Alone

by Prunty, Mercedes

  “Well she then said she will try Callum’s blood but he’s out on patrol but if it still doesn’t then I will kill myself before I turn completely”, he said softly, I hadn’t realised we had reached the Lab until he opened the door for me and ushered me inside.

  Toni sat next to a microscope and was studying something under it, she then lifted a syringe full of something and dropped a few drops into the sample on the petri dish. A smile relaxed her face a little as she sat up, “Hi Stacie sorry to wake you so early but as you can see I’m in need of your help”.

  “Yes Micah sort of filled me in”, I answered.

  “Yes my poor Micah that horrid, wicked, evil cow infected him thinking it would help me find the cure faster. Finding you and the ‘Cure’ made me feel so happy I thought I could save him, I had given him my tonic that slowed it down but to have the cure wow I thought it would be like you and Callum, he would be cured, saved or at least bonded with it like I know you two both are, you have both bonded with the infection somehow and I think I know how”.

  “Go on”.

  “Well I think it has something to do with your blood types as you are both the same blood type AB-“, she said looking stressed but calm all in one moment.

  “What’s so important about being AB-?” I asked I hadn’t a clue about blood and how it worked.

  “AB- is a rare blood group, when the world was still normal and they had done charts to show how the population fared for having which blood type it turned out only about 5% of the population had it. Out of millions and millions of people only 5% had it, now for all we know you and Callum could be the last people to have that rare blood as most of the population has gone, so we don’t know who or where these people with it are. For example I’m an O+ blood type which means my blood could have been used in transfusions for most of the different blood types due to its ability to not be affected by A or B antigens but around 38 – 40% of the population had o+…am I making sense?” she stopped and looked at my confused face.

  “Sort of I guess”, I lied, “But why would that mean mine and Callum’s blood have bonded with the virus?”

  “I’m not completely sure I would need to study it much more than I have but I am also not a blood scientist so my knowledge only goes so far but I have found an interesting report which had been published in the papers a few years ago which might give some reflection on why the people who suffered with Dementia and where having the medication reacted differently to the infection and turned into the Crusher’s but it might also be a clue as to why you are so different Stacie, that you haven’t turned fully but have the characteristics of a Crusher to a certain point”, she rambled as she rummaged through a draw and handed me a newspaper article published nearly five years ago.

  ‘September 29th 2014 The Daily Sun’

  Students at the top leading university in England have found that the rare blood group AB- were 85% more likely to suffer with memory loss than the other blood groups.

  Memory problems and thinking problems can all be early signs of Dementia, although the students did not carry out research on Dementia itself.

  It was found that the people with blood type AB- were 8% higher at having memory problems whilst people with the blood type O were less likely to suffer with memory problems and were also less likely to suffer with strokes and heart problems a big factor in problems which can it is believed lead to Dementia. The students carrying out the study identified from 502 participants that 306 who developed cognitive, thinking and memory problems during the four year study, 8% belonged to the AB- blood group compared with just 2% who were in other blood groups……..

  I passed it back to her and shrugged I had no idea what all that scientific garble meant other than it sounded like my blood type were maybe more likely to suffer from Dementia compared with the other groups but did 8% really sound like a lot? I had no idea but the doctor seemed to think this meant something.

  “Hey Toni, not all those people who were turned into Crushers could have been suffering from Dementia right? When I was…well when I with them a few of them were young adults a mixture of younger people and the much older that yes could have suffered from it but some not”, I asked.

  “Yes well think about it you didn’t have Dementia but you nearly fully turned if it wasn’t for the small help of the sort of cure and your blood mixing together. You were attacked and infected that way, so no not all Crushers had Dementia but there must be a connection that the Crushers chose you, that you have bonded with that mutated form of the virus and why you haven’t gone back to turning once the cure ran out or flushed its way out of your system”, she answered.

  “Do you think it’s the blood type? Do you think they only choose people with AB-?” I asked her.

  “I don’t know, the other person I knew who was infected by them was killed and burned with other infected before I could test their blood but it could be plausible”, she said.

  “And how do you think my blood could help Micah?” I looked at him briefly.

  “I’m hoping that the antibodies in your blood that have managed to adapt with the virus after the use of my serum and the cure you found will show me how to make a real cure one that works the way it should. All I need is another small sample of your blood”, she said but asking my permission at the same time, what would she do if I said no? But that thought didn’t matter as of course I agreed.

  Within minutes she had taken another vial of my blood and she rushed off to the corner of the lab to conduct a few tests she had already concocted, she mixed my blood with different chemicals and other jars of fluids she had all around her and then she sat waiting patiently to see if any reactions would occur. I felt a little like a loose wheel just sitting here doing nothing plus I knew time was ticking away and I would soon have work to go to.

  “Any luck?” I asked.

  She looked disappointed, “No nothing your blood has rejected all the chemicals and medications that I have to hand that I think could become a cure, dammit”, she looked over at Micah who was looking sicker by the minute, “I’m so sorry”.

