Brecken's eyes scanned the group, trying to find the runners he had sent out. After three quick views, he found nothing but the angered faces of the people. They were all shouting at him, calling him a liar and a fake. His entire position was on the line, and he somehow needed to fix it.

"Calm down, everyone." Brecken rose his voice, but kept it at a tranquil tone. "Now, I know I'm in a sort of bad light right now but-"

"Oh, shut the hell up! Why should we believe what you say?" One man had shouted. This didn't really falter Brecken's posture, but he found himself a bit annoyed. He listened in on more comments being flung around.

"Yeah, the runners said that you didn't want to kill that Volatile that's running loose around here. Why is it so important?"

"Kill the Volatile!"

"We should kick Brecken out of here! He's putting us all in danger."

"This man has lied to us, and he will keep on doing so if we don't stop him now!"

Brecken closed his eyes and began rubbing his temples, trying his best to keep calm. He tried his hardest to keep himself serious, but if he didn't do something hasty now, he would have to suffer the consequences of tomorrow.

"Kill it!"

"Bring Crane back!"

"Brecken for the dumps!"

"Crane would have done something about this! He should be in charge!"

The mere mention of Crane had slowly pushed him now. And in one last final intake of breath, Brecken let his voice boom throughout the entire floor, startling a few of the people there.

"QUIET DOWN!" The whole floor suddenly grew silent, the sound of breathing audible. "Now listen up! Call me the names you want to call me. You can kick me out, and you can decide to want to kill the Volatile! But the thing is, we can't kill that thing!"

The chatter began again, and more questions than rude comments were shot.

"Why not?"

"It's an extremely valuable person who, even now, still provides for us all."

"Who is this so called 'Valuable Person'?"

Dead silence. It was as if time itself had stopped. Brecken could hear his own heartbeat, a drum being played rapidly.

"This valuable person... Is Kyle Crane."

The sound of confusion sprang throughout the ever growing group. Brecken could see people from the first floor already in the crowd.

"How could that be? Crane is still out in the Countryside collecting that cure."

Brecken shook his head. "No, he's not. At least, not anymore."

"What happened? Why is he... like that?"

"In the Countryside, there was a cult by the name of "The Children of the Sun", and their leader was a woman. However, this woman had suffered the same fate as Crane; She turned into a Volatile by accidentally drinking the supposed cure."

"This can't be... No infected can even comprehend basic talking."

Brecken overheard this and continued.

"This is different. This substance has altered so much about Crane, from his physical appearance, to his emotional state. The man can barely handle his own fever dreams! Yet, it has somehow kept his sanity and his mental state alive, not completely overridden by the infection. Lena and I can't even begin to comprehend how this thing works, but we are extremely glad that Crane is still alive."

The sound of chatter played once more, but it was a mix of confusion and astonishment. The people kept on talking to each other, and the voice of a child broke through.

"Can Crane come back here?"

Brecken closed his eyes. He kept himself calm and answered.

"I would say yes, but that wouldn't be telling the exact truth." The man said. "Because although Kyle can control himself, it's only during the day. At night, that is when he becomes the monster he was meant to be."

"How do you know he becomes this?"

"A couple days back, he had raided The Garrison so that we could at least survive for a while longer. When I went to obtain the items, it was already growing late so I decided to stay. He had forced me to leave, but I had to find out whether he could truly control this or not."

Brecken looked around, now seeing that everyone was listening intently. He continued.

"I witnessed it all. The change from the man of sanity to the monster of complete savagery and darkness. He screeched straight into my face when he finished, and I felt the fear crawl it's way up my spine, but I had to keep myself together. I told him not stop fighting his instincts. I forced him to hear things that had somehow given him enough strength to stop the monster from taking control. He fainted, but it worked!"

And once Brecken stopped talking, many people didn't know what to say. No one had time to react to something so astounding and terrifying. This whole retelling had just about scared everyone half to death.

And it stayed this way for a good minute, before someone finally snapped back to his senses and spoke up.

"If I could choose to let him in, I would say yes." The man said this and nodded when he finished. Many looked at him and began saying their own suggestions as well.

