Chapter 25

Continuously, the landscape rushed past her. From snowy mountains to deep forests and wide plains. And if it hadn't been for the fact that she had been kidnapped, Ellie would've enjoyed her first train ride.

A train! Besides some random wrecks, Ellie had never seen one in action before. At the FEDRA academy, they had told her that only where a stable power grid or enough fuel was available, it was possible to run trains. Plus, most tracks weren't in any usable condition. But somehow the Fireflies still had a functional train and clear tracks. It wasn't as fast as driving with a car, yet faster than walking or riding, which worried her even more. They were quickly out of Jackson's reach and therefore no rescue was expected soon.

The teenage girl had been given a compartment of her own. Constantly locked, of course. It was spacious and had a foldable table between two rows of seats. Only sporadically, someone brought her food, and sometimes Marlene tried to chat with her a bit. But then, Ellie mostly ignored her. And when the door got unlocked again, she knew that it was time again.

"Hi, Ellie!" Marlene greeted her with a soft smile and took a seat at the opposite place right in front of her. "Damn, you've grown over the last two years since we've seen each other," she then added, hoping of breaking the ice, yet to no avail. "I know you've been ignoring me for the last few days, but I see in your face that you've tons of questions. So, just ask away and I'll answer."

Like before, Ellie stayed silent, her sight constantly glued at the landscape beyond the window.

"Listen, I know our situation is not ideal, bu-..."

"Not ideal…" the young girl scoffed, eventually turning her head towards the ebony woman. "You fuckheads kidnapped me and killed my…my best friend. You expect me to be chatty now? Fuck off!"

For a moment, Marlene gazed out of the window as well, pondering about an answer.

"She attacked first," she then responded, gazing back at the girl, whose demeanor was a mixture of shock and unbelief. "We wanted to solve this peacefully…"

"You came there, guns blazin'. Not what I imagine peacefully."

"We had a deal!" Marlene then underlined, leaning forward. "She was supposed to bring you to Salt Lake. That was her task, nothing else. Instead, she brought you to Jackson. Why?"

"Yeah, because she wanted me to be safe…"

"I wanted that too, y'know," the queen of the Fireflies kept on countering. "You're the most precious thing on this planet, y'know that? And…"

"For reals now?!" Ellie then exclaimed, her fist slamming onto the table. "During our trip, I almost died and got kidnapped by a freakin' psycho-bitch. Sarah was the only one who's always been there for me. Protected me. And all you do is sit there and blow hot air." She then leaned in, hissing aggressively "You literally lied to me about my mom's death. Sarah told me the whole story."

"And did she also tell you that it was her who had shot her?" Marlene replied, already expecting to have thrown the young teenager off guard. Yet right the opposite was the case.

"Ding-dong, newsflash, motherfucker! My mom shot herself in order to protect me 'n' Sarah from your revenge. Clever, huh?"

With a sour expression, the leader of the Fireflies stood up, yet leaned in one last time, saying "So what?! Your mother shot herself and Sarah bailed out right after it. They both abandoned you and it was up to me to take their place. Or did Sarah try to contact you? No! I was the one who put you in the safest place possible: at the academy beside my own daughter."

Instantly, Ellie's eyes widened as she realized what Marlene just mentioned.

"Wait, Riley was your daughter?!"

"Indeed she was," the older woman replied, taking a deep breath. "Like you, I put her into the academy to get trained and spy on FEDRA. Then you came into the mix and her new task was to keep an eye on you."

"So she spied on me, too?" Ellie exclaimed, already about to get furious again, yet didn't as Marlene shook her head.

"She refused to do so," she said, looking deeply at the young red-head. "Riley liked you very much. And when shit got more 'n' more tense in Boston, I pulled her outta there. Of course, she joined our ranks, but before I could get her away from Boston, she ran away, because we had a huge fight about you. She was so…stubborn to get you outta there, too. But…"

Now Ellie got sad as well as she remembered the last night with Riley at the mall. The fun they had and, of course, their kiss. Yet also her demise.

"She loved me…" the young girl whispered. "I guess she never mentioned that to you."

But Marlene just scoffed. "Does it matter? Under normal circumstances, you would've been a cute couple, but… You know what happened… And I'm glad that her death wasn't for nothing."

"What?!" Ellie then scoffed back, looking into a merciless demeanor.

