The Infection

Chapter 21

Ben bolted into the infirmary with Cassie shaking in his arms. She was having trouble breathing and moving, he just picked her up and bolted over. Sharon was checking up on one of the kids when he barged in. 

"Sharon! Sharon, something's happened!" He set Cassie on the last free bed and Sharon ran over and checked her. After a moment, she said, "She's going into cardiac arrest, I need to figure out why!"

She took off Cassie's bandage around her chest and looked over the bullet wound. It was infected. "Shit, there's bullet debris stuck in there, she's bleeding internally," she said. "Help me get her on her side."

Cassie grunted when they got her over. "Keep her calm while I get some things!" Sharon ordered. Ben took ahold of Cassie's hands and squeezed them. "Hey, you stay with me, Cass," he said. "You're a fighter, you can do this." 

Sharon came back over with a knife, some alcohol, a mason jar, and a tube. She poured the alcohol on the knife, then set one end of the tube into the jar. "This is going to hurt, so keep her distracted."

Ben nodded, then looked to Cassie again. "I remember the first day I saw you," he told her. "You were the most beautiful woman I had ever seen in my life. From the moment I saw you, I knew I had to have you."

Sharon stuck the knife into a part of Cassie's back and made an incision. Cassie grunted and squeezed Ben's hands. She was in so much pain from everything else, she couldn't scream. Ben decided to keep going. 

"I'm so glad I have you now," he said. "I've never known happiness like this, even through all the shit we have to go through in this world. I know that you and I can do great things, restart the world because that's who we are. Together, we are unstoppable."

She smirked a little, but then let out a small whimper when Sharon stuck the tube in her back. Ben looked over and saw blood going out of the tube and into the mason jar. Cassie immediately loosened her grip on Ben's hands. 

Sharon sighed in relief when she saw Cassie relax. Ben laughed, then looked to Cassie. She looked like she was asleep. "She probably just passed out from the pain," Sharon told him. He barely moved his hand to her cheek, when she started shaking furiously on the table. 

"She's having a seizure," Sharon said. "Stand away from her!" Ben backed up, but not too far away. The seizure didn't last very long, but then something else happened. "Son of a bitch!" Sharon shouted. Ben's never heard her like this before, so he started to become incredibly worried. 

"What?" He quickly asked. Sharon took the tube out from Cassie's back and quickly patched up the incision. Ben watched as she put Cassie on her back and made another incision by her wound. "Sharon, what is happening?!" He shouted. 

She put the tube in Cassie's chest and the blood starting coming out like it did from her back. "She's going into cardiac arrest again and I don't know if I can stop it without another surgery!" Ben scoffed, then shouted, "So do the surgery!"

Suddenly, he heard screaming outside...but not just any screams. "The infected," he muttered. He watched as all the kids cowered into a corner. He looked to Sharon, then said, "You do the surgery, you do whatever you bloody have to to keep her alive! I'll go deal with them."

He ran outside and saw Chris, Tony, and Rob running towards the map room. He rushed after them and met up inside. "They're coming,"Chris quickly told him, as he grabbed his gun. "We were interrogating Tom in the cell when we heard them. Richard says there's hundreds."

All of them grabbed plenty of guns and ammo, then ran over to the gates. They climbed up the ladders and stood on the landings with their guns raised. As soon as the infected came into clear view, they started shooting them down. 

Plenty of people grabbed some guns as well and waited by the gate in case any of the infected made it through. Ben didn't think they would, but then he saw them coming from the sides. They couldn't focus on all of them!

Plenty of the infected made it to the gate and started slamming their bodies against it, trying to get it open. The guys shot all they could to get them away, but more and more came flooding in.

"I'm out!" Chris shouted, tossing his gun away. Soon, they were all out and Ben was quickly climbing down the ladder. "We're going to open the gates!" He shouted to everyone ready to fight. 

They all held up their guns. Ben grabbed one that someone offered and made sure it was loaded. Once he saw it was, he looked up to Adrien and shouted, "Now!" The gate slowly opened and the infected started coming in two at a time, then three, then four, then ten. 

Everyone shot them down, but the few that got passed the bullets had attacked a few people. Ben immediately killed the infected and the ones they attacked. Some people didn't even get attacked, but got so close that the infected's blood got into their mouths and eyes.

Ben killed them, as well. 

Chris ran off and got Tom from his cell because they needed an extra (experienced) shooter out there. Everyone, except for the kids, Sharon, and Cassie was shooting at the infected. Ben threw his gun down and sighed when he ran out of bullets and saw every single one of the infected were shot down and dead.

He glanced over at Tom, who had his gun down and looking over the bodies. He then carefully walked over the dead infected and out of the community. Tony, Chris and Tom went with him. Ben was looking for a reason why the infected attacked. 

Sometimes they had been curious and scoped around, but never have they attacked. He walked around and around, but couldn't find anything. "Over here!" He heard Tom shout. He and the other two ran over, where Tom's flashlight was on a dead chicken. 

Ben crouched down and looked it over. "It hasn't been dead long," he told them. "This is fresh." He started to think for a moment, then suddenly remembered something. "At Alcatraz," he said, "I remember hearing clucking sounds, like chickens."

Tony knelt down beside him. "They wouldn't risk their food, would they?" Ben looked at him and said, "I have no doubt they would. And I also have no doubt that Sebastian told them where we are."

He looked over at Tom again. "Get him back in his cell," he told Chris. "I want him out of my sight." Chris took Tom and brought him back inside they gate, while Tony and Ben followed. "I'm going to go check on Cass," Ben told Tony. "Carefully move the bodies away from here and shut the gates. Get rid of that fucking chicken, too."

He jogged back to the infirmary, where he saw Sharon cutting into Cassie's infected wound and Cassie's bound wrists and feet, struggling to get free as she screamed. "Christ, what are you doing?" He shouted. 

Sharon looked inside Cassie's opened chest as she said, "I had to restrain her, she was resisting. Calm her!" Ben took Cassie's bound hand and held it tight. "Hey, love, I'm right here, look at me," he quickly told her. 

Cassie looked over at him, as she screamed and tried to get out of her restraints. "You need to calm down," he harshly told her. "Stop moving!" She tried to stop, but every time Sharon touched her chest or made another incision, she would twitch in pain. 

"Oh, no," Sharon sighed, when she got a better look into Cassie's chest. "There's debris everywhere. I won't be able to get it out, not with her like this. If I don't get it out now, she can die." Ben was so focused on her words, he didn't notice Cassie's eyes drooping. 

He looked to her, then started snapping his fingers in her face, but she didn't flinch. "Hey," he said, "hey, you stay with me. Stay with me! Hey! Cassie!" He snapped his fingers, roughly tapped her cheeks, but she was out. 

"Shit...Ben," Sharon said. He looked over and saw a worried expression on her face. "What?" He asked. "She just...she passed out from the pain again. That's all." She slowly shook her head. "She's in a coma," she told him, "and I don't have the equipment to keep her alive."