“Hey, you’re fine. Calm down. Disinfect yourself so we can get you in a pair of scrubs. The AC went out a few hours ago, you don’t want to linger in this heat.”
Enough was enough. It was time I pulled myself together. I grabbed the bottle he offered me and got busy trying to save myself from falling prey to the pandemic.
“Let me know when to hose you down.”
Hearing the nurse they’d called Marissa call out to us, I glanced up at Jake just in time to see him shrug his shoulders before a spray of water powered into me, nearly knocking me against the wall. The only thing I could think while feeling my skin being scalded was what fresh hell had I gotten myself into by listening to Norene.
Dressed in a fresh set of scrubs and a pair of paper booties on my feet, I sat on a clean gurney watching as Jake and Marissa nervously paced the room labeled ‘isolation.’ After the scrub down, I’d told them about my dad and brother. Marissa didn’t seem too shocked at the possibility of the virus being airborne. Jake, on the other hand, was clearly attempting to wrap his mind around the fact our world had been fucked up and there was nothing we could do about it.
“I wonder how the man in 108 became infected. We’d tried to keep him away from everyone. Airborne answers so many questions,” Marissa explained as she stopped walking and stared at the door. “Shouldn’t Matt be back by now?”
Both Jake and I looked her way. I hadn’t thought too much about the other man who’d been with us not returning. I didn’t know for sure how far away the incinerator was, so I had no idea on the timing. “Should we go look for him?”
“No, the two of you were just decontaminated. I should go,” Marissa spoke up, clearly scared about the prospect.
“I’ll go with you,” Jake insisted. “I don’t like the idea of you out there by yourself. I can always decontaminate again if need be.”
“We’ll all go.” I slid off the gurney and pulled up the slightly oversized scrubs to keep them from falling off my ass. “I’m not staying here alone.”
I half expected a bit of argument, but there was none. Instead, Jake took the lead, and Marissa and I fell in line behind him as he moved slowly down the hallway, trying to stay as quiet as possible.
“Do you notice the screams have stopped?”
I didn’t want to think about what Marissa’s revelation meant. I saw what happened back at the house when Keith stopped screaming. He started eating his own skin.
“Try not to think about it,” I told her and took her hand to help her keep moving. The sound of our gloves meshing echoed in the newfound silence. “How far is the incinerator?” I questioned.
“It’s in the basement, near the morgue.”
“Great,” I mumbled as Jake came to a full stop in front of us. “What’s wrong?”
“We need to go. Just turn and head for the main doors. Now.”
I stepped toward him, moving to his side so I could see what was happening. In front of the door marked ‘basement,’ I saw a woman in a hospital gown. She was on her knees, showing her exposed legs and backside. One ass cheek was gone, obviously devoured by the flesh-eating virus she’d contracted. The sores on her arms were busted open, spewing pus and bile onto the floor. Beneath her on the floor was the man who’d been with Jake when I first saw him. I could see his legs kicking while she tore into the flesh on his face. With each bite, I saw the way his skin pulled away from the bone like putty.
“Holy fuck,” I whispered as I threw my hands over my mouth to keep myself from throwing up.
“We can’t stay here,” Marissa insisted from behind us. “Jake’s right. We need to go.”
I didn’t have it in me to tell her about the mess outside, but she was right. Being inside the hospital was far more dangerous. At least out in the open, we would be free of the infected already to the point of madness.
“Marissa, as we pass the quarantine room grab the gloves, masks, and scrubs. Cammy help her. Carry whatever you can.”
“I have Norene’s car out front, but the keys are in my pocket,” I told him as I pointed to the bag of clothes lying beside Matt’s body.
“Mine is out front. We aren’t taking on another infected right now,” he said as he turned, ushering us back toward the quarantine room.
At the quarantine room, both Marissa and I rushed inside grabbing the supplies Jake told us to grab. He hurried across the room to a few cabinets and was quickly grabbing bottles of medication and other supplies. He threw them in a bag, turning to let us put the things we were gathering in as well.
“Let’s get the hell out of here.”
I nodded in agreement with him, as Marissa and I hurried out of the room. The front door was in sight. We could make it. We had a chance. I felt Jake as he moved up beside me. I glanced up at him, thankful I was with someone I knew, when I heard Marissa scream out in pain as she fell to the floor.
“Marissa!” Jake rushed to her then stopped mid-move. “She’s infected,” he sighed.
I stepped over beside him, seeing the spot on Marissa’s leg where her skin was rotting away like an unseen creature was tearing it away.
“Go, Jake. Go!” the woman cried out as she held to her leg. “You know I’m contagious. Get away from me.”
“I can’t.”
I leaned down, taking Jake by his hand. “We have to. If we stay, we’re sick. No question. Let’s go, Jake.”
I saw the pain in his eyes but knew he would do the smart thing. He got to his feet and looked down at Marissa one last time. “Get into a room. Stay away from the others,” he instructed her as his grip tightened and he pulled me out into the parking lot.
CHAPTER FIVE
“Oh my god,” I mumbled. Driving away from the hospital and my friends was horrible. Seeing what was in our path outside the door was unbearable.
Not even fully out of the parking lot, the bodies that sprawled across the ground, half gone, rotten and spewing a thick white foam, covered almost all the black top. Most were facing the entrance to the ER and I knew they’d tried to make it inside but couldn’t. I tried not to think of what it would have been like inside if they would have made it. There were hundreds on the ground and at least that many inside. We wouldn’t have made it out of there without ending up like them.
But had we really made it out?
If what we thought was true – that it was airborne – we were already infected, and it was a matter of time before it took us out like it had the rest of the town.
Without knowing how far it had spread already, I wasn’t sure what direction to send us in. I knew we couldn’t stay there though. It wasn’t safe. I also knew it had spread to other places and by now, it could have spread around the world.
The joys of modern transportation. Get there as fast as you can. It was one thing that could destroy us all. By the time they knew it spread as quickly as it had, people who were exposed were on their way to wherever it was they were going, bringing that with them.
I turned to face Cammy as I made a right hand turn out of the parking lot. It was the way out of town and, smart or not, it was where I was heading. There wasn’t anything left for us here. Her family was gone and, even though she didn’t say it, I knew when my grandma sent her to me and didn’t come too, my family had it.
She’d grown up and I was seeing it for the first time. I knew she was scared, but she was fighting it off the best she could; I was proud of her for that.
“Jake,” she screamed, making me jump and jerk the wheel.
“What?”