Experiment Number One

“What was that thing?” 

Lieutenant Wallace pulled me down the hallway; one of his hands put pressure on my shoulder, and the other held the lantern that illuminated the path he guided me along. The electricity wasn’t back on yet, but Lieutenant Wallace claimed it would be at any moment. He had to get me far away from whatever monster the government was hiding in that cell before they found my cell empty.

“They call it the Infected.”

“The Infected? Like a zombie?” I huffed as my chest started to burn. I could feel the bite from the monster beginning to get to me. A string of venom rushed hot into my veins, making me feel queasy and lightheaded.

“Not quite.”

I waited silently for him to give me more, but he never continued.

For a while, we ran; I didn’t recognize any route we took. How Lieutenant Wallace knew his way around that labyrinth, I wouldn’t know, but he guided me effortlessly through the halls. Eventually, he paused in front of a random door, unlocked it, and ushered me inside.

We entered what looked like a supply closet. The walls were layered with stacks of boxes and random miscellaneous items: Surgical mask, needles, gauze, test tubes, tiny vials, etc. Once the door was shut and locked behind us, Lieutenant Wallace took three boxes and placed them in a triangle formation. He instructed me to sit on one of the boxes and he followed behind me on another. He sat his lantern down on the box in front of us, using it as some sort of a table.

He took off his gas mask and sat it beside the lantern. I took in the sight of him and noticed that his chestnut hair laid in thick, wet clumps on his forehead and his uniform smelt of distant rain. His skin was damp and cold when he touched my arm.

“Why are you all wet?”

“I need to look at your womb,” his voice was thick in concern. He started to pull at the ripped fabric of my shirt, trying to get it off but I pulled myself back as far as I could before he could get any farther.

“Emerye. That-” he paused for a second. “That thing in there is not something to play around with. It has killed people with just one drop of sweat. I need to see what state you’re in so that we can properly move forward.”

“Meaning, if you have to kill me or not,” my voice shook.

“The Infected aren’t zombies. They are just humans who got contaminated by the Dhasl.”

“It looks and sounds like a zombie to me! You’re telling me that after all this, I am going to die from a zomb–”

Lieutenant Wallace clamped his hand over my mouth, stopping my words from breaking through. “Keep your voice down!” He looked towards the door like he was expecting someone to wander through at any moment. “If they find out that you not only tried to escape but that you also found the Infected, the Dhasl, and got bitten- they will not be happy.”

He slowly removed his hand from my face. “What the hell is a Dhasl?” I said, exasperated.

“Let me look at your wound,” he reached towards me, but I pulled myself away again. He let out a huff of irritation.

“Only if you tell me everything you know about everything that’s going on and how they expected me to be a cure for that.”

I watched as his internal monologue played out in his eyes, questioning whether I should know the truth. After a few short seconds, he nods. “Alright, I’ll tell you what I know and that’s it.” He reached towards me again, “First, I have to look at your shoulder.”

Satisfied, I turn the bitten arm towards him so that he can have access. I looked away, having never been that good at handling blood. I feel as he peels away the fabric of my shirt; I wince as blood-soaked pieces rip off my sensitive skin.

“That’s… different.” Lieutenant Wallace said.

“What? Am I dying?” I panicked at the thought of becoming one of those monsters. I would never get back to my siblings then. Who knows when they will ever find another mutant. I would be trapped in those cold, dark cellars for decades before they cured me. The world could be overrun with those things by then. Amilio and Mariana would be dead.

“No, you’re healing.”

I whipped my head over to look at the womb, which looked far better than what I expected. Wet blood was still there, which caused a shiver to run down my spine, but I was fully expecting there to be a puss and my veins turning black from the infection or whatever other sci-fi crap. “What does that mean?”

“I don’t know,” Lieutenant Wallace got up and started to rummage through the boxes in the room. Once he found what he was looking for, he returned beside me with a handful of medical supplies. “I never seen anything like this before. Usually by this point, the parasite had already started to control the host.”

