The intense brightness of the light-bulb blazed a pattern through my eyelids and into my eyeballs. My head thumped madly, and my body ached all over as never before. As I woke, my consciousness moaned at the memory of electroshock torture I had suffered. Opening my eyes I noticed that I now wore clothing, a dark blue zippered boiler suit, and not the blood stained arsless gown I had sported since I checked out unceremoniously from the hospital. I now also wore black trainers and a large white cloth badge on my chest that said in large black writing simply 'ZEE', a target if ever I did see one.

Swinging my legs out from the bunk and sitting up, I noticed for the first time my breakfast on a tin plate by the door, my heart sank. Before I could react in disgust, I dove to the floor, skidding several feet on my knee and with ravenous eyes I picked up the chunk of meat and lifted it to my mouth.

'Oh no, Rabid's back' I realized.

My protestations echoed around my mind. I begged for Rabid not to eat the meat as he brought it closer to my mouth. I wished I could close my eyes, my senses from what was about to happen. The joint of meat that was held firm in our grasp was pink skinned, pork? No, not pig, I knew instinctively what it was, but it was the partial tattoo of the national flag that confirmed my horrific conclusion, human. I could smell the blood, I could feel the flesh still had warmth, I wanted to vomit. I screamed "Nooo!!"

Rabid stopped, the flesh a hairs width from my lips, and the lowered it. I signed in relief.

All of a sudden a light flared from a viewing window ahead of me, a middle aged man stood behind it looking at me, smiling.

"Hello Gregory, my name is Dr Avorries. I know you have heard of me, as I have heard of you, isn't the world a small place. I know you are in there, I know you understand me even though your Zee has dominance at the moment. I'm sorry about the human flesh we tried to feed you, it was just a little experiment, I didn't believe you would eat it, you see Gregory; you may have noticed that the Zee's don't attack or eat each other. I need to find out why, is there a biological reason or has the Zee virus given them mental abilities, a kind of telepathy you might say, at the moment I don't know, but with your help we can find out" He stepped closer to the glass and then began to paced up and down as he spoke.

"You are a great prize to me, Gregory, a great opportunity to advance my knowledge of the Zee virus. Together we can achieve great things, are you ready to be mankind's savour. I guess I need to bring you to the surface for an answer" he said and flipped a switch.

I listened to his obviously practiced speech, whilst Rabid stalked around the cell, and at the click of the switch I became rigid as a statue on the metal floor, every muscle in my body spasmed, I was in agony. I bit my tongue, but not off, luckily. After several seconds my muscles relaxed, and I collapsed to the floor, only to be greeted by another agonizing belt of electricity, and then rest.

"Are you free Gregory?" Dr Avorries asked hungrily, fascination oozed from him.

For the moment I was unable to move, or to speak, the Doctors hand move towards the switch, he was ready to electrocute me again, but at last I found the strength to hold up an arm, weakly I croaked "Stop!"

"Ah! Welcome back Mr Rabid, I'm please you could make it" Avorries said with a smirk on his face "I hope you're not in too much pain. Electroshock can be very taxing, yes" he said, the smirk still very evident.

I knew at once I didn't like this fellow, not at all, but I'll play along for now. "I'll live, pardon the pun, Doc!" I can see from his grimace that he doesn't like being called Doc. Good, its Doc from now on then.

Avorries forced a smile "So Gregory, do you wish to work with me, to help me save humanity, you will go down in history as their savoir, of sorts" again the smirk, an untrustworthy look, a snide kind of smile that I detested.

Regaining more of my strength I sat up and shuffled along the floor until my back hit the opposite wall, a wall which also had an observation window in it, this one dark, unused.

"Can we start with me first Doc, sort me out, cure me and I'll help you all the way, deal?" My gut told me that this was never going to be an option. I felt that something here was wrong, something didn't feel right with this chap and whatever it was, it was going to happen to me, I knew it. I also knew that the Doc here was going to smirk whilst he did whatever he had planned for me. I didn't wait for his answer.

"Yes Doc, I know of you, I used to deliver items to your research department from Mcgreebs farm, foxes to be precise, what's the chances we would meet like this?" Avorries frowned at my continued use of the word, Doc.

"Ah, Mcgreebs, yes, I received test subjects from there, but I don't ever recall having met you though, although I to have heard of you due to your terrible accident. One of my interns, Sally I think, she was rather upset that day, I think she had a thing for you. She even suggested to me that you would make a suitable intern yourself, but you were admitted to hospital, in a coma, before I could act upon her suggestion, such a shame!" Avorries began to lightly tap the glass, as if he were checking that it was strong enough to protect him, I don't think he knew he was even doing it, a telling tick I think, maybe a lying tick.

I nodded "I remember Sally, she told me all about you to Doc, you know, about your important work at PLEX, research into rabies wasn't it, Doc" My skin grew cold, yet my cell was warm. I became more and more unsettled as we spoke.

"A very informative young girl was our Sally. Oh, I'm sorry I should have said Sally was one of the first to contract the virus I'm afraid. We had to dispose of her body at the last, as we did with many people from her village, Grayday was hard hit those first few weeks, and it was all a terrible business. I do hope you weren't too close to her" His face showed no emotion, it was blank, unreadable. I felt sick at his callus attitude towards other people's suffering.

