Human Nature

by Finlay Borthwick

  Upstairs, Olivia was searching around her room. There were several objects which gave her an insight into the owners of the mansion before the apocalypse. Items such as a basket of cuddly toys indicated there was at least one child living there. Eventually she stumbled across an old photo frame hidden at the back of a drawer. Picking it up, she made a startling discovery. There were three people in the frame: A mother, her son, and a father. The strangest thing of all was the fact that the man in the photo was very familiar – it was Seymour.

  At the table downstairs, Elliot and Seymour were still cracking jokes to each other. The light-hearted mood was ruined when Olivia stormed in. “Seymour,” she approached him, “You told us that you only came to this place after the apocalypse, right?” He nodded in confirmation, “Well yes, why?” She showed the photo frame to him, “Tell me that the man in this photograph isn’t you.” Rising to his feet, he gently took the frame from Olivia, appearing to emotionally freeze up while looking at it. “Why did you have to find this?” It touched Seymour deep inside. “Why did you lie to us?” Olivia was unnecessarily stern. “Sit down,” he pulled a seat back for her.

  “We all have parts of our past we wish to forget,” he began, as Elliot and Olivia looked between each other. “The woman in this photo, she was my first wife. She left me a long time ago. One day, she just took off. Walked out of the house, and out my life. This photo was taken in… 2008 or 2009, I believe. We were on holiday in America. The boy in this photo, he is – was – my son.” He swallowed hard, and began to tear up, “I remarried another woman. But, things just didn’t work out there. I took custody of our son, and I’ve lived here for the past nine years. On Day Zero, something happened to him. He became rabid, like an animal. He was something inhumane,” Elliot’s look turned from remorse to realisation, for these are the very descriptions he had used to describe Vincent, “What happened to him?” He had to ask, prompting the tears to roll from Seymour’s eyes. “He started having an attack. His mouth was foaming up. I had to…” He didn’t need to say anymore. While Olivia felt extreme sorrow for him, Elliot was making a parallel. “So that is how this all started after all…”

  They both looked up at him, “Your son, his death, the reactions. I’ve seen the same thing twice before. Firstly, with Vincent, then secondly with the head of Reed’s father. The reactions were exactly the same in all three cases. Vincent must’ve been fed the parasite perhaps, and it burrowed up through his head into his brain. If you were living here, Seymour, you’re not far from where the parasites were being kept. Is it possible that somehow one infected your son? Even more worryingly, is this how more than seven and a half billion people died three years ago? Leaving only the remaining five hundred million of us, the lucky ones, who weren’t invaded… Is that really how this all could’ve began?” Seymour stood up, “I’m going to find out! I should’ve destroyed that place years ago! But now, it’s dying, thanks to you Elliot,” he for once didn’t mean that in a sarcastic way. “I’m ready now. It’s time to demand some answers…”

  Sitting up in her bed, Annabelle was still trying to work things out; Keith was here, but how? And why was he acting so strangely? She heard the door opening again, noticing it open slightly ajar – it was Keith. He snuck into the room, checking to make sure no one had followed him, before closing the door again. He lightly sprinted over to her. “Still don’t know me?” Annabelle was annoyed with his strange behaviour. “Look, I can explain it. Once I do, I hope you’ll understand.” She looked at him firmly, “Well? I’m waiting for the answers!” He sat down on the adjacent bed, checking one last time to make sure the door wasn’t open.

  “We didn’t get very far, after we left London, before our car broke down in the middle of nowhere. Beth… Well, she wouldn’t stop complaining about everything. I raged at her, I told her that if she didn’t like the situation, she was welcome to go back to the ruins of London.” He stopped there, but Annabelle wanted the entire story, “What happened next then?”

  “She went through with my threat, or so I thought. I woke up the following morning, but she wasn’t in her tent. There was no note, no bag, nothing. She took everything she had with her. I felt really bad about our argument. I couldn’t just let her run off and never have the chance to make things up again… So, I went back to London to try and find her. When I arrived there, I noticed someone outside, someone crying. When she looked up at me, I recognised that it was Erica’s daughter: Cora.”

