Bonus
"Are you sure of this, Mr. O'Connor? We could still revisit the plan," Rose told him, as he was going to the helicopter.
The man, with his eyes that could pierce through your head right to your brain, just let a little glimpse of what would come, by turning a blind eye to her, as if making her know how important that day was, or rather that night.
"If you ask me, I never thought this day would come," Alfred told her, while looking at their boss getting in the chopper along Alpha Team, the first that would take off, "but the man did it, after twenty one years."
"A world without the Cordyceps?" she said, while not moving her eyes from the chopper, "to be honest I though he was just another one in the pot, all along just like the others, but when he started moving the troops all over the country I just couldn't be like something real wasn't happening."
"I can understand you; two decades of seemingly fruitless sacrifices, but now I think it was worth it. I've known that man for more than you'd think, and I would give my life for him any day, after all… in a world where everything went to black, you need someone like him."
"You really believe he can save the world?"
"If he can't, we may as well be doomed."
After that the fleet took off, and they just gazed at the orange sky while seeing the flying whales on their way, knowing that that day the FEDRA would finally get a person with total immunity to the Cordyceps.
"Oh, by the way, it's good to see you again, Alfred; it's been a long time… like four years, in what department do you work? I thought you were out of the work, or even dead… you know how things are here…"
"Yeah, I know, but don't worry about me, and say Karla hi for me, and about my work… I'm Mr. O'Connor's right arm, which is why we won't see each other in four more years probably."
"My mother died two years ago."
"I see… Sorry for your loss."
"Don't worry, you couldn't know."
Then one last helicopter arrived, the one that would get Alfred; he saw it, immediately getting his case while looking at his team in the helipad; they were all ready, just waiting for him.
"That's my flight," he said to her, without taking his eyes from the chopper.
"Good luck to you guys," Rose said, with a little smile in her face.
But something was stopping him, still looking at that helicopter, while one man in his team was waving at him, and making him now he needed to go.
"Don't tell anyone else, Rose… do you want to know the name of the target?"
"Huh? What's his name?"
"The target's a girl, fifteen, named Ellie."
Rose just stood there, in shock, while the only sound in that room was the choppers' helixes.
"All sacrifices are worth it, Rose," Alfred said without looking at her, "right?"
Rose couldn't say anything to that; their child would've been sixteen, with her seventeenth birthday in just one more month.
"Do you still hate me, Rose?"
"No, I don't."
Ellie was a cheerful girl, born in a twisted world, that died at age twelve when the Fireflies bombed several FEDRA outposts.
The final helicopter took off with Alfred in it; the destination would be a dam in Jackson County.