"Thanks to her foolishness we became aware 'bout your immunity, and making a vaccine would not only save thousands of lives, but would also honor her death."

Eventually, Marlene wanted to leave again, only stopping one last time at the door where she faced Ellie, saying calmly "All we want is to get a vaccine out of your immunity, and after we got it, you can go wherever you want."

The door got locked again and Ellie was alone again, her mind filled to the brim with a mixture of anger, doubt and sadness. Was there even any point to go back home anyway? They've killed the only person who had mattered to her, so why bother? She just had to give them what they wanted and be done with it. No foul, no harm. If she was the cure then it was probably worth her life, everything else had been taken away from her anyway, so why clinging onto that any longer?

Yeah, that sounded like a solid, reasonable plan.

She woke up with a start, gasping loudly for air and sitting up straight before falling onto the mattress again with a groan as a sharp pain ran through her body.

Not wanting to give in to this fate and with the fact in the back of her mind that Ellie had gotten kidnapped by the Fireflies, she screamed in frustration and pain, eventually managing to sit up and get her legs over the edge of the bed.

Attracted by the noise, Maria rushed into the room, immediately approaching Sarah.

"Whoa, easy there!"

But she simply ignored the nurse and pushed her aside, groaning with a hoarse voice "They got her…" before she wanted to walk away, but immediately collapsed as her legs failed to support her weight. Laying on the ground and being aware of her desperate situation, Sarah began to cry while hammering with her fist onto the ground.

"Ssh! Don't worry," Maria whispered calmly, brushing soothingly over her friend's back. "Tommy and the others are following them. They're gonna get her back, and then…"

"They won't!" Sarah yelled back. "Not with fuckin' horses." Slowly, she got up, her entire body consisting of pain. "Tommy's Indian. I need it."

"Sarah…" Maria sighed, pinching the bridge of her nose as she began to realize that any discussion would be in vain. "You got shot, twice. The stitches aren't even 24 hours old. Your bloodpressure's down in the dumps and you wanna follow 'em on an old motorcycle?"

"I've already done dumber shit," was everything Sarah returned as she stripped off the thin gown and slowly put on her clothes, whereas Maria helped her.

"He's gonna be furious, y'know…" the blond nurse mentioned as she put the top over Sarah's head.

"I'll try to bring it back in one piece. Is there still some gas left?"

"Some, but mostly deteriorated."

"It'll have to do. Get the keys while I gear up!"

Maria's heart went heavy as she witnessed her friend and niece-in-law leave the hospital since she knew that it was suicide to go all alone against the Fireflies.

"Sarah, wait!" she called out, turning her niece-in-law around as soon as she had reached her. "You're in no condition to man a rescue on your own. I mean… I like Ellie too, y'know. But…"

"Don't!" Sarah warned with a raised index finger. "You know that she means everything to me…"

"Even more than your son?"

Sarah stayed silent, gazing at her aunt-in-law with welled up eyes and not able to reply anything.

"One day, he'll ask questions and you can't avoid him forever. Maybe… Maybe it's time for you to…"

She closed her eyes, took a deep, shaky breath and released it slowly, signaling that this topic was hitting her deep within. Yet, she simply turned around saying "Maybe me 'n' Ellie are closer than we should be, but she's as important to me as my own flesh 'n' blood. And what mother would I be to just let her in the hands of people who're ready to kill her?" and then walked a few steps towards the door, looking over her shoulder one last time. "Even if you allow me to see him, I could never face him, knowing that I gave up on Ellie as well."

Mentally preparing herself for a long trip ahead, Sarah left the clinic and already made a list of what to take with her. Luckily, Eugene had already repaired her small crossbow and crafted some bolts for it. So, she would definitely take that with her. She would track them down and find them, and as soon as she was at Salt Lake City, Marlene would wish that she had let go of her plan.

The old office was spacious and well equipped, since it used to belong to one of the former chief physicians of the St. Mary's Hospital. Though, most of its interior was now in bad shape due to two decades of wear and tear. Upon its size, Marlene pretty much used this room for conferences of the higher command of the Fireflies. Yet, many of the upper command were either scattered across the country or dead.

The leader of the Fireflies was currently sitting at the desk over the latest report about Ellie's immunity and methods about recreating it with a vaccine. With a heavy sigh, she dropped the last page on the desk and covered her face with her cupped hands.

