Least Likely To Survive

by Lisa Biesiada

Ian spun around, and I could see his face start to turn red as he yelled right back. “Too many invariables?! Group Two mutated almost instantly when exposed to serum #7, which to me says the answers aren’t far.” His chest was heaving in his anger at this point, I vaguely wondered if his head would explode. One of the men at the table finally cleared his throat.

  “I agree that the recent findings warrant more exploration, and think we should continue. We need to know what is happening to those people so we can figure out how best to defend against them.” The apparent General kept an even and reasonable tone throughout, and I couldn’t fault his logic. Even ‘The Art of War’ agreed that you should always know your enemy.

  I watched as Dr. Fields sunk lower in her chair, accepting that she had been outvoted. “Fine, but at least exterminate the failed subjects. Leaving them alive will only increase the odds of a breakout.” Her chair made an awful screeching sound as she pushed it back, rising to her feet. Without a word, she walked to the stairs at the end of the stage and started for the other end of the auditorium. Just as she reached the door, she stopped and turned back. “And I absolutely refuse to participate in experimenting on the uninfected. Those people are innocent, and deserve the chance to survive this, just like the rest of us.” With that, she opened the door and walked out of the theater.

  My heart skipped a few beats at her words. They were planning to experiment on us?! What the fuck had we walked into here?! I turned my focus back to Ian and the Generals, but they were speaking so quietly now, I had to fight to make out any words.

  “If Fields can’t see the importance of what we are trying to do here, then she is against us, and should be watched,” Ian said resolutely as he nodded at the men before silently making his exit. The two men also stood up, and followed him towards the door. I could see their lips moving, but as they got further away, couldn’t make out any more words. I waited in my hiding spot until I was sure the coast was clear before creeping over to the table, where they had left a small stack of papers.

  Picking up a few, I skimmed them for clues as to what it was we were truly up against. I shuffled through them, but didn’t really understand what I was seeing. It looked like lab results; full of numbers and percentages, and other language I wasn’t privy too. I got to the bottom of the stack and the word ‘Memo’ caught my eye.

  ‘Results from test 12 with Group Four are inconclusive. The infected seem to be growing stronger, and their ability to reason is growing. After being injected with serum #7, they seem to be regaining basic intelligence, as subject 67 was able to figure out the locking mechanism on its restraint.

  We will continue with our testing, and look forward to any thoughts or findings you may have.’

  Dr. Ian Kowalcyck

  Developmental Studies Administrator, NSEC Industries.

  I let the paper flutter back to the table. I fucking knew they were mutating! I couldn’t wait to tell Jack what I had seen and heard, and of course impart a big fat ‘I told you so’, but before I could continue congratulating myself, the implications of what they had said sunk in. They were going to run experiments on non-zombies? Why would they do that? And what exactly were people mutating into anyway?

  I had lots of questions, but no real way to find the answers I needed. I did know that it wasn’t wise to stick around and become a mouse in a cage for their sick amusement. No, it was time to hit the road, and now there was no way I could leave Jack or the kids behind.

  I had been backing away from the table, my thoughts a jumbled mess rattling around my skull and the red pings of alarms were at an uncomfortable decibel in my mind. I turned and ran back through the dark backstage towards the door I had come through as fast as my flip flops would carry me.

  I fucking knew these damn shoes were going to be a bad idea, and I was surely bemoaning them as they caught in every crevice between me and the door, daring me to trip and fall. I finally reached it and throwing it open, ran back into the little hallway and headed for the door that had started it all in the first place. Once I reached it, I pulled the heavy-assed door open as fast as I could, and threw myself back out into the cheerful corridor; banners still waving at me as I passed. I was moving so fast, I didn’t see Ian until it was too late.

  “Ms. Thompson, what are you doing down here?” I screeched to a stop a few feet in front of him, as he had stepped into my path and we had been on a direct collision course. I had to wait a few seconds to catch my breath and come up with a believable lie before I could answer.

