“I’m okay, big guy, just trying to forget parts of our time in Africa but not all of it,” she said to him.
Manny could feel his chest swell up with pride. He secretly wished he had not taken off running and passed the girls back at the village. Just then, Casey sat up as the stewardess woke her up. She sat up yawning and stretching her arms out. “Wow, now that was some sleep,” she informed them.
“Casey, where are you going when we land?” Ellen asked her.
“I’m going to take a train up to Staten Island to go see my family. After all this, I really want to see my family,” she told Ellen.
“You know you could stay at my apartment tonight and leave in the morning,” Ellen offered to Casey.
“No, I do appreciate the offer, but I want to give you two sometime alone. Romeo here has chased you for two years. I will be damned if I’m going to sit watching his head explode with pride now that he has you,” Casey said, grinning at both of them.
“I was that transparent?” Manny asked, shocked.
“Yes,” they said in unison.
“Could I ask you for one favor, though, Ellen,” Casey stated. “Can I borrow some money to get a train ticket?”
“Hell yeah, girlfriend, we will take a taxi to my apartment. You two will stay in the cab. I will run upstairs and get some money to pay the cab fare. Then, Casey, you can at least take a quick shower and put on some of my clothes. There is an ATM in the complex I live in, and I will get you some money for a ticket,” Ellen told them of the itinerary that she had planned.
“Sounds like a plan to me, Ellen. What do you think, Manny?” Casey asked him.
“It sounds good to me, but was I really that transparent?” Manny said.
“Yes, you were,” Casey told him while patting his hand.
“That’s okay, Manny, it makes me feel worth more than anything in the world. You were my friend first and waited on me to come to my senses,” Ellen said to him, turning his face to hers.
Manny could not take that Ellen was in the wrong in any way here and said, “I should have tried harder because you are perfect, Ellen.”
“I’m far from perfect, but that is why I think I love you, Manny, because you can put me on a pedestal,” Ellen told him.
Casey laughed, “It’s getting thick around here, but it is cute.”
They looked across the aisle and could see the lights of Boston. Home was so close. The three just sat and waited until the plane landed and taxied up to the terminal. When the seatbelt sign turned off, they stood up and started toward the door. Ellen stopped and hugged the stewardess, startling her. “Thank you for everything ma’am. We will never forget it,” Ellen told her.
“It was my pleasure; just remember that the airline did it, not me,” the stewardess replied to Ellen.
“Well, I will call them tomorrow to thank them properly. My dad works in Washington, and I will let him know how good you treated his little girl,” Ellen told her, hugging the stewardess again, asking her name.
“It’s Elise,” she told her, hugging Ellen back.
“Thank you, Elise,” Ellen said, walking out the door.
When Ellen had hugged Elise, some pus from under her bandage got under the collar of Elise’s shirt. Not much––just a drop the size of a period. The virus could not live in direct sunlight or long in a dry environment, but it was night and it had a small pocket of pus to hide in. It did survive long enough into the night that when Elise took off her shirt, she held it in front of her and wiped the perspiration off of her face, getting some of the pus in her eye. She did not know she was infected because her eye did not start to burn or turn red. This would happen three days later, when she was taken to a hospital in Japan.
Chapter 13
Ellen and Casey, with Manny in the middle, rode in the back of the taxi in silence. They just could not believe that they had made it home. The nightmare had ended. People were walking along the sidewalk, and cars packed the road.
Casey broke the silence first, “I hope Prince and Djang are all right.”
“Me, too,” Manny said. “I don’t even want to think what would have happened to us if he had not been there.”
“Whoever hired him at the school knew what they were doing,” Ellen said.
What they did not know was while they were landing Djang had died in the hospital. Prince went to her side, held her hand, and told her good-bye. He then left the hospital, taking a taxi to a motel before he drove south to his house. He would then call the hospital to have Djang properly buried here in France. The staff at the hospital said her body was being held for autopsy by the chief medical examiner. As he left the room, the staff were disconnecting her from all the machines that they had put her on in the last ten hours. When he walked out the door, a nurse covered her up with a sheet.
