Jacob was still in a coma and the virus was still not showing up in his blood, which was more concerning because it wasn’t like a human had bitten him. It wasn’t a human bite. The marks were too jagged and were slightly ripped. Zombies hunt to kill, not to infect.
Even Ivy was contagious, but she never got close to him.
The only person she got to gnaw on was me.
I walked into his room with Danny one morning as we considered waking him up. Maybe it would help us figure it all out.
Or kill him.
I wanted to try, but Danny was afraid to. I understood why.
We weren’t technically considered friends because he had a hard time getting close to people, so he always kind of referred to me as a colleague.
But, Jacob was his best friend. They were so close that they spent all their mutual free time together, playing video games or helping each other figure out complicated subjects.
Danny couldn’t get into deep, intellectual conversations with me because he didn’t really think I was smart enough to understand it all.
I didn’t mind; I was just another zombie, after all. I didn’t belong in my position much less on the base, talking to him.
He stood over Jacob and wrote down what the monitors all blinked.
I started fiddling with the medicine that was keeping him asleep.
“Lin, I don’t think this is okay yet,” Danny grumbled.
“We won’t know anything unless we try,” I answered, not addressing him. Then, Jacob’s hand moved and one of his eyes opened. He was calm but not all there; he wasn’t himself.
“Jacob!” Danny exclaimed, startling him.
“Danny, you’re scaring him,” I groaned before moving Jacob’s hair from his face. He smiled at me a bit. “Jacob?” He cringed then and gripped his bandaged up arm. I opened it up and observed the wound, which started protruding the veins in his arm. I started to increase the sedative to put him back under. Almost as soon as his eyes closed, the veins started slowing down along his arm until they just stopped bothering progressing. I started tearing up just looking at him. Danny slammed his fist into a table and yelled at me for anything he could think of. “Danny, was Jacob mutated, too? In the past?”
“Of course not! I hate this! I hate you! I’m so tired of this bullshit! I just want to live a normal life with my best friend!” He screamed his anger and gripped his hair in his hands. “Life used to be so easy! Go to college, go home, go to bed! Now, it’s go to work, get hurt, and go do more work! Jacob and I used to just be frickin’ punks that spray painted billboards and beat the shit out of whoever reprimanded us! Now, we work for a bunch of idiots that mutated me and used me for bad things!”
He silenced and tears ran down his red face. He was shaking and wiping his eyes. His eyes were bloodshot as he opened them.
“Danny, did they mutate Jacob, too?” I asked again.
“He never said if he was or not,” he breathed out. “But, as far as I know, he’s as human as anyone else.”
“That’s the weird thing, Danny. When he’s asleep, the virus doesn’t progress. It’s like his body just shuts down and blocks off everything in his system. Or, maybe, it reverts itself back to a different state of being. But, that wouldn’t make much sense.” I rewrapped his wound and leaned over him to kiss his cheek. “Especially since he’s still sick.” I stepped back away from him and tightened my bun.
“Maybe we should try to get Ivy to give up her blood again. Her strand is a bit more useful in what we’re doing.”
“Resurrection X… is best if he was about to die. He’s fine right now. And, Ivy isn’t gonna spare anything; she wants Andreas and that’s all she’s here for.”
“We could take Andreas to her. But, we can’t stay there long because Andreas isn’t stable enough.”
“I don’t see much of a point. Ivy’s hard-headed, like a child.”
“You two must have a lot in common.” He walked past me and I scoffed.
“I guess, I am hard-headed sometimes.” I followed him out.
That night, when it was quiet, we brought Andreas to Ivy, who was just lying down, throwing and catching the same ball as before.
“Ivy?” Andreas uttered, shocked to see her in the metal and brick cage. Ivy turned her head slowly and rushed to the bars.
“Andreas!” she cried out.
“Baby, why are you in here?”
“I-I was looking for you.” Her arms slacked on the bars. “And, I hurt people. Andreas, I was so worried about you.”
“Ivy, I told you that if anything ever happened to me, that you just had to leave and forget about me. Baby, look where you are now because you didn’t use your head right.”
“Andreas, you just disappeared! I needed you and you were gone!” I could tell their adoration for each other wasn’t one of intimate love. It was like a mother and daughter kind of love. She was listening to Andreas and wasn’t fighting her.
“You are twenty-two years old, Ivy. You don’t need me anymore because you’re an adult. Lin, can I get closer?” I wheeled her closer, and she reached in to hold Ivy’s face.
“Andreas, I was just so worried about you. I couldn’t sleep or eat or do anything else. But, I used zombies to help me. Isn’t that cool?”
“Ivy, nothing about zombies is very cool…” Danny got close to the cell and opened it.
“Ivy, we need your blood. Your horde hurt our friend and we need to test your strand to help him,” Danny informed her. She clung onto Andreas and cried on her shoulder.
“I don’t care what you want,” she scoffed, gripping Andreas close to her. “I want to leave with her.”
“That’s not an option,” I bit. “She’s sick, Ivy. Even if we could steal your blood, you’d never be allowed to leave, you scumbag.” She growled at me and tried to attack me, but Danny snatched her by her hair.
“Ivy,” Andreas sighed.
“Kaleb!” Danny snapped. Ivy elbowed him and met eyes with me.
“You’re a scumbag. You shouldn’t need my blood to fix your pathetic friend. Why not just let him die? I’m sure you’ve killed plenty of people in your worthless life. What’s another worthless corpse to you?” she hissed. I could feel my skin tingle as my hair raised to the electricity in my veins. “What are you gonna do? Shock me again? Kill me?” I went for her, but Andreas stood between us.
“Children!” she yelled between us. “Stop acting up! I want to go back to bed!” Danny went behind her and unclipped the brakes on the wheelchair.
“I’ll take you to bed, Andreas,” he assured. I slammed the jail cell shut for Ivy and left.
I felt so compelled to hate her guts, even though I normally didn’t hate anyone. She paced with rage in her eyes. I wanted to beat her up, but that’s what she wanted.
She wanted me to become a monster.
I refused to humor her.
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