by Lake, D. K.
"I don't remember. There was an explosion and then it all goes blank."
"One of those assholes fired a rocket launcher at us."
"What?"
"Yeah. Zoe died in the crash, she didn't have her belt on." he whispered, pulling me away from Ross so he wouldn't hear us. "And Ross doesn't have much time left."
I instinctively went to rub my hand over my forehead and run my fingers through my hair but I forget I had a huge cut there and I jabbed it with my fingers instead.
"Oww...fuck."
"We need to get that patched up." Lane said, looking at me.
"No, I'm okay." I stepped back on shaky legs as Ross cried out for Zoe again. I wasn't about to tell him to shut up because he was on death's door, but he was going to attract deadbies to us, but the huge fire would probably draw them in first. I needed to find a weapon.
Wait, where's Drew?!
"Drew!" I gasped, my lips parting in shock.
I was so confused by the head wound I had forgotten Drew was with us.
"Ohmigod. Is he dead?!" I started to panic, walking back to the helicopter which was still on fire and blazing.
"Alex, no, don't go over there! It's dangerous!"
"Drew!" I practically screamed.
"He's okay." Lane held his hands up, trying to calm me down before pulling me into a tight hug.
I didn't want hugs. I wanted to find Drew. Where was he? Lane took hold of my arm and walked me back over to Nick.
"We need to fix your head before you lose too much blood." Lane started saying but I was already walking away.
"Alex!" Lane called.
"Drew!" I yelled, looking into the dark woods, screw the deadbies.
We had crashed in the middle of the woods, surrounded by trees. I spun around in circles, searching for him. There was so much smoke and the trees shielded most of the moonlight which wasn't helping.
"Drew!....Shit." I cursed, tripping over a fallen tree branch. "Drew!" I wandered around in circles, searching for him.
"Alex! Get back here!" Lane yelled.
I was just about to march back to Lane and scream at him some more, I was sure he was lying to me about Drew. What if Drew was dead? The very thought of it hurt and I clutched my stomach. I couldn't lose Drew as well. We had already lost Robin and Zoe, and Ross was about to die and I couldn't watch, it was horrible listening to him as he cried out for Zoe, and then there was Josh who we had left back at the university grounds, I just hoped he was safe and had got out of there.
I turned around to yell Drew's name again when I bumped into someone and they put their hand on my shoulder.
"Drew!" I breathed, taking in his appearance.
His hair was stuck up in places, his face was still covered in dried mud but now there were smudges of blood across his jaw and cheek. His shirt was torn and he had his crossbow in his hand and there was blood dripping from his fingers.
"You're bleeding." I breathed, looking at his hand and then back at his face, running my shaky fingers over his cheek trying to locate the cut. I was so glad he was alive.
"It's not mine. It's yours, I carried you out." he explained, holding onto my wrists and stopping me from pawing him all over his face.
I was still freaking out. Not because we had been in a crash and that this night was turning into a nightmare, not because we were in the middle of the woods and we needed to get as far away as possible. I was freaking out because I thought Drew was dead.
But he wasn't dead, he was standing in front of me but I still couldn't get my head around it, probably because my head was throbbing and still bleeding.
"I-I thought you were dead." I muttered.
"This is going to need stitches." Drew said, ignoring my freak out as he moved my hair to the side so he could inspect my forehead.
"I couldn't find you, there was so much smoke. I didn't know where you were. I thought...I thought you were still inside the wreck. I-I..." I couldn't finish my sentence I was babbling so much, I didn't even know what I was saying.
I clung to the front of his t-shirt, scared he would disappear like he normally did, scared he wasn't real and I was seeing things. He started talking to me, telling me everything was going to be okay to calm me down while he ripped his flannel shirt to pieces that was around his waist.
"Alex, you need to calm down. You're in shock and you probably have a concussion."
I started sobbing. I felt broken. It was like something had broken inside of me and I started crying, clinging to Drew.
