Hope II

The Index Case

Before me lays the source of it all. The one who started the entire infection, the first to conduct and spread the virus... the man who brought about the end of the world. Patient zero. The original source of the virus. 

My blood soaked boots walked amongst the laboratory tiles leaving a faded trail in my steps as I circling the glass coffin, examining the man from head to toe, my mind riddled with questions as to how he started it all... questions I am certain this man can answer. As I walked to his right hand side, his human side, I was shocked with horror as his eye instantly flinched towards me and caught me yet again in one snappy movement. It was bloodshot, the entire white of his eye was a deep red, yet his blue pupils still stood out to show there was some human instincts left inside him.

I approached his tomb and looked at him, the source of all our troubles now lays before me, helpless in a coffin. His human half was clearly infected, bits of skin torn away like the walkers, his face skeletal and his mouth slouched to his chin, yet it completely mirrored the left hand side of his body. It resembled Clarke, large and monstrous, hundreds of infected bubbles full of puss and large green veins bigger than my fingers popping out his entire body, I could even see the pulse run through them slowly beating. 

I raised my head to look to Abraham and asked the game changing question 'Do you know how it started?' 

Slowly but surely... he nodded... he knows how this whole thing started. 

'Of course I do' he said, looking slightly disappointed as he said it before raising his head to look at me, and with a look of regret he said 'I'm the one who infected him' glancing down at patient zero, the words had me off guard. Furious with rage at the man who stood before me, I aimed my gun at Abraham Lieuten... the son of a bitch who started all this. 

'The truth' I demanded 'All of it'

Abraham nodded. Whether or not I had my gun on him, I think he was going to tell me anyway... he was beginning to accept that luring us here was a bad idea, one that has brought about the end of his empire. 

Lieuten walked past the coffin that housed his lab rat and moved towards a series of cabinets against one of the four walls that made up the large room, full to the brim with wires running along the ground, all connected to different screens monitoring Zero's physiological actions. 

Inside one of the glass cabinets, he took an old and dusted box, planting it on a glass table beneath the cabinets alongside scientific microscopes and test tube racks. 

He threw off the cover and set it aside on the glass table and what followed were a series of newspaper articles from over twenty years ago, all linking in to his next words. 

'I was only twenty five when I developed a prevention cure for ALS and Parkinson's disease... I found a way to prolong the life expectancy of those diagnosed by a massive twenty years through various methods of gene alteration' he said, handing me a newspaper article, where the front page was one I recognised. I remember reading this, remember it due to the extremity of what it was. I remember hearing of it, a huge scientific breakthrough that would change mankind... but I was still a teenager at the time, and with all my health this really did not bother me. 

"Scientific Breakthrough: Young scientist may change the way mankind faces disease" 

The front cover showed an old picture of Abraham, dated all the way back to 2016 when the picture was taken. A young scientist standing alongside many older ones, shaking hands to seal the deal. Abraham was the one who caused the scientific breakthrough. 

'Of course you haven't heard of me' he said, directing his speech towards us both 'Neither have you Bryan' he said, only now did I realise that Bryan was just as bewildered as I was. He too was kept in the shadows over Lieuten's guilty past.