Designated (Book 1): Designated Infected

by Ricky Cooper

  The man looked back at her as he sat down on the single Lexan framed bed set against the padded wall of his cell.

  'Don't waste your pity on me, after what I done this is the least I deserve. At least this way it's painful enough to make up for it.'

  Anastasia looked at him for a second longer, before she lifted the thick disc of Lexan and slotted it into the hole, twisting it to the left as she watched the flat plastic hooks lock together sealing the hole completely.

  ****

  The man sat staring at the wall, he hadn't moved since Anastasia had injected the Infected blood into his system seven hours ago, for the sake of a control sample she had made sure the blood was clean of all known infectious diseases or infections, and that it was type match for the subjects own blood. It was all to ensure that the only reaction shown was from the virus itself.

  As she watched, she could see the sweat beginning to form on his brow as he fought to keep himself under control. His mouth moved on the video monitor. Snatching up the remote she turned up the volume but still nothing came through. Frowning she turned the volume up full, but still all she was greeted with was the electric humming of the speakers.

  Angrily she threw the remote at the speaker's control panel located on the wall behind the monitor. A wash of booming sound roared out at her as the small credit card sized remote collided with the speakers call button.

  'Stupid Anna, so very stupid.'

  Rolling over she picked up the remote and set it into the small cradle on the arm of her chair before reaching out and pressing the button once more.

  'What is it you want?'

  The man's head pivoted, mucus running from his nose in a never ending stream as he stared at her through blood shot eyes. The darkened patches around his eyes were slowly increasing, making him seem almost panda like as he gazed at her through the Lexan glass of his cubicle; if it wasn't for the myriad of Tattoos covering the shaven dome of his head, she would, at one point have considered him a desirable man, but now he looked worse than death himself.

  'Food.'

  Anastasia kept her finger pressed on the button.

  'Before I have it sent through, tell me please, how do you feel'

  The man snarled, slamming his fist against the plastic glass, before doubling over as he clutched his stomach and vomited over the floor. Blood tinged bile and stomach acid poured from him, coalescing in a steaming pool about his feet as he staggered back to the single bed in the corner.

  'I feel like I'm dying, does that help.'

  Anastasia sighed as she flicked a switch on the panel leaving the speakers permanently open.

  'Not really, everyone we have ever encountered has been far beyond the initial stages, I do not wish to recreate the perverse and hedonistic ways of my predecessors, or my German counterparts of the nineteen forties, to gain my results.

  'I am a caring woman at heart, and wish no harm to fall to any one. So please, make this easier on yourself, and me, by telling me exactly how you feel; then I promise, I will give you food and water, to your heart's content.'

  The man's head levered up from the pillow it was resting on, blearily he gazed at her.

  'Make it a Budweiser Gold and you got a deal lady.'

  Anastasia smiled slightly and nodded. The man levered himself up off the cot and swung his legs over the edge sitting upright as he braced his elbows against his knees. Anastasia could see his laboured breathing, and the mucus still running freely from his nose as he attempted to breathe normally.

  'Feels like I got a case of the mega flu really, my appetite is through the roof. I aint been this hungry since I spent three weeks in solitary on noting but a slice of bread a day, and my throat and mouth are so dry they hurt.'

  Anastasia scribbled rapidly on a note pad even though it was all being recorded.

  'My guts has cramped something fierce, so badly I've collapsed from the pain several times and it hurts just thinking about breathing.' He turned his head and looked at her his gaze pleading. 'How's that?'

  Anastasia nodded. 'Thank you, look behind you to the small shelf there.'

  He gingerly turned his head to the small rebated shelf behind him and watched as a tray was pushed through it by a small metal armature. A grin blossomed on his face as he took in the sight of the fresh meat and vegetables that lay steaming on the plate.

  Like a man possessed he descended on the tray forcing the food into his mouth as his jaw worked furiously to chew it as more and more was forced in. Anastasia watched in fascinated revulsion, as the man, designated subject A; devoured the meal. Even as her eyes remained glued and the camera silently recorded it all for posterity, she scribbled in shorthand on the small A5 pad resting against her lifeless leg.

  A week rolled by that slowly turned into a month without Subject A's condition getting any worse or better, as the month turned into two Anastasia began to notice a subtle shift in his mood as he paced his cell.

  'So can you tell me how you are feeling today?' At that precise second if Anastasia could have recoiled and stepped back she would have, Subject A's eyes were a blaze with unbridled anger as he turned to face her.

  'You wanna to know how I feel?' He slammed his fists into the glass as he glared at her. 'I'm fucking starving, get me my food now you bitch.'

  Anastasia breathed deeply as she continued to write rapidly on the pad resting on her knee.

  'Co-operate and I will get you your food. Please sit down and describe how your feeling.'

  The man's face seemed to ripple as sores and pustules began to push through his skin. The angry red skin around his eyes and mouth oozing as it split against the rising pressure beneath its surface.

  'Gimme my food now!'

  He slammed his balled fists against the Lexan again as Anastasia fought against the urge within to scream back at him. 'Not until you tell me how you are feeling today.'

