(A/N): With this chapter, the story of the survivors comes to a close. I want to take the time to thank all of you whom have read this over the past five years (today is the fifth anniversary of me writing this). There were times I didn't think I was going to continue writing this, but because of you all I did, and I think it has greatly benefited me because of it. So, once again, thank you all for reading.
Also, if anyone is interested (a few of you have messaged me about this), I am going to be putting this out in a hard copy (it will be at cost, so whatever it costs to print is what it's going up for). If you have any interest please visit my deviantart page for details. .com.
George walked into the security room and immediately went over to the customized centrifuge. He took out the blood filled needle, injected it into one of the empty vials, and placed it into the machine next to the other two ingredients. Cindy came up next to him as he was irritably stabbing at the buttons on the machine, trying to figure out how to start it.
"I can't believe we actually did it." She said sitting on the table next to the machine. "After all of this time, we found a cure."
"Maybe." George said and finally found the command to initiate the centrifuge. "We can only hope this is a cure."
"Don't be so pessimistic!" Cindy smacked him on the arm. "I think we all need a little morale boost right now. Let's just, for the moment, assume that this is a cure. If it's not, we'll worry about it then."
"Point taken." George punctuated the sentence with the low mechanical hum of the centrifuge starting up. "It shouldn't take more than a few minutes, how's everyone holding up?"
"Better than we ought to be." Cindy explained, and then changed the subject. She turned to look out of the window. "Hey, when did Peter say his rescue was coming?"
"Dawn, why?"
"Doesn't the sky seem brighter to you?" Cindy nodded toward the window.
"Shit, we don't have much time." George looked at his watch. It was already 5:30, and dawn was in another twenty minutes. "We have to let them know we're in here."
"How will we do that? Who's even coming?" Cindy asked.
George bit his lip and thought, he didn't know, and that frustrated him. They had been concentrating so heavily on figuring out how to gather the ingredients for the cure that they hadn't even considered the rescue. There had to be a way to figure out who was coming for them, and alert them to the situation. Peter was dead, but hopefully they didn't need him alive to convince the rescue party to take them. If only Peter…
Peter! Peter had called him. There must be a radio in the university somewhere, and it was probably in the security room. They didn't need to find out who was coming, they could broadcast on multiple frequencies until someone picked up.
"Jim, can you—"George began and then stopped. The monitors flickered and then changed to show Greg standing in his laboratory once again. He cleared his throat and spoke.
"I have been watching you all for a while now. At first, I didn't understand what you were doing, but then I remembered something one of my researchers brought to my attention. He had informed me that he discovered a 'cure' for the virus that is the basis for my magnificent masterpiece. He told me that if any accidents happen, we would be able to suppress the virus so that none of the researchers were changed. All it would take is three ingredients that we were already using to enhance the virus.
"I can see he had gotten to you before I could cut his little experiment short. Why is it that you people can't understand how glorious this discovery is? Are you too stupid to see how this can benefit us? Humans are so woefully flawed. Every part of our body is so equal. Strength, nutrients, blood, all flowing evenly throughout our body. We are built to be Jacks-of-all-trades and Kings of none.
"Through this virus I have created the ultimate being. An organism that can transcend the limitations of the human body, maximize the attributes of certain areas, while eliminating the underperforming parts! I have created something that is the very essence of the evolutionary process. I cannot allow you to leave with that cure. At first, I wanted to see how my creation would perform against cognitive enemies, but now you have jeopardized my work, and I cannot abide by that.
"You may consider yourselves fortunate that you are going to bear witness to the creation of the next era in history!" Greg finished his speech with a flourish and jabbed a key on his keyboard. All-at-once, the monitors switched over from Greg to the parking lot outside. Thanatos was crossing the parking lot from the stairwell that led to the dock when it stopped suddenly.
Crying out, Thanatos bent over and fell to its knees. At first, only its chest began to grow, leaving the rest of its body disproportionately small. As the chest began to leak blood, Thanatos collapsed onto the ground and began convulsing. Its arms and legs flailed around limply until suddenly Thanatos went rigid. With one long roar, its right arm grew twice as long and thick, while its left seemed to deflate. George could only guess that it had given itself to allow the rest of the body to grow.
Thanatos stood on still widening legs and tested out its new arm. The claws, which had once been closer to fingers, were now at least three feet long and razor sharp. The monster roared once more, shaking its body back and forth while beating on its chest. The left arm flung around limply with the movements. Thanatos stopped and looked at the arm for a minute and moved its body. The left arm flopped around with the movement. With one quick motion, Thanatos dug the claws from its right arm into its left and ripped the arm off at the elbow.
With the detached limb impaled on its claw, Thanatos tossed the arm aside and jumped onto the university.
