Colonel Schaefer angrily swiped everything off the table. He stood at the top of Matheson, the unfinished tenth floor right before the rest of the building became just a twisty series of beams rising into the sky. Kat and four other DZI officers accompanied him, each of them on edge as they watched him blow off steam.

Schaefer picked up his handheld transceiver one more time, only seconds away from smashing it to bits. "Tell me again one more time, Shaw!" he growled. "O'Connor is an Abnormal?!"

"Yes!" Shaw replied. "For the third fucking time, yes! Why is this so hard to contemplate? Mathis handled the news better!"

"Don't bring me into this," Kat added grimly.

"Shut it, Mathis!" Schaefer screamed, and he returned to Shaw on the walkie-talkie. "Tell me, Shaw. Why is it so fucking hard to kill a young lad like him? We've established multiple times: aim for the fucking head!"

"That wasn't my mistake, sir," Shaw replied. "That was Richmond's, and it cost him and six other men their lives."

"Well it's gonna cost more now that O'Connor is out!"

"Let's be honest, Colonel," Kat interjected. "Of all people, he's gonna be coming for you."

Schaefer froze, holding the walkie-talkie out in front of him. He slowly turned his head back toward Kat and stared at her with a cold, wrathful gaze. "I'm gonna need to call you back, Shaw," he spoke into the device one more time before leaving it on the table.

He then slowly made his way toward Kat, cracking his knuckles as he approached her.
"Do you mind repeating that, Mathis?" he asked in a disturbingly calm voice.

"Aaron told me about what you did in the past, sir," Kat replied. She spoke softly in order to avoid provoking him further. "He says you were part of something called the Ambrosia Project. That you were the one who killed Bloodletter and his daughter."

"You're gonna believe the words of a boy who not only killed multiple DZI, but was dying of the Deadman infection?"

"I believe him more than I believe you."

Schaefer stayed silent as he paced back and forth in front of Kat and the rest of the soldiers in the room. While Kat remained militant, the rest of her comrades grew more fearful.

"It's understandable why your trust is stronger in him than it is in me," Schaefer said. "You care about him."

"He's my friend," Kat replied.

"Yet I'm the one who saved you from your depraved parents and the Ration Card-thieving parasites wandering the streets of London. I made it my top priority to protect you from the incoming threat and kept you and the other vagrants properly fed."

"I know that, sir, and I'm thankful for everything you've done for me back then. In fact, I won't even try to stop you since I know you're my superior, despite the fact you killed Jonah Franklin."

"That was his mistake."

Kat nearly dropped her calm demeanor. "Comments like that only make it harder for me to sympathize with you. But that is why I'm leaving all conflict between you and Aaron."

"You don't want to get involved in anything personal, is what you're saying," Schaefer added.

"If we're being honest, yes. That is what I'm saying."

Schaefer nodded before pulling his walkie-talkie back out. "Shaw, this is Schaefer. Gather up your troops and reinforce defenses around the tower walls. Now that there are two Abnormals roaming the Dead Zone, a siege could occur at any second. I'll be sending down a few officers to aid you with your mission."

"Yes, sir," Shaw replied.

Schaefer placed the walkie-talkie back down again and looked back at Kat, this time with a sinister grin. "Congratulations, Mathis," he said. "You now have the honor of killing your friend O'Connor."

Kat's calm manner disappeared entirely, now replaced with outright panic. "Why would you do this?" she said.

"Think of it this way, lass. If you let him go free, he'll kill hundreds of innocent people and spend the rest of his undead existence wandering the Dead Zone alone in search of more prey. If you kill him—or let's say end his suffering—we'll have less threats to deal with and reduce the body count dramatically."

"I already told you, Colonel. He won't be killing innocent people. Without a doubt, you're his only target now."

"Mathis, would you kindly face the other direction?"

"What the hell are you—"

"DO IT!"

Kat reluctantly turned around so she faced the overlook of the rest of Matheson. She was too late to realize Schaefer snatched her MercyMark off her neck. All she could do is return her view to her leader and glare in horror at the realization she could never have a quick death after that

"I think I'll hold onto this for a while," Schaefer said coldly, stuffing the small square into his pocket. "This is an ultimatum. Either you do your people a favor by aiding in the  extermination of one of our deadliest threats yet or you'll be spending the last few minutes of your life feeling each and every bite digging into your flesh, all of your limbs slowly ripping from your body. You can scream as loud as you want. I'll make sure no one ever saves you."

