Richards' final stand against the infected

Richards’ final stand against the infected is a last attempt to defend the Chalet after the infected reach its grounds. With the entrance shattered and ordinary rifles seeming inadequate, he searches for a heavier weapon and takes up an RPG-29. The plan ends when Anthony Carter reaches him before he can fire effectively: the rocket misses Carter, and the encounter kills Richards.

Crisis at the Chalet

Richards realizes the infected are outside from the shouts and gunfire. At the Chalet’s entrance, the doors hang partly off their hinges amid broken glass and bullet holes. Three soldiers lie dead; the confused scene leaves open whether they were hit by friendly fire or deliberately shot one another. Richards looks at his Springfield, but doubts it will be useful against what is coming. The soldiers’ rifles seem equally inadequate, so he decides to cross the compound to reach the armory behind the barracks.

The Five-Ton and the RPG-29

Halfway across the compound, Richards spots a five-ton truck parked at the edge of the lot with its doors open. He knows what it contains. At the rear, a locker has already been unloaded and left on the ground, as if its handler abandoned it in a panic. Richards searches the cargo compartment, finds a tire iron, and forces open another locker. Inside are two RPG-29 launchers, with finned rockets stored beneath them. The rockets’ tandem-charge warheads are designed to penetrate modern tank armor, a capability Richards has seen firsthand.

He attaches a rocket to the launcher. A twist arms the warhead, and its hum becomes, in Richards’ perception, the concentrated sound of centuries of technical progress. Though the RPG-29 can be reused, he believes he will have only one chance. He shoulders it, raises the sight, and steps away from the truck. His choice marks a shift from trying to reach conventional weapons to staking the defense on a single, far more powerful shot.

Carter Arrives

Richards calls out and moves into the light, swinging the launcher toward the treetops. At the same time, he begins to experience signs that the transformation is happening faster than he expected: nausea, unsteadiness, sweating, and an urge to blink. He swallows, takes two more steps, and keeps the RPG trained upward. The moment leaves him attempting to act while his own condition is changing around him.

He senses an approaching figure before seeing him and turns, swinging the launcher. The figure is Anthony Carter. Richards tells him to open up and fires, but recognizes even as the rocket leaves the tube that he has missed. Carter is no longer where Richards aimed: he is airborne and descending toward Richards. The grenade strikes the front of the Chalet, but its explosion does not save Richards. Carter reaches him, and Richards is killed.

Outcome and Significance

The shot produces a concrete but misdirected result: the front of the Chalet is hit, while the intended target escapes the rocket’s path. Richards’ attempt to turn the truck’s weapons into a final defense therefore fails at the moment Carter closes the distance. The passage’s reversal is sharp: Richards has found the armament he needs and has prepared to use it, yet the decisive threat arrives from an unexpected direction before his plan can work.

The scene also places technical power beside human vulnerability. Richards hears the armed warhead as the culmination of civilization’s ingenuity, but the weapon offers no guarantee of control. His belief that he has one shot, the onset of his changing condition, and Carter’s sudden arrival narrow the encounter to a failed aim and an irreversible outcome. Richards’ stand ends not with the defense of the Chalet, but with the rocket striking the building and Carter killing him.