Somewhere In The Middle

by Lucas Coon

  “You said you were treating her father because he had a heart attack.” Darren forced himself into the conversation.

  “I lied, Darren.” She looked over to him. “I lied. I treated her father a while back, but he'd been alright for a while. I started treating Brynn when she was diagnosed three months ago. She would probably have died within the next twelve.” Darren returned her glance with a look of shock. “Everything else was true though. That's the only part I lied about.”

  “OK. So you sought to cure cancer. You helped a little girl cope with it, you saved her from a painful death of being eaten by the infected. Even if she was going to die in the near future, you made her happy and comfo--”

  “I killed her.” Madison cut Darren off. “I'm the reason she's not here right now.”

  “How could you have killed her Madison?” Mitchell was curious this time. “You didn't have a weapon, I can't imagine you could do it with your hands or anything to actually hurt her. What did you give her...?” Mitchell stopped. He looked at her in disbelief. “No. No, you didn't. There's no way you did what I think you did.”

  “I didn't want her to suffer Mitchell! It was the easiest way to let her go without going through pain or me having to physically do anything to her.” Her voice was cold and piercing.

  “That's why you were in the hallway. It wasn't because you couldn't sleep, you were just biding your time.” Mitchell felt his face growing red. He wasn't sure if he was going to scream or get violently ill.

  “What am I missing here? What did she do?” Darren handed the book to Lilly and stood up. She looked at him angrily but went back to reading quietly.

  “She infected her. She gave her water. She knew that she'd probably turn overnight, so she infected her.” Mitchell threw himself back against the wall.

  “Wait, what? You checked her. You said she was fine.” Darren's volume began to rise.

  “It was right before you guys got up there. You weren't supposed to rescue us. Not yet at least. She would've turned while we were upstairs and I could've just locked her in a room or something.” At this point Madison's face was gleaming.

  “What is going on?” Kayla started to roll over.

  “What the hell is wrong with you? She was a child!” Darren started to shout.

  “I know! I know she was young! I didn't want her to survive this just so she could die once it was all over!” Madison yelled back at him. “What the hell did you want me to do?”

  “Why are we yelling? Seriously, what is going on?” Kayla turned over and sat up.

  “You're sick, Madison. You are sick. You are literally no better than them.” While his volume may have lowered, his words were still harsh. “We should have just let you die when we found you.” He grimaced and shook his head angrily at her.

  “What is going on in here? Why are you all screaming?” Andrei pushed the door open with King in tow.

  “Fine. You want me to atone for my sins, Darren? You want me to get what I deserve? Fine, you'll get it.” Madison stood up from her spot and started to walk towards Andrei.

  “Madison, sit back down.” He dismissed her approach. “Someone please tell me why there was so much yelling coming from this room!” He looked around again and noticed Madison's continued approach. “Madison, stop right there!” King gripped his rifle tighter as she got closer.

  “What the hell is going on?” Kayla once again asked the question.

  “Mommy, I'm scared.” Lilly gripped onto Kayla's side tightly. As King and Andrei turned to look at the scene between Kayla and Lilly, Madison tackled the doctor. She knocked him down and began her assault, hitting him as hard as she could in any open location. King attempted to grab Madison's shoulder to pull her off. She reached around and attempted to grab the knife that he had strapped to his leg. King and Andrei looked at each other for only a split second and, with a nod from the doctor, King pulled the trigger on his rifle. One shot rang out from the barrel and pierced Madison's neck. She lunged forward from the force of the shot and collapsed, lifeless, on top of Andrei. Her blood had painted his shirt from the light blue that it was to a dark red. It was a painful dark red, one that no one expected to see. Andrei's face had gone pale as the rapid-fire confusion settled on everyone in this section of the hospital. Andrei and King's eyes met again, this time it was more like they were communicating telepathically, each asking the other what had had just happened.

