Affliction

by Amy Miles

  “Maybe I’m just special?” He suggests weakly.

  “Sorry, kid, but that’s the wrong answer.” I lean in close and breathe deep at the curve of his neck. I don’t know if it is because of my newly heightened awareness after the second blast of the virus or if I was just too preoccupied to notice before, but there is something slightly off about his blood.

  “Have you been dosed with anything else? Something Wiemann may have given you before I woke up?”

  “Nope. Not that I know of. They ran a heck of a lot of tests while I was stuck in that lab and I’m pretty sure someone down there took a lot of pleasure in jabbing me with all sorts of medieval medical torture devices but they never injected me with anything.”

  I tap my foot against the ground, trying to puzzle it out. Something is different and it is infuriating that I don’t know what it is. “What about before? You said you were at a Safe Zone down south, didn’t you?”

  “Yeah, I was at one down in Charleston. Me and a bunch of other kids were bussed in from all over.”

  “Anything weird go on there?”

  Flynn shrugs. “Not really? I mean not apart from the daily visits to the vampires in hazmat suits. I still have the scar tissue to prove it.”

  He holds out his arms and turns them over so that I can see the inside of his elbows. Running a finger down his skin I can feel small lumps. “They took your blood daily?”

  “Yeah. It was their thing. A few vials each day and then they sent us on our way. The doctors said they were testing us for the virus. If you tested positive they would bust in and take you out. My friend Roan had this theory that they were doing all kinds of wild experiments on our blood but we never were able to prove it. Someone sort of blew up the lab.”

  I blink. “And that didn’t seem suspicious to you?”

  “Well, of course it did but there was a containment breach and we were forced to go into lockdown, so it wasn’t like we could just stroll over there and take a look for ourselves. Everything kinda went nuts after that. Roan and some of us were too busy taking over the school and barricading it before things got really bad.”

  I have heard him tell this story before but never with so many details. I hadn’t realized all that he had been through before he ended up in Nashville.

  “Think, Flynn. There had to be something you heard or saw that might explain why you were able to handle my blood.”

  He stuffs his hands into his camouflage pants and kicks at the ground. “I don’t know. I mean Roan had this fascination with one of the girls in our group in the beginning. I didn’t really put much stock in it, you know and he did keep a lot of things close to his chest, but maybe she had something to do with it. They treated her differently.”

  “Why?”

  “She was pregnant.”

  I begin to pace back and forth, trying to think of why that would make a difference. Obviously, she was young if she was at the school, but I’ve seen people younger than Flynn turn. Hell, I even saw a Withered baby once. That thing still gives me nightmares.

  “What was the reason for his fascination? Just that she was treated differently?”

  “Um,” Flynn scratches the side of his nose as he thinks. “Maybe. I remember him saying something about her baby. I think they wanted it. She seemed pretty scared that they were going to steal it away from her. I think she was hoping that if she dug up enough dirt for Roan about what was going on in the lab that he would offer her some sort of protection or help her escape before the baby was born.”

  “And did he?” The answer to that question feels vital to my ability to understand his friend’s motivation.

  “I don’t know. Like I said things went to hell in a hand basket and fast. Those Dead Heads came for us and we hunkered down.”

  “You mean Flesh Bags?” I turn to look at him. “There were actual Flesh Bags at your Safe Zone?”

  “Well, yeah.” He frowns. “I told you all of this, right? That’s why we had to fight. The base was completely overrun.”

  I stop pacing and pinch the bridge of my nose. “We’re too late.”

  “What?”

  “Don’t you see?” I round on him. “It had already spread long before I got bit. If those things attacked you before you arrived in Nashville, then that means the zombies were already on the move before I was even turned. Wiemann couldn’t have made them using my blood. They must have had another source.”

  “Huh. Yeah, I never really thought about that.” His face scrunches up and then his eyes go wide and he rushes to my side. “I should have thought of this before. You know my friend, Roan? Well, his dad was the one that seemed to be leading the Dead Heads.”

