Chapter 11: Splash

When the sun rises up in the sky, Estelle woke up from her sleep and finds Yuri still sitting next to her wide awake. Thankfully, not a single infected came after them all night but this costs a good night sleep for Yuri.

Yuri turns to Estelle who moans as she stretches out her arms. "Hey there, had a good night sleep?" He asked her with a gentle smile.

"Yeah. But I can see that unfortunately for you, you didn't." Estelle said as she instantly notices the ugly gray bags sagging underneath his black eyes.

Yuri lets out a yawn and shakes his head. "It's okay. I'm used to it." He said as he rubs his eyes with his finger and thumb. "Let's move."

He and Estelle both get up from the ground. Yuri stomps and rubs his boot onto the now-disintegrated campfire before turning around. Estelle grabs onto his hand tightly before they walk off.

The rest of the morning was rather uneventful. They cautiously walk through another forest filled with tall trees and large bushes. After her traumatic experience with Zagi yesterday, Estelle sticks closely behind Yuri while tightening her grip around his hand. As long as she felt Yuri's presence, she felt completely safe and relieved. Yuri held his shotgun up with his other hand and stayed vigilant as he escorts Estelle through the large forest.

They kept walking forward, eventually realizing that the forest was thinning as they move on. When they reach the end of the forest, they widen their eyes as they see what lies beyond it and currently in front of them.

It is a small deserted town. The buildings look boarded up and run-down, just like the previous two towns Yuri have visited before. The helipad which Nolan instructed them to go must be located somewhere inside.

Yuri shrugged. "Well, another abandoned town. What else is new? Let's get moving."

"Yeah." Estelle uttered.

The two trudge their way through the tall grass and head towards the town. As they walk through the town, Yuri and Estelle turn their heads around and examine the abandoned buildings at both sides of the road. They once mostly serve as shops and eateries. Now they serve as charnel houses with corpses lying inside and outside of the buildings. One building has a car rammed through the window and the corpse of the driver still sat motionlessly inside the car. The entire town is eerily silent, only broken by Yuri and Estelle's footsteps on the rocky road.

Yuri and Estelle see two damaged cars and an abandoned tour bus parked horizontally in front of them. There doesn't seem to be any sort of opening through the vehicles, so the only way is to climb over them.

They walk over to the damaged car parked in front of the bus. Yuri climbs up onto the top of the car. He turns around, kneels down and extends his hand out to Estelle.

"Be careful." He said to her. Estelle grabs his hand and climbs over the car with Yuri pulling her up in the process.

Afterwards, they turn to the bus and the height between them and the top of the vehicle looks greater.

"Well, give me a boost." Estelle said to Yuri. Yuri kneels down and extends out his hands.

"Again, I won't look." Yuri smirked. Estelle chuckled as she places her hands on his shoulders. She climbs up and places her feet on his hands. Yuri lifts her up into the air. Estelle quickly grabs onto the edge of the top of the bus and she groans as she uses all of her strength to climb onto the top.

She rolls over and turns her head to the side. She crawls over to the edge of the bus and extends out her hands to Yuri who is still at the bottom. Yuri makes a leap and grabs onto her hands as he places his boots against the glass windows of the bus. He climbed while Estelle pulls him as she slowly got herself up. She kept pulling until Yuri successfully reached the top.

After they find themselves standing on top of the bus, Estelle turns around and they got a clear view of what lies behind the town. It was the vast open sea. Estelle stares at the ocean and watched the waves of water splash onto the sandy shores in awe as she had never seen it for an extremely long time.

"It's beautiful." Estelle murmured. "After living on this island for so long, I've forgotten how beautiful our world really is."

Yuri sighed as he shares the same sentiment as her. After his traumatic experience in Afghanistan and being preoccupied in doing various odd jobs for the last two years, he too had forgotten how gorgeous and breathtaking the outside world really is.

They turn their heads to the left and spotted a pier. There is a ship docked over there. Yuri and Estelle could tell that it had been left abandoned for years as the sides of it are rusted and decayed.

Yuri widens his eyes as he sees a military helicopter placed on top of the building situated in front of the pier. There are also two soldiers armed with rifles standing in front of it.

