Apokalypsis Book Three

by Kate Morris

  “I locked it.”

  She still looked indecisive. “I know.”

  He fired up the computer and logged onto the internet. Wren was sitting too far away from him to see the screen, so he reached over and pulled on the leg of her chair until hers was touching his. She looked surprised.

  “What?” he asked.

  “You’re not smarter than you look, but you might be stronger.”

  “Thanks. I think. I like how you threw an insult in there,” he remarked dryly, causing the tiniest hint of a grin to form on her mouth. “I just thought you might not be able to see the screen.”

  She eyed him as if judging him for the truth. It was the truth. Mostly. He also wanted her closer. That was also the truth, but he didn’t feel the need to tell her that part.

  He typed in the word ‘virus’ and got millions of hits. Then he narrowed the search to ‘flu virus.’ This also brought back too many hits.

  “Try something different,” she said. “Try news reports with the CDC and the new flu virus.”

  He worked some word combinations in different sequences and got a better hit. “Here’s one.”

  They read silently together, and Elijah felt like a lot was missing from the story.

  “I was listening to the radio, and the host had on some doctor woman,” he explained. “She said this is some sort of weird, freaky flu.”

  “Weird and freaky, huh? Sounds like a reputable doctor.”

  He grinned and wanted to chuck her under the chin for being a smartass. “Are you always this big of a pain in the ass? You know what I meant.”

  “Did you just call me…”

  “Yep. Now, listen. She said that people get a fever and sometimes die. Then she said other stuff like some people got really violent from it.”

  This caused her to frown and pucker her lips as she thought about it.

  “I told Alex about it the next day,” he told her. “Did you discuss it with your uncle?”

  “What? Hell, no,” she exclaimed. “If I had, you and I wouldn’t be having this conversation. I’d already be gone.”

  “Why? What do you mean ‘gone’?”

  She shook her head, which caused some of her hair to fall forward across her cheek. “Never mind. Don’t worry about it.”

  He gave her a look that let her know he wasn’t budging.

  “Elijah, don’t,” she said softly and lowered her eyes. “Just the fact that I’m sitting here with you right now has to be enough.”

  “Why? Because of your uncle?”

  She nodded. “Yes, but not just because of him. Just…don’t ask, okay?”

  He sucked in his lower lip and bit down before turning back to the computer screen. “Okay. For now.”

  He could see her shaking her head in his peripheral vision.

  “Try something else,” she said. “This doesn’t seem to be getting it.”

  “Let’s look for videos on YouTube,” he suggested and switched over. “How ‘bout flu rage?”

  He typed it in and got immediate hits. Some of them looked like clips from videogames. Using the mouse, he scrolled down. There were hundreds of videos, mostly junk or fake.

  “Wait, there,” Wren said and placed her hand over his to push the mouse back up.

  Her hand was cool on his and felt small and fragile. She was small and fragile. Putting off a tough girl vibe with the dark gunk on her eyes and pulled down hoodies may have worked on people in her past to keep them away, but all Elijah found himself wanting to do since he’d met her is wrap her in a strong hug and hold on tight. She was a lot more vulnerable than she wanted people to know. She needed a friend. Unfortunately, she clicked and slid her hand off of his again. Then she cleared her voice as if she were uncomfortable.

  The video started streaming, and they watched with anticipation. It was uploaded yesterday. He could hear teenagers talking, whispering conspiratorially.

  “We’re in a hospital in Los Angeles,” a young woman’s voice narrated. “We’ve seen them. The police know about it. The hospitals and doctors know, too. The government. All of them. They’re in on this together. They’ve been covering it up for over a month.”

  So far, it seemed fake.

  “I don’t think this is real. Let’s…”

  “Wait!” she jumped and covered his hand again. She inched herself half onto his seat in anticipation. Elijah wasn’t complaining because her leg was pressing up against his now. “I want to see.”

  The girl in the video kept filming. It was a mobile uploaded video from a phone according to the details in the corner. It was time-stamped, too, so it really was from yesterday.