"Glorious. Simply glorious." Greg said as the monitor switched back to individual security cameras. There was a click on the speaker and he didn't continue.
"How are we supposed to kill that thing?" David asked.
"We're not." Mark said. "We just need to get the hell out of here before that thing finds us and we'll let the military handle that."
"I like that plan." Alyssa noted. "Let's go with the 'leaving that thing alone' plan and get our collective asses out of here."
"That's what I was trying to say." George added. "Jim, is there a radio among the buttons and knobs on that control panel?"
"I think I saw one, yeah. Why?" He asked.
"We need to broadcast to every available frequency our location and how many of us are here." George explained. "Whoever is coming needs to know where we are. I don't know what Peter told them."
"All right, what do you want to say?" Jim leaned back and motioned for George to speak into the microphone at the panel.
George looked at the others and then walked up to the microphone. "I, uh, hello? If anyone is out there coming to the university, the man you talked to has…passed away. There are still people here though! We are eight in total and we're waiting for any word of when you will arrive! Please respond."
"Not much of a public speaker are you?" Alyssa asked.
"I didn't see you stepping up." George arched an eyebrow.
"Sure, make fun of the cripple." Alyssa threw her hands up with an exaggerated motion.
"You'll be fine after a few months of bed rest." George retorted. He was going to continue explaining what she needed to do to recover when the centrifuge chimed twice and stopped moving. Next to the machine, a siphon began moving along a row of empty vials. One-by-one, it filled each vial until it had filled eight.
"For a minute there I was worried it wouldn't make enough." Jim said.
"Let's just hope that one vial each is enough to counteract the virus." Yoko reminded him.
George silently nodded with Yoko. He hadn't thought about the quantity of the cure either until it finished pouring. He only realized now that he had been so focused on curing the virus inside of him, that he hadn't thought about anything else. George wanted nothing else but to get out of the city and be rid of the virus forever.
Kevin walked over to the vials quickly and took two. He drew the cure into a needle and knelt down next to Alyssa.
Yes, after this, they would be rid of the virus.
Kevin slid the needle into Alyssa's arm and pushed the plunger down.
The virus would be gone.
Alyssa smiled and kissed him. Kevin took the needle out of her arm and put it on the table next to George. He took the other needle and repeated the process for himself.
Gone? How could he think it would be gone? It would still be out there. They might be cured, but if they use the only known cure, then the rest of the world would be susceptible.
"Here, George, I filled a needle for you." Cindy handed him the needle with a smile. "We're going to be fine after this."
No, they wouldn't. The virus would still be alive. If they couldn't make more, then how could they stop another city from getting infected?
"Thanks." George took the needle from Cindy. He rolled it around in his fingers. It would be so easy to just inject himself. He would live, but many others would die. How could he even weigh his life against the rest of the world? There was no way he could make that decision. Cindy waited for him to inject himself, but got distracted by Alyssa.
"Holy shit!" Alyssa sat back. "That hurts. Oh God!"
Cindy looked over to Alyssa and George reacted. He slipped his needle into his bag and grabbed the used needle next to him. By the time Cindy looked back, George had poked himself with Alyssa's needle and was pulling it back out.
"That's normal Alyssa. Your body is trying to fight the virus. You're going to feel feverish for a while too. It will all subside." George explained. He placed the used needle back down on the table.
"Is that going to happen to all of us?" Yoko asked, looking at the empty needle in her hand.
"Probably, but Alyssa was the farthest along, so she is obviously going to feel the effects more potently than the rest of us."
"Then I hope no one has to feel these damn cramps I'm getting." Alyssa rubbed her stomach.
"You're sweating like crazy too. We need to get you some water." Kevin said as he felt her head.
"I've lasted this long, I can hold out for the rescue team." Alyssa waved him off.
"We can't wait that long, we don't even know if—" As if on cue, the radio interrupted Kevin.
"Is anyone there!?" The radio crackled. "God damnit, they've launched missiles, if anyone is there I need you to pick up now! We can't stay here much longer!"
Jim shot forward and pinned down the talk button. "We're here! In the university! Wait, did you say missiles?"
"Yes, shit, those pricks actually launched the missiles! If you're at the university, we'll swing by and pick you up. You need to be there in twenty minutes or we're leaving you. This city only has half-an-hour until it's wiped off the map. Be at the helipad behind the university."
"ALERT ALL EMPLOYEES CODE RED EMERGENCY DETECTED ALL DOORS HAVE BEEN UNLOCKED PLEASE EXIT THE FACILITY. REPEAT ALL EMPLOYEES PLEASE EXIT THE FACILITY." The speakers crackled and the mechanical voice repeated its message.
