Mad World (Book 1): Epidemic

by Samaire Provost

  “Guys? Keep a good eye on Coach Turner and let me know if he comes to again, okay? I don’t know exactly what we’re up against, but I don’t want him doing what Debby did after she was injured. Jacob, about how long did it take from when Russell attacked Debby to when we brought her to the hospital?” I asked.

  “Jesus, Alyssa, I don’t think it was more than an hour or so,” Jacob said, looking worried.

  We needed to get Coach somewhere fast, somewhere other than the van. We needed to be safe.

  As I drove, I thought quickly. The people at the hospital had looked wrong. Their faces had been greyish, and one looked to be turning almost black. They had almost looked like week-old corpses. I shuddered. The freeway was deserted. The sun was bright in the clear, deep blue sky. Looking out on the city from the freeway, I could see that the local streets were also deserted. I think I saw only one or two cars in ten minutes, and those seemed to be heading out of the area too. I just wanted to get to safety. This city felt haunted.

  “How are Coach and Risa doing?” I asked over my shoulder.

  Caitlin came forward to talk to me. “Risa is still unconscious,” she said. “Coach is halfway awake but looks worse. I wrapped his wound, but it doesn’t look good. And he feels like he’s starting the run a fever. I’m worried. We need to get him some help soon.”

  “Okay, let me know if his fever gets really high. I’m going to try to get to the Bakersfield hospital, but I’m not sure if driving for two hours with a dangerous fever would be the best thing for Coach,” I said.

  Caitlyn patted my shoulder and turned to make her way back to Coach.

  I tried to see past everyone’s heads to the back of the long van. Coach Turner was settled against the corner of the seat in the back. He was moaning softly and he had begun to thrash against the sides of the van.

  “His fever is worse, Alyssa. He looks bad. I think we should try to bring his temperature down. He’s burning up,” Conner said.

  I slowed the van and pulled it off to the side of the freeway, looking around nervously. Everything looked clear. I went back to check on them myself. I bent over Coach and got a good look at him. I was worried I would find him turning grey, like Debby had done before she went nuts. But he wasn’t grey at all, he was bright pink. His face was flushed and sweaty, and he had twin white spots on either cheek. He was unconscious and groaning softly in his sleep. His head moved back and forth like he was having a nightmare. He groaned louder in his sleep. I put a hand under his jaw, taking his temperature the way my grandmother had taught me to do when you didn’t have a thermometer. He felt so hot to my touch. In fact, his face burned my palm. I drew back.

  “Oh, Coach,” I whispered.

  We had all had a year’s worth of acting classes with Coach Turner. We’d performed a dozen skits and plays under his direction. His infectious laughter and passion for acting were constants in our lives. To see him like this, when he had done so much to bring us safely home, brought a lump to my throat.

  I was astonished at how hot he had gotten in the last half-hour. At this rate, he wouldn’t make it to a hospital - he wouldn’t even last another hour. I thought about the possibility of us all staying at my house for the day, until we could bring Coach’s fever down. Maybe we could send for help. I wondered if 911 was still working. Looking down at Coach again, I made a decision.

  “I don’t think he will last if we keep going. We owe him so much, we owe it to him to try and help him.” I thought for a moment. We were about ten minutes from my house, and I didn’t feel safe taking us somewhere unknown, not after what had happened at the hospital. I looked up into their faces.

  “I’m taking us to my house. It’s close by and we can get him into a bed and try to help him there. I think if we were to try to make it to Bakersfield, Coach won’t make it, not with a fever this high.”

  Everyone nodded.

  I looked over at Risa.

  “How’s she doing?” I asked, feeling her temperature. It was normal. Her head was wrapped in a t-shirt, and they had cleaned most of the blood off her face. I hoped she would be okay.

  I looked back at the others. They were all worried and scared. Putting on a strong face, I slid back into the driver’s seat and started the van again. As I pulled back onto the freeway and headed toward home, my heart felt heavy with a growing sense of hopelessness. I had a very bad feeling about this.

