Hiatus is up ladies and gents! I said I would make a continuation of Ever Evolving and I was not planning to go back on that. Firstly, I recommend reading my last fanfic Ever Evolving or you may be lost at quite a few points in this. This whole thing will be written from Cole's POV. For now there will be no new infected because I think the first chapter needs to show how things have progressed since Ever Evolving. I will be slow to update since there still are some personal details for me to handle in real life but I will do what I can when I can. So without further ado, Read, Review, and Enjoy!
P.S.: Y'know that ice cream thing in chapter 9 of Ever Evolving when Jenny brought up how Cole would kiss her for a taste of her ice cream? Well a guy used it on his friend... Currently they are going steady. Congrats guys! My best wishes go out to you.
My daughter Alice, she is the only good thing left in my life. I was left to the soldiers and Colonel Richard by Stephanie who abandoned me long ago. Ever since they dragged me in their base, they've kept this helmet on my head to keep me blind and keep me from biting anyone, not that I've tried. They want to control me but so far nothing they try works. It's been years that they've been trying, now I think they finally found what can get their leash around my neck. My own daughter Alice. She's five years old now and they let her in my room, with armed escort of course and I'm strapped to the wall, so she can talk to me. I don't think she realizes what I am, that or she doesn't think I'm like the other infected. Either way, I get to see her the more I comply.
"Hi daddy!"
It's time for another visit and I have the usual smile on my face to greet her. She has grown to be quite adorable. Every time I see her she has a few braids in her blonde hair and she wears a dress with shorts on. For some reason she carries a white stuffed rabbit around as well, likely a gift from Enid who is taking care of her now.
After telling me how she is and what Enid has been teaching her, she asks the worst question in the world to me.
"Daddy, what are you? The other kids say you're a mean monster, but Miss Vasten says you are nice. I think you're nice too!"
I wish I could answer her but all she would hear is me grumbling and I don't want her to hear that. It tears my heart out only being able to listen. I've remained silent so long and communicated with her with just my expressions so long I think she takes me for a mute.
"Daddy-"
"Sweetie, visiting time is over."
"Already? But I wanna stay longer!"
The soldiers always feel so insecure with Alice being in the same room as me. As a result they constantly cut our time short. My daughter doesn't like them either and she tries over and over to stall and see me even longer. Sometimes she will run from the soldiers and hug me. I can't hug her back with my arms restrained but when ever she hugs me I nuzzle her forehead to try showing her I love her and I would never hurt her despite being a monster. They would always pry her off of me though and take her back to Enid's.
"C'mon, you know you aren't allowed to touch!"
"But why?"
Her voice fades as they get further from my room. That's when I always lose my sunny disposition and break my bounds holding me. The door is too strong to break down so in the time it takes them to safely sedate me and rebind me, I get some exercise and stretch as much as I can. I never break my binds when she is in my room, it'd scare her seeing me get shot at. This day was different however, no I didn't try to break loose in front of Alice. After I finished my stretches I waited for someone with a dart gun to come in and shoot me, but nobody came. Instead I heard the most annoying voice over the intercom they set up in this room.
"Good morning Cole."
It's the colonel, likely wanting me to do some lousy tricks for him like an obedient dog.
"I have an offer for you, I'm hoping you'll cooperate for once."
"Does it matter whether I accept or refuse? You can't understand me, dumbass, so you'll just say we're doing what you want anyway."
"Well listen, I'll give you more time with your daughter if you do."
"You just keep going on don't you?"
"I know you want to see her again. What do you think?"
"... I think you're a limp dick prostitute..."
"We are in agreement then."
"Ladies and gentlemen, your limp dick prostitute of a colonel!"
Mocking this nitwit is one of the few comforts I have in this place. Sucks he doesn't understand me though, the pissed look on his face would put a smile on mine, that's for damn sure! Regardless, he wants to give me more time with my baby girl then I'll play the obedient dog for now. Within the next ten seconds of our conversation the door opened and finally here came Enid to put me to sleep with a dart.
Enid, she was in my squad before I left the army to stay with jenny. She was like a sister to me, so timid but always smiling when I was around. It took me some time to remember her. To think I could forget her, makes me ashamed to say she was my close friend. Ever since she adopted Alice, she hasn't served as a soldier. She started letting her hair grow and wore civilian clothing. Honestly the first time I met her I thought she was a guy. She's the one they send in to keep me calm while something is done to me. She does what she can to protect me so I do my best to keep calm when I see her. She's the perfect one to shoot me whether it's with a dart or an actual bullet in case of an emergency. Lucky for me this time it was a dart.
