“Really,” Maddie said, joining me. “I don’t…”
Before she could say more, a woman rushed the door. Blood covered her face and arms. Her clothes looked torn, and she ran toward the glass as if it wasn’t there, slamming into it with a wet smack.
My sister and I screamed in unison and leaped away from the building. At first, I thought the woman needed help, but the longer I watched her throw herself repeatedly into the door, I knew she was beyond help.
“We should call someone,” Madeline said, pulling out her phone.
“Good thinking.”
Why hadn’t I thought of it before her?
She called the local authorities but got a busy signal.
“Is there a hospital or police department nearby,” I asked, scanning the buildings around us. I hadn’t remembered seeing one.
“I don’t think so,” Maddie said, trying the number again.
“We should go back to the hotel,” I said, pulling my sister further from the building. The bloody mess of a woman followed us throughout the building every so often trying to get to us through the glass.
We were shaking horribly as we clung to each other and all but ran back to the hotel. I didn’t allow us to stop to peer into any other windows to see if those buildings also held such a monster. When we reached the hotel doors, I dropped Maddie’s hand and vomited into a nearby bush. My body wasn’t used to moving like that, and if it hadn’t been for fear and the adrenaline rush that came with it, I wouldn’t have been able to.
Maddie screamed, and I jumped when something hit the glass doors of the hotel. Terrified of what I would see, I reluctantly turned to the door. My sister burst into tears and threw herself into my arms.
“I’m sorry,” the receptionist said, unlocking and opening the door. “Come in quickly.”
The woman all but yanked us inside.
“Have you seen one as well?” I asked, thinking that would be the only reason she looked terrified and for the front doors to be locked.
Maddie and I hadn’t been gone long, but apparently, it had been long enough for all hell to break loose.
“Not in person, but you appear as if you have.”
We followed her to a circle of chairs with a table in the middle. All three of us were shaky and on the verge of tears.
“What happened to that woman?” Maddie asked.
“I don’t know,” I told her, setting her into one of the chairs. “What do you know?” I directed my question to the receptionist.
For the first time, I noticed her name tag. Her name was Sadie.
“Just after you left—you two are the only ones who’ve left the hotel today as far as I know. We’ve had a few people come down for breakfast, but most looked tired and sickly, and quickly went back to their rooms.” She looked nervously over to the elevators and stairway door as if terrified those people would come back.
“But you’re the only two besides myself, Roger, and one or two other guests that I’ve seen today who look well. Anyway, after you left, Roger, he’s the morning manager, came bursting out of his office, looking horrified. He told me to turn on the television here in the lobby, so I did. They’ve been playing the same story everywhere all morning.” She stopped there to look at her hands. She looked as if she were about to burst into tears.
“What did the news say?” I asked, looking at the blank monitor and then around for a remote. The television sat mounted too high in a corner for me to reach.
“Margaret from the morning news show was showing footage from Brakerville, the hospital,” she said, pointing north of the hotel. “This morning the sickness everyone’s been talking about went from just annoying to deadly. That was if the patient was lucky. Those who aren’t dying are going rabid. They attacked and killed other patients, doctors, and nurses. The footage shows a massacre. The police are saying to stay indoors because there’s no telling how many more people will turn.”
“Do they know what it is? How long will it last? Is there a cure?” I asked, not sure what to think about what Sadie had just told us.
She shrugged her shoulders and shook her head in a defeated fashion.
“Did everyone that got sick die or turn? Has anyone gotten better?” I asked, thinking she had to know more.
“They didn’t say. Roger left after he turned on the television. He said his daughter was sick and that he needed to check on her. He just threw me the keys and left. We’re running on a skeleton crew as it is, so I locked all the doors, not that I think anyone will be looking for a place to stay tonight. Luckily, we don’t have many guests. Oh God, what if one of them turns rabid. We should go somewhere as well,” she said, sitting up in the chair as if she’d just thought of that.
“Where can we go? Are they letting people out of the city?” I asked.
“No. The entire place is on lockdown. No flights out. They raised the bridges so that no one leaves the island. I’m betting that precaution is too late, though. People have been leaving the city all weekend. This thing has gotten out already,” she said, sounding too controlled, considering she was seconds from panicking a moment ago.
“Maddie and I are stuck here then. We don’t know the city. We don’t have anywhere else to go. Are you going to leave?” I asked.
Sadie jerked her head up as if startled by the question.
“I don’t know. I don’t live in the city, either, so I don’t have anywhere to go either. I have friends here, yes, but most of them were sick as of the last time I spoke with any of them. We all just thought it was some annoying summer cold, but…”
The woman looked as if she wanted to say something that she knew I was going to find crazy, and I thought I could guess at what she was thinking.
“But what?” I pushed.
“But what if people don’t get better. None of them. If even half the people in this city who are sick turn instead of dying, we’ll all die. Those people they showed on the news. The ones who’d turned. They looked and acted like zombies from an old horror movie. They just went after people and bit right into them like they were at an all you can eat BBQ. What kind of disease can do that to a person? Turn them rabid like that?”