  Driving onward down the freeway toward home, I swallowed. I didn’t know what to expect. I hoped I wouldn’t find more of those weird people. My nerves were taut and my head hummed. I felt alert. But that was okay, I wanted to be this awake if I came across those people again. I had to be able to react. I cracked open the icy Red Bull Jacob had handed me and took a long swig. The fizzy energy drink hit my throat with a welcomed burn, and I took another long drink. It tasted so good.

  Five minutes later I pulled up to the curb outside my house. Stopping the engine, I looked around the neighborhood. The area looked deserted. I unbuckled my seatbelt and turned to the others.

  “Jacob, Conner, DeAndre; try and get him inside. Put him in the back bedroom. Everyone, let’s get into the house, maybe stay until nightfall. We’ve got to try and get his fever down to something he can survive, or he’ll never make it to the hospital in Bakersfield. Okay, let’s go,” I said. Scooter followed me into the house. A quick search of the property showed that it was deserted. I put Scooter into the backyard and went back to the van. As everyone settled in the house, I pulled the van into our empty garage.

  “Well, at least Mom and the baby got out in the evacuation,” I said under my breath as I pulled the parking brake and shut the engine off. I got out and pressed the garage door button to close the large, heavy barrier. Seeing my mom’s car gone from its usual parking place in here had left me with mixed emotions. I was glad they had gotten out of the city, and yet the sight of the big, cavernous garage completely empty had made me feel so completely alone in the world I felt like crying. Locking the van, I pocketed the keys in my jeans pocket and wrapped my arms around my elbows, shivering. After a moment I quickly entered the house through the inner garage door, shutting the light off and locking the door after me. Walking through the kitchen to join the others, I quietly berated myself. This was no time for those kinds of feelings.

  Jacob and DeAndre had settled Coach in the back bedroom.

  “Do you think we should restrain him, guys? Remember Debby,” I said looking down at Coach’s sleeping form.

  “We just wanted to get him settled in, Alyssa,” Jacob said. “He’s still unconscious and hotter than ever.”

  “I’ll get some aspirin and the ice packs. And a thermometer. I want to know exactly how high his fever is,” I said, feeling his neck and forehead again. “He feels so hot it’s burning my hand. Maybe I’m cold. It can’t be that high…” I went to hunt for a thermometer.

  As I made my way back toward the kitchen, Emily stopped me in the hall.

  “Risa is tucked into the spare bed, Alyssa. She’s still unconscious, but her temperature and breathing are fine,” she said, stretching.

  “Okay, that sounds good. Hopefully she’ll come to soon. Meanwhile, get some food for yourself and try to rest, okay?” I said.

  She nodded, patting me on the shoulder, and followed me down the hall and into the kitchen where Conner and Caitlyn were already eating.

  “How’re you guys holding up?” I asked as I passed them.

  Conner had his face buried in a huge bowl of Cap’n Crunch cereal, and just glanced up and mumbled incoherently. I smiled tiredly. Caitlyn was wolfing down a couple of hot dogs she had microwaved.

  “I feel tons better now that I’m eating,” she said between bites. “This hot dog tastes like heaven.”

  I went past them and into the garage, where my mother kept some spare medical supplies. I found a thermometer and some aspirin, and made my way back inside, locking the door behind me. I felt a little paranoid doing this in my own house, but things weren’t the
same at all. On the way back through the kitchen, I grabbed six ice packs out of the freezer. Conner finished the last of his cereal and followed me, carrying four more. We hurried back to the rear bedroom and packed them under Coach’s shirt. He moaned in his sleep and then settled down. I held the thermometer up to Coach Turner’s ear. The reading was 108. That couldn’t be right. I blinked and shook my head and cleared it again and snapped a new plastic cover on it and inserted it again. 108. Stunned, I looked at Coach’s face. He was definitely still alive, but at that temperature, he would soon have brain damage.

  “We’ve got to get him into the bathtub, the ice packs aren’t going to drop his fever fast enough,” Jacob said next to me. I nodded, and we all proceeded to strip Coach to his t-shirt and boxers, and wrestle him into the bathtub. I turned the water on and adjusted it to a tepid temperature. As it filled, Coach moaned and struggled weakly, trying to climb out of the tub, even though his eyes were still closed.

