The thin, cold metal door swung open to reveal an expanse in front of her; a busy and largely cluttered space, surrounded by walls that were thick with maps and pictures. Some of the pictures were drawn on; others had knives or darts wedged in them. There was a good wall, and a bad wall, she deducted.

On the good wall, there were pictures of people smiling, and embracing, and even some pictures from the time before Cordyceps. She stood in front of the wall, taking in the sights of life and happiness that were immortalised on small-ish pieces of paper. There was a man driving a truck on a huge road packed with vehicles, five men standing together, all dressed in military uniform, and many more. On the image of the military men, the right-hand edge was torn off, leaving the sixth man unidentifiable. One image caught her eye, and for a second she thought it was a picture of Adam, until she leaned in for a closer inspection. When it was seen up close, there were small differences between Adam and the beautiful woman in the picture. They both shared glass-green eyes and auburn hair, but hers was considerably longer, falling in copper waves behind her head. Her jaw was a lot less chiseled and her chin more pointed, and she grinned warmly at Ellie from the wall. The image was almost as old as the one with the men in uniform, one of which she identified as Adam. The other faces meant nothing to her.

The bad wall wasn't as pleasant. There weren't only pictures of faces, but of places as well – photographs of buildings and segments of maps. The images on this wall were linked by pieces of string, all in separate trees from each other, but sharing a common theme. These were the men that Adam hunted, in order to save the people they'd captured. She worked out his system of identification drawn on the pictures fairly quickly; a blue cross was an unknown death, a black cross was the target being taken out by infected or survivors and a red cross was a hit he'd made himself.

Blue crosses were fairly common, black sparse, and red crosses dominated the wall. Adam didn't mess around when it came to business – that much was obvious to her. She scanned a few of the trees, most of which she had no connection to, and saw red crosses drawn over the photographs of the people at the top, who she assumed must've been leaders before they were killed. She was surprised by how efficient he was – he'd killed almost one hundred of the people on the wall himself. She flinched when she saw he'd even been tracking David and his group – a photograph of his face was drawn over by a black cross. The sight of him sent a shiver through her, and she quickly moved on to the largest tree on the wall.

At the bottom were five men – Marcus, Fitz, and three others she didn't recognise. Linked to them by red string was a photograph of a tall apartment building, outfitted with a sniper roost on the rooftop. All five men had crosses, three with red, Fitz and Marcus with black. The roost was also crossed out with red, the word 'destroyed' written beneath it in block capitals.

The next tier up showed a dozen men in a variety of poses, none of which she knew. All of them were crossed out with red, bar one who had been classed as unknown. The ink was still fresh, and the smell of it was unusual to her as it seeped into her sinuses. Adam had only recently updated his tracking system.

There was a third tier, with a picture of the outpost that they'd been captured and taken to against their will. The word 'burned' was written beneath the red cross obscuring the picture, again in capitals. Above that, there was a single image.

It made her squirm. Krass Dubrovnik's ridiculously straight and sinister white smile stretched across his gaunt face, with his cold eyes burrowing into her through the red X that was scored across his portrait. The words "Lieutenant Bastard" were written on the wall next to his picture. Ellie giggled slightly, and continued to examine the tree.

Above that was a large, blank space, presumably where Adam was still meant to find leads on the red-rings. At the top of the wall, almost by the ceiling, was the missing part of the military men image. It showed a tall man with muddy-brown hair and facial scarring, attempting to smile at the camera. Next to his image, Adam had copied the bandit's red-ring crest onto the wall. Next to that, he had just written "HIM."

She squinted up at the top image, trying to depict more features of the man. After a small while of fruitless attempts, she turned her gaze back to exploring the room, and saw a large cabinet of high-end weaponry that she was surprised she'd managed to overlook. She walked over slowly, and inspected the stock that was hanging silently on the rack. There must've been nearly 20 weapons, with 2 crates filled with ammunition lying on the floor next to them. Some of the shapes were similar to her – she saw Adam's gleaming 44. Magnum, still shining as brightly as it had in her hand, despite it kicking worse than a pissed-off horse. Next to that was the light machine gun he'd stolen from the back of the bandit's flatbed. It'd been given a good and thorough clean, and was dully reflecting light off its matte-black surface. She saw the words 'M240B' written carefully on the side of the gun in white paint.

There were SMGs and pistols galore, and the biggest sniper rifle she'd ever seen. It was nearly a meter in length, with a huge scope that was almost as long as the Magnum. She placed her hand on the green-and-orange patterned metal, and ran her fingers up the smooth, cold surface.

