by Adams, Taeya
Bex rubbed Forres’s back. “Why are you helping me?” Forres coughed.
“Because we are best friends,” Bex stated.
Forres sat back and wiped her mouth with the back of her hands. “We just meet.”
Bex stared blankly at her, mouth open a bit. She slowly shook her head. “No, Forres we’ve knew each other since birth…,” Forres stared at Bex as if she just told her that she had more than one head. “In the foster home? I was there when you passed out and had to first go to the hospital. I wouldn’t leave your side until you woke… You don’t remember any of that?”
Forres shook her head and Bex looked down. They stay silent for a couple of second which felt like minutes. Then Forres felt her stomach go up her throat and she hovered over the toilet, throwing it up.
Suddenly the bathroom door opens and Zander stepped in. “You okay?” He asks when Forres sat back and wipes her mouth. “You’re not going to die or whatever?”
“Who’s going to die?” Rayne asked, popping her head into the bathroom.
“You,” Bex snapped at her. “If you doing get out of here!” Rayne looked at the pale girl on the floor and left.
“No,” Forres chuckled a bit then it turned into a cough. She covered her mouth and felt something on the palm of her hand. She pulled back to see a pool of red blood in her palm. She looked up at Zander then over at Bex. “Lady Liberty? Isn’t that the nickname of the Statue of Liberty?”
“Yeah,” Bex nodded. “Why?”
“I think Jackus is Lady Liberty…,”
“And?”
“She might have the case…”
“Full of your medicine?” Bex asked. Her head tilt to the side as if she was a curious dog. Forres nodded and started to wonder if Bex really was her best friend since birth. “Yeah, she has that.”
“And you never told me?”
Bex raised a brow. “It’s not something you fit into a conversation. ‘Oh no, Sargent bit off his tongue but hey, it’s all good: Jackus has the case with your medicine.’”
Forres turned to Zander, not liking the sarcasm that she just got from her “best friend”. She opened her mouth but before she could talk, Zander read her mind. “Yeah, yeah. I’ll get it for you.”
*****
Day Two: March 28th, 2020; 11: 34 am
Zander left the bathroom and began to walking to the living room where Jackus and some of the others were siting. He was stopped mid-hall by a four man group led by Felix. Rayne was behind them, examining her nails casually. “Where you guys going?” Zander questioned.
“It needs to be done,” Felix replied.
Felix tried to pass him but he stepped in front of him. “What are you talking about?”
“We need to kill her before she infects everyone and kills us,” Felix slowly explained as if Zander couldn’t comprehend him.
“Who?” Zander’s brows came in together.
“Forres,” Dean said.
“You’re kidding?” Zander chuckled a bit then realized that they weren’t kidding. “Forres isn’t bite.”
“Then why is she dying?” One of the guys said. Zander didn’t know him but he sure in hell wanted to rip his head off with his bare hands.
“She’s sick, not dying,” He replied using the same annoying tone with him that he had used.
“But she can die?” Felix asked. His hand has moved to his gun as if he had to use it, he could get it quicker than Zander could.
“It depends…,” Zander narrowed his eyes on Felix.
Felix took a step closer and looked Zander in the eyes. They were the exact same height but nothing alike. Felix had messy, dirty blonde hair with dark brown eyes that looked brown. His face was keen and alert. He had to be in his early twenty’s like Zander was. Zander had crew cut chic platinum hair with tiger green eyes. “Then how about we put a bullet into her skull and save the trouble of her dying.”
“You can’t do that! That’s inhuman!” Zander barked at him.
Felix passed and pushed him to the side, muttering, “Watch me,” As Dean passed, he gave a small shrug and followed Felix and so do the other two.
Zander quickly goes out into the living room. “Jackus!” Jackus stood. “I need the case!”
“Thought you’d never notice,” Jackus picked up her bag and throws it to him.
Zander caught it, turns on his heels and goes to the bathroom. He goes in to see Felix pointing a gun at Forres who was on the ground shaking violently.
