[This would conclude Curtis' time in the outpost, and on Earth, during the escape from the CEDA base.]

Curtis wanted out of the small room, badly.

He pawed at the door, cameras still observing his every move. He wanted to see Keith again so badly. He wanted to hide away with him for the rest of time. Nobody had captured his heart like Keith had. Nobody had ever truly loved him like Keith had. The Hunter continued to claw at the door until a taser came in through the slot above, shocking his hands away from the door. The scientists in the other room were getting annoyed with the clawing and the whimpering, so they had sent a guard to shut him up. The scientists treated him like an animal when the virus itself did not have a profuse effect on his brain like the others. His brain was wired differently than most. Their narrow-minded thinking were the causes of his attempts at getting out.

An hour later, Curtis was tranquilized, and placed onto a metal table for more testing.

The more they tranquilized him, the more resistant he became to it, so this session was much much shorter than the previous ones. Before they even had a chance to properly strap him down, Curt woke up. He thrashed and flailed, breaking the poorly wrapped restraints and lunging for the nearest throat. He tore that scientist apart, and went for the others in the room with a pouncing shriek. He was desperate to see Keith, and would do anything at this point to get him out and pounce away from the outpost with him. CEDA did not have a cure for the virus. He figured this out after eavesdropping on two scientists talking. It was then that one of the scientists let slip the information that CEDA was the one that caused the outbreak in the first place. They ruined his life! They ruined Keith's life! They ruined Nick's life, Ellis' life, they ruined EVERYONE'S life! Curtis was so desperate to get cured that he didn't stop to think that CEDA was behind it all! Now he hated CEDA. He hated what they did to him. He especially hated them for what they were doing to Keith and his friends.

When the door flew open, he pounced the guard with the taser, tearing out his throat like an angry wolf. The man collapsed, his entire throat having been slashed out. Curtis bounded away to go find the love of his life. Alarms blared, hurting his ears, but he made out what they were saying over the com, "Attention! Subject Seven One B has escaped! All personnel remain alert and on guard at all times! Capture Seven One B at all costs!"

He figured that he was Subject Seven One B given how he had JUST escaped from the testing room.

Curtis pounced like a maniac, trying to find Keith. He sniffed around, trying to pick up his scent. Nothing. All he could pick up was the scent of the guards, scientists, military personnel and sanitizer. He couldn't even pick up the conman's scent, and he smelled like mud and gunpowder to top it off. Everything was too clean, too bright, too loud, and if he were any other Hunter, it would've driven him into a frenzy. What got him bounding again was the sound of feet pounding the floor nearby. They were looking for him. He had to kill the lights! After avoiding so many guards, military, and scientists, he found the breaker room. Curtis allowed his rage to fuel him as he ripped up the wires and circuits, cutting off the lights and making it easier for him to see. Now he could go find Keith!

He pounced away, listening for Keith. When he still didn't hear him, he feared the worst.

Panicking, he avoided the flashlights and continued to look into each of the rooms. Nobody. Were they moved? How long was he there? He found the evidence room, and found his axe there. He could use this to break into those doors! He started to break down the rooms by destroying their computer panels on the sides. One of them contained a feral Hunter that bounded away just as the doors flew open. He was shot dead when he turned the corner. Curtis left as the guard-accompanied scientists were analyzing the body, "No, this is not Subject Seven One B, we must keep looking!"

He chopped down another door. The door slid open to reveal a Smoker inside. Another door down after that, and that one had a Boomer in it. Curtis was getting more and more worried the more doors he chopped down. Where was Keith in this hellhole?! He felt tears pricking the corners of his eyes just at the thought of Keith being dead. This made him attack faster, striking doors like striking common infected heads that he had done for Keith back in the swamps, the sugar mill, even across the big bridge where they were eventually picked up before the bridge was bombed to hell. He hacked at one door that refused to open, and heard the clicking of guns being armed.

s**t, they found him!

He leaped away just as the guards fired. One of the scientists pushed their guns down, "You morons, that was Subject Seven One B! Catch it!" The guards replaced their guns with tasers, tranquilizers, rope, and dog catcher nooses. Curtis pounced faster as they chased him. He wanted freedom, he wanted Keith, he wanted Keith to be free with him. Why did he go with the survivors? Why didn't he just stay at the swamp with Keith? He allowed his one-track goal to get the better of what was important. Keith was more important now. He was far more important than the stupid cure because there wasn't a cure to be had! Curtis had to make it up to him. He had to make it up to everyone trapped in the building. The Hunter found the master control panel on his way to get the pursuers off his a**. Not having a second thought, he smashed the master panel down, releasing all of the doors and everything the scientists had caught. It was chaos!