He pressed the fabric to my forehead and wrapped it around my head the best he could. I couldn't think straight, I knew I should be worried about my head but I was so overwhelmed that we were alive and had survived the helicopter crash. Shouldn't we be dead? Maybe I was dead? I was in Hell. This was Hell.
"Am I dead?"
"What? No. Shh...come here." Drew pulled me into his arms and placed his hand gently on my head as he held me close to his chest.
"Zoe's dead."
"I know...Shh."
"And Ross is dying right now."
"I know, he was messed up pretty bad when I pulled him out."
"Did you pull me out as well?"
"Yes, and then I went back for Ross while Lane was keeping Nick safe because when we crashed we were met with two deadbies trying to climb into the crash while we were trying to get out."
"Where were you before? I couldn't find you. I kept calling you." I sucked in a deep breath.
"I was checking the area to make sure there weren't anymore deadbies, but we need to get out of here as soon as possible. The wreck is gonna draw more to us."
"Did you get hurt in the wreck?" I asked, looking up at him.
"No, just a few scrapes and bruises." he replied, looking down at me.
Why was it that in the middle of all this chaos all I could think about was the fact we were standing in each other's arms, our faces only inches apart? My breathing was still uneven because I had been crying and I was still trying to catch my breath.
"I'm sorry, I just panicked...I couldn't find you and I thought you were..."
"It's okay." His lips lifted at the corners into a small smile to reassure me.
"No, it's not. Other people are dying and I'm having a freak attack."
"I had the same freak attack when we crashed and you were still unconscious and I thought you were dead."
"You saved my life again." I smiled weakly.
He stroked the side of my face and the air seemed to change and everything went quiet for a moment, and it was like we were back in the lab again, standing so close, our lips so close.
"Alex!" Lane called and I jumped out of Drew's arms.
Lane and Nick trudged over to us, Lane was holding a machete and Nick was holding Ross's knife that he kept on his waist belt.
"What happened with Ross?" I asked with a grim expression. Nothing good happened, I knew he was dead by now.
"He had too many injuries and was losing too much blood, there was nothing we could do." Lane said simply.
Nick was quiet, staring at the ground by my feet, not saying anything.
"What's the plan now?" Drew asked.
"We're still going to D.C. but it will be a lot harder with less of us to keep each other safe." Lane explained.
"Yes, but I still need you to come with us." Nick said, his eyes pinned on my face now and not on the ground anymore.
"You need me? I'm not your little lab rat. This whole thing was a bad idea. I don't even know why I agreed to this."
Lane was looking at me like I'd done something wrong.
"What?" I snapped.
"Alex, you're an important part of my research. It was always you."
"Look, I'm really grateful that you cured me but now I just wanna be free. I will not be anyone else's science project, and there's no way I'm letting anyone lock me up to use me for science." I said firmly.
Drew frowned and looked at me with this odd look on his face like he had only just thought a
bout the possibility that I might get chopped up and experimented on for real this time.
"You can't just leave." Nick said getting snippy with me.
Nick was so well mannered and he rarely raised his voice, only very rarely to tell Robin and me to keep it down if we were driving him mad, but he was getting all weird and his tone sounded angry.
"Nick, you created a cure, and you cured me. All you have to do is get your research into the right hands and they can do the rest, you don't need me. We can get you there, but I'm not going into Washington with you, it's where Robin was abducted, I just don't want to risk getting locked up for any reason."
"We lost all our bags in the crash." Lane randomly said.
"What? But your research?" I gaped at Nick.
But Nick didn't look too concerned about the fact that we had just lost years of his research and the cure along with it.
"Why don't you look very concerned? We have nothing left to prove you have the cure, you just lost everything." I said.
It was all for nothing. Robin, Zoe, and Ross had died for nothing.
"We have everything we need right here." Nick said and Lane looked at me.
I didn't get it, was I missing something?
"But we have nothing!" I said again.