"SRR-61 Anti-Materiel rifle." A voice said from behind her. She turned to see Adam, leaning against the doorway to the room. He had shaved, revealing his rugged jawline, and he was still damp from cleaning himself. He wore a simple black vest with desert khakis, revealing his toned and large arms, one of which he had a large white bandage wrapped around. He looked like he'd just exercised, and his muscles were puffed up and tense, all the way down to his hands where he was carrying a trencher of piping-hot meat covered in some kind of sauce.

"Sorry," He said courteously, walking into the room. "I felt I needed to do some work lifting weights. I didn't exactly have a chance to recently."

Ellie hadn't heard of that technique of exercise before, but Adam was blatant proof that it worked. She'd never seen anyone so toned; she assumed he'd been that way for a long time, since his days in the military.

"Lifting weights? What'd that accomplish, apart from being a pain in the ass afterwards?"

"More like pain in the arms, but I understand what you're saying. You start on a lower weight, and slowly scale it upwards as you proceed." He gestured to the two large, cast-iron dumbbells that sat silently next to the gun rack.

"Shit, they look heavy."

"20 kgs per dumbbell."

"Shit, they are heavy."

He chuckled gently, and moved over to her, extending the plate of piping hot meat. "For you." He said, and gestured it toward her.

At her hesitation to take it, he elaborated.

"Don't worry, it's venison. Evie caught a deer a few days back."

At the sound of Evelynn's name she flinched slightly, remembering the pale green and yellow flecks around her irises.

You're infected too, genius. She thought.

The venison didn't stand a chance, and she began demolishing the plate of food. She was sullenly surprised by how hungry she was – how long it had it been since she'd eaten? Six days, a week? The meat was rich, and unbelievably fresh, and she rolled it around her mouth, reveling in the warmth and the earthen flavours and aromas it gave off. It'd been a long time since she'd had anything except canned tuna and stale bread. Through her appetite, she had forgotten to offer Adam any.

"Oh shit, do you want some?" She said with guilty humour, her mouth half full.

"No thanks, I've already eaten." He replied, moving over to the gun rack and picking up the colossal sniper. He held it in his muscular arms with ease, and looked down the scope in the position of a marksman. "I tend to eat a lot more than you do." He added with a smile. He gently lowered the gun, held it in his hands for a while, and placed it back in the rack.

"I lost my good sniper to Dubrovnik and his apes. It was the first one I'd made."

"You made one?"

"Yeah. I dropped out of school and enlisted in the Military when I was seventeen. I was a damn good shot with that sniper rifle – and still would be, if I hadn't made a mistake that day. The Military saw my aptitude and uplifted me to the SAS, where I found out how good I was at making and fixing shit. Eventually, they settled me into Gunsmithing." He gently moved over and plucked the image of the military men off of the wall, then moved back over and crouched down next to her, to be at her height.

"These men were the ones in my squad." He said, pointing to each member individually. "There's me, scrawny little whelp that I was. I had three years of experience when everything went south."

"What happened with your squad? Are they still out there?"

Adam paused momentarily, and continued.

"I don't know about Joel, but you definitely seem like a decent person."

He placed the image down, and began unwinding the bandage around his right bicep.

"I think I can probably tell you that story."

When he'd finished unwinding and removing the bandage, she was surprised to see that he also had a tattoo. Where Evelynn's was colourful and bright, a collage of miscellaneous images and symbols, Adam's was dark, and dutiful. Near the bottom of his shoulder, a title was written in a language completely foreign to her. It read, 'Memento, populum qui fecit vos', and was scribed in an exquisite and complex font, framed in a banner. Beneath it, in a much simpler and more respect-demanding font, were names, winding around the top of his arm. Everything was in a pure and deep black, contrasting against the light hue of his flesh.

"Those names." She asked, cautious of what this implied about him. "Are they people you've killed?"

"No." He replied casually. "I'm not that cliché. They're people I've lost."

She was pleasantly surprised by the depth behind his explanation, and how it countered what she'd immediately concluded.

"People you've lost?"

"Yeah. All of them due to some fault by me. I was too slow, I made a wrong choice… or I ran, and left them to die. I keep them there, so I never forget what happened, nor make the same mistakes twice. Go ahead, have a read."

She perused the list, and observed all of the names.

MICHAEL J. RISSINGER - FRAGGER - DEXTER C. CURTISS - AMY GRATHIS - RED - DANIEL MILLER - LUI FENG - JAMES SLADEN - ANDREW GLASSMAN - MILA KEYES - LANCE CORPORAL JONOTHAN RHODES - FRAGGER - CARMEN STRAUSSON - ISIAH - VASILLI IGOREVICH - JOSH JAUREZ - SKYE - WELSH

There was a small, rectangular scar in his skin where he'd removed one of the names. They continued afterward.

