by Alex Apostol
He lunged forward to stand in front of her. With her head down, her face was hidden in the shadows of her dark hair. The desperate urge to see her blue-green eyes overwhelmed Lee. She continued to look down at the squawking bundle in her arms as if her husband weren’t there.
Lee reached out and took the baby in his arms. Anna didn’t fight him to hold onto it. She continued to sit with her head down, her hands folded in her lap. Slowly, Lee unwrapped the dirtied blue blanket. It seemed to go on forever, never revealing what it was his wife had wrapped so tightly in there. As he removed the last bit of cloth, it fell to the floor.
The crying had stopped. In his arms he held nothing.
All at once, he understood what was happening. He’d had similar nightmares like this before, all involving a crying child he could never find, though none had been in his own home before and none had felt so real. Tears gathered in his eyes. He forced them back down as he lowered his cradled arms. He gave a loud sniff that shattered the new heavy silence of the room.
He wiped at his eyes with the backs of his hands. “This isn’t real”, he kept telling himself in a hushed tone. “This isn’t real.”
When his eyes were finally cleared he looked to his wife. His breath caught in his chest. A shiver ran down arms.
“Anna?” he asked hushed, as if he spoke too loud she would break into a million pieces.
She was no longer looking down, but staring forward. Black tears stained her porcelain cheeks like two thick rivers. Her mouth was wrenched opened as wide as it could go, but not a single sound escaped.
Lee lowered himself and placed both hands on her shoulders cautiously. “Anna?” he said again softly.
Her face remained petrified except for her eyes, which moved slowly from the spot in the corner until they found Lee.
He held his breath. He didn’t dare make a move. What he was afraid of, he didn’t know. This was his wife. She would never hurt him. But as he continued to stare into her unsettling face, he realized it wasn’t himself he was afraid for…it was for her.
“Anna, honey—”
The room filled with an unearthly shriek. Lee fell back and covered his ears with his hands. When he opened his eyes, he saw his wife still frozen, her eyes widened, her cheeks stained, and her mouth agape. The only difference was he could finally hear her scream.
IV.
Lee shot up in bed, sweat pouring down his face and neck. His chest heaved heavily as he looked around. Sun shone through the blinds he had forgotten to close. He looked around to make sure everything was as it should be. Only then did his breathing soften.
“You’re finally up!”
Lee jumped off the bed, his heart racing again.
His wife was leaning against the doorframe with her arms folded across her chest. Her face was warm and smiling. “Come on downstairs. I made you eggs and coffee.” She turned and headed for the stairs before he could say anything.
Lee rushed after her. He leaned over the banister to see her bounce down to the kitchen in that perfect way she always did. It took every ounce of effort to push the nightmare from his mind as he followed her down. His hands ran through his damp hair ceaselessly until he reached the bottom.
“In here, silly,” she called out.
Lee stood in the empty kitchen. The strong scent of coffee wafted up his nostrils. He stared at the door to the living room.
“Come on, Lee! I have something I want to show you.” Her sweet voice beckoned to him.
When he pushed the door opened, he couldn’t breathe. He was sure his heart had stopped.
“Surprise!” Anna called out.
Tears collected in the corners of Lee’s eyes as he took in the site of pink balloons and a banner over the fireplace.
It was a girl. Anna was pregnant.
All restraint left him. Tears streamed down his face. With three great strides, he moved to his wife and picked her up in his arms to hug her close.
“I didn’t want to get your hopes up by telling you too early in case it didn’t stick, and—”
He cut her off when he planted his lips firmly onto hers. All his worries lifted. Her parents’ hatred for him no longer mattered. He was going to be a father.
When he pulled back he saw that Anna was crying as well. Her mascara mixed with her tears to run down her cheeks. He was momentarily unsettled by déjà vu. With the excitement of the news, he had forgotten the dream, but somewhere in the farthest recesses of his mind it lingered. She flicked the tears away with a smile. “How about that coffee?” she said with a breathy laugh. “I can have a small cup.”
