Part Three

The Cure

Alan's P.O.V

"Mel?" The word was almost whispered.

She was standing unmoving behind Melissa, fists clenched, clothed in a jumpsuit as dark as the hair that hung down the sides of her face. There was no denying that it was her, but her eyes were as lifeless as that of the infected.

"Oh, this is quite the reunion, isn't it?" Melissa smiled sweetly, her gaze flicking between Mel and I.

"What did you do to her?" I growled, pulling my own gun out and aiming it at Melissa.

"You'd know if you bothered to stick around," she huffed, crossing her arms over her chest.

"Cut the shit, Melissa! What the fuck did you do to her!" The words were expelled with such force that they practically tore at my throat on the way out.

Melissa just smiled at me, sadistically, as if taking pleasure in all the pain she was causing. "It was perfect timing really. I was about to shut everything down and leave the facility when your helicopter just so happened to crash." She threw her thumb out and gestured behind her to Melody. "I found her body on the fringes of the jungle and figured it would be such a waste of a corpse to just leave her there. So I figured I'd kill two birds with one stone."

She unfolded her arms and sauntered over to where Melody stood, her black heels clacking against the floor and echoing around the otherwise silent room. Then, almost like they were old friends, Melissa threw her arm over Melody's shoulders and pinched her cheek.

"I infected her with a new, more advanced strain of the virus. One that allows for more control. She's practically my little puppet now." She stared up at Melody, who was standing as still as a statue, with adoration. "As you can see, I'm pleased to announce that it worked marvelously. She'll do whatever I tell her," Melissa said, her gaze now angling back towards Carl and I.

My entire body felt weak. Even though she was standing before me, and I couldn't deny anything Melissa had said, I still struggled to take it all in.

"Melody?" I called.

There was no recognition, no response to the sound of my voice. Only a blank stare that wasn't focused on anything in particular.

"Mel, it's us," Carl said. "You rescued me from the school, remember?"

"I'd save your breath if I were you, the only voice she responds to is mine," Melissa said, almost smug, that awful smile still stretching her lips.

I refused to accept any of it. After everything that had happened. Everything we'd been through. I wasn't going to let it end this way. The gears in my mind began turning, working fervently to think of an idea.

This could still work out, I thought. I can fix this, I know I can.

I can still save her.

Melissa might have said that there wasn't a cure, but what reasons did I have to believe anything she said? Carl was right, if the virus originated here, which it did, then if a cure exists, it'll be somewhere down here too.

"What did you say her name was? I've just been calling her 'Girl' this entire time. Melody? Was it?" Melissa asked.

"Don't you dare say her name," I hissed, fingers clenching around the pistol.

Melissa just rolled her eyes. "Yes, well, this has been fun and all but I should really—"

I pulled the trigger before she could finish speaking. But in one swift movement that was so fast it was almost a blur, Melody pulled her aside, angling her body as she did so until she was standing in Melissa's place.

Melody didn't even flinch as the bullet pierced her chest. Then, almost as fast as it had entered her body, the bullet was thrown back out, leaving nothing in its wake other than a small hole in her jumpsuit. There was no torn flesh or blood or anything. It was as if the bullet had just bounced off of her.

"Well that's enough of that," Melissa huffed, steadying herself. Once she patted down her blouse, she turned and looked at Mel. "Kill them."

As soon as the words were in the air, Mel reacted to them. With her brow pinched, she began sprinting towards us. Melissa must have decided that she wasn't interested in staying and watching because she strode out the doors Melody had come from without so much as a glance over her shoulder.

"Mel! Wait! It's us! We're your friends!" Carl shouted, but it did nothing to falter her steps.

Right before she was about to reach us, she jumped and twisted until her body was horizontal in the air. I didn't react fast enough. Neither did Carl. Before I even knew what was happening, her heels were locked around my neck and her arms around Carl's. As soon as she made impact she took us both down.

By the time I hit the ground the pistol had already gone flying from my hand. Even if it hadn't, I would have ended up throwing it aside while I tried to pry her legs away from my neck. The grip she had on me was so tight that even with two hands I was struggling to break free.

When I managed to get a firm clasp around both her ankles, like pulling the claws of a bear-trap apart, I just managed to wrench my way free.

I didn't get away fast enough though. As soon as I broke away, a sharp pain in my leg had me howling in agony. I looked down to find that the boots she was wearing had sharp, dagger like spikes for heels. And she had stabbed one of them into my calf.

"Mel stop!" I yelled, scuttling out of her reach. I found where the gun had landed and before I could even comprehend what I was doing, it was in my hand again, pointed at Mel. "I don't want to hurt you!"

Carl's movements were becoming more and more frantic with each passing second. His hands clawed at her arms as his legs kicked out randomly, frantically.

"Mel!" I barked. The gun was shaking in my hand, my finger trembling against the trigger. I couldn't bring myself to shoot her, not intentionally.

