infection.

The rest of the bus ride was uneventful in Andrew's opinion as the only other drama was a fight between two girls over one guy. Andrew was also glad to overhear-through the chain mail of gossip- that both girls dumped the guy and decided to be friends.

'That hardly ever happens, good for them' He thought.

Once they arrived in the city everyone began sighing in awe at the view of the capital. It was beautiful. The place was clean and the building were tall and glistening that if you looked high enough your eyes would hurt.

On the streets they saw people professionally dressed walking around with ear buds in their ears and hurriedly walking to whatever appointment they had.

There was a park that they passed that had the most beautifully looking dogs being walked, or playing around. And also a strip of food trucks that were new and shiny unlike the ones he'd see at home. Everything about the Capitol was clean.

Andrew began dreaming of a life here, amongst the elite. He had never been to the Capitol, and he was so shocked by the staggering difference it had between their home down. If this place was so clean and sophisticated, Andrew couldn't help but wondering where in the world was Jared going to perform.

Then finally they reached the hospital. It was a huge wide building, with layers of blue glass and white stripes and a red cross on its doors. The place looked beautiful. At the back of the building however there was a field. Where you could see people in hospital gowns being guided by family members or medical personal.

The bus however carried on driving by going around the hospital grounds and ending up at the huge parking lot.

Once the bus had found it's parking spot, the bus stopped. Our homeroom teacher stood up to get the attention of the students as she was about to make an announcement.

"I would like you all to go out in single file." Everybody groaned at being treated like children. "So once the right side of this row goes, the left side will file out next and then the next row does the same, so on and on. Do you understand?"

"Yes Mrs Pitt!" everyone grumbled, hating that they had to be treated like kids.

"Alight off you go." She said.

One by one they files out and because Andrew was the last person in the last row, naturally, he'd have to wait for everyone to file out.

Once that happened and he was about to get out of the bus Mrs Pitt pulled him aside, "Are you okay Andrew?"

Andrew smiled, nonchalantly, "Yeah sure, why wouldn't I be?"

"Well you had a nosebleed twice. I'm concerned and since we're in a hospital, I guess it's best if you go for a check-up."

"No, it's fine. This has happened before. There's no need to worry." Andrew dismissively said.

That only deepened the lines of concern on Mrs Pitt's face, "You see, that makes me even worry more. There's been word that anyone who's experiencing nosebleeds needs to be checked out by a health professional. It's still new information and they haven't told the public yet but they alerted us teachers." Mrs Pitt waited for Andrew to reply saying that he understood but he was shocked.

Could the 7th wave be here already? Was he infected? But that couldn't be possible since these 'episodes' happened frequently when he was younger, but he wasn't infected then. If only he could explain to Mrs Pitt first.

"I am used to having these nosebleeds, I used to have them a lot when I was younger. Please I can't miss the whole point of this field trip." He started begging.

Mrs Pitt frowned in thought and then brightly said, "Oh no dear, we weren't planning on letting you miss the field trip. As you know the virus can only enter onces immune system only through bodily fluids but since the virus mutates every wave. I suggest you wear safety gloves and a mask during the tour of the research lab in the hospital. Is that okay?" She said kindly, then she went a first aid bag she was carrying and handed him the mask and a pair of gloves.

"I understand." Andrew replied embrassed. 'Now this is going to cause a panic' He thought. By giving him the mask and the gloves they've made it obvious that he could he infected with something, specifically the 'virus'.

Andrew let out a long sigh before putting on the blue mask and gloves. He found that the mask made breathing uncomfortable and the gloves stuck to him tightly.

"Can I go now?" He asked Mrs Pitt.

"Yes you can." She replied satisfied.

Andrew left his teacher and caught up with his classmates. Though he tried to keep to the back, there were still people who noticed him and whispered to the person next to them about his mask and gloves. If he didn't have a mask on, he would have smiled awkwardly, trying to reassure them that he was not infected.

Eventually, news made it to Jared that Andrew was sick, "Hey, people are saying that Andrew is wearing a mask and gloves.i thought he was okay?" Sheryl whispered to him.

"Yeah he is. I don't know why he's wearing the mask." Jared said look back at the group to where Andrew was. He was indeed wearing the standard caution attire when there was a wave taking place. He sighed loudly.

"I'm going to wait here for Andrew, give me a second." Jared said, as the group made it to the back entrance of the building, that lead to the research lab.

