by Jeff Olah
Pushing away from his friend, David slid into the corner. Reaching down, he pulled his right sleeve up into his armpit, revealing two separate wounds. Swallowing hard, he looked into Ethan’s eyes. “I’m not sick and there is no getting better. This is it for me.”
Griffin turned away from the others and stared at Ethan. “He’s bitten? When the hell we’re you going to let the rest of know?”
Ethan didn’t respond. He continued to look back at David and shook his head. “This can’t be. You never… I mean you didn’t even… when did this—”
David took a deep breath as the others moved away from the control pad and stood with their backs against the rear wall of safety deposit boxes. “In the hospital, when I fell into those tables, just before you came over. I was trying to pull my fat ass out of there, and didn’t notice one of those things was behind the glass case. He got ahold of my arm and there wasn’t much I could do. You should have just let me end it there.”
“Why didn’t you say anything?” Ethan asked. “Why’d you let us keep—”
“I needed to make sure Carly was safe. It’s as simple as that. And now I need you to keep your promise.”
“What?”
“Ethan, don’t make me say the words. You know what needs to be done here. Carly can never see me like that. I wanted to do it myself and you took that opportunity away from me. Now you have to do it. And get these people out of this room before it happens.”
“Uh, we may have a problem.” Amy moved back over to the control pad. “We aren’t getting out of here anytime soon.”
“Excuse me?” Ethan said.
“You see, when the vault door is locked from the inside, the only one who has the code to open it is the manager. And well, he’s obviously not here. That’s the way your boss had this thing built. He’s a bit of a control freak, only two people have the code to open it once it’s closed. Silvio Marquez and one other person.”
“Who’s that?”
“Your sister, Emma.”
“That’s it then, we all just die in here?”
“No,” Amy said. “The door is also set to reopen every weekday at ten after five. That corresponds with the end of your route and happens regardless of who’s managing the bank. So, at five-ten that door is going to swing open automatically. Whoever or whatever is still out there is going to be let in. Let’s just pray that those things get bored and walk away within the next two hours.”
Griffin stepped forward, his hand outstretched. He held a five-foot section of audio cable that was sitting just inside the door to the vault when he entered. “Ethan, I don’t think he has two hours. I’m sorry, but we need to do something right now to make sure that the rest of us aren’t in any danger.”
Sitting forward, David began to cough, but quickly recovered. “He’s right. I don’t have two hours. I know this. The pain in my arm is gone. So is the headache and the nausea. I can’t feel my legs and your faces are all blurred. It’s mostly just shadows and sound at this point.”
Closing his eyes, David continued. “There’s thing one you need know to me for it.”
Griffin looked around the room and said to Ethan, “He’s not making any sense, he’s delirious. We need to tie him up. Those people we ran across on the mountain, they we’re turning in a matter of minutes.”
Nodding, Ethan grabbed the audio cable from Griffin and moved to David. “I’ll do it.”
Griffin stepped back and watched as Ethan looped the cable tightly around David’s wrists. “Ethan, what do we do if—I mean you’ve got to—”
Finished securing the thick cable around his friend’s wrist, Ethan finally spoke. “Yes, you’re right, but I don’t know that I’m ready to end my friend’s life just yet.”
“Ethan,” Shannon said. “It looks like he’s already gone.”
“She’s right,” Griffin said. “You’ll be doing him a favor and making sure that the rest of us—”
“Wait.” David was awake, if only for the moment. “There’s something you need to hear.”
The others looked to Ethan as he stepped forward. “David, please.”
“Ethan I’m…” His words trailed off as he lurched forward and arched his back. Blood ran from his left ear and he quickly slid into a heap on the concrete floor.
Moving in next to David, Ethan dropped his head against his friend’s chest. The room went silent as he listened. Thirty seconds turned into sixty, which turned into five minutes. Nothing. Slowly pulling away, he brought his friend’s eyelids down and stood. “No one touches him. You all understand?”
“Do it! You know what’s happening to him, just do it. You’re putting everyone at risk.” Griffin now saying what everyone was thinking.
Ethan didn’t respond.
“Give me the gun, I’ll do it.” Griffin wasn’t backing down. Since entering the vault behind the two bank employees and pulling the door shut, he had yet to let up.
Ethan turned to Griffin as the others stepped back. “Last time, keep quiet! You’re the reason we’re stuck in here. I’m not going to ask you again.”
“Oh yeah I forgot, you’re the big shot with the uniform and the badge. So tell me, what’s your plan—huh?”
Ethan began to answer, but was cut short. “You do realize that I just followed you and the others in here. And with those—those things outside the door, you’re all real lucky I even thought to shut it behind us. If I hadn’t, you’d all be dead or worse,” Griffin pointed at David. “You’d be just like him.”
