The Diseased

Epilogue

Epilogue


Ben hadn't found the cure.
Despite what Beth wanted, no needed, to believe...he came short of finding what he needed to.
Regardless of all their lost efforts, and so many lives lost that were so important to him, they had not found the antidote to the apocalypse of the Diseased ones.
To make matters worse, they weren't actually quite far from it. The cure was in New York. To spare the details, it was made accidentally, sort of like how the great discovery of penicillin was discovered.
A team of five named Rosetta Baron, Lucinda Port, Tyler Sernt, Ava Long, and Jordan Fressico, were all in a small yet convenient warehouse that Ava had found and thought it would be an excellent safe haven. She had also picked this place, because her father was a scientist who worked with the government. The government had placed secret workshops and labs in completely ordinary places for their team of elite scientists. Ava's father had died, but instead of sending the government a notice like she was supposed to, she had kept his key card, because the girl always had hopes of becoming a scientist, and she ultimately thought that this was the only way to get an early experience. Every weekend when she didn't visit her mother (her parents were divorced), she would spend time in the secret laboratory.
Then, during the pending apocalypse, she thought it would be necessary to tell her four other friends about her secret shelter, because she wanted to keep them safe.
In this period of two years where they remained concealed underground in the laboratory, they spent most of their time mixing chemicals to find a cure. Their goal was to create a liquid that could be injected into a living human that would prevent the disease from entering their system, like a vaccine. It was quite simple, actually, but they were running low on supplies, so they needed a strong vaccine that was made in small portions. Strong enough to test if it could cure a human.
All five were against testing it on themselves, however, so they concocted a brilliant plan to lure people in, claiming that they had would offer shelter for those who needed it. Written in the fine print that no one cared to read, it had noted that they would have to be tested on in return for the shelter, and then be bitten by one of the Diseased to test if they become one or not. If they didn't within a month, they decided that they would come out of their shelter and brave their vaccine.
But they needed a Diseased creature to begin with.
Again, no one volunteered to die for the sake of the vaccine.
Later that same night, Ava Long held a crisp, clean blade close to her chest and she crept through the halls silently. In her other hand, was syringe with a dark purple substance in it. The knife was there if she struggled too much. The syringe was there, for more obvious reasons.
Ava walked slowly, silently, down the corridors until she found room 2B. It was locked-and Ava had expected that. She took the blade and fiddled around with it in the knob. After a few tries, it clicked.
Ava readied her weapons as she kicked the door open, causing Lucinda Port to sit up in bed, looking around.
"Ava...?" she asked nervously, sitting in a hunched position over her knees.
Ava held her index finger up to her lips as she strode over to the small bunk in the corner.
"Please don't, Ava...please. I'm begging you, please spare my life-"
Ava sighed, a frown tugging her lips downward.
"Lucy, you see, you would dead without me. I've spared your life up until now, therefore I determine if and when you die. And it's about that time. We need one of those sick, bloody bastards locked up tight in a cage for testing." She explained, offering a small, sick and twisted smile to the girl whose face was wet with sweat and tears.
"You'll be doing this for the greater good, Lucy. Don't you want that? To die, so that others could live?"
With that final statement, Ava plunged the knife into Lucinda's heart. Blood seeped from her body, staining the white sheets she was covered in. Then, Ava pulled out the knife and sunk it deep into her chest again, and again, and again. The dead girl couldn't look anymore lifeless than she did right now.
Ava then pulled out the syringe with the venomous, lethal liquid inside it. It was one of their first experiments, and it had done just the opposite of what they wanted it to do, which was turn the person into one of the Diseased, rather than reverse it or prevent it from happening.
As she prepared the syringe, she didn't feel the least bit of guilt for stabbing her friend, her companion to death. And she didn't feel it when she injected the liquid into her system, either, which would ultimately cause Lucinda to feel the upmost pain.
When Ava cleaned up the scene as much as she could, she walked back to her own room, as if nothing had happened. She had just killed her friend, and it hadn't phased her in the least.
The next morning, they all sat at a table where they ate a quaint breakfast.
"Ava, we have some issues to discuss." Tyler began, nervously glancing at the girl.
She sighed and took a quick bite out of an apple, and then placed it back on her plate.
"Of course, Tyler."
"Well, um, we visited Lucinda's room this morning, and we didn't see Lucinda."
Ava chuckled to herself.
"Well, my dear Tyler, what did you see?"
Tyler looked at Rosetta, his eyes reading nothing but worry.
"Ava, we saw Lucinda. But she wasn't Lucinda, if you know what I mean." Rosetta explained, using her hands to convey more of a peaceful situation.
"Oh? Rosetta, I have no clue what you mean. Please, enlighten-"
"Ava, you know what you did. We didn't discuss that and we think it's fair if you're banished from the shelter. Either that, or you must be a test subject for our vaccinations."
Ava cackled with laughter, and when she was done, she slammed her fist on the table.
"You fools-I own you. I saved your lives, I gave you shelter, food, everything! Now, you pay me back. You give me what I want. And I wanted Lucinda to die, so that we may use her for our experiment to find the proper vaccine!" She shouted, furious. "You should be lucky that I didn't kill you!"
With that, she left.
The three didn't question her anymore.
They lured in people, supplied them with their own rooms, and called them by the numbers of their rooms, for example, a young man who was named Rodger was now named C3. They would be injected with a vaccination, and if they didn't become Diseased the next day, they would be moved on to the next trials. They would take another amount of the same vaccine, and then they would use the Diseased Lucinda to bite them, and attempt to kill them. If they didn't die or become Diseased over the next month, they would confirm that they found the cure.
And one day, they finally did. They released the vaccine in a widespread, and after almost a year's worth of injecting everyone who wasn't bitten with the vaccine, everyone had started their next phase, which would last over seven years. Everyone would go through so many hardships, trying to recover over the death of their loved ones, rebuilding the government, reconstruct everything that had been destroyed; 'The Clean Up'.

THE END.
I apologize in advance if you're looking for a Walking Dead fanfic. Just so you know, I adore theWalking Dead, but none of the characters are in my novel. thank you for understanding & enjoy!x