Deathly Contagious (30 page)

Then Zoe fell down the stairs, her already fragile body twisted and bruised on the floor. Despite the hot sun and the sweat I had worked up hauling heavy boards from the truck to the barn, I shivered. I closed my eyes and leaned against the barn wall.

“Riss?” Hayden spoke softly. “What’s wrong?”

“Nothing,” I answered automatically.

“Bullshit. Zombies roam the earth and our friend is in a barn going crazy as we speak. It’s impossible to have ‘nothing’ wrong.”

“I know,” I sighed. “But dwelling won’t help. We’ve got stuff to do, so…so let’s do it.”

“Ok,” he said and didn’t press me any further. Once the fencing and barns were improved, we spent half a day laying out the supplies for the cabins, but didn’t begin any construction yet.

That night at dinner, Raeya excitedly told me that Fuller gave her the go ahead to begin the recesses.

“I can’t wait to soak up the sun!” she confessed, forcing herself to eat a spoonful of watered down chicken noodle soup topped with stale crackers. “And start the garden! I made a list of seeds for you guys to try and find.”

“Where do you even get seeds this time of year? Well,
that
time of year, it was October. Where should we even look?” I asked her, stirring my soup. I added extra salt to help with the flavor.

“A garden store?” she suggested. “Honestly, I’m not really sure. It was cold already when the outbreak hit. I doubt you’d find any in the normal places. There has to be a warehouse somewhere; seeds stay good for a long time. I guess you could check the storage rooms of a feed or garden store.”

“Yea,” I agreed and downed some of my soup, making a face as soon as it touched my tongue; I had added way too much salt.

“Riss, don’t you think you should wear gloves?” she asked gently. “I mean, since what happened…I-I don’t want you to get infected too. Maybe you should wear a gown too, like they do in surgery. And a mask!”

“Don’t be ridiculous, Ray. Do you have any idea how hard it would be to run around all suited up like that? We’re already barely making it without all that crap.”

“A hazmat suit?” she joked.

“Don’t worry, Ray. I’ll be fine. I have been so far.”

“I know. I trust you to be smart. And I trust Hayden to keep an extra eye out for you. I bet he’s really protective.”

“Yea, he is.”

“You say that like it’s a bad thing.”

I forced myself to swallow another spoonful of overly salty soup. “I don’t want him to focus on me and forget about himself.”

Raeya nodded. “Yea and he’s already proved he’d die for you.” She looked at me and smiled. “That is pretty romantic, you know.”

I raised an eyebrow. “Please tell me how almost bleeding to death is romantic. It was far from it. It was the probably the scariest moment of my life.”

 “He’s like your knight in shining armor!”

I shook my head. “No, he’s not. I don’t want a knight. Who needs shining armor when I have a soldier in camouflage and combat boots?”

Raeya squealed. “Aw, that’s so sweet!”

“Shut up,” I said, trying to will the blood from rushing into my cheeks. “Are you busy after dinner?”

“Nope. Why?”

“Want to come up to my room and hang out? I don’t want to be around anyone else,” I admitted.

“Sure. Has Lauren said anything else to you since the incident?”

“No, but I kinda wish she would. I’d love to punch her in the throat.”

Raeya shook her head. “Riss, you know you can’t. Do you want to get into trouble?”

“It’d be worth it,” I lied.

“Oh, yea,” she said, seeing right through me, “like she’s worth anything…”

We both ate as much as we could stomach. Hayden played video games with the guys while Ray and I went into our room to watch a movie. I pulled a bag of sour cream and onion potato chips from Hayden’s secret stash of junk food.

We had both fallen asleep by the time the movie ended. The sound of screaming brought me out of my slumber. I shot up and frantically looked around. I shook my head, chalking it up to a dream since I was safely tucked under the covers in my own bed.

Then I heard it again. It was muffled this time and coming from outside. I peered out the window and saw nothing but the bright lights of the barn in the distance.

Jessica.

She screamed two more times before quieting down. I wanted to know what they did to shut her up as much as I didn’t want to think about it. I stared at the barn until my vision went blurry.

Not wanting to wake up Ray, I turned the TV off and got into Hayden’s bed, waiting for him to get done playing games. Ivan was right; the walls were thin. I could hear the guys cussing and cheering when they won or lost. Finally, at a little after two in the morning, Hayden came into our room. He took off his clothes and knelt on my bed.