Lee used the ends of his work-shirt sleeves to wipe beneath his wet eyes. He stared down at his wife softly. “I love you so much,” he said firmly, slowly, impressing his emotions into every syllable.
“You’re happy, then?”
“I’ve never been happier.”
Anna stood on her tiptoes to brush a strand of his dark hair away from his eyes. “You know this means we’ll be seeing a lot of more of my parents, right? It’s their first and possibly only grandchild.”
Nothing could damped the feeling of joy in Lee’s heart. “Well, then, I guess they’re just goin’ to have to get used to me.”
She flashed him a toothy grin as she craned her neck to look into his glistening eyes. “Yes, they will.”
With a quick glance, Lee looked down at his watch. It was a quarter past eleven. “Dammit. I’m due back at the hospital soon.”
“Why don’t you head upstairs and shower and I’ll put your coffee in a to-go cup.”
All he wanted to do in that moment was cut himself off from the world and spend the day celebrating with his wife. It pained him to have to turn away, but he did. With a sigh he marched upstairs, a euphoric smile still plastered on his face.
“You know, they should build a statue of you in that place for all the extra hours you put in!” she called after him.
V.
The emergency room was busy again, but nothing unusual for a weekend afternoon. Lee Hickey went into his next patient’s room, chart in hand, and sat down at the small corner desk. His mind still lingered on the fact that he was going to be a father. In between patients he texted back and forth with Anna while they contemplated names for their little princess. A smile played at the corners of his lips the entire day.
“Hello, there...” Lee scanned the chart quickly, “…Mr. Talbot. Tell me wha’ happened,” he said without looking up from the clipboard.
“Well, this man came out of nowhere and he, um, bit me?” he said confused, as if unsure what really happened.
He held out his arm to show the broad nurse his wound. Lee didn’t look, but wrote down what Johnathan Talbot said while shaking his head. His messy hair grazed his shoulders.
“Not again,” he huffed. “You’d swear it was Halloween already.”
“A lot of people getting bit by other people on Halloween?” Johnathan asked with a laugh.
“You wouldn’t bleedin’ believe. You’re our third bite patient today, though.”
Lee stood up, towering over the man, finally let his eyes rest on him. They fixated on Johnathan’s arm and grew to perfect circles. He searched for something to say, but all he could do was stand there in unabashed shock.
Johnathan, a blue-collar man of thirty-eight, held his left arm in his right hand. Bright red blood dripped from a gaping wound in his forearm. The white of bone in the center of the massive, round crater could be seen. The man should have been shouting, crying, cursing, something other than smiling up at Lee as if nothing was wrong.
“You know, it’s the weirdest thing. Hurt like a bitch when it happened, but now I can’t feel anything. I do feel tired and a little sick, though. Dizzy. Do you think he gave me something when he bit me?” He held up his arm for closer examination.
Lee immediately turned to the door. “Your doctor will be with you shortly,” he said as steady as he could.
Sweat started to form on his thick brow.
He exited the room, closing the door behind him. His body went limp against the wall as he shut his eyes. All he saw was red. They sprang back open.
In all the years he’d been a nurse at Porter Memorial Hospital, he thought he’d seen everything. He’d certainly seen worse than a chunk of arm missing. It was the fact that another man’s mouth had done the damage that got to Lee.
As he closed his eyes again, he imagined what the man who bit Johnathan had done with the flesh and muscle he ripped away. Had he swallowed it? Suddenly, Lee felt nauseous.
He hurried to the nurse’s station and picked up the phone. Kelly sat at the desk, hunched over her paperwork, her pen moving slowly. Her face was gray like expired meat and dripped with sweat.
“Hey there, love, mind if I use your phone?”
The young receptionist looked up listlessly. “Sure, go ahead. Is everything all right?” More sweat trickled down her neck.
“Yeah, just something strange with my last patient. Said he was bit by someone. I just want to check on my wife and make sure she keeps the doors locked.”