I noticed that the sickly feeling I was experiencing in the hallway had disappeared, with no trace of it left in my body. “So, why am I different?”

Lieutenant Wallace poured rubbing alcohol on a cotton pad and started to clean my shoulder. I winced once the solution burned into my womb. “Well, you are said to be the cure. Maybe Ren Clash was right about something after all.”

“What does that mean?” I asked once more.

His eyes flickered to mine and for a moment, he hesitated, but just like that, he put his attention back onto my shoulder like he wasn’t even phased. “This is a touchy subject, high-class information. I shouldn’t even be telling you any of this.”

“But we had a deal.”

“I know- that doesn’t mean I like it. But in another life I made the decision to always give people a say in their futures. And I’m a man of my word.”

I thought for a moment.

“You’re the reason why Ren Clash and Doctor Taylor keep giving me chances to join their experiments on my own free will.”

His eyes met mine. “There’s a reason you’re not dead right now.”

My gut wrenched at the image. I was only alive because of Lieutenant Wallace. He saved me from the wrath that Doctor Taylor and Ren Clash wanted to release upon me and from death by the Infected. I didn’t know how to feel about it– I still don’t. I never had anyone care about me like that before.

I pushed away the thoughts, “So, tell me what I need to know then.”

He finished dressing my wound and sat all the supplies on the box before us. With a sigh, he ran his fingers through his damp hair and began to talk.

“About a year ago, Ren Clash tracked down a defense weapon called The Sword of Warzel.”

“Warzel?” I amused.

“Yeah. I had the same look on your face when I first heard it too. But trust me, this is not something to laugh about. It’s life threatening. World ending.” His stern voice made the laughter die in my throat.

“Clash convinced the government that the sword was an opportunity to be the greatest world power. It was mythical. Clash researched it for months, although he refused to disclose his sources and the government found no information in their efforts. Clash said if he could somehow extract the power from inside the sword, he can create revolutionary weapons.”

“But the Dhasl got released instead.”

“Clash had Taylor build an extractor machine and once they put the sword in, well they got more than they bargained for. The Dhasl were released and took host of most of the people in the room. After a Dhasl takes someone as their host, you turn into an Infected. The only way to survive from that point on is to infect other people.”

I started to feel surrounded, like the walls of boxes were slowly closing in.

“The Dhasl live on the spread of their disease but the Infected, they need food in their systems so their body doesn’t break down. Usually something as small as a drop of saliva into a humans immune system can do the trick to infect, but the Infected tend to attack in attempt to fuel their system.”

“So they bite people to not go hungry.”

“Biting is the least of it. If I didn’t get to you when I did, you would be torn to shreds.”

I laugh at the seriousness of it all. I couldn’t believe it. “So what? Ren creates a world ending disease and he gets to walk off scot-free? And I’m the most dangerous weapon here. Ren should be the one locked up in a glass cage and watched like an animal 24/7. Not me.”

Lieutenant Wallace’s eyes darkened. “You might not be the most dangerous but you are surely a weapon, and all weapons are lethal. In the wrong hands, your power can destroy nations.”

He was right. I wish I had seen it sooner.

“That’s the end of it,” Lieutenant Wallace got off his box and pulled me towards the door. “We have to start heading back before they get the lights on.”

“Wait,” I yelled as I stumbled out of my seat. “How did you know where to find me?”

“I didn’t,” he turned around to face me. “I was getting back from a… out-of-office meeting and I noticed the power outage. I just happened to stumble upon you.”

He didn’t say anything else and his hand was on the door handle, urging me to follow him back out into the hallway. I nodded at the explanation, despite all the questions I still had.

Before we left, his eyes did a once over and landed on my exposed shoulder. “What we learned about your immunity, it stays between us.” Lieutenant Wallace slipped his gas mask back on, preparing himself against the dark hallways. “Let Clash and Taylor find out themselves, otherwise we’re both dead.”