by Gayle Katz
We’re already holding hands so he pulls me close and kisses me on the lips. I kiss him back. Kissing him still gets me weak in the knees. After a few minutes, his lips run down my neck. I close my eyes and enjoy the moment.
“Mmmm. Jack? Don’t forget. We’re in a public place. We can’t make out here,” I say.
“Of course we can. Who’s gonna stop us? You look so beautiful right now. And we’re the only ones here.”
“But…”
“But nothing. Doesn’t it feel good?” He continues kissing my neck.
“It feels amazing.”
“Then relax, enjoy it, and let this happen.”
“OK,” I say as I kiss him back. I feel so carefree kissing in the park like a couple of teenagers.
It’s then that I feel a stabbing pain in my back. I fall forward onto Jack, breaking off our kiss, and turn around to look behind me. It’s me! I’m standing there with a bloody knife in my hand, smiling.
“Jack!” I scream, as I try to escape my knife-wielding twin. “What’s going on?” I feel another sharp, stinging pain. This time the pain is in my chest. And it’s Jack brandishing a bloody knife in his hand, too. The pain is excruciating. I fall to the ground. I don’t understand what’s happening to me.
“W-What are you doing?” I shout.
“You’re a clone and you’re trying to steal my husband,” the other Jane says to me.
“That’s not true! Jack!”
“She’s right. I tried to deny it, but you’ve been acting weird for weeks. You’re not the Jane I married.”
“No. No. No! I’m the Jane you married. She’s the clone, not me!”
“You had your chance, but now that we know the truth, it’s over.”
“What are you talking about?”
“I think you know.”
“No way. Your solution is to murder me? Are you out of your mind? I’m a person. Look! I’m bleeding,” I say as I rub my hand over my wound. “You’ve got blood all over your knife. Jack, are you really prepared to kill me?”
“Ignore her. If you want to live happily ever after, we need to get rid of her so she’ll never be able to bother us again,” the Jane clone says.
“No! Stop! Jack! You’re going to let her kill me in cold blood? That’s not the Jack I know.”
“You tricked me, but that ends today,“ Jack stammers as he stands there looking at the situation before him.
“Jack, help me, all right?” the Jane clone says. “We’re doing the right thing.”
“She’s the clone. I’m your wife!” I plead.
“I don’t believe you,” Jack replies.
They come at me once more and plunge their knives into my body again and again. It feels like I’m being punched. The stabbing pain continues. I can’t move, except to look up and see them both coming at me a third time. I put my arms up to protect myself.
No matter what I say, they’re not going to stop their attack. I try to muster whatever strength I have left to push them off of me and get to my feet, but I’m too weak. With copious amounts of blood pooling around me, I fall down a few inches from where I just got up. I put my hands over my eyes and roll into a fetal position. Pain radiates throughout my body as I feel their knives continuing to pierce my skin.
***
I jerk awake in a cold sweat. I feel a shooting pain in my arm. I try grabbing for my aching limb, but I can’t move. I’m lying down in restraints again. The stress on my body is immense and I can’t help that I’m all jittery. My hands are shaking. I’m really freaking out.
“Am I dead?”
“We thought we lost you, but no, quite the opposite. Welcome back,” Brie says.
“W-What are you doing?”
“Taking blood. Monitoring you.”
“Get off of me! Let me out of here!” I struggle with my restraints again.
“You really need to relax.”
“Relax? You’re trying to kill me!”
“On the contrary, we want to save you and everyone else on this planet who’s infected.”
“I don’t believe you. I don’t believe you,” I repeat, sweating profusely.
“She’s getting stronger. That’s good, but I’m concerned about her fever,” Brie says to Malik. “Her face is getting red. Feel her forehead. Do something about it. Strip her clothes off. Get some ice packs.”
Malik points to his lab coat crew to get them moving on Brie’s instructions.
“Working on it,” one of them responds.