  “The water feels freezing to him in his state, we may have to hold him down,” I said.

  Conner leaned over Coach’s head and held his shoulders down. DeAndre, Jacob and I held his torso and legs. Coach Turner began thrashing harder as the water filled the tub. We were all getting soaked. As the tub filled up, I kneeled down to get a better grip on his legs. We held him in the water for 15 minutes; it was exhausting work. Finally, I took his temperature again and it was 101.

  “That’s pretty good. Let’s get him back in bed guys,” I said.

  Soaked and exhausted, we toweled him off and got him settled in bed. He moaned in his sleep, still unconscious. His temperature had gone way down, but his color didn’t look good. Instead of red and flushed, his face was turning pale. I pulled a blanket over him and then checked his eyes. They seemed dilated, and the rims were turning bright red. He was so sick.

  “Oh, Coach,” I whispered. I got up and looked at the others gathered in the room.

  “I’ll sit with him first, Alyssa. Then maybe we can switch in a couple of hours,” Conner said.

  “Do you think we should restrain him or something?” DeAndre asked.

  “Well, he’s asleep now,” Conner said.

  “D’s right, Conner. I’m going to go find something to tie him up with,” I said. “Be back in a minute. I stepped into the hallway and checked the closet. There were some scarves, which I grabbed.

  “Here, these will hold him, they’re silk and very strong,” I said, handing them to Jacob and Conner to tie Coach up with. They made quick work of the job, and soon Conner was sitting in the chair next to the bed, with Coach tied down. I nodded.

  We made our way down the hall and into the kitchen. I grabbed a banana, peeled it and began to eat it. Jacob put a couple of hot dogs in the microwave. DeAndre and Caitlyn made themselves bowls of cereal. We all ate in silence. After I finished my banana, I started in on an apple. As my teeth crunched into the juicy fruit, I began to relax a little. Munching on the apple, I walked out of the kitchen and headed to the front of the house. After checking to be sure the locks were all secure and the windows shut, I made my way to the rear patio.

  Opening the sliding glass door, I stepped out into the midday sunshine and looked around the large yard. The air was warm and muggy and the sky was still a clear, deep blue. I stopped chewing my apple for a minute and listened to the neighborhood. It was still utterly quiet. Scooter was asleep on one of the patio chairs. -Not a dog barked, not a bird chirped, no people, cars or motorcycles could be heard. It sounded like a tomb. I was thoroughly creeped out. Opening the door again, I stepped inside. As I crossed back to the kitchen, finishing my apple and throwing it into the trash, my stomach began to feel queasy.

  “I’m going to go check on Coach and Conner,” I said to the others. But before I could make two steps down the hallway, we all heard a yelp coming from the back bedroom. It was Conner’s voice. Another, louder cry issued forth, but was cut off abruptly. Jacob, DeAndre and I sprinted to the bedroom. I was the first to round the corner and enter the doorway, and the sight that greeted my eyes made me cry out in horror.

  Chapter Five

  Two of the walls of the room were heavily sprayed with blood, dripping down to the rug. Coach was crouched on the far side of the room, behind the bed. The scarves hung from his arms, torn and bloody. Conner was nowhere to be seen. Jacob gasped behind me, moved around me to see what Turner was doing, and then let out another gasp. Growls and slurps could be heard, and a thumping sound. I edged further in, to peer at what Jacob was seeing.

  “Oh my God…” I said. Coach was on all fours, crouched over Conner. Conner’s leg was weakly pumping up and down, and as we watched, it slowed to a stop. Coach had ripped his throat out, and was focused on chewing at Conner’s neck like a dog. We could see Conner’s face, eyes wide open but unseeing. As his kicking leg fell still, and all we could hear was the sound of Coach Turner eating at Conner’s lifeless body. It had all happened in the space of a few minutes. We could hear the sound of Caitlyn and Emily coming down the hall and into the room behind us. Caitlyn gasped and cried out, and Emily started screaming, “Coach!” This caught the attention of the thing that used to be our teacher, and he swung his head around to the noise. We all gasped as one, because Coach Turner’s face was covered in Conner’s blood, and what skin we could see was turning dark grey. He focused his eyes on us, bared his teeth and made a low, menacing growl.

