Play Your Cards

Escorpion and the Red Hand

(This is just going to be around Ace, Murphy, and 10k for the next few chapters.)

Ace walks around her room. She watches from the window in her room as Murphy's soldiers put up a gate and fence in front of the museum. Zombie fills the fences like a moat.

Ace hung the skull from her ceiling.

Ace ignores outside and walks around her room. She places her weapons on a table in her room. She hides smaller weapons around just in case.

Ace walks out of her room and into the lab hoping to talk to Murphy about getting out of the building for a change.

Instead, she sees 10k on the ground with foam coming from his mouth. He lays on the ground and thrashes about.

"What the hell is going on?!" She shouts

Merch shushes her and shuts the lab door. 10k stops thrashing and lays still.

"I gave him an antidote that will no longer put him under Murphy's control." She explains

"Why is he under his control?" Ace asks

"Murphy bit him."

Ace's eye widen. She looks over at 10k and kneels down next to him.

"Where?" She asks

"Back of his neck. So no one would see it."

Ace checks and finds a bloody bite mark on his neck. Ace sighs and sits down and puts her head in her hands.

"I never wanted this." She says starting to cry

"What do you mean?" Merch asks

"Ever heard of the Ace's curse?" Ace asks

"Those that cause Ace to become mad, jealous, mess with ones she loves, do practically anything she doesn't like, she either kills you herself or you just disappear and no one ever sees you again. Or something like that, yeah."

"He made me jealous. He upset me and at the time....we were dating. He left me for another girl and I got jealous of her. He caught the curse and I killed the other girl. Because he got the curse he has eternal suffering or death and he got suffering. Even though he made me mad I still care for him. And now this..."

"It's okay. He will be fine." Merch reassures. "If I am correct, this will break him from Murphy's control and he will be okay."

10k starts to churn and open his eyes.

"Hey. How are you doing?" She asks. "Can you sit up?"

She helps 10k sit up on the ground.

"What happened?" He asks. "You stabbed me." He says drunkenly

"You were under Murphy's control. The bite on your neck." Merch says

"What?" He says looking from Ace to Merch.

"I gave you a dose of the original HZN1 vaccine." Merch says as 10k feels the back of his neck. "It counters Murphy's bite and frees us from Murphy's control. I've been taking it too. I need your help. Both of you." Merch says

She gets up and takes a bag from under a desk. "Murphy wants to save humanity by turning them into human-zombie blends."

"What are we gonna do?" 10k asks as he stands up

"We need to destroy the vaccine." She says as she walks up to 10k. "These injectors are our boosters. Without them, we will slowly slip back under his control." She explains