The Rabid

by Ami Urban

  "Shouldn't we test it first?" Gregg seemed agitated.

  "There's no time. The virus is spreading almost up into your knee now."

  He nodded. I took a brief look around the sterilized freezer. Tango was there to help hold the leg in traction. He'd given me a razor sharp paring knife as a scalpel. Jack had found fishing wire in the cellar and had given me a flame torch used for welding to act as a cauterizer. He would be performing that action while I cut. Sam had volunteered to suction and Jennifer was going to keep track of Gregg's pulse. Everyone"s hands were gloved.

  "All right, doc. Give it to me."

  In order to make sure the syringe was free of bubbles, I tapped it twice to release the air. I'd found some rubber tubing in the cabinets and tied it around his upper arm. Finding a vein, I took a deep breath and slid the needle in. He made no sound. None of us did. We watched him for a few moments.

  "I think it's kicking in..." Gregg's eyelids seemed to be a burden on him and his speech slowed. When he finally closed his eyes, I checked his pulse and we were ready to go. I looked out the tiny freezer window to give Raychel a nod.

  "Okay, everyone, cutting is going to be the hard part, so let's get it over with." I moved next to Tango. Jack came to my right while Sam was across from me. I instructed Sam to begin suction as I began cutting into Gregg's skin.

  I started by creating a long incision around the circumference of his upper leg. I left the bottom untouched for the moment. After the cut was made and the blood siphoned off, I pulled the skin away from the connective tissue and slid it as far down his leg as I could, exposing the muscles beneath. Jennifer looked away.

  "I'm going to cut away the lateral muscle, here. That will expose the bone." I went to work, trying to be precise and quick. When the muscle had been cut away, the artery became visible.

  "We need to clamp the artery shut." I held out my hand. Tango put something in my palm. It was a binder clip. "Seriously?"

  He shrugged, so I made it work. I then had Jack cauterize around the clip then separated the two ends. An electric carver was the only option I had when it came to cutting through the bone. That took the longest.

  I moved to the other side to repeat the process for the fibular bone. I cut away the muscle then the bone. Once everything was separated and sealed off, I cut a flap of skin on the underside of the leg, then instructed Tango to take it.

  "Put that on ice, please. I'd like to look at it later."

  Tango hesitated, but eventually removed the leg from the table with caution. I checked with Jennifer on Gregg's pulse and she tossed me a thumbs up.

  "I need the sewing needle and fishing wire, please."

  Jack handed it to me. I folded the flap of skin over the front of his leg, sewed it up and was done.

  "Now we wait for him to wake up."

  December 21

  "It was late. Around midnight when we started up the stairs. Lisa was guarded about giving any more information on whether or not Gregg would wake up without gangrene. But the three of us spoke in length about it before turning in.

  "I'm looking for signs the body has rejected the surgery. That includes darkening of the skin farther up from the wound or visibility of the veins. Any dark red streaks are a bad sign as well, but not as bad as the virus spreading."

  "What do the streaks mean?" Raychel asked. We were already at the top of the stairs.

  "Blood poisoning." I answered with my voice low. I knew what it meant because Silas had showed me on his visit in the school. It seemed like years ago.

  "Right." Lisa nodded. "But at least I can treat that."

  The three of us stopped outside Lisa's room.

  "This is me." She seemed to be stalling.

  "I'm off to bed! See you tomorrow." Raychel pranced away. I knew what she was thinking, but it wasn't going to happen. Two grown adults can be alone together without anything intimate happening. People did it all the time.

  "Goodnight."

  I turned back to Lisa as she was saying the words to Raychel. When she looked at me, I felt an odd flutter in my chest. It was as if my heart were trying to escape.

  "I suppose."

  To Lisa, that simple phrase was an entire sentence.

  "Thank you for doing this for us. For Gregg."

  She nodded, and I leaned in to give her what I thought would just be a goodnight peck on the cheek. But as soon as I felt how warm she was and how good she smelled I knew I'd made a mistake.

