The recording clicked off. Aaron silently placed the recorder back in the suitcase. He felt paralyzed, as if his feet were fused to the floor. His friends found the cause of his frozen status once they spotted a dark green vein ascending his neck.

"Uh, Aaron," Jade said. "You don't look so good."

The dark green vein trailed up his face and stopped at his left eye, completely draining it of color. Multiple purple veins sprouted out on his head, around his neck, and even his arms. His fingers dug into the table like drills, and his breathing grew increasingly heavy.

"You can take it out on the table if you'd like," Harry said as he scooted the suitcase away from Aaron. "Careful with the evidence, though."

Aaron slammed his hands down on the table and smashed the entire edge into small wooden fragments, emitting a beastly screech as he obliterated the furniture. However, once his hands were bloodied and riddled with splinters, he abruptly paused in the middle of his carnage and stumbled backward before ultimately collapsing to the floor.

"Shit!" Kyle exclaimed as he and the other two jumped from their chairs to help their friend.

Aaron remained motionless on the floor. The color in his left eye flickered between brown and milky white, like a light switching on and off. The sinister-looking vein slowly vanished back into his skin along with the other veins scattered all over his body, but he stayed in his catatonic state, staring at the ceiling as if it were miles away.

"Should I tap his face?" Jade asked.

Aaron jerked up with a gasp. The three of them weren't startled this time, as they were now used to him.

"I need to get this evidence to someone quick," Aaron declared between his breaths. "I'm not sure how much longer I have until it takes over."

"Then where are we headed, mate?" Harry asked.

Aaron stepped back to his feet and returned to the partially destroyed table. "What happened here?" he asked.

"You happened," Kyle replied.

Aaron then looked down at his bloody hands and watched as the cuts and lacerations healed in the blink of an eye. "Well, that explains."

"I'm a little disturbed by how calmly you said that," Harry chimed in.

Aaron snapped his fingers. "Damn it!" he said. "I left my notebook at home. And there's no way in hell I'm taking that whiteboard with me."

"Check the binder," Jade replied. "Maybe there's some spare pages to write on."

Aaron pulled the binder out and did as she suggested, flipping through each document before finding a few pages at the back of the book. Just like the other pages, they had a faint yellow tint and were torn around the edges, but all that mattered was that they were still legible. He took quick glances at the information he wrote down on the whiteboard and began jumbling all of it down as fast and accurate as he could.

The undead trio studied what Aaron left behind on the board while waiting for him. "So did you figure out why that bot came back to life?" Kyle asked.

"I don't have a definite answer," Aaron replied, still scribbling down in the binder, "but I have a couple of theories. Ambrosia is more advanced than any other form of nanotechnology, unsurprisingly. According to the blueprints and some of the documents in this binder, not only can it manipulate dead organic material to reconstruct itself and even reanimate it back to a half-living state, it can also grant sentience to electric-based lifeforms and feed off their energy source to sustain itself as it uses the host's body to find other organisms to leech off of."

"I'm just gonna pretend I understood what you said," Jade replied.

"What I'm saying is the Ambrosia seems to have developed a mind of its own. It can use both human bodies and maybe even various types of electronics as vessels in order to find more sources of energy and continue spreading itself to the uninfected. In other words, it's a manmade parasite."

"Then why can't it be stopped?" Harry asked.

"Because it self-replicates. Since they don't need to sexually reproduce, they can just birth new nanites, which helps it spread faster. The best way to stop them would be an electromagnetic pulse, but the materials we'd need to create a device that can emit one, especially one big enough to extinguish everything inhabited by Ambrosia, are extremely hard to find."

"Uh...what?"

"What I'm saying is there's no way to get rid of this!" Aaron shouted angrily, slamming his pencil down on the paper. "I'm never gonna be able to see my friends again! Understand?"

The three Deadmen went silent. Aaron returned his view to the papers in front of him and finished up his notes. Once he had concluded his final sentence, he slammed the binder shut, stuffed it back into the suitcase, and stormed out of the room. The only thing occupying his thoughts was the realization that all hope was lost for him. He doubted the existence of a cure or at least a way to prevent the Ambrosia from spreading, but the slightly optimistic part of him believed he could have a happy ending.

Now his hopes were faltering the more he learned.

"Aaron!" Harry called out. "Wait up!"

I'll never get to hang out with Jonah anymore, Aaron thought as he scurried down the hall. I'll never make it up to Natalya. I'll never be able to see Nika again. I never even got to ask Kat if she felt like a part of us. I'm just another body in the pile. The memory of what I've done will fade away alongside me.

