After lying Kate down in their bed in the second-floor master bedroom and making sure she had plenty of blankets, Rose pulled up a chair and put her feet up on the foot of the bed. It was about midday and Rose was usually fast asleep by now on any normal day. Rose could hear Kate’s soft breathing as she slept. The rhythm of her breaths were hypnotic in the otherwise quiet house. Rose’s thoughts began to drift back to yesterday and the warm afternoon she, Kate and Andy had spent laughing in the driveway. Kate perched on the hood of her truck, the sun shining through her brown hair and bouncing off her tan skin showing off all the delicate curves of her slender frame; she’d been like a shining golden goddess. If these were truly her last days, that would be the image that Rose wanted to remember her by. As she drifted off to sleep, Rose hummed a few lines of Led Zeppelin’s Tangerine to herself “I was her love, she was my queen, and now a thousand years between…”
It seemed like yesterday afternoon had been a thousand years ago. They were so happy, why did it all have to change? They had so much planned for their lives-children, anniversaries, weddings of friends, graduations...all destroyed in a single night.
The longer Rose sat there and thought, her sense of weariness dissipated, replaced entirely by a crushing feeling of loss and pain. It felt as though an overwhelming weight was slowly crushing Rose’s whole body. She couldn’t breathe, she couldn’t feel, she couldn’t even cry. She was just paralyzed with fear and sadness at the impending loss of Kate. Rose looked up at Kate who was still sleeping, completely unaware of the pain Rose was experiencing just feet away. Rose gritted her teeth so the tears, which finally felt ready to burst free, would not come. “I have to be strong, I have to help her fight this,” Rose muttered to herself. She covered her face with her hands and rubbed her eyes. “How am I going to do this?” she thought to herself. Rose leaned forward, put her elbows on her knees, and covered her forehead with her palms.
“Ok, I need to prepare for when she wakes up,” Rose thought to herself after taking a deep breath and letting the pain go. “I don’t want to be running around. I want to have everything ready so I can take care of her.”
Rose stood up from her chair and silently stretched. If she were Kate, she’d be hungry when she woke up. Who knows the last time Kate had eaten something so Rose exited the bedroom, quietly closing the door behind her. Their bedroom was at the top of the stairs on the second floor, so she could make food in the kitchen without disturbing Kate’s sleep. Rose didn’t want to make anything too fancy, but she needed to make Kate something that would fill her up. Rose wasn’t sure how many more meals Kate would want to eat once the paranoia set in. Rose decided on toast and a cheese omelet. She headed down the stairs and got to work.
A short time later, the meal complete, Rose put the food on a tray and made her way back upstairs. Luckily, Rose had a tray that she’d used for breakfast-in-bed on their one year anniversary. That had been right after they’d moved into this house. They’d been so happy then. Rose pushed that memory aside and climbed the stairs.
Rose, being extra cautious to open the bedroom door without make a sound while still holding the tray, found Kate awake but still in their bed. Kate’s eyes got big with fear as Rose entered the room. Kate didn’t move away from her, but Rose could tell that Kate was tense under the covers as if ready to jump away from her if she made any sudden movements. Kate’s eyes followed Rose as she moved into the room. Rose moved over to the foot of the bed and placed down the tray of food. “I made this for you, I thought you might be hungry,” said Rose motioning at the food.
“Thank you,” said Kate softly after a long pause. She continued to stare at Rose and didn’t move toward the food.
“I can give you some space while you eat if you’d like?” asked Rose, searching for the right thing to say.
Kate didn’t say anything but continued to stare at Rose, eyes filled with fear and now suspicion. Taking her silence for a yes, Rose slowly walked over to her chair at the foot of the bed, moved it out into the hallway outside the bedroom, and then closed the door behind her. Rose positioned the chair in front of the door and sat there.
