What's this, another update? Well, I did say I was planning on starting to update again, didn't I? Time to see how long I can keep this up...
In quiet moments between waves of zombie killing, Keith wonders if it would have been better to stay put in Robert's island base and slowly starve to death.
Not that it really matters, either way; ever since Christy's murder, Keith has been little more than an empty shell. The only reason he didn't simply give up back then was a desire for vengeance against the real culprit.
Now, he's avenged Christy's death, but it's a hollow victory.
His girlfriend is still dead. His partner was the traitor all along. And Robert had the last laugh against the world after all.
What is there left for him now?
With both Robert and Christy dead, Keith is alone in every way that matters.
If he'd actually been physically alone as well, he would have turned the gun on himself a long time ago.
As it stands, a small part of the old him isn't quite able to let go of everything yet. At the very least, that part of him feels an inexplicable need to stick around and keep an eye on the rookies he's travelling with.
He's not quite sure why, really. After all, he doesn't owe them anything. He's not a VSSE agent anymore (not that there are any VSSE agents left, aside from his travelling companions. Not anymore). He has no obligation to look after them.
Perhaps anger and bitterness hasn't quite destroyed everything that he once was yet. Maybe there's a faint sense of duty (of humanity) left in him after all.
Given the current state of affairs, it had taken Keith, Luke, Marc and Catherine quite some time to make it off Robert's island base and back to the mainland; especially since Catherine had crashed their chopper in her (desperate, futile, hopeless) last–ditch attempt to stop the missile launch.
Remembering that Robert had fired his missile at New York, the four (former) agents had flown their new chopper (hastily commandeered from the wreckage of Robert's base) straight to New York, desperately hoping that Headquarters had somehow survived the blast.
That fragile hope had lasted right up till they came within sight of the New York City skyline.
Even from a distance, they could see thick plumes of smoke rising high into the sky, forcing Catherine to pilot the chopper higher over the smoke so they wouldn't lose visibility by steering right into it.
From above, the city looked even worse than they could have imagined.
New York City was bathed in an unearthly red glow, lit up by the hungry flames raging through the city. Mindless zombies shambled through the ruins, tearing at each other like ravenous beasts fighting over their prey. All that remained of the once–bustling metropolis was the burned–out wreckage of destroyed buildings…
With VSSE Headquarters right in the heart of the blast zone.
The one place that had always been safe… The place they'd called home up till now…
A smoking crater, littered with debris from the missile's impact, scarred the area in front of the building, and the building itself had been reduced to nothing more than a shattered husk.
The VSSE had fallen, and they were alone.
None of them say anything as Catherine steers the chopper away from the ruins of New York City, numbed by shock as the reality of the VSSE's total devastation sets in.
With their original plan of returning to Headquarters and trying to salvage the situation no longer feasible, the group finds themselves at a loss.
To make matters worse, their chopper seems to be rapidly running out of fuel… with them still flying over zombie–infested territory.
By the grace of some higher power, Catherine barely manages to keep the chopper airborne until they've flown past the most heavily infested section of the city. As they pass over a sprawling field occupied by growling zombies, the chopper's engine sputters and finally gives out, sending them rapidly plummeting towards the ground.
"Hang on!" Catherine shouts, frantically wrestling with the chopper's controls as she attempts to swerve away, to no avail.
Gritting his teeth, Keith braces himself for a crash landing, readying his gun in anticipation of a fight as soon as they hit the ground. Out of the corner of his eye, he can see the rookies doing the same, nervous determination plainly written on both their faces.
Bailing out moments before the fiery impact, Keith bites back a curse as he collides painfully with the ground, knocking the wind out of him.
"Everyone alright?" Luke asks, looking around from where he'd landed. "Cathy?"
The young woman winces, slowly getting to her feet. "I'll live, I think."
"Looks like we have company," Marc notes, gesturing towards the nearby zombies. While a sizeable chunk of the horde was wiped out by the chopper's crash, several more have yet to be returned to their eternal rest.
Cocking his pistol, Keith looks at his allies, giving them a grim nod.
"Let's do this."
One quick but heated battle later, the quartet finish destroying the zombies, finally giving them a chance to breathe for the first time since they'd fled Robert's base.
"Now what?" Luke asks, crossing his arms. "Where do we go from here?"
"Where can we go from here?" Catherine snaps, roughly scrubbing a hand across her face. "Headquarters is gone. We have no goal… no mission… Does it even matter anymore?"
To everyone's surprise, Keith is the next to speak up.
"We have a goal: We keep going, and we survive," he says firmly.
"What's the point?!" Catherine shouts, glaring at Keith. "It's just us now. Are we just going to keep wandering around aimlessly forever until we die?"
"Cathy…" Marc reaches for her, but she draws back with a sharp shake of the head, refusing to look at him.
"The point is that we're still alive. And as long as we're alive, there's still hope," Keith replies quietly. "I know the situation seems bleak, but our fight has just begun. We're going to stick together and take this one step at a time, alright?"
Privately, he notes the irony of a pep talk like this coming from him, of all people; especially when he has the least to live for out of all of them.
But somehow, seeing Catherine teetering on the brink of despair like that had triggered some long–buried instinct deep inside him… A need to protect, or perhaps a desire to help. A feeling he'd thought he'd lost completely after Christy's death.
Either way, it seems to have helped Catherine regain her composure and calm down somewhat.
"You… You're right," she acknowledges, letting out a sigh. "My apologies, I just…"
"It's alright, Cathy." Luke pats her on the shoulder, looking uncharacteristically somber. "Anyone would have a hard time dealing with a situation like this."
"But Keith's right, we can't give up yet. There might be other agents who made it out in time and survived. If they're out there, we've gotta trust that we'll find them, and find a way out of this together."
"Alright, but that still doesn't answer the question of which way to go," Marc interjects. "We don't exactly have a fixed destination in mind, do we?"
"We'll go this way," Keith says brusquely, pointing away from the remains of their chopper. "We were coming from New York before the crash, and since we don't want to be heading back that way, we'll travel in this direction, away from it."
"Now let's get going; it'll be dark soon, and we don't want to still be out in the open when night falls."
And so, here they are now: Embarking on a pilgrimage with an unknown destination in hopes of finding an end to their journey someday.
As the group travels across the ravaged land, Keith studies his companions contemplatively.
Catherine is sensible enough, though she's more accustomed to working behind the scenes than on the frontline. Nonetheless, Keith has faith that she will adapt quickly enough; she'll have to, if she wants to survive.
However, in light of her earlier outburst, he also makes a note to himself to keep an eye on her mental and emotional state in the days to come. Should the stress of their current circumstances take its toll on her, she might end up doing something reckless that could bring danger down upon their heads.
Marc seems reasonably reliable as well, albeit inexperienced. For now, he hides his worry better than Catherine, though Keith can see a hint of uncertainty reflected in his eyes.
Luke, on the other hand…
There are a lot of words Keith can think of that might describe him, but "reliable" is definitely not one of them.
Hot–headed, rash, impulsive, overly inclined to rely on his instincts and listen to his heart rather than his head…
(Keith firmly ignores the voice at the back of his mind that whispers he used to be like that once. The man he'd been back then… the daredevil adrenaline junkie who believed in justice and fought to save the world… that man is long gone.)
Well. Two out of three isn't so bad, Keith supposes. Hopefully, the other two will be able to keep him in line.
