Outbreak


19. The Unfinished Antidote


"Wake up!"

Cold, sweaty hands gripped and shook Taylor's shoulders, instantly tearing her from sleep. She swatted the prying fingers away with a tired groan before sitting upright in bed. Beside her, within the sheets, a still sleeping Chad stirred faintly and tightened his unconscious hold around her waist.

"Quick! Wake up!"

Taylor rubbed her eyes as they slowly adjusted to the darkness of her bedroom. Her search for the source of the frantic voice was brief, cut short almost as soon as it had started, as she quickly caught sight of the silhouette in front of her. A shadowy figure that was nothing more than a person-shaped block of black with frazzled hair and a shrill and desperate voice.

"What do you…?" Taylor began, confused and half-asleep. This was not the way to be woken in the middle of the night. So much urgency. "Who…?"

"Come on, Taylor!"

And the cold, sweaty hands were back. This time on her face. A clammy palm on both of her cheeks. Once again, Taylor shooed the hands with a gentle push as her mind slowly registered what was happening.

"Gabriella?" She asked, reaching for the torch that she kept on the bedside table. At the flick of a switch, the silhouette transformed into her best friend, squinting and using her cold, sweaty hands to shield her teary eyes from the harsh light.

Chad rolled onto his back with a quiet moan. "What's going on?" He muttered drowsily. He was only just beginning the groggy transition into awareness, having been awoken by the light and voices. He was engulfed in a haze of puzzlement accompanied by a niggling fatigue and a hint of worry.

"It's Troy," Gabriella explained tearfully. "He's changing."

The hint of worry inside both Chad and Taylor escalated into a sudden full-blown panic. In barely a millisecond, the dregs of sleep vanished and they were on their feet. As Chad scrambled in the semi-darkness in search of a t-shirt he knew he'd discarded somewhere on the floor, Gabriella took hold of the torch and hurriedly led a limping Taylor out to the hallway. They sprinted wordlessly to Troy's room, halfway there being joined by Chad- who'd seemingly found the t-shirt but not bothered to find any jeans to cover his boxers.

They were out of breath once they'd reached their destination. The door was shut but not locked and no sound came from inside. Their hurry subsided into hesitance as each of them silently refused to be the one to turn the doorknob. Even Gabriella was hit with a sudden wave of fear that halted her from moving at all. And so, the three of them stood where they were surrounding Troy's bedroom door, panting to get their breath back.

Chad reached for the door's handle, then thought better of it and used his outstretched hand to knock on the wood instead. "Troy?" There was no answer so he knocked again. "Troy?" Same result and now they were wondering if he was even in there. And if he was, was he okay?

The curiosity soon became too much. With a quick and bracing lungful of air, Gabriella turned the knob and pushed open the door. It creaked as it swung slowly.

They remained in the hallway, peering through the threshold carefully. Nothing could have prepared them for what they saw inside. Gabriella had left a small lamp in the room that lit it up with a dim, white glow. It made her feel safer in the dark. But now, it only illuminated her biggest fear of all.

Troy was tucked in the shadows of the far corner. He was in a continuous state of movement; his entire body quaking, each limb thrashing as if he were having a fight with an invisible foe. Or himself. He threw his head from left to right, apparently not caring when he sometimes caught his face on the wall. His strained hands were drawn into fiercely trembling claws as he scraped and scratched at the floor beneath him. His legs kicked and bucked as if he was having some kind of seizure and his chest heaved with each gasping breath he took. Worst of all though, were his eyes.

Even in the faint light of the room, his eyes were clearly visible. They were grey. Completely. As if the blue skies that had once been his eyes were now clouded. There was no black dot of a pupil. Just a blind, blank grey. And the confirmation that they all needed. He had changed. It had happened.

He growled and scraped his teeth together, sensing the presence of his company. He began to sniff the scent of fresh meat in the air and, like a creature of prey, crawled onto his hands and knees.

Gabriella spoke quietly so only Taylor could hear her. "Have you finished your antidote?" She asked slowly and cautiously never taking her eyes off what had once been her boyfriend.

Apparently, almost inaudible wasn't quiet enough and her noise was enough to spark madness in Troy. With an animal cry, he pounced forward, bounding towards the door on his hands, feet and knees. Thinking fast, Chad leaned into the room, grabbed the door handle and quickly pulled it shut, just in time to hear Troy collide with it on the other side of the wood.