Brie turns back to face me and continues the conversation. “I have to give you credit. You put up a good fight with all of those zombies in there. No weapons. No assistance. You took a couple of them out all by yourself before they overwhelmed you.”
“Is that what you wanted? A show?”
“It’s not a show. On the contrary, this crap happens every day all over the world. People turn everyday. We can’t let this continue to happen. We can’t let all of these people die in vain. We have to find a cure, a vaccination that works for everyone.”
The lab assistant comes back with the ice packs and begins to cut off my clothes. He wraps the ice packs in towels and then places them all over my body. I flinch when he first puts them on my hot skin. A few minutes in, they feel cold. And I’m not burning up anymore.
“We wanted a realistic yet contained depiction of how people react, how the infection spreads, and the aftermath,” she says. “Then we take blood, see how the infection progresses within the body, and implement experimental serums to see if we have a cure on hand.”
“And? How’s it going so far?” I say trying to remain calm as I cough up blood, realizing that these insane people are my only hope right now.
“We’re still working on it, but don’t give up. If we can stabilize you so that you’re on the mend, we’re going to repeat this process a couple of times.”
“A couple of times? So you’re not going to kill me, but torture me instead?”
“Not torture, test. To save us from these unholy monsters.”
I hear her words, but it’s becoming ever so difficult to understand them. The once-cold ice packs don’t even feel cool anymore. I’m warm again – burning up is more like it. I close my eyes. Maybe this is all a horrible nightmare? My eyes pop back open and I can see the zombies converging on me again. They have hunger and murder in their eyes. Their chattering is becoming louder and I can’t hear anything else.
“Get away from me! Get away from me!” I struggle to break free, but it’s useless. Looking around, I see them coming out of the shadows, getting closer to me. “Jack! Please help me! Make it stop!”
Then the zombies disappear. I’m back in the room with Brie and her lab coats.
“She’s hallucinating and overheating again. That’s not good. Give her something to counter the effects.”
She sounds so far away. And I’m all keyed up from these horrible visions.
“Jane. Jane? Can you hear me? We’re giving you something to help your symptoms,” she says as she snaps her fingers in my face and then takes my hand. “We need you to focus.”
I nod.
“Let’s give her a few moments to collect herself. Remember to breathe. Stay calm, all right? Just focus on my words. How are you feeling? Any better? We lost you for a little bit,” she touches my forehead.
“I feel sick,” I reply.
“She’s responding to the medication. She doesn’t feel as hot as before,” she says to her team. “We have to bring her back and set it up again. Give her something to help her sleep.”
Turning back to me, she pats my hand and speaks only one word.
“Rest.”
Chapter 9
________________________________________
I wake up to the sound of alarms and screams. What’s going on? I’m still naked and strapped to the gurney.
“Let me go! Untie me!” I yell to anyone within earshot, but no one responds to help me. I hear Brie shouting louder.
“G
oddamn freedom fighters. Why can’t they pick another cause to rally around? Grrr! The zombies have breached our security. Quarantine is broken! Move! Move! Move! Get our subjects out of here. We can’t lose all of our research because of these self-righteous zealots. Go!”
I yell again, “Untie me! Please! Let me out of here! BRIE!” I try to wiggle my way out of the restraints.
“We don’t have time for your games, Jane. We have to evacuate and get outta here or else everything we’ve worked so hard for is lost!” she says hurriedly as she covers me with a blanket, moves me out of the lab, gets me into the hallway, and hands me over to yet another one of her minions.
Between the flashing lights in the hallway, the alarm bells ringing in my ears, and the bumpiness of the ride, I can’t focus on anything. My senses are being bombarded. The smell of zombie enters my nose and I start to freak out. I try to escape my restraints, but it’s no use. I’m strapped in tight, so tight that I have pins and needles developing in my arms and legs. Frantic, I’m looking around, waiting for them to attack. All I can do is lie here and pray someone gets me to safety. The retching sound of zombies is getting louder and closer. The lab assistant who starts pushing me has a frightened look on his face. I stare at him. He’s sweating and constantly looking behind him instead of looking forward. Seconds after he bashes us into a wall, he backs up and points us toward the exit.