“Hayden,” I whispered.

Confused, he looked at Raeya.

“Hayden,” I whispered again.

“Riss?” he asked, turning around.

I laughed. “Over here. You can get into bed with Raeya, if you’d like. I’d love to see her face in the morning.”

“Why is she in here?” Hayden asked and climbed under the covers.

“We were watching a movie and she fell asleep. I didn’t want to wake her up.”

“You’re so sweet,” he teased and put an arm around me. I knew it was completely ridiculous to be scared of Jessica. She’s in the barn, I reminded myself. I rested my head on Hayden’s chest and it hit me; I wasn’t scared of her attacking us or even of her screams drawing in other zombies. First of all, there was no way she could get into the compound. Second, one S1 wasn’t a big threat. I was afraid of seeing her, or what she’d become, afraid of her suffering, being cold, hungry, or in pain.

I closed my eyes, forcing her image from my brain. I didn’t want to think about it anymore. I tried to think of happy thoughts but came up empty handed.

 It took two weeks for Jessica to turn into a zombie. Padraic told me that—as awful as it was to watch—Jessica’s death had given them a lot of insight on the virus. He spoke about it as if her death wasn’t in vain, as if it had a purpose now.

Crazies don’t sleep, we discovered. Several times Jessica collapsed from exhaustion. Apparently, she wasn’t able to tell that she was tired. She stayed in a sleep-like state for several hours before springing back up and resuming her desperate, violent attempt to kill anything and anyone that walked past the stall.

She wouldn’t eat the food they initially offered her, which was sweet and salty. When a can of roast beef was put on a plate, she licked it all up. She did drink some water when it was presented to her in a bucket. Padraic explained that with her decreasing body metabolism and the shutting down of body systems, she didn’t need as much food or water as a ‘normal’ human would.

The final time she collapsed, her body went through what appeared to be a seizure. Her heart slowed to only a few beats a minute. She stopped breathing. She was officially declared dead.

Slowly, her body twitched into what Padraic called ‘reanimation’. Again, she ignored any food presented and that time had no interest in water. She wasn’t aware of where she was. Her body moved in rigid, jerky movements. She brought herself to her feet and was just like any other S2; pale eyes, pale—and apparently clammy—skin, and blood thirsty.

Fuller was the one to pull the trigger.

We had a funeral for her the same night she died…again. Not wanting to take the chance of putting an infected body in the ground, she was wrapped in white sheets and set on a pyre. Like she well deserved, we did our best to honor her with a proper military funeral.  Every single resident flooded outside. The crowd parted when Jessica’s body was brought forward. Fuller stood in the front, giving commands to the soldiers. With my grandpa, I had been to more than one service for a veteran and found them to be both heartbreaking and beautiful. Of course we had to down the formalities of Jessica’s funeral, much like I was forced to with Zoe’s.  Prayers were said, kind words exchanged, and people cried.

The bright fire was blinding. I watched it flicker and dance, sending burning embers into the cool night sky. Not caring if anyone saw, I locked my fingers through Hayden’s. Behind his stoic expression I could see the hurt of losing another friend.

We stayed until the fire burned out. Once cool, the ashes would be gathered up, put in a jar and buried with a marker on top; it was inevitable that a graveyard would be started.

Fuller didn’t give a single order over the next two days. I knew from Raeya that we were running low on some of our supplies. Ivan, Brock, Wade, Rider, Hayden, and I were to set out on a mission four days after the funeral.

The sky had been a bleak gray all yesterday and again today. The dark clouds spit out cold rain, ruining Raeya’s recess plans and lowering my spirits. When Fuller suggested we go north and see what we could find in Indiana, I immediately objected.

“I was there when the virus hit,” I told him. “The cities we were in were overrun.”

“That was months ago,” Fuller countered. “And you didn’t explore the entire state, did you?”

“No,” I stubbornly admitted.

“Good. That’s where you six are going,” he informed us. Hayden unrolled a large map on Fuller’s desk. I hadn’t seen it before. Curiously, I stepped forward, putting my hands on the edge of the desk so I could lean over it.

