The world is not that bad. The grass feels so fresh on my bare feet, so does this air on my lungs. It's getting its freshness from a nearby river. The fish jump in and out of the water, feeding some bear at some point for sure. The sun is nice and warm, but not blinding. Barely a cloud on the sapphire blue sky. This is how things should be all the time.
I notice someone standing on the riverbank. I can't see who it possibly might be, but somehow I know that it is Nae. It has to be. As I get closer, I hear the birds around the river too.
There's something different about her figure, she's wearing something green on her neck from the looks of it.
I finally get close enough to take her hand, she just slightly moves her head, the sun shines right beside her and I can't see her face properly. 
"It's nice here." She says, so softly I almost didn't even recognize her. Then she looks up, "I think we did a good job, Clint."
"Y-yeah. It's beautiful. Are you feeling ok?"
She looks at me, directly this time, "Ofcourse." She replies, just as softly, as her green skin shocks me.I get away from her, way too confused. All of her body, neck, face, chest even. All green.
"What happened to you?!" I exclaim.
"Nothing. This is what you wanted. Don't you remember? This is how it's supposed to be."
My head starts to spin, everything becomes a blur.  

Suddenly, not opening my eyes, I hear a faint woman’s voice in the distance. “What if he finds out?”
It's now that I realize I'm lying in that bed. The doctor, Reina. She walks around my bed. Seems like talking to somebody. That's the voice that woke me up. 
"Make it quick, before he gets up." She says with concern.
"You're not calling the shots here, doc. I will need the papers. Get it done." Another person says, then he walks out. Never got to see his face.
I got a glance on one of the monitors next to my bed. I think I made out two words.
“Matching Result” flashes across the screen, but right as I read it, Reina shuts the screens off. 
"Sorry… about the shot." She says to me, then stacks up a few papers that just came out of a printer.
"I guess it's up to me to break the news. You're not my patient at the moment, more like a…” She hesitates. “A prisoner."
"Alright." I replied.
"You've been traded. The girl was probably in on it. Just saying, you don't have privileges of any kind here. So don't act like it."
I move my hand just to get stopped by handcuffs, tight around my left wrist.
"Do I get bathroom privileges at least?" I say, calmly.
"Sure." A man appeared in the doors.  Tall, light hair, leather jacket and a rifle strapped on his back. He throws a bucket in my direction. "Hope doc gave you lots of the cocktail. Yeah, makes for a nasty headache. Enjoy it, buddy.” He then turns around in the doorway. “Fuckin' Nitro..." He mutters on his way out.
He's right, I do feel a slight headache, though my pain tolerance training has made it almost a walk in the park.
"Sorry for that. Slice is a bit old school towards the government. Like… everyone else."
I manage to sit up on the bed and respond, "Yeah, I’m used to that." Then I stay quiet for a few seconds. "But… you guys know I'm not the government, right?"
"Doesn't matter to them." She says without turning around, "I wouldn't waste time explaining the difference to anybody, either. For most of them here, there isn’t any."
"Not gonna make friends, got it."
I'm looking around me. Other than my bed, there's two more. But the whole room looks like a handmade cave. 'Cozy' would be the nicer word for it. Cables laminate most of the walls. The place is busy with surgical equipment, tables and bix boxes of equipment. Only making a thin walk path between them. On the ceiling sits a single light bulb that does its best casting little light on the room. For an entire district without electricity of any kind, this setup is pretty impressive.
Reina walks back to me, removes some sort of tech from my neck I wasn't even aware of.
"You seem comfortable being a prisoner."
I chuckle, “You mean I’m not surprised enough that you abducted me?” I look at her, she has a look I've seen before. Running with Nitro for a long time. Visited countless cities and villages, but mostly just to sweep the places out.
My squad had to run into the community guides all the time. Sometimes the town mayor, sometimes a sheriff. Sometimes the mailman. They all looked like Reina looks at me now. Look of a leader. Behind that dead-on stare, and the poker face she's so desperate to maintain around me, she's scared. Terrified. There's something she's not telling me, like all those other people. She's a pawn with ambition. And that's my in.
"I figure at least I'm in good hands, y’know." I say.
She walks away, looking way more nervous than before. As if she felt me reaching beyond her act. "And you're wrong, just so you know." I say.
She turns to me briefly, confused.
"She's not in on it."
Reina was about to speak up but her words got interrupted. We both hear yelling outside the  bunker entrance, as the entire place is incredibly small and everything echoes easily.
I can hear the rusty, reinforced door open.
"Get Roger here! I need to talk to the boss." A man yells.
I know the voice, I just can't place it.
Then follows silence. What feels like hours passes, until more commotion ensues. Luckily the rooms echo with each other well and I hear the conversation clearly.
"What is this?"
"Guess your deal's off, bossman. The two tried to fuck us over, get you a bullet in head and take the Nitro with 'dem."
