CHAPTER 4 I sat there, waiting for Carlisle to speak. I couldn't shake the bad feeling I had. My mind was buzzing and going through some of the possibilities of why we were all called for this meeting. Wouldn't Edward be here to? It felt like hours before Carlisle spoke, when in reality it had only been seconds.
"Remember when we left, Bella?" He asked. I nodded my head. How could I forget?
"We told the hospital I had accepted a job in New York. Well, it was a half truth. I was working on some research part time in New York, working on a cure for cancer and other types of diseases. We were trying to find more efficient and quicker ways to eradicate them, or even slow the process down, giving the patient more time to live. There was a middle aged doctor I was working with, he was going behind the medical board officials' back, and created a virus. He gave the virus to a few volunteers; people who were dying from various diseases and cancers. When the board found out, it was too late. The virus had killed the patients within hours of being subjected to the virus. But they didn't stay dead."
To be honest, I didn't see how this had anything to do with me. Or any of us for that matter.
"You haven't finished, have you?" I asked. Carlisle looked down at his clasped hands, Esme put her hand on his shoulder in silent support.
"Just tell us, Carlisle. I don't understand why this concerns us." Rose said, visibly annoyed. She never kept her thoughts to herself. Carlisle sighed and continued.
"They didn't call me and tell me it was an emergency for nothing. The corpse's became reanimated, and two out of the four escaped. The other two put up a fight and managed to kill one of the other doctors. He, too, became reanimated within hours. This wouldn't be an issue if it was just the two that escaped because I could have tracked them down and killed them, but Dr. Greer, the man responsible for the virus, had given the virus to at least 12 other patients who died, and he 'disposed' of the bodies by dumping them in the ocean. Given the fact that the other four became reanimated, the other 12 will, without a doubt, do the same. The reanimated corpse's can infect other humans by biting. They seem to want to feed on their flesh. To make matters worse, they don't really have a sent. They smell faintly of decomposing flesh, so you could easily mistake it for a dead animal or old kill."
"So, they are zombies?" Emmett asked. Gotta love Emmett!
"Yes, I suppose you could say that." Carlisle said.
"There's more," Esme piped up for the first time, "just by sheer chance, we happened to run into Garett on our way back. He not only has seen these corpse's, but witnessed a newborn vampire feed on it. The newborn instantly started vomiting violently, then collapsed. The newborn was leaking venom from his eyes, nose, mouth and ears. He was slowly dying. If you bite one of the corpses, you will die slowly unless you get blood. It's not just the humans at stake, it's us too."
What. The. Fuck? Was this a joke?
"So this is some resident evil shit? Awesome!" Said Emmett. Everyone just glared at him.
"What? Why does everyone have to be so negative?" Poor Emmett. I smiled at him to let him know not everyone had a stick up their ass.
"So what do we do?" I asked.
"I rang the Volturi on the drive home from the airport and told Aro everything I just told all of you. Although he seemed concerned, he has stated we are not to expose ourselves by trying to stop this sure to be apocalypse. We are to spread the word of the impending doom, and protect our area of feeding, but that it is. We are supposed to let the humans deal with it."
I was numb. I needed a moment to process this. I stood up, accidentally knocking the chair back, but Jasper caught it before it hit the floor. I excused myself and calmly walked out the front door and sat on the porch. I went to pull a cigarette from my pocket, but Jasper already had one for me. I was so caught up in my thoughts that I didn't notice he followed me. We sat in silence for a few minutes.
"Where's Edward? I would have thought he should be here, considering the circumstances." I asked.
"Carlisle already rang him and told him the news. Edward said he will only come back if the situation gets worse." Jasper said. I just nodded my head. There wasn't anything else to say on the subject. Oh my god!
"Renee!" I shouted. "I have to ring her! See if she is ok!" Jasper grabbed my arm before I could run inside.
"Shh Bella, she is fine. Carlisle and Esme already checked on her on their way back." Jasper said, pulling me into his arms.
"How do you know about Edward and Renee already?" I asked.
"I can hear Carlisle talking inside. He rang and told Edward before you arrived." He said, stroking my hair. I let out a sigh.
"I suppose we should consult Alice. See if she can see anything." I said.
"I can feel her frustration and annoyance. I gather she is already searching the future."
"She could see something soon. Let's go in and wait." I said grabbing Jasper's hand. He nodded at me and led the way back to where the family were. They were all scattered across the dinning room, stock still, except Alice, who had her eyes closed, quietly mumbling, rocking back and forth. Her eyebrows were creased in concentration, or frustration, or possibly both. Suddenly, she snapped her eyes open and stood up from her sitting position on the floor.
"I can't see anything, but I gather that's because they live on instinct. They don't think, so there are no decisions made. We are running blind." Alice said. I didn't need to be an empath to know she was agitated. I didn't blame her.
"So what do we do?" I asked.
"We kick some zombie ass!" Emmett said, looking like he was going to explode with excitement. Rose rolled her eyes.
"Like in resident evil?" Jasper asked, quirking his eyebrow, smirk in place.
"Hell yeah Jasper! Let's go get some guns and make a night of it!" Emmett boomed. He had me suppressing a giggle.
"You are not buying any guns." Rose said. Emmett pouted but winked at Jasper when she wasn't looking. We couldn't do much more talking on the subject. But before I made my leave, I turned to Carlisle.
"What about the pack?"
"I'll go for a run up to the treaty line and see if I can get in contact with Sam. Maybe we can work out a patrol system or plan. I'll set up a meeting."
"Let me know when you do, I'd like to be present." I said. With that, I looked at the time. Almost 9pm. Charlie won't be in bed yet.
"Should I tell Charlie?" I asked Jasper.
"I'm sure he'll find out soon enough." Jasper said.
"Ok, I'll leave it for now. He may not even find out. Who knows? Maybe the vampires have already eradicated the problem." I said with a forced laugh. I said a quick parting to everyone, Jasper in tow, and headed home.
I greeting Charlie on my way up to my bedroom and closed my door. Jasper was waiting by the window, looking out. I used the opportunity to change and jump into bed. We had lots to discuss but it could wait till the morning. For now, I just wanted to curl up in Jasper's arms and sleep, which is exactly what I did.