A World Alone (ON HOLD)

Infected

Malcolm drifted in and out of consciousness the entire drive back to Blackacre. Each time he drifted back into consciousness he was greeted either by Tessa and Adam shouting at each other, or by silence other than Jaime's quiet crying coming from the front seat.

Malcolm had his head in Adam's lap, and his bitten arm was being held upright from the wrist by Adam who was trying to slow the bleeding down. The sleeve of his hoodie had been cut away, and they had used it as a makeshift bandage which was tightly wrapped around the bite although did nothing to numb the throbbing pain. When he did manage to keep his eyes open long enough to look at his arm he saw that the virus was spreading further up and down his arm.

Malcolm was barely conscious when they arrived in Blackacre. Over the ringing in his ears who could hear Tessa shouting and he felt himself being lifted and carried into a building. The hospital, judging by the smell of cleaning products.

Malcolm was place down onto one of the hospital beds. The bright light above stung his eyes. He closed his eyes, waiting to pass out again, when the light dimmed slightly. He looked up to see his mother standing over him, her face pale and eyes terrified.

"What happened?" Lily asked over her shoulder. "Where is Trent?"

"Trent left us and Malcolm got bitten," Adam said. "Aaron didn't make it."

Malcolm felt the bandage on his arm being unraveled. He turned his head to the side to see Jaime cowering in the doorway, his round face red and his cheeks wet from tears.

"Why didn't you cut the arm off?" Lily shrieked.

"We didn't have anything that would get through the bone!" Tessa said.

"Where is Aaron?" another voiced asked. Malcolm briefly glanced up to see Ella, Aaron's mother.

Adam clamped his mouth shut, but Tessa nudged him. Malcolm vaguely remembered them arguing in the car about who was going to tell Ella the bad news.

Their silence told Ella all she needed to know and she collapsed into the chair beside Malcolm's bed.

"Did you get what I asked for from the pharmacy?" Lily demanded.

"I couldn't get it all, but I got most—" Adam had been sliding the straps of the backpack off his shoulders when Lily snatched it, dumping the contents on the floor, and rooting through them. Finding what she was looking for she bolted out of the room, pushing passed Jaime.

"Lily, it's too late to cut it off!" a voice called after her. Malcolm briefly glanced up to see Ella, another doctor.

"You three, out," Lily said when she got back.

She slammed the door when they left, rushing over to Malcolm with a syringe in her hand.

"Lily, you can't give him that!" Ella said, grabbing hold of her arm.

"I'm not going to let him become one of them!" Lily snapped, snatching her arm back.

"You don't know what it will do to him! We've only just started testing it!"

"I'm not going to let him turn into one of them without trying something!" Lily said. "You would do the same if this was your son."

Without waiting for a reply Lily pushed the needle of the syringe into the bite mark on Malcolm's arm.

Malcolm who was barely able to comprehend what they were talking about felt the needle stab into his arm. Whatever it was she had given him didn't do anything for the pain, if anything it made it worse. He started screaming and Ella had to hold him down by the shoulders.