"I see. You got the thing though, right?"
Another couple of seconds of silence.
"Lock them both up. Reina!" He calls out to the doctor. 
Then he finally appears in the door.
He showed himself only briefly. Wearing the same leather jacket, perhaps it's a uniform. Shorter hair on a big pale head with some scars I can't see exactly. About the same height as me.
"It's time. Get him up and ready in my room." He says and leaves.
Reina doesn't question anything and unlocks my shackles.
"I don't have to tie you up, right? You better behave." She cracks a very subtle smile and leaves my hands untied.
As I stand up, that Slice guy comes back. But Reina sends him away, "I got it Slice, you can go to your post."
She puts my hands behind my back, as if I had them tied up, except I don't. She doesn't do anything but hold my hands behind my back. Like we’re putting up some sort of show, leaving me slightly confused.
Then she just says softly, "We understand each other?"
I turn my head behind me, our eyes briefly meet. Maybe for a second, maybe two at most. More than enough for both of us. I nod a little.

She walks me out of the cave into the front room. I get to see the jail all the way back. Seems like Nae found Hega again. Can hardly assume what happened, or how.
Reina guides me on the left, where there is only one more door. Must be the 'boss', because it has three more guards around it. They’re kinda stepping on each other's feet, on account of the extremely cramped up space. The door squeaks, opens and I enter a room full of equipment.
From boxes full of guns and ammo, to dozens of laptops and desktop computers.
He could fund an army from this little place. And in the middle of all of this, the stranger.
She sits me down on a chair near him, and puts some sort of device close to my neck. Begins to rub it around, even reaching on shoulders.
It is now that I notice out of the dozen monitors, one is displaying some sort of wave line that changes rapidly. Looks like a heartbeat detector, or some fancy medical equipment. Professional grade medical device to measure something very specific.
"So," I look up slightly, to see the man's eyes, "Boy or a girl?"
He smiles and orders Reina to leave his room. 
"You must be the comedian of the unit." He says and shows me a tiny capsule in his hand.
"Looks quite like this, what I’m looking for. Just beneath your skin."
He shows it to me up close, to get a good look. It looks like a very thin metal pill, made up of two parts put together. Apparently that’s inside me
"I feel like it's time to get you up to speed. The picture has widened since you landed here. I'm Roger. I was on the sixteenth wing."
Holy shit. He's an Operator. I wish I could say it all makes more sense now.
"I landed not too far from here, actually. Fought the militia within Morelia, clearing subs infestation. I played this nice little soldier that they want to have you play. Purge agent.” He says mockingly. “But, along the way, I ended up around Reina. Shrapnel in my left arm. Couldn't move it for weeks. Probably would lose it, were it not for her. She was leading the place at the time when they found me, same as you. Afraid of me, same as you. Wanted to kill me, but then realized they could use me. Which ended up in another fight." He shows me his throat scar. It's scary looking, deep in his skin. It’s not a slash from a blade. That’s a bullet hole.
"You wonderin’ how I recovered. I didn’t. In fact, the bullet went through. Got three of my spine bones. You don't walk that off. That's when this little guy found his way out of me." He points at the monitor. That’s my neck, and there’s a small metal object a couple centimeters from my spine.
"I don't know how much you remember about the briefings, probably about as much as the HQ janitors. This thing sends a signal to the headquarters. Powered by your heartbeat, every few minutes they get a beep. An echo. And, once they stop receiving, you stop existing in the system. Probably to prevent any hostile communication from locals when they kill you, who knows.
Anyway, I didn't mention it, but when I caught the bullet in my neck, I was infected. Saved my life." He's holding a small glass tube. It contains a clear green substance. Looks like the sludge that runs inside the Roaches in the Dark zone, or any subnormal. Nothing I would find fascinating. "They were always one step ahead, did you know?" Roger asks as he gets up from his chair and walks to one of his desks. "Originally QR-806. A prototype at best, sure. But it actually worked. The only problem was, humans couldn't handle the chemical reaction that happened when our body fights it back. You die, or develop dementia and mutate into this… brain-dead zombie. Remember how we get vaccinated, so the cold is just a cold, not a death sentence? Nitro did the same to Operators. Just... well they gave us something a bit stronger." He says, smiling.
"Meaning?"
"Meaning we have something in us - every single Nitro - that they call AQR-806. Should suppress any infection down to 13% or something. Anyway, this AQR." He snaps his fingers. "Catalyst." 
He turns to me again, away from the table. Now he's holding a small syringe with the same green substance inside.
"I'm not a big fan of irony. But Operators being virtually the only viable subjects for this… virus experiment? That really makes me uneasy. Makes me kinda sorry for all the science brains back home. If only they knew how close they got."
He sits back down. We both get quiet.
"You're fucking nuts." Slips out of me.
