Chapter Eleven
Where It Actually Works
The rest of the night did not go smoothly. Courtney screamed and shouted, her voice echoing through the whole house, if not the whole neighborhood. It was a wonder that the infected hadn't found them yet, and Gwen was too busy to ask Cody what he had done with them. His distraction seemed to have definitely worked.
Cody and Gwen took it in turns to sleep in another room while the other stayed with Courtney. They traded off every two hours, sharing a pair of ear plugs between them (luckily for them, one of the members of the house appeared to have been a snorer and their other half hadn't been too happy about it).
Courtney barely slept all night, the pain that spread through her body was too much. She felt as if she was on fire, her body giving in to the flames. She hallucinated of being back in the sixteen hundreds, being burnt at the stake for being accused of Witch craft. She cried and pleaded, but the towns council never believed her. Her body succumbed to the flames and she would come back to reality with a fright.
Gwen didn't know what was going on inside Courtney's head, but it couldn't have been pleasant. She kept complaining of headaches and her fever had hit a whole new high. They didn't have a first aid kit in the house, Cody had searched everywhere for one, which meant they didn't have a thermometer to check exactly how hot Courtney was getting. Nor did they have any pain relief to give to her.
The infection was spreading. Courtney's t-shirt and jeans had come away at some point and it was now clear to see the ashy, grey color of her skin had sprouted upwards, taking over her stomach now. It would devour her entirely before the next sunset.
Cody watched the sun rising from his seat on the windowsill. He and Gwen had traded off half hour ago and Courtney had been sleeping for the last forty-five minutes. There wasn't much to do around the house, and Cody didn't like prying into other people's things, anyway.
He was starting to drift back to sleep asleep, his head propped against the cold glass, when he first heard the engine. It woke his senses up. His eyes roamed both directions of the street, but he couldn't see anything. The vehicle was getting closer, but slowing down. Cody was no mechanic, but his father had been. He knew enough about cars (though not how to hot wire them like Courtney did) to distinguish different engine noises, and this one was definitely closing in on them.
Gwen appeared in the doorway behind him, not able to sleep anymore. Once the over tiredness had passed, her stomach was knotting with worry all over again. She didn't know how the day would play out, but they were definitely stuck in the house. Courtney was in no condition to move anywhere, and they seemed safe enough where they were.
"You should-"
"Shh." Gwen raised an eyebrow at the back of his head, but could tell he was in deep concentration. She moved towards him, and she saw leaned forward, looking through the window in the same direction as he was, a shiny black jeep rounded the corner. Cody shot his arm out, pushing them both back. "Someone's coming."
"It's for us," Gwen grinned hopefully. Cody looked confused, not sure if Gwen had finally lost it, but trusted her enough to run off downstairs to wait.
Cody turned back to the window and watched as four people climbed out. The first was an orange haired boy who climbed out from the passenger seat in urgency, tripping over his own two feet and falling flat on his face. The door to his right opened up and out came another teenage boy, this one a lot taller and a lot thinner, as if he'd been stuck on a medieval stretching wrack. A single bag strap sat on his left shoulder and crossed his body. The bag sat awkwardly against his outer thigh. He ignored the boy on the floor and instead turned back towards the car, holding his hand out to help the third person out. She was shorter than the two boys, and a lot more graceful, but what drew Cody's attention was her bright red hair.
Cody watched them walk to the front door and the orange haired boy banged his fist hard against the wood. He felt the vibrations through the house, but turning to face Courtney, he noticed she was completely unconscious this time. At least she wasn't crying out anymore.
He quickly made his way to the top of the staircase and watched as Gwen undid all the locks, letting the three strangers inside. The red haired girl attacked her in a hug and Gwen hugged her back with a lot more force. Cody could feel the high emotions between them as he trotted down the rest of the stairs. The taller boy gave him a single nod while the orange haired one looked a little frantic.
"Gwen?" He called out, slowly shifting his eyes from the other teenage boys back to the girl he knew.
"Oh, right," Gwen quickly replied, pulling back from her hug. "Cody, this is Zoey, Mike and Sco-" But she stopped herself when a fourth person appeared in the doorway. She looked a little older than the rest of them, Cody noted, but definitely still a teenager herself. With long, dark hair and sharp, cold eyes that cut through the room. "What is she doing here?" Gwen shot, and Cody could feel the icy breeze that rushed between the two girls.