  Her camera panned right, which showed a long hallway and row of windows. It must’ve been nighttime because beyond the tall windows, it was dark outside.

  She also kept narrating, “We can’t say where we are. Just know that they took my neighbor here.”

  “And my aunt,” a boy’s voice said in the background.

  “Right, but we don’t want our faces or names in this. We could get in a lot of trouble for this.”

  She moved forward, too slowly for Elijah’s taste, and went through a metal door and up a flight of stairs. She kept talking.

  “My neighbor literally wigged out last week. He was taken here. Nobody has seen him since. His wife isn’t allowed to visit him. She said the doctors have locked her out. She said they treat her husband in hazmat suits like he was exposed to radiation or something. She doesn’t even know if he’s still alive. All she knows is that he was moved to the eighth floor and she hasn’t been allowed to see him in four days.”

  “Same as my aunt,” the boy said. “She came over to my little brother’s birthday party three days ago and freaked out. She started hitting my mom. I mean, they don’t always get along, but she came at her with a kitchen knife.”

  “Same as my neighbor. He tried to kill his wife. He’s not like that. He does freaking bonsai trees and shit. He’s totally zen and all that. Has a garden. Has koi fish. He’d never hurt a fly.”

  “And…” the boy started but stopped. “My teacher at school did the same thing. He attacked Mrs. Landry. She’s the teacher next door to our robotics class.”

  “Hey, no names, remember?” his cohort in crime said to him.

  “Right, sorry,” he apologized. “Anyway, he killed her. He killed her with a pen. It was…it was horrible. She was such a nice lady, had a little girl and a husband. I’ve never…”

  “I know man,” she said and pointed the camera at the ground momentarily for what Elijah figured was to comfort her friend. “Let’s go. We need to show everyone what we saw yesterday. For those of you out there listening, this is very disturbing. Be aware that what you are about to see is scary as hell.”

  “Careful,” the boy said as she pushed open a metal door.

  “Shh,” she warned. Then she narrated in a whisper as they crept down a darkened hallway. In the distance, the normal bustle of a noisy hospital could be heard, but it grew quieter as she walked, presumably away from that area. “It’s their eyes, ya’ know?”

  “I know what you mean,” the boy said. “My aunt’s eyes were bright red. Bloodshot. Crazy like. My dad accused her of being on drugs, but Mom got pissed. Her sister’s never taken stuff in her life. She’s a total yoga hippy. Holistic healing and all that.”

  They crept forward, and Elijah felt himself inching closer to the edge of his seat. Beside him, Wren did the same. Their knees were touching under the table, they were so close. She slid her hand onto his, which was resting on his thigh. She seemed scared. He wasn’t feeling scared, necessarily, but very curious.

  “And they take them away. They took my teacher. They shut down the school yesterday. Said it was a contagious zone. I saw this morning some big trucks parked out in front of it. People were going inside with hazmat suits. I don’t know if those were scientists or clean-up crews or what.”

  “Here we go,” she whispered and paused. “Watch our backs. Stay here.
I’ll go in from here alone.”

  “Got it,” he said. “I’ll whistle if someone comes.”

  “I’m going,” she said in a hushed tone. “Viewers, stay with me. See that door up ahead?” She turned the camera to get a better angle. “That’s where they’re being kept.”

  The door in the video was covered in warning signs.

  “I’ve got a face mask,” she said. “I can’t show you because I don’t want any part of my face on camera. If you’re around these people, you gotta use some sort of protection. I’ve heard it’s very contagious.”

  She pushed open the door to the next hallway and crept stealthily forward. It was dimly lit. Elijah didn’t see nurses or doctors or anyone for that matter. Hospitals were usually a bustling corridor of activity. This one looked like something out of a horror flick.

  “What the hell’s that sound?” Wren asked beside him and leaned closer to the screen.

  The girl narrated, “We’re getting close. I’m not going to open any of the doors. They’ve got them locked in. I’ll point the camera at the windows when I find them.”

