After the night of the horde and the zombie alpha, they had thought they were the only ones left. Knowing that others had survived eased something heavy in their hearts. It meant the situation was not completely hopeless.
"We exchanged contacts," Natasha continued. "If anything happens, we can help each other."
As they ate, Natasha and Jaxon told them about Hannah and Haris, and how they had saved Burgors. They kept their voices calm and left out the part about the sadistic infected. There was no need to scare them or ruin the quiet moment they were sharing.
"Can I get their contacts?" Cindy asked, sounding excited. "I want to get to know them."
Then her gaze dropped to her phone, and her excitement slowly faded.
"I've been trying to message my friends," she said quietly. "I don't know how they're doing."
The word friends made Natasha sigh softly. She had been doing the same thing, sending messages to friends and coworkers again and again. None of them replied. She did not know if they were alive or already gone.
Jaxon's thoughts drifted to his Discord friends. He wondered how they were holding up.
'Those cautious punks are probably still alive,' he thought with a faint smile. 'They never trusted anyone anyway. I'll check on them later.'
Sensing the heavy mood, Isabel tried to change the subject.
"Did you hear?" she said. "I saw something online. They're saying it could be a possible cure."
That caught everyone's attention. All three of them looked at her at once.
Isabel pulled out her phone and scrolled through the news.
"Oh, here it is," she said. "The video went viral. I haven't watched it yet. Let's watch it together."
She placed the phone on the table and pressed play. The four of them leaned in, watching the screen in silence.
…..
Inside a hospital, blood was scattered across the floor and walls. An eerie growl echoed through the halls, mixed with strange voices that no longer sounded human.
Beyond a glass wall, infected bodies slammed against it again and again, their blood-smeared hands leaving marks as they thrashed in madness.
On the other side of the glass, about a dozen people huddled together, trembling in fear. Some were crying, others frozen in place, all staring as thin cracks slowly spread across the glass from the constant pounding.
A shaky hand held up a phone, recording everything, the person behind it begging for help and hoping someone, anyone, would see the video and come for them.
In the middle of the fear and chaos, a bald man suddenly stood up.
"I won't die here," he said, his voice shaking. "I won't end up like these monsters. I'm going to survive this hell."
The others turned to him, startled. A woman stepped forward, her eyes filled with hope.
"Do you have a way to save us?" she asked. "Can we survive this?"
The bald man hesitated. Fear flashed across his face, but he clenched his fists and nodded.
"I have a plan," he said. "I saw something like this in a movie."
His voice trembled, but there was a strange excitement in it.
"If the infected only go after healthy people," he continued, "then maybe… if we're sick too, they won't touch us."
Before anyone could stop him, he grabbed a small injector from a nearby table. A faded label on it read 'Pathogen Sample'. Without hesitation, he stabbed it into his arm.
His face twitched as the liquid entered his body. He gasped, breathing fast, waiting. Minutes passed in tense silence.
Then, slowly, he turned and began walking toward the back door, where fewer infected were gathered.
As he grabbed the door handle, the people inside shouted.
"What are you doing? Are you insane? Don't open it!"
Frustration and fear flashed across the bald man's face. He shouted back, his voice trembling but defiant.
" Idiots! You want to be saved, right? I'm doing the work, and all you do is yell! Tch! Pathetic."
He snorted, squared his shoulders, and pushed the door open. "Watch me. I'm going to save humanity."
The infected outside noticed him immediately.
One infected staggered toward him, growling low as it approached him.
The bald man froze, forcing a smile even as fear filled his eyes.
The infected leaned close to his face, sniffing him like an animal checking rotten meat.
Everyone in the room held their breath, silent and tense.
Then, against all odds, the infected seemed to lose interest. It shuffled past him, dragging its feet across the floor.
The man exhaled loudly and laughed, almost in tears from relief.
"I knew it! This is it!" he shouted. "I-I saved humanity!"
"Are you all watching this? I did it! I discovered the cure!"
He raised his arms in triumph, laughter ringing through the room.
But before he could take another proud step, something slammed into him from the side. A fast crawler jumped out from under a broken shelf and latched onto his shoulder.
He didn't even scream before it tore into his neck.
The group watched in shock as he fell, his 'cure' idea dying with him.
Chaos erupted. Screams filled the room as panic took over, and then the video abruptly ended.
....
Jaxon and his family watched the video in silence. After a long pause, Jaxon spoke up.
"Do you think his idea could have worked? Maybe he just used the wrong disease to inject?"
"Huh? There's no way!" Natasha was quick to reject the idea. "That guy was an idiot. Didn't he see the patients around him all turn? If his idea actually worked, there would at least be reports of sick patients surviving, hidden among the infected."
Jaxon gave a wry smile. If he had been in that situation without his system, maybe he would have tried the same thing and thought it was clever.
They returned to their meal, eating quietly. What the man had called a 'cure' turned out to be nothing more than a foolish, tragic mistake.