Note: I'm actually getting really scared of Ebola. Anyway, carrying on...

Virulent

Chapter 9

"Someday, we're going to get lost in this forest and we're not going to know how to find our way back," Bella said. She still couldn't believe how fast the world had become eaten up by its own virus. A pandemic. A total disaster of all sorts.

With the two pathetic tents Edward and Jasper managed to get, Alice and Jasper naturally shared one which meant Edward and Bella shared the other one. Due to the fact that the tent really was just for one person, it meant that the sleeping arrangement for Edward and Bella needed to be altered.

The agreement, for no spooning or intimate, couple touching after sexual intercourse, begged to be broken as there was no possible way for two grown adults to sleep in a one-man tent without cuddling each other. Initially, it had been quite an issue as Bella's fists still liked to connect with Edward's face in the middle of the day (now that they became diurnal). He once considered holding both of her hands while they slept. It didn't work either.

Bella never told Edward what had happened to her father. He didn't know that she still had recurring nightmares about that fatal day. She had watched the man sneak up behind Charlie Swan and put an undeserving bullet into his skull. She'd cried for days. Not even Renee could comfort her. Bella had always been closer to her father. She was daddy's little girl. Naturally, with the sudden loss of a paternal figure, Bella found that her world had been irrevocably changed. After going through a rebel phase in her teenage years and then going through a bookworm phase, Bella gradually found her pace in life again. Slow and steady. Helping others with their emotional problems. It became a dream of hers to pursue.

Edward knew Bella had lost her father but she never divulged into the graphical details, simply preferring to keep it to herself. She didn't want to be a burden to other people. She knew she should take her own advice. One that she would give to her patients. It was the reassurance that they were not burdens and each individual was loved. Whether it was by a singular person, a group of people or perhaps the love from a higher deity in accordance to whatever faith the person believed in. But nevertheless, Bella never told Edward about that traumatic aspect of her childhood.

Even though Edward would comfort Bella if she had any nightmares, her sleep-talking was obscured and hard to decipher. It gave him no lead to follow. He simply thought Bella had bad dreams due to her incessant worrying of her patients. Little did he know she was a woman who had once been a fragile girl once, forced to grow up too fast.

But then, after the first few days of sleeping, Edward found that when Bella slept on his chest, listening to his heartbeat, she didn't move an inch. Initially they'd spoon, whilst attempting to keep some space between them because Bella's violent legs loved running in her dreams. But by the time they woke up, they would be tangled together in a disarray of limbs.

Edward and Bella both had king-sized beds in their apartments, creating an incentive for them to act like identical poles of a magnet when they would sleep together. After all, they were not squished together in a cozy tent in the middle of an apocalypse. They'd often wake up at different times as well. Sometimes Edward would start the day later than Bella, so she'd leave first. It always made him pout when his hand fell onto cold sheets. Regardless of them waking up together or not, they would never wake up connected as one hot mess like how they were now.

Naturally, being four campers in the forest, they kept watch at night together; usually alternating between all four of them if daytime watch was needed. With Bella sleeping on Edward's chest, his hand draped over her back as her petite form molded around his tired body. Bella slept quietly and peacefully. The rise and fall of Edward's stomach lulled her to sleep. Sometimes, he'd even rub her back when he'd hear her mumbling something abstruse. Her troubled mumbles would cease and she'd bury her head deeper into his warmth.

It looked like the 'with benefits' part of their friendship had been dropped for the time being. They were now just platonic friends who slept with each other.

Literally.

"If the food disappears, we can just drink water forever. I mean the lake water can keep us alive," Jasper said at night. "I've read stuff about people managing to stay alive just by drinking water during hunger strikes."

"I'm still waiting for one of us to get sick from the lake water. There can be so many microscopic organisms in it causing waterborne diseases. I hope we boiled the water properly," Alice grumbled.

"Yeah well, I'd rather die from that than transform into one of those and end up killing all of my friends before getting shot or something," said Edward.

They knew the basic survival skills of needing to boil the water over the fire, but they would have to ensure that it continued to happen during the day. They boiled enough water for them to last the night. Boiling water at night was basically suicide as the flames would need to be bigger than their current one, effectively posing as an invitation for all Skeletals in the area to unite. They had no idea who could be lurking around in the national forest.

