No Tomorrow

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Belle's POV:

The microwave dinged after its final rotation and I flung the tiny door open before I reached a hand in and yanked out the small coffee from the center of the clear plate, the break-room door opened and I knew who it would be before I even looked up. After all, there were only two of us working the graveyard shift on a Friday night here at the CDC.

"Damn, you still drink that watered down bullshit?''

A darkly tanned hand came out of nowhere and squished at the already messy bun at the nape of my neck and I simply rolled my eyes before I took a sip of the scalding liquid from my cup and sat down at one of the tiny chairs halfway shoved under one of the white plastic tables in here.

"Listen, you can't expect me to do graveyard and your simmulation with no help.''

Jay joined me at the table and put an arm around my shoulders before he kissed my left cheek and I shrugged him off, Jay and I had been friends since childhood and we even went to the same medical school once we were older but I never bothered to return any of his advances. I never bothered to date in all of my years but it was just something that I deemed pointless long before my mid- 20's, sadly it didn't seem to stop him.

"You can still bow out you know, the first round doesn't happen until later tomorrow.....plenty of time for you to reconsider."

I put my cup down and just stared at it before slowly shaking my head from side to side.

"No..."

My voice was hardly above a whisper and I had to clear my throat a few times before I was able to sound normal again.

"I don't care what it does to me, I don't want to be weak and vulnerable when the world goes to shit, Jay. You and I both know that I won't survive at this state when it does."

Jay sighed, but nothing else was said on the subject until I finished my drink and the two of us made our way out of the break room and down into the deeper levels of the CDC where he had his assigned lab at; his fingers sought out mine when pressure popped in my ears and I didn't bother to shake him this time. Despite wanting to go through with it to the end the unknown always scared me...

"I won't let anyone hurt you, just watch. You'll be the best thing to ever happen to this god forsaken planet, just you watch.'

*

"The bitch still out?"

A foot jammed into my ribs and I felt my body flop over to the side but I barely opened my eyes as reality snapped back over my brain.

Oh....right....that was weeks ago...but I wonder why I'm thinking about that now...

A few weeks after the experiment started Jay and I had been seperated and a group of men had captured me, but my body was too weak to fight them back; we never finished the doses and I knew well enough that my body was dying because of it.

"Looks like it, you might have socked her a bit too hard Johnny.''

Another kick to my ribs and I rolled again until the voices were completely behind me and I was able to risk opening my eyes up all the way, with half of my face squished into the ground I was only able to see trees everywhere. My nose picked up the faint scent of water but my ears heard no source of it nearby, was I going insane too?

Jay....I know that you can't hear me but please help me escape these people.....I'm not strong enough to do it on my own....let me die or something if that's too much, they are so horrible....

Two of the men coughed and then I heard tents flap in the slight sultry summer air but I still felt the body heat from another one down close to the ground, my lower back was screaming with pain and a savage burning sensation was raking through my thighs, but I couldn't m o v e. My exposed ear heard the softest crunch of leaves from somewhere far away but my brain wouldn't let me concentrate; one of the men brayed like a donkey wih laughter and nearly blasted my eardrum with the volume.

"C'mon Randy, you hounded that little girl that we got last week and killed her! You are the reason we snatched this stupid bitch in the first place."

"Cut me some slack will you? The little ones feel the best but they always break the easiest- I'm just glad that I don't have to worry about being caught now.''

Goosebumps popped up across my arms and I heard a flap again before I felt one of them stomp over to me; tears began to flow down my face and my fingers clutched at the sodden forest floor.

God....pedophiles....

The man grabbed a handful of my hair and pulled me up onto my feet with a yanking pain, a few leaves were stuck to my skin but before I could even attempt anything one of his hands firmly clamped themselves over my mouth.

"Uh, uh, uh, no screaming you bitch. You and I are going to have some fun together.''

*

"So is there anything else I need to know about this?"

I winced when Jay pulled the needle out of the crook of my elbow and swabbed the site with a sticky substance before putting a bandage on it.

"Well....assuming that it goes well, not too much with the first stage....but be careful about your blood."

"My blood?"

Jay put a hand on my knee and gave it a small squeeze of reassurance before he smiled.

"Yes, your blood. Your blood will hold a unique ability that some will try to steal if they know what it could do."