I must face the possibility that I am the only uninfected person in Paradise.
Spent the last one and a half days moving through the residential areas. Shotgun houses and shacks, clotheslines strung between dying trees, yards full of rusted cars and broken furniture. Every door I kicked open revealed the same thing: empty rooms, or rooms full of the infected.
The machine gun made the work faster. Messier. Less personal. Just point and spray. Let the bullets do the thinking. The MAC-10 chatters in my hands like an angry insect, spitting brass and death.
I killed the ones who attacked. Left the others alone. Told myself I was showing mercy. Being selective. Only putting down the immediate threats.
But was I really? Or was I just conserving ammunition?
The line keeps blurring. Between self-defense and murder. Between necessity and... something else. Something darker.
I found a couple in one of the shacks. Both of them infected. They were sitting at the dinner table, rotting food on their plates, that same empty smile on their faces. When I entered, they both turned in unison.
I didn't close my eyes.
The machine gun solved the problem. Quick. Efficient. Brutal.
After, in the silence, I heard laughter. Not from the bodies. From somewhere else. Somewhere inside.
You're doing so well. So much better than the others.
Keep going. Don't stop. There's so much more to do.
The Air Force has to know. They have to be monitoring this situation. They need to napalm this entire town, burn it to the foundation, ensure this madness doesn't contaminate the rest of the country. I'll die with the rest of them if that takes. Better that than let this spread to Phoenix, to Las Vegas, to Los Angeles. Better that than let the infection reach the cities.
Cleanse it with fire. Purge the disease. Only way to be sure.
Wait.
I hear...music?
Damn! It IS music! Calliope music, carnival music, coming from downtown Main Street. The sound is wrong—too cheerful, too bright against the backdrop of death and decay. But it's organized. Deliberate.
A parade? They're having a fucking PARADE?
I have to see this. Have to understand what's happening in their diseased minds.