Devour: Death & Decay Book 1

by R. L. Blalock

  Corey rubbed his hands over his head. “I guess I didn’t help.”

  “You were kind of an asshole yourself.”

  “Fair enough.” Corey looked down at his lap.

  “Well then, if you two are done, I’m going to go gather a few things.” Liv pushed herself up. The chair she had been sitting in didn’t push out as far as she had expected. She rocked forward, her gloved hand falling across Shawn’s wound.

  “Oh my god!” She quickly pulled her hand back, not wanting to cause more pain.

  “You ok?” he asked calmly.

  For a moment, she only stared at him in shock. “Are you ok?” she finally managed.

  “I’m not the one who almost biffed it.”

  “You didn’t feel that?”

  “Feel what?”

  Liv stared at him. How could he not have felt it?

  “I’m just”—she struggled to collect her thoughts—“I’m just going to go grab a few things.”

  She dashed straight for the kitchen. After tiptoeing through the blood-splattered floor, she tore through the cabinets. A large bowl. Some towels. A bottle of the highest-proof alcohol she could find. A box of toothpicks. She let the faucet in the kitchen run until the water was too hot to touch and filled the bowl. From the bathroom, she grabbed a handful of Q-tips.

  “I want to try something, if you don’t mind.”

  “Whatever floats your boat.”

  “Ok, so I want you to close your eyes. I’m going to use the Q-tips to lightly brush your skin and the toothpicks to give you a little poke. Just tell me when you feel something and whether it’s sharp or soft, alright?”

  “Alright,” Shawn said slowly and closed his eyes.

  Liv pulled at the end of a Q-tip so the cotton feathered out in light, fluffy curls. First, she dragged the wisps of cotton around the skin closest to the wound. Shawn said nothing. Slowly she made a spiral around the wound that broadened with each pass.

  “Are you going to get started?”

  “Almost ready,” Liv murmured.

  She frowned and set down the Q-tip. Picking up one of the toothpicks, she gently poked at the skin around the wound. Nothing.

  Zigzagging down his calf, Liv poked and prodded until she reached Shawn’s foot. Still no response.

  Using the same pattern, she started making a wobbly line up his calf from the wound towards his thigh.

  “Sharp,” Shawn finally announced when she reached about midway up his thigh.

  Liv’s frown deepened.

  One final test.

  “Ok, I-I would like to try one last thing but it may hurt. I don’t think it will but…”

  “One last thing? Didn’t we just start?” Shawn’s eyes came open.

  Liv shook her head. To demonstrate, she once again poked the toothpick up and down his leg. “I was working the whole time.”

  Shawn stared down at his leg like it had suddenly turned into a snake. “I didn’t feel anything.” His eyes darted from his leg to Liv and back again, a deep frown settling across his face.

  “Do you mind if I try one last thing?” Shawn just nodded dumbly, still staring at his leg. Liv disappeared from the room and reappeared a few seconds later with a knife from the kitchen.

  Liv’s hands trembled as she took her seat again, knife in hand. She was nervous. Afraid. She didn’t want to hurt him and she didn’t think it would. But the thought still nagged at her. “Just a small cut.”

  Shawn looked her over and finally nodded.

  “Just tell me if you feel anything. Even if you can’t, it won’t be more than a little cut.” He watched as she pressed the tip of the knife to his leg just inches from the bite where the skin should have been the most tender. At first, she only applied a little pressure. Just enough to dimple the skin.

  She looked to Shawn for any indication that he could feel the blade, but he shook his head. Little by little, Liv applied more pressure. Still Shawn said nothing. Suddenly, at the tip of the knife, a small red bead formed and grew.

  Liv sat back, releasing the pressure and dropping the knife to the floor. “Nothing? Nothing at all?”

  Finally, she gave in and ripped off the gloves to run her fingers nervously through her hair.

  “What does it mean?” Shawn finally asked.

  “It means that the nerves in your skin that perceive pain and pleasure are dying.” Liv sighed.

  Corey suddenly sat up straight. “That’s why the infected don’t notice when you lop off a limb.”

  They sat in silence for a moment, lost in their own separate thoughts.

