As promised, here is chapter 2! FYI: I will be updating this every Friday UNLESS you guys want more, then review and I will update sooner!
In this chapter we meet two more main characters and this chapter takes place a month after chapter 1, so you get to see how the virus has progressed :)
ENJOY! and REVIEW!
Chapter 2 – Jamie and Finn
2 Months - Before
"What the hell! Can't we get a little help around here?!" Finn yelled in the lobby of the emergency room.
"It's bad enough that my knee feels like it's been ripped apart," Jamie grunted as he tried to walk, "but now I've got you screaming into my ear." He yelled right back into Finn's ear. "I think I'm going to go deaf." Jamie joked as he limped alongside his brother, one arm slung over Finn's shoulder.
It had been their semi-final soccer game, them against Drayton Heights—their rival. The game had been scheduled for tonight, but had been canceled due to the quarantine and rescheduled to an unidentified date. Neither of the teams were okay with letting the game go, so the set up a sort of "speakeasy" soccer game. The two teams, and a handful of fans snuck onto the soccer field and decided once and for all who the better team was.
Into the last half, the brother's team was winning and it was that sleazy number five that stepped on Jamie's foot as he turned for the ball. Foot forcibly planted on the ground, Jamie spun, but his leg did not follow. He was sure he tore his knee.
The game was probably over. Of course Finn offered to take Jamie to the hospital, he wouldn't be separated from his twin—even if it was the most important soccer game, his brother came first.
There had been no ambulance at the game on account that both of the teams were breaking quarantine and curfew rules and only a select few knew the game was going on. Besides, even if the boys could call an ambulance they would never be helped; EMT's were always out due to the new cure/infection thing going around.
Even now the hospital was completely busy. Ever since the failed cure, more and more people have been coming to hospitals, claiming they've been infected—like there was a virus going around, but what was going around was no virus.
It was worse.
The public and doctors were still confused about what exactly was happening, but one thing was for certain, you did not want to get attacked by an infected. It would mean certain death—if you were lucky. If not, you became infected like them, bloodthirsty and feral. Whatever was going around made people go insane and attack other people, which created a vicious cycle. There were hundreds of reports of people biting and ripping humans apart to drink their blood. People were being sent to the hospital left and right, either bitten or infected, and the doctors and nurses still had no idea about how to fix it.
Because of the rushed panic in the emergency room, no one at the hospital had helped Jamie yet, but the brothers didn't need to be told by a doctor that Jamie's knee had been torn. They had played soccer long enough to know the injury. Torn meniscus, possibly all the tendons were torn with the pain he was in. They had seen countless teammates go through the same pain.
Swollen and purple, his knee was twice the size of the other. You could barely see the knobby bone anymore, and purple and blue bruises were starting to surface, like a balloon of paint had popped underneath his skin. It ached like hell. It popped every so often when he put pressure on it and he could barely straighten it. Yeah, his knee was destroyed.
"Let's just go home for tonight and come back in the morning," Jamie suggested. There were people here in much worse condition than Jamie that needed immediate medical attention.
He glanced over at a woman who had been strapped to a gurney and was screaming. A torn knee seemed insignificant compared that. "For whatever reason, the infected don't go out during the day so we can come back when it's less busy." The woman's hair was wild and she had a bloody bandage on her forearm. She kept yelling about how feverish she was. Sweat was seeping through her clothes. Jamie thought that someone really ought to help her.
Finn looked at his brother with an incredulous look. "You need help too, they can't just ignore you—"
"What are they going to do for me tonight that they can't do for me in the morning? They'll just give me some painkillers and tell me I need to schedule a surgery. So I say we buy some Vicodin from Drew and head home for the night. I'll be okay. I'll be asleep half the time anyway. I won't feel a thing."
"Jamie," Finn and Jamie both had the blessing and curse of caring about other people before themselves. Jamie was worried about the other people in the hospital, but Finn was worried about Jamie.
"Fine," Finn caved. "Have you gotten a hold of Mom or Dad yet?" Finn turned, with Jamie still leaning on his shoulder, and started walking back toward the parking lot. Nurses continued to ignore them even as they watched the teen limp out of the hospital.
"No," Jamie sucked in a breath from pain, but tried to be as silent as possible so Finn wouldn't worry. Even a little weight sent a sharp zing of pain up his leg. "Neither of them answered their phones."
Jamie and Finn's parents were probably just leaving from work. Thank God, too, Jamie could only imagine his mother fretting over him and his knee and them sneaking out. Finn was just like their mother, always protecting and worrying about the family whenever something went wrong.
Finn helped Jamie into the passenger side of the car. Jamie grabbed the top of the roll cage with one hand and pulled himself up into the passenger seat. He cupped his hands under his torn knee and hoisted it up into the car as well. He grimaced, but quickly gave a small smile to a disapproving Finn. "I'm fine," Jamie reiterated.