“Oh, yeah, right. There’s been a few cases of those today. I had to help Jones out earlier. The guy came in all calm, didn’t even seem to notice the chunk missing from his shoulder. And then, all of a sudden, he freaked out. Took four of us to hold him down. He scratched me good too, on my arm, but it’s nothing to worry about. They checked it out and ran some tests. Seems fine.”
Lee held the phone to his face as he stared down at her. He couldn’t believe what she was saying. If that had been him, he would be nervous as hell, pacing back and forth, checking for the blood work results every other minute. God knows what the man could have given her, but she didn’t seem worried about any of it.
He saw the tail-end of the wound on her arm from beneath her sleeve. Deep red blood bubbled and dried over the jagged cut. Lee pursed his lips together. He wanted to shake her and tell her to wake up as she stared off into the hallway with her lips parted and eyes glazed over.
Instead, he turned his back and dialed Anna’s cellphone number.
“Hey,” he said and continued without waiting for a response. “There’s a lotta strange incidences today. I want ya to be careful. You should probably stay home. Lock the doors. Don’t open for anyone.”
“I’m on my way to my parent’s house. What do you mean strange incidences? What’s going on?”
“People gettin’ bit,” he said.
“Like by rabid animals?”
“No. People,” He looked over his shoulder at the closed door containing the patient in question.
“Jesus,” his wife whispered.
“Why are you headed to your parents? I thought you just went to see them yesterday.” He was willing to talk about anything, even her parents, to get his mind off the look on the man’s oblivious face.
“I’m going to tell them,” she paused and took a deep breath while he waited, “that if they can’t accept you into their lives as their son and love you as such, then I want nothing to do with them. You’re the father of my child and they can’t continue to treat you the way they’ve been. I’m sorry I let it go on for so long.”
Lee’s mouth hung open as he processed what she said. “What? Why...you don’t have to, ya know? I’m fine with—”
“I know,” she cut him off. “I want to. You deserve better. You’re my family and I love you, and I always will.”
Lee brushed his hand over his mouth and laughed silently. He never thought this day would come. He’d hoped for so long, but it was always a distant dream. “I love you too,” he said softly. “You’ve no idea. This is…” He searched, but couldn’t find the words to express his appreciation.
“Our child is so lucky to have you for her dad,” she said. “And you be careful too, OK?”
“I will.”
Anna took a deep breath as she pulled into her parent’s driveway. “Here I go.”
“I’ll see you when I get home.”
A moment of silence and then nothing.
VI.
Lee hung up the phone. The smile he’d worn that morning returned with full force. He bit his fingernail to try to hide it, but it was no use. Somehow in the last twenty-four hours, his life had done a one-eighty. Everything was falling into place. Everything he’d ever hoped for he was finally getting.
His thoughts were interrupted by a loud thud from behind. Lee turned to find Kelly slumped face-down on her desk. She wasn’t moving.
“Someone get a doctor!” he shouted as he rushed to her side. “Kelly, love, are you all right?”
He bent to place his ear next to her head. It was hard to hear anything over the bustle of the emergency room. He reached out and placed two fingers on her neck to check for a pulse.
Nothing.
He gently massaged around to find the vein in her damp, cold neck.
Nothing.
“Dammit, will someone fetch a doctor!”
Several nurses scattered while bystanders stopped and craned their necks to get a better look.
Lee carefully lifted the young receptionist’s head and scooped her up in his arms to lay her out on the hard floor. Strands of wet hair clung to the sides of her face. Again, he lowered his ear. It hovered less than an inch from her slightly parted lips.
He waited, straining to hear for any signs of life coming from the poor girl. All he heard was the shuffling of feet, gasps from the onlookers, and someone talking over the intercom.
“Everyone step back,” he said when he noticed the wall of legs closing in on him. “Give her some room.”
Placing one hand over the other, he started chest compressions.
“One. Two. Three. Four.” He counted quietly to himself. “Come on, Kelly. Five. Six. Seven. Eight.”