For the first time in a long time, Kat was afraid.

"Do you understand, Mathis?" Schaefer asked threateningly.

"Yes, sir," she replied with defeat.

"Good." He backed away from her. "Now all of you head down to the armoury. It's time to end the war between the living and the dead."

* * *

One of the less visited parts of Matheson Babel Tower was an indoor ranch where cattle, sheep, and pigs roamed about in a small reserve that took up a small corner of the first and second floors of the tower. The whole ranch was one large field of grass for the cows, but there were feeds designed for the remaining animals, keeping them alive until they were unlucky enough to be served to the citizens of Matheson as their next meal. That ranch would never be as expansive as the outside world, but it still worked as a little patch of home for the animals.

Unfortunately for the animals and the poor souls working with them, none of them would ever see the ambush coming.

One rancher stood at the edge of the ranch near the exit back into the tower, glaring out at the cows as they grazed in their little field. His colleagues were busy harvesting crops or completing their other agricultural duties. He noticed a herd of cows clustered together near the edge of the ranch and only grew more suspicious when he noticed them mooing incredibly loud.

"Oi!" he yelled. "What's going on over there?"

One cow in particular sounded like she was in immense pain, and once her moos went silent a loud thud was heard echoing through the ranch. The rancher picked up his rifle and jogged into the field toward the injured cow.

"Shoo! Off with ya!" he said, and the herd scattered in all directions. The rancher was left alone with the mutilated corpse of one of his prized heifers.

And the two Deadmen feeding off its carcass.

"Oh hell!" he exclaimed as he took two shots at the Deadmen. He successfully nailed both of them in the head, but his victory was short-lived once he noticed the incoming swarm of Deadmen entering through a new hole in the wall.

He strapped the rifle to his back and ran like hell back to the tower. "Alert the DZI!" he shouted. "The Deadmen made it through!"

As the agriculturalists sacrificed the tower's entire food supply to the undead, they ran for their lives toward the exit back into the Commons, where they would activate the emergency barriers and seal the ranch off from the rest of the citizens for good. Only two of them died in the incoming swarm.

The supervisor of Matheson's agriculture department ran to the nearest emergency intercom and pressed the button. "Deadmen have invaded the northern sector of Matheson through the farmlands!"

Those intercoms only transferred messages to the DZI. And sure enough the entire tower was on high alert. Three squadrons of DZI marched over to the entrance of the ranch, weapon in hand, while several others were sent out of the tower in APC's to prevent them from advancing further in. The soldiers in the APC's made the horrifying discovery that the entire tower was surrounded by Deadmen. Hundreds of them.

Kat remained indoors as part of the squad keeping watch at the doors into the ranch. Shaw was at one of the watchpoints above the entrance of the tower, manning a machine gun and obliterating as many Deadmen as he could. Schaefer, however, did nothing, watching the chaos unfold from the safe isolation of the tenth floor. He only looked for Aaron and Bloodletter, knowing for sure they were coming for him.

"It's like every damn Deadman in the country decided to show up!" Shaw shouted as he blasted at another horde below.

"What do we do about the citizens, sir?" one soldier asked.

"Declare the evacuation protocol! Contact Lovecraft Babel Tower and let them know they should be expecting some visitors!"

"What about Schaefer? Do we tell him?"

Shaw paused for a minute, both to take out another swarm of Deadmen with his gun and to decide whether or not he should still save his commanding officer. After everything that was going on, he felt like he was becoming part of the relatively small group of people who were convinced Schaefer was the man who destroyed the world.

"Sir?" the soldier asked again.

"Forget about him," Shaw declared. "From now on, I am your commanding officer. Evacuate the citizens to the garage. Load as many as you can on the buses."

"Before or after we radio Lovecraft Tower?"

"Before. The buses are bulletproof. The Commoner Deadmen won't even be able to leave a scratch on them. Just make sure the Abnormals never find them."

"Sir, yes, sir!" The soldier bolted to the nearest intercom. "All citizens of Matheson, this is a mandatory evacuation in progress! Please make your way to the buses in a calm and orderly manner! This is not a drill!"

Shaw leaped away from the gun and tackled his soldier to the ground. "GET DOWN!"