  “I think I would like another drink now,” Shawn finally announced. Liv picked up one of the bottles from the nightstand and held it to his lips. After a couple swallows, she started to pull the bottle away.

  “I didn’t say stop.” He downed the rest of the bottle.

  Day 3

  3:12 pm

  “Liv!” Someone was shaking her. “Wake up!” There was panic in their voice.

  Her eyes flew open. “Where’s Elli?” She sat up so fast her head almost collided with Corey’s.

  “She’s fine. Jen’s watching her.” Liv was momentarily shaken that Elli had woken and been taken from the room while she slept only a few feet away. The thought that she had slept so heavily in a world so fraught with danger was jarring. “Something is happening with Shawn.”

  With that, she sprung up and braced herself for the worst. She snatched up the gloves, pulling them on in the few steps it took to get to Shawn’s room.

  He looked paler. Sweatier. Tired. He looked scared.

  “What’s wrong? What’s happened?” She immediately took hold of his leg and began to examine the bite mark.

  “I can’t remember my dad.”

  Liv’s eyes shifted from the torn flesh to his face. “What?”

  “I can’t remember my dad,” he said slowly. His mouth opened and closed as if he wanted to say more, but nothing came out.

  Her brain stalled as she tried to figure out what was really happening. “What do you mean? You can’t remember his name?”

  “I mean I can’t remember him at all. For my ninth birthday, he led me on a treasure hunt for my gift. It took forever.” The exasperation his voice mirrored that of a nine-year-old boy anxious for his gift. “It had all been a ploy to get me out of the house so my mom could set up my party. When we finally ended up back home, he pulled out my gift.” His words stopped as he became lost in the memory. “It was a Gameboy. I was so excited that all I could do was stare at it.” His brow furrowed. “I can remember all of it. Except my dad. He’s just a fuzzy, gray blob. Like if I could just focus a little harder he would resolve and I could actually see him.”

  Tears welled up in the corners of his eyes. “I can’t remember his name. Or what he looked like. I can’t remember the sound of his voice. It’s like he was erased from all my memories. Like he was never there. Like I never knew him.”

  Liv took hold of Shawn’s hand, awkward though it was with him being cuffed to the bed.

  “Alright. Just take a deep breath.” She gave his hand a squeeze. “Try to think. Think about other things you did with your dad, about a conversation you had with him, anything else.”

  “Don’t you think I’ve tried?” Shawn growled. “He not there. Just a gray blob and a garbled voice.”

  “Alright,” Liv said patiently, trying to figure out what to do. Assessing memory was a complex task. Assessing the cause of memory problems was even more complex. MRIs and blood tests were just some of the things she had absolutely no access to that were crucial in uncovering the cause.

  “I-I…”

  She looked into Shawn’s eyes, which were pleading with her to give him answers. Pleading for her to make it better. She nervously pulled at her hair with her free hand. This was beyond her.

  She took another breath and steadied herself. “Is there anything else that seems to be missing from your memory?”

  Shawn leaned back, his eyes darting b
ack and forth as if searching the ceiling for the answer. “I don’t know.” He was silent for a minute. “How am I supposed to know what I don’t know? If I can’t remember something, how can I know that?”

  There had to be something she could do.

  “Is this what’s going to happen to me?” Shawn’s words were strained. “Not only are the people I care about physically stolen from me, but the memories of them are going to be stolen as well.”

  She had to say something, but what? “I don’t know.” The words were feeble. It was possibly the stupidest thing she could have said. “We won’t leave. We won’t leave you alone.”

  “It doesn’t matter,” he said morosely. “I will be alone. In the end, it’s going to take everything. I won’t even be me.” His breathing quickened and the words began to tumble out. “I don’t want to do this. I don’t want to lose everything. Please, don’t let that happen.”

  Then suddenly, he stopped. His face relaxed and his eyes slowly slid shut.

  “Shawn!” Liv jumped up and shook his shoulder. A split second later, Corey was opposite her on the other side of the bed. He didn’t try to rouse Shawn. Instead, he stood there, knife in hand. Ready for the change.

