III - Symptoms
The mosquitos continued to buzz near the prison buses. The quarantine bus, now labeled Bus 4 after Jace spray-painted it with its respective number, and the two other buses, Bus 1 and 3 all headed to Stamford in Connecticut. Bus 2 was to be the bus that Kotaro was in, but Lisa was unaware of the disasterly fate that occurred there. But she did know that Bus 4 was going to face the same disasterly fate if she didn't do anything soon.
"I'm going out to get some more herbs," said Carol, holding her snub-nosed revolver. "Might not cure this thing but it will help out with the symptoms."
"I'm coming too," said Clyde. "We can cover more ground like that, right?"
"Right. Do you know what plants I'm looking for?"
"No, but you can tell me! I went to gardening club back in fourth grade. They asked me to leave when one day, I was sent to the hospital because a bee stung me."
"Well, what if we see some bees?" worriedly asked Carol.
"Don't worry. I carry around this special EpiPen that Lisa made for me."
"Indeed," said Lisa. "Specifically modified to extend shelf life and increase the effects of epinephrine while also lowering the side effects. Plus, its effects have a longer duration."
"Okay. Let's go, Clyde," said Carol as she left the bus with him, giving her baby daughter a kiss beforehand.
Lisa watched them leave as she poured hydrochloric acid and sodium hydroxide into a flask. Then, Dr. White walked up to her.
"I don't recall this being part of the NIRT cure," said Dr. White.
"The what now?"
"NIRT. The NIRT cure."
"National Institute for Research in Tuberculosis?" questioned Lisa.
"No, the necrosis influenza of the rabid type. Haven't you been paying attention, Lisa?"
"What happened to the IOTD?"
"It's much harder to say," said Dr. White.
Lisa opened up a box and pulled out plastic bags from them.
"No, this is not part of the NIRT cure. I must apologize for being distracted. But now, my concentration is entirely focused on the issue at hand. These are homemade IV bags. I'm making IV fluid, like I have always done. But just in case you noticed, we've been very low in salt, so I'm making my own sodium chloride."
"It's good news to see you working on the malaria infection, but we got another issue at hand. More people are getting sick and more of the sick are trying to resist quarantine."
"Like who?" asked Lisa, looking outside the back window of the bus.
People shouted as Jace and Preston were moving the sick inside the bus. Jace wore leather gloves and a bandana around his mouth while Preston used latex gloves and a surgical face mask.
"C'mon, I ain't even sick!" yelled one of the passengers.
"Don't put me in there!" yelled another.
"Lay your hands off of me!" groaned a frustrated passenger. "I'll go in myself!"
Some of the other passengers started to divert from the line, but Dr. Feinstein and a couple other adults kept the sick from leaving. Jeffrey remained inside the bus, and stayed there with Mrs. Anderson, who volunteered to be the driver for the quarantine bus.
All the passengers finally agreed to fill up the bus, and the seats began to feel cramped. Reggie was the last passenger to enter the bus, but as soon as he did, he bolted out the exit.
"What the–" muttered Jace.
Reggie ran into the woods where Carol and Clyde were looking for herbs. Jace and Preston chased after him, leaving the door to the bus open. And a few mosquitoes entered through the bus door, making themselves at home.
"We have to do something about the mosquitoes," said Dr. White.
"I instructed Carol to look for lemon balm and field garlic," said Lisa as she packaged the makeshift IV bags. "It will deter the mosquitoes and bring a more natural scent to a dreary odor in our buses."
"Brilliant!" chuckled Dr. White. "Well, shall we go and help out the patients?"
Lisa nodded. She and Dr. White wore their surgical masks, left Bus 1, and made their way to Bus 4, entering through the open door. When they walked inside the bus, they saw a vision of death.
Some of the patients were barely holding on, only a few more vomits to end their life. Other patients were emotionally drained and unresponsive to jokes and sob stories. Some of them have lost husbands, sons, wives, daughters, brothers, and sisters in the final siege of Houlton. This was not how they wanted to go– decaying slowly until they were a pale bag of blood and bones. Then, they would become a bag of blood and bones walking mindlessly, joined by the billions of others.
Lisa and Dr. White interviewed most of the patients, trying to create some sort of diagnosis. But they all sounded the same. Started with coughs, then with a fever, before getting throbbing headaches. As they moved from patient to patient, they swatted a mosquito from the air, and got rid of another potential malaria carrier.
Suddenly, a patient started to cough violently. He spat out blood and phlegm as he struggled to breathe. Dr. White and Lisa quickly rushed to the patient and watched him as mucus dripped from his mouth and nose.
"Lisa, we need a suction catheter and a plastic pump, now!" exclaimed Dr. White.
Lisa nodded and left the IV bags in an empty seat. She ran out the bus and went to retrieve the laboratory items that Dr. White needed. The patient let out one last cough before falling unconscious.
"What's going to happen?" asked one of the patients.
"If he dies, then what do we do with him? Can't just leave his body there," worriedly said another.
"He won't die– just don't get close, goddamnit! Give me some space!"
