“When you die, the world ends with you”
Was the thought that lingered in Emerald's mind as he stood at the edge of a skyscraper in a post-apocalyptic city.
Isolation and the overwhelming sense of self-pity brought him to such a grim realization.
There was nothing but remnants of what this place used to be.
Its deteriorated state was mostly being held together by overgrown roots and branches.
Upon the demise of humanity came the resurgence of nature.
Emerald couldn't help but feel pestered by the number of zombies crawling past him.
They used various long roots hanging down from the roof of the tower to climb up.
They gathered in myriads, toppling over each other in order to reach the rooftop where emerald stood.
Once arrived, their bodies enter a final stage in which floral blossoms sprout from the cracks of their bioluminescent skin.
Inevitably driving themselves against two giant viney trees that had crawled their way through the antennas of the tower.
Its leaves glew various neon colors, brightly so, that it was already visible in the haze of dusk.
This was all due to a fungal parasite known as "the green live".
It blooms only at higher elevations, spreading its spores all over the atmosphere which eventually comes down, incubated by rainfall.
It infected everything it touched and felt no remorse, no sorrow, no grief.
Despite all this, the true beauty of nature had been a consolidating aspect of the only living person in Chicago.
It only recently occurred to Emerald how beautiful the end of times has been.
Vegetation grew and thrived in the absence of industries.
Emerald was the only one immune and incognito to the vicious creatures transformed by the green live.
They often stood clustered along street roads, some still wearing the uniforms they wore to work.
There were undead cops and swat forces roaming aimlessly around still equipped with guns and ammunition.
Weapons had been a non-factor in all of this and in fact, had further contributed to human extinction.
They were defeated and walked alongside civilians in the end.
The idea of work made him smile.
Just how frivolous all of it was.
Yet he still felt like the good old outsider, a loner even long before the green live consumed the living.
Being invisible didn’t feel all that different to him.
They avoided him at all costs.
Everything existed to distract him from feeling lost and alone.
He didn't feel important being the last bearer of knowledge in what happened and how this world came to be, nor cared to re-establish anything other than a home he built with his former lover.
This was made worse by knowing that there was someone there that mattered so much to him.
A zombified version of his boyfriend stood aimlessly in the streets.
About a mile away from where they set up their bunker.
Chicago was some of the few dense cities that managed to avoid catastrophic bombings.
The government just kind of gave up after its nuclear attack in New York made the situation worse.
Denser cities were the most dangerous for uninfected humans to be in.
The zombies weren’t so mobile in the morning as the green live relied on sunlight to manipulate its hosts.
Bright bioluminescent green light visible through their crevasses was an indication of a well-charged host.
They moved faster at night, concentrated around tall towers and crowded streets.
The lights they emit at night were admired by Emerald.
It made it seem as though the city was alive and well.
Some of them, for example, Marcus– Emerald’s former boyfriend– were left waiting for their turn to make their way up.
If only he knew how to open doors and locate the staircase.
He could have easily brought him up to the rooftop but there was a part of him that didn't want to let go.
Perhaps the hardest part was knowing he still technically existed.
He'd seen him standing around union station, still quite well built and handsome as ever, especially for an undead person.
Marcus' greatest wealth was his health.
He took great care of himself and was the most consistent person Emerald has ever known.
It was as though his beauty was everlasting.
However, just like the rest of them, the zombies avoided Emerald at all cost.
His presence induced an allergic reaction to the zombies which made them hysterical and caused them to projectile vomit a yellow putrid ooze, often toward his direction.
Which bummed him because it should be him that was repulsed by these rotten zombies.
At Least the feeling was mutual.
Except for Markus.
The green live infected all living things.
Anything that can crawl and carry its spores all the way to where it needs to be.
When Marcus was alive, they fostered about five animals together.
Losing them one by one was hard enough for the couple.
The Green Live made every regular illness worse.
The only ones that remained were Bing, a Boston terrier puppy, and a sugar glider named Emily.
Emily stayed in his pocket practically every time but Bing always stayed by his side.
The only way for them to stay safe was to be near his presence.
He theorized that this was due to the way his pheromones have been altered.
He desperately tried to create a vaccine that would make others immune to the parasite.
And also spent the past year trying to unturn Marcus, using all sorts of methods to bring back his cognitive sense.