I swallowed back bile "One of the first, or the first, Doc, was she in the wrong place at the wrong time, or did you choose her specifically I wonder" I accused.

I didn't want to believe that somehow, no matter how insignificant, I was part of the rise of the Zee virus that I helped in small part to the destruction of mankind! I hoped I was wrong about Avorries, but my gut knew I was bang on!

I watched his reaction to my accusation, all he did was smile that cold smirk "I don't know what you are talking about Gregory, I think the electroshock has you confused" again, that inhuman smirk.

I pushed myself up and stumbled across the floor, and lent against the window that separated the two of us "You know exactly what I'm suggesting Doc, it was you wasn't it. It was you who worked on the rabies virus. Yes, I now about rabies, Doc, I wrote a paper about it for my course studies. My name is Rabid; it seemed appropriate as well as ironic for me to do my thesis on the subject. I know the symptoms of Lyssavirus; I'm suffering some of them, but not death. I'm guessing you genetically altered the virus to bring down the incubation period, to be more virulent to increase the infection rate. Why would you do such a thing Doc, was it Military or private business that paid you. And how on earth did you let it get out of control and spread across the world or did you release it on purpose?"

My strength was growing, I was almost ready to break through the window and throttle him with my bare hands. I'll wipe that smirk from off your face you bastard, I thought as I stretched my muscles trying to release the deep ache in them.

"My, my, you are a wealth of information aren't you Gregory, you managed to work all that out just because you delivered Canidae to my facility. Whether detective or guess work I must admit I'm impressed, after all this time no one else managed to guess about my secret work. I suppose it won't hurt for you to know the truth, you will not be here for much longer, not once I have finished cutting up your brain, which by the way you will be fully conscious as I operate, I need to know which part of your unique brain I am cutting into" his smirk now turned into a chilling chuckle, he was enjoying himself.

"You see Gregory, the world was sick, and humanity was that sickness, the population was out of control, the earth could not cope. There was simply too many inferior classes, the human strain had become contaminated with inferior genetics, something had to be done, and I was that something. Political solutions would never be able to deal with such a problem, and religious solutions would only ever lead to war, wars that would last for generations. My way Gregory, was simple, I developed and allowed a virus to weed out all but the superior class, I knew that the superior classes would find a way to protect themselves long enough for me to swoop in and save them with the cure, a cure I have already developed, and once I had saved the world, the few that survived, that I chose to survive will rebuild a new Utopian world, like I said, simple. All worked as planned, except that at the last minute the virus itself mutated, so instead of a world full of dead decaying bodies, I'm left with a world of living walking Zombies. But don't you worry about them; I'm working on a solution to them to"

Avorries was all but preaching now as he paced back and forth behind the window "And then there's you, a surprise of my very own, an unwelcome one at that. I never imagined anyone could survive the virus once infected, I never even considered something such as 'Locked In Syndrome' would pose an issue to me, but that's biology for you. I'm going to cut you up so as to figure out how this is possible and find the connection between Zee's, that's all, nothing more" the Doctor was breathing heavily as his rant ended.

What could I say to this, how could I counter what he had said, if I tried I would be attempting to climb to the summit of his madness, that was what it was, madness, he was clearly insane. He had struck me dum.

I drew up my hands in a growing rage, my temples throbbed and I began to growl his name, and as I readied to strike the window, heedless of the danger of cutting myself to ribbons on the broken glass, I saw the Doctors eyes shift away from me to gaze over my should, I could see fear take over his face. I lowered my hands and turned. Standing in the now lit window of the opposite viewing window stood Rachel, her face pale and drawn. Tears quietly ran over her cheeks as she stared accusingly, unbelieving at Doctor Avorries. Rachel reached over to the side of the window and flipped the switch to open the intercom, and tentatively she whispered a single word "Why!"

At the sound of his voice, I looked back at Avorries. I watched as he attempted to smile innocently across at her "Rachel, how long have you been there my dear" he sounded flustered.

"Long enough Jonathan, long enough, why would you do such a monstrous thing? You've killed so many people "she cried "You killed my husband, my son. I'd finished my patrol and left the police precinct for home that day. When I arrived home I found the front door wide open and I entered with my weapon at the ready, but I wasn't ready, not for the horror that waited for me. My husband, David, he was knelt over my son, Kyle; I couldn't see clearly in the gloom, so I drew open the curtains. There on the floor David cradled Kyle, I approached calling their name, David looked up at me, his eyes were wide and dead, his mouth and face covered in my son's blood. OH DEAR GOD! My husband had killed and was eating his own two year old son" Rachel groaned, and my heart broke for her. "I put a bullet through his head, I killed my husband, I killed my David. You, you bastard, you killed them, them all" Rachel scream at Avorries and raising her hand, she pointed her gun at him.

"You monster" she fired the gun point blank at the window in front of her. I was showered in shards of glass, I dove to the floor, my hands over my head, and the second window pane in front of Avorries exploded almost simultaneously as I rolled towards and under the solitary table in the middle of the room. I felt shards of glass cut into my hands and back, my blood began to flow, a second and third thunderous explosion defend me as Rachel continued to fire.