"Are you crazy? That man is going to kill us while we're asleep!"

"Don't think like that. Crane has, and always will be, the person who helps anyone, even when he's at his lowest."

"Ha! You made a good joke! The only thing he's going to be helping is the Volatile!"

"Stop saying these things!"

"You need to open your eyes to the dangers of this decision!"

Brecken covered his eyes and shook his head.

"My God, what the fuck do I do?" The question ran through his head, but he couldn't come up with any sort of suggestion. He felt someone tugging at his shirt, but he brushed them off. And suddenly, he was turned around and came face to face with Lena.

"Brecken, what the hell do we do?"

Brecken looked her straight in the eyes, and for once in his time of leading the Tower, felt that he had lost his hope completely. He had been rung dry of it, and felt like something was impeding him from pressing forward.

Lena could see the stress and lack of enthusiasm just by seeing into his eyes. It was time for her to take matters into her own hands.

"Alright, listen up people!" Lena rose her voice to be able to be heard. "Clearly, we all have mixed opinions on this. Some of us find Crane to be an extremely lethal creature, while others still think of him as the man that he still is."

"And truth be told, he's a bit of both. However, I know for a fact that this man is still capable of controlling himself. He has helped us throughout his time here. Perhaps it is time for us to come and help him."

"So, we will stay here and make a vote. Will Crane be able to stay here and take care of the people who took him in? Or will we keep him away like the creature he was meant to be, only for us to know that he defied all our expectations?" Lena said all of this, and still, people had a negative view of Crane.

One hand rose up with one finger. Soon after, many more hands began arising from the crowd, all of them pointing one finger toward the sky. This made her become a bit more calm, knowing that many were still in support of Kyle. Quickly, she counted the number of fingers, and told them that they could put their hands down.

After the voters sunk their hands back down, others began raising their hands with two fingers instead. Although she hated to do so, Lena counted these fingers as well. Despite the fact that many people had voted "No", the number of "Yes" votes had come out as the larger of the two.

Lena breathed out, her faith in the Tower not fully destroyed.

"Alright! It's settled then. Crane is now allowed to come back to the Tower." Lena said out loud. Although some people were hesitant about the idea, they didn't oppose to it.

The medical expert turned around and saw Brecken leaning against the wall, the life within finally coming back.

"I really have to thank you for this Lena." Brecken said. "I don't know what went wrong with me. I just felt like I couldn't do anything, as if I couldn't help with Kyle's situation."

Lena shook her head and caressed the man's cheek.

"You shouldn't worry about that anymore." Lena softly spoke. "You just needed someone to help you get the message through to the people."

Brecken smiled lightly and began hugging Lena. Although it was a bit out of character for the man, he didn't care at the moment.

"Maybe we should call Kyle and tell him the good news." Lena said, her voice slightly muffled by Brecken's hug.

"Yeah, that's a good idea." Brecken chuckled as he let go of the woman, taking out his walkie afterwards.

"Crane, do you copy?"

"Yeah, I do. Is something wrong?"

"No. In fact, I have some good news for you."

"Good news? That's something we don't get often."

"You're right about that." Brecken said in between small chuckles. "No, but listen to this. Lena and I finally got the Tower residents to vote on whether you could come back or not."

"My guess is that a lot of them said yes?"

"Yes, many of them did." Said Brecken. "However, there are others that don't really like the idea of staying in the same building as a Volatile. They'll get used to it though."

"And if you want to come back, you can do so at any time. Although if you do come today, it would perhaps be a bit better. People won't be on edge wondering what you look like, act like, etc."

"Yeah, you do make a point." Crane's voice crackled through the device. "I'll pass by in about ten minutes. I'm not too far from the Tower."

"Ok. I'll be sure to tell the people."

"Let's hope I don't scare anyone when I get there."

Brecken stifled a laugh and answered. "No, they shouldn't be as terrified anymore."

"Heh, I doubt that." Crane scoffed. "But I'll take your word for it. Anyways, I'm going now. I'll be there shortly."

"Ok. We'll be waiting for you."

The next chapter may, or may not, be a short one. The main reason for this is because a key event is coming up soon. ;)