At some point he had to let him go because it had been too much to bear.
Emerald practically became an alcoholic after Marcus’s death and hadn't been taking care of himself for ever since.
A realization brought upon having dreamt of his former lover.
But there was also a memory of him telling him that.
“Worry about yourself”, he always told him.
Looking down at the streets wasn’t as scary as it seemed at 1,406 ft high.
Perhaps the alcohol made him feel nothing.
He took a step back and looked at the giant trees.
He wanted so much to grab an axe and start chopping it down maybe then he could disrupt the green live network and sever Marcus from its grasp.
But all he could do was stab it repeatedly with a swiss knife.
“You fucking fuck!” he raged until eventually cutting himself.
“Krrrrr!” Emily screeched.
He was surprised to see her in his jacket pocket.
“What the hell are you doing here?” he asks. Emily stayed huddled up returning to slumber which mellowed him.
He etched E+M and drew a heart around it.
It irked him thinking about how cheesy and typical it was but it gave him a sense of relief.
“I just miss you so much…” he muttered to himself.
He was grateful knowing how lucky he was to have that two years of him and Marcus.
The two of them against all odds.
And their pets as well.
A lot of where this pain stemmed from was the guilt of having brought Marcus into a dangerous place.
Regardless if it was his idea.
The infected preyed and killed those who weren't like them.
Millions died within days and by its second year over half of the global population had turned.
The abruptness of it all made it harder to adapt.
The government couldn't have been prepared for anything like it.
The world burned and militarization only made the situation worse.
The order that was being put in place was authoritative and corrupt.
Marcus was tasked to protect Emerald at all cost given he was the only one that could have provided a cure.
This gave Humanity a fighting chance and Emerald would have sacrificed himself to save humanity, but it was hard to look past how horrible humans have been to one another.
Survival was reduced to the savagery and brutality enforced by the elites.
They continued to thrive by setting themselves apart from the majority.
They initially hired Marcus who turned out to be a lot more intelligent than they expected.
Marcus was more of a hired gun than an obedient soldier.
He may have had dark skin and an impoverished upbringing but his edge was that he didn’t consider himself inferior to the elites.
Quite the contrary, the limited interactions he had with them made him realize that they weren’t all that smart.
His mission changed the moment he reunited with his old friend, Emerald.
He could not believe it would be him.
No matter how hard he tried to forget the guy, he just kept showing up.
It was then that he no longer had a mission but rather a quest, And that was to persist to exist with the only person that mattered to him.
The greater good rested inside the captivating eyes of Emerald.
“When you have nobody left, you invest all of your time and energy into that one person that made you feel something,” he once said to Emerald.
There were countless influences that intercepted Emerald’s extraction.
No one else was immune which made his acquisition imperative.
Albeit top secret.
Marcus wouldn't have known if he didn't develop a closer bond with Emerald.
But Emerald had been naive and clueless, stubborn even when it came down to giving up his life for the sake of corporate greed.
If all it ever took was a blood sample, and a few examinations, the elites would’ve done that much to obtain him.
They wanted more than to dissect his body.
They wanted ownership of his being.
They wanted to control and cultivate a breakthrough scenario where they present themselves as the hero who’ll save the world from its darkest days.
Politicking never really disappeared in fact was made worse the more bodies piled up.
Every man for himself.
Emerald wouldn’t have understood that if it wasn't for Marcus.
One by one even those he trusted with his life sought to detain him, everyone except Marcus.
“How can love be so selfish?” He thought.
This story has been stolen from Royal Road. If you read it on Amazon, please report it
But the alternative was to offer himself to the vanity of humankind.
Marcus, despite being a health nut, was only human.
They did everything they could to build a life together, to stay far and remote. As long as Emerald is near him, he is safe from zombie attacks.
They turned a downtown university into their own personal bunker.
The city had plenty of resources that could sustain them for a lifetime.
It was much easier to grow vegetables because the soil had been healthier.
Earth was healthier due to the absence of humans but it all circled back to a chance encounter Emerald had over a decade ago.
Emerald has studied the green live and perhaps even witnessed its earliest form deep inside an underground cavern in the amazon rainforest.
He was a young mycologist traveling with a group of researchers in Brazil.
It was his first attempt to get away from it all.
It was only in nature that he didn’t feel like an outsider.
This was also his first time out of the united states.
