The Apocalypse: Race For The Cure

Any Volunteers

"Do we tell the group about this?" Angel asks in a hushed tone. We've been trying to figure out a way... any other way to do this. Just because my blood worked on Aiden, doesn't necessarily mean it'll work on whomever we infect. What if it doesn't and then we don't figure out a cure?

I couldn't live with myself after that.

"I think we're gonna have to." I say. "I mean, we shouldn't keep things as big as this to ourselves when it directly affects the entire group."

"Right." Angel nods.

"This isn't going to be easy, I assume?" Eric questions, looking back and forth between Angel and myself.

"Not even." I shake my head. "We may have to find another way." I tell them.

"With seven days left?" Eric asks, uncertainty in his tone.

"He's right. There's no time to find another way." Angel pipes up.

"I don't want to infect one of ours with the virus. What if something goes wrong? What if my blood doesn't fix it this time?" I turn to Angel and ask. She shrugs and then smiles.

"If only my step-dad were here huh." She says and chuckles a bit.

"Angel..." I say, scrunching my eyebrows together with a smile. "You made a funny." I add and she laughs loudly.

"I am capable of that, Ashley." She shakes her head and rolls her eyes at me.

"Wait, your blood did what?" Eric looks at me and asks with wide eyes.

"No big deal." I shrug. "I was infected with the virus before it spread like wildfire. My body adjusted to it somehow. It learned to work with the virus instead of against it. It gave me all these..." I pause and gauge his reaction. He looks in genuine shock. "...abilities." I add after a moment.

"She's totally badass." Angel charms in. I shoot her a look.

"In a totally non-sexual type of way." She adds for safe measure.

I shake my head and chuckle at her.

"So you're Alice then?"

"What?" I turn back to Eric and say.

"You know... from Resident Evil." He nods with a grin on his face.

"Angel do you have any idea what he's talking about?" I turn to Angel and ask.

"Yeah." She nods. "Resident Evil, the video game turned movie." She says and then looks at Eric. "You're right, it's almost like we're living that world." She narrows her eyes at me. "This isn't a video game is it?" She asks after a moment.

"I'm not opposed to hitting you, Angel." I tell her seriously and she laughs.

"Fine." She shrugs.

"Can we get back to serious business now?" I ask the two of them, they both nod. "We're gonna have to tell the group after breakfast and then figure out where to go from there."

"Okay."

–

"We need to make an announcement." I stand up from the chair I was sitting in and address the group.

"Okay." Arthur says, speaking for everyone.

"We figured out something earlier, something that's important to making the cure."

"What is it?" Tim asks, sitting his bowl down on the table beside him. Angel and Eric stand behind me, while everyone looks on.

"Well we were gonna start running test today, trying to figure out the virus so we can know how to vaccinate against it."

"Standard." Carmen nods. "Go on." She tells me.

"Well Eric here made a great point, something that I hadn't thought of." I turn and look at Dr. Johnson. I don't want him to find out about Rebecca this way. "We were gonna um... we were gonna test the blood of..." I swallow and shut my eyes tightly. He can't find out this way. "...a walker." I settle on.

"You mean Re-"

"Yes!" I cut Aiden off quickly. He gives me a confused look but I pretend not to see it and go on. "But, we can't do that. The blood wouldn't be viable."

"Right." Carmen slaps her knee and nods her head, I guess realizing what we did an hour ago. "So what are you going to do?" She asks the three of us.

"We need to test a live subjects blood." I say and swallow the lemon in my throat. The room goes quiet, I'm sure everyone understands what I'm saying.

"You mean one of us?" Glen speaks up.

"I mean we need to infect someone with the virus and draw their blood." I clarify.

"I'll do it." Spencer speaks up suddenly.

"What!" Everyone in the room turns to her and says.

"What's the big deal? We know that Ashley's blood can keep me from turning, it's really nothing to worry about." Spencer states simply, finishing with a shrug of the shoulders.

"But what if it doesn't? What if I can't do that again, I don't want to take that chance with you Spencer." I try to explain to her. I can tell it's going in one ear and out the other.

"It's not really up to you though, is it?" She says and it catches me off guard. I know we're technically not together anymore but really? Really Spencer... we're going there?

"No." I shake my head. "I won't let you do it." I tell her firmly before turning and leaving the room.

"Ashley wait up." I hear Kyla call out behind me but I keep walking. "Ashley she only wants to help." Kyla yells. I stop walking and turn to face her.

"Not this way...not like this." I shake my head.

"Well she probably feels the same way about you, you ever stop to think about that? You're always putting yourself in harm's way; wanting to be the first into a basement full of zombies, giving enough blood to kill you, taking on everything little and big thing all by yourself... all the time. I'm sure Spencer feels helpless most of the time when it comes to you. I think that's the real reason she broke up with you." She adds, smiling a bit.

"What are you talking about now Kyla?" I question my little sister with a raised brow.

"You always have to be in control. I think she just wants a bit of that control for once. And so she's controlling when the two of you will get back together, even though I'm sure she didn't actually want to break up with you." Kyla finishes with an eye roll.

"And how would you know that?" I ask.

She rolls her eyes again and sighs. "Probably because she told me."

"What?"

"She said and I quote, "I don't really want to even break up with Ashley. I just feel like I need to, right now. Show her who's boss for once."" Kyla adds an eye roll at the end.

"And you're just now telling me this because?" I shake my head at my sister.

"I wanted you to suffer." She shrugs.

"Typical you."

She shrugs and smiles. "So just let her do this, okay? She wants to be apart of your whole 'we're gonna save the world team' so just let her."

"Fine." I sigh and lean against the wall.

"Good. Now get back in there and tell her."

"You're not the boss of me."

"Yeah okay." She smiles and shakes her head as she turns and walks back towards the room.

"Well you're not!" I yell after her. She turns and chuckles but doesn't say anything as I kick up from the wall and jog to catch up with her.