Lisa returned with the equipment and pushed her way through the patients. She got frustrated as the area began to feel cramped. Finally, she made it to Dr. White with a few contacts with the infected– the human infected.
Dr. White stuck the suction catheter down the patient's mouth before attaching it with a plastic pump. He then looked around desperately for a bag to control the breathing. He grabbed an IV bag and prepared to open up the bag when Lisa suddenly intervened.
"No, stop!" she exclaimed. "I haven't diluted them! The bag is too acidic! Just suck it manually until I return with another bag!"
Dr. White nodded as he placed his mouth at the end of the suction catheter. Lisa ran out the bus and headed back to Bus 1 to get the leftover plastic bags.
Meanwhile, a couple footsteps from the distance caused Clyde to raise his bat. Carol dropped the lemon balm and aimed her revolver at the moving figure from the distance. Then, two more figures followed, beating the shrubs and snapping the twigs. Then, the footsteps came to a stop.
"Stop!" yelled Carol before noticing the fair hair on the boy. "Oh, it's just you. What are you doing here?"
"Can you make 'em stop?" quivered Reggie. "They're making me go in the bus of death. I don't wanna go. Please, I don't."
"You're sick, Reggie," muttered Carol.
Jace and Preston panted as they caught Reggie. Carol placed her revolver back into her holster and wiped off the grass from the bottom of her jeans.
"Your disease is contagious!" exclaimed Jace. "It's for the safety of the others!"
"Since when did I give a damn about the others?" cried Reggie. "Just leave me here! I'm going to die anyways, so why waste your energy on me?"
Carol flapped her tank top as the heat grew more intense.
"It's not what we do," said Carol. "We have to try to save your life, even when you don't think you can make it. We have to try. So please go back."
Reggie sighed and shrugged. His face was turning even more red, concerning Carol.
"You're very hot aren't you?" said Carol. "We have a fan in Bus 4."
"You're hot too," panted Reggie. "Look at that, the heat is getting to us. Why don't you come with me to Bus 4?"
Carol smiled.
"If that it takes, then sure thing. Hold my hand."
Jace and Preston let go of Reggie. He reluctantly grabbed Carol's hands before walking back to the buses. Clyde picked up the lemon balm from the soil and carried it back.
Dr. White continued to suck on the suction catheter. He was able to suck out some pieces of the phlegm that blocked the patient's airways, but didn't have the strength to take it out the tube. So, the doctor decided to do chest compressions, trying to get his lungs to work again.
As everyone was focused on the patient's predicament, a new problem arose in the front seats. One of the infected humans has turned into an infected dead. And its eyes were open, displaying a golden light that gave a warning to those who could see it. And only the person seated next to it saw the light, but it was too late to warn everyone else. The roamer has already sunk its jaw down the passenger's throat.
The passenger coughed as he choked in his blood as the roamer continued to devour his throat. The passengers continued to pay attention to the patient, causing a commotion around him. Hearing this, the roamer lifted its head up and dropped down the flesh from the passenger's throat and stumbled out of the seat.
Mrs. Anderson screamed as she was the first to notice the roamer. All the passengers yelled as they ran away from it, stampeding each other and shoving Dr. White. He dropped the suction catheter, releasing the phlegm to the ground.
"Ouch, my hips," groaned Dr. White as he picked up the suction catheter. "My pain is nothing compared to that of the patient."
"Are you crazy?" shrieked Mrs. Anderson. "Forget the patient! Run!"
Dr. White stuck the catheter down his mouth again and sucked on it as the roamer made its way to the middle of the bus. All the other passengers stood frighteningly in the back of the bus as Dr. White remained at the seat, keeping his patient alive.
Lisa went inside Bus 4 with the plastic bags in her hands. She shrieked upon seeing the roamer, causing it to turn around and prey upon the little girl. She ran out the bus where she found that Carol and the others had returned from their foraging.
"Roamer!" exclaimed Lisa.
Carol dropped her basket of herbs and plants, and she took out her revolver. She ran inside the bus and found the roamer a few feet away from her. Not wanting collateral damage, she kicked the roamer to the ground then aimed her revolver at its skull and pressed the trigger.
"Lisa! The bags!" yelled Dr. White.
"Oh, right," stammered Lisa.
She reluctantly walked inside the bus, stepping over the corpse in the ground. Since it was a fresh hard skull, and a small revolver took it down, the roamer's splattered brain did not fly out of its intact skull.
Dr. White took a bag and wrapped it around the suction catheter. He then started squeezing the plastic pump, pushing all the phlegm and blood into the bag.
"He's going to be fine," sighed Dr. White in relief. "He will be."
Some of the patients were still shaken up. It was their first time they had to face roamers from that close. And they were still shaken up from the death of the roamer's victim.
Carol walked up to the victim, who was bleeding from his throat. She immediately raised her revolver and shot the victim in the head before placing it back in her holster.
It wasn't an easy choice, but the patients had to see it to wake up in this new world. Otherwise, they would've faced its wrath.
