don’t like the term “zombie”.
I ignored that last comment. “Would my skin start falling off? Like the zombies in the movies? You said I would perform the same way they do. Would I look like them too?” This was a pretty horrifying thought. I could just imagine my skin sloughing off my body, blood gushing out of every orifice. And my hair! If this was anything like how zombies were portrayed in movies, I would pretty much become bald! Maybe I had ambitions to make people look that way for TV, but I sure as hell didn’t want that to happen to me in real life.
Dr. Roberson inhaled before answering. “Yes.”
Okay, I wasn’t expecting that.
He continued. “Your body would not be capable of healing. The parts that required the nourishment to stay alive would no longer work, causing your body to deteriorate.”
“So once I get what I need, I will go back to normal, right? All of those nonworking parts would start working again.”
“Sadly, no. If you got to this point, then it would be too late for your organs. And once you got into that frenzied state, your mind would no longer function the same as a normal human. All reasoning would be lost, and the only thing that would make sense to you would be to keep nourishing yourself with what you think you need. Unfortunately, we have yet to reverse this from happening.” He sounded disappointed about that.
I looked down at my hands. “Well, what do we do? How do we stop this from happening?”
“You eat more. And you eat as soon as you feel hungry. It’s as simple as that,” he said plainly.
“That’s it? Won’t it just keep getting worse and worse? Will I have to eat all day long?”
“As long as you get the right quality and quantity, you shouldn’t get any worse than you are. The plan is to up your food intake. We are also going to…play around with what you eat. Maybe serve you something other than boar. We have other sources of food on the island. We’ll see what happens then. But that is why you are here, Grace. This is a research facility. We are researching. We are finding better ways of dealing with your condition. All of the subjects here will eventually get to the point where you are at now, of needing more and better sustenance. But because you were our first subject, and you’ve had Serum Z in your bloodstream longer, you are experiencing it sooner.”
On the morning of my departure, he clarified a lot…like what happened when I died initially and that my “condition” wasn’t a virus or contagious. All of what he was telling me now was more information than I was excepting Dr. Roberson to give me in one night. But since he just mentioned me being his first subject…I mean patient , this was my chance. “What happened to the second patient? The one that was injected after me.”
Dr. Roberson got up from the couch and walked over to his desk. He took off his lab coat and placed it on the back of his computer chair. “He died.”
“Why? Didn’t you inject him?”
“We did. But, he was alive when we injected him. It was part of the research. We wanted to see what capabilities Serum Z had. We wanted to know if it could help someone who was only injured.”
“And it didn’t,” I stated.
“No, it didn’t. He died right after the injection. This is when we learned that a subject must be deceased in order for Serum Z to do what it was originally designed to do. Revive.”
“What happened? Why was he injured?”
Dr. Roberson leaned up against his desk and folded his arms. “Car accident.”
I nodded once and looked away. There was nothing more I could say. I felt bad for the poor guy. He might have been able to live without the serum.
“Will I ever die?” Eric came to mind. If Tristen didn’t stop him, could Eric have ended my life right then and there? Or would he have just continued choking me without any end results? I could almost see the confusion on Eric’s face when he realized after ten minutes that I was
I ignored that last comment. “Would my skin start falling off? Like the zombies in the movies? You said I would perform the same way they do. Would I look like them too?” This was a pretty horrifying thought. I could just imagine my skin sloughing off my body, blood gushing out of every orifice. And my hair! If this was anything like how zombies were portrayed in movies, I would pretty much become bald! Maybe I had ambitions to make people look that way for TV, but I sure as hell didn’t want that to happen to me in real life.
Dr. Roberson inhaled before answering. “Yes.”
Okay, I wasn’t expecting that.
He continued. “Your body would not be capable of healing. The parts that required the nourishment to stay alive would no longer work, causing your body to deteriorate.”
“So once I get what I need, I will go back to normal, right? All of those nonworking parts would start working again.”
“Sadly, no. If you got to this point, then it would be too late for your organs. And once you got into that frenzied state, your mind would no longer function the same as a normal human. All reasoning would be lost, and the only thing that would make sense to you would be to keep nourishing yourself with what you think you need. Unfortunately, we have yet to reverse this from happening.” He sounded disappointed about that.
I looked down at my hands. “Well, what do we do? How do we stop this from happening?”
“You eat more. And you eat as soon as you feel hungry. It’s as simple as that,” he said plainly.
“That’s it? Won’t it just keep getting worse and worse? Will I have to eat all day long?”
“As long as you get the right quality and quantity, you shouldn’t get any worse than you are. The plan is to up your food intake. We are also going to…play around with what you eat. Maybe serve you something other than boar. We have other sources of food on the island. We’ll see what happens then. But that is why you are here, Grace. This is a research facility. We are researching. We are finding better ways of dealing with your condition. All of the subjects here will eventually get to the point where you are at now, of needing more and better sustenance. But because you were our first subject, and you’ve had Serum Z in your bloodstream longer, you are experiencing it sooner.”
On the morning of my departure, he clarified a lot…like what happened when I died initially and that my “condition” wasn’t a virus or contagious. All of what he was telling me now was more information than I was excepting Dr. Roberson to give me in one night. But since he just mentioned me being his first subject…I mean patient , this was my chance. “What happened to the second patient? The one that was injected after me.”
Dr. Roberson got up from the couch and walked over to his desk. He took off his lab coat and placed it on the back of his computer chair. “He died.”
“Why? Didn’t you inject him?”
“We did. But, he was alive when we injected him. It was part of the research. We wanted to see what capabilities Serum Z had. We wanted to know if it could help someone who was only injured.”
“And it didn’t,” I stated.
“No, it didn’t. He died right after the injection. This is when we learned that a subject must be deceased in order for Serum Z to do what it was originally designed to do. Revive.”
“What happened? Why was he injured?”
Dr. Roberson leaned up against his desk and folded his arms. “Car accident.”
I nodded once and looked away. There was nothing more I could say. I felt bad for the poor guy. He might have been able to live without the serum.
“Will I ever die?” Eric came to mind. If Tristen didn’t stop him, could Eric have ended my life right then and there? Or would he have just continued choking me without any end results? I could almost see the confusion on Eric’s face when he realized after ten minutes that I was
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