Ash tried to recall the finer details of what he just saw and became confused. Something is not right. Those memories were in fact his, yet they were a bit different from what he remembered. For one thing, the stimulator was scary but with different stimulation. There is a saying, 'that is you live with your fear for a prolonged period of time, it becomes a natural part of your life and slowly you will stop seeing it as something that induces fear. Although the images that he remembered in his dream did come, he didn't remember feeling that depressed. Instead Ash remembered that his fears were walking rotten corpses and snapping teeth. Every time it was stimulation time, it was the thought of experiencing being eaten by lifeless dead people that shook him in his boots. That and a pair of very angry brown eyes filled with hate.

Ash shuttered as he remembered his fears. But after a moment he scratched his head in confusion. The stimulator was supposed to dig deep into your subconscious and replay his fears which he was aware of. It was more like; it will take something that happened in your life that was very terrifying and then show it back to you with ten times the intensity. But back then, he didn't know that zombies existed and there for had no reason to fear them, yet the stimulator still found something that will happen way into the future as his fear. Also, he was now certain that those eyes belonged to Rhys. He had had a chance to see them up close and they were perfectly identical. He didn't know Rhys back then either so why did he show up as his fear in the stimulator.

Ash thought deeply and couldn't come to an answer. All he summarised was that Rhys was dangerous and he should stay away. 'Also, from what I remember, the incident with bunny didn't exactly play out like that.' He had already had a nagging feeling that bunny would be in danger. So, he had asked Sam to take him away and let him free. But in the end Sam did betray him as he brought in Bunny anyway when the doctor asked him too.

Several of his memories didn't exactly match up with what he saw in his dream. 'What was the meaning of that? Maybe he was starting to lose his mind. Or....

He started thinking on everything that happened after he left the lab. Suddenly another string of memories overlapped his original memories. They were very familiar yet different. Only if you yourself are the one who experienced both would you understand the absurdity of what he was imagining. Other than the small changes there were also some significantly different memories.

Memories of his escape from the lab and then his starved and alone days due to his withdrawal syndrome filled his head. In those memories, Ash hadn't taken the initiative to break into houses and steal food like he originally remembered doing. He had stayed hungry and begged for food on the streets or rummaged through waste bins. He was reluctant to talk with anyone and kept his distance from other humans. He was scared at the sight of so many unfamiliar faces that surrounded him after he left the confines of the lab. Every human experience he had was painful, so he wasn't willing to take any chances.

When shit really started going down, he was always running. He didn't have the foresight to be careful and hide or not to make too much noise. It was his first time seeing something so scary. People were eating each other and there were crashes and screams all around him. his brain was only telling him to run. He stared dead too many times in the face, but always managed to escape narrowly. He must have been really lucky based on his clumsy actions.

He did end up at the rich man's house though. Everything that transpired after that was a bit different from what he remembered. He hadn't done anything drastic to save the group of survivors. He just sat in that house shivering. He observed them from afar and saw that they did eventually make into one of the empty houses, but Ashley was already bitten, Josh who stayed back to buy the others time was buried under a swarm of biting teeth and James who tried to rush back to help him was knocked out before dragged away. Later several jeeps came over and killed off the zombies around the area, rescuing the group. When the rescue team came, Ash stumbled out of his own hiding spot and rushed towards them seeing some hope. They had lost several people during the fight with the Zombies right then, so they were not in the friendliest mood. That's also the moment where his new memories showed him meeting Rhys for the first time instead of at the camp.

He was certainly not pleased with the wimpy looking kid. "We don't take useless people." he said emotionlessly as he seemed to be aware that Ash had hid away while watching them fight.

"I-I" he cocked an eyebrow at Ash and it just made his nerves worse. His first interaction with humans after escaping the lab was very intimidating. Ash heard him scoff and turn away.

"I am useful!" he cried out in desperation.

"oh?" The mock was clear in his voice.

"Give me your hand." Ash whispered looking at the blood dripping palm that Rhys received when he was fighting. It was not infected just cut. Rhys looked at him suspiciously but then complied. After all what could one tiny boy do against their numbers. Ash took the offered hand hesitatingly and started pumping healing power onto the wound. Within minutes the wound completely healed up without leaving a trace. Rhys looked bewildered at his palm and then snapped his eyes towards the boy who flinched. Ash could tell that he was trying to figure out what exactly he was.

This is the time he needed to lie and sound convincing. He was after all indirectly responsible for the spread of the pandemic. That was a secret that no one needed to know. Ever. "I–I became like this after the Zombies started appearing. Maybe it's a side effect. Maybe some of you will also get powers?" Rhys's eyes hardened immediately but he didn't say anything. After a long silence which felt like an eternity, Rhys motioned him towards the waiting jeeps.