The sound of his nails scraping continuously across the wood was almost unbearable but it was his whimpering cries of failure and desperation that sent Gabriella over the edge. She just couldn't believe that this had happened. She thought they'd have more time. Never came to terms with the fact that eventually….

"Your antidote." She said again, turning to Taylor. "Is it finished?"

Taylor shook her head, her movements stiff and hasty with fright. "Nearly." She said. "B-but… it's not-…. I haven't tested it." She stammered, overcome with nerves and fear for her life. "It'll kill him. I know-."

But it was their only hope. Troy's only chance. "Where is it?" Gabriella interrupted. She barely gave Taylor a chance to answer. "Where?!"

"Library." Taylor answered obediently, almost developing a dread now of this uncharacteristically forceful Gabriella. "But I told you, it-…." She trailed off, realising that nothing she said would stop her best friend. Gabriella was already sprinting to the library.

Taylor sank to the ground, grateful to take weight off her ankle which was throbbing again. She stuck her legs out in front of her and leant backwards on the wall that separated her and Troy, shutting her eyes and trying to let her thoughts catch up with the situation. She'd only woken up a second ago. And so much was going on. It was only just starting to sink in that Troy was gone. Troy was gone. One of her best friends was now nothing more than a cannibalistic creature. And he wanted to kill her. He wanted to kill all of them. Troy.

"Troy…?"

Taylor looked up to see Chad standing beside her with both of his palms and his forehead pressed to Troy's bedroom door. His fingers gently stroked the chipping paint around the knob as he stared blankly into the cracks of the wood.

"It's me Troy." Chad continued, his voice quiet and small. "It's your best-… your best friend, Chad." His bottom lip quivered but he refused to let tears flow.

Troy replied with a growl and a procession of scratches.

And as if losing Troy wasn't bad enough for Taylor, now she realised she'd have to watch as Chad came to terms with losing his closest friend. She reached up and took Chad's hand from where it hovered at the door handle. He did not turn to her but she squeezed supportively and gave his fingers a sympathetic kiss. He pulled away from her grip, ignoring her attempts completely, and used his fist to pound the door.

"Troy!" He yelled through the barrier. "Stop this, okay?" He continued to bang his hand on the door. "You can beat this!" He opened his mouth to continue his plea but was stopped short by a sound that gave him both hope and uncertainty.

Troy was knocking back. His scratching had ceased. He was banging the door, much like Chad had.

Chad glanced at Taylor who looked back at him just as perplexed. Then, he knocked a rhythm on the door. Troy responded with the exact same simple beat. Chad tried a different rhythm, which Troy met, once again with perfect repetition. He tried again and again, the beats getting increasingly complicated and difficult, but Troy never failed.

"What's… going… on?" Gabriella arrived finally, out of breath with a handful of small bottles and an empty syringe.

Taylor averted her fascinated gaze from her boyfriend and looked up at Gabriella. "Listen." She said.

Chad repeated what he and Troy had been doing for the best part of five minutes. And, as expected, Troy matched his beat flawlessly.

"What does that mean?" Gabriella asked, placing the medicine in Taylor's hands and taking a seat to get her breathing back to normal.

"He's still in there." Chad deduced. "Troy- or, at least, a bit of him- is still in there." He chuckled slightly in an outburst of relief and happiness. "There's still hope. I knew-."

He was cut off by an unexpected bang at the door. Followed by another. And another. Troy was no longer playing call-and-response, but working to his own rhythm; a disorderly beat without structure or method just frantic bashing and banging. And scratching and clawing. And growling and panting.

And crack, the hinges were giving way. He was breaking out.

Chad took both of Taylor's hands in his and pulled her to a standing position. "You should get out of here." He whispered.

It was too late. There was a final thud before the door collapsed from the threshold, tipping outward to clatter to the ground where Chad had stood seconds before. Troy stood still for a moment as he took in his surroundings without the aid of his non-existent eyesight. He inhaled the air through his nose in an attempt to detect any kind of scent and he strained his ears to pick up the slightest of sounds.

Having slowly and carefully gotten to her feet, Gabriella nudged Taylor with her elbow and pointed to the bottled concoction and syringe in her hands. Taylor nodded in understanding and reluctantly inserted the needle into the clear liquid, drawing every last drop of it into the injection. Now, the hard part. They had to get close enough to Troy without making a sound or being noticed at all. And things were about to get a lot harder.

Done with the small, empty medicine bottles, Taylor had decided to discard them to free her other hand and make it easier to inject Troy. Unfortunately, the uncalculated decision quickly became an issue when the slightest movement of her fingers caused the bottles to knock together in her palm. It was nothing but a quiet clink but it was enough to alert Troy to the location of his first victim.

