JENNY'S POV:
Minutes later, a ten-man group consisting of me, Terrance, Leon, Nicole, Cindy, Clyde, Elroy, Sean, Aiko, and Kaitlyn were sat inside the same truck used on the day I first saw the Revivalist base. I still couldn't believe I was going back, but in a way, at least I had someone on my side, that person being that Darrius guy I saw, who said I was his favorite person the first time I went to the mall. However, it was likely he said that due to me taking Heath's gun, so I didn't get my hopes up.
"Sean, Kaitlyn, check the cartridges, we need to make sure we have ammo, Elroy, use that duct tape to make suppressors." Cindy commanded, and Elroy gave her a confused look. "Does that even work?" Elroy asked, and CIndy nodded. "We'll need them." Cindy then turned to Clyde. "Do you know where the underground area is?" Clyde nodded. "I used to work there, doing maintenance." Clyde responded. "It was a shitty fucking job, but I guess it worked out in the end."
"I guess it did." Kaitlyn spoke up as she kept sorting bullets along with Sean. I looked over at Leon, who was silently staring at Nicole, who didn't seem to notice or was possibly ignoring. "Leon." I said, and Leon glanced over at me. "Oh, hey Jenny." Leon responded. "Sorry for leaving you behind."
"It's fine." I responded, and Leon sighed. "Who died?" Leon abruptly asked. "Huh?" Leon sighed again. "I mean, I don't see Eli, Henry, Drew, or Zoey, what happened to them?" I shook my head in sorrow. "I guess you knew them too." I nodded. "All dead." Leon groaned. "Of course, of fucking course."
"Drew and Zoey were murdered by a guy who went rogue, I heard Henry was bitten and shot himself to prevent turning, and Eli…" I hesitated, remembering the loss of my dear friend, the only other member of the first group I was a part of, along with Chris. "He passed away, and killed someone."
"Who?" Leon asked. "Some jackass, doesn't really matter." I spoke. "Beth put him down." Leon grinned. "I guess that Heath guy taught her?" He asked. "Actually, it was Tyler who taught her." Leon laughed at this. "I knew the kid had it in him, I fucking knew it." I smiled at him, then frowned. "He's been through a lot, besides being bitten, I heard he was raped by a group of people who Tyler killed, one of them being tortured to death, blinded in an eye, and when Heath gave him shit despite doing something good, Tyler beat the shit out of him, even snapped his finger." Leon cringed. "Tyler's changed that much?"
"Yep." I said, and Leon leaned back. "I can remember when he was just a scared, timid kid, who didn't know what to do, and now he's this damn badass that could surpass me." I chuckled at this. At least Leon didn't lose everything in his personality. I looked over at Nicole, who was gazing at him, but as soon as she caught my eye, she hastily turned away.
"Nicole isn't forgiving me yet for nearly killing her I suppose." Leon asked. "I mean, you nearly killed her, who wouldn't be that quick to forgive?" Leon stared for a moment. "Point."
TYLER'S POV:
As soon as I realized what I was eating, I immediately vomited on the floor, all the while the sick bastard glared at me, as if he was angry at me not liking it. In truth, I did, which made it even more horrifying. "You sick fuck!" I yelled. "How much enjoyment do you get out of killing?"
"Do I enjoy killing? Did Picasso like to paint?" The emperor laughed. "Come on now Tyler. Don't ask me stupid questions over here." He put a hand on my shoulder, but I didn't dare look at him. "Everybody's good at something in their life. Some people find it, other people don't. I found what I'm good at, and it's leading people to salvation, within any means necessary. But like all leaderships, it takes practice, work and dedication. You have to have passion for it, or why bother." He took his hand off my back. "So you're willing to kill people unless they conform?"