The young woman’s head moved from side-to-side as Lee tried his best to bring her back to life. Where were the nurses with the damn crash cart? Why wasn’t anyone coming to help?
He pinched her small nose and lowered his lips onto her, hoping desperately to breathe life back into her. Her pale cheeks puffed out and then deflated once he removed his mouth from hers. Over and over, he repeated these steps with precision, holding it together as best he could.
She couldn’t die.
He wouldn’t let her die.
He had to save her.
Just as Lee was about to lower his mouth to hers a second time, Kelly’s eyes popped open. There were no gasping breaths, no sudden movement to sit up, no tears rolling down her cheeks. Her lids simply sprang open to reveal bloodshot eyes.
“Oh, thank God!” Lee heaved, wiping at his forehead. “Kelly, are you all right? Can you hear me?”
Her sickly eyes rolled slowly over to him. Her lips peeled back to reveal all her glistening teeth. Lee stared, unsure if she had suffered from a stroke. She needed a doctor now. A low rumble came from deep within her throat.
Suddenly, the nurse’s station erupted in panic. Shrieks of terror echoed down the long hallway. People ran in every direction. As he turned to see what was going on, a pair of cold hand clasped around Lee’s neck and pulled him to the ground.
Kelly was trying to bite him. He struggled against her, unsure how a girl of a hundred and ten pounds could be so strong. The clacking of her teeth grew louder as she tugged at him desperately.
“Stop, Kelly! Let go!” he yelled as he pressed his arms into her chest and locked his elbows.
It was the only thing he could do to keep himself away from her snapping jaws. Someone else ran by, tripping over the pair as they wrestled on the ground.
One of the doctors, a man Lee had gotten a drink with once late after work, lunged onto the fallen man and sank his teeth into his neck. Blood erupted like a fountain as arteries severed. The injured man garbled, trying to get one last scream out before it was all over.
Doctor Stenson didn’t stop as the hands of the dying man under him tried to swat him away. He buried his face further into the tender part of the neck and ripped away strips of
flesh and muscle. Bright red blood ran down his chin as he chewed and chewed at what used to be a living, breathing human being.
Lee saw all of this from the corner of his eye while he tried to keep Kelly at bay. It was worse than he thought. Kelly wasn’t the only one who was sick. Whatever it was, it was spreading fast. He had to get out of there.
It went against everything Lee stood for, but he had no choice. He pulled an arm back and let it fly forward into Kelly’s jaw. Teeth and blood flew from her mouth and scattered over the white floor. He only had a second to feel any remorse before she whipped her head back to stare at him. She opened her mouth and released a horrifying sound—a mixture of a shriek, growl, and moan. It was unlike anything Lee had ever heard.
With her jagged teeth exposed, she lunged forward like a wild animal. Lee scrambled on his hands and feet until he felt something hard at his back. He rolled just in time to avoid getting a chunk of his own neck ripped out by Doctor Stenson.
Kelly collided with the doctor. The two tangled on the floor, shoving and tripping the other, but never trying to attack one another. Lee watched as he righted himself to stand tall next to the desk. When the two had finally gotten to their feet, they fell onto the dead and bloodied man together. Their hands dug into his abdomen, ripping through his soft skin as if it were made of dough. Grabbing at his entrails, they yanked and shoved them hastily into their masticating mouths.
Bile rose from Lee’s stomach. He turned his head to vomit. It kept coming until all the contents of his stomach lay sprawled on the floor behind him. There was no time to wipe his chin as more crazed people burst in from the adjoining hall. All their clouded eyes locked on him. He ran around the desk for the exit down the hall. What was going on? What kind of sickness was this?
Everywhere he turned, people were eating other people. Blocking the sliding glass doors to the parking lot were two middle-aged women and a teenage boy tearing into an elderly man. He was still conscious as their hands penetrated his body. His howls of agony echoed through Lee’s head, a sound he was sure he would never forget.