V-Virus Infected 1

by Dahlhaus, Jacky

  Trick or treat. We’re here to eat.

  The four of us sat down under a tree; Charlie, Harry, Ben, and me. I took my shoes and socks off and started to rub my feet. They had been used to standing all day in the classroom, not to marching for hours.

  “Here, let me do that,” Harry said with an authoritative voice. He took my foot on his lap and began a vigorous foot massage. It hurt a bit but felt great at the same time.

  Charlie made it his mission to look in any direction but mine. Harry touching my bare foot was apparently uncomfortable to him, and I felt bad about it even though it was only my foot, and Harry certainly wasn’t touching it in a sensuous way.

  Suddenly, a bell rang out in my mind. Was that what was bothering Charlie? Would he be jealous? I reminded myself I had tried to tell Charlie I didn’t love him before we went to sleep, and that he had said he knew that.

  So what’s his problem?

  When Harry began massaging my other foot, one of the girls from the pack walked up and asked Harry if he could massage her feet too. She had a terrible nasal voice but wasn’t bad looking. Her bright red lipstick was just as notable as her voice. Before Harry had a chance to reply, Ben offered his services to her. There was a flicker of disappointment on her face, but she accepted his offer. Ben excused himself and followed the girl to where she had been sitting.

  When it was just the three of us, I turned to Harry.

  “Does he know?” I whispered.

  “No, he’s too stupid.”

  The intelligent tone of Harry’s voice surprised me. Maybe there was more to Harry than I had initially thought. Only time would tell if I was right.

  Charlie finally decided to speak.

  “So what’ll happen when the hunt starts? How have you been dealing with this so far?” He looked at Harry, still not at me.

  “Oh, simple,” Harry said. “I managed to be allowed to hunt and feed on my own. I guess Duncan only agreed because he keeps hoping I don’t survive. Unfortunately for him, I keep disappointing him.” There was a wicked grin on his face.

  I was impressed with Harry’s insight. As Charlie chuckled, he accidentally looked at me but immediately glanced away. He seemed adamant to hold a grudge against me. Was he really? I glimpsed the corners of his mouth moving upwards and dimples forming on his cheeks. He threw a quick glance at me but spun his head away from me again when he saw I was still looking at him. His smile got bigger. He was teasing me now.

  In heaven’s name, Charlie. Grow up.

  The words in my head made me giggle. Both Charlie and Harry looked at me with inquiring faces, but I waved them off, keeping my little bit of fun to myself.

  Ha, take that, Smudge.

  We didn’t get much longer to rest, and before I knew it, everybody was pumped up and ready to go hunting. Apparently, Duncan had a strict routine with little villages as no instructions were given. Everybody appeared to know what to do, drifting out to surround the village. Charlie and I stuck with Harry. Ben had again offered to take me under his wing, but I convinced him that together, Charlie and Harry would take good care of me.

  As we walked into the village, Harry looked at Charlie and asked me quietly, outside of Charlie’s earshot, if Charlie needed to go out and feed.

  “No, he’s like us, Harry,” I told him, taking my chances.

  “Ah, I wasn’t sure after our first conversation. I mean, I figured he knew about you, but he’d said he had achondroplasia, not a blood disorder.”

  He threw me off balance. I was one-hundred percent sure that Charlie had not used that word in that conversation. I raised my eyebrows but didn’t say anything.

  Harry must have noticed as he explained his word choice without me asking for it.

  “I’m a medical student.”

  Give me a chair so I can fall off it.

  The foot massage! He definitely had paid attention during anatomy lessons.

  This explained a lot. Harry had more intelligence than I had credited him for originally. What was even better; he knew how to use it. He had clamped onto a moron for cover and pretended to be one too. No wonder he had survived for so long.

  Chapter 32

  Harry took us into the village center. It had the same look as Bullsbrook; deserted and looted, and there was no soul in sight. After walking through the main street, passing a primary school, we turned into a side street. Not far from that, he pointed to a house.