When I finally woke up I found that asshole Richard standing in front of me and I'm wearing some kind of uniform. The darts make me sluggish when I wake up but I don't let that show in front of these guys. One less weakness they know about. Anyway, It was weird that Richard was in front of me today, just glad he was quick to explain.
"Good to see you're awake finally, I have a present for you."
"No thanks, knowing you it's a damn stick to shove up my ass."
"Look at the new outfit you are wearing. Its a fireproof insulated uniform my men wear but I had it modified for you. We completely removed the right sleeve for your grotesque hand and arm and instead put a bracer on your wrist."
"Oh how nice... Do you give all the infected such nice things?"
"It even comes with a handy function in case you forget who's in charge. Allow me to demonstrate..."
As he snapped his fingers I saw one of his boys from the lab hit a button on a computer behind him. I felt my entire body crunch up and I heard straps tightening and burn on winches. When it stopped I was in a fetal position and seriously pissed off.
"You forget I'm your boss and we wad you up. The helmet is also new-"
"Fucker, I knew there would be some kind of leash on this thing but this is too damn much!"
"-Quit growling, I'm not done. The helmet is also new. It has a small camera to feed us whatever you see. It also has an alarm that we can activate whenever we want, when you hear this sound-"
The colonel pointed to his assistant and again he hit a button. My head started ripping apart from a high pitched noise so loud even a deaf man would stick knives into his ears. With his little show over, he signaled again for the noise to be shut off.
"-I want you to return to the base immediately!"
"Return? Does that mean I can go outside?"
"Boys, put him in the container, we're sending him on his first task."
Without getting an answer, I was rolled into a large metal box where the straps loosened and I was able to stand up. It was way too cramped for me to move around but that was the least of my worries when I was starting to be wheeled out the building. The sun light beamed into the box through a small hole and I flinched as it hit my eyes. It'd been so long since I was outside, it felt like I was blind the entire time and just started to see again. While rolling me to the gate I could hear the soldiers pushing people away as they talked amongst themselves. They said and whispered things like "It's that new bioweapon." and "Why do they have such a monster inside the walls?!" or even "I wonder if he's, y'know, packing..." That last one really makes me worry about that woman's context.
The box stopped suddenly and I hit my face on the front of it. Assholes could've given me a warning at the very least. Not like they care about my well-being anyhow. After readjusting the helmet I heard them shout for the front gate to be opened. With that opened they rolled me out and I heard a familiar voice outside.
"Cole, it's Enid. I'm going to let you out now. Please keep calm."
She was as wary as ever and for good reason, never have they let me outside so they had no idea what I might do. They undo all the locks and let me step out, Enid was waiting patiently for me.
"Listen, Richard wanted me to brief you on your mission."
"Brief? You make it sound like I'm still a soldier."
"Er... Well anyway, scouts' reports say there's a horde of multipule unknown infected headed this way. Too many for soldiers to handle, but you were able to kill numerous troops on your own so... go get em'."
She sounded so tense, it must've been weird for her to bring up me killing soldiers in front of other soldiers who were watching me with guns raised. She couldn't even look me in the eyes so I decided to not to let it bother me too much and just go. As I started walking off she pat me on the back of my head where I heard a click. I paused only a moment but thought nothing of it at the time.
"Go on Cole."
As Enid's words reached me I felt my grin stretch ear to ear inside my helmet and I ran as fast as I could in the direction Enid pointed. Even with all these things on my body that are meant to keep me under control I finally felt free. The air I was breathing, the light I saw, the pavement I felt with each step, it all made me feel free and like I was myself again. If only I still had a beating heart... There'd be no slowing it.
Despite how I felt though, it was far from the time to enjoy myself. With a horde heading towards the home of my daughter and Enid, I had to get my head in the game and attack them. I shook my head to clear my mind and started off to start a massacre. It'd been so long since I last fought so I was unsure if my abilities were up to par but I guess I'd have to worry about that when the time came.
Here's a thought: it's about the traditional zombies, not these guys, I mean the foot dragging, lazy eyed, moaners. Why do they moan? They aren't alive so they don't need to breath or they might even lack the ability like they lack the ability to feel pain. How do you moan if you don't breath? Anyway if you like this first chapter, have any infected ideas you didn't get to me last time or if you just want to speak your mind, write a review.