"Aaron, I didn't mean to offend you!" Jade called out. "I just wanted to lighten the mood! I know this means everything to you, and I didn't acknowledge that! I'm sorry!"

Aaron ignored their pleas. He paused once he realized the entire hallway was destroyed, just a large pile of rubble towering to the sky. It wasn't even an exaggeration. There was a massive hole in the ceiling penetrating through the second and third floor all the way to the roof, offering Aaron a view of the grey sky above. Aaron saw it as a shortcut and proceeded to climb the rubble as if he were scaling a mountain.

It proved more difficult than he expected. The pieces of debris lodged in the pile were sharper than he expected and he ended up with multiple cuts on his hands and arms, all of which healed before he even realized he had them. It also didn't help that he had to carry a suitcase in one arm as he traversed the mound.

"Aaron!" Harry called out as he and the other two entered the room. "Holy shit," he muttered as he gawked at the debris.

"Guess we've got some climbing to do," Kyle said. "The kid made it up, and he's got his hands full."

By the time the undead trio placed their hands on a single brick, Aaron had slid the suitcase onto the dark rocky surface of the roof before pulling himself up. He scanned the area around him only to find a helipad and a stairway back into the facility. He crawled to the edge of the roof and gazed over the sea of trees surrounding him. Out in the distance he could see Matheson Babel Tower rise over the rest of the Bowland Fells, the steel beams representing its incompletion working as spires. He could still spot the burns at the tips from the various times lightning struck them.

Today would be the one day he could never return. He took risks by going back the last few days. He took an even bigger risk by nearly having sex with Nika, and he still wasn't sure if kissing her would infect her. But after everything he had done, Schaefer had declared him a criminal. If the DZI even found him outside the walls, he'd be dead.

"Aaron!" Harry called out again as he popped out from the hole. "Y'know, you're a really good climber. I hardly held on even with both of my arms."

Once Harry emerged from the hole, Jade and Kyle followed behind him. He and Jade had to quickly catch Kyle after his hand slipped. Despite all the blood staining their hands from Kyle's new laceration, they helped him onto the roof, and Kyle's wound vanished without a trace.

"Listen, mate," Harry told Aaron. "We just wanted to apologize. You were really excited, and you spoke really fast. Jade didn't mean to offend you, so—"

"This isn't about you guys," Aaron replied, still staring mournfully at his old home.

"What's the problem, buddy?" Jade asked.

"I know I'll be doing the world a favor by finally giving them the truth. But I just wish I could live long enough to see if they will forgive me."

"What do you mean?"

"Ever since I fucked up during the Longridge reclamation, the DZI had completely shunned me. They were the only way I could see the world again and I blew it. This evidence could've redeemed me of my biggest mistake and expose Schaefer as the monster he really is. But now that he's declared me a criminal deemed for execution, all of Matheson probably knows who I am and what I've done."

"If they hate you so much, why would you want to go back?" Kyle asked.

"Because Matheson has a few redeeming qualities. And by that, I mean my friends. I'm not even sure how they would take the news of my turning. I've already witnessed one of my friend's reactions, and she did not take it lightly at all. But despite that, I want to make sure Schaefer won't hurt them. They shouldn't be punished for my mistakes." Aaron's head sunk. "I'm a horrible friend."

"You sound like an amazing friend," Jade reassured, sitting down beside Aaron. "You have a heart of gold and you never give up. I wish I was as heroic as you."

"You're an amazing brother, too," Harry added, nudging Aaron on the shoulder, a welcoming smile crossing his face. "Granted, I barely found out about that like an hour ago, but I still mean it."

Aaron managed to crack half a smile, if only for a brief moment. "Thanks, guys."

Harry sat down beside Aaron alongside Jade as the three of them hung their feet over the edge of the roof. Kyle stayed standing, seemingly delving into the scenery.

"And another thing that sucks," Aaron continued, slightly more uplifted, "is that I know Colonel Schaefer. If I was aware of what he had done all these years, we could've exposed him a long time ago. I could've easily killed him if I had the chance."

All of a sudden, an explosion occurred in the distance. Deep within the Bowland Fells near the Dead Center, the sounds of gunfire filled the air and smoke ascended into the sky. Multiple explosions followed behind as fire engulfed the trees around what used to be the Deadmen's own little safe haven.

"Looks like that chance is here," Harry said.

"You don't think that's Schaefer, is it?" Jade asked.

"I know it's him," Aaron replied sternly. "He's always the first to use explosives during our missions."

"What are you gonna do now, Aaron?" Kyle asked.

Aaron stood on the roof and picked up his case, taking one more look at Matheson and the rising smoke. "I'm heading into the war zone."