  When I pulled away, we looked into each other's eyes. And that was when I threw away everything I'd promised myself I'd stand up for. Without a second's more hesitation, I kissed her. I kissed her like I'd never see her again. And she kissed me back. It was like no time had passed.

  I felt the flood of emotion wash over me. I wanted to hold her forever; I wanted to kiss her forever. I wanted to be her lover and husband. I wanted to be the one to make her smile and laugh every day. Why had I been so stupid?

  With one hand, I reached behind her and turned the doorknob. Then I pushed her through, shutting it behind me. And yet we hand't stopped kissing. I could think about nothing except taking all her clothes off with my teeth and tossing her on the bed.

  She threw her arms around my neck, so I slipped my hands under her skirt. But I only got as far as hooking my thumbs into her panties to pull them off, because she stopped and pushed away.

  "What's wrong?"

  For a second, she said nothing. The room was only half lit by a smoldering candle, but I could see stress lines crease into her forehead.

  "Why did you have...to leave, Jack?" As soon as she said my name, tears began pouring down her cheeks. I was so surprised, I froze right where I stood. "Why did you leave us?" She slid down onto floor, covering her face.

  "Hey, hey, no..." I knelt down and took her into my arms. "Don't cry, baby, don't cry."

  She sobbed harder into my chest. I shushed her, smoothing her hair and planting light kisses on her head. My heart ached. I'd had no idea how much she'd been hurting. It wasn't obvious on the outside. While we were sitting there, a few tears escaped me as well.

  "I'm not going anywhere, Foxtrot. Never again. I promise, okay?" I held her at arm's length. I'd never seen her as upset before and it felt like my heart suddenly weighed a hundred pounds. Her eyes had become red and swollen. The wrinkles between her eyebrows were deep and long.

  "I've lost everyone else." She sniffed, trying to fight off more tears.

  "You've got Rex and Lexi." I brushed some hair out of her eyes.

  She shook her head. "That's not what I mean."

  "Okay." I nodded. "I understand. I just...I didn't know me leaving affected you this much." I stood and extended a hand to her. She took it. I pulled her to the bed. As we lay down, she finally seemed to calm a bit.

  "I want to marry you."

  I thought I hand't heard her right. "What...you...you do?"

  "Yes. But not now. I don't know when."

  Adrenaline pumped through my entire body. My brain stopped working. I couldn't believe what she had said.

  "Oh, honey...that's...that's all I wanted." I kissed her. "You've made me so happy."

  She smiled at me through her emotion and it melted my heart. I squeezed her as close to me as physically possible. In that moment, life could have only gotten better if there weren't any Biters around. My life would have ended happily.

  "I love you, Jack."

  The pressure inside my chest increased. "I love you too, Lisa."

  "I have to check on Gregg."

  I sucked in a breath with a groan. "I knew it wouldn't last." Even though I was slightly frustrated, I gave her a smile.

  "I apologize." She sat up and I joined her.

  "It's ok. I admire it. You're dedicated to your work."

  "Yes."

  "Well, get down there. Because the sooner you finish checking him out, the sooner you can come back up here and we can take a shower."

  Her eyebrows rose. "Oh. I see."

  "I'd fuckin
g rip you to pieces right now. So you'd better go." I grabbed her hand and pretended to bite her fingers. My action was met with a sincere smile. "Go."

  She nodded, standing from the bed. At the door, she turned. "You'll know when I'm ready."

  "Got it."

  From the Desk of Dr. Lisa James

  December 21

  When I got back upstairs, Jack was asleep on the bed sitting up. The dark circles under his eyes told a story of their own. He'd been through a lot while he was gone. And seeing him comfortable enough to fall asleep caused adoration to wash over me.

  I crept up to the bed and tried not to wake him as I crawled over to the other side. But when I laid down, he stirred.

  "Hey." He stretched his arms above his head. "How long was I out?"

  "I was only gone for about twenty minutes."

  He nodded and pretended to fall back asleep in my lap. I ran my fingers through his hair.