JOANNA S. CASSEL - EARL ANTHONY WILLIAMS - PETE ERRICS - DEADEYE - BLUFOR

"Red was the first to die. He fell afoul of runners because I didn't time my sniper shots efficiently. Skye and Welsh were killed. Blufor suffered the same fate, but eight years later."

"I'm guessing their killer was the man you tore off the picture?"

He huffed, and continued. "I see you had time to look around. Yeah, that was him… Andrey Pyotr. The only foreigner in our squadron. I thought he'd been killed, but I was wrong… anway, I haven't seen him since Blufor. Good riddance, the bastard."

He paused slightly, and looked over to the far wall, the one she'd looked at first when she entered.

"He's another Russian, but compared to Dubrovnik… Krass was cunning; a sly killer, manipulating people, but Pyotr… he's just a fucking animal. When you put a lunatic and an incredibly skilled commander in the same skull, it creates an abomination. He also… that woman, the one with auburn hair?" He gestured across the room to the image that had caught Ellie's eye. It was unsurprising to her that they were related. Suddenly, the story of the Watcher was falling into place. "That's Joanna. She… she was my sister. I tried to save her, and - and… I-"

She saw his pale, glassy green eyes gloss over in a layer of water.

"He got to her first… the fucker had gone completely mental. He shot me in the leg, disarmed me, and made me look at her. She'd been raped, and eventually killed, lying dead next to Skye and Welsh."

"I'm so sorry. I didn't mean to-"

"And, you know what the best part is?" He asked, with a fire burning in his eyes as two gleaming tears skewed down his chiseled cheeks in neat rivulets. For the first time, she saw his true anger, the anger that was always hiding behind the despair, waiting to pounce. He was almost as formidable as Joel. She looked deeply into his glass-green eyes, and saw minuscule flecks of yellow around his irises.

"He carved a fucking red circle into her stomach, with a line perpendicular to the top, and hung her from a pole. He hung me opposite her, and left me for a week. I was almost dead when Blufor came along and let me down."

He dipped his head, and his fury dissolved into sadness.

"Sometimes I wish he hadn't. Sometimes I wish he'd just left me to die of fucking thirst. Blufor carried me for eight years, before we met the bastard again. He gave me his car to escape while he defended the exit of the compound we were trapped in. His last words to me on the radio before he died were; 'never forget her, Adam. Never forget the people who made you.' You can imagine how I felt when I saw a squad of men wearing that fucking symbol on their lapels."

He stood, and attempted to regain his composure, re-wrapping the tattoo in the bandage he'd removed earlier.

"So I got that tattoo the next day, and recorded everyone I'd lost, so I'd never forget what happened. What he did to them. I swore to hunt that bastard down, and I'm going to-"

"Adam? Adam!" They heard Evelynn shout from the medical room, her voice clearly distressed. "Adam, get in here now!"

"Oh, shit!" Ellie said, the tones of fear creeping back into her voice.

"C'mon." Adam retorted sharply, grabbing Ellie firmly by the wrist and leading her behind him. He swiftly moved through the door into the hall-like room, and then barged through the next metal door into Evelynn's operating set-up.

She'd stitched both of Joel's wounds shut, and the equipment that had been pristine when Ellie had left was now thick with deep red blood. On the tray to her right, a long, tube-looking lump of red flesh lay in a puddle of the vicious crimson liquid.

"You didn't tell me just how much blood he'd lost! His heart's failing; get me the adrenaline, stat!"

"Copy!" He let go of Ellie and darted from the room, re-entering not five seconds later with his backpack. He again took out the leather satchel, and drew the last orange-liquid filled syringe and handed it to Evelynn.

"Get me three clean syringes!" She commanded with urgency whilst injecting the fluid into the prominent vein on the underside of Joel's arm. He was almost as white and the bed sheets he lay on.

Ellie darted over to the bench where the equipment was sitting, and scooped three clear-glass syringes into her hands.

"What's his blood type, Ellie?"

"AB+." Ellie replied, without really processing the question.

"Shit, that's convenient." Adam said behind her.

Alarms went off in her mind. She turned around to see that Adam had exposed the back of his arm and was waiting expectantly for her to bring the syringes to Evelynn to give Joel a blood transfusion. He had flecks in his eyes, just like Evelynn.

Cordyceps.

"No…" She said, realizing the gravity of the situation. "No!" She screamed, tears cascading down her cheeks.