  This revelation caused Annabelle to look at him in shock, “Cora? She’s alive?” He nodded, but his face said a different story, “She is alive, but she’s not doing too good. I’ll get to that part in a minute. I just need to know right now though, what happened to Erica? Is she alive too? Tell me, so I can tell her the next time I get to visit.” Annabelle nodded happily, “Yes. I spent the past year with her. Erica’s alive.” He breathed a sigh of relief. “Now please, continue with your story.”

  “I asked Cora if anyone had come back to London in the time passed. She said no obviously. She hadn’t seen Beth; she hadn’t seen anyone return at all… So, rather than wasting time looking for someone who didn’t want me to find them, I took in somebody who did need and did want my help. Cora and I spent the next few weeks on the road. I had hoped to find Beth again, while Cora had hoped to find her mother. Of course though, we never found either of them. So then we set course for the coast. We thought maybe that would be a good idea, living near the open sea is an easier way of living – you know what I mean, fishing, water supply, and so on so forth… But then one day, we saw a cargo ship. A rather large cargo ship, traversing the coast. It was stopping up near one of the harbours. We just had to investigate, regardless of the danger posed.” Annabelle was beginning to work out where this story was going, “And this place, the place that we’re in. I’m guessing this is that boat, isn’t it?”

  Keith nodded reluctantly. “At first, we thought the people on board were nice people, they welcomed us on, fed us, gave us a place to stay. But the longer we stayed, the more we realised this place a dark secret. One day, that fact really hit home. I woke up, and Cora was gone. At first I thought she must’ve pulled a ‘Beth’ on me and just disappeared – but she hadn’t. Doctor Khan, the one who was in here with me just now, he said the hospital needed staff. That’s what this place is, Annabelle, it’s essentially a boat-hospital. He said, if I ever dared to leave this place, he would kill Cora in front of my very eyes. So ever since then, she’s been kept in an isolated area. I’m pretty sure she’s been driven to the point of insanity. I can’t act against the staff here though! They’re all malevolent and merciless. If I got overwhelmed, which I would, they’d kill her anyway, and all this would’ve been for nothing.”

  As sorrowful as Annabelle felt for him, she thought he had slightly digressed, “So why does this mean you have to pretend that you don’t know me?” He looked at her intently, “Don’t you get it, Annabelle? They only need one person I care about in order to keep me working. If they have both of you, they can kill either you or Cora just for the fun of it, if they wanted to. You have to keep this act up, Annabelle, please. For Cora’s sake.” Understanding his predicament, she nodded. “Alright excellent. Oh and one more thing before you go, what big things have I missed with whatever group you’ve been with?”

  She sat even further upright, “Nothing too much really. We’ve been living along the French coast for the past year, then we were reunited with my mother. We lost people along the way though. Vincent was killed, and so was Andy…” Now, it was Keith who looked sorrowful, “I am… Sorry to hear that. Who are the monsters that killed them?” She looked up at him regretfully, “Me, and Elliot.” Instantly, Keith looked at her, worried, “Ah. Um, scrap the ‘monsters’ part.” But she wasn’t annoyed at him, “But you’re right, Keith. You’re absolutely right. We’re all monsters in the end. Deep down inside. Just like the people who run this place… But Keith, I’m here now. I’ve done things, I think I can do those th
ings again. I’ll get you out of here, and Cora, I promise.”

  From out of the shadows, Khan stepped out, sarcastically applauding. “How very brave of you my young friend!” Both Keith and Annabelle looked at each other fearfully. “You have confessed to lying to me, Doctor Keith. You know the cost of that, don’t you?” As Keith got up to beg, Khan put his hands out, “No point in begging now my friend. The damage is done. I have already sent for my comrades to bring her here. I would like to demonstrate to your friend, Annabelle, how we do things around here…”

  Chapter 14

  Seymour had told his men what his plan was, and all of them had agreed to it. “Now Elliot, are you sure that you and Reed can get me to the parasites?” They both nodded, “As long as Gwen and Fabien pull of their diversion, yes.” Seymour put his hand on Elliot’s shoulder, “If there is a god somewhere, I hope he protects you with his own almighty hand, my English friend.” Elliot put his hand on Seymour’s shoulder in turn, “If there is a god somewhere, I hope he allows you to dine with all the other almighty heroes in the afterlife.” He smiled hot-headedly.