Now that he thinks about it, with Rhys's personality, he would have taken him even if he was found to be useless. In these new memories of his, Tom was never considered a traitor. He was just a boring and shy man who kept to himself. Ashley later on turned so the camp had to put her down because Ash wasn't aware that he could draw out the virus to save her. Josh was lost during that mission and James lost his cheerful smile. He became a very overprotective brother to his one remaining sibling and refused to leave Jule's side for a prolonged amount of time.

In their mission for guns, he was forced to tag along as a healer to treat any wounds. That mission lost Anne as she was infected just like this time. The Ash in his memory couldn't do anything about the infection. Ash didn't go along to rescue the woman from the apartment complex and Mike had survived. Of course, other people were lost instead. Everything that happened after that was quite similar in both of his memories. He shoved Rhys into the group of Zombies and in return he received a much harsher trashing.

Although Ash didn't particularly enjoy interacting with people, he was neither scared nor shy about it. He didn't always know what to say or how to act but he did know how to give his opinions and stick with them. He didn't have much trust in human beings in general, but he could still warm up to them cautiously while keeping the proper distance to call it safe. The 'him' in the other memory was way too much withdrawn from society. He hardly said anything nor voiced out any complaints. He was the time to keep silent even when someone was harassing him. 'Staying quiet keeps you alive' seemed to be his motto.

Ash ran a hand through his hair. "What exactly is the meaning of this." His heart told him that both the memories were real and are experiences that he went through personally. But how can one person have two different memories of the same moment?

As he rattled his brain for answers another memory popped up in his mind. He was back at the lab and had a dead mouse in front of him as usual. His 12-year-old self was staring at the poor creature with red rimmed eyes.

"Doctor can we maybe not to this. I don't have some kind of magic to make the impossible possible." His voice was shaking as he tried hard not to shed tears.

"Ash! People call me mad. But I have spent more than half my life researching brain activity and I know that all the answer to my research lies in you. That is a power so great to defy science to the very core and bring forth a new era." Ash shuddered at the thought.

Dr Hawks walked around to him and placed a heavy and on his shoulder. "I know for certain that you are the embodiment of life. Once you bring this tiny mouse back, you will have accomplished the first step to achieving the power to do miracles like no one has ever seen. Bringing about immortality, curing any known and unknown disease, bringing back forgotten memories, breathing life into the dead and even give people a chance to glimpse into their future will be within your fingertips. You, might even be able to preserve your own soul and bring it back to life across time and space."

Ash's eyes widened as the ridiculous thought filled his head. 'He couldn't possibly have been reborn' he just shook his head and chuckled. There was no way that one of those memories were those of his old life and the other one that of his current one. He slapped his face hard and then concluded. 'Yup, I am losing my mind.'

But what if it is true. Then how did his last life play out? He tried to recall some of the 'second memories' that he had and see what had happened to the 'other Ash's' life. But no matter how much he strained his mind nothing new popped up. All that he got was a feeling of extreme fear and pain. It was so intense that he gasped in surprise and stopped searching at once. The other 'him' certainly did not have a good life. Ash had a feeling he knew why. It was no secret now that Rhys hated him and living under a man who meant him ill will, especially if that said man was high in rank, spelled only disaster for him.

Ash's head started throbbing again. He squinted his eyes and tried to shake it away. Suddenly the door opened, and a head pocked in with a concerned look.

"Hi" Ash greeted and noticed that the headache vanished instantly like magic and just like before a feeling of comfort and ease settled around him, lifting his mood.

"Hey, you were sleeping like the dead. I was going to throw some cold water on you to see if you were still alive. If there was no response, then I would have had to start digging a grave." Jule said with a playful twinkle in his eyes. Except for him no one else had visited him. or maybe he was passed out while they did. Either way it was a great relief although Ash couldn't really tell why Jule was being so friendly and concerned about him. No matter the reason he was thankful for the company.

"Well luckily you are spared the extra chore." Ash played along with a bright smile. Jule walked in and sat down next to him on the floor. He then turned his head that way and this observing Ash from different angles.

"Do I look very handsome?" Ash asked jokingly with a smirk playing on his lips.

"Yes, all the black and blue is making you very eye catching" Jule replied back without batting an eye. Ash chuckled in embarrassment as he heard the sarcasm in his voice. His whole body was covered in bruises large and small. He knew that he was in a pitiful state at the moment. As if reading his thoughts Jules comforted him, "Don't stress too much, you are healing very quickly. Compared to the bloody mess that you looked like 3 days ago, you at least look like a human now." Ash nodded and softly pocked at the bruise around his eye. "But you do look exhausted. Do you have a fever?" he raised his hand to place it against Ash's forehead, but the boy turned his head away from him.

