1
Screams. .. A man glances up over his shoulder, his face grim but determined to make one last shot. But his eyes showed the fear he felt inside. He was underground, in an old war bunker, long ago abandoned before the outbreak had even happened. The room he was in was full of scientific and medical equipment, all of in he knew how to use and all of it he had at some point.
He flipped a switch on the wall, and heard a loud bang as the main door to the bunker closed, locking him in and giving him some more precious minutes to do his duty. To finish his life's work. Though even if he did succeed, there would be no one to care about it. But it was the only thing he had left.
He dashed about, grabbing chemicals and mixing them together. Holding it under ultra-violet light to make it react together in the right way, in the hope it would work this time. Gulping he paused for second when it was finished, just looking at the vital in his hand.
Nodding to himself, he left the room and headed to the main room, where a creature was chained to a cot in the centre. It was hooked up to an IV and some medical monitors, which showed that its heart rate was almost three times as much as a normal humans and its temperature was around the same.
It looked human, with the same basic looks. But beyond that, it just looked feral, like a wild animal. Its skin was a pasty white which looked like it had never seen sunlight. To be fair, it probably hadn't since it had been Infected. Ultra-violet light burned it, which is why they were part of the defence system around the base. The little hair it had was thin and looked like it could fall of at any moment.
Its eyes flew open as it heard the man walk into the room, instantly glued to his hand, where the syringe was. Despite the wildness in them, they were human. There was panic for a moment but then there was a loud wail from outside.
The sound it gave out next was one of laughter. "Others coming," it sneered, along with a whole string of words he didn't understand. The Infected had their own language, one which seemed to have no pattern apart to the ones speaking it. The man was a scientist and a fighter, not a linguist. He understood some basic words but the rest was lost to him.
However the Infected still understood human speech, even if they were unable to speak it for whatever reason. Meaning often conversations between the man and his captive were vague and one-sided, the creature unable to voice its own thoughts well.
"I know. Just one last chance," the man said walking toward the creature. It hissed and began to pull on its bonds desperately.
"No," it wailed, "No more!"
The man ignored the struggling and injected the blend of chemicals, his life's work, into the creatures IV. The creature howled pitifully, tears pouring down its face. The stuff hadn't reached him yet, but he was scared. Half the stuff the human injected into him hurt him.
"Please work," prayed the man, as he gently wiped away the creature's tears with a cloth. His eyes weren't on the creature, but rather the monitor. The creature let out a low wine as the chemicals began to take effect. There was a flash of pain and then he was really howling with pain. The man held its hand, trying to comfort it, as small as the gesture was.
It let out one more scream of pain before collapsing. The monitor went dead for a moment before starting up again. It took a lot to kill an Infected. Its heart raced up to the speed it had been before as did its temperature.
It let out a wail as it woke up, tears pouring down its face. "No more, no more, no more," it whimpered over and over.
"Shh, no more," The man whispered, stroking its head gently, the creature nuzzling in to his touch. The creature looked into his eyes and winced slightly. The look in the human's eyes was one which could only be described as empty. He had given up that last piece of hope. He had failed "Pain?" The human asked in the Infected language. He only spoke the few words he knew when he was trying to calm the creature down.
"Pain," the creature nodded, not looking the human in the eyes any more. Couldn't stand looking at those empty eyes. The man nodded and gently stroked its head again. He pulled out another syringe and injected it straight into its blood stream.
"Better?"
"Much" The creature sighed as the pain dimmed away into nothingness. There was another screech as something managed to dent the main door. The human looked at the door which the creature would come through with a resigned look on his face.
He looked down at the creature chained up and made a decision. He reached down and released the creatures dominate hand. The creature watched puzzled by this, the human never gave him any freedom when he was in the same room. Mostly, he woke up to be free in the room but all the doors were locked shut so he couldn't escape. He only knew when the experiments were happening because that was when he'd wake up chained.
The human pressed a key into his hand and then with one last glance at the main corridor, walked off into the back corridor.
"Where you going?" the creature called.
"No-where" he said back, before closing the door to the back corridor. Wouldn't do anything if he knew, but he didn't want to hear the creature any more. He just wanted to sleep. Just wanted to curl up and never wake up and have to deal with the shit he called life.
"Human, wait," he heard the creature call, he heard the sound of chains rattling as the creature freed itself. It wasn't stupid; it knew he was freeing it. Which only meant one thing.
He walked into his room and locked the door behind him. Again wouldn't do much. But it just had to hold them off long enough. He sat on the bed and for a moment did nothing other than put his head in his hands. Gulping slightly he looked over at the photo on his bedside cabinet. It was of him looking much younger kissing a beautiful woman. It was a wedding photo. Sighing he grabbed the bottle of whiskey which was by it and took a swig. Needing to have something to steel him for what he was about to do.
"Forgive me Mary," he whispered, "I failed."
He pulled a gun from under his pillow and placed it at his temple. Closing his eyes, he was about to pull the trigger when there was a loud crashing noise. He opened his eyes to see the door had been torn off by an Infected who was at least three times the weight of the human in muscle alone. It was the Alpha male of the Infected tribe who lived in this section of the former city. It growled, showing its teeth threatening as it stared at him. The Alpha was pissed, no beyond pissed, furious at him. The man shuffled back, trying to put as much distance between the enraged beast and himself as physically possible.
"Human," hissed the Alpha, taking a step forward.
The man yelped as his back hit the wall. There was no way else to go. It was only as the Alpha took another step, did he remember the gun he had in his hand. He moved to shoot himself again but before he could pull the trigger, the gun was yanked out of his hands. He barely had time to blink before the blur had him pinned down on his stomach. He was forced to watch as the Alpha snapped the gun in two with his bare hands.
"Shh no kill human, no kill," whispered the voice of the creature who he had been experimenting on. He was the one on his back, pinning him down. The man felt as the creature gently stroked his back, trying to calm him down, much like he had done during the tests. That's when he realized he was shaking in fear.
The Alpha barked something at the creature, too quickly for the man to catch and the creature answered just as quickly. The man then noticed that there were other Infected outside the door, observing the scene with mild interest as far as the man could tell. "Human," the creature barked, drawing the man's attention back to him. "Mine now." With those words, there was a sharp pain in his neck and his world faded to darkness.
Maybe it was his imagination, or maybe it was because he was falling unconscious for a moment he thought he understood the creatures.
"He'd better live."
"He will, I swear. I don't want him dead despite it all... Hush, sleep now. You'll be alright Glenn, you'll be alright."