The wall next to the centrifuge shook and then slid back. It rolled to the right and revealed a single doorway. With an audible click, the door unlocked. They had no idea where it led, but with the elevator out, they didn't have any other option.
"Come on, let's move!" Kevin yelled and slipped Alyssa's arm over his shoulder. David was the first one to the door and so he led them through.
Inside was a room they had become familiar with through the monitor. To their left was a large empty tube that had once housed Thanatos. Computers and other laboratory equipment lined all of the walls except one. On the opposite side of the room from where they stood, Greg sat at his desk with a pistol in his hand.
"Do you think this is the end? You think my creation would let missiles end its life? It will be beyond the city limits well before they hit, but not before eliminating you." Greg cackled. "Enjoy what is left of your life."
He waved them off. Quicker than George would have expected, Greg brought the pistol under his chin and squeezed the trigger. Blood sprayed out of the fresh hole in the top of his head and coated the wall behind him. Greg slumped back in his chair and gurgled in pain for a few seconds before actually dying.
"Holy shit…" Jim said.
"There's no time to stand and gawk." Mark said.
The only other door in the room was behind Greg's desk. George followed the others around the desk and to the door. Cindy stayed back, however, and George stopped to find out why.
"George, take a look at this." Something had caught Cindy's attention on Greg's desk. "You should see this."
"Cindy, there's no time right now." George said. "We have to go."
"Fine, you're right, but hold on to this." Cindy grabbed a notebook off Greg's desk and slid it into George's bag.
"Careful!" George reached for his bag, but Cindy was already finished and walking passed him.
George moved the notebook aside and made sure that the needle was still intact. Thankfully, it was, and so George ran through the door after Cindy. He ran out onto a metal walkway inside of a room that was almost entirely constructed of pipes. At the end of the walkway was a ladder.
George waited for Cindy to step off the ladder, and then started down himself. The others were waiting by the door on the opposite side of the room. Together, they went through and found themselves in the maintenance hallway next to the fuse panel Cindy had used to immobilize Thanatos. The door they came through was well disguised as a section of the wall with seams only visible under close scrutiny.
"Well, I'll be damned. I wish we had known about that earlier. It would have made things a hell of a lot easier." David said, examining the workmanship of the door.
"You can find out who made the door when we're out of here David." Mark reminded him as he held the door to the parking lot open and waved the others through.
David shrugged and held the hidden door open until George ran through, then followed the group out into the parking lot.
George had to shield his eyes from the sudden brightness as a helicopter came into view and shone its spotlight on them. The loud chopping of its propeller filled the once silent night.
"We can't land here. Go to the helipad behind the university!" The pilot said through the speakers on the helicopter. He turned the helicopter around and flew passed the large set of doors in the back of the parking lot.
"They're locked!" David yelled as he pulled on the handle to the doors. He moaned and kicked the doors.
"Look over there." Yoko said and pointed off to the side. There was a single, normal sized, door obviously made for a guard to go through to open the large doors. Yoko ran over to the door and pulled on the handle, it didn't move. "It's locked!"
From above them, Thanatos crashed down onto the center of the parking lot.
"I don't have enough ammo to deal with this shit!" Kevin shouted.
"Then help me break down the door!" David yelled back.
Yoko put up a hand to stop them, she pointed to George. "Give me the I.D. card."
George was confused at first, but then saw the card reader next to the door. He ignored her hand and instead took the card from his pocket and swiped it through the reader.
Thanatos tossed a car aside as it made a slow approach toward the survivors. It didn't look like it was worried about them getting away, or even worried about the impending missile attack. The elongated arm swung with Thanatos' stride, scraping against the ground and causing a low grating sound.
The reader buzzed and the knob turned when Yoko tried. She shoved the door open and ran out into a loading dock. A large 18 wheeled truck stood abandoned on the far side of the loading dock, its contents still only half loaded. Pallets of boxed materials were stacked in a queue waiting to be loaded onto the truck, forming a barrier of cargo that prevented them from running directly to the opposite side of the dock.
They had to go around the truck, but in the middle of the dock was a deep hole. It was at least three feet deep and wide enough to cover the area from the truck to the scaffolding directly across from it.
As they started toward the hole, the large set of double doors exploded into the dock, crashing into the bed of the truck and crushing the siding. Thanatos ran through the freshly created opening and cut off their path.
"Man, this bastard won't give up!" Jim yelled.
"We have to get around him." Cindy said.
"How do you suggest we do that?" Alyssa asked.
"Like this." Cindy ran to the left and began firing at Thanatos. She double backed through the hole Thanatos had created and unloaded an entire clip into the monster, who looked mostly unfazed, except for a hint of annoyance. It turned to Cindy and swatted at her. She jumped back and ducked under the swipe.