They both fell silent. He did have a temperature, but he didn't want Jule to worry about something to trivial. Then he would go and fetch pills which were totally useless on him and tasted horrible. He already has consumed pills enough for a lifetime and now the very sight of them made him sick in the stomach. Also, he had bigger things to worry than his frequently reoccurring fever. He was still contemplating ways to change Rhys's opinion of him.

"What are you thinking about?" Jule was curious to see the boy dip his brows in deep thought.

Ash glanced at him in contemplation and then asked, "if you did something really wrong, not on purpose but it happened in the heat of the moment, how would you go about trying to sort it?"

"Well first start off with a heartfelt apology. In most cases that does the trick."

"I don't think just an apology will work." Ash said remembering Rhys hate filled look.

Jule nodded at that, already aware that he was asking this to find ways to appease Rhys. "Well your case is a bit more complicated. Rhys's nature doesn't easily forgive. Since his life was put in danger all you can do is try your best with every action you take from now on to show your sincerity. Maybe give him something satisfactory as compensation."

Ash sighed. That was going to be more difficult than said. He was sure that Rhys was not going to give him anymore, chances to even get anywhere near his body. 'I wouldn't be surprised if he asked me to throw myself at Zombies as a compensation.'

"Oh well, I will try to apologise again like you said and stay out of his hair." This was not a hard decision as Ash was already planning to stay miles away from Rhys no matter the cause. He had a feeling that, that approach would ensure his safety and give him a longer life span. Maybe if he didn't show up in front of Rhys, he will eventually forget that someone like him existed and then Ash can sleep peacefully again.

Ash decided to stop worrying about everything for a moment and changed the topic. "so how is the situation outside?"

"Not too good." Jule sighed. "Everyone is one edge. You either belong to one group or the other and both of them are giving each other dead glares when they pass by each other. If looks could kill, most of the people in the camp would be already dead. Peter Barns had officially started managing the camp and Kyle and his group have taken a nonchalant, observing approach. The hostility can really be felt. Every few minutes they are pointing guns and any other kind of weapon at each other. threatening and intimidating." he shuddered exaggeratedly to emphasise his point.

"Why is that, I thought Kyle gave up his seat without much of a fight." at least that's what he summarised from Jule's previous narration of the incident.

"Have you never seen a tiger hunt? It takes its sweet time, stalking and observing, before devouring its prey in a fell swoop. That's what Kyle is doing. Just waiting for the right time to drag Mr. Barns down. And three weeks is as far as he can keep up his act and patience. Well nothing is guaranteed of course. The people have the say after all. It will most likely depend on his first reform as leader. We have to wait and see."

"So, you are on Kyle's side then" Ash said placing his head on his arms which were circling his legs and started rocking back and forth in thought.

"With both my brothers on that side, it wouldn't make sense for me to be on the opposite team." Jule grinned wide, flashing his white teeth at the boy.

"True." Ash nodded in acknowledgement and then sighed deeply. "I wonder which side I should chose."

----------

Meanwhile in a Biotechnology lab in New Zealand a man looked through heavy glasses at the screen that was in front of him. It was the data collected on one of the zombies that the patrol team had shot and brought back. It had already been a month since the world went to chaos. It took great effort to bring back electricity and water to this lab. After all science was the only hope left for mankind.

An elderly woman in a white lab coat walked over and stopped in front of where the man was sitting. She had two armed men standing guard on either side of her. "Robert, how is it going? Any progress?"

Dr Hawks turned over when he heard his name being called with a blank look on his face. "Good morning Dr Wood, I thought you were coming later." His eyes darted around nervously at anything but the woman.

She completely ignored his fidgeting and said very bluntly after occupying the chair opposite to him, "Robert I want to hear how far you have reached in sorting this mess you created rather than pleasantries." She scrawled deeply at him. Most of the scientist world had already seen the CCTV footage of a naked humanoid figure darting around with lightning speed, injuring and biting people in different location, including the airport. Dr woods was Robert's superior back when he proposed and asked for permission to create the unnaturally combined creature. She had also once seen the finished lifeless body of the being but since Robert couldn't bring it to life, had told him to dispose of it mark it down as a failed invention. He had kept it regardless of her instructions and never informed her when he managed to bring it to life.

Now the situation was already out of control. Had she known earlier of its success; she would have asked him to find counter measures to her properties. At least then they wouldn't be in this much trouble.

