Infection Chapter 9: End

Mikey drove the minivan slowly to the three figures. They were infected. They looked at us and started running towards the van.

"Shoot them!" Mikey yelled. Drew rolled down her window and fired her M16 at the infected and they fell. We continued through the city, and reached the hospital. The parking lot was full of abandoned cars, and armed officials were outside the door.

"That might be the safe zone. Let's go." Mikey said, getting out of the van, walking towards the guards. We followed, and when we reached them, they aimed their guns at us.

"Halt!" One guard yelled. "Check them."

The other guard took some kind of machine out and pulled Drew over to him. He moved a little extendable part of it around Drew, observing her. "She's contaminated!" The door to the hospital opened, and a man in some kind of hazmat suit or something grabbed her and took her inside.

"Drew!" Mikey shouted.

"Don't worry." the guard said, grabbing Mikey and examining him with the machine. The hazmat guy came back and took Mikey as well.

"Where'd they go?" Arin said as the machine examined him next.

"You're clear." The guard said. He moved on to me, and the machine felt funny, as the light moved all around my body. "He's clear as well."

"Answer me damnit!" Arin shouted. The guard turned to Arin.

"Listen, kid, I don't know who you are, but I do not need to answer to you. So shut up."

The machine examined Nick, and he was clear too.

Another hazmat guy came by and took us three inside. The hospital was pretty barren.

"What happened to our friends?" Nick asked the man.

"Were they contaminated?" He asked Nick.

"The guard said so, yes." Nick replied.

"They're being tested then. The infection is in their blood." The hazmat man took us up an elevator and put us in a room. There were a few beds in here, and another kid. He was about our age. "Enjoy your new room. You'll be living here from now on."

"What do you mean?" Nick asked.

"You'll be briefed tomorrow, but for now, get some rest." He left the room, and the other kid turned and faced us.

"Hi." He said shyly.

"Umm, hi ya." Arin replied. "My name's Arin. This is Nick, and Des." Nick and I both waved our hands as our names were said.

"I'm Brady." The kid replied.

"Brady, do you know what's going on here?" I asked.

"Yea. I was briefed this morning about the situation." He replied. "We're staying in the hospital, and the army is gonna come by and drive the infected out of the city. Vancouver is the only city that wasn't hit hard."

We managed to fall asleep quickly, and in the morning, another hazmat guy came in and woke us three up.

"Time for your briefing." He said. He pulled us out of the room and we followed him into another room, where some very important looking man was standing.

"Is that it?" He asked upon our arrival. "I thought there'd be more."

We all sat down on some foldout chairs, and the man started talking to us.

"Well, survivors, you made it. No matter where you came from, you managed to get to the hospital without being infected, congratulations! Now, you'll be staying here in the hospital until the military arrives and cleanses the city of the infected."

"What happened to our friends?" Arin cut him off.

"Oh, the contaminated folk? Well you see, the infection was found in their blood, so they're being tested since they're immune, so experts are examining them to see how their immune bodies fight off the infection, in hope of a cure."

"Why was Vancouver chosen as the safe zone?" I asked. "Why not, say, Calgary. It's a lot closer for people having to travel from, say, Toronto or Regina."

"It's too late for Calgary. That city's gone. Calgary was too hard to keep from infection. Vancouver, on the other hand, has hardly been hit. So we'll save this city instead, as it is much more important."

My heart sank when he said Calgary wasn't important. That was my home, my safe haven. The hazmat guy took us back to our room, where Brady was sleeping.

"So what? We're supposed to just pretend the past never happened and just live here?" I asked.

"Looks like it." Arin said.

"Bullshit!" I replied.

"Hey, Des, listen okay. We've come a long way since Drumheller, and even though your home was lost, this is our home. With that, we ended up living in the small hospital room.

Days passed, and we hadn't heard word of Drew or Mikey. The army had arrived however, and managed to successfully push the infected out of the city. I always thought about the life I had on the road with Arin, Nick, Mikey, Drew and Dan. How much fun it was, with just us. Now there were tons of people in the hospital, all survivors or workers, and it just irritated me. Deep down, I wished we had never arrived here.