Flesh-Eater (Book 1): Fear the Fever

by Stacey Broadbent

  “How did you...?”

  “What? You didn’t think I knew you had a girlfriend? Mothers know everything, son.” She winked. “That’s why you should never lie to your mama, I will always find out.”

  “I never lied. I just didn’t tell you is all.” Zeke grinned.

  “So you gonna tell me now?”

  “What do you wanna know?”

  “How ‘bout a name?”

  “Millie. Her name’s Millie.” He pulled a chair out and sat down. “She’s beautiful, Ma. I think you’d love her.”

  “If you love her, then I’m sure I will too.”

  “I do. I really do. She’s not like the other girls around town.” Mary raised her brow in question. “You know? She doesn’t care that I’m just a farm hand. She believes in me. She sees the real me.”

  “Just a farm hand? Honey, your father would be lost without you. You’re more than just a farm hand.” She kissed his forehead. “And who wouldn’t love the real you?” she asked, tousling his hair. “She sounds wonderful, darling. You’ll have to bring her round for tea one day.”

  “Sure!”

  “But you still need to clean yourself up before you go gallivanting.”

  “Yes, Ma.” He loped off to the bathroom.

  Mary finished washing the baking dishes from the morning, ready to start her next lot as soon as Derek got back with her supplies. She liked to have a clear work space when she was cooking.

  When Zeke emerged from the bathroom, fresh and clean, Mary couldn’t help but smile at him.

  “Much better.” She folded the tea towel up and hung it back over the oven rail. “Before I forget, I need you to set some mouse traps in the barn. Your father was bitten by one this morning. He thinks there might be a nest and we don’t want all that food to get spoiled.”

  “No worries, Ma. I’ll go do that now.”

  “Be sure to spread them out. We need one in the pantry as well.”

  “Okay.” He trotted down the steps and ran to the barn. Mary stood on the porch and stretched her arms above her head. It had been a long morning and she was beginning to feel a little worn out.

  The shrill sound of the phone ringing, interrupted her thoughts. Taking one last look over the fields, she hurried to grab it before it stopped.

  “Hello?”

  “Mary, it’s Bill from the pharmacy. You need to get down to the hospital. It’s Derek.”

  “What? What happened? Is he okay?”

  “I’m sorry, Mary. He’s had a bad turn. He came in to see me not long ago, saying he thought he might’ve poisoned himself? He looked terrible. It was all of five minutes later and he was out cold.”

  Mary put her hand to her mouth. “Oh my God! I’ll be right there. Can you stay with him till I get there?”

  “Of course. I’ll see you soon, Mary.”

  She hung up the phone with shaky hands. Tears were spilling over and running down her cheeks. She undid the knot at the back of her apron, and threw it on the table. Grabbing her coat and keys, she ran out the door, yelling out to Zeke.

  “Zeke! Zeke!”

  “What is it, Ma?” He came running out of the barn at the sound of her voice.

  “It’s your father! He’s in the hospital!” she sobbed.

  “Oh shit! Is he okay?”

  “Ezekiel Dawson, watch your language,” she reprimanded.

  “Sorry, Ma. Here, I’ll drive.” He took the keys from her trembling hands.

  “Thanks.” She patted his cheek, forcing a smile on her face.

  Zeke parked the Land Cruiser and they both bolted towards the hospital entrance. Mary’s face was flushed and her eyes bloodshot from her tears. She ran up to the receptionist.

  “My… my husband…”

  “Mary, it’s okay. He’s in room seven.”

  Thank you,” she whispered. Zeke held her elbow, helping to support her along the corridor. When they found his room, a nurse was just leaving. “Is he… Is he okay?”

  “I’m sorry, it doesn’t look good. He seems to be in some sort of coma. The doctor is running tests. Has he been exposed to anything toxic?”

  “Um… not that I know of.” She looked at Zeke.

  “He did some crop dusting last night, but he’s generally very careful around that stuff. Always has the safety gear on when dealing with chemicals.”

  “Hmm. I’ll let the doctor know. It may be useful.”

  “Oh! Bill. Is he here? He said that Derek had thought he might’ve poisoned himself? It must be the pesticide he was talking about.”