He was fascinated by mushrooms because of how little we know of them and how he would like to rediscover what our thousand-year-old ancestors knew about them.
They were sent there to collect data and gather as many types of fungi that could hopefully be used for medicine.
The green live thrived in lower temperatures however it was a lot more contained inside the cavern without the help of wind and rain to wreak havoc above the forest floor.
Emerald found himself trapped in its native habitat. He fell over 6 hundred feet slipping through an inconspicuous rift.
He thought himself dead and helpless in this pit of darkness.
It may have been all a blur but he saw the same tree that now sits atop of the tower.
He knew it felt familiar.
The bioluminescent fungi glew brighter as if to allure him.
His consciousness left his body for a while as if his soul were as light as air.
Colorful patterns began to appear around this darkness which reminded him of some sort of a primeval cathedral.
He then found himself surrounded by ancient beings.
They were much larger in size than he could fit inside their palms.
Their skin glowed and from within, could feel their soul become more apparent.
It was a sensation of wonder and amazement.
The celestial spirits appeared like gods to him, smiling at him.
He imagined this place to be gay hell for these androgynous beings to make sense.
“Hey! What’s your name?” he asked as they lift his body without touching it.
Sending him through prismatic portals of everchanging kaleidoscopic patterns.
He felt cold but could feel perspiration running down his backside.
He continued his ascent as if he was traveling at the speed of light.
“Vahalla or no matter what they called it, I’m ready.” only his consciousness spoke to him.
He could feel his soul levitating ahead of his body and just as he could feel whole again, a voice alerted him.
“We found him!”
It was the voice of Emily, one of his colleagues.
“This guy is tripping balls!” she said.
A few days passed. Before Emerald would wake up again.
“You were lucky to be alive,” she said.
She explained to him that the bioluminescent fungi he found were highly lethal and completely inedible.
He doesn’t remember eating them but he had been missing them for almost a week.
It must've been out of starvation that he reached for it and proceeded to ingest it for sustenance.
It remained a mystery how he even got dug up from the deaths.
He was already on higher ground by the time they found him
Some of it must have been real, he thought.
He did not truly believe in a higher power and believed skepticism was a true mark of an intellectual after all.
But even if he did, The natural force only had itself and its inhabitants to care for.
It didn’t prey on the weak and vulnerable.
Nature transforms everything so it could sustain itself.
It is also extremely fragile and easily tainted.
His wounds had been healed by the green live.
It didn’t necessarily thrive in a warm climate but the team was able to extract samples through him. The team searched around the area close in proximity to where they could have fallen but it was quite a miracle he was able to reach the surface at all. Emily personally felt responsible as a team leader for what happened to emerald. They weren’t supposed to cross the boundaries of tribal habitats. However, a scientist must do whatever it takes to reach a breakthrough in their research. Emerald might have well been kidnapped and returned to safety by the tribal people. Emerald barely had any recollection of his accident.
All he could remember was seeing some sort of a golden monkey and wanting to capture a photo of it. He didn’t recall being put to sleep much less attacked by a certain group.
“If anything I think they helped me,” he told her. It gave her a sense of relief when emerald said that. Sure he must’ve just been grateful to be alive but he looked at his limbs examining where he could have been injured but there was none.
It didn’t take very long for Emily to turn against emerald once the green live started to take dominion over humanity. This greatly upset Emerald because of the respect he had for her. She was family to him. Emily has always been the pragmatic one in this sense. Rid of any belief in mysticism and superstition. Part of her wanted to believe that modern civilization had its coming. She was compliant in receiving massive donations and grants from mining companies that ever so ruthlessly deforested and poisoned the waters of the tribal people. Still, her mission was to study everything about nature, and how she can manipulate it to help the needy. All in vain and blind faith. It was fest or famine. Tireless lockdowns and orders by authorities who portrayed themselves as humanitie's guardians.
Survival became more imperative only because life is taken away much easier than ever before. It was the end of the world and Emily had made peace with her decision to be an agent of HDI, Human Defense Initiative, tasked to hunt Emerald so they could develop a cure. Given the chance, it would be her breakthrough. She would save the world. A woman who had been underestimated all her life.
