I looked to Graham with fear as he raised the barrel of the rifle and released the safety after a few moments of no response. I didn’t know whether to look at him or to look at the potential threat heading our way from around the corner. It took three more footsteps before ditzy little April who apparently had a death wish would reveal herself from around the corner.
“Jesus, April! What the hell is wrong with you? Why didn’t you say something? I almost shot you!” Graham exhaled as he put the safety back on and lowered the rifle. I hurried over to her after looking for any obvious injuries because she wasn’t even startled, her face was completely red in contrast to her bright blond, straight hair. Selfishly, I also remembered now how I wished I could get my hair to highlight as well as hers.
“April, how’s Darin?” I asked again of him to her.
“He’s almost dead,” she said in a nasally, whiney tone. She burst into tears. Graham put his hand on her shoulder and glanced at me as I shrugged my shoulders. It was all non-verbal; I knew he wanted to know if anything could be done to help.
“Right after you left he was mumbling some weird stuff and then he started twitching and shaking uncontrollably. The frickin’ dummy Chad went to see about his girlfriend a few minutes ago. He said he’d come right back. I told him he shouldn’t leave like you said but he left anyway.” April continued to sob.
I walked back to my first aid bag knowing there wasn’t a single thing inside it that would help Darin. I wiggled my fingers into a fresh pair of latex gloves and went up the stairs with Graham right behind me, and April still crying, a few steps behind him. I was walking down the hall past a bathroom when I had to roll my eyes as she pointed out which room was Darin’s, as if I hadn’t been here before. His door was already opened slightly and the room was much cooler than the rest of the house. There was a noisy fan running, that I turned off as I reached into my bag and got my stethoscope out so I could check his heart rate and breathing. April went back into the bathroom and turned on the water. She returned to apply a cold compress to the scratches that were obviously infected and bruising much of his arms and face. The area around Darin’s eyes were dark, nearly bruised and a small amount of yellow mucous was beginning to run from them.
I looked at Graham who by now knew that his roommate was in a worsening condition. Darin was unresponsive as I kept calling his name and took his pulse. You could see the sweat pooling as his hair was drenched and his T-shirt was now sticking to most of his body. His pulse was below forty beats per minute, which was odd, considering his temperature and sweating. It should have been much higher for someone as sick as he was. If he was going to reanimate after death, which I was sure he would, this had to be the transformation phase. I was never into zombies and knew only the basics because, well, it was fiction but now the medical professional in me was about to see in real life the stages leading up to becoming a dead one.
“For our safety, I think we should restrain him,” I suggested firmly.
“But what if he wakes up? I mean he’s not one of them yet. No one is sure what really happens. He’s still my brother and he’s not going to turn into one of those things wandering outside,” April started in on her defense.
I stared at her. Could she be any more naive?
“April I think she’s right. It’s for our safety and his––he’s my friend.” Graham agreed. I could see the angst in Graham’s face as he looked over his critically ill friend.
“Don’t worry, I think he is going to wake up,” I said sarcastically as I pulled the latex gloves off from my wrists first, balled them up and threw them on the dresser as I walked out of the bedroom. My intentions were to find some rope to restrain Darin to the bed and his little sister next to him, if necessary. I decided I was going to die of something else besides being attacked and eaten alive when I knew better what to do. I also felt like a little bit of a fool now because I didn’t know where the hell in this house any rope was kept. I’d rather search for it than to stand there arguing with little Miss Wanna-Be-Dead.
Graham followed right after me, diverting my anger.
“I think I left the rope either in the basement or in the garage. Let’s try downstairs first,” he said.
Thankfully Graham kept some of his camping gear downstairs instead of in the garage because it made for easier retrieval. I followed his lead because instead, I was thinking about at least ten things all at once. While in the basement, he looked in one Rubbermaid bin while I looked in another. There was nothing but the noise of items being rustled around for a short while until he spoke up.
“I didn’t want you to go outside, but I’m glad you made it here safely.”
“Well, thanks for the effort to pick me up. After the phones went out I couldn’t wait around there; it was horrible seeing people get attacked and torn up like that. I just can’t believe all of this is happening,” I said to him.
“I know. Earlier this morning I knew something was up when I went in to set up the lab and check on some of the lab projects. Shortly after I got there, everyone started talking about different attacks nearby. People were getting texts and emails almost right away. At first everyone thought it was some huge joke but as soon as the campus police went building by building telling everyone to go home, then all of a sudden telling everyone to stay put. As they began locking the doors, panic started. They decided to close the campus after the emergency broadcast. I guess some students here went missing. A lot of them were at Center City last night after the game. By the time people tried to leave campus this morning it had already made it here. That’s when Darin got attacked.”
“It was that fast?” It was impossible to imagine something like that happening to so many people so quickly.
“We all decided to come back here when Darin started getting worse. We were able to sneak by the police, since they were obviously overwhelmed. He’s been like that since right before you called. I told Chad not to leave after April showed up because I knew I had to go get you and it would mean she would be here with Darin alone. She hasn’t said anything about her roommates but I guess we know what that means.”
