May 23, 2019 - O2 Remaining: 95.6 Hours / 3.98 Days - 12:31 AM

Eury Morrissey

Crash!

My eyes hurt as they fluttered open. I took a deep breath, and my lungs drank in the air. The burning pain was intense like I had been breathing liquid fire for the last few hours. It took a second for my eyes to focus on the light cast on the wall in front of me.

As my mind slowly woke up, my attention was drawn to an old poster on the wall. It was for a concert a schoolmate of mine had at O’Brian’s I went to a long long time ago. I think that the girl got pretty famous if I—

Bang!

Then breaking glass shattered down to the floor. Finally, the rest of my body got the memo that something very wrong was happening and slowly sprung to action. Limb by limb, I rolled myself over, off my O2 tank that I landed on, and onto my knees.

Smash!

Looking beyond the light of the flashlight, there was only darkness, and the sound of grunting and squealing rubber soles.

“Kelly?” When I spoke, it felt like I had swallowed a hard rock, or like vomit had solidified in my throat.

“Eury, run!” I heard Kelly yell.

“No!” Was what I wanted to say but even another word was too sharp and jagged to come out. Either way, I wasn’t going to let him tell me what to do. No, I was done.

I slammed one hand forward on the ground, then another as I crawled for the flashlight. The effort was excruciating for my body like I was dragging a ball-and-chain behind, but I didn’t care.

I don’t want to be weak. Not anymore.

Once I had the flashlight in my hand, I fought my way to my feet, then staggered to Kelly and the giant disease-ridden man fell into its’ light. The animal instinct in my brain screamed off an alarm, one that my arm was more than willing to follow through. I slammed the flashlight into the man’s bloated bald head, stunning him for a moment. The flashlight flickered from the strike. Kelly, exhausted, barely managed to push the man off. At his hip, his scabbard was empty, meaning the best option to finish the man off would be…

I flicked the light around O’Brian’s foyer and spotted my fire poker on the floor. I snatched it up, right as the man’s head came into the tight spotlight of my flashlight.

I drove the metal tip into the man’s milky white eye, only looking away as his black blood gushed out of his head like I struck a pus-filled wound.

Kelly got onto his feet while the giant continued to squirm. Tearing the flashlight from my hand, he immediately turned it on me, unintentionally blinding my vision. “Are you okay?”

I raised a hand to block the light. “Shouldn’t I be asking you?”

Why would you? He’s the normal healthy one. You’re the one who’s already got one foot in the grave.

“You passed out. And all that blood?”

“Blood?” I asked.

Kelly turned my hands over, revealing the semi-dry blood coating them.

“It’s… I don’t know,” He stammered out before blinding me with the flashlight again. The light seemed way too bright. His words were way too loud, for sure. “You look like shit to be honest.”

“Gee thanks,” I said, the words coming out a little easier than before.

Kelly leaned in closer, close enough that the heat of his breath was enough to make me nauseous. I recoiled away as his eyes kept raking over my face.

“Are you infected?” The words floated out of his slack mouth.

And with those three words, my stomach churned up through my body.

“Do you think I am?” I reached for my cheeks, feeling for tears. Pulling away wet fingertips, my heart crumbled, and my lungs constricted inside my chest. “Oh god, I—”

“You’re sick, but not infected. I… I just… We need to get to the clinic. Right now.” Kelly clicked off the flashlight and pulled me towards the door.

“Your sword,” I said, stumbling behind him.

He stopped suddenly, turned the flashlight back on, quickly scanning around the room for it. “Oh shit.”

As he jogged back to the bar, a thought popped into my mind. Something sweet, not panicked and worried. He was so concerned for me that he forgot about his sword. What an idiot.

He’s just like everyone else. Willing to trash their lives just so that you can live. Again and again. Don’t you have any shame?

I hadn’t felt the tears draining out of my eyes before, but now, the sensation was overwhelming.

He looks at you and sees what? Cancer girl. The handicapped one. You’re nothing more than a project that likes to talk back. The fact that you constantly seem to forget that just goes to show how delusional you are.

“Alright, we need to go,” Kelly said, jogging up beside me. “Are you okay to walk?”

I wiped my tears away before the flashlight got to my face. Seeing me, all the colour dropped out of Kelly. He grabbed me by my arm and started to drag me towards the door again.

All the heartache you’ve caused. All the effort wasted on you. Wasted, wasted, wasted.

With what strength I had left, I stopped us both.