Turning away, he again focused on his friend. Sliding the pistol to David’s forehead, he dropped to one knee, grabbed the back of his head, and pulled him in tight. “You don’t deserve this. It should have been me.” Ethan leaned in and placed his mouth just outside his friend’s bloodstained ear. “I will get to Carly. I will get her somewhere safe. I promise you that.”
His friend’s body began to go rigid. Ethan felt the beast that was David beginning to struggle. Leaning away and starting to stand, what little remained of his friend was now and forever gone. The wounds along his right triceps oozed a yellowish-orange fluid that leaked out into the pool of coagulated blood surrounding their feet.
Peering into David’s eyes, they were unrecognizable as human. The remaining fragments of his friend were quickly losing the battle with what had taken hold. Beginning to growl, the beast now moving slowly toward Ethan wore his friend’s face, but was not him. Pulling at his restraints, the animal that David had become fought to free itself as the group all took a step back.
Twisting against the audio cable, his left arm gave way and the resulting sound of snapping bone reverberated through the cramped vault. The realization that David had just broken his own arm in an attempt to free himself hung in the air, but what appeared to put an exclamation on the moment was the fact that his friend hadn’t even flinched. He didn’t look at the injury and only stared across the room at the five unbelieving individuals.
Turning from the others and again raising his weapon, Ethan heard their gasps only just before he realized his friend was loose. David shot forward as if out of a cannon. He slammed headfirst into Ethan’s chest, sending both men to the blood-soaked concrete floor and the nine millimeter pistol drifting into the corner.
Shielding himself from David’s snapping jaws, Ethan pulled back his legs and kicked straight up. He drove his friend’s body back into the row of safety deposit boxes and twisted right in hopes of finding the weapon he’d just dropped. No luck, the only thing in his inverted field of view were the four others, now scrambling to either side.
As Ethan moved up and onto his knees, scanning the vault for his weapon, David shot forward again. Turning away, Ethan held out his right hand, trying to deflect the initial blow. He anticipated a direct hit and assumed that following the collision, he’d again be flat on his back. He pictured being torn apart without even the most remote chance of defending himself. This is where he figured his life would end.
Clenching his jaw
, he twisted right as David lunged forward. Their bodies slammed into one another like two bags of wet sand, sending Ethan back and into the bottom row of safety deposit boxes, his head making contact first. Blinking through the pain, he attempted to take a deep breath, but failed. This was it, the end.
As his friend climbed on top and moved his way up toward Ethan’s face, his vision began to fade. Next, the low hum in his ears indicated that unconsciousness was close. If he had any hope of walking out of this bank alive, he needed to do something now. Only there was a problem. His arms were pinned down to the floor below.
With David now upright and his arms free, Ethan was only able to get glimpses of the battle he was losing. In between the shouts and screams, his mind waded in the shadows until it finally decided to give up. The last image to flash through his narrowed field was the nine millimeter he’d held to his friend’s head only moments before, and the glint of the barrel.
41
6:00 PM…
He couldn’t quite place his surroundings. It was dark and his feet were heavy, the wind on his face much cooler than he remembered. There was a brilliant pain at the top of his head, a constant pounding that radiated down into the base of his skull and between his shoulders. He sensed that he was being dragged, his boots skipping off the asphalt and moving toward a pair of glowing beacons somewhere off in the distance.
“Ethan, were going home.”
The voice was crystal clear, but he had yet to recognize its owner. Attempting to speak, he only managed a few words. “Where is my friend?”
“Come on, Ethan, keep moving. We’re almost there.”
Another voice, this time speaking to the first. “Is she okay? What did you tell her?”
A woman… he knew this person, but not well. Her tone was familiar, but the memory still clouded.
Her voice again. “How’d they clear the streets?”
“That kid standing at the door—Ben, he’s been driving up and down the block for hours. Those things finally all followed the truck away from the building.”
As the lights ahead merged into one, Ethan closed his eyes and breathed in deep. The sting of spent fuel burned the back of his throat, and the idling engine brought him back to the present. “Where is he?”
There was no response.
Turning away from the glare of the armored vehicle’s headlights, Ethan opened his eyes. He had one arm slung over Griffin and the other rested atop Shannon’s shoulders. They dragged him to the rear of the truck and sat him on the extended rear bumper. “What’s going on, where’s David?”
As the words left his mouth, Carly had turned the corner and appeared from out of his field of vision. She sat next to him on the bumper, wrapped her arms around his neck, and pulled him in close. “Ethan, he’s gone. David was bitten at the hospital and—” The moment took her. Carly began to sob heavily, thick tears running down her face and onto his shirt. “He attacked you.”