As fast as I had picked up the gun, I dropped it again and instead moved to grab a hold of Mel's arms. By the time I had a grip around her wrists, Carl's face was a threatening shade of purple. The two of us together just managed to pry her arms apart enough for Carl to slip free of them. And as soon as he did, Mel was upon us again.

She threw her elbow out and struck me in the gut so hard that I went stumbling back several steps. Carl remained on the ground, and while he choked and wheezed to regain his breath, Mel's full attention fell on me.

This time she didn't bother running. She closed the distance between us with a slow, deliberate walk.

I held my hands out, palms facing towards her. "Mel, please! I don't want to hurt you!"

As soon as she was an arms distance away, she threw her palm out and hit me square in the chest with so much force that I was thrown back in the air several meters.

I began spluttering out coughs when I hit the ground, struggling to heave air in and out of my lungs. The pain was so intense that I was certain she had fractured, maybe even broken, several ribs.

"I don't think it's her that's gonna get hurt," Carl said, getting to his feet. Mel continued walking towards me, and with her back towards Carl, he swept the gun up from the floor and pointed it at her.

"Carl no!" I yelled, a fraction of a second too late.

He pulled the trigger, and without turning around, Mel jerked her head to the side and the bullet missed her completely. But her attention had now shifted back to Carl. She angled her body towards him and took off at a run. Carl fired off three more shots, and each of them she dodged with ease. Except for the third, which just managed to clip the side of her head.

Before he could fire the gun again, Mel reached him. She tore the pistol out of his hand and threw it across the room where it left a dent in the wall. Carl tried throwing a punch but before he even made contact Mel threw her leg out and kicked him in the stomach. Carl hunched forward with the impact and as soon as he did Mel brought her fist up and uppercut him in the jaw.

With one arm wrapped around my chest, I pushed myself up from the floor and began staggering towards them. On my way, I scooped up the gun I had dropped and held it by the barrel. When I reached them, Carl had just managed to finally get a hit in. He clipped her on the side of her jaw, just hard enough to throw her balance off slightly. I dove in at the opportunity.

Grabbing Mel's shoulder with my free hand, I spun her around towards me and before she had time to do anything else I pressed my lips against hers.

Her nails scraped down the side of my face a second later. Then she kicked my leg out from under me and threw me aside where I once again went tipping to the ground.

"What the hell are you doing?" Carl exclaimed. "Does she look like she wants to be kissed right now!"

"I thought it might bring her back!" I growled painfully, heaving myself up from the floor.

"She's infected!" Carl shouted back at me as he threw a kick in Melody's direction. "There is no bringing her back!"

I didn't want to believe that, and while the kiss had proven useless, I had gotten close enough to her to see the open wound on the side of her head, where Carl's last bullet had clipped her. It wasn't healing the way the last gunshot wound had. So like most of the infected, her head must have still been vulnerable, even if the rest of her body wasn't.

There was only one way to find out.

Her back was towards me when I started charging towards her. As I drew near, I lifted the gun up, ready to swing it down on her head like a club. But before I could, her hand was clasped around my forearm. She had managed to push Carl away at the last second. Her other hand swung round and struck me in the gut. I was expecting the hit though, and tensed enough at the last moment that I didn't hunch forward.

Before she could pull away or hit me again, I brought my forehead down with as much force as I could muster and smashed it against hers.

Stars flourished before my vision, but the hit managed to daze her as well. Her grip on my forearm loosened the smallest amount, just enough for me to wrench free and swing the butt of the gun down against the side of her head.

She lost her balance and staggered to the right. Before she could regain herself I wrapped my arm around her neck and threw her to the ground. The sound of her head bouncing against the hard floor almost made me pause, but I couldn't stop yet.

While she was still dazed I quickly got on top of her, my knees pinning her shoulders to the ground.

"Get her feet!" I yelled at Carl who was already moving to do so.

My hands were around her neck, hers clawing at my arms and shoulders, nails digging in and ripping away at my flesh. With as much strength as I could muster, I lifted her head up from the ground before smashing it back down again. Her movements faltered, became slower, but they didn't stop. I smashed her skull against the floor again. And then once more until her arms and legs fell limp and her body finally stilled beneath me.

My heart leapt into my throat. Did I do it one too many times? Did I kill her instead of knocking her unconscious? If she's infected, can she even be either?

I pressed my fingers against the side of her neck, but there was no heartbeat to be found. Just like there was no soft exhale of warm air coming from her nose.

My hands were beginning to shake.

That didn't mean anything. She's infected, she's technically already dead. Of course I'm not going to find her breathing with a heartbeat.

I moved off of her body so that I was kneeling beside her instead. She was unmoving. Even after I lifted her up so that her head was resting in my lap. "No, no, no," I muttered, my voice shakier than my hands. "Mel, you're OK, you're OK. I know you are."

