JENNY'S POV:
A while down the road, we eventually stopped in front of an unfinished home, and everyone except for Ronald, Elroy, and Aiko stepped out of the truck. Cindy proceeded to wave everyone over and once everyone was standing in front of her, she began to speak.
"Okay, we're on two rescue missions, one for Tyler, and the other for Clyde's friends, although why we need his friends, I don't know." Cindy began. "Currently, Tyler is our top priority, as he's the only one who can get us out of this damn mess." I noticed Kaitlyn raise her hand. "What do we do with Benji?" Cindy paused. "He's an optional priority, if he refuses to give Tyler up, we may have to use lethal force." I saw Aiko shiver in terror as she heard this, but she refused to speak up.
"Hopefully he didn't give him away." Cindy finished. "Jenny, Terrance, you guys check the left area of the woods, Heath, Kaitlyn, Lex, you'll take the right side, Ronald, Elroy, and Aiko will stay and guard the truck, and Sasha, Noah, and I will check the house." Noah raised his hand. "Why are you coming with us?"
"Because I don't want you to get off track by boning each other." Cindy dryly replied, causing them both to blush furiously. Eventually, all of us went our separate ways, and like Cindy requested, Terrance and I began checking the left side of the woods. "It's weird how we always get teamed together in these types of missions." Terrance spoke up.
"How so?" I asked. "I mean, we were on that mission back at Constantine the day we lost Drew and Zoey, we found Cody together, I was with you when you blew up those Revivalists, and now, we're together on a search and rescue." Terrance said. "I mean, isn't that a bit weird?" I shrugged. "I mean, we're good fighters, especially when we're together, so I guess that's the reason?" Terrance shrugged back. "Yeah, but it's something I've noticed recently."
We proceeded to step over a guardrail and enter the woods, but not before Terrance slipped and fell on his ass. "I can't be you Jenny, I can't be little miss nimble." Terrance had responded, and wanting to focus, I dropped it. Eventually, we heard the sound of groaning, and Terrance and I crouched down. "Careful." I removed a knife from the sheath I had, and Terrance held a bat in his hands. We moved closer to the groaning, and we eventually came into a clearing.
Benji was laying on the ground, writhing in pain and clutching something jutting out of his abdomen. "Holy shit!" I heard Terrance mutter, and he ran right over to Benji. "Where's Tyler?" Terrance asked, and Benji looked up at him. "They took him, the Revivalists took him."
I felt my heart sink at this, and Terrance grabbed Benji's shirt. "Why the fuck did you sell him?!" Benji shook his head. "I didn't, I was trying to find him and bring him back." I walked over and crouched in front of him. "What do you mean?" I asked. "I saw one of the people that took him, and I went to follow him." Terrance raised a brow at this. "Why didn't you come and get us?"
"I didn't want to lose their track, and I thought that if more people came with me, we'd be noticed." Benji responded. "Fair point, but how did this happen?" I asked. "I was able to sneak Tyler away, and I was about to tell him of a pain to help Hiroto, when one of those assholes came from behind and shot me." Benji shook his head. "He's likely at the mall by now…" I saw Benji begin to fade, but Terrance quickly hauled him to his feet, causing him to screech in pain. "Christ Terrance, be careful with him!"
Terrance didn't listen, and proceeded to drag a groaning Benji up to the guardrail, and I followed close behind. "Hey, we found Benji!" Terrance yelled out to the others, who had just came back from their searches. Aiko ran out and gasped at the state Benji was in, and as soon as Terrance let him go, Benji collapsed to his knees and began taking short, pain-filled breaths.
"Benji, no!" Aiko shouted as she ran to Benji and cradled him in her arms. As I watched Aiko begin sobbing over the still groaning Benji, I saw Heath standing to the side, looking extremely distressed. "Heath, you alright?" I asked, and Heath shook his head. "This just reminds of Matt, and how he died…"
"What do you mean?" I asked. "Matt went out trying to do right, got wounded in the gut, and was leaning against something." Heath sighed. "I'm just hoping there's no requirement for a bullet." I then heard Elroy speak up. "Cindy, if I may, maybe we can drive back, get Homer to patch him up, and get to the Revivalist base?" Cindy just stared at Elroy for a moment, then at a pleading Aiko, which was odd as I didn't think she'd speak that much English, and nodded.
"Get him in the truck, and keep him alive." Cindy stepped into the truck, and as we were about to get Benji up, he shook his head. "Wait, there's something I'd really appreciate, as well as Aiko and Hiroto, when he wakes up." I held back saying 'if', and proceeded to listen to Benji. "I want you to see if one of those shitheads has B+ blood, it's Hiroto's blood type, and maybe it can save him." Benji explained. "Please, I can't lose my best friend…"
"We'll try." I whispered to Benji, and along with Aiko and Terrance, I hauled him into the truck.
I just hoped we could make it in time.
TYLER'S POV:
A hour after Keith's brutal death, the Emperor found me again and proceeded to lead me up to his "throne room", where I noticed there was a fresh slice of pizza waiting for me, and two purple curtain was positioned nearby. The Emperor sat down in a leather chair across from me, and I hesitantly sat down.
"So Tyler, how about you eat?" The Emperor asked, a hint of earnestly in his eyes. I wasn't having it though. "Why'd you kill him?!" The Emperor's facial expression didn't change, but all he said was. "He was in the process of becoming a heathen, and if he wasn't going to be useful in his heathen form, perhaps he'll be better as an evolved."