Djang was taken down to the morgue and placed on an exam table, and an autopsy was performed. The doctors were curious as to how she died so fast from an infection, and they really wanted to know what type of microbe had infected her. It was blood-borne, they thought, but all of her organs were untouched. Blood-borne pathogens made the inner organs explode. They took samples from all her organs. All were perplexed, as the blood did not clot and rigor mortis was not setting in. It was decided to wait to cut the skull off to examine the brain. The team would wait until tomorrow to look at the brain after some test came back. This one decision would seal the fate of Europe. The virus was loose, and it was not going to stop.
If anyone would have been present, they would have seen the body on the exam table start to twitch then slowly sit up. The body may have been Djang but the mind wasn’t. Djang walked out of the morgue using the emergency exit into the hospital. On the way, she infected nine hospital workers and killed a security guard. By the time the police arrived, they could not find the attacker. Djang had wandered into a coma ward. Some people she tore into; others she just bit once and moved on. Before she was found, she had attacked all the patients, sixty-two in all. The cops who found her jumped on her, trying to arrest her. Four of them were bitten before they put her in cuffs and had a bag over her head. She was thrown in a solitary cell at the police station, biting two more officers, and it was two days before the medical team at the jail got to examine her. It was the first officers on scene who reported a blue female was attacking people. This got a laugh from the dispatchers.
All the coma patients may have been in comas while they were alive, but the virus only needed the basic parts of the brain to operate. It like all life wanted to spread, and viruses are alive. They feed, reproduce, and spread. In seventy-two hours, there were over two million people infected, and it was moving at an ever-increasing pace.
The trio did not know anything about Djang. They just sat and rode in silence. When the taxi pulled into the apartment complex that Ellen lived in, Manny held his breath. This was a very expensive complex, and he thought what chance did he have with Ellen?
Ellen leaned over and kissed him, “Driver, wait right here for me, please.”
Ellen jumped out and ran over to the building and went inside. Shortly she returned and paid the driver. Manny and Casey followed Ellen to her building, each looking around at the expensive complex with the luxury cars parked everywhere.
“Ellen, how can you afford this place?” Casey asked. Manny was glad she did because he did not want to.
“My dad pays for it. He did not want me staying at the apartments by campus,” she said nonchalantly.
They followed her into a building foyer, where her door was open. “How did you get in?” asked Manny.
“I had a key taped to the bottom of my door frame,” she said. Then Ellen informed them, “Too many drunken nights out with the girls.”
“Casey, go take a shower, and I will get you some clothes to wear.” Turning to Manny, she handed him an ATM card. “By the gate we came in is a pool complex with an ATM in front of it. Withdraw four hundred dollars. That is the limit, but it should be enough to get Case
y a ticket home and be able to eat on the way.” She picked up an ink pen and wrote her PIN on the back of his hand.
Casey and Manny just sat staring at her. She just gave Manny her PIN and was going to give Casey four hundred dollars, and it did not seem to faze Ellen at all.
“Hurry Casey, and you can make the 10:30 train to New York,” she said, pushing her toward the bathroom.
“Manny, go, I’m going to call my dad and let him know I made it all right,” she said, picking up the phone and pointing at the door.
Manny walked to the door and out of the building toward the front of the complex where he was told the ATM was located. Casey jumped into the shower and thought the water felt like heaven until it hit her face. She jumped back; when the water had hit her face, it felt like glass running down her body. She grabbed a washcloth washing her face gently and the scratches down her neck that stopped on her chest. Washing the dirt off felt so good, but the scratches felt like glass cutting her when she touched them. It wasn’t bad, but it was enough to make her wash it gently. Well, when I get to my mom’s I will get the scratches looked at, she thought to herself.