  Fabien had been given the task of flying the plan, with Gwen in the back. Their mission was to create a diversion. Seymour had made several harmless explosive objects, “These things will just go ‘BANG!’ No one will get harmed, nor will another fire spread out. It’s enough to get the attention away from us though. Got it, Gwen?” She pretended to recall his advice as though it was complex, “Of course I get it you… Bulky beast!” She playfully hit him, “Now, go and avenge your son.” They parted each other with smiles of valour.

  Underneath the air field, Sierra put her last resort plan into action. She entered what appeared to be a missile silo, unfortunately occupied by a missile. Opening the hatch on the side, she firmly placed the bomb inside of it, closing the hatch again. Turning around, there was a small office behind blast proof glass, along with a heavily reinforced door. Entering the office, she checked the set of monitors on the wall, noticing several CCTV cameras were still in operation. She sat down at the desk, still wincing from her severe and many burns, with the missile controls. With the some of the cameras still in operation, she would know of an attack by the enemy group; in which case, the missile would be used…

  Fabien started up the plane engine. Gwen waved back at the group, as they wall watched the plane taxying up the road, sharply turning up to go airborne. “Right then Seymour,” Elliot turned to him, “Are you ready for this?” He smiled gloriously, and raised his sword up high. He let out an enormous war cry, which Elliot had assumed to be the French word for ‘Charge!’, as Abel, Sebastian and Langley all raised their swords as well, charging towards the base. This left Elliot with Zach and Celeste, both of whom had questions for him.

  “Yes, I know Seymour wanted Zach dead. He even asked me to do it myself at one point.” Elliot confessed to Celeste. Although she was conversational in the language, she had asked Zach to translate Elliot’s speech for her. She said something back to him in French, which Zach translated into English for Elliot. “She thanks you for sparing my life – as do I – But she would also like to know where you will go after this is all over.” Elliot shrugged, “Not too far. We’re staying in this area. We’ve come too far, lost too much, no point in running even further now.” Zach again translated this, prompting a French response from Celeste. “She says you can stay with us. Here, in this mansion. It’s the least she can do after you drove away the threat of the Sinners.” But this prompted another question from Elliot, “Ask her how she escaped from them in the first place.” Zach looked confusingly at him, “Zach, please, ask her.” He reluctantly nodded, and did so.

  Her response wasn’t short, she had been talking for some time, somehow Zach had enough brain capacity to remember everything she had said. “Although they act primitive, they do still have some intuition like all human beings. There were only four of the Sinners left, all of them had given up on their way of life upon discovering the rest of their people had been lead over a cliff.” Elliot swallowed hard.

  “For that reason, they let me go. They didn’t care anymore. I don’t know what happened to them after that, but I wouldn’t be surprised if they drowned themselves.”

  Flying over the air field, they had drawn the attention of all the residents. Fearful that the place may get firebombed again, most people took shelter. Others however took up arms, attempting to shoot the plane down.

  “Gwen! Go for that area there!” Fabien radioed to her, as she threw one of the harmless ‘poppers’ at a cluster of people shooting at them. It forced them to scatter further apart. “And there as well!” He pointed out another cluster of people shooting at them.

  With everyone distracted, Seymour ordered his men to charge at the base. Kicking and bashing the gate down, Abel, Sebastian and Langley all rushed in. The residents were torn between shooting at the warriors and shooting at the plane, allowing them to rack up many kills.

  “Alright, let’s go.” With everyone distracted, Reed could get Seymour into the labs downstairs. Although a couple of residents had noticed them and tried to kill them, Seymour’s sword was mightier than their firearms. “Some of these people are just innocent civilians! Why must you kill them all?” Reed felt disheartened. “Innocent civilians you say? Why is it that they approach us with guns then?” Seymour rebutted, “There’s no time for this my fellow warrior! Take me to the parasites!” Nonetheless, they ventured forth.

