Warm Bodies: Awakening

The Failed Experiment

Julie stared at R's wound, horrified. It looked... fresh. It looked like he'd just been bitten. What the hell? It's still oozing that dead crap!

She looked up from the wound at Stephen, "Why does it look like that? Why hasn't it healed?"

Stephen shrugged, "I don't know. I really don't. It's like the infection hasn't left him yet."

His words made her skin flush in fear. Still infected? But he's alive? They'd beaten it, he was...

R's leg jerked suddenly, and they all jumped. She'd thought he'd done that on purpose, and grinned his way, but the smile fell from her face.

He was pressed back against the bed, his whole body taut, his face twisted in fear. Eyes wide open, he stared beyond them all.

"R?" she said, and grasped his hand, squeezing it gently. The last time she'd done that he'd snapped out of whatever he'd fallen into. His palms were sweaty, and the monitor besides the bed started a rapid beeping.

R closed his eyes, shaking his head frantically against the pillow, and squeezed her hand hard.

"What the hell," Dan muttered and ran over the monitor, checking R's wrist at the same time. "His heart's going nuts. Something's got him really worked up."

R roared and lunged forward, swinging his fist directly into Dan's face. The impact was shockingly loud in the large room and the doctor dropped like a stone.

"Jesus!" Stephen cried, and rushed to Dan's side as he slid bonelessly from the bed to the floor.

"R! R! You have to wake up!" Julie screamed, shaking his arm. It had no effect. "Stephen, what do we do?!"

"I don't know!" he yelled back, pulling Dan clear of the bed. The doctor was still out. "You're the key - wake him up!"

Julie looked back at R. His face was twisted in terror, and suddenly he screamed, his whole body arcing off the bed.

"Holy shit! R! WAKE UP!" she cried, staring into his eyes, holding his face, desperate to connect to him, to bring him back. It was tearing her up inside to see him like this - she'd never seen him so scared, in so much pain!

He grunted, and his leg jerked again. She glanced down at it and her face fell in horror.

The wound. The infection. It was growing. As she watched, the skin around the wound paled. Thin blue lines branched from the bite, and threaded up his leg, drawing the life from the limb, leaving behind the bloodless grey flesh of a corpse.

"Oh god, no nonono! R! NO!" she screamed back at him, tears streaming from her eyes. This couldn't be happening! "Help!" she cried over her shoulder, trying to bring Stephen. They had to stop this!

R gasped, and his chest heaved as if he was fighting for breath. His face twisted in such rage that Julie flinched back from him, was he going to lash out again? What was he fighting? What was happening?

"S-screw you..." he snarled, staring not at her, but through her, and suddenly she knew. He was facing off against something in there, something that was controlling the infection. Something trying to pull him back from life.

"No! R, you have to fight it! Please!" she sobbed at him, cradling his face. Why wasn't he breathing? He wasn't breathing! She looked at his chest, and gasped as the skin paled, traced by those horrific lines.

His whole body jerked again and his eyes opened wide. At that moment the monitor beside the bed gave two quick stuttered beeps, then started a continuous tone.