When she got out of the shower, she dried off. The scratches were cooler than the rest of her skin, but she still got that weird feeling when she touched them. Whatever, she thought, if it’s infected I will get placed on antibiotics, and that will be the end of that. She walked out into Ellen’s bedroom, and on the bed was a pair of jeans, a sweater, underwear, bra, socks, and tennis shoes. Casey walked over and started to put on the clothes. The thought of wearing someone else’s underwear and bra usually would make her sick. But there was no way in hell she was pulling her underwear out of the garbage can in the bathroom to wear again.
While she was getting dressed, she could hear Ellen talking to her father. Casey did not know what was being said, but she understood the tones. Ellen was getting mad at her father, and he was getting mad at her. Ellen finally stopped the conversation when Manny walked back in. “Dad, I will call you tomorrow. I am tired and want to sleep. I have been through a lot in the last fifty-plus hours and want to sleep. No, I do not want you coming down here. I tell you what––tomorrow I will drive down to see you. How about that?” she said. “I love you, too, Daddy. See you tomorrow. Bye.”
“Sometimes he still thinks I’m a little girl. Well guess what? Dad told me that the Congo is locked down because of fighting and a viral outbreak. People are going crazy there, and the neighboring countries are using force to keep people from entering their countries. The US is sending a fleet over to the coast of Africa to persuade the countries to let refugees leave the war zone. The UN is sending several health teams to see what they can do. The first teams touched down several hours ago and have not been heard from. He only found out I made it home when Homeland Security called, telling him my passport had cleared customs. He then called the airline, and they confirmed that we got on the plane in Paris,” Ellen informed Casey and Manny.
“Prince was right, with both a virus and an armed revolution, they would have kept us detained there until the government could get us out,” Manny stated.
“Well, we are home just like he promised.” Ellen looked at both of them when she made her statement. Ellen dialed the phone and asked for a taxi to the train station. The dispatcher told her the cab would be there in ten minutes.
Ellen walked over and hugged Casey tight. “Call me as soon as you get home. It should only take four hours. We will both be up,” Ellen said, smiling.
Casey grinned, “Okay, I will call, but if you hear anything else, call me tomorrow.” Casey wrote her mom’s phone number on a piece of paper, and Ellen wrote her number on one also giving it to Casey, which she put in her pocket.
“Be careful,” Ellen told her.
“After what we have been through, a mugging will seem pretty tame,” Casey said.
Manny walked up and hugged her. “Casey, please promise me you will be careful.”
“Okay, I promise, and I will call as soon as I get home,” Casey said as they heard a horn honk outside. “Well, I guess that one is for me.” She walked over and kissed both on the cheek. “I will talk to you guys in a few hours,” she said, walking out the door.
Manny and Ellen walked over to the window, watching little Casey get in the cab, and the cab took off. They stood staring out the window holding each other. Then they turned facing each other and started to kiss passionately, each pulling off clothes as they made their way to the shower. By the time they made it to the shower, the only thing covering something was Ellen’s bandage. They turned the shower on and jumped in, holding, rubbing, and kissing each other with animal passion. At one time, Ellen thought she felt pain when she bumped her arm, but the thought left her mind as soon as it entered it. Leaving the shower water running, they both climbed out and headed to the bedroom and made passionate love. After an hour Manny climbed out of the bed to turn off the shower. Seeing himself in the mirror, he grinned. He then turned and looked at Ellen lying naked on the bed. He walked back to the bed and laid down beside her, pulling her to him.
“Manny there is a Japanese garden out back, and I want to take you there. There is a stand of bamboo beside the water with a little clearing that can’t be seen from the walkway. I found it one day walking off the trail. I want to go there with you and make love to you,” Ellen told him her fantasy. If she would have asked Manny to make love to her on the interstate, he would have.
Manny jumped up and looked for something to put on. Ellen stood up, putting on a sleep shirt, and watched Manny look around for something to wear. “Hold on,” she said, leaving the room. She returned with a pair of gray gym shorts and a tank top.
“Where did you get these?” he asked.
“Duh, my dad stays in the other room sometimes when he is in town. He has an apartment in Washington, but when he is in town he stays here,” she told him.