“Make it stop or I’ll shoot,” Felix stated.
Zander looked at the shaking Forres on the ground. He didn’t know if what was in this bag could save Forres or kill her…
Chapter Twenty-Seven
Day Two: March 28th, 2020; 8:35 am
“The medicine is wearing off so quickly and at different times,” Tracy muttered behind Doctor Greene.
“Huh?” Doctor Greene turned, not knowing she was there and looked back at her. “Oh um... Yeah. I noticed. She only has seizures when she doesn’t get her medicine in the proper days she needs it…”
“So…,” Tracy started and put her clip board to her chest. “What do we do?”
Doctor Greene rubbed his stubby chin, watching the computer. “Make it stronger…,” He whispered.
“Sir?” Tracy questioned as if she didn’t heard it but she did. She just doesn’t understand it.
“Make it stronger!” Doctor Green yelled with excitement. He pushed back his chair and stood. “Make it stronger!” He chuckled and started for the door.
“Sir, we can’t,” Tracy said, pushing up her glasses and following him out the room. “If we make the medicine stronger than her…,” Tracy’s voice trailed away when people passed her in the halls. She lowered her voice for the next part: “powers are going to get stronger too.”
Doctor Greene glanced back at her frowning. “What are you talking about, Tracy? What powers?”
“She can’t die or get hurt. She heals herself. She’s basically a super mutant,” Tracy stopped in hall and gave a shrug. Then she noticed that Doctor Greene kept going and she ran to catch up.
When she was by his side, he said: “Why aren’t my ‘super mutants’ out in the domes yet?”
“They aren’t stable enough,” Tracy explained. Doctor Greene stopped and looked at her. She quickly added: “… Sir…”
Doctor Greene reached up and pinched the bridge of his nose. “How many are stable?”
“One out of three,” She replied.
“We are only sending in three?” He barked.
Tracy jumped and pushed up her glasses, clutching the board tightly to her chest. “That’s all we made, sir. The rest went a bit… insane… and you destroyed them, remember?”
Doctor Greene thought for a moment. “Oh yeah…”
He started to walk again and Tracy scrambles to keep up. “When’s the last time you slept, sir?”
“I don’t know. Can’t remember…,” He shrugged as they enter the café.
Tracy followed him to the coffee stand. “Sir,” She said with concern. He doesn’t seem too hear her. He just kept on making his coffee. “Sir,” She put force in her tone and even touched his arm. He turned to her and looked at the hand on his arm then at her. “Get some sleep. You need it. Let me take care this one.”
“B-but I have to do this. She just found the case,” He protested. He tried to turn and walk away but Tracy softly touched his shoulder. He stopped as she rubbed it a bit, feeling the tight muscles in his shoulder.
“You are stressed and have knots. Get some sleep and I’ll take care of this one then you could have the rest after,” Tracy said.
Doctor Greene let out a small sigh and relaxed, “Fine. This once but I’ll be watching you, Tracy…,” He reached up and touched her hand then left.
Tracy goes back and marched into the lab room with all the televisions for watching Forres and took a seat in front of the main one. “Everyone out…,” She waved her hand over her shoulder. The workers looked
at each other. “Get out!” The workers shuffled to get out.
Once the last worker was out, Tracy sat back and watched.
Chapter Twenty-Eight
Day Two: March 28th, 2020; 11:46 am
“Forres,” Sargent hissed behind Zander. Without part of his tongue, it came out “Florist,” instead.
Bex looked up. Her eyes were wet with warm tears. Zander goes over, pushing Felix’s gun away and knelt beside Forres. He quickly took the case out. “How do you open it?” Bex asked him.
Zander looked at Forres’s shaking chest and saw the weird necklace. He saw two but he grabbed the four sided one. He looked at the case’s keyhole before putting the green one and twisting it.
Swish.
The case opened. Inside was a needle with the stuff in it.
