"His vitals are dropping!", exclaimed a woman as I was being moved on a stretcher. Everywhere was blurry and I couldn't make a thing. Whether I was in a hospital or not, I could not tell. The walls were white though, but the people pushing the stretcher wore normal clothes. I heard more voices but couldn't make meaning of them at this point. However, I was finally able to hear a familiar voice. Lucy's.

"Make sure you do your best to save him. We need him alive!".

That b*tch, I thought while trying to look for her. I felt my head held by gentle hands which said, "Don't worry Joe. We're gonna do our best to save you so please hang in there!".

Damn her, I thought while expressing displeasure in my spirit. What gives her the right to lay her filthy hands on me.

I was moved into a room where I was immediately to be operated on. However, before they started their work, I could hear all of them gasping in surprise.

"I don't believe this. His vitals are coming back?!".

"H-H-He's self-healing?! What the hell?!".

"How in the world is this possible. Just what the hell is he?".

"Is he even human?".

I heard them all but couldn't do a thing as my mind went numb and I passed out again.

***

"You awake?", Ana asked after kissing me on the cheek smoothly. It was our first night together after our wedding, where we shared a bed and made love for the first time. I sighed as I woke up from her kiss, then looked at the time and saw that it was 3:45 am. We both shared a large blanket which made us feel warm and cozy.

"It's too early Ana", I replied with a frown, "You should be sleeping instead".

"Well I would if I couldn't stop thinking about the fun we had", she replied while wrapping her arms round me and resting her head on my chest. I sighed and patted her head with my left hand, while looking at the ceiling.

"Anything the matter?", she asked when she noticed my absentmindedness.

"Nothing of sort. Just thinking about why General Lucas would order me to continue Dad's project".

Ana frowned and replied, "Honestly, I don't know what's wrong with that man. My father shut down Project M because he believed that it could be disastrous if something bad happens. I just don't understand why Lucas would disregard my late father's order and continue it. If there's always one thing I knew about Dad, was that his decisions were always right and meant for the best of all".

I sighed, "I know Ana, but orders are orders dear. Since my father also agreed and begged me to help, I have no choice but to do I as promised".

"Hmph! I don't care. I just don't want you to get hurt".

"Don't worry dear. Nothing bad will happen, and I'll make sure to protect you from any harm".

She smiled at me and kissed me on the lips. "Yes, my guardian angel".

***

Slowly I began to wake up, finding myself still on the stretcher. I sat up straight and shook my head to remove the headaches I was experiencing. The room I was in was completely empty, except for a white plastic chair close to the stretcher in which a sleeping Lucy sat on and another one close to the opened door which to my surprise, was occupied by Ananias.

"Thou have awaken. Bless the Creator", said Ananias as he stood from his seat and walked towards me.

"Hmm?", muttered Lucy as see woke up. She became lively once she saw me and immediately hugged me, saying, "Thank goodness you're okay Joe! I thought I was going to lose you!".

"Let go of me!", I barked while pushing her away, "Who gave you the right to hug me?".

"I'm sorry", she replied with a sad tone as she went back to her seat.

"Thou reject thy mother?", asked Ananias with a frown.

"Spare me that. She's no mother of mine. If you don't have anything reasonable to say just go".

Lucy sighed and left the room after whispering some words to Ananias. The latter looked at me again and then took the seat she had sat on.

"How long have I been asleep?".

"Seven days".

"How did you survive? I thought you were still in the lotus", I asked as I faced Ananias.

"It fell the moment the city had fallen. My hands were unable to save a soul, yet I was saved by your allies".

I sighed, "I see. So do you mind telling me where I am?".

"You're in my base, Joe", spoke Peter as he came in with a change of clothes. He tossed them to my face and added, "So get dressed and get your ass up".

Ananias and I looked at each other and sighed. I wore my new clothes and we both followed Peter, who acted as a tour guide and explained that we were in an underground hideout, several meters deep, which served as a safe avenue from the zombies. We got to a wide room where there was a round table with a big screen on the wall. The table had ten seats, with three already taken by three individuals and the rest were presumed to be for us. Lucy was one of the seats talking to a girl in her twenties who was smiling and trying to make her feel better. The last one was a fat guy with brown beard and bald head going over some files. As soon as they sighted us, they all rose and stood in awe of our presence.

"Everyone take a seat", ordered Peter, "I wanna make this brief and simple for everyone".

