Disease

We were frozen on the spot when we saw the man who attacked me attach to the tree, his body almost cut in half. Some parts of his intestines are visible but what is sickening about this is that it wasn’t the way he was killed but the way he bared his teeth with outstretched arms and tried to reach us wiggling his way out. We screamed when he slipped from being in between the tree and the bench and he crawled his way towards us half of his body stuck to the tree.

“What the fuck?” Logan said as he shields us with his arm and tried to push us back away from the man. Just in time we heard the screeching sound of the car as Aspen along with Vince jogged towards us.

“Get away from him!” he said, “Don’t let him touch you!”

“Aspen.” I called, “What is happening? Why is he like that?”

“He is sick. Everyone in the city are.” Vince answered.

My heart beat fast as do the rest of us for sure, “What? What about Theo?”

Aspen bit his lower lip before meeting eyes with Vince, “We weren’t able to take him to the hospital. Everyone there was infected.”

“What?”

“We have to get inside, it isn’t safe here.”

“What about him?” Erica said pointing at the ‘sick man’ who we momentarily forgot was still crawling towards us.

“We’ll take care of him. Get inside.”

Vince nodded as Jaden, who was alerted with their arrival, jogged back out to help him as the rest went inside. Only Aspen, Logan, Elora, and I are left. Aspen moved his gaze to the sick man taking a rock before meeting our eyes as if waiting for our reaction.

“What are you doing?” Elora asked.

“We need to kill him.” Aspen said nonchalantly.

“What?”

“We have to kill him or else we’d turn into one of us if we get bitten.”

“We can’t just murder sick people.” I replied.

“A dozen of them ate the only person that we saw in the streets earlier. Our informant. Some even tried to attack us on our way back and we had to run over them or else we wouldn’t make it. He said that this is happening all over the globe now. If we don’t do this we’ll end up just like the rest of them.”

“What? Does that mean our families—” I wasn’t able to continue what I was going to say because when Aspen and I met his eyes already answered for me. I tried to hold back the tears from falling remembering my parents. Where are they? Are they okay? Did they turn into one of them? Are they safe?

He turned around and faced the man who was trying to reach his foot, “I’m sorry but it has to be done.”

When he didn’t get any protest, he returned his attention to the sick man. I looked at his clouded eyes not seeing any sort of humanity left in it until finally Aspen dropped it to his face smashing the guy’s head as blood splattered everywhere. I had to look away not wanting to see the same colored stain… again.

“What did you see out there?” Logan asked as Aspen went back to where we were standing. I didn’t know why but I suddenly felt uncomfortable around him. He just murdered someone without even blinking an eye. He even insinuated earlier that he killed more earlier.

“There are a lot of people like him there. We had to make a plan to survive until the government takes care of things.”

Elora snorted, “If they take care of it.”

“Let’s just hope they’d figure this out.” Logan replied as we make our way back up the cabin.

When we got there everyone was in the living room. Sebastian is lying down being taken care of by Jaden and Nikita. Erica, Natasha, and Olivia were in the kitchen discussing amongst themselves. While Vince is with Theo at the other side of the room. When they saw us coming their heads immediately turned into our direction.

“I guess everyone already knows what is happening right now.” Logan said as we make our way to the living room and the rest followed us to have a group meeting.

“Yes. That’s why we can’t let Theo stay here.” Natasha said as Erica agreed.

“You can’t just throw him out there! He is our friend.” Vince replied anger laced in his voice as he gripped a shivering Theo closer to him.

“I understand your sentiments but we have to make precaution for the rest of the group.” Logan replied, calming everyone down as they tried to argue amongst each other. “Theo can stay until we find a cure but he can’t be inside this house in case he changes. We’ll find another place for him. Is that alright?”

We all looked at Vince as he bit his lower lip stopping himself from crying before finally a few minutes later nodding, “Okay.”

“Now. About Sebastian and the others who went outside.”

“What about them?” Olivia asked.

“They were exposed to the other ones that are sick. We should isolate them for a few days and when we see that there is nothing to worry about we can let them join us again. Same goes to you Myla and Nikita you were also attacked last night. Are there any objections?”

Everyone replied ‘no’ in unison.

“So, it’s just going to be Elora, Olivia, Erica and Jaden who are allowed to wander around. The rest of you have to stay in your rooms. And since I also had direct contact with the man that attacked Myla I’d be wearing a mask so that I can still assist the others but don’t worry I’d also keep my distance. Is everyone okay with that?”

“As long as you promised to keep your distance.” Natasha said as Logan nodded.

“I promise.”

“How about those who are sharing a room? Won’t they get infected in case the other one wasn’t carrying anything?” Erica replied.

“Elora and I are already sharing a room, it’s best that Olivia and Erica can share a room together for the meantime since they aren’t exposed so that the rest of you guys can have their own room. Jaden and I can just take turns for the watch. He can have the couch since no way in hell I’m letting him sleep beside my girlfriend.”

Because of the last thing Logan said the atmosphere became lighter as we carried on moving our stuff for the quarantine. I already have my own room, the same as Aspen, we didn’t have to worry about the arrangement. Nikita stayed in the room she and Olivia shared, same goes to Natasha who shared a room with Erica, while Jaden and Vince who are sharing a room leaving it vacant were taken by Sebastian since everyone is afraid of going to Theo’s room not wanting to be infected.

Since it was dangerous for Theo to be inside the house we all agreed that we would bring him to the garage. Vince watched over him as we made a makeshift bed there. For precaution we chained his feet so that he won’t be able to escape. Vince disagreed with it because he doesn’t want his best friend to be treated as some dog but he doesn’t have a choice because everyone was scared.

Now that we are stuck inside our rooms I didn’t know what the others were doing. I was at least grateful that I brought some books with me so I just entertained myself by reading. A few minutes later I got bored so I decided to pace around the room. From the window I can see Jaden and Logan outside wearing a raincoat and their masks. They walked closer to the dead body removing the bench from the tree and dragging the upper half into the woods which I think is where they will bury him.

I walked back inside my room not wanting to see the trail of blood and just tried to get some sleep. However, even in my dreams I was plagued by the bloody images of dead bodies and sick people as I awoke from a nightmare. I can hear the beating of my heart with how loud it was until someone knocked making me fall down the bed with the added shock.

“Myla are you okay?” I heard my best friend call.

“I’m okay.” I replied, trying to compose myself.

“I’ll leave your dinner here at your door. If you want seconds just knock. I’ll just be at the hall.”

When she said dinner, I turned around and looked out the window and saw that it was already dark outside.

“Okay. Thank you.”

I just dust off the first before making my way to the bathroom to freshen up. When I finally looked decent I made my way out to get my food and right when I was about to open the door I saw Aspen who was just across the hall just bringing his used dishes out. We locked eyes for a few seconds but I just quickly break the contact still feeling uncomfortable with his presence before closing the door behind me and started eating my dinner.