Summary: Disease has ravaged the human population. In just a few days, almost the entire human race has perished. Edward left Bella only a few months ago, and she has been locked in a padded cell ever since she cracked and started babbling about vampires. Edward rushes to Forks to find Bella, dead or alive, but can he handle what he finds?
Disclaimer: Unfortunately, I do not and never will own any of the characters featured in the following story unless otherwise stated.
Chapter 1
The silence was unnerving. The wind whipped past me as I ran, and I could scarcely believe what I knew. Everything had been so normal five days ago. Then it started. The plague has no name, but that leaves no dent in the amount of destruction it leaves in its wake. It began in Asia, sweeping through the population like a scythe chopping down wheat. It quickly spread to Africa and Europe. I remember the news coverage it had here in South America. Thousands Dead of Disease, The Super Virus, End of the World, and Lockdown: No One Comes in or Goes Out were a few popular headlines. Then it hit South America. By this time, I was already heading up to Washington. My plan was to sweep Bella away to a secluded place like Isle Esme until this was all over, but nothing is ever that easy. The disease was faster. It somehow hit Canada and the Pacific Northwest before I could run to Arizona. I stopped briefly at Bella's old house in Arizonan to see if she'd returned there since my departure. I knew that it was more likely she'd be in Jacksonville, but that wasn't on my way. While I was there, I turned on the news for a quick update. Of course, they were tracking the progress of the disease. They had a map of the U.S. with every place that had reported a case of the unnamed disease colored red with the shade brightening as far as number of cases goes. After the split second it took to see that the whole of Washington was a bright, bright red, I ran off without even bothering to turn off the television.
I run through the list of symptoms in my head. Once it starts, there is no stopping it. There is no getting better. The only way to live is to not be exposed, but, since we don't even know how it is transmitted, that is difficult. First, you get a killer headache along with a fever. Second, you feel incredibly thirsty, but no amount of water can quench it. Next you throw up anything in your stomach, which doesn't help you fight the disease. It becomes difficult to breathe or swallow anything, and your throat starts to swell. Eventually, you just die from lack of breath, thirst, or overheating. All of it happens in just eight to twelve hours. Sometimes, for the very young, weak, or elderly, it can take less. In impoverished countries where people didn't have enough to eat in the first place, it can take less than four. The pain is supposed to be so bad that they recommend shooting the victim before they suffer too much. Just thinking about these things happening to my Bella causes an almost intolerable amount of pain to rip through my torso. The thought of her still, pale, limp, empty . . .
I flit through civilization, though there is no sign of life anywhere. I can currently hear no thoughts for miles, and I'm in a decent sized city right now. Corpses are everywhere. I can practically feel the odds of Bella being alive when I find her diminishing with every second. If she is alive when I find her, she'll have to be sick. Will I change her? What kind of life would this be? It would be the life of a monster, but that's better than having no life at all, isn't it? In my heart, I know the answer. Yes, I would change my beloved. The only thing is that she'll have to be alive for me to do it. Her heart has to be beating for me to stop it.
"Edward," a familiar voice calls out to me mentally, "Stop right there." At first, I ignore the command. "Darn it, Edward, you'll kill her if you don't stop and listen to me!"
That makes me halt in my tracks. I whirl around to see Alice rounding the corner of a street. She stops the moment she sees me. "She's alive?" I ask, voice strained, hardly daring to hope.
"For now," Alice thinks, "But you need to think about what you're doing before you go see her. The only reason she's still alive is that she hasn't been exposed to it yet. If you walk in having been around all of this contaminated stuff, she'll catch it, and there's no way we'll be able to stop it after that."
"I don't understand. How could she have not been exposed? The disease is everywhere," I choke.
"I see her in a padded cell wearing a straight jacket. She's locked in with no access to the outside world," Alice thinks. Then I see Alice's vision. My Bella was lying on the floor of a padded cell, just as Alice had described. Her hair was greasy from days without washing and her voice was hoarse as she spoke. There was no one there, but she talked as if she were having a conversation with a good friend. I think I hear various names mixed up in her babble somewhere, including those of my family, Charlie's, Renee's, and someone named Jacob's. I shudder. Had I driven her to this? The dominant part of me was rejoicing. She was alive! She had not contracted this terrible plague, and there is a good chance that she won't become sick. We just have to keep her from getting exposed to the disease . . .
"How can we keep her from getting exposed?" I ask eagerly.