"Evolved?" I asked. "You mean the walking corpses outside?" The Emperor wagged a finger at me in a mocking way. "They're evolved for a number of reasons, and I could tell you, but then again, showing is much, much more interesting." The Emperor stood up and pulled aside one of the purple curtains, revealing a beastie bound by ropes, and its jaw being held back by a cable. "Tyler, I'm going to show you what the Revivalists stand for."
The Emperor proceeded to take out a large knife and stab the beastie in the chest, then the stomach, and finally, slash it across the jaw. All of this he did with a gleeful smile on his face. He then turned to me. "Did you notice anything interesting at all?"
"It's not dead." I responded, and the Emperor nodded. "Of course, this is god's way of saying that the next form of evolution is upon us!" I nearly shot out of my chair at this. "But they're technically dead, how can it be evolution if they're goddamn dead?!" The Emperor glared at me, then smiled. "I'm going to request you refrain from using the lord's name in vain."
"That doesn't answer my question." He grinned more. "You see Tyler, the evolved can survive a stab to the chest, a slash across the jaw, and even a stab to the gut, which are in fact serious wounds to humans, but to the evolved, it's like being poked with a stick." The Emperor responded. "They don't require water, just meat, and while the process of evolving is usually messy, when done correctly, they take on the appearance of the deviants that fail to see the error of their ways."
"So you're attacking people, just to make them turn?!" I yelled, and the Emperor raised his hands, as if to calm me down. "We attack them to help them." The Emperor looked down at the pizza, which I hadn't touched. "Please eat, it's rude to not eat food someone has cooked for you." I was about to respond, but seeing the icy glint in his eyes, I hesitantly took a bite of the pizza, which actually tasted a bit better than before.
"How is it?" The Emperor asked. "It's better than before, but I need to ask why you're giving me this." He grinned, and went towards the other curtain. "The reason I'm giving you this is not just to be hospitable, but it's also to make you realize something." He paused. "I'm a wee bit worried about how much time you've been spending with Cindy's group." I raised a brow. "What do you mean?" The Emperor ignored me.
"I hope you haven't been letting her confuse you with her... holier-than-thou feminist preachings." He continued. "No offense to the young lady, but I sometimes worry she might just be a little bit... crazy." I glared at him. "Look who's fucking talking." The Emperor glanced at me, and smiled. "It's understandable however, people get scared, they're as like to turn to God as anything else. God died with the gold standard. We're on to more concrete faith now." He slowly inched closer to the curtain.
"You have to rob Fred to feed Frankie, there is no other way. Murder in its simplest form, but what happens when all the food is gone?" I saw a malicious glint in his eyes. "Well, food becomes a matter of faith. And that's what I'm here for. To make you believe."
He proceeded to grab the curtain and thrust it aside, and I nearly vomited at what I saw.
It was a large, rotund man, mutilated to hell. His left arm was missing, as was his toes and eyes. His gut was slashed open, and it was obvious he was dead by the lack of entrails inside of him. It was as if they had been scooped out. This also gave me a good look at the inside of his gut, and I realized something horrifying.
I proceeded to vomit as I realized why the pizza tasted weird. It was because the cheese on the pizza wasn't cheese at all.
It was the guy's fat.
STATS
Alive
Unknown
Dead
Undead
ALABAMA: Leon, Chloe, Will, Timothy, Matt, Jake, Mitch
THE WOODS: Tyler, Franklin, Marvin
DREW'S GROUP: Drew, Samuel, Fiona
THOMPSON'S GROUP: Roy, Derek, Josh, Yvonne, Abby, Erik, Thompson
ELI'S GROUP: Jenny, Eli, Chris
NICOLE'S GROUP: Nicole, Ray, Charlie
PENELOPE'S GROUP: Terrance, Harley, Garrison, Maria, Bernard, Pete, Penelope, Zoey, Brady, Michael, Lola, Ross, Thomas, Wendell, Todd, Ernie, Paul.
THE WOODS: Elroy, Henry
HEATH'S GROUP: Heath, Beth, Jack, Bayley, Vanessa, Bill, Peter, Samson
THE BANDITS: Dan, Tara, Kimmy, Reese, Kal, Ross, Amelia, Jorge, Oliver, Walt.
JOHN'S GROUP: Noah, John, Xander, Alice, James.
CONSTANTINE: Eve, Sal, Kaitlyn, Zack, Riley, Issac, Pierce, Curtis, Bryan, Jeff, Gavin, Frank, Brianna, Brittany, Janet, Jack, Tyson, Zeke, Alicia, Philip, Gwen, Dennis, Tony, Trent.
INVADERS: Fredrick, Sally, Harold, Miranda, Kathy, Robert, Steven, Joe, Verne, Andre, Brie, Jacob, Luther.
HOWE'S: Lex, Quinn, Gage, Paige, Garrett, Kirby, Haley, Ben.
CODY'S GROUP: Cody, Tyrone, Mitchell, Eugene.
BENJI'S GROUP: Benji, Aiko, Hiroto, Takeda, Rico, Logan
THE MILITARY BASE: Cindy, Sasha, Nikki, Ronald, Homer, Gabe, Sean, Kent, Chloe, Joshua, Megan, Conrad, Bert
THE REVIVALISTS: "Emperor", Fred, Darrius, Holly, Darrel, Joel, Xavier, Joan, Ed, Louis, Bryon, Shane, Horace, Erick, Lila, Jeanette, Clyde, Antonio, Carson, Steve, Sandra, Kayla, Richard, Marcel, Mary, Doug, Alexa, Milo, Judy, Mike, Earl, Craig, Keith, Perry, Hunter, Mia, Al, Noel