Surprises

Zack stared at the crowd gathered in front of the trophy case, feeling annoyed. It wasn't like he needed much - he just wanted to check if his actions had changed things here, and in what way. All these stupid rubberneckers were blocking his view. For a moment, Zack wished they were all zombies so he had an excuse to kill them.

Taking deep breaths, Zack turned aside and quickly left the building. He found the convenient place that Claude took him, and sat against the wall, clutching his head.

"There is something wrong with me." Zack whispered to himself, feeling scared. He often talks to himself - it's not like he can keep a diary, and he certainly can't tell people what is happening tonight. "I wanted to kill them. They were in the way, and it annoyed me, but that isn't the reason. They are human, and alive, and because of that I wanted them dead. Why do I feel like this? They're just kids - they are not my enemies. Why am I like this? If I can carry things through from night to morning, then what else has come back with me?"

With a horrified expression, Zack shivered. Quickly he jumped up and dashed off to the chemistry building. Uncaring of the rules, he broke open one of the study labs and an equipment storage cupboard. Swiftly he gathered up the needed tools - a scalpel, a microscope, a few blank slides. He washed his hands, and sterilised his finger with alcohol. Then, he made a single small slice on the tip, and dripped some blood on the slide.

Feeling apprehensive, Zack taped his finger and finished the slide. Then he fixed it in place, and looked through the eyepiece, hoping that he was wrong.

The small sample at first looked normal, but as the magnification increased that changed. Half his red-blood cells had a strange black cell attached to them. The odd cells were slowly duplicating, from a single cell to a second. The original cell remained attached to the blood cell, and the new one floated off to an unclaimed cell, where it quickly attached and the process repeated.

Fearing the worst, Zack took out a fresh slide and the scalpel and untapped his finger. With a ruthless efficiency Zack cut a small slice of skin from his finger, before quickly taping it up again. He cut the slice as thinly and evenly as he could, and made a new slide.

Observing through the microscope, Zack carefully examined this piece of his flesh. Like his blood, it at first looked normal, but the same black cells were sunk into some of his cells. Unlike with blood cells, where they seemed to remain mostly separate, the black cells had infiltrated inside these skin cells, and seemed not to be obstructing their normal function.

It was an extremely scary sight, and it left Zack trembling in horror. This strange unknown thing was in his blood, and his skin, and it didn't look like a separation would be possible. Zack was certain that this thing was what allowed him to stand in the blood rain without ending up a Zombie, and probably what let him remember everything.

The questions now were - was it harmful? Is it going to kill him someday without warning? Is it contagious? If Zack passes it to another person, could they become aware of the Resets too?

With too many questions, and trembling hands, Zack destroyed the samples he took carefully, making sure to leave no possible source of contamination behind. He could not afford to take chances with this, or make mistakes - until Zack knew what this was, he couldn't tell anyone. Just another secret to add to the pile, and another burden he could not reveal.

Zack returned to examine the trophy case, and found most of the crowd had cleared away while he was busy. A single glance revealed an odd situation - the statue was still in the case, but it was missing the section he had taken, and seemed to have moulded the two separate sections into a visible join. Quite the strange situation, but it does look promising for the future.

Turning aside, Zack left college without further delay. There was too much to think about, and no answers to be found here.