  “The doctor asked Bill to leave while he ran some tests. I think he went to get some coffee,” the nurse said. “Anything else you can think of”

  Mary thought for a moment. “He got scratched by a mouse this morning. Don’t they carry the plague or something?”

  The nurse smiled, and placed her hand on Mary’s arm. “I’m sure it’s not the plague. Thank you for the information though. It might be what we need to diagnose him.” She gave a gentle squeeze of her hand, before turning down the corridor.

  Mary cautiously opened the door to Derek’s room. He was hooked up to an IV drip and a heart monitor was blipping next to the bed. He looked as though he had aged in the short time he had been in town. His face was grey and drawn.

  She clutched his hand in hers. “Come on you silly old fool,” she snivelled. “You can wake up now.”

  “Yeah, come on Dad. You’ve had your fun. Time to get up.” Zeke joined in. He stood awkwardly by his side, unsure whether to touch him or not.

  Mary turned her head to the side, coughing into her elbow. Zeke hadn’t noticed before, but she wasn’t looking too good herself.

  “Ma? You alright? You want me to get you some water?”

  “Thank you, dear.” She smiled, not taking her eyes from her husband’s face.

  “I’ll be right back.” He walked out the door and back down to reception.

  Mary stroked Derek’s hand. She bent her head down to kiss his palm and hold it to her face. “Come on, darling. Please wake up. I don’t know what I’d do without you.” Her body shook as she sobbed. “Please stay with me,” she whispered. She lay her head on the bed.

  The heart monitor continued blipping, the gap between each one, becoming longer.

  “Nooo!” Mary wailed. “Don’t you dare leave me Derek Dawson!”

  Blip…blip…..blip…….blip……………blip………………

  The blips turned into one long sound as Derek’s heart stopped.

  “Ma?” Zeke stood in the doorway, holding a cup of water.

  “No, no, no!” Mary cried. “Somebody help!”

  “Help! Nurse!” Zeke called out the door. A doctor came running into the room.

  “I need you to step away, Ma’am.”

  “No! I’m not leaving him!”

  “Ma’am, you’re not helping. I’m trying to save his life, you need to give me some space.”

  Zeke gripped her shoulders and pulled her towards the door. She spun around, clutching him, crying uncontrollably.

  “I can’t lose him!”

  “Somebody get them outta here!” the doctor yelled to one of the nurses. They were ushered out the door, to wait in the corridor. Mary stood watching through the window, her hand clamped over her mouth, while Zeke paced back and forth.

  One of the doctors was pumping Derek’s chest with his hands while a nurse was preparing the crash cart. Mary watched as they rubbed the paddles together.

  “Clear!” Everyone backed away and Derek’s back arched with the jolt. Mary wrung her handkerchief in her hands, her eyes to the heavens, whispering a silent prayer for her husband.

  “Clear!”

  Her vision blurred as tears poured from her eyes. She couldn’t bear seeing her husband like that, and yet she didn’t dare take her eyes away in case she missed something.

  “Clear!”

  His body arched up once more, and lay back, still again. The heart monitor continued to scream its s
olitary note. She watched as a nurse nodded, and switched the monitor off. Mary shook her head in disbelief.

  The doctor came out into the corridor.

  “I’m so sorry. We did all that we could.”

  Mary crumpled to the floor. “No, this can’t be happening. He was fine when he left home! He was fine! You need to try again!”

  Zeke stopped pacing. He went to his mother and enveloped her in his arms.

  “They need to try again,” she cried into his shirt. “He can’t be gone.”

  They sat there, in each other’s arms, rocking back and forth, weeping for the man they had both lost.

  When their tears had subsided, and they had somehow composed themselves, Mary and Zeke quietly walked hand-in-hand back into the room. They edged towards the bed. Mary squeezed Zeke’s hand before stepping closer. She needed to see for herself. See that it wasn’t all a misunderstanding. That her husband wasn’t just playing some elaborate trick on them.

