AM13 Outbreak Shorts

Outbreak - Eighteen

I toss and turn under the thin sheets that Emma has provided for me, unable to sleep very well because of the nightmares that threaten my brain every single time I try to shut my eyes. I see that man, my father, the smell of death suffocating me, gun wounds piercing the bodies of anyone that happens to cross the wrong person's path...

I guess my main problem is that I can't believe what the world has become. Not that long ago, my main issue was the new town I'd moved in to. I wondered how I would make new friends, how I'd get by, I daydreamed about Zac. Now my whole life has become like something from a horror film.

"Rae?" My body shakes, my bones rattle in my chest. "Rachael, are you okay?"

"Huh?" I mutter, only half-replying. "Wha...?"

"Rae, wake up," the tone becomes more insistent with each passing second. "Rae, stop it you're scaring me."

I force my eyes to blink open, but something isn't right. I can see the light, I can sense shapes, but I can't see anything like I should be able to. My arms ache as I prop myself up onto them, vomit swirls a little too violently in my stomach as I stagger upright. Emma's voice becomes thin and gossamer-like, my face feels sheeny and wet...

***

When the light flickers into my eyes once more, I rapidly become aware that the ice cold garage floor is beneath my back. My limbs are spread-eagled, sprawled across the ground like I've been sleeping there, and every single one of them aches.

"Infected!"

I hear the word screamed from somewhere above my head. It doesn't compute at first, I can't quite find a way to place it in my brain properly, but the fog feels like it's slowly dissipating, so I know it'll come to me soon enough.

"Oh, Brian, she's infected, we need to get her out of here."

Brian...I can't immediately place any Brian, so I succumb to the sleepiness for only a few moments longer.

"Emma, what the hell were you thinking?"

At the mention of a name I do recognise, I instantly push myself into a sitting position. Emma, my friend, the one who rescued me. I stare up at her, and spot her head hanging low, her expression one of guilt and shame.

"I'm sorry, Rae, I'm so sorry," she bleats at me, begging me for forgiveness. "I didn't... you looked so ill and I was scared, and you were saying all these weird things. I didn't want you to be sick, not now."

"I'm okay," I whisper, doing my best to reassure her. "I'm honestly okay."

"No, you're not," the woman that I can only assume is her mother, screams again. "I cannot have you in here, I don't want you anywhere near my family."

I open my mouth, a million-and-one arguments balling up in my throat, but the fell away before they could come out of my mouth because I knew it wouldn't be any use. Emma's mom had her mind made up, and that was that.

"I'll go," I promised in the end, grabbing my backpack from the ground. "Thank you, Emma, but I don't want to get you in any trouble. I'll go."

I back towards the door, which only sparks off another round of arguments. I can't stand to listen to them, I need to get away. There's not a chance in hell that I'm sticking around in a place where I'm not wanted. I have no idea where I'll go next, but it has to be away from here.

Even if that does mean heading out into the big, terrifying world.

***

I don't stop running until my body physically gives up, crashing me to the ground once more. I seem to have spent more time on the ground than upright today. As my face rests on the ground, I can hear low growls coming at me from every angle, but the logical side of my brain knows that it's only my paranoia freaking me out, so I stay exactly where I am.

What will I do now?

As I lie still, I try to plan my next move. I know that I need to get inside somewhere, before the gunshots start again, but who will have me? There isn't any hotel in town that'll take in guests now—not that I have any money anyway—and no family will have me. Once the quarantine begins everyone will only want to look after their own families...and I've abandoned mine.

I guess I'll have to find some shed or something to hide in.

With that one thought in my brain, and a deep sigh in my throat, I force myself into a standing position. Then I look left and right, trying to work out the best way to turn. As I do that, I accidently catch a glimpse of myself in a nearby window and the image shocks me to my very core. I look as sickly as the infected, no wonder Emma got confused. When the hell did I begin to seem so...deathly? My hair is all over the place, my skin is grubby and disgusting, my eyes appear to have shrunken in to the back of my head.

I step closer to the window, wanting to get a better look at myself, but as I do I instantly spot a shadow behind me. My heart hammers in my chest, panic twists up in my intestines, I grip onto my arms just to try and keep myself standing for a second.

Then I slowly turn and my breath catches in my throat, I cannot believe what I'm staring at.

"Zac...?"