Fight, Flight, or Freeze: The Healer's Story
Chapter 102: Rip

Chapter 102: Rip

"Rip," I repeated quietly, looking at the boy in the mirror. "I like it."

He gave me a tentative smile before continuing. "Ripper is the one in charge right now. He really likes cats."

"Oh shoot," I smiled as I remained crouched in front of the mirror. "I don’t have a cat right now. How does he feel about crows? I think there was one that made friends with me on my last day at the hospital."

Well, technically, I fed it a hand, so I don’t think we were lifelong friends, but it was worth a shot.

"I don’t know," shrugged the boy. "All I know is that cats are the best. Especially Hades. I liked Hades."

I nodded my head like I knew what he was talking about. The pain in my body was starting to become too much, and I could feel myself being pulled out of wherever I was.

"I need to go now," I said softly, not wanting to upset the boy by disappearing too soon.

He smiled at me. "I’ll try to get out and see you when I can. Ripper doesn’t like me to do it here. He says that it isn’t safe."

"I hate to say it, but I agree with him. How about you stay here, and I can visit you again? Maybe tomorrow?"

"I’ll make sure Ripper knows," smiled the boy, and all of a sudden, I was shoved back into my body.

My back arched as much as it could in the confines of my cage as every nerve ending screamed at me.

"What did you do?" whispered the Reaver in front of me; his words were harsh, but his voice held a note of... wonder.

"Healed," I gasped quietly—maybe too quietly for him to hear. "Nice to meet you, Ripper."

His eyes narrowed at my words, trying to figure out what I was talking about.

"Rip likes you," he said, coming to his feet. "And I don’t know any crows to know if I like them or not."

Turning around, he strolled out of the women’s area, the bowl of gruel in his arms.

I could see Ming Zhu’s eyes searching my body as if trying to figure out what was going on. I closed my eyes, avoiding the conversation completely. I wasn’t about to admit that I didn’t have a clue what was going on.

I just had to hold on until the guys came and rescued me... and maybe Ripper, too.

-----

"I like her," the kid said as soon as Ripper left the woman’s prison. There might not be people in white coats or in military uniforms, but he recognized a prison no matter what it looked like.

"You like everyone," he grunted, entering one of the cabins that was set aside for the kitchen. There were three of them—one for the watchers, one for the Reavers, and one for the prisoners.

It was imperative that those three menus weren’t mixed up in the slightest.

"Still. I think she is trying to help us," continued Rip, his hands pressing against the glass wall of his enclosure. Ripper hated keeping him in his cage, but he knew he couldn’t take the chance of him coming out here.

Here, it was survival of the fittest, something the old him and the new him knew well. The child, though... he was too innocent.

"She’s not trying," admitted Ripper, looking down at his foot. He had learned to ignore the pain coming from here. It had been that way since... before. But now, there was no pain. His foot looked like it had before he had come to this world.

Before he had gone to Country K for a business opportunity and had everything blown up in his face.

He couldn’t suppress the sneer that crossed his face as he thought about that double cross. Oh well... the fucker got what he deserved, and Ripper had a chance to show how he got his nickname.

"Alpha wants you," grunted one of the others... another Reaver as he approached Ripper just as he was leaving the kitchen.

Ripper ducked his head, not letting the other creature see his face. That male was not his Alpha. But his job was to look after the pretty Healer, not become the head of yet another type of horde.

Letting out a low grunt, he lifted his face enough to be able to scent the Alpha on the wind. Setting off, he ignored everyone around him.

Reavers were more vocal than zombies but still a lot less than humans. When the scientists discovered that their little experiment had... unintended consequences, they set about trying to find a way to reverse the damage done.

Ripper let out a bark of laughter so loud the Reavers around jumped and scrambled out of his way. It turned out that trying to reverse their attempt at playing God created yet a second new species. Half human, half zombie, Reavers were the best of all words. When they weren’t crazy as fuck.

Turns out that fucking when the zombie genes retracted a bit, it made the human mind shatter.

Poor humans couldn’t stand remembering what they had done to their friends and family... or perfect strangers. The memories of ripping into people and eating them resulted in them becoming insane, and the military had to cremate all those who succumbed to the nightmares of their actions.

As far as he knew, he was the only one to have survived, learning how to pretend to be normal, being a constant in his life since birth.

Hell, the stuff he did as a zombie was quite merciful than what he had done as a human.

But imagine his surprise when he realized that there were so many more in the Country like him.

Ah, but that was the secret about Reavers that no one seemed to know.

The nice, ’normal’ people that were transformed into zombies, thanks to whatever the government shot them up with, did survive being turned into a Reaver.

Only those who were... slightly unhinged... survived and were considered to be a ’success.’

Yup, each and every Reaver was one a human that had no problem killing others. Wasn’t it so lovely that they now had a whole world where they could stand on top?

They were the best of both worlds. Quick to heal if they wanted to, quick to kill, all the strength and abilities of a zombie, but with the same intelligence and foresight as a human, and without the need to constantly feed.

They were what the military wanted in the first place. Only now that they had them... they couldn’t control them.