Better off Undead

Chapter 34: Revelations

"You son of a bitch."

Matthew stepped forward, his hands balled into tight little fists. "You knew exactly what you were doing," he continued. "All that protesting your innocence, but you knew!"

"No, I swear, we could not have possibly known..."

"Bullshit! What did you think was going to happen to people when you injected them with vampire blood? That they'd become cute and cuddly? That they would roll over on their backs and hope to get their bellies rubbed? You were trying to create monsters! You might not have known exactly what kind they would turn out to be, but you were trying to create monsters!"

By this point, Matthew's rage was so explosive that the others were once again forced to physically hold him back to keep him from attacking Paul.

"It's not like that! We didn't just go directly to injecting humans! We spent thirty years testing the stuff first. We tested it on animals, on lab rats. It made them feral, and affected their integumentary system. Their teeth, nails, and hair all grew unusually long and wild. They were impossible to control. So we began diluting the stuff, breaking it down. We developed different formulas and serums with it. Most of the ones we developed had little to no effect on the rats, behaviorally or physiologically. A few made them somewhat feral, but never as much as the blood in a pure state.

"Then we started to have some successes. Serums that would affect the speed and even the strength of the rats, but without bringing out any of the feral attributes that were of such great concern. We were still very careful. We picked a serum that seemed to lead to a more docile rat, but that still gave it increased strength and speed. We tested it a hundred times, and not once did it make a single rat feral. Then we still ran more tests before ever even considering a human trial."

"Even then, honestly, we probably would not have moved on to human trials. Not till we had more time to study the serum. But the project heads, the government men in their fancy uniforms, they wanted more. They wanted 'real results.' Something they could use. They were impatient. They moved up the schedule. I... I realize now that's not much of an excuse. But it is the truth.

"Inside a human body, the serum acted like a virus. The subject grew sick. Violently sick. Uncontrollable shivers. Vomiting blood. Fever dreams. Hallucinations. Bit by bit his body parts began to die off. We tried amputating and even stitching on parts from healthy donors. This worked surprisingly well for a while. The organ would remain clear of disease and he even gained control over donor limbs, like hands and feet, which should have been impossible.

"But it was all futile. Eventually, the virus won out, and we were forced to abandon our efforts. The last few hours, even the strongest of us could no longer bare to watch as the virus ate away at the man we'd struggled so hard to save."

"All I hear... is excuses!" Matthew's voice seemed to roll out of him like thunder across a cloudy sky, rising to a staggering boom and then dying off again. "Oh, it wasn't your goal, oh, you had no reason to suspect the serum, oh, the government made the call! Bullshit! You did have a choice. You could have stopped at any time! And I don't believe for one second that you truly believed that giving someone some kind of monster... blood... potion would do anything but make another monster. We're supposed to forgive you just because you feel sorry for yourself? Well it ain't gonna happen!"

"Matthew," Elaine said calmingly, her hand reaching out to press gently on his shoulder.

"No, he's right," Paul interrupted meekly. "I can't ask for your forgiveness. What I did was horrible. It was wrong. I can never be forgiven." He stopped and turned to look at the wall, but his gaze seemed dark, distant, as though he was looking through the wall. After a moment, Eli realized he was looking in the direction of the first lab, the one filled with zombies.