Suddenly, the machine gun disintegrated in an explosion of red mist along with half of the watchtower, exposing him and his soldier to the world outside. Alarms blared out all over Matheson; a panic would break out among the citizens for sure. He had a clear view of the Deadmen gathering at the doors of the tower along with the sight of the other watchpoint disappearing in another red explosion. He carefully leaned over the side of the destroyed tower and saw Aaron and Bloodletter standing below.

"They're here," he said ominously.

Bloodletter wore his infamous bulletproof helmet, that red X recognizable anywhere. With a swipe of his arm, dozens of crimson spheres flew out toward the walls of Matheson, and a series of explosions rattled the building. A large crevice formed in the tower wall as a result, and the Deadmen poured in like a breach in a dam.

"Let me ask you one more time, lad," Bloodletter asked Aaron. "Are you sure there's no one else worth saving here?"

Everyone Aaron thought of was dead. The only person he could think of was Kat, but two things prevented him from mentioning her. The first thing was that he knew she could defend herself and would have a better chance of killing him before he could "save" her. The second thing was that he wasn't sure if she sold him out to Schaefer since Schaefer tried to kill him only a minute after she left. Aaron and Kat were close friends, but he knew she was loyal to her commanding officer.

So he left her out. "No."

"Really, mate?" Harry asked. "Nobody?"

"Everyone from my old life is dead, Harry. Anyone you guys kill will mean nothing to me."

"But I don't kill people, mate. I only feed off the dead ones."

"What are you gonna do, Aaron?" Jade asked. "We know you don't need to eat flesh to survive, so what are your plans?"

"Your friend here," Bloodletter chimed in, "is gonna help me kill the man responsible for this mess."

"But is that what he wants?" Kyle asked.

Aaron clenched his fists. "More than anything else in the world."

The five Deadmen walked into the Commons, watching as the rest of the undead bolted around attacking innocent people. Aaron remembered the evacuation protocols and knew the smarter citizens would be taking the escape tunnels to the garage, so the only ones getting attacked were those who were either not paying attention or were present in the Commons when the attack began. However, every time he saw a citizen tumble to the floor as a Deadman ripped them to shreds, he kept on walking.

"It's the Abnormals!" a DZI soldier cried out. And soon Aaron and Bloodletter were bombarded by bullets.

Aaron used his newfound speed to zoom around the crossfire and started slicing his old squad mates apart with his talons. Limbs would fly off like nothing, and he was extremely surprised at how easy it was for him to slice guns in half. Bloodletter, on the other hand, cared little about precision and only wanted to spread the chaos as he fired out long crimson razor-wires in all directions. Those trapped in the blast radius would crumble to the ground in pieces. And all the while, Bloodletter muttered that sinister phrase, "Beware the brain-dead's bloodletting butchery," over and over again.

As Aaron yanked his claws back out of a soldier's skull, he caught a quick glimpse of Kat at the far end of the tower, firing shots out of her sniper rifle into the horde of Deadmen. He felt like he was falling in slow-motion as a hundred thoughts went through his head. Was she still his friend? Would she try to kill him? Or would he have to get to her first?

Then she saw him among the horde, slaughtering her colleagues the way they did the Deadmen. And the same thoughts raced through her head. But unlike Aaron, she was too quick to react.

"I'm sorry, Aaron," she whispered. She aimed her gun at him and fired.

Down!

Aaron threw himself to the floor as the bullet grazed his cheek. All that remained was a tiny scratch that disappeared instantly. He could've sworn he just heard Jonah's voice.

"O'Connor!" he heard Bloodletter exclaim. He crouched up from the ground to see him impaling a DZI soldier on his crimson blade, only to rip it back out and splatter the poor soul's innards out on the ground. "Where's Schaefer?"

Before Aaron could respond, another soldier crashed down on top of him and prepared to plunge a knife into his head. "This ends now," the soldier growled.

Incoming.

Almost automatically, Aaron's arm jerked up. The knife stabbed all the way through the other side of his hand. Catching the soldier off guard, he punched him in the face and knocked him off. He then yanked the knife out of his hand and jammed it into the soldier's throat, leaving him to bleed out.

"Natalya, was that you?" Aaron asked himself. He swore he just heard her.

"Where's Schaefer?" Bloodletter interrogated another dying soldier.

"You'll never find him," the soldier croaked.

Blood sprayed Bloodletter's helmet as talons impaled out of the soldier's eyes through the back of her head. Then Aaron pulled them back out as the soldier's corpse plopped to the ground. "Top floor," Aaron said.

