"Make up your mind. Because I'm not waiting forever." Using my hands to pull myself up to my feet, my eyes never strayed from his face.

We had found a blanket in the kit under the floor of the helicopter, which was gently placed over Temari's body. I never looked back over there. And neither did he. I assume it was because he would not be able to hold back everything that was welling inside of him. It had been only fifteen minutes ago we lost two of our friends. Part of me hoped I was wrong about Kiba. But that part was very small. I really wasn't ready to lose Shikamaru as well. We have lost so many of our friends. But I never let the pain show that was hidden deep down inside of me. I had to stay strong for Tenten. If I gave up now, she would too. My fingers on my left hand were propping my head up as I looked at him. Tenten took my hand and placed it in her lap.

"I've decided." Shikamaru said, his voice sounding so detached from himself, it didn't even sound like him.

I intently looked at him, while Tenten nervously messed with my fingers, awaiting his answer.

"I'll accompany you, for a while." My eyebrows rise in surprise, "But..", he continued, "I however will not carry a weapon. Because I can't help the fact I want to die. Temari...", he started and looked sideways, trying to control himself, "Temari would have wanted me to stick with you guys until the end."

Tenten pushed herself off from the ground and threw her arms around Shikamaru. He hugged her back, careful not to use his broken arm. I mentally slapped myself on my forehead. I completely forgot about his arm. There has to be a first aid kit around here somewhere. Maybe mounted on the wall? I looked up on the wall and sure enough it was there. I ripped it out of it's container and set it on the ground.

"Shikamaru, how broken do you think it is?" I asked flipping through the contents.

He turned towards me, "Uh well. It's a closed fracture. Maybe a hairline fracture." I nodded to him and kept digging.

"What's a hairline fracture? " Tenten asked.

I looked at her appalled, "You don't know?"

"Nope." She said looking completely serious, then also added, "Not everyone took Medical Science this year, Neji."

I chuckled lightly, "Oh right... You took that gay cooking class."

Her mouth opened wide with anger, "It was not GAY!"

"Pretty gay." Shikamaru added.

"You!" She said, pointing her finger at him, "Stay out of this."

"Joking, Tenten, joking. Now to answer your question, a hairline fracture is a break in a straight line on your bone. It's also a closed fracture because his bone isn't sticking out. Since it's just a crack, I cant do anything about it, except put it in a sling." I finished holding up a sling from the first aid box.

I placed Shikamaru's arm in it and rolled the strap over his shoulder. Pulling the bag I still had off of my back, I opened a small pocket and threw some pills at him.

"They should help with the pain." I added.

"Thanks." He nodded and swallowed the pills down.

"No problem." I said to him. "Let's get out of this helicopter." I added.

Looking around I noticed the only way out was to crawl through hole on the side. Well it was actually the bottom because the helicopter flipped. I nodded to the others and got down in all fours. Realizing that wouldn't work, I laid down on my stomach and started to crawl out. The metal stuck out on my sides but not enough to cut me. Using the ground from outside the aircraft, I pulled my body outside.

I stood up and looked around. We had crashed into a pasture. Metal pieces were scattered all over the ground near our helicopter. In fact part of the helicopter was on fire, but thankfully is wasn't connected to the part we were in. I took a step forward and my foot came in contact with something metal. Leaning down I picked up Tenten's assault rifle she used. Checking the gun, I noticed it was also loaded.

"Good. We're armed." I said out loud as Shikamaru and Tenten appeared on either sides of me.

"One gun?" Tenten asked.

"Yea, but according to this map we are twenty minutes from Shikamaru's lake house." I said, looking back at her.

"Finally." Tenten breathed.

"We have to take Highway 64. From there a small road, that is ten minutes out." I continued. "We just now need to get out of this pasture and onto the road."

I started walking forward west of our position, but stopped when I realized no one was following me. I looked back over my shoulder. Tenten was trying to get Shikamaru to follow. He stood looking at the mangled helicopter, but shook his head. He turned back towards me and started walking. Once they were behind me, I continued. The brownish grass rose to about our shins in height and made a sharp crunching noise as we continued forward. I stepped over a huge chunk of metal and sighed. Even out in this distance we were still finding pieces of the helicopter. Tenten stumbled over something and fell face first onto the ground. She groaned and pushed herself up to look at what she tripped over. I assumed it was more metal or a lady bug, because the girl always trips over something. But her scream proved me wrong. She scrambled off the ground and jumped to her feet.

"What is it?" I yelled, appearing by her side in an instant.

