142 Borrowed Time

"Adam...."

"Adam... It's been three days. Last night, I dreamt that you'll wake up today... I wish you wake right now… I have to go for a few hours be right back soon okay.."

Adam could faintly hear a familiar voice calling him. Someone dear to him,  but he couldn't move nor say anything.

Daisy... Daisy... these words repeated in his mind... He was unable to control his body...

Ba-dump. Ba-dump.

Suddenly, his heart started beating much faster and blood pumped rigorously all over his body.

Ever since the Doomsday started, most of the hospital's medical equipment had been broken, making it hard to properly monitor and do complicated medical procedures to the patients.

When the city started to rebuild and the generators kicked in, most of the main equipment had been fixed but the cardiac event recorder was one of the devices prioritized, after all, it was one of the things that could be left alone and monitor the patient's life sign.

Adam's hand finger twitched and half an hour later Adam slowly moved and opened his eyes.

A nurse heard fast beeping of the machine and noticed Adam's hands shaking a little bit. She rushed to his bed. "Someone get a doctor!"

Adam felt weak all over his body, he couldn't even lift his arms properly.

Just as soon as the doctor came in, the beeping dwindled, they thought Adam was going to die and prepared themselves to revive him. Usually, if the beeping started going very fast, it would soon show a straight line, but in this case, it actually stabilized!

Adam was sweating all over and the nurse opened his t-shirt's button to cool him off and wipe it off. But she stopped her movements.

Adam's cuts, bruises, wounds, were fixing itself at a visible pace. He then felt his strength returning.

The doctor and nurse gaped in awe seeing the miraculous thing.

"This is amazing," the doctor said.

Adam sat up and looked at the doctor. "What's happening to me, Doc?"

The doctor pondered for a moment and said, "Your body has gone through some changes. But I'm more surprised at how you are still alive. We couldn't quite understand it."

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When Adam was unconscious, the doctor compared his blood samples and that of the pale men, the doctor ran some tests and found that there were foreign substances going through Adam's body.

The blood from the black mutant zombie goes into the bones, muscles, and tissues expanding them causing explosive powers at the cost of damaging the host's body. But Axel's regenerative ability was in the blood. Fortunately, Axel's blood was compatible with Adam and it integrated itself to Adam's bone marrow enhancing all of the cells, but particularly the white blood cells.

The white blood cells are the cells of the immune system that are involved in protecting the body against both infectious disease and foreign invaders. Further subtypes can be classified; for example, among lymphocytes, there are B cells, T cells, and NK cells.

The enhanced white blood cells eat the black cells, but whenever the black cells count is almost extinguished, it becomes berserk, expanding everything within the body of the host at an alarming rate. Unfortunately, the enhanced white blood cells aren't fast enough to eat all of the black cells in time, thus, Adam is required to take it every 3 days. It's stuck in an endless loop.

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"Stop, doctor. Tell me… who else knows about this?" Adam asked.

"Only your family, sir. Your father the President knows."

Adam stared into the window. His father knew about his condition, he didn't know whether he should feel comfort or not. But at the very least, his friends didn't know even Daisy. With that thought, at least he was comforted.

Knowing he has been lying on the bed for three days, he quickly looking for the two injections he has left, the doctor told him that his father has kept them.

Adam stood up, got dressed, and walked out of his room like he was never sick.

Arriving downstairs, Melissa greeted him and told him about where Daisy had gone.

"Have you seen Romi and the other misfits?" Melissa asked.

Adam actually didn't want too, he wasn't sure how he should face them. But thinking that this might be the last time he will see them, he decided to go with Melissa.

In another building, next to the medical center, there he saw Romi and a few misfits together with almost 300 other people constantly being watched over and being given treatment.

Romi saw Adam and grabbed Adam's arms. "You're awake! That's great! Adam! Adam! Hei! Please tell your father I'm fine! Hahahaha!"—his grip tightened—"I'm really fine! I just hurt some people, but it was for self-defense!"

