The soldiers were ordered to do something that was so hard for them to do, it left some of them crying and traumatized after being forced to kill their loved ones and anybody else who were infected, even children.
They couldn't risk being infected themselves, it was their duty to preserve their humanity and their lives, according to their leader.
The bodies were covered in white fabric with their blood staining it before they were all torched and set aflame.
Two young soldiers came forward to the Major.
"Sir, we have a problem. One of the infected has escaped," one of the soldiers reported.
The major didn't like the sound of that.
"Who was the infected?"
"An unnamed girl, she's the daughter of one of our men who was also infected, I saw her go into the woods."
The other soldier was quiet the whole time and his eyes wandered to the burning corpses, mainly at a dead man's hand with a snake tattoo on it that wasn't covered by the fabric, then looked away in pain as it was engulfed by flames along with its body.
His superior noticed this behavior, silently glaring at him.
"Did you two at least try to eliminate the target... or did you just let her escape?"
The quiet soldier froze when he asked them that question.
"Let her escape? No, sir! It was too late when I saw her run. I had to take care of the ones that were in front of me, sir," the talkative one said.
"What about you, private?"
"I... I'm sorry, sir. I didn't get to her in time either. I was also preoccupied with the others."
"Let me see your weapons."
They followed his order, They knew it wouldn't do them any good if they didn't.
The first one's gun was obviously used.
As the Major examined the other's weapon, he realized it was cold, as if it wasn't used at all. It was confirmed that all of the bullets were in it.
"Care to explain yourself, Private?"
"I'm sorry, sir. I couldn't kill her... I couldn't killed them," the quiet soldier said, tearfully.
He got on his knees and started crying, suffering a breakdown.
The major kneeled to his level, as if to comfort him.
"Look at me, Private... I understand."
A loud bang was heard. The soldier was shot dead between the eyes by his superior when he didn't expect it, as punishment for showing weakness.
The Major stood on his two feet.
"Let that be a lesson for everyone. As soon as we're done cleaning up here, we'll report to the Colonel," He said.
--
She ran away as fast as she could after escaping the soldiers. The little girl always thought soldiers were the ones that were kind-hearted defenders of the weak, but the ones she encountered were anything but.
These soldiers were killing innocent children who were sick with the virus. The pandemic has killed most of the humans on the earth, making them an endangered species.
For most of her life, she had to stay in a military base. Now, she is fighting to live and escaping.
The nameless girl tripped and fell face first on the ground. Once she gained composure, heavily breathing and crying, the girl looked around and realized she was in the woods. The tall trees surrounded by the beautiful pink and orange color of sunset, with the cold weather creeping in.
What was she to do? It was almost nighttime and she was in the dark forest all on her own. The anxiety loomed over her like the grim reaper. However, knowing that she lost the soldiers and that they couldn't find her made her feel safe for the time being. It was somewhat relieving.
Nameless simply started walking, she put on her blue hoodie on and looked straight down, thoughts running through her head.
What snapped her out of it was a strange noise coming from behind a tree, it sounded like panicking, a hooting sound.
She slowly walked up to the source to investigate. As she got closer, her eyes widened in disbelief.
It was an ape, an albino gorilla. Frantically, picking his things up. As she stepped forward, she steps on a twig, making a snapping sound, alarming the gorilla.
He rapidly turns to see the girl, they stared at each other for a moment. She wasn't afraid at all, just mesmerized by his coat of white fur that reminded her of snow. She also noticed the strange red heart shape that was embedded onto the side of his head. He, on the other hand, looked frightened, immediately wondering what a strange human child was doing in the woods. The ape immediately snapped out of it and ignored her.
"Late… very late," he whispered to himself as he turned his back.
Confused, she noticed him dropping something as he sprint away.
She picked it up from the ground, it was a pocket watch.
The girl tried to call out to him, tell him to wait but couldn't. She remembered she was too sick to speak.
She suddenly started following him as quickly as she could, holding the pocket watch firmly in her hand. When she thought she lost sight of him, her peripheral vision caught him descending into a narrow passageway on all fours through leaves and branches.
The human child was hesitant at first, but she wanted to give the watch back to him, as a means to distract herself from the horrific circumstances.
After putting the pocket watch in her pocket for safe keeping, Nameless got on her knees and hands and started crawling through the passageway. It was uncomfortable because of the twigs and leaves. Not only that, the ground was feeling like it descending and it was dark to not know where she was going. She moved her hand to touch the ground, except she reached for nothing but air and her heart stopped.
The most strangest thing happened; the nameless girl started falling, the sharp feeling of gravity pulling her down making her stomach churn. She tried to scream as loud as she could, only for screams to be muffled by her illness.
Nameless was falling into an abyss, so many memories going through her head. Her friends killed, her parents dead, everyone she ever knew and loved dead, the ones she trusted betrayed her. Shutting her eyes and prepared herself for the hard landing that was about to come, wondering if this is how she dies.
She opened her eyes and felt something prickly and crackling on where she landed, slowly sitting up and seeing that she landed on a bunch of leaves and sticks in what looked like a strange, dark building. She saw emptied out cupboards on the walls and broken pieces of cups and equipment on the floor
She stood up from her somewhat soft landing on her two feet, but ended up tripping on the floor.
