04 The Rebirth

   William Daniels opens his eyes finding himself on the bathroom floor, his mind quickly racing through all the events that led to this. Several minutes pass before he realizes the blood that poured from his body has dried leaving him to wonder how long he has been here before the surreal thought that seems to echo in his mind..... "Why am I even alive?"

   Struggling to stand using everything in reach he can brace himself with, William reaches his feet to the shock of his own reflection in the mirror. His skin has turned a grayish-blue, veins showing through the skin and the color has all but faded away in his eyes. As his eyes adjust over the moments spent feeling shock, he remembers the pain of Shannon ripping his throat open as he looks at the open wound in the mirror. Unable to make sound even now, he reaches up pushing his finger into the hole in his neck through his windpipe wondering why he doesn't gag. Pulling his finger out, he stands looking in the mirror lost in the image that stares back at him, but is quickly snapped back to the groaning sound of his wife in the next room.

   William has to concentrate at first to simply reach the doorknob and turn it opening the door as he exits into the hallway. He takes a few moments looking around realizing she is still locked in the bedroom, obviously giving up breaking the door after losing sight of him. Walking over to the door and peering in, he feels joy as his wife walks towards the hole in the door hoping she remembers him. After a few sniffs in his direction, she turns and continues rambling around the bedroom. William feels the need to cry but the tears simply refuse to flow as he watches her realizing this isn't Shannon anymore. He begins to plan out how to put her out of her misery when the sudden and intense pain comes as only one word repeats over and over in his mind......... FEED.

   Turning away and walking towards the front door, William begins slapping the piled furniture to the side quickly realizing the strength he now possesses. Opening the door and walking into the hallway, his nose begins to burn as he catches the scent of food, the smell is intoxicating as he turns walking down the hallway among the few infected that beat at the doors making him realize there are people hiding in the apartments on this floor. The smell in the air drives him to begin marching to the closest door as his brain races in an attempt to stop himself. William has become helpless inside his own body as he approaches the door and the three infected beating at the door.

    His mind remains a captive in his own body as he approaches and begins ripping into the infected that stand between him and his prey. Grabbing the nearest of the three, he begins bashing the skull of the woman into the fire extinguisher box on the wall as her skull quickly breaks and spills open as brain, blood and some type of black goop drip from the opened forehead while chunks of flesh fly on every strike. Dropping her body, William quickly grabs the second by the head flinging the infected man backwards against the wall. As the body falls limp, William begins twisting and pulling at the head still gripped in his hands until ripping it loose from the body. With only one left in his way, he grabs the large man and begins ramming his body into the door of the apartment head first like a battering ram. A few minutes of nonstop battering leaves little of the head of this large man as William realizes he has broken several bones in his hand before repositioning and continues ramming.

    As the door finally splinters, William is taken over by the intoxicating scent of the survivor inside the apartment as he throws the body down and begins punching, kicking and ramming the door. The scream of the woman inside begin driving him into an even more furious rage as he begins cracking the door. The door finally gives way to his attack as he stumbles into the living room and falling into the back of the couch. A quick glance down the hallway allows him to see the woman who screamed as he battered the door. She is in her twenties with long red hair, pale skin and somewhat thin. He struggles to remember her name hoping to snap his body from the drive that overtakes it to kill and feed, a fight that is for nothing as he screams out the same familiar war cry Shannon used as she ran and attacked. Tackling the girl as the two fall to the ground in the doorway of the bathroom, William realizes a few infected have filed into the apartment and will attempt to join him. Standing quickly and grabbing the young lady by the hair, he gives a hard snap to fling her into the bathroom before entering as well and closing the door.

   The woman's head busted open from the force her head hits the tiles on the shower wall, the scent of her blood drives him even stronger as he turns and attacks quickly ripping into her throat with his teeth and pinning her arms to the wall. He cannot bear the sounds of her screaming as he continues tearing flesh from bone as he begins biting and ripping angrily at the woman. Ripping her shirt as he finishes eating the flesh from her neck, William begins tearing at her shoulder as she whimpers out her last words.... "Please, just don't let me become what you are". The words rip at his mind as his body continues to devour the woman.

   As the rage calms in his mind, William realizes he has devoured nearly the entire torso and both arms leaving exposed bones and half eaten organs along with splatters of blood all around the shower stall. The hunger calms as William Daniels regains control of his body as he raises up from the partially eaten woman and looks to the ceiling.

   "DAMMIT!!!! NOOOOOOO!!!!" The words echo in the bathroom as William realizes he has made sound again. He falls back from the partially eaten girl feeling intoxicated by the feeding as he tries to pull himself to his feet. Leaning on the door as he stands, William reaches for the sink in an effort to catch it as he stumbles and once again, shocked by the sight in the mirror. He looks completely normal with the exception of the huge scar across his neck where his wife ripped it open. The texture is rough as he runs his fingers across the scar tissue. He begins washing his face and chest after removing his blood-soaked shirt disgusted by what is now implanted in his mind never thinking about the infected gathered outside the door.

   "Wait a minute" Andrea quickly interrupts William's story with a question of her own, "You mention the scarring on your neck, but there is nothing there now. Can you explain that?" William takes a deep breath as he hangs his head in shame.

   "Over the months that followed, every feeding seemed to heal my neck a little more until it was gone. The only thing that never healed was the arm. The bites closed and scarred over, but never went away. I have no idea why or how, it just happened." William refuses to look up to Andrea as she starts to reach for his hand.

   "Do not do that. Do not touch me and definitely do not feel sorry for me. Emotions create different scents for me and pity is like that amazing apple pie your grandmother might make that just a whiff makes your mouth water uncontrollably." The two remain silent for the longest five minutes either has experienced until Andrea finally breaks the silence.

  "What came next for you, Mister Daniels?"

   "What do you think happened? I had become normal, or as close as I could get, so my mind rationalized one of the worst things I have done since this started," William raises his head as a small drop of black fluid runs from his eye as the eye slightly coulds up, "I began feeding Shannon."