Olivia

"Just calm down, Elizabeth, we're coming to get you," I muttered into my cell. The afternoon was hot. The summer sun was particularly merciless in Texas. The drive down had been hot. The car's AC was broken and the four-hour drive from Big Spring, Colorado to Amarillo, Texas has seemed like an eternity. Tennyson refused to crack the windows, afraid of catching the disease, despite her husband's exasperated insistences that the disease wasn't airborne. I had tried to stay out of their disputes; once Tennyson and Hunter had married I felt uncomfortable butting in. Tennyson and I went to high school together, and had practically been bound at the hip during that time. After graduation, we spent the summer on the road together—I am still surprised I'd managed to drag her away from Hunter—and then that was that. She'd gone to pursue a medical career and I stayed in armpit Texas, attending the local (and wonderful) university.

"Elizabeth!" I exclaimed. My sister hadn't stopped crying since I'd picked up the phone. She'd sent hurried, terrified texts last night, that had prompted Tennyson and I to cut our reunion short.

"I'm sorry," Elizabeth wailed. "Really, I am. Please, just hurry here. Please."

She was waiting at the church we'd gone to as children. Actually, Elizabeth was still clinging to her teen years, just barely. She had turned nineteen a month ago, the day before my own birthday.

"We're about two hours away," I told her, looking over at Tennyson's dashboard clock. Hunter was asleep in the passenger's seat.

"Go faster," she whispered. I scowled, concerned. Elizabeth was hardly ever weepy. She whined a lot, yes, but I'd never heard her cry after she passed the fourteen marker.

"Okay, baby," I said soothingly. "We'll be there as soon as humanly possible. I love you. Tell Mom and Dad we'll be arriving soon."

Elizabeth whimpered and hung up, which tied knots in my stomach. I slid my phone back into my pocket and clambered into the minivan's middle seat. Tennyson looked back.

"How's Liz?" she asked.

Tennyson was gorgeous. She had short, choppy dark brown hair that had once been very long and wavy. I remembered how shocked I'd been when she'd cut it her junior year. Her caramel colored skin had darkened in the sun over the years, and her dark brown eyes seemed to have aged in all that she'd seen as a trauma nurse. She was well-muscled and kept herself shape by doing marathons and being incredibly healthy.

"She's crying," I answered slowly. "Which is strange for her, you know that."

Tennyson looked in the rearview, at the car trailing faithfully behind her. Despite the tension of the moment, I smiled at the heavy black Jeep behind us. Andrew had insisted on driving his own car down. He hated Tennyson's minivan with a passion. It had no AC, was heavily dented, and the carpet smelled. My boyfriend was nothing if not particular.

"What did she say last night?" Tennyson asked, wincing as Hunter let out a snore.

"She was rather vague," I said, scrolling back through the texts my sister had sent. "She told me that she was at the church with Mom and Dad, as well as some family friends, and my old friend Davis." Tennyson smiled. She remembered the boy who'd saved my butt on more than one occasion during a church game. "She said that she wanted us to pick her up before the quarantine got any worse."

Tennyson nodded, "You were planning on that anyway."

I nodded and plugged my phone into the charger. The electricity in buildings was sketchy nowadays, and the Internet was even more unreliable than usual. I was surprised Elizabeth had been able to get a call to me as she did.

"We'll be there soon enough," Tennyson said calmly. "The Texas State border is only about fifteen miles away. We're on our way." With that she prodded Hunter awake and made him navigate the paper map. I was useless with a map. They started flirting and bickering gently, as young married couples do, and I sat back and stared out at the window. It had been a long time since I'd seen this land. I had left Amarillo to teach in Colorado and to be closer to Andrew. We now worked at the same school, he as the school counselor, and I as a twelfth grade English teacher. Most of the boys were taller than me, and it was a bit strange teaching children who were only a few years younger than I. When I left Amarillo, it had been against my parent's wishes. They didn't believe I was ready to live so far away, and near someone who was of a different faith—no faith. Our relationship had been rocky ever since, but I was always on good terms with my sister, who I loved more than anything else in this world.

As we approached the Texas State line, we gradually faded into the traffic, and I lost sight of Andrew's Jeep. I looked at Tennyson anxiously, but she was too worried about getting the paperwork in order. Since the quarantine, everyone had to carry the vaccination records, medical history, and identification cards. I always shoved the five pages into my wallet, which irritated Andrew to no end.

"They'll think those papers are stolen or something," he'd mutter darkly. "You have to be careful. You'll lose them."

Tennyson was getting the three stacks ready as we pulled up to the quarantine booth. A man in a neon yellow vest handed out three gas masks, just as a precaution, he said. Tennyson shot Hunter a look, I told you it was airborne, she said with her eyes. Jack shook his head and pushed his glasses farther up his nose.