"Possible. But, I know that I'm not hallucinating this." He replies and shows me his left hand. 
From his elbow all the way to the fingertips, a bunch of green veins grow out of his skin, reaching the fingers. Suddenly his nails grow out drastically, looking quite sharp. Soon enough even his eyes start turning bright green. He exhales. It takes a toll on him.
"Unfortunately, it still has some drawbacks. The result is the best when you don't fight it. Good thing you're not tied up at least."
I continue to stare at him. He knows I'm free to run, to kill him, any time I want.
"That's ok, Reina always had good judgment. Can't see why she would choose you over me, but I guess it's more about getting rid of me. Doesn't matter. The two of us, we make a pair. And once this runs in your body, we take over this whole city, easy." He says with a spark in his eyes, holding the injection.
I slowly put my hands from my back onto my lap.
"What's the point? You want to rule this toxic dump of sand? I don't get it." I say.
He laughs, "Did you ever stop wondering, why is this green shit even working? People, the government, privatized billionaires. They spend an insane amount of money and time to make it. Thing is, nobody at this point really knows it actually works. We are the damage control. How are you not getting this?! Nobody sees this coming." He flashes with the injection again. This whole idea is starting to sound more and more like an obsession.
"That's it? You propose to infect me with this... thing-"
"Infect? It's safe. For you. And for me. Any Operator."
"To make an ally out of me and make money out of this shit? They will never let you walk away."
He stops in his tracks, gets up. He’s thinking, considering everything. I need to get a weapon.
"You’re wrong. Once you are as strong as me, we find others. We team up - get out of here. Make a bunch of money and take it to the rest of the world. Alternatively I can try it out first on that chick you brought with you."
As he says that, someone knocks on the metal door. Three hard punches.
"Not now!" Roger shouts.
Then he turns to me, "I see what you are going through now. I'm sorry I went there, but this is… not just about you! You have no idea how long I have waited for this. Nitro, who survived contact with Mexicans, made a friend out of one? Walked through the Dark zone? Nobody even sees me as an Operator. Nobody… fuckin’ talks to me. Had to kill all of them.”
That’s why nobody’s coming out of Morelia. This nutcase is butchering Operators, sieving through every deployment like a madman.
“Did I mention your ribs? They feel fine now, right? It's strong, but won't last too long. Definitely not permanent. You're dying, Red. In fact, the bleeding never stopped. This can heal all of it. In minutes.” He walks up closer with a gun. "You're gonna be strong. You won't get hurt again. As far as I can tell, you probably even stop aging. Whatever reason you have for being this… Operator. Nitro, enemy of everyone. The Merc. This is better. You will be better than everyone."
Perfect soldier, is it? Does that sound good to me? What, am I supposed to lie?
It sounds more than good. I’m thinking it sounds possible. He’s probably out of his mind but I just saw first hand what he can do. That’s no joke. Having that kind of power, I might be able to save those people. Clean the city. I could probably end all of this. Not just here.
A plan started forming in my head. This would work. But not with Roger. No. He doesn't need to know that, though. He only needs to know what he wants to hear.
"You will let them go."
He raises eyebrows, "Even the old timer? Huh, didn't think you'd want him in your backpack after he... stole yours." He starts laughing.
"Both of them live. They leave this place alive. Deal?”
He looks at me and nods. He means it, I can tell. "Right. Nitro needs to think you're dead. Otherwise they detect this in your blood and everything's gonna turn to shit." He points his gun at my guts.
"Close your eyes if you want. I mean, I don't want to hurt you but…"
"Just do it-,” before I finish, a bullet pierces my stomach. He shot through my already broken ribs. It took a few seconds, but then it felt... It felt so nice.  I drifted away, further from this world, and from the pain.
Just for a short while. Too short.
Once you die, you can never taste quiet for long enough. Feels like it was just a second.
When I got up from the floor. I'm feeling free. Free of pain, of fear.
I finally got back on my feet. A piece of metal audibly fell off of me, as the bullet in my stomach got out on its own. I heard a disgusting crack, as the ribs healed themselves in a matter of seconds.I hear noises. Voices of people in confusion and anger outside this room. I noticed the metal door, slightly opened. My hands are shaky, and I can feel certain energy and warmth building up in my hands, legs, even my head.
My damn fingernails fell off, rapidly replaced by a dark green needle-like things growing out of me. Before I got the chance to inspect any more, my headache turned into migraine and my eyes started shutting down. But that wasn't the end.
I finally got my senses back, my body felt like an anvil. Heavy, sure. But indestructible.
Now I just know I’m invincible. That I can tear anything apart, that I can tear down buildings. I had untamable power in the palm of my hands. I couldn’t help but laugh, hard and long. Laughed right into the cold ground I was lying on. Nothing in my head made more sense now, than that one, single, simple thought.

I'm gonna kill everyone in this fucking bunker.