“I don’t know. We saw a woman inside the art gallery. She wasn’t human anymore. She couldn’t have been. She ran right at the glass doors as if she didn’t know they were there. Blood and things I can’t describe covered every inch of her. There wasn’t an ounce of humanity in her eyes.”
“What do we do?” Maddie asked, speaking for the first time.
“We find weapons and lock ourselves in our room, I guess,” I said, looking to Sadie.
She didn’t say anything for a long time before nodding. “We don’t have a firearm on the premises—that I know of at least. There should be knives and stuff in the kitchen. I’m going to let the remaining staff go home if they want, so you’ll have to fend for yourself until this is over. I’ll set myself up in a room on the first floor. If you want to move, you can, but I can tell you that your floor is all but empty.”
“I think we’ll stay there then.” I rose from my chair and pulled my sister up with me. We’d started toward the elevator before a thought occurred to me.
“Sadie,” I called, turning us toward the woman who’d headed to the kitchen area.
“Yeah?”
“Do you mind if we stock up on food and a few other things before going up? I don’t want to leave that room until this is over.”
“That sounds like a smart idea.”
Chapter 5
~~Jason~~
—Inside the decontamination room.—
Samantha was shivering under the towel on the bed by the time Tera got clothes, antibiotics, and more medical items for us. Tera looked everywhere but at my half-naked body while she pushed the supplies through the sterilizing pass window, something I was grateful she did. Despite my bravado, I wasn’t one of those men who liked it when women ogled their body.
“Thanks,” I said, taking the items and tu
rning back to the door to our room.
“How is she?” Tera asked, halting my exit.
“I’m not sure. I don’t know yet if Samantha will survive. She’s opened her eyes a few times, but I’m not sure if she’s woken entirely or not. How much longer on our blood work, do you know?”
“Jasper says we’ll know something within the hour. I wish we’d found a doctor. Having someone who knew exactly how to work most of that medical stuff would be helpful. Jasper does the best he can, but reading manuals and instructions take time. It would also help if he’d let someone on that floor with him,” she said and sighed.
Not long after Keisha died, my uncle locked himself on the fourth floor and hadn’t come out since. He wouldn’t let anyone up there either. Jasper was strange before the outbreak. He and my father grew up on the stories of my grandfather, his siblings, and their friends who’d survived some horrific things during the earthquakes and floods. They refused to tell me what life was like for them growing up in a world that still hadn’t entirely healed from the event, but I could see that both things had had a profound influence on them.
My dad dealt with it better than my uncle did. Dad found a way to live a normal life, marry, have two sons, but my uncle threw himself into survival mode, which was why he built Shore Haven.
Roughly ten years ago, Jasper took the idea for the compound to my dad and others like them who’d seen the world, had heard the horror stories. Many of the people he approached, my father among them, backed his venture.
“I know,” I said, realizing that I’d just been standing there lost in thought. “But my uncle built the place to lock down like that. He’s the only person who can unlock that floor. I’ve asked to see him. I’ve tried to convince him that he needs his family with him, but he’s refused me access. Just keep poking supplies at him. When things settle, maybe he’ll come out of there. If he doesn’t, then…”
I didn’t go on. Tera knew where I was going with that sentence.
“Do you guys need anything else?” she asked.
“Food. I’m getting a little hungry, and I want to have something here for when Samantha wakes.”
“Kayla should be down in a bit with something for you two. I sent her down into the storage rooms to look for a few things in the hopes that she’ll have a more level head when she comes back.”
“Thanks.”
“That girl’s pretty upset with you. Once she calms down, you need to explain yourself.”
“I don’t think anything I say will soothe her, no matter how much time you give her to cool down.”
“Probably not.”
Tera shook her head—at my stupidity, I imagined—and walked away. I shut the outer door, blocking anyone who came into the hall’s view of our rooms. Jasper could see into our room if he turned on the security cams, but I doubted he would unless he thought it necessary. I was on my own with Samantha. If she turned, I’d have to kill her myself. Then I’d be stuck in the room for a few more days to be sure I wasn’t infected.
I spread out my supplies and began stitching Samantha’s open wound. She moaned and whimpered a few times before opening her eyes. With her head injury, she needed to wake, but I prayed she’d pass back out so that she wouldn’t have to suffer through me sewing up her leg. I gave her a local, but I wasn’t a doctor, so I didn’t know if I was doing things correctly or not.
“Wa… Whe… Where am I?” Samantha asked, blinking a few times before focusing on me.
“You’re in Shore Haven. Do you remember what happened?” I asked, continuing my work.
She gave me a confused look, before shaking then nodding her head.
“Maddie’s dead,” she said, after a long moment.
Tears pooled at the corners of her eyes and slid into her hair.
I didn’t say anything.
“What’re you doing to me?” she asked, attempting to sit up.
“Don’t move. Lay back down. I’m stitching your thigh. Do you remember cutting it open?”
“Yeah. Is it bad?”
