Fracking Apocalypse - a ZNation 10K/Tommy Fanfiction

S5E02: Part 6

S5E02: Part 6

18 months later (still in flashback)

Pain. Every day for who knew how long. So much pain that now her body was constantly throbbing, like when you finished a workout at the gym. She didn't have a moment of her life that wasn't painful now. She'd never been someone who wished to die, through the outbreak, losing her family, losing Garnett, Mack and Cassandra through it all she found a way to keep going, until now. She thought she'd known pain after getting shot and kidnapped by cannibals, having a cult freak hold a knife to her throat, 10K burning the side of her ankle to cauterize a wound, being strapped with an electric shock collar, even having a zombie tear apart her skin with its teeth. She thought after all that she'd be able to handle any kind of pain but the tests Zona had been putting her through were another kind of hell. Feeling like every one of her veins was suddenly filled with fire, then the next day feeling like ice so cold it stung. All the times they'd stopped her heart and restarted it left her chest burning, all the incisions so they could look inside at her different systems, seeing how her body would cope to one thing or another. All the stitches while they sewed her back up. Most of the time they didn't even use anesthesia, she would have to hope she'd just pass out from the pain. The anesthesia they saved for if a member of Zona needed an operation, anyone who wasn't Zona was just collateral damage. Her level of pain and consciousness also was dependent on the doctor she had that day and whether they liked causing pain.

She didn't know how long it was before they finally found a cure for what she and Murphy suffered from. And as relived as she was that this might all be over soon, she also was fearful of what they'd do to her now that they were finished with her. The next time she woke up she was stiff and sore just like any other day. She was under a white sheet and next to her table was another small metal table with bloodied operating tools. Her head hurt like she had the world's worst headache and she brought her hand to her temple rubbing to try and relieve the pressure. Then she realized she could lift her hand to her temple, she wasn't tied down and restrained anymore. She sat up taking a moment to let the world go back into focus after a huge dizzy spell and she looked around. She was alone in the room but just by the door she saw a figure leaving. Through the tempered glass walls that surrounded the room she could see the person's silhouette, tall, strong. . . the Man? She couldn't tell and she didn't have time to stop and think about it. She had to act now. She got off the table and leaned forward on it resting on her elbows as her legs adjusted to being used again after so long. Attached to the side of the table she saw one of those clipboards with a medical chart on it and flipped through the pages looking at the dates across the top. She'd been here a year and a half! Adding in the time she'd spent running from Spokane and the Man she figured at least two years had passed since she'd last seen the group, since she'd seen – no she had to focus, she told herself as she pushed herself to stand upright, her legs still a bit wobbly. She looked down at herself and saw she was dressed in a dark red sports bra and shorts, probably not to show the blood. She had no stitches left in her, thankfully, and the scientists had at least been good enough at their job that they hadn't leftany scars behind. The second thing she noticed was her skin was back to its regular color. She looked at her shoulder and saw a patch of skin that was a shade darker but still a fleshy tone almost like a large birthmark that spanned across where the tears had been in her skin. She could still see some of the jagged line as the tan skin met the pale ivory and a lot of it still looked misshapen, like the skin 10K had burned on her ankle, but all in all she could be worse.

She stood up and hobbled her way to the door using the wall to help steady her. She went as quickly down the halls as she could fully aware that she really had no clue where she was going. She went the same direction she thought she saw the Man go but she didn't want to push herself too hard to try and catch up with him. It wouldn't do her any good if she pushed her limits and passed out in some random corridor. She kept weaving down the halls feeling more and more like a mouse in a maze with every continued on her way barefoot often needing the walls to help keep her upright when she had trouble walking on her own. She wasn't sure if it was all the experimental drugs they'd used on her or the fact that she hadn't been let off that operating table in a year and a half that was making her feel so weak.