Chapter 14: Never Again

Even now that Kenny was sitting on the old couch in the game room of the community center - the same one he had lured Kyle to their freshman year of high school late at night, where they ultimately both lost their virginity - he felt empty and almost dead inside.

Walking back to the community center after being given the all-clear from the General over the P.A. System had been hard. Seeing the corpses as he walked by them, and knowing that he was the last person in South Park left alive…that had been the hardest thing he'd ever had to do. At least, he believed that until he was told to wait in the game room on the same couch that had jump-started a short relationship between himself and one of his closest friends.

He buried his face into his hands, wanting to cry but not being able to summon the tears. His body was done with crying over the dead though emotionally and mentally wasn't ready to stop crying. He knew that he would never forget and that that remembrance would either cause his insanity or the death of Eric Cartman.

Kenny heard the door to the room open but didn't raise his head to look back. If they were now going to kill him, so be it. He deserved death for the lives he took during that fucked up "game."

"Kenny," it was the General, Kenny recognized his voice, "you have been granted a prize for being the first winner of the Battle Royale."

"What is it?" Kenny spat out angrily. He didn't care what the damn prize was, no one could give him the normalcy of life in South Park back, his friends and family, the man he loved…nothing he lost could come back. No prize was worth all of this!

"It's anything you want," a different voice said with a smirk ringing clear in his voice.

Kenny's eyes widened and he looked up in time to see a larger man with brown hair and eyes in a clean-pressed black suit sit down in a wooden chair directly across from him. The smirk from the man he once called his friend just made the blonde even angrier. "What the fuck are you doing here?" He screamed.

Cartman continued smirking and leaned against the back of the chair with his arms crossed over his chest. "Calm down blondie, you're being given two very hard to achieve prizes simply for killing off everyone else. Though I can honestly say that I didn't think it would be you who would win."

"Spit it out asshole," Kenny hissed.

"You're anxious for your prize," Cartman laughed. "Well, your first prize is me. The fact that we're sitting here and having this conversation is a magnificent prize in itself, no?"

Kenny's eyes narrowed. "Yeah," he said sarcastically, "fan-fucking-tastic!" He balled his hands into fists in his lap; he wanted to kill Cartman where he sat. It would be easy. Just wrap his hands around Cartman's fat neck and squeeze until he stopped breathing. Then he could run from South Park and rally a resistance group together to end The BR Act once and for all.

"Now now, no need to get angry." Cartman sighed and shook his head. "So ungrateful for the life that wasn't taken from you."

Kenny's eyes narrowed and his hands began to shake in his lap. "Just get on with it before I fucking kill your fat ass!"

The brunette made a face and then said, "Your second prize is a position as General in a new branch of the military." His smirk returned. "Super soldiers who will be selected through various Battle Royales throughout the years. Your training will continue of course, you will be trained by the best militaristic minds I can find to be the perfect General and leader of this new branch. With you, a man unafraid to kill anyone and everyone who he knew and loved, leading them, these future super soldiers will not be able to lose in battle."

Kenny ground his teeth together. This entire battle was just a way for Cartman to find the strongest person in a town and turn them into an unstoppable super soldier? He felt his entire body begin to shake with rage. Bastard! I'll…I'll fucking kill him!

"So, what do you say?" Cartman held his hand out for Kenny to shake in agreement. "I'm your only friend left, and you can't possibly resist this chance to be so powerful."

"'Friend?'" Kenny shot to his feet and then tackled Cartman to the floor with his hands wrapped around his neck. "Let me tell you about friends lard ass! Friends are people like Stan, Kyle, and Butters! People who sacrificed themselves for what they knew in their hearts was the right path!" Kyle's face flashed in his mind's eyes. "Kyle was killed by Craig when he avenged his brother's murder!" Then Butters' face appeared. "Butters shoved me out of the way of a shotgun bullet that would've killed me, killing him instead! And Stan," the sound of the Glock and of Stan's body hitting roof of the building went through his mind, "he took his own life so that he could be with Kyle and I could ultimately be right here," he tightened his hands around Cartman's neck, "doing exactly this!"

Cartman grabbed onto Kenny's wrists and tugged at them, desperate to get the thinner man off of him. "Stop…Kenny…!" His nails dug into the blonde's wrists, drawing blood as he did so. "You don't know…what you're doing…!"

"I know exactly what I'm fucking doing!" Kenny glared into Cartman's now frightened eyes. "Never again! I won't let you live so you can do this to another town, to another person!" Hands still around Cartman's neck, he shook the larger man's head, causing it to bounce off the floor painfully. "Just! Fucking! DIE!"

This continued for only a few seconds longer before Cartman went limp. Panting, Kenny released Cartman's neck and looked down at the now dead brunette. Too easy, he'd been killed far too easily.

Kenny stood on shaking legs as he continued to stare down at the corpse. "Power has made you weak," he said cockily. "Weakness brings death."

Behind him, the door into the room opened. He turned on one foot to face the inevitable firing squad, but instead froze when Eric Cartman came walking through the door clapping. His eyes widened at the sight. "What the hell?" He breathed out. "I just killed you!"

Cartman shook his head. "No, you killed someone I paid to look like me." He laughed, "Come on, do you really think I'd be so stupid as to actually come into a room, alone, with a murderer? Come on, think!"

Kenny's eyebrows knit together as he backed away towards the window at the back of the room. "I won't help you. I won't be a General for some super soldiers."

Cartman smirked. "Too bad," he snapped his fingers together, "this prize isn't optional."

Soldiers ran towards Kenny to capture him, but the blonde turned around and ran for the window. He burst through it, cutting open his exposed skin as he so, and ran the moment his feet hit the ground.

As he ran, he heard a pistol go off and felt a bullet hit his right shoulder, but he only stumbled a bit before continuing on. At a familiar street, Kenny turned left and kept running. Finally he came across a corpse of someone he had graduated with who had a pistol laying beside her body. He grabbed the pistol and turned down another street that he knew eventually led to the front of the community center.

He pressed his front against the side of a building and glanced around the corner, waiting. Come on you bastard. I'll shoot down all of your copies, just show your real fucking face.

A while later, Cartman finally came waling out of the community center being followed by his troupe of loyal bodyguards. Kenny pointed the gun at him, waiting until Cartman stopped to talk to his driver.

For the countless souls who've died… Kenny took a breath and then pulled the trigger. Never again!