"Beth, wake up."
"...."
"Beth... Bethany."
Beth wakes up groggy from meds, the dim blue lights and boredom having spent two straight weeks in a locked room with little visitors.
Medical staff only, she hasn't seen her friends. "Ester." She says, trying to wake up.
Ester takes a seat on her bed, "I have your clothes for you."
"M-my clothes?"
"Yes, here. You can change in your bathroom. I'll wait for you."
She hands them to her and Beth trudges to the bathroom. She comes out after a few minutes dressed in her normal clothes, handing her gown and socks to Ester who takes them.
"Beth."
"I'm getting discharged? Why else would you give me my clothes."
"Yes, Solayo wants you out of here."
"How about kicking me out completly?"
"I'm sorry? I don't understand-"
"Right now, I would much rather take my chances outside the compound with the zombies."
"Uh... Speaking out of outside, we're looking for Paisley, Lyla's twin sister. We have some leads."
"Well, I hope you don't find her."
".....She's probably pretty scared out there, Bethany. Especially how she bit your wrist before." Ester gestures to Beth's wrist that was re-bandaged. It's ugly the scar, no one around here wants to see it.
"Ester."
And Beth leans a little, Ester doing the same.
"I don't care what the Tomorrow Party wants."
Ester sighs. "Um, how about we finish getting you out of here? Come, come." And Ester leads Bethany out of the room. She winces a bit from seeing the strong lights out in the corridor which looks every other corridor in this place. Identical.
"Take a seat on those chairs for me just right there. I'm going to get additional meds for you as we want you to keep up a medication regime."
Ester heads into an office, but Beth is sly as Ester heads in, pulling Ester's keycard out of her pocket.
Once she's gone, Beth slowly stands and walks down the corridor. Not rushing or anything so she doesn't stand out. She stops and hugs the wall, two people talking in the next corridor, blocking her exit towards the elevator.
They are fully geared and masked up. "It's honestly... unique. Miracle?"
"Well, very rarely things happen to people we can't explain, but they happen."
"It's not right for them to be experimenting on him though. His so young, a teenager still if anything.
His 19, you don't become an adult overnight and this apocalypse started when he was 18, fresh out of highschool.
I'm worried their going to end up killing him."
"Well, if his death occurs, his still useful dead. We can perform an autosopy, an envasive one and see what's going on that caused his immunity."
"Actually, we need to go feed him. It's lunchtime."
Beth sees a head to toe uniform like theirs nearby and pulls it on, adjusting the googles. She has an idea. Walking up to them, they turn to.
"Hello!" Smiles the woman who's being rather nice about Gerald's condition. It's obviously him, his the only one immune in this place.
"Hmph." The man says, grumping.
"Do you want me to feed him? I'm sure you're busy with other things too. There are no breaks in an apocalypse." Beth says confidently.
"If you could do that for me, that would be great. Thank you!" Says the woman happy. "Where's your I.D badge?" Asks the man.
"Uh, damn. Must have left it in my room. Mikey didn't say anything when I saw him. I'll go get it after I feed Gerald."
"Okay, just put it on when you can, lovely." The woman smiles again.
"You shouldn't treat it like it's human and normal. It's not." Snaps the man.
"Yes, you're absolutely right." Beth responds, what she just said leaving a sour feeling in her stomach. The women directs Beth to a food cart in the corner. She looks for a covered dish that is labelled. There is one labelled Gerald amongst others for other people.
She sees 9 written on his. That must be the floor. Heading to the elevator and entering, she taps Esters card and hits the floor 9 button.
The elevator descends lower than the floor she stepped in on. She came from floor 3 - Psych.
The tray she's holding smells weird. She gently edges the tinfoil open to see what food is in there. She closes it and almost pukes. Ew, god, no.
When the doors open, she looks around first before exiting. The coast is clear and this floor is very short and different to the floor she came from. The lighting even dimmer here, two extra doors she has to swipe to get through It's not as long, there is doors, but also windows beside them. Walking along, she counts a total of six rooms and in the rooms, their basic like the room she was in, but they just look different.
In the last room, she stops seeing a hunched over figure, ripped clothes and a shaved head on his bed, back to her. There is a piece of chalk in his hand, his fingers look damaged and black.