Rose wanted desperately not to cry, but her body betrayed her as she could feel a few tears trickle down her cheeks. Kate was gone, she was still here with her, but she was another person, just a shell of her former self. After a silence that lasted several minutes, Rose could hear the sound of the plate against the tray as Kate ate the food. Rose took that as a good sign. While Kate may not remember who Rose was anymore, she was at least still willing to eat her food.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
The rest of the day and all through the night, it was more of the same. Kate didn’t appear to have the energy to do anything more than eat, drink, and sleep. Rose took several naps when Kate was asleep but she slept so lightly that even the sound of Kate tossing in bed was enough to awaken Rose at her post in the hallway outside the bedroom. Rose fed Kate several more times, but each time, the delay between when Rose delivered the food to the bedroom and when Rose could hear Kate eating was more and more each time. Kate was becoming less and less trusting of Rose and the food she was providing her.
As the sun came up on Kate’s second day of infection, Rose got up from her post at the bedroom door and went down into the kitchen to make Kate some breakfast. Rose had decided to stick to the same food for each meal since Kate had eaten it the first time and Rose felt that if the food kept changing, she might get suspicious and be less inclined to eat. Rose loaded up the tray and made her way back up the stairs toward the bedroom. As Rose came to the top of the stairs, she noticed the door to the bedroom was cracked open slightly. Rose moved closer to the door and she could see Kate peering out at her from the crack. As she got to her chair, the door slammed and she could hear Kate scramble across the room inside the bedroom. Rose slowly opened the door and found Kate crouching in the far corner of the room.
“Get away! Why are you keeping me here?” Kate screamed, tears in her eyes.
Rose placed the tray of food on the edge of the bed and then backed away from it. “Kate, I’m your wife, Jordan. I brought you food. You’re sick and I’m helping you to get better.”
“Stay away from me!” said Kate throwing a slipper at Rose, her accuracy terrible and missed Rose completely.
Rose complied by slowly backing out of the room and closing the door. Rose, as a precaution after they’d bought the home, had put locks on some of the rooms of the house when they moved in. The theory was that if someone broke into the house, their alarm system would go off and the police would be on their way. However, they lived on the outskirts of town and someone could still get into their office or bedroom and steal valuable stuff in the meantime. So Rose had installed exterior door knobs with locks on some interior doors to rooms with valuables. Kate had thought it was overkill and had chalked it up to Rose being a paranoid cop, but as Rose locked the door to the bedroom, she was glad they’d done it, even if she’d never thought they’d be using them for this purpose.
Rose resumed her post in her chair outside the bedroom door. A few minutes later, Rose expected to hear the clink of the plate as Kate ate her food. This time, however, there was no clinking but rather smashing as Kate took the tray of food and smashed it against the door. Rose’s first instinct was to open the door to see if Kate was ok, but Rose thought better of it and didn’t enter. Kate was angry.
Kate apparently wasn’t interested in sleep any longer either. Rose could hear her constantly moving around the room now, pacing back and forth, banging on the door, trying the door knob, and banging on the walls. Rose was especially worried that Kate would try and break a window, but assumed that being on the second floor was probably the only thing that was stopping her so far.
As the sun began to set, Rose stood up again from her chair to stretch. She’d been sitting for several hours listening to Kate systematically destroy their bedroom, but right now there appeared to be a lull. As the day had dragged on, Kate had become
more and more violent going from what sounded like an angry teenager destroying her room to a caged beast trying to escape captivity. Rose could still hear Kate moving around inside the room even though the destruction had stopped for the moment. After stretching, Rose moved closer to the door to try and hear what she was doing.
As Rose put her ear to the door, she heard Kate let out something between a scream and a growl and the glass of one of their windows in their bedroom shatter. Fearing that Kate was going to leap from the now-broken second story window, Rose unlocked the door as fast as she possibly could and threw open the door. A pile of debris had accumulated behind the door and was pushed out of the way as the door opened. While the lights in the room weren’t on as the lamps were in pieces, there was still enough fading sunlight for Rose to see that their bedroom was unrecognizable from the damage Kate had caused. The bed was smashed, all the dressers were smashed, clothes were strewn everywhere after having been ripped to shreds, and there was blood everywhere. Claw marks were all over the walls and there were bloody swatches on every one of them. Kate was standing in front of the broken window facing Rose. Kate was again silhouetted by the setting sun behind her, but this image was a gruesome distortion of Rose’s last happy memory of her wife. Kate’s hospital gown was bloodied and ripped and was hanging in tatters from her body, only her bra and panties remained and both were much worse for wear. Kate had her arms at her sides with her fists clenched and she was panting, wide eyes fixed on Rose. She could see that Kate was very pale and covered in a sheen of sweat. Kate’s eyes burned with an anger Rose had never seen and her upper lip was curled as she growled like a wild animal.
