Chapter 10: Keep On Living

Yuri kept driving the pickup truck northwards to where the helipad is located. Estelle sat next to him at all times. Ever since they left Zagi's cabin, she has been spacing out into nothingness and her face is expressionless. Other than her breathing, she is completely still.

Yuri glances at her for a moment before turning back to the front.

Suddenly, the engine stuttered and the truck began to slow down.

"What the?" Yuri said as he looks down at the fuel meter, realizing that the gas has depleted. "Ugh! You're fucking kidding me."

Yuri stops the truck and turns off the ignition. He grabs his shotgun before opening the door and stepping out of the truck. He quickly holds up his shotgun and looks around. After making sure that there isn't a sight of any infected, he closes the door behind it and goes over to the other side.

He opens the door and sees Estelle still sitting motionlessly at the passenger seat. Yuri puts away his shotgun and gently places his hand on her shoulder. Estelle yelped in surprise, causing Yuri to quickly remove his hand. She swiftly turns her head to Yuri and she lets out a sigh of relief when she realizes it was him.

"It's you." She murmured.

Yuri stares at her wordlessly for a moment. "Are you alright?" He asked. Estelle silently nods her head in response. "The truck has run out of gas. We're continuing our journey by foot. Can you walk?"

"Yeah." Estelle said. She unfastens her seat belt and gets out. She closes the door and steps away from the truck.

Estelle stares at the truck and places her hand on the door. "Thank you for being at my side for the last seven years." She uttered. She turned to Yuri as he gets out his shotgun.

"Let's go." Yuri said to her softly. The two walk off with Estelle closely following Yuri from behind.

The two kept on walking through the island until nightfall. When the island is completely dark, they decided to call it a day and get some rest. While Estelle sat down on the grass and rest, Yuri grabs some wood and places them in front of her. He uses a rock and his machete to start a fire. After setting up the campfire, he backs away and sits next to Estelle. He then takes out his transceiver and tries to make contact with Nolan. A minute later, the transceiver successfully detected a signal and Nolan's voice spoke.

"Hello?" Nolan said.

"Hey Nolan, it's me again." Yuri said to his transceiver.

"God dammit Yuri, it's been two weeks! Where the hell have you been?" Nolan asked in both frustration and concern.

"Things got complicated. Sorry to make you worry again. But I'm fine, and so is Estellise. She's still with me." Yuri said. "Send in another helicopter, will you? And don't worry, I remembered the coordinates."

"Certainly. But this time, you better show up. My boss and I got into some trouble the last time, but thankfully my boss is a tough speaker and got us unpunished." Nolan said.

"I can't make any promises, Nolan. So I apologize in advance." Yuri replied. He could hear Nolan sighing heavily at the other side.

"Just be there." Nolan said before hanging off.

Yuri puts away his transceiver before turning back to Estelle who sat motionlessly as she stares blankly at the campfire in front of them. He frowned worriedly at her as she had been mostly silent throughout the rest of the day.

After a few seconds, Yuri gently rests his hand on her shoulder. "Get some rest. I'll stay up the rest of the night and keep watch."

Yuri then tries to get up but Estelle quickly stops him by grabbing his arm.

"Please…don't leave me." She said softly to him.

"Of course I won't." Yuri replied. "I just-"

"Sit next to me." Estelle said flatly with a look of dead seriousness. But her tone quickly softened afterwards. "Please."

Yuri obliged and sat back down. Estelle continues grabbing onto Yuri's arm and rests her head on his shoulder. Yuri could feel Estelle trembling as she began sobbing.

"Yuri…I-I-It was horrible..." Estelle struggled to whimper between her sobs. "Back at the cabin…I saw…horrible things…w-w-worse than…the infected…it's terrible…I…I can't…"

Yuri wraps an arm around Estelle and rests his head above hers. "I'm sorry Estelle." He whispered. "I wish I was there sooner."

"Oh Yuri…" Estelle cried as her tears pour out of her eyes uncontrollably. "I don't know what I'll do without you!"

She began wailing and Yuri tightens his embrace around her, trying his best to comfort and calm her down.

"Ssh, it's okay Estelle. It's okay." Yuri whispered softly into her ear.

"I-I…I'm glad…y-you're alright…Yuri." Estelle managed to choke out between her sobs.

"I won't let anything bad happen to you ever again." Yuri reassured.