George ran after her and motioned the others toward the hole. "Go, we'll catch up!"
He took a couple potshots at Thanatos to much the same effect. Thanatos turned and swiped at him, but he was slightly faster. George took a few steps back and missed the attack.
Cindy had reloaded and started to fire again, distracting Thanatos long enough for George to put a fresh clip in his pistol. He glanced in his bag and noticed there were only two more in there beside the one in his gun.
"I can't keep this up much longer!" George yelled to Cindy.
"We won't have to." Cindy said.
George looked over to the others, everyone except Kevin and Alyssa were on the other side of the hole. They were having trouble because of Alyssa's injuries, but Mark was helping pull her up.
"They'll need another minute!" George said and started to fire so that Cindy could reload.
He moved and fired, choosing to move when he needed to dodge Thanatos and firing after each successful dodge. It was hard, and required all of his concentration, but Cindy was able to lessen the attacks by drawing Thanatos to her.
The two of them kept it up for another clip each until George saw that Kevin and Alyssa had made it up to the other side.
"They're clear, let's go!" George screamed over the sound of Cindy's gunshots. She ducked another swipe and ran to Thanatos' left, where his arm once was. George turned and started running for the hole.
He didn't get far when Cindy cried out.
She flew through the hole and back out onto the loading dock. Thanatos has gotten her with a back-handed swing. Cindy propped herself up on her elbow and scurried back on her hands and feet. Thanatos followed her onto the loading dock and stood above her.
"George!" Cindy pleaded.
George stopped moving and took aim, but he couldn't fire. His vision blurred, his muscles ached, and his stomach growled. He itched all over and his head swam in and out of focus. George fell to one knee and grabbed his head.
"George, help!" Cindy cried out, she moved back farther until she hit her back against one of the wheels of the truck.
Thanatos raised his arm up and pointed it at Cindy.
A cacophony of gunshots rang out. A quick burst of gunfire, a pause, and then another quick burst. The bullets hit Thanatos right in its heart, pushing the beast back.
"I'll hold it off, get over to the other side!" David screamed. George noticed that he was holding an assault rifle. He didn't know where David had gotten the weapon, but he didn't care either. George shook his head and forced himself onto his feet.
Cindy had regained her footing and ran along the truck to the hole. George followed her to the sound of the gunshots over his head. The hole was deeper than he had noticed. The lip rose well above his waist when he jumped in.
Mark knelt down on the other side of the hole and offered his hand to Cindy. George reached her as Mark was pulling her up and pushed her out of the hole. The gunfire stopped as Cindy crested the lip of the hole.
"I'm out and it's pissed!" David called from the top of the truck. He started running as Thanatos crashed into the truck. David slid off the side and rolled next to the cab.
"George, take my hand!" Mark ordered.
George grabbed Mark's hand and climbed the wall of dirt. As George stepped out of the hole, David crawled out from behind the truck's cab.
"Kevin is there another rifle in the boxes?" David asked.
"That was the only one. I don't even know what that one was doing there." Kevin replied.
There was a loud thud behind them and David turned to the noise.
"It's on the truck!" He screamed.
George turned to look. Thanatos was charging at them, taking long, powerful strides, and closing the distance David helped create quickly.
"Get through the door!" Mark yelled. He pulled George away from the hole and toward a door on his right. It was a small rusted door that led out onto a set of creaky metal stairs, the kind that would be on a shoddily built fire escape. The stairwell swayed as Mark half-pulled and half-led George up the stairs just behind Cindy.
The cement wall that the door was crafted into shook as Thanatos smashed into it. For the most part, the cement held, but even after the first hit, the cement cracked. They would have to get to the helicopter before Thanatos broke through.
Kevin and Alyssa were the first to reach the top of the stairs, where they found the helicopter waiting. The co-pilot hung out of the opening of the helicopter and waved them on.
"Get your ass in gear, and let's go!" He yelled.
The cement wall gave out halfway between the stairs and the helicopter, and Thanatos didn't waste time with the stairs. In one swift jump, it cleared the stairs and landed in between the group and the helicopter.
"Shit! Pull up, pull up!" The co-pilot screamed. The pilot jerked back on the cyclic and rose back into the air. Thanatos swung back around with its arm, but missed the helicopter by inches. "We can't land with that thing there, take care of it and we'll pick you back up!"
"How the hell are we supposed to do that?" Jim asked.
"Shoot the bastard!" David answered and pulled out his pistol. He squeezed off a few rounds, mostly hitting Thanatos in the chest, but missing a few shots too.
"Pick your shots! We don't have enough ammo to waste on misses!" Kevin chided him.
