Note: Hope everyone's week has been spiffing.

Virulent

Chapter 7

The grogginess surrounded her. She felt like she could barely open her eyes. She saw blurred figures. She was hallucinating. Perhaps she was dreaming too. She couldn't even remember where she last was.

"How old are you?" Bella's subconscious-self asked her.

"I can't remember," Bella weakly replied. She suddenly felt awake; am I talking to myself?

"You're not mad, Bella," her subconsciousness said.

"I think I have gone mad," she replied.

"What's the last thing that you remember?" subconscious Bella asked.

Bella's thoughts soared through the murkiness that entrapped her. She remembered watching television. The news. Something about a Margaret talking about a virus. Something about thumping, just like what her head was feeling right now. She tried to think about what she last remembered but she couldn't. She decided to ask her dream-self.

"I don't remember. Do you remember?" Bella asked. She wasn't even sure who she was talking to. Maybe it's my conscience... conscience, are you there?

"How can I remember, if you don't remember?" her subconscious-self said, wryly.

"Oh you cheeky bastard-"

But Bella paused. If she were to insult her subconscious-self, that would be like insulting herself. Instead, she groaned. Frustration laughed at her. She couldn't even bad-mouth the voice inside her head. She heard her subconsciousness giggling. Her subconscious-self was mocking her.

Great, she thought.

But then she remembered. Well at least some of it. She was with Edward-

"Wait, is Edward okay?" Bella asked. Her subconsciousness didn't respond.

She started to remember the fragments of what had happened. They were listening to something about the Tacitovirus and how it worked. Then she remembered saying something about turning off the lights.

"Is Edward okay?" she asked again, her voice straining with urgency. If what she had remembered was true, then Edward would have probably been eaten alive. She didn't get to see what had happened. But the amount of combined force at her door must have meant that there was a group of Skeletals.

"With growing numbers, it is likely that attacks from Skeletals will be made in larger groups."

She could remember Margaret Todd's words.

"Well, time to wake up then, sleepyhead," her subconsciousness said. It sounded like it couldn't care less whether Bella woke up or not. Bella immediately questioned if one's subconsciousness could be like an evil doppelgänger. She smirked, happy to know that her dry sense of humor was still intact.

She found herself being pulled out of the depths of darkness that surrounded her. It was like swimming. She was at the bottom of the ocean. The deep, blue ocean that wrapped around her face, fingers and toes like second skin. She felt herself floating upwards, as if coming up for air. The tension grew lesser and lesser.

She felt herself become lighter and lighter. She was surfacing, coming back to reality. And then finally, her head broke through the smooth calmness of the water.

She awoke.

The sound of night crackled around her.

"Bella?"

Voices filled her ears, making buzzing noises ring in her head. Her thoughts didn't cease; am I still dreaming? The voice that called out her name sounded very familiar. A deep, velvety voice. Probably that of a male. Bella found herself giggling at how she came to realize the familiarity of the voice. She definitely recognized the male's voice, especially when they were having sex.

"Wait, why is she giggling?" the voice asked, perplexed.

Bella slowly opened her eyes, feeling like she hadn't been awake for centuries. She smiled up at Edward's concerned eyes as he cradled her in his arms. He looked baffled at her expression.

"Who falls into a coma and then wakes up with a smile?" he asked, out loud.

She seemed to be hypnotized by the face above her. She stared at his bright, green eyes as if she was studying an exotic animal. It was as if he had tears in his eyes that he found too painful to shed. His eyes looked glassy. He seemed sad about her. He seemed worried... lost.

She placed her hand on his cheek, touching him gently. He looked beautiful. But at that very moment, she found confusion tugging at her arm like an impatient child. She didn't know who this man was. She couldn't remember very clearly. She tried returning to the fading conversation she had had with her subconsciousness. She was sure she'd remembered his name back then.

His eyes said it all. "Bella, you know who I am, right? The Skeletal attack didn't wipe me from your memory, surely."

"Nah, she's probably just shocked and confused. I mean she's staring up at her knight in shining armor," a man with a southern accent said. She looked at him. Then she saw a woman with dark, black hair and shining eyes nearby.

"Jasper, she looks scared," the woman said. She had short hair and looked extremely well-dressed. Bella made a mental note to herself, I probably need some fashion advice from her. She couldn't recognize the people crowded around her. Damn it, she thought, why is nothing coming back?

But then she stared at Edward for a long time. It felt like more than twenty minutes before she slowly blushed and looked away. Images filled her head as she slowly came back down to earth, bringing pieces of frozen memories with her. She remembered him grunting on top of her as they made the bed springs groan and the bed frame slam against the wall.

She remembered him kissing her. Neck, breasts and legs. She remembered them being tangled up in bed sheets, giggling with popcorn in their mouths.

"Oh that's right," Bella finally said. "You're my friend with benefits."

Edward's eyes bulged out.

The black-haired girl, who Bella now came to the realize as Alice Brandon, laughed and ducked under the arm of the southern-accented man (Bella also recognized him- Jasper). She felt like she wasn't on this planet for a second, as if she couldn't find her bearings anymore. It was like her compass needle had been magnetized, spinning her away from her designated direction. She momentarily forgot everything about everyone. She found herself remembering why she was here in the first place.

