Eaters: The Beginning
Page 7
“I’m not.” As he stepped out into a ray of light from a lantern glowing on a nearby ledge, she could see dark circles under his bloodshot eyes, and an angry rash on his bristled cheeks.
“Oh God, Mark. No…”
“Listen to me. You need to get of this building. It’s not safe to stay.”
“But, where are we going to go?”
“Not we…you.”
“She pulled back and hit him lightly on the chest. “I’m not going anywhere without you.”
“You have to. You can’t stay with me anyway. I’m done. I’m infected.”
She tossed her head from side to side. “No…you can’t be. You didn’t get bit. I’m the one who got bit. I’ve got the sickness.”
“What are you talking about? You look perfectly fine.”
“The mosquitoes…camping…I was bit all over. That’s how it’s transmitted. You didn’t even put on bug spray…they didn’t even touch you.”
It suddenly dawned on her why. Because he was already infected.
“No…no…no...no!”
“I didn’t tell you everything about the dogs and the sickness. None of the men in my unit got infected. That’s because we were guinea pigs for some sort of vaccine…but me…being the stubborn bastard that I am…refused to take part. I guess it was my “inner rebel” or something that made me spit out the pill out when no one was looking. Back then, I didn’t know what the hell they were trying to give us—no one did. I just didn’t want to be any part of a human experiment. But, I guess I got a little of it in my system, enough to lengthen the incubation period. I thought I’d beat it. I thought I was just immune or something. I was fine…until just a few hours ago.”
“Mark…I’m sick too. Or, I will be. Even if I didn’t get it from the mosquitoes…I got it from biting that bitch from the sandwich shop.”
“What?”
“She attacked me…tried to strangle me…and I bit her. She was definitely sick.”
“Well…you don’t know for sure that you have it, so there’s no point in assuming.”
“Why do we have to go anyway? Stay here with me…”
He began to sob onto her shoulder. “I can’t stay with you. I don’t want to get sicker…and…and hurt you.”
“Well, I’m not going. What if you pull through. What if—”
“Go anywhere. Just get out.” He pointed towards a window high up on the wall. She could see a glowing orange light waving back and forth. It looked like a baseball bat, wrapped in cloth, and lit as a torch.
“There’s too many sick in here, and they don’t want them to get out. In a few minutes, they’re going to lock the doors and set the building on fire.”
Chapter 8
He took her hand in an inescapable steel grip, forced her down a hall, and into the kitchen towards a side door. Then, he held her in his arms and kissed the top of her head. After he pulled away, he strapped his rifle onto her shoulder.
“You remember that day I took you hunting and showed you how to shoot?”
She remembered. She’d refused to aim at any live creatures and insisted on using cans as targets instead. She’d felt awkward and clumsy with the rifle but eventually managed to hit a few cans off the stump.
“There’s extra ammo in the shirt pockets.”
“I can’t do this, Mark.”
“Yes…you can. And I want you to keep going as long as you can. Keep fighting until the end…you hear me?”
She nodded, upset that her tears were keeping her from getting one last clear look at his face. She put her hands over the rough stubble on his cheeks and held them.
How did she know that she wasn’t infected, and this was just a useless effort to try and survive when she was doomed anyway? With all their love making over the weekend, wasn’t it a given that he’d passed the infection on to her? A little voice in her head said, maybe not…not without coming in direct contact with blood.
“Go…they’re going to lock the doors any second. With that uniform on, you might be able to blend in for a few seconds in the dark…just enough time to get away.”
He didn’t give her another chance to refuse. He pushed her out the door, and locked it behind her.
She found herself in a courtyard next to a garden. There was a group of soldiers near the left corner of the building. They were busy lighting more torches.
She walked slowly at first in the other direction with a determined stride as if she was heading towards some important task. But, once she got past the garden bed and knew that the soldiers’ view was blocked by the tall sunflowers, she began to run.
Running. Running. Like a wild animal, she went. Probably towards greater dangers…
She kept going through an empty parking lot, past dark stores, and eventually houses as she found herself in a neighborhood.
Then, out of breath, with a painful stitch in her right side, she slowed to a walk. She’d only gone a few more yards and turned down an alley when she heard a growl behind her.
Please let it be a dog…a big stupid dog.
But, when she stopped and looked…it wasn’t.
It was a man…or something that used to be a man. Now, this large shirtless fellow with stained shorts, peeling skin, and meat hooks for hands, was a brainless eating machine…and he stood on the sidewalk looking at her like she was his next meal.
Adrenaline zipped through her, causing her heart and thoughts to race.
It wasn’t her life that flashed through her mind; it was Mark. She suddenly found herself remembering his proposal to her on the night before he left for Afghanistan. He’d taken her to dinner at a French restaurant downtown and sweet-talked her into ordering the escargot. When it came, she found the ring hidden inside a shell. She laughed and cried then they danced on the terrace underneath a swath of starry white lights as a violinist serenaded them from below.
The memory of that night made her angry.
This was not how her life was supposed to go. She was supposed to be looking forward to a lifetime with the man that she loved—not standing in some stinking alley with some stupid zombie about to rip out her entrails with its teeth.
Every atom of fear in her body turned to rage as she un-shouldered the rifle.
The Eater took a few shuffling steps towards her and growled again as she aimed.
“Eat this!”
She fired one round straight into his head. It exploded like a strawberry, splattering mashed red fruit all over the pavement.
Then, she turned and kept going in the same direction as before, trying to be a little quieter and blend into the night.
What else could she do but keep going until the last tiny shred of hope was gone? Not for herself…but for Mark. It was what he’d wanted her to do.
***
THE END
Cheryl's struggle to survive in the world of the Eaters continues in Eaters: Dark Journey (coming in spring 2011) and Eaters: Destination (coming in summer 2011).