"There it is!" Yuri said to Estelle as he points his finger at the building. "The helipad! That's probably the chopper that will take us home."

Estelle could feel tears of joy forming in her eyes. At long last, after seven years of being trapped on an infected island, she is finally going home. As the tears cascade down her cheeks, Yuri turns his head to Estelle and he wraps an arm around her.

She turns to Yuri and said softly to him, "Thank you so much."

"You're welcome." Yuri said. "Soon, you'll be able to eat sorbets again." Estelle smiled weakly at him and wipes off her tears before she leans forward and plants a kiss on his cheek.

The two turn back to the front and lower their heads. Yuri kneels down and carefully jumps off the bus. After safely landing at the bottom, Yuri extends out his arms. Estelle bends her knees and jumps towards Yuri. Yuri catches Estelle and she lands safely into his arms. He sets her down and the two make their way to the pier.

Estelle moves closer to Yuri as they walk. She brushes her hand against his and Yuri quickly catches it without hesitation. He glances at Estelle and smiles at her before turning his head back to the front.

As they travel further through the town, they see lots of tall grass growing out from the roads and the abandoned buildings being overgrown by vines and weeds. It seems like for this island, Mother Nature has retaken its place from human civilization.

"Yuri…" Estelle said.

"What is it?" Yuri asked, turning back to Estelle.

"I've decided that when we get back to the mainland, I don't just want to eat sorbets again. I also want to travel around the world. I want to see many other things that I've never got to view for so long." She said softly as she looks back at him.

A smile plasters across Yuri's face. "Yeah, me too." He said. "Let's do it together." Estelle giggled in response.

When Yuri turns back to the front however, his smile vanished as he realized something ever since they first came into this town. "Not trying to jinx us but…for a long time now, we haven't seen another infected." He said.

"I've noticed too." Estelle frowned. "Then again, seven years have passed. These are just speculations but maybe most of them have starved to death or now they just stay sheltered inside abandoned buildings like the mall."

"The latter theory sounds possible. But still, an entire town without a single one of them? That's incredibly bizarre." Yuri said.

Estelle felt uneasy by what Yuri had said. "I agree." She muttered.

They eventually arrived at the building in front of the pier. They push the doors open and enter. The foyer is a complete mess with brochures, maps, clothing and luggage lying around the floor.

"This is it, Estelle. Once we reach the top, we're heading back home." Yuri said enthusiastically. Estelle perks up and a wide smile takes form on her face. The two rush their way towards the staircase.

They climb up several flights of stairs until they reach the top of the building. When they arrive at the door, Yuri and Estelle stood close to each other and place their hands on the handlebar. The two smile at each other and nod their heads before they push down the bar and open the door.

The two soldiers point their rifles at them as they enter the rooftop, causing them to quickly raise up their arms.

"Stop! Don't shoot!" Yuri yelled at them.

"We're not infected!" Estelle cried.

"It's him, Yuri Lowell! Hold your fire!" One of the soldiers said to the other. The two immediately lower their weapons. Yuri and Estelle sigh in relief and lower their arms as the soldiers walk over to them.

"Captain Mathias sent us to pick you and Miss Estellise up. You're both safe now." One of the soldiers said to Yuri.

"Thank you so much." Yuri said to the soldier in gratitude as he extends out his hand. The soldier grabs it and shakes his hand.

"Get aboard the chopper. We're leaving now." The other soldier said, gesturing Yuri and Estelle to follow them. The two soldiers turn around and the four walk their way to the helicopter. One of the soldiers grasps onto the handle and slides open the door.

Suddenly, for a split second, Yuri quickly widens his eyes when he heard the sound of a rocket being launched and it sounded like it is heading towards them.

"What-"

BOOOOOOOMMMMMMM!

Yuri was quickly cut off when the rocket hit the side of the helicopter, creating a huge explosion that sends Yuri, Estelle and the two soldiers flying backwards through the air and sprawl through the floor as they land.

The explosion momentarily made Yuri deaf. His vision was groggy at first as he slowly lifts his head up. After a while, he squinted as his sense of sight returned and gets a clear view of the chaos that had happened.

To his dismay and horror, the helicopter that was supposed to get them off the island is now destroyed and burning in flames. The two soldiers lied on the floor motionless and seemingly dead.

