by Lake, D. K.
"Where is he? Is he still at the shopping mall? Wait...how long have I been here?"
"Uhh...nearly four weeks."
"What?!"
I had been out of it for four weeks?!
"So how do you feel?"
"Just peachy." I muttered.
"No, seriously?" Nick laughed, pulling out a clipboard from under the bed, and he started jotting down notes.
"My head hurts and I feel kinda woozy."
"It's the toll the disease took on your body, you were in a bad state when you came in. Your body hasn't really recovered. You still need to rest."
"But I'm ok?"
"I'll monitor you for the next few days...but yeah, you're my first patient that hasn't turned into a vegetable. You just went into a coma, but that was because your body was shutting down. I have since then run a load of tests and everything seems to be all in working order."
"Gee, thanks, you make me sound like a car. So when can I get out of here?"
"I still need you to stay here to monitor you and run some more tests-"
"No, I meant, when can I get these tubes out. I really need to pee...and I don't want to use the tube thingy."
"Oh, um...let me just get my gloves."
"Err, no! Just um, turn around and I can do it myself. I really don't feel comfortable with you...you know?"
"You do realize I am the one that got you changed and inserted-"
"Whoa...ok, stop talking!"
Nick turned around while I removed certain tubes.
Gross. Oww! And did I say 'gross' already?
"All done, now can you get these needles out of me?"
"Of course."
Nick gently removed the needle from my hand and the one in my arm. I had no idea what they were all for. I guessed one was some kind of food source.
"There was a girl?" I asked.
"Ah, Robin. Robin!" he called, and a second later the girl with the auburn hair popped her head around the door.
"Alex, this is Robin, another of my patients."
"Hi." she chirped.
Oh, now she speaks.
"Hey." I mumbled.
They both just stared at me.
"Ok, I still have to pee really badly." I said, swinging my legs over the side of the bed.
"Your legs will feel weak because you haven't used them for some time." Nick informed me, stepping closer to help me off the bed.
"I'm fine." I waved him away.
He stepped back and I put both feet on the floor and stood up. Or I should say, I tried to stand up but my legs collapsed under me.
"Ok, I'm not fine. A little help, please?"
Nick helped me back onto the bed, trying not to look at me with his told you so look.
"Maybe take one step at a time before you try to run."
"Tell that to my bladder. I'm about to wet myself."
"Ewww...gross." Robin cringed.
"I'll get the wheelchair and Robin can help you in the bathroom."
Great.
Nick left the room and Robin just stared at me like I was a zoo animal.
"Can I help you?" I said, feeling uncomfortable.
"Do you like Mean Girls?" she said randomly.
"What?"
"We don't have many movies here, but we do have Mean Girls. It's like my favorite movie." Kill me.
"I um...it was ok. Not my favorite." I finally responded.
"What? How can you not like Mean Girls? It's the best movie ever!"
"Maybe because I went to school with too many mean girls." I said, catching a drop of blood that was seeping out the back of my hand where the needle had been removed, and I noticed all my cuts and grazes had healed on my hands and arms, leaving behind thin pink scars.
"So you didn't have any friends? Aww, that's so sad." Robin said concerned.
"I had friends." Like one.
"Well, now you have me, and we're going to be best friends."
"Ha...uh...where's Nick and that wheelchair?" Save me.
"We have Scrabble as well. I'm the master of Scrabble. Oh, and we do karaoke on Tuesdays and Thursdays. I made a list of fun things for us to do. Nick is a bit of a bore but he joins in if you pester him enough. I'm so excited! You and I can sing together. We have all the songs from Grease. Which is your favorite song? Mine is, You're The One That I want."
"I must still be dreaming," I muttered.
"Oh...I haven't heard of that one before, does Sandy sing it?"
I'm still dreaming. I must be; because this is a nightmare.
What was going on? She was like my worst nightmare. Bouncy. Bubbly. Too smiley. Too pretty. Too tall. Just too much. She was sweet, but she was too much right now. I had just woken up and was trying to process the fact that I was alive, cured, healthy, not dying, and she was already lining me up for the next Grease musical.
I just wanted to take a piss and have a shower. And where was Nick and that damn wheelchair?
"Look, don't take this the wrong way, but I just want to recover and get out of here. I'm not staying for long." I told her.
"You can't leave." she laughed.
"Err...yeah, I can."
"No, Nick will want to keep you here-"
"Here we are! One wheelchair as ordered." Nick said, wheeling it into the room.
Nick helped me into the wheelchair and wheeled me out of the door and into a brightly lit corridor. Both sides of the corridor were identical, and each door had a number, and next to each door there was a window. I turned my head and looked at the window next to the door we had just come through.
Strange, I didn't remember seeing a window on the other side, but there was a mirror. I realized it must be some kind of observation window. I really was a zoo animal.
"Where am I?" I asked.
"Ah, well, we call these the containment rooms, where we keep our test-" he stopped and quickly changed his words. "Patients."
"It's ok, you can say it, I'm an experimental rat."
"Well, I wasn't going to say that."
