I met my friend, Kevin, when he was trying to defend me from a man that wanted to kill me for gas.

He had severe pneumonia and planned on stealing antibiotics from Synthia, but when she offered him a bed to sleep in and a hot meal, he became devoted to protecting her after he got better.

It took a long time for him to get used to me because I was weird. I never blamed him for it; to him, I was a bit of a startling sight

But, once we got closer, he treated me like he treated Synthia.

He had an uncommon personality of the time.

He would give his life if it meant Synthia and I would be okay in the end because he loved us.

Ivy had his personality.

She was selfless.

She asked about Andreas the whole time I watched her, not even concerned what was going on inside of her.

But, she wasn’t doing good, which worried me. She had started coughing up blood right after I administered the cure, which meant it was eating at her lungs. It had stopped after a few hours, but it was hard for her to do much of anything at all.

She couldn’t eat, drink, and speaking was a chore, but she would still say, “How’s Andreas” every few hours.

Andreas’ health was escalating quickly and Danny was in the process of helping her back on her feet. I didn’t tell Ivy because I didn’t want to risk her giving up.

I was exhausted because I spent every day and night with her. I wanted her to get better as soon as possible and wouldn’t willingly just leave her.

I must’ve fallen asleep because Danny startled me unintentionally with the door.

“Kaleb, you should go eat. You don’t look too good,” he stated, moving my hair.

“I don’t want to leave,” I grumbled.

“If you don’t eat, you might get sick. I want to talk to Ivy anyways.”

“Lin, please go eat. I’ll be okay long enough for you to go eat,” Ivy breathed, shifting her eyes away from me to Danny.

I got up and hurried to go get something to eat so that I could get back quickly. I changed my mind halfway to the cafeteria and stopped to check in on Jacob. I held his hand and felt his face.

He was warm and breathing normally. He had a lot of life left in him, which gave me a bit more hope for when we gave him the cure.

I left him to find a vending machine with my favorite snack in it. Fortunately, there was one close to Ivy’s room, so I got my snack and went back to her room, eating it quickly.

I paused outside because I could hear Danny talking to Ivy.

“I talked to Veronica and she said that, since you have been so willing to help us, you can leave when you and Andreas are healthy again,” he spoke as I walked in. I could tell it was around the end of their conversation, so I wasn’t going to be intruding too much.

“That’s good,” she replied. “But, who is Veronica?”

“She’s kind of like the main decision-maker of everything. Enlisted me and decided that Lin could stay. How are you feeling?”

“Horrible.”

“I can fix that if you trust me.” She noticed me standing there then and sighed.

“What are you going to do?”

“Cancer Z is infectious through the warmth and bacteria in the mouth. The original virus was given straight into the blood before it could fizzle out. In undead with moderate mouth temperatures, it remains contagious until the corpse dies. The only form of the virus left is what’s in Lin and Andreas’ blood, but they can’t spread the infection.”

“Okay?”

“With the use of the virus, my normal mouth temperature, and your trust, I can give you Cancer Z.”

“You want to bite me? Isn’t that dangerous to you?”

“Ivy, I’m a lot like you in how my body is structured. I can’t get sick from the infection.” She thought about it and moved her shoulder out of the medical gown. Danny used a swab of, I was guessing, my white blood cells and ran it against his lengthened canines. He closed his mouth and his eyes turned the deathly shade of pale blue. He laughed a little and bit into Ivy’s shoulder. It felt so unethical to watch, but I’m assuming he was right about how fast the virus could just leave. The original was a lot more stable than the “aftermarket” one.

Her pupils dilated and face gained all of its color back. She looked much more like herself in a matter of minutes. He was a bit shaky, though, but smiled at her with her blood on his teeth. He wiped them off with a paper towel and threw it away.

“That cure is pretty shocking to my system.” He moved his hair and glanced up at the clock. “Oh, well, I have to get back to Andreas.” He gave her a kiss on the side of her head gently and left. I was so happy to see her in such a healthy state that I held onto her tightly, squeezing her in my arms. She didn’t try to push me away. She rested her chin on my shoulder and put her head against mine.

That night, I was eating an actual meal with Danny, who was reading over his notes.

“Kaleb?” he muttered after a bit of silence.

“What’s up?” He met eyes with me before searching for the words to say.

“I’m sorry for the way I treated you. I know you only mean the best and without you here, I wouldn’t be here. My anger would’ve… gotten me killed because I’m not immortal. If you weren’t here, they would have shot me in the head and left me to rot away.” He gripped the back of his head and gripped his hair between his fingers. “You keep me a bit more… level-headed. And, without you, there would’ve been no cure.” He took a bite of his grilled cheese without soup on it and chewed it slowly. “Why didn’t you want to leave Ivy with me?”

“It had nothing to do with you.” I thought about my answer and decided I’d just tell him why I wanted to stay with her. “Back at the pharmacy, I had friend named Kevin there. He was selfless and strong; he did anything he could to protect Synthia and me. One day, we got attacked by a group of men and women that just wanted to take everything we had. Military men were there, so I could’ve gone up to help Kevin, who was shooting people from the roof. I stayed with Synthia because I didn’t want her to get hurt because she was my world.” I felt a bit uneasy, thinking of the day.

“You don’t need to finish if you don’t want to.”

“No, I’m fine. Anyways… we got the room cleared out fairly quick, so I went to get him from the roof. But, he wasn’t there, just a man with a hole in his leg and anger on his face. I went to the edge and saw Kevin had been impaled on a stray pole. He had already died by the time I got there. If I had stayed with him, maybe he would’ve made it. He was a good person; him and Ivy have the same personality.”

“What happened to the thief? Did you shove him off?” He scoffed, irritated by the thought of the man. “Shoot him? Break his--”

“I ate him alive.” Tears welled up in my eyes and his face dropped in horror, paling. “That’s why when Ivy asked me what was another dead body to me, I got mad. I killed whoever Synthia told me to kill. If there was a chance that a person would touch her in any way, they weren’t leaving the premisses unless their comrade left with their bones.” I moved my hand over my mouth, getting lost in my thoughts. Danny seemed mortified, which was a valid response to this all.

I was the monster people feared, and I’d do it again and again if it meant my friends would be safe.

“Lin, I would’ve never thought that of you. I didn’t even know you ate human flesh before you came here.” I leaned back and popped my jaw.

“I value my friends’ lives over anything. If I hurt a friend, I would kill myself for them if they asked. I’ve always been aware of the ‘terms and conditions’ of existing in this world. I became the brainless being that followed the smart human around like a dog on a leash. Much like those zombies that followed Ivy; she was the smartest of them, so they listened to her. I was an ungodly creature with a mother-like woman that took me in. I was only fourteen after all.”

“You were fourteen when you were bit?”

“Yes.” He seemed more shocked by that, even though they had estimated about that much. It was probably more alarming to hear it as a number. I leaned on my hand and pierced a piece of fruit with my fork.

“So, you’ve been this for seven years?”

“Eight soon.”

“What? Your birthday is soon?”

I nodded and counted how many days after my birthday I was turned. “My birthday is May 21st and I was bit around May 30th. So, it’ll be about eight soon.”

“Your birthday was yesterday?” I got up.

“Yeah. I’m gonna go check on Jacob. Don’t tell him this stuff; I’ll talk to him about it when I have the need to. You can finish my fruit.” I left the cafeteria, leaving him stirring in his seat to know more about me. I felt emotionally exhausted and stuck in my head. I needed to get back to who I was and not what I became. I wasn’t a violent, killing monster; I did it on command, not for pleasure.

All I needed was to know that I wasn’t what others thought I was.

That was a bit harder to accomplish.