"I-" Dr Hawks hesitated and continued "not very far Dr Woods the zombified people are indeed dead. They have no heartbeat, no blood circulation and no respiration. The only thing that controls them is their highly active nervous system. The nerves allow them to move and register smell and sound along with vision. They are also capable of feeling momentary pain as the nerves send back signals of attack to their bodies, but they have no fear of dead as such after the initial attack the instantly forget that they are wounded." He took a deep breath before continuing. "It appears that the only way to destroy them is to remove their centre of control, their head."

"What about the means of spread." Dr Woods digested the information given to her and asked again.

"Mostly scratches and bites from the infected but..." he brought out some papers that had heavy writings on it in a messy scribble and handed it to the woman. She looks at it and grimaced, both at the almost illegible text and also the information it contained. "The data is about the patrol guard that was scratched a few weeks ago. He took 92 hours to turn. Which is quite long compared to others. Why incubation period differs is still being investigated. But soon after he turned his completely fine wife who lacked any cuts or bruises also showed signs of zombification. She turned last week."

"What does that imply?" Dr Woods asked with a worried frown.

"The wife visited several times during his incubation period. It implies that either that the virus is airborne around any recently infected person or that the spread is through bodily fluids. The couple kissed each time she came to visit. Of course, it's just a theory right now. I have to observe a few more cases to be sure."

Dr Woods eyes hardened at that. So, he wants to wait and see if a few more couples turn the same way. We hardly have any humans left and he still wants to waste more lives to satisfy his curiosity. "No need. We will take that as a precaution and not let couples of infected people meet. They will be kept in complete isolation." She turned the pages in her hand and her eyes narrowed. "Did you experiment on the infected man?"

"Certainly. I had to observe how the virus acts inside a live human."

Dr Woods remained silent. She was a scientist as well, so she understood the need to do so. "And?"

"The virus moves quite quickly as soon as it enters the blood stream. If the infected area is cut off before it spreads too far, the life can be retained. But ones it reaches any of the vital organs like the heart, kidney or lungs, there will be no going back."

'Did he re-infect someone whose limb was amputated and saved?' Seeing the glint in Robert's eyes, Dr Woods shuddered slightly 'he was indeed a mad scientist' she sighed, 'some sacrifices need to be made in order to find answers.' She decided to turn a blind eye to this and asked a more pressing question. "How is the search for a vaccine going?"

He shook his head at that. Dr Woods understood that she was asking too much from him. None of the other scientists in the lab have reached anywhere either. But when the human population was sharply declining with every passing minute, all she could do was put more pressure on them. Finding a vaccine takes numerous years. Especially with the lack of personnel. Many famous scientists were lost to the pandemic. Of course, there was no bringing back the dead. She sighed ones more. It seems she was doing that a lot lately. She stood up and left, leaving Robert to his work.

As soon as she left Dr Hawks looked back at the computer and typed in a string of words into it. Soon a webpage that's only accessible to the higher scientist community popped up on the screen. He pulled out a map and typed in his personal code. At once three flashing spots appeared on the map. These were scientific labs he had access to before the apocalypse. One of them was in England, although the location seemed to have changed. Another one was here in New Zealand and the last one in the United States. His eyes focused on the one in England and pressed on it which send him to another page with people currently working in it. The number of scientists have gone down drastically. They seemed to have mixed two different labs together to form this new one. Dr Hawks only recognised two people. Everyone else was a stranger. Was the person he was looking for dead? That was hardly possible. He was a paranoid maniac of a scientist with tones of money to boot. If anyone survived it would be him. Then it can only mean that he didn't register back with the institute.

Dr Hawk frowned at the screen in thought. 'Now how the hell am I going to find that idiot.' His eyes slid to the side where a paused video was present on a different screen. He pressed the play button. It was another CCTV footage. One of the labs he was working in, in England. It showed the date on which Erva escaped from the lab. He has already watched the footage several times but didn't find what he was looking for. He scrunched his eyes and watched the recording again.

Suddenly he paused. The footage showed a group of scientists in white lab coats rushing towards the front gate. In-between the mass of whites he saw a young pretty face who was wearing oversized pants and a white lab coat without an inner shirt. If you played the footage at normal speed, the figure was just a flash of white movement. Seeing the figure his lips stretched out into a wide grin. 'So, you are alive. Where did you go hiding.'

He leaned back into his chair and looked back at the screen of personnel on the scientist community website. 'I have found one of them so where the fuck did you vanish to. You are the only one who will understand what to do with the boy ones you see the potential.'

Ash is the answer to this. Dr Hawks was completely convinced by that belief. 'Wait. That's all I can do right now. And try again in a few days. I can afford to wait. But don't stay hidden too long, I don't have that much patients.' He chuckled loudly. The sound carried through the lab sending shivers down people's back.