The Amoeba From The Ash

by Mercedes Prunty

  “What do you know?”

  “I know what I see as an outside pair of eyes, your daughter is acting up to get your attention because at the moment all your attention is for him”, she motioned to Daniel, “Which isn’t all bad he obviously needs it as a child but you have two children and you need to share your love between them which you obviously struggle at”.

  “How dare you…” But Rosetta cut her off.

  “But why? Why do you struggle? I truly think it’s because you are jealous. Let me guess when you were younger you were Queen Bee, got all the attention from males, especially your husband. Then she came along, unexpected, unplanned and ruined it all, ruined your body so you weren’t as great as you thought you once were, you lost some of the attention from your husband because he had already learnt to share it between the two of you. So you became to resent her. So you wanted something for you, someone all to yourself and you ‘planned’ Daniel and he became yours and the rift between you and Alicia got larger… Am I right there Pippa? Is it because now she is a beautiful and pretty young woman and is getting all the attention you crave and you are a thirty something has-been”.

  “How dare you speak to me like that”, Pippa snarled.

  “I’m right though aren’t I Pippa?”

  “You couldn’t be more wrong”.

  “Then what is it? Really and truthfully?”

  But before Pippa could answer Finch threw himself one last time at the door, knocking it clean off its hinges and sending Ned flying into the back wall, he knocked his head and was dazed for a moment. Rosetta picked up the vase ready to aim but Pippa lunged at her, “I said no, no murdering in my home!”

  But as Pippa fought with Rosetta she didn’t see the danger eyeing up Daniel as his meal. Finch jumped and so did Ned who was coming out of his daze but he was too slow, the turned doctor snared the boy’s arm in a death vice like grip and bit down on it.

  “AHHHHHHH!” Daniel cried out in pain.

  “DANIEL”, Pippa screeched and raced for him, just as the back door flew open and Alicia burst in wielding her kitchen knife. She ran into the room and jumped on Finch’s back stabbing the sharp blade into his skull, rendering him useless and dead as he fell to the now bloodstained floor.

  5.01pm Daniel and the Cure

  Alicia dove into the back door after hearing her mother’s screams, she knew something bad had happened to Daniel for her to scream like that. Her breath was cut short as she spotted Finch on her little brother and eating his small fragile arm, rage filled her body not only at the doctor for attacking him but also at her mother for not protecting him. She lunged like a huntress, landing on Finch’s back and killing him within seconds, seconds that wouldn’t have had to happen if they had just dealt with Finch before-hand.

  “Alicia”, Daniel sobbed, “He bit me, I’m going to be a monster now aren’t I?”

  She scooped him up in her arms and held him, “No you won’t, I will never let that happen to you”.

  “When it happens, will you kill me too?”

  Her heart caught in her throat, “I…I…”

  “I want you to, I want you to do it… I don’t want to bite any of you”, he cried which made her heart break even more as the tears flooded down his and her cheeks.

  She then turned to Pippa, “I will never forgive you for this, it should have been you not him!”

  “I’m so sorry”, she gasped dropping to her knees.

  “From now on Pippa you do as we tell you, not the other way around, is that clear?” Alicia told her mother.

  Pippa nodded, “Yes”.

  Alicia turned to Rosetta, “Is there anything? Anything that can save him?”

  “Only the Brain- Eating Amoeba medicine, Miltefosine, it might have a chance but I don’t know if it fully works with the mutated version of the amoeba?”

  “Where do they keep it?”

  “Germany and America”, Rosetta admitted.

  Alicia’s heart stopped dead in her chest, “What? Doesn’t the local hospital have it?”

  Rosetta shook her head, “No, the Amoeba thrives in different climates to this, mostly America but a few cases have been known in Germany and Australia. It’s too rare and expensive for hospitals to keep a medicine they might never use”.

  Alicia fell to the floor, Glenn suddenly appearing by her side from the gloom outside, “They are coming, I couldn’t hold them off, they heard the screaming”.

