Author's Note: The final one! This one's a bit descriptively bloody, so watch out. And there's some language too (Aurelie, of course). More memories in the tild marks, and thoughts are marked with the traditional single quotation/apostrophe mark.

I HATE the ending to this. I mean, I don't HATE it. It doesn't make me very happy, though. It works, especially with her memory, but...it just feels like it's missing something! Grrr. Trying to think of a satisfactory way of rewriting it...

It had only taken an hour or so for Aurelie to find the small group of Infected that had so worried the people of Angel’s Camp. They weren’t all that far away, but the heavy foresting and steep hillsides of their chosen area compensated for that.

Aurelie peered down through the small pair of field binoculars she kept in one of her spare pouches. There they were, all right; the signs of an Infected’s den were unmistakable. Of course, it helped that they were all out in the open, with one particularly down a good sight line. She gave the area one last slow, sweeping check, this time scanning the area for possible signs of any more. With the Infected, you never really knew what they were thinking, or how many there were in a place. And when a Medic disinfects, they take as many precautions as they can to keep their chances of contracting the Pandemic as low as possible. And that meant knowing exactly how many Infected were being taken care of.

'One, two, three…looks like there might be a fourth, or more,' Aurelie thought to herself as she folded the binocs closed and slipped them back into an inside pocket of her old doctor’s coat. 'Looks like the people back at Angel’s Camp need to learn how to count – or not to fucking lie.'

They were all well into the end of the third stage at the very least, seeing as there was the tell-tale tint of blue on their fingers. Aurelie had made sure to check them carefully for the signs, because these days any kind of traveler was regarded as probable Infected just on principle. And as little as she usually cared, the last thing she wanted to do was kill innocent people. She wasn’t that heartless. But if there were blue fingers, suspicious bruises and a mad gleam to their eyes, Aurelie would have no problem ending them.

And every single person (if you could call them people anymore) down there had blue-tinted fingers and dark, spotty bruises. Besides, most people who contracted the Pandemic didn’t steal away until they’d already entered the fourth stage, and then only if they survived the first few weeks of that.

As Aurelie watched her ‘patients’ (there was a kind of morbid humor in using medical terminology in these kinds of situations), she began plotting a strategy. She never just walked down among the enemy, guns blazing. That was the fastest way to get a third eye and a dirt nap, and that was the last thing Aurelie needed. Besides, she needed to finish this quickly and get back to Kendra and Robert. She wasn’t comfortable leaving them alone for very long, though she had said she’d do this herself. Kendra had needed the rest, and they had needed the supplies. And someone had to watch Kendra, and Robert was the only person (other than herself) that she trusted to do that job, and do it well.

Bringing that wandering part of her mind back under control and into the situation, Aurelie was looking back over her strategy when one of the Infected below moved in some small, insignificant way. But the effect of that movement was anything but insignificant.

~~She was going to die. One part of her was sad about that, about the fact that her life was about to end and no one she loved was nearby. Another part of her was angry, pissed as hell at these people who saw her as nothing more than a specimen in a lab, as some kind of over-large Petri dish that could be easily exchanged for another. And another part, pushed back and held under iron control, was terrified. That part of her screamed and thrashed and wept, wanting to beg for these mad scientists to leave her alone, to let her go, leave her with her life.

But she had too much pride to ever give in to that. So she fueled the fear into more anger, building that fire hotter until it was all that raged within her and warmed her. They wanted to kill her by using her as Patient Zero? Fine. She’d haunt their asses until they couldn’t fucking think anymore, because every thought would be of her.

And even as she made herself this promise, that same small voice that had been gibbering in terror before now whispered in a heart-broken sound. So she modified that promise – she’d haunt these fucking scientists to their graves, but she’d let Kendra and Robert know she still loved them, was still with them.