We all took our seats immediately as if we were a board of directors. I was seated beside the girl who had earlier talked to Lucy. She smiled at me and said, "Hi, nice to meet you. Name's Rosemary".

"Same. Name's Joe", I replied without looking at her and in a way that indicated I was more interested in the meeting than her, which pissed her off a little.

"What have you discovered about the virus Freddy?", asked Peter as he stared at the fat man. The latter sighed, stood up and replied, "We've finally been able to establish the fact that the virus has evolutionary stages".

"What do you mean by stages?".

"There are six stages: the Nymph stage, the Z stage, the Elite stage, the LTB stage, the HTB stage, and the Meta stage, the newly discovered stage".

"Explain all these stages", replied Peter as he and I stole looks at each other. Freddy could already read the mood, so he just continued his explanation while displaying facts about his work on the screen, "The Nymph stage is the stage where the infected has only one goal: to spread the virus. They bite and inject the virus inside the body of their victims and go off to find another. It lasts for several hours. Most infected usually enter the Nymph stage while the rest enter the other stages in distributions.

"The Z stage is abbreviated for Zombie stage. As you all know, it's the usual zombie eating human stage. Nothing new here except for the fact that after consuming human flash for a particular number of times, they start to develop some senses, which leads to the Elite stage and ultimately to the other stages as well.

"The Elite stage is where zombies begin to use weapons, like the Militant or Suicide zombies we've met.

"The LTB stage is abbreviated to Low Tier Boss stage. Zombies like the Crushers, Maneaters and Animans. The Crushers possess great strength and durability. Maneaters enhance their predatory skills and senses in exchange for their eyes and Animans have the ability to control animals and bend them to their whims. There are more zombies though, but I'll stay with these for now.

"The HTB stage stands for High Tier Boss stage. Zombies in this category include Metallian, Meta Animan and Vectors, as the ones we've known. Metallians are the stronger versions of the Crushers with hardened skins at the cost of delicate internal tissues. In other words, strong as hell on the outside but very weak on the inside. Meta Animans can't control animals but can morph into them, enlarge, or decrease their size and can use multiple powers of the animals at the same time. Vectors are well, how would I say? Complicated. They are remarkably fast, strong but talk too much. They are the only ones who are closer to the Meta stage than all other zombies".

"And what is the Meta stage?", I asked out of impatience. I had listened to all he had been saying since and it was not different from what I had already know. Freddy remained silent and looked at Peter who sighed and told him to continue.

"As I was saying, the Meta stage is the point where we believe that the zombie starts to develop consciousness. From what we know, this part gets kinda spiritual, in a sense where the virus tries to take over the human soul. The body obtains powers along the process. The only specimen identified with this is her", said Freddy who later showed a live video of Ana who was screaming as she was getting experimented on by four scientists.

Seeing that made my blood boil. I stood up and exclaimed while turning to face Peter, "Ana! What the hell are you guys doing to--".

I got interrupted as I was shot on the right shoulder by Peter, startling everyone except Freddy and Ananias. I fell down to the floor and yelled out in pain while Lucy and Rosemary pointed their weapons at Peter. Ananias and Freddy also brought out their own guns and pointed them at the women, forcing them to drop their guns.

"The hell are you doing Dad?", asked Rosemary as Freddy tied her up.

"What do you think you're doing Peter!", exclaimed Lucy as she struggled while getting tied up by Ananias

"Relax ladies. Don't worry. He's all right", replied Peter as he saw the bullet coming out from the wound which was healing up. He smirked and asked, "So Joe. Which stage do you think you're in?".

I coughed and replied, "While are you doing this? I am not your enemy".

"Now that's where you're wrong. I did some digging and found out that you and your father are responsible for all this havoc this world is experiencing. I do admit that there's a third party involved in the spreading of the virus but you're the main antagonist in this story. We ran several tests on you and her to conclude that there's a sharp difference between you and that lady on the screen. While she's in the Meta stage, you're in a different class entirely. Your blood contains genes that opposes the virus as soon as it comes in contact with it. After testing it with a lot of vaccines, we finally developed a formula which will create a liquid drug which we believe will completely destroy the virus. In other words, you're the main component to the cure Humanity has long sought for".

I grunted as I tried to stand up to my feet. I looked at him and said, "So what exactly do you want from me?".

"Simple, your blood", he replied, brought out a tranquillizer gun and shot it directly on my forehead.