As they stared into the smokes rising towards the sky, a realization hit John as hard as a brick thrown by a kid on a rooftop trying to escape from the sticky bandits. "Ummm... we forgot something." John reminded as his right hand scratched the back of his neck, trying not to be embarrassed. "Arkin." a voice from behind the two came out, Kyle had finally awoken from all the mayhem. The stale, dry air raged along, blowing their hair to the side. "How the heck did we forget one of our friends?!" Justin annoyingly asked while pulling out his hair with both hands. Kyle only stared at the chaos happening before them, as the other two worriedly searched the premises in hopes to find their missing partner. "You didn't see him in the sewers right?" John asked Justin, his heart beating wildly and his pupils widening. "No, I don't think so. I didn't see an overweight guy floating along the sewer waters." Justin joked, trying to lighten the mood. John stared intensely, then he followed with a punch that landed on Justin's gut. He fell to the ground, clutching near his stomach. "WHAT THE HECK MAN?!" Justin yelled, he spat some blood out along with it. "Our friend could literally be dead, and you're making it worse by actually joking that he's dead! Leave the horribly timed humor on Kyle!" John yelled back, fed up with Justin's attitude. "Why was I included in that argument?" Kyle asked quietly, still observing the residents of the fort go wild and wreaking havoc. John breath out a long sigh, then reached out his right arm towards Justin. Justin sat there, debating whether he should accept the help. He did. John pulled Justin up, a grin on his face lit up. "Hey, the zombie invasion finally improving your mentality?" John asked, still smiling, very creepily. "When the world's ending, you wouldn't have enough time to hold a grudge." Justin replied, happy about his growth. "Speaking of grudges, let's hold one against that maniac running around the backstreets." John replied, pointing to a dark alleyway, successfully grabbing Kyle's attention. "Bloody hell, that's Arkin!" he pointed to the figure in the alley, the street lights shone enough to expose his facial features. Blood, it could be spotted in a few spots on his face, yet his eyes seemed sane. Arkin's brain was still intact. "What the heck are we waiting for? Let's greet our missing friend shall we?" John asked while running towards their friend. He was only a few steps forward when Arkin suddenly screamed, scared of what was moving towards him. He bolted deeper into the darkness, disappearing into the black fog. "What the hell..." Kyle asked until John urged them to follow their ally, who knows how much time he had left. They ran into the same darkness, trying to sense where Arkin went, they heard movement to the right, they followed. Once in a while, they tripped on scattered cans and bottles or slip on a puddle of muddy water, but they kept running, they had to. The chase ended when they finally cornered Arkin, he backed into a wall, hyperventilating, what had the virus done to him? "Arkin, relax, we're your friends remember? We've literally spent our childhood together." Kyle reminded him, trying to calm him down. "No, no, no, no! Stay away! Safe from me!" Arkin yelled, while smashing his fist into a window that led to a vacant house. The glass shattered, his strength both horrified and surprised the group. John, sensing what Arkin was about to do next, ran towards him, trying to stop Arkin from getting inside an abandoned house. But Arkin was agile, as John charged towards him, he jumped onto the wall with both legs, then off of it, then connected both his feet with John's chest. John came smashing down onto the ground, gasping for air. Arkin could only shake his head, before climbing onto the window and inside the house. "Are you okay, dude?" Justin asked his friend who was still unable to breath properly. "Yeah, now let's go get that idiot."
They headed into the house through the broken window, the whole house seemed clean, yet empty, it looked like it was supposed to be sold for someone else. The group heard footsteps from above, dust came powdering out from the ceiling. Their friend was upstairs. Kyle led ahead, going up the stairs with almost no hesitation, there were only stairs and railings, no doors or anything that gave privacy to whoever was going to live upstairs. There they spotted Arkin, cowering in fear in a corner, sitting and embracing his legs to his chest, cradling back and forth. Blood continued to pour out of his mouth, the virus got worse. "I scratched one man, ONE MAN!" Arkin yelled in guilt, he was the reason the whole fort was collapsing. Kyle's heart broke as the man who was crying in the corner was once his best friend, the one who would have his back no matter how messed up the situation was. Seeing no other option, Kyle concluded that he had to kill his friend to save him from the horrors of the aftermath of the virus. It teared Kyle from inside, but he knew that even if there was a cure, it would be too late for Arkin. "Hey, buddy, please calm down." Kyle's voice cracked, tears came pouring out, could he kill the man who would willingly protect him from whatever abuse the world would throw at him? Arkin only stared, then what happened next would haunt Kyle for the rest of his life.
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Apocalyptia: Rewritten
Action(This was a story where I tried too hard to be smart, it came out as forced and unentertaining. While it was also fun to write, I strongly believe that the absurdity of the original edition was more entertaining.) Four friends that were never used i...