Bella had laughingly suggested lighting up a bonfire at night but also creating a lot of noise to see whether or not the Skeletals would want to stay away from the forest. She believed that the noise would cancel out the appeal of Skeletals going towards the light of the fire. But then Edward had stated that they still didn't know the extent of how noises affected the creatures. They definitely didn't have a loudspeaker or a stereo with them. There was no Plan B unless their car was ready to play some dodgeball.

If the flames became too big and bright, perhaps the simplest screaming and yelling wouldn't even stop them. And how long could they scream for? The Skeletals seemed undeterred by it after a while. They sought light in dark places, just like mosquitoes. One fact was certain though, the abnormal creatures didn't mingle in the Seattle traffic in broad daylight. They could have been nocturnal but perhaps the amount of sound made by the early morning commuters truly was louder than what they could handle. But four people by a bonfire could not possibly make that much noise. Also, that was when the outbreak hadn't reached its optimum peak. The sightings had increased suddenly and out of nowhere, people's symptoms started to materialize. Transformations happened. Things changed. Drastically.

Last time Bella and Edward had checked the radio, the outbreak was ravaging. Killing families and groups of people at a time. People tried to kill their loved ones before they transformed. Many did. But then they'd put the gun in their mouths as well.

By now, Bella was sure that if they were to return to Downtown Seattle, there would be Skeletals wandering everywhere during the night. It was probably a rad party for them. The creatures would have to hide and lurk under dark tunnels and dungeons during the day, but it would be a chaotic nightmare for humans during the night.

With cities destroyed and survival groups fighting to rebel against the government forces, there would be no proper organized attack on the Skeletals. No single, agreeable leader to guide the people through the pandemic. Many radio channels expressed their cynicism at humanity's inability to come to a centralized, united body. Conspiracy theorists believed that this was a way of cleansing the human race by encouraging the collapse of previous values, such as altruism.

"I'm going to open another can of tuna," Alice said. Lucas' ears perked up as if he understood what Alice said. Apart from the tuna, Lucas didn't like anything else.

Despite being a growing kitten, he didn't eat all that much. He seemed to like going on a diet more than Bella did. The black furball didn't like the food that the four humans ate- beans, tomatoes, beetroot, corn and peas. He didn't even like the canned pieces of chicken and bacon. Instead, he'd often go in search for his own food, sometimes even finding his own prey. Bella hated watching Lucas eat a poor mouse or a small bird, but she had nothing better to offer.

Ragdoll cats were perfect apartment pets. They were independent and cuddly. But they weren't exactly designed for the outdoors. Bella was worried about Lucas. He didn't have the best defence mechanisms. Apart from his sharp claws and hissing, which was more adorable than frightening, he was just an impotent bundle of 'well, at least you tried' intimidation.

"Are your parents okay?" Bella asked Edward.

"I'm not sure, last time I checked, they were still in one piece. But now that the phones are dead, I haven't got a clue," he replied. "What about your mom and step-dad?"

Bella had not spoken to Renee since their brief call on how Bella should visit Renee more often. That was at least a few weeks ago. They never went into the topic of current affairs, nor did they bid each other farewell in such a time of distress. Bella had no idea whether Renee and Phil were alive or not.

It was believed that all cities were roughly in the same amount of chaos. Bella had no doubt that whatever was going on in Seattle was also occurring in Jacksonville. Jacksonville was a big city; havoc was guaranteed.

"I don't know," she replied, quietly. "I can only hope for the best."

"We all do." His arms went around her as they sat quietly, immersed in their own thoughts.

The days went on. With every vertical line Alice drew and occasionally a diagonal one in her tally, Bella felt it becoming harder to swallow the lump in her throat. The forest was oddly quiet. Sometimes, the birds would even stop chirping, bringing upon a sinister atmosphere. In the ticking minds of the four individuals, all of them felt their anxiety levels rising.

They couldn't hide forever. Sooner or later, they'd have to come out.

I think I might add riddles/jokes to the end of both my stories just because I love cute stuff and things that make me look like a gulping goldfish.

Q. What's the difference between a cat and a comma? A. One has claws at the end of its paws and the other has a pause at the end of a clause.

Take care, lovely people.

Love, perpetually.