“A little, but I’ve cleaned it, and now I’m sewing it closed. I don’t think you cut into the muscle and I don’t see bone, so it should heal fine. You hit your head as well. How does it feel?”
“Like an elephant is sitting on it. I’m having a hard time focusing and staying awake.”
“I know. You keep passing out on me. If you can stay awake, you should.”
“I’ll try. Am I naked?”
“Yeah, but not exposed. I’ve covered you with towels. I’ll help you dress once I’ve finished.”
She lifted her head to look at me for a moment before saying, “You’re naked. Why are we naked?”
“I had to clean the zombie off us. Blood and gore covered both of us. We’re in the clean room’s waiting area. We’ll be here for a few days to make sure we don’t turn. My uncle is running tests on our blood, so we should know by this afternoon if we’re infected, but to be on the safe side, we’ll stay here for a bit.”
“Okay,” she said, but I could tell I was losing her. We’d be having this conversation again.
I finished her leg. After that, I examined her head. She had a lump and a cut. I had to shave around the area to be able to clean and stitch it properly. She passed out again when I did that.
Once I finished, I dressed her and put her to bed. After ensuring that she was comfortable, I examined myself for open wounds. I didn’t have any. By the time I’d dressed, my uncle was speaking through the com unit, telling me that Kayla was on her way with food.
“Good, I’m starving,” I said to the air, going to the decontamination door.
“How is the woman?” he asked.
“Unconscious. Samantha woke a bit while I was stitching her leg, but then passed out again.”
“Is she symptomatic?”
“Not yet.”
“You?”
“Nope.”
A long silence followed.
“I’ll be okay, uncle,” I said. “As soon as I’m out of here, I’ll come up, and we can have a chess marathon.”
Jasper didn’t agree to the game, but he didn’t argue either. A good sign. Maybe I wouldn’t be losing another family member.
~~~~~~~~~~
~~~Ten Years Earlier~~~
“Daddy, please don’t go,” Keisha begged my older brother.
“What are you doing up? You should be asleep,” James said, giving Keisha a loving smile, as he rose to lift her into his arms and carry her back to her room.
“I’m not sleepy. I want to stay up with you and Uncle Jason. Are you going away?”
“Your uncle and I are having a grown-up conversation. Nothing for you to worry about.”
“But if you’re going away, then it’s about me. Who’ll take care of me while you’re gone?”
I listened to her pleading voice as it disappeared up the stairs.
I shook my head and tried not to cry for the poor girl. My brother was doing an honorable thing, but how he could leave his young daughter was beyond me.
“Did he ask you already?” Uncle Jasper asked, coming into the living room. I hadn’t even known he was home.
Jasper moved in with us after Mom died, to keep Dad company while James and I went to school, worked, and lived our lives. I technically never moved out after high school, so once I settled into a steady job, I just stayed. James and Keisha moved in with us the year before, after James’ wife Carla died of cancer. He was working too much to care for Keisha the way he should. The three of us told him to move back so that we could help.
Four men and one preteen girl under one roof. The poor girl didn’t have a chance at a normal life.
“He was in the process when she came down. What do you think about it?”
“I believe it’s foolish to leave that girl, but those bridges need to go up. Many of those people haven’t been off those islands in years. Some islands haven’t had access to other places since the quakes. The people there might never leave their h
ome, but they need to be able to do so safely and quickly if they choose. I don’t know why your brother feels he has to go. There are plenty of people who can do what he does—not to undermine your job, son,” Uncle Jasper said, shifting his attention to James, who had re-entered the room.
“No offense taken, Uncle. I know others can do the job, but not enough of those people are willing to go. The fewer the people, the longer it’ll take those that go to build them. I’m only working on three bridges. I should be back within two years at the latest.”
“Two years is a long time to a child,” Jasper said.
“It is, and I can take her with me, but I’ll be bouncing around from place to place. I’ll have to hire a full-time sitter and teacher. I’ll barely have money for a place for us to stay and food after that. Her staying here will be the least disrupting.”
I didn’t agree, but I could see that my brother was determined, so arguing wouldn’t do me any good.
“So you want me to take her while you’re gone?” I asked.
The idea didn’t scare me. We’d all gotten into a routine of caring for Keisha that first year, and we wouldn’t have to change it that much. I didn’t have a busy social life. Anyone I’d dated in the past knew about Keisha and knew she was an important part of my life, and that she came before anyone else. That would be even truer after he left.
“I need someone to list as her guardian. I’m sure all of you will continue to care for her as you’ve done, but I have to assign at least one of you as her legal guardian while I’m gone. I’d rather it be you, as you’ll be able to work around her schedule the easiest. Dad and Uncle Jasper will be spending all of their time working on Shore Haven. I know you will as well, and I hate that I’m not going to be here to participate in the project, but your presence on the premises isn’t mandatory.”
He had a point. Dad and Uncle Jasper were the point men on the project. I was just a construction worker; therefore, if anyone had to drop what he was doing at the last minute to tend to her, it would be me.
Shore Haven Page 4