After the End

New World

"Miss Thorne this is Amelie West from Chanel 9 news how long exactly were you a zombie for?"

My tongue doesn't feel like my own. It's a fluffy intruder that is just taking up space in my already crowded mouth. I stammer, "I... I'm not sure. I remember signing into the hospital on the fourth day of my nursing practicum." My brain scrambles for the information they need. Wading through the screams and the blood on the walls. I continued, "I believe it was the 16th of May 2024?"

"From the information release given by Dr Stadler last week you were rescued on the 29th of last month." Ms West continued in her questioning, "Wouldn't that mean that you were a zombie for almost two weeks?"

My mind fills with flashbacks. The smile of my nursing mentor as she should me a video of her puppy playing in a puddle. Her dead eyes staring at the walls as I lurched past her. Whispering to my patients to be quiet as the hammering continued to sound at the doors. The cold and dark of the bathroom as I huddled in against the door waiting for the disease to take control.

"Miss Thorne?" Ms West asked again.

"If that's how long it was then that's how long it was. I wasn't exactly keeping track of the time." I snapped.

Standing next to me Dr Stadler leaned into the microphone, "We think Miss Thorne was suffering from Lepra Cavum 5 for approximately 13 days. It's obviously difficult to determine the exact timing. Next question?"

"Miss Thorne this is Connor Graves from Chanel 5. What was it like being infected with Lepra Cavum 5? Do you remember anything?"

I lifted my hand and looked down seeing the bite mark and the blood slowly seeping through. "I was bitten." I said softly. "My hand ached and bled for the longest time but after a time it wasn't blood anymore. More like... Red goo." In my mind's eye I was walking down the corridors of the ward. My body was so heavy. "I was tired." I continued, "So tired and afraid. I didn't want to hurt anyone." My voice was cracking. The tears were coming freely now. I blubbed, "I locked myself in the bathroom. Everything hurt. My breath was like fire in my lungs."

I felt my eyes go wide as I look through the podium before me. The press noises faded away and I was back in the cold bathroom with the speckled white tile. "When I woke up, I was hungry." I muttered, "All the sounds felt muted like someone had turned the sound down on the whole world. Then suddenly a noise pierced my brain like a knife." In my memory my body lurched toward the door banging and bashing at the immovable object.

"I think it was a cry. It's hard to make sense of it because what I was perceiving was so different. It wasn't sound, just pain." I murmured. "The pain just got worse and worse and no matter how hard I hit it the door wouldn't open until my hands were covered in blood." My breath was coming in short gasps. The sweat clinging to my skin. "The door tilted, and I pushed through. The pain was so strong and..." I trailed off. Where once my memory was just a wave of pain and red, I could now see faces. I threw myself away from them. From the memory.

"NO!" I screamed. "NO! I don't want to see it! I don't!"

"Miss Thorne." A voice said to me urgently.

I had fallen backward into a wall and had curled myself into a ball. My face was buried deep into my lap. I rocked myself forward and backward. My eyes and nose were a flood of fluids. I was crying in huge gasping sobs. The images in my brain were replaying over and over again.

Then everything was black.

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"Tessa. We've received some more requests from news agencies to interview you about your experience." Georgia said glancing up to look at me as she took the fourth set of bloods.