  Andrei reached his hands up and pushed her over to the side. There were a few seconds of silence as Andrei remained lying on the floor trying to piece together what had just occurred. He reached up and King grabbed his palm to pull him to his feet. There was a general sense of shock throughout the room. Kayla's maternal instincts had kicked in and she had grabbed Lilly and was holding her tightly against her chest. Her face was a spitting image of fear. Her mouth was open, her eyes were welling and she looked like she could be sick at any moment. Darren stared at the Doctor in disbelief. He slowly looked back to the center of the room with his eyes slightly squinting, and his mouth tightly shut. Mitchell guessed that this was the exact moment that Darren had realized the grim nature of their situation. He guessed that Darren had finally realized what Mitchell was talking about. It wasn't that he had given up, it was that fighting for any reason at this point meant nothing. Mitchell felt that he was less shocked than Darren and Kayla were. He wasn't sure why he seemed somewhat desensitized to the terrifying scene in front of him, but he didn't feel the horror they did. He considered the possibility that he had become accepting that they were all going to die soon anyway, so what difference did it make how and when.

  “King, uh, take care of this please. I'm going to go get changed.” Andrei looked at the group in the room. He didn't say anything, or make any motions to any of them. He turned and closed the door, shutting the group off from the scene, albeit only with a few inches of pressed board. The silence in the room was incredibly tense, with the exception of Lilly's crying. Kayla kept her grip on Lilly as tight as she could. None of them appeared to want to say anything. Mitchell decided that he needed to be the one to move the group past the scenario.

  “I'm... sorry.” This was the only thing he could think to say. While it wasn't his fault, it just made sense.

  “Why are you sorry? That wasn't your fault Mitchell.” Darren's voice was distant and raspy. “You were right.”

  “Don't tell me I was right, please Darren. I don't want to be right. Not now. Not this time.” He was right, Darren had joined him in the 'everything is hopeless' position. “Let's think of how to get out of here and get to safety.”

  “Is there such a thing as safety, Mitchell?” Kayla spoke up from beside Darren. “The only place that seemed to be safe was the office. If you hadn't showed up we'd still be there.”

  “I know and I--”

  “And we'd still be safe. We'd still be sleeping comfortably in my cubicle. Abram and Aya would still be alive. We'd have been able to keep Claire comfortable instead of sending her out into hell. Denver would still be content with being a psycho and Madison would still be safe with Brynn. All of this, Mitchell, is your fault. You convinced us that we needed to get out and help you find Aria. You didn't know if she was even alive and you still don't. We followed you on a damned blind goose chase and look where it's gotten us!” She started to raise her volume. Mitchell took the barrage of yelling. He wanted to correct her; he wanted to tell her that the office wasn't safe because the door lock failed. He wanted to tell her that Abram wasn't trustworthy. He wanted to tell her that Claire would have turned quickly and they would've had to have killed her anyway. He wanted to tell her that they would've run out of food, or that Madison was going crazy over what she did to Brynn and that Darren's statements were what drove her to the end of her mental road. He didn't say any of it because she already knew, nothing he could've said was news to her. She was looking for every reason to blame someone else for their situation and he understood why. When she finished he adjusted his stare to look
straight at her. She had tears on her cheek and her face was red. Lilly was staring at her confused and Darren was avoiding looking at her.

  “Are you done, Kayla?” Darren spoke his question in Mitchell's direction. “You know that none of this is his fault. If anything, we need to be thanking him for getting us this far.” She was taken aback by Darren's disagreement, but it stopped her from yelling. They all went quiet after they had said what they wanted. They were all waiting for it to just be over and the end was coming on quickly. The silence felt like it was going to last for a few hours and, for all Mitchell knew, it did.

