[Previously: After my heart rate slows I actually start to enjoy the murmuring laughter and gossip. It’s like nothing is wrong with these throat ripping, limb removing guards. Almost like they weren’t that threatening at all.]

I wait a little bit longer until the murmur of voices, the sound of running water and steam starts to lull me into a false sense of security and go back to showering. I just wish there were curtains. I close my eyes again, unable not to hear the others' heartbeats so close to me. The viruses inside me conveniently only react to how relaxed my body is and with the warm water and soothing sounds they’re pretty chill. I take a deep breath as I go to wash the suds out of my hair when I sense someone’s presence. I turn my head as the head guard, still wearing his black tee and pants stands with his arms folded. The giant muscular man looks very upset. My mouth is open, I realize that I am very naked. 

His face becomes even more stoney and he casually says, “You’re in my shower.” I’m frozen and panicking. But at the same time I can’t believe the audacity of him. I point at the shower directly across from me like, 'That one is free.' He blinks at me slowly and then points to the number carved into the shelf then at the tattoo of the same number on his neck. I realize my mistake. He steps closer and I take a step back and he growls, “Not only that but you’re using my towel.” I can see that I’ve been set up. And I feel the virus flood my system with the, hopefully, necessary adrenaline to keep me alive. 

But turns out he took one look at my terrified, panicked response and didn’t have time to deal with it. He starts stripping, “I don’t have time for this, I have places to be and only so much time to shower.” I flush and look away then quickly start to grab the towel but the guard moves it and is now stepping in. “Move over.” He orders and steps into the water making me scramble back. I back into a corner quickly making sure not to stare, averting my eyes.

He sighs enjoying the hot water rubbing it over himself and I flush, watching. He doesn’t care at all. I keep slightly turned away to hide my parts but glance at his muscles as he meticulously scrubs himself down.

“You don’t seem that squeamish.” He rumbles suddenly, making me jump. “Though skittish around us guards, he puts a hand on the wall leaning in a little making my heartbeat do that one beat thing it does when I start looking more infected. Which he of course hears. "Or is it just me?" he asks. I know not to look, I know that if I do I will make the situation ten times worse but my eyes dart down and back up. He raises an eyebrow as I get even redder in the face. He’s huge. The guard stands up taller and puts his other arm up now I’m completely locked in. I’m shaking a little but I glance down again this time he looks down and back up to meet my eyes.

After a long electrifying moment he points to his number on the bottles, “You have some nerve using my product.” Then gestures to the soap, “Make yourself useful.” I actually have lost my voice at this point and let out a little zombie growl. He tilts his head then growls softly back at me. I tense up when I understand the meaning behind it. It was a don’t test me, I’m in charge command. He then starts applying shampoo, “If you’re going to stay, make yourself useful.” I haven’t finished showering, I’m not ready to be done and I don’t want to piss him off more than he already was, I’m screaming internally. I accept it and start to obey before I think to hard about it.

He starts rinsing himself off again. I know my eyes turned black with pale irises because he asks, “When did they infect you?” I try to answer but only let out a little zombie growl. “Are you a sex slave or something? I keep saying I don’t want rewards like that.” He asks as I humiliatingly scrub his body. 'You were the one that asksed me to do this?!' I shake my head no. The only thing is, this wasn’t entirely unpleasant. As long as he wasn’t going to hurt me. He's my type I think looking at the bluish black veins on his hairy chest and my dark dead fingertips. “What are you doing here and with this, then?” He grabs my muzzle from one of the metal bars lifting it and my head to force eye contact. I try to talk again flustered and frustrated that I was enjoying everything about his treatment towards me bu tthat I couldn't defend myself. I just manage a raspy growl.

He makes a hmm noise and then says, “You look familiar.” I shiver a little in fear as his eyes rake over me. I decide to leave, like I should have from the beginning, ducking under his arm. He grabs me, pinning me against the wall. “Are you that intern?” I stare wide-eyed. He glances back over his shoulder, “They’ll kill you.” He explains. “You came in here for me despite the fact that if I rejected you, you’d get torn apart?”

I’m starting to realize that my options are becoming very limited. I can’t help it. I glance again at his package and look away quickly. I'm going to be torn apart either way! “Calm down, I’m not going to hurt you.” He chuckles, “At least not unless you try something.” 

