From Death

Chapter Eighteen

"Where is she?" Aaliyah demanded, eyes ablaze.

"Dr Preston, please calm down."

"Tell me where you took her!" She exclaimed loudly.

The other scientists in the lab were careful to stay out of her way, the forceps looked deadly in her hand.

"The Brute you speak of is dead." Another voice joined the conversation.

Aaliyah turned away from the soldier to glare down the man in a lab coat. "Let me see her."

"The risk of infection is too high, I'm surprised you travelled with it for so long without contracting the virus."

"The only known methods of contraction are through saliva and contact with blood. I was in no danger from her."

"The woman we have in custody says otherwise. You were close with this, 'Esther'."

"Where is she?" Aaliyah asked, more calmly.

The man lifted his chin, fluorescent lights reflecting off his silver hair. "Fine. Follow me."

Aaliyah abandoned the forceps in her grip, much to the relief of the others in the lab. The air was still and stale, but she was used to it by now. The man opened a door for her and she stepped through with little hesitation.

She found herself staring through a glass screen, a figure strapped down onto a gurney. Two nurses handled syringes full of reddish-black liquid. "You said she was dead."

"She is."

"Then why is she strapped down?" Aaliyah mumbled, eyes cloudy. She almost missed the slight twitch of Esther's hand. The scientist moved closer to the glass, despite the protests of the man behind her.

"It's a cautionary requirement."

"You don't know if she's dead, do you?" Aaliyah asked, watching Esther's eyes roll under their eyelids. "I've seen enough, thank you."

She gritted her teeth, whirling around and showing herself out of the laboratory. The man watched her leave with a hard expression, the pair of nurses eyeing the zombie warily.

-

Aaliyah weighed the gun in her hand, remembering when they had taken it from the survivor. It was aimed at a deer in the distance. Since the absence of humanity, wildlife had been thriving. The sun blared behind her as she lay in the grass and her heart thumped wildly.

She squeezed the trigger, her shoulder jerking back painfully and the gun slamming against her chin. The deer ran off, unharmed. "Damnit," She cursed, sighing and heading deeper into the woods.

Back in the lab, the nurse waved to his co-worker as she left for lunch. The zombie lay still on the gurney, her fingers stretching just out of sight. He prepped a syringe, sliding the needle into Esther's vein.

Esther's opposite hand latched onto his arm. The nurse jolted and tried to pull away, but the zombie squeezed tightly, breaking the tiny blood vessels under his skin. He pulled the needle from her arm, stabbing it into her chest in panic. The second time, he found her heart with the syringe and her hold on his arm weakened. He wrenched his arm away, sprinting from the room with a scream stuck in his throat.

Despite his absence, the scent of human roused a growl from the zombie.