The two of them ran to the nearest stairwell, killing off the DZI guarding the entrance before bolting up the stairs as if their lives depended on it.

"Wait, Aaron!" Harry exclaimed from the bottom floor. "Where are you going?"

Two bullets broke through Harry's chest, and he looked behind him to see another soldier with his gun trained on him. However, the soldier was almost instantly devoured by an incoming crowd of Deadmen as Harry's injuries vanished.

"Shit!" Harry exclaimed as he looked away from the carnage. "I didn't need to see that!"

* * *

Some time had passed as Aaron and Bloodletter raced up the stairs to the tenth floor. They hardly ran into any other DZI soldiers. Nothing but panicking citizens making their way to the garage, all of which were too frightened to even touch the two Abnormals. The only DZI they did come across were distracted and easily defeated once Bloodletter pushed them off the stairs to their deaths.

"Here!" Aaron shouted once they reached the ninth floor.

They shoved past the remaining citizens and Aaron kicked the door open. The two of them stepped out into the hallway, standing against a railing offering them one of the highest views of Matheson one could find in the tower. The floor was lonely and all the doors into the flats were wide open.

Behind you.

Aaron blocked another knife with his hand. He turned to the side to see another DZI soldier, one younger and more fearful. He let his claws dig through his arm before ripping it clean from his elbow. With one final slash, he stabbed through the soldier's head and threw his corpse over the railing.

As Aaron pulled the new knife lodged in his hand back out, he got distracted by the new voice. First Jonah, then Natalya, and now he heard Nika. He was losing it.

"I thought you said he was on the tenth floor," Bloodletter said. "Why the hell are we stopping here?"

Aaron ignored him and glared at the new hole in his hand. He let his talons retract back into his fingers and the wounds formed by them heal up, but the incision kept bleeding onto the floor beneath him.

"It'll get better," he heard Nika's voice speak again.

That's when he saw her standing there in front of him. She wore what looked like a white nightgown and had a bit of a light blue glow to her. She took his wounded hand and held it between them as the deep laceration disappeared in seconds.

"Nika," he whispered.

"See?" she said with a smile. "It's all better now."

"Hey, Destructo-Hands," Bloodletter said, gaining Aaron's attention. "Why have we stopped?"

Once Aaron looked back at where Nika stood, she was gone. His hand was healed. "Yeah, my bad," Aaron told Bloodletter, not fully focused. "One more floor to go."

"You look like you've just seen a ghost."

"How did you know?" And Aaron walked back into the stairwell, Bloodletter slowly following behind him.

"Get used to seeing more of those," Bloodletter whispered. "They'll be your only company from now on."

Once they had reached the top, Bloodletter shoved Aaron out of the way and kicked the door off its hinges as the two burst onto the top floor. There at the edge of the massive room looking through the beams as if they were the bars of a prison cell stood Schaefer. He had both of his hands down on the table, visibly disappointed.

Then Bloodletter broke the silence, first by taking off his helmet and letting it crash to the floor and then by screaming out the name of his mortal enemy. "SCHAEFER!"

A sadistic grin formed on Schaefer's face has he turned to look at his opponents. "I had a feeling I'd see you two again," he said. "Neither of you ever seemed to learn to stop picking fights with—"

He was silenced by two crimson saw blades, one slicing off his arm and the other slicing through his side. It took him a few seconds to realize what had happened until he glanced at his guts spilling onto the floor.

"You talk too much," Aaron growled as he bolted toward Schaefer and buried his talons deep into his eyes. Then his lifeless body collapsed to the ground, now with four holes in his skull thanks to Aaron.

"Seriously?" Bloodletter said. "After everything he's done to us, you decide to kill him quickly?"

"After everything that happened, I wanted to die quickly," Aaron replied. "Yet here we are."

Then the two of them noticed something. The long incision in Schaefer's torso that caused his guts to spill out seemed to be closing up. His arm seemed to be growing back as well, the bones already regenerating. Even the holes in his head were beginning to vanish.

"Fucking hell," Bloodletter muttered as he watched Schaefer's new eyeballs sprout out of their sockets.

By the time Bloodletter had finished speaking, the wounds had disappeared. The skin still continued to grow back on his arm and his left eye was still adjusting into its socket, but he rose from the floor like nothing. And that same sadistic smile crossed his face.

"Y'know," he said. "There's a reason they call me Immortal Troy."