CHARISMA

The projector turned on with a subtle humming noise. The big room was occupied by a crowd of people. All available seating places were taken, they weren't enough for everyone. The air was saturated with unintelligible murmurs and whispers.

Something important must had happened for the head of the hospital to gather them all like that. Hopefulness, skepticism, curiosity… With a wide variety of expectations, all eyes focused on the white screen. A video started playing.

******

The camera is seemingly being carried by an unidentified female running down the street and zigzagging around idle vehicles. It swings heavily from side to side, as if hanging around her neck.

A man is running ahead of her, holding her hand and pulling at her in a state of panic.

"Hurry!! Hurry!!!" he says.

"H-Hold on…!! Honey…!! W-What about…!!?"

"Audrey and Carter will be okay, forget about them!! Come on!!"

The sound of sirens, screams and gunshots can be heard in the distance.

The couple gets past the traffic jam and rushes through a gate in a fence wall. There are more people ahead of them, also running at full speed. The ground is littered with corpses, many of which showcase obvious gunshot wounds. The group passes a sign:

[QUARANTINE CHECKPOINT]

On the other side of the wall, a bridge comes into view. In the middle of the bridge there's a second wall, heavily reinforced and surrounded with razor wire. There's military vehicles and equipment in the area. Human figures can be seen on top of the fortification, but they are too far away to be identified.

"There!!! There's the checkpoint!!!"

"B-But…!! Honey, something's wrong…!!"

The group rushes over more corpses.

When the first ones get about half the way to the outer wall, several gunshots are heard, and they drop on the spot.

"They're shooting…!!!"

"Stop, we're not infected!!!"

"Please, we—!!"

The soldiers on the wall open fire indiscriminately. Among screams, the rest of the survivors start dropping one after another. The woman holding the camera lets go of her partner, and attempts to turn around and run away. The image is shaken up and turns sideways as it crashes against the asphalt of the road. The woman can be heard moaning in pain.

The video is now sped up, showing no signs of movement over the span of one hour, until the camera battery runs out.

…

The video now depicts a different scene. This one seems to have been recorded with a mobile phone.

The cameraman is hiding in a narrow alleyway. There's barely any noise. The city is shown to be in a severe state of abandonment, signifying the depiction of much more recent events.

Out in the open, in the main street, there's a small squad of half a dozen soldiers. Several bloody corpses lay around on the ground.

A man is on his knees in front of one of the soldiers. It's too far away to clearly understand what he's saying, but he's crying and seems to be pleading with the soldier. The soldier ignores him and slashes his throat with a bladed weapon. The man drops, immobile.

The soldier walks closer to one of the corpses. It looks like the person is still alive, and they lift their arms as if trying to cover and protect their face. The soldier finishes them off as well.

The video ends.

******

All eyes were now centered on Julien. Confused, nervous and shaken up by the disturbing footage they had just witnessed, the crowd's mumbling intensified.

Julien cleared his throat before speaking.

"Ladies, gentlemen… What do you think of this?" he said.

More whispers.

"Wasn't that… our Army?" asked a man from the crowd. "Were they… killing people…!?"

"I'm afraid the Army has no intention of saving anyone. All they'll do is purge the remaining survivors. And… it's highly likely they know about our presence, here at Saint Marie Hospital." explained Julien.

The crowd soon began making questions.

"What!? So, will they come and kill us too!!?"

'Most likely, yes. We're in the way.'

"That video has to be fake…!! How do we know it's real!?"

'Fake? Not too farfetched... But I need you to believe it's real.'

"Can we even trust you!? It's literally the first time we've seen you, and you come up with this bullshit!"

'Clever thinking.'

"Where did this video come from!? How do you know all this!? Who are you!?"

'Too many annoying questions.'

…

In a matter of minutes, the entire crowd had lost their composure. Screams, arguments... Some believed the footage to be real, some others believed it to be fake. Most were scared, with fear painted all over their faces, unsure of what to do with that new information they had been given. Julien was pretty sure the only reason they weren't questioning him with less civilized methods were the armed men guarding him at all times. And even those men were sharing nervous stares with each other.

'Alright… Chaos has been seeded. Let's make the threat more tangible… Come on, you need to speak with conviction. Confidence! Charisma!'

"Why didn't the Army come to rescue us so far? Why didn't they use their power and resources to keep the pandemic under control? Can't you guess the answer? I say it's pretty obvious: placing the entire city under quarantine is way easier than dealing with the outbreak head-on."

'I completely made that up. To be honest, I don't have the slightest idea about what's really going on… But it should sound pretty convincing.'

"They quarantine the city and lock everyone inside, let the storm calm down on its own, and then clean it up slowly and methodically. They don't get their hands dirty, they don't risk the lives of their men, and the problem gets solved. A few sacrifices for the sake of the greater good. Doesn't it sound logical?"

"B-But then, everyone inside dies…!! Shouldn't they do all they can to save everyone…!?"

"Indeed. But stop thinking about shoulds, or shouldn'ts. Open your eyes and look around. What is it that you see?"

…

There was a long period of silence. Julien could see the doubt in their eyes. Not all of them were buying it, a certain degree of dissidence was inevitable, but that was okay. Appealing to the majority was everything he needed.

"What have you been fighting for? Family? Friends? Yourselves? If you've made it this far, you surely must have a purpose, don't you? Something that keeps you going, pushing through, adversity after adversity. Are you seriously willing to sit down and let them crush your last strands of humanity? Your hope?"

