Brie woke up alone. If she was honest, she was disappointed. She already missed Clay's weight beside her. She sat up abruptly as she remembered the events that occurred yesterday. She leapt up from her bed and tidied her sheets before rushing out to find Josiah stood at the door already.
"Good timing. I'm just here to let you know Adam has been stabilised and you can see him now." He smiled, but something seemed off. He had a mischievous glint in his eyes.
"That's great! Where's Clay?" Brie asked, seeing Nick appear behind Josiah. Josiah grumbled something about him being on night watch and Nick's brows furrowed as if he was confused.
"Night watch? That's not right, he was with me all night." Brie furrowed her eyebrows as Josiah seemed speechless.
"Um... I didn't say anything about night watch. I said he was on watch right now!" Josiah quickly corrected himself, but Brie seemed unconvinced. "He- He was with you ALL night?" Josiah stuttered, a bead of sweat appearing on his forehead.
"Yes? Is something wrong?" Brie challenged. A small blush appeared on Josiah's face and he grumbled.
She watched as he stormed off, then Brie turned the opposite direction and walked away to see Adam. It was strange how defensive he was.
When she reached the lab, Jane was there to direct her. "He's this way." She walked out the lab and turned right, passing a few doors before reaching a black door. It creaked open ominously, revealing a huge glass box in front of her. There was some sort of control panel beside it, which assumedly opened the door. Adam was, quite literally, boxed in.
He sat in the middle of the box, with his knees to his chin. There was a plate of food beside him which was untouched.
"This is... inhumane." Brie choked out, unable to bear the sight of her brother.
"It's all we have, for the safety of everyone." Jane repeated, and proceeded to push down a speaker button on her interface. Adam's head perked up.
"Adam? Brie is here to see you." She spoke out.
He stood up and looked up to Brie. His face was pale, and he had huge bags under his eyes. He wobbled with weakness as he struggled to make it to the edge of the glass.
"Please, get me out of here. Save me." He sobbed, pushing his forehead to the glass desperately. She did the same, feeling streams of tears fall down her cheeks.
"I will. I promise. You need to keep yourself healthy though, okay? Eat your food." She hiccupped, her body longing to feel Adam's touch. Her brother.
He crawled over to his plate of food and began to eat, looking up every now and then like a puppy scared to be abandoned. Brie tried to smile to him, to show him everything will be okay.
His hands began to twitch as he ate, and it began to get messy. Food was falling from his mouth and his gaze to Brie was faltering. He stood quickly, running forward to her with tears in his eyes. Adam then fell to his knees. He wailed out in despair. After a few moments, he let out a ear-wrenching scream of pain and clutched his chest like he'd been stabbed.
Jane pressed a button on the control panel once again and a hissing noise began to emerge.
"Sedatives." She sighed. "He's being taken over slowly by this unholy virus, but the sedatives will slow it until I can fix up a cure."
Brie turned to her. "Is there any way I can help? Anything I can do to save my brother?" She cried out.
Jane looked at her, deep in thought. She sighed.
"Just visit him everyday. Keep him sane, he needs to remember he's human, not a walker." She said before shooing her out.
"Go back to your room for now, I need to keep working."
--
Brie went back to her room to find Nick standing at her door, looking uncomfortable.
"Nick? What's wrong?" She stumbled, surprised he would be here and not with Josiah. He pointed into her room and she walked in to see a note.
"I can't find Clay ANYWHERE. Help me! - Nick"
Oh. Oh no.
"Josiah." She turned straight to Nick and his eyes seemed to darken as he realised what had happened. They stormed straight towards Josiah's room and walked in without knocking.
His room was clean, and had a large window that showed the view of the hospital entrance. It had two doors, compared to the one extra room, the bathroom, that Brie had.
Josiah wasn't there, but there was a faint banging coming from the back room. Brie ran forward and opened the door to find Clay laying on the floor, tied. He was desperately trying to make noise to be found.
"Clay! How did Josiah get you like this? Oh my..." Brie gasped and began to untie him with struggle. He shuffled in his spot, silent. Brie wouldn't expect anything else.
"We need to get to the bottom of this. Where is Josiah?" Brie demanded. Clay stood slowly, and began to walk.