For a dangerous moment, I couldn't move. From where I sitting, it was hard to tell exactly what it was. Was it one of the humanoid creatures from before? Something else? Hundreds of possibilities fueled my instinctual flight or fight response. I chose to fight, reaching for Jared's gun that was sitting on the passenger seat and leaping out of the car, not wasting any time to aim it at the figure.

I couldn't believe my eyes. Though I had expected to see some sort of horrific monster attacking Jared, what I saw instead was... a man. A rough looking man with torn clothes held Jared at knife point with a crazed look in his eyes.

"Don't move! If you try to shoot me, I'll make sure he dies with me!" the man screamed wildly. Jared struggled, looking at me pleadingly.

The gun shook in my hands. I had never shot one in my life, I'm sure if our roles were reversed Jared could have succeeded in taking out the man without hurting me... but I wasn't confident in my ability to not hit Jared. And besides, I didn't think I could shoot another person. I just couldn't, not when he was looking at me like that. Though his eyes were crazed, I could also see a deep sadness in his eyes. As if he was sorry that he had to do what he was about to do, as if he already regretted it but survival necessitated it.

"Why are you doing this?!" I shouted semi-incoherently, "Just back off! Don't make me shoot you!"

The man must have sensed that I was an amateur with a gun, or that I didn't have the guts to shoot, because he yelled back, "Just give me the car and I'll let you go alive! If not, well..."

I didn't even know what it felt like to shoot a gun or how it even operated except for that I had to pull the trigger! Would I have to reload or something? Could I avoid hitting Jared? Crap....

"Now! Drop the gun, give me the car, now!" the man shouted again. I could tell that he didn't want to kill anyone, he just wanted to get out of the city. I thought of trying to calm him down by offering to bring him with us... anything that could have prevented the loss of a life... but the words died in my throat. He had already resolved himself, there would be no calming him down.

I looked Jared in the eyes. His eyes seemed to be practically shouting at me: "Shoot him! Take the shot!"

Alright Jared, I'll do it...

I aimed, and fired.

I had missed the man's head...

and hit his shoulder instead. He let out a cry of pain, and dropped the knife. I blinked, and within that time frame Jared had grabbed the knife before it hit the ground and stabbed the man in the throat.

Just like that, it was over.

I had... assisted in ending the life of another human being. I felt bile rise into my throat, and barely pushed back the urge to vomit. Never had I imagined that I would ever take another human's life, not ever. Especially not after this storm had started, especially after we had run into those otherworldly monsters! You'd think that now that we had a common enemy, we'd be able to fight and survive together.

"Come on, Markus," Jared said as he put an arm on my shoulder and lead me back into the car, "Don't worry too much about it. He would have killed us if we didn't kill him first. He would have killed your son... or worse. We had to do it."

I nodded, though my body wouldn't stop shaking.

"I didn't see! What happened?!" Aaron asked, "Dad went out... and then I heard a loud noise. What was that?"

I couldn't answer.

Jared spoke up, "This guy tried to steal our stuff, but me and your dad scared him off. It's alright now, don't worry."

"Oh..." Aaron muttered.

We had to do it... I tried to convince myself. The man's frantic eyes flashed back into my mind. More than anything, he had just looked scared and confused... What if he had been trying to find someone in this storm, too? What if he had someone he needed to protect, just like me? I shook my head. We had to do it, or else...