  Olivia and Tina were watching from a rooftop, using the binoculars. “What’s happening?” Tina asked her, as she was looking through them, “They made it in. Seymour’s warriors are quite skilful in sword-fighting. I can’t see Reed or Seymour himself though.”

  Elliot, Zach and Celeste had moved closer to the base with firebombs, merely as a Plan C in case the first two plans collapsed. They watched through the hole in the wall, as Seymour’s warriors dominated everyone. “I don’t think we’re needed here after all,” Zach remarked, prompting Elliot to raised his hand, “Don’t be so hasty…”

  “Look!” Celeste pointed to the main building complex; even though it had been burnt to a crisp it was still standing somehow. Out of it, a large squadron of soldiers emerged. “They haven’t seen them! We’ve got to help!” As Celeste prepared to throw in a firebomb, Elliot tugged her back. “No, it’s too soon. I’m sorry Celeste, they knew what they were signing up for when they charged in there though. Let them go out in the most noble way possible.” She watched helplessly as the soldiers shot at the warriors. Firstly, Sebastian’s body was riddled with bullets, taking him out. Secondly, they shot wildly at Langley, taking him out too. While Abel continued to remain on top of things for a while longer than his two comrades, eventually he was overrun as well. Backed against the wall, the soldiers showed him no mercy, shooting him down. “No!” Celeste jumped up, again Elliot had to pull her back down. “I’m sorry! Celeste, I’m so sorry! He’s gone, he’s gone, ok? I know it’s hard, but he’s gone.” She broke down into tears, Zach and Elliot comforted her.

  Reed had taken Seymour all the way down into the labs. Luckily, he remembered where Jane had gotten the petrol cans from last time. “Here,” Reed gave him one of the cans, and searched his pocket, producing the lighter. “Follow me,” He smiled fiercely.

  Fabien and Gwen were still flying around; however, two problems had occurred at once. Firstly, one of the bullets had scraped the engine, causing it to emit some smoke. And secondly, Gwen had run out of poppers. “We need to get down, now!” Fabien tried to bring the plane down, but the lower they got, the more vulnerable they were to being shot at. “Gwen! I can’t land us! All the warriors are dead! There’s no distraction for the residents!”

  Elliot had noticed Fabien trying to land the plane, and now realised he could do something which would satisfy two people at once. “Celeste,” he gave her a second firebomb. “You want to avenge Abel? Go right ahead. Light this place up.” She smiled at him appreciatively, before stepping through the hole. “F
orward until Hell! With all of you!” Again, her English was rusty, but she got the message across. She lobbed the first firebomb considerably far, but saved the second one.

  Behind her, Elliot and Zach had joined. Both of them threw in their firebombs as well. The resultant blaze was quickly beginning to engulf the airfield. “Come on, we don’t wanna get trapped in here,” Elliot lead his two colleagues back out before the fire could trap them in.

  With all the residents distracted by the fire, Gwen and Fabien safely landed on the road outside. Once they had halted to a complete stop, the rest of their group rushed over to greet them. On one side, Elliot, Zach and Celeste applauded them, while on the other side, there was Olivia and Tina. Gwen removed her flight goggles, noticing two key people missing, “Where’s Seymour? And Reed too?”

  Reed and Seymour could hear the fire above them. “Well, no point in giving up now I guess,” Seymour shook Reed’s hand, “Good luck to you my… other English friend.” Reed was confused by this however, as Seymour entered the room with the parasites, he closed the door behind him. “Wait, what are you doing man?” Reed banged on the door, “You can survive this easily! You don’t need to die here!”

  But Seymour begged to differ, looking at all the jars of the worm-like parasites around the room. “These creatures… These things… Elliot may be right after all! Maybe these things did indeed start the apocalypse! These things are also what killed my son!” He wildly threw the petrol around the room, soaking everything, just as Reed had previously done. “Reed, you must go! Leave this place, now! Otherwise the resultant blaze will kill you!”