Read Rise of the Plague (Book 0): The Sickness (Monte's Story) Online
Authors: Jeannie Rae
Tags: #zombies
Rise of the Plague (Book 0): The Sickness (Monte's Story) (7 page)
I am still behind Lieutenant Lunatic, but at least I’m not sitting next to him.
“Where were you?” Annabelle whispers.
“Long line at the restroom. I’m here now,” I say.
The soldier tosses the clipboard onto the seat and smacks the driver on the shoulder, then takes his seat, in front of us.
“Next stop, Blue Falls,” the driver announces, starting the bus. “Settle in kiddies, we should be there in about two and a half hours.”
We are about twenty minutes into the bus ride to Blue Falls, and my wrist is killing me. It feels even worse than it did after the bite. I know that Annabelle can sense my discomfort—she keeps asking me if I’m okay. I can’t look at it with her right here and Lieutenant Lunatic right in front of us. The last time she asked, he turned around and gave me a death stare. I lied to them both telling them that I sometimes get a little car sick. They seem to have bought it. I don’t know how much longer I can keep it up though.
“Hey, I’m going to use the restroom, okay,” I tell Annabelle.
She gives me a weak smile and a nod as I get up. I head to the back and see that there are about twenty other kids of all ages in the seats on my way to the restroom. There are a few toddlers, and some of the older kids are seated alone, while others are sitting close together. Many of them are chatting quietly with each other and a few are even playing the alphabet road sign game.
That game made me think of my little brother Sammy—we used to play that game all the time. Sometimes we’d go down to Andre Street and play it watching the license plates of all the cars passing by. I really miss that little pain in my butt. I can’t believe that he got the sickness and my parents too. It’s not like I had a lot—but everything in my whole life except me—is only a memory now.
I would have never imagined when I woke up this morning that this is where I end up right now. I’m still not sure about this whole bus to Blue Falls, but I don’t have any options right now but to stick it out and hope that I’m wrong.
THE SICKNESS
I duck into the tiny restroom. After locking the door behind me, I roll up my sleeve. My wrist is infected again. The scab is soaked in the fluids leaking from the wound. A ring of redness surrounding the wound stretches up my arm. It looks grotesque and the smell is disgusting. I touch the scab with my index finger and slightly press down. Greenish puss oozes out of it the on the other side of the soft scab. I begin to choke, coughing and gagging at the same time.
I shove my arm—up to the elbow—in the tiny sink and turn on the cold water and let it flow over the wound. The water stings a little at first, but then starts to feel soothing on my arm. I stand there for what feels like the longest time, savoring the relief that the water is giving me.
Whatever Haley gave me, helped for a while, but it looks like nothing can beat the sickness. I think about telling someone, but I push that thought out of my head. Lieutenant Lunatic runs this bus like we’re all prisoners. He’ll kill me for the safety of the others and he’ll like it—because he is a psycho.
No, I can’t think that way. This is just a little setback—I’ll be fine. Now that I’m washing my wrist, it will get better again. It has to.
I worry that I’m taking too long and Lieutenant Lunatic will come bursting in like a SWAT team, so reluctantly, I turn off the water. As soon as the water stops, my wound begins to burn again. Although it looks a little better now that the scab is totally water logged. Gently, I pat my arm dry and pull my sleeve down, covering the bite. I feel so awful, as if all of my energy is being sucked right out of me. I need to lie down and try to sleep.
Making my way back toward my seat, I can already feel perspiration emerging from my flesh. I can’t tell anyone about my arm or Lieutenant Lunatic will take me out behind a bush and put a bullet in my skull. I squeeze past Annabelle and take a seat by the window.
“Oh boy, you’re really feeling carsick aren’t you?” Annabelle says with a frown.
“I’m okay. I think I’m just really tired. You know, today’s been…crazy. I think I’ll take a little nap,” I say pulling the hood of my sweatshirt over my head.
“Yeah, get some rest Monte and you’ll feel better. I’ll wake you when we get to Blue Falls,” she says.
Who knew that Annabelle Sanchez could be so sweet? I guess you normally needed to be in her inner circle to see that side of her. Now, due to lack of other people, she is actually worried about me. I feel so exhausted. Maybe I’ll feel better when I wake up. I can beat this. I close my eyes and lean up against the window and feel myself drifting off.
