Infectious

Chapter 14: Jax

Silver chains welded to the cement wall behind each bed crept down into leather-bound wrist restraints. Each set grasped onto what appeared to be melting, rotting flesh. Wait... is that... bone? Under the restraints? Bright white coloring stuck out from beneath the leather where it rubbed against paper-thin skin. How...? Bile aches to run up my esophagus. Pungent sour odors punch me straight in my flared nasal cavity. Knocking me unsteadily back a few steps.

All of their bleeding eyes, bulging out of sunken sockets, rapidly shifted about. Jaws slacked hung wide open from disintegrating bone structures, leaking a very dark ooze down onto stilled chests. Looking closer, none of them seemed to breathe. Without oxygen, how do they stay alive? Some have been here longer than others, the ooze had pooled eating away clothing and flesh. Down to the deep tissue muscles above their rib cages.

"Jax," Drake places a firm hand on my shoulder. "Are you okay?" Shaking off his hand I turn to look at him. It takes me a moment to find the words I'm searching for. Screams of their agony reverberate within my skull creating added difficulty.

"Drake, what have you guys done?" Barely audible amongst the noise. The smell and the sounds combined make for a deadly combination. Bright stars fill my vision, I can't seem to ground myself. Wobbling a bit I try hard to keep eye contact with him through droopy lids.

"Take a deep breath, Jax," His eyes glisten with concern for a fleeting moment. "We did what we had to." Drake begins walking down the pathway between beds. "It's not like they know what's going on, all brain functionality has evaporated. We need to study the disease to understand it. Going about it blindly would have been the most idiotic thing imaginable, and you know it." He glances briefly over his shoulder as he continues walking towards the end of the room. Stopping in front of a frail older man obviously in the worst shape.

Gesturing at the man beside him, "Daniel, or that's what I have been calling him, was our first subject." He reaches up to yank on one of the chains hooked to the wall, "I was given orders to weld these chains Doc had laying around to the walls. Preparation for our so-called subjects." He makes eye contact noticing my distaste, "Jax, man, please give me a better idea. We were cut off from everyone we knew and loved. Left stranded within this cage of a building. Mind you, infected beings roamed the halls hunting us. Fear of the unknown became too much to bear."

Leaning over the infected individual, he wasn't paying attention to the distance between them. A small amount of lower jaw bone aids Daniel's mouth in chomping at Drake. Sudden jolts against the chains shake the bed violently. Acid spit flying through the air in all directions. Deep, hungry, growls escape his corroding vocal cords. Straining upwards, pulling harder in apparent irritation, a chilling crunch echoes loudly. One of his arms broke away from the shoulder cap. Dark spurts of curdled blood spray the bed beside them. He was coating the infected in that bed from head to toe. It doesn't take long for his emaciated body to melt like hot cheese.

"Fuck!" Drake yells unsheathing the hidden blade from his belt. Plunging it deep into the pulsating eye socket. As he drives it fluidly through, the eye bursts. Spewing goo in every direction.

"Get back!" Sprinting as fast as my feet allow, I entwined my fingers with Drake's shirt. Yanking him back against the wall hard I pin him there by the shoulders. Away from Daniel lying on the blackened bubbling bed sheets. His other eye had burst from the pressure. Leaving him lying there with one eye socket brimming with acid blood and the other covered by the hilt. All of his skin evaporated from head to toe. Bright red muscular tissue and small amounts of stark white bone protruding were all that remained. Turning to look at Drake we both were shaking a bit.

"Let go of me!" Drake forces my arms off of him. "I'm fine. Okay? I don't need you to baby me like you did when we were kids." His eyes burned with... anger? Embarrassment? I hold my hands up in defeat.