It was a map of the United States. Black X’s had been placed on what I assumed were the towns and cities explored. Pretty much all of Arkansas was X’ed out, as was the top of Louisiana and the northwest border of Mississippi. Kentucky was speckled with several X’s, as well as southern Illinois, Missouri, the eastern half of Oklahoma, South Carolina, and only one X in Kansas.

I stared at that particular X, thinking about how lucky I was that the X just happened to fall on the town I was in. If Fuller had picked a town only a few miles north or south, I wouldn’t be here.

“Start here,” Fuller said, drawing an X over a town in Ohio, near the Pennsylvania border. “And comb through any cities on your way back here. That way, if you find survivors, you won’t have to take them farther from the compound.”

“Yes sir,” Hayden automatically agreed. Ivan got another map, this one was smaller, and drew out a route for us to follow. On our way back, we were to check out Columbus and Indy, though, again, I told Fuller what Indy was like. Having been avoiding big cities since the outbreak, the guys didn’t know what it was like.

Fucking horrible.

Hayden assured me that we wouldn’t stay if the cities were overrun, thinking I was scared of getting ambushed. I wasn’t afraid; I didn’t want to waste my time. We packed our crap, loaded up the truck and the Range Rover—which was weird to see in action again—and went to bed.

Since the initial drive would take around fifteen hours, we were given ten days. After breakfast, and a long goodbye with Raeya that included her begging me not to go, we loaded into the cars and left. I sat in the back of the truck while Hayden and Wade sat up front. Like usual, we disagreed on what type of music to listen to. Finally, I came up with a solution; we’d each get an hour of our choice and then switch.

After four hours, we took one bathroom break and continued on; stopping once we got to Evansville, Indiana. Having been sitting still for over eight hours, my legs hurt and my body was restless.

Gray clouds were rolling in, covering up the pretty blue sky. The temperature was lower here and I rummaged through my bag for a long sleeve shirt. Ivan, Rider, and Hayden surveyed our surrounding area—a big, grassy field spotted with trees—while Brock and Wade helped me set up dinner.

I stood next to the truck and stretched. A gust of wind just about blew me over. I looked at the tree branches swaying in the wind. A loose branch creaked and groaned as it waved back and forth. I thought I heard something right as another gust moved it. I waited, watched, and didn’t see anything.

 I bent over, touching my toes when Hayden snuck up behind me and slapped my ass. I glared at him from between my legs.

“What, all work and no play?” he accused, smiling.

“No, I’m just…uncomfortable from sitting still. My muscles are stiff.”

“Mine too,” he admitted and stretched his arms above his head. “Maybe we’ll find a masseuse,” he joked. I straightened up and sat on the tailgate next to Hayden while we ate. Fat raindrops spilled from the dark clouds. We hurried to finish eating and put everything away.

Our plan was to go another two hours or so until we either ran out of daylight or found a safe place for the night, whichever came first. The storm rolled in faster than we were driving. The fat raindrops increased in number and thunder boomed above us.

The rainfall became so heavy it was hard to see. Talking over the walkie-talkie, Hayden told Ivan he thought we should pull over and wait for the storm to pass. A strong gust of wind rocked the truck. I swallowed hard. The air felt electrified; this storm had power.

Ivan suggested we move off the winding and wooded road we were on, not liking the trees on either side of us. We all thought that was a good idea. Slowly, Hayden accelerated around a curve. Lightning flashed and thunder cracked like a whip.

In the summer, I used to sit on the front porch with my grandparents and watch the storms. When it got really bad, my grandma went inside and turned on the radio. When it got really,
really
bad, she’d make us come inside and hunker in the basement. When I was a kid, I used to secretly wish for the power to go out; my grandma would light candles and cook over the fire of the fireplace. I liked pretending I was in another time, someplace way more fun and exciting than central Kentucky.

Hayden slammed on the brakes so fast that the Range Rover almost rear ended us. The truck slid on the rain soaked road. We narrowly missed the tree that fell onto the road, completely blocking our way. I’d give anything for us to have a basement to hide out in.

The wind picked up, evolving from gusts to a constant, unseen source of power. Ivan’s voice came over the radio, commenting on the green and fast moving clouds. My heart started beating a little faster.

I’d take a dozen zombies over a tornado any day.