  “Jack and I got into a fight, and I was trying to find the laundry room and somehow ended up here. Could you please tell me how to get to the laundry room?” I slathered on as much innocent womanly wiles as possible, stopping just short of batting my eyelashes. I just hope I came across as helpless and maybe even a little dumb. When in doubt: Play dumb.

  He peered at me; eyes slightly narrowed as he tested the weight of my story, and gauged my overall innocence. I couldn’t really tell if he bought it, and half wondered if he could hear my heart banging away at my ribcage. He lifted an arm and pointed it to a door to his left and a bit behind him.

  “Take that door, follow the hall right, and you will see a sign.” His voice was coated in suspicion so thick I thought he might choke on it.

  “Thanks,” I smiled at him and scurried off in the direction he had been pointing. I wanted so badly to look back to see if he was watching me, but knew it would look suspicious, and I needed to play this off. My life might depend on it. I didn’t need to look back though; I could feel his eyes boring holes in the back of my head to the point I almost reached back to check for blood.

  I reached the door he had indicated, and calmly walked through it, letting it close heavy behind me. Once it was completely shut, I stopped to breath, bending down and holding my head between my knees. Fuck. I wasn’t convinced he had bought my act, and had a sneaking suspicion imminent danger was looming before me. I had probably doomed us all by eavesdropping, but on the other hand, that was information we needed. It wasn’t right to not warn the others of what was going on here, especially if they were housing the infected under this roof. The whole thing reeked of conspiracy, and I had a horrible feeling in my stomach (which I was starting to get used to having) that shit was about to hit the fan.

  After several minutes of just trying to catch my breath, I stopped to really take in the weight of the situation I had just happened upon. This whole thing was ridiculous; government conspiracies? Zombies mutating into God only knows what? Kissing uber-famous actors? What the fuck was going on? The whole world had been turned onto its side, and I was left its helpless plaything as I navigated the mazes looking for my food pellet.

  Wrapping my arms around my waist, in a futile attempt to keep my insides from just falling right out in the mass of hysteria that was bubbling up and threatening to spill my lunch over the muted tones of the tiles below my feet, I heaved great breaths and tried to focus. I needed a plan, and to figure out the best course of action. But the idea of trying to deal with this mess just made me hyperventilate. All I really wanted to do was throw my hands up screaming, “I’m just a kid!” I just didn’t think I was equipped to deal with this.

  Tears started to slide down my cheeks, and my stomach continued its free fall through my abdomen as I tried to wrap my brain around it all. I knew I would snap at some point, and it seemed today was the day. The weight and severity and absurdity of the infection and the events of the last few days were just too much for me.

  “Get it fucking together, Angie,” I muttered to myself like a mantra as I worked to control my panic. What the fuck was I doing?! I reminded myself all the shit I had survived in the years leading up to this, and decided that if I was strong enough to live through addict parents, drug dealers and rapists, I could make it through this. After all, I didn’t already go through Hell just to be taken out by men who felt the need to play god.

  I let my thoughts taper off as my breathing returned to normal, and star
ted to plan. I knew the first thing I should do is go tell Jack and the kids what I had witnessed, but I was reluctant. My pride was staring me in the face and mocking me with its laughter as the thought of seeing him after this afternoon’s debacle circled my mind. I knew he needed to know, but fuck, I really didn’t want to see him right now. I was still too embarrassed.

  This was important though, and I just had to suck it up. I took a deep breath, and stood back up. I was still alone in the corridor that apparently would take me to the laundry room, and turned back around to head up to the roof where they were undoubtedly still in target practice. I needed to get them alone, and I knew that wouldn’t happen until closer to dinner, so I decided to put my afternoon to use and actually do some laundry instead.

  I reached the elevator and stepped in, pushing the button for the fourth level. I stood there watching the numbers light up on the panel and when it dinged, the doors slid open and I stepped out, heading for our club box. I reached the creepy hallway, and pulled our door open, slipping into our suite as quietly as I could manage. It was empty, and I knew it was silly to stalk silently, but my nerves were so rattled I felt like I would start vibrating from the tension in my muscles.