  She gently stroked his face with her fingers. “I’m sorry I wasn’t here for you when you needed me.” She brushed his hair away from his eyes. “I love you so much.” She looked over at Zeke who had slowly shuffled up to the other side of the bed. He was trying so hard to be strong. She reached out and grabbed his hand. “It’s okay, son. You can touch him. Say goodbye.”

  He nodded, looking down at his father, a frown creasing his brow. His eyes darted between Derek and Mary.

  “Ma?” he said. “He just opened his eyes.”

  DEREK

  He lay on the bed in the hospital, hearing people go in and out of his room, poking and prodding. No matter how hard he tried, he couldn’t seem to get his body to do anything. He couldn’t even flicker his eyelids. He’d heard them say he was in a fever-induced coma. That would explain it.

  The unmistakable sound of his wife’s voice rang down the halls. He could hear her tiny footsteps as she came closer and took his hand. He wanted so much to be able to squeeze her hand, and tell her everything would be okay, if only his damn body would co-operate.

  She had been crying. He could hear it in her voice, and feel the dampness of her cheeks as she rubbed his hand over her face. He hated making her cry.

  She felt hot, but he didn’t know if it was just his fever making it feel that way. He hoped he hadn’t made her sick as well. She had been coughing. That was where things had gone downhill for him. Oh God! What about Zeke? Was he sick too?

  Wake up!

  Wake up!

  Sudden sharp pains hit his stomach. If he could, he would’ve been writhing around the bed to get away from the excruciating pain. He had never felt anything like this in his entire life. It was as though he was being eaten from the inside. It was too much to bear. “This is it,” he thought. “I’m dying.”

  Electrifying jolts to his chest made his body flop about on the bed, but he still couldn’t wake up. Couldn’t move of his own free will.

  Again… and again he was jolted. The electrical currents coursing through his veins.

  He heard them call time of death, which was odd seeing as he didn’t feel dead. He thought it would be different.

  He heard Mary wailing in the hallway.

  He heard Zeke’s soft cries muffle into hers.

  Why could he still hear them, if he was dead?

  Something was happening to him. He couldn’t explain it, but he definitely wasn’t dead. He tried again to wiggle his fingers, but no such luck. He needed to get them to see that he was still alive! There was no way he was going to let them bury him like this!

  The stomach pains were back again. Stabbing pains, like sharp teeth ripping at his flesh.

  Mary and Zeke were by the bed again. He could smell them. Not the way he remembered though. There was a different scent mingling in the air. He couldn’t quite put his finger on it.

  “Ma? He just opened his eyes.”

  Realising that he had in fact done that, he blinked, focusing his eyes on his son.

  His stomach gurgled.

  Blood. That was what he could smell. Blood pumping through their veins. It smelled…

  Divine.

  He attempted to move his hand again and this time managed to curl his fingers around Zeke’s arm, pulling him in close. The look of fear in his eyes made him pause a moment, but that intoxicating smell was so hard to ignore.

  “Derek?” He turned to look at Mary, who was also staring in disbelief. He reached out for her. His fingers wrapping around her wrist tightly. He wanted to hold her, even if just for one more moment. He pulled her towards him. Her scent was even stronger than Zeke’s. So enticing.

  He couldn’t understand the burning inside of him. He wanted… he wanted… to… taste them? Before he realised what he was doing, he lashed out, his teeth sinking into the flesh of Mary’s arm. He was hungry for their blood, and he couldn’t contain it.

  “Oh God! What have I done?” he thought to himself, as his jaw continued to rip at her arm. She was screaming, but no matter how hard he tried, he couldn’t pull away.

  And then everything went black. He could feel no hunger. No pain. Just… nothing.

  ZEKE

  Zeke dropped the chair he had swung at his father’s head. He hadn’t meant to hit him so hard, but he had to do something to stop him from hurting his mother.

  His mother.

  He looked up, seeing the anguish in her eyes as she cradled her bloody arm, staring at her husband with her mouth gaping open.

  “Ma? Are you okay? Did I hit you?”

  Her mouth moved, but only a small moan came out. She was shaking her head slowly and kept flicking her eyes between Derek’s caved-in skull and Zeke.

  “Ma?” Zeke moved closer to her. “Ma, we need to get that looked at.”

