Enjoy :)


Day One: Infection confirmed.


Alex cautiously made his way over to his apartment. He knew that they were going to be waiting for him and he would have to think carefully. He reassured himself that he had the upper hand, that they didn't know what he was truly capable of.

Upon entering his apartment, he saw a blackboard with information scribbled upon it. There was a bookshelf with many books to go through, and computers. What caught his attention, however, where the pictures on the wall next to him, surrounding a certificate in his name. Pictures of, presumably, him and a few different people. There was a picture of Dana leaning against a woman, who looked quite young and was...very beautiful. There was a picture of him kissing a child, a pretty little girl, with her small hands around his face. Then, there was the picture with him and a woman with blonde hair, his arm wrapped around her.

He moved in to touch the picture and was sucked into some sort of painful memory where she grabbed him by the arms. He couldn't make out what she was saying, but she looked very worried. Once he came to, he looked around the apartment again. If finding something about the people in the pictures was going to be painful, he figured that he could do them one at a time.

Suddenly, he heard a loud bang, and was forcefully blasted out of one of the apartment windows. His body surged in pain as he was falling to the ground, but quickly recovered and landed on his feet, making a small crater in the road upon impact. He looked around, teeth gritted in anger and aching for revenge on those who attacked him. He saw a tank on the other side of the building. Soldiers were guiding a man out of the building and ushered him into the tank before it took off.

He's the one...

A helicopter flew over Alex, soldiers lowering themselves to the ground from the aircraft. "God damn it, that thing's still moving!" one shouted, pointing to Alex as they opened fire on him. He ignored the pain of each bullet quite easily in his enraged state, running towards them and easily killing them one by one with a simple and deadly kick or punch.

"Red Crown, we sighted high-pri Tango. Reroute Strike Team." a Marine officer radioed in.

"Kill Zone on move. Please wait your turn and get ready to roll." a female answered the request.

Alex huffed in irritation, "Shit. Here comes the cavalry..."

He grabbed the soldier who made the call-in, bashing the man's chest in with his fist before he bade his way down the street, ducking in to an alleyway he suddenly came upon and altered his appearance to match that of the soldier dressed in white once more. He took a moment to catch his breath, staying hidden in the narrow area as he heard the radio go off, "HQ, this is Echo One Alpha. Lost target. Repeat, do not have target."

Well...that was easy...

He continued following the tank, unsure of where it was heading but he pursued it nonetheless. He wanted to catch the man responsible for the bomb. He wanted to know why everyone was after him.

His radio went off again, "All Sigma units, converge on Central Park for immediate extraction."

That had to have been the man responsible for trying to kill him. He wasted no time redirecting himself toward Central Park, eyes open for any sign of military activity. It didn't take very long to run along and find the tank stopped by a bridge. Everyone surrounding the tank was on alert. He needed to get the man out of the tank to make his way to the extraction point.

His hand moved to his radio, "All clear, proceed when ready." he said in reassurance to those listening in. In a matter of seconds, the man was leaving the tank and running down into the tunnel to be picked up.

His movements were too quick for those around him to register as he ran through the tunnel, grabbing the man and continued running through the park, up the side of a building and on to the roof despite the man's orders to be let go. He threw the man down, beating his face in until the tendrils came out once more. The almost unbearable pain surged through his skull again as he gathered any necessary information.

"Doctor, try to keep the discussion high level. We need to know what we're dealing with on the ground." the voice of the man he'd just killed said.

"Its effect is...variable. When it DOES manifest, it makes the Idaho Strain look like the common cold. I don't need to remind you gentlemen how close we came to the point-of-no-return in Idaho. Mercer's body is a bomb, filled with this weaponized pathogen, waiting to go off. And now it's loose in the city. Bring it in, no matter what it takes. I'd say dead or alive, but I'm not sure those classifications fit Alex Mercer any longer."

He didn't recognize that second voice at all. Who was it? He looked to the ground, where the man's body would have lied, if he wasn't picked apart into fine matter. All that remained was the blood. So he was infected with some virus that made him stronger and capable of everything that he could do. That's why everybody was after him? He needed more answers. He needed to know everything that lead up to this point.

He waited for a few minutes out of sight before making his way back to Dana's hideout.

