So sorry everyone for not posting when I said I would but I was really busy with school and was therefor unable to edit and post this second part. Anyway, Enjoy!

I crept up behind Asia holding the metal pipe in a sweaty hand. I had seen this in hundreds of movies. It shouldn’t be too hard in real life knocking people out without actually killing them. Right? I eyed Asia’s temple and judged how much closer I had to be to get into swinging distance. I sucked in a huge breath, held it, then swung. It struck right behind her left ear. Asia crumpled like a sack of potatoes. I dropped the rod and knelt beside her. I tested her pulse and was greatly relieved to find her heart was still pumping. I just hoped that she wasn’t concussed.

            I considered making a cut on Asia’s hand and letting some of my blood drip into it.  But if she acted super subdued and had only a small amount of will power, I would have to basically worry about keeping us both alive. I couldn’t do that to Asia.  And besides wouldn’t she be in more danger alone among the crazed than being one of them?  I brushed her hair back from her forehead and said a little prayer. Then I let go the breath that I had been holding and slowly stood up. Now all I had to do was get to the airport without getting killed.

*                *                   *                        *                    *                    *                       *                       *

            I walked quietly over to the door and peered both ways before stepping outside. Now, how on earth was I going to get to where I wanted without getting spotted. I glanced at all the cars and suddenly had an idea. I walked up to a nice-looking car and peered inside. Sure enough the keys were in the engine. I tested the door. It opened. Before stepping inside, I hesitated. It wasn’t necessarily stealing if I had every intention of somehow getting it back to its correct owner, right? I shrugged philosophically, stepped inside, and turned the key. The car turned on smoothly, sounding like a purring kitten. It was then that I realized that I has a slight problem. I didn’t know how to drive. I had watched my parents plenty of times and I knew that the right pedal was gas and that the left was brake, and, obviously, that you use the wheel to steer. I noticed another problem. How was I going to get this vehicle out when there was about six feet between the car parked in front of me and behind me. I sighed and turned the wheel to the left. I guess I was just going to have to yolo it. I turned the wheel to the left and pressed my foot lightly against the gas pedal. The car jerked a bit and I heard a slight grinding noise by the right fender as I pulled out. Oops. I turned to the right once the body of the car was mostly in the street. The streets were completely deserted and eerily quiet. All I could hear was the soft hum of the motor. At each turn of the road I fully expected to see Inkerstein or at least a mob of The Crazed blocking me. But there was nothing but the cars that lined the streets. At last I spotted the entrance to the airport.

*                    *                        *                            *                        *                     *                 *            *

I finally pulled into the airport’s parking lot. I turned off the car and stepped out of it. I closed the door and glanced over my shoulder. Why hadn’t I seen any Crazed? After all, Inkerstein had to be pretty ticked off that I had knocked him out and escaped and that I was apparently the only one here that couldn’t become a Crazed. I shook my head to clear away the questions there and started walking over to the large sign that said departures. As I cautiously walked in, I knew I was taking a long shot. The pilots could very well all be Crazed and that would leave me with no possible way out. I was about to go and look in another part of the airport when I saw movement above me. My heart leapt. Was this someone sent by Inkerstein to spy on me? I chewed my lip and clenched my fists. Another movement showed whoever was up there was trying to get a better view of me.

            “Are… are you sane?” It was a male American voice. He sounded terrified.

            “I could ask you the same thing.”

            There was a relieved sigh, then, “How is it that you are not insane?”

            “I’ll explain when you get down here.”

            There was a clattering sound and a few minutes later a medium sized man in a hazmat suit came out of the elevator. He stood awkwardly.

            “Look we need to get to America ASAP, and I’m really hoping that you are a pilot.”

            “As it happens, I am the pilot for a privet jet that is parked here.” He looked like he was about to ask another question, but I stopped him.

            “We need to get on the jet. There’s a dude here that wants me dead.” Then I realized that I had promised I would explain when he got down from his hiding place. “Look I know I said I would tell you what’s going on, but we’ll have all the time in the world once we get on that jet. He looked like he might want to argue but just then a shot rang out. I could just feel the bullet zing past my arm. I jerked and shouted, “OW! Where’s that jet?”

I must admit the dude had excellent reflexes. He swung around, grabbed my hand, and yanked me toward the exit. I could barely keep up with him, and as we slammed the exit door behind us, I heard a bullet slam against the metal door behind me. Just where my head had been moments before. I could see the jet sitting there about two hundred feet away.  The question was, were we going to get there in time?

