The End Of Life

"She isn't the Suzie you used to know. Things happened when the apocalypse started and so now she has a fear of men except Mark. So don't take it to your heart. She is slowly opening up to me only after traveling a whole week." said David, leaning on the wall.

Kevin's expression remained shocked as he heard this. He looked at David and then at the frightened Suzie. He was shocked to hear things happened to her only a few days after he met her last time. The last time he met her was when he was about to leave for the trip, as he asked her to take care of Mark. 

He slowly backed away from her and sat beside David, leaning against the wall. He looked at the unconscious Mark and felt troubled. He turned towards David and asked, "What happened? One thing I can say for sure is that Mark would let nothing happen to her and would have rushed to her as soon as possible, like how he came here for me."

David also looked at the unconscious mark and said, "Things happened when we went to her house searching for her. Mark was clear that we had to get there as quickly as possible and we did. But we were too late. She got taken by an underworld mafia and because it was already evening and the sun was going down, we had to stay in her house for a while."

"So the next day, Mark alone made his way towards the mafia base, while I took the people who were with her father and waited for him at our agreed meeting point. But it seemed like Mark was late. Even though nothing happened to her physically as Mark saved her before she got assaulted by a beast, the trauma of being pushed down and a man forcing himself on her left a slight trauma on her." 

Kevin frowned, he treated Suzie as one of his close friends. She was not like others and was kind to both him and Mark when they entered university. She was their classmate. While still looking at Mark he asked, "What did Mark decide to do about it? He didn't just leave those people after what happened to her, did he?" 

Shaking his head, David replied, "He had to. He was alone and was lacking the power to go against a whole settlement. So he only concentrated on rescuing Suzie. He killed the person who was pushing her down and forcing himself on her. But I think after we go back to Stargaze city. But now, he was planning on curing the trauma in her, I don't know how he is planning to do it in such a short time." 

"I am sure he will do something. It's been very long since I saw him being normal again. I never thought I would see him again like this after all the things which happened to him." sighing as he remembered things of the past. 

Hearing him, David thought of something and hesitated to ask it. Kevin noticed this and said, "What happened, David? Do you have anything to ask about?" 

David nodded and asked, "Kevin, how long have you known Mark for?"

"As long as I can remember. We have been close since we were young, as our families are friends."

David nodded hearing him and asked, "Kevin, does Mark have a personality disorder of any sort in the past?" 

His question came as a shock for Kevin. He looked at David and then at Mark; he thought it was a joke and laughed. He patted David's shoulder and said, "Don't joke, David. How can he have a disorder of any sort, especially a personality disorder? I think you are mistaken somehow." 

But contrary to his expectations, David shook his head and said, "I am not joking, Kevin. I am a doctor and I can say for a fact even if I don't specialize in that read of health that Mark seems to have two personalities in him. I observed him throughout our time together while fighting and traveling and so decided to ask you about it. But it looks like even you had no idea about it."

Kevin's eyes shot wide as he heard the serious doctor. He started thinking about the past and any changes in Mark which he could catch, but there were none. After the death of his sister and mother, Mark went from a happy person to a very cold person. He started detaching himself from everyone around him, and it took even Kevin a lot of effort and persistence to be with him. 

They moved to Stargaze city, far from their previous home which was the capital of the nation to stay away from the memories that the city bought for them. They lived alone and joined a university in which Mark only attended the first semester of their first year. Now they were in their third year. He then later became a shut-in and played games all day long inside their small apartment. It was the memories of his mother and sister which drove him like that. 

He looked towards David and asked, "How and when did you observe these changes?" 

David looked towards him and responded, "It was almost since the very beginning. He looked stable on the outside but was the exact opposite inside. Like the first time he saved us, he had a very cold attitude and would have left me if I was not a doctor, but something also told me that he wouldn't leave me even if I was not a doctor."

"I did not take this much into consideration, but then we went to another person's house before going to Suzie's house. It was a girl named Mona and according to Mark, it was someone he fought with when they were trapped in your internship office on the day the disaster occurred."

"We went to her house as he wanted to recruit her into his team. But to what I noticed, Mark would not take his risk for a person who did not give him any value. Except for the fact she could fight there wasn't anything else in her to attract his attention."

"So, I understood he did it out of concern. He was concerned about her safety for some reason. It wasn't any infatuation people of your age generally feel. This was when I understood he was also a kind person. He cared about people a lot and did not want them to die needlessly." 

"This was the first persona I noticed in him. But then I noticed a second persona inside him. It was his ruthless side. Completely contrasting to the kind of persona he has sometimes, there was a complete cold-blooded side in him. A side which never cared about people he thought were useless." 

"This I confirmed when we came to this city."

"This city?" asked Kevin. The more he heard, the more he was surprised. He understood he only knew the kind side of Mark. Mark was always a kind and gentle person in the past. This was a feature he got from his mother. She was like an angel, both kind and caring towards both of them.

David nodded and said, "Yes, the museum was not the first place we came to in this city. We went to the hotel you stayed at. We went to the floors your university booked for you. After searching both the floors we found a small survival group in one of the rooms." 

"So, he asked about your information and if they knew where you were. But one of the university students acted cocky and said it would be better if you died."

Taking a deep breath, he continued, "This was when I noticed the abrupt change more clearly than before. His eyes became colder as he excluded a very scary aura. He looked like a beast as he moved and kept a gun inside the guy's mouth. If it was not for one more student who was in that group who knew where you were, he would have killed that person."

Kevin heard this and was shocked. Mark was never this violent before. 

"Of course you might think he did it because he was in a hurry and was worried about you. But something happened after that. The people there asked him to take them with us and even if it would be tough, I know we could have pulled it off. But he denied and walked away."

"When we got back into our jeep, I asked him the reason." gulping his saliva, he continued, "He said there was a bitten in that group. A person who was attacked by a zombie and got scratched. It shocked me. The normal Mark would have at least warned those people about the possibility of that person being a future zombie, but he didn't."

"It looked like he did it knowing that a disaster would strike them, just to play with them. The craziness in his eyes was clear."