David growled and readjusted his aim. Thanatos didn't give him a chance. It swung its arm over its head in a long arch. David jumped back and narrowly missed getting hit as the claw smashed down on the ground in front of him, causing a cloud of debris to spray into the air as the ground caved under the blow.
In unison, they all began to fire at Thanatos, only stopping to reload or duck and weave out of the way of another of Thanatos' attacks. They moved in a semi-circle to avoid any friendly fire, but the shape devolved as Thanatos moved between them. After the first few seconds, it became confusing and on a few occasions, George heard a bullet zip passed him.
The pistols weren't doing anything! Even when David had found that rifle, all it did was keep Thanatos stunned for a few moments. George looked back in his bag and took out his last clip. He was determined to make all of the shots count.
One-by-one, the shots began to die out as everyone ran out of ammunition. George shot his clip slowly, hitting every time, but even as he squeezed off the last round, the monster stood undamaged.
"We can't kill it!" Alyssa bellowed. "We've come this far, and we're going to die because of this prick!?"
Alyssa threw her empty pistol at the monster, but the throw went wide. The monster turned to her, but didn't attack. It looked at each of them and then stood taller as if it knew they couldn't stop it. For a while, it stood there, eyeing each of them, deciding whom to kill first.
Mark followed Alyssa's example and threw his gun at the monster. It hit Thanatos in the back of the head. Thanatos turned around quickly and charged. Mark leapt out of the way and Thanatos only struck air. Mark raised his arms and protected his face from a back swing from Thanatos. The blow knocked Mark to the ground and back a few feet. He cried out as his arm hung at an awkward angle and bent in the wrong direction. Mark pushed backward with his legs and slid away from Thanatos.
George reached into his bag and grabbed the needle. If the needle would cure the virus, and the monster was empowered by the virus, then maybe the cure would kill Thanatos. He didn't want to use it because he needed to give it to someone before they left so that a lab could replicate it. However, if they didn't kill Thanatos, no one would be leaving. George was going to die anyway, but maybe he could at least give the rest of them a chance to live.
George took a deep breath and watched Thanatos. His best bet would be to inject it directly into the heart. He waited until Thanatos turned back around and started to pull the needle from his bag.
David didn't give him a chance. The larger man shoved George aside and sprinted at Thanatos with his folding knife brandished. David let out a deep bellow and vaulted onto Thanatos, plunging the blade deep into its heart.
The monster roared and fell to its knees. David tried to pull the knife out, but it was stuck. He pulled it down, instead, trying to move it around to cut the heart more. He was able to cut a large gash into its heart. However, his delay gave Thanatos the time it needed to wrap its hand around David's waist.
Thanatos stood up again and raised David up with it. David struggled and tried to pry the claws apart. With a mighty growl, Thanatos threw David back toward George.
He landed with a sickening snap.
"DAVID!" George screamed.
David bounced once and then stopped moving.
George called out his name again and ran up to him. David wasn't moving.
"David, hey, David, talk to me." George pleaded. He carefully rolled David over, taking care to hold his neck steady as he did.
David gasped and moaned. "My God, George, it hurts so much."
"It hurts?" George said hopefully. "Where?"
"Everywhere." David coughed out. Blood sprayed out with each cough. George's eyes went wide. He worried that David might have punctured a lung. David leaned over and spit out more blood. A few teeth fell out with the blood. George almost sighed with relief. It didn't mean David hadn't punctured a lung, but having another source for the blood was a good sign.
"Pain is good right now; it means you might not have hurt yourself that badly." George said.
He looked back at Thanatos, the monster was still standing in the same spot, trying desperately to get the knife out of its heart, but the one arm it had left was too long and ungainly to reach its heart.
"What are we going to do?" George asked.
"We have to kill that thing." David answered.
"We can't." George responded.
"We have to try." Yoko said.
The other six had gathered around, warily watching Thanatos struggle with the knife in its heart. George looked at her; she was holding Mark up with Cindy's help. He smiled, David had failed, but he thought back to the needle in his bag. If it worked, then the rest of them could get out before the missiles hit. George wouldn't have to worry about changing into one of those monsters; the missiles would kill him long before he had to endure the change.
He would have to strike soon, Thanatos was distracted, and he didn't know if he would get another chance. George stood up and looked down into his bag, and then back to Thanatos. His heart raced and pounded loudly in his ears. He could feel the blood rushing to his face. His whole body still ached and his head was throbbing. Even though every part of his body was fighting it, George took a step forward.
A small part of his mind reminded him he could still use the needle and not change. They would find another way to stop the monster. He could live, live with Cindy. He'd come to grow more than just fond of her throughout the night. It was tempting. He caressed the needle with his thumb. He still hadn't taken it out of the bag yet.
