The World's Last Breaths: Final Winter, Animal Kingdom, and The Peeling

by Iain Rob Wright

  Jeremy pushed her away again and sighed. “Kara, what are you doing here? Where’s your sister?”

  “In bed. She wasn’t feeling good so she went to sleep.”

  Jeremy thought about his wife, alone upstairs and suffering. He felt outraged at Kara. Did she not care? It was her sister, for Christ’s sake. He took a deep breath and fought to remain calm. “How is she?” he asked. “Is it bad?”

  “What do you think? Hasn’t that news station of yours found a cure yet?”

  Jeremy huffed. “They’re journalists, not doctors. And to answer your question, no. There is no cure. It’s killing everyone who has it.”

  Kara slumped down on the sofa and finally seemed to get a little more serious as concern etched itself across her face. Perhaps she did care about her sister after all. “There’s really nothing anyone can do?” she asked.

  Jeremy shook his head. “That’s why we need to look after your sister – my wife. Carol needs our love and support. We can’t fool around behind her back anymore. I’m done behaving like that.”

  Kara didn’t reply. She stared at the blank television screen as though the glass were a portal to another, more interesting life. Jeremy didn’t care to console her. He’d had enough of his wife’s younger sister. Once Carol passed on, she could leave, go back to her own place, and they should never speak again. If he was honest with himself, his wife was the only woman he had ever truly loved, and once she was gone, he was giving up on women for good.

  Jeremy didn’t want to waste any more time. The value of a second had increased exponentially since The Peeling had found its first victim – whoever that might have been. He placed his foot on the first step of the staircase and looked up. The second floor seemed miles away – another world, filled with horrors and regret. He began to climb, dreading what he would find upstairs. What pain would Carol be in? Would she cry out when he entered, or would she remain silent like the woman gunned down in the road? He was about to find out.

  Reaching the top of the stairs, he headed across the landing to the master bedroom, where he placed an ear against the door and listened. Silence. Without even realising it, his hand went to the handle and began turning it. A moment later, his legs carried him through into the bedroom.

  Carol was asleep in their double bed, the duvet kicked down to the bottom of the mattress. She was hot and the heat of her fever filled the room with a sweaty aroma. Her body was pale and smooth, but still healthy. Her face however…

  Jesus Christ!

  …her face was little more than a sinewy skull. Her jaw and teeth were utterly exposed, making it seem like she was grinning constantly. Her cheeks had worn away, leaving her eyeballs sunken beneath the thin, translucent scraps of her eyelids. Beautiful brunette hair lay disembodied on the pillow, no longer attached to her head. She looked like a corpse. Yet she breathed.

  “Sweetheart?” Jeremy approached cautiously, not wanting to startle her. If she was in pain, then it was probably cruel of him to bother her at all. But he needed to talk to her. It was time to confess his sins.

  Slowly, the tissue-like skin of her eyelids rose. Beneath them, his her eyes were as they’d always been: green and full of life.

  “J-Jerry?”

  “Yes, sweetheart. It’s me. How are you feeling?”

  Despite the mess that was her face, Carol managed a weak laugh. “My face felt like it was on fire earlier, but now I can’t feel anything at all. It’s…nice.”

  Jeremy placed himself down on the bed. The sheets were damp and bloody. He noticed that a patch of skin the size of a hockey puck had begun to rot away on her side. The smell was sweet and odious.

  “I’m going to be here for you now, my love. I’m not going back to work.”

  “I…I thought you’d been ordered to?”

  “Screw their orders. Besides, I don’t think they’ll be any orders left this time tomorrow.”

  Carol’s eyelids fluttered and it seemed like she was going back to sleep. Jeremy was prepared to let her, but was surprised when her eyes opened wide again and seemed completely awake.

  “My…sister was here.”

  “Kara? She’s downstairs. Did you want to speak with her?”

  She shook her head gently. “No. No. Just tell her…I forgive the both of you. I don’t want to die angry.”