She said nothing, only pointed downward with her finger. My eyes followed her line of direction and rested on a corpse. Blood covered the body along with dirt. It's limbs were twisted in different directions. Brown hair dirtied with mud could not cover it's eyes. They were open with fright or surprise, I could not tell. I knelt down to the corpse. It's frame informing me that it was a man. My eyes traveled down to his jawline and onto his chest, but I stopped at his arm. It was ripped up, but the man's hand still was gripping onto something. Grabbing his hand in mine, I tried to pry open his fingers. They were stiff but still warm, meaning he had not been here that long. Pulling back, his hand finally opened. A folded piece of paper was crunched up in it. I picked it up and opened it slowly. Seven smiling and two stoic faces looked back at me. It was a picture of our old gang. Dressed in our school uniform, we took this picture three weeks ago. Four weeks? I couldnt remember. It's been so long since then. I was leaning up against a tree with Tenten smiling beside me. Naruto was getting punched by Sakura with Sasuke watching them bored. Shikamaru had his jacket slung causally over his shoulder with Temari hugging him. Kiba and Kankuro were both making faces at the camera. I looked harder and notice writing under Sasuke, Kankuro, Naruto, Sakura. Everyone else was blank. I read the first one under Naruto.

Naruto,
I miss the old days, dude. And I miss your jokes. Just think of what we would of done with our lives if all of this never happened..

I stopped reading and looked away. He had wrote paragraphs for all his friends that have passed on. I felt as if I was invading his privacy by ready more. Taking one last look of the picture, I folded it up and put it back in his hand.

"Kiba.." I muttered looking at him. Using my thumb and pointer finger, I closed his eyes, to where he looked asleep.

I stood up and said nothing to the others as we continued. They knew who that man was. And I didn't want to cause anymore pain to them by bringing it up.

We came along a wooden fence stretching across the edge of the grassy area. On the other side was a highway. I stepped over the fence and onto the asphalt. The road was empty, except for a car crashed into the side of the fence. We had about a ten minute walk to the little one horse town. Once the others got over the fence, we continued forward down this highway to hell.

Ten minutes later.

Our legs stopped moving as we made it to the little town's edge. We proceeded on though. The streets were empty. Litter was on the ground and the windows were broken. Sad thing is this place pretty much looked like it always did. Even before the infection. We walked past old shops and food markets. My eyes fell on a nice looking cement building. Glass doors were not broken. It looked unaffected.

"Hmm weird." Shikamaru implied looking at the same building.

"What?" I asked.

"A year ago, that building wasn't here." He commented.

"Well let's see what it is." I remarked getting closer.

Shikamaru shrugged but followed me anyway. I walked over to the glass door. The title printed on it read, 'Cancer and Military Disease Research Facility.' And under it was, 'Section Eleven.'

"Military disease? This whole infection is probably their fault." Shikamaru remarked coldly.

I slammed my gun against the glass, shattering it to pieces. I stepped in cautiously. The inside was quite the opposite from the outside. Bloody hand prints covered the walls and scattered paper was everywhere. A reception area was right in front of us. But I walked down the hall. My footsteps echoed off the walls. Wooden doors lined the walls with different names, but at the end of the hall was a set of metal doors. I shoved the two double doors open, revealing a lab.

"Look around for information." I called quietly out to Tenten and Shikamaru.

They nodded and spread out in different directions. I stopped at a lab station and looked around. Broken beakers and spilt chemicals. I heard drawers open and close as Tenten looked around. The was no electricity, so the computers were useless. My eyes caught a glimpse of a high-powered microscope. Did I still have the sample from Kankuro? In Tenten's bag.

"Tenten throw me your bag." I told her.

"Yea, sure. But I found this. It looks like a log book." She walked over along with Shikamaru.

She handed me the bag that I set down. It will have to wait. Opening the book, I turned page to the date the was a little bit before this all happened.

- Feburary 12, 2023
12:34 P.M.

We just received a new testable sample for the cancer project. It causes the body to produce growth cells and makes the body constantly search for white blood cells, (a.k.a. cells that carry blood). Sample B13-67 has been tested on mammals of all sorts and proven to be successful. Tomorrow the main institute is going to test it on humans. -

"That explains the creature we first came in contact with." I turned to the others who were reading over my shoulder. "It's limbs were all extended. Over production of growth cells. It also explains why they bite people and go after humans. Their body constantly looks and searches for blood." I finished.

Their faces were blank with either surprise or anger. I flipped the page over and continued.

- February 15, 2023
1:00A.M.

No reply from headquarters. In fact no other section has heard from them since they first tested Sample B13-67. Our boss has given us the go to test it here. In two hours I will log the process.

February 15, 2023
3:03A.M

Our first human test subject is getting stronger. All cancerous cells have been destroyed. Little bit of black has appeared around the patient's shot mark, however.