Emerald despite all of this still named his sugar glider after her. He understood the core of her intentions. He wishes it could be the same as it was. It occurred to him that it may be the reason why he chose her name. Emily the sugar glider is also just as feisty and thought of herself as larger than life. She would often stand on her hind legs which scared the crap out of him. Emily used to give the same vibes when it was time for her to lead. Emerald has always been a rule breaker and would openly speak up against matters he didn’t believe in. They were both stubborn that way. Despite everything that happened between them, memories are like curses to those left alive. He was the only living person in Chicago. His animals were all he had. He wouldn’t have been able to forgive himself if he dragged his sugar glider into his death. Despite looking below the knee-shattering heights of the tower he no longer feared the idea of falling down. A few hosts have passed him. Hosts is what he officially called these zombies. Zombies were too vague for his pretentious ass. The living could still be as well considered as such but until they are infected they aren’t technically hosting. Everyone turned upon death. He almost wishes Markus would have stayed a lifeless corpse. IT made him sad seeing him stand there but no longer wanting to embrace him. It wasn’t all perfect, in the last few years they were together. Emerald was so certain Markus would have outlived him.
“Please promise you’ll live longer than me?” Markus asked him, in one of their most sincere moments.
The ambiance of the sun setting and the reddish-orange hues made this whole moment more vivid in his memory.
“No way” he replied. Emerald has always been thinner than Markus. He’d never met a more disciplined man than Markus. Everything he did for the sake of his own health made him happy. Emerald loved that about him. His beauty extended beyond his physical form. There was an innocence about him that made him enjoy the littlest of things. Even at the height of the apocalypse.
“Losing you would mean the end of the world for me,” he told emerald. All he could do then was roll his eyes.
“Death is just a transition, we all die,” he told him. He had these pockets full of knowledge he read or maybe heard somewhere that granted him peace of mind. He often realizes how dumb they were and given that Markus wouldn’t say anything after that made him re-enforce his intention. He grabbed his hand. And uttered more phrases that inevitably gave his lover peace of mind.
Despite the constant doubts and fear they have experienced together, relationships were all about lifting each other up isn’t it?, he wondered.
Another one to put inside his mind pocket. Markus would have called him out for that. And perhaps he would be happy to let him know that isolation is the worst. It occurred to him that maybe was Markus was afraid of. He’s so skilled in combat that he could easily manuever his way out of here tho the intense surge of adrenaline and fear still would be too much for any individual. Emerald’s weird condition at the very least saved him as well. Markus would have survived to anything. He was after all the real protagonist of this story. But this story sucks and the author is a goddamn bitch. Emerald had been way past talking to himself. Isolation had driven him to the edge of sanity. All he really had was all the beauty that surrounded him.
Dusk was dimming the sunlit sky. The silence made his heart race. He, at this point, hated the sound of his own heartbeat. He closes his eyes. A slight tremble causes him to tilt slightly. The horde of hosts was active again. Eventually, this tower and its hollow interior will collapse. The warm breeze abruptly turns cold. There was a buzzing sound he couldn’t make out. It gradually grew louder which alerted him. He looked around to see where it was coming from.
Fear mixed with excitement gripped him as he saw a chopper moving in his direction. In fact, there were a few of them flashing their lights, scanning the vicinity.
“They found me” he muttered to himself. He wanted so much to make himself known but there was one thing he wanted to do before he surrender himself to the authority.
He turned on his headlights and began making his way to get Markus. All he wanted to see at this moment was for zombie Markus to blossom and reach the final stage of his infection. Each and every single host bloomed in different colors. Most of them would make their way up the tree itself but there are some who bloomed at the very edge of the tower. This was something he would like to witness before it all ended. Given how tactically advanced the authority had become which took them about 10 years to adapt and improve at this point, their means of extraction should not be a difficult task.
His last encounter with these guys was almost 5 years ago. The authorities thought they escaped to Canada because didn't Chicago didn’t seem like much of a place to be. They were evidently much more prepared and geared up for such a task. Emerald must’ve made a mistake and wondered what gave away his position. It must’ve been the signal he sent toward a broadcast. Markus has always warned him about that but he meant to send it to a local city near Milwaukee. Nevermind that. It didn’t matter what happened to him now. All he wanted to do was expedite Markus’ climb and witness his final bloom.
