Outbreak

Chapter Two: The Experiment

Damien pov: 

This girl is going to wake the whole neighborhood screaming like that, I rushed over to her and put my hand around her mouth to muffle her screams, "Rachel calm down,I am not the one you should be scared of" I was telling the truth she shouldn't be scared of me I didn't ask to be this way and I had to turn her otherwise she would end up like that guy down there. Let me explain both me and that guy were created from an 'experiment'. 

2 years ago

You see a few years ago I signed up to be apart of a medical study for Zarconia they were looking for participants for a new drug that supposedly could cure cancer. They went around to the cancer wards at  hospitals all around the country, and happened to come across me I was a few months into my diagnosis stage 2 lung cancer, I was only on my 4th or so chemo treatment when they approached me they said that they were trying to find all different kinds of people to test this on to see the effectiveness and since I wasn't too far into my treatments they wanted to know if I was interested. I thought about it and weighed the pros and cons on the one had i was young 21 still looked relatively healthy if this worked then bouncing back wouldn't be so difficult for me and I'd be cancer free, on the other hand do I really want to be a Guinea pig? The woman who approached me said she would give me a few days to think it over she said they currently had about 30 people on board with the idea, she handed me her card and left. 

That night I laid in bed looking at the business card she gave me it was a matte black card with light blue writing 'Zarconia the path to the future' it had their phone number and the woman's name Viola Vexton. I put the card down and started up at the ceiling I was nervous about signing up but what if it worked? What if I could be cured? I closed my eyes and went to sleep I had made up my mind I was going to do it if I had the chance to be cancer free then I was going to take it. The next morning I called them up "thank you for calling Zarconia this is the direct line for Viola Vexton please hold while we connect your call" the robotic voice said, I was so nervous I was sweating buckets I hope I'm doing the right thing. I waited for maybe about 10 minutes and then the call went through. "This is Viola speaking how can I help you?" I gulped "Hi my names Damien I'm not sure if you remember me but you came by the hospital yesterday while I was having my treatments done" "Ah yes Damien how are you feeling today?" I relaxed a little she seemed nice " I'm doing alright thanks for asking, so listen I was calling to see if there was still room for me to be apart of the study?" "Of course! How about you come by sometime later today or tomorrow even and we can get you all registered, it might take an hour or so because we are going to need to do a full psychical but I can explain more when I see you" I thought about it I didn't have anything else to do today so sure why not "yeah okay Viola I can make it down there in 30 minutes or so" "Great! I'll see you then" we said our good byes and I put my phone down I felt tingly all over I was excited about this, I haven't felt this optimistic in months. I sat there in the kitchen for a minute smiling to myself before getting up and getting ready.

After my shower I walked back into my room to change I didn't live close to Zarconia but I wasn't terribly far either, I live in a little bachelor apartment about a half hour away, I use to be a software engineer but after my diagnosis i decided to take a leave if absence just to try and get a handle on my life, my parents don't live in the city they live in a town call Caladen it's about 2 hours away from Toronto when my mom found out I was sick she said she would make the trip down a couple times a week to check in on me, it was so nice to have her around again I really missed my mom and her cooking she has a gift that woman, however the chemo was making me feel a little nauseous lately so I haven't been eating as much. I looked st myself in the mirror I still looked okay for the most part I just looked really tired, I straightened out my shirt a little bit before heading out the door, I went down to the parking garage and got in my car and made my way down to Zarconia. 

I arrived at the medical center and parked my car in the visitor parking lot, thank god I didn't have to pay for parking, I walked inside and towards the front desk everything looked so clean and fresh. I spoke to the woman behind the desk "Hi there my name is Damien Daniels I believe I have an appointment today?"the woman smiled at me "Sure just give me one second" she said as she began to type away at her computer I looked around it really was nice in here the white floors and little accents of light blue on the walls it even kid of smelled like lemons in here a very faint calming smell. "Okay sir I've notified Viola of your arrival she will be with you shortly please have a seat in our waiting area" she pointed to a group of chairs with some magazines on the little table in the center I sat down and flipped through one of the magazines, Viola didn't take too long it feels like i had only sat down for 5 minutes before she was standing in front of me " Damien! Welcome it's so nice to see you"she said extending her hand, I shook her hand as I stood up "Thanks for giving me this opportunity I am a little skeptical about this whole thing though" I admitted to her she gave me a warm comforting smile "please follow me I'll explain the procedure when we reach my office" we walked into the elevator, Viola's perfectly manicured finger pressed the 11th floor button we made small talk just basically how long I've lived in the city and what not. Once we reached the 11th floor I followed her to the far back passing many cubicles and offices. She stopped at a door and in silver writing read her name 'Viola Vexton CEO' she opened the door and sat down at her desk her office was very nice a beautiful mahogany desk and black leather chairs bookshelves lined with medical textbooks and several diplomas in science and medicine she smiled at me and said " please have a seat" I walked over and sat down she cleared her throat before she began her pitch.

"Here are Zarconia we have the top doctors and scientists in the world and we have been actively trying to find a vaccine or cure if you will for cancer, you see how cancer works is it targets your immune system and kills off your T-cells what we are trying to do is find a way to replenish those cells in order to fight off the disease, now after several years of research we have found a way to do this of course we tested this method on mice first and we had a success rate of 90 percent which is amazing" wow I thought this might be it i might actually be able to get rid if this "that sounds fantastic" I told her "it is but we want to have a 100 percent success rate so we have now come up with a new type of immune cell one that we have manufactured right here at Zarconia, the D-cell like T-cell is made to fight off infection and disease but it is also able to rapidly repair the body, when we tested it on the mice we found that not only did all patients recover but they were able to regenerate wounds and lacerations at a remarkable rate!" Again I was amazed this sounded so perfect almost too good to be true "so when can we start the testing?" I asked her she gave me a devilish grin "well Damien I'm glad you asked, we have rooms prepared for you and several other applicants and we can begin any time you wish" "great I'm ready when you are" I told her, she stood from her desk and extended her hand "don't worry Damien we will take excellent care of you" I stood and shook her hand and smiled "I have faith in you doc".

It should have been perfect and it should have turned out just the way Viola said but life has a funny way of working its self out.