And... She gasps a little actually reading the room, literally. Her name, the short version, 'Beth' is scribbled on the walls, and floor.
"Gerald." She says, placing down the disgusting food tray, heading to his door. She swipes Esters keycard to unlock his door. Pushing it open slightly, she calls out his name.
"Gerald? Gerald, it's me. Beth."
Gerlad slowly starts to turn around to look at her, the chalk from his hand drops to the floor and she sees his face and body. His skin is almost black, the flesh dripping off exposed bones, blunt teeth -
It's like someone filed them and his eyes are fully white, like a film covering them.
And his smell, he smells like a rotting dead corpse. She clutches her hands to her nose, pinching as to not be sick.
He staggers towards her, no recognition of her. Also he sees is his next meal.
She can't move, she can't breathe. She can't do anything. When she feels strong arms lift her off her feet, pulling her back and to the floor, a sharp needle piercing her neck and Mikey comes into view slamming Gerald's door shut, securing it as Gerald fly's at the window, thrashing and trying to bite the the window while making blood curling sounds.
Beth feels someone grasp her arm, taking Ester's key card she stole from her hand.
"You fucking idiot!" Mikey says, turning to look at Beth. "You could have gotten yourself killed, he was going to eat you!" Then Mikey calms down. "And you escaped the 3rd floor, you took Ester's pass."
Beth tries to find the words to speak, but she can't and she can't move either. She weakly manages to move her head to look up and see Grayson is the one sitting with her on the floor, he has Ester's card in his hand. He pulls hera hoodie back and gently removes the google. She sees Ester to her right and she's holding a syringe.
"Mikey, go easy on her." Ester snaps. "She was raped, tried to kill herself, we diagnosed her with PTSD and now she sees what Solayo has done to her friend."
Grayson gently brushes Beth's forehead in a soothing manner. Beth finally manages to find her words. "I-Is he still in there? Cause he looks like a zombie, b-but the chalk."
"Sorta?" Mikey responds, unsure how to respond or explain to Beth what's happening.
"Okay, look at me. You can't say a word of this to anyone because if Solayo finds out, he'll kill you and hurt us." Ester begs Beth.
"You're scared of him?" Beth says. "You three know this isn't right and you're helping him do this anyway. Not just what has obviously been done to Gerald, but to us and everyone else.
Why cause the end of the world?"
The three are silent and look to eachother worried. Mikey shrugs and says the only setence he can think of to explain to Beth.
"We we're going to lose the election, be kicked out of the main power seat. And Beth, everyone wants to rule the world."
"So you kill everyone, your competitors to prevent that happening. You think this zombie apocalypse is better than losing?"
"......"
"How did you even pull this off? I have seen and dealt with zombies when I was living outside, stuck in Hope-Thorn. Slate and I attended a convention that was on the day the zombies broke out.
Lyla, Paisley with their dog, Zekey and Gideon we're there too. I moved away from our hometown, Walt when senior year finished to a big city. I was homeless and broke, Slate invited me to visit him, he paid for my flight in.
He'd moved to Hope-Thorn after senior year while Lyla, Paisley and Gideon remained at home in Walt. Slate and I ran into them at the convention, they had got the train in and booked a hotel room.
We said hi, went our seperate ways. I had to use the bathroom and Slate waited for me outside.
We never saw them again after we parted. I heard screaming and when I exited, Slate was nowhere to be found. I ran around looking for him at first, but people we're dying and I never saw him again.
I took shelter somewhere and spent year surving as best I could till I ran into Paisley in The Dome.
She seemed different and we fought over some leftover medical supplies. She bit me there, we resolved our conflict and she led me to her shelter on the rooftop of a building. I spent the night there and next morning, Slate was flying around in his chopper.
I waved him down thinking the Military would save up which after being here for a while, I made a stupid choice. Paisley fled, saying they we're danger which she was right.
How did you pull off the apocalypse?"
"It was in the air, but the cure was also in the food." Mikey says.
"What was?"