"We had to bring a higher up," Zoey explained, turning her back on Heather and facing Gwen directly. "It was either her or Alejandro...and I-we figured she would be the better option." Gwen didn't look happy, and Cody was just confused by the whole situation, but no one said anything else because Courtney's shrill, piercing shriek filled the house. She could be heard screaming and shouting and Cody noticed the pain crossing Gwen's face.
"That's our cue," Mike said, running up the stairs, quickly followed by Scott.
"Cody go with them!" Gwen yelled. He knew she didn't mean to get angry at him, but he still nodded his head in fear and chased the others up the stairs.
Heather shut the door behind her, locking it tightly. Zoey took Gwen's arm and walked her to the living room so they could talk about what had happened. Gwen hadn't said much when she'd called the night before, but Zoey knew how distressed this whole situation was for her.
Courtney's shrieking did not quieten down. She writhed around on the bed, crying out in pain. The infection was eating away at her internal organs by now, Mike recognized the symptoms. Her skin was grey from her toes to her chest, and it was still rising. The veins in her legs were a sickly green, looking as if they were about to burst open with puss. Tears stained her cheeks and when he rested his hand on her forehead it burnt his skin. It was a wonder anyone could survive something this brutal, but, he guessed, no one really did survive it in the end.
"Courtney, Courtney, look at me!" Mike shook her shoulders gently, trying to get her attention.
"Gw-Gwen...?" She panted. "Gwen!"
"N-No," Mike replied, faltering slightly. "It's Mike. You remember me, right? Mike from the survivors base."
Courtney's eyes opened slightly, but she kept closing them in pain. Her eyes occasionally met his, and when they did they held some spark of recognition. "M-Mike?" She mumbled, her body weakening. "You-You-You were...and-and-and I was..."
"You were the cure, yes," he smiled, knowing she was starting to understand. He knew when the infection got to your brain it affected your memory first. When Mike had been bitten he couldn't even remember his own name for a long time, let alone his own girlfriend. "You saved me, Courtney," he continued to talk, keeping her mind at ease. "And now I'm going to save you."
Scott was on the other side of the bed, squeezing her hand, but he was feeling sick just looking at her. Cody lingered in the doorway, not sure of his place in all of this. He left the life saving to the professional looking people instead.
Mike left Courtney's side for a brief moment, fiddling around in his black bag. He pulled out a long needle, followed by a syringe filled with an almost clear liquid. It had a slightly red tint to it, and Cody could only wonder if it had been mixed with blood, Courtney's blood, because from what he was gathering Courtney had some sort of cure, AKA, the liquid in the syringe.
"Courtney, this is going to hurt a little, okay?" Mike told her as Scott wiped a disinfectant wipe over her right forearm, making patterns around her birthmark. "It's going to be worth it, though, because you're going to get through this." Mike lined the needle up against the small prick that was still visible from where the nurse had drawn her blood. "I promise." He stuck the needle into her arm, pushing the plunger down and letting the fluid take it's course through Courtney's body.
She screamed out louder than before. The fire that had lit her body was suddenly turned to ice, and it was shattering. Shards of broken glass pushed against her skin, her organs, pushing its way into every nook and cranny it could find inside of her body. It left her unable to breathe. She kicked her legs around and no one tried to restrain her, letting Courtney fight her way through the cure.
Mike instructed Cody to refill the bowl beside her bed with cold water and Scott to find some sort of bucket. It was going to get messy.
The way the cure worked, as Blainely had explained to Mike once he had gone through the process and she was able to monitor it, was that while the infection ate away at your body, the cure coated everything to prevent it eating away anymore, and then it would start eating back at the infection. Once the cure had overtaken the infection, it pushed its way out your body through your throat and out your mouth.
Mike remembered the vomiting the most. While the pain the cure caused you was intense, the vomiting felt worse. It was like literally coughing up a lung. Acid lined your throat and every time you vomited out blood or bile you could feel the burn. You could feel the infection leaving your body, which sounded like it should be a bad thing, but it most definitely was not.
Scott came back with the bucket just as it started. He must have ransacked the whole house because it took him twenty minutes to find one. Cody was back first, but Courtney wouldn't keep still long enough for him to press the wash cloth to her burning forehead, but Mike could physically see the temperature dropping within her anyway.