Zander took it and was about to inject it into her arm but Bex stopped him. “In the neck or eye, it’ll travel to her head faster!” He looked for a spot on her neck to inject. He injected it in to a vein and Forres stopped shaking. Her body became relax and limp.
A female popped on the case screen. “Hello,” She smiled and sat up.
“Who are you?” Zander scowled at the women.
The woman smiled. “Wake up Forres for me.”
“Who are you?” Zander growled at her.
“I’ll tell you when I talk to her. Your impatient like your father,” The female chuckled.
He stared at her for a few more seconds before shaking Forres awake. She muttered half asleep: “Ben?” Zander shook her a bit harder, jaw tightened.
Forres sat up, rubbing her eyes. She felt dizzy and lightheaded and uncoordinated. When she sat up, she swayed a little.
“Forres,” The woman said.
Forres looked at the woman. “Tracy?” Forres frowned at that name as if it came out unexpectedly and she didn’t know or wanted it to. The name felt familiar yet weird on her tongue.
“Ah, I see you’re getting your memory back, bits and pieces at a time,” Tracy said with a smile. Their eyes meet and she started to tap her fingers at a weird beat. Something in Tracy’s eyes told Forres not to look at her fingers but she can listen to the beat. “How have you been? Feeling good?”
“No,” Forres shook her head.
“Sad,” Tracy said. “Do you want your clue?” That’s when the tapping stopped and Forres remembered it all: all the pauses, and beats from the fat on her finger and her nail. “Okay listen now:’
Locked and Loaded,
Ready to kill,
Always have and always will,
Squeeze the trigger and let it fly,
Hit the bastards between the eyes,
Before they died I heard them yell,
The shadow team is bad as hell,
You have three days, good luck, Forres,” Tracy gave a small smile and turned the camera off. That meant she only really had almost two days.
“I know where that quote is from,” Dean muttered rubbing his chin, trying to think.
“I need a pencil and paper,” Forres said, holding her head as she gets up. The world spun below her feet and fell to her butt. She laid on the ground, giving up, and mimics the beat – using the fat of her index finger and nail – so she doesn’t forget it.
“Did she say Shadow Team?” Sargent asked.
Suddenly everyone was talking at once. Forres looked at her group and got a headache from their mouths. She screamed with all her might but her voice cracked a bit: “Hey! Someone get me a piece of paper!” They all stopped talking and looked at her. “Why are you guys looking at me? Get me a piece of paper!” Bex got up and went to the door. “And a pen and hurry!”
Few seconds, Bex came back with a pen and paper. Forres started to draw the beat the Tracy had just did. When she was done, she looked at the paper:
The paper became blurry in Forres’s eyes as she stared at it more and more.
“Is that Morse code?” Felix asked.
“Dead Again by George Magnum!” Dean yelled. He clapped his hands together with excitement. Everyone looked at him. “That’s where the quote is from. That book has that quote in it.
“Shadow Team is my military,” Sargent stepped in.
“Shadow Team is the zombie killer military team in the book,” Dean explained.
“In that book, where was the group mainly?” Zander asked.
Dean started to rub his chin. “Um. A hospital.”
“There’s survivor at a mental hospital. Could it possibly be them?” Chyler asked. Hope fills her eyes when she looked at Dean.
He didn’t want to hurt her. He wasn’t that type of person so he said, “Possibly.”
“Are you going to help us?”
Dean looked Felix.
Felix just gave a small shrug, “I don’t know…,”
“Forres is the key out of all of this,” Zander said.
Felix stayed silent. He didn’t know what that meant but he nodded.
Chyler smiled. “We are going to have to hurry; they could be running out of food soon.”
“If they have access to the basement, they shouldn’t,” Max’s voice came from behind the group. He squeezed pass Jackus and Rayne, casually grabbing Rayne’s butt. She scuffed as he did.
“Fine, since you know so much about St. James Mental Hospital, you draw us a map. I want every exit and every entrance on this map,” Felix said, narrowing his eyes on him.