The murmurs resumed.

"Think of it as one last trial. We can stand still and die a meaningless death, or we can fight to live another meaningful day. We aren't animals to be exterminated. We aren't zombies to be purged. We are human beings! We have a chance to make it out alive, but we need to work together to do so!"

In all honesty, when it comes to inspiring speeches, that one was quite generic. If he had been the target audience, he might have even rolled his eyes. A bit cliché, yes. But, in the face of such a looming and intimidating threat? He wouldn't need much more.

However, he still had to watch out for his "benefactors". The more he thought about it, the more he realized he was creeping closer and closer to a trap. And the target wasn't him, but Lilian.

He spotted Donovan in the middle of the crowd. The menacing aura he had during their first meeting was gone, replaced with the same puzzled demeanor that had taken hold of the rest of the room.

'Like pawns on a board indeed… If I can't predict what they're going to do, I'll need to ensure my plan jeopardizes their entire operation. And to crush their operation… I need to claim the girl as my own. Only then can I stop being a pawn, and become another player myself.'

******

After two days hiding and waiting in Saint Marie's basement, they hadn't discovered much. Stella had managed to confirm Logan's presence in the upper floors, as well as someone who matched Julien's description. However, she couldn't figure out anything related to Lilian.

Jacobs seemed to be missing as well. Hopefully dead, although it was unlikely. The devil looks after his own.

Furthermore, the hospital was no longer sending out messages to attract new survivors, and newcomers were getting rejected at the entrance, on Julien's orders. Everything had stagnated.

However, as soon as he saw Stella herself emerging from the elevator shaft, William instinctively knew that his feelings of disappointment would soon come to an end. It would turn out to be a dangerous direction, but at least they were getting somewhere.

"Something happened. We need to talk. Gather the others."

…

"What…!? Hypocrite bastard…!" Claire was fuming upon hearing about Julien's speech. "I knew it! I knew he would resort to this kind of trickery again…!"

"To be honest, the points he made were kinda solid… If I hadn't heard your story first, I might have actually believed him." said Stella.

"Did everyone else believe him?" asked William.

"No, not all of them… I've had a chat with the rest of my people up there. They're with us. As for the others… Some trust him, some don't. Those who do have armed themselves, and they are now waiting for the military to… attack us, or something like that. Everyone is fucking paranoid, damn it… Marcus, you… You were with the military, right? What's the deal with this!?"

"That video you speak of… It's definitely fake." he answered. "And it more or less confirms my suspicion on Julien's situation. He's not working alone. Someone else is backing him up."

"Who?" William went straight to the point.

"I don't know for sure, but they aren't ordinary people, that's a guarantee. How else would this man have access to such plentiful supplies, fabricated video files, and intel on current military operations?"

"But, is the Army coming or not? You should know, right? If the video is fake, does that mean they aren't coming? Is it all a ruse?" Stella was starting to get impatient.

"…it's not necessarily a ruse. They might be on their way, yes. But the context of their operation might not be what we think. If only I could access the radio and get in contact with them…"

'Might this, might that… It's always the same, questions everywhere but not a fucking clear answer, damn it!'

"We should get ready. If the Army does show up, things can get ugly really fast…" said Marcus.

******

"This is [Fox]. Alpha, do you copy? Over."

"We hear you, [Fox]. What's the situation?"

"I can confirm the claims about suspicious activities taking place in Saint Marie Hospital. The man in charge of the hospital, an individual named Julien, has shown us footage associating the Army with inhumane activities, with the intention of raising an armed force against us. The contents of the video were as follows…"

…

"[Fox], has the entire hospital witnessed this footage?"

"Affirmative. We should expect resistance."

"Acknowledged. We'll report this to HQ."

"There's something else I need to report. I have evidence that an infected person resistant to the Sting might be here, at the hospital."

"…[Fox], I'm not sure I understood you right. Did you say there might be a resistant person at the hospital?"

"Affirmative. I managed to stick a hidden microphone to the clothes of Julien's bodyguards, and I caught a conversation where this particular piece of information was mentioned. He also kept referring to some unknown third party, expressing serious concern. I'll send the recording to HQ to be reviewed and analyzed."

"Roger that, [Fox]. Good job. Keep us informed of any new developments"

"Yes, sir."

…

He switched to a different frequency.

"HQ, this is Alpha team, do you copy? Over."

"We hear you, Alpha. What's the situation?"

"We've got news from our undercover officer. We have confirmation of a third party pulling the strings at the hospital. We also have confirmation of a subject who presumably shows resistance to the Sting at the hospital."

"…acknowledged. Stand by, Alpha. You'll receive new orders soon."

******

A full day had passed since the video had been shown to the hospital's inhabitants. Julien stared through the window, as the early morning sunbeams washed over his tired face.

So many sleepless nights, all for what? To play right into someone else's hands? No, not anymore. He had placed his bet. The stakes were high. And the roulette was spinning, fast and unpredictable.

He noticed a ruckus outside his room. It looked like an argument. He rushed to the door with the intention to open it and take a look outside. However, someone did it before he had the chance. Startled, he took a step back as a very agitated man barged into his room.

"Boss!! T-They're here!!" he said.

"What…!? W-Who…!?"

"Soldiers!! Outside!!!"