The nurses saw the commotion and tried to drag Romi away. Struggling, he said, "Now that you're back in action, we go on adventures again! Hahaha!" Laughing like a madman, the nurses held him down and injected some medication to calm him.

Adam's eyes were wide at the event happening.

Seeing Adam's reaction, Melissa said, "The doctors said that due to deep trauma. They have been suffering psychologically. Those with a stronger mind will be able to recover quickly. But for those that aren't, they'll need psychological treatment that could take up to weeks. Maybe even more."

Melissa fidgeted and asked Adam, "I-I've been a captive in that cursed place longer than you guys. The basement, I've never been there, but I've seen what happened to the people who went there. Nobody comes back out alive. What happened down there Adam?"

Adam looked Melissa in the eyes. If it wasn't for Axel's special blood, he would most probably be one of those people she mentioned. Dead, thrown out to the streets being eaten by rats while rotting.

He shook his head trying to forget the resurfacing memories of his tortures. Thinking about the 6 days he has left, explaining what happened would be just a waste of time and he doesn't really want to tell that tale. He needed to get out of here and meet with his father.

Melissa noticed that Adam's hiding something, she's always the smart one in the group. "You can tell me anything, Adam… please..."

She had a crush on him for a few years, but Adam never looked her way. She kept a watchful eye at Adam, however, Adam ignored her as he turned around and went on to his next destination, the presidential office.

Mountain of papers, full of people chattering, asking him for permission and reporting to him. Rico had left the government unattended for 10 days so this wasn't surprising. But he ordered all of them to stop when he saw a familiar figure standing in front of his door.

"Son."

"Father."

Rico noticed Adam looking around and knew what he wanted.

"Everyone, leave for the moment. I have important things to talk with my son."

"But, Mr.Presi—"

"Please… leave!"

The people inside the office were surprised by the President's tone. After a moment, all of them walked away and left the presidential office.

Adam walked closer and said, "Father, I've come for my stuff. I need them."

"Yes," Rico said. He pulled his top desk drawer, took out two injections filled with the black cell and placed it on the table.

"Son, what's this thing? None of the scientists know what this is and the doctors haven't found any clue about your condition. I am about to bring in Alex on this. He might be able to help."

Rico compared the report on Adam's condition and the report on the pale fighters and he has seen how the pale fighters died one by one. The last three days he's been praying it won't be the same with Adam. Seeing each day his health turn better, his worries started to dwindle.

"Don't worry, father. I'll be fine."

Adam had heard about his father anointed as president and how he left the city for days looking for him. It's very hard for him to picture it as he never had that kind of relationship with his father before. But it would be lying if he didn't feel good about it. It appeared that his father really cared deeply for him.

Now that his father has become the leader of the country in the center of all the biggest crisis humankind ever face. He didn't want to give him any more trouble.

Rico sighed. "There must be something we can do."

Adam asked, "Do you know where the ship heading to?"

"Our scouts followed them along the coastline west of Java, but apparently they left faraway probably to Sumatra island or even further."

Adam had heard his captor talk about going to the Middle East. If they truly went that far, his only chance of survival was probably gone away with the ship.

"Son, you should get back and rest at the hospital. Have the doctors check your condition for a couple more days."

"Don't worry, father. I feel really great."

Rico eyed him from head to toe. Adam's physical appearance shows that he's fine. Moreover,  for some reason, Rico could feel Adam's exuding some kind of aura. A powerful aura. It seemed that he's really fine.

"What you plan to do then?"

It seems there's nothing much he could do right now. Looking at the two injections in his hand. He sighed at the thought of less than a week. He's on borrowed time. Thinking of Daisy, he just wanted to spend his last few days he has left with her.

"I'm going to rest for a couple of days, I guess. Don't worry about me, Father. You have a big responsibility now. A lot of lives depend on you. Please remember that."

Adam slowly turned around and left the room.

Rico, seeing the figure moving away in the distance, felt something as if it will be the last time he will be seeing his son.

"Daisy, where are you..."