After a life time of moments the gun fire ceased, the rain of glass had settled on the floor, and I dared to raise my head. Rachel, still standing her arm outstretched, the gun dangling from her finger, cried uncontrollably. I peered over the broken jagged glass of Avorries window, expecting to see his dead body, but he was nowhere to be seen, the door at the back of the viewing room was open. He had escaped, damn!

I tried the door to my cell, locked, so gingerly I climbed over the jagged ridge of Rachel's window. Taking the gun from her hand and laying it on the side, I took Rachel into my arms and held her. I said nothing, there was nothing to say. Eventually her sobs slowed and stopped and as I kiss her forehead she pulls away from me and smiled weakly

"Thank you Gregory" she said as she dried the last of her tears, then reaching out she took back her gun and holstered it.

Placing my fidgety hands in my pockets I asked "Avorries?"

Rachel shook her head "No, I hit him in the shoulder, but he got away. He'll be back with fire power. Come with me, now!" she grabbed a canvas bag and stuffed it with several items. Taking my hand she dragged me from the room. We ran down the corridor to the nearest fire exit, and kicking the door open, she thrust me through on to the steel landing. A cools breeze blew through my slick hair as I looked down the six stories to ground level. In every direction all I could see was a sea of Zee's surrounding the hospital block.

Rachel standing beside me said "They began to congregate this morning, not long after we arrived, there are thousands of them. That's why I was in the viewing room, I was reporting to Avorries, but I wasn't sure which room he was in"

She handed me the canvas bag "There's three stun guns in there, each shock will probably last you between 6 to 8 hours before you return to Zee, so you have little more than a day and half to get clear away. You'll need to find a way to recharge them, maybe a car battery or something; otherwise it will be back to Rabid for you. Good luck Gregory, now go" she pushed me down the first few steps.

I stopped, looked at her and pleaded "Come with me"

She smiled, but I could see she was resigned to stay "That's sweet of you, but no, I have to stay, I have to kill Avorries for everything he's done, now get out of here. It won't take long for them to work out where we've gone" She turned back to the fire door, and drawing her gun ran back from where we had come.

I looked at the empty doorway, hoping she would change her mind and re-emerge, she didn't. Giving up any hope, I turned and began my decent. After only two flights I heard gun fire from within the building, I hoped she is OK. Moments later I heard a commotion up above. Three black clad men exited the fire exit, they were carrying automatic rifles. Within seconds I was dodging bullets as they pinged off of the steel work of the escape. I picked up speed, taking the steps two and three at a time. As I neared ground level I could see there was no clear way for me to run, Zee's were everywhere, I knew I either gave up and allowed Avorries to operate on me, to cut me up as I patiently sat there, or I ran, in this case straight through the middle of the throng. I decided that I'd rather be torn apart by Zee's than allow that bastard his prize. I ran straight towards the nearest group of Zee's.

Although I knew that these walking morons did not understand a word that I said, I couldn't help but shout at them "OUT OF THE WAY, GET OUT OF MY WAY!!" And to my surprise as I approached each Zee, he or she stepped aside, and as I passed by they step back into my wake. Like a tidal path, Zee's opened and closed around me as I ran through their masses, and as I changed direction, so did the Zee's and my path.

If I had chance to think on the unusual actions of the Zee's, I would have been stunned, but further gun fire from behind me and the Zee's that dropped all around me as they took bullets for me, convinced me to keep running and think later. Finally I made it through, and I headed for the nearest open door of a small building. Safely inside, I caught my breath, and then cautiously I peeked around to see the where about of my pursuers. I could see the small group of men standing on the stairway fending of Zee's that were now intent on climbing the stair and attacking them. The gun fire switched from me and concentrated on the attacking horde. I was safe for now, but I knew I had to go to ground before they came for me in earnest. As I'm about to turn and run, my gaze wonders up to the top most landing of the fire escape, there I see Doctor Avorries standing tall and proud with his arm in a sling, victorious. My hatred for the man was complete.

No longer worried of drawing attention to myself, I stepped out into the open, and pointing up to the vile instigator of the apocalypse I shouted "I will come for you soon enough Doctor, I promise, for Rachel, my mother and everyone else you have killed, I will come and make you pay" I knew he wouldn't be able to hear me, but I had to say it out loud, I had to scream my promise to the world, and I did. What I did not expect, what I could not have expected was my influence  upon those that milled around me, the Zee's. As I had raised my head and pointed  up at Avorries, so to did the Zee's, everyone of them within my sight, as one they had turned around and looked up at Avorries, and they to pointed at him. The shock at what he had just witnessed was plain to see upon the Doctors face, as well as fear and fascination. The gun men rushed back out onto the fire escape and began to fire in my direction.

I to was shocked at what the Zee's seemed to do, to copy, to obey, but I was tired, worn out. I turn and disappeared from view.

To myself I said "Lets Run Rabid, run!"

That's it folks, I hope you enjoyed it. Thank you for reading. Please don't forget to vote and comment :-)