I lower my head crossing my arms as he finishes sudsing up having taken the soap from me. I keep my arms tucked in close to myself. Why would that scientist set me up like this? I guess I started shivering because he looked at me again. He snorts and pulls me into the warm water. I gasp but he just leans against the wall to relax looking away to give me my privacy. After a long time thinking and peripherally watching me wash my hair, hooking the grill of my muzzle he pulls me closer.

I grit my teeth looking up at his calm face waiting to see what he was going to do, chest heaving in trepidation. “You’re kind of cute.” He growls very quietly. He barely bares his teeth in a smile and I see fangs. I flush remembering that he was the one training who ripped out his opponents throat. He smells me, subtly turning his face into my neck before taking the larger towel and stepping out of the shower wrapping it around his waist.

I watched him leave wondering if the feeling that's like electricity in my veins is danger or a crush. He’s definitely incredibly dangerous, the scars slashing his perfect muscular skin warn of this. Every fiber tells me to avoid him but he didn’t do anything to hurt me and warned me about the other danger as well. 

I wait until the rest of the guards leave and it’s silent before I leave the shower. Getting toweled off and dressed in clean clothes I realize I don’t know where to go next. I’m assuming that I’m somewhere I’m not supposed to be so anywhere I do go I could be in danger. I step out into the hallway having a general idea of how to get back the way I came. I look the other way and wonder what’s up there. Cafeteria? Dorms? Probably more guards. I turn and go the opposite direction back the way the scientist led me. I need to be more careful of who I trust. 

I managed to travel quite some distance before I encountered the first problem: I didn't have access to the door. The second problem is that a small group of guards are approaching from the other side of it. I could try to rush through when they unlock the door, otherwise I’d have to run back the way I came. Which means I could get caught and I’m not sure if talking is an option this time. I hear the beep and eyes narrowing like tunnel vision I slip through. I cough as I’m immediately caught by the highly trained guards and slammed against the wall by my throat. 

Through my watery vision I see three teeth bared and somewhat shocked guards. “What’s this?” The one that caught me teases amused he sniffs me and then makes a face. “Trying to escape?” He drags me back inside and then once the door closes tosses me to the floor I cough grabbing my neck and bear my teeth. Growling as I almost lose control, my vision is warped and I tense up on the floor as they circle me. My teeth hurt and I start drooling excessively. My main form of self defense is muzzled. I’m fucked. 

I moan and roll gasping as I try to catch my breath. I hold my stomach retching as I make guttural noises. Apparently submitting in zombie speak. The guards responded with something along the lines of they were having too much fun beating the shit out of me. The next kick made me black out for a second. Then I have my claws through their neck. There’s a moment of silence and shock and then I run. I run knowing there’s only one way to survive and that’s by having a scientist or doctor tell them off. 

I don’t know if I’ve ever been this scared before the feral noises of zombies would have been less terrifying than the silent determination of these guards to catch me. And they did. In barely a minute. I feel my leg get yanked from beneath me and fall, guard rolling over with me multiple times before pinning me. It’s the one I stabbed through the neck. He no longer looks like he’s having fun. I pant in terror and yell the only thing I could think of before he bites out my throat, “Nine!” He hesitates teeth literally on my jugular. “Shit,” is all he says getting up, then gesturing to the others, “You think Nine will notice we roughed his toy up?” I literally throw my head back still trembling.

Black blood oozes out of my nose and mouth. I stare at the ceiling now that the adrenaline wears off everything starts hurting. I curl into a ball wheezing. “Just…don’t let him know it was us.” One suggests.

“It saw us.” The other one reminds him and then makes me flinch by yanking me up by my hair.

“Lets just drop him off and apologize, it’s the toy’s fault for not saying something sooner. Also it ran away so it should have been punished anyway.”

I whimper as I’m dragged through the hallway past the cafeteria and apparently to Nine’s room. They knock then open the door and realize he’s not there. “We may have lucked out.” The first one whispers and they throw me into his room. Despite hurting, I go to the door and try to open it, again I don’t have clearance. I slide down the door and fall just in the doorway exhausted. I wait for what feels like hours before I hear someone outside the door, it swishes open and I close my eyes expecting anger or annoyance. 

