Author's Note: Hello, everyone! I am SO sorry for not updating this sooner! A lot has been going on, but such is life.

Enjoy!


Day Four: Population Infection: 4%


"Does the name 'Karen Parker' ring any bells?" Dana asked Alex, turning to him. When he gave no response, she continued, "Well it should. She was close to you; an ex girlfriend. I have her address from the laptop."

Alex gave out a sigh, feeling a bit weary of finding women he was with, however many that was. Was he aware of how intertwined it all was before this whole thing started?

"Get to her before the military makes her disappear. Look, if I can find this lead, you can bet they will too."

He looked to her before walking out of the door, heading to see Karen Parker. Hopefully, she'd be more useful than Jessi. Why had Dana even suggested that he saw her? She just seemed like a woman he had a child with. She wasn't any use to him whatsoever.

Upon arriving closer to Karen's place, he saw that things were turning rather awry. People were running, apartments were on fire and right across from Parker's place, there was a building that was covered in the mass tissues like the ones back at the GENTEK Facility. It had to be Elizabeth Greene's doing.

Seeing as they were distracted, he took the liberty of continuing into the building to speak with the woman.

"Karen Parker." he announced his arrival.

"I thought you were dead." she spoke, standing up.

"I should be." he agreed simply.

She walked up to him, wrapping her arms around his neck for a hug. He stood still, not returning the gesture. She removed herself, looking at him.

"Right now, we need to get out of the military cordon." he told her.

"You need to get us a vehicle—a military one if possible. It's the only way we'll be able to get out of the district." she suggested.

He nodded, leaving to do so. He had to infiltrate a military base, which wasn't hard at all for him to do. Once inside, he consumed the driver and gained the knowledge of how to operate the APC, driving it out to an area where there would be a fair amount of infected people. Once his practice was done, he headed over to get Karen and took her to the location she gave him, both going inside the apartment.

"We know a few things about the outbreak: there are two genetic strains at work." Karen started, turning to look at him, "I need samples from both types to be able to treat it."

Alex continued looking at her as she spoke.

"First, you're going to have to locate samples from Infected Water Towers and then collect samples from a full-blown Hive." She showed him a map with circles over certain parts, "The Water Towers are prevalent in these areas. Get there, destroy them and collect the material. Then, head uptown and get the material from the Hive." she finished.

Alex stepped back toward her, "Whatever's happening here, this is only the beginning..."


After gathering the material that Karen requested, he returned to hand it over to her and headed back out to Dana to see what else she might have dug up.

The Carrier, U.S.S. Ronald Reagan was to arrive at New York City's harbour, as if things couldn't get any more dramatic than they already were.

"Where are they landing?" Alex asked her as they stared at the computer screen.

"Southeast Manhattan. But the Carrier—the U.S.S. Reagan—is supposed to remain off the Southern coast..." she said, "I wonder where those trucks are heading." she thought aloud.

"Wherever they're going, I'll bet McMullen is there." Alex said, Dana turning around to look at him, "He did this to me and I'm gonna find out why."

"And then?" Dana asked.

"And then I'm gonna make sure he never does it to anyone else," he said, turning to leave, "Ever again."

She looked back at the laptop, thinking of when Jessi was going to step into all of this. She contemplated on telling him, but didn't want him to feel as if he couldn't trust her since she knew and concealed the information. She needed more time to think of how she would explain it to him.


Blackwatch Headquarters — RED CROWN Command, Battery Park...

Jessi sat in the conference room next to Cross, eyes glued to the coffee in her mug while listening to McMullen speak about "Zeus".

"The damage that Mercer has caused is catastrophic on an unrealistic scale. It must be brought in as soon as possible. It's destroying building after building, slashing down countless people—whether or not they're shooting at It...Its ability to shape-shift is far beyond any weapon that we humans can ever imagine of designing."

Bullshit. You morons designedit...and we helped...we never eradicated it...

"I want to know what drives it. I want to know how it can cause all of this chaos." McMullen continued.

"No..." Jessi blurted out accidentally, eyes widening when she realized she had spoken her thought aloud.

"What was that, Captain?" Randall asked her.

"I-I...I don't believe that Mercer caused this by himself. Elizabeth Green is out there now; all of this damage couldn't have been caused by Mercer alone. His strain is completely different from hers as well. Look at his patterns; this isn't him. It's her. These...Hives and these Hunters...they didn't appear until she was released. Furthermore, the makeup is identical to the masses you see inside her chamber on Fifty-One..." she stated, looking away from McMullen.

McMullen perked his head up, intrigued by what the Second Captain just stated. Even Cross' eyes were on her. Not in a way she expected, however; but more in a "don't do this to yourself" kind of way. She felt regret for saying anything.

"What brings you to this theory?" Randall asked her.

"Just an observation, Sir," she began, keeping her eyes on Cross for approval, "it just seems like a lot of chaos for one person to cause and it doesn't correlate with what he's done."