It was the thought of those two that was going to get her through this if she had any intention of surviving. And as fun as haunting these bastards sounded, she’d much rather just be with her lover, her troop, her family…and her twin. Damn straight she was going to live through this.~~

Aurelie grabbed at her head, eyes wide and lips parted. Thank God she hadn’t been holding anything in her hands at that moment, as she probably would have given herself a nice shiner right then, if not possibly knocked herself out. It was an undignified prospect for one such as she, but right now she had more important things on her mind.

She remembered.

It wasn’t much, and yet it was. She knew that memory, knew it was hers, that she had lived that. It wasn’t a pleasant memory – there was still a bitter taste in her mouth from the fear and the anger – but it was hers. No one had had to tell it to her, no flash had revealed it to her only to leave her unsatisfied with the vague, unsettling feeling of déjà vu. She’d just known.

And directly on the heels of this revelation came a burning desire to just rip apart the things down there. This particular desire, Aurelie was unsure of its origin. And yet, she couldn’t seem to pull it back like she did everything else. It was almost as if the Infected down there, the Pandemic, meant something to her personally. Something terrible – and she wanted revenge for it. The only thing that kept her from going down there and just ripping into them with her knives and one of her revolvers was the thought that she had survived, and that Kendra and Robert were expecting her to come back.

Maybe that hadn’t been the best thought at the moment, because it rekindled to anger. Whatever she’d just remembered had almost taken her away from those two, and somehow, the Pandemic and the Infected were connected to it.

Aurelie stood then, drawing the rifle she’d been issued upon her entry to the Army, and took careful aim. One squeeze of the trigger, and one of the heads below exploded into a rain of bone, brain, and blood. And all the rest now knew there was a guest for supper. Lucky thing Aurelie had brought enough lead and steel for all, because as it turned out, there had been more than three.

Aurelie had stopped using her rifle as a firearm after going through the first magazine. She’d taken her time shooting them, planting three- and five-round bursts in the first six. By then the Infected had figured out where she was shooting them from, and had gotten close enough for that strange, vengeful feeling to rise again – and Aurelie gave into it. Changing her grip on the rifle to hold it like it was a club, she swung it through the last three Infected like she were holding a golf club and they were over-large, moving balls. For crazy, dying people, they sure bled a lot. But then, Aurelie was used to blood.

“Bitch! You can’t stop the cleansing!” One of them gurgled even as the madness and life bled from another’s eyes.

One of the Infected had gotten around behind her, grabbing at the loose end of Aurelie’s ponytail and pulling. Aurelie grunted, smacking the one before her across the face with the butt of her rifle, using it something like a paddle. There was a wet, almost meaty noise like that of a watermelon hitting the ground and her rifle butt came away dark, wetly glistening in a disturbing way, but she was more focused on the one holding her hair.

“Can’t stop it, can’t stop it…All fall, all join or all be cleansed!” The thing’s breath was foul, sickly-sweet like the scent rotting meat and flowers. Even as Aurelie’s stomach roiled at the stench, it seized with the feeling that lead was sitting in it.

Kendra. Aurelie’s eyes widened once more, an unfamiliar feeling grasping at her heart, making her feel short of breath – terror. Kendra was in trouble, Aurelie knew it. She didn’t have time to waste here anymore – Kendra needed her!

Growling, with the extra strength born of desperation she jabbed backwards with the muzzle of the rifle into the thing’s stomach. It worked to loosen his hold upon her hair, giving her enough slack to yank the locks free. She pivoted in place, bringing her right leg up, knee crossed back to her left hip before snapping the kick out, planting a heavy combat boot in his face and pulping his lips into a bloody mess, breaking his nose. Really, she smashed the thing, splintering the nasal bone, though at the same time the very angle of her side kick also shoved those bone splinters up into his brain, killing him almost instantly.

Aurelie didn’t bother to stay around any longer then – she’d done what had been asked to do, and the Pandemic wasn’t able to cross the species barrier, so it was safe to leave the bodies for carrion. Besides, she didn’t have time to waste. Pausing only long enough to pick up her spent casings and deposit them in a pocket, Aurelie set out at a run back through the trees toward Angel’s Camp.