  "How's Gregg?"

  "His pulse is strong, but he's not awake yet."

  He rolled over to look at me. "Where's the shower you promised me?"

  "I thought you promised me."

  He sat up. "Nope. When you were leaving you said you'd come back to shower."

  I felt an amused smile spread across my face. "Okay."

  Before I could add anything else to the conversation, Jack kissed me while softly running his hands up my outer thighs. We fell into a rhythm in an instant. He knew how and where I liked to be touched without me saying a word. He followed my noises of pleasure. Even the simple act of removing my dress was enough to send tingles through my entire body.

  We found that I was much too ready for him as soon as we began. The sweet words he whispered to me were enough to send me even farther over the edge.

  He kissed me. "I know this should be a really soft intimate moment, but...you feel really good."

  I allowed a sigh of ecstasy to escape me. No man had ever made me crave intimacy the way Jack had. He was everything I never understood about couples who enjoyed sexual relationships. I wasn't even able to give myself the kind of pleasure he did.

  I adored the way he moved when we were together. The sounds he made in the heat of the moment made me never want to get out of bed. I was with my first lover when I was twenty. And it had taken me eleven years to find someone who I enjoyed seeing naked.

  Jack grabbed my waist, turning so I was straddling him. I liked that position. I was able to reach my peak in less time. I felt my entire body shudder.

  "You okay?"

  When the moan escaped me, I didn't even realize it. All I knew was he'd given me the best orgasm I'd ever had.

  "I'll take that as a yes." He flipped me back over and continued. When he was close, he let me know. I didn't even think I'd appreciate that kind of thing until he said it. Because it made the blood in my veins thicken. I made sure to kiss him as he climaxed. I could tell he enjoyed it.

  When it was over, we allowed ourselves to soak in the moments until morning. For a few hours, we pretended like nothing was wrong in the world and we were the only two left. With that thought in our minds, we fell asleep together again.

  ***

  I'd been buried in the oldest anatomy book I could find with the amputated leg next to me. I had cut away some of the tissue around the bite so I could see the bigger picture. But my eyes were starting to lose focus.

  I moved from the anatomy book to the bite wound on the leg. The veins within an inch radius had turned black. And when pressed upon, they spewed a thick, opaque substance. I just couldn't understand how it worked. I'd never seen a virus that did that in all my medical practice years.

  "Hey there."

  Feeling almost blessed by the distraction, I looked up from my book to see Jack standing in the doorway of the cleaned out freezer.

  "Hi." I blinked a few times to clear the fuzziness from my vision.

  "How's it going?" He approached me and began to lightly massage my shoulders.

  "I can't really do much without a microscope." I sighed. "But I can tell you that I've never seen a virus show these kinds of pathways. It's very obvious where it was going and how fast it was travelling. That could help with studying it."

  "Didn't you say there was a doctor trying to find a cure in Colorado?"

  I took a deep breath. "Yes. There supposedly is." I spun around in my chair to look at him. "We need to go there, Jack."

  He gave me a slow nod. "I know. But can it wait until next week?"

  "Why?"

  "Because apparently Raychel and Gregg are getting married Saturday by Pastor Samuels."

  I stood. "So he's awake? How is he doing?"

  Jack ushered me out of the freezer. "He's in pain, but we're feeding him ibuprofen."

  "Good. That will reduce the swelling."

  We stopped in the kitchen. No one was around and the house seemed silent. "So, what do you say? We leave Monday?"

  After a moment of thinking, I knew what we had to do. "Yes."

  December 24

  In just a few short days, Gregg had learned to walk again with our help. Lisa checked him daily for any signs of infection, but she always gave him a clean bill of health. His color was even coming back.

  The weekend was drawing near and I could tell my sister was nervous. She had an anxious glow around her. It was as if someone had given her a halo. And when I told her that, she joked that it was supposed to be devil horns, but they'd gotten it wrong.

