Chapter 11 - TIME

    There was a lot of blank space between then and here.

    I remember many days of looking up at Eva's twinkling eyes. She stroked my hair and asked me questions I could not respond to. There were no memories left to use as a reply. But slowly I began to remember, and writing helped me. I picked back up the journal my mother had gifted me and continue from where I'd stopped... see, before I was bitten, Eva saved all my things when I was presumed dead. When I had enough of my memory to be able to read and write again, she offered me my own journal as a way of recounting memories. The pencil wouldn't stop moving, telling me the story of my own past.
    Well here I am now, caught up with myself. What happened next makes more sense through Eva's eyes than mine...

   When Krev and Augustus returned to the furniture store, they found the little girl's father, on guard and searching for a lead to where his daughter could be. Reunited at last, the man explained that those four zombies nearly ambushed the group, and everyone fled into the manager's office. Cramming into the one room that had a working door, there had been so many people in that small space that her family had first believed the little girl was lost in the mix. Once they realized she was actually lost on the other side of the door, they sent her father alone to search for her.
   Though panic was disarmed for one sweet moment, it was now Eva who realized something beloved of hers was missing. The captain admitted how I had lost my mind already, so they pushed me into the pet store and blockaded the exit. The sea was gone and it had been my idea to try breathing aquarium formula water, but by the time they managed to trap me in, I was too focused on getting outside to recall my own plan.
    Eva did not pause a second longer to mourn; though I can't say I was there to see into that detail, I know if she had waited, I would've been too far gone. Though I was right at the door, clawing at the glass like a rabid animal, she burst through and allowed me to chase her through the aisles of long-starved fish tanks. When the chase pursued for too long, she gave up and gripped bat she'd stolen from Krev, whacking my head from the side like a softball. I crashed into their miniature shark tank and rolled over on a broken edge, slitting my throat on the glass. I landed- impaled- with my nose still in the water.
   Of course she thought she had killed me, and as my body made its last twitch, she screamed in defeat, sliding to her knees while the floors began to flood from the cracks in the glass. But I was still alive... and the water was working on me! I trembled back to life- beginning to gain my senses once again- and that's when I felt the glass on my skin, splicing into the muscle. I screamed and thrashed, and Eva jumped back to her feet to help me.
   That's where she went wrong, though I understand why she would feel the urge. She should've left me- let me suffer just a little while longer on the glass- so that at least I would satisfy my thirst. When she took me out of the tank, I lost myself again. I bit her as soon as she extracted the last shard from my neck. She persisted, offering me her arm like a dog toy while she scooped water from the floor onto my face. She did this for a minute, until I let go of her skin, and then for another hour, until she was certain I was stabilized enough to leave for a moment and retrieve help from the others.

    Because I had saved their lives- sacrificing my chance to cure myself to turn around and slay the last three zombies- Augustus and Krev agreed to let Eva take me with her... just a breathing corpse, I was. They carried me to the furniture store, along with the salt formula for aquatic creatures. They introduced my true nature to the group, explaining how saltwater was the remedy to the contagious madness. Repeating this information gave Eva one last idea, and she drank from my cup as well. She took very ill for that night, but recovered the next morning, never craving the salty mixture again. We still don't know how or why.

   Moving me in the same type of wagon that carried the youngest children, we all made it back to Ramecha. I was put in a hospital to rest. Eva was certain I would return to my body, for my recovery occurred long before our arrival at the iron gates. I spoke a few more words each day.
   Terrified by the half-demon half-vegetable patient occupying their workplace, the doctors of West Border Hospital requested I'd be moved to a larger hospital– a new establishment created to research the zombification disease- as soon as possible.

   And I was finally strong enough to make that trip today.