HDI wastes no time at all and he was aware of that. Panic began to consume him. At least he is immune to hordes of hosts trying to kill him and these guys would throw themselves biting and ripping apart everything it sees moving. All it had to do was kill its target. He felt a sense of relief when he immediately saw a host wearing police gear and found a pair of handcuffs attached to its waist. Having these was a small win for him. The host started going into a frenzy as soon as it heard a sound emitted by the copters. A loud high-pitched siren purposefully designed to disrupt the green live’s network rendered the hosts immobile. Collectively they too released screams that disoriented Emerald slightly.
It was only at this moment that Emerald felt vulnerable for such a long time. Not as weak as when he lost Marcus, there was even a moment in which he was angry at him for giving up. He did say he’d want to go out first between the two of them but Emerald couldn’t have imagined the pain he’d gone through. Marcus will inevitably reach his final destination but it is something he would love to share with his former lover.
He stopped for a moment to think about the situation at hand.
He had only a few minutes to find zombie Marcus. There was no way he would have moved so far given how crowded the street was. It was easy for him because the zombies voluntarily stays out of his path though he worried that it would be easier to find him if he stood out of the crowd.
He would have to wait until the sounds cleared out. The only way to stay undetected is to move in silence. For now, he decided to stay inside the tower. He reached inside his pockets to feel his final letter from Marcus. He filled it out as much as he can before abandoning him in their bunker.
He had been much more ill than he played out to be. This was all so Emerald wouldn’t be suspicious of an infection he was suffering through. The green live made it difficult for its host to recover from any sort of cuts or bruises. This was known by both of them but Marcus personally felt responsible for getting himself sick in the first place. He’d always been the cheerleader between the two. Always smiling and making light of worst-case scenarios. The day he knew he was too weak to keep going he couldn't help his tears. He kept apologizing in his letter. Stating how he doesn’t want to leave him. But as optimistic as he was, the moments he felt defeated would absolutely destroy him. Emerald did his best to take care of Marus but he too started to catch a fever in doing so. He may be immune to the green live but he’s still remained vulnerable to any other illnesses. Marcus knew he was getting worse and it was time for him to go as far as away as he can the moment Emerald shut off to sleep. There was a part of Emerald that knew what was going on but he was too stubborn to accept such a tragic fate. The two years they had together in Chicago had been the best years of his life despite the apocalypse. They navigated and kept each other going up until the very end.
Emerald had been too busy trying to develop a cure on his own. Not that he was ever smart enough to do so but he himself had been a doctor who chose to rely more on natural observations and limiting science in a way that was more symbiotic with nature. prolonged observations of the green live under the lens of a microscope made him understand a few things about it. First thing was that his blood was not the source of his immunity. it was his pheromones that triggered some sort of an allergic reaction to the hosts. Emerald before the apocalypse constantly would take antihistamines to suppress his allergies. It was until he stopped using them that he was able to get rid of his allergic flare-ups. The irony was that his presence around the hosts do just that. It triggers a volatile reaction that makes them ooze all over. . All Marcus ever wanted to do was enjoy the time they had left but emerald chose to be pragmatic and sacrificed his time with Marcus trying to develop a cure.
In the end, Emerald realized that neither of them could be blamed for what happened. Their efforts had been extremely selfless in this sense. A love that’s rare and confounded by the urgency to stay with one another. Even in dreams, Marcus would often visit his lover and take him to a place where the two of them could exist together. He awoke in dead silence with Emily, perched on top of his head. He reached out for a slice of pineapple to give to her. The next thing now is to get Bing out of the bunker. It didn’t matter if Bing would slow him down. Even if they capture him, he would insist on taking his dog.
Only it had been too late. The authority had shot and killed Bing upon raiding his bunker. They took all of his research and ravaged his entire place. He wanted so badly to scream and go out on a rampage but time was running out. He will make them pay for what they did one way or another.
He continued to make his way toward Markus. Finding him was not as easy as he thought. He never did make it easy to find him. Even when they were kids. He did catch not a glimpse of Markus. He was always out with the boys. His army of hooligans looked up to him as their alpha. Emerald never did care about any of that. “Markus!” he would yell across the hallways of their school as if they were the only two people that existed there. Every moment counted. He wanted to scream for his name but all he could do was mutter it.
“Please, I need to see you,”
Tears flowed out of fear and panic that all of this would be over soon. He wouldn’t even resist the authority this time around and will be compliant in just about everything they ask him to do. Only in the condition that they found the two of them together. Even if he thought of him as crazy. He scanned the vicinity in the location where he saw Markus last. Pushing the other zombies aside until he found himself in the middle of the road. On the verge of giving up.