  Shawn’s eyes fluttered open. Sleepily, he looked between Liv and Corey.

  “What’s wrong?” he asked. “Is everything alright?”

  Liv and Corey exchanged a glance. “What do you remember?” she asked. “Just now.”

  “I don’t know.” Shawn seemed perplexed by the question. “I guess I dozed off for a while.”

  Liv motioned for Corey to stop as he tried to say something. “What about your father?”

  “My father?” Shawn snorted and laughed. “What about him? I never knew the man.”

  Day 3

  5:57 pm

  Exhaustion made Liv’s eyes droop as she sat by Shawn’s bed. He was asleep for now. He didn’t look good. His breathing was quick and shallow. His heart raced as though he had been running a marathon. Sweat glistened on his skin, making his hair cling to the edges of his face. As good as he had seemed to be doing earlier, now he looked like he might succumb to the infection at any minute.

  Liv had taken brief breaks from the bedside vigil to spend time with Elli. The little girl was blissfully unaware of the man dying in the next room. Her peals of laughter echoed throughout the otherwise silent house. A stark contrast to the melancholy in Shawn’s bedroom.

  “What are we going to do?” Corey asked. He had never left his seat at Shawn’s bedside. He sat dutifully with his elbows resting on his knees, as much to keep the dying man company as to protect the others from the fiend he would turn into.

  Liv rubbed her face wearily. “There isn’t anything we can do.” There was an edge to her voice. Not caused by anything Corey had said or done, but simply by her frustration at their helplessness. “I’m sure if there was any way to stop what he’s going through it would be splattered all over the news and radio.”

  “I wasn’t talking about helping him.” Corey’s words were gentle and without malice. “I think it’s safe to assume that in the not-too-distant future, Shawn is going to change. When that happens, he is going to try to take a bite out of every one of us. We need to decide what we are going to do.”

  “He’s handcuffed to the bed. Unless he rips his own arms off…” Her words trailed off. Would he do that? Could he do that? If the infected didn’t feel pain, would he just throw himself at them until his arms ripped straight from their sockets and he was free to latch on with his teeth?

  “You just want to leave him here chained to the bed?” Liv’s stomach lurched. What would happen to him then? Would he just languish there for the rest of eternity? Or could the infected starve? What kind of a death would that be?

  “Are you suggesting we kill him?”

  “I don’t know that we have any other choice, really.” Corey pushed himself back to slouch in the chair. “I know it sounds gruesome, but once he changes he is just going to be like all the others. He is going to try to kill us. Or at least he’ll want to.”

  Liv rubbed her face. She didn’t want to think about. Didn’t want to deal with it.

  “I can do it.” His voice was tired but there was resolve in his face. “There is no need for you or Jen to have to deal with this. I just think we all need to be in agreement that it has to be done.”

  Corey had placed a lot on his shoulders since the world had started to crumble. Though his insistence that he always take the lead might outwardly appear misogynistic, like a strong man helping the defenseless ladies, she could see in his eyes that he didn’t feel that way.

  It was fear. More than anything, he was afraid that he might lose them. That if he failed, what was most important to him would be ripped away. It was his job to protect them. Any loss was his personal failure. If they died and he could have prevented it in any way, he wouldn’t be able to bear the guilt. And it would slowly destroy him.

  Shawn’s eyes flickered a few times and then opened. Despite his appearance, his eyes were alert. Not sleepy or dazed.

  Her heart still heavy from their conversation, Liv took his hand. She wanted him to feel connected. To know that even though he had asked them to stay that they were here because they wanted to be. Because they cared. Now, it was all she could offer him. “How do you feel?”

  “The crow speaks to us all. We just pretend not to hear it.” His eyes grew wide. Liv could see the concentration on his face as he tried again. “The waves kiss the earth, but the earth does not return its delight.” His eyes became wild and fearful.

  Liv’s breath hitched and she looked to Corey. He shrugged a bit and looked back to Shawn.

  The words chilled Liv’s blood. They were ominous and dark. Almost as if he were speaking from somewhere else.

  “Shawn,” Liv said, squeezing his hand, “is that what you meant to say?”