“Let me go, Kelly.” I tried my best to put down all the emotions that were riling up in me. Control. I needed to take control again. Of myself and this situation. “Just leave me be. I’m done.”

“Don’t be stupid don't be stupid!” Kelly was anything but controlled. “That’s my job, okay? You’re still standing, and you’re not like them!” He said, illuminating the slowly draining corpse of the giant only a few feet behind us.

“I’m sick. I’m…”

Go on. Admit it.

“I’m dying.”

“Then let me be your hospice or whatever.” He begged. “Just let me do something. Infected or not, I am going to make this right. Fluff your pillow. Get you a pudding cup. I’m going to do something, rather than just… just let you go. I’m not letting that happen again.”

Pity.

“Please, just let me do this for you.” He said, holding my hand even tighter than before. “Please, Eury.”

Self-aggrandizing, self-serving, virtue signalling, delusional pity.

“Please, help me.” I said, letting him lead me out of O’Brian’s.

You two are doomed.

“I will.” Kelly said without looking back at me. An unconscious kindness that I was thankful for. I didn’t need him to see the doubt and pain that I couldn’t keep from my face.

May 23, 2019 - O2 Remaining: 95.6 Hours / 3.98 Days - 12:35 AM

May 23, 2019 - O2 Remaining: 95.1 Hours / 3.96 Days - 1:10 AM

Kelly walked close beside me while he dragged the cart behind him. Every few steps, his eyes darted over to me.

Finally, Kelly spoke. “Are you cold?”

“Yeah.” I said, rubbing my hands up and down my arms. Without missing a beat, his hand shot towards my forehead. “Well ‘course I’m gonna be hot now. We’re moving pretty damn fast.”

He took his hand away. “You’re burning up.”

“I’m just hot. All this is just—” Kelly’s hand shot up as he turned the corner. He retreated back behind the building, and got close to me.

“There’s a few of them ahead. The clinic is right there, we’re going to have to go through.”

Killing these people was just trading their lives for mine, could I really live with that? And having Kelly do it was him risking his life for mine, which was even worse. Kelly unsheathed his sword and continued to drag the cart behind him. I followed close, clutching the fire poker as tightly as I could. As he crossed the corner, my conscience forced me to speak up.

“Wait, Kelly, we can go around.”

“We don’t have enough time. I’ll draw them away. Just hang back.” He whispered.

Not this shit again!

“You can’t be serious?” I felt my fever rise a few degrees with my anger. “If we’re doing this, we’re doing it together.” There was no way that I could let him do this alone, not for me. I couldn’t let him. “Don’t fight me on this.” I said. On the surface, I hoped I looked calm and composed because I was far from it.

Kelly looked me over once more. “Are you sure?”

“I have to. There’s no choice here.” And I wasn’t going to let him choose for me.

“If you think that there’s even a slight chance that they’ll overrun you, use it,” He pointed to the holster on my hip. “Do. Not. Hesitate.”

I nodded, even though I had no intentions to. I couldn’t risk drawing in more of them, not when we were so close to the clinic.

“Stay close, and if anything happens—”

“Don’t you dare tell me to run. I’m not going anywhere.” I managed to say before waves of nausea crashed into me, as my fever crescendoed.

Regardless, I smiled. Still, Kelly’s eyes didn’t change from their worried shape. But after a beat of silence, he spoke. “I guess I should’ve learned that won't work, huh? Just stay close to me.”

Judging by the look in his eyes, there was more he wanted to say but he held back. After a second to check his gear, he walked out onto the street.

I took a deep breath and followed him as we crossed the corner onto the street. With infected on both sides of the street, our only option was down the middle. I could only hope that like the woman from last night, that these people were also blind. Or at least partially so.

I couldn’t be sure whether it was the fever, the worry, or my frustration that was making my heart rate slowly increase as we slowly crept onward.

At the far end of the street, six or seven businesses down, I could finally see it—the clinic. Its stark white exterior practically glowed in the moonlight and served as the light at the end of this tunnel. The street leading to the clinic had a few cars parked on either side, but closer to the clinic, there were a multitude of cars littering the street. A few were parked normally, but most were haphazardly abandoned in front of the clinic.

It was hard to be sure, but on both sides of the street appeared to be several masses of sleeping infected.

