Broken (NaNoWriMo)

Chapter 24

I sit on the bed for a long time. I take swigs from the bottle occasionally. But now I’ve stopped. I replaced the cap on the bottle and placed it on the floor. I now stare at the wall in a drunken haze. My thoughts are jumbled and confused. I have trouble separating past from present. Everything is mixed into one large memory, indistinguishable from others. The only thing that doesn’t mix is my worry. Despite the alcohol I’ve consumed, I still hold to the one thing I want to forget. I still remember the illness. The tests. The destruction I’ve caused.

I find that I’ve fallen asleep. Someone shaking my shoulder awakens me. Edwin. He holds the bottle of vodka in his other hand. I sit up and rub sleep from my eyes. Panic fills me, and I fear I’ve made a grave mistake.

”Calm down, you’re fine.” He assures e. He lifts the bottle of alcohol up higher and shakes it. The contents swish in the bottle.

‘Did you drink all of this last night?” He asks. I nod. I expect a scolding, but it doesn’t come. Instead he looks intrigued.

“Fascinating. You drank more than the safe limit, yet you display no signs of a hangover at all. Very interesting.” He strokes his short beard and inspects the bottle.

“Can we talk about something other than my drinking habits?” I ask. He smiles.

“Of course.” He asks permission to sit, which I don’t deny or grant. He takes that as a yes and sits on the edge of the bed.

“Amanda managed to discover an amazing breakthrough last night.” He sounds half out of it as he speaks, like something’s wrong.

“And?” I probe.

“And its told us much about the illness. We looked at the blood and saw there were many dead red and white blood cells floating in it. This puzzled us, but then we looked at the skin samples and saw something remarkable. The skin died, but oddly enough, didn’t come back.” I raise an eyebrow at him.

“My skin died and that’s” I raise my fingers to create air quites “remarkable”. He smiles.

“Very much so.” My lack of a reply tells him to continue.

“You see we’ve noticed that any cuts on you heal much faster than on others. You had a very large gash on your back, correct?” I instinctively bring a hand to my back and feel the scar where I was cut.

“Yes.” I reply. He smiles.

“And it’s healed. A cut that large on a normal person wouldn’t have healed so fast. You display remarkable healing capabilities.” I furrow my eyebrows, trying to follow his words

“What does that have to do with the tests?” I ask. He raises a hand excitedly.

“As soon as the skin was removed from your body, it died, and wouldn’t heal. This means the cells only regenerate when attached to you.” He pauses to make sure I’m following.

“You also suffer from brain deaths but your brain regenerates itself shortly after. This is connected to the speedy healing of your skin.” I shake my head.

“How is this all connected? The blood cells, the healing skin, the brain blackouts. I don’t get it.” He places a hand on my knee.

“The phenomenon of cell deaths is known as apoptosis. It’s when cells commit suicide, like what’s happening in you brain. They regenerate themselves, coming back to life. This explains the brain deaths. The cells also regenerate themselves on a cut, like your back, causing rapid healing. There is also quicker generation of cells. So fast the dead ones can't disappear completely before they get in your blood, explaining the dead cells in your blood.” I lean back, letting the information sink in. I restate everything under my breath, confirming what I heard.

“There’s more.” He says. I turn back to him.

“I heard you attacked Amanda yesterday. She fell into a pool of your blood samples. The blood was absorbed into her skin. She died last night from the illness.” My eyes water I killed Amanda too. I add her name to my kill list.

“Don’t be sad. She died for science. Her death gave us the final clue in this mystery. We know what the flu is.” He smiles a sick smile.

“What is it?” I ask quietly.

“When your bodily fluids; blood, saliva, urine for example, that carry this strain of apoptosis or ‘suicidal cells’ manages to get into someone else’s body, their body isn’t tolerant like yours. Those cells take over resulting in the death of more cells, until they kill them all. They tend to start at hands or feet because that’s where the majority of peoples cuts are, that explains the death of extremities first.” He concludes his explanation and I’m speechless. I know what I’ve wanted to know for so long, but I wish I didn’t. I can't stand knowing exactly why I’m causing this. One more question nags at me.

“Why doesn’t my family get it? I’ve kissed my boyfriend and mother, and shared water with my friend. Why aren’t they dead?” He answers quickly.

“You did that before your cells acted up. Your trigger even was the car accident. This caused the cells to begin the process of apoptosis. Anyone who exchanged bodily fluids with you before the trigger had the cells already inside them before they were dangerous and developed an immunity to them that lasted even after they were lethal. That’s why your family can’t get sick.” He was right. I’d kissed my mother and Ryan before the accident. And Trinity and I shared lipsticks all the time before. Technically, I saved their lives. But why aren’t I happy.

“There’s just one more thing, I promise.” He says. I don’t want there to be one more thing but I have to listen. His expression is undoubtedly sad now. He no longer holds the excited tone as before.

“We don’t have a cure yet.” My moth opens to speak, but he fills it for me.

“We don’t know exactly how to make one without samples.” I offer him more blood or skin samples, assuring him he could have a whole arm if he needs it. He shakes his head.

“We need to watch the brain as it triggers a round of apoptosis. We need to watch it die.” I don’t understand.

“Use a monitor, we did it at the hospital, why not now?” He shakes his head again.

”We need to watch it die for real. As in never come back.” He hands me a syringe he pulls form his jacket. It holds a greenish coloured serum and a thick needle.

“This will cause you to enter a coma-like state, where your brain still functions, but we can remotely end it. You don’t have to, but you can. Its up to you.” He doesn’t need to explain further. I wrap the syringe in my hand and he exits the room. Leaving me to my thoughts.