INFECTED (Click Your Poison) (79 page)

MAKE YOUR CHOICE

T
he alarm within automatically sends a signal to the police station back in town. On a good day, help should arrive in around half an hour. But guess what? Today’s not a good day. There’s been no contact with the police for several days now and your little blinking light currently goes unnoticed. Good thing you had this room installed.

Okay, so what do you have? Dry food rations and water, for one. A comfy chair and a camping toilet, so that’s nice. You have control over the building’s power, and security cameras placed strategically throughout, with live feed on the screens before you.

You watch as these brigands overtake your compound. They sweep the area efficiently; obviously these guys hail from one of the law enforcement or military message boards you frequented in times of yore. They take out your cameras, you take out the power.

Then they seal you in.

•
 
How much food did I store again?

MAKE YOUR CHOICE

Y
ou’ve got the new hatchet axe and an aluminum baseball bat. Sims carriers a slingshot and an ornamental samurai sword he sharpened. Together, you’re out to look for the good doctor. After yesterday’s revelation to the group that he’s been hiding his infection, you can tell everyone’s on edge. How much of that serum could he possibly have left after several days out in the open? And now he’s spent fourteen hours alone. You can’t shake the thought that it’s more than enough time to transform.

Sims is smothered in guilt. “I just figured, he’s working on a cure, right? Why not let him go work on it?” You don’t respond. He takes your silence as a concurrence to his guilt. “I mean, I just feel like I’m useless. I’ve given fourteen years to the Air Force as an electrician and now, here I am, an electrician in a city without power. Deleon can actually do something, ya know?”

“We need you, Sims,” You say, trying to comfort him. “You got us here, remember?”

“I’ve been faking my P-F-T, my fitness test? For years now. I figured what’s the point, since I don’t see combat, so… But here we are at the end of the world. Is that ironic?”

“I bet there’s an emergency generator around here somewhere you could find. You can still use those skills.”

He nods, internalizing whatever thoughts he has. You walk in silence, looking for whatever might be a science lab. You pass by scores of generic classrooms, chalkboards at the front, filled with desks. The doors have window slits, so you’re able to peek in as you walk past. Then you come upon something different, an alcove indentation in the hall that’s essentially two classrooms merged into one.

The door is cracked open.

You look into the slit and see a chalkboard covered with a mess of rambled jottings. Instead of desks, you see lab stations that look like kitchen islands, each with their own sink. They’re all alive with active experiments, but there’s no sign of Deleon. You nod to Sims and pull the door open.

“Doc?” you call out. No answer. You move in, Sims right behind you, and search the lab. Beakers boil and bubble, sending formula through tubes. Not seeing the doctor, you turn around.

“He’s got all this running off redundant generators and battery packs, pretty genius stuff,” Sims says just as a shadow moves behind, eclipsing him. Is it Deleon? You crane your neck around to see—it is the Doc, but he’s standing too still. His skin has sallowed, his eyes are depressed and the flesh around them is saggy and dark.

“What?” Sims asks, staring at you. Deleon reaches out to him, and you try to warn him, but your throat is dry and full of cotton. The doctor puts a hand on Sims, who spins around to meet him.

“Sims,” Deleon says.

Whew. “Christ, you scared the shit out of me,” Sims says.

“Likewise,” you add.

Despite his wraithlike countenance, Deleon musters a smile. “I’ve done it. I’ll have the first batch in a few hours.”

“You’re cured?” Sims asks.

Deleon shakes his head and points at a whirring centrifuge. “I’ll need to test it. But the formula works on the cellular level.”

“Have you been up all night?” you ask.

He nods. “I’ll sleep now.”

Sims radios back to the group that you found him, and then you walk Deleon back to the gym, where everyone’s already gathered. Cooper moves to the middle and crosses her arms. “It’s time to really get a feel for what we have here. Let’s get some breakfast, then we’re gonna make this place defensible. Make this… our home.”

Eat your camping food, then where to?

•
 
Help Tyberius set up the barricades.

•
 
Check the nurse’s station with Hefty.

•
 
Loot the lockers with Cooper.

•
 
Try to turn the power back on with Sims.

•
 
Explore the cafeteria with Guillermo.