The cure was on the horizon, they were the most successful team. They had made it.
Yet, Dietz was on the ground with one of those things on him as he screamed. “Get it off. Get it off.” It came from behind, a fifth one that intel didn’t know about.
No one wanted to shoot it because it was too close to Dietz, but Tom did.
He walked up, put the pistol to the Codies head and fired.
Blood sprayed down all over Dietz causing him to freak more.
It was standard to carry the field morphine and without hesitation, Tom injected Dietz.
Then he looked for the bite.
“Are we amputating, Major?” a soldier asked.
Tom slowly shook his head when he saw the bite was just below the right pectoral muscle. Why wasn’t Dietz wearing a vest.
Then it hit him, none of them had for a long time.
“Don’t let me turn, Major, don’t let me revive,” Dietz begged.
“I won’t.”
“Help’s on the way,” someone said. “I called for service.”
Tom knew it was useless. When it was someone, even an R-Team member that was bit, no one rushed to help. It would take upwards of half an hour and by the amount of blood flowing, Dietz wasn’t living that long.
Tom put pressure on the wound, but that didn’t help. The team gathered solemnly around. They watched as his skin color faded and the veins in his neck and face darkened.
Dietz kept repeating how much he didn’t want to revive. How he needed Major Tom to tell his mother some things.
It surprised Tom that the ambulance arrived and Dietz was still alive. They loaded him into the ambulance. Tom was the commander and wanted nothing more than to go with Dietz and see it through to the end, but he couldn’t.
They had two more stops for the day. One looked to be difficult. Major Tom had to prepare his team for it. He didn’t know if they were going to be emotionally ready.
Two more raids and they would call it a day.
They all went into the grocery store raid confident, which was their mistake. Moving forward he wouldn’t make that error again, nor let his team make that mistake. He would stick to the job he was best at. Focus and rectify. He would never again assume anything would be simple or easy.
His job was too dangerous, and assumption was a luxury none of them could afford.
23 – DEATH
June was dying. She knew it. In every fiber of her being, emotionally and physically, she felt it. It moved with her blood through her system like a thick acid, burning, expanding, through every artery vein and capillary. Each pump of her heart literally hurt, and it wasn’t figuratively, it was real.
In a way, what happened to June was her own doing. She supposed that it could have been avoided. She had too much faith in what she believed, and she believed that in mind of the Codie, the person was still there.
Her Melinda was still there.
Her death sentence would come, she didn’t have it in her for it not to, but she also didn’t have it in her to quit.
A fever raged throughout her body, she watched the veins on her arms turn dark and checked her reflection often. When her vision grew blurry, she knew her eyes were hemorrhaging. It was the least of her pains.
She understood it all in that moment.
Why so many cried out in pain and grew angry, and it wasn’t the virus killing them, it was the horrendous pain.
Before that stage hit, June was able to write her goodbye notes. She got on the task right away. She knew she didn’t have much time. It wasn’t many notes, just four. All of them brief, but she hoped, unlike what she felt, it would give resolution to her mother, Henny, Aggie and James.
She explained why she had done what she did, her reasonings and hopes.
There was one positive aspect, as the virus moved through her body she was no longer a viable source of food. Melanie didn’t run for her. June was able to free Melinda from the restraints and to hold her daughter, cradle her in her arms. Say the things she wanted to say to her, and she felt within her soul Melinda heard and understood. It was in those final glorious moments of time with her child that June wished she had proof, she worried about what would become of her child after she died. How long would Melinda linger? June didn’t the strength to rectify.
The only other choice June had was to protect her. Do what she could to protect Melinda.
She knew by her own breathing her time was close.
June had everything ready.
She kissed the child again and struggled to stand. She made her way to the bathroom and shut off the running tub.
When she did, she flashed back once more to the conversation she had with Ung. The one that sparked her final attempt to prove that the person remained even with the body changed.
“No. Look at her. I swear, James, she knows what’s going on. Look at her eyes.”
“June, while I agree that she’s calm and docile, I still am not convinced that she is in there.”
“She is. I’m certain. I wish there was a way to prove it. Then maybe we can keep them this way until a cure is found. The question is, how can we get her to improve?”
“We can’t. That’s pure science,” Doctor Ung replied. “I think the big reason they get to this point is because of that window of time before revival, when the brain is dead, when everything is dead. It comes back, but not all the way. If there was a way to keep the body alive or comeback faster.”
“Like a de-fib?” June asked.
“No, it would have to be constant and longer.”
It had to work, it had to, June thought.
She grabbed the hair dyer, still plugged in, placed it in her shirt and sat on the edge of the tub. Back toward the water, June leaned against the wall while propping her feet on a foot stool. She didn’t want to fall forward.
While sitting there, in the final moments of her life, June clutched photos and thought of her family, her children and her life. It was a good one. She loved every aspect of it. She was blessed.
With those closing thoughts, June smiled, closed her eyes and died.
As she hoped, her body fell backwards into the water.
24 – REVIVE
Boom.
The sound caused June to open her eyes. She was confused for a second, thinking she had woken up from a dream. The sound, what was it?
She could feel the beat of her heart. One beat was really hard. That had to be it. The sound of her own heart woke her.
Still in the tub, June slipped trying to sit up. There was no pain. Her legs and stomach didn’t hurt, the headache was gone.
She managed to fling her arms over the tub, hoist herself up and roll out and onto the floor. Not even that hurt.
Had she beaten the virus? She looked down and saw she was wearing a burnt and ripped shirt. Probably from the blow dryer tucked beneath her shirt.
For a moment she truly believe that she had won. She had figured out a way to control it until she noticed her vision was still slightly blurry, as she crawled her way to the commode she saw the gray skin of her arms.
She didn’t survive. She had died and revived.
Once at the commode, she used it as leverage to sit up, then finally stand.
Her legs wobbled and her feet wouldn’t set flat on the floor.
It took a few seconds, but she walked to the vanity. When she saw her reflection she froze.
Under her bloody eyes were dark circles. Her face was a blueish gray, lips colorless. It also seemed as if she had bruising under her chin. The biggest was her lack of facial expression.
She tried to change it, but it wouldn’t.
I’m dead, she thought. I’m dead. But I know who I am. I am June Mannis. Doctor. My husband is Stan. I have three daughters. Henny, Aggie ... Melinda.
I did it.
I was right.
We remain. We remain. My daughter knows me. Oh my God. I did the right thing.
Still staring at her reflection, June tried to smil
e, it didn’t happen. She tired to speak, but no words came from her mouth.
She felt justified.
She no longer felt bad for not rectifying Melinda.
Melinda.
June had to see her, hold her, see if there was some sort of communication that would happen between them.
She turned for the bathroom door and reached for her.
Her fingers wouldn’t move. They were stiff. She tried to grab the doorknob, but she couldn’t. How was she going to get out?
Bringing both arms together, she banged her hands against the door, trying to use her wrist to turn the knob.
She didn’t need to.
The door opened with a force, throwing her back and making her stumble backwards. When she gained her balance she saw him.
Major Tom.
I’m here. Look at me. I know you. You know me. I’m looking at you. See it. See me. See that I know you.
He stared at her.
June tried to talk as her mind spoke the words.
You do. You see it. Oh my God. You see it. I’m in here.
“Rectify”
Bang.
<><><><>
Thank you so much for reading into this novella. I hope you enjoyed it. There is/was an additional chapter, that by request of my beta reader team it be removed. Should you be interested in reading it, drop me a line.
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