Saturday, November 5th, 1:30 a.m.

People that looked like friends and neighbors closed in on all sides, and Vergil was at a loss. Two roads lay before him and neither felt like the lesser of two evils.

On one hand, Vergil had made a promise to himself to save the people of Lancet Falls, and Vergil doubted they had the time or the resources to figure out how to remove the parasites inhabiting their bodies before the rest of Lancet Falls became infected.

Does upholding my promise to the infected mean I'm breaking it to let everyone else die?

On the other hand, the people around him expected Vergil to do what was necessary to protect them. Especially Lisa and Albert. They had put all their chips on Vergil, and if he decided to stick to the moral high ground, this is where they would be making there last stand. Emphasis on the last.

Vergil made his decision.

"Don't hurt anyone! Just incapacitate them until we figure this out," He shouted directing his voice to Blujh and the absurdly fat man. A man that killed without compunction, all it took was one stray thought.

If Vergil had known the man was going to kill Perry and the blazing inferno that had once been Rachel Durant, he didn't know if he would have saved the man. Vergil knew he was kidding himself. Although, it would have meant other consequences, Vergil couldn't have let a helpless person die. Although the man was pitiful in his own way, he showed flashes a better man underneath his gelatinous surface. In hindsight, Vergil would have found a way to both save the man and prevent him from killing anyone.

Another failure to add to the list.

"Fuck that buddy," the fat man said, "These people are gone, but we aren't."

"You don't know that!" Vergil shouted.

"Take a look at that kid you choked out. The one you tried to 'save.' Those look like the eyes of someone with a chance? Because they look pretty fucking dead to me."

The boy had been named Mikey Clymens. Vergil couldn't remember where he knew him from, "He's not dead."

A voice spoke up, a voice that cut through the veil of Vergil's rationalizations with cold logic, "Vergil lad, I'm afraid that rotund and sorry excuse for humanity is correct. If we had the time or resources available to us, we may have been able to save all of these people one hundred times over to satisfy that overinflated hero complex of yours, but that option is no longer feasible.

We're a mismatched amalgam of people, but at least we are still breathing and have the slightest offchance of making it out of this predicament intact. I suggest you take a break from your self-flagellation and prove that your brain isn't simply there for ornamentation. As much as I am loathe to admit, you have the qualities of a natural born leader, and I suggest you polish them off and use them for a change."

They were the first words Albert had spoken since he had regained consciousness, and it seemed fitting that his first words were used to reprimand Vergil. It also seemed the dog was right. As always.

The group all had their eyes on Vergil, and they expected him to do something. He didn't know when, but they'd gone from being a ragtag group of disparate individuals to a band of people that looked to him for guidance. A gorge of bile rose in Vergil's throat, the burden threatening to overwhelm him, but it didn't.

"Alright everybody, you heard the dog, I think. We stand and fight! Any ideas on how we get out of this in one piece?"

The little boy, pumped his fist into the air, but didn't offer anything in the way of strategy or tactics. No one else piped in to offer anything of value. They looked at each other and what seemed to be hundreds of parasites surrounding them.

Vergil made eye contact with each of them in turn, and noticed the beach bum, he thought he remembered Michelle referring to him as Ron. The cameraman stood there making circles in the dirt with his feet, eyes downcast. He looked like a man who had something to say.

"What do you got Ron? I'm fielding ideas, even stupid ones," Vergil said.

"I have no idea how this information could be put to use, but there's an enormous tunnel system underneath our feet. If we could somehow trigger a collapse, we could maybe trap them or suffocate them if we're lucky?" He framed the last sentence as a question, "But I don't know how long that would stall them, or how to keep us from going down along with them."

Vergil smiled in spite of himself. He looked at the enormous projector screen that he'd seen countless times, and it took on a new meaning, "Tunnel collapse? No problem." Vergil said and gave Ron a thumbs up.

"But burying them is just a stalling tactic, I've seen these people, I mean monsters in action. A little dirt may trap and suffocate some of them, but the rest aren't going to stay down until they get what they want. Us. We need something more," Michelle added.

"Excuse me, gentlemen... and miss, my transponder isn't picking up anything on the other... side, and I believe it will have exhausted its energy source in a manner of minutes if we are using your archaic measurement of time." Vyth said.

