N/A

Chapter 4

  I don't know how long I sat in that hallway, with despair in my heart. Lupa's words rang in my head. "It's spread through contact and air... Everyone falls to the contact strain... Without fail." Panic began to spread through me. I was going to die, without knowing who I was, or how I had gotten here. I stood up, and looked at my hands, which were covered in her... No... It's, blood. I felt some latent pain in my wrist, but... I thought, maybe it hadn't broken the skin. I ran down the hall, back to the room, and pushed the door open, stepping in.

  I went down the hall to the bathroom, and turned on the water... And nothing happened. I had forgotten that in an apocalypse, things wouldn't really work. It's why there were no lights on. I frowned, and pulled my shirt off, and cleaned my hands with it. I figured, hey, I could probably find another shirt somewhere. How hard could it be? I cleaned my hands, and took a close look at my wrist, wincing at the sight.

  There were about 10 red marks, and four ragged holes where it's canines managed to crunch me. I remembered... I had gotten blood into the wound, as well as spit... There was no way that I DIDN'T have the contact strain... I stared, and collapsed against the wall, the cold marble leeching heat from my body. I was going to die... And become one of them...

  I was terrified of dying. Not because I feared death, but because I had so many questions I wanted answers to, but I would never get them. I laid there for a while, until I heard movement in the other room, and a faint groaning. I immediately snapped to my feet, and walked quickly into the bedroom. There, I saw Lupa, groaning, and trying to stand.

  "Lupa! You're awake!" I quickly ran to her, and gently held her down on the bed. "Stay still Lupa... You can't move around yet. Just hold still, alright?"

  She looks up at me, her eyes somewhat glazed, and she mumbles "Wha happen?"

  I force a weak smile to my lips, and look at her. "You were bleeding on the stairs. I carried you up here, and tried to fix you up. You gave me quite the scare."

  She looks up at me, still groggy, "Sorry, didn't mean it... Where my pants? And where's your shirt?"

  I blush, and grab her pants from the floor, and hand them to her. "My bad... I needed to get them off to fix your leg. I hope you wont hate me too much."

  She smiles a bit, and starts to pull them off, some awareness coming back to her, and says "No problem man... You do what you do. So... How long was I out?"

  I think back, and frown... "I don't know... Maybe an hour or so? I'm... I'm not sure."

  She raises her eyebrows, and asks "And hour? What were you doing all that time? And why'd you take your shirt off?"

  I frown, and look down, trying to keep the emotions at bay. "I... I was bitten. There was a zombie in the hall... And I killed it, but... But, it bit me..."

  Shock and sorrow crossed her face. I could understand the first, but why sorrow? I couldn't mean that much to her. She looks at me sadly, and says "Are you sure? I mean..."

  I held my arm out to her, and she took a look at the holes where I was bitten. "These... These are bad. There's no doubt that you're infected... But... You said almost an hour? You should be feeling some kind of symptoms by now."

  I look up to her, the faintest sliver of hope in my heart. "Symptoms? Like... Like what?"

  She holds my hand in hers, which was a touching gesture... "I'm not entirely sure... But, splitting headaches, blurred vision, lowered mobility, things like that. And it usually only takes about 15 minutes to kill and reanimate... I don't know why you're taking longer." She looks up at my face, and says "We'll give it time. I'm sure it'll be okay."

  I smiled, hopeful that maybe I'd be okay, and sat on the bed next to her. "Are you tired, Lupa? It's hard, being injured and all. And is there anything you need? Food, water, time alone, whatever?"

  She sighed, and closed her eyes, leaning on my shoulder, and saying "Yeah... I am kinda tired... How about you? It must be stressful... Not knowing who you are..."

  I smiled gently, and laid my head beside hers. "Yeah... You could say that. It'll be okay though, as long as I have someone to help." I leaned back, and looked to her. "Isn't that right?" I looked closely at her, and realized she's fallen asleep sitting up. I smiled, and gently laid her head on the pillow. I stood up, and stretched, walking out of the room.

  I had only been up for about two hours, but I was still tired. I calmly went, and checked around the rooms, closing and locking the front door. I opened up a dresser in one of the rooms, and pulled out a few shirts, hoping one would fit me, but, no such luck. I was too tall for most shirts anyway. I sighed, and flopped on a bed, with one of my arms sprawled across my face, and I tried to think the days events through.

  The thing puzzling me was me not becoming infected from the bite. I knew that I should have been infected. There was no way I wasn't. I looked at my wrist, and frowned. The holes were slowly knitting themselves together. That was another puzzle. Why did I have such abnormal healing? And the biggest question of all... Who the fuck was I?

  I laid on that bed, attempting to work those things through my head again... And I must have fell asleep. I had a dream though. I dreamed that I was strapped in a chair in a solid white room. My arms and legs were restrained, and there was a door and a window on one wall. The window opened into a room with two people, a man and a woman. The door opened, and the man walked in, carrying a hypodermic needle, which was filled with some clear liquid.

  "Hello Ludo. Today's the last day for this" he says, pointing at the needle.

  I wanted to say something, anything... But, I couldn't control myself here... He slowly advanced, holding the needle, and I could only look in horror as he pushed it straight into my chest, directly into my heart. And even though it was just a dream, it felt like a red hot brand was burning into my chest. I then saw myself straining against the chair, the straps holding me stretching, and then, everything went black.

*Holy shit everyone. Sorry about the slow update. I injured my hand recently, and I wasn't able to type. It's healing up nicely though, and the bandages are coming off! SO! I'll probably finish off part 5 tonight, and maybe even part 6. Once again, I'm sorry. Oh! And because it's been about a week, the challenge is over!*