Suddenly I realized something.  How were we going to get in the jet and was it fueled and ready to take us straight to America? As if to answer my question the pilot took something out of a pocket and clicked it. A stair began to fold out of the plane. I stumbled on something, and I felt hot metal clip my upper arm. I gasped but kept on running though I began to zigzag and make unexpected dodges. I didn’t dare glance back to see how far back our shooter was. I heard the engines start up and saw that in a few more sprints I would be in the jet. The shooter must have realized that his prey was getting away and he – well, I assumed it was a he – started to shoot more fanatically. I had just reached the bottom step when I felt a bullet punch through my so far uninjured arm and go all the way through to the other side. I saw the blood and felt the pain, but I knew I would have to make it up the last few steps or face certain death.

 I basically crawled the rest of the way up and flopped myself down inside the jet when I heard a snap. I jerk, fearful of another danger but it was only the stairs folding up. I couldn’t hear any more shots, so the shooter must have run out of bullets. That’s when the real pain hit me. I nearly puked. My body was in more pain than it had ever experienced, having been just shot three times, though thankfully two of them were only grazes. The third bullet wound had gone clean through my right bicep, and it hurt like crazy.

I vaguely felt the jet lift off the ground and start flying. I knew I have to stop the bleeding on my right arm, but how? I already felt drowsy and sick and I can’t quite think correctly. I think I lie there for at least five minutes when I hear a robotic female voice say, “Auto pilot on, feel free to roam about the cabin.” Like I’m able to roam about the cabin. Then the man pushes open the pilots door.

            “Okay I deserve…” whatever he deserved I never found out as he stopped mid-sentence when he saw me and the fact that the carpeted floor around me was becoming a reddish color. He blinked once, turned and disappeared into a curtained off area.

            “Wait, where…” I trail of weakly. But the man returned quickly with a first aid kit.

            “Look, um, this is going to hurt a bit.” The man said awkwardly. I wanted to say, “What more than it already is?” But all I could manage was a sort of nod. He took a small needle from the back and inserted it in my not so badly injured arm. Almost immediately I began to feel drowsy and the last I could see was him he taking out some bandages.

*                                        *                                *                             *                                *

I could almost imagine that I was back at home, in my bed, sleeping. Except what I was lying on was a great deal softer than my bed at home and I could hear a soft humming sound. I opened my eyes and looked around.

 I was lying on an airplane seat that was completely cranked back and from what I could see there was only seven other seats, all of them the same creamy color. The side of the jet was paneled with a gorgeous dark wood. I ran my fingers along it and it felt smooth not grainy like most of the woods I was used to feeling. Then I noticed the there was a couple of buttons just below the paneling. One was intricately labeled Food, but the one that caught my attention was the one labeled Call Captain. Should I call him or was he too busy making sure we stayed in the air. My finger hovered over the button uncertainly. Then the curtain was parted and the captain came out with a tray loaded with food. He saw me, smiled, and turned to come over to me.

            “I see that your finally awake.”

            “How long was I out for?” I asked

            “Almost ten hours.”

            “I’m guessing you want some answers.”

            “That would be correct.”

So I told him all of what had happened to me, though kind of breezing over the fact that I had knocked my friend out. After I had finished my tale, he sat silently for a bit.

            “So let me get this straight, there’s a man called Inkerstein that has created a virus that can basically make people into zombies and he wanted to kill you because you’re the only one that you know of that can withstand the virus.”

            “That’s correct.”

            “Well I guess we had better alert the President and get crackin’ on an antidote for this virus.”

            “Wait, when you say the President, do you mean The President of America!?” I asked, slightly alarmed.

            “Yup, that’s the one.” I must have looked flabbergasted because he added, “I’m one of the President’s personal bodyguards, but I was sent here to protect an emissary of America that was sent here to delegate something.”

            “So, if you’re a bodyguard than how do you know how to fly a jet?” I asked, fascinated.

            “Well being one of the Presidents main bodyguards we have to be pretty adept in a lot of things. And say there’s an emergency and something happened to the pilot, one of us can do the flying.”

            “Cool.” Was all I could think of saying. I looked down at my arms and saw that my right arm was all bandaged up, but that my left arm, the one that had only gotten scraped by the bullets, had some oversized band-aids on it.

