love this.

My favorite part was :
The bodies are piling up around him, and Artie cannot bear to look. This is not right, he thinks. Let me erase this day. It is a plea, a prayer, and yet it is not the pure salvation (of family, of friendship, of hope) that he seeks. There is no light without the dark, and there will almost certainly be hell to pay.

An evil of your own making...

Artie is afraid, more afraid than he's ever been in his entire life.

But Pete is dead on the floor, and in the end, there really isn't a choice at all.

Artie has seen so many people he cares for die that this was probably the last straw for him. Not only was he saving humanity but (and it was probably more important to him) his family.
I've always seen Artie as the papa bear of the group. I think he'd do anything to save his family; even if it meant his own death. Poor papa bear :(

Great story! I really loved it!

I like it. It reminded me exactly of what I was thinking during that scene.

Great. I think you really captured him. :)