The Z-B Virus

I woke up after what seemed like only minutes. And the first thing I saw was a trash can next to my bed. I tried to sit up, but when I did, but when I sat up my head fell directly into the trash can and I did exactly what Ms. Jenny and Dr. Gibson said I would do: I started puking. When I finally stopped, I looked into the trash can and was not surprised when I saw a crap load of blood.
“Thank God,” I said to myself.
I heard a hiss, which often came from the pressurized doors when they opened. When I looked up, I saw Ms. Jenny. As I watched her walk, she started to slow down. I looked at the clock on my wall and I noticed it took forever for the red seconds hand to move. I realized that time had literally slowed down. I started to stand up and I noticed that I was moving at normal speed. It was like I could control time. As soon as this thought came to me, everything went back to normal speed.
“Ho-ly crap!” I said.
“What’s wrong?” Ms. Jenny asked, as if nothing had happened.
“Is the ability to slow down time a side effect?”
“Actually, yes. That’s the inhuman speed. An unnatural amount of adrenaline is being pumped into your blood stream and your brain, making it look like everything but you is moving extremely slow or not moving at all. However, to us people who do not have this ability, it looks like you are moving at an extremely high speed and you look like a blur.
“Fortunately for you, we have gathered enough data to come to a conclusion: for this speed to be initiated, you must concentrate on one thing. It could be an object, it could be an emotion, or it could be a person, or a thought or a phrase. It doesn’t matter what it is, but you have to concentrate.”
I blinked a few times and asked, “May I ask how you know this?”
Ms. Jenny pulled up one of the titanium chairs and sat down.
“We tested this virus on a total of one thousand people. Of that thousand people, only ten were naturally immune, you of course being one of the thousand test subjects. The ones who survived are now being moved to a different, more secure location within the compound.”
“And that’s why you’re here: to help me move my stuff.”
She nodded her head. Then, a thought popped into my head.
“What happened to the people who didn’t make it?”
Ms. Jenny cast her eyes to the floor. I could tell she felt bad.
“They were… eliminated.”
I felt my heart fall to my feet. Sadness and anger swelled within me, until there was too much and I had to let it out my frustration. So I turned around and I punched the concrete wall, which had small tungsten particles in it, making it even harder to break. But I somehow made a fist sized crater in it. When I pulled out my hand, there wasn’t even a scratch on it. It was like I had punched my pillow.
“How did I …” I started to ask.
“Apparently another side effect is being easily angered. That’s one of the things that will bring out the strength: extreme emotional feelings.”
“Oh.”
Suddenly I noticed my heart was beating like a race horse. I tried taking deep breaths, but I was not met with success.
“Another thing, it seems that the only way for you or your peers to calm down is to distract your mind. The most effective way is to have a stress ball, or sometimes fighting with your peers seems to work. Anyways, why don’t you pack up your stuff so that I can take you to meet your comrades?”
I nodded my head and said, “One problem… I don’t have anything.”
“Oh, well… I guess you can just follow me then.”
I nodded my head again and she led me out into the hall. When we exited my old room, I stopped and I looked around. Everywhere I looked, I saw armored guards with what looked like quarantine face masks on. Ms. Jenny caught my attention and motioned for me to follow.
When I caught up with her, I asked, “What’s with all the guards and quarantine masks?”
“Apparently one of the scientists accidently knocked over one of the vials of the Z-B virus and it shattered. And now everyone is taking precautions in case it goes airborne.”
“So why aren’t you wearing a mask?”
She frowned.
“For some reason I wasn’t issued one. I think it’s because I was assigned to watch you guys. I’m supposed to be your babysitter. Plus, I’m in charge of training the ten of you and help you develop and control your abilities. Oh, look, we’re here.”
Ms. Jenny put her hand on the palm recognition pad and once the pad turned green, the door hissed and opened. The first thing I noticed was the fact that there were four guys and five girls. I would be the fifth. Then, the weirdest thing happened: as soon as I stepped into the room, there was a bright flash and everything and everyone disappeared. I yelled in fear. Not even a second later, there was another flash and I was in one of the labs down the hall. I could hear what everyone was thinking. Everything was in slow motion. Somehow, I pulled a memory from someone’s mind. It flew by like it was in fast-forward, but I understood what had happened: the first zombie had been created. The guards were trying to kill it, but they were failing. There was another flash and again, everything disappeared. A second later, I was back in the room with the other kids who, like me, were immune to the Z-B virus.
Ms. Jenny started to ask me a question, but time slowed down and I had the urge to kill the zombie. The only people who weren’t frozen were the other kids. All they did was look at me like they were confused. I glanced behind me and saw the door still partially open. I looked to Ms. Jenny and saw a pen in her hand. I grabbed it and ran out the door. The others started to run after me. Somehow I knew exactly where to go. I sprinted down the hall, when I got to the lab with the zombie in it, the door was barely open. I turned to the others who had just arrived behind me and said, “Help me open this door!”
