The World's Last Breaths: Final Winter, Animal Kingdom, and The Peeling

by Iain Rob Wright

  “I’ll watch out for anybody itching,” said Devey, glad to have something to do. It wasn’t like he wouldn’t be checking out every single person who stepped in his direction anyway.

  Someone called Zantoko, and the doctor had to leave. “If you’ll excuse me, Mr Singh.”

  “Devey, and yes, of course. Thank you, Doctor.”

  Zantoko disappeared into the office and, as the door opened, Devey saw other doctors gathered inside. What were they talking about, he wondered? Not wanting to stand there alone, he went and rejoined Jessica and Barbara. Jessica was cross-legged on the floor, reading her comics, while her mother leant up against the wall. Barbara looked a little pale and washed out, but despite that she smiled at his approach. “That was pretty amazing what you did back there,” she said.

  “What are you talking about?”

  “With the fire extinguisher. You helped that poor girl.”

  “Maybe it’s because I was almost in her situation this morning. I found one of the first cases. Anyway, I doubt I did much to help her.”

  Barabara went to pat his arm, but he dodged away. She pulled her hand back and folded her arms, embarrassed. “Sorry, I just… You’re right, we shouldn’t touch each other.”

  Devey gave a weak smile. What Barbara didn’t realise is that he’d not even been thinking about the virus. He didn’t like strangers touching him. Why was it only now he realised that about himself? When did it start? He remembered sharing cuddles with his mum all the time as a kid, but after that… after she died? When was the last time he had let another human being hold him?

  No time for self-reflection, Devey shook himself back to the present. He knelt down beside Jessica. “Hey, what you reading?”

  The little girl looked up and beamed at him. The near riot from earlier had seemingly not left a lasting impression on her. “My Little Pony,” she answered. “Mummy got me lots of comics for being good.”

  “You are good, aren’t you! All this scary stuff going on, and you’re not causing any fuss at all. I have a niece your age, and she plays up something rotten.”

  “Doesn’t her mummy tell her off?”

  Devey laughed. “Her mummy should tell her off a lot more than she does, believe me. So what is your comic ab-” He stopped mid-sentence, jolted by something Jessica did. She scratched behind her ear.

  Barbara noticed him staring and questioned him about it. Her tone was suddenly defensive. “What are you looking at?”

  He blinked, as if he’d simply been daydreaming. “Oh, um, no reason, just lost my train of thought. How you both doing, anyway? You holding together?”

  She studied his face, and he forced himself to smile. The disguise held up because she relaxed at the shoulders and sighed. “We’re doing as well as can be expected. I keep trying to call my husband, but I’m not getting any joy.”

  “I think whoever is outside is blocking our phones. Mine doesn’t work either. Your husband will be worried.”

  She looked at Jessica. “Not as worried as I am. This is a nightmare.”

  “The absolute worst,” he admitted, “but you heard the doctor—stay calm and we’ll see it through. It’s spread by contact, so keep your distance from anyone who looks unwell—especially people scratching themselves.” In the corner of his eye, Jessica scratched behind her ear again. He didn’t dare stare at her for fear of upsetting her mother. Did the girl just have an itch?

  Please just let it be an itch.

  “Okay, I’ll keep my eyes open,” said Barbara.

  “You don’t feel any symptoms yourself, do you?” Devey asked, still forcing himself not to look at Jessica who was still scratching away behind her ear.

  Barbara shook her head. “I feel fine.”

  “Good! Okay, well, if you get any odd sensations, the best thing to do—”

  Shouts erupted, cutting him off. A scuffle had broken out and Ken the orderly was caught right in the middle. A young woman in jogging bottoms, three layers of cheap makeup, and two ounces of gold chains was thrusting her finger in his face. To Ken’s credit, he didn’t react, merely stood there motionless as she shouted at him. A nurse stood nearby in gloves and a mask.

  “You ain’t fucking touching me, you piece of shit. None of you is laying a hand on me, yeah!”

  “Calm down, miss,” said Ken. “We’re doing this to everyone.”

  “Well, I ain’t no mug like the rest of these people. You got no right to touch me. You need my permission, innit?”