"Mercer is not a person!" Randall exclaimed, slamming his hand on the table.

Cross gave Jessi a subtle nod.

"My apologies, Sir. Please, excuse me." she said, casually getting up and walking out of the door.

"I want surveillance on her." McMullen stated.

"Doc?" Cross spoke up.

"She knows something, more than we do. If she is withholding information from us, it could be useful to our cause to bring Mercer down." the Doctor explained.

"You cannot assume that she is witholding information just because she has an opinion based on her observations on the field, which is more than what you've seen." Cross defended her.

"Your request for her surveillance is denied. I will not have you eye down people in this organization." Randall stated.

"You are close with her, correct?" McMullen asked Cross, an eyebrow raised in curiosity.

"She has been my partner for years." Cross said casually, adamant to not give any hint of a relationship between the two. "If anybody knows her, it's me. She isn't hiding any information. I've seen it for myself and I support her opinion." he said in a final tone.

"Very well, then." McMullen stated, the meeting being adjourned.


Jessie sat in her office, eyes going over the various pieces of paper scatttered across her desk, looking for any missing pieces that may fit together in this horrific puzzle. She wanted to know what Alex's ultimate plan was when he found out. She wanted to know what she could do to minimize the consequences of either of their actions.

"Ms. Adams." she heard, looking up to see Dr. McMullen

"Yes, Doctor?" she asked.

"Working on something, are we?"

"That is classified." she almost snarled out, stacking the papers together and placing them in her drawer, locking them away with a key.

"Hmm..." he said, lifting a hand to his face, "Classified...like your relationship with Alex?"

"Back off, McMullen." she warned him.

"Tell me, are you upset that the man you have to bring down is the father of your child?"

"Get out of my office." she demanded, irritation clear in her demeanor as she stood up.

"Or what? You'll sic your dog on me?"

"My dog?" she asked, an eyebrow lifting, unsure of what he was speaking about.

"The whole of Blackwatch knows that after hours, you probably fuck Captian Cross right here on this desk." he said, a low and sinister tone taking over him.

"That is an absurd implication and you are in no place to pass such judgements." she said calmly, hands behind her back, posture upright and standing her ground, just as she was taught from a child. She saw that her fiancé had entered the room quietly, but showed no sign of acknowledgment as she kept her eyes on the monster than owned GENTEK.

"Is it? Tell me, you were once engaged to Captain Cross, am I right? And then you went back with Dr. Mercer and were engaged to him. Were you fucking Cross while engaged to Mercer too? You seem to have a reputation for going back and forth between the two men. That ring on your finger, which one is it from this time?"

"Get the fuck out. Now." Cross growled out, grabbing the Doctor by his shirt and pushing him out the door before slamming it in his face.

Cross turned to Jessi, "Are you stupid?" Cross said, walking quickly toward Jessi.

"How rude! I didn't initiate the conversation—he waltzed into my office like he owns the place all of a sudden!" she defended.

"I'm talking about the meeting, Jess. You can't blurt things out like that."

"I wasn't...I wasn't there...I zoned out..." she stuttered, "I didn't mean to speak out in the first place." she admitted, sitting back down in her sleek, black office chair.

"I know." Cross assured her and gave out a sigh as he looked at the items laid out on a shelf, "McMullen's eyes are on you. What are we going to do now?" he asked, turning around to see her hiding her face on her desk. "Babe...what's wrong?"

"I-I...this...Alex..."

"This isn't Alex." he reminded her.

"It is." she said, sounding as if she was trying to convince herself of it as well.

"Alex is a virus, destroying everything he touches."

"He cares."

"Does he really?" he asked, coaxing out her thoughts.

"He does...this is the Alex I knew before he...changed..." she said, trailing off.

"Jess...Alex died in Penn Station."

"He is not dead! He just wants to know what happened...he didn't even remember Riley..."

"He got riddled with bullets! How could you do this to yourself? You're jeopardizing everything." He said, eyes staring into hers before she looked away. "You said you weren't going to get your personal feelings involved again. You said you were going to treat this as if he was just another person and ignore his place in your life before this. What about everything he's done to you? What about all the pain he caused you before Penn Station? What about the pain he's causing to everyone around him? Your Colleagues? He murdered Emélie."

She winced at the memory of her recently dead team mate. Somebody she was put in charge of, a life she was supposed to ensure nothing happened to in this dangerous job. She had time off of work that day, she just appeared as another civilian, he couldn't have known. "He's changed." she almost whispered, "If he knew that she was important to me, he wouldn't have..."

"This isn't him! He doesn't even remember how he got to this point! He doesn't care about who any of us are! All he knows is that we are the enemy."

Jessi looked away.

"He will never come back, Jessi. Once the virus is gone, so is Alex..." He reminded her, leaning down and giving her a gentle kiss before leaving her office.


McMullen is such an ass lol. See you all in the next chapter!

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