Necrocide

Chapter 74

"It's me," Aaron replied weakly, as if he'd gone days without eating. "At least what's left of me."

"What the hell?" Jonah said, shoving the gun back into his holster. "You look like someone just wiped the floor with you. Are you alright?"

"Yeah. Hunky-dory." Then Aaron collapsed to the pavement.

"Shit! Hold on, bruv," Jonah said as he ran to his friend. He wrapped Aaron's arm around his shoulder and assisted him to a nearby bench, letting him slide off onto the cold, wooden seat.

"Thanks," Aaron replied heavily exhausted.

"Bloody hell, you look like you haven't slept in weeks," Jonah continued. "And what's with the suitcase?"

"You mind passing it to me?" Aaron groaned.

Reluctant, Jonah grabbed the suitcase and placed it beside Aaron on the bench. "What's in it anyway?" he asked.

"The truth."

"What truth? Is there a severed head in there? Or the soul of Marsellus Wallace?" Jonah chuckled. "That's Pulp Fiction, by the way."

"Are you done yet, Mr. Cinephile?" Aaron asked.

"Right. Sorry, bruv." Jonah cleared his throat. "Where have you been all this time?"

"Wandering the Dead Zone. Wanted to clear my head."

"Guess you wanted to lose your head, too. Why would you be out here?"

Aaron stayed silent. He pulled the suitcase closer to him and brushed the dirt off.

"Wait a minute," Jonah continued. "Is that a DZI jacket?"

"Yep," Aaron replied. "It gets chilly out here, y'know."

Jonah started connecting the dots, his hand on his gun. "You were at the destroyed village, weren't you?"

"Right again."

"How many DZI did you kill?" Jonah asked almost threateningly.

"I dunno. Like nine or ten, probably more. But they attacked me. Remember that."

"How could you?"

Aaron grew more frustrated. "See, here's something I've noticed. When people get shot at, they don't necessarily like that they're being shot at. So it was either them or me."

"They used to be your comrades!"

"Well here's another thing I've noticed. Opinions change once you get infected by a single fucking drop of Deadman blood!"

Jonah gasped in horror, nearly falling back once he heard that. He now felt the same guilt the AIS felt once they realized they had failed their one mission: to prevent the spread. But this was more personal. He had failed to protect his best friend.

"That's right, Jonah," Aaron said in an quivering voice. "I'm infected. I know what people taste like. My wounds heal before I even notice I had them. I hear Deadmen speak like normal people."

"Aaron, you're scaring me," Jonah said.

"Did you know that Deadmen suffer when you burn them? Normally they sound like wild animals when you set them on fire. Now that I'm one of them, they sound more like innocent people being massacred. It might just be a hallucination, but it still hurts to hear it happen."

"If you're infected, why'd you come back?"

"Because I spent all of today attempting to redeem myself. Schaefer was supposed to kill me last night, so I escaped out into the Dead Zone. I've finally found the cause of all of this. The Deadmen, the Outbreak, the Abnormals, everything!"