I hear him sigh, “You have to be fucking kidding me.” I don’t move as he steps over me and starts stripping off his sweaty clothing. “I’m not in the mood for this.” He says to me, “I’ve had a shitty day.” I feel my jaw tighten and I force myself to breathe, relaxing my vocal cords enough to sarcastically grumble, “Can’t relate.” He throws himself on his mattress, but rolls over to look down at me, “So it speaks.” I growl in zombie conveying annoyance but the pain I’m feeling comes out too and I finish in a whimper tightening the ball I was curled into. 

“How did you get here?” He asks. 

I try to sit up but wince and lay back down, “Got caught.” 

“No I mean why were you even in the showers?” 

“I, I guess I was set up.” I look up at him. 

He has his eyes closed, breathing deeply but still responds, “They must really want you dead.” 

“Good thing I met you first then.” He doesn’t say anything for a while and I close my eyes to try to rest through the agonizingly slow healing process. 

I wake up to find that he had given me a pillow and a sweater as a blanket. Then again when he’s getting dressed for his shift. He looks down at me. Then grunting, “Make yourself at home.” Steps over me to leave. I cover my face with the sweater feeling warmth in my chest. The door opens and I hear the sounds of multiple guards footsteps. Then it clicks closed and I’m in the dark again. I close my eyes and try to sleep off the pain as much as possible.

A collar wearing individual enters and cleans up the dirty clothes, trash, and makes the bed with fresh linen then looking at me for a shameless amount of time leaves again. The sound of someone outside the door wakes me up again and a nurse enters. They look at me and then gesture for someone to bring something. I watch them treat my wounds and after having water poured into my mouth to take medicine they lay me in the guards bed.  

I sleep a little easier now that the pain is numbed. The sound of guards returning to their dorms and the next shift waking up and leaving startles me a little. The guard is standing over me. I guess he wasn’t expecting me to look so human while sleeping because he lets out a, “Oh it’s still you.” As my veins darken and my vision shifts. He gestures to my bandages, “I see you garnished pity from the servants.” I sit up and feel my stomach growl. I touch my face and the muzzle, ‘eating is gonna be difficult with this on.’ “They’re looking for a lost experiment.” Hesays, arms folded staring at me. “I’m guessing that’s you.” I look at him, wide innocent eyes shifting back and forth, I shrug. ‘It’s probably me, how many missing specimens do they have?’ 

“Rumor is the newest specimen is a hybrid.” He starts walking around the bed towards me. I start to get nervous and test my ribs nope I wouldn’t be doing any running or fighting anytime soon. “And that he was brought in by specimen zero.” He bares his teeth voice filling with hate. This is the first time I see him lose composure enough for his eyes to change. I figure my zombie instincts would know how to placate him. I bare my teeth and let out a ‘stay back, I'm frightened’ noise. He stiffens and grabs me by the muzzle. ‘Guess not.’ “You are such a cocky little bitch.” He laughs, obviously very irritated with me but holding himself back. 

Then he leans in and starts rumbling a warning in his chest, I feel his lips on my neck and gasp wincing away ‘there's no reason he’d bite me right?’ I feel his mouth open and his tongue press against my skin. His sharp teeth scrape my neck for a second and then he bites down. I stiffen and he grabs my wrists. I feel him injecting me with something. I let out a snarl of pain and struggle as he presses me deeper into the bed. His knee comes up between my legs and I start to feel a little aroused the way I’m pinned. 

“You’re kidding me right?” He pulls away, “I always hated that little cunt.” He lets the blood drip from his lips onto my face. “Let's see how specimen zero reacts to me injecting you with my virus.” I still have my wrists pinned above my head and I feel pain from the bite and it fighting inside of me. It burns and my eyes well up with tears. “I could piss him off more but I don’t want his seconds.” He gives me a shove as he stands up again and folds his arms to watch.

  I narrow my eyes at him hissing from the pain and insults. I curl in on myself as the virus causes my whole body to ache and burn. It’s like the hot and cold flashes from before. I growl and drool, black viscous fluid dripping from my eyes in tears. I breathe rapidly and then to my shock as well as the guards pass out.