  “Who’s coming?” Ned asked his voice breaking, thinking back to a memory from last year, it was on the tip of his tongue.

  “The turned, loads of them”, Glenn answered, “We have to leave now, I have my car, I can squeeze you all in”.

  “And go where?” Alicia cried, “Where do we go? There is no hope left now”.

  “There might be”, Ned stated.

  “What?”

  “Rosetta the Brain - Eating Amoeba it came to Eastbourne last year but not in our waters. A young boy went on a family holiday to America, came back with meningitis like symptoms. A doctor asked what he had done whilst abroad and he said swimming in his grand-parents pond. They checked him with a spinal tap and found he had the amoeba not meningitis like they expected. They sent off for the medicine which was flown in from America but… He died before it arrived but I don’t think the hospital got rid of it. They might still have it”.

  “Why didn’t you tell me before”, she whispered glancing at Finch.

  “I’m sorry”, he said, “I forgot, I didn’t realise it was all connected. The word amoeba you don’t hear it much”.

  She nodded, “Well, if it’s still there then time is of the essence. The sooner he has it the better the chances of survival”.

  “Glenn, get us to the DGH”, Ned called out grabbing a bleeding Daniel and rushing him out the front door just as hungry wails called out from the back garden.

  Glenn started the car up as everyone climbed in, he reversed off the driveway and sped off just as the turned emerged from the doorway, screaming out in fury.

  5.15pm Kings Drive

  Glenn held onto the steering wheel tightly as he passed the long line of empty cars which had all been queuing up down a road near another school, a secondary school. All of them empty and quiet, no sign of any life in any of them other than the occasional bloody hand print. He looked up into the mirror to check on his passengers and glanced at his prospective mother in law and saw her watching his eyes in the mirror. He looked away from her and guided his car through the stream of unmoving vehicles, it was worse the further he went on, people must have panicked when the ash cloud had dispersed over this side of the line, people had tried to turn around but had hit other cars in the process, then the infected must have come because blood was smeared over many of the bonnets and windows. How had the world changed so much in such a short space of time? Just a few hours and the town was crazy and empty?

  He could hear Rosetta in the back seat tending to Daniel who was seated on his father’s lap, “Look up and down, side to side. Stick your tongue out and say ahhh”.

  “What’s your diagnosis?” Pippa asked bluntly.

  “I can’t tell at the moment, he still seems fine but as we saw with Finch that can change extremely quickly but my guess is it differs from person to person. The sooner we find that medicine the sooner we can help him”, Rosetta answered patching up his bleeding arm with some of the bandages Ned gave her.

  Once Rosetta was finished tending to Daniel, Alicia spoke up about what her and Glenn had found on Ellen’s laptop, “Do you think it’s possible the space rock made this illness?”

  Rosetta sighed, “I have no idea, I would need to go to Germany to see it”.

  “Maybe we should”, Glenn pipped up.

  “I would need clearance from HQ and my boss first and then find transportation to get there”.

  “Could you contact them and ask?” Alicia asked.

  She shrugged, “I have no phone on me now, and most of the tech stuff was failing due to the inter
ference with the ash cloud”.

  “Maybe it could work now, it worked for me and Glenn on Ellen’s laptop”.

  “Maybe…” She said mulling it over.

  “Can’t you go any faster?” Pippa snarled halting the conversation.

  Glenn shrugged, “The roads are fairly gridlocked and I’m doing the best I can here”. He turned the car round some awkwardly parked cars as he went round a mini roundabout and then tried to go up the road and back past the college but it was chaos. There wasn’t an uncovered bit of road. Not caring for his car anymore his forced his bonnet into the side of another car, gently pushing it out of the way but once he was through that part there were more cars the other side.

  “Might be quicker if we walk”, Ned suggested as Glenn stopped the car and put the handbrake on, he then opened the door and stepped out, reaching back in for his son and lifting him into his arms, “Come on this way shouldn’t take us five minutes to the hospital if we hurry”.

