Ivan suddenly felt a cold bullet reach his interior, as he felt a slight amount of pain, but nothing compared to the flames burning through his body.
He looked down at Chris with scorn, this man had ruined all his plans, all this time! He was about to pay for it, and was definitely going to die now!
However, the flames restraining him didn't let him move, he wanted to move and crush Chris like a bug!
But he couldn't…
And the coldness of this specific bullet… it continued to spread.
It spread all around his body, and it was so cold and encompassing, it made him felt almost sick. It was as if his entire body was being frozen…
"What is this…?! This is not… a normal bullet! Chris… Chris! W-What did you do to me?! CHRISSSSS!" roared Ivan in utter fury, as he looked down at Chris with such blazing anger that he suddenly freed himself from the flames and slowly crawled towards Chris!
But Chris looked at him in silence.
"…"
"CHRISSS…! I won't… die… I won't… lose! I will never… falter until the day I become a god!" roared Ivan.
Ivan tried his hardest to move, but his entire body was being frozen, and he began to felt as if he was slowly tearing apart into pieces, as if he was turning into ashes…
Chris looked at Ivan's eyes with a pitiful look.
"Cut it off already, Ivan… Rest… Just rest for now." Sighed Chris.
"Ah… R-Rest? I will… never… rest…" muttered Ivan.
He felt weak, he couldn't even speak properly anymore.
The surviving soldiers looked at the abomination groan his last words, while Lucia seemingly had fallen unconscious in the floor.
"It's already over." Said Chris.
"O… v… er…? Ah…!"
Ivan quickly realized his entire body was falling apart, as he slowly turned into a pile of ashes, and his entire mind was absorbed by darkness…
Chris looked at the scene with grief clear on his eyes. Despite knowing Ivan as a lunatic, he also remembered when he was once a man, a normal man.
Even when Ivan had killed thousands of innocents, even when… he had done so many atrocities indirectly through his Virus… he couldn't help but feel pity for him.
He was a broken man.
His dreams, his love, everything was lost.
It wasn't far-fetched to figure out he would had gone lunatic trying to search for a way to bring back everything he lost on his life.
"…"
Chris looked down at the pile of ashes and the mummified corpse of Ivan, it looked eerily similar to the one that Miranda had left.
"I don't know why I am pitying you after everything you've done… Sigh… I want to retire…" sighed Chris, as he quickly remembered Lucia, rushing towards her.
He found Lucia alive, but she had once more fallen unconscious, and she seemingly had a strong fever, while her nose was bleeding quite a lot.
"Shit… Lucia! Quickly, let's bring her out! All of you survivors, follow me!" said Chris.
Chris carried Lucia on his arms gently, as a helicopter quickly reached them and everyone was able to successfully fly away from the accursed island, right before a nuke was dropped over it by a the North Korean government themselves, who didn't wanted any weird virus to propagate, so they quickly destroyed the island and everything within it.
BOOOOMMM!!!
Chris looked down at the explosion engulfing everything with it, as he sighed in relief.
It was over…
But at what cost?
"Ivan… I hope that you can rest in peace… And that girl as well…" he sighed.
Chris recalled the past, and what Ivan once used to be.
He wasn't an insane man before.
No, in fact, he was an admirable man.
It all goes back over twenty years ago, when Ivan and Chris were companions.
They both have come out of the military together, and became friends there.
The two had worked hard to achieve their goals, while Ivan was going to become a special scientist to the government operations, which dealt with all sorts of things that could enhance soldiers and more, Chris became a secret agent, and they were often apart for many months.
However, whenever they met, they always had fun together, and talked about what they did in their lives, serving their nation… it was as if it was always their dream.
Even though all the hardships, it was still something beautiful that they were striving forward to… it was the dream since they met in the military.
While Chris never met a woman because of his field of work to love and marry to, Ivan married another scientist that worked with him, a woman on her late 20's… She was named Maria.
"So I was so surprised back then, you know? I never thought that Maria who was always kind of like my apprentice would ever confess to me… I always thought I was an unattractive nerd or something, hahaha!" laughed Ivan back then, as Chris smiled happily.
"You've always been a good-looking nerd though, that Russian blood on you really made you attractive to the ladies, bastard." Laughed Chris.
"Come on, haven't you met anyone though?" asked Ivan.
"Me? I cannot… I work in something that might kill me at any moment… forming bonds and all of that… I cannot really give me the luxury of." Sighed Chris.
The young Ivan petted his back as he nodded to him.
"I'll work hard to keep bringing you the best tech so you can survive… After some years, retire, Chris, you don't have to do this your entire life." Said Ivan.
"Ivan… Well, I guess I don't know how to say this but… I've already grown accustomed to it… Even though… taking the lives of other people felt impactful at first… It now feels… dull… I guess I've lost most of what makes me a human, huh?" sighed Chris.
"You're not a monster, Chris, you're my friend. And you're one of the best men I've ever met." Said Ivan.
"Hahh… You get so corny sometimes." Sighed Chris.
"Hahaha! I am just happy to have a girlfriend now!" laughed Ivan.
"Sigh…"