I brushed her hair behind her ears. Her eyes had fallen shut, and now that you didn't have to see the lifeless gray in them, she almost looked like herself again. So beautiful and...

I didn't want to say peaceful, because thinking that held connotations that I wasn't willing to accept yet.

Carl crouched down beside me. "I'm sorry, Alan."

"Why are you sorry?" I asked, my voice suddenly harsh and quick to pounce.

"Because... I... Uh... Because she's..." I looked up at him as he stammered on, my eyes hardening into a glare, daring him to say it. "She's still alive..." he said after a moment, his mouth falling open in surprise.

My gaze dropped back down to Melody, whose eyes were struggling to flutter open. "Mel?" I whispered. "Mel!"

I heard Carl's footsteps fade as he left my side but I didn't bother looking to see where he was going. I just assumed he was leaving to get a medical kit from one of the rooms. I didn't care about the pain in my own body though. I didn't care about anything besides the girl in my arms. My attention was focused solely on her. "Oh Mel... I thought I lost you again," I whispered, bringing my hand up to caress her cheek.

When the sound of Carl's footsteps returned, I looked up to find that he hadn't brought back a medical kit with him.

He brought back a gun that he was now pointing at Mel.

"What the hell are you doing?" I asked, leaning forward so that the gun was pointed at me instead of her.

Car looked at me for a time, his eye pained. "You know we have to, Alan."

"No!" I said quickly, "We don't!"

"She's infected!"

"But there's a cure! There's a cure, there is! I know there is!" Tears had welled in my eyes from finding out Mel was alive, but now they were just making me look hysterical, unwilling to see reason.

"Alan... It's the humane thing to do," Carl said softly, and I realized he wasn't going to believe me. "We have to put her out of her misery."

"No!" I yelled, "Listen to me! There's a cure! There has to be!"

Carl only shook his head and reaffirmed his grip on the gun. I wasn't going to let him hurt her. Not now, not when we were so close. The gun I used to hit Mel with was lying by my side. With my eyes trained on Carl, I reached down for it and brought it up so that it was pointing square at his chest.

"I won't let you," I said.

With the gun still pointed at Mel and I, Carl held his other hand out, palm towards me. "Alan listen to me, you're not seeing sense right now—"

"It's you that's not seeing sense!" I shouted, the gun now shaking violently in my hand. "Look, just go back up to the beach, OK? Just leave us and go back to the beach. Please!"

With my eyes trained on Carl, and his eye trained on me, it didn't occur to me that neither of us were watching Mel until it was too late. A sharp, agonizing pressure sunk itself into the side of my neck, and suddenly the air filled with the scent of blood as my screams rang out and bounced off the walls of the room. Without thinking, I brought the butt of the gun down atop Mel's head and she released her bite on me and once again fell lifeless to the ground.

My free hand clamped down against my neck and pulled back to reveal that it was now painted a dark red.

"Alan..." Carl whispered, "Oh, Alan... Oh no..."

I looked up at him to find that his gun was no longer aimed at Mel, but at me.

"You don't have to do this, Carl," I said, shakily bringing my own gun up so that it was pointing at him again.

"You know I do, Alan," he said. "I'm so sorry."

My eyes snapped to the gun in his hand, and as soon as I saw his finger tightening around the trigger, I squeezed my eyes shut and pulled my own.

Only one blast rang out, and even though my arm jolted from the kickback and I knew that I was alive, I still refused to open my eyes, to see what I had done. But after several moments of intense, soul-crushing silence, I heard his body collapse beside me, and I let the gun fall from my hand at the sound. When I finally did open my eyes, I found his staring back at me, a spillage of crimson blooming across his chest and the ground around him.

For awhile I couldn't move, could only stare back at him, until a blaring heat invaded my neck, like melted silver was being poured over the wound, and I kicked myself back into action. Scooping Melody up in my arms, I held her against my chest as I stood up and began walking in the direction Melissa had gone.

I don't think I was fully comprehending of what had just happened, or maybe I was in shock from it all, because I didn't feel much of anything besides a cold numbness that only exacerbated the heat in my neck. I could feel the infection already beginning to spread, and considering this was a new strain of the virus, I had no idea how much time I had to find a cure.

I knew exactly where to look though. If it was here, there was only one room in the facility where it would be kept. A room that was so heavily guarded that even those with the highest clearance levels weren't allowed access to it. It was located in the sub-levels. There was only one elevator that lead down there, and it was located all the way on the other side of the facility. I began walking there anyway, my legs already feeling weak. But as I rounded a corner, it turned out we didn't need to walk all the way there after all.

Melissa stood at the end of the hall, one hand on her hip, the other clasping a small syringe.

"Looking for this?" she asked.

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This went on for longer than I expected, so rather than three parts, the extended ending will now be four parts long! I hope you've enjoyed it so far!