Survival or Struggle?

Ashley couldn't believe CC suddenly wanted to tell basically everything that happened to him. Ashley remembered, at least vaguely, that CC was adamant to not telling anyone what happened to him. So he was confused as to why CC was suddenly wanting to tell them whatever it is they wanted to know. Ashley's head was filled with questions, as he was sure the others had the same mindset. There was silence for a few moments. Maybe the guys were thinking CC would suddenly take his decision back and not tell them. But it seemed CC was waiting patiently, so the guys went ahead and asked an obvious question.

"What happened to you?" Andy asked, his blue eyes going a little bit brighter from concern.

"It's kind of a long story." CC said quietly. The guys kind of figured that would be the case.

"Start at the beginning." Jinxx coaxed gently. CC nodded and seemed to take a deep breath before telling his tale.

***Flashback***
It all began at the hospital. CC was in the back of the group when the power had gone out. He heard movement, but couldn't see anything. Suddenly, he had been taken off his feet quite quickly and violently. He began screaming for the guys, heard their shouts, their footsteps. Every time he struggled, he received a very brusque shake that felt more like he was being throttled. He was dragged down a hallway, then another hallway, then another. Eventually he lost track of where he was. But he still screamed. That was, until a door slammed shut behind him. He didn't hear the guys anywhere anymore. It terrified him.

He heard a chuckle as he was dragged into the room. A single solitary light was on, swinging precariously on a chain in the ceiling. The chuckle he heard was from a man, who got up from where he was sitting and moved towards him. He bent down to CC's eye level and looked him over, as if he were a specimen being examined and not an actual human being. CC struggled and glared at the man. Whatever was holding him made to shake him again, but the man stopped it.

"Hush now precious. No need to kill our specimen. Put him on the table over there, I'll get to him shortly." the man uttered, pointing to a table in a dark corner.

The creature dragged CC, still kicking and struggling and hoisted him by the throat onto the table, like he was featherweight. He knew he wasn't though, which made this whole thing a whole lot more scarier. He was brought down and secured by someone else who had darted over after the creature got him onto the table. His wrists, ankles, waist and throat were secured. Though the one securing his throat was the least tight out of the bunch. Obviously they wanted him alive and breathing. But what for? What did they want? He heard footsteps and something on wheels being brought over. Actually, several pairs of wheels. Medical equipment, some questionable, were wheeled all around him.

A heart monitor was secured on him quickly as the footsteps died off slowly. He couldn't turn his head, so he really couldn't look at who they were or what they looked like. He waited there, in the silence, for what seemed like hours. Footsteps were heard advancing towards him. The man he had seen earlier looked down at him, smiling. The smile wasn't one of warmth or pleasantness. This was a smile of a lunatic, a smile that made a shiver run down his spine. The man laughed, looking CC up and down, spectating him. CC had enough of this.

"What do you want?" CC managed to ask. The man laughed, CC hated the laugh more than he hated the smile. The evilness of this man just oozed off of him.

"Oh, my dear lad, I'm not telling you that. It would take all the fun away from this. You see, you've been selected for something very special. Hard to be special if I just blurt it out, right?" the man asked. CC knew it was something of a rhetorical question, so he didn't answer it.

"Oh, how silly of me. My name is Dr. Vossler. You're CC, clever name. Short of something I'm sure. I only know your name because your friends shouted it for the whole building to hear." Dr. Vossler said, rolling his eyes as if it were the most troubling thing in the world.

"You bast-." CC tried to insult him.

"Oh! Now, Now! That's not the language we need here. You should calm down, this should do the trick." Dr. Vossler said.

Before CC even thought of a retort, he felt a sharp prick and his vision went hazy and muddled. The voices grew muffled, but managed to get a few words. Blood. Creature. Experiment. These three words didn't go well together at all. Despite being drugged with whatever was in his system, he still tried to struggle. He felt another painful prick and a searing pain on his side. He heard himself scream before everything went black.
****************************************
He woke up slowly, the pain in his side and now his foot, came back quickly. He hissed in pain, his head feeling like it went through a shredder. As his vision came back to him fully, he realized the strap securing his neck was off. He was able to look around, noticing an IV pumping something into his body. He didn't like the look of it, from what he could tell, the substance was black and stank horribly. CC nearly got sick when the stench in the room became known to him. That was when Dr. Vossler came out of the shadows, smiling at him.

"Ah! You're awake, good. Sorry about the smell. When we usually open the contain to fill the IV packet, the stench just sits in there. Kind of nothing we can do about that except air out of the room. And I've also seen you've noticed you can move your head around. You've granted you that small mercy. Your struggling would have killed you if you went about it any further." Dr. Vossler explained.

He examined the IV bag and nodded, making a content noise before moving around. He checked the bottom of CC's foot and his side. CC wasn't sure what had been to either of those to cause such pain, but he had a feeling Dr. Vossler was going to tell him anyways. He was right, although he hated being right in this scenario. He'd have almost preferred nothing over the overabundance of information he was being given.

