SPLINTER!

INTRO:

"Wake up. Wake up, come on," I hear mother growl in my ear as I stir in my bed. I open my eyes to see her looming over me standing near my bed. "You're going to make us late for this appointment. Get dressed and head to the car," she tells me sternly before walking out the room.

I take out my outfit from inside my closet and put it on. I really, really, don't want to be going to this appointment. A dirty science lab where the scientists there are just going to be jabbing me with needles. It's not something I want to do before school. I zip up my boots on my feet and make my way downstairs. I intend to go out to the car as slowly as possible. I already have needle marks up and down my arms from the many times I have been to see these scientists. My brother is dead why do they need to keep doing tests? What is wrong with me? Am I ill now too? What aren't my parents telling me? I deserve to know these answers, it's my life. My body.

I enter the back seat of the car behind my mum. I click my seatbelt in place and lean my head against the window. I have my earphones and listen to some music as we begin the drive to the science lab. The day is bright and the sun is shining down on us. This time of morning is always the most peaceful. Not full of cars on the road, no cyclists giving my father road rage. I notice the clouds look whiter than usual today. I love clouds, how they can float above us like cotton candy in the sky. They don't have responsibilities or troubles.

We arrive at the lab and my mother opens the car door for me to climb out. I do so, noticing the main scientist is standing at the entrance. He always looks so nice until he sticks a needle in to my arm. Then doesn't look so nice. Power greedy scientists is what I think they are. If anything they should go to jail for what they do to kids. The experiments they do should be illegal.

"Ahh, hello miss Driscoll. Good to see you again," he says with a grin that shows one of his teeth has a gold cap. I hate the way he looks, even the way he smells. The whole lab smells like one giant hell hole. If a hell hole smells like rust, sweat and something rotting. Not the clean smell that you have in hospitals. Then again can I expect anything decent of a science lab?

I keep quiet not wanting to say a single word to these scientists. I have never done since the first time I stepped foot in this place. Well, I say I stepped inside but truth be told I was dragged in this place kicking and screaming after the hospital transferred us here. Said they found something unusual in my blood results. Now here I am. A science lab rat.

The scientist leads me to the normal room where I am kept and observed. Poked and prodded. He hands me a white hospital gown and I go to put it on. My mother starts speaking to the scientist being overly grateful. Nothing new there.

"Thank you so much Dr Clyde. Have you made any progress of what it could be in her bloodstream?" my mother asks as Dr Clyde holds up his finger in the air.

"I can assure you Mrs Driscoll, we are strongly aware that we could be very close with our tests and theories. This could be our last test, you see there has been some kind of outbreak out there in the world and we are sad to say that we found your daughter's best friend a victim of this outbreak," Dr Clyde explains.

My mother looks at him confused. "What's happened to Liliana?" she asks wondering what this outbreak is.

"Seems that this outbreak is keeping the dead very much alive. Think of comic book zombies but real. We call them walkers," Dr Clyde tells her.

"How is that possible?" my father who overheard asks as he walks over to them.

"We're not sure as of yet that is our next task after we have found out what is going on with your daughter," Dr Clyde says.

I come out the bathroom in the white hospital gown and I sit on the bed that is in the middle of the room. Dr Clyde walks in and I begin to get anxious as I dig my nails in to the palm of my hands.