshy tower. I sent as much biomass as I could through the tower, a nearly complete wall of spikes erupting under the wraiths. The spikes pierced their bodies, stopping their advance. I disconnected the biomass from myself, keeping this wall in between us and the wraiths, even if only temporarily.
Greene had managed to get out from under Mercer, fighting against him with her own blade. I rammed my claw into the ground again, sending a more conventional groundspike attack in her direction. She didn't anticipate this, getting caught in the small collection of spires. Mercer followed through with a few slashes and strikes from his blade.
Retracting the spikes, I charged forward. Greene was getting weak.
I began cutting into her with my claws, ripping out her flesh.
She tried to counter with her blade, and with the strongest blow I could muster, I slashed through her shoulder, severing her blade arm from her body cleanly.
She jumped back, holding the slowly regenerating wound.
Mercer and I charged at her simultaneously, ready to finish her off.
I grabbed onto her left arm, while Mercer took her newly regenerated right arm. We pulled with all the strength we had, hearing Greene's body stress and pop and we pulled her apart.
I felt the tendrils come out of my back, piercing through her in an attempt to take her biomass.
Her mind shrieked within my own, struggling against being consumed.
"No! NO! MY BABY! I NEED TO FIND MY BABY!"
I continued to pull, both physically and mentally, feeling her fight harder than anything that I had ever consumed before. Her voice had begun speaking in gibberish, screaming in nonsense words, flashes of images I couldn't understand bursting in my mind. She was struggling so violently that I feared for my own sanity.
As I continued to pull in Greene's biomass, I suddenly saw something I wasn't expecting.
I saw a vial of a concentrated disease hit concrete and shatter, a plethora of voices and faces surging forth. I felt the emotions of thousands of dead people in their very peaks, emotions I had the capacity to feel. I saw thousands of lifetimes pass before me, lives I lived through an infinite amount of times.
Then I felt it happen all over again, through my own eyes.
The collective that almost claimed me so long ago, the same collective that killed me that day on road block duty, it was mine. All mine. Rather than being filed into the collective, I filed it into my own catalogue.
Greene's struggles ceased, her biomass and shattered memories slipping into Mercer and I. Looking at my enemy turned comrade, I could tell he experienced it too. As we consumed Greene at the same time, we also consumed pieces of each other. We both knew everything the other had to know. I was as strong as him, and he was as strong as me.
I felt a foreign power surface, a control that I had never been able to exert. I could see through the eyes of the wraiths, who had broken down the wall of spikes I had erected earlier. All of their eyes were on us, no longer seeing us as enemies. I was a part of the hive mind now, a higher order mind capable of controlling these monsters.
I tried to see what control I had over them. I tried to give the order to cease infection, make them retreat into death. They wouldn't respond. I tried harder, trying to make them do anything, even simply take a step forward. They wouldn't follow any orders.
Then I felt it. Something else giving orders as well, orders that they were refusing.
Mercer.
He had consumed half of Greene, and therefore held half of her authority. These wraiths, although highly intelligent, were still animals, and a pack of animals like these couldn't have two alphas. One of us had to die, and prove our superiority before the wraiths would follow any orders.
As I looked at him, Mercer seemed to come to the same conclusion. Our claws formed at the same time, both of us moving in a circular motion.
Perhaps it was something that was set in motion, long before either of us was born. Our entire lives written out to come to this point in time. Two creatures, less than men, but more than gods.
We struck at the same time, the universe falling silent. Even our clashing, which generated sparks, produced no sound. Claw against claw, fist against fist, blade against blade. Every subtle move, every powerful strike was met with its equal.
Our violent clashing began to take its toll on the tower, spires erected by the late Greene collapsing and making a free fall to the dangerously distant ground.
That's when it hit me. A fall from this height would kill anything, even one of us. Our bodies could take an incredible impact, but not from a fall from this height. If I could knock us down from the tower, and I could keep a hold of Mercer, I could keep him under me as we fall. His body would absorb the impact, and I could consume him. It would no longer be a fight of strength, but a fight of luck. It was the only thing that would work.
I continued my barrage of fruitless claw swiping, slowly making my way to the edge of the tower. Any extra velocity I could put into our fall would only help more. I made a false attack, knowing he would reciprocate it. As he followed through with his attack, I grabbed onto his arm, pulling him with me as I let us fall of the edge.
Before he could try to grab onto anything, I kicked off from the tower with every bit of strength I could exude from my legs. That launched us away and down from the tower, my grip on Mercer still tight.
He struggled against me, now knowing what I was doing. I switched my claws for muscle and began punching him in the face, still holding onto him as we rocketed through the air. He tried to make his biomass lighter, doing anything he could to rip himself from my grip, to slow his descent. I wouldn't allow it.
I could see the ground getting closer. I kept Mercer below me, holding him in position as the wind whipped at us. He continued to struggle, looking over his shoulder at the rapidly approaching land.
Slowly, (as slow as a high speed free fall can be) he ceased struggling. He looked up at me, his face calm. He grinned, the first time I had ever seen such a thing on him.
"Good job."
His words were followed by a deafening impact. A hollow boom so loud that every undamaged building within a five mile radius experienced spontaneous window shattering. The ground gave way first, the beginnings of an impact crater forming as Mercer's form broke. Every bone in his body disintegrated, a large amount of his hardened flesh vaporizing as the crater widened. I felt the impact as well, feeling some of my own skeletal structure giving way to the tremendous impact I had incited.
Consciously, I reached out to absorb Mercer's body before it disintegrated completely. As our inertia was finally halted by the ground, Mercer was no more, and I was completely healed.
I stood up in the center of the impact crater, feeling the final pieces of my innards going back into their rightful places. I looked around, seeing the massive tower I had just fallen off of. I could see clearly through the wraith's eyes, and their eyes were on me, despite not being able to see that far. I had absolute control now. The tower began to groan, the sores drying up and ceasing wraith production.
The tower was no longer receiving unconscious commands such as "breathe" or "digest". It was slowly becoming inert, dying from the inside out. The wraiths wouldn't die so simply, but I could still get rid of them.
But I was too late.
Through one of the wraiths fighting against the Blackwatch troopers, I could hear their radio chatter. The nuke had already been launched.
My mind became blank, unable to accept the inevitable reality I fought against so viciously.
Everything I worked for, all the fighting for my survival, all the fighting for the city, for humanity, all of it was about to be wiped out. I lost everything trying to fight the infection.
I don't even remember my own name…
Reaching up, I begin removing my mask. Taking off my helmet and goggles, my gas mask. I let them fall to the ground. Finally, I remove my balaclava, revealing my face and hair to no one.
I breathe in as deeply as I can, feeling clean air for the first time in my life.
My mind begins to reach desperately for something to hang onto. I see childhood memories that don't belong to me. Times of peace and simplicity, before the world was made out of nightmares and malevolence. I see millions of first kisses, millions of children being tucked in for the night, millions of nights staring up at the stars; millions of Christmas mornings and puppy licks and warm hugs. I see it all, and it grants me no peace.
I look to the sky, hearing the garbled impact of death as a light brighter than a thousand suns overtakes me, and the dreams of an entire city.