  “I’m not following you. He was like Cable and me?”

  “No.” He shakes his head. “He was definitely one dead dude but he was different too. Roan was sure that his dad came looking for him. I remember him saying that his dad must have tracked him all the way from Atlanta.”

  Flynn’s jaw goes slack. “Oh shit. He told me that his dad worked at the CDC.”

  My heart plummets into my stomach and I grasp onto him to keep from falling.

  “Avery? Are you okay?”

  “I don’t feel so good.”

  I push away from him and throw myself around a tree before I vomit. Flynn pats my back until there is nothing left and I wipe my mouth with the back of my hand.

  “We have to find Nox and warn him.”

  “Warn him about what?” He starts to follow me but stumbles and nearly falls to the ground. I yank on his arm impatiently and loop my arm through his as we begin to run together.

  “We are walking straight into a shitstorm and there’s another one right on our tail! When it collides, all hell will break lose and we will be stuck smack dab in the middle!”

  EIGHTEEN

  The bone chilling howl that tears through the night comes seconds after Flynn and I emerge from the woods. It sends goose bumps racing down my arms as I watch the soldiers leap from their beds with their guns in hand.

  “What the hell was that?” Fletcher yells and backs up so close to the fire that I’m sure his backside is nice and toasty.

  Cyrus and his watchmen hurry back toward the fire as a group and flank Nox. A circle forms with Flynn and I taking up our place beside Liam, just as we’d promised.

  “Eyes open, men. The instant you see something kill it.” Nox turns to look at me. “Is it still curious?”

  “No,” I call back and search the darkness, frantically trying to locate it. “I’m pretty sure it’s decided the other urge is a bit stronger now.”

  “What urge would that be,” Kira asks.

  “You really don’t want to know.”

  “Lovely.” I hear her cock her gun and I’m grateful that she is standing next to Nox. She may be moody and publicly against me, but I know she is loyal and will do whatever it takes to keep Nox safe. If she lives through the night, I might even have to swallow my pride and thank her.

  “Liam, I want you to stay on my ass. Where I go you go, got it?”

  “Loud and clear. Just don’t go faster than I can keep up.”

  Flynn watches the treetops as they sway in the nighttime breeze. “I’ll be right behind you if anything goes wrong.”

  “Pipe down,” Nox orders.

  There is an odd sound on the air. I turn my head to the left and listen. It almost sounds like leaves falling...

  “It’s in the trees!” I scream just as a giant shape leaps overhead. The soldiers open fire, wildly spraying the treetops with bullets but the creature is gone.

  “Anyone get an eyeball on it?” Nox yells.

  “I saw lots of hair,” Bo calls.

  “And long arms,” Gentry adds.

  “Avery?”

  When I don’t respond, he turns all the way around to look at me but I’m
still struggling to understand exactly what I saw. Breaking his position from the circle formation, he hurries over to me and takes hold of my arm to shake me. I blink slowly and then refocus.

  “What did you see?”

  “I...” I frown as I shake my head. “I saw a silver back gorilla.”

  “Seriously?” Flynn swears beside me. “As if it wasn’t bad enough having dead people eating living people, now we’ve got a freaking highly aggressive giant that’s six times stronger than a human on a normal day swinging through the trees. Those things live for like fifty years, so even if it wasn’t a mutated freak now we’d have that fun little fact to deal with. Oh, and that gorilla doesn’t seem to be the least bit interested in living up to his non nocturnal habits so there goes that theory out of the window.”

  I turn to look at Flynn.

  “What?” He doesn’t look away from the trees. “I used to be a National Geographic junkie. Sue me!”

  “Is there any other bit of information that might actually be useful to us?” Nox asks as he takes up a new position at my side and the circle closes back in.

  “Well they are omnivores so they typically don’t eat meat.”

  “I’ve got a really bad feeling he doesn’t know that,” Cyrus mutters.