Halfway down the street, my burning lungs told me that I had been holding my breath. As quietly as I could, I sucked in a breath, taking in even more than what my cannula could provide, and to my surprise, beyond the stench of human retch hanging in the air, I could smell something pleasant. At the very back, hidden behind layers and layers of disgusting, was a smell that I felt nostalgic for; it was the first gathering hints of dense clouds, heavy with rain and the sweet—

My singular moment of calm was overrun by terror as a man stumbled out from an alleyway between us and the clinic. Even more so than the other infected that we had seen up until now, he barely seemed alive. His right arm ended above his elbow, the rest was nothing but a black-blooded hanging mash. The infected man hobbled, hardly able to keep upright on a pair of stumps that looked no different from his arms.

Kelly, who had been focused on the three sleeping infected to our left, was caught off guard by the man. The man seemed to be as blind as the others, but what small relief that was, was dashed a moment later As he lunged for Kelly. Kelly fell back under the weight of the man, crashing into the cart. I don’t even know what it was that the stumped man heard, but even just the slightest noise was enough to get his attention. A terrible realization to have standing only a few feet from so many of them, made worse standing so close to one that knew we were here.

The moment that he regained his balance on his bloody stumps, the man’s head fell back, opening his mouth wide.

I felt the immense, immediate, need to scream out, to warn him, but instead, all I could do was run.

I pushed past the fear and weakness that was screaming for me to stay still, that was pleading with me to do nothing, but I couldn’t.

Before the man could scream, I swung my fire poker into his throat, sending him off balance, and slamming into the cart, causing a whole different wave of panic to set in as his disoriented clattering threatened to wake the whole street. Kelly jumped at the man, trying his best to get a hold on his bloodied clothes, before, after a few seconds of struggling, he sent him sprawling onto the asphalt only a few feet away from us.

On the ground, laying still, instead of trying to get up, the man did something I thought and hoped he couldn’t do—he screamed.

Like we just rang the dinner bell, the dozen or so infected around us came to life. These ones were much less spry than the infected that we had come across before. Just another mystery to add to the pile of mystery that was surrounding all of this. One that my brain didn’t have time to process.

“We got to run, now!” I whispered to Kelly, grabbing and pulling him forward for once.

“What about the cart?”

“We don’t have time.” I hissed.

With a sidelong glance, Kelly pulled away and went to get the cart.

With the shambling infected coming for him, I ran back to his side and prepared to fight. But the moment I found my feet solid on the ground, it was like the ground beneath them became liquid.

Remember? You’re not much different from them. That disease is worming its way into you, do you really think you can fight back now?

Shut up!

Despite my spinning vision, I swung for the first infected who got to us, then the next, then the one after that while Kelly pulled the cart. It felt great to knock them off their feet, but the fact they didn’t stay down was not. After three swings, I was already feeling the fever and panic compounding on me. Kelly managed to get the wagon pulled past the alley that the stumped man had come from. The same man whose screams were only getting worse, more laboured and anguished.

That was when something unexpected happened. As I ran back to Kelly, prepared to face whoever or whatever came next, I watched as the infected descend on the stumped man like a pack of lions devouring a wailing-downed wildebeest. Their wild, blind mauling ripped apart the already piecemeal man while I watched on in horror. His screams first intensified, but when his throat was torn out, they stopped entirely.

While the small group of infected were preoccupied, we got as far away from them as possible. That was an advantage that only lasted as long as it took for us to cross the alleyway. The moment that we had, another howl called out from within, drawing the attention of everyone on the street, infected and uninfected alike.

A tall gangly man burst out from the darkness of the alley sprinting towards me. However, at the last moment, he turned to tackle Kelly. Like me, Kelly had no time to prepare as the Gangly-man sprinted faster than I thought the infected could.

Is it possible that he wasn’t sick? Or maybe he had just recently turned?

He skidded to the ground with the man on his chest. Struggling to keep his snapping jaw away from his face, but the sudden attack, and the heightened level of mad ferocity—one that I hadn’t seen since Curlers was attacked—was too much for Kelly to keep the infected at bay. Without thinking, I dropped my fire poker and unholstered my pistol.

So this is how you choose to die?

I took aim, attempting to line a clean shot on the Gangly-man. Deafened by my racing pulse, I tried to ignore the group of shamblers I knew would only be a few feet behind at this point. And focused on the shifting pile of bodies that was the fight.

“Get the fuck off me, Teddy!” Kelly shouted.

As if in response, the Gangly-man shrieked back in his face.

Teddy? Did Kelly know him?

Whether it was Kelly’s pleas or something he did, the infected man stopped for a single moment. Just enough for me—

Boom!

The sound was louder than I imagined. When my father and I went shooting, wearing all the hearing protection, every shot didn’t sound much louder than a heavy book dropped in a silent room. That shot though was more like a small explosion. Ringing as it bounced off all the buildings around us.

