Atticus held Rebecca’s shoulders. The tables were turned. The dog’s fate was unavoidable. Now it was just a matter of letting good food go to waste. Rebecca still refused. She sat with the dying dog all night and cried. Atticus watched the perimeter for Charlie’s return. They were both exhausted and starving. It was not long before they fell asleep at their posts and when they woke up in the morning dog was gone.

Charlie had come back in the night. He had the upper hand now. After all that arguing, the old man was right. Atticus could not out-perform him in his current state. He woke Rebecca up and brought her inland to the caves. On the way, they found their first mango tree and cleaned it out. Most of which they ate on the spot but one or two they took with them.

They returned to the cave with the mangoes. With full bellies, they camped out at the mouth of the caves. It was the best they felt in a long time, since that first night out on the boat. Atticus gave his arm to Rebecca as a pillow. They used each other’s body heat to stay warm. Atticus had Rebecca in a full embrace. In the loss of all hope and the last light of comfort and nourishment, they closed their faces in on each other, and locked lips. Rebecca cried as they kissed. Atticus wiped her tears, and whispered, “We’re going to get through this.”

Rebecca did not respond with words. She moved on top of Atticus and pulled down her worn-out pants. Atticus and Rebecca made love under the stars that night in the most unlikely of circumstances. When they finished, just before they could get their clothes back on, a loud snap released an echo that crawled out from the end of the cave. Suddenly, a bright spotlight was now on top of them. Rebecca reached for her shirt as her fair complexion blushed. The men behind the light grabbed her and took her away before she could reach the shirt. Atticus was held down and shot in the ass with a tranquilizer dart.

Atticus woke up what could have been minutes or hours later. There were no windows, just one ceiling light illuminating the lab room. Atticus was tied down to a metal slab at its center. In his head he heard Rebecca screaming, but in reality there was nothing but silence. He threw himself around trying to squirm free from his restraints. He had to save her. There was no time to even begin thinking about what the hell had just happened and how he got here from a cave on an island. If he had to break his wrist to get free he would. He had not seen one single face or suit and the possibilities were endless on who they could be and what they were doing to Rebecca right now.

There was nothing he could do to break free. Atticus was stuck there. He would have to wait for someone to engage him for an opportunity to escape. He settled down and finally realized he had all the time in the world to wonder how he got here.

Rebecca was carried out of the cave and into the dark night. Around tight corners and risky trenches surrounding the cave, they slipped underneath the island. The soldiers carried her into what looked like laboratory rooms. They tied her down on a reclined operating chair in a room connected to two other rooms on both sides by windowed walls.

In the room to the right of her she could see Charlie on an operating table. The room to the left of her was very dark, isolated, but she could still see a figure on an operating table just like Charlie. Was it Atticus? Two military doctors brought Jackson in. The dog was still alive. Rebecca’s joy lasted for about two seconds before realizing the dog was visibly fatally wounded. Its ribs weren’t just broken but ruptured.

They placed the dog on the ground and injected it with a serum-gun. The windows were soundproof, but Rebecca could still tell Charlie was screaming. They pointed the needle at him, and he stopped. The other one loosened Charlie’s restraints and thsen they both left the room, locking him inside with an infected Jackson.

Somewhere else…

Finally, someone paid a visit to Atticus. In all his time left on this wretched rock called Earth, Atticus would never wish to be stuck in the same room as the person now standing before him. The dark figure in the back of his mind that he had been running from since the start.

“Did you really think you could just run away?”

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“When the world goes to shit and the people you rely on dessert you. Iit forces you to see things differently. I had three projects with the potential to save the world. You gave me one, and took one away from me, took two if you count Doctor Chase, I presume the reason he is not with you is because he is dead.”

“What are you talking about?”

“YOU STOLE MY VESSEL!” General Saarsgard accused Atticus.

“The Warbird?”

“It could have taken me off this rock, above this wicked plague. You robbed me of that. You made me desperate, and in my desperation I made this base. After Project Clean Sweep the undead were twice as deadly. The epidemic had the upper hand. I gathered as many resources as-“

“People. You mean people.” Atticus interrupted.

“I did everything I could to ensure the survival of the human race. You brought me patient zero. That is where I would begin once security was locked down.”

“And what have you discovered besides how to effectively hide from the dying world?”

“This disease is regenerative, Atticus. It affects every host differently. Most it kills. But some it doesn’t.”

“There are people who are immune?”

“Not just people. Most canines don’t turn, most animals are safe. Which means this is man-made.”

Atticus smiled and let his head rest. Closing his eyes in a temporary act of resignation. “The world will go on after we are gone.”

“We are not going anywhere, not even when we’re all dead.”

“Why are you telling me all this?”

“Soon two scientists are going to come in here with a live contaminant and infect you. You will die and turn and be put down. After that you will be nothing more than a statistic. As desperate and cold-hearted as your actions have made me, I am not too cruel to provide brief satisfaction to a departing comrade, even a deserter. You took from me my inventor, but you left me his tools. One day I will figure them out and right the wrongs Patient Zero has caused. I will save humanity and all you will have done is made your mark on a spreadsheet. Goodbye, Captain Roth.”

General Saarsgard left Atticus to await his fate.

Rebecca watched in horror as the scene played out. Charlie tried furiously to get lose and finish what he started on Jackson before whatever they did to the dog took effect. Rebecca could tell when Jackson stopped breathing. It was subtle at first, but all too familiar for her. In no time the once docile loyal companion was now a ravenous, blood-craving beast, standing on its four paws.

Charlie finally got free and picked up a beaker to protect himself. On Jackson’s first charge Charlie broke the glass over the hound’s head. Jackson stopped to lick his wounds as the blood and broken glass streamed into his mouth. The red bled into the dog’s dead eyes as it bit into Charlie and brought him down. First his arm and then right into his gut.

Jackson growled and took a chunk out of the old man. He tried pushing the dog away while screaming for help that was not there. The zombie dog dug further into him. Charlie spat blood out of his mouth, writhing in pain. Undead Jackson pulled a chunk of bone out of the squirming man. He crunched on his rib next to him like a normal dog with a bone as the old man died. Rebecca never looked away.

Was this karma in the new twisted world?