  “To be honest, miss, the normal rules don’t apply right now. This is a serious situation, and we need to assess everyone here. If you’re okay, you have nothing to worry about.”

  “I’m worried about you touching my tits, you perv.”

  Ken rolled his eyes, starting to lose his patience. “A nurse will conduct the examination,” he explained. “I’m just here to help.”

  “Help yourself to this!” The woman stuck up her middle finger and stuck it in his face.

  Ken let out a long breath. Devey noticed he was clenching his fists. “If you won’t submit to an examination,” he said, “we must assume you are an infection risk. We’ll have no choice but to isolate you, miss.”

  The woman sneered, and it was obvious Ken was close to losing his shit. Who could blame him? Every person here was on the edge of losing their marbles. “You ain’t doing nuffin, you fat fuck. Touch me and I’ll break your nose.”

  Ken finally took a step, closing the distance between them and escalating things physically. “Now look here!”

  Devey took his cue and hurried over to help. He stood in front of the woman and tried to match her tone. “Just let ‘em get on with it. They’re just doing their job, innit?”

  The woman raised a painted eyebrow at him and snarled. “Who asked you to stick your nose in?”

  Devey put his hands up. “I’m trying to keep the peace. The only way we can make sure nobody is infected is by working with the doctors and nurses. Nobody else here has a problem with it.”

  She scratched at her hip without seeming to realise she was doing it. Her eyes locked on Devey. “Fuck everybody else. I have a problem with it.”

  “Because you’re infected,” said Devey, and he heard the low-level bustle of the crowd disappear into silence.

  “The fuck you talking about?”

  Devey spoke softly, trying to let her know he wasn’t her enemy. Nobody was enemies here. Circumstance was the only adversary they all faced. “Did you touch anyone with the infection?”

  “What? No, I…” she trailed off, her eyes settling on the ground.

  Devey stepped closer, trying to make it him and her and nobody else. “What do you want to say?”

  All at once, the aggression melted away and a nervous wreck took the woman’s place. “I-I… the girl with the greasy hair, the rocker… She was outside smoking and I… I asked to bum a smoke. She only had the one, so we shared it. Is she dead now?”

  Devey shook his head although he didn’t know. “She’s getting treatment, which is what you need. You have it, don’t you?”

  She reached towards her hip, hands shaking, and peeled down the waistband of her jogging bottoms, revealing a grape-sized sore. It wasn’t horrific, considering the state of the other victims, but Devey knew it was only the beginning. The woman knew it too. She was damned.

  “We’re all in this situation together,” Ken chimed in. “We want to help you.”

  The woman nodded. Tears dropped off her chin as Ken led her away. Devey noticed others being led away too. The infected were being drawn out like blackheads. “If anybody else is infected,” a doctor, not Zantoko, said loudly, “or if you are with someone who is, please come talk to us. We will do all we can to help you and your loved ones, but if you don’t come forward, you will continue to get sicker and sicker.” Three people came forward, shellshocked and stumbling, and the nurses took them away.

  “Good,” said the doctor. “Anyone else?”

  No one came forward.
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br />   “Then I ask the rest of you to remain vigilant. If you experience any kind of discomfort, come forward. If you see anyone acting suspiciously, report them so that we may help them. Thank you, that’s all.”

  Devey took a moment to check himself over. His entire body squirmed and itched, but it was likely all in his head. He checked his arms and wrists, shins and tummy. No sores. No blood. He was fine. For now.

  “Where do you think they’re taking them?” Barbara asked. Without realising, he had drifted back towards her and her daughter. Jessica was still reading comics, but looked ready to doze off. Barbara was watching the exodus with interest, a congregation led by masked nurses and doctors. “I’m not sure I trust the doctors.”

  Devey frowned. “Why not?”

  “Because they seem to be working with the people outside. Why aren’t they demanding answers, or trying to find a way out?”

  Devey folded his arms and thought about his conversation with Zantoko. “They’re focusing on the things that matter, which right now is ensuring every person in this hospital doesn’t get sick. I spoke with a doctor earlier. He didn’t expect to get shut in any more than we did.”

  She nodded. “I saw you talking. Do they know how to treat this thing?” The way she said it, her voice cracking slightly, made him suspicious.