I’ll admit it, I was shocked.

And maybe it was the shock that kept me from pulling the trigger.

Boom!

Another shot rang out from down the street.

It seemed that I wasn’t the only one shocked by the sound. Teddy, who had up until moments before been focused completely on Kelly, tore himself free from Kelly’s hands. On his feet, the gangly man stood hunched over his would-be prey, before Boom! Another shot sent him running back into the alleyway he came from.

Confused, but unwilling to look a gift horse in the mouth, I would have to file that incident away for later. I ran over to Kelly and helped him to his feet.

“Are you okay?”

“Did you shoot?”

Boom!

“Not me. But it doesn’t matter right now. We’ve got to go.”

He nodded, grabbed the cart as we headed towards the clinic and the source of the gunfire.

Beneath his balaclava, I couldn’t be sure how Kelly was feeling, but his wide-eyes and sharp breathing told me enough. I glanced back again at the infected, who slowly stumbled down the street behind us. The few who had stopped over the stumped man had begun to follow us as well.

Boom!

“That one sounded closer than the others,” Kelly said between breaths.

“Yeah.” I forced myself to keep up with him.

Paradoxically, I had somehow begun to feel a little alright. I knew better than to think it was anything more than endorphins finally kicking in.

Closer to the clinic, I saw my first potential sign of hope in a long while. Crashed into the side of the building was a familiar-looking red-truck. The entire front passenger side was crumpled in where Alaska’s truck had driven into a concrete pole that held up the building's overhang. The crash must’ve been a brutal one, but the driver's side looked like there wasn’t any damage, which was good, and the front seats themselves weren’t occupied, so that was even better.

She made it. She actually made it here. Thank god.

Kelly didn’t slow down to gawk at the truck but I couldn’t do the same. I slowed down at the truck’s window, only giving the slow-moving infected a few seconds to catch up, but it was more than enough time to see inside.

Boom!

I felt the booming bass of the shot in my chest.

The truck’s cab was covered in blood. Seeing that, any hint of hope that I had drained out of me quicker than it arrived. I purposefully kept my eyes off the dark streaks that started below the window frame. I didn’t need to look to know. In the pit of my stomach, I knew what was there. Along the other door, contorted unnaturally, around the back of the front seat was the corpse of a man, jaw unhinged in a way that I have become all too familiar with. He seemed to be the other major source of blood in the car. A dark sludge was spilling out of his mouth, pooling at the bottom of the seat.

Putrefaction? This quickly? How in the hell?

Boom!

The sound of the shot shook me out of my mind. By the sounds of it, whoever was shooting, was getting closer. Just as I peeled my eyes from the truck, I could’ve sworn the corpse moved.

No.

No. No. No.

Nope.

I hurried over to Kelly’s side.

Scared of your future are you? Why don’t you just go ask your boyfriend to kiss it all better?

I didn’t have enough energy to ignore the thought as it came. I just added it to the thousand cuts that I was already bleeding from.

It took both of us to get the door open, but with how weak I was feeling, I doubted that I helped at all. As the door inched open, the horrible screech of metal grinding against the floor was accompanied by a wet sloppy sound.

Close behind, the group of infected, drawn in by the sound, called out for us. Their screams were weak but still forced my hairs to stand on the nape of my neck. With another shove, Kelly was able to open the door enough to get us and the cart in. Inside, he handed me the flashlight, and went push the cabinet back into place, then locked the door.

I clicked on the flashlight. Stupidly, I had it aimed at Kelly and the door, revealing the blood-blackened skin of an old man who was crushed beneath the cabinet.

I spun on my heels. I was already feeling lightheaded and nauseous enough, didn’t need to add to my misery.

“Pharmacy,” Kelly whispered, pointing to the shuttered cutout just off of the main waiting room. “They’re close. We need to get something for you, then get the hell out of here.” He said, leading the way toward the hallway that ran beside the pharmacy.

Bang!

Even through the shut door, the sound of the shot was still deafening.

“What are we even looking for?”

“God if I know, you’re the scientist ain’t ya?” Kelly dropped the cart’s handle as he walked into the tight hall.

I noticed he didn’t comment on the brown, black, and red pools and streaks that covered the hallway beyond the pharmacy’s door. Neither did I. It was better that way. He started pulling on the door but it didn’t budge.

“I’m a science teacher, not a damn doctor, so how the hell would I know,” I whispered back. He yarded on the door again before I stopped him. “It’s locked. There might be a key behind the desk or something.”

