The Last Plague

Chapter Twenty-Four: Hallucinations

Keys rattled, a door swung open, a man shouted near me. I had blacked out and could see nothing before me, but at the same time I could hear everything going on around me, it was muffled and quieter than what I expected, but it was there. The only way I can explain it was I was unconscious and conscious at the same time. A sheer feeling of dread filled me, followed by another quick moment of pleasure, followed by another quick moment of pain, followed by several other quick moments of other emotions. I couldn't explain what was happening to me, my sanity seemed shattered into millions of pieces.

I don't know how I knew it was the next day, but I could tell it was. The second day I had found out I was injected with a creature's slime I had worse hallucinations. Everything I had ever cared for, everything I had ever loved, was slowly being sucked into nothingness. It was mental torture, I could barely handle it. I felt like a distant helpless bystander, not being able to do anything.

Suddenly, Mark came into the dream, as he watched more and more people being sucked in he turned his gaze to me. He stared at me, not making any visible movements. He stood there, staring me down until I felt helpless. After several minutes of him staring me down; he charged in my direction. He screamed out at me and charged at me with his arms out like a bull. He rammed into me, but I couldn't feel anything or see where I was. The only way I could describe it was he ran into me.

After, what felt like, several hours, a feeling of horror and disgust came over me. I couldn't see anything, which may have brought me the horror, but I couldn't explain the feeling of disgust. My body suddenly went numb, and my legs became sore.

I finally woke up in my bed and took in a deep breath of air. Everything I had just hallucinated seemed so real, yet there was a way it seemed fake. I couldn't explain it really, but I was exhausted when I woke up. It was a strange feeling so tired after sleeping for two days. The first thing I noticed in the bed I laid in, was that I was alone. There wasn't anybody in sight, just a small door to the left of me. My head burst with pain, everything caused more pain; the slightest movement to get comfier, the lights on the roof, and the beeping of a monitor next to him. I groaned out in agony, hoping someone would come.

"You're awake!" Henry repeated, "You're awake!" he shouted as he walked into the room. It only caused more pain inside my head. "How do you feel? Are you okay? Can I get you anything to help?" Henry started blurting out questions.

The short stream of questions caused another wave of pain in my head. "I'm fine," was all I could squeak out. Surprisingly, I didn't feel hungry. I hadn't eaten in two days, and no hunger was on me. "I feel strange, and I have one of the worst headaches ever," I complained, trying not to sound needy. It didn't matter though, I had just been through a nightmare.

"That isn't much to our surprise," Henry said. "I'm sorry we had to do it like that, but it was the only way. Me and Rachel, both knew you wouldn't agree to get injected with zombie slime. I mean, who would?" he said joyfully, but became serious after looking back at me. "We put it in there almost knowing you'd become immune to becoming one of them." Henry sat next to me, "You may have just revolutionized humanity."

"You didn't just put it in me hoping it would work, right?" I asked him weakly, still sore from the hallucinations I had had during the time I was sleeping.

"No, of course not. We had done testing on several animals before even considering you." He stood up, "Now it is time for phase two. I'm hoping you will say yes to joining us for it. Are you ready?"

"We had done testing on several animals before even considering you." That disgusts me. I remember seeing what happened to a deer once it was bit, and animal testing would be impossible with the result. After the deer got bit, I realized that any testing would have to be on humans. Their test that escaped from the laboratory—not matter what they claim—wasn't an animal. It was an animal of a human.

~Trina

"What is phase two?" I asked him first, not agreeing to anything blindly.

"You get to be bit," he said wearily. "You don't have much of a choice now, I'm sorry."

"What do you mean I don't have a choice?" I shouted at him angrily. "Of course I have a choice! You can't force me to do anything!" I shouted at him, still angrily. I couldn't let him just force me to do any tests of his, especially ones possibly resulting fatally. I wouldn't be his little rodent in his tests; I refused. "I don't know why you think you can do anything to me, but I refuse. I'm not going to do any more tests that involve secrecy or death." I shouted again at him, sounding slightly snobbish in my voice. I didn't want to sound kind to him; I wanted to sound angry.

"You know," he started saying. "You can do quite a few things when you have a gun." Then, not to my surprise at all, he pulled a gun from a hidden holster near his back pocket. "Listen, you are going to come with me, okay? If you refuse, I can just shoot—"

"You can't test on a dead person." I interrupted quickly, snapping back at him.

"Actually," he started as his voice raised in pitch. "You can, and it's easy. It isn't much different than testing on a living person. The only difference, one causes less trouble. I'm going to let you figure out which one causes more trouble, but in the meantime, you decide. I'll give you about five minutes to make up your mind."

It was the strangest way to say something. He actually gave me a choice, and even five minutes to come up with it. Something seemed strange about the whole situation. He risked being caught by someone walking in, which seemed enough of a reason to tell me to do it now. He seemed like he was friendly, even harmless toward me. Henry was an older man, he seemed so kind. The way Xavier talked about him, the way Henry acted, everything screamed kindness out of him. Yet here he was, pointing a gun at me, giving me time to make a choice. He even acted like he was acting kind to me; like he was asking me a simple question.

I considered what he was telling me, there wasn't much of a choice. An irrational man might try to jump on him or take the gun, but it was already pointed at me. I wouldn't be able to stop him from shooting and killing me in seconds. The only choice I had was to follow him; to go willingly.

"I'll go with you, alive. But I want to know one thing," I started asking him.

"What do you want?" he asked, his voice suddenly sounding harsh. Everything that had ever made him seem kind vanished into thin air. His appearance even seemed to darken.

"Why don't you shoot me now?" I asked him. It may have been the stupidest question ever asked by anyone. Why don't you shoot me now? My mind replayed it again. I had given him something to consider, a reason not to keep me alive.

"There isn't much point in killing you," he paused for a moment, "Yet."

A shudder went down my back, but I pushed for more information. "I think there is a point in killing though, you said it yourself, a dead person is like testing a living person, the only difference, one causes less trouble," I said, repeating his words. I wasn't really sure what I was doing, almost doing a suicide negotiation. I was giving reasons he should kill me, and he was giving reasons he shouldn't kill me. In my mind, I thought I should be arguing for my life, but I was arguing against living. It didn't make much sense to me, but I did it.

"Do you want to die? You literally sound like you want to kill yourself," Henry said at me, in slight disbelief, but also in annoyance, likely from the fact I was arguing. "I can kill you if you want, now your time is up. What do you choose?" he said, even though only two minutes had gone by of the five he promised.

I shouldn't have expected him to keep his word and give me the five minutes, I should've expected a shorter time than what he promised. "I'll go, without being shot," I paused, deciding whether or not I should say what I would say next. "If you insist," I told him smugly. Quickly regretting what I had said, but Henry seemed to ignore it.

We walked to the building I had slept in. We walked into the elevator, if I were to escape it would be now or maybe never. He held the gun up to me as we went up the elevator. He pressed the top floor, and we arrived after the shaky ride. When the doors opened Henry walked out, then I did slowly. Maybe I could try to escape down the elevator, I thought, but quickly brushed away the thought. The doors would shut closed too slowly, it would be too obvious what I was doing, and I'd be in a small closed area, easy to shoot at.

Henry continued to point the gun at me. "Well then," He exclaimed overly positively. "Let's get started with phase two!"