Another step forward and he heard Cindy call out to him.
It would be easy to just inject it into himself right now. Maybe they could keep attacking Thanatos' heart; it had obviously hurt it. That cost David pretty badly though. George still was unsure whether David had injured his spine.
Without any other ideas, he took another step forward.
Cindy screamed his name. George turned around to look at her.
"I'm sorry." He said. George looked back at Thanatos. It had stopped grabbing at its heart and looked at George. Thanatos was clearly in pain, but still more than capable of killing them all with a single blow.
"Shit." George heard Kevin say. "No you idiot!"
George ran at the monster, pulling the needle out as he ran. He stared intently at Thanatos' heart, as he would only have one shot to hit it. George's leg carried him swiftly across the helipad despite how painful each step was. He wanted to buckle and curl up into a ball, but this was their only choice.
He was only a quarter of the way to Thanatos when he felt arms wrap around his stomach and pull him from his feet. George heard a high pitched whistle as he crashed into the ground. The explosion that rocked the whole helipad knocked him back. He rolled along the ground, slamming painfully against the person under him.
When he finally stopped rolling, George's vision blurred and his ears rang. Groggily, he looked around and saw the others slowly regaining their feet. Behind him, Kevin groaned and rolled to his knees.
Thanatos stood at the center of the wreckage, half of its body completely destroyed. The entire left side of its chest was now just a mass of bloody bone and sinew surrounded by an organic mush that once was muscle. It fell to its knees once more, using the long arm to balance.
George looked around quickly, confused as to where the explosion had come from.
At the top of the stairwell, Rita stood, holding an empty rocket launcher that was too big for her to handle. It swayed as she held it. She had probably been aiming for the heart, but missed. She reached down into the bag they had with her when she went back to the police station and pulled out another rocket.
"Rita!" Kevin yelled.
"Marvin was gone, so I came back. Let's kill this thing and get out of here, alright!?" Rita knelt down with the rocket launcher and unscrewed the top. She tried to pin the launcher between her knees, but it was too big, and slipped out and rolled away. "Shit!"
Thanatos pushed itself up to its feet again.
Rita ran after the launcher and stopped it a few feet away.
"Look out!" Kevin screamed.
Rita looked up and rolled out of the way, as Thanatos clawed at her. She rose to her knees and pulled out her side arm. Rita got off a couple of rounds before having to move out of the way of another attack.
"One. Two. Three." Kevin counted the shots.
Rita repositioned and tried to get back to the launcher. Thanatos' movements were slowing and his attacks became less frequent.
Kevin stood up. "She needs help."
Four. Five. Six. Rita squeezed off another burst of shots.
"We have to get that launcher!" Kevin looked at George. He didn't even have a chance to help.
Seven. Eight. Nine. Rita moved closer to the launcher. Thanatos made another attempt to hit her, but its claw went wide and Thanatos stumbled back a pace. Rita bent down and pinned the launcher between her knees. With one hand holding the rocket and the other holding the pistol, Rita tried to slide the rocket into the launcher.
With a sudden burst of strength, Thanatos charged forward and ran its claw straight through Rita's stomach. She gurgled and spit up a mouthful of blood. Thanatos lifted her off the helipad and pulled her close.
"RITA!" Kevin cried.
"That's right, take a good look asshole." Rita said. She plunged the rocket into the hole that David had created. Rita held up her pistol. "I've still got one shot left."
Rita put the pistol up against the rocket and squeezed the trigger. A blindingly bright explosion shook the helipad and pushed Kevin into George. They flew back a few feet and hit the ground with Kevin on top of George.
Once again, they all clambered back to their feet except Kevin. George quickly looked over to where Kevin was staring. The only remains of Thanatos and Rita were the half burnt remnants of Thanatos' legs and a pulpy red smear on the helipad.
Kevin buried his face in his hands, but did not cry.
"We have to go." He said flatly. Kevin stood and walked over to Alyssa. He put her arm over his shoulder and started to walk over to where the helicopter was landing.
George looked at the needle in his hand and put it back in his bag. He then rushed over to David and knelt down next to him. "David I want you to wait here, I'm going to get whatever I can from the helicopter to make a stretcher."
"George, what can I do to help?" Cindy asked. She stepped away from Mark after letting Jim take her place. "What do you need?"
"There should be some medical supplies in the helicopter, and with any luck a stretcher. We need to get David on without moving him as much as possible." George spoke as he made his way over to the helicopter with Cindy by his side.
The co-pilot was once again hanging out the side of the helicopter directing everyone to their seat. "Hey, get him in here!" The man said, pointing to David.
