I went to a lab as soon as I got on base and locked the door behind me. I waited for Danny to catch on to the fact that I was there.
He came in and relocked the door. He took my hands in his, and we exchanged “hello”s.
He noticed how pale I was from taking my own blood (maybe a bit too much). I didn’t care and quickly started helping him figure it all out.
“So, Lin, what is this gonna do if we get it to work?” he asked.
“If we do it right, it’ll become an airborne illness. It will kill the zombies caused by Cancer Z and Resurrection X. In Resurrection X, it’ll attack the virus (since it’s so easy to kill) and take it out of the system all together. Ivy will be our test subject if I can get her to help me. And, Andreas will be the other test subject. They will be directly infected instead, and we will have to wait.” I put up my hair and Danny gripped my shoulder.
“What will it do to you and Andreas? In a theoretical sense, you could say.”
“It should fix us. Make us dormant, let us live normal lives. I’ll be younger; she’ll be stable. We will no longer be considered zombies. Andreas will confirm it if she gets better.”
“So, this doesn’t kill the Canzer Z?”
“It stops it from working like it does. It stops the killing of healthy cells. In theory, it will make humans who get infected by it like me. A side-effect that still ensures that a person will still be alive.”
“What about lifespans?” He seemed concerned about that question, but I didn’t have a good answer.
“I don’t know. Could shorten it, could lengthen it. I could age again. I could not. Daniel, this is all about chance and theory. Hope and prayer.” He put his hair back with his headband and got back to work.
I knew why I lived.
Cancer Z attacked cancer, which meant I had cancer.
Instead of hurting me, I was lucky enough to survive it.
In a world like this, cancer was not uncommon. It was the biggest cause of death after the zombie outbreak, which meant by sheer chance, Andreas and I survived the infection of our bodies.
She was hanging on for dear life, though, which was because the infection was slower in her. She needed the cells to stop doing what they were doing to her.
It felt like a few hours passed when it was actually several days of work and trial and error.
When we had a solid base for it all, it was time to get a bit of a break, which was an hour nap, showers, and dinner.
After all that, I had to go to Ivy.
She was curled up in her jail cell cot with her ball. I opened the cell, making her give me some attention. She wouldn’t have if I had said anything.
“Ivy, I think we figured out a cure, but I need your help,” I informed her.
“Well, what do I get out of this?”
“I can get you in a proper medical bed.”
She shrugged, seeming uneasy, but got up anyways.
“If this works out, Andreas will be back to normal. We’re giving it to her, too.”
“Okay.” I pulled her close to me.
“I won’t let anything happen to you, I promise.”
“I want Andreas to be okay; I could care less what happens to me.”
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