“Oh, okay,” he replied. After he put on the shorts and shirt, he bent over and collected the comforter off the bed and held it under his arm. “Well, I’m ready, let’s go,” he said.
They walked out the door, taking the key. They were walking hand in hand. There were some people walking around the apartment complex but none close by. Manny could see a brick fence surrounding the entire complex. He was in complete wonder; here he was on the edges of Boston walking to a garden to make love to the girl of his dreams. As they neared the garden Manny could see it by the moonlight, and he was in awe. It was beautiful to look at with a small waterfall going into a pool with goldfish. Ellen grabbed his hand and walked him over the bridge along the path, a wall of bamboo on each side of the path. At a bend, Ellen forced her way into the bamboo for fifty feet, and they came to a clearing surrounded by bamboo and the sound of a waterfall in the background. Manny spread out the comforter as Ellen stripped down and he joined her. They met on the blanket and made love, forgetting that Casey was supposed to call soon. Around 2 a.m., they fell asleep from exhaustion.
Ellen was pulled up close to him, and they lay naked in the summer weather, resting quietly. Manny never noticed Ellen’s body getting colder then give a shudder. In his sleep, he pulled her closer. An hour later, Manny felt pain in his shoulder and woke up with Ellen biting him.
“Ellen, what did I do to make you mad?” he pleaded with her. All she did was growl at him. He held her by the shoulders above him as what was left of Ellen grabbed at him.
“What did I do? Please tell me?” he said, crying. Then the smell hit him, the smell of rotten death.
He cried freely, holding Ellen above him. She had been infected by the bite with whatever had been in the Congo. Manny had lost his angel, he thought, crying. As the remains of what used to be Ellen clawed at him, Manny did not know that she was not there; all he saw was the girl of his dreams with his blood on her blue face. Well, if she wanted him like that she could have him, he thought as his vision started to fade. He pulled her down to him, giving what was left of Ellen a last hug as she bit into his
neck. Manny never cried out in pain even though it hurt like hell. He would be brave for her in the end, but what was left of Ellen did not care as she bit again.
“I love you, Ellen,” he said with his last breath. Just as his heart quit beating, she stopped biting and stood up, staring toward the bamboo. About an hour later something was standing beside her, but she did not care. Like her, it had a very slow heartbeat. She heard something off in the distance and pushed through the bamboo then took off in a fast sprint. The thing standing beside her that had once been Manny just followed her out, breaking into a sprint, once again following her around as she led the way to the warmth of others.
The two left the garden and by morning, there were over a dozen infected in the apartment complex, and strange roars could be heard from inside the walls. By 10 a.m., over a hundred people were bitten. The police responded and attempted to arrest the attackers, but they were bitten. Two of the attackers could run at speeds that seemed unnatural. The two fast attackers, what used to be Manny and Ellen, and several of the slow attackers had made their way into a large park to the east and hit a campground that night. On Sunday morning in the Northeast, over five million people were infected, and over one hundred thousand full-blown cases were attacking others.
On the train, Casey had laid her head down to take a nap after feeling sick. After two hours she stood up, but it was not Casey. She turned and bit the person beside her. His name was Han Chen, and he was on the way to JFK to catch a flight to China when this crazy round eye bit him. He pushed her down and took off running to the front of the train. She stood up and moved down the train, attacking anyone she came across. Some she attacked until they died; others she just bit and moved on. There was no rhyme or reason to her attacks. She just attacked. The crew locked her in a car, and the train slowed down at the next stop so the police could arrest the crazy woman attacking people. The shell of Casey turned and crawled out a window. Not to escape but to feed. The fall would have killed a normal person, but the shell was not normal nor a person. The right leg was broken, but the shell still walked on it as it healed at a phenomenal rate. The several people that Casey had killed on the train walked out of the morgue in the early morning. By Sunday night, there was infection on every continent except two, Australia and Antarctica. Australia would have its first infected by Tuesday morning and would be the only inhabited continent that would have a chance, as the fall of mankind had started.
Blue Plague The Fall Page 9