by Lucas Coon
"Don't beat yourself up man. You honestly had no choice. There comes a point where survival becomes us or them. If I had to choose, I'd choose us, at least we’re more likely to get out of this." Darren spoke his mind then turned and walked back to his wife. He was right, Mitchell knew it. While being passive was definitely the option that came with less guilt, it would be worse if he were the one being killed. What made him hesitate to kill an infected that was actively trying to murder him, but not when he was dealing with Denver? It was true that Denver was a psychopath and a murderer, but based on his own statements, he was still human. In Mitchell's mind, killing Denver would've been a blessing, he threatened a five year old and shot him in the arm. Yet, it still withstood that he would hesitate to kill the infected attempting to rip the flesh from his bones. He knew why; the people that were infected weren't like that by their own free will, they were being controlled by a parasite and Denver was simply insane. All of the people out there were still people, they weren't zombies or undead, they were everyday people infected by a disgusting parasite. These people were mothers, sisters, grandfathers, uncles, cousins, lovers and everything in between. Killing any of them was a terrible thing; he was ending a life that could be saved if there was a way to cure this horrible infection. Mitchell felt that this was a dilemma that really had no answer or, at least, not one that he could think of.
Mitchell turned around and looked at the building they were standing in. The lights were dim and the main room was empty. The front desk had papers scattered and overall the building had a feeling of abandonment.
"Honestly, Mitch, not to be an ass, but it looks like no one's been here for a few days." Darren sat in the chair behind the reception desk. "This place looks like it hasn't seen action for a while. You sure this is where she said to meet her?"
"The voicemail she left me a few days ago said that she was at the hospital. This is the hospital her mom was at, this is the hospital she was going to last Wednesday. This has to be it." Mitchell pulled his cell phone out of his pocket. He pressed the buttons and pushed the number to call Aria. The phone sat silent for a few moments and went to her outgoing message. "Dammit, her phone is still off."
“Your cellphone still works? Why haven’t you called for help?” Darren glanced at Mitchell.
"The same reason we didn't call anyone from the office, Darren. Help lines have been off since they started the evacuation efforts.” Kayla tapped him on the back of the head. He flinched.
"Alright, damn. I just forgot. It is possible for them, to come back up..." He glared up at his wife.
"Don't be stupid daddy." Lilly giggled at him. Mitchell assumed that she got this statement from Kayla.
"Hey! You watch yourself. I am still your father and I will ground you little lady." He pointed at Lilly ferociously. He may have said the words to threaten her, but Mitchell realized how much of a lie it was. In cases of chaos, authority really doesn't mean anything. It doesn’t matter where you sit on the totem pole because no one has to listen to you. It doesn't matter if you're someone's supervisor, or parent, it's really not possible to flaunt power in situations like this.
"Anyways, I'm certain this is the place." He looked around again, it was odd that there was no one there. No infected. No survivors. Why was the building so empty? This would be the perfect place to stay in cases of and emergency.” Mitchell looked around when the reason hit him. "The doors!" Mitchell thought about it for a second. "There's still power, but the doors were stuck shut. Why is that?"
"Uh, mechanical malfunction?" Darren leaned back in the chair.
"While that's possible, I'm guessing that there's a deeper reason. Have you ever been in a hospital during an outbreak?" Mitchell walked over and sat on the desk.
"I had to go to the doctor once in elementary school because of a pretty bad lice outbreak." Darren put his foot on the desk drawer and pushed, causing the chair to spin.
"Can you not be a sarcastic jerk for five minutes and hear him out? See what I put up with on a daily basis with this man?" Kayla smacked him on the arm. Mitchell noticed that she was very expressive with her hands. He couldn't count the amount of times she'd thumped or smacked him. He didn't consider her to be abusive, mostly because he deserved most of them. Darren corrected himself and sat cross legged with his hands in a meshed position in front of his mouth, much like an evil scientist sits when he's discussing his plan to his pet. Mitchell ignored this and continued.