She told him that the best person to talk to would be Jessi-Lynn Adams, and seemed unbelieving when he admitted he didn't know who she was. Was he supposed to know? Dana pointed to the map, giving him Jessi-Lynn's probable location and told him to just go there and see what he could find out from her.


Jessi stood halfway in the living room; the rest of her on the backyard patio, having a cigarette. She was a wreck, stifling her tears as much as possible. She couldn't accept the fact that the man a part of her was somehow still madly in love with, the father of her child, was now gone; being cut apart and examined on some table.

She moved back into the house, not bothering to close the door. She slumped down onto the couch, looking at her daughter. She buried her face in her hands, bursting out into tears yet still trying to control it, teeth gritting in the emotional pain of a part of her forever lost.

"Alex..." she cried out, shaking her head and ignoring the whimpering coming from Sparkle.

"Jessi-Lynn Adams?" she heard, her head snapping up in disbelief. It couldn't be...

She whipped her head around to see Alex standing there, near the door leading to the backyard, "A-Alex?!"

"Yeah?" he answered, taken aback slightly by her demeanor, but paying more attention to the dog that was circling him before returning to lie down on the couch. He recognized her from a picture back at his apartment. She was the woman Dana was leaning against.

"Y-You're...you...how..." she muttered, getting to her feet and never taking her eyes off him in fear that this might all be a dream.

"What?" he asked, his hands moving in the same manner they usually would when her Alex spoke.

He had to have been alive, somehow. But how? He was killed; shot dead in Penn Station. She ran up to him, wrapping her arms around his neck and kissing him.

Alex felt the searing pain of another memory. He tried to hide the pain as much as possible.

They were together once. They were going to get married. They were in love. They had...a child. A daughter; and there she was, playing with some toys on the living room floor. She was the little girl he was kissing in that picture in his apartment as well. This was his family...

"Oh, my God. I thought you were dead. Oh, my God!" she cried, kissing him repeatedly. She stopped when she saw him wince in pain. "I'm sorry, I didn't know I was hurting you."

"It's alright." he managed through the pain.

"How are you alive? Why are you here?" she asked, her hands slipping away and becoming saddened as the reality of what he did came back to her.

"I was told you could help me." he stated simply.

"By who?" she asked, raising an eyebrow in suspicion.

"My sister, Dana."

"I know who she is, Alex." she smiled sweetly. "Unfortunately, there isn't much I can do at this moment. I'm wanted for questioning due to our relationship. I'm on the brink of losing my job and title for this, possibly my life. I'm trying to avoid that as much as possible for the sake of Riley." she explained, looking over to their daughter for a second. "I'm unsure of how I could possibly help in the first place." she shrugged.

"Do you know what happened?" he asked.

She turned her head away, her eyes shutting tight as she dropped her head. "I was told, but...I don't want to believe it."

"Believe what?"

"I..." she began, but stayed silent. "It's a lot to explain. It's not safe to even discuss it here, anybody could be listening."

"I should go, then."

"I don't want any harm to come to you, so perhaps—" she was cut off by Riley waddling her way over to Alex and grabbing his leg. She saw how he tensed up at the contact and analyzed his behaviour as best as she could. Something was completely wrong about him just with that simple gesture toward his own daughter, but it was still him. She knew it was him; it had to be. How was he even alive? She was still trying to process that the man she was told merely hours ago was dead, was now standing in her living room. Riley could see him too, so she wasn't dreaming...was she?

"Come here, Riley." Jessi said as she picked up their daughter, but the little girl kept trying to reach out to her father. "Would you like to hold her?" she asked, smiling at Alex.

"Uh..." he muttered, unsure of whether he should.

"Perhaps another time." she reassured Alex. He didn't seem very comfortable with the idea. He nodded in response.

"I'll try to find out what I can. Until then, please stay out of trouble as much as possible."

"They can't hurt me." he said confidently.

"Alex. Please." she pleaded.

"I'll do what I can." He said, looking into her eyes and then to Riley before turning away to leave through the same door that let him in.

Jessi looked at where he once stood, "This can't be happening..."


Poor Jessi. So much for her to process D; Take care! :)

≺) [ṃȧƌạṁeḤuɲʈǝrr]