"Aaron!" Harry shouted, standing above Aaron. "Buddy, are you okay?!"

Aaron still lay on the ground in shock. His arm was still restoring itself, the new muscles and bones barely reaching the elbow. The bone and muscle tissue continued growing outward like vines, wrapping around each other to form the arm's internal structure.

"What's wrong with him?" Kyle asked.

"Nothing. He just went into shock."

"But he's a Deadman. He's not supposed to feel pain."

"But he can still feel fear."

"Harry, what's going—" Jade asked, passing through the curtain of leaves, but she immediately froze as she stared down at Aaron's regenerating arm. She then turned back to the leaves. "Edgar, whatever you do, stay where you are! I don't want you to see this."

"Why is Bloodletter treating the kid so harshly?" Kyle asked.

"It's Bloodletter," Harry replied. "When is he not treating anyone harshly? He earned his name for a reason, mate. In fact, that's why we started calling him the Man in the Red Mist, because it's more suitable for the children."

A loud boom filled the air, almost reminiscent of a hand grenade. Gunfire and pain-filled screams followed, along with messy splattering noises. Kyle ran into the field to check out the commotion.

"Oh shit," he said.

"What's happening, mate?" Harry asked, staying back with Aaron and Jade.

"One of those bangers went off. And it wasn't the DZI who set it off."

Harry's eyes widened. "Are you telling me that Bloodletter is using one of his blood bombs?"

"Yeah. It was just one small crimson sphere floating toward the others like a bubble. And then BAM!" Kyle made an exploding motion with his hands to emphasize the moment.

The gunfire and screaming continued in the distance. Kyle saw that Bloodletter had long red blades extending out of his arms as if scythes were fused to his forearms. He swung them at his attackers, removing a few limbs in the process. Blood splashed across his helmet with every hit.

"Now what?" Harry asked.

Kyle shrugged, his eyes focused on the distant carnage. "He's slicing and dicing, bruv. Ain't showing mercy, as usual."

Harry returned his view to a still-catatonic Aaron. Jade was crouched down next to him. The internal structure of his arm was restored, a bright red display of muscles replacing the hole. His hand and fingers had started growing back, the tendons and cartilage that made up its structure frighteningly visible. All he needed to complete the healing process was actual flesh.

"Aaron?" Jade asked. "Are you okay, bruv? Your arm seems to be fine now, but how are you?"

She snapped her fingers twice in front of Aaron's face. That's when he abruptly jerked up with an inhuman shriek. He continued staring out into the distance, searching for his humanity. He felt like something was missing and that was the only thing he felt made the most sense at the time.

"Shit!" Jade exclaimed, leaping off the ground in surprise. "He's up, guys."

"Yeah, no shit," Harry replied, covering his ears. "I can't tell if that was the scream of an animal or a little girl."

Aaron didn't pay attention to Harry. He looked down at his still-healing arm, studying the visible muscle structure as flesh slowly made its way up to his fingers. He wiggled his fingers around, watching in a mix of horror and intrigue as the tendons in his arm stretched and vibrated with the movement of his fingers like chords on a guitar.

"I could be a damn science experiment," he muttered to himself, still watching the tendons move.

"He speaks," Kyle said in a poetic manner. "I'm surprised considering the things you just experienced."

Aaron looked away from his arm and locked eyes with Harry. "Where is that bleeding son of a bitch?"

Harry broke eye contact with Aaron and looked toward Jade. "Check on Edgar. Make sure he's safe."

"He should be," Jade replied. "He told me he was going back to the Dead Center."

"Hello?! Guys?!" Aaron chimed in, starting to get frustrated. "Where is Bloodletter?"

"I hate to say this," Harry replied slowly and hesitantly, "But he's out in the field massacring the DZI."

Aaron was at a loss for words. And that's saying something given the fact he had been shell-shocked for the last ten minutes.

He leaped from the ground and ran past the trees until he reached Kyle. Harry and Jade were shouting out to him, trying to warn him of the horrors he'd continue to witness if he kept getting in Bloodletter's way.

"I'm not sure if you should see this, bruv," Kyle warned as Aaron approached.

"Out of my way," Aaron replied, shoving past Kyle. Unsurprisingly, Harry and Jade were right about the horrors he'd witness.

The first thing Aaron caught a glimpse of was Bloodletter impaling a DZI soldier through his chest with his long red blade. The soldier fell to his knees in pain and he stared up at Bloodletter with defeat, a trickle of blood dripping down his mouth.