He widens his eyes and gasped in horror as Estelle was nowhere in his sight.

"Estelle!" Yuri yelled as he regained his sense of hearing. He swiftly turns his head and his jaw plummeted as he sees Estelle lying on the floor completely still with her eyes closed. "No! Oh God…"

Yuri rolls over and crawls his way over to Estelle. When he is beside her motionless body, he places his head on top of her chest. He sighed in relief as he could feel her heartbeat. He then removes his head and got above her. He opens her jaw slightly, places his hands onto her chest and performed CPR.

After pressing her chest hard a few times, he leans down and holds his head above her opened mouth. But he could not feel any breathing. He repeated the process but suddenly, he got interrupted when someone yelled at him.

"HANDS UP!"

Yuri looks up and sees a man with spiky dark blue hair, purple eyes and dressed in a camo green military uniform walking over while aiming his M14 rifle at him.

"Who the hell are you?" Yuri inquired, glaring at the man.

"HANDS IN THE FUCKING AIR!" The man bellowed, completely ignoring his question and continues walking over to him.

Yuri ignored the man as well and looks back down at Estelle. "Come on. Come on!" He said as he continued performing CPR on her. When the man is near Yuri, he uses the hilt of his rifle to knock him hard on the top of his head.

The impact sends Yuri stumbling backwards and he lands on the floor with a thud. He rolls his eyes back as he passes out.


"Yuri! Yuri! Yuri!"

Yuri moaned as he could barely a voice demanding him to wake up. He slowly opens his eyes and finds his vision groggy for the second time of the day. After a few seconds, he regains his sight and finds himself in a familiar situation. He is sitting inside a small dark room. He widens his eyes as he spots Estelle sitting right in front of him. She stared at him with a wide-eyed look of horror while being tied to a chair by ropes wrapped around her wrists and torso.

"Estelle!" Yuri cried as he tries to get up. However, he felt that his body is being restrained. He looks down and realizes that his wrists and torso are also being tied to the chair that he is currently sitting on by ropes.

"Yuri…" Estelle sobbed. Yuri looks back up at her and sees that tears are furiously pouring down her cheeks. "I-I-I'm scared…"

"Estelle, it's okay. I won't let anyone hurt you." Yuri reassured to her.

Estelle shakes her head. "You're wrong…this is Alexei we're talking about…"

"Alexei?" Yuri uttered as his eyes widened.

Suddenly, the door opened and a soldier with blonde bowl cut hair dashes into the room and delivers a massive hit to Yuri's gut with the hilt of his rifle. Yuri howled in pain and throws his head forward as he got hit.

"NO! STOP!" Estelle screamed in terror as she helplessly watched.

"Quiet!" The same dark blue-haired soldier yelled as he entered the room and points his rifle at Estelle. Yuri looks up and growls angrily at the soldier.

"Leave her alo-" Yuri got cut off when the blonde-haired soldier hits him on the top of his head with the hilt of his rifle. He yanked Yuri's hair to pull his head up.

"Who are you?! Huh?!" The soldier demanded as he stares furiously into Yuri's eyes.

BANG!

Everybody present in the room turn their heads to the doorway and see a silver-haired man, dressed in a light gray camo military uniform standing there while pointing his pistol upwards.

Estelle widens her eyes in shock and she stared blankly at the man in complete horror and utter disbelief.

"A-A-Alexei…" Estelle managed to choke out as she breathed heavily in an irregular pattern.

Two soldiers step away from the captives, lower their rifles and salute to their superior.

"Yeager, Guradana, at ease." Alexei said. After the soldiers lower their hands, they turn to Yuri and aim their rifles at him. Alexei steps into the room and turns to Estelle. Estelle froze in terror and went temporarily mute as Alexei gave her a dark and stern gaze.

"Hello Miss Estellise. It's been so long since we've seen each other." Alexei said flatly. Estelle remained silent with her mouth agape. Cold sweat furiously runs down the sides of her head as she continued staring at Alexei in complete shock and horror. "But I see…you have not changed."

Alexei now turns his head to Yuri. Yuri narrows his eyes ferociously as he stares back at Alexei.

"So, you are the fucking psycho that Estelle told me about." He said to him flatly.