Finn got into the driver's side of his jeep. It was black with only the roll cage on top and tan leather seats. He had learned early in his soccer career that this was the perfect car because he could put all of his sport gear into the back and it wouldn't completely stink up the back. Plus, he loved the feeling of the wind rushing past him. It was the only thing his mother and him could compromise on—Finn originally wanted a motorcycle.
Finn turned the engine over and the headlights lit up the car in front of them. It was dark now. They really should be home soon before their parents freaked, seeing that the boys weren't there. "You're sure you're okay?" he asked once more.
"I'll be fine once I get some Vicodin. You think Drew will let us use an 'IOU'?" Jamie smiled innocently. "I didn't bring a wallet."
Finn laughed with little humor, "You're lucky I did." Jamie always had the habit of leaving his wallet at home when he needed it most.
Now that they were on the road, Jamie had to push back his reddish-blond hair to keep it from whipping him in the face.
Oh God, Jamie finally thought. It was his senior year in high school and his knee was torn. No soccer, no cross-country, no track. Great. Jamie leaned his elbow on the side of the car and stared into the blackness of the night, the headlights of the car just barely illuminating the side of the rode.
. . .
Drew, who was slightly high when they went to his house, said 'oh shit!' when the brothers told them what happened. He let out a flurry of other obscenities about Drayton Heights as he gladly loaned them the painkillers. They weren't completely sure if it was the high or the team rivalry that made Drew loan out the prescription drugs, but they bet on the latter. Everyone hated Drayton Heights.
They were on their way back to their house now and Jamie still couldn't get a hold of their parents. He held the ringing phone to his ear. "Nothing," he said to his brother. "They never ignore their phones like this."
Finn's light eyebrows wrinkled in confusion. The brothers really looked quite similar: same blond hair that had a shimmer of red when in the sunlight hit it and the same deep brown eyes. They looked enough alike to tell they were identical, but they weren't so identical that they could take each other's place in class—no matter how hard they tried. Both of them had the similar lean, yet athletic build, but Finn was a little taller. "You tried both of them?" Finn asked, "What about their work phones?"
Finn and Jamie's parents were so called 'workaholics'. Their cell phones were almost more important to them than their children. They never missed a call, and if they didn't answer their cell, it meant that they would at least pick up their office phone. Jamie shook his head. "It just keeps on ringing,"
They were on the long stretch of highway before their house. There was no one on the road—probably because they were all indoors due to the curfew. There was an eerie feeling that came with being on a highway at night, with no other cars or signs of life. The headlights only lighting so far ahead, the rest was… black. Silent. Unseen.
Then, the headlights of the jeep began reflecting something—no, not reflecting… illuminating something, something pale and white on the side of the road. At first Jamie thought someone had hit a deer and carelessly left it in the road, but this was no deer. Jamie sat up in his seat. He slowly reached out to Finn in a universal sign for 'slow down'.
Finn slowed down as they approached the object until they came to a stop, and they could see what it really was. Jamie saw the mangled arms, the torn up legs, and the face of what was once a beautiful girl.
The body had been ripped apart.
A few months ago the boys would have thought a wild animal did it, but there were much more vicious creatures roaming about.
There was nothing they could do for this girl.
Jamie swallowed hard and locked his eyes onto the floor mats in the car. Finn looked over at his brother. "Right," he shifted into gear, shaking his head as if to clear it. "We shouldn't—we shouldn't be staring like this." His choked on his words slightly. If anything, Finn was the one who could stomach all of the gore, but Jamie didn't think anyone could get used to seeing a body mutilated like that.
Finn drove around the body parts and kept going. A few mailboxes later and they were finally pulling up their long driveway. Their house was far from the road and the driveway was like a tunnel of trees. Even as they pulled up, they could tell something was wrong.
There were lights on in the house but the giant wooden door was wide open. Their parent's cars were parked in front; one of the driver's doors was open. "What the hell is going on," Finn whispered to no one in particular as he shut the jeep's engine off.
He helped Jamie out of the car and they walked up to their house together. There were keys still in the lock of the front door. Finn kicked the door open more with his foot. "Mom?" he yelled. "Dad?" They moved through the living room together.
When they entered the kitchen they saw their parent's phones haphazardly thrown onto the counter. Jamie picked one up—8 Missed calls, all from the boys. Finn pointed out all of the food that was splayed all over the floor. Bags and cans ripped open, but nothing actually looked eaten. Who goes through the trouble of opening everything but not eating anything? It looked like an animal had raided their cupboard, which could've been possible on account of the open door.
Finn began moving Jamie back into the living room to lay him on the couch. "What are you doing?" Jamie asked, helplessly attached to Finn, going wherever he went.
