Heart Ache

Now, this was a very interesting moment. Riley was in front of me a zombie, staring at my regenerated arm with food lust. Great.

"Okay, Riley, I know this is a really weird situation we are in – but I would enjoy keeping my arm. Unchewed." My mouth went dry, mainly out of nervousness I was scared my arm was about to receive some fresh bite marks in it.

Riley shook his head, "this is ridiculous. Your arm is human, who knows what will happen if the rest of you goes human. I haven't torn someone's flesh from them in so long it feels Maya..." His voice trailed off and for the first time I was more scared of Riley than Cailyn. Cailyn's insanity was at least unexpected.

I think what scared me so much, was that this was completely expected of Riley. I had no clue he missed tearing the flesh from people however.

"Maybe you should go to a psychiatrist." I paused, pulling my jumpsuit back over my upper half and zipping it up. "If you were suspicious outside, why didn't you just tell me?"

Riley closed his eyes and smirked, "If I told you to take off your shirt because you don't smell rotten I highly doubt you would gladly oblige."

I nodded with a smile on my face, at least he knew that he would probably get punched.

"What if this is happening to Cody too? What if he is turning human?" I was so very worried for my Cody, he was alone, in my old cage with Cailyn staring him down, desperate to munch on him. Oh, I hoped he was alright.

Riley didn't answer but we both left the bathroom. He sat far away from me, and did his best to ignore my existence. I kept speaking to him, but he would not answer no matter how I called out for him.

I took this time to examine my original arm with the dead one. I traced the veins that webbed from the source of the shot in my arm. None of this made any sense to me.

We spent the rest of the day in dead silence, Riley even decided to sleep in the bathroom. Which was good for me since I got to sleep on the bed.

It felt like I was dreaming deeper that night when the door to our containment opened once again. This time they entered with equipment to transport us from this area to another.

I was tied with a rope, and led to another room, leaving Riley sitting in the bathroom. I did not bother calling to him, he was too busy moping about.

The room looked like a doctor's office, and sitting down at a table was Dr. Smart Lady. She ordered for them to tie me to the bench and get the 'supplies'. Very suspicious.

A huge part of me didn't trust this doctor. Something about keeping an entire zombie horde nearby made me not trust someone as much as I could.

She took out a huge needle, the syringe was filled with a dark red liquid.

"The tests we took from you are showing positive improvements in your body functions." She gripped my arm with her hand, swiftly lifting the sleeve. "These test results are even better than I thought. We should definitely move to Phase four."

I wasn't even aware I had passed phase one, or what phase one even was. Maybe each limb was another phase. I was only slightly tense until she ordered her hooligans to hold me down on the patient bed.

My natural reaction was to panic. I began screaming and moving around. Which probably didn't translate as dramatic to the humans in the room, but I was plenty scared.

She lunged the gigantic needle, right into my heart.

"Shot of adrenaline mixed with the same material we put into your arm. This should quicken the transformation." She informed me, after she stabbed me with the needle.

I thought she was stupid at first, and that she just randomly stabbed me with a needle for fun, but my chest began to ache, it was slowly growing unbearable.

They dragged me back to the room I was in and tossed me inside. I was practically asphyxiating at that point or at least it felt like it. There was a pounding inside my ribcage and it hurt... badly.

Riley came out of the bathroom, still covering his nose with his arm, to see me clutching my chest on the floor.

"Uh, am I interrupting something." Riley eyed me curiously.

"M-y heart..." I struggled to get the sentence out. My heart was trying to beat, and in this very moment I feared becoming human again. Which seemed extremely irrational, though it was the only thought crossing my mind.

Riley dropped his arm, and stared at me wide eyed. His nostrils flared, and he breathed in deeply.

I laid there, writhing on the floor and Riley was just creepily breathing in deeply, as though he was attempting to calm himself.

Pound. Pound.

An excruciatingly prominent pounding banged against my ribcage. I breathed in sharply, intaking so much air. Electricity shot through my body and then I stopped being in pain.

Pain. Something I hadn't clearly felt in so long. Laying on the floor, I lifted my arms and saw the left one slowly returning to a normal color, the veins coursing through, alive.

I began laughing, almost hysterically. My fingernails ran across my upper arm, I could feel a slight tingle where they scratched. Honestly, I felt as though I was losing my mind. I reached to find my pulse on my neck. My fingers were met with a subtle beating of my heart.

Riley's figure blocked the light from above, he stood above me. His eyes were darker than usual, and I could tell this was not a friendly greeting.

"Maya... you have to get out of here." His voice came out slightly raspy, he was holding himself back. Surprisingly noble of a demon to restrain himself from eating me.

My eyes widened, "I can still understand you."

Something true humans lacked was the ability to understand the undead. That only went to show I wasn't completely human, something was still missing, although I didn't know what.

Riley shook his head, and backed away from me. "Who knows for how long –"

The stupid containment door opened again. Every time it opened I got shots, so to say I was on guard was an understatement.

Into the room entered Cody, among other hazmat suits. I could hear a screeching Cailyn down the hall.

I shot up from my position on the floor and ran to hug Cody. "My Cody! You are alright?" I ran my hands over his face checking to see that monstrous Cailyn didn't hurt him.

Cody had a smile on his face, he looked slightly worn out – even more so than usual. His smile soon faded and was replaced by a confused expression. His eyebrow curled up, "Why do you smell... human?"

I didn't have time to answer him before the hazmat men grabbed me and dragged me out into the hall, slamming the door behind me. Lucky for me, it sounded like we were heading towards the screeching Cailyn.

"You are subject to more testing. You and that other female undead, had very differing results. We need to run more tests." A gruff voice came from the hazmat suits.

Wow, I figured they couldn't talk, seeing how quiet they had been as of late.

I was pushed into another room, a window wall separating me from the very hungry Cailyn. They laid me on the bed, strapping me in.

Multiple people entered the room, some with papers in hand and others working on computers.

Dr. Smart Lady's voice rang through an intercom, "Begin testing."

I turned my head to see Cailyn trying to escape her captive state. Her screeching only made my stomach bubble with nervousness.

The worst of it was when they unexpectedly jammed an IV into my arm. I let out a painful yelp. This happened multiple times. I was being connected to machinery all over my body. Different pinpoints.

I guess one thing I missed about being undead was the lack of pain I felt.

My mouth was opening on its own will, letting out blood curdling screams as they plugged different wires into my body.

I was a freaking science experiment, and even though I was technically living again, I wanted nothing more than to rip the flesh from all the people in the room.

The pain subsided when they stopped plugging stuff into my body. I was only left with dull throbbing in all the different areas. My eyes rolled back, and I blacked out.