  Walking into the room Jack and I were sharing; I glanced around and couldn’t help but smile to myself as I remembered this morning and how we had woken up. It seemed like it happened years ago instead of hours, and I felt like I had aged a few decades in between.

  Shaking myself out of the impending sadness I knew was drifting around the corner of those thoughts; I headed to the pile of dirty clothes heaped on the floor in the corner. It didn’t really matter whose was whose; I would wash them all. Scooping them into my arms, I almost stopped to take a big whiff of Jack’s laundry, but stopped myself thinking about the muck and grime they were caked in. Who the fuck knew what I would be inhaling?

  After a quick stop in Ty and Chloe’s room for their castoffs, I left our makeshift apartment and headed back the way I had came, to the laundry room. Now that I knew the way, it took mere minutes to reach the room Ian had given me directions to. That, and above the door was a sign clearly marked ‘Laundry’.

  Shifting the pile around in my arms, I freed a hand and grabbed the knob, pushing the door open. Stepping slowly into the room I looked around and found myself still alone. Along the wall across from me was a row of high efficiency washers; to the left matching dryers. Taking a few more steps into the room, I caught sight of rows of shelves along the right wall littered with various soaps, spot cleaners, bleach, and the likes. I walked over to the counter, and dropped my wares down so that I could begin the mindless task of sorting laundry.

  Mind on autopilot, I started sorting lights and darks and applying spot cleaner to the areas that looked like they needed extra help. I let my thoughts drift over everything that had happened, replaying it in my head, hoping that watching each scene again; it would start to make sense.

  Unfortunately the only thing it did was give me a headache, so I ignored the internal reel and starting carrying the assorted loads, with soap to the washers. I forced myself to pay attention to the task at hand as I began stuffing clothes and soap into machines, and navigated the LED screens, which were a jumbled mess of settings. “Out of all the things to be high tech, did we really need to make laundry so fucking complicated?” I was starting to get irritated at the endless selection of settings and just started pushing random buttons until the damn things turned on and appeared to start doing something useful.

  Satisfied that things would soon be clean, I looked around and spotted a chair in the corner near the counter and started in that direction. I plopped down with all the defeat of someone who had seen too much and didn’t know what to do with it. I supposed that was a true enough statement.

  I was staring blankly at the wall when I heard the door creak open, the sound jolting me out of my thoughts and I nearly fell off the chair out of fright until I caught sight of a mop of messy dark hair that could only belong to one person.

  “Angie! I’ve been looking everywhere for you, are you okay?” I could hear the concern in Ty’s voice as he started towards me, and was immediately put on alert at the alarm in his eyes. He was too young to look so old.

  “Yeah, I just needed to get away and spend some time alone.” It wasn’t a complete lie, I did after all, need some time alone. I wasn’t entirely convinced I should tell anyone else yet, or what I would tell them, for that matter.

  His shoulders eased at being reassured that I was okay, and he grabbed the one other chair in the room and dragged it over to sit by me. “Man, my whole body aches from firing those fucking rifles. I don’t know how those military guys do it all day.” He shook his head in apparent wonder at the physical prowess of soldiers.

  I didn’t say anything, just shrugged my shoulders and half-nodded my head in agreement. I just didn’t have the words, or even know what to say, so I figured gestures and facial expressions would get me by, especially throwing in the well placed grunt.

  He was silent for a moment, before looking back up at me, as if searching my face for something he couldn’t find. “Look, Angie-“I cut him off before he could even begin.

  Shaking my head, I held up my hand to stop him. “Ty, it’s okay, I know you needed the firing practice, and I’m sure as hell not going to stand in the way of you learning to protect yourself and your sister. It’s okay, I’m not mad.”