"The side as well as the bottom of the foot is very sensitive. Don't worry, was just a few minor adjustments we made for you. Nothing to worry about. If you hadn't struggled, it wouldn't have been so painful. One of my assistants almost hit something vital because of your struggling. I caught it, so no harm done." Dr. Vossler explained.

"No harm done?! What did you did to me?" CC asked, going from tired to angry in a split second.

"Oh calm yourself, just a tracking device in your side and a brand on your foot. No harm done, the tracking device is in case you ever escape and the brand is for when you know we've already caught you. So we'll know where we are with you in terms of experiments." Dr. Vossler said calmly. It was as if he was explaining to a patient that it was only a scratch, when really it was something far worse than that.

"Damn though, the stitches are all wrong. I'm going to have to undo them and fix them." Dr. Vossler said, scowling slightly.

Dr. Vossler went about fixing the stitches when CC began to try and get free. Dr. Vossler sighed and jabbed CC with another needle. Probably the same sedative as before.

"You shouldn't have done that. We could have chatted a little more." Dr. Vossler said, patting CC's cheek as he went under again.
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He woke up slowly, a dull throbbing in his side. But his head was also throbbing, almost like someone was using his head as one of his drums. His felt his heart beating inside his chest, he felt sweat pooling on his brow. What was happening to him? Why did he feel so awful? A pair of soft footsteps came around and quickly wiped the sweat away from his brow, changed his IV bag and left as quickly as they came. All was quiet, except the insistence beeping of his heart rate. He didn't know what was happening, but he needed to act fast and get the hell out of here. He had no idea how long he had been in here. But he wasn't wasting another minute.

He could still move his head around, which was both good ans bad. Good, because he could look around and try to find a way out. And bad because his head was throbbing so badly that his vision was doubling. It almost made him sick to his stomach, so he clenched his eyes shut until the nausea passed. Once that was over with, he reopened his eyes and tried again. The door was the most obvious way. But there was also a window. It was open to air the room out. He could use the window, hopefully it had something for him to walk on, and get in through another window. Those were his only two options. He had to choose wisely.

Footsteps came by him once again, stopping at the end of the table he was secured on. He knew it was Dr. Vossler, surveying him. CC glared at him as best as he was able to. He heard a chuckle and the man rounded the table to stand next to time.CC was able to look up at Dr. Vossler, who was looking at his heart rate, as well as his IV bag, nodding. He seemed satisfied about everything that was happening. Dr. Vossler sighed, looking down at CC, shaking his head. Almost as if he were a pet that did something wrong. It irked CC something fierce.

"You know, your struggling will get you nowhere. You're stuck here until I let you go. And trust me, I'm not letting you go any time soon." Dr. Vossler said.

Anger suddenly ran through CC at an alarming rate. Almost like he couldn't stop it. He strained against the straps holding him down. Dr. Vossler chuckled, but it stopped short when he heard the tearing of the straps. He called for his two assistants but it was too late. The straps snapped in a few short moments. He knocked Dr. Vossler against the wall and undid the strap to his waist as well as his ankles. He swung down off the table, only to be met by Dr. Vossler. His assistants had apparently not been in the room when this happened. Where were they? Were they keeping an eye on his friends? CC was not about to let the others have the same fate, or worse, as CC's. He growled in an animal-like fashion. It would have freaked him out if he wasn't so angry.

He rushed Dr. Vossler and towards the door, slamming it open and rushing down as many hallways as he could before he ran out of steam. He felt weak, almost like he had no energy. And his anger went as quickly as it had come. He managed to find a door and hide himself in what looked like a storage closet. That's when everything came full circle. The door jammed, the guys got him out and the rest was history.

***End Flashback***

The guy's eyes were wide from horror and shock. And a little bit of anger was mixed in as well. CC had fallen silent after his tale, looking at the ground, almost like he was waiting for another barrage of questions. But Ashley had figured something out himself while CC was telling his story.

"So the wound on my collarbone is a....tracking device?" Ashley said, looking green at the thought.

CC nodded, looking at Ashley out of his peripheral vision. Everyone was silent until CC spoke up again.

"They inserted it into a different part of your body, probably so they didn't strike anything important. At least that's how it was explained to me. And the experiments were something of a mystery to me. Except of course, the blood that was put into my body." CC said, quietly.

"Do you think it's...zombie blood?" Jake asked in a hushed tone. CC shrugged, looking at all of them.

"We can only theorize. And I wasn't about to stick around for more answers." The drummer muttered.

There were going to be more questions, but quite a few gunshots had them up and on their feet in seconds. They grabbed their weapons, holding them tightly in their hands. They cursed as they made their way quickly towards the gunshots.

"If it's not one thing, it's another." Jinxx muttered as they hurried along.

Notes