February 15, 2023
3:56A.M

The patient is experiencing high fever, along with throwing up and coughing up blood. The blackish veins have spread. Sample B13-67 has fulfilled it's purpose but these may be side affects to the vaccine. -

I flipped the page. The handwriting was slanted and scribbly as if it was wrote in a rush.

- February 15, 2023
4:59A.M.

We were wrong. -

Blood was spattered over the page. I closed the book slowly then tossed it over into the corner. Taking in a breath, I slammed my fist on the lab table. It shuttered under the impact.

"This was all their fault. The scientists. Why cant the leave anything alone? They doomed the entire world." I yelled.

Shikamaru looked down. He had no hope. Hell he hardly even looked alive anymore.

"Maybe there is some way I can reverse this." I continued talking to no one in particular.

I unzipped Tenten's bag. Quickly I looked through the bag, throwing out the items I didn't need. Grabbing the container holding the test tube, I pulled up a rolling chair. I popped the lid to the container and set it back down. Pulling latex gloves from the bag, I put them on. Opening the drawer attached to the lab table I found a couple of plastic microscope slides.

"Shikamaru look for some syringes." I told him.

"Why?" He asked confused.

"I'm going to see exactly how it reacts with your blood and Tenten's." He nodded but Tenten glanced down sideways.

I pulled the test tube out of the container. Unscrewing the lid, I poured a drop of it's contents onto the plastic slide. I placed it under the microscope and brought my eye to the scope.

The virus was a circle in shape. But they moved into a oval shape. The color was blackish-purple.

I leaned back from the microscope and Shikamaru handed me a syringe of his blood. It was an eighth full. Replacing the old slide with the new one holding his blood. I knew as soon as he kissed Temari before he killed her, it infected him. It was the one thing I didn't plan. I looked down in the microscope. Red and white blood cells were moving. But the infection virus was attaching to those cells and attacking them. One virus cell completely destroyed a white blood cell. I removed the slide and placed it to the side. I slit my own finger on the side of the table, and let a drop of blood fall on a new slide. I looked down at the slide. My blood cells were all bundled up, hardly moving. Keeping my eye on the scope, I pulled the syringe up, containing Shikamaru's blood, and dropped a drop of blood on the slide containing my blood. The virus cells started to attack my blood cells. But something strange happened. Instead of my cells being destroyed, my cells were destroying the virus. Soon enough the virus stopped attacking my cells and just floated along side my cells.

Hmm. I replaced another drop of my blood on a different slide. Maybe it has to be straight contact with the infection. I poured a drop on Kankuro's sample on my blood. To my utter amazement, it had the same affect. My cells were not infected. Could it be I was immune to the virus? I have O type blood. I could save everyone. Maybe even Shikamaru. However if they had a different blood type it wouldn't work.

"Tenten where is your sample?" I asked still watching the cells.

Silence. "Tenten?" I asked again.

She looked at me weird and handed the vile containing her blood over. I mentally shrugged and placed her slide under the scope and looked at the blood, examining how it looks before coming in contact with the infectious blood.

... My jaw clenched back tight. Fear slammed down into my gut. I felt so far detached from my physical being. How? How did I not know?Tenten's sample looked just like Shikamaru's. Red and white blood cells were being attacked by the cells containing the virus.

"... Tenten... How?" I asked my eyes leaving the sample to look at her.

"On the way to the helicopter." She said sounding afraid.

"Where?" I asked pushing myself from the rolling chair.

She continued as I made my way over to her, "It tried to bite me, but Kiba shot it down. But it's teeth left a scratch."

She held out her right arm to me. Slowly grabbing her arm, I rolled up her sleeve. A nasty cut bled slightly. Blackish veins started to run up her arm. I rolled the sleeve back down and stumbled backwards slamming into objects. Glass fell and shattered to the ground. I yelled out of anger and slid everything off the table onto the ground. My fingers gripped the top of my forehead as I fought to restrain myself from slipping into nothingness. My other hand clenching the side of the lab table.

"Neji..?" Tenten started, her eyes wide as she took a step towards me.

Breathing out hard, I turned to her my hand sliding down from my face, "I'm immune Tenten. The virus does not infect me."

Her eyes rose in surprise.

But I continued, "You have B blood type and Shikamaru has AB. I have O."

Shikamaru nodded understanding what I meant, but Tenten looked confused.

"I can save almost the entire population, but I can't save you, Tenten." I moaned in pain.

Autumn AN:

Only three survivors left. They have lost seven of their friends trying to escape. O blood type is actually the most common blood type in the world. When I looked up their blood types, I was surprised how well it played out with the story. For a heads up also, the next chapter is also the last chapter of the story, INFECTION. Love the reviews.