Element Z

Chapter 4: Perspective

What felt like years but was only a single night's rest finally came to an end as I awoke in the hospital looking around. "Wh-where is Jake?" The nurse walked over to the bed as she readied a shot. "He's okay, he was released from the hospital last night." I looked over at the nurse as she put the needle in my arm, ever since I was a kid I had always hated needles but I wasn't really in a position to turn it down. "So um, what is this shot for exactly?" She injected the fluid and disposed of the shot, something felt off as she finally responded after a few minutes of silence. "It's to help ease the pain from your car crash last night. If you need anything else just press the button beside your bed and I will come assist you." Before I could question her or think of what just happened she left in a hurry.

Letting out a sigh I just laid back and looked at the tv, which was off. I looked around but couldn't find a remote, so I just began to speculate and think about why the nurse was in a hurry and if she was telling me the truth. There's no way she would harm me or give me something I don't need, right? Well I want to believe that anyways, she just felt so uneasy. She didn't seem to have a name tag or anything, but maybe she just has a lot of patients? My thoughts were cut off by a sudden dizziness and I felt fatigued, as I went to press the button for the nurse I heard screams and people running. Using the adrenaline from the fear surging through my body I slowly stood up and looked for my regular clothes. Getting dressed I noticed that the tv was unplugged.

Not knowing what to make of it, I left my room and made my way to the stairs of the hospital. People were running and there didn't seem to be a nurse in sight. As I passed a room I saw a patient puke a black liquid onto the window, my heart beat faster as I made eye comtact with them. Horrified at their appearance I started to hurry towards the stairs and make my way down them. Was this really happening? How was I going to escape if I had no car, as I was walking towards the exit I noticed Jake. I felt so relieved that upon getting close to him I just hugged him from behind without saying anything. "I am so happy to see you, everyone here is going crazy talking about how zombies are taking over. Can we go to another hospital?" Jake pulled me along towards the exit. "They are not crazy, there was an outbreak and I actually just escaped a few of the infected at the facility."

"What the fuck is that?!" I looked up and in the middle of a 4 way stop stood a mutant zombie, at least twice the size of a human. The driver swerved around it as he drove through some fenced area, barely missing the construction equipment. Before I could even begin to process what we saw I felt Jake's arm wrap around me as he yelled "Duck!" and pulled me into the floorboards on top of him. The glass of the back window shattered as a brick flew through it and it barely missed the driver. Once we were away from the mutant, the driver said it was clear and we got back into our seats. "What the hell was that, you're telling me there are already mutated versions of the infected? No, a mutant zombie. This isn't some regular outbreak." Jake was so distraught, he was trying to piece it all together so quickly.

Stopping in an alley near some houses the driver turned around as he panted, he had just helped us escape near death and it clearly had taken it's toll. "This is why they are going to bomb the place, it's worse than we thought." Zach looked out the window as he got some excitement. "Hey it's my house, oh I'm Zach btw." The driver nodded. "I'm Ethan, if you're going to get your stuff make it quick so we can get out of here." Zach smiled and got out running into his house as Jake followed. While Zach was packing clothes, food, water, and other essentials for their route out of the city. Jake noticed a red file on his table with bold black letters that read 'Confidential'. "Hey Zach, what's this file for?"

Zach walked into the room to see the file as he walked over and grabbed it. "I'm not sure, let's take a look." Zach opened it as he found a letter inside. While reading it Jake walked around looking for batteries and other things that would be needed on their escape. Zach read the letter which had white print on a black sheet of paper, the letter read:

Dear Zach, due to your dedication and loyalty towards this company we have chosen you as one of the few to receive a test shot! We will administer it to you shortly, this shot will protect you from the Element Z virus we have been working on to help and curb the overpopulation problem. While you may feel a bit of dizziness and/or fatigue from the shot, this is temporary and means that the shot is working. After you have taken the shot you will be immune from getting said virus and should not be targeted by anyone infected with the virus, the reason you are being given a shot along with a few others is because of the unfortunate events of Element Z breaching contamination and making it out into the public. At requests of the CEO of Element, we were instructed to give the only few dosages we have of what we believe to be the cure to our best scientists who spent the most time helping us as well as you for flying executives to San Francisco and back. The Element Z virus that we were working on as you know was far from finished, so the affect it will have on people was not the intended affect. Because of this the people infected will experience symptoms of cannibalism, rage, or solid black eyes. When a person is exposed to the virus, there is not much time before they are turned into an infected user. These users are dangerous and should be avoided. We unfortunately do not have any more dosages or the formula as the Federal Bureau of Investigation has been informed of what we have been doing, they have since halted our production and arrested who they believe to be the CEO. If you are to run into other Element employees, DO NOT discuss the shot you received with them as they may have not received it. Due to the limited dosage, we were only able to give it to essential workers. You can tell if they were given the shot by checking their work ID, their name will be in a blue dot. Any ID without a blue dot was not given the shot. Be safe out there in this new horrifying world, we hope that you will do what it takes to make a cure and save humanity.

Overwhelmed by the news, Zach pulled out his work ID to look and he saw the blue dot the letter was referencing. Putting his id up and folding the letter, hiding it in his pocket. Jake walked into the living room. "We should head back to Ethan, what did the letter say?" Zach looked at him as Zach's happiness turned to concern at the thought of Jake not being essential. "Jake, do you have your work ID on you?" Jake went through his wallet and pulled it out handing it to Zach. "Yeah, why what's up?" Zach stared in disbelief noticing that Jake's ID did not have a blue dot as he just handed it back and opened the door. "No reason, just wanted to make sure it was Element official." As they walked back to the car Jake was sensing that something was up with Zach. "Hey you didn't tell me what the letter said."

Loading the car Zach got in as he smiled looking at Jake. "It was just from a company I traded stocks with, they warned me the stock was going to crash but doesn't look like it matters now." As Ethan drove Jake looked at Zach with even more concern. "That sounds like the company knew something was up. Almost like they knew this outbreak was going to happen, and therefore the stocks would drop so they warned you. But how would they know about this outbreak? Element has to be up to something!" Zach's hands became shaky as he thought on how to expand the lie. "What company did you invest in, Zach?" Jake stared at him awaiting an answer but before Zach could respond Ethan slammed on the breaks as he got out the car running. As he ran Zach and I got out to see Ethan running towards a house that had caved in.