  “I don’t know, but if we avoid getting sick in the first place, it won’t matter.”

  She nodded, a little too eagerly, and gave her daughter the briefest of side glances. “It’s all so frightening, that’s all.”

  Devey watched the little girl reading her comics. Her head swayed like she was having trouble keeping it up. She scratched behind her ear again. “Still reading My little Pony?” he asked her.

  “I’m reading a princess magazine now. It’s a bit boring, but it has stickers.”

  “How are you feeling?”

  Barbara grunted. “What are you doing?”

  He ignored the mother, cringing at his own rudeness, but knowing she would try to distract him. “Jessica, can you turn your head that way for me, please, sweetheart?”

  The little girl frowned, but she did as he asked, lifting her chin and turning her head sideways. A patch of skull poked through behind her ear, slithers of skin peeling back around the edges.

  “Get away from her!” Barbara grabbed his shirt and shoved him away. Jessica flinched, her eyes growing wide. “Mummy, what’s wrong?”

  “Everything is fine, sweetheart. Just stay there.”

  Devey stepped away and kept his voice low as he spoke Barbara. “Everything is not fine!” he hissed. “Your daughter is sick. Very sick.”

  “No, she’s not. She’s got… eczema.”

  Devey would have laughed if it wasn’t so sad. “Not eczema. You know it’s not eczema. We need to tell the doctors.”

  “No!” She snarled at him. “I’m not letting my daughter out of my sight. I’m not letting them take her away to shove her with all those other sick people.”

  “She is one of those sick people. They will let you go with her.” A death sentence for Barbara if she wasn’t already sick, but he supposed she wouldn’t care. “You won’t be apart.”

  Barbara shook her head, but it was desperation now rather than defiance. “She’s young. She’ll fight it off. All the others were old people.”

  “The girl in the Black Sabbath t-shirt wasn’t old. She was barely twenty.”

  “Still, Jessica could be fine. She might—”

  Devey cut her off. “We need to tell the doctors.”

  “Not yet! Just…” Her eyes welled up with tears. “Give her a little more time before they start sticking needles in her and scaring her. Please.”

  As he watched Jessica innocently reading her comics, he couldn’t imagine what she was about to go through. He barely knew the child, but his heart ached to think of her suffering. And if that was how he felt, how must her mother feel? He saw then, the utter, absolute dread behind Barbara’s eyes. She was keeping it together for one reason only—her daughter.

  “Okay,” he relented. “I won’t say anything yet, but you can’t let her near anybody. How did she get it, anyway?”

  Barbara shook her head. “I don’t know! Jessica is so friendly. Before everything went crazy, she was running around playing. She could have touched anyone.”

  “The woman with the funny eyebrows gave me a sweetie,” said Jessica, not bothering to glance up from her comics. “You were talking to her earlier. You made her swear lots.”

  Devey frowned. “You mean the woman I spoke to? The one they took away? The woman in jogging bottoms?”

  Jessica nodded. “She pulled her trousers down.”

  “Yeah, she did a little bit. She had a… rash. I think you have it too, Jessica.”

  She closed her comic and looked up at him. Her eyes were puffy and red. “Behind my ear?”

  Devey felt woozy. Barbara put a hand on his chest and whispered in his ear. “Just give her a little more time, please! I’ll keep her away from other people.”

  The girl needed help now, not later, but was it his call? He sighed. “Fine.”

  It was too hard to watch Jessica anymore, so he took a break and headed away from them, towards the vending machines to get a bottle of water. He swigged down the entire bottle, not having realised how thirsty he was. He got himself a chocolate bar too and wolfed it down equally fast. It put a little strength back into him, but as soon as his eyes drifted to the entrance, and the imposing metal barricades there, he deflated. How the hell had he stayed so calm throughout all this?

  Was there something wrong with him? A gaping hole inside of him that kept him losing his head like everybody else? Barbara and Jessica moved away from the wall and started moving towards the lifts. Devey knew in an instant that the mother intended to make a run for it, but what good would it do her? She couldn’t keep her daughter safe from something already in her bloodstream. But where was the harm in letting her take Jessica somewhere to hide? Maybe they could isolate themselves somewhere and die in peace.