  He grabbed at his head as he screamed in rage and pain, slamming it into the glass his forehead making the panel shake under the impact.

  She stared at him noting how the two symptoms still present were the uncontrollable bodily functions and the ever present mucus discharge flowing from his reddened, split and bleeding nostrils.

  'Do you still know what you are doing here?' She quizzed in hope of distracting him from his own self destructive anger.

  'Hell yea!'

  His chest heaved as he fought to keep himself under control. He shook as his stomach lurched, bile and blood spewing forth from his blistered mouth as he voided his stomach's contents onto the floor.

  A dark stain covered his posterior as he leant forwards his bowels emptying into the jeans he had requested only a day before. Anastasia forced herself to watch as he dove forwards, scraping his hands through the heavy mix on the floor searching for any signs of undigested meat in the pool beneath him.

  She wanted to press him for information but decided against it, it was clear that nothing was going to deter him from his quest for food, and he certainly wasn't in a logical frame of mind. Sighing, she moved away from the glass as she pressed a button on the remote, his attention shifted from the mucus puddle beneath him to the tray of steaming meat and vegetables on the shelf as the small motorised armature pushed it through.

  His eyes widened as he stared at the pile of once living tissue, then with a guttural roar he flew across the room and tore into it.

  Anastasia once again forced herself to watch and notate on what she saw, even though the bile rising through her gullet was slowly pushing past the point of no return. She watched and waited as he paced his cell and ranted, his rage boiling over to the point of violence as she watched him pacing like a caged tiger; time slipping by like grains of sand through an hour glass.

  Then on the fifth month of observation he snapped, a blood curdling wail echoed through the laboratory as Subject A descended irrevocably into insanity.

  The pounding of flesh on glass flowed through the room, rolling like a wet blanket over everything and everyo
ne as he began to hammer on the Lexan panel. Anastasia snapped out of her nap, her head jerking up from the desktop where it had resided. A glistening string of opalescent drool clung to her lip as she pushed away from the desk.

  Startled and scared at the sudden outburst she flailed uselessly as her mind played through the sleep induced nightmare. Her eyes snapped open as the shattering of china rang like a bell, her coffee cup connected in a burst of decorative porcelain, with the polished concrete floor as it tumbled off the counter top.

  She pushed the shards of china under the desk as she pulled her note pad from the desk top. Setting it down on her lap, she dragged her fingers through the stray strands of hair clinging to her sweat dampened brow.

  Her wheelchair's tyres squeaked slightly as she pushed herself between the rows of desks and work stations, heading deep into the laboratory seeking out the source of the ungodly noise. The subject paced about the cell, his head lolling from side to side as he chewed at his finger tips and nails.

  Incoherent mumblings rolled over him as he salivated profusely, the thick silver pink strands hanging from his chin like vines from a tree. His foul bodily excretions filled the floor shifting around his feet like a mire, the thick sludge of vomit and stool, rippled like wet mud as he pushed through it, his feet kicking up clods of the foul muck sending it splattering against the sides of the cell.

  Anastasia watched as the subject slowly began to gnaw away his finger tips the white shards of his own bone splintering and puncturing his lips as he bit deeper and deeper into his own flesh. Her chair rolled sedately to a stop mere inches from the Lexan partition, staring in at the foulness before her she couldn't begin to comprehend the devastation being wrought on the being who, but a few months ago had been a condemned but willing participant.

  The pustular sores coated most of his head and upper torso, their oozing, yellow, syrup like core wormed its way across his greying skin as he tore at the remnants of his t-shirt. The tattered garment hung in rags from his rapidly diminishing frame. His head pivoted on his neck, the corded sinew of his tendons showing clearly against his paper thin skin.

  He grinned, brandishing his teeth like a weapon as he leaped at the panel slamming against it hard enough to cause the reinforced plastic to rattle in its frame. He beat relentlessly against it as he clawed at the woman who sat on the other side.

  Anastasia’s hand strayed to the remote attached to her chair, tapping the button she watched as his nostrils flared. Fresh saliva rolled along the cloying strands dangling from his chin as he turned and threw himself at the plate of meat on the shelf beside his now destroyed bed.

  Her pad sat bare for the first time since this experiment had begun. Nothing she wrote could compare to the sights before her. There was very little left that could identify the creature as once ever being human. Turning from the slathering form she rolled down the shallow ramp and headed out of the laboratory's door, moving along the corridors towards her quarters and her bed.

  34

  Waking from a deep semi-drug induced sleep, Anastasia pulled herself off the bed; the steel handle suspended from her ceiling a harsh reminder of her physical malady, with a soft grunt of determination, she swung down into her chair and rolled towards her shower. The walk in shower cubicle stood in stark contrast to the rest of her room, the white tiles pristine and gleaming under the recessed lighting in the ceiling above her.

  Shifting her weight, she pushed down into the padded seat of her chair, her fingers splaying as she set her weight against her slim, muscular arms. Her knuckles turned white as the pressure built crushing the foam padded fabric of her chairs seat.