"My arms are tired and you need to rest," Finn's head was slowly swiveling, taking in their house like it was a foreign country. "Something's not right and I don't want you getting hurt even more because of it."
"Because I'm worthless now?" Jamie corrected.
"No," Finn scrunched his face, hurt and disgusted that Jamie would think that. He took a breath and started over. "Your knee is torn and you can't walk by yourself, and who knows when we will be able to get you proper treatment. It's best if you just rest and let it heal instead of wandering around, potentially hurting it even more." He dug into his pocket and retrieved the unmarked pill bottle and handed it to Jamie. "Take these. You'll feel better." Finn turned to continue inspecting the house.
Jamie reached for the remote and fell back onto the couch. He gently placed a pillow under his swollen knee and twirled the painkillers in his hand before popping a few in his mouth and dry-swallowing them.
He clicked on the television.
"Officials are ordering a mandatory lockdown for the entire city." The anchor on the television read. The articulate voice continued. " Tonight we have Doctor William Darnell returning to speak with us. Dr. Darnell could you please help us understand what people can do to protect themselves."
Jamie remembered seeing the man on television several of times before. He had been on the news multiple times as the face of the cure. He always looked calm and confident, but tonight he had the same expression as everyone else: fear. People were dying—no, not dying. Changing. The world as they knew it was ending. "I know people want to hear that we have things under control, but unfortunately this disease is spreading faster than we expected," the doctor explained.
"What I can tell you," Dr. Darnell continued, "is how to look for warning signs. If you see any of the following symptoms in yourself or loved ones, there is a strict order to report to your local hospital where professionals will be able to take care of the matter. Any contact with saliva, including biting, from an infected individual will be followed by fever, cold sweats, and nausea." Jamie instantly thought of the woman in the hospital who was complaining about a fever. "At this stage we highly encourage individuals to go to the hospital where they can get professional attention."
"Doctor," the news anchor began, "could you also explain for the people at home what exactly this virus is doing."
Dr. Darnell shifted in his seat and wetted his lips. "This virus we are seeing is a side effect to the cure we were looking for. For reasons still unknown the transition from animal subjects to humans did not go smoothly. As more and more human subjects are becoming infected we are just beginning to notice similarities and warning signs. Mostly these symptoms are similar to those with rabies. Symptoms like weakness, discomfort, fever, or headache usually begin to happen within an hour or so from the time of puncture. After these symptoms, many times people have gotten a severe enough fever that puts them into a coma. By the next time they wake up they have become extremely violent and unable to remember anyone around them. At this point, subjects begin craving blood and become extremely dangerous."
"Now, we all know this virus has been spreading faster than doctors can understand, but can you explain why people are changing this way?"
"You are correct in saying that no one really understands what is happening with the patients, but one hypothesis is that some factor in the cure made the subjects become stronger and weaker at the same time. What I mean by this is that patients show extreme strength and speed thanks to the cure, but require life of others i.e. they need other's blood to survive. They are also extremely sensitive to sunlight, which is why we consider daylight the safest. Many times with medication we see sensitivity to sunlight—this is also something we think the cure amplified."
"And just to clarify, this is not an air-born virus?" The news anchor asked.
"Correct. The only way for this virus to spread is through a bite or sometimes even a scratch. As I mentioned before, these patients have a peculiar lust for blood. Once an Infected is near a 'victim' they will attack and attempt to 'feed'." The doctor used his fingers to create air quotes.
"And this is the same thing that happened at Deerfield?"
"Correct. Our first human test subject began showing all said symptoms and awoke with an inexplicable lust for blood. He then was unable to be contained, based on unexpected conflict and strength and was able to run around the hospital looking for more people to feed from, which then infected even more people. The 'Deerfield 100' was a domino effect that got out of control and was the beginning of the entire epidemic." The doctor clenched his jaw.
"Thank you for all of the information, Doctor." The anchor didn't smile.
"I'm glad to help in any way I can," Dr. Darnell gave a weak smile back.
The box where Dr. Darnell was located disappeared, indicating the end of the interview. The woman anchor turned head to the camera and began speaking again. "Authorities still have yet to find the original Deerfield 100 and encourage everyone to stay indoors with their doors locked from sunset to sunrise. Numbers of infected have now risen to an estimated 8,400 in the Midwestern area alone and are expected to continue rising until the individuals can be detained. Until then, I'm Danielle Parker for Channel Eight News. Stay safe and God Bless."
The screen went black and the security lock down message played, a monotonous series of beeps.
That was the only thing that played in between news.
It read: Stay inside. Lock your doors.
People were changing and killing others and coming alive again and killing more. What is happening? How is this possible?
Jamie let the numbness of the painkillers lull him to sleep. His eyes began drooping shut.
That was the last time he could remember sleeping in his own house.
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