Then it knocked and as the dark-skinned woman looked up, a tall, white man with dark-blond, short hair entered.

"Hey, Jerry, take a seat!" Marlene greeted him, waiting until he had taken a place in front of the desk.

"You wanted to see me, Marle?" he said with a slight smile, yet Marlene stayed stern, sighing again.

"Yes…yes I did. It's about your report. Is there really no other way?"

Now Jerry Anderson's smile faded and he was the one huffing out some air, before telling her "I know, it's not what you've wished for, but it's all I have. Her blood and everything else came out with no results. We know that the Cordyceps infects the brain and spreads from there, so her immunity must originate from there. But to be sure, I need some brain tissue."

"But that'll kill her."

"I know, and…" he paused, struggling to find the right words. "Marlene, you know that we all want a cure and have been searching for it for twenty years now, but… Is this worth it?"

"One life for thousands…" she replied defiantly as she struggled with herself. "How big are the chances for success?"

"Honestly," Jerry answered, shaking his head. "Slim. We don't know anythin' 'bout this kind of immunity. And I don't even know if we have the means to produce any sort of vaccine in the necessary quantity."

"Let me handle this point," she eventually returned and got up. "Find the cure. No matter what. This is our only chance."

Getting up as well, he then said "Jesus, Marlene, I hope you know what you're doing. She's just a girl…"

"I already talked with her about it and she's accepting the outcome," Marlene replied with determination, trying to swipe away any doubts. "Anything else you need?"

"No. Just gimme 3 hours to prepare for the surgery."

"Good!" Marlene eventually replied with a satisfactory smile and watched as Jerry wanted to walk away. "I'll make sure that the generators will run properly. And Doc…"

One last time, the doctor turned around, frowning at the black woman.

"Get me a syringe with a sedative… Just in case our hothead loses her nerves and gets violent."

For a moment, the doctor wanted to contradict, already having the feeling that something was off. Yet, saved his breath and left the office. Because, eventually, the needs of the many were outweighing the needs of the few, right?

Guard duty. Matt hated guard duty. Two hours ago, Marlene had asked him to take care of the generators and make sure that they're running properly. He did and now he was back in the room behind the reception, making sure that everything was dandy.

He actually missed the quiet and peaceful life in Jackson. The calm and steady lifestyle of a small town. The nice people. All those beautiful women. Actually, he had already laid the Firefly chapter to rest, but when Sarah and the girl had showed up, out of a sudden, he had become curious. All it took was a bottle of moonshine with Tommy to get more details and the certainty that he had to reconnect with Marlene and her bunch.

A radiocall and some excuses later, he was quickly back in the game, especially when he had mentioned the girl. Sure, it had taken some months to establish a connection since the radio in Jackson had always been manned and the few occasions he mostly had wasted to find the right frequency and establish a connection over such a distance. But, eventually, he had been successful, just too bad that he had been caught by Cat during his last call.

The risk had simply been too high to get ratted out by her, so he had decided to seduce her as distraction before getting rid of her. Unfortunately, some idiot had changed the schedule for checking the draining pipes without his knowledge, leading to the situation that her body had been quickly found and Sarah and Ellie had canceled their little vacation, the only true chance to kidnap Ellie without anyone noticing it instantly.

From this point on, he had been forced to improvise, and luckily it all had been working out. Though, it had also meant that his comfortable life was over now. But it was what it was, and if an immunity would come out if it, it had been worth the trouble.

Looking out of the window, Matt realized that the moonless night had already settled completely in. Since the downfall of modern civilization, the world had become a dark place, lacking all the light of the big cities. Now, only some spotlights here and there, plus some barrel fires were piercing the darkness. All-in-all, it seemed as if this night was going to be as unspectacular as any other, at least until one of the guards stormed into the office.

"Matt, there's some situation goin' on out there!"

A situation. Matt silently asked himself what kind of situation was worth making a fuss out of it. He knew Salt Lake and the area around the hospital. Usually, nothing was happening here. Still, and just out of curiosity he followed.

The front of the hospital was secured by high concrete walls and a checkpoint in the middle of it. Old remnants of the first days of the outbreak as the military had made this hospital their headquarters for disease control. Nowadays, the checkpoint with its gate plus some revolving doors - all of them locked during nighttime in order to keep stray infected outside - was everything that was reminiscent of these long gone days.