"What the fuck?" Aaron said in disgust.

He could hear Bloodletter speaking, but the distance between them combined with the helmet muffled his speech to the point of inaudibility. The DZI soldier also spoke, but the speed of his speech made his weak state blatantly obvious. Then Aaron realized he was saying the final words. The ones the DZI soldiers uttered to activate their MercyMarks. First initial, then the last name. MercyMark, activate.

Then the soldier's brains exploded out of his head and his eyes were nothing more than bloody sockets. A spray of crimson splattered across Bloodletter's helmet. He then yanked the blade out of the dead soldier's chest and let his lifeless body collapse to the ground before stomping on his skull, smashing it into pieces like glass.

"HEY!" Aaron shouted angrily. He started marching toward Bloodletter. "You sadistic fuck! What are you doing to--"

Aaron went silent as Bloodletter's blade dug through his stomach, exiting through his back. Instead of the agonizing pain of being gored by a large sword, Aaron felt cold. Colder than he ever felt in his life. He felt like if he was trapped in ice.

"I'm surprised you still want to fight me considering what I did to your old squad mates right now," Bloodletter replied, jamming the blade deeper into Aaron's abdomen. Blood started spilling out, dripping down Aaron's shirt. "And I already told you I can no longer harm you."

"Well, clearly you broke that promise," Aaron replied, staring down at the blade buried in him.

"Oh, did I? Tell me, does that hurt?"

Aaron paused to think about it. If he said it did, Bloodletter would probably kill him for lying. If he said it didn't, he'd probably bleed out, die, and revive as a complete Deadman. He told the truth. "No. But it is nauseating to look at."

"Then I am not hurting you." The blade retracted into Bloodletter's arm in a liquefied state, almost dissolving into his body. The long incision where the blade protruded from quickly healed, transitioning from a scab to clean flesh. "Therefore, I have not broken my promise."

Aaron collapsed to the floor, his innards splattering onto the ground. Panic-stricken, he started gathering up his guts and tried shoving them back into the hole in his abdomen. A dark crimson blot remained where his innards were, like if he were stranded in the middle of a sea of blood. He could feel the tear in his back patching itself back up, but he had to hold in his guts as he waited for his abdomen to heal itself.

"Then what do you call my blood loss, huh?!" Aaron asked angrily. "Just a fucking flesh wound?!"

"No," Bloodletter replied, taking off his helmet. "Just a little bloodletting."

Bloodletter chuckled to himself sadistically. Aaron leaped off the floor and charged into him. However, Bloodletter blocked him and flipped him over, crashing him into the ground back-first.

"Speaking of bloodletting, from the way your nasty injuries look, I'd say you lost about three pints of blood," Bloodletter continued. "Maybe even four. Undoubtedly Class 3 Hemorrhage."

"This looks a lot more than three fucking pints!" Aaron replied, still covering the hole in his abdomen. The healing was almost done, the flesh reconnecting together like a coat being zipped up.

"But now I think it's safe to say you should be turning in a day or two depending on when you were infected."

"But...I wasn't even bitten. A tiny bit of Deadman blood entered a cut in my hand two days ago and everything's gone downhill ever since."

"Then I give you two more days before you finally lose it. Or at least control of your body. Your humanity will probably be gone by the time you go to sleep tonight."

Aaron was broken inside. He knew it was cowardly, but the one thing he wanted to do now was cry. He would've gone back in time and prevented himself from making the horrible mistakes he made two days ago. But sadly all he could do was wait until he got what's coming to him.

"Now, believe it or not, I'm feeling a little more merciful now," Bloodletter continued. Aaron was this close to risking his life again to shut him up. "I'll leave you alone as long as you quit trying to ambush me. You can mess around the Dead Center as long as you'd like. I won't stop you. Especially since I finally know where you came from."

Aaron sullenly made his way back to the others. He covered his head with his hood and hung his head low in disappointment. "Who told you?" he asked.

"A poor bastard named Rupert Cromwell. He claimed he was infected after some wanker tried to eat his hand. He didn't show any fear when I approached him. In fact, the first thing he asked me to do was put him out of his misery and in return he told me where he came from. You'll probably find his headless corpse at the edge of the forest if you ever go back."

So that's it, Aaron thought. I infected Rupert. Either he told everyone I did it, or they'll all figure it out on their own. I'm dead if I show my face again in Matheson.