"When a hospital is involved in a major outbreak, there are special lock-down conditions they can go into for quarantine purposes. They lock down the wing or wings with the outbreak, lock all exits and go into a low power mode." Mitchell pointed up at the ceiling. "It also explains why there's no air circulation. The lights in the west wing are dimmer than the lights out here and if you look you can see the emergency switches are glowing red. This all means that it started over there and that this place went into a..." He paused considering the consequences of his next words. "...lock-down because of a quarantine in the west wing." He dropped her put his hand back on his forehead and rubbed back and forth. "Meaning that there were a large number of infected here and anyone in the west wing is probably dead."
"I'm going to guess that's where she was." Kayla put her hand on Mitchell's shoulder.
“Most likely.” Mitchell felt another rush of disappointment come over him.
"I'm kind of glad we never had to initiate a quarantine other than this one. That front door opened incredibly easy and--"
"Darren!" Kayla motioned to Darren to stop talking. He looked up at Mitchell and realized why.
"Oh. Anyone in the west wing is probably..." He stood up and put his hand on Mitchell. "I'm sorry man." He sighed and sat next to Mitchell. The desk creaked under the weight of two full grown men. "Mitchell, you can't give up that easily. You don't even know if she was there when this all happened, or if the lock-down got called while she was here. For all you know she's on a train heading out of town right now to the nearest military post, or she's on a truck right now talking to soldiers about what she saw here." This was only mildly reassuring. He was right, she could be out there, but there was also the possibility that she could have been here, and that she was locked in a hallway with an infected, tackled, knocked to the floor, then eaten like a rare steak. Unfortunately, dealing in absolutes, as Mitchell had promised himself, was becoming impossible. Mitchell sat on the desk and stared at the tile floor. It was tan and it wasn't an attractive tan. It had speckled spots of brown and grey, and the colors were horrendous. Mitchell could only assume that the person that chose it was colorblind, or potentially just completely blind. He couldn't imagine a person that was of sound mind looking at a sample booklet with tiles and color choices choosing this exact combination. He wasn't even sure that someone like Denver would choose this color combo. It truly was hideous flooring.
"Don't give up Mitchell. I'm sure she's not dead. I personally like to believe that, when you love someone, you have this special connection with them. If she was gone, you wouldn't be trying like this to find her. If she was truly gone, you would have a feeling of helplessness and would've known to give up days ago." Darren patted Mitchell on the shoulder. "I know it may sound dumb or cheesy, but I think that your drive and the fact that you haven’t given up hope, are proof enough that she's still alive." He chuckled. "I know that it's a stupid sounding pseudo-science crap thing to say, but I firmly believe it." Mitchell found little solace in this, but he knew that Darren meant well.
"Yeah, you're probably right." Mitchell decided to give him the benefit of the doubt. He knew it was a lie, but it was comforting to believe it.
"What do you mean probably? When am I ever wrong?" Darren touted his pride once more.
"Regularly. At least once a day, probably more." Kayla spoke up when Darren asked his rhetorical question.
"OK that's it. You're grounded Kayla!" Darren wagged his finger at her like she was a child. She grabbed it and bent it backwards until Darren sc
reeched like a little girl. Lilly burst into laughter when he made the sound. It was quite amusing to see a full grown man with a semi-thick beard screech. Kayla let go and Darren fell into his seat pouting. "You are so mean to me..."
"Don't be a baby."
"Yeah, don't be a baby, daddy!" Lilly found the ability to make this comment through her childish laughter.
"See this, Mitchell? My whole family is against me!" He grunted. Mitchell heard him but was still staring at the tile. He hadn't averted his gaze at all since he started thinking about the possibility of his lover's demise. "Hey, so, what happened?" Darren asked an interesting question.
"What do you mean?" Mitchell turned and looked at him confused.
"Why did you guys get separated? Why didn't you go with her to the hospital?" Darren went right out and said what he was thinking.
"It's a long story..."
"I think we've got time." He was right, they did have time. In fact, it was all they had until they decided what to do from there. Getting to the hospital was the goal and, now that they'd accomplished that, what else was there?
