Episode 5: Cleansed

Episode 5

"Cleansed"

(Mark)

It was like running through a mirror maze. Everything looked the same, and I didn't feel like I was getting anywhere. This place was horrifying. There were tons of hallways, they were all very dimly lit with candles, and even though I was running fast, I could have sworn I saw stranglers banging on room doors, trying to get out. I couldn't let this guy catch me, I needed to get out of here. This was the most terrifying experience I have ever experienced in my life. I turned my head again to see The Guardian right on my ass, he was almost in arms reach. I looked ahead and turned another corner, where I saw a flight of stars heading down. I darted for them and practically jumped down the stairs instead of walking down them. I landed on the ground and sprained my ankle, I didn't let that stop me though. No way. No damn way.

I saw the door exits, they were at the end of the hallway. I turned my head one last time to see The Guardian reach for me, he grabbed my shoulder and pulled me onto the ground. I was only a few steps away from the exit. He breathed heavily as he pulled out his gun from his pocket. I stood up and looked at him. He had it aimed at my chest.

"Don't move," he said, "I can't let the offering go to waste. You will join the dead outside and you will be a part of it. I'm doing this for your own good."

"So what do you want me to do?" I asked.

"You wait here until you turn, then you can be free outside."

The Guardian walked closer to me and pressed the barrel of the pistol right up to my forehead. I slowly and subtly reached into my pocket for the glass shard I stashed in my pocket from the broken syringe.

"Try something, I dare you, I'll blow your brains out."

With one quick motion, I shoved the glass into his stomach. His grip on the gun weakened, and he dropped it onto the ground.

"I already did." I said.

I punched him in the face and he fell to the ground. I reached for the pistol and pointed it at him, but I didn't pull the trigger. There are stranglers right outside, and I need to escape this place. If I shoot him they will hear it and probably crowd the door. I just need to leave this place, once and for all.

I pushed the doors open and I was on the open streets of Kingston. There were only a few stranglers out on the open street. I moved silently and tried to avoid detection from any of them. That's when a bullet whizzed past me and hit the building behind me. I looked over across the street to see a watchtower with a sniper in it. He was aiming at me. It must be a Lockwood outpost. I started running, stranglers were attracted by this noise, and I took some backroads. I was dodging bullets and angry stranglers all the way to the backroads. I made a few turns and finally found a spot where there were no stranglers and a place that was well hidden from any watchtower. I was in a back alley, hiding in between too buildings. I sat down and took a minute to catch my breath. I was close to the mansion, all I needed to do was to get to the forest alive. I took a minute to take in my surroundings, it was just an empty alley, or so I thought. I heard a weak growling sound coming from behind a dumpster. It was probably just a strangler, but for some reason I wanted to check what was behind that dumpster. I moved it, and a woman strangler appeared to be behind it. Her legs were shattered, and she had claw marks all up her torso. She had dirty brown hair, she almost looked like... Jess.

The woman strangler looked up at me, and I couldn't believe me eyes. It was Jess! I backed up in shock, she just growled at me and reached out to try and grab me. But she was incapable of moving. Her legs were shattered, she fell from the building above. I started crying, the love of my life is behind this dumpster, left to rot. I wanted to scream with all the emotions circling me right now, but I didn't. I needed to be smart, no noise. I knelt down next to her and looked her in the eyes.

"I'm so sorry Jess. I'm so sorry I wasn't there. I want you to be back at the mansion, with me, alive."

She just kept growling at me, but even her growls were weak. She was so tired out, and it broke me even more. I had no knife on me, The Guardian stripped everything from me. The only thing I had was this gun, which would make noise. I didn't care though, Jess needed to be put down. I couldn't leave her here like this.

"I love you." I said, tears flowing down my face.

I pointed the pistol at her chest, and fired. Jess dropped dead, for good now. She was at peace, the least I could do was bring her peace, because I wasn't there to save her before. I looked at her one last time, before running out of the alley.

(Jeff)

I was starting to get worried. It was getting dark, and neither Mark or Ned have returned yet. I thought it was just going to be a quick trip. I grabbed a walkie talkie and loaded my shotgun. I was sitting on the porch, getting ready to go find these guys. Where could they have gone? Was the fire a trap? Maybe Ryder was responsible for this. We should never have left him alive, we should have just ended the bandits for good. Samantha opened the front door and stood there, watching me.

"You sure you should go? It's dark, what if something happens to you too?" she asked.

"Nothing is gonna happen to me, trust me. I'll return immediately if I see something sketchy, I'll be careful. I promise."

I walked over to Samantha and kissed her. I walked off of the porch and started walking across the yard, that's when I saw a man running towards me in the distance. He was just ahead of the tree line, running on the yard. By the way he was running he looked very hurt. He had sort of a limping motion to his run. I raised my shotgun and pointed it at him, ready to fire incase he was an enemy. As he got closer though, and I focused more, I noticed it was Mark. I slowly lowered my gun and watched as he collapsed onto the ground right in front of me. Everyone must have seen this, because before I knew it, everybody came out of the house and looked at him. I helped him up and Mark was saying a bunch of things all at once. Someone obviously hurt him, because he looked like shit, and he couldn't even speak. Before he could even say anything understandable, he passed out in my arms.

(Mark)

I saw Jess in my dreams. She was alive. I was walking with her in a forest. It wasn't like the forest by the mansion, no. This forest wasn't grim and depressing, this one was bright and peaceful. There were birds chirping and animals walking through the forest. The bright sun was peaking in through the trees and shining down on Jess's beautiful face. She looked over and smiled at me, we were holding hands, just walking. It was beautiful. I loved every second of it.

I didn't say anything, Jess didn't say anything. We just walked. Together.