  “Don’t be its not your fault”, he replied and huffed over to her to hold her in his weakening arms. His breathing sounded worse than it did when he came to collect me and he swayed as he held her, I knew he was going to collapse before she did and I jumped forward to help him down and stop him from smashing his head on the side of a counter top.

  “Micah!” Toni breathed holding onto his hand.

  He blacked out for a moment before coming round, “Its ok I’m fine I’m just a little tired that’s all”.

  “No you’re not ok, you’re turning and there’s nothing I can do to stop it”, she sobbed at him.

  “Is there anything I can do?” I said wanting to help but not knowing how.

  “Just go!” she snapped angrily but I knew it wasn’t really aimed at me, I hadn’t been the one to infect him the Boss had but she had hoped my blood could help and it was another dead end.

  I didn’t say another word I just slipped back out the door, my mind whirred at what was happening if Toni couldn’t find a cure with the help of my blood what hope did I have that the old cure we used wouldn’t just reverse and that I might actually start to really turn into one of those things and not just have their useful enhancements. I guess I wouldn’t know until it happened, I took one last look at the Doctors lab door then headed off to get ready for my next shift.

  The night sky was a deep midnight blue with hundreds of twinkling stars shining all over the galaxy, I sat with Damien on a different rooftop tonight with a different view of the city from this one I could still see Big Ben with its buckled clock tower and crumbling carcasses of the houses of parliament but from a different angle from last night, their darkened silhouettes casting ghostly shadows from the bright moonlight that shone down upon it. Tonight had been a fairly quiet night we hadn’t seen anyone nearly get eaten but we had shot two creatures which had been hiding near a car park. Their ghastly
putrid bodies almost crumbling to the point of death but their need to spread the infection fought past their brokenness, one of them had legs that had become full of gangrene and had crushed in on themselves so he crawled using his nails as extra leverage to pull him along but ended up pulling the nails out the nail beds. The other one could still walk, just. Its arms were broken and the bones protruding from under the flesh but it didn’t care as it walked towards us to feed so both myself and Damien took one down each.

  My mind kept wandering to poor Micah and Toni, I wondered if he had in fact turned already, would people be safe in the hospital tower? Should I demand to Damien to go back and check on them but then everyone would find out the cure didn’t work and Toni might be killed or sent packing and I couldn’t have that on my conscience could I? Plus Damien knew about me and Callum being infected and if I blurted that out he could have me killed, but then there were my friends and Cain, I couldn’t let them all be put at risk and everyone else too, that would play on my conscience more.

  “Hey ya ok? You quieter than last night, not bored already ha”, Damien asked me with a little humour.

  My face must have shown I wasn’t bored but worried.

  “What is it? What’s wrong?” He made me turn to him.

  “What’s the protocol if something went wrong inside the building? Would they contact us all to come back?”

  He nodded, “Yer why?”

  I shook my head, “Just wondered that’s all”.

  “I don’t believe ya, what’s going on? Is someone inside infected?” he pressed.

  “No, no one’s infected it’s just my family and friends are in there and I’m out here, I just worry, that’s all…really.” I lied.

  He looked at my face and tried to read it in the dark, luckily I think the darkness won as he sighed, “They will be fine the Boss has good security measures in place, they would contact us all first to head back and then the alarms would sound once someone turns them on to alert everyone else, ya friends are all fine”.

  “Thanks I just needed the reassurance”, I smiled.

  He smiled back before turning to have a good look around the streets. As the sun started to rise a few hours later my nerves were reaching boiling point as I was freaking out about what we might find, I knew as soon as we got through the gate and Damien left me I was going right for the lab to check on Toni and Micah I had to know if everyone was going to be safe and if they weren’t I think that might be one secret I couldn’t keep.

  Chapter Ten …

  Toni rushed through the empty wards at the very bottom of the hospital, the Prime Minister hadn’t used these wards purely due to them being near the drainage pipes leading to the sewers and the feared, solid and ruthless woman had a fear of things climbing out of them but only Toni and the close circle knew.

  She pushed the trolley that had once been used to transport patients from one end of the hospital to the other and she almost laughed as it was what she was doing now, it was just her patient was in too much danger to be kept in the lab, if the Boss or Psycho decided to pay her a visit it would be game over, for her and for everyone, she needed this to be kept secret to execute her plan in taking down the Prime Minister and her band of merry thugs.

  Toni had never expected her actions to have such dramatic consequences but they did, completely unexpected but none the less it would give her a plan A and plan B, if the first one didn’t work then the second surely would.

  She reached the morgue which would be a perfect hiding place, the guards did patrol down here but luckily for her it was shift change over and she knew she could sneak down undetected and the guards never went into the morgue itself, the Boss had banned it due to there being some bodies in there she would much rather keep un seen to the public eye. The weird cow had kept the bodies of the late ‘Prime Minister’ and a few other so called famous people down there, locked up in the freezers to compose them and stop them rotting. She had this weird idea in her head that if anyone came to rescue them or try to reclaim the world and put it back to normal that she could show them their bodies and tell them who she was and they would just put her in power of what could become a new England. She was a power hungry bitch which made Toni’s blood boil but one day soon and it would be soon she could feel it in her bones, she would take down the crazy ass bitch with the help of Stacie, Monique and Callum and then the hospital would be hers to rule over and run. Toni didn’t see herself as a power hungry person, she knew deep down she would do what was right for the people, bring them in from the Shanti town, clothe them and feed them but she would set rules, better rules for the people to live by. She had it all written down and planned out in her notes upstairs what she would say to her people and how she would rule them. It would come so easy and natural to her, she just knew it!

