This is a fan fiction based off of the video game Dead Frontier. To any that tried to read the first chapter and couldn't I apologist, I encountered technical difficulties. Disclaimer: I do not own the creatures, dates, experiments, or corporations mentioned in this fiction. I do however own the characters.
It was 2014, and my family and I were living in Grenoble. If you haven't heard of it, it's in southern France. Anyways, my parents were only 18 when I was born, so they had a really hard time of it, and on January first of 2014 I was only 6. My parents had always had trouble caring for me and paying the bills, so it wasn't too much of a surprise when this happened: one day mom, dad, and me sat down for dinner (a rare occurrence given how busy my parents normally are), and they told me that they had the answer to all our problems.
"We found a way to get a free apartment and a lot of money, but we need your help," mom explained. "Theres a bunch of doctors that need people to help them do research in order to make important discoveries that will help everyone. Your dad or I would gladly do this for the family, but there aren't any spots left for adults to sign up, only kids. We wont make you do this, if you don't want to do it…"
"I do it!"
"But sweetie, there will be needles and weird scientists and…" despite moms warnings I had made up my mind.
"I said I do it!"
"Ok, if you're sure then we'll send in the application form," dad, seeing mom's uncertainty, took the lead of this conversation by bringing it to a close. "Now lets eat." The dinner that night was great. The next day mommy got an email saying we had been accepted into the program, and within a couple months we could move into our new home. So by September we were finished packing and moving everything into the new apartment. And by the time the "Third Generation Nerotonin* Program" started we were completely unpacked. I guess it helps that we didn't have much stuff to begin with.
"Today we're going to the Secronom** Facility, there the doctors will explain everything that is involved in the program, and I think they said they're going to take some blood samples," mom patiently explained all this to me, even though I couldn't care less. But I still listened just as patiently, and soon mom, dad, and me were all packed into a bus and heading to the Secronom place. The bus was full of kids and parent-liking adults. When we got to the place mom and dad had been talking about all the families chaotically filed out of the bus and headed into the front room of the facility. It looked like a waiting room at the doctors office. A funny looking man came out from behind the secretary's desk and started talking, no one listened till the children were successfully silenced. There were probably 12 kids there, not counting myself, and all of them seemed as impatient as me.
After a while they stopped even trying to explain, and started calling children back one by one to individual rooms. The room I ended up in was small with creamy vomit colored walls, a sink, a couple of chairs, and a bed in the center. The nurse instructed me to sit on the bed and left, coming back a few seconds later with a tray in her hands. The tray had 2 funny looking glass tubes with plastic on one end and rounded glass (along with weird goo) at the other end, along with a big needle stuck into a plastic thing with a big opening in it. The nurse said something to my parents in a hushed voice and mom shook her head 'no'.
"I need to take a couple blood samples, it shouldn't hurt too much and it will only take a second. Are you going to be brave or do your parents need to hold you?" The very forward question struck me as a little rude but I shook my head no and murmured 'brave' under my breath. So the nurse set down the tray on the bed and told me to count the bugs in the light on the ceiling. I obeyed and looked up, then something sharp pricked my arm. When I looked down I saw one of the glass tubes attached to the plastic thing, which was in turn attached to my arm. The glass tube was slowly filling with a dark red substance, and then I realized it was blood. My blood. I shivered as it hit me, and right as I did that the nurse popped out the glass tube full of blood and put in the other one, with one hand steadying the plastic thing the whole time. Then, as the new tube filled, the nurse reached behind her and grabbed a wad of gauze from a little cup on the sink. She then pressed it to my arm at the tip of the needle on the plastic thing, and removed it from my arm. She put a bandaid over the gauze and said "Good girl, you were very brave!" in such a fake voice that I wanted to vomit.
The second the nurse was out of the room I said, loud enough for her to hear, "Mommy, what's it called when an adult treats a 6 year old like a baby?"
Mom sighed and dad grimaced. "It's called being demeaning sweetie, but you shouldn't say things like that in public." At this I just smiled.
And so for a really long time, I think someone said it was 20 months, I went to the facility every other day to get one 'vial' of blood taken from me. It always made me really dizzy, but after each time mommy and daddy would take me home and give me orange juice with a small beignet***. Then one day daddy got an email saying the program was changing. I think it said something about phase two. So we went in with all the other 'test subjects'. There was a man there, and he said I wouldn't have any more blood samples drawn. Instead I was going to get shots once a week. So naturally I was happy, no more dizzy days!
The next day mommy, daddy, and me went into the facility again, and this time all the subjects were crammed into the waiting room. Normally they took us throughout the day, but this time they had everyone come at the same time.
"Clara Kastar" The first name to be called. A shortish girl that looked in her twenties stood up and walked out of the room with the nurse. And so it began. Every minute, or maybe less, for the next twenty minutes they called people back. The order seemed to be really random. Then they called my name and I stood up with my parents. The nurse came over to us and said "oh I'm sorry, but only the test subject is allowed to be in the facility today. You see this is a double blind study, so we can't risk you finding out which injection we're giving your daughter.I'm really sorry, she'll be escorted home in an hour tops."
My parents concern was too apparent. "Don't worry mommy, daddy. I'll be fine. These people are demeaning, but really nice too." I smiled to put their minds at ease, even though I was concerned myself. I'm only 8, why are they supposed to leave me here? Even though the question ran through out my mind I did not let it reach my face, and I continued to smile until mom and dad surrendered.
"Be good, I know you always are," dad couldn't help winking while he said this. "love you sweetie."
"I love you, I'll see you really soon." mom reluctantly said her goodbyes with a forced grin on her face, its almost like she knew something I did not.
After the nurse watched my parents leave the facility she lead me back to one of the doctors office style rooms, and she went to get the ever-so familiar tray of doom. Only this one didn't have the normal tubes and plastic thingy, it had two syringes and a little bottle of blue liquid. She took the syringes and filled them with the blue stuff, then said "I have to give you one shot in each arm, it should hurt less then the blood draws did." And with this she injected one shot into each of my arms. "just lie down and relax for a few minutes." Then she left.
My arms felt a little funny, but I layed down and tried to relax. Then my arms started feeling really funny, almost fuzzy like when your arm is starting to fall asleep. This was an unusual sensation, and it was spreading. Slowly my arms went numb as the fuzzy feeling spread through out my chest. Then as that strange feeling spread through out my body my chest started going numb. "Am I supposed to feel all fuzzy?"
No response. Why can't I move?
"Hello? I think somethings wrong, I can't feel my arms anymore!"
No response.
"PLEASE HELP ME!"
Still no response. Then it hit me. Is this what they wanted? Then the fuzziness reached my head, and I could suddenly feel it leaching its way into my mind. At first it tickled. Then it burned. Owy. Owy owy owy owy! Slowly my mind cleared of all thought. All that remained was the pain. Then I remembered Mommy, daddy. I'm sorry. With that final thought I fell into the endless, black abyss of eternal slumber.
Only one problem. That eternal slumber wasn't eternal...
*A series of artificial nano-viruses engineered by the pharmaceutical company Secronom Inc. N3 and N4 caused death with postmortem reanimation and mutations.
**One of the leading pharmaceutical companies in the old world, blamed for the zombie phenomenon.
***A french doughnut, tasty.