"Ow! That hurt!" She winced.
A shocking realization caught her as she softly grasping her hands to where her throat was; she could talk.
"How? I can…" the little human quickly got up, she stumbled a bit with a scraped knee. She looked around and saw the gorilla's silhouette disappearing into a lit hallway.
She slowly walked around, using the dim hallway lights as her guide.
"Where am I?" That is when she saw something, a blurry glowing light.
As she got closer, she realized it was a gate. She tried to open it but, it was locked.
Curious about the many doors in the hallway, she opens one of them, finding a family of chimpanzees just enjoying a meal together. Not only that, two human men were standing there, acting like the apes' bodyguards.
One of them of the men calmly prompted Nameless step back.
"Aléjate" ("Step away"), he said calmly.
"Espera," ("Wait..."), the mother chimpanzee stopped him before he closed the door on Nameless. She came up with her baby in her arm. She looked at Nameless with kind eyes, which reminded of her own mother.
The female ape handed her an apple to eat. Without saying anything, she closed the door.
"Thank you," Nameless said.
That whole interaction left Nameless confused, but at least she had something to eat.
She went and opened another door, only to find a bunch of angry gibbons, with a scared old man who was teaching them a little magic trick being equally surprised to see her.
"Excuse me? I'm sorry but I'm looking for a gorilla with wh-"
"Keluar! Keluar! Keluar! Keluar!!!" ("Out! Out! Out!"), They shouted.
The old man panicked and motioned her to leave for her safety.
They scared her away. Nameless closed the door quickly, even more confused.
She chose the next door carefully. The person on the other side of the door was a boy around her age wearing black, he had ruffled brown hair and freckles. He was looking at a beautiful emerald. A little chimpanzee was standing behind him, trying to hide herself from Nameless behind his leg.
"Oh, hello," he greeted.
"Hello... have you seen an albino gorilla pass by here? He lost something and I'm trying to give it back to him."
"No, sorry. I haven't seen him," He replied.
Suddenly, a commotion was heard from 7 doors down. The ape that Nameless was looking for was getting kicked out, the one on the inside the room was giving him an earful.
"Tell his majesty to KISS MY ASS!!" The person yelled.
"I can't tell him that. Oh, I don't have time for this," The ape replied.
"Nevermind, I found him, thanks," said Nameless.
The ape was running in a hurry on all fours while Nameless was running after him as fast she could.
"Wait, I have something that belongs..." when she made the same turn as he did, he was gone again. Now frustrated, she looked around and wondered where he went. Her thoughts suddenly went somewhere else, an image of red withered carnations popped up in her head. For a moment, Nameless felt strange and dizzy.
"Withering... Withering..."
"Who said that?" She questioned as she looked around, but nobody was there.
Nameless then found a three-legged table with a tiny key placed on it. She thought it could open one of the doors behind her, but realized the key was too small to fit into the keyholes. However, she ended up finding the smallest door that the key could definitely open.
The girl gave it a shot and, to her luck, the door opened. She kneeled down to get a better look on what was behind the door and it was beautiful green scenery, a garden with a fountain being bathed in sunlight. It was all so pretty that Nameless couldn't wait to go outside. There was one problem though; she was too big to fit through the door.
"If only I were smaller...," She muttered.
As she stood up and turned around, she saw something on the table that wasn't there before. There was a bottle with a tag on it that said "Drink Me". While examining it, Nameless couldn't find any other labels on it. With no warning labels, she concluded that the drink wasn't poisonous.
Even so, she was scared to drink it at first, but its color reminded her of the fizzy sodas she and the other children at the military base would drink. Not only that, she was very parched. Nameless couldn't help but open it and took 3 sips.
What happened next scared her so much, she thought she was falling again. However, that wasn't the case at all. Nameless was shrinking in size, to the point that she was less than 10 inches tall. At the very least, she was now able to fit through the door now and see the beautiful garden.
Sadly, when Nameless turned around to reached the door it was gone. There was no tiny door anymore, like it was never there.
"What?! Where's the door? It was right there! I'm too small now. What good will this do?" She asked herself, teary-eyed and anxious.
As she started overthinking, Nameless found something under the table; a little glass with a cookies inside it. There was sign on it that said "Eat me".
"Ok, what do I got to lose?"
After eating one cookie, she felt strange again. Nameless was terrified to see that parts of her body were growing big, until her whole body was stuck and couldn't move around the building. With her head stuck to the ceiling like it's going to burst through the roof and unable to move her legs at all, she was panicking.
"No! I don't like this! What do I do?"
--
Hope you enjoyed this chapter :)
Here's a description of the of the random OCs from the scene of the doors.
Behind the first door was Cata, a female chimpanzee and her family. Her two human protectors are Emiliano and Ricardo (set in Mexico).
Behind the second door was Daud the gibbon and his followers. The old man with them is named Yusuf, their self-appointed teacher (set in Malaysia).
Behind the third door was a young human telepath named Jason and his little companion named Flora (set in England.)
Behind the fourth door was Liam, a passionate man who protects the apes where he lives, he's the chasing Winter out (set in Canada).
These are OC's that will appear in another PotA fanfic I'm trying to work on.