“You stinky assholes, move out of the way!” he yelled as they scutter away.
He swore never to touch alcohol again but those terms were only because Markus inspired him to quit. That was all there was to do when he left. And the city offered a plethora of unused resources still waiting to be unwrapped. He stumbles while holding a bottle of red wine. It made him feel good to drown his sorrows. He thought it made the days flew by much faster. Never mind if it made him feel sick and a somewhat irresponsible pet owner.
“I’m sorry em…”
He reached out for her in his pocket but she too had gone.
Everyone seemed to have left. They have forsaken him when he needed them the most. He lay down on the grassy concrete for a while. The sky has been the most beautiful it's ever been since the apocalypse.
Even the Chicago weather hadn’t been as cold since humans left. These were in many ways favorable conditions for people to exist in. but it only happened when we left. How lonely did humans ever get?
Why has EVERYONE forsaken him? The authority probably left as well at this point he thought. There was something about all this that gave him a sense of certainty, that even without him the world will cease to exist. For nothing truly ever ends. He heard a shriek that may be one of Emily’s.
“Emily!” he dropped the bottle of red wine halfway finished and began walking where he heard the sound.
He was certain he heard something. His senses too had been sharper than ever because of the apocalypse. It even got to a point where he could name every noise he heard at night.
Dusk was drawing near ad Emerald, who was still trying to make his way through the crowd and managed to finally grab Markus. He made his way to the edge of the tower, attempting to climb up.
“Markus, Markus stop!” he slurred.
“I’ll help ya” just before Markus can react and get far away from him,
“Click” Emerald managed to handcuff his wrist to his.
Sure he smells like soil but so did he. Markus despite being in zombie form still looked attractive to him.
The only thing was that he was a bit heavy to carry around. And he wailed and cried attempting to get away from him. The hosts were strong but they were weak when he was around. Zombie Marcus could barely stand straight. This made it quite easier for Emerald to drag him around.
Emerald felt a huge sense of relief once he found him.
“We somehow always winnin’ weren’t you the one who constantly told me that? “ Emerald spoke as if Markus could understand him.
“Wwwrrgraahhhh”. Said zombie Marcus.
“Yeah, yeah, yeah I’m sorry you’re allergic to me now.”
He said with a hint of laughter. Markus was all he needed, even if he was repulsed by him. he wanted nothing more than to take him to his final place. Just 2,109 stairs ahead of them. Which should only take them about 20 mins to climb.
“We're taking a shortcut,” emerald slurred.
Going up is a lot harder than going down, especially when a bullet suddenly rips through Emerald.
“Son of a b-” Emerald dropped to the ground.
A chopper hovered behind them making its declaration through loudspeakers.
“Give it up, Emerald! We’ve had just about enough of your selfish ways. Surrender now or I will kill you myself,”
The voice sounded familiar as it was no other than his former boss, Emily Hernandez in the flesh.
“Bitch, I thought you were dead!” he yelled!
Despite everything that happened between them, he was happy to have seen her.
The elites have managed to adapt and have been extremely effective at fighting hosts.
They’ve built armor that protects against bite and scratches.
They easily cut through hosts like butter using razor-sharp blades.
Their communication and teamwork triumphed over Emerald's wit. They would’ve captured them in no time but emerald has studied the hosts long enough to know he had cards to play. They are far more agile and newly rested at night which was when he planned on making their way up the tower. Despite the gears that the elites had, they were still heavily outnumbered. Emerald might’ve taken a hit and was dragging someone but the zombies were far too strong in numbers.
The team took out every single zombie around them to keep him isolated. They had sight of him despite the darkness shrouding in.
Emily had received a request from snipers asking to fire more shots. But she knew just about how important his survival was, for it could mean survival for the rest of them. She’s done unspeakable things to get where she’s at. It was too much to even recollect but a woman must do things they’re not proud of in order to succeed in a male-dominated world. Perhaps her flaw was that she was her incessant need to prove herself. This is inherent for most leaders. One thing rings through for commanders like her– they fall higher upon reaching their peak. Many believed that the rest is yet to come in her case. She didn’t necessarily have to be there during Emerald’s extraction but she knew just how important he was not just to the rest of the world, but to her own personal story. He’s always been the one that manages to get away. Which was a shame because she really did think of him as a student who one day may take over everything she’d built.