What was going on? Were they all mad? It was over.
"No, you don't understand, you're the cure. I need you to come with me, we need you for the cure." Nick insisted.
"We need to leave." Lane said, coming over to get me.
"What are you talking about?" I asked as Lane got closer to me but Drew's hand shot out and grabbed my arm and I found myself being pulled away and Drew was suddenly in front of me with his crossbow aimed at Lane.
"What the fuck are you doing?" Lane growled.
I edged closer to Drew and peeked over his shoulder at Lane.
"She said she doesn't want to go. I agreed to help get you and your brother there but now you don't have your research it seems pretty fucking pointless if you ask me, and if Alex doesn't want to go then you're not taking her with you." Drew said.
"Are you kidding me? You're really gonna shoot me?" Lane asked in a mocking tone. "Have you lost your mind?" Lane laughed darkly.
"Alex is the cure." Nick said again, what was with him? Yes, I'm cured, we already knew that, but now we have nothing to show for it. I was cured and no one would believe that Nick had cured me and that I had even been infected before.
"What do you mean she's the cure. You fixed her. You don't need her. If you wanna go to Washington and have a chat with your little scientist buddies there then go right ahead. I can get you there but you're not taking her." Drew ground out.
"Says who? Alex is coming with me!" Lane said in a low tone, scowling at Drew who still had his bow aimed at Lane's head.
"What I mean is..." Nick stepped forward and looked me dead in the eyes. "Alex is the cure. Robin was dying until I injected her with some of Alex's blood."
"Eww...what? Why would you do that?" I asked confused.
Lane was looking at me with this stern look on his face like he already knew all this, what else had they been chatting about while Ross was dying?
"The vaccine I tested on Robin didn't work, she appeared to get better but she was a vegetable, she was useless, the virus came back and she was still infected."
"You told everyone she wasn't infected anymore." I snapped.
"And she wasn't...not after I gave her some of your blood. You reacted differently to the vaccine."
"What do you mean I reacted differently? Did I get up and do a little dance?"
"I'm a scientist, we experiment. Robin wasn't getting any better and the most we got out of her was a few inaudible words, we would have had to put her down eventually because her system was starting to reject the vaccine and traces of the disease came back. So I gave her the new strain of vaccine I used on you but it didn't make a difference."
"So why did it work for me and not her?"
"Here's the thing, I've never seen someone so far gone as you were into transition, and I'm amazed you lasted as long as you did before your body switched off."
"Switched off? Drew, it's okay." I pressed lightly on his arm until he lowered his bow.
Lane kept his eyes glued on him, though. This was so awkward and not the right time to be standing around chatting but I needed answers before I went anywhere. I needed to know the truth and I wanted to know what Nick had been keeping from me.
"Alex, you died the same night Ross brought you to me." Nick informed me and my mouth dropped open.
"What?"
"I gave you the vaccine almost straight away. I knew you were dying and I thought it was pointless but I wanted to make sure I had done everything I could so I could tell Lane I tried."
I listened as he explained to me what had happened, all he ever told me was that I went to sleep, he injected me and I woke up four weeks later all better. I should have known better it was a lie. Nothing is ever that easy.
"Your fever accelerated and you started fitting, your nose was bleeding, and then you collapsed."
"Your vaccine killed me?"
"No. The disease killed you. The vaccine was in your system but it didn't have time to work properly and I tried to resuscitate you but it didn't work."
I was so confused. Did I die? As in dead. I was dead!
"But I'm not dead." I said, scratching at the fabric on my forehead.
"I left you in my lab, peacefully sleeping. I wanted to wait a day before I started...um..."
"Ohmigod, before you started chopping me into little pieces like that fucking psycho Dexter." I cried.
"Who?" Nick frowned.
"No one. Just tell me what happened to me!"