"You mean to say it's airborne?" he asked.

Vest man shook his head, "No, sir. Simply a precaution."

"Thank you," Tennyson said, passing the third mask and my papers back to me. The mask was bigger than I'd thought it'd be. I didn't put it on, and neither did Hunter, but I saw Tennyson considering it before she drove away from Vest Man.

"Two hours to Amarillo!" Hunter exclaimed happily. The man was always happy, or at least excited. He was like a golden retriever. He had sandy brown hair and wide eyes. His face was pale and his frame was skinny. Sometimes I giggled when Tennyson squeezed Hunter tight in a hug. She looked like she could break him without much effort, with her strength and her love. I smiled as they started to talk again. I folded my papers back into my wallet and set the gas mask under my jacket.

Once we were on the more open road I could see Andrew's Jeep a good distance behind the minivan, and the knot in my stomach began to untangle.

"Olivia," I woke with a start. We had parked at a gas station to refill before going to get Elizabeth. Andrew loomed over me, grinning. I sat up and smiled. He helped me out of the car and walked me to the station.

"The prices are through the roof," he said, looking at the sign, irritated.

He was right. When I was younger, around ten, the price of gas per gallon had risen to almost four dollars at one point. The price was scandalous enough to make my mother swear under her breath and my father rail against the oil companies overseas and the government in general. Now, four dollars would have been a steal. Seven dollars a gallon had been last month. I had sold my car and depended on Andrew and the bus for rides when the price had hit six-fifty. Now, gas was a grand total of nine dollars a gallon, and I looked guiltily at Tennyson's car as she refilled the tank.

Andrew and I went to the restroom and then argued about which was better, sour or plain Skittles. His laughter was horribly faked, I knew, and my sleepy demeanor was completely false as well. We were both on edge, worrying about my sister and my parents. He in his quiet way, was worried about his parents as well, but last he'd checked, they were fine. Tennyson refused to talk about her mothers as of late, and hunter never talked about his parents.

"The church is just up the road," I said, leaning into Andrew's shoulder. "This will be over in a few minutes."

"I hope so," he said. "Amarillo has really emptied out, it's a little creepy."

"We'll go back to Colorado and Elizabeth can live with me for as long as she needs," I sighed. "I remember Mr. Ray saying something about needing another librarian."

Andrew laughed, "The last thing your sister needs is to be surrounded by books. She'd kill herself."

I smiled and kissed Andrew's cheek before heading back to the minivan. Hunter's was already in the passenger seat, staring at the gas mask in his lap. His expression made me uneasy. Tennyson pulled out of the station before our seatbelts were even on, ranting about the price of gas, and how I was definitely going to repay her for this. The drive to the church took only a couple minutes, and I was promising to take Tennyson out to an expensive dinner when we rolled into the parking lot. Five cars were parked haphazardly close to the front of the building. I started to get out of the car, but Tennyson grabbed my hand.

"Call her," she said.

Hunter nodded, "Look at the building."

I hadn't even noticed. The building was dark, and a window or two was taken out from the inside. I could see a couple lights flickering in the main hallway. I shuddered. Amarillo was starting to look more and more like a ghost town.

I put it on speaker. The phone rang for a moment before Erin picked up. "Hello?" she breathed.

"Elizabeth?"

"Olivia."

"I'm here," I said. "Waiting at the front. Are you okay? You sound out of breath."

"Do you have room for Davis?" she asked frantically.

"Yes," I said slowly. "Does he need a ride? What about Mom and Dad?"

"Wait for us at the front," she said curtly, and then the line cut off.

Tennyson and I stared at each other, wide eyed for a moment. Hunter watched the front doors as if he was watching for his own sibling. After a while, Elizabeth and Davis walked out the door, and I gasped. Liz's clothes were ripped, and Davis was holding his knife out. It was bloody. Their hair was greasy and disheveled, like they hadn't bathed in days. Liz had dark circles under her pretty blue eyes. They walked hesitantly, looking around, and then they broke for the minivan in a mad dash.

When Davis opened the door, I was hit with a wave of foul odor. He smelled like blood and sweat and human feces. Elizabeth was no better. She immediately grabbed me and held me so tightly I thought my ribs would break.

"Davis, what the hell?" I demanded, staring at him, as he closed the door slowly. His knife was getting blood on the carpet.

"Drive," he said simply, his voice hard. "Just get to a fucking hotel or something. Get away from here."

"What about our parents?" I asked, looking at Elizabeth, a sinking feeling growing in the pit of my stomach. Elizabeth's eyes started to water and I watched, horror struck, as tears started to boil over and pour down her face.