            “Are you able to move the arm that was shot through?” The man asked anxiously. In response to his question I moved my right arm. To my relief I could move it with only the slightest twinge of discomfort. My relief was reflected in the man’s face as well.

            “That’s a welcome sight! Sometimes muscle wounds like yours take years to fully recover from. Well I’d better get back to piloting. Enjoy your meal,” he said as he placed the tray on my lap.

*                              *                                 *                                         *                            *

After I had finished the meal, which I had indeed enjoyed immensely, I peered out of the small window wondering where we were currently. By the looks of it we were over an ocean, since all I could see was blue water stretching at far as the eye could see. I realized I could easily figure out where we were by checking the small TV that was attached to the back of the seat in front of me. I quickly got to the page that told me how much more of the flight we had left. We had about five hours left of flight time. Oh well there was always the movies on the plane. I mainly watched movies, but every now and again I would nap for thirty minutes or so. Time passed so quickly that I was pretty surprised when the robotic voice of the woman informed me that thirty more minutes were left in the flight. There was a slight pause than, “We need to talk about a few things.” It was the voice of the pilot. I pressed the button that I had seen earlier, “Yeah, about what?”

            “First, what do you want me to say to the President?”

            “Um, probably something along the lines of ‘There’s a deadly disease and it spreads really fast. It’s up to you to make it more official sounding”

            “Right, and we’re probably going to need to get you to a lab as soon as we can. Are you afraid of needles?

            “Um, no, not really. I mean I have a preference of not getting too close to pointy objects, but I won’t freak out if I need to get a shot or something.

            “Great. Well get ready to have a lot of questions thrown at you, but I’ll try to keep you as unmolested as possible.”

            “K. Thanks. Oh, wait, I was wondering how you weren’t turned into a Crazed?

“Ah, yes, I thought you’d ask that eventually. I noticed that people were acting really weird and there was no apparent reason and no apparent shots that could make them act that way. So, I figured there had to be something seriously wrong with the air, so I went to the jet and put on the hazmat suit. And yes, we have hazmat suits in the jet. Just for emergencies.”

“Cool!” I turned off the movie I had been watching and stared out of the window. I could see green and gray flashing past below. I wondered if I’d actually be able to see the President. Probably not, seeing as I’m basically a nobody. Compared to him anyway. The next thirty minutes seemed to drag by, but eventually the robotic female voice called out, “Please put your seat belts on. We are nearing our destination.” My heart did a small flip in my chest, we were finally here.

*                        *                         *                                 *                               *                            *

The jet coasted down onto the Presidents privet airstrip. There was a strange queasy feeling in my gut that had nothing to do with airsickness. At last the jet stopped and the seat belt sign turned off. I quickly unbuckled myself and waited in front of the pilot’s door. The pilot came out, seeing me waiting, nodded at the place where the stairs would appear.

“Any last instructions?” I asked.

“Ah, yes, thanks for reminding me. Once we get out there, there will be a group of specially trained scientists. Go with them. I’ll be going to the President and telling him about this rapidly spreading disease. If it makes you feel any better, the President wanted to meet you in person, but he realized that you were needed elsewhere.” That certainly gave me a thrill, the President had wanted to see me!

“Well ready to see the outside world?”

“Totally.”

The stairs slide down revealing slightly harsh light as my eyes weren’t accustomed to it yet. The pilot motioned for me to be the first one down and I complied. I rather ungracefully climbed down the stairs as I had been sitting for the last fifteen hours or so. I resented the urge to yawn and stretch when I saw a group of people that I could only assume were the scientists. The person that appeared to be the leader of the group beckoned to me and I gave a last look of farewell to the man that had gotten me to this stage of the journey.

*               *                      *                       *                    *                      *                  *                 *

The lead scientist was a beautiful young woman, probably in her early twenties introduced herself as the lead scientist. She had a small heart shaped face with two gentle almond colored eyes framed by slightly wavy auburn hair. She also had a high-tech looking mask on, as did the rest of her companions. She gestured for me to join the group of six scientists.

*                        *                               *                                  *                               *                                *

I had been at the lab for at least four hours and I was worn out. Who knew they would be testing my blood type, which was A+, then asking me difficult questions about what kind of sicknesses I’d had over the years and whatnot. That took at least two hours, the other two hours were of me waiting around to see if they needed anymore blood from me. Or answers. They just wouldn’t stop with questions about my personal life. It was highly frustrating and embarrassing at times. Other than that, the scientists were quite humorous. The lead scientists name was Ariel, but everyone called her Mermaid.

