London Bridge Is Falling

My muscles ache was Jake and I make our way to a place he calls the ‘War Room’ It’s basically where people gather to go over Intel for missions. Apparently, this Intel is so good; he can’t tell me until he has a crowd. Through the doors, Jill and Selena stand, leaned over a long rectangular table; they watch a computer monitor. They don’t notice me at first, and I don’t blame them. I look so different. My eyes are sunken in, my body is skin and bones, and I have a long scruffy beard. They take another look at me and the tears start to flow. Everything we’ve been through starts pouring back into my brain, my head pounds furiously.

“Dylan.” Selena says softly as she takes my cheeks into her hands. “It’s been so long.”
“I know. Tell me about it.” I try to hold back tears but they start to overflow, like water seeping over a dam.

“Jake, come look at this.” Jill says, her eyes fixate back onto the computer screen.

“Jesus. What is that?!” Jake pulls me over to him and squeezes my hand tight. On the monitor is a group of horribly mutated infected making their way to the walls. Their arms are jagged bones, teeth trail down their chest, and they look unstoppable.

“The infected keep mutating.” Selena leans against the wall, crossing her arms. “I’ve been watching for a few days, they just keep getting stronger. There’s already thousands of normal ones out there trying to get in, can you imagine if the stronger ones were to get in here?”

“Jake!” The doors burst open; it’s Lara. “Get outside, now!”

With no hesitations, we’re all in full sprint through winding halls. Lara was in a panic; I don’t think I’ve ever seen her like that before. We’re out in the open now, people frantically run around, shooting towards the sky. The heat from the flamethrowers are so intense, I instantly start sweating. Flying above us are some sort of bat looking creatures. I can’t believe what the virus has caused, different variations of infected and now this.

“Looks like the infected outside the walls are the least of our worries!” Jill yells as one of the monsters dive towards the ground and grab someone, sinking its claws deep into the person.

“Fuck!” Jake grabs his pistol and starts firing towards the sky.

“Lara to watchtowers!” She screams into the earpiece. “Concentrate all flamethrowers on those flying fuckers!”

Flames engulf the sky, dancing around in the air, surrounding the monsters in a bright orange ball of death. Jake grabs my hand as we watch the infected creatures fall to the ground. I missed this, being so close to him; somehow it feels like how we were before all this happened. It’s been almost six years since this started, since Jake and I had our last normal day on earth. There’s an explosion at the west wall, the watchtower crumbles to pieces, the flamethrower spinning around crazily, destroying the tower next to it. Infected start pouring it through the hole, that’s when we take off running again. Jake is still attached to my hand; I can barely keep up behind him. The dead are sprinting; they’re faster than I’ve ever seen them before. We pass a white line and a gate shoots upward, stretching from the west wall to the east. It’s some sort of failsafe thing. We stop running and watch as the hundreds of people trapped behind the backup wall are devoured.

“C’mon, let’s get to the bunker.” Lara says, dragging us along.

The screams from the people outside the gate melt my brain, it’s almost too much to handle. We enter an elevator that rockets towards the depths of hell; it’s going so fast I almost lose my lunch. When we reach the bottom, there are four guards standing outside a large blast proof door. This is where we’ll hunker down for the night, a bunker made just for us, the heads of the B.T.A.R.

“We just left all those people out there.” Selena says, taking a seat on the couch. She clicks on the TV and pulls up six different camera feeds.

“We’re lucky we made it behind the security wall. You should feel happy about that.” Lara rolls her eyes. “We’ve seen death before, you should all be used to it.”

“You never get used to it, Lara!” Jake yells. “Those are innocent people out there, they risked their ass to protect you and you just let them die!”

“They knew the risks coming in.” Lara leans against the wall, defeated. “I am sorry, but it’s just how things have to be. There’s nothing we could’ve done about it.”

“Why did you bring me here?” I ask, breaking the discussion.

“We need you, Dylan.” Lara puts her hand on my shoulder and squeezes. “We can’t run the B.T.A.R. without its founder.”