  But what if not? What if they jeopardised healthy people? Devey looked around and studied the frightened faces of the men and women, huddled together in shock, wishing they were anywhere but here. And then he saw other children. Children who were not yet infected. Children who still had a chance.

  “Stop!” he shouted, pointing his finger at Barbara and Jessica. “That little girl is infected!”

  The low-level bustle ceased again, and the crowd looked first to Devey and then to Barbara and Jessica. Mother and daughter stopped in their tracks. Barbara’s eyes sought out Devey, and when they settled on him, there was so much hatred in her stare that he actually recoiled.

  Had he done the right thing? It didn’t feel like it.

  Dr Zantoko appeared beside Devey. “Who is infected?”

  Devey pointed again, the taste of acid in his mouth. “The little girl over there has it behind her ear. Her name is Jessica. Her mother is probably sick too by now even if she doesn’t know it.”

  Jessica looked up at her mother and muttered something. Barbara got down on her knees and hugged her. Both started to cry. Then the nurses took them away and Devey cried too.

  5

  Devey stood alone for several drawn-out minutes, his stomach wrenching itself in knots. He'd just betrayed a woman he knew nothing about, and owed nothing to, yet he’d never felt so ashamed. The look on little Jessica’s face as they’d dragged her away… The utter hatred Barbara had displayed towards him…

  “Mr Singh?”

  He turned to see Dr Zantoko with Ken. “Devey, please.”

  Zantoko nodded. “Devey then. You have been making good use of yourself and I would like to thank you for your calm head.”

  “I don’t want things to get any worse than they already are.”

  Zantoko clasped his hands together like a sage. “It is hard to think of others when you are yourself endangered—it is something doctors train many years for—yet it seems to come t
o you naturally.”

  Devey tugged at his postal uniform. “Well, as you can see, I’m no doctor.”

  “You’re one of us though,” said Ken, one hand on his belly like he had stitch. “You’re dealing with this crisis instead of being a part of it.”

  Zantoko waved a hand as if he didn’t want his orderly to do the talking. “Kenneth, there is no them and us. There is only a great deal of frightened people to whom we have a duty.” He turned back to Devey. “But the sentiment is more or less correct. You have a cool head, Devey, and you have helped tremendously already. That is why I would like to ask you to now work with the staff directly.”

  Devey didn’t understand what was being asked of him. “What do you mean?”

  “I mean,” the doctor spoke slowly, “it would be most useful to have a member of the public act as a go between. We need to impose order on this hospital before things get beyond our control. The more bodies working towards that end, the better.”

  “So I’m like a prisoner with special privileges?”

  Zantoko tittered. “Yes, I suppose so. Are you interested in helping?”

  Devey huffed. “What kind of question is that? Who wouldn’t want to help if they could? I’ll do whatever you need.”

  Zantoko clapped his hands. “Fantastic! We’re about to have a meeting in the nurse’s station. Join us, please.”

  So Devey followed Ken and Zantoko into the staff area behind the reception desk. The police officer from before had gone, but the room behind was busy with people. It was a small lounge, littered with paperwork and dirty coffee cups. When Devey saw a group of weary nurses off to one side, he remembered a past worry and turned to Ken to address it. “Is Sonja okay?”

  “In labour, mate. What a time to have a baby, huh?”

  “Yeah, I hope everything goes okay.”

  “She’s in the best hands.”

  Zantoko moved in front of a whiteboard and tapped it to get everyone’s attention. A scruffy circle drawn in marker pen took up the centre of the board, and it featured multiple L-shaped bristles coming off of it. Zantoko pointed to the drawing with his index finger. “This is what we are dealing with,” he said, and let the statement linger for a few seconds before continuing. “While it presents in a similar fashion to necrotising faciitis, in reality it is entirely dissimilar in both structure and function. From our initial studies, we can surmise the infection is not airborne. Therefore, identification and isolation is sufficient to stop transmission. You have all worked extremely hard, but we must continue to remain vigilant. Onset of symptoms is as little as two hours, so if we can go beyond that with no new cases, we may just be able to keep this thing contained. Needless to say, full-preventative measures are in place. I don’t want to see anyone handling a patient with less than two sets of gloves. Any questions?”