Chapter 1
The carnage of the onslaught had been cleared away.
The basement of the hospital slept in an eerie quiet.
After hours of carrying bodies to the surface and mopping blood from the floor, the area resembled the impeccable setting for science it once was.
Kate revealed the trap door to Nick, who secured it.
Nick and Kate passed by Dr. Chamberlain who busied himself jotting down notes.
While most of the equipment remained intact, further research on the disease would slow.
All of the doctor’s helping hands had been cut down.
There were no additional doctors to assist him in his experiments, no one to run for supplies, and no guards to protect the invaluable resources beneath the hospital.
Kate wanted to pity him. The empathetic slice of her soul that felt others’ pain imagined a life where she and Nick stayed at the hospital.
Kate longed for the safest option, the choice that ensured she and Nick could spend the rest of their days together unharmed.
All she had to do was take one look at Nick and see the flames of ambition flickering behind his eyes.
Their calling was not here in this place.
Nick and Kate settled on a room for themselves—a modest living quarter that belonged to one of the doctors. Moving in so soon after whichever doctor had fallen to the undead, perhaps Charlotte, felt sacrilegious. Everything in this damnable world felt that way.
The room was no bigger than an office cubicle with bright white floor tiles and shiny, metallic walls. A twin-sized cot hugged one wall, and a writing desk lined the other. A wooden dresser was pushed against the wall between the bed and the desk.
Nick collected the research notes and paperwork covering the desk while Kate went through the clothes in the dresser, taking out those that were ill-fitting or inappropriate.
She removed the lab coats and set them on the bed next to the papers for Dr. Chamberlain.
The blue jeans and cotton shirts remained as they appeared to be near Kate’s size.
With the doctor busy in his office, Kate browsed the surrounding rooms until she found the packs she and Nick had arrived with on their backs.
Kate rifled eagerly through her backpack, bypassing medical supplies and sleeves of trail mix until her hands clutched the stuffed bat—Nick’s present to her in a time that felt like years ago.
She grinned and squeezed the bat in a hug before returning it to the bag and closing it up.
Kate returned to the unfamiliar bedroom with the packs in her hand and tossed them on the bed. Nick watched as she pulled the bat from her pack and laid it against one of the pillows. She regarded it with a proud smile.
“You really went on a search for that dumb thing?” Nick asked with a smile.
“Dumb thing? It’s literally the best gift I’ve ever been given.” Kate shot him a cross glance, though her lips belied the amusement she was clearly keeping at bay.
Nick opened his mouth, preparing to deploy a snarky response before deciding to stifle his words.
A small token to Nick, the bat was a diamond ring in comparison to the insults, the bruises, the abuse.
The jest evaporating into sober stares made Kate shift under Nick’s gaze.
“Gifts are more about who gives them rather than what they are,” Kate said.
Nick took several strides toward Kate, his potent fixation on her never abating.
Kate closed the distance and rested her palms against his chest. Her cheeks flushed at their proximity as memories danced in her mind—Nick stripped down to his boxers at the harbor, Kate straddling him on the couch of the mansion home.
Kate’s gaze drifted to Nick’s mouth. A searing titillation darted across her skin, diving into her flesh and infecting her. The thought of pressing her lips to his made her delirious. Kate lifted herself up on tiptoes, her mouth advancing toward Nick’s when Dr. Chamberlain appeared in the doorway.
“Oh, umm, excuse me. I hope I’m not…interrupting.” The doctor averted his eyes and pulled the lapels of his lab coat inward.
Nick’s eyes remained fixed on her for a moment longer before straying to Dr. Chamberlain. Kate thought she saw a sliver of annoyance in Nick’s features and grinned at the thought internally before also turning toward the doctor. “No problem, doc. What’s up?” Nick bristled.
“I would like to give you both the grand tour. I assume you would like to know where to shower and eat.”
“I do love to eat,” Kate grinned, grabbing Nick’s hand and following the doctor from the room.
Dr. Chamberlain took the pair on a tour of the facilities available to them.
They visited an industrial kitchen equipped with a stove, refrigerator, microwave, and a coffee machine.
There was a small restroom containing two shower stalls and a row of enclosed toilets.
The doctor reminded Nick and Kate of the tactical gear stashed in the armory near the room where Nick spent his time Infected.
It had never left Nick’s mind. The next steps involved stepping out into a perilous world, and Nick preferred to be armed to the teeth.
The doctor did not bother to provide information on the research rooms or laboratories knowing he would be the only one using them.
The tour ended back at the room Nick and Kate had chosen for their temporary stay.
“Any ideas as to what you’ll do next? Of course, you’re welcome to stay as long as you need, but I’d really like to see that cure go out into the world,” Dr. Chamberlain said.
“We’ll spend a few days here until Kate’s arm heals. I’d still like to travel to the nearby military fort. We’ll need a well-populated base of operations if we plan on using the cure—somewhere they can receive help as they reenter the land of the living,” Nick answered.
“That sounds like a good plan,” Dr. Chamberlain nodded and turned to walk away.
“Doctor,” Kate called after him. The doctor paused and turned to face her. “There was a little boy here when we first arrived…”
Dr. Chamberlain smiled knowingly. “He is my son. I’m sure he’s in the playroom where he enjoys spending most of his time.”
“You don’t worry about him being hurt by the Infected?” Nick asked, surprised.
“No, I suspect you have not noticed this for yourself yet, but once a person has received the inoculation—the cure—the creatures are no longer attracted to them. It seems some of the disease remains present in the body’s proteins, therefore the Infected, as you call them, consider them one of their own.
” Dr. Chamberlain eyed Nick and Kate closely, awaiting realization to pass across their faces.
“Your son was infected.” Kate’s voice was small as she uttered the revelation.
Nick thought back to the battle when the monsters seemed to rush past him as though he were not there.
“Diseased, yes. He was the first. He is the reason I put all of this together.” The doctor’s face pinched inward with pain.
It was the first time his tidy, professional demeanor had faltered, and he appeared human.
Kate’s heart ached as she imagined this man having to restrain his undead child, working furiously to come up with a cure.
“I’m sorry you had to deal with that,” Kate offered.
“You had to deal with it, as well.” Dr. Chamberlain lifted his chin toward Nick.
Memories bloomed in her mind of Nick’s agonizing transformation.
Sorrow had robbed her of all hope; she thought the only man who had ever truly loved her had become a monster.
When the doctors administered the cure to him, the emotions she battled were agonizing: hope, guilt, fear.
Subconsciously, Kate’s hand found Nick’s and squeezed his fingers. She had survived a world of wreckage on her own—battled Infected, avoided starvation, and endured withdrawal. Now, she did not have to fight alone. Losing Nick was not just the absence of security, it was losing a piece of her soul.