Pilot Chapter - Fatebound

Amidst the stark contrast of the ebony night, my vision painted a landscape of white streaks, while the air bore the weight of my weary breaths.

Slowly, clarity of my visual area contrasted heavy snowfall from night time. Each inhalation felt like a laborious tug through the frigid, thin air.

Questions echoed in my mind, a desperate plea for answers. What transgression had led to this cruel fate? Why was I condemned to this ordeal?

I struggled to keep focus on the vile road that lay ahead for me. The cold was piercing my eyes enough for tears to roll out.

My eyebrows and eyelashes were stuffed with the white mass, and my joints were given in. The little one on my back was probably already freezing, but all I could do was keep moving forward.

I stopped near a tree bare of its leaves and collapsed onto it. In my exhaustion, I cast a weary glance over my shoulder to see vivid streaks of bright crimson on the brilliant white of snow mostly where my feet had dug into. With trembling, I touched my right side to confirm the grim truth. It was all blood.

"Poooww!!" I sighed.

I carefully unraveled the cloth which held the baby at my back, gently rolling him over to face me.

Pulling aside the covering that obscured half his face, I discovered his innocent countenance. Despite the pain coursing through me, a smile graced my lips, mingling with the weighty tears that traced their path down my cheeks."How did we find ourselves here, my love? How?" I whispered, gazing up at the heavens, eyelids sealing in the cascade of tears.

"We'll be alright, my darling. Mommy will shield you." With tender words, I rocked us both, seeking solace in the rhythmic motion. An anchor amidst the storm.

***

Some hours earlier. Saint Alban's hospital.

Vile, penetrating screams filled the corners of the hospital that would've been otherwise quiet at this late hour of the night. The loud voice ranged from sharp - pitched shrieks to loud groans, and then exasperated gasps.

Few moments of this cacophony was followed by the warmest of greetings a human ear could hear. A new born's first song to the world.

It took moments for the nurses to nurse the child in the mother's arms, whose face was a beautiful flood causing her skin to glow. She stroked the baby's face as he suckled from her bosom. It wasn't long before the mother fell asleep. The mother and the child were worn tags on their hands and the baby was taken to the hospital's nursery to continue its care, while his mother rested.

The mother not long after, woke from her light sleep, seemingly with the urge just to be with her child. She made her way out of bed while in her hospital maternity gown and dragged herself to the nursery to see her child, with her drip stand in tow.

"Dr. B, the test results confirm your hypothesis. The child's blood is the solution we've been looking for. It never expressed in your daughter but in her child."

These sounds came from the lab room just beside the nursery.

Mother squinted. Carefully dragging her drip stand so as not to make any sound, she grimaced through her pains to bend low and sat on the floor in front of the door to the lab, such that she wouldn't be visible through the transparent upper half of the door to those inside.

"So the baby's blood cures the infected?" A deep, hollow voice asked inside the room.

"Ehnn...it's more complicated than that," the original voice responded. A banging sound was made inside the room, followed by a husky, rugged but low rumbling roar.

"At little doses, it apparently cures the infected. Apparently. But the more interesting parts happen when we increase the dose atleast five times what cures the infected. They suddenly become docile, like the one in this cage. We'll need to further test this, but I'm gonna hypothesize that we may be able to control them and potentially increase their lifespan from the mediocre biennials they are."

"Hmm!" The deep voice mumbled.

On and on the voices inside continued, and the mother of the child was already engulfed in an ocean of silent tears. She held her mouth, trying to shush herself. She knew the implications of this discussions. She was a failed experiment of her father's, but her child who was barely three hours old was already a more promising test subject.

Within a flurry of emotions, she dragged her gown over her face and mopped the tears off of it, then yanked off the drip needle from her hand and tossed it aside slightly. She crawled away from the door to the nursery beside the lab and stood up.

Upon entering, she saw the nurse on duty napping away in a chair, Infront of the only two babies present in the hospital at the time.

Gently and almost on tiptoes, she walked to the modified cribs. The first face she saw wore a smile at her, as if to say - mommy.

Mother smiled, and compared the tag she was wearing to that of the baby. The second child was hers.

She pouted slightly, her face having dropped slightly. The second child let out an excited whimper that led to the mother silently shushing the baby and patting him. You have so much joy, she whispered.

Her face lifted again, and she raised the child and took the two blankets wrapped around the child with her as they fell off the baby.

She stroked her baby's radiant head, while struggling to keep her own smile as the baby cooed. Just as she was about to reach for the little head warmer on the table beside the still sleeping nurse, she heard distant murmurs from the direction she had come from and knew escape clock had started ticking.

The nurse sleeping in the chair shook her head slightly, giving out loud snorting sounds, and away was the mother.

Swiftly, with the child tightly in her arms and blankets around her neck, she made her way towards the nearest elevator she knew at that floor level. She was straining through the labor after - pains she still felt.

"Find her!!" Strong voices bellowed around the corridors which struck a new level of fear in her. In a short time, the lights in the corridors around her went off just as she was few steps away from the elevator.

Her heart skipped steps in its rhythm, and it probably just stopped for a longer moment when she heard footsteps approach her.

Gasping for air, she pushed at the door beside her and just followed through into the room.

Shoes, knocking against the floor were now at the doorstep, and the handle was twisted in ever so gently.

Mother's heart was already out of her mouth and her face in contours of dread with sweat all over it. She moved towards the hinge - side of the door in an attempt to evade the guard.

Her right leg felt cold against something in the dark and she felt her way to what she believed was an oxygen tank. It was just the perfect size to handle in this situation.

As the door creaked open, she slowly picked the tank with her right hand and stood straight up. The man walked in, but unsure if his surroundings brought out his phone from his pocket and proceeded to turn on his flash.