Nick started to push me past a door with a large window and I raised my hand to stop. I wiggled my finger at him to spin me around so I could look through the window.
"I thought you needed the bathroom?" Nick asked.
"I do, but I want to see what that is." I pointed at the moving figure.
Nick pushed me closer to the window.
"Who's that?" I asked, looking at the deadbie wandering aimlessly around inside the small room. The room was the same as the one I had been in with a toilet and sink, but minus all the other furniture.
It's not like a deadbie needed a bed.
"That is another failed test subject. I'm still running tests. You and Robin are the only two that have survived, but Robin was...um,"
"A cabbage for weeks," Robin said. "I hate cabbage." she added.
"Yes, in a vegetated state, but she eventually came out of it and before I knew it she was bouncing off the walls. Now she rarely sits still for more than two minutes."
"What do you expect? You keep me locked up down here."
"It's for your safety, and we've already talked about this."
"I know."
"Bathroom!" I interrupted.
"This way." Nick wheeled me to the end of the corridor, past more doors and windows. Some were empty and some were occupied with deadbies. It gave me the creeps to think all these deadbies were trapped in here with me. I just hoped all the doors were securely locked.
We went through a door and into another corridor, he wheeled me into some kind of shower room with benches and showers. He pushed me to the end where there were toilet cubicles.
"Do you need me to lift you or do you just want Robin to help you?" Nick asked.
"No, I think I can make it to the toilet. Just wheel me in."
Nick did as I asked but the wheelchair took up most of the cubicle so I couldn't shut the door. So I made them stand around the corner while I tried to lift myself onto the toilet.
But I somehow managed to
slip off the toilet and get stuck between the toilet and the cubicle wall, upside down.
"Errr...Alex? Do you need any help in there?" Nick called.
"I think she fell off the toilet." Robin whispered.
"Ok, we're both coming in." Nick informed me, walking in but all I saw was his legs from this angle, and he wheeled the wheelchair out of the way, then they both helped me back onto the toilet.
Is it possible to die from embarrassment?
Chapter 2
So after an eventful time in the toilet cubicle, I managed to have a shower by myself. I sat on the floor in the shower and let the water spray over me...Ugh, I need to shave. Badly!
Thoughts of Lane filled my head, and I smiled to myself because for once, I knew he was right. He had told me his brother would help me and I just went along with it even though I didn't believe it. And now look at me, I was alive, I hadn't turned, I had survived, I was still here. I knew the first thing he would say to me when I saw him again would be something along the lines of 'see, I told you my brother would help you'. I would be hearing about this for the rest of my life.
I washed my hair and body with the toiletries that Nick had given to me, and as I was lathering up my hair, thoughts of Drew started to seep into my head.
Drew had saved my life as well, he had made sure I made it to Colorado. Without him, I didn't think I would have ever made it. I wouldn't have bothered. He saved my life.
But none of that mattered now. He was gone. He had left me. He couldn't even be bothered to say goodbye to me. I shouldn't care, and I shouldn't waste another minute thinking about him.
But tell that to my stupid brain. I was so angry with him.
I threw the shampoo bottle across the room and it hit the wall on the other side and I scrubbed my body a little harder than necessary, trying hard to forget about him.
My legs were starting to feel stronger and I managed to get to a bench to sit down so I could dry myself. Nick returned while I was in the shower with a pile of clothes, and afterward, I got changed. Skinny jeans, a little tighter than I liked, a bra that was one of the things Dawn had picked out for me back at the shopping mall and it was the perfect fit, and a plain black vest top, clean underwear and socks, and the boots were mine and it felt good to be back in them, someone had even cleaned them up for me.
I stood in front of the mirror and tried to detangle my chaotic hair with my fingers, I had no brush, and I was glad I had chopped my hair off when I had, otherwise, this would have been a nightmare.
When I was finished I sat back in the wheelchair (just for fun) and wheeled myself out into the corridor where I found Robin waiting for me. She was sitting on the floor with a notepad on her lap, sketching.
"Did you manage ok?" she asked, looking up at me with her hazel eyes.
"Yup. All sorted."
"Do you need me to push you?"
She slid up the wall as she stood up and put her sketchpad under her arm.
"Nah, I'm just being lazy."
I rolled past her and headed for the door at the end.
"Um, Alex, that's a cleaning closet." Robin informed me as I reached for the handle.
I slowly pulled my hand back, and the memory of Drew and I trapped inside a closet together flashed through my mind. He called me Pretty.
My hand fell to my lap as I remembered the green-haired boy that had kept me sane in my final days before I made it here. But I refused to think about him. Don't cry. Why did I feel this way?
Maybe it was my hormones, maybe the whole being bitten thing had done something to me? I wasn't one for feelings.
But knowing I would never see him again...it hurt.
Damn Drew, why didn't he say goodbye?
"Is everything ok?" Robin appeared beside me with a concerned look on her face.
I just nodded and she gestured for me to follow her.
"Nick's this way."
I turned the wheelchair around and rolled behind her.
Jerk. I hate him.
That was what I was feeling, hate and anger. Nothing more.
At least, that's what I told myself as I followed Robin down the corridor.
