I'm Different

“How will you do that?” I asked.

“With science... and of course, you,” He said, pointing at me.

“Me? Why what have I got to do with this?” I asked out of curiosity.

“Your father created this virus, Jason,” He said and it felt like a bomb to my ears.

Wow, just wow! more and more reasons for me to hate the old guy that gave birth to me. Because of what he created, my friend is a zombie!

“He’s not my father, not anymore,” I said.

“I understand your anger, Jason. But the truth is, your father meant no harm for the world, he actually wanted to save a lot of lives with science just like my own is doing with technology and several other dads of us in other worlds. In life, we make mistakes, and that’s what happened in his case,” He said.

“So, he is the only failure of his kind,” I said.

“You said he could help put an end to this, how?” Hannah asked.

“Remember the experiments your dad performed on you?” He asked and I nodded.

“Good, those were the early stages of his research and boy! you have been genetically altered, everything in you isn’t the same as other people,” He said.

“Explains the reason why I never fall sick,” I muttered.

“But, how do you know all this?” I asked him.

“With technology so advanced like my father’s, you can do anything. I traced the source of the virus from the very first victim and found out your dad was responsible, then I traveled back in time to follow his experiments, and that’s how I also got to know about you,” He explained.

“Wait, how long have you been here?” Hannah asked.

“A month before the apocalypse started,” He said.

“So, you foresaw it?” Hannah asked and he nodded.

“If you foresaw it, why didn’t you stop it from occurring?” I asked. I mean... isn’t that a logical thing to do?

“(smiled) Boy, you shouldn’t mess with a timeline, something worse might happen,” He answered.

“Is my father still alive?” I asked.

“About that, I honestly don’t know his whereabouts,” He said.

“I need to perform few tests on you for me to know the way forward, but first, you kids need to sleep, we can start the test tomorrow,” He said.

Hannah slept off before me, I didn’t want to sleep, I kept thinking about Ambrose. But, I fell asleep, I guess no one can cheat sleep.

“Rise, shine, and dine,” Darius said as he woke the both of us and gave us food.

“Can we do the tests now?” I asked. He nodded and asked us both to follow him down to the basement.

Hannah and I both ran out of the basement as soon as we got in. He had two zombies chained down in that basement, ain’t no way I’m going in.

After a lot of persuasions, we both entered. The place reminded me of my father’s laboratory as there were chemicals lying all around. The zombies were acting like they would when they see prey.

“I captured the zombies to study their behavior, and generally, what’s going on inside them,” He said.

“So, what have you been able to find out?” I asked.

“As soon as you get bitten, a transfer of virus occurs, and once that virus gets in your body system, it will take few seconds for it to fully manifest and then, but it does is create another mind inside the body of the host, the real mind of the host shuts down completely, and the newly created mind or personality that is, the zombie or whatever takes over,” He explained.

“Which means the host’s mind is still in there somewhere!” Hannah said.

“Does that mean we can still save Ambrose?” I asked.

“If we find a way to kill the false mind to allow the original to take over again, we might be able to save everyone, though, some might die because of their sustained injuries,” Darius said.

“So, let’s get to it, and end this as fast as we can,” I said, Darius, smiled and started operating his ‘smart watch’.

“Stand still,” He instructed as he pointed the watch at me, I could see some blue laser lines pop out of the watch and went through my body like it was scanning it.

“You have similar brain waves with the zombies. Only that yours serves as some sort of a Transmitter while theirs, a receiver,” He said.

“What does that mean?” Hannah asked.

“It means he can control the zombies if you want to,” He said.

“Come on, try something, make sure you give the command, either verbally or in your mind,” Darius said.

I moved closer to the zombies and instructed them to move some parts of their bodies, and they obeyed! I even ordered them to stay still, and they did. Suddenly, they started to react differently to my command.

Darius scanned their brains to know what’s going on. “There’s some kind of Mother Transmitter that can also command the zombies,” Darius said.

“This particular transmitter doesn’t really seem like it’s a human, it’s also a Zombie!” He added.

“So, there’s a zombie leader?” I asked.

“The Zombie Alpha!” He said and rushed to his computer and started pressing.

“What’s going on?” Hannah asked.

“The Alpha Zombie has more level of control over the zombies than you! He can control all of them at the same damn time!”

“And with what I’m just finding out, If we’re able to eliminate the virus in the Alpha, it will kill the zombie mind which basically serves as the mother host for the others. It’s even possible he has some part of his real mind conscious,” He explained.

“Could you break it down to our level?” I asked.

“If we find a cure, we don’t need to give everyone, we just have to give it to the alpha zombie, the virus in all the infected will be automatically neutralized and their real mind will take over again. Think of it like spoiling an electricity transformer that generates electricity to various homes,” He explained.

“It will affect all the connected houses,” Hannah said.

“Exactly!!!” Darius exclaimed, banging his hand on the desk.

“How is there an Alpha Zombie?” I asked.

“Probably the direct carrier of the virus, the alpha is whomever your dad gave the virus first,” He explained

“So, how do we make the cure?” I asked.

“I had that figured out already. But first, I’d need your to inject zombie blood inside you,” He said.

“What?” I asked, he was probably joking.

“Are you insane, he’s going to turn into one of them!” Hannah said.

“No, he’s won’t, like I said earlier, his body isn’t like ours. If I inject him with the blood of the infected, nothing will happen to him, plus zombies wouldn’t even attack him as they’d think he’s also infected,” He explained.

“Are you sure about this?” I asked and he nodded. I sighed heavily and nodded in agreement. “Do it,” I said. he picked up a syringe and drew a blood sample he already collected into it. He injected it inside me.

At first, a severe headache hit me on all sides of my head, I felt my brain expanding and the whole of my body breaking down. I fell down unconscious.

Minutes later, I woke up, feeling perfecting normal.

“I didn’t turn into a zombie,” I said.

“It worked?” Hannah asked.

“Only one way to find out, tempt the zombies to infect you,” He said. I nodded positively and moved closer to the zombies.

I rolled up my sleeve and stretched my arm forward to the hungry zombies. They violently smelled by arm and then backed off.

“It worked!!!” Darius yelled out of excitement.

“So, what’s next?” Hannah asked.

“I will need to take a sample of Jason’s blood to formulate the cure, and when I’m done, We’ll find the Alpha and end the epidemic,” Darius said.

“How long will it take you to make the cure?” I asked.

“Shouldn’t take more than 10 hours, I have the other components ready already, I just need your blood to get it completed,” He pointed out. He drew out the blood he needed from my body and started working on it. Hannah and I went back up.

“Do you think we will be able to stop this?” I asked.

“I sincerely hope nothing goes wrong. I hope we will be able to save the world, that’s what I think,” She said.

“I hope so,” I said too.