They both then climbed atop of one of the steel gangways along the concrete wall. But there was nothing to see, besides the obscurity.

"Right, so what's the situation now? Besides that it's cold and dark as fuck out here," Matt blurted at the guard, who, however, simply shushed him.

"Ssh! Just listen!"

Of course, Matt was angry at being chided rudely like this, yet he gulped it down and listened into the night.

He heard a scream of several infected, nothing unusual for a red zone. The whisper of the salty winds from the great salt flats that was rushing through old, abandoned buildings. Creaking and cracking of all the withering structures. But there was more. Something far away. A constant, deep humming, like the blades of a helicopter, accompanied by a strange high-pitched noise.

A helicopter was unlikely. Not even FEDRA was using those anymore. But what else? What else?

Fact was that the noise was coming closer. And the closer it came, the more screams of numerous infected joined in. Eventually, it didn't matter who or what was producing these sounds, but what was following it.

"Shit!" Matt hissed, grabbing his portable radio and speaking into it. "Attention, everyone, we're under attack! I repeat, we're under attack! Get every fuckin' man ready and to the gate! I repeat, to the gate, stat!"

The two present spotlights were now pointing down the horizontal passing mainstreet, trying to figure out from where the threat might be coming while several further guards were manning their posts along the wall.

"Matt, what the fuck's goin' on out there?!" chimer Marlene's voice from the radio, a hint of anger chiming with it.

"I dunno, Marle. But it seems like some clown is guiding a bunch of infected towards us."

There was a radio silence for some time, in which the unique sound of a loud engine, paired with the high pitched noise of a horn and screams of the infected came closer.

"It must be her. Matt, stand your ground at any costs! Under no circumstances…absolute none circumstances must she reach the kid. You hear me?!"

"Gotcha, Marle!" Matt answered eventually, before pocketing the radio again and drawing his pistol. "Alright, people…" he then shouted, "...whoever or whatever comes down that road, shoot it!"

The noise came closer and closer, everyone had their arms aimed at the point of origin, ready to open fire. The suspense was at a peak, especially when hearing the cacophony of furious Cordyceps infected.

But then, the noise changed direction, driving away before the noise died and only the faint beat of the in neutral running engine chiming from the parking space that was right at the opposite side of the road, before it revved up again.

Out of the shadows, the motorcycle - an old Indian - appeared, driving straight towards the gate.

The guards opened fire wildly. Only a few, Matt included, realized that nobody was driving the machine, which eventually tilted over and glided the rest of the way over the pavement before it collided with the gate, without doing any damage.

"Hold your fire!" he yelled over the noise, waiting for the gunfire to stop. "Assess the damage!" he then ordered while first Runners emerged from the darkness. Once again, shots echoed through the night. From afar, there seemed to be no damage to the gate, until the motorcycle exploded, the pressure wave being so intense that some of the Fireflies got pushed off their feet.

Being drawn to the loud noise, the infected screamed again as hundreds of them were storming towards the barricade from all directions.

Miraculously, the gate had survived the explosion mostly intact, yet Matt knew that even the slightest dent could doom the sturdiest structure to fail. So, he thought quickly and then shouted "Everyone, save your ammo and retreat from the wall! Ten of you, take position in front of the gate and aim your shots. Take as much pressure from it as possible. If the gate doesn't hold, retreat into the building and lock it down. Abby, you're in charge! The rest of you, follow me! It's possible we have an intruder."

A young, pretty sturdy woman saluted him before taking position in front of the gate before Matt rallied the rest and entered the hospital building.

"Alright, everyone," he then said as he was walking with his group through the dark hallways, the shots from the guards outside still chiming through the building. "Our main objective is to guard the D-Wing of the hospital. Keep your eyes peeled for a blond woman, approximately my height, mid-thirty and…"

He couldn't even finish his sentence as one man beside him suddenly started to gurgle while panically holding a bolt that was sticking out from his throat. Right away, everyone spread out and took cover while the injured man squirmed and gurgled on the ground, the puddle of blood beneath him growing larger with every passing second.

"Shit," Matt hissed, crouching behind an old garbage bin and yelling "Sarah? Sarah is that you?"

No answer. Nothing. Of course not. Why would she give away her position simply to state the obvious.

"Spread out! Find her!" he yelled and drew the pistol that he once had given to Sarah. The large group dispersed throughout the hallway and the rooms, while a woman took care of her injured comrade. Minutes were going by in silence, without any further incident.

