Corpse Harvest, Chapter 21:

Kevin and Angela crested the hill as they followed the drops of Julius' blood. From what they could see, the spotty trail faintly continued out of town, as they suspected. The two picked up their pace, not wanting to lose the trail of the man that had brought ruin to the entire town. They walked past the gate, which had been left open by Julius, and continued into the countryside.

"Wait... where did it go?" Angela asked with worry as Julius' blood trail just stopped.

"Maybe he patched himself up with his clothes..." Kevin replied lowly as he looked around for any signs of tracks. "We should keep following this road. It'll lead up a hill and we can see more from there."

Angela said nothing and took her brother's advice. The path curved up the back end of Moon Hill, and they stopped when they had the widest view of the direction Julius had escaped in. There was a lot of grass, both short and tall, and a few buildings in the distance. But there was no sign that he had been here.

"No... NO! DAMN IT!" Angela screamed, losing her cool as she began to stomp around. "HE'S NOT GETTING AWAY! I WON'T-"

Angela fell silent as her eyes caught something. Kevin turned to look in the direction she was staring at and saw someone walking towards them from the rest of the path leading into town. It was a man with gray hair and russet skin wearing a black shirt and a blue hooded jacket. The hood and hair were obscuring more of the man's face, but Kevin could see that a longer, braided lock of hair framed the left side of it.

"G-Gale?" Angela asked with surprise. "Oh, Gale! It's been terrible!"

"Calm yourself, Angela," the man said as he walked closer. Now that Gale was closer, Kevin could see that the man's clothing and accessories had a tribal flair to them, and he had a tattoo under his right eye. The man's eyes were also very peculiar, the left one being green and the right one being an unnatural yellow. Kevin had the feeling that this man was the Wizard the other villagers briefly referred to.

"I can't! These last few days have been a nightmare!" Angela cried out. "Julius-"

"I know what Julius did. I know of everything that happened here," Gale said calmly.

"B-But how? Don't tell me..." Angela said with horror as she took a few steps away from the man.

"My crystal ball told me of Julius' dark heart. He would be the perfect one to initiate the spread of the damned," Gale said, his gaze distant and his voice methodical.

"I don't believe it! How could you!?" Angela asked, tears starting to well up in her eyes. It appeared as though she cared for Gale.

"I was not the one that created the walking corpses. I was merely called in to assist in their creation. I wasn't going to, but I realized that I do not belong in this world... I am a bitter and lonely man, Angela. You would not have been able to change that..." Gale said quietly, sorrow visible in his eyes.

"I won't forgive you! Not ever!" Angela roared as she gripped the handle of the axe tighter and assumed an aggressive stance.

"Nor do I expect you to. But I am not your enemy, Angela. Julius is... and that's what I came here for. He failed to keep the undead alive. You proved to be too capable for him. So I will grant your wish for revenge... he currently seeks refuge in that barn over there," Gale said, pointing over the horizon.

"Do you think we're just going to let you walk away from this? I'm not letting this happen anywhere else!" Kevin shouted with indignant determination as he charged towards Gale and swung the sledgehammer at him. He stumbled and almost fell as Gale's body evaporated into mist right before the sledgehammer touched him.

The cloud of mist floated back and reformed into Gale once more. "If that is what you are attempting, then you have already failed. These seeds were not only planted here. The world is on the brink of a new era..." With those words, Gale's body changed into mist once more, the mysterious yellow eye being the last thing to transform. Instead of lingering, the mist simply faded into air. He was now gone.

"I can't believe he would do such a thing..." Angela muttered quietly as she stared at the ground.

"We can stop Julius now. He can be next," Kevin said coldly.

"Do you think we can trust him? What if that barn is a trap?" Angela asked, her head snapping back up to her brother with a glare.

"It's our only lead..." Kevin said, glancing away from his sister's scornful gaze.

"You're right..." Angela sighed. "Let's go."

The two headed towards the barn on the horizon, moving through a field of tall grass as they made their way to Julius' supposed location. Once they broke through the field, the barn was rather close. From its upkeep and no other surrounding buildings, it had been abandoned for quite some time. They could see blood trickles leading inside... it looked like Gale had been right after all.