  He concentrated for a couple seconds as his mouth opened and closed. Overcome by exhaustion, he relaxed back against the pillow and shook his head.

  “It’s alright.” Liv was relieved her voice remained level. Thoughts swirled as she tried to find something, anything, she could do. She didn’t know him hardly at all. But as one person to another, she wanted to help him.

  Before her, a man was dying. All she could do was sit and watch as everything was slowly taken from him. His loved ones. His memories. His ability to speak with others. Eventually, it would take his life. He wouldn’t stop breathing. His heart wouldn’t stop beating. But nothing would be left of who he once was.

  In his place would be a vicious killing machine. Incapable of feeling pain. One that couldn’t be reasoned with.

  This was his fate.

  Day 3

  6:47 pm

  Liv cradled Elli in her arms. The little girl’s soft, warm body felt good against her chest. Feather-like wisps of her downy hair tickled Liv’s nose as she rested her chin on top of Elli’s head. The only sound was a quiet, rhythmic slurping as Elli sucked on her binky.

  “Liv!” Jen entered quietly but there was an edge of desperation in her voice. Her eyes were wide and frightened. “Shawn and Corey need you right now.”

  Jen stretched out her arms to take Elli. Sensing the distress, Elli arched and screamed her protest as she grabbed large wads of Liv’s shirt in her fist.

  “I’m sorry, baby,” she whispered, planting a kiss on Elli’s forehead before disentangling herself from the enraged little being and handing her to Jen.

  When Liv entered the room, she knew.

  It was time.

  Shawn’s eyes were closed as he tried to draw in breath with deep, rasping gasps. His entire body was rigid and tense. But he wasn’t sweating. Not anymore. Instead, his skin was dry and papery. That couldn’t be a good thing.

  “Shawn!” She ran to the bed. “Shawn, can you hear me?” No response.

  She reached over for his wrist and quickly found his pulse.

  Bum. Bum. Bum. Bum. Bum. Bum. Bum. Bum. Bum. Bum.
Bum. Bum. Bum. Bum.

  It was racing so fast she couldn’t even begin to count the beats. Her fingers moved from his wrist and she reached for his neck, hoping to get a better count from the stronger beat of his carotid artery.

  Bum. Bum. Bum. Bum. Bum. Bum. Bum. Bum. Bum. Bum. Bum. Bum. Bum. Bum.

  “What happened?” she asked Corey.

  “Nothing.” He shook his head, as if to reinforce the point. “I was just talking. Ya know, just trying to fill the silence and he started gasping like he couldn’t breathe.”

  Bum. Bum. Bum. Bum. Bum. Bum. Bum. Bum. Bum. Bum. Bum. Bum. Bum. Bum.

  “Shawn!” She briskly rubbed her knuckles on his sternum. It didn’t hurt, but it was a mildly unpleasant feeling meant to rouse someone. “Shawn, open your eyes. Look at me!”

  Suddenly, Shawn let out a long ragged breath and the gasping stopped. He stilled. Liv stared at him for a moment, holding her own breath.

  His chest didn’t rise again to drawn in another breath.

  “Damn it! Shawn!” She rubbed his chest again harder, but just as before, there was no response. “Come on, Shawn. Open your eyes and look at me.”

  “Be careful what you ask for, Liv.” Corey was directly opposite her on the other side of the bed. “I think you should leave.”

  “No,” she growled. “Not yet.”

  Her fingers fluttered to his neck. The same artery that had been thrumming out of control just seconds earlier was now silent and still.

  “Shawn!” She patted his face, perhaps a little harder than she should have.

  Suddenly, his eyes flew open. His bloodshot eyes darted towards Liv. A blood-curdling shriek ripped from his throat. His lips pulled back to bare his teeth, and he threw himself at her. There was a terrible crunch and his left arm twisted around and was pulled from its socket.

  Liv threw herself back, slamming painfully against the wall. Corey lunged forward and wrestled Shawn back down to the bed.

  With a new and closer target presented, Shawn’s attention shifted to Corey. It was already too late. Corey drew back the knife and punched it into Shawn’s eye. The room instantly fell silent, except for their heavy breathing.