“Danny, what did Andreas’ blood look like when you tested it?”

“I only tested it in a machine. Her white blood cells were a bit high, but I thought it was because of her wounds. Come to think of it, yours were high, too, when you came here,” he responded calmly, not wanting me to get off the walkie talkie.

“Can you test it again? But, look at it this time.”

“Yeah, I’ll keep you posted.” I felt a sense of relief that he wasn’t going to just yell at me. He was going to be helpful instead of harmful.

I started drawing my blood to put in a centrifuge. If I was right, I needed my white blood cells extracted from the rest of my blood.

Then, the radio went off again, so I answered it.

“Her white blood cells are… odd? Is that what you wanted me to see?”

“Yeah, it is.” I put my blood vials in the centrifuge and started it.

“What does it mean, Lin?”

“Resurrection X was a cure to death, right?”

“Yes, it was. It was unsuccessful, so it wasn’t given in a massive scale like Cancer Z was.”

“Danny, I think Cancer Z mutated or took over the place of normal white blood cells.”

Cancer Z was what it sounded like: a cure for cancer.

Its purpose was to kill off cancer cells to cure the one sick with it. But, even if it worked for a short amount of time, it ended up killing healthy cells and finally its host. It was real death, so the person stayed deceased.

When given to a healthy human, it ate the healthy cells and left a lifeless corpse that would eventually succumb to the “cure” and die. The space in between was the zombie that could infect others with a bite.

That’s what spread it: a patient, a doctor, a civilian, and finally, mass populations.

It was hard to get rid of because it directly hit from body to body.

Resurrection X was created to bring back to life a dead body. It spread through the air and the environment eventually destroyed whatever was left. It was a bit easier to kill in the air, but not so easy when it found a host.

Over time, my body killed the virus in my mouth while Ivy’s became more and more toxic as she grew older.

Technically, if she had the interest to, she could lick an open wound on a person and they would succumb to the virus quickly.

Resurrection X was more of a virus than Cancer Z.

Cancer Z was closer to a parasite or bacteria. Maybe the latter more than the former.

I needed to go back to the lab to figure out a way to kill Cancer Z or correct it.

I put my radio back on my belt and gathered everything into my backpack. I extracted my platelets from my blood and threw the “waste” in a biohazard bin to make my load lighter.

I left quickly to get back to the base.

I needed stronger equipment and Danny’s help.

He knew how to mutate cells and how to fix problems I didn’t fully understand.

I was almost excited.