WHAAMM!!!

With a plop he went to the ground, and the cylinder fell off mother's hand. She took the phone from his hand and was already leaving the room, but paused, thinking briefly and dashed back to the man's pocket and searched them.

She raised the key fob she found , shining the torch at it and smiled, before running out of the room.

The noise had attracted the attention of the others searching for her and now raced towards her.

Mother was now Infront of the elevator, clocking frantically for it to open.

Once inside, she again clicked frantically at the basement bottom of the elevator. The flashlight in her hands were shining out the elevator to those who were close to her now. One of the chasing guards pointed a gun at the closing elevator and an instant rebuke from behind bellowed; "Don't shoottt!!!"

The chaser nearer to the elevator was less than a meter away from the closing door. All he needed to do was tough the gap between the doors and it would be over.

"Whack!!"

Mother threw the phone she was holding at the man in a wild up - to - down along, and it was right on point at his forehead. His head went backwards at the impact, and the elevator doors closed.

The lights in the floor level was restored, and disappointed men gathered around the elevator.

"Haha!" The man with the deep voice in the lab groaned. He pointed at some of the guards and directed. "You three take the stairs and find her."

The three men pointed at took quick bows and dispatched. The man took out his phone from his white labcoat and dialed a number.

"She's headed to the carpark with the elevator. Stop her there. No harm to the baby."

The man nodded to the other three guards beside him including the man whose head was whacked with the phone as they waited for the elevator to open. The fourth man, also in labcoat who was in discussion with the man in the lab, said to him; "Dr. B, we might still need Abigail alive. She..."

The man cut his speech short when he received a very stern look from Dr. B. The elevator opened and all five men entered. The determination and anger on their faces was overkill.

At the basement, guards gathered around the elevator, fists clenched, ready to receive their prey. When the elevator doors slid open, it revealed a blanket...

The three men sent to the basement also arrived hurriedly to the scene of the elevator, and most were left scratching their heads.

The woman, all the way at the opposite end of the car park basement, was crouched low and already looking for cars to get into. She had one specific type in mind. An electric one for the key she had found.

On reaching a white car which had the same logo as that on the key fob, she teased the flushed - in handle of the car, but it didn't pop out. She had to operate the key fob. She groaned in frustration.

She prepared herself to be as snappy as possible due to the lights operating that fob would trigger.

The men were now dividing themselves in their bid to find the woman when she pressed the unlock bitton on the fob.

A red car in the opposite direction blinked it's light and sounded its horn twice.

Stuff from shock with mouth agape, she was initially paralyzed and ghosted. Then dashed to the car as the men ran to the car.

She made it into the car and slammed it really hard, three fingers of a guard who managed to grab the edge of the door fell off, the whole of their phalanges.

The woman looked in horror asshe watched the man experience pain, but all was mute inside the car bar the chupping sounds her baby was making. The car was started and put in a wicked reverse.

She switched to drive and went through a couple of guards who tried to stop her, and away from the basement.

She looked in the mirror of the car to see her father, Dr. B, and his minions in the garage watch her go, and saw his frustrations in his rage.

She looked forward and piled through the boom barrier, shreeeing it to pieces. Into the main road she went.

She kept looking in the mirror. She knew the guards would give chase. But the night was probably more dangerous. She turned off all external lights of the car and dropped her speed such that the car made as much low sound as it could still drive fast. The electric nature of the car helped with that too.

There was still serious fear in Abigail's eyes. Infact, it seemed more than what she had felt in her hospital ordeal.

Snow was pouring heavily, and visibility was almost non-existent. She looked in the mirror and saw distant lights approach her with speed.

In utter panic, she picked up the pace, but was quickly abrupted when the car collided with something.

"An infected..." She whispered.

Instinctively, she reversed a little, turned around, and sped off, now disregarding whatever sounds she was making. She strapped her seatbelt around her child and herself and tucked it on the fly, then switched on all the external lights of the car. Her pursuers were already behind her anyway.

A wild chase ensued. Abigail had smacked so much of the infected that her windshield was so bloodied despite the efforts of her wipers, and the icy road made for some slides and drifts.

On and on, through mindless infected she was chased by three SUVs, until suddenly there was a group of infected ahead.

Abigail, stuck in a quagmire of break and gas pedal, drifted very hard around them, and crashed into a tree at the side of the road.

Her chasers, not nearly able to replicate a drift, head-on crashed into the infected Infront of them, causing a pile up accident.

Abigail, in a big effort to save herself, reached for the glove compartment of the car, where she saw a pistol. She groaned in serious pain, which was mostly coming from her side. A pencil had stabbed her at her right side during the commotion of her crash.

She turned off all the lights in and outside the car and began to feel her way out of the car.

She clicked her seatbelt to free herself and her baby and opened the car's door. The sounds that followed were horrible screams from hell.

She looked back at the scene of the accident to see a wild combination.

Fire, crashed trucks, her chasers being dragged out of their wreckage, and their flesh being gnawed at. Those who had whatever little strength they had to fight were fighting a losing battle, as more and more infected ran from all directions, even from the forest, the edge of which she had crashed into, ran to the centre of incidence.

The infected had peculiar loud and deafening screams, especially at an event like this, where they were overexcited.

The woman waited a little in the car to be sure no infected was coming from the forest again.

She tore the blanket she was wearing into two, and used one to wrap the naked.

She got down from the car and used the second blanket piece to wrap the child around her.

She picked the pistol from the car, and looked back at the wreckage. By now none of her pursuers were moving again. Crunching and splashy sounds came from the contact if their bodies and the mouth of the infected.

She looked ahead, and headed into the forest, in this night, in this cold. She dragged herself through the thick fluff of show, determined to survive.