After walking for a while, every step I took seemed to be harder to take. And the further we got, I swear Jess started fading. It was happening very slowly though, so I could barely notice until she was almost gone. I stopped and looked at her, panicked.

"Come back." I whimpered with tears falling down my face.

I tried grabbing her hands, but her hands just fell through my hands. I looked her in the eyes, and she smiled, but this time her smile looked concerned. Like she knew she had to go but she didn't want to. Finally, she was gone. Leaving me in the forest alone. I fell to my knees, looked at the ground and started crying. The forest started getting darker and darker. Soon enough, I wasn't in a forest anymore. I was in a dark room. I heard a gun click. I looked up and saw Jeff, pointing a pistol at me. It was just me in him in a pitch black room. He looked upset, he was crying too. He pulled the trigger and a bullet struck me in the chest. I looked down and saw myself bleeding. There was blood flowing out of my chest. I held my chest and fell onto the ground. I closed me eyes.

I opened my eyes again, but this time, I was lying down. I was looking up at the ceiling. I had a pretty bad headache. I sat up slowly and looked around. I was in the infirmary room of the mansion. Doug was beside me in a dog bed, recovering as well from the war with the bandits. I checked my chest, and there was no wound. I hadn't been shot, it was just all some crazed dream. I stood up from the bed, and wobbled a little trying to stand up. I maintained my balance and stood there for a while. I thought of Jess again, I wanted to cry, but I was too tired. I just sighed and pet Doug, then I went for the door. I opened the door and was greeted by Jeff. He jumped back a little, I must have scared him.

"Sorry Mark," he said, "I was just headed in there now to check on you. You feeling alright? You didn't look so good when you returned."

"I'm fine, just a little shaken up. Had Ned returned yet?" I asked.

"No, he hasn't. What happened to you guys back there? Did you see Ryder?"

"No I didn't. There was someone else, I'll tell everyone downstairs. Go get everyone. I'll explain it all."

I went down to the living room and sat on a chair. Jeff gathered everyone up, Kayla, Samantha, Bay. That was all we had left. Everyone looked at me and waited for me to speak. I thought about everything that has happened, and tried to get the events in order. I then told everyone everything.

"There was a man in a gas mask, he kidnapped Ned and I. He had been watching the mansion for quite some time. He knew all of our names. He told us that he was the guardian of the stranglers and he was here to help them accomplish their mission on Earth. He was going to kill Ned and I and let us become stranglers. It was his duty to help infect the world. I escaped, but Ned got left behind. I killed the crazy man, and stumbled back here with barely any energy left."

"How did you do it?" Kayla asked, "how did you escape?"

"I switched his needle full of infected blood with my blood. He injected both Ned and I with my own blood. He didn't infect anyone."

"Smart move, but how are you sure the needle was clean enough to inject yourself with it?" Jeff asked.

"I don't," I said, "but I think I'm feeling fine. It was either that or let him infect me. I had to do it."

"If you start feeling uneasy, tell me. We need to take safety precautions so you don't harm anyone else." Jeff responded.

I nodded, but I knew I was fine. I'm sure the sickness would have kicked in by now. Sure I felt like shit, but I didn't feel sick. Then again the sickness is different with everyone. It infected Paul pretty fast back at Patrick's house, but it took a while for Stan to die from it.

Later that day I saw Jeff on the porch, just watching the tree line. He's always out there, and I know exactly why. He is watching for Lockwood, he's scared and he has every right to be. I was too. They could come barreling in here at any moment, and kill all of us. It wouldn't be hard, they'd only need a small group to do it. I'm surprised they haven't attacked yet, it would be so easy. We are so vulnerable. I decided to go out there and talk to him, I needed to get some things off of my chest.

I walked out there and stood next to him. We just stood there beside each other for a while, and looked out to the tree line.

"How are you feeling?" he asked, watching the tree line and not paying much attention to me.

"Fine, I think I'll be alright. I just came out here to talk to you."

"What do you need?" he asked.

"I'm sorry for my behaviour lately. I understand what you were trying to tell me. I can't be drunk and depressed for when Lockwood gets here. I need to be alert and ready to fight. I'm going to do that now, I'm going to become me again."

"Thank you Mark." he said.

"One more thing, I think I've come up with a way to counter Lockwood if they attack us."

"What is it?" Jeff looked, this time he looked really interested in me.

"The Guardian infected people with syringes. Thinking about that might have just made me think of one of the best weapons ever. We fill an empty glass bottle with infected strangler blood. Then when Lockwood attacks, we throw the bottles at the soldiers. They return to Lockwood infected, they probably won't even know it. Then they turn into stranglers, and they could attack Lockwood for us."

"I don't know," Jeff said, he was thinking hard about this one, "there are a lot of innocent people in Lockwood, they'll die."

"We'll die if they attack us. We need some kind of weapon to counter them, guns won't do it. Think about it Jeff."

With that, I left the porch. I walked back inside the house, leaving Jeff to think.

I walked in on Bay and Kayla. They were in the kitchen, sitting at the kitchen table, just talking. I overheard them talking about Ned.

"Should we send someone to look for him?" Kayla asked, "we can't just forget about him! He's been through so much with us!"

"It's too dangerous Kayla," Bay argued, "I want to find him just as much as you do, but we can't lose anymore people. What happens if we sent someone out to get him and they don't come back either? We don't have the manpower to be sending out search parties anymore. We're too weak."

I sighed and walked upstairs to my room. It was true, we were slowly dying. If Lockwood doesn't show up and finish us off, we'll just die out eventually. When we got to this mansion, we were powerful, we beat the bandits. Now, we barely have enough people to keep watch at night.