"Ellie, what's wrong?" Adam inquired, baffled by her sudden outburst.

"She's infected!" She screamed, pointing straight at Evelynn. "She's fucking infected."

Evelynn was sitting in silence, her head down, in realisation of the situation.

"Evelynn?" Adam asked, shaken by the conviction with which Ellie had placed her accusation.

She sighed. "Little shit looked in my eyes, didn't she…"

Adam had backed away from her, and was almost at the door. Evelynn met his gaze, and for the first time, he clearly saw the yellow streaks that coursed through the glistening blueness of her eyes.

"Evelynn…?" He asked again.

"She's infected, and she's infected you! You're only going to infect Joel, too. Look!"

Adam took the metal tray that Ellie had handed to him, and looked at his reflection.

"I… I can't see anything."

"Look properly!"

He moved the tray closer to his face, and inspected. Sure enough, yellow streaks interrupted the green of his eyes. His were almost as prominent as Evelynn's, but masked by the colour his eyes wore.

He turned to her, his face a picture of shock and desperation.

"Why didn't you tell me?" He asked, the anger rising in his voice.

"Adam, I-"

"Why didn't you fucking tell me?" He shouted, falling into the wall behind him and sliding down it to sit on the floor in disbelief.

She walked quickly over to him, and tried to embrace him.

"Adam, baby, don't worry, I can-"

He got up quickly, pushed past her and moved to the other side of the room, his face contorted with anger.

He turned slowly to face her upon reaching the opposite wall, and spoke in the quietest and most intimidating tone Ellie had heard in a long time.

"How long do I have?"

Evelynn had her hands raised in front of her, trying to calm him down. She was obviously well aware of the fury he possessed when he was roused.

"Adam… listen to me."

He stood there in silence, boring holes into her with his gaze. She continued.

"I told you I could fix this for everyone, didn't I?"

"You lied."

"No!" She almost screamed, made desperate by the thought of losing someone she loved. "No, I didn't! I can fix this! You brought bodies to me to examine, bodies of the infected. That was before… before we…"

"Before you fucked me! Before you killed me!"

"No, before I fucking fell in love with you! I don't even remember how it happened. Some infected brain juice or something got in my eye, and later that day we shared the night together. I didn't even fucking realize until the day after!"

"And then what? Why haven't I turned? This was nearly two years ago, I should be a fucking Clicker!"

She stuttered, her composure thrown by his anger and sense of betrayal.

"I-I-I spent the next two days solidly working, and I tried everything I could to develop some way of stopping what I'd done!"

"How?" He demanded.

"I tried remedies, antibiotics, antidotes, vaccines… I got nowhere. We had less than 48 hours when I finally had a breakthrough."

"How did you do this?" He demanded, with more force.

"I created a carbon compound that naturally lowers the reaction rates between the compounds in our bodies and the compounds in Cordyceps. You probably don't understand a word of the jargon, but in Layman's terms, it drew the incubation stage from 3 days to around 5 years. Since then, I've tried. I've tried so fucking hard to find a cure. I just can't do it, Adam! Scientist tries to play God and ends up killing the only person who ever cared for her! It's almost cliché."

"So you've been fucking drugging me, too?"

"Adam, I didn't mean it like that! I never meant for any of this!"

He just stood there, brooding.

"It doesn't change the matter at hand, though. I have hundreds of syringes of the compound, and if Joel doesn't get some blood soon, he'll die."

Ellie felt almost as betrayed as Adam did. In a timid and frightened voice, she verbalized the two options they had.

"So… if he doesn't get blood, he definitely dies. If he does get blood, he definitely dies, just in 5 years."

No one spoke. Adam took the syringes, filled them himself, and then stormed out of the room, grabbing a rifle from his rack and moving out of the compound of buildings. She heard the door from the entryway open, and then slam shut, the wheel turning and the bolt clicking into place shortly afterward.

She waited in silence, and when Evelynn asked her if she wanted to continue, she just nodded. She watched in despair as the thick red liquid was injected into his veins, one syringe, then the next, then the next. When it was over, Ellie lingered for a moment to see Joel's heart rate level out and his blood pressure increase, then left Evelynn alone in the operating room. She moved quickly to Adam's room, plucked the Magnum out of the rack, and made for the exit to the cave. The last thing she heard on the way out of the buildings were Evelynn's muffled sobs.

She heaved on the cold metal door, and it opened more easily under her anger than it had under her fatigue. She slammed it shut, and opened the second one, exiting out into the darkness of the cave, and made her way towards the bright orifice above that signified morning had arrived.