  I could see the tension ease from his face, and he relaxed some. “I’m sorry, I know you’re not cool with it, but it was just something I think I needed to do.” He paused and looked down at his hands, which he was currently twisting in his lap. He looked so lost, and something in me broke at watching this kid, and thinking of the horror he had been through lately. It certainly put my own selfish needs aside. Here I was a grown woman, throwing temper tantrums and being a complete baby when sitting right in front of me was a kid who was going through the same crap. I had to remember that as bad as it was for me, they were just kids, and had lost everything in just a matter of hours.

  I sighed and grabbed his hand in solidarity. I still didn’t quite know what to say, but knew I didn’t really need words anyway. We sat there like that for a bit, just comforting each other silently.

  “So, what exactly happened with Jack?” Ty said, breaking the silence.

  I pulled my hand away, and sat back, leaning my head against the wall. Fuck. What do I say? I wasn’t even sure what the hell was happening. “I don’t know.”

  “Well he was pretty butt-hurt that you just took off after he kissed you. I’ve never seen someone hit so many targets before,” he shook his head and raised an eyebrow at me. Awesome, now I had a fifteen year-old kid lecturing me. His words did catch my attention, though.

  “What do you know about it?” I let my interest creep into my voice as I waited for his response. I couldn’t help but wonder if he knew more than I did about what had taken place.

  He just shrugged his shoulders and stretched out his legs. “Just that he kissed you and you took off, and now he’s beating himself up over it.”

  I let his words turn around in my skull, trying to complete the puzzle my thoughts had become. “Why was he beating himself up over it; it was just a kiss, and it was a mistake; didn’t mean anything…” I let my words trail off, hoping he would take the bait. This whole thing would be easier if I had any insight about what Jack was feeling.

  Ty stared at me, and tilted his head to the side in silent question. “Seriously Angie? ‘Didn’t mean anything’? To you or to him?” I could see the irritation crinkling the skin around his eyes. It was the same look my friends got whenever they caught me in a moment of complete oblivion to the most apparently obvious situation. I fucking hated when people looked at me like that.

  “Ty, there are things you will understand with age, man. Sometimes super tense events can cause people to feel emotions they wouldn’t normally feel, leading them to do things without really thinking about whether it�
�s a good idea or not.” Sighing my defeat, I looked over to the washers, which had just beeped, letting me know they were done. I didn’t say anything else as I got up and headed over to the machines, ready to shove it all into the dryers.

  Ty followed me wordlessly, and we worked together removing the clothes and stuffing them with fabric sheets into the dryers. After we got them started, we just stood there in a stalemate. I knew he was considering what I had said, and deciding how to answer.

  “Are you really that blind or just that big of an insensitive bitch?”

  His words totally caught me off guard; out of all the things I was ready for him to say, it certainly wasn’t that. “What the fuck are you talking about?!” I couldn’t help the defensive tone of my voice as I tensed for an argument, turning to him and crossing my arms over my chest.

  He considered me for a moment, until I saw the fire leach from his eyes. “Ahh, I get it now. You really are in the dark on this one, aren’t you?” He started to snicker, leaning back against the wall of dryers and sticking his hands casually in the pockets of his sweats, further igniting my fury.

  “If you don’t start making sense, I’m two seconds away from shoving you into one of these dryers…” I took a menacing step towards him, in hopes of driving my point home. I knew it was pretty pointless as he was six inches taller than me, and the chances of me overpowering him were laughable.

  “Dude, he’s totally into you, how’d you manage to miss that?” He said as he shifted his weight to the other hip. It would have looked cool, except for the fact he was still dressed like he had just come from football practice.

  Then his words hit home. Wait, what? Into me? How the fuck did he know that, and how the fuck did I miss it if in fact, it were true? “Elaborate, now.” I leaned against the dryers, mirroring his stance in the event his words caused the bones in my legs to evaporate suddenly. I could see the ridiculousness of grilling a teenager to find out if the boy I liked likes me back during the apocalypse, but could only watch in horror as I tumbled down the slope.