Courtney's body convulsed as she threw up her insides. It started out a thick tar like substance, which choked her lungs and clogged her throat, and then it changed to a slick, green mucus that was easier to get rid of, but burned the inside of her mouth as if she was trying to not swallow fire.
Once the first round was over, Courtney's head felt clearer and she allowed Cody to wipe her mouth up as she slumped back onto her pillow fort. She felt exhausted and slowly fell into a dreamless sleep. For ten minutes. Then the overwhelming urge to vomit hit her again and she found herself leaning over the bed and letting more of her insides fall out. Mike held her hair back, rubbing her back gently. He was the only one who knew what she was going through.
The other two teenage boys had left the room by then, not able to watch for much longer. Scott didn't like to see Courtney in pain and Cody's weak stomach was not up for this. When Gwen questioned them about Courtney's state, the best they could do was shrug.
"Mike?" Courtney's eyes turned to his, as if she was only now realizing he was there with her. "What-What..." But her words failed her.
"It's okay," he told her, grabbing a hair elastic from the nightstand. He tied her hair up, out of her face, before helping her lie back down on the bed. He tucked her under the covers, knowing she was no longer burning up, and waited until she was completely asleep before leaving her be for a while. The next wave of nausea wouldn't be for another half hour or so, and it was best if she was left to rest.
Once downstairs, Gwen pounced. "How is she?"
"She's sleeping," he replied, taking a seat beside his girlfriend. "She'll be okay, Gwen. The cure should be extra well for her."
Gwen was still worrying, though. She would always worry about Courtney, but when Zoey gave her a wholehearted smile, she couldn't help but smile back. Mike was fixed. Gwen could see that Mike was fixed by the fact he was out on the field without handcuffs. He was happy and healthy and for once his own smile seemed genuine.
"Why should it work extra well for her?" Cody spoke up, breaking the happy moment.
Gwen bit back another smile before turning to face him. "Did we ever tell you the story of how Courtney's the cure for the infection?"
"No. You must have missed that part."
Her eyes woke to Mike's, which was not something she been expecting. He gave her a gap toothed smile and she realized she must have given him a look of pure horror.
"Good morning to you, too," he grinned, and Courtney could hear the happiness in his voice. He hadn't sounded that way the last time they had spoken. He had been tired and beat, worn down and uncaring.
"What..." But her mouth was too dry to form words.
"You woke up a couple of times to puke yesterday, but you've been asleep for the last eight hours. Congrats, you're infection free." Courtney should have felt relieved. "You're not a zombie after all," he added with a wink and Courtney knew he must have overheard her at some point. The good thing about Mike was that he had always taken his...condition...with a grain of salt, and now he was taking Courtney's that way too. Almost as if it wasn't a life or death situation that they had both been facing.
Courtney rolled onto her back, pulling the blanket up to her chin. She was suddenly aware that she was clad in only her underwear. Mike's smile widened.
"Don't worry," he told her. "I have my own girlfriend to worry about." He rolled over, preparing himself for the day. "And speaking of girlfriends, Gwen said that I should tell you to wake her when you're awake, but, if I was you, I'd let her rest. She was up most of the night worrying over you. In the end Heather slipped her something to knock her out." Courtney would have been mortified if she didn't understand how much of a worrier Gwen could be. And then her mind caught up. Heather was here.
The thoughts and feelings Courtney had been pushing down ever since she had left the survivor base were suddenly bubbling to the surface and Courtney thought she was going to vomit everything back up. And then she did. She grabbed the now clean bucket and threw up the contents of her empty stomach.
Mike was instantly there, rubbing her back soothingly, questioning whether it was really all out her system or not, but Courtney insisted she was fine, just hungry. It had been almost forty-eight hours since she'd last eaten. Mike was skeptical, but let it go. Lucky for Courtney, teenage boys were still clueless, even in an apocalypse.
He left her to dress and Courtney dug out a new pair of jean shorts, her last pair, from the back pocket of Gwen's backpack that she found on the floor. Her old ones were ripped down the sides from where her legs and swelled within them. She fished out a new black t-shirt from the closet in the bedroom and, though it was a little big, found it to be comforting.
She was limping slightly and when she took the time to insect her ankle she could see why. Where the bite mark had been was a dent in her skin, like a crater formed in her leg. There were teeth mark scars dotted around, but it was all healed over with fresh skin, no blood, not stitches. The cure had worked.
