AM13 Outbreak Shorts

Crackdown - Prologue

Holes pierce the young boy's body, making him flinch and flail as he's turned into a human pin cushion. I can hear the bullets leaving the gun, I can even smell the gunpowder wafting up my nose, but it isn't until I glance across to Enrico, my best friend and police partner, and I spot his horrified face that I realize the one doing the shooting is me.

What the hell have I become?

For years I've followed the rules, ever since I turned things around I've done exactly as I'm supposed to. I've become the best version of Oliver Reed that I could ever be. So why now do I find myself aiming my gun at, and killing an innocent lad who can't be more than a teenager?

Enrico's face says it all, it tells me everything that I need to know, and all that I can't accept. I've irrevocably changed...and not for the better.

I take a glance at the world around me, really drinking in the shit storm it's turned into recently. Is what I'm doing worthwhile? Are any of us making a difference, or are we simply soldiers in a war that can never be won? I hope it's worth something because I'm losing myself along the way. I'm not the man I used to be, not even close.

'Marie?' I think hopelessly to myself 'I'm sorry for what I've become. I know I've never been good enough for you, and you always knew it too. If you saw me now would that just be confirmed for you? Would you be glad you left me in the way you did?'

Tears fill my eyes. I feel emotions that I've suppressed for years. I can't cry here though, I'm an officer of the law, bound to be strong and protect. These are my duties, my instructions, I've been told what to do so that's what I need to do. Nothing else matters.

No, nothing matters at all. It never has and it never will.

I feel the cool metal against my temple as I decisively hold the gun there. This is the only option I have left, there isn't anything else I can do.

"Mate, what are you doing?" Enrico screams beside me, but I slide my eyes closed to block him out, to block the world out.

I have to do this. I hope one day he understands, there are just certain things that a man cannot come back from.

I count to three inside my mind. One...two...three. Then I do it, I pull the trigger and I end everything.