30 Days of Undead Summer [Zombie Challenge]

June 3rd: #SciFiSaturday

Already Infected

Wiping my face in the bathroom sink, I stared at my suddenly red eyes. Was it from lack of sleep or....?

I honestly didn't want to think about it. Grabbing some paper towels from the overly stocked holder, I tried to ignore the sounds from the other room. Leaning against the wall, I closed my eyes for the briefest of time hoping to block out the shouts. My legs fell forward drained of all my energy. Picking at my wrist, my eyes flickered down.

The red band around my wrist indicated that I wasn't allowed escape. Maybe if I had been suicidal in my life I would have enjoyed the band wrapped securely around my wrist. Then again I was always the more dramatic one of my family, according to my father. I wasn't exactly the child he wanted on the day I was born.

Suddenly the sounds of someone running outside the door caught my attention. Leaning my ear against the wall, I listened.

"Crash cart! Somebody get me a crash cart!"

It sounded like the nice doctor. She was the one with the nice blonde hair and brown eyes. Whenever she gave me the shot, instead of the nurse with a permanent scowl on her face, it seemed to hurt less. Then again, I just had an obsession with brown eyes. My fiance had hazel eyes and always said my favorite thing to do was stare into his eyes.

As the cart was dragged down the hall, I realized they were headed toward Chris's room. Grabbing the doorknob, I dragged it open. The stale stench of death and ICU assaulted my nose.

Pushing up from the floor, I walked out of the restroom, and into the hospital. Shots always gave me the creeps and whenever I had my blood taken, I'd pass out for sure. There were bright lights flashing in the hall and I knew what it meant. The hospital was full to capacity.

All the hospitals were. They couldn't keep away the infected nor could they treat what they had. My feet slid across the floor trying to avoid the running nurse who's bloodshot eyes were similar to mine. Only a matter of time before she shared my wristband.

Gripping my stomach, a horrible pain suddenly shot through. Gritting my teeth, I waited a two whole minutes for it to pass. Once it subsided, I sidestepped a body on the floor. Switching my eyes from the corpse and the clock, there was probably a good hour before he reanimated. Hopefully someone would drag him into the sealed room before then.

Probably not though. The last guy that tried to move a corpse, got infected himself. Why was it the teeth biting into meaty flesh that transferred the disease? Maybe it was the silva?

I shrugged. It was someone else's problem. Moving down the hall, I saw the nice doctor in Henry's room, across from Chris's room. He had been nice, a little irritating at night with his moaning, but otherwise an okay person. I didn't know him personally before two months ago.

Strange how much things change in three months.

Turning around, I was surprised by the closed seal on Chris's room. Peering inside, I watched as the love of my life throw up blood into a large pale bucket. Lifting my hand to the glass, I hit against it causing a bit of a noise on our hall. For a moment, the hall grew quiet until they realized it was just me, the freaky one who hadn't yet died from the infection.

"Chris!" I moaned, banging my hand lighter against the glass. It wouldn't break.

He looked up, but I could tell his beautiful eyes were hazed over.

Oh no, I thought to myself. Once his eyes hazed over, there was nothing more the doctors could do. So far, all they'd managed was to give us a few more weeks, maybe days. We'd been here for months, yet the infection had been around for three. An entire month before everything changed. It had been terrifying and then I happened to get sick after a stupid ride on the public bus. Chris always hated those contraptions, he wouldn't even take a cab.

My heart broke at the fact that I had brought this on him.

"I love you," I whispered against the glass.

Suddenly I turned, and blood spewed from my mouth. At the same time, I heard the sound of the heart monitor in Chris's room going off. Immediately it stopped. When a patient began coughing blood, there wasn't more they could do, they didn't even try.

This was my first time throwing up blood. The doctors had been optimistic about my infection. I was the first that hadn't died quickly, Chris included. They figured it was the strain I was exposed to, but I feared it was something much worst.

After all, I had a suspicion that my own father had infected me a long time ago. He always said I was abnormal, maybe he was the cause of it.

My entire body fell to the ground outside Chris's room.

"Someone get a crash cart," a nurse shouted as she saw me collapse. Everything was fuzzy after that. Looking over my hand, the last thing I saw was the shining gold ring on my finger that Chris had given me when he proposed a month before we got sick.

"Come on, Jack, we're not losing you," the nice doctor said as she pushed against my chest.

It made no sense why she was pushing against my chest. I suddenly felt weightless, my entire body floating away. Turning my head, I saw Chris leaning over me with the brightest smile I had ever seen on his face. Taking his hand, I followed him down the hall completely oblivious to the carnage behind us.

The nice doctor continued compressions well after the nurse had called it quits. She couldn't lose another. Suddenly there was movement in Jack's body and she nearly yelled in relief. Only her relief was short lived.

Quicker than anybody before him, Jack's body reanimated. The kind nice doctor released a shout so loud that it nearly broke the glass of each sealed room. Jack's teeth latched onto the doctor's arm. He wasn't the only one who had animated, so had Chris's body behind the glass.

The rest of the nursing staff abandoned their posts. The end had begun.

(Once again this was longer than I intended. Before anyone asks, yes the characters are two men, it's a gay couple. I wanted to do something a little different. Plus, it's pride month in June, if I'm not mistaken. I hoped I got the prompt, I tried to include the virus and how it got started subtly. Hope you like it!)