  Lisa spent most of the days in solitude studying book after book. Getting her to eat her meals was difficult, but getting her to come to — or should I say in — bed was pretty simple. While diligent in her studies, she was hellfire at night. It was like all the stress that had built up was released when she was with me.

  And it was incredibly difficult to pull her away on the day of the wedding.

  "Lisa..." I followed her pacing with my gaze. "Come on. Raychel needs you right now."

  "I just don't understand how this virus works." She turned around again to pace to the other side of the room.

  "But...we're going to Braycart. The doctor there is going to help."

  "But what if I find something out between now and then? What if it's big?"

  "That's what she said." My words were met with silence. "What can I do to take your mind off this thing so we can go help Raychel set up her wedding?"

  Lisa stopped mid-pace and looked at me. "Do we have time for sex?"

  I leaned forward. "What?"

  "Do we..." She came toward me. "Have time for sex?"

  "Hmm..." I tapped a finger on my chin. "Let me think about that. Yes."

  "Okay."

  Before I had a chance to react, she was removing her clothes.

  "Holy shit, wait!" I turned around, feeling laughter bubble into my chest. "We should probably close the doors to the parlor first."

  As soon as I turned back around, she was already on me, kissing me hard. We didn't even get my jeans completely off before I was inside her.

  "Rabies normally travels through nerves." As she spoke, her sentences were staggered and harsh from our actions. "But this time it's in the veins."

  "This is so not what I had in mind for sexy talk."

  "Shh." She pushed me down onto a desk in the center of the room. It was the strangest act of intimacy I'd ever experienced. She was very much into what was going on, but managed to think at the same time. Her enthusiasm was pretty damn exciting too.

  "There's no way it can mutate inside an animal... It had to have mutated before or after a bite from an infected animal."

  My grip on her hips tightened. She began to respond as well. Her sentences became even more disjointed and breathy.

  "It's coming to me... It's coming to... I'm coming! I've got it!"

  In that moment, she leapt off me and ran over to the bay window where her books were stacked.

  "What just happened?" I sat up in bewilderment.

  "It's prions!"

  "Prions made you come?"

/>   She tossed me a cynical look. "No."

  "What's a prion?"

  She picked up a book and walked over to me while reading. "Prions are neurodegenerative disorders. Very very rare. It's pathogenic and sporadic, but sometimes genetic. That's why the incubation period is so much longer." She was getting excited. The pitch of her voice had increased.

  "Okay."

  "And that's why this particular strain of rabies lasts so long once symptoms start to show."

  "What's why?"

  "What?" She looked up from the book with that crease between her eyebrows.

  "What's why rabies lasts so long?"

  Her face scrunched up. "Oh, apologies. Prions are transmissible spongiform encephalopathies — TSE's. Once it gets to the host's brain, it acts almost like Alzheimer's. It causes brain damage, forgetfulness, etc. But it also fails to induce the inflammatory response."

  I kept quiet. I had no idea what the hell she was talking about, but she was looking at me like I should have.

  "It means infected tissue doesn't swell!"

  This time, I pretended to understand by widening my eyes and nodding. She seemed satisfied, so she turned to grab another book.

  "Rabies causes swelling of the brain. So when these two diseases are introduced, rabid victims will stay rabid for a far longer time since the swelling response isn't immediately targeted."

  "Oh. I get it now. So...what does that mean? In the long run?"

  "Well... It simply means that someone with either Creutzfeldt-Jakob disease or fatal familial syndrome contracted rabies. Then the prion-manipulating TSE piggybacked on the virus somehow." She looked back at me, her eyes serious. "I'm not even sure if this is curable."

  "But we have to try, right?"

  The seriousness was replaced by a glimmer of what looked like hope. "Exactly."

  December 24

  I wasn't even sure how I'd act when my little sister finally got hitched. The family had always agreed I'd go first and she'd be divorced a few times over. weren't we a lovely group? I was just happy I got to be a best man for once. Everybody knew Silas was going to be a bachelor forever. And now he was dead forever.