  Jeremy’s throat clammed up, and for a second he thought he might choke. She had known all along? About him and her sister? Would she know that he had been planning to tell her everything? Had the absolution of confession been taken away from him now? Would it have even counted anyway? To tell somebody something on their deathbed was not brave. In fact, it was downright cowardly.

  “How did you know?”

  “She’s not exactly subtle, my sister – always here, sniffing around you. Doesn’t matter now. You can be together.”

  “That’s not what I want. I don’t care about her, or anyone else. The only woman I love is you.”

  She patted him on the hand. Her skin was soft, fragile. “I know. I know none of those women were anything other than sex to you. You disgusted me for years, but eventually I accepted that it was just your nature to be so…weak. I…I had my own fun in the end.”

  Jeremy stood up from the bed. “What?”

  Carol smiled. “I’ve probably fucked around more than you…these last few years.”

  “You goddamn whore!”

  “I’m not ashamed of it, Jerry. It was fun. You should know.”

  Jeremy backed away, towards the door. He could barely believe the grinning skull on the bed was the woman he’d been married to for twenty years. “W-why are you telling me all this?”

  “Because I don’t want to die with secrets, and…and despite everything I’ve always loved you. None of it really matters anymore, other than the fact we loved each other in our own way.”

  Jeremy lowered his shoulders and took a few breaths while he digested what he’d just heard. His stomach ached and he felt sick – but Carol was right. None of it mattered. He loved this woman and he wanted to be with her. He sat back down on the bed.

  “Can I do anything to help?”

  Carol took a long, laboured breath, and a sliver of skin fell from her neck, sliding away onto the bed sheets. “I don’t want to die…”

  “I know that, sweetheart. I know.”

  “…later. I want to die…now.”

  Jeremy looked at his wife, deep into her eyes – the only part of her that was still the same as when he’d married her. “What?”

  “I don’t want to lie here rotting away. I don’t want to feel the pain when my body begins to bleed. I’ve said all I needed to say. I’m ready.”

  “You can’t ask me to-”

  “You owe me.” She said the words forcefully, suddenly full of vitality – but it only lasted a minute before she seemed to deflate again.

  She was right, Jeremy told himself. He owed her many things. Their whole marriage had been marred by him abusing her integrity and violating her trust. What she was asking for now was dignity – a simple thing. The dignity of refusing to let the virus defile her body in the same ways that he had defiled their marriage. But he couldn’t kill her. No way.

  “I’m sorry. I won’t.”

  Carol stared at him. He couldn’t tell if she was angry. The facial muscles that would usually form expressions were all gone from her face now.

  “I understand,” she whispered. “Leave me alone.”

  “What do you mean?”

  “If I have to go through this, I want to do it alone. I don’t want anyone watching while I die. If you won’t help me, then give me some privacy.”

  The last thing Jeremy wanted was to leave her alone. To die with no one around was be a lonely, helpless demise, but it was Carol’s choice, not his. He stood up from the bed.

  “I’ll check on you later,” he said.

  “No, don’t. There’s nothing you can do for me.”

  Jeremy’s heart felt like a weight in his ches
t and it was difficult to drag his body away from his wife’s bedside. They may never talk again. This was goodbye.

  He left the room without another word. Anything he’d said wouldn’t have been enough. Downstairs, Kara was still sitting on the living room sofa. She had switched on the television and was watching it intently. She showed no interest in his presence and did not ask about the state of her sister.

  “Carol is in a bad way, in case you were wondering.”

  Kara turned her head away from the television and looked at him. “Should I go see her?”

  Jeremy sat down on the sofa beside her, making sure to stay as far away on the cushions as possible. “She wants to be left alone.”

  “Okay.” Kara went back to watching the television.

  “Do you even care?”

  “Of course I do. She’s my sister. But there’s nothing I can do. I don’t want to watch while she rots away.”

  “Then why are you even here?”

  She stared at him again and this time seemed very sad. “To be with you. I thought you cared about me.”