She entered a pin into the keypad and held the door open for me.
Ok, so I could probably walk from here but the wheelchair was quite comfy.
I followed her down another corridor with white walls and gray doors, and the smell of chemicals filled the air. I noticed some of the doors had name plaques on them.
Chen's Hideout.
Cliff's Domain.
Nick's Lab.
When we reached the end, Robin keyed in the numbers on the door code to open the door again. I only caught the last two digits. But I wasn't panicking. It's not like I was locked in a cell, and Robin seemed to know all the access codes and she looked younger than me. I wasn't a prisoner. If I wanted to leave, then I could leave, right?
Nick just wanted to run a few more tests and then he'd send me on my merry way, back to Lane.
Back to the real world. A world full of death and human leftovers.
I was expecting another dull corridor on the other side of the door, but instead, I was surprised to see sunny yellow walls and a plush red carpet. Robin walked into a room a few doors down. I wheeled to a stop outside the room and saw Nick sitting at a desk with a cup of tea in one hand as he jotted down notes.
"Ah, there you are." Nick put his teacup down and turned to look at me with a smile on his face.
"How are you feeling?"
I shrugged. "Just tired."
"Yes, you will feel that way for a few days. You will need plenty of rest and proper food to regain your strength."
I peeked through the office door and then looked down the hallway, it looked vaguely familiar to me.
It wasn't what I had been expecting when I first arrived, cheery walls, posh carpet, expensive artwork hanging on the walls, and what was that smell?
I glanced around Nick's office and spotted a burning candle on his desk.
Apple cinnamon. At least it got rid of the chemical hospital smell that lingered near the other end of the corridor.
"So, we need to go over a few rules while you're staying here." Nick said, spinning around in his chair and clasping his hands together in his lap. Rules?
Robin hopped up onto the desk and picked up a cookie off the plate, swinging her legs back and forth.
"You can wander around wherever you want down here, it's only me that lives down here, the code for the doors is all the same 3187. I've made it so you don't need the key to get in, but obviously, don't mess around in the science labs or touch anything that looks expensive. You'll be sharing with Robin and staying in one of my old lab partner's apartments. There are books, games, and a TV, just try not to break anything."
TV and games? Electric. I just had a hot shower. This place was amazing!
"Have you been here since the start of the outbreak?" I asked, curiously.
"Uhh, well, I was originally at the university for a few months, but then I was soon transferred over here when the previous researchers were infected."
"Have you ever been outside?" I asked.
"Not recently." Nick replied.
"So that's it, don't break anything and don't go in the lab, and I can do whatever I want?"
"Yes, but there is one more thing."
I folded my arms.
"Code red." he said deadpan.
"Code red?" I repeated, glancing at Robin who was braiding the end of her auburn hair.
"Yes, code red. If one of us says 'code red', it's because Miriam is on her way down and you have to hide."
"Come again?"
"Technically you're not supposed to be down here. You see, we have very strict procedures and everything is documented, and I'm only allowed to experiment on the test subjects that are brought in. They are all tagged and have a number-"
"I'm number 220." Robin butted in, flashing me her wristband that looked like a hospital wristband.
"Ye
s, they are all numbered, and well, you're not because you shouldn't even be down here. But my last lot of test subjects never arrived, there was a problem with the shipment, and it got delayed and then I heard it crashed, but anyway it never arrived. So I had been twiddling my thumbs, not being able to move forward with my research so I said I would take you in because we had space and I really wanted to try out my latest vaccine and then Robin woke up which is great and that's kept me busy with documenting her recovery."
"Wow, you make me feel so wanted."
"So you see, you can't be here because I would get into deep-"
"Shit!" Robin interrupted.
"Yes, that."
"But I am here." I stated.
"I know, and you're safe here, but if Miriam comes down to check in on me and see how Robin is, you will have to make yourself scarce."
"Who is this Miriam person?"
"She's like the queen bee around here, and you don't mess around with her. She rarely comes down here, I usually keep her updated via messages delivered by Ross, and we have a meeting upstairs once a week, but she does sometimes come down here, and on the odd occasion she will visit the Testing Zone and have a peek inside the containment rooms. Anyhow, now you're mobile you can move into the apartment with Robin, Miriam doesn't go inside there."
"So what now?" I asked.
"Now we eat. Are you hungry?" Nick asked.
Chapter 3
The 'apartment' as Nick called it was more like a five-star hotel.
Everything looked new and shiny. Cream walls with wooden trims, a red plush carpet, chandelier lighting, a bathtub the size of a small shed that doubled as a jacuzzi, 50 inch TV, Xbox, stereo, four-poster king-size bed, fake windows which were actually screens and gave the illusion that you were on the top floor of a skyscraper in New York, views included. And a bidet!
I wandered around in a daze, it all felt so surreal, it felt like only yesterday I was in the hot desert, sweaty, dusty, and sunburned, wandering around looking for water, and now here I was in some luxury apartment with expensive artwork hanging on the walls and scented candles everywhere.
"What do you think?" Robin asked excitedly as she flopped onto the over-sized bed.
"It's...like a dream."