In the next afternoon, Lori and Luan were walking around a small town in eastern New York. They held a candle to ward off the mosquitoes, though it didn't seem to be working that well. With them, they carried a bag of bandages, antibiotics, and other types of medicine.
They were getting closer and closer to Albany, closer than Lori remembered. Since the roads were already cleared out, Lori had an easier time driving in the streets, especially when her van was able to move at 60 miles per hours at certain points. It really did make the journey seem quicker than last time. But by no means was it any easier.
It was only made harder when her morality and her resources were tested. Low on ammo and spirits, Lori and Luan were confronted with a difficult choice when they were navigating back to the van. A survivor, wearing a yellow poncho and cargo pants was surrounded by a few roamers. Lori and Luan heard the gunshots going off and ran to the source of it to find out whether they had to face a new threat.
But it was no new threat. It was just a woman, fighting off a swarm of roamers to stay alive. However, as soon as Lori and Luan caught a look at her, she was bit in the back. Then, other roamer bites followed, and soon enough, the roamers were devouring the woman as she screamed.
"What are we doing?" whispered Luan. "Let's take those roamers out."
"No," said Lori. "It's too late."
"Well, at least put her out of her misery!"
The woman continued screaming, but Lori simply walked away.
"We don't wanna attract the roamers," said Lori. "Plus, we need to save our ammo."
Luan felt a sharp pain in her chest when she was forced to leave the screaming survivor alone. After a few seconds, the screaming stopped, and Luan dared not to look back. She sighed as she found Vanzilla. She would've want someone to put her out of her misery had she been trapped like that.
After a few hours, Vanzilla entered the familiar highway where the Piranhas attacked the group for the second time. It was also near the headquarters where Lucy was shot, where Tad was shot and bitten by a roamer, where Luan was shot.
Lori looked into the rear-view mirror and noticed that Lincoln was fidgeting around uncomfortably, even while he was lying down on the seats. She decided to drive to the bodega, the only place she was truly familiar with in this dead city.
There, she found corpses in the ground, some that have been decaying for years, but some were fresh. She grabbed her revolver as she crouched down, looking at a fresh corpse. Then, she heard a growl.
Luan laid Lincoln against the wall of the bodega as he held his wrists. They were throbbing with pain, but he had nothing broken, so as long as he could walk, he walked.
"Lori?" quivered Luan. "Roamers!"
Lori watched as the roamers stumbled from both sides of the streets. There weren't too much for three people to handle, but Lincoln was wounded, and someone had to assist Lincoln. One person would not be able to take out the two swarms.
"Oh shit!" yelled Lori as she opened the bodega door. "Roamers over here!"
The roamers poured out of the bodega, forcing Lori to run away from the door. She stood next to Lincoln as she shot her revolver at the approaching roamers. Then, the roamers in the street got closer and closer. And Lori ran out of ammo.
"Hold Lincoln!" exclaimed Luan as she took her katana out. "I'll cover you! There's an alley we escape to!"
Lori walked alongside a limping Lincoln and led him to the alleyway by the bodega. Since it was at an intersection, they were just going to make a right turn and escape through the other alleyway. But only one thing. There was a fence.
"Oh, man," groaned Lincoln. "You guys are going to have to go without me. I can't climb over that."
"No, you're coming," said Lori. "Even if we have toss you over the fence!"
Luan got closer and closer to the fence as she sliced the roamers closing the alleyway. A dozen swarmed the area, and Luan felt too exhausted to take them all out, so she ran to the fence.
"What are we going to do?" panted Luan.
"I'm climbing to the top. Then, I'll grab Lincoln's arm and drag him up then throw him down. It's the only way we can all get out alive."
The roamers went closer and closer. Lincoln gulped as he knew this plan would result in him breaking his bones and wounding him more than he already is.
Suddenly, a crossbow bolt stuck out the eye of a roamer and dropped him to the ground.
"Duck!" yelled a feminine voice.
Lori, Luan, and Lincoln ducked to the ground. Then, the crack of gunfire repeated each second as pistol bullets also thundered across the alleyway. The sound of flesh ripping and bones cracking also made up for the silence in between the gunshots, but soon enough, all the roamers were dead.
"What the hell?" muttered Lori.
"Oh my god…" panted Ronnie Anne.
Ronnie Anne dropped her crossbow and ran to Lincoln, hugging him. He groaned but smiled anyways, as he hugged Ronnie Anne back. She looked back into his eyes and smiled before pressing her forehead against his.
Then, in the back, stood Lynn, her hands on her head as she teared up in disbelief. Lori, Luan, and Lincoln also felt their eyes watering as they gasped in shock. Lynn let her tears run down her face as she dropped her M1 Garand and walked up to the three Louds and wrapped her arms around them. She sniffled as Ronnie Anne watched, unable to keep herself from smiling.
The roamers were all dead, and the survivors were all alive. And Lynn, who was thought to be dead, was alive.
But Lori didn't want to ask questions yet. She just wanted to hold Lynn. And she did.