Gone(Sequal to Zombie)

The zombie towered over the old man, thick black gunk dripping from it's red smeared lips. It's tangled hair, once thick and brown, hung into it's unseeing eyes. Pale hands were pulled into taught claws, long nails ready to rip out the man's neck. The remains of a lab coat lay in tatters on the woman's bone thin body. The name Melanie was stitched carefully in red onto the white clothe and a thick smell of decay wafted from her body, causing the man to continuously gag and wretch, finally vomiting onto the ground in front of him.

The zombie let out a hungry screech and dove for the man. His woozy mind allowed him enough thought to bring up his legs and kick the monster powerfully in the chest. Loud cracks indicated the breaking of brittle bones. She stumbled away from the kick, not feeling the pain, but the force. Quickly, it sprinted back to the man for another attack, the blunt end of it's rib bones protruding from pale grey skin. Black ooze dripped from the gash dropping in thick goblets to the ground of the hospital, staining the pristine white floors. The man had pulled himself back on unsteady feet. Looking around he finally spotted what he was looking for, a small vial full of thin green liquid on the ground six feet away.

He cursed under his breath, making to move towards the bottle before being tackled to the ground. His head cracked off the marble floor, the sound sickening. Yellow teeth snapped at his neck barely missing as the man held the woman off of him, but his strength was failing and his head was swimming. Knowing he didn't have much time left he made a suicidal move. With the last of his strength he pushed the woman to his right and dived toward the vial to his left, leaving his back exposed to the monster.

As soon as his large hand closed around the small needle a hot wave of pain shot through his shoulder as strong yellowed teeth tore through muscle and tendons. Liquid squirted from the wound into the happily gurgling zombie's face. The thick, metallic smell of blood blended into that of the stench of death. Turning quickly, ignoring the pain that shot through his arm, he stabbed the long needle into the woman's neck and pushed down the plunger. The liquid squeezed into her veins.

She dropped away from the man screeching and convulsing. A sharp snap came as another bone broke in her frail body. She jerked violently against the hospital floor where, only hours earlier, the father and daughter had hurriedly finished their cure for the Plague that had been haunting the earth for more than ten years. The body of the zombie they had used for blood and tissue samples lay in a heap in the corner, a long knife protruding from the back of it's neck. If you cared to look you would find that it's teeth matched the scabbed over bite on the woman's arm from the earlier attack. Of course they had kept the zombie active during their tests, a "live" one, if that's what you could it, was better than a dead one.

The woman's thrashing gradually began to stop, her father slowly moving towards her, desperately clutching the wound on his shoulder. Her skin was still grey but some of it's color and life had returned. Instead of black gunk, thin red blood began pumping from her wounds. Her eyes groggily opened, now a bright blue instead of the zombie's devoid of color. She blinked twice at the man. Healed.

"I-it worked," she gasped, clutching desperately for her father's hand. He took it and they laughed. For years they had been hopeless, and now, they had something, and it wasn't the little miracles they had come across over the years, this was full on discovery. It wasn't long until death claimed the girl for the second time that day. Although the cure had worked, ridding her of the infestation, she had lost too much blood, had been injured too greatly for her malnourished body to keep up with. She was gone, but this time, she didn't come back.

The man allowed himself only a moment to mourn. Melanie had worked too hard, had sacrificed too much for him to stop now. He took his hand away from his shoulder and brought it up to his eyes, not fully expecting to see the usual red blood, but hoping. Hoping that he was one of the lucky few who lasted almost a week before the infection set in. Instead, he found his hand covered in the familiar thick black goop. He groaned in anger and desperation. He couldn't die, nobody knew the cure yet. He had to tell somebody. He had to make sure somebody knew where to go and how to replicate the concoction.

Giving his daughter a light kiss on the cheek he stumbled out of the hospital, doing the math in his head. He had, roughly, twenty-four hours before the infection completely turned him. The hospital they had been residing in was in the middle of a small city, overrun with zombies, not a living soul in sight besides them. He had to work quickly to get out of the town and find a settlement or a group of wanderers.

Exiting the building, he looked around anxiously to check his surroundings. A zom stood in the shadows of two small buildings, hands hanging limply at it's side. It was a teenage boy around sixteen years of age. His stringy blonde hair was caked with blood from his cracked skull. Grey matter hung on the sharp cracks of his skull. The man waited for the kid to attack, but he never did. Instead the zombie seemed to smile wickedly at him. As if he knew the man was infected. The smile seemed too big for the kid's face. That was when the man realized the skin was splitting in a curving line until it reached the boy's ears. Black gunk poured down it's jaw and neck, soaking it's shirt.

The man resisted the urge to scream. Instead he rushed through the streets until he found a rusted car with it's door open and windows busted out. Praying silently the man found the keys in the ignition. He turned them and, to his surprise, the car choked to life. Sighing he closed the door and slammed on the gas. The car weaved through the thin traffic and away from the town. Unknown to the man hundreds of zombies gathered behind him, all watching the car speed away, wicked smiles so wide that the skin tore in two.

A/N

Okie dokie, here we go :D