Until The End

by Brown, Derek

  “… That is so weird for Jeremy to leave in the middle of his shift and then not come back, I mean I know he didn’t do much anyways but still not coming back that was a ballsy move.” They are speaking to one another and my attention was focused on finding Michael. I missed him the first two times I looked around the yard but then I saw him standing in the shadows by the door. He was staring at the door and digging his nails into his arm scratching himself, I could see that he was drawing blood but he kept digging as if the pain didn’t affect him. He was muttering to himself under his breath, and then one of the workers noticed, he ran over to Michael.

  “Oh god stop it man are you crazy or what! Let’s go Kyle get everyone together and let’s get inside now, we are gonna have to call the doctor. I gotta get him to room 12, stat.” As the two of them were focusing all their attention on Michael I fell in line with the others and I shuffled my feet and walked into the puff unit with my head down. After everyone was inside the two mental health workers physical escorted Michael to his room and opened it up and threw him in, then they went in to the office talking to each other not even looking around. I causally made my way towards the room with the 12 over it. I carefully opened the door glancing around to make sure no one noticed me as I entered the room. It was so dark inside and it took a moment for my eyes to adjust. I was holding my breath without even realizing that I was doing it, as I began to exhale slowly. I saw Michael in the corner of the room on his hands and knees, with his back to me he was talking to himself.

  “No one can ever know what happened, No one….What about my wife? No you fool not her either.. But… No buts no one can know. Drink it!! You said…” I edged closer careful not to make a sound and I noticed that his arms were dripping blood dark rivers flowing unto the floor. He was clawing at something; I moved closer trying to peek over his back. I could see his nails digging into a dark mass on the ground in front of him. “They are too late anyways no one can stop me… But… No one knows it’s ok. I am gonna be okay… It’s all going to be okay. We are going to be okay… You promised to safe my wife and me.. You said you could save us.” It was as if he was arguing with someone else as I crept closer I watched him as he was clawing the mass and then putting whatever it was into his mouth chewing loudly. He was slowly placing it in his mouth hesitantly as if he was not sure about it. As I peered further over his shoulder I gasped in shock at the horror that appeared before me. I startled Michael and he spun around and swung his right fist at my face, I jumped back my reflexes barely fast enough to keep me from getting hit. I knocked over a small wooden table in the room and it made a loud crash. Michael froze then something came over his face and he said “You don’t know how hard it’s been to keep it in control. I am losing control now, tell Stephanie I love her, I am falling apart at the seams no longer can I hold him back…I can feel the sweet embrace of Death.. It is almost time.. Goodbye Colin.. We will meet again.” Then almost as if he wasn’t in his right mind any longer he came at me frantically clawing and trying to get to me. In the dark it was so hard to tell what was what but it was almost as if I could see demons swarming around the room in the shadows. Michael’s strength was born from some madness I could barely contain him even though I was about 80 pounds heavier and I had a lot more muscle mass on him. I was holding his wrist keeping him at bay but he leaned in with his face and next to mine. I could feel the hot mist of his breath on my cheek and I saw something dark dripping from his teeth it was dripping onto the floor. His eyes were glazed over and he had a faraway look in his eyes. I saw chucks of something falling from his mouth. My arms were on fire it was taking every bit of strength I had to keep him away from my face. Then my arms began to shake from fatigue and he knew it too, he pushed harder against me. He knew he had then and I knew it was over, I thought to myself how could it end here of all places.

  “Won’t be long my darling you’re all mine now. Ha. Ha.” He began to laugh a menacing laugh… Just when I felt my arms were going to give out the mental health workers rushed in and they pulled me off of me.

  “Get out of here man, Jesus Christ what is wrong with this guy, come on Alberto let’s handle this fool.” The mental health worker named Kyle pushed me towards the exit of the room. I tripped into the corner of the doorway and fell to the ground. They were restraining him and after they had him contained, Alberto ran over and turned on the lights. I was still in the corner trying to recover from the struggle, I turned and I saw the mass…. I just found what must have been left of Jeremy, his body was badly mutilated and he had bite marks all over his body and a lot of him was gone. His face was intake his eyes staring up into the ceiling. Michael must have been eating since most of him was not there and he had chucks missing. The mental health workers saw it too and it was too much for Alberto who vomited in a corner of the room.

  “Oh my god, Jesus Christ, Fuck.. Alberto is that Jeremy? Fucking Christ man. What the fuck did you do?” The workers grabbed Michael and rushed him out of the room into the safety cell a room that was padded so that the occupants could not harm themselves. They were busy and they rushed to the office to get the dyed red which supervisor. So I took my chance to sneak out the back door and I ran over to the fence and I climbed up the tree and climbed over the fence. I rushed to get into the truck and my wife seeing my face drained of color and she told Stephanie to drive. Scarlett looked down at my clothes that were torn to shreds with blood on them.

