The Rehabilitated (Sample Only Book 1)

Potential

My sister had tested every vaccine apart from two, all the others had been unsuccessful. I knew how devastated Caitlin would be if the vaccines didn't work; we all wanted a cure for the infected. Caitlin would have to go back to trying to create another vaccine which could take ages, especially since it had already taken two years for these vaccines to be made.

I was in the dark room where the vaccines were tested; the area was very dreary, with walls and floors that were a muddy, brown. It was the kind of place where someone would become depressed if they stayed in it for too long. There were a few chairs around the room, a white table which had the medical equipment on it and the table that had the restraints, where we put the zombies. The lights dimly lit the room and I was glad that I'd never had to spend prolonged periods of time in here.

My sister and Kyle were in the room with me and someone was going to bring a zombie for us.

I heard footsteps outside and my heart was pounding, I wished that this vaccine would be the cure.

The door creaked open and it was clear that the zombie being brought in was newly infected because it had blood, red eyes and skin as white as milk. None of it was rotting and it didn't smell anywhere near as bad as the others.

“Well here goes our second last test.” Caitlin sighed.

The zombie was very tall and it was a male, but it wasn't like gender mattered with the infected. They weren't treated like humans anyway. He had dark brown, curly hair and was wearing light blue clothes. The clothes looked like something that a doctor or nurse would wear, so I assumed that the he had been some sort of medical professional.

Zack brought the zombie over and pushed it onto the table. I grabbed one of its arms, held it down and quickly buckled the restraints. Kyle got the other arm, while Zack got the zombie's legs and restrained them, with ease since he was so muscular.

“Good luck,” Zack said.

He was at least a foot taller than me and had long, flowing, blonde hair. If they ever had a Thor remake then he'd be perfect for the part of Thor.

“Thanks, we need it,” I replied.

“Right I'll see you around.” Zack nodded.

He closed the door on his way out.

“Well this is the vaccine that I was the lead on, so it may work.” Caitlin shrugged.

“Well let's hope,” Kyle said.

He scratched his neck, that was something he did when he was nervous. Kyle tapped his foot as well, his nerves were more visible than mine or Caitlin’s.

Caitlin got the injection, then walked over to the zombie. It was growling at an extreme rate and it was incredibly loud, just like the other zombies when they were restrained. He was still trying to fight against the restraints, but none of the infected had ever gotten out of them.

“Test on zombie 113,” Caitlin said as she looked at the tag on its wrist.

She injected the CRD sufferer with the liquid, then she pulled the injection out.

Instead of having a seizure the zombie's growls lowered in volume. It was quiet and I really hoped that it hadn't died.

“Uh this seems better than the other vaccines,” I said and fiddled with my fingers.

“But is it alive?” Kyle asked with a frown.

I nudged the infected's arm and it made a low growling noise.

“It's alive.” I nodded, then smiled, knowing that Caitlin's vaccine had at least calmed the zombie.

“Well, I'll need to monitor the zombie. But this seems promising.” Caitlin said.

I'd have to stay with Caitlin while she monitored the CRD sufferer because, she had to be guarded and someone had to ensure it didn’t escape.

I walked over to a chair that was at the side of the room and brought it to where the zombie was on the table. I sat down and kept my gun pointed at the it.

“So do you think this could be the cure?” Kyle asked and looked at Caitlin.

Caitlin shrugged, "I don't know... but I hope that it is. I mean the zombie is definitely calmer."

He growled a bit from time to time, but was pretty quiet in comparison to the others. The CRD sufferer was a still statue, rarely moving and staring straight at the ceiling.

“Well if this zombie is cured and going to be around for a while then we should give it a name,” I said.

“Are you serious?” Kyle looked at me with his eyebrows raised.

“Why not? The first cured zombie should have a name, not just a number,” I replied.

This CRD sufferer had to have a name, especially if he was properly cured.

“I mean I suppose we could give it a name,” Caitlin said.

Kyle shook his head, "You two are crazy."

It wouldn’t bother me if people thought I was crazy; it was a lot easier to give the infected a name than to refer to it with a number or call it the cured zombie. I definitely wouldn't remember the number of it, there were so many of them to deal with.

“Oh!” I exclaimed and grinned.

I had a great idea for the name of the zombie, but there was Kyle frowning. He was clearly confused by my excitement .

“So in Z Nation the first person who was vaccinated and immune to zombie bites was called... Murphy. I just think it's fitting that we call this zombie Murphy cause he's our first cured zombie, kinda like in Z Nation.”

“It's as good a name as any,” Caitlin replied.

"Fine, this zombie will now be known as Murphy." Kyle sighed.

We stayed with Murphy for most of the day and he was very calm. So far there didn't seem to be any side effects and thankfully he’d stayed alive, unlike the other zombies.

Caitlin had taken some of his blood and saw that the vaccine was fighting the virus, but she didn't know whether Murphy would become a human again or not.

Throughout the week the vaccine would be injected into other zombies, hopefully it would work on them as well.