"It is a requirement, yes. I approach it probably in a similar fashion as a writer writes a novel, or a painter does a painting. Shit like that." He proceeded to sit across from me. "I am very particular when I kill somebody for not heeding my words, I like to be neat and efficient." I looked up, and I saw him grinning at me. "Now, I'm not saying I won't leave a bloody mess. I've flung body parts all over a room, just to make a point that if people don't accept my words, they'll meet the same fate as the heathen who just had to believe in order to gain salvation. You see, although a killing may look messy, it was done with the utmost tender care. I put a lot of preparation into my work, you know. A lot of thought and time get put into what I do." I glared at him. "Keith's murder wasn't clean, it wasn't!"
"I like using the word killing, not murder. Murder takes the symbolism out of it but a killing has a nice, I don't know, ring to it. It has more class I think. It may be hard for you to understand but I guess you gotta kill a few people to understand." I shivered at this. Not only was this man a manipulative, cannibalistic, psychopath, but he was also taking glee in killing people who disagreed with him.
"My life just gravitated that way after my wife died. I was captured by some bandits, and I studied the evolved, and one night, I broke free, and allowed the evolved to feast. As soon as people heard my words, they were eating out of the palm of my hands." He put a hand under his chin. "Why? Because I played my cards right. I never cared to be a outgoing hero, or a tyrannical villain. The best leaders choose who is strong and who is weak." He proceeded to lean over to me. "That's class, and that, I love."
"Are you going to kill me, just to preserve your cult?" I asked, and he chuckled. "I knew you were wondering why I haven't killed you yet…I'm actually wondering that as well. Not so sure. Usually I just do it. Takes less than a second. Then it's forgotten in the next, just like all the heretics and deviants." He paused. "With you, it's different. Don't know why. I just don't know why. Why? Why can't I kill you? I have no feelings for you whatsoever. So strange." He laughed again. "I guess even the strongest have an off night. Maybe this is my off night. Maybe."
He proceeded to stand up and walk around the table. "Should I let you go? What's the point? What do you think? Should I let you live?" I didn't hesitate to nod my head. "Yeah? You think you should live? I should just let you walk right out of here…Well, that's something to be hopeful about isn't it? Yeah, yeah it is. Some psycho was about to kill you and then lets you go. Ha! What a story you can tell your friends. Amazing stuff right there. Don't you think?" I slowly nodded my head again.
"But I have to kill you. No, no. Relax. I do. I do because you are the damnation, you are the heretic. Even when a savior is having an off night, he still leads people to salvation. I have to save these people. I'm not so sure I could live with myself if I don't save these people. Letting you go doesn't make me the emperor that my followers see me as." He then sighed. "You understand, right? I mean it sucks, for you, that I'm gonna kill you soon, but I'm sure there's a part of you that understands; even if it's the tiniest part."
"You're a fucking psycho, you're no savior, you're no emperor, you're no hero!" I yelled. "You're going to fucking die." The emperor paused, then began laughing.
"You know that feeling you usually get when you are alone, the one where you don't think you are totally alone? Sometimes it's just your imagination. Sometimes... but when you believe you are alone at night, and the moon is covered in clouds that pitch the world into what seems like eternal darkness, thats when your imagination isn't playing tricks on you." He proceeded to lean pretty damn close to my face. "That's when I am there. Knowing, watching, lurking; You never see me, because I haven't wished to be seen, until now." He grinned through his mask, and more chills ran down my spine. "Why now? You are asking in your head. Why this moment in my life? I know the answer to that riddle." He leaned over and whispered in my ear.
"It's because I know what you have been thinking these past days."
STATS
Alive
Unknown
Dead
Undead
ALABAMA: Leon, Chloe, Will, Timothy, Matt, Jake, Mitch
TYLER'S GROUP: 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, Kanna, Yuuto, Mika
THE MILITARY BASE: Cindy, Sasha, Nikki, Ronald, Homer, Gabe, Sean, Kent, Chloe, Joshua, Megan, Harriett, Conrad, Bert, Ryan, Wesley
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, Dean