  Jeremy sighed. “I…I do. You know I do. But Carol is dying and it’s not right anymore. I’m sick of hating myself.”

  “She’s dying. We can be together.”

  “I’m sorry, but I don’t want that. The world is a mess. The last thing I can concentrate on right now is a relationship.”

  Kara stood up from the sofa and shook her head. She’d suddenly become very emotional. “You really want to be alone while the world dies around you? We need to look after each other. You need to look after me.”

  “What do you mean? You can look after yourself.”

  Kara wouldn’t look at him. She averted her eyes and stared at the wall.

  “Kara? What is it?”

  “What do you care? You’ve made your feelings clear enough.”

  Jeremy sighed and lifted himself off the coach. He went over and put his palm against her back. “Tell me what’s really wrong. You’re not this upset because of me.”

  She broke down in tears and buried her head against his chest. It was then that he smelt the same sweet odour that had come from Carol’s rotting flesh. He eased her away so that he could look at her. “You have it, don’t you?”

  It looked as though Kara wanted to speak, but was unable to. Instead she nodded solemnly and reached a hand up to her long, brown hair. She scooped it away from her neck and exposed the skin. Beneath her right ear was a blistering patch of skin.

  Jeremy bit at his bottom lip and almost drew blood. “How long?”

  “I noticed this morning. I came straight here to wait for you. I was hoping you’d know how to help me, that you would have gotten answers at the news station.”

  “How did you even get here? The military have the roads blocked up.”

  “I walked. I kept away from the main roads.”

  “You walked four miles through that hell out there?”

  “It was better than being alone. I thought if I came here, you’d look after me.”

  “I will,” Jeremy said. “Of course I will.”

  “You’ve changed your tune.”

  Jeremy huffed. It suddenly felt like he hadn’t slept in weeks. “I care about you, Kara. You’re Carol’s sister.”

  “Carol’s sister. Is that all I am to you now? A fucking obligation?”

  Jeremy sat back down on the sofa and rubbed at his face. “Kara, if you want me to look after you, I will, but that’s all. I’m not going to argue with you, not now.”

  “You mean now that I’m dying?”

  Jeremy wasn’t going to lie, so he nodded.

  “There’s really not going to be a cure?” she asked.

  “No. I don’t think so. The Government haven’t even worked out how it spreads, let alone how to beat it.”

  Kara slumped down on the sofa beside him and seemed defeated, all the energy had gone from her voice. “How did I get it? When you came over to warn me that people were getting sick, I stayed away, kept indoors. I never went near anyone infected, but I still got it. How does that make sense?”

  “I don’t know. It doesn’t. Truth is nobody really knows anything about The Peeling.”

  “But it’s bad isn’t it? I mean, really really bad.”

  Jeremy nodded. “At the rate it’s going, half the world is going to die. Half the people get it while the other half don’t.”

  “Guess you’re one of the lucky ones.”

  Jeremy laughed, but didn’t find anything funny. “Doesn’t feel that way.”

  Kara pulled her legs onto the sofa and laid herself across his lap. He let her. Together they watched the television in silence, trying to clear their minds of horror. Ironically, Never Stop News was on. Sarah and Tom were continuing to give the news with as much pluck as they could muster, but Jeremy could tell the toll was becoming too much for them. Sarah’s face was pasty and wiry strands of hair clumped against her damp forehead.

  “They look as lost as everyone else,” Kara said.

  Jeremy stroked her hair and was shocked by the heat coming off her head. “That’s because they are. They’re as frightened and as lost as we are. They’re just trying to help by making us think that things are still normal. The news and weather make people feel like there’s still someone in charge.”

  “And is there?”

  “I guess so. The military are everywhere, ever since General Whitehead took over after Lloyd Collins died.

  “Jerry?”

  “Yeah?”

  “I’m scared.”

  “Me too.”

  Six hours later and The Peeling had taken all of the skin from Kara’s neck, so much so that her windpipe was now exposed. Jeremy wasn’t repulsed. The sight of rotting flesh had become commonplace.

