Things are about to take a very interesting turn. I hope you all like it.
Chapter 3: A Captain's Plight
The hospital was a good distance away from the location of their recent encounter but the men had no problem keeping a brisk pace. They arrived shortly to the hospital which stood very tall with many levels, each seemingly more foreboding than the last. The building looked beaten up, which is to be expected, and the men entered cautiously. They found this to be the norm for each level: long hallways with many rooms with medical beds inside them and a stair case at the far ends of the hallways. Some levels featured branching corridors and those lead to other rooms, a fairly simplistic layout.
As the squad moved through the levels, they were met with surprisingly little resistance; it was an evac center but this was a little too thorough for just regular survivors to have done. They came to a four way intersection on the fifth floor.
"Bradley, Evans, and Reynolds take right. Nash and I will take left. Meet back here." Said Horton. The men carried out the orders and began searching the many rooms in the hallway. The captain came to the last door in the hall and proceeded to slowly open the door and enter.
The room was large, larger than any of the rooms they had previously searched. It looked as though someone had completely ransacked the place, there were overturned tables and paper all about the room; it was a mess. Horton picked up one of the papers and read what seemed to be some sort of research documenting things about tests that CEDA, or one CEDA scientist at least, had conducted on some of their personnel. It also described some failed attempts at the vaccine. Horton read some notes on the back of the paper to himself,
"...I've ensured that anyone who discovers these necessary deeds, these needed experiments will not live to talk about it. Of course it will mean nothing to non-CEDA survivors, but to those who were given the vaccine, they must not learn of these things. I've come too far and gotten too close to be found out now. I bio engineered the immunization vaccine to mutate if those given it were to learn the truth. Yes, it will change into the virus if this happens. It was an act of sheer brilliance to achieve such a feat. Memory is merely electrical pulses and chemical reactions in the brain. If memories, or knowledge if you will, is detected about this matter in a large quantity, then the vaccine will mutate into the virus..."
Horton was horrified. He grabbed at the other paper laying around to find that it just gave more evidence of this scientist's evil research. They were just lab rats to this twisted man. He spoke of the "necessary cleansing of the human race", yes indeed he was mad. Suddenly, Horton fell to one knee in agony. The vaccine was mutating! Thoughts of those in his charge, of those who depended on him rushed to mind.
"I cannot change! I must resist." Thought Horton to himself. The pain was intense but he fought it, he fought it with every drop of strength of will that he could muster. Horton managed to resist the change, for now. With some effort, he rose to his feet, the pain still throbbing throughout his body. Horton knew he could not let the others see this, he could not risk having them learn this disturbing truth and face the same fate as he. He gathered all the paper into a heap and set it ablaze. He placed the pile away from any other flammable material but it was best that they finish up here and get out quickly.
Horton exited the room, still in pain. Every second was now a fight to stay in control. He did a good job of hiding it however. Nash and the rest were waiting at the rally point for the return of their captain. Horton rejoined them and they each in turn reported that they found nothing. The five finished sweeping the building and found no living thing there. They then proceeded to exit the large building through the staircase from the top floor. They now, once again, stood on the street in front of the hospital.
"This cities dead. We need to get out of here." Said Horton. "We'll head west for the city border and go from there." They began moving westward to get out of Mercy city. They had checked the places where there may have been survivors and found no one. There was only one thing left to do; get out alive.
As they were moving, they saw a man standing in the middle of the street with his back facing them. Several corpses were laying around him.
"Hold you fire." Horton whispered as they approached him. They saw that the corpses were mutated CEDA agents. When they were about 20 feet from the man, the five stopped and Horton asked,
"Who goes there?" The man have no answer. They moved a little closer and Horton asked again,
"You there! Identify yourself." This time, the man turned slowly to face them. He was also CEDA but he was not infected as the others were. He had a crazed look in his eyes and held a gun at his side.
"I had to kill them, don't you see? They were turning! They would've killed me if I hadn't! There was no other way!" The man said in a semi-shouting voice.
"Alright, calm down. Just calm down and put the gun on the ground." Replied Horton smoothly.
"No! I saw them! They tried to resist it but they couldn't. Something in their blood...something in their head! They couldn't resist." Said the man wildly, looking around at the ground.
"What are you talking about? What couldn't they resist?"
"You know. You look like they did. You know!" The man said, raising his gun and pointing it at Horton.
"What are you doing? Put the gun down!" Shouted the captain. The man refused. Suddenly, he fell backwards, dropping his weapon as he fell. Bradley's rifle was smoking.
"He was daft, captain. He gave me no choice." Said Bradley. Horton just stood and looked for a while. At length, he said,
"I know you did what you had to do. I just wish there was another way." After a brief rest, the five continued moving westward. As they went, Horton wondered how the man knew of his struggle. His words haunted the captain, the phrase, "You look like they did" kept playing over and over in his mind. The man couldn't even see the captain's face; his helmet had been on the entire time. Horton didn't have the answers but he knew that he must not let the infection have dominance over him; he had to master it.