Graham looked under a folded tarp where he found some rope.
“I was hoping for utility rope because it’s thicker and a little more durable, but this should do it,” he said.
I didn’t know my strings but I considered Graham to be at the top of his rope game. He was frequently outdoors and used various pieces of equipment that needed rope to help in the course of his theses research. Without a doubt I would follow Graham’s instructions because I trusted him and beyond that, I loved him. I’ve always admired the way he analyzed things differently than I did, which was always complementary over being offensive. I looked on as he firmly held the rope, pulling on it and testing it to be sure it could handle the repetitive stress. I wasn’t sure if Darin would ever consciously know he was being tied down, but either way I’m sure he wouldn’t like it.
“What are we going to do with him, if he changes?” I asked quietly.
“We’ll do what we have to do. Until then, he’s still...”
“I know, he’s still our friend. I just need to know that you can let go if and when the time comes.” I figured Graham might be reluctant to write his friend off so quickly, especially since they’ve known each other since high school. I didn’t want to offend him but I could tell we were on the same page and to know that was enough for me. As I looked around the basement for other useful things, Graham placed the rope on a table, walked over to me and put his arms around me. I don’t know if it was for his sake or mine but I was willing to be strong for him so I held him as hard as I could in return. His warmth made it easy for me to feel safe again and I could smell remnants of his woodsy scent. I could’ve stood there in silence with him for eternity because aside from the whole reason we were in the basement, everything seemed completely normal in this space. We could not see the world around us falling apart into chaos from where we stood and it certainly didn�
��t appear as if just two floors above us, someone we both knew and loved was dying.
“You know I’m with you until the end, right?” Graham spoke in soft tones to me.
“I know, me too. I love you,” I said in return, looking into his brownish-green eyes, hoping again for a wake-up from this nightmare. My fearfully fluttering heart told me this was instead nothing I’d wake up from.
I closed my eyes and squeezed him one last time before we separated. I knew that from this point on if he had it his way, Graham would never be far from me and I certainly hoped there would be a million more embraces and intimate moments before we met our end. Feeling it might be of use eventually, I picked up a flashlight from one of the tables and he grabbed the rope before we both heard April cry out from the upstairs bedroom. We both glanced at each other and Graham darted up the stairs. I was a few steps behind him when I heard April yell for us again.
“Graham, you guys, get up here quick!” she yelled with even more intensity.
Graham rounded the hallway and was up the second set of stairs when I heard April yell out again that Darin was not breathing anymore; this time she was at the top of the stairs and more frantic. In my mind, I wasn’t sure how I would go about trying to resuscitate him because the only thing I knew for sure was that whatever Darin and countless others had, it was extremely contagious. I got to the room just in time to see both of them hovering over Darin’s lifeless body and Graham starting to do CPR. He began doing the chest compressions and soon as he went over to breathe air into Darin’s mouth, I abruptly stopped him.
“Wait! I’m not sure you should do that,” I warned.
This of course made April irate.
“Why aren’t you helping him? You’re a fucking paramedic! You’re supposed to save his life!” She ranted on, screaming various obscenities at me.
I looked at her, wanting so badly to engage her stupidity. From memory I was able to recall her lack of fondness for me. This was her perfect opportunity to lash out.
“He’s gone, okay? Look at him, April! What do you think is gonna happen to Graham when he swaps spit with him by breathing air into his mouth?”
I didn’t mean to make it sound like a romantic affair but I needed blondie here to get the point. I picked up the rope that Graham dropped and grabbed a pair of scissors from off of the desk that was nearby a window. I glanced outside where I saw not one but two people, dead, walking aimlessly around a few houses down from us toward the middle of the block. As soon as April saw what I was doing she continued with her rant.
“What are you doing?” she yelled.
“I’m tying him to the bed,” I replied simply, measuring out long enough piece of rope for each limb. Graham glanced over at the now-deceased Darin and took the first length I cut.
“Oh no, you’re not! You just helped him die and now you’re going to tie my dead brother up like he’s some kind of animal?”
“We don’t have time to discuss this,” I said, continuing to cut the rope, not even giving her eye contact. I had three or four pieces cut. Graham walked over to take them from me so he could start tying each arm to the headboard and each leg to the frame from the foot of the bed since there was no footboard on the full-sized bed. He asked me to cut some longer pieces and a few extra, just to be safe.
She was just about to say something when her voice distorted in the most gruesome manner, changing its pitch too quickly. From the corner of my eye, I saw Graham jump back, which made me move automatically as well. April wailed in pain as I looked just in time to see Darin’s hand grab her arm and his head burrow right into the area between her neck and shoulder, ripping flesh and blood from her like something out of a wildlife show. Darin pushed his sister onto the floor and took another bite out of her shoulder while she cried out in terrible pain.
