The Righteous Act

This world is empty. The streets are filled with death and decay. Bodies are rotting away under the hot sun. Everyone is dead except I. I wonder alone in a city with tall skyscrapers until I feel something creeping behind me. When I turn around, a rotting woman with red bleeding eyes and scarlet hair suddenly leaps at me. She grabs my shoulders and says only one thing.

“Why…”

 

My alarm clock suddenly rings violently. I finally woke up from the same nightmare I had been having for the past few days. Is it a premonition or regret? Why should I regret? I stopped an entire war. I’m a hero so why am I having nightmares? The doorbell of my condo unit suddenly rings. I opened it and a beautiful young lady with scarlet hair and red eyes steps inside. Her eye colour matches that of mine. For some reason at the back of my head, I knew her arrival did not bring good news to me.

 

I tried to greet her but she ignored it and went straight to business.

 

“Hey Jess, it’s been awhile? You eating right?” I started with some small talk which I knew was pointless.

 

“Have you been told about the plans for the virus?”

 

“What plans? The government has told me nothing or hasn’t given me any new assignment since the end of the war?

 

“Right…Why would they disturb their hero who helped stop a war by creating a flesh eating virus.”

 

“You and I both know there was no other way. We were losing men and the war. There was no other choice. The virus I made ended the war, it ended the suffering.” At that time I didn’t know I had created a monster.

 

“No other choice? There is always a choice if you tried looking for one. The end of the war one year ago is just a prelude of what’s to come.”

 

“I don’t understand…”

 

“You yourself know how effective your virus can work on the human tissue, destroying a human body from the inside out. The first symptoms are a bloody nose and bleeding eyes followed by coughing of blood and 15 minutes later, death. Now imagine that ten times worse because that is what they are now doing to your virus.”

 

“They’re enhancing it? For what reason?”

 

“They’re gonna use it to start a new war. They know how effective it can be. We must stop them. If they abuse it again, all of mankind will be at stake. Please, you’re the only one that can kill the virus before they finish making it.”

 

“Where are they making the new enhanced virus?”

 

“At your lab.”

 

“There’s no way anyone can just break in there and escape alive.”

 

“I have friends that can help us. Please, you won’t know if you don’t try.”

 

“Forget it Jess. You should forget it too.”

 

“When did you become such a coward? Must be the time you created that monster and cast away your humanity.” Jessica leaves my unit and walks away.

 

Again when I went to sleep, I had the same nightmare where the same scarlet hair woman with bleeding eyes and rotting body grabs at me and leaves me with a chilling message. Only this time she leaves a longer message.

 

“Why didn’t you try !”

 

I woke up five minutes before the alarm rang with my hand on my forehead. “To hell with this.”

 

I grabbed my long overcoat and made my way to a particular Starbucks. Jessica always spends her time there. That was her favourite place. She immediately takes notice of me. I pulled a chair beside hers.

 

“I’ve decided, I’ll help out. I can’t let you go and kill yourself.” Her frowning face quickly changes into a happy and excited one. She hugs me tightly and we both made our way out of the shop.

 

She eventually brought me to some warehouse where a large group of highly armed men were busying themselves for some preparation. As we both entered, I could tell those armed men were suspiciously looking at me. Then a large man blocked my way and spoke.

 

“So this is the great Dr Hugh Frost, also known as Dr Death.”

 

“Leave him alone Chad. He’s here to help us.” Jessica quickly stepped in to stop the brute.

 

“Aww c’mon Jess, just because he’s your…”

 

“We’re wasting time. Let’s get a move along. We only have this window of opportunity.”

 

Jessica’s plan was to take her rag tag team of ex-commando personnel that had grudges over the government, to bring them to my lab via an underground pipeline. From there they would create a distraction, buying me time so that I am able to turn all of the viruses into harmless waste. So far the plan went along smoothly. I was inside the facility getting to work while the brutes kept the soldiers on the outside busy.


 

However a new problem came when I realized the new virus was a little more complex than it looked. I needed more time and time I did not have.

 

“Aren’t you done yet? There’s more coming and we are losing fast here.” Said Chad.

 

“Give me more time please. I’m almost done.” I later heard a gunshot nearby the moment Chad left the room.
 

The moment I was done, I felt a sense of relief in me. The virus had dissolved in its own solution and was rendered useless. Unfortunately, by the time I was done, the room I was in was filled with soldiers with their guns pointed at me and Jess. One of them took a shot at me but all of a sudden, Jess jumps in front of me and collapsed to the ground. Then everything else went blank with the sound of gunfire.

 

I did not know how I got out alive but a month later I’m standing in front of a tombstone on top of a hill. Several days after the attack on my lab, the information about the government’s plans to start a war using chemical warfare was leaked to the United Nations. Our leaders were shortly put on trial for their war crimes.

 

“We did it Jess. We stopped them. I no longer have the nightmares anymore because I tired.”

 

I laid a bouquet of flowers onto the tombstone that was engraved with the name…

 

Jessica Frost

(1991 – 2021)

May you rest in peace, my beloved sister.