"Davis, what the hell—"

"Just get the fuck out of here!" he snarled.

"Shit," Tennyson muttered, and backed out of the parking lot. Hunter called Andrew on his phone and told him to follow us to the nearest motel. Confused, we sped out of the parking lot and into a street that all at once seemed far too empty for comfort.

The manager didn't even look at us weird when we only asked for one room. He just handed us the key and kept his eyes glued to the news on TV. Andrew and Hunter turned on the news in the bedroom while Tennyson and I squeezed into the bathroom to clean Liz and Davis up. We banished Davis from the bathroom while I washed Elizabeth's back and Tennyson checked for any scratches that looked infected.

"Honey, what happened?" I asked nervously, washing her prone figure. She hadn't said a word since the van. I washed her long brown hair, lavishing her in shampoo. No amount of gentle prodding brought an answer. She had shallow scratches on her back, neck, and chest that looked so like fingernail marks that Tennyson pulled me aside and asked if I thought Davis had attacked her. I had angrily rebelled against the idea, and pushed Tennyson out of the bathroom. Once Liz was satisfactorily cleaned, I gave her a long sweater from my suitcase and a pair of leggings. I braided her hair; (terribly, she's the one that's good at these sorts of things) and put her to bed.

Davis was sitting in the window seat, glaring at the television, and Hunter and Andrew in turn. He was gripping his knife so hard his knuckles had turned white. Hunter and Andrew shot anxious glances at him every so often, and looked away when I approached him.

I can't remember not ever knowing Davis Rhal. He was just always there, in the church corridors, in the classrooms, on the playground. He taught me games and had been the first person to try and show me how to shoot. He was going to the military academy next fall. His smile was always calming. He laughed at my jokes. He was my family and the only person I had constant and unconditional faith in. Andrew, Tennyson, and Hunter looked on as I took Davis's face in my hands. I pressed my forehead against his and felt his rapid breathing.

"Davis," I said softly. He still smelled terrible. "What happened? I need to know. Where's my family? Where's your family? The Smiths?"

He shook his head slowly, my head moving along with his. I knelt down and he put his head on my shoulder. I stared out the window while he talked, watching the quiet night and the occasional car drift by.

"It started out as the three of our families. The Nicks didn't make it in time," he began. "My mom and sister got sick first. They started acting weird and my mom bit my dad. Zach Nick and your dad went trying to restrain him. He started biting and tearing flesh and…" Davis trailed off. "He wasn't my father anymore. He was some sort of animal. Megan Nick, your mother, your sister, Megan's kids, and I ran to the back room and hunkered down. We were waiting for help or something. There was a back door, just in case. But the room became compromised and…" he couldn't finish and I didn't want him to. I knew the Nick children. The three of them were some of the smartest and most perfect people that I knew. Their mother was incredible. I worked at her bookshop for a summer. I had known them my entire life.

And then there was my mother and my father. They were dead. My throat constricted and tears rolled down my cheeks, staining Davis's shirt. I held him tighter as he finished. "Liz I were the only ones left. We have your mom to thank for our lives. We were holed up in the room by the kitchen when you called." He laughed wryly, "Your call almost got us killed. They were attracted to the movement."

"They?" I hiccupped. "You said they all died."

Davis shook his head and pulled away, "No. They don't die. They just became someone different."

"Then we can go help them!" I squeaked, looking back at my sister's sleeping figure.

Davis shook his head again and stood, "You won't want them. They tore at your mother's flesh. All of them. Even the kids. She was screaming and bleeding, until she wasn't. She got up and she joined them."

I whimpered and Andrew crossed the room to hold me. He glared at Davis, "Stop this. This isn't real. The news hasn't reported anything about this."

Davis laughed, "Then call this ground zero. Amarillo will go down in the history books." He laughed again and I buried my face in Andrew's chest at the raw anger in his voice. "How ironic that all of this happened at a church."

Davis walked to the bathroom and stood in the shower for a long time. Tennyson and Hunter curled up on together under some extra blankets from the front desk. I sat and talked to Andrew for a long time, I don't remember what we spoke about. I think he was just trying to keep me away so I wouldn't nightmare. When Davis came out from the shower he was wearing Hunter's sweat pants and a tank top, his muscly arms exposed. His neck was so open. I wondered how he could sleep so bare and exposed after what had happened at the church. He slept next to Elizabeth, an arm wrapped protectively around her waist. I left Andrew after he fell asleep, and I went to sleep beside my sister and Davis.

I squeezed between the two of them, like a child intruding on its parent's bed. Elizabeth turned to hold me, and Davis's arm draped over the both of us. We slept fitfully, nightmarishly, until the break of dawn when we awoke to the sound of helicopter blades.