The Dead Walk Among Us

Chapter 35: The Cure

"Can you cure me?" I ask.

"I don't know. We'd have to run some tests. How long has it been since you started to turn?" the woman asks.

"Around two days...maybe three," I reply.

"It doesn't seem like you're too far gone," she says. "If you want to be cured, you'll have to come with us,"

"Okay," I respond.

The woman walks towards me. She as handcuffs.

"I have to put these on you. I don't want you to turn and kill my men,"

I don't like the thought of having my hands tied, but I don't have a choice. I hold out my hands. She cuffs them. She helps me into one of the cars. The cars drive towards a fenced in town.

The car I'm in drives straight to a hospital. The cars with the others drive towards a school. I get out of the car. The woman walks me inside the hospital. We sit in the waiting room.

I'm actively dying and they are making me wait?

After thirty minutes, I'm called back into an office. I walk in. An older man an in a white lab coat is sitting at the desk. His name tag says "Andrew Williams."

"Name?" he asks opening a folder.

I sit down.

"Jade White," I reply.

"Age?" He asks.

"Twenty-one,"

I hear banging in the door behind me.

"What is that?" I ask.

"Nothing. How many times have you been bit?" he says.

"Two,"

I hear more banging.

"Look, I'm dying. What do these questions have to do with the cure?" I say.

I hear the banging again. I get up. I open the door. Down the stairs I see cells with zombies inside. They are banging on the cell doors and shrieking. 

"Why are you keeping them down there?" I ask.

He pushes me down the stairs. I land on my back. He grabs my hood.

"I'm experimenting on them. How do you think I created the cure?" he says dragging me into one of the cells.

I have no energy to fight back. He locks the cell door once I'm inside.

"What are you doing?" I yell.

"You're too far gone for the cure. Once you turn, you'll be test subject number twenty-five," he says.

"People will come looking for me. You're dead once I get out of here. Dead!" I yell.

My yelling riles the other zombies up. The doctor kneels down.

"Threatening me? You can't even stand without feeling terrible pain. People will look for you? Not if I tell them that it was too late to cure you so I had to kill you. They will forget all about you," he says before walking towards a desk.

The zombie in the cell next to me is reaching his hands through the bars to try to grab me. It makes the most awful noises. I crawl to the other side of my cell. I pull out my knife. I grab the zombies hair.

"What are you doing?" the doctor yells.

"Let me go or I'll kill this zombie," I say.

He obviously doesn't want to lose one of his test subjects. He opens the door. He grabs my arm and drags me outside of the cell. When he walks over to the desk, I try my hardest to stand. I use a chair to pull myself up. He comes back from the desk with a needle.

"Standing? You must really want to live. Hold your arm out. You'll be much easier to deal with once you turn," he says.

I back up. The needle must contain the virus. Injecting more of the virus would probably make me turn faster.

"No," I say.

He steps towards me.

"You would much rather a slower and more pain filled death?" he asks.

I stab him in the stomach. He punches me. I fall back. I crawl backwards. I get up. The doctor grabs my throat. I stab him in the shoulder.

He still is holding on. I push him into one of the cell doors. A zombie jumps at him. It bites his ear off. He lays on the floor bleeding.

I start to walk away when he grabs my ankle.

"Please, don't let me turn!" he begs.

"No, you're going to feel all the pain you put everyone you've forced to turn through," I say.

I walk over to his desk. There is a vial marked "Cure" on the desk. A journal that is marked "Infected and the stages of infection" is also here. I grab them both. Even though it is too late for me, at least someone else might be able to be cured. I need to get everyone I came with and get them out of here.

Another wave of pain erupts throughout my whole body. I can't even stand anymore. I crawl towards the stairs. I begin to crawl up them. I'm not dying here. This will not be my final resting place. I eventually reach the top of the stairs. I just need to get the door open. I sit with my back against it. I can't go anymore. I don't have the strength nor the energy to keep pushing forward. I close my eyes. The door opens. I see Jake and Alex standing over me.

"Jade, we need to go," Jake says.

That's easier said than done. They help me to my feet.

"What's going on?" I ask.

"An evacuation," Alex says.

Evacuation? I see Clarissa ahead. She runs over to us. She helps me walk through the lobby.

"Did you get cured?" Alex asks.

Does it look like I'm cured? Jake opens the doors. I step outside. I collapse. This. This is the end for me.