I’m not sure what happened next. I was in this weird catatonic state. I think I was numb from shock. I remember we untied the others and I remember Kenji wanted to kill the doctor but I told him not too. Even though Doctor Hunter was just about to cut us all into tiny pieces, I had seen enough killing for one day.

One thing I do remember clearly was the doctor on his knees, begging for his life. Maybe that’s why I told Kenji not to shoot him. He just looked so pathetic. Kenji tied him to the sliding door of the fridge and we left him there. Maybe that was worse than shooting him. I don’t know. I’m not sure what became of him, but I do know that the noises, the thumping and the scratching and the moaning coming from the other side of the fridge door were scaring the hell out of him. And I wouldn’t be surprised if whatever was on the other side eventually broke out. But those noises would’ve been enough to scare anyone. Even now when I think about it, I get goose bumps.

We moved outside the morgue and thankfully the alarm stopped.

“Are you sure we should just leave the doctor in there?” Kim whispered.

I was still in shock and Kenji was too busy trying to secure the doors to answer her. To my surprise it was Maria who voiced what everyone was thinking.

“He doesn’t deserve to be killed so easily,” Maria said. “And he’s definitely not coming with us.”

It was disturbing to hear that coming from someone like Maria. But I guess it was understandable after what he was just about to do to us. And of course she was right; we couldn’t just bring him with us. Not a chance in hell.

Kenji tied the morgue door together with his belt just to make sure it was nice and secure. He then checked the stairwell that led to the upper floors of the hospital and gave the all clear. Now that we were free I wanted to run away, run as far as I could. I think we all did. But Kenji told us to wait, forced us to be cautious.

“We can’t just go running through the hospital,” he whispered. “We need to think this through.”

What he said made perfect sense but I still wanted to run. I guess we were still stunned from the prospect of being chopped up into a science experiment. Maybe being so scared clouded my ability to think logically. I must have been in more of a daze than I thought because for some reason I was still holding the soldier’s rifle. I handed the gun back to Kenji because I figured he should be the one handling the weapons. When he took the gun off me it was only then I realized how much my hands were shaking. Then it hit me. I had just shot and killed a person, another human being.

Kenji seemed to read my mind. “Feel better. He was infected. You were doing him and all of us a favor.”

Kim patted me on the shoulder. “Yeah, it’s OK. You did the right thing.”

Their words did not make me feel better. It sure didn’t feel like I’d done the right thing. And since when did shooting people become the right thing?

Enjoying this book? Seek out the original to ensure the author gets credit.

“Hey, at least you’ve improved your aim,” Kenji said, in a small attempt to make me feel better.

I barely heard the joke over my pounding heart. I wanted to be sick. But instead of throwing up I said, “Point blank range was always my specialty.”

And for some weird macabre reason, joking about it made me feel better. I guess staying alive was better than the alternative.

“OK, let’s focus here,” Jack said. “We need to make a plan. We need to get out of here. All in favor of going home, raise your hand,” he said as he raised his hand.

Maria shook her head at him and gave a look that said now was not the time for messing around.

“I agree,” Kim said as she turned towards Kenji. “But first, you need to give us some answers. You need to tell us what we’re dealing with here.” She was pointing her index finger right in his face. “And I don’t want any more lies or secrets.”

“Yeah, what the hell was that all about?” Jack said, backing up his sister. “We were nearly turned into mincemeat.”

“This isn’t normal,” Kim continued. “And what happened to Dennis? What have they got locked up in the freezer down here?”

“Keep your voices down,” Kenji whispered.

“Just give us some answers,” Kim said, ignoring Kenji’s advice to lower her voice. “Or are you behind this as well? I’m beginning to think you’re in on the whole military quarantine thing.”

“Excuse me? You think I had something to do with what happened in there?”

“It wouldn’t surprise me.”

“Hey, I was about to be cut up as well.”

I had my hands clasped together trying to make them stop shaking. Kenji was right. He was just as screwed as we were. But he had to know something. He had to know more than he was letting on. I was sure of it. That’s why he deserted his post with the Marines. That’s why he showed up at my house and tried to warn me. I really, really wished I hadn’t slammed the door in his face.

“He’s right, you guys,” I said. “This isn’t Kenji’s fault. He was in as much trouble as we were.”

For some reason that shut them right up. It was like they already knew it wasn’t his fault, but they needed someone to blame and he was the one wearing the uniform. They all hung their heads, or turned away completely. They were frustrated, angry. I personally was feeling violated. Being tied up in a morgue and about to have your organs harvested for scientific research is not an easy thing to deal with. Even now it’s hard to think about just how close we came to death and how helpless we were.

“But Kenji, you know something,” I said, determined not to let him off the hook so easily without an honest explanation of what he knew, of what he was hiding. “I know you know something. Why else would you desert your post? Why else would you try and warn me?”

Everyone looked at Kenji then, waiting for an answer, waiting for some small sliver of information so they could make sense of everything that had just happened, of this whole crazy messed up situation.

He took a deep breath, looking over his shoulder and up the stairs to make sure we were alone. “All I know is there was an outbreak at the immigration center.”

“We already know that!” Kim whispered through clenched teeth. “An outbreak of what? What are we dealing with here?”

“It’s a virus. A super virus. The military was called in to contain it.”

“Contain it?” Maria said. “Does it look like it’s contained?”

“Shhh!”

“Sorry.”

Jack raised his hand again like he was back in class and wanted to ask the teacher a question. “But didn’t we already know that? We already knew it was a virus. There’s gotta be something else going on. Why would they declare a national quarantine?”

“Because,” Kenji finally said. “This virus, it’s like nothing we’ve ever seen. It doesn’t just make people sick, it doesn’t just kill people. It changes them. It takes away their soul.”

Kenji was starting to scare us. If the virus didn’t kill people, what exactly did it do?