It was a bittersweet moment for Emerald because there weren’t many people that stayed too long by his side. People often come and go but Emily manages to find ways to be a part of his life even if they weren’t allies. Make no mistake though; neither side are right nor wrong in this case. Morality isn’t quite clear of its own intentions. The greater good is just as bad as the lesser evil. Emily was more aware of this than Emerald, which gave her an edge over him. Emerald after all does things out of sheer self-fulfillment. He knew that there were aspects of his life he wouldn’t be able to control but being with Marcus changed him so much. Weird because of Marcus’ military background. The dude was literally trained to shoot as directed. In the end, the only thing that’s truly consistent is staying dead. Even that doesn’t ring true in a zombie story.
There was no time for requests and diplomacy. As much as Emerald would like to talk to his former mentor. He can feel his consciousness drifting slowly away from him and managed to wrap the fabric around his wound but the overall exasperation is becoming harder to bear.
Even sheer adrenaline cannot carry him through this. He had to stop about halfway through the staircase. the sound of gunshots echoed from the distance.
“I’m running out of energy, dear friend,” He told zombie Marcus.
He could feel his temperature at a fever pitch and how much it hurt each time he would breathe. The thing about emerald though and the peculiarity of his case was that the green live actually heal him. It does the reverse of what usually happens with humans that aren’t like him. This was only known to both him and Emily. He’s known of this even before Marcus died. If only he told him. It wasn’t so much that he didn’t trust Marcus. Deep down Emerald blamed himself for why this whole thing started in the first place. Marcus knew how miserable this made him feel. If only he hadn’t been so clumsy and stuck with his team. Emily shared the same burden but her cause might be more honorable than Emeralds. She wanted to fix the wrath they’d unleashed upon the world. She’d done so many fucked up things trying to correct her mistakes. The problem with that was the more fucked up it got, the more funding she received. But there was no monetary amount to be had, nor to be received to fix all this. The depletion of humanity was too much of a loss only for those who profited from their work output.
Everything else had been given a chance to thrive and survive. Wilder animals had rapidly developed their own immunity to the green live compared to humans. Emerald was the only exception when it came to the rule of adaptation. In many ways giving humans the ability to heal faster scared him. It would serve only those who had the means to capture and bottle it. It wouldn’t be free and readily available for everyone for the elites know of its marketing potential. This is where Emily falls short in identifying the true intent behind her cause. As much as she’d like to feel in charge. There are still others who are far more powerful than her, which makes her a puppet. These are exchanges that Emerald and Emily would never have the chance to access together. It would only stay within the limits of their own mind.
Emerald pulled out a syringe from his bag and immediately injected himself with it. It was the cure he’d been developing for quite some time now but he wasn’t sure what effect it would have on him.
“Were here for a fun time, not a long a time amirite, Marcus?” he said to him.
He didn’t know how bad his wound have been until he saw the pool of blood slowly cascading down the steps.
“Fuck me,” he said.
He barely could find the energy to stand up.
“We’ll take it a step at a time,” he said. This was directed at no one. One thing about the apocalypse and being the only human in Chicago was you get to learn how to hype yourself.
He was shocked by how well this actually worked. A+ for collective self virtues, he thought. Well, that was up until he realized that Marcus was actually dragging him upward. They were at that midway point in which Marcus could instinctively detect their final destination through scent. As repulsed as he was by Emerald, the biological hostage cared more about reaching the roof of the tower.
“Halt, move forward!” signaled one elite to another, bursting open the door that lead to the staircase.
Emerald could hear them climbing up and assess the minutes it would take for them to catch up. He was in a great amount of pain but nothing made him happier than seeing Marcus attempt this final stage with him. It brought back good times, even bad ones that made his heart full. The two of them, working together after all these years gave a strong sense of prosperity. The apocalypse hadn’t been so bad because of this man. He feels a bit of regret for having waited this long to help the good old zombie. It was selfish and contemptuous perhaps why he deserved to be in this horrible state. Letting go was hard when he felt he had nothing. He remembered the countless nights he stared at the vastness of the universe. The stars seemed to have multiplied which made him think of the souls that may have ascended to embellish the night sky. It seemed so out of reach then.