I don’t feel like I’ve slept long, when I’m jostled awake by an explosive sound. I feel different. I see Lieutenant Lunatic standing before me with a crazed look in his eyes. As my eyes adjust to the bright light beaming in from the windows, I see that he just shot the bus driver.
Before I have time to react, Annabelle pulls me down to the floorboard below our seats. Looking out the window on the other side of the bus, I can see that the bus is pulled over. It looks like trees outside—we’re on the interstate.
Lieutenant Lunatic turns to the other side of the aisle and two more gunshots blast. What’s he doing? I look at Annabelle with wild eyes. She only shakes her head as tears fall from her cheeks onto the floorboard. Two more shots ring out. He’s killing kids. Has he lost his mind?
Lieutenant Lunatic makes his way down the aisle of the bus blasting kids away. I don’t know what to do. Someone has to stop him, but we’re all kids and he has a gun.
“You can’t do this to us—we’re not sick!” A boy in the back shouts out, and then another gunshot sounds. I can hear the kids crying out, screaming and begging for their lives from the seats as he makes his way down the aisle.
“There is no way to tell if any of you are infected. No guarantee that you won’t spread this disease to the general population. I can’t take that risk,” Lieutenant Lunatic says fanatically, firing another shot.
Even with all that is happening, I feel unbelievably tired, as though I could drop dead from exhaustion alone. A fiery pain surging up my arm to my shoulder sends shock waves through my body. Gripping my shoulder as if it’s on fire, I pull down the collar of my hoodie checking for any markings. But now the pain begins to subside, almost retreating down my arm. What’s happening to me? Annabelle says something to me but I can’t recognize the words she’s using. Her sounds are all messed up, distorted. I hear more blasts from the gun, but they sound more like an echo now. Annabelle grabs me, but I can’t even get her face into focus. I see her back away, and what only looks like a shadow of her is going for the bus exit. It looks like she is pounding on the glass, the door must be locked. I crawl one, maybe two steps, when I feel a new sensation trembling through my body. I have the sickness—I’m going to be a monster soon. I can feel it. I need to get out of here before I hurt someone. Then the shooting pain returns. This time, every muscle in my body feels like they’ve tensed up in pain, as the agony seems to pulse through my entire body. I feel weak, impossible weak. I want to call out to Annabelle to get out, but the pain is severe, as if the pain is pinching off my vocal chords. Then, as everything starts to go black, I see Annabelle’s shadowy figure pull the lever, opening the door and leaping from the bus. They everything goes black.
I haven’t quite woken up yet, but somehow I feel conscious. My eyes are still closed and the pain has left me entirely. I can’t open my eyes! I can hear sounds, like muffled voices—but I can’t understand what they’re saying. It seems as if the voices are fading away. I might be going into a deeper sleep. A…deep…sleep.
My eyes burst open like an opening umbrella. Bright light floods my eyeballs causing me irritation, but not pain. I sit up slowly, confused and disoriented. As I rise to my feet, light is all around me, except for the occasional shadow fluttering past. There is a smell. I inhale deeply. A wonderful aroma. It smells like the most delicious thing I will ever taste. I am so hungry. Following my nose, something ahead comes into focus. It is the source of the delightful aroma. I look on in disgust for only a moment, but the hunger inside is triumphing the battle of my fading subconscious. Lieutenant Lunatic is standing before me. The nourishing scent of his flesh is too much temptation. I leap toward him as we fall to the ground between the seats. My teeth sink deep into his throat tissue, as I taste the tangy blood flow across my tongue. I swallow a piece of vitamin-rich flesh, before diving in for another bite. As I slurp and chew on my meal, I can feel the last remaining nonessential brain functions shutting down. Now, I just have one thing left…on…my…mind. The hunger.
STILL HUNGRY?
Do you have a hunger to know more? Check out
Endemic: Rise of the Plague
to find out how Monte’s town became a menacing place destroyed by a plague that spread at a breakneck pace. How did it really all begin? By accident? Or were there more sinister motivations behind the origin of the plague?
Jeannie Rae has been writing short stories, poems and book reviews for decades. The last three years have been spent honing her craft and focusing her efforts on novels.
Jeannie Rae is a California native, currently residing in Central California. Having the forest-covered mountains and the sandy shores of the Pacific coast only a few hours from her home, she enjoys the wide range of possible sceneries that her location provides. When not writing, she works full time in the accounting field and spends her time with her husband and daughter, along with their three dogs.
For more titles and upcoming releases by Jeannie Rae visit:
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