  “We’ll take that one.”

  “Why that house?” Charlie said.

  “Children live there,” he answered. As we neared the house, I spotted a bouncy ball and some plastic toys on the front lawn that Harry must have seen earlier than I did. Charlie and I both looked at Harry with an expression of, ‘so what?’

  “They’ll have snack packs for lunch boxes in the refrigerator and, if we’re lucky, prepared meals in the freezer,” he gloated back at us.

  This guy keeps surprising me at every corner.

  We followed him around to the back of the house where he knocked out one of the little kitchen door windows. The glass shattered on the floor and made a terrible noise. I tensed. Then I reminded myself that we were the top dogs now, not the ones that needed to be scared, and let my breath go. Harry opened the provisionally barricaded door. As we entered the kitchen, we heard a muffled female scream coming from upstairs; people were still in the house. Charlie and I stopped in alarm, exchanging fearful glances, but Harry waved off our concern.

  “They won’t bother us. They’re too scared. As long as we don’t go upstairs, they won’t come down.” He said that last sentence a little louder.

  Harry was right on all counts. There were little packages with cut apples and grapes in the refrigerator that we immediately snacked on. In the freezer, we found a large container with cooked macaroni in tomato sauce that we defrosted in the microwave. While waiting for the meal to heat up, I asked Harry why he had never tried to escape Duncan’s pack.

  “Don’t think the idea hasn’t entered my mind,” Harry said, “and believe you me, I’ve tried. But Duncan keeps a tight ship. Whenever we hunt, he has infected placed around the hunting ground to prevent anybody escaping, friend or foe. He doesn’t want a second Caleb situation. His ego wouldn’t be able to take it. There are guards posted when we sleep during the day; they take turns to stay awake. They’re positioned at every entrance and exit, to make sure we aren’t attacked by humans Duncan says, but I’m certain he also doesn’t want anyone to leave. And it works, which means it makes it impossible to get away, unfortunately.” He sighed.

  Somebody, please crush this brick in my stomach.

  Ayuh, and spill the beans about this Duncan-Caleb situation.

  We finished dinner on the floor of the dark kitchen. Harry got up first.

  “Excuse me for a second,” he said and walked into the living room. There he picked up a chair and smashed it into the wall, then continued his rampage into the hallway. I didn’t know what had come over him. Charlie and I both got up, looking at each other for an explanation. Charlie looked as perplexed as I felt. We both followed Harry’s moves as he punched his fist into a wall, opening up the skin on his knuckles, wiping this blood on the corner of his mouth and then smeared the remaining blood on the walls here and there. Finally, he was done with his rampage and stood content in front of us.

  “Gotta make it look real,” he smiled.

  “Oh, okay. Good thinking,” Charlie said.

  In my opinion, he had overdone it a bit, so I thought I’d better keep my mouth shut.

  When you have nothing nice to say, better not say anything at all.

  Charlie took a cutting knife from one of the kitchen drawers. He cut the side of his hand and smeared the blood onto the corner of his mouth. He wiped the knife on a dish towel and gave it to me. I took it from him and held it in my right hand, putting the point onto the palm of my left hand. No matter how hard I tried to push the blade in, I couldn’t do it. I couldn’t make the knife go into my flesh. I exhal
ed, inhaled, and tried again, but as soon as the metal touched my skin, the hand holding the knife stopped.

  “I … I can’t do this,” I said, and let the knife fall onto the floor. I let my back slide down the kitchen cupboard until I sat on the floor. As I rubbed the spot where the knife had touched my skin, I was certain I was doomed.

  Charlie took the knife off the floor and for a second I thought he was going to cut my hand for me. To my relief, he put the knife on the countertop. He kneeled next to me. I had no idea what he was up to, so I kept a close eye on him.

  “Turn your head a bit,” he said. I obeyed, but still kept my eyes on him. He squeezed the wound he just made on his own hand until blood was dripping out again, then carefully smeared the blood on my face.