“Kate…” said Rose as she outstretched her hand and took a step toward her.
Answering with a scream, Kate rushed Rose and tackled her to the ground, sinking her teeth into her left bicep. Rose howled in pain and propelled Kate off of her with her legs. Luckily, Kate’s bite wasn’t deep and she didn’t rip out a chunk of flesh as she was thrown off. Kate stumbled backward, tripped over the remains of the bed and fell over onto her back. Rose stood, instinctively raising her right hand to the bite on her left arm. “Fuck,” Rose muttered as she realized that she too was now among the infected.
But Rose had little time to dwell on her future as Kate had risen and had begun to charge her again. This time Rose was ready. Kate was going in for a football-style tackle leading with her shoulder. Rose absorbed the impact moving backwards with Kate and spun around onto Kate’s back as they tumbled to the floor. Rose then pinned Kate to the ground face down with her injured left arm and she reached around to grab Kate’s right arm. Grabbing ahold Kate’s right arm, Rose bent it up against Kate’s back and up toward her shoulder blades. It was a standard police move she’d learned which usually brought a suspect under control through pain compliance. However, Kate didn’t seem to be feeling pain, so pain compliance didn’t work. Kate squirmed under her and twisted around biting Rose on the right hand. A superficial bite, but strong enough to cause Rose to pull her hand back. That provided Kate enough leverage to spin around completely so she was now lying on her back being straddled by Rose. Kate reached up and dragged her ragged nails across Rose’s chest ripping her shirt and leaving several long cuts.
Rose yelped and lept back off of Kate who was already rising for another attack. Rose was becoming winded and Kate seemed as angry as ever. This wasn’t good. Rose wasn’t used to long drawn out fights. All the fights Rose had ever been in growing up or while working had only lasted one or maybe two exchanges before they were over. Kate was out of control and showed no sign of slowing down. Rose realized that the only way she could win was to use her size to her advantage. Kate was shorter and much skinnier than Rose and she might be able to overpower Kate briefly if she could catch her off guard. Rose also had to get Kate somewhere that she could be contained for an extended time that had no windows or easy avenues of escape. Rose’s mind raced trying to think of a room in the house that would work, finally settling on the basement.
Kate was charging Rose again. Kate attempted the same football-style tackle but Rose just side-stepped her this time. As Kate stumbled by Rose, she spun in behind Kate and wrapped her arms around Kate’s torso and upper arms in a bear hug, Kate’s arms pinned to her sides and her back to Rose’s chest. Arching her back, Rose lifted Kate up off the ground so her feet were off the ground and she couldn’t get away. Kate began to flail wildly as she tried to escape Rose’s grasp, but Rose held on for dear life. Rose shuffled as quickly as she could out of the bedroom and into the hallway knocking over the chair Rose had spent the last day and a half sitting in.
Realizing that she couldn't break out of Rose’s grasp by writhing around, Kate resorted to another tactic. As Rose crested the top of the stairs, Kate leaned forward and began to rake her teeth back and forth across the top of Rose’s right hand. Rose held on tight despite the pain and half climbed, half dragged Kate down the stairs. Kate flailed and kicked knocking every picture hanging on the wall of the stairwell sending them smashing down to the bottom of the stairs. But by some miracle, Rose was able to make it to the bottom without falling and still have a tight hold on Kate pressed to her chest.
Kate was trying everything should could to get free. She went back for more teeth rakes on Rose’s right hand, kicked Rose in the knees and groin, and was ripping at Rose’s hips with her hands. Despite the pain Rose used all of her strength to hold on, singularly focused on getting Kate into the basement on the far side of the kitchen.