They walked up to the barn with caution, and it was not long before they saw Julius sitting down, his back propped against a supporting pole. He had crudely fashioned a bandage from his clothing, but it obviously did not work long from the resurgence of the blood trail, his pale skin, and from the fact that he was still bleeding.

Julius smirked as he noticed his two visitors and weakly raised his working arm, aiming his revolver at them. "Good... here I thought I was going to die alone," he said.

"You can't shoot that in your current condition. Put the gun down and let us take care of you," Angela said with malice.

"You want to bet? Just try taking another step towards me," Julius said with a wicked smile. "Now, who should I shoot first?"

"You're not scaring me anymore with that gun," Kevin said as he took another step towards Julius. He paused a bit, expecting the madman to fire, but he did not. So he took another step.

"You have some balls on you, I'll give you that. But do you think you can get over here before I pull the trigger?" Julius asked. Kevin hesitated for a brief moment, his heart pounding in his chest, but he cast off all of his fears and prepared to sprint towards Julius.

Julius squeezed the trigger, his arm snapping back as the gun fired. "Because you're dead wrong."

Kevin was now on the ground, but he felt no pain like he expected from getting shot. What was going on? He scrambled to get on his knees, and his eyes widened when he saw what had happened.

"No..." he breathlessly gasped as he saw his sister on the ground beside him, bullet wound on her chest. She had pushed him out of the way.

"Why?" Kevin managed to say as he crawled over to Angela and cradled her in his arms.

"I always loved you, baby brother..." Angela said weakly. "I couldn't be able to live with myself if I saw you get hurt like that..."

Kevin felt his whole body tense up as she said those words. It fully hit him at that moment just how much Angela had cared for him throughout his entire life, even if she hid it behind a fiery exterior.

"Put me down... I'm done for. Take him out..." Angela said, glaring at Julius, who was currently occupied with cackling like a hyena at the scene unfolding before him.

Kevin put his sister down and grabbed the sledgehammer as he slowly stood up and turned to face the murderer of his siblings.

"I love you, Kevin..." he heard Angela croak from behind him.

"One bullet left..." Julius said, breaking out of his laughing fit.

"JUST SHUT UP!" Kevin shrieked.

"You know what? I'm done here. Let me save you the trouble," Julius said, turning the gun around at himself. He opened his mouth and placed the barrel inside, shooting himself before Kevin could act.

Julius' body violently shook as the bullet tore through his brain and out of the back of his skull, sending a spray of blood out of his head as a large amount of it pooled out of his nose and mouth. Kevin stared at the body in disbelief. He thought he saw a smile frozen in place on Julius' body, but his vision was too clouded by tears to tell.

Kevin dropped the sledgehammer as he fell to his knees and began punching the ground, screaming in rage at his hollow victory. He knew not how much time passed, but he had punched the dirt until his knuckles were raw and bloody. He was snapped out of his trance when he heard low groaning from behind him.

Kevin turned his head around as he saw Angela get to her feet, blood trickling down from her mouth. He knew what had happened to her, and he knew what he had to do... but every inch of his body was screaming at him to just run away from all of this. And that's what he did.

He sprinted out of the barn and headed back towards Harmonica Town. His thoughts were a chaotic tempest of emotions, but he knew he needed to get as far away from what just happened and back to safety. Hanna, Bo, Toby... they needed to know that it was finally over. They had lost so much in trying to stop this.

And they had failed.

ALIVE

Bo, Hanna, Kevin, Toby

DEAD

Barbara, Cain, Calvin, Candace, Chase, Chloe, Colleen, Craig, Dale, Gill, Hamilton, Hayden, Irene, Jake, Jin, Julius, Kasey, Kathy, Luke, Luna, Maya, Mira, Molly, Owen, Ozzie, Paolo, Pascal, Perry, Phoebe, Ramsey, Renee, Ruth, Samson, Selena, Shelly, Simon, Sue, Taylor, Vivi, Yolanda

UNDEAD

Angela, Anissa

LOST

Gale