   Ramecha is celebrating its fifteenth birthday. It's strange for me to watch people freely parading in open air. They wave banners- some the color of our former nation, but mostly red and yellow- the colors of Ramecha. I have so much spite for this place that I have a lot of trouble feeling the same positivism of the colorful citizens. This place gave them a home, health and happiness. This place banished my parents and gave me a disease.
   Eva urges me not to look at it that way. After all, Ramecha was the reason we met.
  We were sitting together in the back of a police car, which was transporting me to the research center. I close my eyes and escape into my mind for the rest of the journey, for it pains me to realize that it is neither in this vehicle nor out of it that I would prefer to be.
   I've truly lost sense of what I would wish to call home.
   But when we arrive at the research center I am pleasantly surprised. The metal walls glisten with a refreshing newness. I am greeted from the car by a group of smartly dressed young adults who actually look elated to see me. The doctors at West Border Hospital had always worn a look of concealed terror in their eyes, for I was something unknown and unpredictable. This group understands the same, but I have come to them as a pinnacle of curiosity.
    As much as I hated to be someone's scientific discovery, its comforting to be met with enthusiasm for once.
     "Welcome, Mr. Orion." A short man with almost all of his hair growing at his eyebrows shook my hand. "My name is Dr. Crowley. I'm the founder of this research institution."
    All I could think was Ramecha sure has come a long way. I returned his grip ambivalently.

    As we walked through the long halls of the massive building, Dr. Crowley began explaining all he knows about the disease. At first he's talking about hydrogen bonds and complex proteins, and it doesn't take long for me to lose hope of ever understanding. But we reach a door and the doctor turned to me specifically to say, "give up some time Jace, and we will find a cure for you."
   My eyes were wide with excitement and disbelief.
   "How?"
    "The vaccine wasn't all that difficult to find... once we had more information. Because the ocean was the initial cause of zombification, we studied its properties in order to find the cure.  And it was this."
   He opened the door, and I found myself face to face with an enormous turtle. Though thick metal bars divide us, I can't help but feel threatened by an ominous presence. The animal is perhaps the size of a sofa chair and wears the wrinkles of centuries of living. Its dark grey eyes locked onto mine.
    "Meet Shelly, the blueback tortoise. Her kind is a unique species, which lives most of its life above water, yet spends its entire youth in the sea. Shelly's DNA actually makes up a part of the vaccine."
   The beast gives me a dull look at then turns around. Her shimmering blue shell is revealed. Eva clutched my hand. "What a beautiful creature."
    "Indeed she is... and I'm not generally supportive of cooping up wildlife- or any life for that matter..." He sent an apologetic glance my way, "but Shelly's captivity is the reason Ramecha has a million citizens and counting today. And she's treated well- as will you, Mr. Orion. I made sure you will be living in the utmost comfort!"
    I was shown through another door; behind this one was a room the size of a movie theater, with a staircase going down one floor. Just beyond that was a large pool.
   I could smell the water already. "Please," the doctor offered kindly, "you may jump in whenever you like."
    I had just finished unbuttoning my shirt when a woman came up from the bottom of the stairs  with a wet-suit on a hanger. "We tried to get your measurements right, but the West Border Hospital was.... unfortunate in their communicating."
    I finished the last button and revealed my skin. Every inch of it was flaky and peeling. "I don't want to wear anything, if that's alright. My body wants the water as much as my lungs do."
    "Interesting..." Dr. Crowley hummed. I wasted no more time, shedding my pants and underpants too just before diving in.

     The pool was big, like its own room. The water was perfect- a decent temperature and an added silkiness to its texture. I felt like I could scrape off all my dry skin and be completely new, but I soon realized flakes of dead skin were drifting off my body anyways. I wasn't too thrilled about the resulting cloud of flakes around me, so I tried to hold still until at least Eva left.
    They all followed me, taking the stairs instead. The room beyond the glass wall was just a blur to me now, but somehow I could hear them.
    "We were going to ask him a few questions, but they said you might know just enough."
    "Sure," I could just barely hear Eva mumble timidly.
     "How long can he go without the water?"
     She hesitated. "Comfortably? Several hours. But not more than a day."
     "What happens after a day?"
     I swam up to the glass and pressed both hands to it. Eva came over to me and did the same.
    "Please," she looked over her shoulder, "just don't let that happen."