The kitchen was one of the reasons they’d decided to rent this house. It was bright, oversized with a large gas stove and oven, had lots of marble counter space, natural wood, and stainless steel. This modern detailing, however, was just a backdrop to Rose’s struggle as she dragged Kate to their final obstacle, the basement door. It was right off of the kitchen but like always, it was closed. How was she going to get the door open while she had both hands holding Kate? Rose considered kicking the knob off so it wouldn’t be a hindrance, but then how would she keep Kate from escaping?
Instead of kicking it off, Rose tried to bat the knob with her foot hoping it’d turn enough to open. After several attempts, Rose knew this wasn’t going to work. Rose then tried to position Kate so she could move her now bloody right hand away from Kate and quickly open the door. Rose tried this several times but couldn't let go of Kate enough to turn the knob without risking her escaping. Finally Rose had an idea...Kate was facing away from her and there was a small portion of wall between the moulding around the door and the kitchen which seemed perfectly sized. Rose moved slowly toward the wall and pressed Kate face-first into this section of wall, pinning her there with her body and her right shoulder. Quickly with her left hand, Rose reached over, grabbed the knob, and threw open the basement door. While Rose had succeeded with opening the door, she’d relinquished enough of a grasp on Kate that she was able to spin and sink her teeth into Rose’s right shoulder.
Lurching and screaming in pain, the two them fell down through the now open basement door together in a tangle of bodies. Somewhere in the fall, Kate had released the bite into Rose’s shoulder. They twisted in the air as they fell and both impacted the stairs, sliding down with Rose on her left side and Kate on her right. Both Rose and Kate slammed in the bare basement floor, Rose in a heap at the foot of the stairs as Kate tumbled off further into the basement. Kate recovered first from the fall, but made the poor choice of looking for an avenue of escape by going further into the basement. Rose, still dazed from the fall but seizing her opportunity, sprint-hobbled up the stairs and slammed the basement door closed behind her.
The basement door was, unfortunately, not one of the knobs with a lock on it. Rose grabbed a chair from the dining room and slammed it up underneath the knob. Rose then rolled over the small island from the kitchen and braced the chair with it after locking the island’s wheels in place.
With the basement door secure for now, Rose stumbled into the kitchen, slid down to a sitt
ing position in front of the refrigerator, and began to sob. Rose, now bloodied, exhausted, battered physically and emotionally and infected with Kate’s deadly disease cried harder then she had ever cried in her life. She felt like her entire physical being had been ripped apart. She was porous, her spirit felt like it was slowly seeping out of her, mixed with small streams of blood dripping down her arms, legs, and chest. Rose was broken, abandoned, and alone.
Chapter 4
Rose wasn’t sure how long she sat on the floor of the kitchen. She was distantly aware of Kate in the basement, she could hear her banging around or breaking things, and once or twice Kate had banged against the basement door, but she seemed to have given up on that avenue of escape and had moved on to something else. Rose could see out the bank of windows in the kitchen that the sun was starting to set. It’d been three days since Rose had seen Kate healthy for the last time. The image of her sitting on the hood of her truck silhouetted by the sun and the silhouetted image of her raging in the bedroom were battling in her mind. As much as Rose wanted to remember Kate the way she’d been: healthy, sexy, and most important, still herself, the new image was so horrifying and so shocking, she wasn’t sure if she could ever forget it.
Dragging herself off the floor, Rose shuffled over to the sink, drained off all energy. She poured herself a glass of water and downed it in three gulps. Rose then poured herself another glass and downed that one. Finally on the third, she drank more slowly, putting down the glass and gasping for air once empty. Rose grabbed a few protein bars from the cabinet and wandered over to the dining room table, still in a daze. Rose plopped herself down in the chair and absentmindedly opened a bar, bit it, and started chewing staring blankly out at the last gasps of the setting sun. It was another picturesque sunset full of reds, oranges and yellows cascading through the treetops.
Break Away (Jordan Rose Duology Book 1) Page 5