A few moments later, Estelle looks up at Yuri with tearstained eyes. "Yuri…" She uttered. "I…I don't know if humanity is worth saving anymore. I mean…we all did horrible things." She paused for a moment to wipe away the tears from her eyes. "Alexei killed all of my friends…that man back there did something horrible and wants to do the same thing to me…and I'm no different either. I captured countless infected and kill them after I experimented on them. And when I finally do cure someone, I killed him in cold blood." She closes her eyes and moan unhappily as more tears began to form. "I'm a monster, Yuri...just like Alexei and Zagi..."

Yuri grimly lowers his head so that his eyes couldn't be seen. "It's okay, Estelle. I'm no different too." Estelle momentarily paused her weeping to look back at him. "I'm a soldier after all. And when I was in Afghanistan, I killed countless people too. Back there, I watched my fellow soldiers, whom I've bonded with and have families and loved ones back in our country, and innocent civilians who are caught in the middle of the battle, die every day right in front of me. It almost drove me to the brink of insanity. To the point that I could no longer show mercy towards any terrorist I see, and just kill them."

He looks back at Estelle who wordlessly stares back at him with tears freely cascading down her cheeks. "Sometimes…I too also wonder if humanity is worth saving." Yuri said somberly. "We kept fighting and fighting every day and for what? Is there anything that we truly achieve by the end of it? Peace? If so, how long will it last? There will always be some sort of violence afterwards."

Yuri then extends out his hand and wipes the tears off of Estelle's cheeks. "That is...until I met you. My mission to protect you and get you out of here made me realized why I became a soldier in the first place. Because I wanted to be a hero. And you gave me a reason to be a hero again. As long as there is someone worth saving, I'll keep on fighting. And you are worth saving." He uttered.

Estelle continues staring back at Yuri for a few moments before she gently places her hand on Yuri's cheek. Yuri pushes away the strands of hair that are dangling in front of Estelle's forehead before closing his eyes. Estelle closes her eyes as well and the two lean forward to each other.

Their lips pressed against each other and they both wrap themselves into a warm embrace. Yuri finds himself falling onto his back while Estelle lands on top of him.

He momentarily removes his arms from Estelle to unzip and remove his bulletproof vest. Yuri then wraps his arms around her again and his hands roam over her back. As they pressed their bodies together tightly, they kissed with great ferocity and moan into each other's mouth. Estelle found herself losing the control she had hoped to maintain and she lets out a cry of satisfaction.

This managed to snap Yuri out of his thoughts as he looks back at Estelle. After realizing what they are doing, Yuri pulls himself away from Estelle and turns his head to the side. "We should stop." He said.

"How come?" Estelle asked curiously.

"I…I would get an erection." Yuri said as his cheeks blushed crimson. Estelle chortled in response.

"Yeah and…doing this on an island full of infected people isn't the best idea, huh? Hahahahaha!" Estelle laughed.

Yuri looks back at Estelle and smiled. This is the happiest expression that he has ever seen from her.

"Yuri, thank you for keeping me alive." She said to him with gratitude.

"You're welcome." Yuri said. "I love you, Estelle."

Estelle smiled back at him as she places her hands on his chest. "I love you too, Yuri." She leans down and plants a kiss on Yuri's forehead. She gets off of Yuri, allowing him to get up and put his vest back on. After he's done, the two sat together in front of the campfire.

"Get some rest. We're leaving early in the morning." Yuri said to her. Estelle nodded before she grabs hold of Yuri's arm and rests her head on his shoulder.

Yuri turns his head back to the front and held his shotgun close to him as he stays up all night to keep watch.

Sovereign: I would like to thank AquaBluey for reviewing and Crimson-Tuna-Sub for checking out my story. Thanks guys!

First of all, I'm sorry that I haven't been updating this story for a while. That's because I choose to take some time off from this story to work on the next few chapters of my other story 'Being With You' because I felt that story is harder and longer to write than this.

I also apologize that this chapter feels a little short but I have decided to save what happens next for the next chapter instead. The good news is that I have planned out the rest of this story and back to updating this and 'Being With You' back-to-back. So expect updates for this story is come regularly every week again. Stay tune, everyone!

And one more thing, I would like to dedicate this chapter to George A. Romero, the master of the zombie genre who had recently passed away. Regardless of whether you like his works or not, you cannot deny the fact that without him, zombies would never become extremely popular in all forms of media and entertainment today and some of our favorite movies and games involving them would never exist.

Rest in peace, George A. Romero. You will be dearly missed.