"First of all, you'll have to make sure you and your clothes are completely clean. Carlisle has a machine he thinks will be able to clean the air so that nothing in the air will get to her. He and the others will meet us there. She'll need water, so that'll have to be cleaned too. We think that everything becomes sanitary after a few days. All of the microbes that cause the disease die once there is nothing left to feed off of. Carlisle thinks the disease is transferred through the air, and it's extremely contagious, so we'll have to be careful. We'll totally decontaminate the room next to the padded one she's in before going in; we can't have any infected air contaminating the clean stuff. Then we'll wait a week or so before coming out," Alice explains, "It'll work; I can see it." She smiles widely at me before she takes off again.
I speed after her, running at full sprint. Everything seems like it's going to be okay. I wonder what we'll do after this. I'd been so focused on the immediate future that I never considered what happens after that. With the majority of the human population dead, all of the non-vegetarian vampires are going to be thirsty. Humans like Bella are going to be high in demand, and low in supply. We'll have to hide her or something. I won't let them kill her, and neither will my family. My family is strong, but we could be outnumbered. I'll take her to Isle Esme, and that will be like out fortress. My family will run regular patrols around the island. Then there's the issue of food and water. Bella will need to eat, and we'll need to hunt.
"We'll deal with that when the time comes," Alice sighs, apparently having seen me inquire, "For now, let's focus on keeping her safe from the disease. One issue at a time, alright?"
My silence is my consent. We run as fast as we can together. Her thoughts linger on Bella for a moment, but then she thinks of our family and what they're doing. In her head, I see them running through the familiar forests surrounding Forks. Then I see them coming to the asylum where Bella resides. Do to Alice's vampire hearing, I can make out her voice, barely audible and obviously parched. In between small spurts of speech, she breaks into fits of coughing, but it isn't like a diseased coughing. It's the sort of coughing you get from a sore throat and a few days without water.
It seems like hours to me, but Alice and I finally make it to the asylum. I don't stop when I see the building; I burst through the doors and down the labyrinth of formerly sterile, white halls. Bodies are scattered everywhere, and the stench of death is omnipresent, but I barely take notice. I follow the voices of my family to a heavy, metal door outside of the room they're in. I can hear Bella's shallow breathing inside.
"Can I come in?" I ask, gulping back fear. I don't want to risk polluting Bella's clean oxygen supply. I glance at a body slouching against the wall beside me; there is no way this is a clean area.
"You can come in, son," Carlisle responds, "We were waiting for you to arrive to take her out."
Carlisle had barely gotten the last word out before I was inside and the door was shut firmly behind Alice and me. "She's safe?"
"Yes, of course. She's dehydrated and hungry, but I don't think she's been infected. I don't know how long she has been in here, but it looks like no one has given her food or water for some time," he explains calmly. Looking closely at my father, I could see the pain in his golden eyes. Being a doctor, the past few days must have been agonizing for him.
"Are you sure it's safe to take her out?" I ask worriedly, Bella's health my first and foremost concern.
"Do you think I'd suggest it if it wasn't?" Carlisle snaps edgily. Then he sighs, running a pale hand through his hair. "I'm sorry these past few days have just been very…" He chokes at the end of his sentence, downcast with grief.
Esme walks up behind him and wraps her arms around him. "You did everything you could. No being on this Earth could have tried harder," she whispers soothingly to him, the sincerity of her words interwoven with her entire being.
Carlisle hugs her back, shutting his eyes and breathing in her safe scent. "I won't fail this time," he promises quietly.
Feeling as if I were invading their private moment, I glance around the room in search of my own true love. I notice Emmett and Rosalie crouched over a complicated piece of machinery, discussing it quietly; they are of little interest to me. Alice embraces Jasper where he stands forlornly in the far corner of the room, softly caressing the purple under his eyes.
My own hands burning to feel the soft skin of my love once more, my eyes lock on a figure through thick windows. The majority of the wall between us is made of glass, giving me a great view of her. She is even more sickly than she appeared in Alice's vision, though there is thankfully no sign of the plague. Her hair is shorter than when I left, matted and unkempt. Her eyes are closed restlessly. Her pink lips move slightly as she rasps out nursery rhymes. I cringe at the sound of her voice, hoarse and defeated, even as she whispers "Ring around the Rosy," an eerily perfect fit for this situation. Her arms are restrained to her sides, and my perpetually empty stomach twists as I think of what could have happened to force this on her. I watch in slow agony as her chest continues to rise and fall pitifully. She must be in so much pain…
What have I done?