"So...what are you gonna do now?" Bloodletter asked nonchalantly.

Aaron refused to respond. He glared back at Bloodletter with pure hatred, and Bloodletter responded back with a look that showed he could care less about what would happen to Aaron. He'd forget everything that happened anyway once he turned. Unless, of course, he revived as an Abnormal, but the chances of that were one in a million.

"Not right now, Sarah," Bloodletter said, throwing everyone off guard. His Revenant visions were back. "He's fine. Just on a path toward my fate like everyone else."

Aaron continued making his way back to the other three Deadmen, ignoring Bloodletter and his conversation with himself. "No, I don't feel bad. And neither should he. He won't even remember what I did to him once the infection takes over."

Bloodletter paused as he waited for "Sarah" to speak. "He's not like me. He hasn't lost his humanity yet. And when he finally does, he'll finally be able to see the things I see."

"Fuck off," Aaron groaned, looking back at Bloodletter. "You're just insane."

"Oh, really?" Bloodletter replied, returning a grim look back at Aaron. "Look toward this tree. Gaze into the sunbeams around it. Do you...see anything?"

Aaron halfheartedly glanced toward the tree left of Bloodletter. A few rays of sunshine shimmered down on the grass surrounding it and dust particles floated around the light, all clustered together like a swarm of flies. However, the shape of the clustered particles had an uncanny resemblance. It took a bit of imagination, but Aaron noticed some of them seemed to resemble a head of short hair in a feminine hairstyle. He slowly looked down, still making out the shape of a person. He swore he could he see a young girl in a dress in those particles, but it still required tons of imagination to connect the dots. It was like finding a constellation in the night sky.

He found a strange sense of beauty in the image until the particles started moving. He felt like he finally lost it when he realized the person in the sunlight was waving at him.

"Now do you think I'm crazy?" Bloodletter asked.

Aaron broke out running. He dashed through the forest, ignoring the calls of his few undead allies. Was that really an apparition he spotted? Was it imaginary? Was it the wind?

No, believing the wind did it is too cliche. Plus, in a world overrun by zombies, pretty much anything was possible, especially if it made things worse.

"Aaron!" Harry shouted distantly. "Wait up!"

Aaron continued bolting through the forest as fast as he could. He caught a quick glimpse of the gravestones surrounding him as he passed through the graveyard before disappearing into the trees again.

"Aaron!"

He didn't stop. He would keep running, even if he collapsed and awoke as a Deadman. Unfortunately, an inconvenient root prevented Aaron from continuing his race trough the Bowland Fells. He tripped and crashed to the ground, only a couple of feet away from the Dead Center.

"Aaron! Wait up, dammit!"

Harry finally reached Aaron. Aaron was kneeled on the ground, feeling more miserable than ever. Harry stood next to him and rested against another tree.

"Where will you go now?" Harry asked.

"From the rate I'm going," Aaron replied, catching his breath, "I'd be better off looking for a place to be buried."

"But don't you want to do something useful before you turn?"

"Bollocks! I won't be able to get anything done now that I've lost so much blood! And what can I do anyway? Bloodletter is too strong, Colonel Schaefer is too strong, and the entire DZI hates me now. And I have no doubt my friends won't take the news of my infection lightly."

"Aaron...I know you've already been through enough, but I feel like you should just stick with us."

Aaron remained silent for a moment. "That's the other thing. I don't know what to do with my final days. I don't want to lounge about bawling my eyes out, but I also don't want to devastate my friends. And I'm not too thrilled with suicide."

"Then maybe you can save your friends. You can show them the truth and find out what caused all of this. Maybe they can find a cure."

"A cure?" Aaron repeated. "That's a load of shite. We've been trying to find a cure for years. Nothing's been accomplished."

"Then forget a cure. Just find the cause. In fact, I can help you."

"How?"

Harry scratched his head. "This is actually why I recommend sticking with us. I know a place somewhere around here that may have the answers to some of your questions. I can take you there if you'd like."

Aaron lacked interest. He slid his hood back on and continued his way through the forest, adding, "I'll think about it."

"Where are you going?" Harry called.

"Home. If I survive another night, I might consider coming back so you can show me the place."

And with that, not another word was spoken. Aaron continued trekking through the woods before stopping at a tree stump to sit down. He pulled out his notebook and a pencil and scribbled down a simple yet terrifying statement.

2 DAYS UNTIL I DIE