Courtney was some sort of happy. She jogged her way down the staircase, using her hands to tie her hair back. It was longer than what she was used to now, but refused to let Gwen cut it for her (considering the butter knife disaster she had done on her own hair).
No one else seemed to be awake. Scott was stretched out on one of the sofa's and Courtney assumed everyone else was upstairs. Until she entered the kitchen. Heather was standing over the sink, staring out into the garden, lost in space, and then she saw Courtney's reflection. A smirk crossed her face.
"Nice to see you back on your feet," she told her, though it wasn't an earnest confession. Courtney bit her lip, though she wasn't sure if it was to stop the rant forming in her throat or the bile from escaping the stomach again.
Forgetting her hunger, Courtney did a one-eighty and exited the kitchen, heading towards the front door. That was where Gwen found her two hours later. Courtney had the hood of a car propped open and was tinkering around with this and that, pulling wires together and spinning her wrench around in hypnotizing circles.
Gwen didn't say anything, she simply watched from afar until Courtney noticed her. Courtney wanted to smile, but she felt almost angry. She should have been grateful, but...
"You didn't have to call them, you know," she said, though it wasn't angry. It was defeated.
"What was I supposed to do?" Gwen questioned. "Let you die? Not a chance in hell, Courtney. I was not going to let you go through that! I was not going to me or Cody go through that!" Courtney ignored her words. "If this is about Heather, I share your pain-"
"No, you don't. You don't understand how badly I am hurting right now. Not just from the infection aftermath, but...but to wake up to find her in the house. I couldn't...I can't..." Courtney tried to stay strong, but the tears were starting all over again. Gwen wanted to comfort her, but something told her she would only make it worse. Courtney continued to cry softly for a moment. "I just...I feel like a failure, you know?" Gwen bit her lip. "I-I wanted...I thought I was...I didn't think it would be me that let us down..."
"You didn't let us down," Gwen insisted.
"Of course I did!" Courtney countered. "I was the one that insisted we went to the base in the first place. I was the one that got my feelings mixed up with...with...with that asshole! I'm the one that got bitten the other night and we had to stop our plans f-for." Courtney's bottom lip was quivering and Gwen rushed out, catching Courtney as she fell into her arms. She ran her hands over Courtney's hair, whispering reassuring words into her ear. There was no way Gwen would let Courtney take the blame for any of it. Too much had gone on for anyone to want to play the blame game.
"It's going to be okay," the older girl persisted, but she knew Courtney was skeptical. The brunette wrapped her arms around Gwen's waist, holding her close. She liked being close to Gwen. They still hadn't had a chance to discuss what had gone on a few nights ago, but somehow it didn't seem to matter. It was painfully obvious, even Mike had guessed what was going on between them.
Gwen held Courtney closer, rocking her back and fore until she had stopped crying all together. She pressed a gentle kiss against Courtney's forehead before leaving her to finish on the car.
"Get in the car, Mike." Heather's teeth were pressed firmly together in agitation. This was not how things were supposed to go. She was supposed to show up, administer the cure, get a full progress report for Alejandro and get the three idiots back to base, which the option for Courtney and Gwen (and their dorky friend) to come back with them too.
"Actually, Heather, I think I'm gonna stay here," Mike replied with a shrug. "If that's okay with the girls, that is." Courtney smiled her 'yes' to Mike while Gwen shot Heather a smug smirk.
"I'm staying too," Zoey added. Mike slipped his hand into hers, smiling down at his girlfriend.
Zoey had once told Gwen that if it wasn't for Mike, she would have been long gone from the survivor base. This was the moment she had waited so long for.
Heather's cold stare turned to Scott, who trembled with fear. "I-I'll g-go with-with you," he told her. Though Scott's crush on Courtney was still there, he could see she didn't need him. The best thing he could do for himself was space from her.
Courtney wrapped her arms around Scott's neck, pulling him in for a hug. He was shocked, to say the least. He froze up on the spot. "Thank you for coming," the brunette told him, giving Scott a peck on the cheek. That really did it for him and Heather had to physically drag him into the car.
The trio had suddenly turned into a group of five, but no one was complaining. Three months ago, Gwen would have hated anyone invading her plans to get to Newfoundland island, but suddenly she was happier in that moment than she ever had been since the infection started. These people she was proud to spend her moments with, people she wanted to spend these moments with. This was her family.
