Beauty and the Brains

[ValentineIllusion]

Private roleplay between me and @Azalea c:


Summary of the plot here:

Spoiler

This zombie story isn't about the beginning of the zombie apocalypse, isn't even set place in the midst of it- instead, it's at the end of the zombie apocalypse. Sort of. The beginning of the end, at least, when they've actually found some hope and have some plans and can't really call it an apocalypse anymore because they're going to survive it.


It all starts with a young zombie boy [Your Character], who mysteriously wakes up in the hospital with more brains in his head than his stomach. Turns out he was an experiment, and they had taken the remains of his brain along with parts of someone else's living, not undead brain and completely repaired his. He was still a frozen rotten corpse who didn't have enough bandages to cover every cut and bruise on his body, but he was alive. Sort of. He had a brain, at least, he still had his nerves and motor function other than holding his hands limply out in front of him and walking in a straight line. But what stood out to him was, well, where exactly did that living brain come from?


Turns out it came from a girl named Sage, who came to the hospital completely alone and signed right up for this strange new experiment that could've very well killed her. Now she's practically more zombielike than him- all she can do with the remains of her brain is lay in bed and stare. Sometimes she would blink, sometimes she'd look around or maybe even eat without anyone helping her, but it was mostly just staring. They say she'll recover...but it's a long, long road.


And what stood out to [Your Character] about that was that she was alone. No one to sit by her side and watch over her at night. No one to talk in the silence that she left. No one to care.


Well, having half her brain, he cared. It wasn't like he, having just been a total zombie and still not quite totally human, had anything better to do. So he sat. He talked. He cared. Of course communicating and connecting was hard, but he had her brain, and with it, came memories. Her memories. So if anyone was going to help her, it was him.

 

[ValentineIllusion]

As the world tore itself apart on the other side of the glass doors, the hospital continued their daily grind of curing diseases and saving people. Things have changed, of course: there were now armed guards at every door, their beds were flowing with patients even though the death rate was through the roof, and there was constant pressure from pretty much everyone to finally find a cure for the zombie epidemic.


They were working on it, but no one could know that. Everything concerning their search for a cure was kept secret so if they failed- which they had done before and were likely to do again- no one would know about it. Not a single soul knew about the girl who walked right in wanting to be their guinea pig, what they did to her, and what they did to the zombie they had been hiding now laying on their operating table. So far, it seemed to be pretty successful...but so had all their other major failures. Did they have any hope the two would wake up? Hardly. But the boy was already dead and the girl signed up for this, so it gave them an excuse to swallow their guilt.


After the operation, a single nurse watched over the zombie with a single bodyguard to watch over her, since they weren't at all sure he wouldn't just up and eat her. They really didn't know anything at this point. Now, all they could do was wait.

 

[Azalea]

Andrew Fry’s closed eyes fluttered slightly, a healthy rosy glow beginning to light up his once pale cheeks as he begin to slowly wake up after month's of eternal sleep. A sleepy sigh was extended from the boy’s lips as a slender hand was raised, in a unconscious gesture, to scratch the mess of dark, tousled hair that lay atop his head. The hazel brown eyes were opened next, opening and closing a few times as the boys eyes adjusted to the rooms dim lighting, before confusion contorted his delicate features. Where was he? A grumble from his stomach disrupted his train of thought, and the boy allowed his hand to drift to his lower torso area, touching the area hesitantly. His limbs felt heavy and ached slightly as he moved them, as if he hadn't used them in quite a while. He was hungry, starving in fact.


Sitting up with effort, he winced as pain pricked at his head, his hands drifting up to touch the area with a wince. The first thing he touched was a scar, one that was barely covered by the dark bangs that enclosed part of his forehead. Something pricked at his mind, trying to remind him of something. He pushed away the thought, lowering his hand from his forehead as a flash of dark hair caught his vision, and his hazel gaze settled on a shocked looking woman, a nurse, his mind told him instinctively. Beside her was another, bulkier man, but his mind disregarded this.


“Hello?”


His voice was dry and raspy at first, the voice of one who hasn't spoken in quite a while. The woman only gazed at him in shock, not seeming to hear his words. “Hello?” He tried the greeting again, one hand lifting up into the air into a slight wave that made his arm ache.

 

[ValentineIllusion]

As soon as he started to stir, the nurse noticed and let out a blood-curldling scream, as her guard readied his weapon. Their experiments never work- she was completely convinced that he was waking up with a hunger for her brains. She fled behind the tall, bulky guard who held his gun up to Andrew's head, glaring at him with cold, uncaring eyes. Zombies never cared about humans, so they didn't care about them when they sent bullets through their head.


