UNDER EDITING 𝐺𝑅𝐴𝑉𝐸 𝐷𝐴𝑁𝐺𝐸𝑅 | 𝐴𝑃𝑂𝐶𝐴𝐿𝑌𝑃𝑆𝐸 ✔︎

An Unexpected Discovery

(Cooper's POV)

I feel a quick shift from beside me and the bed feels a lot lighter all of a sudden. My eyes flutter open to Lexi crouching beside the bed over a trashcan.

"Lex? Are you okay?" I sit up and rub the sleep from my eyes. She nods with a queasy look on her face. "Y-Yeah I'm great I just-"

And with that, she spills her guts into the trash can. I hop out of bed and to the door. I open it and see the nurse from the night before making her way to our room. "Hey uh.. Lexi's getting sick in here." Her eyes widen and she rushes into our room.

She lowers herself at Lexi's side, holding back her hair. After a few minutes, the nurse stands up while Lexi sits on the floor, wiping the vomit from the rim of her mouth.

The nurse paces around the room mumbling to herself.

"This is just like last time..."

I catch what she says. "Excuse me? What do you mean last time?" She stops pacing and just stares at me in awe before giving Lexi a warm smile. "Lexi, once you're feeling up to it I would like to run those tests."

Lexi nods and sits herself on the edge of the bed. "I'll just need a minute, but I'll be fine. Thank you." The nurse nods and starts tampering with a syringe at a counter near the bed.

What does she mean 'last time'?

"Alright Lexi... I'm gonna need to take a blood test. It'll just be like a pinch." She walks over to Lexi and gently takes her arm. Once the nurse finds a vein, she inserts the needle.

Lexi's face squints up a bit with irritation and sucks in air through her teeth.

Short time skip~

Lexi and I have been making small talk in her room. Suddenly, the nurse walks in.

"I would like you to come with me to the lab. I think someone there can answer a few questions for us." We both give her a confused look but oblige anyway.

We make our way to the lab, which now has security due to the previous incident. The door to the lab is opened for us and we walk in to see a scientist waiting for us.

"Lexi... Cooper... this is Dr. Stanley Wendle." We both shake his hand, Lexi more slowly due to the stitches in her back.

"I would like to show you a specimen that is pretty related to what happened to you Ms. Ashwell. If you would follow me..." He trails off and leads us to the back of the lab. We maneuver around many other scientists doing their job.

We reach a large tube that is a bit fogged up. "This specimen is related in a helpful but scary way." He walks up to the tube and dials in a few numbers to a keypad.

Suddenly, the fog goes away and the 'specimen' is revealed.

(Lexi's POV)

He or it almost looks human. It looked to once be a tall, white man. Only now, he was some sort of creature. His skin was almost identical to a biter's. Gray and pale with veins popping out everywhere. Dr. Wendle pushes another button on the tube and the creature's eyes flutter open.

It stays silent while looking at each of us, one by one. The silence lasts for but a second before it lets out a loud shriek causing me to jump a bit. The creature begins to bang on the glass and continues to wail.

"Why are you showing us this?" I step behind Cooper. Dr. Wendle steps forward. "This specimen was once a human like you and I."

"Okay.. so a biter?" Cooper questions. Wendle shakes his head. "If you are referring to the infected, then not exactly. This man is much more diligent and strong than an average 'biter'."

"Okay so elaborate on what you mean, please." Cooper says, trying to get to the point. "This man wasn't infected by a biter... or a normal one anyway."

He walks over to a table with a cloth draped over it, seemingly covering something. He removes the cloth in a swift movement. We all stare in awe at the biter from the night before. The one that attacked me.

"You know this guy, he's dead thanks to Cooper but before he died.. he was our failed attempt at an antidote. Somehow our antidote mutated him more, to where he became stronger and quicker. We decided that we should encase him so we could study him more. The man in the tube is one of the men who was responsible for putting him in the case and putting him into a hyper sleep. Unfortunately, the 'biter' got a hit on him before we cased him."

Cooper waves his hands around. "Okay okay we understand the backstory of the biter but what does this have to do with Lexi?"

The scientist nods. "Just getting to that. The man in the tube was attacked and killed by the biter with a quick hit. Now normally, if he was just hit by a biter it wouldn't cause an infection such as the one he has now... but we later discovered a slice down his leg by one of the biter's claws. Sound familiar?"

Cooper looks between I and Dr. Wendle. My eyes go wide and my breath hitches. "Wait... so you're saying that since Lexi was sliced by the same biter... that maybe..."

"I'm infected... just like the man in the tube." I interrupt and release a breath I didn't know I was holding in.

A/N- OMG CLIFF HANGER 😏 I HOPE YOU ENJOYED THIS CHAPTER! THANK YOU SM FOR READING 😍