if we survive

t w e n t y e i g h t

a s h

As soon as Holden left the medical cabin Benji looked at me. "He said he knew I gave you a note. What the hell did you tell him? What note?"

"I didn't tell him anything. I don't know about any note, I hid the walkie underneath the mattress in the room he locked me in. As far as I know he has no idea it's there." I tugged on the handcuffs making sure they were secure enough to hold me back.

"Whatever, Ethan might've said something." Benji said and sat down at the edge of the hospital cot I lay on. "I should probably tell you exactly what you'll be going through in the next four hours and after the cure kicks in."

I nodded taking a deep breath. He continued, "First, you'll get nauseous and really hungry. Second, you'll start to cough up red blood, your eyes will get bloodshot, and you'll get an extremely high fever. Third, you'll crave a living meal. Finally, your vision will turn red and you'll start acting like a rabid dog."

"This sounds lovely." I mumbled clearing my throat. "So at what point do I start producing black blood? Because if I look down and the sheets are black I might panic.

"After about ten minutes of the final symptoms, your red blood will rot and spill out of your mouth, ears, and open wounds. It will not be pretty." Benji said. He cringed at the thought of blood pouring from my mouth, ears, and wounds.

"How do you know all of this if you've never tested the cure?" I was slightly afraid of how he would reply, according to the look on his face he hadn't been telling me the entire truth.

"I may have tried it in Mika without getting permission..." He mumbled letting his sentence trail off. "I tried it with the ingredients we had, turns out we had everything I needed but something went wrong in the last stage and she had already been taken over by the virus." He glanced at me before hesitantly adding one more detail, "I examined her after I...put her out of her misery...and I figured out what went wrong, tweaked it a little, and here we are."

"I'm sorry about Mika, and I'm sorry you couldn't save her." I said giving him as sincere of a look as I could. "She was incredible."

Benji nodded. "She was my best friend, and I'm going to make sure this cure works for you so that you can go back to your best friend. I don't want them to bare the pain I have."

"You don't even know who he is." I stated. My stomach suddenly growled and I felt the sudden urge to yack.

Benji glanced at my stomach then back at me nervously. He stood up and basically ran to the back room without another word. I cleared my throat trying to force down whatever I was about to throw up. I hadn't eaten it two days but somehow I still had to turn over and vomit clear liquid that felt like acid climbing out of my throat. Benji came back with a torn rag he'd wet dabbing it around my face to wipe off the sweat but only picking up some of the dry blood and dirt.

"I didn't expect your symptoms to start this soon, your brother was right you have shitty immune system." Benji stated with dry laugh. I sat back up with my head leaning against the wall behind me. "At this rate you'll start coughing up blood in—" I cut Benji off by etching over in a fit of cough with red blood dripping from my lips. I felt like I was being eaten from the inside out. Benji cursed and ran back into the backroom only to come back with another wet rag. He sat this one carefully on my forehead. I closed my eyes as my stomach grumbled again and I could feel more coughs coming up. I leaning over spitting out blood like I'd been poisoned. Sweat poured from my pores and dripped into my eyes. The more blood I coughed up the weaker I felt. I saw Benji watching me with concern and my stomach growled louder. I closed my eyes tight to get the urges to cease. Everything was happening so fast I couldn't tell what symptoms I was experiencing at this point. Suddenly, yelling echoed from outside. I could hardly pay attention to what was happening around me over the pain my internal organs were going through. I heard the cabin door slam open and my attention turned towards it. Everything around me was tinted red and I couldn't make out who was standing in the door but I knew his voice.

"What the hell did you do to him?" It was unmistakably Adam. He slid down next to me and cupped my face in his palms. "No. No no no no, Ashton look at me. Look at me!" His voice was filled with so many emotions.

I reached out until I found his arm. "I'm okay. You need to go." I whispered weakly. My heart was fighting to keep beating. "Go!" I yelled. All I could feel was rage. Whatever was happening to me was killing me. I could feel myself slipping away to the virus. Everything around me faded from red to black.