Before he can take even three steps, he screams as several disfigured monsters descend upon him. One of the zombies jumps onto his back. He falls face-first onto the floor, pushing the gurney faster for a few moments. I hear him screaming. I manage to lift my head up a couple of degrees and I can see a group of zombies on their knees feasting on him, his white lab coat now bloodied and their mouths soaked and dripping with red. I can still see his hand lying palm up on the floor. His fingers and thumb are twitching. I hope that’s just a reflex. Being alive when they eat you is the worst way to die. It’s one thing to have a zombie bite you once; it’s a whole other story to die while being eaten alive by a horde of them.
My gurney is still moving forward, but only by the sheer will of inertia. As I start to come to a stop, I see Cate strapped down, too. I try to call her name, but I’m too weak to speak. She’s out cold so she probably wouldn’t hear me, anyway. Within moments, another one of Brie's staff takes the helm and continues pushing me. I feel another bump.
For a moment, the air seems different. Are we outside? The fresh air is a welcome change that’s soon stolen away from me.
Another helper gets on the other side of me and they lift me into a van. Where are we going? I don’t know.
They also load Cate into the vehicle. She’s right next to me. The backdoors close. Darkness. As my eyes adjust, I look around and see shelves of people. Some of them are unconscious or maybe dead while others are making moaning sounds. That’s inside the vehicle. I can hear pounding on the outside. It’s a constant dull, thud against the outside. If zombies break in, that’s it. Cate and I were the last ones loaded in and will be defenseless if that were to happen. She’s out cold and we’re both strapped down, unable to move. Yeah, we’d be toast.
“Cate?” I whisper.
No response.
“Cate! Wake up!” I plead. I can’t tell if she’s breathing or not so I stare at her chest, but I can’t see if it’s rising and falling. Everything is in flux. I want to reach out, touch her, and let her know I’m here so she’s not afraid, but I’m strapped tight to the gurney. I try to slide my arm out from under the straps, but they tied them on extra tight this time. They’re so constricting; pins and needles continue to shoot through my arms and legs. Soon my limbs grow numb and I can’t feel them anymore. The vehicle begins to haul ass and the banging from the outside eventually stops.
“Is there anyone else awake or alive in here?”
Same noises, but no responses.
Lying there, naked under a sheet, strapped down, unable to move, I can’t help but feel a menacing sense of hopelessness. Staring at the grooves in the ceiling, of what I assume is a van, I try to talk to Jack. Some people talk to God, but I’m not religious or spiritual, so I’m going to talk to my husband. I still have faith in him.
“If you can hear me, Jack… I love you. Wake up and realize something is wrong. I’m not sure how much more of this crap I can take before my time is done,” I say aloud as tears run down the side of my face. The quiet of the ride, the white noise from the other oblivious passengers, and the stress overwhelming my body are too much and I pass out.
I’m not sure how much time passes, but the screech of the brakes wakes me up as the vehicle stops moving. Believe it or not, the rest of the drive was uneventful, even peaceful. Now I can hear people get out of the front of the vehicle. They’re talking and walking around to the back. One of Brie's team members opens the back doors and bright light invades the darkness. He yanks me out of the vehicle. As they unload other patients, daylight hits my face. Being outside feels fantastic. A breeze tousles my hair. For a moment, sunshine envelops my body in comfortable warmth. Everything seems natural. I haven’t felt this normal in such a long time. Then my stretcher's driver pushes me indoors and abruptly snaps me back into the reality of another science lab. From the banging around of the gurney and tossing me around while getting into the new facility, they don’t notice the restraints loosen a little. The numbness begins to go away and I get feeling back in my arms and legs. I can see Brie walking quickly down the hall.
“That head of security is going to get an earful from me. For what we’re paying him, he needs to be doing a better job. A toddler could have secured our facility better than that lunkhead! If we lost research because of his incompetence, I’m gonna tear him a new one for sure.”