I had been surprised and a little confused when I had first heard one of the scientist’s call, “Hey, Mermaid, come look at this.” But upon seeing my confused expression Ariel explained that since her name was the same as the mermaids in The Little Mermaid her comrades had dubbed her Mermaid.  Finally, though I could leave and go to a magnificent hotel that was ten minutes away from the lab.

As soon as I entered the room, I saw a stack of cloths for me to change into. I smiled gratefully. I was looking forward to a long cleansing shower. After an hour and a half shower I plopped down on my extremely soft bed. It was like sitting down on a cloud. I sighed in appreciation and decided to flip through some channels on the TV to see what was on.

It was so nice to have all the channels in English since Laos only had like two channels in English. I watched television for a few hours then turned it off. My mind wandered over to Laos. What was happening there? How many people have been infected? What was Inkerstein doing? Surely, he knows that I got away. Has he already left fearing that a vengeful America would put him in prison for life? Or worse?

I sighed. I dearly wished that I could see what was happening over there. I suddenly felt sick to my stomach. What if Inkerstein had found out who my family were and had done something to them. I needed fresh air. I needed to think.

*                    *                         *                  *                      *                           *                 *          *

I thought it would take days maybe even weeks to find the antidote for this virus that the girl had told us about but in about a day and a half the antidote was ready to roll. Another good thing about this antidote was that it was easily reproduced. Now as I stared at the small blue containers, I wondered how we were going to distribute this to the infected people. We couldn’t give it one by one since, by the reports of the girl, probably all the inhabitants had been turned into zombies, or as the girl called them, Crazed. A voice jerked me out of my reverie.

            “Hey, Mermaid, I think you better get some sleep.”

            I yawned, “Yes, I suppose I should. Well good night Fred.”

            “Good night, Little Mermaid.”

I smiled at this, yawned, then headed out to my car where it sat waiting in the early 1:00 AM morning.

*                        *                      *                      *                     *                *                *                 *

After walking around the grounds of the hotel for a couple hours, driving myself insane with worry about things I could not even begin to control, I dragged myself to bed and tried to sleep rather unsuccessfully. When I at last feel asleep I had nightmares about Inkerstein killing my family. So, all in all I didn’t get a very good sleep despite the emollient bed. Which was why I was rather cranky when I got up at 7:30 in the morning.

I sent a request downstairs for breakfast saying I didn’t care what they gave me just as long as it was tasty and edible. I flopped down on the bed, my waist length blond hair wrapping around my shoulders. To my surprise my hair was not a mass of snarly knots but was one long smooth sheet. I took a bit of hair and rolled it around my fingers. How was it so silky? It must have been the conditioner. I sniffed my hair and it had the traces of a lemony smell. To say the least I liked it a great deal.

I was just debating how I should put my hair up when I heard a small ding at the door. I stood up and walked rapidly to the door feeling a great deal hungrier than I had a few minutes ago. I opened the door to find a small Asian woman holding a large tray that was omitting the most wondrous smell. I took the tray from her and was about to close the door when I noticed her eyeing my hair in what seemed to be a somewhat eager manner. If I had learned anything from my fifteen years in Laos was that Asian ladies simply loved to do up my hair in creative ways.

Thirty minutes later I was full and with a nice braid that looped over my shoulder. I was contentedly leaning back in my bed when the phone began to ring. I jolted up and basically ran towards the phone.

“Yes, who is it?” I asked breathlessly.

“We found the cure to the Crazed and a way to distribute it to the afflicted people.” An equally breathless voice informed me.

“Really!? How?”

“It’s difficult to explain as of right now, but I’ll tell you once you get here. There’s a car waiting outside for you. See you soon.” There was a click at the other end signifying the call was over. I placed the phone back down in its holder. Then I hurried out of the room.

                     *                         *                                 *                     *                *

I shut the door of the taxi behind me as I speed to the lab. A tall dark-haired stranger led me to a large iron door that read, “Do not enter. Only authorized personnel allowed.” Then the stranger handed me a small plastic card that had my name on it and the words “Authorized personnel” in a drunken cursive scrawl. The stranger left with a nod at a nondescript key card swiper. I swiped the card on it and the door swung open with a slight hissing sound. I stepped in and a second later the door slammed behind me. I knew immediately something was terribly wrong.