"The Skeletals," Bella whispered with fear, still thinking about what had happened after that piece of a door had landed on her. Edward seemed to sense her distress.

"You've been out for over a day now. I called my dad and he told me to calm down and carry you to safety. They're still sorting everything out in Chicago. The hospitals, schools and universities are all now closed until further notice. This is happening in most cities and probably across the world. Oh and of course, I grabbed Lucas as well," Edward said. A furry kitten crawled out from behind Edward, approaching as if he knew he was being summoned. Bella stroked its soft, black fur. His blue eyes twinkled at Bella.

Bella looked back at Edward, waiting for him to continue.

"When the Skeletals smashed through the door, all twenty of them, I practically did what you did. I screamed. Not the high wail of a chipmunk though," Edward chuckled. "But nevertheless, still a pretty, loud scream. A deep, manly growl... I'd describe it as that."

"I thought it was Bella screaming at first," Jasper whispered. Edward shot him a glare that seemed to say 'you're next'.

"And I guess Alice and Jasper must have heard because they ran out with a butcher knife. Well Jasper did," Edward said, recalling the fact that Jasper only had boxers on and Alice still had bed sheets wrapped around her. They had come to his rescue despite their interrupted, sexual situation.

"Jasper and I then smashed all of the creatures," Edward said with a heroic smile. Jasper had an identical expression on his face. "They took a while to get rid off but luckily there wasn't an endless swarm of them like in some ridiculously hard level of a video game. Some of the other neighbors heard and told us that we should move out as the apartment complex was no longer safe, especially with the growing numbers of Skeletals."

Bella nodded. "So how did you get me out from under the door?"

"Jasper and I lifted the door off of you after the creatures were defeated. We then pulled you out. I called my dad and he was worried that you had a brain hemorrhage, so we rushed you to ER after gathering as much stuff as we could into my car. You know, food, supplies, clothes and so on. Luckily at that time, they were still accepting patients. A doctor treated you and that was when you went into a coma state, seeing how you were out for more than six hours.

"Things got worse after that. Jasper, Alice and I stayed around the hospital, not wanting to return to the apartment. We bought food from the supermarkets but at that point, it was basically chaos. People were screaming, there were even Skeletals roaming in there. Luckily we managed to already dump everything from the pantry in Alice's apartment, along with everything in your cupboards," Edward said. "The car is still overflowing with shit. Useful shit, though."

"You two eat surprisingly large amounts for your size," Jasper said.

"We got out of there as quickly as could. When we returned, the hospital was in shambles. The doc who treated you was nowhere in sight so Jasper made the decision to carry you out and take you away. They said that you didn't have any hemorrhage as the door badly bruised your body instead so we were more reassured about... unofficially ejecting you from the hospital." Edward said. "But we'll never know. I mean you still hit your head on the floor and you were out for hours. I'm not sure if you went into shock or if you just shut down temporarily."

Bella blinked at him.

"Other people were doing the same. You know, running away with unconscious patients," he added defensively. "Then, we drove after fueling up. There were a few bodies littered on the floor when we went in to pay at the gas station. Some were still moving while others were still. Turns out the guy behind the counter was lying on the floor with a neck wound as well. Jasper suggested we put them out of their misery but... it was too hard. The guy was pleading for us to save him... I mean, I don't want to be a murderer. I can't just look at someone in the eye and shoot them point-blank. So we decided to leave."

"And now we're here," Jasper said.

"Wait, where are we?" Bella asked with an arched eyebrow.

"Okanogan-Wenatchee National Forest," Edward mumbled, embarrassed.

"So we ducked... into a four million acre forest with not much sound and no people around," Bella deadpanned.

"You can remember facts about a national forest but you couldn't remember me for a second," Edward said with a wounded look.

"Well, Bella, people were going ballistic around us. You should have seen it. Maybe then you could have used your psychology skills to calm people down," Alice said. "There were also roadblocks due to the presence of the military and other government authorities. They brought in the Special forces, clearly establishing how the government didn't want people to move around too much as it would increase the rate of transmission."

"That's why we had to get out. They're trying to lower the stress levels of civilians just like in every single disaster film. But it won't work. Soon, people will start to embrace their innate, animalistic instincts. Maybe some will even perceive all of this as a chance of renewal like a rebirth to an uprising. Men love a window of opportunity to climb up the social ladder. People will take bribes if it means that they can get more food... more power. It won't be Skeletals killing human beings. No, it'll be humans killing humans. The nature of survival will be World War 3. Human beings are just as a part of the community of life as animals. But unlike animals, it'll be technology and violence against the weak and helpless," Edward said, his voice starting to sound very grave. "It'll be natural selection at its finest."

"So what happens now?" Bella asked. A shiver went down her spine. She wasn't sure if it was just chilly or if she felt terribly scared for her life.

Silence followed her question. Edward looked at her with an expressionless face. It was a haunted look. One that showed his submission to the catastrophe around him.

It was defeat. It was protection. It was the primal look of survival.

"Anarchy."

Societies are crumbling. Morality will vanish. Ah, humanity. Stay happy and safe.

Love, perpetually.