  Forcing her weight across, she braced herself swinging like a pendulum; her body's entire weight shifting from one arm to the other as she slid across to the cool, smooth shaped plastic of her shower seat. Pushing the chair into the box-like cubby set into the wall she started the water flow. Sighing, she sat beneath it as it pounded down against her bare body, the spray stinging her skin as she let it push the knotted muscles back into place.

  Reaching up she pulled the pins from her hair letting it fall over her alabaster white shoulders, cascading like satin on cream as it settled against her heat stained body.

  The sodden strands of her raven tresses clung to her body like damp wool as she reached out for the shampoo, letting the thick liquid curl into her hand, she set the bottle back on the small shelf and tried to wash away the grime and dirt; images danced in her mind, shifting and blurring as she washed her hair clean.

  The face of the man slowly descending into death danced behind her eyes as she drew her fingers through the tangled mess of hair, images of his battered and frail form shifted in her head as she pushed the tangled mess higher into the water letting the hot spray soak through it cleansing away the impurities. She let her hair drop back as she pulled her fingers through it, the water running over her hands, a warm glove of moisture hugging her slim digits as she pushed her sodden hair over her shoulders.

  Lifting her hand once more, she picked up the pale pink sponge. A soft smile played across her features as she plucked the pale purple bar from atop the shelf, pushing it over the sponge a small layer of bubbling lather sprang up over the surface. The bar was slick and wet in her hand as she lifted it once more running the rapidly softening lump over her skin.

  For seventeen minutes, she sat beneath the pounding water as she cleaned away the harrowing images from her mind letting it swirl and spin with the dirt and sweat, trapped in the spiralling whirlpool of water as she brushed away the dust of her life's labour.

  Slapping her hand against the button set into the wall, its bulbous chrome mushroom sitting stark and brazen against the polished white tiles. Sighing in contentment she waited for the water to cease before reaching back for a towel and pulling her chair out from the hole behind her. Laying the white plush cotton sheet on the seat of her chair she once more levered her nude, wet form on it and folded the ends over her legs and lower body before reaching for a second towel. She twisted it around her hair and left the end draped over her back as she rolled free from the shower.

  A soft knocking drew her attention as she entered her room once more. Glancing at the door, she pulled the towel from her head and wrapped it around her bare chest as she called out to the source of the noise.

  'Yes, enter.'

  The tall form of a man strode into her room as she pushed the corner of the towel in on itself, his sharp engaging eyes fell upon the wet towel wrapped form before him and widened slightly.

  'Apologies ma'am I should have known you would be indisposed given the days early hour, I'll come back.'

  Anastasia smiled as she pulled her fingers through her hair the soft pattering of water filling the intervening silence.

  'No, it is no bother, what did you need?'

  Coughing into his hand, he turned his back to the almost bare form of Anastasia; not only to offer her some small privacy, but to also hide, his rapidly reddening features.

  'I was asked by one of the technicians at the lab to tell you that Subject A's condition has deteriorated over night and that your presence is required as soon as possible.'

  A harsh sigh drew his attention and made him turn slightly at the sudden sound, his eyes swelled to a size not often seen as he beheld the now semi-naked form of Anastasia perched on her bed, the towel now held balled in her hand as she began to hurriedly dry herself. A startled yelp made her look up, her eyes latching onto the young Private currently caught between utter embarrassment and a wish for death.

  Smirking Anastasia held his gaze. 'What is the matter? Have you never seen a pair of breasts before private?'

  His crimson blush deepened as he was forced to fully turn and face the woman addressing him, his stuttered, almost whimper like reply made her sardonic smile broaden as he desperately tried to worm his way free of the situation.

  'If you are simply going to stand there and gawk and babble, make yourself useful and go to that draw and pass me
a shirt.'

  The young soldier nodded as he opened the draw she was pointing at, again attempting to avert his eyes he held out his hand, almost stuffing the shirt in her face in the process.

  'Oh grow up. You have already seen them is there much point to not looking now, just turn around while I sort out the rest, or better yet wait outside, we can talk once I am done.'

  The Private scurried away after snapping a hurried salute and bolted from the room, a throaty chuckle his only parting companion as Anastasia laughed at his fleeing form.

  Anastasia rolled out of her room three minutes later; passing the soldier with a smirk on her face she began her short journey back to her laboratory.

  'So what was the rest of the message Private?'

  'Ma'am, the subject has, according to the night shift, ceased all non-stimulated function and focused only on his quest for sustenance.'

  Nodding, Anastasia dismissed the soldier with a wave of her hand as she neared the lab's doors.

  'And you have my permission to tell your squad mates about my tits.'

  She watched his blush turn scarlet in the reflection of the steel covered doors before he turned and rapidly walked away.

  'So what have you got for me?'

  The lab staff stopped mid-stride as she barrelled in through the doors, their rhythmic thumping, her accompanying fanfare as she rolled into the room, dominating it completely.

  'Well, he seems to be slipping deeper into a primal, almost feral state, the only reactions we have had, are from bangs on the glass, or when we have sent food in there.

  'The bodily voiding has ceased. In fact, we have had no indication that any of the normal bodily functions, such as urination, or defecation, are still occurring.

  'Thus far, we can say with one hundred percent certainty that his only function is to consume any form of protein based food source he sees, and that includes us.'