"Well..." Mitchell started off with his story.
-----
"Oh my god, Mitchell, did you see that?" Aria sat up from her slouched position on the couch.
"What? Did I miss something important?" Mitchell sat up from his position of resting his head on her lap. He wiped the drool off of his mouth and rubbed his eyes. "What's up?" He asked through a yawn.
"They just declared a state of emergency! Remember that story about the three people that were sick with some sort of parasite from yesterday? Apparently it's become a full blown epidemic!" She started to shake. Mitchell could tell that she was worried.
"I think I remember that." He thought for a moment. He vaguely remembered something about someone being sick with something, but thought that maybe he had dreamed it.
"Oh my god. Oh my god, Mitchell, what do we do?" She stood up and started to panic.
"Hey, hey, hey Aria. Calm down. I'm sure it's not a big deal." He stood up and hugged her. "Look, it's only like, five thirty. Our reservation is at seven thirty, let's just sit back down and relax. Besides, what constitutes an epidemic? Like, six people?" He shrugged it off. "Here let's see if there's something else about it on channel eight." He pushed the eight and switched the channel over. The screen was black with text rolling from left to right. A monotone electronic voice came over and read the text that was scrolling.
"This is not a test. This is an emergency broadcast. At this time, the entire city is being placed under a lock-down. There has been a confirmed outbreak of an unknown illness. It is currently not clear if the infection is contagious and, if it is, how it is spread. At this time we are strongly suggesting that everyone stays indoors until further notice. The Center for Disease Control and the local police department have drafted an evacuation plan for the city and will be escorting citizens by district. These efforts will take forty-eight to seventy-two hours. At this time it is strongly suggested that you stay indoors and do not leave your house. Updates will be broadcast as they come in. Please standby for more information... This is not a test. This--" Mitchell turned off the TV.
"Maybe this is worse than I thought. Alright, we should go upstairs and pack our bags and sleep down here tonight just in case they hit our district overnight and...” He stopped mid-sentence when he looked over at Aria. “What are you doing?" Aria was frustratingly pressing the buttons on her phone.
"Calling the hospital but they aren't answering. I called the front desk and my mother's room and no one is answering." She put the phone up to her ear for a few moments. "Dammit, Mitchell, no one is answering the damn phone!" She slammed the phone down on the counter and started to cry. "Oh god, what if it got to her?"
Mitchell looked at his wife. She was always so calm and collected. From the first night they had met, to the night prior. As of lately though, she'd been acting more and more scared of the world. Mitchell assumed it was the pregnancy getting to her, but he wasn't certain. Regardless, the woman that he had leaned on for several years now was crumbling right in front of him. Her solid steel structure had been reduced to scrap and was quickly being broken down even more than that. He watched her go from fine, to panicking, to complete and total mess. She was always so collected mentally and he had grown to depend on her for support when it got tough. Very rarely did he have to take the reins.
"Aria! Calm down! I'm sure she's fine and we just need to wait--"
"Stop. Don't start with me about how it's fine. If it was fine they wouldn't be locking people in their houses." She looked at him angrily. She was breathing to the point that Mitchell thought she was going to hyperventilate. "I'm not waiting here."
"What the hell is going on? Why are you acting like this?" Mitchell begged her for an explanation; he didn't understand why she was being completely different from what she was normally. This woman that was crying and screaming at her phone was not the strong, level-headed woman that he had married.
"Are you serious? You don't get it? Outbreak! The city is in lock-down because of an outbreak!" She directed her yelling at him.
"Honey, I know that. I get that. But why are you freaking out on me?"
"Because, Mitchell, I'm scared. Does that surprise you? Every time something goes wrong in our lives you lean on me. Maybe I need a crutch for once in my life. Maybe I need some sort of support to stay sane here!" She was right.
"Alright, I'm sorry. Again, let's just sit down--" His sentence was cut short by the sound her grabbing her keys and purse. "What are you doing?" He knew what she was doing.
