Disease

“So the group is now divided into two?” Elora asked as I returned to their room. The rest of the group is still down talking about their plans. Natasha and Olivia are really convinced that they want to go to the camp while Sebastian is still trying to persuade them not to.

“Apparently.” I replied now eating my share of mac and cheese as I joined her at the bed just staring at nowhere.

“Then if they want to leave we should just let them. It’s their choice anyway.”

“Yes but we can’t just let them go there without making sure that they are safe.”

Elora just shrugged, “If they are willing to take the risk, why not?”

“You’re agreeing with them?”

“Like I said, it’s their choice, Myla. We can’t force them to stay if they don’t want to. Besides we only have enough supplies to come around. And...” she trailed off before shaking her head, “Never mind.”

I furrowed my brow skeptically, “What is it?”

“It’s nothing. What did you find about the map and the blue print?”

I wanted to ask what she was about to say earlier but I didn’t want to push it and just said, “It is the location that we are looking for. Apparently Vince had found it under a pile of old boxes. It looks like the project was supposed to be dismissed but they somehow changed their minds.”

“Hmm.” Elora said nodding, “That’s suspicious.”

“It is. What really happened?”

“We don’t know. But we have our own problems right now. We should focus on that instead. How are they doing with the wall?”

“Not good. Everyone is low morale after what happened earlier. They’re just out there doing nothing.”

“I think I just know what to do to help.”

“How?”

Elora didn’t say immediately and just smiled, “Leave it to me.”

For the rest of the day everyone just got busy disinfecting everything. Everyone agreed to go inside after knowing that we are all exposed already and it doesn’t change anything. We’ll be more in danger out there being out in the open. However we are to still keep some distance from each other and make sure to report to anyone if suddenly we feel symptoms.

“Come on everyone, let’s go.” Elora said with glee as we all gathered in the kitchen. We all just stood there in a circle watching her as she stayed in the middle.

“What are we doing?” Natasha asked, crossing her arms to her chest irritated. She looked unimpressed with how excited Elora is. If I didn’t know that she is doing this for us I’d feel like my best friend is also being insensitive right now after what happened earlier.

“Take each one.” Elora replied, giving away each one of us a white candle. The other looked at her with furrowed brows as I sucked in a breath as a memory flashed inside my head. That very first day. The very first day that I got out. The very first day that I realized that I was alive and I am not one of ‘them’.

“What is this?” Sebastian asked as I shook the thoughts from my mind.

“We’re going to have a vigil. For our friends Olivia and Theo.”

Suddenly the confused expression now morphed with sadness as everyone was reminded of what happened. Everyone fell into silence as Elora continued to distribute the candle and I lit them up. It was Logan who was the first to speak.

“That’s a good idea Elora thank you for this.”

Elora didn’t say anything and just smiled before stepping back as I finally finished lighting the last one which is Olivia’s.

“I know not everyone of you has a certain religion or belief that they follow so I just want to propose that we just have a short thank you message about our friends. So who wants to go first?”

We all glance at both Olivia and Vince knowing that they are the best friends of the two and mostly affected by all of this. But minutes passed but no one volunteered.

“I’ll start.” Logan said as he stepped up in the middle with his candle. I nodded at him as he smiled before clearing his throat. “Theo is one of the best teammates I couldn’t have asked for not only in basketball but off the court. He continued to be a great friend that you can rely on.”

Logan stepped back just as the others nodded in agreement. Even Sebastian and Jaden clapped for him before they stepped up to speak. One-by-one everyone was encouraged to speak for Theo even Vince gave a short message about how much he will miss his best friend and everyone hugged him. Until finally it was Nikita’s turn.

“Nikita and I aren’t that close.” I said as I stood in the middle, “But the little times that I was able to hang out with her I knew how of an amazing person she is. She was the kindest person I have ever known. This day heaven got their angel back.”

I stepped back just as Elora hugged my side, smiling at me as she wiped the tears at the side of her face. I then returned my attention to the rest of the group as we waited for Olivia to finally speak. But a whole minute passed and she didn’t say anything. Logan nodded and made the closing speech. After that we had a short silent moment for two of our friends before we finally blew our candles as we all ate dinner together.

Once everyone was done cleaning up we then went to the living room as we each had something to entertain ourselves. Olivia read a book as the rest played a board game and some just like me watch some of the recorded movies on screen. Vince and Aspen however decided to go out to guard the house.

We stayed there for a few hours until Logan cleared his throat and we all turned our attention to him, “I want to discuss something with the group before we head to bed.”

“I’ll call Aspen and Vince.” I volunteered as I made my way out just as I heard the two boys having a quiet conversation amongst themselves.

“We should leave.” Vince said.

“It’s dangerous to travel with what is happening right now. We are in the middle of the forest so we haven’t encountered that many changers yet but once we leave for the city we’d experience the same thing once we’re out.”

“It would be dangerous for us if we stay and they find out we are here. If they are the same people that tried to attack you they’re probably already planning to return to take us and I’d rather die trying to survive than get captured.”

“I know...”

They then fell into silence. I was about to make my presence known when Vince spoke again.

“What if we just let the others who want to go to camp to stay and we’ll leave instead.”

“What do you mean?”

Vince faced him and I saw his stern expression as their eyes met, “If they looked for us here they won’t see you and Logan they’ll just see the others. If they did decide to take them to camp then good for them and if not at least they still have this place to make sure that they’re safe. That’s the only reason you don’t agree, right? Because there is no assurance that they’ll be taken care of.”

“What if they try to press them for answers.”

“Then we tell them the truth and we all decide to part ways.”

“What if they hurt them just to know where we are going.”

Vince bit his lower lip, “We don’t know. It’s their risk not ours.”

“It’s still the same. We leave them or not they’ll still be at risk and we can’t do that.”

“You’re too righteous. We are in the middle of a post-apocalyptic world now, Aspen being nice will get yourself killed.” he turned around as my heart skyrocketed when our eyes met and I feel shivers rundown my spine with how frightening his eyes are, “That’s what happened to both Theo and Nikita we can never be sure who’d be next and both Natasha and Olivia knows that.”

Aspen, noticing where Vince was looking, turned around when he saw me there frozen at the spot. His eyes widened for a brief second before he stepped forward blocking Vince from my view.

“Hey, is everything okay?” he asked as I smiled, shaking the negative thoughts in my head.

“Yeah. Logan has asked for a house meeting again.”

Aspen nodded, “Okay. We’ll be there.”

I just smiled before moving my gaze to Vince before turning around and returning to the living room feeling his presence behind me as this gaze bore to my skin.

Logan and Aspen exchanged a look as I stayed settled beside Elora on the seat. She must’ve noticed my mood but didn’t say anything about it but just squeezed my hand and leaned her head to my shoulder.

Logan cleared his throat just as everyone was finally present, “I understand that these are hard times for all of us but we still need to continue to work on the wall to make sure that what happened earlier won’t happen again.”

“I have better solutions.” Natasha said, “Why not just go to the camp? We didn’t have to risk being exposed there outside.”

“Natasha we’ve talked about this it’s---”

“I know. But it’s our decision. If you’re just doing this because you don’t want to feel guilty, well I am already relieving you of your conscience. We’ve already followed you since this, whatever this has happened, and looked where it got us. We wanted Theo executed but what did you do? You let the two go find an imaginary cure and now Nikita is dead and people, actual people, are now after us. I’m done following you!”

We all then fell into silence after Natasha spoked but it was quickly replaced when we heard noises coming from the outside and my eyes widened just as I saw the familiar silhouette outside the door.