  Moving forward at a faster pace, she came to rooms finally. She passed one, which was empty and dark from the camera angle. The next one was chained on the outside. She panned down to capture the image.

  “See? They’re keeping them locked up. This is inhumane treatment of human beings.”

  Elijah wasn’t sure he agreed with her. If they were anything like the man who’d slammed Wren to the ground or the man stabbing people at the festival, he’d have to disagree with the decision to keep them under control.

  “Here’s the first room,” she whispered into the mic.

  Then she pointed her phone right up against the windowpane, which was small and rectangular. He wasn’t sure what suite of the hospital she was in, but he also didn’t want to visit it anytime soon.

  The noises, the sounds of people in pain became clearer and more concise as she filmed. Then a blood-curdling scream rent the deafening silence, and a person’s face slammed up against the glass. Wren jumped back and nearly fell over.

  “What the hell is that?” she cried out, raising her hand to cover her mouth.

  Elijah didn’t jump. Somewhere in his mind, he knew this was what he was going to see. He was mentally prepared.

  The girl kept narrating. The camera didn’t even waver. She’d obviously expected the person behind the glass to ram it. “There’s rooms all over this wing like this. They have some of them tied up. Others are…”

  A message popped up on the screen, and it went black. “Content is in violation of restrictions placed on video uploads. This video is no longer available.”

  “What the… Where’d it go?” Elijah complained. The comments at the bottom were being deleted as he spoke, as well.

  “Guess someone didn’t want that seen,” Wren commented.

  “Let’s look for others,” he stated and immediately began typing.

  He no sooner got the words typed into the search bar than they were being deleted for him. By the time he was done, even the word ‘flu’ was not allowed.

  “How’s that happening?” she questioned with quiet anger.

  Elijah kept trying and even went to another site. “I don’t know. I’ve never seen anything like this before.”

  “Do you know anywhere else we could look?”

  “I’m trying.”

  He searched the internet for the next ten minutes in vain. It was as if the powers that be were controlling the content of what was available on the web. They were censoring the public’s views.

  “I don’t understand,” she said, hugging her arms around herself. “I just don’t understand what that was. What was that, Elijah?”

  He paused, realizing she needed him more than he needed to continue searching. She was clearly shaken. He stood and turned his chair toward hers and pulled her chair close again until his legs were on the outside of her chair, and her legs were tucked between them. Then he took both of her hands into his own and cupped them gently. Her hands were trembling.

  “It’s okay,” he said.

  “What was that?”

  Her fear was palpable. It was like when people said they wanted to see a real ghost or some other type of supernatural phenomena. Right up until they actually saw one and couldn’t quite process what they’d just seen. He didn’t believe in ghosts, but he also felt like he’d just seen something that would cause most human brains to shut down. She wasn’t shutting down on him exactly, but Wren was shaken.

  He said, “It was one of them, one of those people like we saw at the pharmacy and again at the festival.”

  She shook her head.

  “Yes, it was,” he replied. “It was just up close. It was one of them.”

  She shook her head again, but he knew it wasn’t because she didn’t believe him. She just didn’t want to.

  “He looked so…gone,” she reflected.

  Elijah nodded, having thought the same when the man had flung himself so carelessly against that glass. He found himself wondering about the girl narrating, too. Did they catch her? Surely, they would trace that video if they hadn’t already. Was she in jail? Was she infected now, too?

  “It’s gonna be okay,” he assured her and rubbed her hands to warm them up.

  Her eyes jumped to his, “How do you know? We could get sick. I could. My uncle, your brother, all of us. Who’s to say who gets this and who doesn’t?”

  “I don’t know. We need more information,” he said. “Let’s keep looking, okay?”

  She nodded and took a breath. They searched together until they found a site that seemed sketchy. He had to pay a fee to get into it, which was usually a red flag. Elijah didn’t care, though. This could be more important than the twenty bucks he charged to his school-owned credit card. He was supposed to use it for things like sports drinks, workout clothing, new gym shoes, or anything related to football. This counted as healthcare as far as he was concerned.