"Sneaky bitch," Matt eventually murmured as he became aware that this attack had been nothing more than a distraction to keep the forces away from the D-wing. "Everybody, group up! Mina, stay with Gary! The rest, let's keep movin'!"

Leaving the injured man and the woman behind, the group headed on towards the D-wing of the hospital. From time to time, they found some dead bodies, killed recently. Sarah was literally leaving a trail of death, urging Matt to increase the pace, until the group found a body with a message attached to it, reading 'channel 12. private talk.'

Being intrigued by this offer, Matt ordered the rest of his crew to go on while he stayed back and switched his radio to channel 12.

"Hello, Sarah! Didn't expect you here so soon. Missed me already?"

There was a clear mocking sound in his voice. Intentionally, since he wanted to provoke her, which could easily lead to mistakes. Mistakes that could be deadly.

But so far, the radio stayed silent, and Matt thought that it had been another distraction, until it clicked.

"Don't flatter yourself, you treacherous asshole! You know exactly why I'm here."

His radio was at a low volume, barely hearable as he hoped to hear the woman's original voice somewhere close by, but so far, she seemed to be further away, clearly out of earshot. So, he still had no other choice than to play it psychologically.

"You're too late, sweetheart. The girl's already on the table. You're wasting valuable resources and lives for this fruitless endeavor. Just use the chance and crawl back to Jackson before you'll get hurt."

Another pause. A long pause. And for a moment, a thought crossed Matt's mind that Sarah had indeed given up. Yet, it got proven wrong as an intense pain ran through his leg, originating from a bolt, stuck in his thigh.

He screamed and lost his balance, falling over to the ground. But he wasn't done, sitting up fast and aiming the gun down the hall from where the bolt had been shot.

"You really think I'd bail, tail between my legs? Then you never knew me at all."

"Oh, I know you…" he spat back into the radio, groaning as he got back up on his feet with intense pain. "Self-pity through 'n' through. Always whining about how unfair the world is to you. How everyone betrayed you. God, even Tommy was annoyed by that."

He walked along the dark hallway, limping on one leg while aiming at every possible hideout with his gun. Until another bolt hit him, right in the lower arm, piercing through it, so that he was forced to automatically drop the gun.

"Argh, fuckin' bitch!" he groaned loudly, holding his bleeding arm as he threw himself into one of the numerous rooms of the floor as he wanted to take cover.

"Matt?! Matt, where are you?" suddenly chimed the voice of Mina, the woman who had taken care of the other injured Firefly.

Knowing that she was in grave danger since Sarah was still out there, Matt said "In here!" and signed her through the open door to join him.

She hesitated, if only for a few seconds, as she saw Matt's condition, gasping "Oh my god!"

Her last words, before a gun appeared at the side of her head and a shot pierced her skull, splattering some parts of her brain across the hallway, leaving Matt entirely stunned as Sarah stepped in her place, her custom gun in hand. And as her merciless gaze fell upon him, he backed away in fear.

"Sarah, wait…!" Matt pleaded as he wanted to get up again, yet received a hard kick from Sarah that sent him back to the ground, while the gun aimed at him.

"Tell me," she said calmly, targeting his head. "When you dated me, was it real, or was it just an act, you bastard?"

"It…it was real," he sighed in return, gazing right back at her. "I never planned to go back. So…so, I thought to finally settle down. A house, a wife…kids. I…I really wanted this to work. Wanted us to work! But…"

"Oh god," Sarah, however, scoffed, lowering her gun a bit. "You really think I'm the mother-type?"

"You sure as hell 're very protective when it comes to Ellie. Not to mention that you always asked 'bout Joel."

Now Sarah went silent and retreated into the back of her mind for a second, lowering the gun even more. Matt could've used this moment of distraction in his favor, yet didn't and leaned back against the wall with a heavy sigh.

"I shouldn't have done it," he then said, bringing the blond woman back to reality. "I should've kept my stupid mouth shut and enjoyed life in Jackson. Now I'm stuck in this shit and have even more blood on my hands."

But once again, Sarah simply scoffed, raising her pistol again. "Look, who's full of self-pity right now. We all have to live with our decisions. The good ones and the bad ones." She then surprisingly lowered her gun and leaned forward, whispering to him in a threatening tone. "Live with your fuckery, you bastard! 'cause I won't help you to end your miserable life."