  Lilly had turned her attention to her coloring book. It was the same book that she was coloring in several days ago. Mitchell assumed that it was the only one she had. It wasn't completely done, there were a few pages in the front that weren't colored, and some of the pictures were only half finished. He couldn't tell if the half done ones were actually half done, or if she had just decided that she was finished with them. She pulled some crayons from her small box. It looked like she had used most of them up entirely, but she was still finding joy in coloring. It hadn't been that long since Madison was killed but Lilly had already forgotten it, or, at least, moved on mentally. She scribbled on the picture for several minutes, changing to different colors as she went along. When she was finished she moved all the crayons back into the box, obviously with no organization. She pulled the page out of the book and looked at it. After she had finished her observation of the picture, she looked at the three remaining adults. Once her mental debate had finished she focused on Mitchell. She hopped off the bench and walked over to him.

  “Hey, mister Mitchell.” Her voice sounded like she was asking a question, but it was more of an attention grabbing statement.

  “Hey Lilly.” He looked over to her. Normally he would've smiled at her, but he just didn't feel like he could.

  “Does your wife like blue?” She kept her page hugged tightly as she asked him this question.

  “She does. It's her favorite color.” His answer changed his neutral statement into a smiling one. He couldn't fight it talking to her.

  “I thought so.” She handed him the picture that she was holding tightly. “Here, give this to her when we find her, OK?” She presented a picture of a butterfly that was roughly colored blue and purple. It was perched on a flower that she had colored a dark pink with a green stem and orange leaves. There was another butterfly that she had covered in blue entirely. The entire picture was finished off with her writing her name on the bottom. “I need you to give it to her, because I'll forget. I think that she'll like it though!” Mitchell grabbed the picture and stared it over for several moments.

  “It's beautiful Lilly. I think that Aria will absolutely love it.” He folded it up and placed it between a couple of loose pages from his notebook. “I'm going to keep it here so I don't forget.” He giggled with her. “Thank you.”

  “You're welcome!” She grinned and walked back over to where Darren and Kayla were sitting. She turned back towards Mitchell and sat on the bench. “I don't think it's your fault, I think it's the nasty bug things. You're too nice to be a bad guy.” She put her crayons and coloring book back into the bag. “I hope I can have you as a teacher Mister Mitchell. I like Miss Nielson, but she's old. I bet you are a good teacher Mister Mitchell, do you teach at my school?” She looked him in the face with her inquiry.

  “I actually teach at the high-school, but I'd be your teacher in a heartbeat if you wanted me to.”

  “OK. High-school is boring anyways, the people on that TV show are in high-school and it looks boring. Is it boring?” Mitchell found it funny how she had made a certain decision, but then turned it into a question.

  “Very. My students are boring and they don't listen to me.” He laughed slightly under his breath. “I think I will come teach your class. Do you think Miss Nielson will let me?”

  “Yeah. She said she only comes to work to get away from her ass of a husband. I think she should go to the park instead, there's lots of dogs there.” This statement caused Darren to laugh slightly.

  “Lilly-Anne, watch your mouth.” Kayla continued to parent, even in this situation.

  “Sorry, mommy.” She looked down like she was disappointed in herself. The conversation seemed to light the room up some, it was the same warmth that made Mitchell happy in the office, once again Lilly had caused the room to feel positive in the face of certain demise. “I'll sit in time out when we get home.”

  The entire group went on high alert when they heard the door lock clicking. They all turned their attention to Andrei as he entered. He was no longer wearing the blood stained shirt; now it was a black button down shirt covered in a white lab coat. The side of his face was bruised with a small welt just above his eye. This mark was one of the few reminders of Madison's existence; the group could clearly see that King had successfully cleaned up the scene.

  “Alright, I've decided it's time I start talking to you guys about what's going on.” He stood in the doorway with King standing in the hall, none of which was surprising. “First, I want to apologize about Madison. I can't explain what it was all about and I'm guessing none of you have an answer.” He moved his hand out to them for any explanation. None of them responded. “I didn't think so. I didn't want to kill her. I hope that you all can understand that.” He pulled his glasses from his face and started to wipe them with a cloth from his coat's pocket. “I don't want to kill any of you. Without subjects, I have no experiment.” He finished cleaning the lens and looked back up at the group. “With that being said, I think I need to explain how you all are involved in my experimentation. I told you all that I was trying to cure the infected. In order to do so I had to get infected to test on.”

