14

"It worked!" I heard Marco's voice coming from beside me. "Call the doctor!" He told someone and I heard footsteps rushing outside. 

My head was aching, throbbing as I tried to sit upright, I slumped back onto the bed and stared up at the ceiling. 

"You called me, sir." I heard a familiar voice saying. I must be hallucinating. 

"I found someone- just like me. Someone who's immune to the NecroVirus- just like me." Marco uttered in fascination. "I need you to check her vitals for me and clean her wound." Marco told the doctor. 

"How long has she been out?" The doctor asked and I frowned before trying to sit upright again. I turned around and looked to my left, where they were standing, talking, and a loose tear rolled down my cheek.

"Michael?" I breathed out and the doctor's head snapped over at me. 

"Hailey-Jade?" My dad asked and I nodded while watching him in disbelief. He came over and took my face into his hands. "You're alive, babygirl. You're alive." My dad uttered as he pulled me into a rib crushing hug. 

"What are you doing here?" I asked him in confusion. 

"I work for 'The boss' he saved me from a horde of rotters. If it weren't for him, I wouldn't be standing here right now." He told me. 

"Look what he did to me." I said while pointing down to my blood covered arm and my dad's eyes froze on the wound. "A rotter almost ripped my arm off, because of him!" I yelled in anger. "I have the NecroVirus in my system, because of him!" 

"Is what my daughter is saying the truth?" My dad slowly asked Marco, his face suddenly void of any emotion. 

"Your daughter?" Marco asked him in shock. "Doc, if I had any idea we could've worked something out. But look. She's immune to the NecroVirus, she's not showing any symptoms." He told my dad in a very convincing tone and my dad seemed to be buying into his stupid explanation. 

"They killed Ronan! Left him to die on the side of the road!" I cried out and my dad pulled me into his chest. 

"How could you do this? Look at what state my daughter is in. I can't trust you, not after this." My dad told Marco and he frowned at him. 

"I don't need you to trust me, Michael. I need you to work for me. Do you know how much money we'll make if we create a cure for the NecroVirus?" He asked my dad and I pulled my face in disgust by his words. 

"That's not why I'm doing this. I'm doing this to help people. Not exploit them." My dad angrily argued with Marco. 

"Yeah, well that's not the deal we made." Marco blankly told him. 

"I don't care about that anymore! Alright?" My dad angrily told him before he started cleaning the wound on my arm. "How long does she have- until it starts?" My dad asked Marco.

"Seven days." Marco blankly responded.

"Seven days until what? What are you talking about?" I asked them in confusion but they blatantly ignored me.

I looked over at Marco who was angrily glaring at my dad as he cleaned my wound. What the hell are they talking about?

I curiously watched, Marco. He seems to be in his early to mid twenties. He was dressed in a neat black suit paired with a white shirt and black tie. And I wondered- how did he get so far gone? 

How did he get to the point where he thinks it's okay to treat people like garbage, as if they could be stepped on like they're lives mean nothing to him.

My dad tightly wrapped a bandage around my arm, and the pain in my arm subsided a little. He gave me a painkiller along with some water and I desperately gulped it down. 

"Listen to me, Michael. We can figure something out, you and me. To accommodate both you and your daughter. We can all stay here and live like kings. You won't have to be afraid anymore." He said the last part while looking into my eyes. 

"I want to leave." I numbly uttered. 

"That's it, we're leaving." My dad pointedly stated and Marco frowned at him. 

"And where will you go?" He asked my dad. 

"We'll manage." I blankly snapped at him. 

"Like you and your boyfriend managed out there on the highway? No, little one. I don't think you will." He told me. "You're not going anywhere, Micheal. If you do, I'll tell her what you did." He threatened and I frowned at my dad.

"What's he talking about?" 

"Nothing, Hailey-Jade. Fine, we'll stay here." My dad told Marco and a sick smile rested on his face. 

"No, we're not. Tell me the truth so that we can leave. I'm sure it's not that bad." 

"Don't," my dad angrily told Marco. "If you tell her, she'll just want to leave this place even more." He added. 

"What did you do?" I accusingly asked my dad.

"Nothing-"

"It's not nothing!" I angrily yelled at him.

"Your dad created the NecroVirus. Thought he created a serum that prevented people from dying. It was originally called the NecroVive Serum, a blend of "necrosis" (death of cells) and "vive" (to live), fascinating story isn't it? It was the first thing he told me when we met." Marco told me. And my mouth fell open, I looked over at my dad in disbelief and he was guiltily looking back at me.

"Is this true?" I asked him, my voice shaking. 

"Yes, Hailey-Jade. That's why I didn't want you to come looking for me." He said before lowering his head in shame and I shook my head at him in disbelief. 

"So all of this- was your fault?" I angrily asked him. "A serum that you created started turning people into flesh eating monsters! You're the reason why the world ended." I uttered in disbelief. 

"I didn't ask for any of this." My dad muttered under his breath.

"How could you be so reckless? You used human subjects to test this serum of yours without knowing if it was safe to do so or not. You saw how everything unraveled but you kept quiet. You didn't warn people and it came back to bite you in the ass, Michael!" I angrily yelled into his face. 

"I tried to warn them, Hailey-Jade. I contacted my people at the CDC but they didn't believe me, they didn't even try to help me contain it." My dad told me and I slowly nodded at him. 

"You're the victim, right? Not the people who's been affected by the virus. The people who were murdered by your serum! Take some accountability for once in your life!" I accusingly yelled at him. 

"You should've stayed in Los Angeles." My dad told me and I frowned at him. 

"Why? To ease your guilty conscience? You're a coward, Michael! Did you really think that you could hide this from me?" I asked him in disbelief and then it hit me that-

The real monsters are us...