Max nodded, looking at Forres who was staring at a piece of paper. He scowled at her.
“We need more guns,” One of Felix’s men said.
“One, there isn’t a lot of guns. Two, we need to know names or nickname at least,” Jackus said.
“Fine,” Felix started. “My name is Felix. My group is Max, Thaddeus, Buzz, Dean and Andrew,” Bex smirks and looks over at Thaddeus. He scowls at her.
“Zander,” Zander starts and stood tall as if he was proud of his team. “My team is Forres, Chyler, Jackus, Eleanor, Austin, Bex and Sargent.”
“Okay,” Felix said. “Max will draw up a map and we will go from there.”
Zander nodded and kicked the case to the side and picked up Forres who was still looking at the paper.
“Hey, you forgot me,” Rayne said, innocently twirling her hair.
“No one cares,” Zander snapped at her. Jackus moved out the door way but Rayne doesn’t. “Move or I’ll hurt you.”
“Oh so you’re going to hit a girl?” She chuckled.
“News flash, honey,” Zander barked in a semi-sweet voice. “It’s a new world that means we can do what we want. Also meaning I could kill you right here and right now. So you better move, Devil’s Spawn.”
She gave him a death glare but he wasn’t scared of her.
“Move!” Zander barked.
Rayne jumped and then moved out of the way.
Zander left the bathroom with Forres in his arms.
Chapter Twenty-Nine
Day One: March 28th, 2020; 9:40 pm
He sat behind the table, trying not to get distracting by all the stuff on his mind.
Max was in his room, drawing the map of St. James out of his memory. What if someone asks how you know St. James so much? That creepy voice in his head asked.
Max sighed and put down the pencil. He leaned back in his chair, licking his dry lips and running his fingers through his hair. “I’ll tell them a family member goes there,” He shrugged and took the cigarette from behind his ear and put it in his mouth. He took out a lighter he had found before and lit his cigarette. He used to love smoking – was addicted. He had to stop in the mental asylum. “Cigarettes mess with your head,” they’d always told them when he always asked for one. But the truth was that a solid white room messed with their heads. A non-insane person goes in and came out insane.
This one time, Maria’s boyfriend lost a bus of new insane transfers so the genius filled the bus with normal people from the bus stop. When the people said it was a mistake, no one believed them. A few months later, they found out the people weren�
�t really insane. But it was too late… The non-insane people went insane.
What if she’s your…
Max interrupted the voice in his head. “Will you shut up with the ‘what if?’”
“Who are you talking to?” A female voice came. Max turned to see Forres staring at him. She looked as pale as before but this time she was in pj’s – a man size shirt and sweatpants.
He stared at her for a few, brief seconds and then said: “What are you doing in here?”
“Who were you talking to?” She repeated, narrowing her pale brown eyes at him. They looked foggy with exhaust. They were probably the last two up in the building besides the walkers.
“To Andrew,” He lied, nodding to the walkie-talkie that was near him.
“Oh. I-I w-was…,” She started but stops noticing that his eyes narrowed the same way as hers and that they both had misty eyes that turn red when tired. His eyes were grey but it was turning a bit of a red color. Her eyes were amber from the lack of sleep. “I was hungry and wanted something to eat…”
Max nodded.
They sat in silence before Forres said: “I guess I should go then,” he nodded and turned back to his work. She stared at his back for a few brief seconds then turned and left. She looked back at the door and saw him working and closed the door quietly.
He wasn’t really working; he was watching her with the “eyes in back of his head” until she left. He finally could breath.
The voice in his head gasped. She is…
“Shut up,” Max muttered.
*****
Day Two: March 29th, 2020; 10:02 pm
Forres woke up the next morning, from a nightmare about Ben.
She remembered him was screaming at her to help him but she couldn’t nor she could’ve. She woke in cold sweats but brushed the nightmare off and told herself, “I’ll get over him. People die every day…”