She folded into him, the two held each other and cried like they’d never before. As the memories began to come back to Ethan, he wiped his wet face and looked up. Griffin and Shannon stood ten feet away in the shadow of the full moon. With their backs to the truck, they watched as the two bank employees strode to their vehicles and drove off.
Ethan kissed Carly on the forehead and asked her if she would check on Ben and Cora. He knew if she felt like she was needed, her mind wouldn’t have much time for anything else. As she walked to the side of the truck, Ethan turned back to Griffin and Shannon. “What the hell happened in there?”
Half expecting this, Griffin said, “You know what happened, you were there. Except for the difficult part, where you hesitated and left it up to us to clean up the mess.”
“Mess?” Ethan said. “Putting a bullet into the head of someone I’ve known for my entire life, is that what you’re referring to as my mess?”
“Listen,” Griffin said, “You’re still here because of us—so maybe a little gratitude wouldn’t hurt.”
“Who did it?”
“Who did what?”
“Who killed David?”
“He was dead before he walked into that bank, you know that.”
“No,” Ethan said. “Who took my gun and actually put a bullet in his head?”
Griffin looked directly into Ethan’s eyes. “I did—there was no other way. You’d be dead right now if—”
Shannon looked at Griffin. She shook her head, turned, and walked back toward the truck.
“He was my friend,” Ethan said. “My only friend, so excuse me if I don’t thank you and shake your hand just yet.”
As the truck continued to idle, Ben appeared at the side door. “Listen guys, we’ve got to go. The last wave we cleared out is headed back this way, and I didn’t spend the last three hours clearing them for nothing. Let’s go.”
Griffin nodded. “Ethan, I understand. And I’m sorry, but I didn’t have a choice. I hope that you can trust me on that.”
“I’m trying to.”
Griffin started for the side door and Ethan followed. They climbed into the rear cabin and moved in beside the others. Ethan’s vision still a bit blurry, and the pounding in his head not yet subsiding, he took a seat against the wall as Griffin remained standing near the door.
All eyes turned to Carly as she used the sleeve of her uniform jacket to wipe away the tears and began to compose herself. “This thing… whatever it is, has the ability to wipe out all of us—every last human on this planet. The reason I say this Thing, is because no one yet knows what it is. When I got to work this morning, the emergency room was full and there were at least twenty deep waiting. To say that we were overwhelmed would be the understatement of the year.”
As Ben pulled the armored truck out into the street, Ethan sat forward. “Those people from the Chili-fest?”
“Some,” Carly said. “But also some locals too. Most were complaining of something happening out at John’s farm when they were setting up. They said they were being attacked. We just figured the drunks from the night before were getting a bit rowdy. That was until the first one passed. Bed number three, the older gentleman stopped breathing and no one even knew. He was bitten in the back and because we were so busy, no one thought to go check on him.”
Cora reached for Carly’s hand. “He ended up like the others?”
“Yes, as one of the other nurses wheeled him out of the ER, he sat straight up and—”
“So,” Griffin said, “it looks like these people that are bitten are infected somehow. Any ideas what could cause something like this?”
Shaking her head, Carly said, “It doesn’t make sense. Nothing about it does. It’s not viral, it’s not bacterial, and it doesn’t present as an antigen.”
“How do you know?”
“Well this is the part that may make your skin crawl. After about the first hour, hospital administration contacted the CDC. We were told that they were already aware of the situation and that we may need to turn away anyone showing signs of infection. They said we should have a police presence at the entrance and take whatever precautions were necessary.”
“What did they want you to do, just let people die?”
“They never really gave us specific instructions, but we found out later that they’d been dealing with this for almost a week. The scary part is that they still had no idea what it was.”
“Had no idea?”
“After about ten this morning, they stopped answering their phones, although we received a broadcast email shortly afterward that said we should take whatever measures were necessary to survive. They called this a Global Event.”
Rubbing his temples, Ethan said, “What does that mean? For us, right here right now? Could this thing eventually just run its course?”
“We just don’t know. The best thing we can do right now is to find others and get somewhere safe. Somewhere secluded maybe. But not here.”
“Why not?”
“Have any of you heard of the Xavier Brevi
n Mental Health facility? The one about an hour north, just outside Thomasville?”
“The insane asylum?” Cora said.
“Well… yes. When all this happened earlier today, they were overrun and as the gates came down, all six-hundred criminally insane patients spilled out into the streets. Last we heard, they’d completely destroyed Thomasville and were headed here.”
“So,” Ethan said, “we leave. All of us, we drive out—”
Ben pulled into the shadows and parked the truck at the end of Old Bridge Road. He turned from the driver’s seat and said, “Ethan, your phone has been blowing up. You have like a million messages.”
“It’s Emma… excuse me.”