One of the guys ran over and helped me pry the door open. When the door was open enough, I slipped through as the guy shouted, “What the hell is that?!”
I ignored him and ran across the room, as I did everything began to speed up. I heard people scream and shout with surprise as the saw us. Everything was moving at normal speed when I was half way to the zombie. Somewhere, a guard shouted at me to get back. I noticed a table in front of me. It was the only thing between me and the zombie, and some scientist guy about to have his brains eaten. I jumped onto the table and immediately launched myself into the air at the zombie. As I came down, it looked at me. I landed on top of it feet first, crushing its ribcage. When the two of us landed on the floor, I stabbed the pen directly between its eyes. Then, just to look cool, I grabbed its head and snapped its neck.
When I finished, I got up, turned around and saw everyone frozen in place with their mouths hanging open.
“Is everyone just going to stand there, or is someone going to help me burn the body?” I asked.
One of the guys, the same one who helped me open the door, walked up and said, “I’ll help you.”
After him the other three volunteered to help. The girls however, didn’t say anything. Four of them turned and walked away, the fifth girl stood there for a minute and then said, “You owe Ms. Jenny a new pen.”
Then she walked away, her flaming red hair whipping around as she turned around. The first guy who volunteered walked over to me and slapped me on the back and said, “Nice zombie slaying.”
I looked at him and replied, “Thanks.”
“I’m Jim,” he said as he offered his hand, “I can sense emotions and feelings.”
I shook his hand and said, “I’m Kyle. I’m not sure what I can do.”
We both laughed aloud.
“Well, whatever you do, your eyes turned black. Even your white’s turn black as night.”
“Seriously?”
“Totally.”
“Cool. Hey, you said you can sense emotions?”
“Yeah, why?”
“Can you show me?”
“Sure. Right now you’re feeling excited, confused, and confident.”
My jaw dropped.
“That is wicked cool.”
“You want to know something else?”
“Sure.”
“That redhead, her name by the way is Shelby, has a major crush on you.”
“No way!”
“Way. I felt feelings of attraction towards you, coming from her of course, the moment you walked in. Also, I wouldn’t expect her to start acting shy when you’re around. She’ll start treating you like you’re a piece of shit.”
“Thanks, good to know.”
“No problem. Hey how did you know to come here in the first place?”
“I don’t know. When I yelled, there was a flash and suddenly I was here and somehow I knew what was going on.”
“So that’s why your eyes turned black.”
“Yeah, I don’t know what caused-AHHH!!”
I yelled because it happened again. There was a flash and everything was gone, another flash and I was with Shelby, Ms. Jenny, and the other four girls. They were talking about me.
“Who’s the new guy?” Shelby asked.
“Why do you want to know? Do you like him?” Ms. Jenny asked.
The other four started giggling. Shelby’s face turned beet red.
“I might.”
The four girls and Ms. Jenny started laughing. The girl with multicolored hair spoke next, “Shelby, don’t lie. I can read minds. Your crush on him is so big, when he walked into the room, you gave Jim a headache.”
Shelby lowered her head to hide her face. The girl with purple hair sat down next to Shelby and said, “Sis, there’s nothing to be ashamed of. It’s okay to have a crush on someone. Just promise me something.”
Shelby looked up at her.
“Don’t treat this boy like shit. That’s why you haven’t had a boyfriend since middle school. You always treat them like shit, and that’s why they never talk to you or ask you out.”
“I’ll try.” Shelby replied.
Ms. Jenny stood up and said, “I’m going to go get the boys before I get in trouble for not having them here.”
There were two more flashes and I was back with Jim.
“Whoa. I need to sit down.”
Jim helped me into a chair.
“What did you see?” he asked eagerly.
“I was with Shelby and Ms. Jenny and the other girls. They were talking about me.”
“So, what did they say?”
I told him exactly what I saw. And when I finished, I said, “I think you were wrong about how Shelby is going to treat me.”
He chuckled and said, “I might be. I guess we’ll just have to find out.”
“I guess.”
Then Ms. Jenny walked in.
“Alright boys! Time to go back to the dorm.”
When Ms. Jenny saw me, she smiled. As if she knew something I didn’t. As I got out of the chair, I saw a neon green pen sitting on the table. I grabbed it and walked over with the other guys. I handed her the pen and said, “I’m sorry I stole your pen. Here’s a new one.”
Ms. Jenny smiled and took the pen.
“It’s okay. At least it went to good use.”
Then she led us out of the lab and back to the dorm.
***