  Jacob turned quickly and said, “Get out, everyone! OUT!” as he scrambled for the door himself. We all backed up hurriedly into the hallway, and Jacob shut and locked the door as the zombie that had been Coach Turner threw himself against the thin wood. A two-foot crack appeared in the middle of the door, and we all ran.

  “Get to the van, everyone! That door won’t hold for long!” I cried as I dashed through the kitchen and into the garage, fumbling for only a second at the locked garage door. Another crash was heard as Coach tried to get through the door. It sounded insane. Jacob stopped and crept back towards the hallway, and I whispered, “What are you doing?”

  Jacob held a finger to his lips and pointed to the near bedroom where Risa still slept. In our panic we had almost left without her. My heart beat faster. I paused behind him, and with DeAndre, we crept back toward the hallway. The back bedroom door was still. Maybe Coach had stopped trying to get through the door and had turned his attention back to Conner’s body. I felt my eyes tear up as I thought of Conner. Jacob quietly walked back into the hallway and into the front bedroom to gather Risa up. As I watched from the doorway, he lifted the sleeping girl and turned toward me. He was steady and strong holding Risa, but as I looked into his eyes I saw unshed tears. He blinked them away and came forward, and I backed up out of his way. I turned my head and listened again for noise from the closed door at the end of the hall. There was a faint scraping sound and fumbling. What was that thing doing in there? I wondered.

  I thought for a moment, then turned into my mother’s bedroom behind me. She was a fanatic for everything Japanese and there were a set of katanas – curved samurai swords - on a stand on her dresser. I grabbed the larger one and motioned for DeAndre to grab the smaller one of the pair. He nodded and we made our way back to the kitchen, right behind Jacob, who was holding Risa to his chest. As we passed through the kitchen door to the garage I locked it behind me. I didn’t know if zombies were smart enough to unlock a door, but I was hoping they weren’t. Someone had moved the dog into the garage and he was already in the van. As Jacob, Risa, and DeAndre got in, I hit the garage door opener button, and the sound of the big door lifting was so loud I hoped the zombie that had been Coach Turner wouldn’t come for us then. I put the key in the ignition and backed the van out of my garage. Emily and Caitlyn were crying softly. I felt a heaviness in my chest and felt my throat catch. I couldn’t speak. I knew if I tried I would break into sobs. My face set, I backed the van onto the street and began to move forward as tears I could no longer contain fell down my face. We were all filled with shock and despair as I d
rove away from what we had thought would be a place of refuge. I took one more look at my home. It looked normal. Like nothing was wrong at all. Like my mom should come walking out into the yard any minute now, smiling and waving. I took a deep, shuddering breath and I felt fresh tears stream down my face. My God. I still couldn’t believe what my eyes had seen. Coach Turner had morphed into a crazed zombie lunatic and had attacked and killed Conner. Conner! My God. My God. I slowed the van to a stop as my eyes closed in anguish, sobs threatening to overwhelm me. I could hear Caitlyn and Emily crying softly behind me. Conner had been such a good friend, and he had been my partner in two productions last year. I remembered how he had helped take care of Coach Turner for the past half day. I remembered how his mother had succumbed to the same sickness that had changed Coach. Now Conner was dead like his mother. What had happened to his father? I shook my head against the craziness of the world and how everything was getting more apocalyptic as the days wore on.

  I blinked my eyes clear and took several deep breaths to steady myself. I had to remain strong. We had to get to safety. I began moving the van forward once more, looking from right to left as I drove. The neighborhood seemed deserted. All the families on my street had disappeared from their homes. Where were they? Where had they gone? There had been no note in my house at all, no sign where my mom and brother had evacuated to. Driving away from the neighborhood I had grown up in, I looked around some more. As I turned the corner toward the freeway, I thought I saw a blur out of the corner of my eye. I turned my head, but it was gone. Blinking my eyes, I proceeded through the neighborhood.