  “Avery, are you able to connect with it at all? Sense what it’s feeling?”

  I stretch out my thoughts, trying to get a lock on the gorilla. “I can’t pick up anything beyond its anger, which has now mounted to full blown rage after our shooting spree.”

  “Did we hit it?” Fletcher calls.

  “No. I don’t think so.”

  Nox’s arms are flexed and tight against mine as he grips his gun. “Keep your eyes open. He’s up there somewhere.”

  From off to my right, I hear the cracking of a branch and instinctively turn. “There!”

  Nox fires off a couple of rounds. He is soon joined by a half dozen others.

  Another tree limb cracks and plummets. Before it reaches the ground, it is riddled with bullet holes. I spin around when I see the top of a tree shake and yank Nox around to fire, but Cyrus has already targeted that area and opens up.

  We hear a terrible howl of pain and then silence.

  “Is it dead?” Cyrus asks.

  “No,” I whisper back as the hairs on the back of my neck stand to attend. “You just pissed it off. Don’t shoot unless you actually see him. It’s clever. It’s taunting us, almost like it knows we are wasting our bullets.”

  Nox shoots a hard glance at me. “It’s wearing us down?”

  I nod. “This is no ordinary gorilla. It has no thought that I can decipher like I can with the Flesh Bags, but I sense a great deal of intelligence. I think this ape has been experimented on.”

  “You mean like a lab rat or something?” Flynn asks. His grip on his gun is so tight his knuckles have gone pure white.

  “Something like that. I think he was injected with blood similar to mine. Judging by the direction that he’s been traveling all day, it wouldn’t surprise me if he is from Atlanta. He’s probably escaped from the CDC.”

  “That’s sick,” Kira says in a hushed but decidedly disgusted tone. “I hate animal testing.”

  “I didn’t know they did that,” Bo speaks up.

  “They may not have before the outbreak, but desperate times mean animal rights go out the window. Apes are the closest thing to a human test subject. It would make sense to use them first when trying to create a cure.”

  I duck low as the treetops sway but no one shoots. The silverback leaps from tree to tree, working to try to draw our fire. I can feel its mounting frustration and confusion when we remain still.

  “Anyone have a banana so we can draw this thing out?” Fletcher asks with impatience. I know his type. He can’t stand to wait on the precipice of a battle when he is armed and ready to go.

  “I don’t think that will be a problem for much longer.” I duck again as the ape leaps across the clearing. The entire tree quivers and leaves falls free. “It’s watching us and trying to figure out our weakness.”

  “We’re human beings fighting against a rabid mutant ape. Isn’t that a good enough weakness?” Liam’s voice shakes and I move closer to him and farther away from Nox.

  “Steady. Steady.”

  The silverback bursts from the tree behind me and tackles Cyrus to the ground. Before any of us have a chance to react, it crushes its powerful jaws around his face. Cyrus’ cries cut out when the beast twists its head.

  “Fire!” Nox roars as everyone turns and shoots. Cyrus’s body jerks as he is slammed with close range shots, but the ape has already disappeared.

  “Cease fire!”

  Nox holds up his hand and I crane my neck to listen. There is silence all around, eerie as it is sudden.

  “Where did it go, Avery?” Nox yells.

  “I’m searching for it.” I turn this way and that, feeling one wave after another of rage, but also a growing hunger at the beast tastes Cyrus’s blood. “There!”

  The group turns and shoots as it swings down from the tree and grasps hold of Bo. With powerful arms that are longer than its legs, it lifts the soldier into the arm and slams him down against the ground. I grimace at the sound of his bones shattering.

  “Don’t let it head for the trees,” I hear Fletcher yell. Gunshots echo all around me. The firelight is blinding with intensity as I turn to look at each of the men standing beside me.

  I hear Flynn yell as he takes a backhand from the gorilla and spirals through the air and slams into a tree. Liam shouts out but Gentry holds him back, stepping in front of him as he gets a shot off, piercing the ape’s arm.