For the second time in two hours I saw shock remove from a person their ability to fight back. Graham grabbed Darin’s other arm and tried to pull him off of her but then it only made him become a target as Darin now refocused his attention toward him. I dropped everything and ran to help, stepping over April, who was now on her back holding her arm, wailing in an ear-piercing shriek. Graham was struggling with Darin now trying to stop his attack. They knocked over a nightstand and a lamp in their scuffle causing the cord that was still plugged in to trip Graham, both of them ending up on the floor: Graham on the bottom near April as she bled profusely while trying to move herself out of the way. I did what I thought was best and tried to pull Darin off of Graham with all my strength and found it would be no easy task. Darin was now groaning and gnashing his bloodied teeth but turned his attention to me from the second I grabbed him, pulling and inadvertently helping him back onto his feet. I was nearest to the bed and was forced back on it in an effort to distance myself from Darin, who was now grabbing me trying to rip chunks of flesh. I saw his eyes up close and knew he was no longer Darin. Some kind of wildness had replaced the serenity and calm that everyone, myself included, saw in them every day until now. There was redness around his former dark brown irises followed by a grayish-yellow haze that used to be white. For what seemed like an eternity I was able to see what I missed the last time up close with the dead one in my apartment building with Ronny.
“Darin… Darin… please, stop!” I struggled to scream out while trying to push him away.
I was obviously the weaker one. I could see Graham behind him, scrambling to stand up and grabbing the shotgun he set by the doorway earlier. Remembering what I was told in a self-defense class I took years ago, they taught me women are stronger in the legs. I fought to keep him off of me, to avoid any bites and scratches, and lift my right leg to position my foot up against Darin’s stomach. This was not easy as he had an extra firm grip on my arms and the sleeves of my jacket. I saw Graham aiming the shotgun and he yelled something that I didn’t hear over my own voice. I was running out of energy when I gave one last burst of power to my leg and kicked out which surprisingly forced Darin off of me into the wall by the desk. He quickly regrouped to come back at me but not before I heard the exploding sound of the shotgun followed by the discharge of the empty shell and a second shot to follow. The first shot hit Darin in the abdomen, and the force pushed him again into the wall, causing slight amounts of blood to splatter behind him. He reacted only to regain his footing until the second shot pierced his face and went on further through his head putting even more blood on the walls. Darin’s face was almost unrecognizable as he dropped to the floor, permanently stopped from all functioning.
Graham set the gun down and came over to both of us as April was still on the floor shivering in pain and crying. I’m sure it was traumatic for her to see her brother’s body and face taken apart like that—it was traumatic for all of us—but I felt sorry for her now. I bent over her to examine the damage including all of the blood on the floor underneath her. Disregarding the pathogenic harm from not using gloves, I attempted to reach out to her in order to sit her up but she wasn’t going for it.
“Don’t you touch me!” she yelled while wincing from the pain.
Her back was almost completely wet from blood. I ignored her and helped her to sit on the bed.
“I think we should get out of this room,” Graham added, surveying the area.
“Yeah, let’s go downstairs so I can dress these wounds,” I tried to comfort the girl who hated me as best as I could. She jerked away from me once again.
“Why should I let you help me? So you can help me just like you helped my brother?” She stood up now looking at me with more contempt in her eyes.
“April calm down, please. Let her help you.” Graham suggested as April now turned appearing to lash out at him next.
“All you’re going to do is wait around so you can figure out when you can tie me up and kill me next. My brother trusted you, Graham. You were his best friend!” she yelled.
“It’s not like that, and yes was my best friend.”
“Whatever… Is the next bullet in that s
hotgun mine? You gonna put me down too, Graham?” April said, as she started sobbing. Graham took a deep breath but didn’t respond because he knew she was testing his tolerance. She slowly walked out of the room and Graham and I followed before taking one last look at Darin who was now slumped awkwardly in the corner. It was impossible to know what was on her mind but I knew that she’d have at least a few hours if she were not seriously incapacitated, which she seemingly wasn’t. I knew April had a thing for Graham all the years she’d known him so it was obvious to me that he would be the one to convince her to do anything. After all, my efforts to be decent toward her had failed.
With the adrenaline wearing off and my breathing returning to a somewhat normal pace, I took the blanket off of the bed and hung it over Darin’s slumped body. I was too consumed with fear to handle his body any more than that for now. If we were lucky the time would come to deal with his remains, to perhaps to recall more pleasant memories and say goodbye to someone who should’ve had three times his age in years left to live than what was just dealt to him since this morning. I closed the door quietly as I said a prayer for his soul.
Once the three of us were back on the first floor, Graham started to reason with April. I decided to hang back and let him take the lead. My part simply would be to not aggravate her, to be silent, and attempt to take care of her the best way that I could. I had minimal supplies that I would make do with and at least try to cleanse and dress her wounds, even though it made little sense to do so. After all, what else could she get now––an infection? She already had one as far as that was concerned and even I’d be overjoyed if all she walked away with from this were a staph infection instead.
“April, you understand why we’re being cautious,” Graham stated bluntly. He continued on.
“Darin, is––was––my buddy, you know that. I also know that he would not have wanted to be one of those things. It’s because of those things that he ended up dying and nothing else. What I shot was not your brother.”
Affliction Page 5