  “He bit me!” she managed to blurt out. “Why? Why would he do that?” She looked at Zeke with tears in her eyes.

  “I don’t know, Ma.” He reached out for her elbow, guiding her to sit down. “I’m going to get a doctor, okay? You sit and rest.”

  “Is… is he… dead?” she whispered.

  Zeke looked back at the body on the bed. He had grey, almost opaque skin, with veins protruding out of his arms. One side of his face was sunken in, where Zeke had hit him. His mouth was smeared crimson with the blood of his mother. The one eye that was still visible, was no longer blue, but red in colour. Whatever that ‘thing’ was, it was not his father anymore, and it definitely was dead.

  “Yeah, Ma. I’m sorry. I had to… I had to make him stop.”

  “I know, baby. I know.” She patted his hand, as tears careened down her face.

  “I need to get a doctor for your arm, Ma.”

  “Wait.” She looked up, scared. “We can’t do that.”

  “Ma, look at it! There’s a hole in your arm! There’s blood everywhere. I don’t know what to do! How to fix it!”

  “Zeke. Baby, calm down and think for a minute,” she said calmly, as the situation sunk in. “They told us he was dead. No-one will believe that he just sat up and… and bit me.”

  “They have to believe us, it’s the truth!”

  “Would you believe it?” She turned her head away, coughing.

  Zeke frowned. Would he believe it? She was right. They would sound crazy. “What do we do?” he asked.

  “I don’t know. But we can’t stay here.”

  “What about…?” He motioned to the bed again.

  “There’s nothing we can do for him now, son.” She sniffed, composing herself. Her main priority now, was saving Zeke. “I need you to rip a strip off his sheet and wrap it around my arm. We need to stop the bleeding if we’re going to get out of here.”

  Zeke hurried over to the foot of the bed, trying to avoid seeing the staring red eye. He carefully ripped a couple of strips off the sheet and wound them around Mary’s arm.

  “Good, now tie a knot. Make it nice and tight.” She winced as he did as she asked.

  “Sorry, is it too tight?”

  “No, it’s fine. I’
ll be fine.” She looked at him, with determination in her eyes. He could see that she was lying though. Her face had drained of all colour, she had lost too much blood already.

  “Can you stand?” he asked.

  “I don’t really have much choice, do I?” She offered a small smile, before she was racked with another coughing fit.

  “Here, lean on me, I can help.”

  “You’re such a good boy.” She reached up and stroked his face. He looped his arm under hers and around her back, to support her.

  “Ready?” he asked.

  “Yep.” She stood, shakily. Zeke shifted his grip so he could support more of her weight.

  “Is there a back door?”

  “No, I don’t think so. We’re going to have to walk out the front.”

  “But…”

  “Listen, my husband just died. They’re not going to stop us. Just make sure you cover my arm with yours, like you’re consoling me.”

  “Okay.” He gathered her in his arms, and guided her to the exit. He paused, letting her cough, before opening the door. He stuck his head out, looking both ways to see if anyone was coming. “Coast is clear.”

  Mary nodded. She shuffled her feet along with Zeke. Her body was hunched over and shaking. She began to sob, quietly at first, gradually increasing in volume, the closer they got to reception. Zeke pulled her in tighter, resting his head on hers.

  “It’s going to be okay, Ma,” he said, rubbing her shoulder. “We’re going to be okay.”

  Mary had been right, people were giving them a wide berth. The front door was within his sights. Only a few more steps.

  “Mary? What’s happened?” Somebody stepped in front of them. “You look terrible.” Mary sniffed, looked up with wet eyes, and began to wail. A heart-breaking sound that would haunt Zeke for the rest of his life. He pulled himself together and held her tighter, stepping around the wide-eyed do-gooder.

  “Sorry, I need to get her home.” They shuffled out the door, making a beeline for their car.

  The clouds had turned black and the first drops of rain were beginning to fall. Zeke unlocked the passenger door, helping Mary to climb in. He strapped her seat belt on for her, careful not to knock her arm. Blood was already beginning to seep through the make-shift bandage. He was worried that she wouldn’t make it.