"I'm leaving. I'm going to go to the hospital and make sure my mother is OK." She started to walk towards the door.
"Aria, they said to stay inside and--"
"Mitchell, stop. I'm going. Are you coming with me?" This was the moment where everything fell apart for him. He looked at her longingly. She rolled her eyes at him. "Fine, stay here then. I'll be at the hospital." She flung their front door open and slammed it shut behind her. With that fluid motion, she was gone. He stood there and stared at the door for several minutes. His mind was clouded with thoughts of 'did that really just happen?' and 'is she really gone?' He had no idea the extent of what was going to occur over the next couple of days, but he knew that her departure was a problem.
Mitchell walked back and sat on the couch in shock. He pushed the button and turned the television back on. The message was the same. He flipped it over to another channel. Every channel was showing the same emergency broadcast. He turned the TV off and sat there looking at the blank screen.
-----
"So that's why we split up. She left on the night that this all started and I didn't. She was worried about her mother and I was more so concerned with doing what the broadcast told us to do. I called her a few times and got no answer. I haven't heard from her, with the exception of the one voicemail she left me. I got an answer that one time, but I have no idea if it was her." Mitchell pulled his phone out of his pocket and looked it over. Nothing had changed, he wasn't sure if he had expected it to, but he was still disappointed that it hadn't.
"Wow. I'm sorry. I can't begin to imagine what you're going through." Darren looked at Kayla.
"Wait, did you guys only have one car? When you got to the office you were on foot." Mitchell wasn't sure why Kayla was asking this, but it was a good question.
"Heh, that's actually part of the hilarity. Not only did she walk out on me, she took both sets of keys. I'm guessing that she didn't realize her keys were in her purse and she grabbed mine when she left. When I got up to come here the next morning, I had no way to start my car. I had to leave my blue hatchback behind." This thought upset him. It may have cost him more to keep that car running than what it was worth, but he loved it. It was the same car he'd had for several years and it had seen a ridiculous amount of miles. "So I set out on foot."
"That's a bit of a walk." Darren raised his brow in concern. "No wonder you we
re tired when you got there."
"Yeah, the worst part is that I didn't fall asleep for a few hours after that." Mitchell wiped the small amount of sweat from his forehead. It wasn't necessarily the heat that was getting to him, the temperature was comfortable, it was the humidity. He noticed that the air was somewhat sticky. The team was silent for several minutes.
"Well, here we are again, at a dead end. What should we do Mitchell?" Darren had hopped off the desk and sat back in his swivel seat. Lilly was getting uncomfortable being held by Kayla and she was more than happy to let her down after holding her this long. She hopped up on Darren's knee and was sitting there enjoying the swivel motion of the chair. They all looked directly at Mitchell and awaited a response. He looked at them and then back at the phone in his hand.
"I honestly don't know." He pressed the buttons to get to the dial screen again. His thumb hovered over the two and he considered calling her. "Do you honestly think she's still alive, Darren?"
"Well, I don't think she's dead." This was an incredibly uncertain answer. Mitchell looked at him and looked back at the small device. He pressed the two and dialed out to Aria's number. He lifted the phone up to his ear and waited for the answering machine message. Much to Mitchell's surprise, the phone rang. It rang once, and then a second time.
"Uh, Mitchell..." Darren stopped turning and was looking at Mitchell shocked.
"It's ringing!" He couldn't help but smile.
"I know, I can hear it."
"Oh, it is kind of loud isn't it?"
"No. Mitchell, Listen!" Darren stuck a finger in the air to indicate that there was a sound that they should be listening to. Mitchell pulled the phone away from his ear and held his breath. That was when he heard it. The sound was faint, but it was there. He heard the catchy tone that Aria had set for his call in the distance. "No way. Is that her ring tone?" Darren looked as shocked as Mitchell felt.
He listened to the ringing go and then suddenly stop. He put the phone back up to his ear; Aria's voice mail had picked up. He hung up and looked at the other two.
