Day Zero

Day 98:

Riley cringed as he watched Abigail inject Strader with a strand of the zombie virus. Strader had just been injected with the vaccination that Benjamin and Dr. Suber had created out the white blood cells from his blood marrow. They said that the only down side so far was that the blood type had to match the patient to the vaccination. Only Strader and Mama Oilida shared his blood type, O Positive. Despite being the universal donor, Benjamin and Henry didn’t want to risk it by having the others take the vaccination.

Riley walked Strader to the same isolation room that he had been in only two days prior. Fabiana and Abigail had cleaned it for him so that he would be in a fresh and clean room. Mama Oilida would be in the other room just down the hall. Right before Strader stepped into the room he turned to Riley, “Look kid, if this doesn’t work. I want you to know that you have been one of the greatest things that have happened since Riley died” Strader said with a tight voice.

Riley took a deep breath and hugged Strader tightly. “You are going to be fine” Riley told him. Strader smiled sadly but remained silent as he walked into the unit and locked the door behind him.

As he was walking down the hallway, he saw Helen who had walked Mama Oilida to her small fishbowl of an isolation room. “How is she?” Riley asked.

“She is nervous, both for her and Strader” Helen replied.

Riley nodded in understanding as the two walked together back to the others.

The group had all gathered in the break room later that day, flipping to CNN.

“The death toll continues to rise worldwide and the general population can’t help but wonder where this vaccine that the North American Team has discovered is and how much longer they will have to wait in fear before this vaccine can be found?” The news anchor reported.

“Ten days to test it with Strader and Oilida. Plus however long it takes for Henry and I to figure out how to combine Riley’s white blood cells with the other blood types. And finally the test results when we test it with the military” Benjamin explained to the news anchor, but his response fell on deaf ears.

“But there’s hope” Abigail said as she snuggled down beside Riley. He smiled and pressed a kiss lightly to the top of her head.