  “If we don’t get caught by any turned”, Alicia said holding tightly to her knife that she had used to take out Finch. Glenn stared at her as they began the walk through the sea of cars, he really had to admire how brave she really was, running in to save Daniel, not caring about her own safety. Then there was the plan they had executed to get back to the house and try to get the infected away from them. He had smashed a load of plates and glasses from the front bedroom window of Ellen’s house, the noise instantly drawing them to their location instead. Alicia had run on ahead diving down alleyways and clearing a path of the turned so when Glenn had smashed the last of the plates he had enough time to make a swift exit too. But then they had heard the screaming and so had the turned, Glenn had urged her to run ahead, that he would make it ok and they did but they hadn’t been quick enough. But that didn’t stop Alicia from taking out the person who was hurting her sibling. Glenn’s chest then ached as he thought about his own family, his mother and father probably still at work and with all the chaos not being able to make it back to him, or more likely they were already gone not knowing or caring what had happened to him. Then there was Tina, his older sister who was away on holiday to Greece. Would she know of all this chaos? Would where she was staying be affected by the amoeba too? Would he ever see her again? He thought not, he knew deep down he wouldn’t see any of them again, right now he had to focus on Alicia and Daniel.

  “This way”, Ned called out as they passed the old college grounds.

  He glanced at Alicia who paused. She looked out at the building she had been in this morning, fighting for her life against her best friend. The wind caught some of her hair and blew it in front of her face, almost framing her delicate features.

  “You ok?” He asked.

  She nodded, “I… Just wondered if Tabitha got out”.

  “Did you want to check?” He asked, noticing that the others had stopped now waiting for them.

  “Should we?” She said, her eyes welling up, “I need to know, one way or another, she was just as much a friend to me as Ellen”.

  “Guys come on we need to get the medicine”, Ned called out stopping on the spot with Daniel in his arms.

  “Go, we’re meet you there”, Glenn called out and took Alicia by the arm, “We just need to check something out”.

  “Don’t be long”, Ned called out but they were already running into the college grounds, leaving the others to rush off to the hospital.

  ~

  Alicia held her breath as they took the first few steps into the grounds together, she could sense it in her bones that this wasn’t a good idea, that they should leave and go with the others but she had to know, she had to know if Tabitha was ok or not. She could never forgive herself if she hadn’t checked and Tabitha was still alive and trapped somewhere in the building.

  “Do you know where her class is?” Glenn asked.

  She pointed to the taller glass building in the centre of the college site, “In there”, she felt very small now looking at the looming building before them, panels of glass had been smashed and broken, signs and banners hung out of windows with the words ‘HELP and SOS’ scrawled on them with pen and paint. One window even had a person hanging out of it swaying in the wind, they must have thought that was the only way out.

  They walked down the pathway that led right to the large front glass doors, the whole place was quiet, unnervingly quiet. None of the normal college sounds, no students rushing to their lessons, no tutors walking to their next class with piles of paperwork and books, no learner student drivers being picked up by their driving tutors. No noise what so ever, it sent chills up her spine. Glenn took point lifting up a pole that had fallen from one of the windows and used it to scan the doorway as the approached, it looked clear from where they stood but it was a mess inside and anyone could be hiding in there. He held the door open for her and they ventured in, glass crunching under foot as they made their way towards the staircase that led to the classrooms. Down stairs was the canteen, food, drink, tables and chairs had all been thrown around as well as a few random dead bodies, their faces slack or gone, their bodies had given out from the blood loss. A few had been killed by human hands just like her own. Alicia made it to the door that led to the stairs first and she held it open for him this time, again he took point and climbed up.

  “Which floor?”

  “Second”, she whispered feeling the fear and tension rise inside them both at what they might find.