After turning around on the spot, Sarah moved on without another word, leaving Matt alone in the darkness, where he was remaining with his guilt, too weak to run away from it.

"We can't hold the gate any longer! Where the fuck is Matt?!" chimed Abby Anderson's voice from Marlene's radio. "Marlene?! Dad?! Come in! Fuck it, we're retreating and barricade the lower levels and then fall back to the D-wing. Hope you're gettin' this."

Marlene listened silently to the desperate call as she was sitting in her office. Abby was Jerry's daughter and she would normally pull her out of danger. But at the moment she needed her leadership to hold off the infected and Jerry needed to focus on the operation.

Talking of which, Matt was missing at the moment as well as several members of his team. Only a few had made it to the D-wing, indicating that Sarah was inside the hospital and wreaking havoc among the remaining Fireflies until she would get what she wanted.

"Stubborn bitch!" the ebony woman hissed and got up. One last time she checked her pistol before holstering it and taking the radio from the table.

"Jerry, how's the operation going?" she spoke into it after switching the channel.

"We're finishing the last preparations. Give us another ten minutes. What's the noise out there, Marle?"

Of course he was afraid about his daughter. But again, he mustn't be distracted!

"Just a minor incident at the gate. Nothin' to worry about. Just get to it!"

That was everything she responded to him, before turning off the radio. She then exited the office and joined the group of Fireflies that had taken position in front of the operating room. So many people are separating one teenage girl from one woman. There was no way Sarah would get through that many dug in, armed men and women.

Quietness was reigning over the scenery again, only disturbed by some random scream of an infected in the distance. The hallways were only dimly lit, leaving room for a lot of shadows. And they waited. Minutes began to feel like hours, and for a moment, Marlene had high hopes that Sarah had given up upon seeing the overwhelming force of Fireflies. Yet, this hope was utterly destroyed when a metallic cylinder that looked like a hissing can rolled over the floor right in front of a post, followed by a second one that had gotten tossed further.

"GET DOW-...!" Marlene started to yell as the first device exploded and released a hailstorm of shrapnels throughout the vicinity. Then the second device exploded, covering everything in a dense white cloud. Instinctively, she hit the ground, yet still tried to assess the situation.

Screams and cries from injured people chimed from everywhere around her while some were running around like headless chicken or tried to help the injured. In all this chaos, someone grabbed her and pulled her up on her feet.

At first, Marlene thought that someone of her people was taking care of her, but as soon as she got taken into a chokehold and she felt the metallic coldness of a muzzle on her temple, she realized that she had just been taken hostage.

"Move it!" Sarah hissed in her ear and dragged her through the still ongoing chaos. Only as they had almost reached the door to the OR, the first Fireflies realized that their leader had been taken and raised their guns, yet did not dare to shoot. Soon, every available gun was pointed at them.

"You're too late!" Marlene groaned, squirming under the blonde's strong hold. "If you lemme go, I'll let you live and leave. Enough people have already died, there's no need to continue this bloodshed."

"You don't get it, do you?" Sarah hissed in return, tightening her grip as the closed door to the OR was on her back. "I'll take her with me, dead or alive. Now order one of your goons to unlock the door!"

"F-fuck you!"

But that insult just caused Sarah to scoff. She pressed uncomfortably closer, so that Marlene felt her breath on her neck as she whispered "If all this shit's so important to you, then why dontcha order them to shoot us both? I'm willing to die for Ellie, are you ready to die for a cure that maybe doesn't even exist?"

Would she die for a cure? Of course. For her cause? Definitely. But would she die only because of a little hiccup with a traitor? Definitely not! She had to somehow overpower Sarah, either by force or by a diplomatic approach. Whereas the latter one seemed to be the most promising way, since Sarah clearly had the upper hand and she had no gun on her anymore.

"Fine, you win!" she eventually said and stopped fighting the other woman's strong grip. "Okay, everyone, put your guns down! Eric, open the door!"

At first, Sarah was completely stunned, yet kept her guard up, as one of the Fireflies reluctantly unlocked the door behind them. Not trusting the peace, she immediately dashed into the operation room, pulling Marlene with her, before she let the leader of the Fireflies lock it again. Swiftly, the blonde checked the room, finding three befuddled medical persons in full gear staring at her, one of them already having a scalpel in his hands. Beside him, was Ellie, laying on a stainless steel table, only covered by a thin green blanket.

