CHAPTER 06 : ONE DOWN
1287 Words
All of them stepped back away from the old man.
"W-why?" the old man who was visibly bitten in the arm was confused and looked left and right where the students were standing in.
"W-Why?" He called again.
"Are you sure?" Mila trembly asked Troy who backed off and had grouped with her and Roes while Jin and Connan was in the right side of the old man.
"Look at his eyes."
They turned to it and the old man's eyes were already grayed.
"It's my fault." Mila stated trembling
"H-Hey Mr. Joe... Um, I don't know if you knew about this but, you see, you're infected!" Jin called while stepping away from him
"I-Infected?" The old man starts twitching
"Yes Mr. Joe. Those monsters, they were infected by something we don't know and you---you're turning into something like that." Troy calmly explained
"W-w-what?" his eyes were already full gray and dark purplish veins were stretching on his wrinkled cheeks.
Everyone trembled, and started looking down if they can already jump the 3 meters wall to the other side.
"Mr. Joe I know you've worked hard enough in this school but sadly, it's already a wreck and... We're the only survivors left." Troy tried to convince him
"... but you're infected and soon enough, when you lose control, you'll infect us."
The old man shut in silence, his head lowered down when those words came out. The gush of wind passed by and made everyone above the walls dwell in silence preparing for what will happen next.
"Then," the old man started, his voice was hoarse and changing deep "...you'll... you'll suggest me to jump back?"
He was strangely calm and still conscious.
Troy gulped down. There is no other choice.
"But, you have the antidote right?" The old man raised his head smiling creepily.
All of them was dumbfounded.
"W-what?" Troy asked, can't believe that he knew about the antidote nor even dared to mention it.
The old man was twitching and looked left and right until he spotted the black box on Jin.
His slim finger pointed the box, "T-That I saw, I saw it with D-Doctor Ferrel and S-Sir Bessemor." He started to step closer towards Jin and Connan
Connan was in front of Jin, trembling as he step back carefully.
"They--- were talking about this, and... and, that antidote." the old man smiling as blood flowed through out his eyes
"I was there.... I was... Antidote." he spoke as he started growling
"Hey Connan," Jin whispered "...we should jump."
"Jump from here?!" he exclaimed
"Antidote... The antidote..." The old man kept repeating the same words frustrating himself.
"Antidote."
"I say we jump----"
But all of a sudden the old man growled loudly, he was like screaming which can be heard through out the area.
"HEY HEY HEY!" Jin panicked
The ground trembled as several steps started to come towards them, down the alley appeared several students tainted with black and red liquid, growling like monsters and quickly went below the wall they were in.
Stretching their bloody hand and mindlessly trying to climb up unfortunately, they didn't know how the hanging hose works.
"Jump. All we can do now is jump!" Connan trembly said, panicking and was about to jump to the other side of the wall when suddenly, the old man ran towards Jin and because he was still in front of Jin, the old man got him first and bit his neck.
Mr. Joe completely lost control and was biting like a real monster.
"Connan!!" Jin called in shock
Mila covered her mouth with her hands, Troy and Roes froze.
"A-Augh!!" Connan screamed in pain as the old man kept digging his mouth to his flesh.
"Father... Father... I'm sorry... Father..." Connan cried and started to lose balance as the tingling pain crawled in every part of his body, and due to his staggering he reached the edge of the wall where several infected students are swarming.
"I'm sorry Mother.." in his last tear he lost consciousness and fell down along with the infected old man.
Everyone didn't move an inch and witnessed the chain of events frozen and trembling.
Connan's body took the attention of the swarming infected and made it a feast forgetting about the others above the wall.
Mila burst into tears, "I'm sorry. I'm sorry."
Troy blinked and refreshed his mind, "We're all sorry, we... haven't done anything." he paused
"...but we still have our lives, we need to survive." He stepped and took the garden hose to the other side, securely pinning the anchor at the edge.
"You two, get down immediately." Troy demanded. And without further conversation Roes volunteered first then right after, the tearing Mila.
"Jin." He called to the other but Jin was still dumbfounded, still looking at the last scene before Connan fell down.
"JIN!"
"W-What?" he had managed to awaken.
Troy gestured him on his turn to go down.
"O-okay." having one last look to Connan and quietly climbed down.
Troy was the last one to got down, easily and quickly. Feeling the green grass once again, they felt half secured from all of their current circumstances.
"I'm sorry." Mila immediately apologized when they gathered
"It's not your fault." Jin sadly added, also blaming his self.
Troy sighed, "I know you are all aware that we are not gonna reach the gate complete right?"
They all stared at him but didn't argued because in their heart it was something like they predicted.
"But one thing is for sure. That is the antidote." Troy pointed out to the black box
"Mr. Joe may have eavesdrop or have observed what Dr. Ferrel had done or had taken account whatever the doctor had talked to Sir Bessemor. Our guesses were much likely are correct, having Sir Bessemor and Dr. Ferrel conspired through this incident and this antidote." Troy pondered
"But if they had the antidote and got infected... Why didn't they use it?" Mila asked
"According to Roes, Sir Bessemor was already infected when she met him at the hallway then when she arrived at the clinic, the doctor was infected too and decided to just kill herself after instructing Roes, without details." Jin added
"They really didn't use the antidote. That is something that we are sure." Troy replied
"Or maybe they only made one antidote, and decided to deliver it to the military for replication to save humanity!" Mila guessed
"But if they were the ones who made it... Why keep it a secret? Also the infection.. where did it started?"
They stood in silence as questions appeared in their mind one by one.
"What do you think of this Ro?" Mila asked
"Among us you're more directly involved."
Roes stared back at her.
"I have no idea." Roes replied lowly "...except for the human evolution papers I saw in the files."
"Human evolution?!" Troy and Jin chorused
She nodded, "But I don't think it's something related here."
"But that's a big idea, I mean, if they were planning, it may be possible." Troy concluded
"S-So what do we now? We didn't planned further." Jin asked grievously
"First," Troy took the sickle and gave the rake to Jin, "...we didn't changed plans. We will overcome the 6 kilometers and reach the gate then give this antidote to the military."
They all nodded.
"You take this." Troy took the black box hanging from Jin's shoulder and gave it to Roes "...you were assigned for this."
Roes didn't replied and silently nodded.
"We'll walk this wood for safety and find the road towards the gate, we need to hurry." Troy said taking a glimpse on the position of the sun going west.
"Let's go!"
- Writer
