I am a burglar: Careful, she might hear you.

Al Drin Hoshizora: You brought up a different story.

Korrasami 88: I wonder...

MrScourch: These will be answered... eventually.

NexusOscura: Glad it was heartwarming.

The Batista: Cry like a man.

Antha1: None of them are.

Gloyd Orangeboar: I don't think that would end well.

Creamy Buttercap: *sigh*

Candlehead: Indeed.

Js: Try to keep up next time.

A/N: Before I begin this chapter, I just want to remind you that the Boss is NOT lying in this chapter. Everything he says is true, just in case you're wondering.


The Boss sat alone in a dark cell room, his lifeless eyes wandering about.

After his secret had been exposed to the entirety of the building, the Boss had refused to reveal what had caused the infection to spread throughout the city. He had kept silent and simply gave himself up. He had locked himself away in a small cell, refusing to come out.

He'd been like this for days, waiting for when someone would inevitably open the door.

And, eventually, it did.

The Boss instinctively covered his eyes as a ray of light entered the room. Squinting in the blinding light, the Boss uncovered his eyes to see who had entered his lonely cell.

It was Bill. The older man had a look of dourness, and a hunger for answers. The Boss could see a few men outside the room, but they didn't enter. Bill came in alone.

Bill stared at the Boss coldly, and slowly shut the door. Inside the cell, he flickered on the light, and sat down on the opposite side of the room. The Boss could faintly see a gun in Bill's pocket.

For an amount of time, all the two did was stare at each other, as with adjusting the situation before they spoke. Their eyes were both narrowed at each other, filled with pure contempt for one another.

The Boss spoke first. "So, how's life treating you?" He asked, dry sarcasm rolling off his tongue.

Bill didn't lose the glare. "It could be better," He said, no emotion evident.

"Couldn't it always?" The Boss asked. "No matter at what stage you are in life, things could always 'be better'. But, how are things doing now?'

"Joe's in charge for now," Bill explained, cracking his neck. "But enough about that. You know why I'm here."

The Boss scoffed, his lifeless eyes squinting. "You want answers, don't you?" He asked, a bitter frown on his face. "You want to know how Patient Zero got infected, and how I became Patient 1. Bet you want to know why I can still think, and remember, don't you?"

Bill nodded, his eyebrows furrowed.

"Well, don't fear, because your questions shall be answered," The Boss said, gritting his teeth. "But, I want you to know something: this will not change a thing. You may think it will, but it won't. Knowing the truth won't cure your daughter, or the rest of this stinking city. It won't get you the life you so desperately want back."

"Just tell me," Bill said, keeping back his anger.

The Boss' gaze softened, and he let out a deep sigh. "You won't believe what some people used to be before the apocalypse happened," He said. "Joe here was once a construction worker. I bet before this whole epidemic happened, you weren't the badass were you now, were you?"

Bill shook his head. "Not at all," He confessed.

"Good," The Boss said, then took a deep breath. With a hint of embarrassment, he admitted, "Before I was infected, I was just the nameless son of a doctor, unmarried and living with my old man."

"Oh?" Bill asked. "I bet you're not lying about nameless. You don't remember your name, do you."

"Not at all," The Boss said, as if he had no shame in admitting it. "Why else do you think they call me boss? But anyways, back to the story. My old man was ambitious, and maybe not right on the head. He wanted to find cures to everything. Blindness, HIV, rabies, you name it. It all started when my mom caught rabies and kicked the bucket. But I hardly remember her, though." In spite of that, the Boss looked genuinely sad for a moment.

"Get on with the story," Bill said, admittedly disinterested in the Boss' past. "When did Patient Zero come in?"

Bill caught a glint in the Boss' eyes. "One day, a young girl who didn't remember anything stumbled into the neighborhood," The Boss admitted. "She had amnesia, it seemed."

"How?" Bill asked.

"Hey, I don't know everything," The Boss said, rolling his eyes. "The girl didn't remember her mother, father, anything. She was just a poor child my neighbor found walking down the streets."

"What happened next?" Bill questioned, curious. Patient Zero having amnesia stood out to him. Could this have been one of the affects the infection had on others. Losing memories?

"The girl hung around for a few days," The Boss recalled. "Me and my dad saw her a couple times."

"And?"

"One day, the girl got bit by a rabid dog," The Boss blurted out. "The dog was shot, and we found out it had the virus. But the girl just vanished."

"What happened to her?"

"I thought she was dead," The Boss admitted, and he sounded baffled. "How could you survive rabies without getting a vaccination. But, a couple weeks later, we found her. Alive."

"We?"

"My dad couldn't believe it," The Boss said, and his eyes widened. "How did she survive, we don't know. But my dad wanted answers, so he took her in to. . . test her."

"Test?"

"He wanted to see if he could make some sort of cure by using her," The Boss said, and he looked and sounded disgusted. "I didn't want to take part in it, but he told me it could save lives. Like my mom."

"But it went wrong," Bill guessed with a sigh. "Your dad screwed up, didn't he? Your test run on her made the infection worse, and that caused the outbreak, didn't it?"

The Boss let out a sigh. "You're right," He admitted. "One day, the girl's skin turned pale. Her nails turned into claws, and she grew fangs. We thought she was dead, but she wasn't. She was an. . . Other."

"What happened next?" Bill asked, though he knew the answer already.

"She got loose and killed my old man, right before my eyes," The Boss admitted, narrowing his eyes. "Then, she bit me, and took off running."

"That's how you got infected?" Bill asked. "But how did you retain your memories?"

"I fought," The Boss said. "I clung to those memories like my life depended on it. I could feel them drifting, but I did my best to retain them. I lost a few unimportant things - my name, being one - but I didn't lose my mind."

"But the girl did," Bill said.

"I heard it on the news," The Boss said, shrugging his shoulders. "Heard how the girl scratched someone's arm. For a couple days, it was all over the news that there was some savage girl, biting and scratching whoever came up to her. They didn't know until it was too late that she was spreading the infection. Eventually, it came to this city."

"And now my daughter is one of them," Bill said. He stood up, and said, "Thank you, but I've heard enough."

"My dad did it to help people," The Boss briefly defended.

"And look what came from that," Bill said, hatred evident in his voice. "I don't give a damn about intentions, I care about what came from those intentions. And you're dad and his 'cause' destroyed him. This city. My family."

The Boss opened his mouth to respond but he didn't say anything. He just lowered his head, and closed his eyes. Bill stared at him for a moment, then exited the room. He shut the door, leaving the Boss in darkness.

The moment he was outside, Joe came up to him. "I heard the whole story," He said. "So, now what do we do with him?"

"Leave him," Bill said, raising his hand. "He means nothing."

"But-"

"This doesn't change anything," Bill said to Joe sternly. "It doesn't change anything at all."

With that, he walked away.


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