  Wren inched closer as he clicked on the first video link available. It brought up the host of a show called, “All You Don’t Know.” The basis of the podcast was government conspiracy theories debunked or exposed. It seemed cheesy, but there wasn’t much else out there that he could find.

  The host was sitting way too close to his camera, and he was overweight, sweaty, and kept looking over his shoulder as if he expected someone to barge in on his podcast.

  “Listen up, people,” he said. “There’s some real shit going down right now as we speak. You hear me out there, Don’t Knowers?”

  Elijah figured it was a term he’d given his followers. He was feeling sillier and sillier as each second of the podcast ticked off on the video timer. This guy was clearly a nutjob.

  “This flu they’re not tellin’ you about, it’s gonna kill millions, maybe hundreds of millions of people, ya’ hear?”

  This seemed to be a catchphrase of his. Wren didn’t seem to find him silly. She was back to sitting on the edge of her chair. She was also half perching again on his, too, as if she were afraid to sit without bodily contact with him. Elijah was cool with that.

  “That’s right, kiddos. We’ve got us a full-blown pandemic about to fuckin’ explode. This shit started in Russia. They ain’t sayin’ nothin’ about it, either. They’re keepin’ mum, tryin’ to shut everyone up about it. Well, you know what? We’re not gonna, ya’ hear? You can’t even find my server, bitches.”

  He went on to rail against the government for a full ten minutes solid. Elijah clicked on the fast forward button until the guy with the bright orange hair and multiple facial piercings pulled out a chart.

  “Ya’ll see here? This here is a projection on the numbers. The CDC is holding back reports, but I got my hands on one. This is the potential infection rate. Yeah, that’s some real shit there. And this is the actual infection rate. Still shit. Either way this goes, we could all be screwed real soon.”

  “I want information on the sickness itself, though,
” Elijah stated out loud. “How do we contract it? Where’s the origin? How is it treated? This guy…”

  “Shh,” Wren shushed him and waved her hand in his direction.

  He grinned.

  “Word on the street is that it’s gettin’ ready to mutate,” orange hair guy said. “If that happens, it’ll spread like a fire in dry grass. There’ll be no stoppin’ it then. Ya’ll better pray the geniuses at the WHO and the CDC figure it out, or we’ll all be kissin’ our sweet asses goodbye. Until next time, this is your friendly neighborhood Spy-man. Peace out.”

  “Mutates? What’s he mean?” Wren asked.

  “I guess that means it changes. That’s what the word means.”

  “I know that, but how would it change and why?”

  A loud crash down the hall caused them both to startle.

  “What was that?” she whispered.

  Elijah flicked off the desk lamp and hard crashed the desktop, putting them in darkness. When he turned back, Wren was kneeling on all fours on the floor with her back to the desk behind them. She motioned him over, so he did the same thing. She held her finger over her lips to indicate they should be quiet.

  Elijah gave her hand a squeeze and motioned for her to stay put. Then he crawled to the end of the aisle to get a peek. It sounded like someone talking in the hallway outside the tech center. Maybe a teacher walking by on their cell phone? Across the hall from them was the biology lab room. He heard the parrots squawking. They sounded frantic. They were bouncing around in their cages, making a lot of noise. He turned around to call her over but found Wren right behind him. He turned his mouth down to show his disappointment that she hadn’t stayed put. She just gave him a look in return that let him know she didn’t appreciate it.

  “Come on,” he whispered and stood to a half-stooped position.

  He jogged hunched over like that, and Wren mimicked it. They stopped at the door to the hall. He could still hear the birds. They were either nocturnal and hyperactive at night or agitated. Something banged into the wall in the hallway maybe ten feet from them on the other side of the door. Wren slapped her hand over her mouth. She gave him a wide-eyed, irritated look like she was mad they might get caught.