  Flecks of blood float through the air as the beast turns and looks at me and for that one brief moment I connect with its pain and its fear. Suddenly it all becomes clear to me.

  “Stop shooting!” I scream but I can’t be heard over the ruckus so I turn to Nox and pull on his arm. “It doesn’t want to hurt us.”

  “Like hell it doesn’t. It just killed Cyrus and Bo!”

  “Trust me,” I plead with him, reaching for his gun. “Tell your men to stand down.”

  Nox stares at me for a moment and I see the fear in his eyes. If I am wrong, I could be risking the lives of every single person in the clearing under his command.

  “Please. Trust me.”

  Swallowing hard, Nox nods and lowers his gun. “Stand down!”

  “Did he say stand down?” I hear Gentry ask Fletcher.

  “Cease fire,” Nox roars to be heard. Two more bullets fly and then silence falls over the woods.

  The silverback emerges from the forest slowly, walking on its knuckles as it approaches. Blood seeps from multiple wounds.

  As I make a move to step toward it, Nox tries to pull me back and the ape barks in anger.

  “It’s okay,” I say in a soothing tone to both Nox and the gorilla.

  “I told you she was insane,” I hear Kira mutter behind me, but I do not turn to look at her. Instead, I keep direct eye contact with the ape as I step past Nox.

  “Avery?”

  “I understand now.” I toss my gun aside and slowly raise my hands out to the side to show that I am unarmed. The gorilla grunts and its nostrils flare as it sniffs the air. “You look like the men that hurt him. That’s why he attacked. That’s why he was so angry. He thought you were trying to hurt me. He hasn’t been hunting us. He’s been trying to save me.”

  “That’s about the stupidest thing I’ve ever heard.”

  “Quite, Fletcher,” Nox growls. “No sudden movements.”

  I step again and the silverback rises up onto its feet and beats its chest.

  “Nobody move,” I warn as I take another step. “Nox, if you try to come for me he will kill you.”

  “You expect me to just stand here and watch that
thing crush you?” His voice sounds as taut as a coil ready to snap.

  “I am in no danger. He’s trying to communicate with me but he doesn’t have the words. All I’m getting are flashes of emotions.” I shake my head, trying to sort through the jumble but it’s too chaotic. “I think he is scared.”

  “He should be,” Fletcher growls and I hear the click of a gun behind me.

  “Damn it, Fletcher I will beat you with that gun myself if you make one move on that animal,” Nox growls. “Stand down, soldier.”

  When I am within five feet of the gorilla, I stretch out my hand toward it, palm up so that it can see that my hand is empty. It lowers back down onto all fours and brushes its giant hand against the ground.

  “Peace,” I whisper, trying to send the message mentally as well. “I will not hurt you. I am a friend.”

  “This is ridiculous.”

  I force myself not to snap at Kira. Instead, I slowly begin to lower my head, bowing to the great animal.

  “What is she doing?” I hear Bo ask.

  “I think she’s trying to show that she is not the dominant,” Flynn whispers.

  Slowly, and with extreme care, I lower my body toward the ground, exposing my neck to the ape. It shifts back and forth, agitated but curious once more. I bite my lip when it reaches out and shoves its arm into mine and I nearly topple over but somehow hold my ground.

  I don’t have to be connected with Nox to know that his anxiety has just shot through the treetops, but I can’t back out now or it would be a sign of aggression. As my knees buckle and I sink to the ground, I place my hands against the dirt, palms up and then press my forehead to the forest floor.

  The silverback grunts and hoots before me, stomping its massive feet just inches from my eyes and then it falls still. Slowly I raise up until I am standing before it. It sinks down lower and meets me eye to eye.

  “That is the coolest thing I have ever seen,” Flynn whispers.

  I reach out and tentatively place a hand on its chest, feeling the thunderous beating of its heart. Its flesh is riddled with scars, some old and some very recent. I press my hand against one of the graze marks from a bullet and look into its eyes.