"We gassed the place, the gas would turn people. We and the Military we're stationed in The Dome. We didn't let anyone who was in the dome, civilians leave. We fed them to make sure they wouldn't turn. It was only temporary immunity from the zombie virus we helped Solayo engineer and rounded up anyone outside who was left alive and transported everyone here.
We're inside an inactive volcano, Beth."
"I didn't eat any of the convention food and neither did, Slate."
"What?" Mikey says, eyes wide. "You're lying."
"No, we didn't eat any."
"Slate had a lemon soda when you we're in the bathroom. He told us about you much later when he warmed up to us. What did you eat or drink?"
"I had nothing."
They all look shocked. "What?"
"Beth, you should be dead right now if you didn't have anything back then." Grayson speaks up.
Ester let's out a squeak and covers her mouth. "What?" Beth snaps. "Beth... You might be immune like Gerald. He was bitten and didn't turn.
He wasn't in Hope-Thorn when the apocalypse started. It's possible you could have escaped the areas that we're gassed, but we did most of them at the same time so the likelyhood you escaped is very low. You should have inhaled and died and reanimated. You never felt like you couldn't breathe and collapsed at any time?" Ester questions.
"No, never."
"Okay, okay. Uh, look, don't tell anyone this, don't talk about it or you will end up tied to a operating table in the labs and you don't want to find out what Solayo will do to you. Pretend our conversation right now never happened."
"What are you going to do me though?"
"Grayson will take you to Slate, and you can officially get out of here as you're no longer on suicide watch. Just go about normal life, take your meds. I know that will he hard, but you have to."
"And him?" Beth points to Gerald who has calmed down. She can't see him on his floor, scribbling her name more.
"He has to stay here, I'm sorry, but you won't ever see him again. Forget he exists if you can." Ester tells her.
Grayson helps her to stand to remove her from the area. "Wait." She says.
"What?" Mikey responds.
"Can you tell me what happened to Paisley, Lyla, Gideon and Zekey that day in Hope-Thorn? Where is Zekey now?"
"Zekey's here, his just not allowed out of Lyla and Gideon's room. They work not just to feed themselves, but him also." Mikey answers.
"And in Hope-Thorn a year ago?"
"Lyla and Gideon had come into The Dome with Paisley. She was vomiting after having had a milkshake. They we're fine despite having had milkshakes too.
The cure, well, it's not a cure we put in the food, it would only save people from turning, but only during the start. Once the fumes cleared, people could still be bit and turn.
The 'cure' must have been a tad strong for Paisley, her immune system didn't know how to respond to it so she was sick. I was working medical that day, I told them to let her rest in the medical tent.
They wanted to take her to the emergency room, we couldn't let them leave The Dome. Mikey was with me at the time and Grayson was on stage with Solayo announcing how things we're goanna be.
I was going to sedate Paisley and Lyla got in the way. I drugged her by accident and Gideon got in Mikey's way. They both screamed at Paisley to run, she did and we lost track of her.
So she escaped and survived judging by you running into her a year later. Gideon took Lyla and escaped as well. We rounded everyone else up, evacuated.
And a few months later, Gideon ended up stumbling upon this place with Lyla. Her leg was broken. Zekey got left behind in The Dome and we all we're keeping him as a pet which Solayo hated, but tolerated.
Lyla and Gideon wanted Zekey so Solayo cut them a deal. They could have him, but they'd work extra so Zekey could eat to and they wouldn't let him roam the place."
"And Slate?"
"Don't know. He showed up here way before Lyla and Gideon did, was eager to work and join the compound community here and has been with us ever since."
"That sounds nothing like him. His nothing like I remember. He actually hates the government and would never enlist in the military."
"Beth, people change." Grayson adds on. "Now, come on. Let me get you out of here without Solayo finding out and take you to Slate.
You miss him don't you? We locked you in a room for two weeks without your friends."
"Yeah, I miss him. I do want to see him."
Grayson goes to leave with Beth, but not before handing Ester back her pass and leaving Ester alone with Mikey who opens a small hatch sliding Gerald's food in.
Beth looks back to see Gerald standing there, staggering around a bit. He's looking blankly at the food like he doesn't know what to do with it.
"Ester, his not eating it. Again." Mikey tells her.
"So, it's getting worse. He doesn't recognize human food as food anymore." She responds.