  “Unless you lied about the water in the showers, we're not infected Andrei.” Mitchell stepped up this time to respond to the doctor. He decided if anyone was going to die for arguing, it was going to be him.

  “I didn't lie about the showers, but...” he paused and looked at the Barber family. “I have everything I need in this room.”

  “What the hell are you talking about?” Darren straightened himself and angrily questioned Andrei.

  “You two.” Andrei pointed at Kayla and Darren. “The chemical mix that I pumped into the hallway to knock you out was a concoction that I personally created. It was a combination of infected water and a few knock out gases. To my surprise it worked fantastically! That is, with one exception.” He turned towards Mitchell. “You have something else going on. I've been studying reactions with the infected and it seems that people that come in direct contact with infected blood have a strange resistance. It's not an immunity, but you are at least resistant. That's why you are a special case Mitchell. I'll have to infect you another way and try to see what I can find. Now Lilly on the other hand--”

  “Hang on! You infected us?!” Darren once again went back to his new favorite pass-time; yelling at Andrei. “You infected the three of us on purpose so you could do some sick experiments.”

  “No. I infected two of you. Lilly wasn't exposed, so she's fine.”

  “It doesn't matter who or how many you sick bastard. You infected us! You've literally sentenced us to an agonizing death!” Darren was getting flustered.

  “Just think about it though Darren! If I can stop you from turning then you both will be on the forefront of a new medical science! We will have stopped this outbreak dead in its tracks!” Andrei was getting visibly excited.

  “And if you fail?!”

  “Well, then, I apologize for what happens. But that's why there's two of you and that's why it's so great that Lilly isn't infected. If I fail to save you or Kayla, I can move to her and try everything else. I'm certain that something will work.” He removed his glasses again and pointed them at the light, examining the glass for scuffs or dirt.

  “Then why infect us? Why not grab one of the hundreds of people out there that would be more than happy to have the bug ripped out of thei
r mouths?” The sound of Darren's voice went back to afraid. He looked at Lilly as he made this statement.

  “Once the parasite has reached full growth there's no saving the host. It would've made the experiment a lot easier, but it's not a possibility.” His glasses went back onto his face. “It'll be a while. The eggs that I infected you with will be slow to react, so, instead of hours, it'll be a few days minimum.”

  “Well that's reassuring.” The sarcasm was thick in Darren's voice. “Thanks for the optimism, dick. Oh sorry, Doc.

  “I'm sorry, it had to be done. This won't be over until we cure them, or we're all dead. I don't think any of us want to die, so we're going to try to cure it.” He turned around. “I need all of you to follow me, we're going to go to the lab and do some work-ups first.” The group was reluctant to stand and follow Andrei. “Oh come now. At this point does it even make sense to disobey what I ask you to do? I'm practically your saving grace in this. If I succeed, you all live and get to see the end of this.” Mitchell was sickened by how nonchalant Andrei was about all this.

  “Come on guys.” Mitchell stood up and motioned to the Barbers. They all three looked at him concerned. “It'll be fine. It's not over until we're dead.” He looked to Darren, he could tell that his statement had given him a slight sense of hope. It was the slight hope and the small sense of courage that Mitchell wanted to see, but it was also this exact moment that he had wished that they had discussed a plan of some sort. If there was ever an opportune time, this was it.

  They all followed Andrei into the hallway and down for a few moments. They all stopped at another set of double doors on the other side of the hallway from where their prison was. Andrei opened them and revealed his lab, which was all but exciting to the group. The room itself was very clean and there was a good amount of equipment strewn in different segments within the four walls. Andrei motioned for the four of them to enter the room first. Mitchell, Kayla, and Lilly all walked in, but Darren paused. He looked straight at one of the chairs. It had a small table hooked to it with straps attached. As he looked it over, he went pale.