  “Baby what happened?” My wife asked me.

  “Something very bad is going on. We need to get out of here now there is about to be a lot more company arriving.” We drove back to Stephanie’s house and I told her I need to take a shower and get some clean clothes on. She brought me an old US Army uniform of Michaels it was the new style ACU and it fit like a glove. While I was in the shower they were watching the news. As I got out I saw their faces were both pale and their eyes were the size of saucer plates.

  My wife turned to me and said “Russia stated that it had found out that China may have been responsible for funding the Orange Flag Army and they issued a set of demands.” As I sat down to watch I noticed scrolling across the screen 68 year old doctor in Lake Tahoe area found in his home with a never before seen Saprophytic Bacteria infection the CDC was being called into investigate the spread of the infection. I stopped breathing and I thought connect the dots, Michael had bitten a doctor that was 68 years old only a couple days ago. I was lost in thought when my wife grabbed my arm. “OMG, Honey, the Russian President just said that he doesn’t receive the heads of those who funded the Orange Flag Army that he would declare war against China.” That was earth shattering enough but my mind was preoccupied with this other problem. So much bad news all at once I just wanted to crawl up into a little ball and hug myself. This was neither the time nor the place for such a thing though. I had to pull it together there was more to this story than I was seeing. I needed to find out more.

  “My love we have to go the hospital and see this doctor and find out what’s going.” I don’t know if it was the tone but she looked at me and I saw the fear creep into her eyes.

  “Tomorrow let’s get some sleep for now.” I barely slept a wink that night; my dreams were filled with the terrors of being eaten alive. I was drenched in sweat when I woke up and I was shaking. I had been dreaming that while I was being devoured I had to watch my wife and daughter being eaten in front me. I couldn’t shake the uneasiness as I got up and walked to the back door look at the sun come up wondering how many more peaceful sunrises I would see. After a few moments I went to lay down hoping I could get some actually rest.

  February 23, 2014

  We awoke to the news that Michael was being detained by the federal government and was to be housed in a secure prison location at San Quentin. Stephanie was a wreck she must have been up all night crying her already small frame looked like she had lost 10 pounds over night. She had called the officials several times but they wouldn’t allow her to speak to Michael. Her dark brown hai
r was a wild mess and her eyes were blood shot from crying and her voice was raspy. As we were getting ready to leave she asked if I wanted to take Michael’s Army equipment that she had no need for it. I almost said no but by the look in her eyes she just wanted to be rid of it and so my wife and I loaded up his stuff he had scuba gear, climbing gear, a compound bow with a quiver of arrows, the M-14 carbine, a couple handguns, a shotgun, and ammo among other things. I was very impressed by the collection and we put it in the bed of my black Nissan Frontier. We said our goodbyes to Stephanie and just by the deep sadness in her eyes I felt this was the last time we would see her, as if she had already given up on life without Michael, it was heart wrenching to see someone lose the person closest to them. We both said that we would keep in touch with one another. My wife even asked her to come along knowing that she wasn’t okay to be by herself. She declined and said that she was fine. She didn’t look well though and she said that she was running a fever but it was probably just the stress of the whole ordeal and she told us not to worry about her. Stephanie said that Michael had made her a special concoction that she would drink and help her feel better. She wished us both good luck and told us to be safe she stood her driveway watching us leave with her arms wrapped around herself but not really seeing us, her mind was elsewhere on other things. As we drove to the hospital we put the News Talk Radio on and listened. “Today tensions are rising in the eastern part of the world, no one knows what is going to happen but if these two super powers go to war it would spell disaster for the global economy. In a year where the economy is suffering due to the severe weather conditions. If these two countries go to war it would spell disaster for the world.” As we pulled into the hospital we saw that a wing was covered with a huge plastic tent and armed guards were posted outside of with the logo of The Center for Disease Control and Prevention. So we parked and we went inside and approached the front desk behind which sat a receptionist her name was Lindsey.

  “How are you doing today Miss. Lindsey? We were patients of the doctor and we really just want to check on him.” I started as I reached my hand out to greet her. She like most receptionists was wary of people and she stared at my outstretched hand before finally reaching out her hand and shaking mine.

  “I am afraid no one can see the doctor he is very ill presently. No visitors allowed at this time. Please check back another day.” She pulled her hand back and began typing again as if the conversation was over.

  “Oh dear he is that sick is he? Do you have the inside scoop? I know you do please tell us what is going on.” Scarlett leaned over the counter as if completely interested in what she was saying.