"Drop it!" Sarah ordered as she aimed directly at the doctor while bringing a distance between her and every present person by moving to the farthest end of the room.

But Jerry Anderson didn't drop the knife, yet glimpsed at Marlene, saying "Marlene, what the fuck's she doing here?"

"I'm here to get her," Sarah replied instead of Marlene, bobbing her head in Ellie's direction. "Now move away from her, Jerry, or I'll shoot you on the spot!"

"Don't do this, Sarah!" Marlene intervened, raising her two hands as a sign for everyone to calm down. "You still have the chance to move away from this, unscathed. Ellie agreed to this operation. She's ready to sacrifice herself for the greater good. Now, be reasonable and…"

"SHUT UP!" the blonde yelled back and aimed at Marlene again, tears emerging as her mind was conflicted upon this reveal.

"Accept the truth, Sarah!"

Slowly, Marlene closed on the now almost crying woman as did Jerry, wanting to attack her if necessary. But it didn't escape her attention as she raised her gun in resolve again, switching her aim between those two while the doctor's assistants stayed out of it out of fear for their life.

"Bullshit!" Sarah then returned with gritted teeth. "You're a lying piece of shit Marlene! I don't trust you and neither did Ellie. Now back off!"

"Does it even matter?" Jerry then chimed in with a scoff, throwing his hands up in the air as he walked back to the table. "We have the solution on this table. The cure! This is our only chance after twenty years of research. Twenty years we were searching for a vaccine - as were you - and now it's here. And the only one standing in the way is you."

He then dropped the scalpel on a small tray beside the operation table and took another step towards Sarah while pulling down the hygiene mask, revealing his face. Showing that he wasn't afraid.

"Who are you to decide humanity's fate? What rights do you have to stand above every man and woman? This is not about the Fireflies or FEDRA or Hunters or me or not even Ellie. This is about every human being on God's green earth! This is about everything! Ellie will die a hero. A martyr. Monuments will be built for her. She is our hope. And you're about to destroy all this with your selfishness."

He then took a deep breath to calm himself down before looking deeply at her again.

"Just ask yourself: Do you really wanna be responsible for every further victim of the Cordyceps? I understand the feelings you might have for her. I really do, but…"

"Would you sacrifice someone you love?" Sarah returned with a brittle voice as she struggled with her conscience. "WOULD YOU?!"

"This is not about me, Sarah…"

The OR had a second entrance. Some sort of backdoor for the medical personnel. And right on cue it got pushed open and Abby Anderson, daughter of Jerry Anderson came storming in with a pistol in her hand, followed by another guy. Sarah acted immediately and shot the young woman in the shoulder so that she dropped the gun in her hand whereas her companion wasn't that lucky as he got shot in the head and was immediately dead.

"ABBY!" Jerry called out, helping his daughter right away. A bullet wound on the shoulder wasn't very severe, if quickly treated.

For a moment, Sarah watched how the doctor tried to treat his daughter's injury, before she raised her gun once more and shot her in the abdomen. Crying out the intense pain, Abby collapsed, groaning and squirming on the ground. Helplessly, Jerry watched her being in agony before giving the blonde a piercing glimpse.

"Now the choice is yours, Jerry," Sarah said, now aiming at Marlene who was about to charge her while the door behind her was trembling upon the tries to break it down from the other side upon the commotion. "What's more important to you, a cure or your daughter? Time and resources will only suffice for one surgery. So, choose!"

Shedding tears upon the pressure and the given options, Jerry glimpsed multiple times at Marlene and then back to his daughter.

"I'm sorry!" he eventually said with a low voice and lifted up his daughter, yelling at his assistants "Take her off that fucking table, stat!"

"Jerry!" Marlene barked at the doctor threateningly, wanting to intervene, but was prevented from doing so as another shot chimed that hit her right in the chest. She fell, gasping for air as she was lying on the ground. Immediately, Sarah closed in on her and gave her a merciless follow-up shot right in the head, ending her life before aiming at the nurses again, who were now having Ellie in their arms.

"Hand her over!" she said and they laid her in her arms right away before returning to the table to help Jerry Anderson to treat his severely injured daughter.

Sarah used that chance to escape through the back door, hoping that she and Ellie could escape the hospital without running into further Fireflies.