"Wait!" Beth cries trying to fight Grayson. She shoves him away easily, him letting her win as using his full strength would hurt her easily.
She runs back to Ester and Mikey from the elevator and plants her hands on the window looking in at Gerald.
His standing there and looks up at them. The sight is horrifying physically, but his not reacting violently now, can't smell them through the glass.
Beth gently taps the window. "Beth." Ester says.
Gerald gently staggers over to the window, face drooping. She taps the window again and he raises a shaking hand, tapping back with just 1 finger like she did.
She places her whole palm against the window and he does the same, visibly shaking and it appears he looks at his self realizing his been shaved, disfigured and experimented on.
"Beth, we have to go. I need to get you back upstairs and you have to take that uniform off before Solayo finds out and then we're all in trouble." Grayson pleads with her gently stepping forward to take her, a hand on her shoulder and the other reaching for her hand.
She ignores him. "Bethany." He says a little louder, he full name this time.
"B-Bethany." Gerald speaks up, forming a solid word. He looks like he wants to say so much more, but her name is all he remembers.
Does he remember his girlfriend? He said he was with her when he got bit, he told her to run. She got away.
How did he end up in the Tomorrow Party's company? They we're attacked by zombies, but maybe the Tomorrow Party set them up? We're they nearby?
Her friend Slate is creative, he'd never approach them eager to join and become a member of the Military. His against war and violence, so the fact he now engages in it is...
"Gerald, where's your girlfriend? You told her to run, it's how you got bitten. Zombies ambushed you. How long ago did that happen and when did you stumble upon the people here? Or did they find you?"
"Shit." Grayson says in response to her working it all out.
"T-they lied." Gerald responds, only just managing the words. His not angry, he looks genuinely terrified now and backing away from the glass slightly.
"Okay, that's enough. Move it, you have to go. You can not be down here any longer." Mikey snaps getting annoyed at Beth, and starting to push her towards Grayson.
"You monsters!" Beth yells at them, she hits Ester square in the jaw as she was standing nearby. Ester falls to the ground and doesn't do anything or react. She does react, but she just sobs where she fell on the floor.
"You bitch, I'm going to make you regret that. You had the opportunity to walk away and you didn't!" Mikey yells at her, grabbing a syringe from his pocket.
"Grayson, hold her."
Grayson looks conflicted, but obliges pulling Beth to the floor, holding her as still and in place as much he can without breaking her arm or anything. She's thrashing her and screaming, trying to get away.
Mikey rips the buttons that secure the protective suit, exposing her clothes underneath and he pulls her shirt underneath aside to expose her shoulder also revealing a section of her bra.
"No! No, no!" Bethany screams. He doesn't wipe the area clean or anything, his not wearing gloves.
He roughly pierces her skin, jabbing the needle inbetween her shoulder and neck.
"Gerald!" She screams, looking at him as Mikey presses down with the needle, the medicine being injected. Gerald makes an unhuman sounding sound, banging against the glass and the door, no door handle on the inside for him.
Ester curls up into a ball, crying more.
Mikey roughly pulls the needle out and walks over to help Ester up. Beth's shoulder is bleeding slightly and Grayson pulls his hand up his sleeve a bit and uses the sleeve to act as a bandage to stem the bleeding. He doesn't know what to do and Beth's movement slow, struggling to fight anymore, her legs eventually stop moving and her eyes close, her head rolling back into the gape of Grayson's neck.
He picks her up and heads to the elevator with her, a crying still Ester, but cheek bruised joining them, but she's up and walking now. She taps Floor 1 for him on account his arms are full, the doors close and it begins it's ascension while Mikey remains behind with Gerald. He leans in close to the glass.
"Gerald."
"Rrgh?"
"She's in love with Slate and his in love with her. She just doesn't know it yet, either of those two things. You will never have her nor will you get your old life back. Lydia's probably dead, she was bitten too and pregnant. Both of those would have killed her and your unborn child.
This has been fun, but you're no longer useful now to the Tomorrow Party. We'll engineer a new test subject soon."
Mikey laughs and walks away heading to the elevator. He switches all lighting off on Gerald on his way out.
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