He looked visibly annoyed, but relented and went to check the desk in the waiting room.

At the desk, Kelly pulled out one drawer after another. The sound of slamming the drawers was intensified by the banging at the door, that almost took it off its hinges. It sounded like every one of the shamblers collided with the door all at once. Even though it was loud, the cabinet holding the door shut barely moved under the weight.

“We don’t have fucking time for this!” He said, slamming a drawer closed.

“Not if we start losing our cool.” I placed a hand on his shoulder, but he shrugged it off immediately.

Kelly jabbed at the door. “No. We don’t have time because they’re right fucking there!”

“Can we pry the door open maybe?” I knew better than to think it was possible but I felt like I needed to keep trying to figure out some way forward.

“Don’t be stupid. The door’s pure fuckin—”

BOOM!

“That was right outside,” I said, looking at the silhouettes barely visible through the frosted glass of the front door. “Do you think they’re—”

“We need to run,” Kelly said, pulling on my arm again.

“Run? Why? Maybe whoever is out there can help us.”

Kelly looked at me, and after a moment, he pulled his balaclava down. The look on his face was pain incarnate, worse than last night in the shop. An expression worse than I had ever seen on anyone’s face.

“There’s no telling who’s out there. Please Eury, just trust me on this.” He said, pulling his balaclava back on, his point already made.

I looked back to the door at the hands and heads banging against the glass.

BOOM!

The frosted glass exploded in, showering all over the waiting room. Kelly dropped down to the floor, pulling me down with him. Wrestling my arm from him, I crouched up to see what was happening. The group—ten or so of them—had turned away from the door, just in time to get battered by a man who hadn’t been there a moment before. He was quick and efficient with his strikes, his baton moving quicker than I could follow. It wasn’t much of a surprise though. I was sure as a sheriff's deputy, he probably had a lot of practice.

BOOM!

Another shot, the other window and another one of them went down. I couldn’t see the shooter, but their aim was amazing. With less than a handful of them still at the door, the deputy was able to move quickly enough to beat the rest down with several savage strikes. There was no hesitation in his actions, no remorse. The moment he finished, the deputy started moving their bodies out of the way of the door.

“I’m checking the truck, get that door open.” A woman’s commanding tone was loud enough to hear from inside, while still not much more than a whisper. The voice of the shooter no doubt.

The deputy began pushing on the door, struggling against the cabinet as we had minutes ago.

“Get the damn door open, Boyde!” Finally, with another deep grunt, the cabinet gave way. “C’mon! They’re coming.” The woman’s commands were quiet and harsh.

Boyde breathed heavily, bordering on a snarl, as the pair of them stalked into the waiting room. With a pistol in his hand, it was obvious he was ready to kill at a moment's notice. Behind him, calmer than I would have imagined was the shooter. Shotgun in her hands, and her long, curly blonde hair tied back in a tight bun, she looked like barbie, G.I. Joe edition. Of course she did. She never really could shake those model looks no matter the dirt and blood. I practically jumped the moment I saw her, but Kelly’s tight grip on my kept me down.

“Alaska?” I shouted from behind the counter.

“Who the fuck is there!” Boyde said, full of piss and vinegar. Kind of like how he looked.

“Eury?” And, for the first time ever, Alaska sounded exactly how she looked.

A short jog and a second later, Alaska was at the side of the nurse’s station. As I untangled myself from Kelly, her strong hands pulled me to my feet.

They say that you never realize what you had until it was gone. What I’d add to that was you never realize what you need until you get it. And in that moment, wrapped in her arms, pulled in so tightly that I could almost explode, I realized that I so very desperately needed it.

“I was so so so so so worried about you!” Alaska said, pulling me in even tighter than possible. “I… I didn’t know if you were okay. I’m so sorry, Eury. It was all my fault, I should’ve—”

I pulled my face out of her chest just long enough to interrupt her. “It was my fault! I was the one who ran off. I’m sorry.”

“I’m sorry that I couldn’t come for you.” As she spoke, I felt her tears fall onto my head. “I tried, but it was just…”

“I know. It was too insane out here for anyone. Don’t worry. There’s nothing to apologize for.” With one final squeeze, she rested her cheek on my head.

“I’m so glad you’re alright.”

Without warning, our reunion was cut short. The door to the clinic burst open. Struggling to get through was a man covered in bloody gashes, helping him through was another familiar but wholly unwelcome sight.

Davis.

May 23, 2019 - O2 Remaining: 94.35 Hours / 3.93 Days - 2:03 AM