What she saw when she got there both frightened and infuriated her. Two men unconscious on the ground, clearly the losers in whatever had started this altercation. Robert, struggling with one of the townspeople for control of a shovel that was obviously intended to harm both him and Kendra. And while her heart seized for some odd reason when she saw that, Aurelie knew Robert could take care of himself. What truly angered her was the sight of Kendra sprawled on the ground, a man standing over her, one meaty fist raised to strike. Aurelie was having none of that. Eyes hardening and darkening to the angry black of a thundercloud, she strode forward, hands tightening on her rifle.

CRACK!

Kendra’s eyes popped open at the sharp noise, and stared up at the man who still had his fist raised over her. But it looked like there was something sticking out behind his head…her eyes widened as she recognized the familiar shape of that rifle muzzle, and a large grin began to form.

“Aurelie!” cried Kendra, that wide smile spreading across her face. She scrambled to her feet, uncaring as the man toppled over, wide eyes lifeless and blank. Aurelie stood over them, the rifle she’d just used to butt-stroke the man cradled across her body in both hands, eyes flint chips as she stared down at the dead man who had dared to raise his hand against Kendra. He would never do so again. Those same flint chips softened when they flickered over Kendra, fluttering closed in a brief sign of relief before opening once more.

“Aurelie?” Robert whispered, his voice small and tremulous. He paused, still holding the shovel haft away from his body as his head whipped around to stare in the same direction as Kendra. “Aurelie?” he whispered again, the darkness and anger beginning to drain from his eyes to be replaced by joy and love as he saw the woman standing there. The poor man attacking him let the shovel haft slip from nerveless fingers; too busy staring at Aurelie in a mixture of awe and abject terror.

She stood there, tall and proud like some ancient war goddess, a cold expression carved onto her face as if fresh from stone. Bright splashes of crimson streaked her body, her face, her clothing like a macabre mockery of war paint, a silent, screaming testament to the power held within her frame. Flinty eyes never wavered in their focus as she surveyed the huddling mass of humanity about them, her top lip curling into the tiniest of sneers.

Everyone except for Kendra and Robert shrank back as Aurelie thrust out her hand. There was nothing there that looked remotely threatening – unless, of course, you counted the fact that she was more than irritated, held an Army-issue rifle in the other hand, and the one being held in mid-air was clenched into a fist. Another gasp and flinch ran through the small crowd as she slowly opened her fingers.

Clink. Cli-clink. Cli-cli-cling-clink. CLINK. TINKtinktinglnglnglnglngk…

The spent bullet casings tumbled end over glistening end to rattle against the paved street. They spun and rolled a bit as they came to rest, spreading away from Aurelie’s feet like morbid ripples on an asphalt pond.

“Aurelie?” Kendra asked, creeping closer and laying a hand on her sister’s shoulder, her eyes stormier than usual from the concern darkening the orbs. “You got all of them?”

“Yea,” Aurelie began, almost in a whisper, her storm-gray eyes focused only on the spinning bronze casings, her voice eerily level and calm, “though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, I shall fear no evil.” She slowly raised her head and speared the gathered members of the town with a cold gaze, her voice never changing in pitch, tone, or inflection. “Because I am the meanest son of a bitch in the entire damned valley.”

There was no reply. But then, none was necessary. Aurelie kept her eyes trained on the crowd, still holding her rifle, fingertips twitching as if caressing it. No one in the crowd moved as Robert scooped up the large pack that held the supplies he’d bought with Kendra, and they stayed just as still even when Aurelie took her gaze from them to give Robert and Kendra a thorough scanning. So it was only those two that saw the bright relief in her eyes behind the dark storm of her anger, and neither of them would reveal her secret. Then the three began the long walk back down the mountain.

“I’ll always come for you. You know that?”

Robert and Kendra blinked at the very uncharacteristic question coming from Aurelie. But then Robert smiled.

“Of course, Aurelie. We trust you.”

Aurelie nodded at that, relieved, and silently promised once again to protect them.