Hank turned to him with confusion. "What do you mean?" The researcher looked as if he was trying to find the words to explain. "The results do show that there's an antidote in his blood, but the thing is, we have no idea how to find it. Our research has shown that there are thousands, and I mean THOUSANDS of experimental antidotes coursing through his veins. We have no clue which one could've been the cure, let alone if it was a chemical reaction from two or more of the ineffective antidotes. Dear god. How are you still alive? Do you have any idea how many toxic chemicals were in those antidotes? How did you endure that for seven years?"
I shrugged. "It wasn't fun." Everyone turned to me with concern, and I began to feel uncomfortable. 'Great. This has become a pity party,' said Erin. James then unknowingly saved me from the awkwardness. "Oh calm down, guys. He got super strength out of it. I'm sure it would still be useful on another team." I remembered that Molly said she would move me to a different team before we left. I wondered if she was still planning on it after everything that happened. Her face said she had forgotten as well. "James, I changed my mind. The reason he's here is because of me, so I don't think it would be smart to move him somewhere else. He might not see a reason to be here at all otherwise."
James rolled his eyes. "Perfect." Hank then turned to the researcher as if he didn't care that he didn't have context to our conversation. "Keep working. We might not have the cure, but I'm sure we could learn something from the blood he gave us." The researcher nodded. "There's actually something else we need to tell you. Last night, for some reason, the cells in the blood mutated." Everyone looked as if they didn't know how to process that. "What do you mean, mutated? Like some virus shit?" Jay asked. The researcher didn't seem to know how to answer. "It's not a virus. It's more like the blood cells themselves changed. I don't know exactly what this means or if it will happen again. We've never seen anything like this before."
Sarah turned to me, curiously. "Is that why you look different? Seriously, did something happen to you last night?" I began to panic and ignored Molly's worry as I turned away. "I got to go." I then ran out of the building, regretting ever going in there in the first place. I didn't learn anything about what was happening to me, all that did was get everyone even more suspicious of me. I was about to run back to the entrance of the settlement so I could go home, but I was stopped by the sound of Molly's voice. "Wait! Kane!" I couldn't run from her, so I stopped in place. I didn't turn to her as she ran up next to me and put her hand on my arm.
Every time she touched me it was a wave of sunlight. I loved it so much that I had to force myself not to smile. "What's going on, Kane?" She asked, stubbornly. I was pulled back into the dread by her question. "I don't know, damn it! I don't know what's happening to me! I'm getting stronger, angrier, and crazier by this one change. I just found out that I'm mutating and I don't know what to do. What if I lose my mind again? I don't want to be a brainless killer again... I can't do it again..." My eyes stung with tears and Molly hugged me. I hugged her back, carefully so I wouldn't accidentally hurt her.
"You're going to be fine. We'll figure it out." Her words comforted me more than they should have. I just wanted to carry her off and never come back. It surprised me how just two days alone with her changed her perspective of me. I hoped that this time I would keep her trust and continue bonding with her. I then felt eyes on us and turned my head to look back to where we had come from. I saw James standing at the entrance of the building we were just in. I expected him to be angry after seeing us together like this, but his face only carried distress.
He was more terrified than I thought he was. I slowly left Molly's embrace, as much as I didn't want to. "Think you're sleeping tonight?" I asked as if joking, but my tone didn't carry much joy in it. She turned to notice James standing a distance away and sighed as he called for her. "Probably not. But I'll survive. I always do." She went to walk past me but something in me couldn't let her go back to him. I grabbed her arm to stop her and she turned back to me, staggard, and waited for me to say something. "You don't have to just survive. You can live. With me."
She was stunned for a moment before her face softened. "You have to let me go, Kane." I felt as if my heart was being squeezed in my chest as I let go of her. I didn't say anything else and she gave me half a smile. "I'll see you tomorrow. We're girlfriends, aren't we?" I returned her small smile and nodded. She then left to explain herself to her boyfriend and I went the other way to crash for the night at my place. For some reason, it felt like forever since I last set foot in my house, but luckily no other zombies had broken in. I immediately collapsed onto my bed as soon as I could and didn't wake up until two p.m. the next day.
Once I realized what time it was, I scrambled out the door. I couldn't believe how deep of a sleep I got last night, even though it made sense after the rough couple of days I'd had. I rushed to the settlement as the voices in my head rambled about random things. As soon as I found Molly, I could tell by the tired look in her eyes that she didn't have as good of a sleep as I did. I tried to hide how pissed I was as I walked up to her. How dare he keep her up all night again? How dare he scold her for cheating when he was doing it himself?
Maybe I could get away with breaking his knees without getting in too much trouble with Molly. I wished that was the case. When she noticed me she gave me a smirk and crossed her arms. "I was beginning to think that you weren't going to show up." I loved that she smiled when she saw me and returned her smirk. "Stand you up? Never." Her expression melted with her tiredness and I gave in to the urge to ask. "How was your night?" She sighed. "Not great. I managed to convince James that nothing is going on between us, but I'm on thin ice." That was it. I was breaking them up today.