"I've had it about up to here with your overly, pretentious technical jargon. Tell it to us straight Vyth," Lisa said.

Vergil had forgotten Lisa in the heat of things, and especially wished that her life was not in his hands.

I should never have gotten her wrapped up in this. If there's anyone here that doesn't deserve this. It's Lisa.

"No need to get testy, I am trying to be of benefit seeing as my failure would also mean my imminent demise. I am simply stating that when we run out of power," he said motioning towards the whirling thing-a-ma-jig in the middle of the clearing, "your 'friends' will descend upon us."

"I might have another idea," Jordan piped up. Her voice was a trifle louder than the shrieking of the wind, but not by much, "But I'm not sure I can do it."

"Give me a break. You can either help or you can't squirt," the fat man groaned.

Michelle crouched down, so she could look Jordan in the eye, "Something tells me you can do anything you set your mind to."

"But if I can, all those people are going to die," Jordan replied. She had twined a strand of her crimped hair around her index finger.

"They only look like people sweetie," Michelle said placing her hand on the girl's shoulder. There was a new tension in Michelle's muscles, as if she wasn't comfortable with the physical interaction, "I think the real people are long gone."

"Yeah, they're monsters. When we get rid of 'em, the people we love will come back!" Derek shouted.

Heads turned to look at the boy, but no one had the heart to correct him. The fat man opened his mouth to respond, but even he had good enough taste to not crush the kid.

That man has said enough already.

"That metal tower over there is full of water right?" Jordan asked.

"Last time I checked," Vergil said, but he couldn't remember if he'd heard the familiar sloshing of water the night before.

Was it only a night ago?

"Well, if someone poured the water all over them, I could... electrocute them."

A laugh barked out, it came from the greasy guy that Michelle had left unconscious in the projector booth, "That's cute Squirt. Hate to break it to you folks, but you're all shit out of luck."

Jordan ignored the man, but Vergil saw the edges of her eyes harden.

"I can do it," she replied, but her feet shifting back and forth like she needed to go to the restroom spoke otherwise, "But Mr. Neiman needs to pour water on them."

"Fat fucking chance of that. I tired myself out saving your ungrateful asses, but even if I could, I wouldn't do it. You'll just leave me out to die when I'm all used up."

At that moment, Vergil would have liked nothing more than to punch that man's face into a jelly or give him a hug. It was a coin flip. He couldn't imagine having such a low opinion of humanity where people were discarded like trash on the side of the road when they were no longer useful.

"I can do it!" Derek shouted, raising his hand into the air much like a child impatiently waiting for the teacher to call on him.

"How do you propose you do that flyboy?" Blujh scowled, "Just because you can whiz around in the air like a natter, doesn't mean you can lug around that hulking piece of metal. I bet that thing weighs more than you ten times over."

"Bet!" Derek shouted back launching himself into the air.

"We believe you Derek," Vergil said. He knew a thing or two about the hero complex, "But we are going to need a backup plan just in case."

The soot-stained scarecrow of a man spoke up. "It is my assessment that the boy can do it. I have looked at this situation from every angle, and I've concluded this strategy has a 23% chance of success provided we can collapse the tunnels in approximately," the man looked at the fading violet light, "93 seconds with a five seconds margin of error in either direction, so Mr. Wilson, if you do indeed have a plan to collapse that tunnel, I suggest you get started."

There was no time to waste on tear-stained goodbyes, anything he could say in that moment wouldn't have mattered in the big scheme of things anyways. Besides, he would've just screwed it up. The others would be able to manage without him. Lisa and Albert had managed before him, and they would long after he was gone. His plan would wipe out the denizens of Lancet Falls and the Nueva Vista in one fell swoop. Vergil didn't think he wanted to live in a world without either anyways.

Vergil crossed the distance between their group and the projector screen in a matter of seconds. It looked so much larger up close and personal. A strange thought overcame him. He really oughta be thankful to the guy who'd shot him. The velocity of the bullet had probably given Vergil just enough juice to be able to swan dive to his death.

Vergil looked at the daunting monolith one last time with a mirthless grin, gripped the cool railing, and started to climb.