"That's what we're trying to do, where are your medical supplies? I think there might be a neck injury." George informed him.
"Shit, okay, here take this." The co-pilot slid out a plastic stretcher from above the opening and handed it to George. He grabbed a medium sized canvas bag and gave that to Cindy. "We're going to start getting ready to take off. We have less than ten minutes before we have to leave."
George and Cindy wasted no time getting back to David and rolling him gently onto the stretcher. Inside the canvas back was a neck brace that George wrapped around David's neck. With George on one end and Cindy on the other, they ran David back to the helicopter. Kevin and the co-pilot took him from them and strapped him down on the helicopter.
Cindy made to get into the helicopter, but George caught her arm.
"Cindy, wait, I need to give you something." George said. He took the needle from his bag and put it in her hand. "You need to get this to a lab so they can analyze it, and hopefully make more."
"How did you get another one? I thought there were only eight." Cindy asked.
"There were. I…I can't come with you." George coughed to cover up the crack in his voice. He didn't want to show her how afraid he really was.
"George, what are you saying? Of course you can. We have to leave." Cindy pulled on his jacket.
He took her hand in his and gently pulled it away from his jacket. "I can't leave Cindy, I would put you all in danger."
"You injected though. There's no danger."
"I didn't inject."
"I saw you."
"That was Alyssa's empty needle. I didn't want you to know, you would have tried to stop me." George squeezed her hand.
"I can't leave you." She sounded determined. "I won't leave you."
"You have to, it won't be so bad. You'll be safe and that's what's important to me."
"You won't be, and that's important to me." Cindy grabbed his jacket again. "Don't be stupid George; you don't have to do this."
"What happens if this virus spreads? What if it infects the world?" He asked.
"What do you think the missiles are for? They won't let it get out."
"It got out here, what if there's another outbreak?"
"What if, what if, what if? That's all I'm hearing, well, what if I lose you?"
George didn't have an answer for that, and so he said the only thing he could think of. "You'll move on."
"I've moved on enough. You don't have to do this." Cindy pleaded.
"If I don't, then no one will, I have to do this." George explained.
Cindy reached for his bag and began to say something, but the co-pilot cut her off.
"Hurry up, we need to go!" The co-pilot yelled from above them. "I don't care what I have to do to get you on this helicopter, but you are getting on now."
"You have to go Cindy." George began to push her toward the helicopter.
Cindy pulled away from him and wrapped her arms around his neck. She brushed her lips against his tentatively. For a moment, George forgot what he was doing, and then Cindy pressed her lips against his and kissed him, hard. He lost himself for what seemed like eternity, and he didn't care. All of his resolve melted and he wanted her in the worst way. His heart pounded and throbbed with excitement. All over his body, he felt pin pricks and goose bumps. It was as if the entire night was culminating into this. The banter back and forth, the flirting, everything they had been doing to keep sane throughout the night poured into that kiss, and he loved it. He pulled her in close and kissed her back. It was the first and only time he was going to be able to do this, so he made the most of it.
And then he felt Cindy stab him.
He almost didn't feel the pain at first, he was still reeling from the kiss, but it quickly became evident. He immediately knew what she was doing, and cursed himself for not realizing it before. George tried to get the needle out of his neck, but he felt the burning sensation Alyssa had described, as Cindy depressed the plunger. She had given up the only remaining sample of the cure just so he could live. George wanted to be angry, he tried to be angry, but instead he just stared at her. He couldn't help but smile.
"Dumbass, I said I wasn't going to leave you." Cindy whispered into his ear.
"What are we going to do now?" George asked.
Cindy rolled her eyes and hauled him onto the helicopter. The pilot pulled the helicopter up into the air, and soon they were flying high above the city. Going as fast as possible, the pilot made his way toward the city limits.
"Not that I'm not grateful, but you might have used up the only thing we had that could prevent another outbreak." George told Cindy.
"I tried to explain to you that you didn't need to do that." Cindy said and grabbed George's bag. She pushed around the contents of the bag until she found the notebook she had put in the bag. Cindy held the notebook out for George. "Take a look."
George took the notebook and flipped through. Even just scanning the pages he understood what it was. When she had tried to show it to him in Greg's office, George had assumed it was Greg's journal, or a manifesto of sorts. It wasn't Greg's book, but Peter's. There were graphs and charts, experimental data, procedures, and even a list of materials. All of his research into the cure in one book!
"Greg had said Peter came to him with all of his research." Cindy reminded him. "It was right there on the desk, so I took it. You're not the only one who thought ahead. I knew we would need it, and I even tried to tell you, but we were too busy to stop and examine it thoroughly."