“You seem to be doing fine without me.”

Lara sighs. “Not really. We need you. If we’re going to win this fight, we need to be united as one.”

“Win this fight? Don’t you get it? There’s billions of infected now. There’s no way we can stop them.”

“This is why we needed you.” Lara says. “There’s an airborne antivirus.”

My heart feels like it’s about to stop, my stomach ties in knots. “What?”

“Listen to this.” Lara scoffs. “The virus we’ve all come to know and love wasn’t always a virus, it originated as Cordyceps. Turns out, it was in Africa for almost a year before Helios cultivated the fungus, turned it into a virus and sold it to the companies we took down. Helios developed the antivirus so when the world’s population was finally destroyed, they could use it to kill off the infected and take over from there.”

“Yeah. We figured it out a few years ago that the virus was fungal. But we haven’t seen any of the fungus infected for a long time, just the virus ridden ones.” Jake says, a little confused.

“There’s a reason we haven’t seen them since the early outbreak. Helios used the antivirus to kill off the fungal infected so they could make stronger ones. The Cordyceps infected are the last wave to take out humanity. And those are the strongest we will ever face.”

“Sounds like fun.” Jill says, laughing a bit. “So where is Helios?”

“Underneath Wembley Stadium.”

“Fucking London? Again?” I sigh. “Isn’t London destroyed enough? If you know where it is, why haven’t you sent in a team?”

“Because we’re the team. We’re the best there is, Dylan. You know that. We’ve taken down major corporations distributing the virus.” Lara is right; we are the best team.

“But this isn’t just a virus anymore. Its much more dangerous, a fungal infection. We’ve seen those things before they were mutated. I can’t even imagine what they’re like now.”

“Dylan. If Helios succeeds, all humanity will be gone. We have to try.”

She’s right. We can’t let them take what’s left of the world, we have to fight, and we have to survive. A few hours pass, I can something from all the way down here, it sounds like bombs going off. I’m sure they’re doing everything they can to keep the infected at bay, but if the Cordyceps come, they’ll have no chance of living through their wrath. I sit on the couch and watch the TV while everyone else sleeps. I left Alicia up there, I’m a terrible person, and I left her like I left Emily. I’ve done so many things I’m not proud of, but I’m sure Lara has too. She has to run a whole army, I left her to pick up my pieces and clean the mess, and I wouldn’t be surprised if she tried to kill me.

“Can’t sleep?” Selena asks, sneaking up behind me. She’s very light on her feet.

“Yeah. Just can’t stop thinking about the past.”

“I know what you mean.” She smiles and plops down next to me. “You’re afraid we’re gonna die again. Don’t worry, I am too. Not me so much, but the others. Jake, Jill. I don’t want to see them go.”

I sigh. “That’s exactly right. You guys have been taken from me so many times, I don’t know if I can do it again.”

She pulls me into a hug. “Don’t worry, we’re going to be okay, Dylan. We’re gonna end this and never have to worry about the infected again.”

“We’re not all going to make it out.” I say, quietly.

“If we’re careful, we will. Get some sleep.” She smiles and heads back to her room.

I must’ve fallen asleep on the couch; I awake to Jake violently shaking me. The lights in the room have switched to a dark red glow. There’s no words said, I’m pretty sure everyone knows what’s going on. Once we’re out of the room, the guards direct us up the stairs; the elevator is jammed. Sirens blare a dull screech as we run towards the top. I’m not sure where we’re going, but as we get closer to our destination, there’s gunfire. Our guards blast away at infected, leaving them dead on the ground. We push through crowds of people and eventually we find ourselves on the landing strip where tons of helicopters are taking off. There’s definitely not enough for all the people here, hundreds will be left to fend off the infected. We quickly jump on the closest chopper and wait for the propellers to start. A horde of infected break through the barriers and pour out into the runway, they’re heading straight for us, tackling people to the ground as they go. Finally we’re up in the air, just as they grapple onto the chopper beside us. We all buckle in and brace for impact as the helicopter spins out of control and crashes into ours.