The Virus Within- Changing

That's (In)Sane

Yuk took the clipboard from her and observed results. I took a peek,  too. The results were astounding.

These people were close to creating a cure for the insane zombies.

I had a decision. Should I incapacitate these scientists, who kidnapped and drugged the others, or should I let them go since they were so close to solving the problem?

I let him go.

"Don't get out of this room. I'm getting my friends." Then I felt a cold cylinder press into my neck. A gun.

"Don't move. Drop the gun." It was a woman.

"Sure." The gun clattered onto the floor. I glanced at the window. It was dark outside but inside it was well illuminated, which caused a reflection. I saw Nathan in the doorway. I had to create a distraction.

"Sandra, let him go," Yuk said. "He's just a kid."

"No, he's not. There are two ways he could have got up early and taken you guys by surprise. He either has some weird mutation, something that could stop the drug from taking him out, or he has increased functions, which is the result of CRISPR, or.." She trailed off.

"Or?" prompted Yuk.

"He's a zombie."

Several gasped, but Yuk hid his surprise extremely well. "Well then, boy, are you?"

I saw Nathan come into view from the door. "Yes, I am."

The room grew excited. "Show me your red eyes," Yuk demanded, his eyes betraying his jubilance.

I willed my eyes red, and he gasped. A guard dropped his book. But not because my eyes were red. The cold metal pulled off of my skin as Sandra collapsed due to the concussive force from the baseball bat that Nathan had smacked her with. I immediately took the gun and pointed it at Yuk.

"We'll let you go as long as you give us a copy of your research."

"As long as you give me five doses when your stronghold figures out the cure."

"Deal." I held my hand out and he hesitantly shook it. I stepped away and backed out the door, Nathan behind me.

"Get everything ready. We'll be back in a few minutes."

We found the cells and I broke down the first one.

"Hey," I said. Michael and Jerry stepped out.

"Nice." Michael grinned.

We moved through the block until we had everyone. Nathan explained the situation.

Then we came back into the doors.

They had filled a large bin with papers, and Yuk gestured towards the pile. "All yours."

While the adults talked, I noticed two things. Sandra was still on the ground, and she had a taser. There were a few stacks of a lot of Petri dishes with different organic materials in them. I spotted some that were labeled as meteorites, electrical conductors, and a few more. You can guess what I did. Why not?

After five minutes, we finally backed out of the room.

Michael and Jerry lifted the container and we trudged through the halls and out the doors in silence.

We explained what had happened to the others, and then Jacob got Jerry and Michael to lift the papers to his lab, where he downloaded it onto a lot of hard drives and scanned through the work.

Then he yelled in joy and ran a few laps around the lab.

He showed us all the results, which were all excellent.

There was a 98% cure rate. When humans become zombified, the virus used various chemicals to prevent neurons from reaching the brain, allowing the zombie virus to take control of the brain with no opposition. The cure was supposed to attack and dispose of the absorbing chemicals while leaving the brain unharmed. That was Phase One. Phase Two would reveal that the zombie virus was attacking the immune system, making sure that the immune system could attack the zombie virus. Memory cells would then be able to release antibodies quickly in the event of another infection.

In 2% of the cases, the cure would fail at eating away of all of the absorbing chemicals, leaving the brain with a chance, but not with 100% success rates. This was what Yuk was trying to fix.

Jacob spent three hours reviewing the data and science behind the cure, and he was jubilant at the end. It turned out that Yuk needed to add some chemicals that he didn't have, but Campfire Stronghold certainly did.

It was awesome.

Once we were well away, I grinned as I dumped my steals onto my bed, making sure nobody else was here.

I put my new taser into the secret compartment and observed the Petri dishes. There were four.

I had one with the electric glass thorns that I had seen earlier. There were some bolts that started to connect as I watched. I had a Fukang meteorite piece which looked to be like a chunk of tin with pockets of gold inside. Another had a bioluminescent moss that glowed green, and there was a rainbow lichen that changed color as I watched.

I shuddered as I wondered what they had done in that lab.