"I'm regretting that we didn't now." George rubbed the spot on his neck where Cindy injected him.
"You deserve that." She pointed out. Then she leaned forward and kissed his cheek. "You deserve that too."
"We'll be out of the city in another minute, but we're cutting it close, so everyone needs to buckle up!" The co-pilot said.
George sat down next to David and clicked into his seat. He leaned down and held onto the stretcher. He was worried about it shifting around too much despite the numerous straps that were crisscrossing David's chest that immobilized the stretcher.
The explosions happened a minute later. It didn't happen exactly as George had seen it in the movies, but he recognized that movies couldn't even come close to the magnitude of a real nuclear explosion. He knew he saw the explosion first and the sound second, but it all became a blur when the force of the explosion rocked the helicopter.
Had the co-pilot not urged them to buckle in, George would have been thrown from the helicopter. He rose out of his seat as far as the buckle would allow him only to be slammed back down hard enough to bruise his tail bone. The helicopter shifted under him in every direction imaginable and he was pulled and pushed with it. Warning bells rang and lights flashed as the helicopter flew through the air without using its propellers.
Then, as suddenly as it had started, it stopped. It took a few moments for the pilot to correct the helicopter, but once he did, the turbulence subsided.
George looked back out onto the city in which he had once lived and realized with finality that it, like him, would never be the same.
Epilogue
After the events of that night, records showed that fewer than twenty people escaped the city. Most died of wounds sustained during the outbreak, and some had to be quarantined when they turned. Those who had turned were later executed when it was discovered that Peter's cure, later referred to as "Daylight," didn't reverse the change, but only prevented it from happening. Inoculations were administered throughout the country as soon as possible, but it was many months before even a majority of the population was inoculated.
Two months after the outbreak, a long and drawn out court case ensured that Umbrella would no longer be able to contract for the government. Furthermore, they were forced to pay out a large settlement to the government, which then was used to fund a trust for the families of lost ones, and more so for the remaining survivors.
One Year Later
George pushed the wheelchair along the dirt path. He was glad that he had been able to convince David to get an all-terrain model for the trip instead of the model that he used normally. The paths were overgrown and untraveled, so the wheels would have gotten stuck more often than they did.
Cindy held both George's and her bag and they made their way through the mountain trail and onto the peak above them. She and George had recently moved in to an apartment in Maine, where she was attending the University of Maine to finish her nursing degree. He, in turn, got a job working for one of the hospitals that the University owned.
David's injuries were not as bad as they could have been, but the doctors told him that there was only a small chance he would be able to walk again with proper rehabilitation. With George's help, David continues to attend daily rehab meetings at George's hospital and has made good progress.
"I think we're almost there." Yoko said, running up the trail to scout ahead.
"Hey, wait for the rest of us!" Alyssa chided her. She walked next to Kevin with a small limp; one the doctors told her would never go away. She fidgeted with the new wedding ring on her finger and took Kevin's hand. "I can fire you now, you know?"
Yoko slowed down. "That might scare me if I wasn't writing freelance."
"So how many other newspapers are you writing for now?" Alyssa asked.
"Point taken."
Together, they climbed to the top of the mountain trail and stopped at the edge of the drop. Before them were the remains of Raccoon City and the beginnings of the new city. In spite of living in separate parts of the country, they all kept in touch. So, when they had heard that construction started on rebuilding the city, they all knew they had to see it for themselves.
"I can't believe they are actually doing this." Mark said. He had retired to Pennsylvania and lived in a small rural gated community where he planned on living off his retirement pension and the settlement money for the rest of his life.
"I told you, and they're trying to do it in secret too!" Jim said. He was the one who had discovered the construction. He had used some of his money to start a security firm with Kevin. Jim went back to school to get a proper degree in information sciences, which he now uses for running all of the cameras and recording equipment for the firm.
"It's a good thing we have a couple of reporters here then." Kevin bumped Alyssa with his hip.
"I'm glad I've got a team of former cops behind you to keep me protected from all the heat this little story is going to bring." Alyssa replied.
"They have other work to do. You'll have to be content with just me watching you."
"I hope that's not all you're going to do." Alyssa giggled.
They sat and watched the city slowly coming to life once again before them as Alyssa and Yoko snapped pictures with expensive cameras. Life was finally starting to calm down enough for them to try and start their lives again.
George took Cindy's hand and watched some men and women climb on scaffolding as they pieced together the police station. He had mixed feelings about what had happened that night. It was a tragedy of course, but, he looked at Cindy, not everything that happened was bad.
"I can't believe we lost everything that night." Cindy said.
"I think we found something that night too." George said. He put his hand in his pocket and held the ring he had purchased the day before. "Something that will last us a lifetime."
