“The shooting is still under investigation, and I don’t know enough about the rats to comment,” the professor said.
“Is it not true that the officers investigating your labs were killed as a result of the virus?”
“This has been a tragic situation,” the professor explained. “The sickness has caused the death of many people already and the problem is that it is spreading. I don’t know enough about the officers, and no one has contacted me directly about it. I am here and ready to help in any way that I can.”
“Can you confirm that it is a virus?”
“I cannot, but it would seem that it is,” Professor Adams said. “I have not been able to take a look at any of the rats or people that seemed to have contracted the sickness, but I have been able to make the same observations that you have. It seems that the sickness is not airborne, but passed by saliva or blood. Once someone or something has the sickness, they seemingly die and reanimate. That’s when they desire to eat living flesh and their skin turns grey. When these greyskins see someone or something living, they attack.”
“Greyskins,” the news anchor said. “Why do you call them greyskins?”
There is a slight pause before the professor answers. “It’s a crude term to describe what they look like.”
“In your professional opinion, do you think we will find a cure for these sick people? The greyskins?”
“I fear that the greyskins are already dead,” the professor said. “But I think that one day soon we will be able to find a way to eradicate the problem. But for now, people need to gather supplies and rely on each other to stay alive. The most important thing is that you have a safe place to stay.”
I didn’t care about some scientist who was near the start of it all. The news people were just looking for some answers, someone to blame maybe. I knew there was no one to blame. Looking for answers felt meaningless. Hearing this Professor Abrams, or Adams… whichever he was… did nothing more than add to the endless questions people might have had.
I got up and walked into the kitchen to get some water. When I filled the glass and brought it to my mouth, I could see that my hands were shaking. I didn’t feel fear. I didn’t even feel loss — that would come later. I guess in that moment all I felt was shock. It was as if I didn’t believe any of it was actually happening. I couldn’t believe that I heard my father die over the phone. I couldn’t believe that I saw my own mother’s blood seeping through the crack of the door. I couldn’t believe that I had been chased by the… what did that scientist call them? Greyskins?
It was a name that fit. I had been calling them grey people, but greyskins seemed right. They were less than people. They were sick animals. To call those monsters people gave them too much credit.
“Are you all right?”
Lucas’ voice startled me and I turned quickly, spilling water on the floor at the same time. “Yeah,” I said, grabbing a rag from the counter to wipe up the mess. “I just…I don’t know.”
“The greyskins,” Lucas said, staring past me as though he were deep in thought. “I suppose the news stations like the name. That’s what they’re calling them now.”
“Have you seen them?” I asked Lucas.
He shook his head. “No. I don’t really want to though.” He pulled a chair out at the table. “Why don’t you have a seat? I’ll make you a sandwich.”
“I don’t think I’m very hungry,” I said as I sat.
“Dad seems to believe that this thing will last longer than people think,” he said, pulling down a jar of peanut butter from a cabinet.
“Why does he think that?” I asked.
“They say it has been going on for a week and has just spread like a forest fire. It’s hard to contain something like that.” He pulled out the bread and started to spread the peanut butter thickly onto one of the slices. He then walked to the refrigerator and grabbed a jar of jelly and applied it to the other slice of bread. “Dad thinks we should be safe out here, though I’m not so sure. We’re so close to everything. If as many people out there are infected as they say, we aren’t safe.” He put the jelly back in the refrigerator then grabbed the milk and poured a glass. When he finally set the sandwich and milk in front of me, he sat at the table and looked deep into my eyes. “But I won’t let anything happen to you. You’re safe with me.”
I wanted to tell him that no one was safe no matter what, but instead I just took a bite of the sandwich. I remember it being strange not being able to taste it. It was as if my mind was so preoccupied with the events of the day that I didn’t even know I was eating.
“They crashed into my house,” I said. “Doors and windows won’t keep them out if they are determined to get in.” I could feel my eyes sting with water, but I just took another bite of the sandwich to distract myself.
“Are you scared?” he asked. At first I thought he was taunting me cruelly, but then I saw the sincerity in his face. His light-colored eyebrows crinkled and his blue eyes stared into me as though he were trying to read my thoughts.
“Yes,” I answered.
“Me too,” he said. “But there is nothing wrong with that.”
I took a bite of the sandwich, but it wasn’t enough of a distraction to stop the tears that began down my cheeks. One after the other, the water flowed like a fountain. I set the sandwich on the table in front of me and let my head fall into my hands. My body shook as I sobbed there in the kitchen, but it was only a second or two before I felt Lucas’ strong arms wrap around my shoulders.
“It’s okay to cry,” he said. “It’s okay to cry.”
I didn’t know how long he held me. I couldn’t remember much after that until I woke up on the living room couch with a pillow under my head and blankets tucked around me. It was night time and everyone seemed to be gone. I jerked upward and looked around the living room and that’s when I saw Lucas on the floor just a few feet away. He slept soundly on top of some blankets, his breath going in and out slowly. Hattie and Charles must have been asleep in their bedroom.
I was happy that the television wasn’t still on. I was tired of seeing the images of the greyskins eating people. I was weary of hearing about all the death. I wiped away the crusted tears around my eyes and sat up on the couch for a moment. My stomach rumbled and I realized that I was very hungry. The few bites of sandwich that I had eaten must not have been enough for me.
I got up and walked into the kitchen, being mindful not to turn on any of the lights for fear of being noticed. I saw that Lucas or someone must have wrapped my sandwich in plastic wrap and left it sitting neatly on the counter. I took it and sat at the table. As I unwrapped it, I noticed that some of the jelly had bled through the white of the bread. Something resembling the feeling of a grin formed at the corner of my mouth. That was my favorite way to eat a peanut butter and jelly sandwich. When I was little, my sister and I would make them and add extra jelly. We would then wrap them up only to eat them hours later when the bread was completely soaked on one side. It was always best when it was so wet with jelly that we couldn’t even taste the bread.
The sandwich felt like sweet memories, but the memories only made me feel sick inside. I took another bite and started to get up to make another glass of milk when something made me freeze in my tracks. A shadow moved slowly behind the blinds of the window above the sink. I licked some jelly off my thumb as I tiptoed to the window and peeked through the blinds. It was all I could do to stifle a gasp.