This Would Be Paradise (Book 3)

Chapter 7

It was a stressful two hours. At first Mac seemed fine other than the injury on his leg. Within an hour he had developed a cough and we could see that the skin surrounding the wound had become grey in color, like he was already a corpse. His coughing increased and soon he was spewing blood with each hack. I let out a choppy breath. He's not going to last much longer.

The entire time I had been trying to slip out of my plastic cuffs, but all it earned me was a pair of cut up and raw wrists. The guards must've noticed, but let me keep trying, knowing I was just injuring myself more. Amelia had used our quality time together to fill me in on what they had discovered through their experiments.

"How long the virus needs to take over depends on if the host is alive or not. The virus has free run if the host is dead, because nothing is fighting it anymore. That's why those who die during an attack turn faster than those who are just bit or scratched. If it's a non-fatal attack, the time between initial infection and complete incubation in the patient is not uniform, but we have seen that the closer the bite or scratch to the brain on the body of the victim, the less time it takes.

"The body is medically dead, but something inside the host reacts with the virus and the body seems to reanimate, defying the laws of science. What the virus reacts with, we're not sure. By running tests on the immune, we are trying to rule out what it could and couldn't be. We've had immune from many different cultures, backgrounds, blood types, age, gender, genetics, and we still can't narrow down what it is in you that renders the virus harmless."

"So ... I'm lacking whatever it is that the virus latches onto?" I asked, more confused than before.

Amelia nodded. "According to our findings, it would appear so."

Mac drew our attention back to the padded room when he collapsed onto his side, and with one last wheezing gasp, he stopped breathing. The tears that had been threatening finally fell. On one hand I was devastated to have witnessed Mac's death and to have not been able to help, but on the other, I was glad Mac was no longer being forced to suffer. I may not have been able to save you, but I sure as hell will make sure Amelia, and everyone who's a part of this, will pay!

Mac laid still for a minute, then small tremors started in his limbs. His bitten leg jerked and his shoulder slid out from under him, sending him onto his back. It was eerie to watch a dead man start moving once again. That thought had never really sunk in until now. It really did defy all the laws of science. The convulsions wracking his body increased in their tempo, his limbs and torso now jolting all over the place as if he was having a seizure.

Amelia leaned forward, her face riveted on what was happening to Mac, not caring in the least that she was the reason behind it. God, I wanted her dead and even more so, I wanted to be the one to kill her.

The seizing stopped, and Mac laid still once again-but not for long. He stood up in one swift motion, his teeth gnashing together. All of the blood vessels in his eyes had burst, his pale blue iris's sticking out among a wash of red. He got to his feet and ran at the door, smashing into it with substantial force.

"It's amazing how fast and strong the freshly turned are," Amelia said.

I was reminded of when Taylor turned and how quickly he had made a dash for John and then for Zoe.

"It's a good thing for us, that as their body decays, that speed and strength is diminished," Amelia continued my science lesson.

"Once they're turned, the body still decays?" I asked, my eyes not leaving Mac's form as he snarled and bashed into the door of the padded room.

"Yes, they're essentially dying. When they feed on the non-immune, they do appear to be receiving some kind of nourishment, hence why they don't just rot and fall apart immediately. But," she looked at me through the corner of her eyes, "I have no idea how their anatomy works since they threw all we thought we knew about the human body out the window when they started coming back from the dead."