Chapter 9

Sacrifice

As the night drew to an end, the few blades of grass that remained perked up their faces towards where they knew the sun would soon be appearing. Where they knew they could get their feast of light, and if they were lucky, a downpour to quench their dying thirst burning deep within them. The moon was no longer visible in the sky, and neither was the sun.

The Colony hung in that moment between Dusk and Morning time, when nothing was visible outside but the gray skylight. The ugly silence that followed when no birds were quite ready to chirp yet. The one time of the day when no humans were awake. The ugly time of day when neither the sun or the moon were anywhere to be seen. Those waking up had nothing to compensate for the fact they had just entered into another day in this god-forsaken world. No beautiful sunlight, no soft, calming moonlight. At least it wasn't raining.

But there was a certain beauty about that moment that signaled the coming sunlight, the oncoming day. The day when the future of the earth was on the line, the day when all lives were risked, were made or broken. That was the day when a fifteen year old boy would discover exactly what it was that made that moment so beautiful. The time before the humans were awake, that forced those who roam the night to finally sleep.

The screams of the infected buried the sound of the night outside as I poked my head out of the manhole. It was the dead of night, no help anywhere, there I stood, looking on an empty street, not seeing them anywhere, but hearing them everywhere. Numbers in my head, chip in my pocket, gun at my waist, I waited silently. I dropped down beneath the manhole, covering the hole perfectly with the top to once again conceal my presence. I was completely immersed in darkness as I waited for the sound I knew was coming.

I waited there for what seemed like an hour until finally I heard a very large "POP!" that overcame the infected's scream. Then there was a very large hissing sound and I could feel a current rushing up past me and popped off the top of the manhole. That was my queue. I climbed out and sprinted towards the tower. I heard the infected screaming, but not at me. Their screams were those of agony, and not of anger and hunger. The sight of three infected lying on the ground, writhing in pain flashed past my eyes as I sprinted towards the water tower. My foot hit a rock and I tripped over and fell to the ground. I felt my elbow scrape against the concrete, and only then did my vision catch up with my thoughts.

I quickly got up to begin my sprint again, but there was a hand on my ankle. I looked down to see an infected clinging to me from the ground, where it was sprawled across, looking hopeless. It was an infected, but not like before. It wasn't angry, not hungry, not..evil. It's strength had left it's body, and now all that remained was the person that had once been. Then the infected was a person again, just a man, a sad, hungry man.

"H-h-hhh-eellp mee." He groaned, staring up at me with begging, desperate eyes. I lingered for a moment, debating whether to help him. Until I finally decided he needed me. But when I bent down I saw his nails had become black again, and his eyes were solid black. He had what I had now, and if it weren't for the frequency playing in my ears from the headphones I had been given, I would be just like him.

Then something bad happened, something that made me seriously doubt how effective this plan would be. I saw his eyes flicker, then become white again, his skin became pale, and I could see the KV virus struggling with this new virus. Which one was more powerful? Would the frequency still save those with KV? I didn't have time to find out. The time was now. It was do or die.

I Took off towards the radio tower, a sea of those with a dominant KV virus trailing dangerously closely behind me, and gaining. I flung myself at the latter up to the top of the tower, and frantically turned around as I began climbing it backwards with one hand. My other hand reached into my pocket and grabbed a helmet. I flipped the switch and UV light shone from the top of the helmet and I put it on my head. The infected fell back as I shone it at them, but only for a moment. That moment gave me the head start I needed. I was at the top of the tower before the infected had recovered from their shock. I slid the chip out of my pocket and into the indicated slot on the radio tower. I entered the numbers on the keypad frantically as the infected climbed to the top of the tower. The radio needed ten minutes to work, but I had roughly ten seconds before the infected devoured me whole.

I sank to the ground and buried my head in my hands, as I prepared myself for the doom I had been waiting for years to come. Unlike the last times I thought the end was near, this time I felt sadness. I finally had let myself get caught in the moment, in the hope we might actually survive. Now it was all going to end. I opened my eyes and stood up. The infected leapt at me with a deadly look in their eyes. I raised my fist and let it go, feeling it make contact with an infected's head. Another one landed on my back, sinking it's teeth into my shoulder and bringing me to the ground. I reached and grabbed my pistol and began shooting off in directions. As I felt teeth sink into me in many places, I let myself give up. Shielding my face, I freed my legs and kicked some in the face. If I was going down, I was going down with a fight. Then a thought occurred to me. What if they destroyed the tower, what if it had no effect.

I summoned all of my remaining strength, and rolled myself off the edge of the tower. I began tumbling down, infected all around as we made the forty foot drop to the ground. I opened my eyes and tried to land on my feet. I felt my legs snap as pain flooded my body. Then there was nothing attacking my body, and I was left with my pain for a few moments before I managed to sit up and open my eyes. The KV virus was fighting those with the other virus, those that had managed to become...almost...human. There were more of the day creatures then there were KV, but the KV was stronger, and we were losing the battle. The creatures of the day were pinned on the ground now, as the KV began their feast. I screamed and looked up to the sky, blood filling my mouth. My vision was blurred for a moment, then, my eyes feasted on the beautiful gray of the gray sky between night-time and morning.

After

John passed out from a blood loss, but was quickly revived in a nearby hospital. The frequency being broadcast rescued the infected from their virus, and left the world in a state of shock. Towns all around the world are being rebuilt, however some forms of the KV virus had become so developed that the frequency has not cured them. Now humans and infected live at constant war, both trying to establish their own community in their own world. But how it will end, no one knows.

The End