  They reached the second floor and came out at a quiet and calm hallway, the hum of the air conditioning still purring away in the back ground, no bodies, no blood. She had no idea if this was a good or bad sign as the windows outside told her another story. She spotted Tabitha’s classroom and went to the door, she peered inside through the small glass window but couldn’t see much, Tabitha’s class was one of the rooms with a window open and a sign hanging out of it. Alicia’s hand gripped the handle and she gently pushed the door open. Inside it smelt like death, the smell of blood and bodily fluids filled her nose and she gagged making a small noise. The sound of movement inside caught her attention and she froze on the spot, her heart racing and her ears ringing from her loud heart beat along with bile rising from her throat into her mouth

  “He…llo?” A small voice called out from the other side of the room as they tiptoed in but all Alicia could see was a pile of bodies, all dead with some flies whizzing around them.

  “Tabitha is that you?”

  “Alicia?” A weak voice asked, “I’m…Here”.

  Alicia looked over at the pile and noticed a pair of blinking eyes looking out at her, “Tabitha”, she gasped and ran to the bodies, one by one pulling them off her friend, then gently dragging her out and laying her on the blood and grime covered carpet.

  “You came back for me”, She smiled her eyes twinkling, a distant look to them.

  “Of course I did”, Alicia smiled, “You’re my friend”.

  “I always thought it was just you and Ellen really, that I just tagged along for the ride”, she wheezed.

  “Don’t be daft”, she laughed, “What happened?”

  “Christopher came in with a bug, threw up all over Miss Simmons, then he bit her. We all panicked which made it worse as he then bit everyone else. Someone had a blade it their bag and swung it at him and Miss Simmons killing them both but in the process they caught me, sliced me open… They went mad and killed everyone but left me in the corner saying I was gonna die anyway and they left. I made a sign and hung it up but no one came. Then I heard screams outside so I hid under all the bodies”.

  “Oh my god”, Alicia whispered, “I’m just you’re ok though, come on let’s get you up”.

  “Alicia don’t”, she gasped. “I can’t go with you”.

  “But?”

  Tabitha shook her head, “Look”, she lifted up her bloody top to reveal a mess, her stomach had been sliced into, her insides slowly becoming her outsides and as a bonus was a small bite wound next to it.

  “We
can fix it, somehow”, Alicia lied feeling dizzy at the sight of it.

  “No we ca…n’t”, She winced in pain, “I’ve been bitten too, I thought everyone was dead but as I moved the bodies one bit me… I stuck them in the eye with my ruler for it so they couldn’t hurt anyone else… But I’m glad you’re here, you can end it for me…End my pain”.

  Alicia ducked her head down into her chest, “I can’t, not again”.

  “Again?” Tabitha breathed.

  “She…She had to…help…Ellen”, Glenn spoke for her, “She had to stop Ellen from hurting her and everyone else”.

  “But I thought we were both your friends?”

  “You are”, Alicia said looking up as tears welled up in her eyes blurring her vision.

  “Then do for me what you done for her, treat us equal, please…Don’t let me…Suffer anymore”, she whispered. “I know the doctors are all gone, the police…I know no one is coming to help us, not once your infected. Everyone is gone and I’m going to turn I can feel it burning in my veins”.

  “I can’t Tabitha, I can’t do it again. I can’t forgive myself for Ellen, I can’t be guilty for both of you”.

  “What is there to be guilty about? You…Done Ellen a favour, you would be doing me a favour…My dying wish”, Tabitha told her, “I don’t want to be one of those things… No one wants to become one of those things, killing us is helping us and others as it stops us from spreading the infection further. Killing me is more humane than letting me turn into a monster”.

  The image of Finch came into her mind, he hadn’t wanted to be one of the turned but her parent’s indecisiveness made him turn, made his wishes not count for anything and then he hurt Daniel.

  She lifted the knife up in her shaking hands and looked at it, the silver blade shone in the artificial light of the classroom, reflecting them all to her. Then she nodded, “Ok”.

  Tabitha breathed a sigh of relief and lay her head down on the carpet, “It hurts so much, my stomach, the burning feeling of this bug in my veins, my head, my eyes”, tears flooded out of her cheeks but they were tainted by blood, Alicia knew she didn’t have long left. She crawled to her friend and cradled her head in her lap, stroking her hair.