“Target spotted,” said the elite as he closed in. Gunshots coming from the bottom floor of the staircase had been adrenaline-inducing for those trying to make their way out. But it didn’t stay for long as the desperate screams of his fellow mate crept up the hall. Then utter silence. The soldier sacrificed himself to buy the other some time. For what exactly? None of them knew. They only had orders to carry out and missions to complete. Life had been this way for them. It was easier to be a soldier who hadn’t a thing to feel given the countless lives lost at this point. What’s another life to be spared? Silence filled the hall up until the murmurs of the undead grew louder. There was no point in looking back. He was puzzled by what he saw ahead of him. He was confused at first as to why Emerald would handcuff himself to a zombie, if not to use him as protection. There had been speculation going on with the recruits as to why they wanted to extract Emerald in the first place. They had been given little information when it comes to the project. Their focus was not necessarily to question why but how? The focus is to extract the target alive, which was nearly compromised by a shot fired by one of their snipers. It didn’t matter why they wanted him alive. They weren’t even allowed to know the name of their target thus labeling him simply as the Chicagoan. All he knew was that there was something special about this guy and seeing him handcuffed to a zombie posed a lot of questions. However, it wasn't the time for questions. He wasn’t too worried about the zombie on its own and the wounded target looks like he was inches away from death.
Much to Emerald's surprise, the elite slashed Marcus' arm and pushed him downstairs.
Emerald couldn’t hold back his shock and reached for his dear friend but the elite dragged him further and out of the staircase, locking the door shut behind him.
“Target secured, we are now on top of Sears.” He said talking to a nano mic placed on his collar.
He pulled out a bandage and began wrapping Emerald's torso with it.
“Please let me go,” he said.
“We have to keep climbing up or they would catch up,” said the elite. It only occurred to him then how emerald was able to stay safe near a zombie. Marcus’ severed arm moved to try to reach for Emerald’s hand. He was ordered not to ask questions during a mission but he was upset about risking his life for this one person who didn’t seem to care about what happened to him. Emerald seemed like another selfish person he was sworn to keep alive.
“We need to keep climbing,” he said to Emerald.
Emerald shook his head. The elite said nothing more and continued to lift emerald on his shoulder.
He held Marcus hand ever so tightly.
“Put me down!” he said reluctantly but didn't have the strength to challenge the young elite.
The elite paid no attention to him and proceeded to make their way to the final level of the tower.
Emerald was coughing up blood and nearing a state of death, still, he used all of his remaining life force to hold Marcus' zombie hand.
The elite halted and noticed him being surrounded by hordes of zombies also trying to climb all the way up the trees that stood above him.
They stopped and looked at the elite for a while. Fear began to grip him. He dropped emerald for a second, it was only a matter of time before the choppers sweeps in to lift them up. He needed only some time to reach a higher level.
“Soldier, do NOT leave the target, stay as close as possible to the target, that’s an order!” Emily took over the mic and gave the command herself. She hovered over them and could see them both as the chopper makes its way near the rooftop.
The elite refused her orders. Running as fast as he could hoping to reach the ladder before the hosts but it was futile. They got to him first and started throwing their bodies at him one by one. He screamed up until the very end. Looking at emerald as the horde ran past him. Only realized then that he was immune and could’ve been saved had he stayed close to him. If only he asked the questions he wanted to ask. It was irrelevant whether or not Emily gave the right order. She didn’t really care whether a man in his position lives or not. She didn’t even know his name. He stared in admiration at Emerald as the zombies rips him apart.
Emily had a hard time keeping an eye on Emerald as the horde crowded in. She once again released the signal and slightly incapacitated the zombies. Emerald however was nowhere to be found.
It took him a while but zombie Marcus broke out of the doorway and continued making his way to the top.
He found Emerald lying on the ground but it wasn’t really him he was after. It was his hand. Emerald’s cold dead hand still gripped his severed hand. Marcus instinctively reached for his severed hand and noticed Emerald following him. Both are now in Zombie form technically holding hands. They may not have a clue of what and who they were to each other.
Emerald realized only just then how the world continued to live on even after his death. He may not be consciously aware of it but he managed to be there with Marcus as they both transcend into the atmosphere, remnants, and particles of light making their way onto the night sky.
-end-