  “Thanks.”

  “You’re not done yet. Turn your head the other way,” he said and smeared some more freshly squeezed blood on the other side of my face.

  “Can’t have Ben thinking I don’t feed you enough.” His smile was kind.

  I smiled back at him, glad his good mood was back.

  We shared the chocolate bars Charlie and I had taken from the dollar shop with Harry. He studied the shape of the bars I gave him but didn’t say anything. We also drank as much as we could as we were parched. Charlie was disappointed he couldn’t find any beer in the house, but he didn’t linger over it and drank almost a liter of milk.

  Before we left, Harry was rummaging through one of the kitchen drawers.

  “What are you looking for?” I asked.

  “Pen and paper.”

  “Why?” Charlie asked. It was the same question I had on my mind.

  When Harry found what he wanted, he turned around. “To write a thank you note.” He said it as if it was the most logical thing in the world.

  “Oh, of course,” was all I could say.

  “Sor-ry for da-ma-ging your home and ea-ting your food,” Harry said as he wrote and signed it, ‘Harry.’

  He put the note in the refrigerator. He told us he left it there because no infected would ever look in a fridge. When I said no infected would come here when it was obvious there had been a fight, he said he never knew if they checked out the houses after him.

  I thought it was so sweet of him to write that note. His parents had done a good job raising him. Thinking of my own parents caused a lump in my throat to swell up, and I didn’t speak for the next fifteen minutes until it subsided.

  Chapter 33

  When we arrived at the village square, the gathering had just finished. Relief washed over me as I didn’t have to watch the horror of the feeding. Harry had timed it on the dot. I was so thankful for meeting Harry, and my respect for him grew by the hour.

  There wasn’t a dance hall in the little village, and we followed directions to other sleeping arrangements. I was hoping it involved a soft bed this time.

  It’s amazing how you take simple things for granted.

  We walked up to a motel located on the outskirts of the village, and as we got nearer, a certain dread began to creep into my mind. Motel rooms usually had double beds. Now, I knew Harry would not suggest sleeping in between Charlie and me, but I wasn’t looking forward to sleeping with just Charlie in one bed either.

  We went into the reception area and approached a bolo, who had been tasked with assigning rooms.

  “Sorry, Harry, you know the rules. You’ll have to sleep in the daycare center,” the bolo said as soon as we walked in.

  “Oh, yeah, I forgot,” Harry said with this stupid look on his face.

  This guy should get an Oscar.

  The bolo handed Charlie the key to our room and gave Harry directions to the daycare center. The three of us walked out again.

  “Why can’t you sleep here?” Charlie asked Harry.

  Harry hunched his shoulders as he put his hands in his pockets.

  “Duncan’s instructions, I’m afraid. Couples only in hotels and motels.”

  A wave of adrenaline rushed through my body, and my mouth went dry.

  Why do people keep thinking Charlie and I are a couple? Sure, we’re both not the tallest of people, but that doesn’t mean we automatically fall for each other.

  Although we did arrive in the pack at the same time and spend every single minute together. Just sayin.’

  That was that. If Duncan had given the order, then there was no argument to be made. I sighed. We said goodnight to Harry, and Charlie and I walked to our room. Charlie opened it with the key and let me enter first. It was small, decorated contemporary in relaxing green tones. As soon as we had entered, Charlie locked the door behind us. I felt like a trapped animal.

  Why am I so uptight? I’ve slept in one bed with Sue, and she was a good friend. So what’s the difference?

  Keep kidding yourself, kiddo.

  I stood at the end of the bed, gazing longingly at it. It had a definite attraction, but the potential price that came with it was keeping me from letting my body do what it wanted.

  “I can sleep on the floor if you want,” I heard Charlie say behind me.

  “Don’t be ridiculous,” I said as I turned around to face him. “I don’t want you to.”