  She put the break on the trolley and set to work opening the morgue door, it was made of stainless steel and was immensely heavy for a woman of her build but she had it open quickly, taking the break off the trolley and wheeling it in. She didn’t bother closing the door as she wouldn’t be here more than a few minutes. She found an empty fridge unit and checked the temperature, perfect it was just perfect it would keep the body cool and slow down whatever process was going to hit him first. That would give her enough time to execute the rest of her plan and then to open the door once again when the time was ready. Wheeling the trolley into position she paused as she heard voices, the guards had changed over already leaving her with mere seconds before they were upon her. Shoving the rest of the trolley in the fridge unit she shut the door catching her jacket on the handle, tugging harshly she didn’t see her I.D badge falling off and had jamming in the door just enough for it to remain slightly open. She panicked rushing out the room and shutting the morgue door just in time as the two guards came walking round the corner.

  “Doctor Toni what brings you down here?” A female guard asked her, she looked her up and down and took note of the dishevelled and tired look on the normally pristine doctor.

  “Couldn’t sleep, had some nightmares about my time out of the hospital…er I needed a walk to settle myself”, she lied to them.

  “Ok well don’t make your walk this way again the Boss doesn’t like it alright”, she reprimanded her slightly for coming down her against the Boss’s orders but it sounded like they wouldn’t tell this time.

  “Thank you…See you later”, she then hurried away.

  The female guard turned to the male guard, “Weird bitch”.

  “I heard that”, Toni whispered under her breath, she already knew the first person that would be on her list of exiles when she came into power.

  ~

  I stormed up to the floor the lab was situated on, Damien had gone to meet a girl he liked for a morning coffee so I was free to go and make sure everything was ok. As I reached the door I knew something wasn’t right it was slightly ajar, I walked slowly up to it holding my rifle in front of me ready to shoot if Micah came out looking like a creature. I nudged the rest of the door open and peered in, the lab was calm and quiet I let out a breath I hadn’t known I was holding and took a few more steps in. The eerie quietness of the lab made the hairs of the back of my neck and arms stand on end, I wanted to turn and leave to go and see Monique like I had planned but I had to know whether he had turned or not.

  “What are you doing in here without my permission?” Toni snapped from behind me.

  I rolled my eyes at her abruptness but kept my polite face on as I turned to talk to her, “Just came to see how you and Micah are?”

  “We’re fine, now you can leave”, she snapped again and held the door open for me.

  “Hang on a minute Toni, when I left yesterday afternoon Micah was close to turning. What happened? Is he ok, is he still alive, did you find a cure or did he turn? You have to tell me I have people here I need to keep safe”, I snapped back losing my patience with her as the tiredness from my night shift kicked in.

  “It is none of your concern what ha
ppened to him”.

  “Yes it is, you want my help here Toni the least you can do is keep me informed about things that might threaten my friends and my nephews safety”, I threatened her, “Either tell me what happened to him or I spill the beans to the boss”.

  “You wouldn’t”, she hissed.

  “Try me Toni, I have people I care about just like you do. And I will do anything to keep them safe even if it means turning you in”, I hissed back at her.

  She looked pissed then her face changed to a fake polite smile, “He’s fine ok, he’s at my apartment resting. I…I tried a different drug mixed with some other meds and a small dose of your blood and it seems to be working so far but I cannot tell you anymore until time has passed and I can see if it really works or not”.

  I knew she was lying there was something about the way she spoke that gave it away and the fake smile, “Ok cool glad he’s ok….look sorry I had a go but you know how it is when you have people you love around you, you want to protect them”.

  She nodded but kept her lips pursed together.

  “Look how you holding up you must be exhausted”, I smiled.

  “I’m fine really, look I have a lot of things to do today so if you don’t mind I would like some alone time”, she said ushering me out the door.

  I took the hint this time and left her, she slammed the door shut in my face and locked it from the inside. I walked away and headed to the lift like I would be going to my apartment, stepping inside I turned to see her watching through the small window in the door. I pushed down and watched the doors shut, I only commanded the lift to go down one floor but it would look like I was going down to my flat. I rushed out and headed up the stairs, I came back to the level of the lab and snuck a look round to the door, it was still locked from the inside so I knew it was now or never.

  I raced up the stairs up to the next level which I knew her apartment was on, there were three apartments up here and they were a lot more generous in size than the ones lower down in the building. I stood for a moment thinking, which one was hers? Then a woman who was dressed in a floral blouse came out of the one nearest me. She looked shocked to see me a security person standing on her level.