THE Q-21 VACCINE

Several kilometres from the two men and their hiding place stood the Headquarters of the Institute for Health Research in Middlestown, and atop the building by that time of night stood two helicopters resting and waiting, their large silhouettes as terrifying as the monsters that roamed below.

There was an emergency door below one of the helicopters, and this was where the team that had risked themselves made their entry.

The door opened to a laboratory which at this point, contained a team of ten medical and scientific personnel working within the safety of the laboratory's thick walls and even thicker metal doors, while being protected by a squad of the Special Secret Forces who were heavily armed, their black clothing a contrast to all of the white in the room.

A large computer screen was flashing numerical digits, and another one the same size next to it was showing images of some organic chemical combinations.

Amongst the medics and scientists was a particularly bald, short man in glasses who was walking about with short quick steps, dishing out instructions to the members of the team who were hard at work.

“Here, Doctor Robertson. You should see this.” One of them called out to him, peering into a microscope.

The man rushed there, going to peer into the microscope. Under it, he could see two cells, one of them a grey, spherical thing, and the other white, both a size invisible to the human eye unless seen with the aid of a microscope.

“Watch what happens when the two cells mingle, Sir.”

He observed it, waiting for the said thing to happen. To a layman, it would have been like watching two bubbles combine. The only difference was that the white one absorbed the grey and then became larger, seemingly killing it.

“So our modified white blood cells can kill those zombie cells.” He said, a triumphant smile on his face.

“Yes Sir.”

The two men exchanged excited handshakes before the smaller man turned away.

“Team,” he said, raising his arms and waving them until everyone else had gathered around him. “We have made a groundbreaking transformation in the research in the aid of finding the vaccine. Admittedly, we have been too slow, as we should have worked faster for a vaccine since that virus first escaped the laboratory three months before now, and released the vaccines before today. But as they say, better late than never.”

Turning around, he took a small, amber-coloured test tube and raised it.

“This is what our efforts have culminated in. A modified combination of our regular human white blood cells with zombie cells through mitosis has evolved in this vaccine, which we expect to kill the zombie cells by absorption. Now, to test it—”

He went towards a glass bank and took out a laboratory mouse. Feeding a small amount of the escaped Q-21 zombie virus into the thing's bloodstream, they were all sorely tempted to cover their ears with the shrill, unholy sound it was making.

It was still in his hands, and they watched in horror as the Q-21 zombie virus they created took its action. At once, its skin and hair turned grey and took on the appearance of something rotting, its beady black eyes took on a grey appearance, and it was making some shrill sounds.

“And, for our vaccine…” he continued, injecting a newer fluid into the animal. “We cannot be assured that it can completely kill all the zombie cells in the body, but it will be a groundbreaking achievement if we can succeed in killing most of them, as it will help us with saving infected patients by the virus.”

They all watched with rapt attention, doctor and soldier alike, both those who saved lives and those who took them as he put it back in the bank.

The mouse now stopped squeaking, and they continued to watch.

An hour later, the mouse was back to normal, just the exact way it had been before it was injected with the virus, a quiet, clean, beautiful furred furred animal. A cheerful round of applause erupted from Doctor Robertson, his team, and the soldiers protecting them as they turned to each other and shared hugs.

There was now a vaccine to combat the Q-21 zombie virus.

There was a general, excited mood as the team worked on reproducing their newly created vaccine against the new virus, and three hours later, there were four large special boxes stacked in preparation for their fight against the virus.

The Special Secret Forces members loaded the boxes in the helicopters, and the personnel crammed themselves in the helicopters, leaving three men— two armed members of the Special Secret Forces and one medical personnel to take care of the lab.

The three men, although unnerved, assured themselves of the strength of the laboratory's strong, several inch thick steel walls and went out into an outside room, where they had beds, and their meals. They all say to a happy, hearty dinner of oats and were playing cards three hours later when there was a sound from inside the laboratory.

Alarmed, all the three men looked at each other in terror, aware of the chaos outside their walls and wondering if one of the zombies had broken in. The next five minutes were spent with the men silently arguing with gestures over who was to check until the Special Secret Forces men decided to go since they were armed.

They had only gone a few steps towards the door, pointing their guns when the medical personnel came running after them.

“I don't want to be left behind.” He shrugged as they turned to look at him with raised eyebrows.

One of them reached to open the door and swung it in, pointing his gun in all directions with caution. They all saw nothing, not even when they marched into the lab.

“You think the zombie will attack us if it knows we are here?” The medical personnel asked, his fear evident on its face.

“Shut the hell up, man.” They shouted him down.

He raised his hand to his mouth to quiet himself.

The trio went deeper into the lab, pointing their guns and finding nothing yet, assured themselves that they had only been overthinking the sound.

They turned to go when an entire shelf turned over, the contents crashing to the ground to reveal a large mouse the size of a horse with rotting features and grey eyes.

“Oh holy Christ it's that fucking mouse.” The medical personnel cried, running off with one of the Special Secret Forces men hard on his trail, throwing his gun away. The other dared to open fire, shooting until his gun ran out of ammunition and yelling, only to be quieted by the mouse rushing towards him.

Thirty minutes later, the large mouse chewed its way through the steel walls, with bloodstains on its mouth, the three men nowhere to be found.