  On the television, Sarah and Tom were still reporting about The Peeling, refusing to wrap things up while the cameras were still running. They would both have usually left the station by now. By the weary looks on their faces, Jeremy had a grim feeling that, behind the cameras, the military had become the directors. Their promises of staying out of the station may have been overridden as things continued to deteriorate.

  “While we are yet to receive confirmation, rumours have begun to circulate that researchers at the National Institute for Medical Research in London have made a breakthrough concerning the transmission method of the virus. We are persistent in our attempts to get more information on this matter, so please bear with us.”

  “What difference doessss it make?” Kara’s voice had taken on a serpentine hiss as her throat rotted away. “Unless it’s a cure, it’s no good to anyone.”

  Jeremy sucked in a breath and listened to it whistle between his teeth. His stomach felt empty, nauseous. While Kara was correct in her pessimism, it was still welcome news to hear that somebody had possibly discovered something about the nature of the virus. Knowledge made the virus seem more natural, more beatable, and less like an unstoppable flesh-consuming monster. If people knew how it was passed on, the fight to contain it could finally begin. Not that Jeremy would have anything left in his life to fight for if mankind succeeded in destroying the beast.

  “How do you feel?” he asked Kara.

  She tried to laugh, but her tattered vocal chords seemed to lack the ability now. “I feel like my head’s going to fall off into my lap any minute. My neck feels numb, like it’s not even there anymore.”

  Jeremy was about to tell her he was sorry, but then decided it would be a pointless gesture. Apologies provided no solace. Besides, Kara seemed to be growing angrier rather than brooding.

  “This is probably what I deserve, you know?” she asked him.

  “What do you mean?”

  “I mean, I’ve been fucking my sister’s husband – among my many other sins – and this is probably my punishment.”

  Jeremy shook his head. “She forgives us.”

  “What? She knows?”

  “Yes. She told me earlier. She loves us both and forgive
s us.”

  Kara hitched forward and tears were instant in their arrival. As they fell down her face, they gathered flakes of skin and a film of blood from her cheeks, so fragile was her flesh. “I’ll go to hell for what I’ve done. Carol can forgive – she’s a better person than us – but I doubt God will be so compassionate.”

  “Don’t talk nonsense, Kara. We all do things we regret. Carol isn’t holding it against you, so you shouldn’t hold it against yourself.”

  “Fuck you!” The outburst was sudden and vicious. “You’re the one who should be melting away, not my sister. You’re the one that’s spent your whole marriage fucking around. What did you ever do for her? Nothing! Yet she’s the one dying while you’re perfectly fine.”

  Jeremy sighed and tried to keep his focus on the television. He had a feeling that she would strike at him if he made eye contact. “If I could take her place, I would.”

  “You’re a liar. They have a cure at that news station. Look at them. They’re fine, just like you.”

  Jeremy looked at Sarah’s tired face on the screen and shook his head. “Actually, one of the reporters has the virus. She showed me earlier.”

  “Bullshit!” Kara sprung up from the couch. You have a cure, but you won’t share it. With me and Carol out of the way, you can carry on screwing around. Probably already got a new fancy-woman.”

  Jeremy stood up and backed away. He could sense violence inside Kara and he wasn’t interested in stoking that particular fire. Nonetheless, she came at him, withered fingers outstretched like talons.

  He stepped aside and shoved out, sending her sprawling sideways onto the couch. As she fell, her legs shot forward and upended the coffee table. Immediately her ankle began to bleed. She clutched at it and sobbed.

  “I’m fucking melting,” she wailed. “What did I do to deserve this? I’m not a bad woman – not really. I don’t deserve this. I don’t. I don’t.”

  Jeremy left while she was distracted. A madness seemed to have overtaken her and his presence seemed to make it worse. He felt endangered, an enemy inside his own home. He wanted to see Carol. He wanted to be with his wife.