"Okay." Sheryl said nervously. She did not want Jared catching whatever it was that Andrew had.

Once Andrew had caught up to the entrance to the research lab. He saw Jared waiting for him. "I thought we said I was fine." He looked at the the concerned look Jared gave him. "This us a hospital remember?"

Jared removed himself from the wall he was leaning on, "Yeah but why the fuck are you wearing that?"

"Mrs Pitt said the 7th wave is on its way and I am showing symptoms."

"Wow." Was all Jared could say. Then he tilted his head and frowned, "You're sure?" He asked skeptically.

"Yeah." Andrew reassured him but he was not sure with himself to begin with.

"Wow." Jared said again. If the 7th wave was happening he should at least go out with a bang.

"But you can not tell anyone though." Andrew quickly said.

These sort of things only caused more unnecessary panic, as a new round of vaccinations are going to be made to combat this new wave, therefore delaying it. However, there was a chance that wave could happen with all the prevention methods that are put in place.

"It probably won't amount into anything. They're probably working on the cure right now, in there." Andrew said looking at the group of students moving further into the building.

"Yeah, well I'm going to stay here and wait for the others to bunk." Jared held out his hand. "See you at home, brother."

"Yeah, see you." Andrew took Jared's hand and they did their secret handshake, that they've had since they were four.

After their goodbye, Andrew ran to catch up with the group of students, looking for Sheryl, who was just at the end.

Once he had caught up he stood next to Sheryl, "Jared is waiting for you guys at the door."

Sheryl just nodded her head without replying and signaled to the other members of their band that they had to find a way to sneak away.

They still had plenty of time as the contest they were participating in was at night but they still had to practice and get everything else ready.

No longer finding it any of his business, Andrew began focusing on the tour guide they had. It seemed this lanky looking guy with a long red nose and the girl with the shaved head and a nose piercing were interns at the institute.

"Joseph Rodwell is known by the entire world as a man of science who conquered mankind's biggest threat. With a team of specialists and hard work he was able to treat the Caro-ves virus, then making the most celebrated man in history." The girl with short hair said in a bored voice. It seemed that they did thus often. "After treating everyone of this virus, the world government built state of the art research labs and hospital in every zone of every country. That way, Rodwell can guide the greatest minds of our nation to be able to deal with such a threat."

The tall, red nosed intern finally spoke up, "How much of the world's population was infected with the Caro-ves virus?" He asked everyone.

Andrew quickly put his hand up, the red nosed guy ignored it with an annoyed look on his face. Eventually, someone else picked up her hand, "About 64.3% of the world's population."

"Why was the virus able to infect so many people, when a virus like HIV, did not even make those numbers?" Red nose said looking at the girl who answered the previous question.

"I don't know." The girl finally said after a long silence and Andrew picked his hand up to be noticed.

Still, red nose ignored him. "That's because, part of the viruses symptoms is the infected person wanting to infect others. This was the first time the world had to deal with a virus that had an intent of multiplication." He began to explain, "That's why it was so hard to treat a virus that caused complete system failure on a humans organs and then revives them on its own life force. For weeks the infected human would infect at least ten people around them through a number of ways. As their skin easily ruptures and they bleed on everything, their bodily fluids filled with a virus not any cleaning detergent can get rid of. Slowly-"

The girl with the short hair looked at her fellow intern with a scowl and interrupted him. "Slowly the body of the infected would rot on the inside, eventually leaving them bedridden but living on this life force called Caro-ves 3196. Well that continued to happen until Joseph Rodwell used his degrees in Chemistry, Biology, Pathology and Epidemiology to stop the spread completely. This saved the remaining 35.7%. Can anyone tell me what his breakthrough was?"

"The Samantha gene." Some random student said out loud.

"Yes, when monitoring his group of patients, one of them was called Samantha Curtis. And what was so important about Samantha Curtis?" She asked no one in particular but Red nose decided that this was his opportunity to butt in.

"She had-" But Red nose was intercepted by someone just as tall as him but only very handsome, the man, looked to be in his late twenties and had green eyes. He smiled earnestly at everyone,"She had a specific gene that made her immune to the virus. It turned out that when the virus infected her, it shut down her bodily functions-just like it does to every infected person-but just before it revives her, the virus mutates creating unimaginable pain for Samantha and then her immune system instead revived her. Making her completely healed and uninfected."