Alexei steps forward to him. "You sure got a lot of guts talking to me like that." He chuckled at Yuri. "I admire you. You talk my style."

Yuri glances at Estelle for a moment, who still look horrified and stares back at him with tears flooding down her cheeks like tiny rivers. He looks back at Alexei and said with his tone softened, "Whatever you want to do…leave Estelle alone."

A smirk takes form on Alexei's face as he nodded. "You care a lot about her?" He said.

Alexei then turned and holds up his pistol, aiming it directly at Estelle's forehead. Yuri gasped and widens his eyes in horror as Alexei places his finger on the trigger.

"No!" Yuri pleaded.

Alexei turns his head back to Yuri and takes pleasure in seeing the horrified look on his face. However, a moment later, Alexei shifts his pistol away from Estelle and aims it at Guradana instead. Guradana turned to his superior and widens his eyes in surprise just in time before Alexei pulls the trigger and fires a bullet through Guradana's chest.

Guradana's eyes nearly bulge out from their sockets as he got shot, completely surprised and horrified by his superior's actions. Yuri's jaw plummeted as he watched Guradana drops his weapon and falls to the floor in terror. Guradana choked and gasped for air as he places his hands onto his chest wound and rolls side-to-side in pain and agony. A few moments later, his eyes closed and lied motionless on the floor as his soul finally slips away from its body.

Yeager remained calm and silent as he watched the whole thing. Watching his superior mindlessly killing his own soldiers is nothing new to him.

"Care clouds judgment." Alexei said as he walks over to Yuri and cups his chin, forcing him to look back at him. "That is why…I'm stronger than you. But don't worry. I won't hurt Miss Estellise. I need her alive too."

"W-w-why…are you doing this?" Yuri asked with his eyes wide.

"Tell me. Were you a soldier? Have you been to any wars? Any battlefields?" Alexei inquired. Yuri remained silent. "Surely you must have since you have been able to stay alive on this island for so long."

Alexei removes his hand from Yuri's chin as he steps back. "For many years, America played its role as a superpower by bringing and maintaining peace to the world. Whenever a country is in peril, it's our job to fight their wars for them. And yet…what do we get in return? Huh? Rewards? Praise? Respect?" He paused as he shakes his head. "No. We get none of that. We instead get criticism. Every single time a battle or war is over, something catastrophic will always come out from the aftermath. And when that happens, who do the countries of the world blame it on? The terrorists? No! They blame us! They blame everything on us! We resolve their dirty work for them and THIS IS WHAT WE GET IN RETURN?!"

The room was silent for a moment after Alexei lets out his bellow of rage.

"For years, everyone blames the United States for constantly putting the entire world in a state of war!" Alexei continued with an ugly scowl on his face. "They kept saying that nothing we have done has led to resolution or peace." A wide malicious grin slowly sweeps across his face. "Well, if they want resolution and peace so much, fine. I've came up with the perfect solution…to end all wars, so that America will never waste their god damn time and money in fighting another war and be criticized for it ever again."

Alexei leans forward and stares straight into Yuri's eyes. Yuri sat still and didn't make a flinch.

"I'm going to unleash the Rosch virus throughout the entire world." Alexei said icily. "You see, at the bottom of this building, there are lots of infected that we have either gathered or created over the years."

"My friends…" Estelle murmured in horror as she is grimly reminded of how Alexei infected her team right before her eyes.

"And I plan to get every single one of them out of this island. Any nation that still respect and ally themselves with the United States will be spared. But those countries that have constantly condemned and show disdain towards us will be eradicated. And now that I finally have Miss Estellise here at my base, I can finally proceed with my plan. I know she had created a cure for the virus."

"How do you know?" Yuri asked.

"Because while we fail to track down her location when she was using whatever to send a signal outside of the island, we did manage to hear one word while listening to her message. Cure." Alexei said with a wan smile. "And that's good. Because when I unleash the virus onto the nations that despise America, some of them may eventually change their minds and beg for mercy. I'll then use Estelle's cure to help eradicate the virus in their nation. That is how you achieve peace, stability and most of all, respect."