After a second of just glaring, the guard raised an eyebrow, watching the boy's seemingly innocent actions. But even he knew that their experiments never worked, so he still had plenty of suspicion. His eyes wandered up to the EKG, which had kept a steady flat line the whole time the boy had been there and was now moving. Not exactly beating, but actually moving for once. And he watched as the boy showed ability to speak clearly, use his words like a human being, and even make a little gesture as simple as waving his hand. This was...new. This wasn't something that had happened before and this certainly wasn't something he could handle.


Lowering his gun, he turned back to the nurse, "Um, ma'am...I...think you should take a look at him. He's...moving."


"Then shoot!!" she squealed in fear, frantically looking up to see just what he was talking about. But then she saw it too: the boy that was once a zombie, still sort of a zombie, was moving like a human. Thinking about something other than eating their brains. and like the guard, she looked up and noticed the EKG, the moving EKG.


"Doctor!!" she shouted, running to the doorframe and shouting out into the hall, "Doctor, the patient's in V-fib!"


The doctor didn't take very long to arrive, practically flying in with his lab coat flailing behind him. As he came in, however, all he could do was stand at the end of the bed and stare at him in shock, like everyone else seemed to be doing. Of course, this was incredibly shocking, so he didn't blame any of them. But clearly, they had to do something.


"...Andrew Fry?" he asked, picking up his file, "Are you alive?"

 

[Azalea]

A horror-filled scream touched the still dazed boys ears and hazel eyes widened with slight puzzlement. It was the nurse that was screaming, he determined blearily. Hard metal contacted the skin of his forehead, and Andrew's eyes drifted up to meet his, recognizing his cold grey stare as the norm for this new world. In spite of the fact that a highly dangerous weapon was being pointed to his head, the boy felt nothing but a dull kind of calmness. The gun was lowered from his head as words were issued from the slightly confused man's lips, in the nurse's direction. A mixture of panicked syllables were issued from the nurse's direction, before shock begin to cross her face as well.


"Doctor, the patients in V-fib!"


Patient? V-Fib? They were referring to him with such extreme terminology, and Andrew's lips begin to part, in preparation of inquiry. Just as the words beginning to bubble from his lips, the nurse turned and begin to run, towards the door and was gone in a few seconds. A wry smile skimmed across his lips as he allowed his mouth to close. So now he was in the room alone with the man who'd almost killed him. A smile, in spite of the situation pulled up Andrew's lips as he extended his hand in a slight wave in his direction, just as another person entered. He gazed at Andrew with open bewilderment as well, and he begin to feel a little awkward, allowing his hazel gaze to touch the white cotton of his blankets.


Is there something wrong with me? Is that why they're all staring?





A hand absently-mindedly drifted up to the scar that jetted across his forehead. It had something to do with this fresh wound, he realized. But what? A voice touched his ears, and Andrew glanced up, watching as the man's lips moved, only hearing his words afterwards. A chuckle bubbled from his lips. How was he supposed to answer such a question?


"Yea, I'm alive," he managed between stifled chuckles. "I mean, at least I think so."


He couldn't suppress the urge to make some kind of humorous comment at his expense.

 

[ValentineIllusion]

The doctor was just too shocked to be irritated or laughing at his comment, rushing over with his stethoscope to hear for himself what his heart was doing. He pulled the medical device over his ears and pressed the cold metal over Andrew's skin, covered only by a thin hospital gown. The nurse remained leaning against the wall, arms held close to her, her mouth open a bit in shock. This may have worked. That should have been good news, however, they were still all afraid. There was no telling what he would do with his new brain, whether the dormant humanity would be reawakened or if the virus would just bulldoze over it again. Though the guard had lowered his weapon, he still held his gun firm by his side, ready to shoot should he need to.


"My God...it's amazing," he mused quietly to himself, wrapping the stethoscope around his neck again as he made some notes on the file. He was writing so fast he was practically scribbling, writing all of his findings down before they changed. Even if he seemed to be stable, there was no guarantee that that would last. Sighing, he looked up at him, "Son...do you know what happened to you? Before you woke up here?"


Hardly waiting for an answer, he continued on, "In the case that you don't...well, I'm sure you heard about the zombie epidemic. Not apocalypse, because we're working on a cure as we speak." With his hands held behind his back, he slowly paced around his bed, "I don't know how to tell you this, but...you were a zombie. Just a little while ago. Which would explain why you have all those cuts and bruises...anyways, we pulled you off the street, brought you here, and preformed a test on you. Brain surgery, actually. And...we repaired your brain. With someone else's."


Sage Chamberlain. No one said the name of the girl who donated part of her brain, but the information was suddenly, somehow...just there. 15 years old, really short, brown hair and hazel eyes. Doesn't look other people in the eye. Terrified of the zombies and desperate for protection, so she looked for it here, at the hospital.