  Oh God, please don’t take this as an invitation.

  “Thanks!” he said. “I must admit I wasn’t looking forward to sleeping on the floor with a comfy bed right next to me.”

  “I can imagine.”

  We continued to stand there. Me with my hands in my back pockets staring at the floor, Charlie looking at the bed.

  Awkward.

  He was the one to break the silence.

  “Why don’t you go and do what you have to do in the bathroom. I’ll take second turn.”

  “Oh, okay. Thanks,” I said and escaped to the little bathroom tucked in the corner of the room next to the entrance. Once inside, I leaned against the closed door.

  Shit, shit, shit. Why can’t I just talk to Charlie, say that I have no feelings for him?

  How I hated being in situations like these. There had been occasions before, where boys showed their interest in me. All I had done was try to avoid them from that moment on like the plague. But I couldn’t avoid Charlie, could I?

  I couldn’t think of a way out, so I decided to have a shower in the hope it would relax me, apart from the fact that I was beginning to smell. The deodorant I was given could only do so much.

  I made sure I locked the bathroom door before getting undressed. I remembered a story from Maxine; how one of her boyfriends had walked in on her while she was getting changed in the bathroom. He’d had other things on his mind than using the toilet. She had told us all about it as Julie and I were only just getting interested in boys at the time and wanted to know every little detail.

  Sweet memories.

  I was half undressed when Charlie called out from the room. He nearly gave me a heart attack.

  “What side of the bed do you want to be on?”

  Does it matter?

  When I slept with Sue in the double bed, we just took a side. We hadn’t argued over who took which side. I didn’t know if there were any perks of sleeping on one side or the other.

  “Um, I don’t care. You pick where you want to sleep,” I said.

  “Okay, I will. Thanks,” came the reply, but he didn’t say which side he chose.

  The shower was bliss. I couldn’t remember when I had my last one, and I had to force myself to get out of it when my fingers started to get wrinkly. As I was drying my hair, this image of a naked Charlie lying on the bed, waiting for me, popped up in my mind.

  Oh no, he wouldn’t, would he?

  My stomach tried to tie itself into a Celtic knot. Taking as much time as possible, I used the hairdryer, put on deodorant, brushed my teeth, cleaned my nails, and got dressed again. Looking in the mirror, I couldn’t think of anything else to keep me in the bathroom for longer.

  Pretend he’s Sue, Kate.

  My vision became blurry, and I had to wipe away a tear.

  Maybe not.<
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  I took a deep breath. Grabbing a firm hold of the door handle, I opened the bathroom door.

  “Ah, you’re finally done. God, you take a long time to freshen up. I hope you left some hot water for me,” Charlie said as he jumped off the bed and waited for me to exit the bathroom. To my relief, he was still completely dressed, and the knot in my stomach untied itself a fraction.

  From the wrinkles in the blanket, I could tell Charlie had chosen the side of the bed closest to the exit which I thought was a nice, protective gesture. Anyone storming into the room would get to him first. Not that they wouldn’t then easily get to me, but still, it was a nice gesture.

  I walked over to the window on my side of the bed. Charlie had already closed the curtains, but I adjusted them again to make sure no light would come in during the day. I wasn’t infected, but I still liked it dark when I tried to sleep. I shuffled toward the pillow end of the bed between the little space of the bed and the wall and then decided it was better to get undressed at the bed end, where there was more space. I side-stepped back again and put my clothes on the back of the desk chair.

  Why do they always put desks in these tiny bedrooms? Wouldn’t it be better to have a place to put a suitcase on? Who was going to do homework while on vacation?

  By the time Charlie emerged from the bathroom, I was already lying under the sheets and had my back turned toward him. All my senses were on full alert.

  I heard Charlie put his clothes on the desk. My mind refused to think of what could happen next. To my surprise, Charlie got into bed but between the blanket and the top sheet, so the sheet was a barrier between his body and mine.

  Thank you, Charlie. Thank you.