Elena's whole body ached. She was unconscious and for a moment Evan's hideous grin chased her in a dream. She looked behind and could see her parents running behind her. She shouted back at her parents wanting them to run faster but the grin caught up to them and swallowed them. She ran as fast as she could but suddenly, the grin now stood gaping in front of her. The grin then shattered into a million pieces which began to pierce her body. The pain was relentless, even when she jerked awake.
Elena was lying at the foot of the sofa that had cushioned the impact. She painfully got up to her feet and staggered to the entrance. Her shoulder was burning and the pain was shaking her. Every time she blinked, her vision blurred. Her eyes froze in horror though when she saw Evans bring down the cleaver onto Michael. He writhed back and forth as blood gushed out of his chest, like a fish caught on a fisherman's spear. Elena fell to the ground, her eyes wide in horror. Her thoughts were dazed and it was too much for her mind to take. Michael's face turned towards Elena with his hand outstretched before it went limp.
Evans pulled out the cleaver from Michael's chest and spit on his corpse. He turned to spot Elena on her knees.
"Looks like this guy paid the price for trying to save a bitch like you," he said grinning. "You don't even look like anything special. I pity him."
Evans then aimed the cleaver at Elena and pulled his arm back to throw it. "You'll be joining him soon." He threw it forward with full force as Elena closed her eyes.
A thundering boom erupted in her ears.
She didn't feel the sharp pain that she should have. Was this what death was like? She opened her eyes and it took a few moments for her vision to clear. She couldn't believe what she was looking at.
There stood Michael staring at her. His mouth was agape which reflected her own look of surprise. Blood dripped slowly from his mouth and Elena realized he was in pain. Michael slowly turned towards Evans who stared back at him in shock. The cleaver that had been heading towards her was lodged deep into his back. There was a look of fear and desperation on Evans' face now. All the arrogance from his face had been drained away.
Evans' desperation was now replaced by anger. "This place isn't big enough for the both of us!" he yelled and raised his minigun. Michael hurriedly began to stagger towards him, like a zombie. He couldn't cover much ground however and fell to his knees and then to the ground. As Evans placed his finger on the trigger, he was thrown back by a powerful force.
Elena saw a flash of blue followed by a deafening explosion of thunder. Michael stood unharmed right where Evans had been standing who had been fallen back in surprise. Michael was very confused but he reacted instinctively. He grabbed the cleaver from the spot from where he had respawned and ran forward. Evans too stumbled to his feet as Michael ran forward and aimed at Evans' exposed neck. Evans wasn't quick enough to react as Michael rammed the weapon into him.
Evans groaned as the cleaver sunk deep into his neck. He started laughing as blood gurgled out from his mouth and poured out of his neck. He fell to the ground and looked at Michael with a bloody smile. "You think… this is going… to kill me? I'm going to become alive again and…" Evans stopped talking and his eyed widened as the realization hit him.
He was not respawning. Normally when he was at the near-death state he would respawn if he so willed it. But at that moment he wasn't. He looked in horror as Michael took out the cleaver from his neck and attacked him again.
His body fell to the ground and Michael thought to himself. Is he dead? No, he'll come back to life again. He braced himself for the lightning strike but nothing happened. Long minutes passed away and he could hear painful moans in the distance but the respawner's corpse lay unmoved.
The respawner was dead. Elena stared hard at his dead body unable to believe what she was seeing. Then her vision blurred again and everything went black.
Michael threw aside the cleaver after Evans had died. He stayed there for a few minutes making sure that Evans wasn't going to respawn. He was confused and his thoughts were racing. What had just happened? He looked at the blood on his hands. Have I just killed someone? I've never killed someone. He was sure that even in his blurred memories he had not killed someone. Guilt washed over his whole body as he stared at the dead body in front of him and he fell to his knees on the ground. He was not a killer. He had not meant to kill. He had done it in self-defense.
Then he remembered Elena and rushed towards where she was.
"Are you alright?" asked Michael shaking her body. "Hey Elena!"
He checked her pulse just like she had seen her do at the clinic. She was alive but heavily injured. The skin on her shoulder was burnt off and had turned a sickly pinkish-red colour.
Sidra emerged from behind an upturned cart that lay against a building. She ran towards Elena all the while looking fearfully at Evans' corpse, expecting him to come to life. Then the little girl stopped a few feet away from Michael looking at him with a mixture of awe and fear. He knew her well. Sidra had visited the clinic with her mother for a few days because of a virus that she had picked up. He had even entertained her by playing with her toys and the girl had taken a liking to her. But now she seemed unsure.
"You're a respawner," she said. Michael could tell by her expressions that she was struggling to figure out whether he was good or bad.
"I'm not… I mean…" he sighed. "I don't know..."
"You saved Elena's life."
Michael swept his hand over his back where the cleaver had hit him. There was no wound and he could not feel the agonizing pain which he could still remember feeling. He had seen the blackness which had felt so death-like but then suddenly he had reappeared in the place where he was looking at as if he had not been hurt at all. How was that even possible? Him, a respawner? The idea of respawners had seemed ridiculous to him and yet here he was standing when he should've been dead.
The little girl then came closer and asked, "Is she dead too? Like my mother?" Her face contorted into sadness when the memory of her dead mother hit her.
Michael approached the girl and hugged her. "No, she's alive, she's alive," he reassured her. Her mother's dead? She was all the family she had, he remembered Elena telling him that. "We have to get her to safety." He looked around trying to figure out what to do. There was too much destruction around along with dead bodies and gore strewn around and blood splattered everywhere.
A Nazi soldier appeared from one of the cabins nearby. He had cuts all over his body and walked with a slight limp. He had his rifle aimed at Michael. When the guy had figured that Michael wasn't going to harm him he ran to Elena shouting her name. He bent down and checked on her. It was the same Nazi soldier he had seen staring at him from the day he had arrived at the Peak City. He was a strong man with a hardened, wrinkled face. He remembered he had had dark hair but instead there was whitening hair in its place.
Michael froze. He let Sidra down who moved behind him.
The man then got up and stared hard at Michael. "I've been watching you in a disguise since the day you came here. It's been more than a week and you haven't even killed a single person. And yet you're a respawner and you just saved my niece's life. What's your game?"
Michael froze. He had no idea how to answer because he didn't have a clue about what was going on. He had heard her mention her uncle Joey telling him that he was the only relative he had left and who was mostly away.
Joey turned his attention to the respawner's dead body where a pool of blood had formed beneath him.
"Well, Elena did tell me you've got amnesia," said Joey. "Either way it doesn't matter because you're the first guy in history to kill a goddamn respawner."
Joey bent down and carefully picked up the injured Elena in his arms.
"You're coming with me," said Joey. "We're going to figure out what the hell you are at the base."
Michael did not protest. He was going to come with him anyways. Anywhere Elena went, he was going to follow. Elena had taken care of him when he had had absolutely no idea where he was. He owed her and would do anything to make sure she was safe.
"Come on, the Nazi reinforcements will be here soon. We need to leave."
Michael looked behind at Sidra and gave her a comforting smile. He could not leave her here. He lifted her into his as she pointed to the spot where Michael had died initially. There was the fallen pendant on the ground along with a few crumpled up hitlers which had been in his pocket. He didn't understand why they hadn't respawned with him but at that point he didn't understand a lot of things. He grabbed his items from the ground and followed Joey. They hurriedly made their way to the exits through the city smoldering in flames.