Maybe Keith was outside, making a break for it right now? Curtis leaped away to the outer doors, where it led to the outside complex. This was where he found out that Keith was still alive the first time. They had shared a brief kiss in this very area before both of them had to break it up. It was their only bonding time in this hellhole. After the scientists put two and two together, they separated them. No more! Everyone and everything was released, including the common infected that they kept herded like sheep. The warning alarms drove them into a rage, attacking the soldiers, guards, scientists, everybody that moved. A soldier activated the backup generator, turning on the spotlights dotting the outer walls. One of them was focused on Curtis, and the Hunter had to shield his eyes from the brightness. The soldiers open fired on the chaos in the courtyard, killing specials and commons alike, and getting killed themselves.

Curtis took this time to make a giant bounding leap over the barbed fence that lined the catwalks along the walls, and took another flying leap over the wall in hopes that Keith had escaped before he did. Was he waiting for him somewhere? Hiding in an old abandoned shack? Prowling in the forest? His hopes were extremely high as he had made his leap of faith. It wasn't meant to be. A sniper in his nest saw the subject escaping, but he thought it was another Hunter. The darkness made Curtis blend in better now that he had found his old gear in the evidence room. It wasn't enough to stop the sniper from taking the shot, the bullet tearing through the air and ripping through the fleeing Hunter's lung from the back. A shriek of pain confirmed the hit. Curtis felt the bullet rip a hole in his lung. All of his hopes were destroyed in that single shot. His mind comprehended what just happened a short second after impact. He had been shot!

He landed ungracefully, his body hitting the dirt and rolling around to come to a stop. His axe had flipped out of its harness during the roll, ending up buried in a nearby hibernating tree. His attacker met his end from getting strangled by a Smoker. He bled profusely, and no amount of painkillers or bandages were going to fix this. Curtis was too far out from the outpost. His mind began to wander as he lay there bleeding out. He would never see Keith again. He would never see home again. He wouldn't hear Ellis' stupid stories or Nick's constant bitching. He wouldn't experience Zoey's kindness again as she had used her own jacket to keep him warm after getting attacked. He wouldn't smirk at Francis as he called the infected "vampires" on a regular basis. Curtis was dying, and he knew it. Secretly, he was afraid of dying. He did not want to die! He wanted to stay with Keith!

A sudden cough and an explosion of blood from his mouth reminded him that he didn't have much time left.

He dragged his failing body to the tree where his axe was buried in the trunk of. Quickly using his claws, he carved in "KEITH + CURTIS" in the tree as he had seen in other trees by other people before he met the blonde Southerner. After carving the heart around it, he slumped, exhausted. Even just doing that was tiring. His stubborn will eventually gave out. His vision blurred, the chaotic outpost before him becoming one big mess of two-toned colors and lights. Curtis couldn't make heads or tails from it and didn't care at this point. He felt cold, really cold. It was warm before, why was it so cold now? Tears freely flowed from his light-sensitive eyes. The Hunter gently pawed at the fresh carving in the tree, wanting to see Keith one last time.

Blood was everywhere, some of it theirs, most of it his. It soaked into his clothing and was currently leaking out of one side of his hoodie sweatshirt every time he tried to breathe. The smell of infected blood and the feeling of a warm stickiness concluded that he was about to die soon. Turning back, as much as he wanted to turn everything back for Keith's sake, wasn't an option anymore. Curtis slumped against the tree, back to it, staining it with his blood. He couldn't even lift his hands anymore. He couldn't feel his feet. His legs were numb. The Hunter looked up at the night sky, the outpost spotlights losing power when he did. The night sky was beautiful... dots everywhere. He wished that Keith could see it. He probably could, where ever he was. His body was shutting down, every breath labored and every heartbeat getting more and more sluggish.

Curtis weakly whimpered, but it was more to himself, "I'm sorry Keith. I love you. Be safe."

He never thought it would end like this. He thought he would get crushed by a Tank, or flee into the woods with the love of his life and live out the rest of his days with him. Not shot by a sniper and left to die. Curtis was so tired. He wanted to sleep so badly, but he had to stay awake. He NEEDED to stay awake. He... had to... stay awake.... No... sleep was good. Yeah, just a short nap will do.... Five minutes. Five minutes tops. Just... sleep.... The dying Hunter relaxed against the tree, a contented smile on his face.

Curtis stopped breathing, blood pooling around him and his tree.