Alright, here we are. The last chapter (besides the alternate ending). I'll have the alternate ending up within 24 hours of this one! Sorry this one is kinda short compared to others. November has been rough month for writing (reached 60k words in my NaNo piece and wrote about 20k+ MORE for two different pieces) and I just. . . couldn't pull anymore out haha. The alternate ending will probably be bigger.

Small cracks were forming in the Plexiglas. Robert had stopped talking and Anna and Ethan were just sitting in the corner of the little cage, cowering together while tried to tell Ethan that it was all going to be okay. Again and again the monster slammed against the glass, and Alexis was too battered to help anymore.

Then, the cracks spread out across the glass one last time, and for Robert, time seemed to stand still as he looked at that pattern in the glass.

A butterfly. The cracks formed the distinct shape of a butterfly with its wings spread.

Look at the butterfly.

Tears jumped to Robert's eyes as he heard the sound of his daughters soft voice, and a brief flash of memory from that night when his family had died. His daughter's hands together, mimicking the way a butterfly's wings flapped. . . .

Robert turned his head to the side to check on Anna and Ethan. Anna's head was tilted over Ethan's comforting him and shushing him while he quietly whimpered and sobbed. There, on her neck, was a small butterfly tattoo.

Realization swept over the aging man and he turned to look at the window again. Time seemed to return to normal and the Alpha slammed again and again into the glass, determined to get to the people on the inside, now helpless and unarmed. Robert knew what he had to do now.

Maybe. . . . Maybe God did have a plan after all.

Moving toward a table against the wall, Robert rummaged through the drawers until he found an open syringe. Anna watched curiously as he removed the IV from the Infected woman's arm and stuck the syringe through it, filling the vial with her blood.

"What are you doing?" Anna asked.

"The cure is in her blood," Robert explained, capping the vial with a rubber stopper and walking over to Anna, who was now on her feet. "I need you take this."

Anna stared at him, confused. "What are you. . . ?"

Robert moved a table away from a coal shoot and threw it open. "I think this is why you're here," he said.

Alexis shifted and turned her head slightly to see what was going on, blood dribbling down the corner of her mouth and a gash in her head.

Nodding, Anna pushed Ethan inside and turned toward Robert. "Aren't you coming?"

"I have to finish this."

"Robert, there's room for both of us! What are you doing?"

Smiling ruefully, he started to close the door. "I'm listening. Wait until dawn."

Closing them inside, Robert walked over to where Alexis was kneeling. The Infected were snarling and hollering, and the Alpha paused for a minute, trying to decide what they were doing.

Alexis turned her head to the Infected and let out a low snarl. They paused in their seeming cat-calling and the Alpha stared at her, disgruntled, but. . . somehow. . . respectful. When the sounds had died down, Alexis turned her head back to the man who had saved her that year and a half ago, a smile on her face.

"Alexis, Alexis you have a little time to get back up the stairs. You need to move now," Robert advised, his hand against the glass.

Her shoulders shook in what seemed to be a laugh. "Robert. . . . I can't. Not by myself. I'm not. . . I'm not leaving this spot. You do. . . what you have to," she reassured him, her hand coming up to press against the other side of the glass, where his hand rested. "You've already saved me once. I think. . . I've run out of luck."

Tears formed in both their eyes and Robert shifted from his crouching position. "Anna has the cure. . . . I promised I'd fix you, Lexi. I promised."

"And you found the cure. . . Robert. . . . Don't let. . . don't let it go to waste. Our families. . . . Our families are waiting," she replied, her hand sliding down the glass and her head coming to rest against the pane, blood smearing slightly as she moved.

Robert's eyes glistened with tears and he fought back the tears, walking over to an another drawer. The Infected Alpha had started up again and a chunk of glass fell from the pane, a hole forming. Painfully slowly, Robert pulled out a hand grenade and a picture of his daughter and wife. He smiled at them, then smiled at the woman he had loved like his daughter.

Turning toward the Infected, he pulled out the pin, squeezing the handle to keep it from going off too early. Tears leaked from his eyes, but he was dead-set on this. He knew what he had to do, and Alexis was resigned to it at well.

"I failed you Alexis," he muttered quietly. "But I won't fail anyone else."

Alexis's eyes closed, and she bit back the sobs forming in her chest. The tears fell freely, though. She hated this. But at least. . . at least Bobby was waiting. . . and her mother and father. Behind her closed eyes, she saw them all and she let the sobs out.

Then, the glass broke and Robert released the trigger, lunging to meet the Alpha in mid-tackle.

And the flames consumed everything.

Anna heard the explosion. Felt it rattle the door she and Ethan hid behind. She didn't know what it meant. Didn't want to think about what it could mean.

Deep inside, though, she knew.

It seemed to go on forever, the silence. Neither her nor Ethan dared make a sound for fear something was lurking out there, waiting. They didn't dare peak out until the sun started to peak and fill the coal shoot with light. The two of them waited an eternity before finally climbing out.

She pressed Ethan close to her once they were free of the cellar, hiding his face against her side.

Protecting him from the devastation.

It was hard, but she did her best to ignore the charred corpses. Did her best not to try and guess which one was Robert. Which one was Alexis. Anna would have time to mourn later. She had Ethan to think of right then.

Precious cargo to care for.

They walked straight through the house, stopping to gather nothing but the essentials, barely speaking.

"You're doing good, Ethan," she would murmur occasionally, just to keep the boy's spirits up. She could tell he had withdrawn deep within himself, and that worried her.

There were plenty of cars at the front of the house that hadn't been destroyed in the explosions the night before. Anna found Robert's stash of keys and took her pick—a dirty SUV with a full tank of gas. She knew how to siphon if she needed to, but she would need the power to get up north.

Robert might not have believed. She didn't what Alexis believed. But she knew what she believed. And north was their shot.

She loaded Ethan up into the backseat of the car, took one last look at the house she had barely gotten to know. Remembering the people she had only just met, but came to respect all the same.

Then, she was on the road.

She had a cure to deliver.

In 2009, a deadly virus burned through our civilization, pushing humankind to the edge of extinction. Dr. Robert Neville dedicated his life to the discovery of a cure and the restoration of humanity. On September 9th, 2012, at approximately 8:49 P.M., he discovered that cure.

At 8:52, he and his assistant Alexis Banes gave their lives to defend it.

We are their legacy. This is their legend.

Light up the darkness.