"The next morning I found you wandering around the hallway. I thought you had turned. I forgot to lock the lab door, I nearly called Ross down to help, thinking you were one of them and you were on the loose but you were talking, and you were sort of aware of where you were, so I took you back to the lab and ran a few tests to check your vitals, and your breathing and everything looked normal. I left you to rest and then you slipped into a coma."
"Okay...but you didn't tell me I died. I don't even remember that day."
"The vaccine somehow worked and managed to get into your system and saved you. You're an incredible specimen."
"So you used me to save Robin?"
"Yes. And that's why I need you. You're more important than anything, you are the cure. Your blood holds the cure to save mankind."
"I don't get it, how does her blood hold the cure?" Drew interrupted.
"When someone transitions into one of them, their body shuts down beforehand and that's exactly what happened to Alex, but when she came back she was immune and I think it had something to do with how far into the transition she was. Her body shut down, but instead of transitioning the vaccine stopped it and now your blood is what's important."
"Immune? How would know that?" Drew asked in a clipped tone. "You reinfected her?" he growled.
"What? Is that true?" Lane asked. "You never told me that?" he added, poking his brother in the arm.
"Alex is so extraordinary. I never thought she'd wake up alive after that, I really thought she'd turn overnight, but there she was wandering around the corridor, what better person to experiment on. I always wondered if I found a cure would that person be immune and then I found you."
"Ohmigod. I hate you right now." I said, stepping away from them.
Drew looked at Nick and his brows scrunched together and I noticed him clenching his fist and before anyone could stop him he had punched Nick in the face and Nick was on the ground, clutching his nose.
"Drew!" I scolded, pulling him away before Lane could do the same to him.
Lane narrowed his eyes at Drew and took a step towards us but I stood in front of Drew and held up my hand.
"Don't! We don't have time for this. We need to get out of here!"
Lane knew I was right and threw ano
ther glare in Drew's direction before helping his brother off the ground.
I turned to Drew and gave him a pointed look. There was no need to punch Nick. Sure, I wanted to punch him for reinfecting me, and I didn't even want to ask how he did it, but the guy saved my life.
Nick's nose was bleeding badly and he pulled out a handkerchief from his pocket. That was the sort of person Nick was, he kept a hankie and a pen, not a knife and a lighter. He was so vulnerable and I felt bad that Drew had hit him.
"You didn't have to hit him so hard." I said under my breath to Drew.
"He could have killed you."
"Yeah, but he didn't, he saved my life in the end."
I glanced back at Lane and Nick and saw Lane watching the pair of us converse, his eyes lingering on the way I was holding Drew's hand.
When did that happen?
I quickly let go and fiddled with the makeshift bandage on my head that felt really wet with blood. Nick was mumbling things to Lane and I heard Lane tell Nick that Drew's a bellend. I grabbed Drew to stop him going after Lane but we all froze when we heard shouting in the distance and hollering.
The crazy people from the university had found us.
"We have to leave. Now!" Drew growled, taking my hand and dragging me away. I looked back over my shoulder at Lane.
"Come on!" I told him and he tugged on his brother's sleeve to get him to move, and we all ran into the dark woods.
Chapter 9
"Do you think we lost them?" I panted, trying to slow down but Drew was relentless and kept running, dragging me through the long grass and tangled weeds.
"Seriously, Drew, slow down!" I puffed.
Drew slowed down and let go of my hand so I could stop for a second, resting my hands on my knees. Lane and Nick slowed down but stood around, keeping watch as they too got their breath back, and Lane was coughing a lot.
"This is bullshit." Drew muttered to himself. "I should be in Dodge right now, sipping on a beer."
I stood up and swept the hair off my face, his eyes caught mine just as he realized he had said it out loud.
"No one is forcing you to stay." I snapped.
"That's not what I meant." He stepped closer but I moved away.
"You just said exactly what you're thinking. You want to be in Dodge Lake, not here. So why are you here, Drew? I'm still trying to figure it out myself. You could have left with Lena and the others but you came back."
