The barred wall cranked open and he chucked the woman through like a stuffed animal. She bounced back and flung herself at the closing exit. She reached through as if she could simply slip out, but the door was shut and she was locked inside. She glared at Iggy over her shoulder. The fear became even more prominent in her expression when she saw the violence on TV screen. She could've been thirty or sixty, and it wouldn't have made a difference. She cringed and folded down to the floor, cradling her knees into her chest, and said, "you were supposed to be protecting us..."
Amare squatted as low as he could go, which was at least three feet higher than she, and glared into her eyes. "Maybe, if you're lucky, you'll survive this, and be able to blame the one who was giving all of the orders. The one who got you and everyone else into this mess."
The woman grasped the bars with her palms and held tight. "Baine did all that he could-"
"Stop!" she was interrupted by a distant holler traveling from down the hallway. Jim and Maria rushed through, transporting a paper covered gurney toward Iggy's cell. A high pitched squealing noise sounded each time the gurney's wheels made a full circle. Jim's arm held upwards and he made a stop sign gesture. "Don't do anything!" His hair was jostled and his neck collar was loose. The man was overwhelmed with working, living solely on coffee and sugar. He ran to the barred wall and peered down at the woman, then he exhaled, relieved that she was still alive. He squared his shoulders to Amare. "Why did you put her in there without us present? We're professionals here!"
"I had my orders, already."
Jim's face glistened bright red. "On this floor, all orders are followed through under supervision. You received the rule book. Read it." Then, Jim's expression softened, and he peered back down at the crown of the woman's head. His voice sounded sweet, yet still tight as he fought back the remnants of anger. "Now, you have new orders. Open the cell. We're going to put her on the gurney so that she's comfortable." He made one step away from the barred wall as it opened, again.
Maria wheeled the gurney inside easily and slowly, and with it created a wall between the woman and Iggy. The woman's jaw dropped and her fingers pointed toward the ceiling as she looked up with large wet eyes with a newly found hope that Jim and Maria were angels sent to help.
Jim pet the gurney top like he would have touched a kitten's head. His lips formed an understanding smile. "Come, we'll make the process comfortable for you." Although she was aware that the two were there to help her in some way, she cowered back, still resisting to give herself away. Jim straightened his back and his voice became stern. "Listen, you only have two choices." He held up two fingers. "First choice: you can get on this gurney, follow through with the procedure with anesthesia and get to choose between the antibiotic and virus. You'll be able to go home to your family in the West Territory if you want." He paused so that she could have a moment to think about it, then his chin lowered. "Or… Our friend will be ordered to hold you down, we'll perform the procedure without anesthesia and you won't be given the chance to go home."
The woman began to sweat. She glared at the clean gurney, whimpering, wanting to go home more than anything else, yet terrified of their plans for her. She slid her rattling hands across it and forced herself to crawl on top.
Jim smiled approvingly, exposing all of his crooked teeth. "Good girl," he whispered to her reassuringly. "We'll put you to sleep, and you'll wake up in no time. It will be like nothing ever happened at all…" She came down to lying on her back. Maria flung the straps over the woman and fastened them snug against her skin. She pulled a large syringe out from her pocket, flicked off the cap, and came to the woman's side.
The woman focused harder on Jim. Her lower jaw trembled. "Please… get me back to my family uninfected… Please, do anything you need to. Just don't turn me into one of them."
Jim grasped her shoulder and nodded. "Of course."
Once the needle hit the vein, Maria shoved the medicine into her, and the woman passed into unconsciousness, stone cold. "Quickly," Maria pulled the gurney toward herself. "I gave her a double dose, she only has a minute or two until she stops breathing." She wheeled the woman over and parked her right next to Iggy. Jim punched a lever on Iggy's gurney which sent it all the way back so that he laid parallel with the woman's. They unstrapped one of her arms, and reached it out toward him. It came closer and closer…
Then, Iggy felt her soft fragile skin touch his lips and he knew certainly that they were feeding her to him, but he couldn't think of a reason why. After all, they probably wanted him dead rather than alive. Regardless, he snapped his jaw open and sank his teeth into her graciously. The nourishment instantly soothed the pain that had tortured him for days. Not only that, the ecstasy was nothing like it had been before, but it was so much better! The joy welled in his chest stronger than it had ever in his entire life! He swallowed deeply, yet forcefully, and as he did, energy surged back into him. He could feel himself loosening, coming back to life, and his senses tuning themselves like the strings on an instrument.
He shut his eyes, escaping the horror playing on the television screen, at last.
Unfortunately having been starved for days, it didn't take much to make him unbearably full and he soon found it impossible to drink from her until she was dead, so he let her go and opened his eyes. The woman's entire forearm was covered in blood, the tear in her flesh was long and deep, and as he released her the red current splashed across his cheeks and down his neck, but even that couldn't spark his instinct to feed again. The red horror films flashed behind her, as vibrant as the color scarlet, yet it didn't have the same effect. He could see the pictures. Name the objects. He could anticipate the next scene. He was still there. He was still alive, in his own skin, uncontrolled by the invisible driver.
Cured.
They withdrew the woman's arm, re-strapped it onto the gurney and pushed it through the opened cell door. Amare stood next to it, looking down at the woman with want and disgust, as her pale body jostled, then started to shake. Her eyes opened into tiny slits, yet she saw nothing, and her lips shrunk back and her mouth regurgitated a little pink foam. In moments, she quaked, seizing from blood loss and anticipating some sort of transformation that wouldn't be coming.
Amare flung his hands up and stepped away from the gurney as it came rolling toward him. "What are you going to do with this lady?" he asked.
Jim shook his head. "Go ahead and kill her. The antibiotic won't work for this patient, and since she said that she didn't want the virus, we have no choice but to kill her. You should do it soon before any abnormal changes occur. Don't you agree?"
Amare looked down at the woman, watching as her eyes rolled back into her skull, and now red tinted foam rolled out along her chin from the corners of her jittering mouth. Out of nowhere, the woman screamed a scream similar to the piercing cry that a crow would make. She convulsed wildly, her limbs became completely uncontrolled, flailing between the small gaps in between the restraints.
Amare didn't take his eyes off of Jim's back as he struck his fist down onto the woman's head hard enough that they all heard her skull shatter. Bitterly, Amare strolled the bloodied gurney away from the cells, leaving Iggy behind. The neighbors in the other cells pressed against their barred walls, reaching out, wanting what was passing by, excited, starving, howling monsters. Their dry, burning mouths were screaming and their vibrant colored eyes were like small decorative lights in the night, watching with uncontrollable hunger.
Jim and Maria studied Iggy closely. They initiated their tests and measurements, but soon after the medications from the woman's ingested blood hit Iggy's system, he melted into the gurney.
"It's working," a voice echoed. "It was a success!"
"What happens now?"
"He'll move forward, of course."