He turned to her, a manic glint in his unseeing eye and his lips trembled with excitement. His first kill. First meal. His hands shot out to where he had heard the noise and he was met with a cold smooth object for just a moment before the sound of glass shattering on the ground.

Gabriella watched as Troy reached out again, snatching the air centimetres from Taylor's face. She watched as her best friend cowered from the fatal might of her boyfriend, pursing her lips to keep in the terrified thoughts that were screaming inside her. Troy took another swing. To dodge it, Taylor took a step back. Her injured ankle sent rockets of agony through her veins. And she couldn't help but cry out.

She could have sworn that Troy smiled then. She'd sealed the deal. He knew where she was. And he was pleased. His knees bent and arms drew back as he prepared himself to launch at her. He licked his lips, taking no notice of the dribble that was making trails down his chin. He flexed his fingers.

"Hey!"

Troy pivoted on one foot to turn to the new sound. He remained in his ready-for-battle position and began to detect his latest prey. More meat, he smelled. Less fear.

"Yeah," Chad continued, slowly walking backwards as he spoke. "That's right. It's me you want." He nodded to himself, pleased to have taken the attention from Taylor. There was no way he was watching her die. "Follow my voice."

With a snarl that sounded almost like a hearty chuckle, Troy gladly complied.

As he backed cautiously into the nearest room, Chad didn't know what he had planned to do. He'd sort of supposed that he'd get Troy's attention and the girls would use the opportunity to either run or administer the injection. In reality, there was time for neither of those things to happen.

Troy was air-bound almost instantly. He jumped up and spent less than a second in the air before plummeting towards Chad. There was enough momentum behind the blow to knock both boys clean across the room and the pair stumbled into the far wall. Upon collision, Troy was somehow able to keep his balance but sadly, Chad was not as lucky.

His grasping at the wallpaper was no good and he promptly toppled onto his back. He met the floor with a thud and pained groan as a flash of agony flittered down his spine. Blinking fiercely, through both tears and unsettled dust, he tried to make out his surroundings. It was dark, but the moonlight shone through the thin drapes to cast a white-blue light on Troy's daunting outline; a shape that was only still for a moment, then came soaring down towards him.

Troy's hands pressed down on Chad's collarbones, pinning him to the ground and sending those blades of fingernails into the flesh of his shoulders. All Chad could see was the glimmer of eyes and teeth as the boy on top of him salivated ravenously.

Chad let out a yelp as the nails sank further into his shoulders. "Troy!" He begged. "Please, stop!" He tried to fight, but no amount of writhing would free him. He beat Troy's arms and back with his fists and kicked his legs in every direction possible, but his attacker was unfazed. "It's me, Troy." His pleas fell on deaf ears but he didn't stop. He knew Troy was still in there. If he could just break the barrier and get through to him. "Remember?"

He may have been imagining it, perhaps it was wishful thinking, but Chad could swear he felt Troy's grip loosen. "Remember," he continued, his voice softer. "Back in kindergarten when we used to play… 'Transformers' was your favourite, right? W-when I was Optimus-Chad and you were Mega-Troy… Remember?" Chad sniffed. "Please, remember."

Troy blinked. There was a flicker of familiarity in his face before he dived, teeth-first, at Chad's exposed neck.


A/N: CLIFFHANGER! And you'll be pleased to know that this is the penultimate chapter!

Now, a shout out to all the special people whose reviews keep me writing! Unlimited love to; mzwendy85, ILuvZacEfron, HisDelilah, chaylorXtraylorlover101, bex-sharpay tisdale-evans (sorry for the lack of Sharpay but she will be making an appearance before the end, no worries), MaxRideRox(sorry I keep ignoring your question about Zeke and that lot! I keep meaning to answer but then I realise that I don't really have an answer. They're either dead or infected.), general wildcatand new reviewers; seabreezylady18 and Forg0ttenemories (I'm so pleased you've discovered my story and are enjoying it. Keep reading!)

And the preview for the very last chapter; Troy gulped down the excess of saliva in his mouth. He was blinking repeatedly and looking around, almost as if his vision was returning. He parted his lips to let out quiet rasping breaths. "I'm sorry…" He whispered harshly. His head twitched. He rolled onto his hands and knees. His blank eyes found Gabriella. "I'm just too hungry…"

The end's looking bleak ain't it.

xX M Xx