“Where’s Cate?” I ask, not seeing anyone rolling her gurney down the hall with mine.
“I don’t have time for you right now.” Brie doesn’t so much as grace my question with a glance in my direction.
“Where’s Cate?” I ask a second time.
“Please shut her up. I can’t handle her crap right now. I need to secure this facility ASAP!”
“Tell me where she is. Please.”
“Shhh,” one of the lab coats whispers.
“Tell me where she is!”
Refusing to answer, he turns his back on me. This is my chance. I wriggle my arms out of the restraints, unlock them, sit up, and then undo the strap restricting my legs. Swinging my body to the side, I get off the gurney and touch my bare feet to the floor. It’s cold and my feet are so hot. My legs are like jelly, barely able to stand. I look around. No one is watching me. I don’t know where I am, so I decide to make a break for it and go back the way we came. There has to be an exit.
As I’m sneaking down the hallway, I see other people in lab coats walking around. I duck down and take cover under a decorative ledge to avoid being spotted. I look around again to make sure the remainder of the corridor is clear. While there are no people, per se, there is a security camera. Dammit! How am I going to get around it? Instead of going straight down the hallway to the exit, I make a right and explore more of the lab. I remain on all fours and crawl down the hallway. There are windows surrounding the main lab in the center of the facility, so I think it’s best to take cover.
I come across a janitor’s closet. Creeping up to it, I reach up and twist the doorknob. It’s unlocked! I slither into the small closet and close the door behind me. I stand up, flip on the light switch, and look around. Nothing ground-breaking in here, just traditional janitor supplies, mops, buckets, trashcans, and various other cleaning supplies and equipment. I could set the building on fire, but then I’d potentially be putting innocent peoples’ lives in danger. Bad idea. If I’m going to make it past the security cameras without arousing suspicion and exit the facility prepared to go the distance, maybe this janitor uniform would work? I pull it off the rack and slip into it. The fabric is rough, immediately chafing my skin. I search around and look for some sort of hat to
hide my face and protect it once I get out into the harsh environment. I also grab the mop and bucket.
Inhaling deeply, I open the janitor’s closet door dressed as the janitor. I step a few feet and nothing happens. No one notices me. I walk slowly and as I come to the dead end in the hallway, I make a right toward the exit and away from the lab coats. Peeking up, I see the camera above me. I take the mop out of the bucket and begin swabbing the floor. Back and forth. Over and over again. I keep this up until I get close to the exit. Once I get close, I see a PIN pad to the right of the door with a small flashing red light. What’ll happen if I ignore it? I don’t know the code, but I’m so close. I can’t turn back now. I have to at least try.
I push open the door to the exit without inputting the code and alarms go off. I drop the mop and run as fast as I can as far away as possible. Even outside of the building and off the premises, I can still hear the alarms. Looking behind me, I see guards chasing me in a Jeep. I keep running, knowing I can’t possibly outrun a vehicle. It doesn’t matter. I have to keep going. I have to keep running. Within seconds, they catch up and point some sort of strange gun at me. I look forward and continue running as fast as my feet can carry me. I hear the gunfire and, instead of bullets, it’s some type of netting that envelops me. It trips up my feet. I lose my balance and fall flat on my face.
Once I’m neutralized, the guards pick me up, still in the netting, and deposit me into the back of their vehicle. Tying each of my arms to the Jeep’s roll bar handles, I’m on my knees looking up at the beautiful coral-pink dusk sky. Dejected that my escape attempt didn’t work, I don’t say a word. Neither do the guards. We drive back to the facility, where they untie my shackles, and return me to the lab from which I originally escaped. I recognize the researcher in the room with me. It’s Malik.
“Smart girl,” Malik says as he unzips the uniform from my body with the guards still present so I can’t escape again. “Disguising yourself as the janitor to escape – I wouldn’t have thought of that.”