Alexei then lifts up his pistol and aims at Yuri. This causes Estelle to scream in terror. "NO! DON'T!" Yeager turns to Estelle and points his rifle at her. This immediately silenced the woman.

"What? Are you gonna kill me?" Yuri asked, glaring at Alexei.

"I'm giving you a choice, sir. If you join me, I'll spare your life and you can be with her again." Alexei said, glancing at Estelle for a brief moment before turning back to Yuri. "But if you refuse, well…" He shrugged. "You know."

Yuri momentarily turns to Estelle who looks back at him horrified. He gave her a small smile. "Everything's going to be okay." He reassured to her.

He turns back to Alexei and lets out a sigh. Then, a smile sweeps across his face.

"Alright." Yuri said to Alexei as he gave him a nod. Alexei smirked and puts away his gun.

"I'm glad we came to an agreement. Let us work together to help make America the most respected country in the world again." Alexei said. He steps forward and proceeds to untie the ropes around Yuri's wrists and torso.

But as soon as Yuri felt the ropes loosening, he swiftly throws his head towards Alexei with the force of a sledgehammer and slams directly against his forehead. As Alexei stumbled backwards, Yuri quickly got up from his chair just as Yeager points his rifle at him. Yuri quickly grabs his rifle and the two wrestled. Estelle watched the fight with her eyes wide.

Yeager at first seems to have the upper hand but Yuri quickly fought back by lifting up his knee and kicks him in the stomach. Yeager groans as he backs away, allowing Yuri to have the opportunity to swing his left fist at his face. He strikes Yeager directly in the cheek, sending him stumbling sideways and hit against the wall.

As Yeager falls to the floor, Yuri turns to Estelle and places his hands on the ropes. "Hang on." He said to her. "I'll-"

BANG!

Estelle's jaw plummeted as a shot was fired. Yuri froze for a moment before he slowly looked down and see a pool of blood forming on his vest. He lets out an agonizing moan as he falls to his knees.

"YURIIIIII!" Estelle screamed in horror as hot tears pour out from her eyes.

Yuri falls to the ground and lay in a bundle. He looks up to see Alexei standing above him with his pistol aimed at him and a trail of smoke came out from its muzzle.

"You fucking asshole. I gave you a choice…and this is how you spat on my face." Alexei said to Yuri flatly with an ugly scowl.

Yuri chuckled as he breathed in an irregular pattern while lying in his own pool of blood. "Dumb shit. I was smiling because I thought what you said was fucking hilarious. I mean, unleashing the virus to the world and make every country fall to their knees? And you call that peace, stability and respect? What a load of bullshit!" He paused for a moment to take a deep breath. "You're absolutely right. I was a soldier. I've been through hell…and for a while…I lost faith in humanity. But unlike you…I don't resort to wiping out entire nations…because that ain't the way to destroy everything that's wrong with this world. Yes…people have constantly criticized us…but I don't give a damn. We never fight their wars because we want admiration. We fight their wars because it's our responsibility! And as long as there is still a single person out there who supports us and worth saving…then these are wars…that are always worth fighting for!"

Alexei stares at Yuri blankly for a moment before a smile plasters across his face and he began laughing. He threw his head back in maniacal laughter, leaning forward and clutching his chest with his other hand. When he lifts his head back up however, he gazed back at Yuri with a scowl.

"Then you sir…are a bigger idiot than I thought." With that, Alexei walks up to Yuri and lifts his foot above his face.

"NO! STOP!" Estelle could scream once in horror before Alexei brings his foot down and knocks Yuri out.


His vision was blurry, but when he regains his consciousness, he could tell that his arms are being held by two soldiers. As his vision became clearer, he looks up and sees that the soldiers are dragging him over to the ledge of the building's rooftop.

When they reach the ledge, Yuri hung his head and looked down to see the ocean at the bottom of the building.

"Have a good swim." One of the soldiers said before they both proceed to toss Yuri over the ledge. Yuri finds himself plummeting through the air until he splashes into the water.

He lets out a groan which is muffled by the water as he felt the pain surging from his gunshot wound. As the pain became too unbearable for him, he looked upward to the surface of the water as his vision began to fade.

'Estelle…I'm sorry…' Yuri thought somberly before everything went black.

Estelle was gone.

He had failed.


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