Formaldehyde

Chapter 10

Mel's point of view

We were siting at the table arguing when suddenly we heard a creak from up stairs. "Mel, what do you have up there?" Kat whispered to me. "Nothing. Nick, go check it out" I whispered to both of them. Nick silently stood up and walked over to the stair case. "Mel, please don't do this" Kat pleaded. As stubborn as we were, nothing could change our minds. Suddenly there was silence "MEL, KAT, IT'S NATHAN. YOU WON'T BELIEVE WHAT HE WAS DOING." Nick yelled down to us. Me and Kat instantly stood up and ran to my room. We appeared at the door, both still out of breath from running. 

"Hey girls" said Nathan weakly. He started this obsession with me and Kat back in comp, he was in my year and I went out with him in the first year. Then Kat came up from the primary and he started this weird obsession with us. I always thought Nick and Matt would be enough brute force to teach him otherwise. But I was wrong...

"What was he doing?" I demanded 

"Sniffing your... Uh.... clothes." Nick blushed and gestured at the items Nathan dropped on the floor. I gasped and I felt my cheeks heat up.

"You little creep." Kat said with an accusing tone. Nick walked over to him and picked him up by the scruff of his neck.

"Hey! That's harassment!" exclaimed Nathan.

"So is sniffing a chick's underwear." Nick said sassily. He sounded pretty weird. Normally He's not sassy.

Nick walked over to the window and dangled his head out of it. "Bye bye." he said before dropping him. He fell onto the window sill, knocking all the breath out of him. Nick smirked a bit at this as he scrabbled out the window onto the rooftops.

Me, Kat and Nick all walked back to the kitchen and sat down as if nothing happened. The silence was to much so I broke it.

"When you're dead, are you really dead? Undertakers preserve your body with a chemical called formaldehyde. This chemical preserves many of the lifeforms in your body. Maybe enough of them to bring the person back to life. The body won't be fully functioning. The brain cells will be mostly destroyed, you'll only retain most of the basic survival instincts. For example, eating. It won't matter what it is. It'll eat anything, even human flesh."

"So basically a zombie?" Nick asked. 

"Yes Nick. A zombie." I sighed "As I was saying It would do anything to survive. It will have to purpose to live except to live."

"I don't see how this could be even a remotely useful discovery." Kat interrupted. It always annoyed me when she interrupted me.

"Well how about you let me finish." I said angrily. I was trying to challenge her. She let it slide. "So there are many uses for a creature like this. Imagine if a bunch of normal looking people were just standing there and one of them got a bit hungry and starting eating people? What if a mass of these creatures were dropped into a village of terrorists or something? They wouldn't stand a chance. They would all be eaten or severely injured. Understand now? I'm making a weapon!" I said with a bit of excitement in my voice 

"The terrorists would just shoot them..." Kat said uneasily. You could tell Nick was uneasy.

"Yes but it wouldn't kill the creatures. It may affect their performance but it might not stop them completely. You see, these creatures wouldn't understand what pain means. We know that it means danger and that something wrong is happening but these creatures won't know that. Their brains aren't fully functioning so it'll be unable to process such things."

"Well this idea sounds all very well and god" lied Kat "but I don't think it's something you should be experimenting on living people and in our basement too. Maybe you should write a paper on it and show a laboratory?"

"No. They'll take all the credit for it. This is my only chance at fame. It would bring in money too. You won't have to take up any jobs you don't want to. You could pick any one you wanted. Don't you want that?"

"Yes but this is the wrong way to get it." And with that Kat stormed off.

"Nick" said I quietly. He turned his head to look at me. "If this experiment works and I publish a paper we really will be rich. We could bring mum and dad home then."

"Really?" nick said 

"Yeah. You only have to convince Kat to let me keep doing this." nick tensed. I could tell he was going to fight me, both of them were. 

"NO!" Nick said loudly. 

"Fine, but you'll regret this." I stood up and walked into basement making sure I locked the door behind me. I sat down at the top of the stairs and rested my head on my hands. And fell asleep.

I woke up to the ringing of my phone. I flipped it open to only hear the voice of my farther on the other end. "Mel!"

"Dad!" I practically yelled down the phone. "Thank god you answered. I have bad news to tell you all"