System Of The Undead

Chapter 331: Story’s Conclusion PT. 5

Jason clutched his head in pain, the path he had seen had a branch but this was something he had never seen before.

Jason didn’t know what was going on but this was simply because he had unlocked another feature of Nexus after having the infection spread even further.

"T-This is...!" Jason thought to himself as tendrils shot out from the earth and impaled Schneider, holding him in place.

Schneider didn’t understand what was going on but this wasn’t in his plan as he realized that the what had impaled him was red in color.

"W-What is this?" Schneider questioned but there was no explanation, he was too weak to break out of this bind.

"What is going on?" Rachel questioned Jason as she ran towards him, away from Schneider.

"Sam... You did it..." Jason was surprised that Sam managed to bring forth this effect because the path he saw never saw this event coming to pass.

If anything, this was an unexpected development as Rachel was supposed to die there and then.

Jason tried his best to prevent this from coming to pass but in the end, it wasn’t him that would prevent this fate.

It would be Sam and Clementine, Jason knew the job wasn’t done as he gradually walked up to Schneider who struggled to get free but no avail.

"How is this possible!?" Schneider questioned and for the first time, the parasite conveyed anger but Jason couldn’t believe his luck.

He knew he had to be the one to deal the finishing blow because whatever it was that Sam did, he couldn’t thank him enough but this meant that he could do the one thing he was supposed to do from the get go.

The variant of Chronos in him taught him that no matter how weakened it was, it was possible to not only regain their strength but get even stronger than it previously was.

Jason had to put an end to this but he knew that he would cease being himself.

That was right, he needed to say his goodbye to Rachel before he completed the assimilation.

The universe presented this opportunity to him but he was even uglier than he was the last time she saw him as his face was monstrous.

No one would recognize him now because he looked exactly like the dead.

"Rachel..." Jason said, his stutter finally disappearing as a smile on his face told her this was potentially his final moments.

"Jason... What are you doing?" Rachel questioned him as she tried to close the distance between them.

"Stop..." Jason said but the tone he used sounded like he was pleading with her but Rachel wasn’t going to listen to him.

"You’re going, aren’t you?" Rachel questioned but Jason couldn’t give her a verbal response.

"Ever since I met you, you have always put others first before yourself..." Rachel said, Jason was surprised she wasn’t trying to stop him.

"Hahaha! It is a miracle you lasted this long... I made a bet with Lillian that you would die in the first week but you’re saving us all but are you really saving us?" Rachel questioned.

"I-I have to do it, there is no other way..." Jason muttered to her.

"There is always a way, let us find the way for you, you have done enough for us," Rachel said, placing her hand on his face.

"Because if you die, I’m dying with you," Rachel declared and Jason could tell by the look in her eyes that she wasn’t bluffing.

"D-Don’t be stupid... Lillian needs you," Jason responded to which Rachel shook her head to refute this.

"That is wrong, Lillian needs us," Rachel corrected him and Jason pondered on this.

"S-She hates me," Jason said with a defeated smile.

"I know what hate looks like but I know deep down that she is worried about you," Rachel reassured.

Jason was now in a dilemma as he didn’t know how to process this.

He couldn’t kill himself or he would take Rachel away from her sister ensuring that Lillian lived alone in this world.

"Y-You really are a piece of work..." Jason muttered but before the conversation could go further, Rachel fell in his arms.

"R-Rachel?" Jason called out, confused as he caught her but there was something wet in his hands.

"H-Huh?" Jason noticed his hand was stained with a red fluid and this was no doubt blood.

He searched her body and realized that her torso had a wound in it.

The tendrils didn’t make it in time, Schneider had managed to deal a fatal blow even if it wasn’t as severe as it would have liked.

"RACHEL!"

-

Sam was surprised when the tendrils shot out of the ground, slicing up the creature that was about to kill him into mincemeat as it dropped to the ground, dead.

Of course, it wasn’t the other one that suffered this fate as the rest of the creatures were sliced to pieces but the tendrils didn’t touch Sam.

Sam was confused but he was certain that Clementine was in there.

Sam crawl to the fragment that encased her, she was still unconscious but somehow, she heard him.

Clementine was thought to be lost in her own subconscious but this was proving the be a complicated situation as she was reacting to Sam for some reason.

Sam rested against the fragment, he knew that there was nothing that could be done at this point but he didn’t know the impact his actions had outside of her.

He saved Rachel from instant death by awakening what was left of Clementine but there had to be a reason that goes beyond this that Jason chose this path.

"Ha! You really did save me..." Sam teased her but this was something he couldn’t quite understand.

In actuality, Sam was content dying at that moment but he simply wished to test a theory he had.

Clementine was still in there and she somehow resonated with his blood, that was how he was able to get her back.

Sam placed head on the fragment, resting his bloodied ear right on it to see if he could reach out to her.

He understood by the things he just fought that there weren’t themselves, it was the same with the evolved humans he had fought earlier.

Sam knew that something of that nature must have happened to Clementine and he was the only one that could save her.

Sam began to gently hit his head against the fragment but this wasn’t to break it but rather, injure himself all the more so it could absorb more blood because it was slowly reverting back to the pink hue it had.

"Clementine... You are stronger than this, I have known this since the first day I met you," Sam said, for the first time telling Clementine how he felt about her.

"I lied that day..." Sam said, resting his head against the fragment as the strength slowly left his body his body but this was different.

It wasn’t like he was losing consciousness. No, Sam was about to die as he had lost way too much blood and taken a lot of damage.

"I did attack those men because of food but you’re the reason I killed them..." Sam confessed.

"I know what it feels like to be treated differently..." Sam muttered, clearly referring to discrimination that he too had understood.

"I hope you can’t hear me... I can’t imagine this being my last words to you," Sam chuckled but he was surprised for a moment.

"I... laughed?" Sam was puzzled because his laugh until now has either been scornful or sarcastic but today, he let out a genuine laugh with no other reason than joy.

Sam coughed and blood spewed out of his mouth right onto the fragment that had trapped Clementine within.

He noticed that the fragment hue had returned to red but it was deeper than before and for some reason, Sam could feel everything that Clementine had felt.

He had not only come into contact with a piece of the same fragment pseudo that affected Clementine but there was one single thing that made their connection so strong.

Sam felt things at that moment that he had never felt in his life, emotions came flooding through his body but these weren’t his feelings.

At that moment, Sam realized how much Clementine truly loved him but this wasn’t the thing that shocked.

Sam heard another heartbeat, the fact that the fragment had influenced them both there was no telling how anything would play out but this additional heartbeat he was hearing shouldn’t be possible considering it has only been a couple of days since he slept with Clementine.

Sam realized at that moment that it wasn’t Clementine protecting him but whatever this creature was inside her, it was his child.

That would explain why it only reacted when it touched Sam’s blood as well as Chronos choosing Clementine.

It wasn’t because of her affiliation with Sam or Jason, it was because of the abnormality that happened at a rare rate of one in a trillion, the baby’s existence shouldn’t have been possible.

The fragment Chronos put in her was going to be reborn through the child and become the ultimate being but Sam had interrupted this process.

He still couldn’t wrap his head around it as his breathing finally slowed down as his heartbeat decreased but a smile was plastered across his face.

"I-I’m going to be a father..." Sam muttered with a smile on his face as his heart came to a halt.