  “I can’t tell you guys that.” Then she leaned closer to us. “But I suppose I can tell you what little I do know. I overheard some of the CDC doctors talking they said it was a Saprophytic Organism. I didn’t know what that was but I looked it up it is an organism that feeds off a dead host. But what was interesting was the doctor is still moving about and functioning almost normally. Yet he is clinically brain dead but they said something about the saprophytic organism is causing the doctor to have neurological-activity in the brain and causing it all to continue to function. But his movements are jerky and he is creepy if you ask me. They are keeping him locked up in a sealed cell. He can’t talk but his eyes are still moving around like he is absorbing what is going on around him.” She shuddered as she told us what was happening.

  “Is there any way we could get into see him? It is very important.” I whispered to her. Again she looked around making sure no one was listening to her. Finally she whispered back.

  “I know a guard his name Jim who could probably get you in. I know you guys really want to see him but he is not the same person who you knew before. I feel like you someone should know what is going on here.” She got on the phone and made a call. A short time later a short older guard came over to the desk. He slowly made his way over to us.

  “Look folks I am only doing this as a favor to Lindsey. You are not to speak and you are going to have to be very quick about this.” He turned quickly and started walking briskly. We followed him and he brought us down a hallway past a set of guards. Then he turned towards us. “From here you are going to have very quiet. Do not speak and when you see the doctor, do not make any sudden movements, he is a bit jumpy.” He whispered to us. Then he led us down another large hallway that had that smell of a sterile hospital. It had white tile flooring and a pale blue wall with a white ceiling. He took a left and then took some stairs and led us to an observation deck where medial students might watch a surgery down a level below them. He turned to us before he opened the door and mouthed be quiet and put a finger to his mouth motioning for us to not talk. He quietly opened the door and led us to the edge of the room where we could look down. When I saw the old doctor who had been bitten my heart jumped his skin was sagging and a pale yellowish-green color. He white hair was matted with sweat his balding head was covered in sweat and he sat in a chair restraining at the arms and legs facing a doctor. The doctor was speaking to him in a matter of fact voice. All the while the bitten doctor was staring intently with glassed over eyes the Michael’s eyes had been.

  “Doctor Novak my name is Doctor Scott I am here to ask you some questions. A simple no or yes will suffice. Is your name Billy Jake Novak?” Doctor Scott sat there waiting for a response. Doctor Novak rolled his head from side to side and then started rocking back and forth. Then he looked up and I saw his eyes they were sunk in and a dirty yellow color and vacant looking. He then leaned forward towards the other doctor and just let out a raspy growl. “Doctor Novak that is not an answer please answer the question.” The Doctor was getting impatient he was standing writing on a clip board tapping his foot. Finally after several moments it sounded like Novak was trying to say something. And Doctor Scott leaned in attempting to hear what Novak was saying.

  “C...L..O..S..E..R…..” It sounded like nails on a chalk board as Novak spoke. I wanted to scream out to the doctor not to move any closer to Novak. It was too late though Doctor Scott was to intent on his clipboard and writing whatever it was that he was writing. Then Doctor Scott moved closer and leaned forward.

  “What? I can’t hear you?” It happened so fast one minute he was leaning across the table and then all of a sudden Doctor Novak tore his restrains off like they were paper restraints and jumped forward and tore into Doctor Scott’s neck. Doctor Scott began to scream it was a blood curdling scream and it sent shivers up my spine and my wife jumped into my arms. Jim jumped back from the ledge and pushed us away. He turned and ran down the stairs screaming into his walkie talkie. Meanwhile I looked over and saw that Doctor Novak was biting into Doctor Scott. Finally several guards came running into the room to help him. I grabbed my wife and we started running through the halls backtracking our way in. We barely touched the ground as moved through the hospital. Alarms were ringing and the people were running all over the place as we reached the doors to the outside. We raced to my truck and as we jumped in my wife crumpled into my arms crying.

  “What the fuck was that?” She sobbed as I held her close both our hearts going a million miles a minute.

  “I don’t know baby but we need to get out of here I have a feeling this I going to get much worse very quickly.” I told her as I turned the truck on. The engine roared to life and the radio came on and we both heard news that would shake the very foundations of the world…

  “China sent three nuclear missiles to Russia, turning Russia into a nuclear wasteland.” The news anchor sounded terrified as he read the news on the radio. What was the world coming to, it was falling apart? I contemplated this as we drove home to Clovis; it was about a five hour drive home, so I had a lot of time to consider things. Much less what we had witnessed at the hospital my biggest hope was that the CDC would contain whatever was going up at Tahoe. The thought of that spreading was too dark to contemplate. I looked over at my wife who was staring out the window as the trees flashed by. I reached ou
t and grabbed her hand holding it tightly, trying to chase the nightmares away of what we had witnessed.