Chapter 07

The guard banged on the door.

"This is security!" She said. "Open up!"

George was standing behind the other two guards. He had gone to security when he found that his ID had been stolen. He knew Nel had pickpocketed him when he realized it. They were knocking on his door with no answer.

"Let me try to talk to him," he said.

He walked up to the door and hit the button for the doorbell.

"Nel? It's me, George. Please let us in. I promise I'm not mad. It's just, when I found out my ID was missing, I had to follow protocol and report it. You were the last one that interacted with me before it went missing. You're not being arrested. I just want to talk to you. Can you do that, Nel? Please let us in."

There was no answer.

"This is a waste of time," she said. "Move over."

She pushed her way back to the door and held her ID in front of the lock. The red light above the door turned green. It opened. She kept her blaster raised. They swept the room and quickly gave an all-clear. The door to the bedroom was closed. The three guards motioned to each other. The leader hit the failsafe button on the wall that unlocks the door. It slid open.

It was dark inside. She turned on her flashlight.

"Oh, my god," she said.

"The beam stayed on the man in the bed. He wasn't moving."

"We've got a victim," she said.

George looked inside. He couldn't believe what he was seeing.

"Dear God..."

The other guards walked in, pointing their lights around the room. When George saw Nel on the floor, he got down on his knees.

"What have you done, Nel?"

"He's not dead," she said.

She moved her fingers onto the man's neck to check.

"Yeah. He's got a strong pulse."

"What?"

He checked the pulse on Nel's neck. She was right. It was a healthy pulse. In fact... it was a really heavy pulse.

"His blood pressure is high," he said. "He's at risk for heart attack. Both of them."

"What is this on his arm?"

She waved the flashlight on the man's arm. George got up and picked up the arm.

"It's a bite mark," he said.

He noticed the dark marks on his skin. He looked at them for a moment and looked at her.

"His veins are all black."

Before she could respond, he felt a hand jerk on his shirt. He felt something sharp puncture his neck. He screamed. The officer pointed her gun at the man, but then she felt something sharp in her ankle. She looked down to see Nel had taken ahold with her leg in his mouth. She smacked him with her gun, but he didn't let go. She fired a low burst that knocked him off.

"Fall back! Go!"

She tried to run but stumbled. She grabbed one of the other officers and pulled him down with her.

"I can't feel my leg," she said. "Help."

The man in the bed had let go and was now breaking the restraints that kept him down. He leaped out of the bed and tackled the remaining officer that was nearly outside of the door. His black eyes darted on the officer's body and found the source of blood. He sunk his teeth in the officer's neck. After a few seconds, he started convulsing. The woman watched in horror as Nel crawled to the fallen man and sunk his teeth into his shoulder.

"No," she whispered. "NO!"

When the convulsing stopped, they all got back up on their feet and stared at her with creepy smiles. Their teeth had changed into razor-sharp instruments of destruction. She pointed her gun at them, but she couldn't pull the trigger. The bottom of her waist was going numb.

"What's... what's happening to me?" She asked no one.

"You are being... assimilated," they all said simultaneously. Their voices were distorted from their normal tones.

Her right arm started to spasm. She threw her weapon away without meaning to. She started to scream, but her voice caught in her throat. She spasmed so violently, she barely heard the crackling sound of her teeth breaking into sharp pieces. Her eyes rolled to her head, and she was like that for a few more seconds. She stopped suddenly, her eyes rolling back but being full black. She got up, a little shaky, but she could make it work. She walked over and picked up her weapon and put it in its holster. She took a pair of sunglasses to hide her charcoal eyes.

"This... is going to be interesting," the voice that wasn't her voice said.