The room had nothing in it except the heavy smell of chemicals and in the middle of the room a black body bag.

Then a voice I knew all too well, “You, my dear girl, have been a great deal of trouble.”

My muscles stiffened. “Inkerstein. How on earth did you get here?”

“That is none of your concern. Now, turn around.”

I turned around slowly as if hoping my nightmare would just disappear. It didn’t. Inkerstein definitely appeared the worse for wear. His black garments were disheveled, his dark brown hair usually controlled was now an absolute mess. His pale lips curled in a triumphed snarl as he lifted a small black gun. So, this was how I was going to die, staring into black eyes that were no longer calm and collected, but wild and unhinged. Click. Inkerstein pulled back the hammer that slotted the bullet in place.

“Farewell girl, farewell.” He began to squeeze the trigger. I’m not going to show fear, I’m not going to show fear… BANG. I flinched but to my utter surprise and relief, didn’t feel any pain. I jerked my head around, what if Inkerstein had inconceivably missed or maybe he was playing with me before he killed me. But no, Inkerstein was on the floor groaning. Now I was really confused.

“Are you okay?” came a shout from the far corner of the room where I could see another door that must lead outside. In front of the door a young woman was standing with her gun still pointed at the huddled figure of Inkerstein. To my shock I identified the young woman as Ariel, the scientist that helped find the cure for The Crazed.

“Are you okay?” Ariel called again a bit more urgently this time.

“Yeah, I’m fine.” I answered.

“Come on. I’ll call security to clean him up.” The way she said “him” gave me an uncomfortable chill.

I hurriedly scampered over to Ariel as she opened the door. “Hey, um, you didn’t kill him, did you?”

She gave me an odd look but shook her head, “No, I slugged him in the shoulder, but he deserved a bullet in the heart for what he’s done.”

                    *                    *                      *                    *                       *                * 

            We arrived at the real lab this time in about ten minutes. By that time, we had also found out how I had been led to the wrong lab. Essentially someone must have been listing to the conversation that had gone on between me and the person on the other end, which as it happened had been Arial’s junior assistant. Then the person that had listened in had tracked where the call had occurred and raced to pick me up. Apparently, Arial had seen taxi pull away with me in it but knew that something was wrong as she had been driving to the hotel to pick me up. She followed at a distance thinking perhaps there had been a misunderstanding, and someone had sent a taxi to pick me up.

However, she had grown concerned when she realized that the taxi was driving in the opposite direction of the lab and was instead driving towards an old abandoned chemical plant. She saw me enter and quickly parked the car, making sure that the taxi driver hadn’t seen her. Then she sprinted to the plant after the taxi had left, circling the plant, trying desperately to find another way in. She had heard voices and found a small exit door she had overlooked. She had burst in just as Inkerstein was about to shoot me. She in turn had instinctively shot Inkerstein.

            I shook my head, wondering at how close I had been to death. Then I asked something that had been bothering me, “Where’d you get the gun though?”

            Arial shrugged, “I always try to carry a gun with me whenever I can. Anyway, here we are. The planes that are carrying the antidote probably have left by now.”

“Oh, yes I was meaning to ask. How you’re going to distribute the antidote?”

“Essentially we’re going to drop large balloons that are full of the antidote in air form. We have made the balloons so that they will sink until they reach a certain place in the atmosphere. Then the balloons will pop spreading the antidote throughout the city.”

“That’s great Ms. Ariel. Thank you so much.” I said with much feeling.

Ariel gave a wan smile, “Your welcome.”

  *                  *                 *                  *                  *                  *                         *                    *

The balloons worked perfectly. The Crazed were now just normal people. Normal people that came to very confused, yes, but at least they weren’t walking around like mindless zombies. Inkerstein was going to be tried at court, and by the sounds of it was going to be in jail for the rest of his life. I was going to be allowed to go back to Laos in about a week since the scientists were still making sure everyone was cured. Arial had sent some people over to see how my family was and found that they were all alive and well and dying to see me. I also asked of a friend named Asia and I showed some pictures of her so that they would know who she was. They found her and she seemed no worse for wear at being hit over the head with a pipe. I couldn’t be happier. I also couldn’t wait to tell her what had happened to me. But also, profusely say sorry for knocking her over the head.

The End