Into The Darkness

Chapter Seventeen

My eyes sprung open to the sound of Alex coughing violently. I turned over and looked at him, I could see in his eyes that he was sick.

"Are you alright?" He didn't answer, only coughed. I got up and got dressed, I had to help Alex with his clothes and once we were outside, he kneeled down and coughed some more. Addison and Dan were already up and waiting on us.

"Are you okay?" Addie asked, seeing Alex on the ground.

"Yeah, I'm good. Lets go."

By noon we had stopped multiple times to let Alex rest. He is definitely getting sick, but I have no idea what it is. Maybe pneumonia from the rain? It inched closer and closer to nightfall and we still haven't found shelter. Or even made it that far from the U-Haul because Alex has been so sick he can't make it far without being absolutely exhausted.

I made Alex stop this time, I could hear him wheezing because he was out of breath. I helped him sit on a fallen tree on the side of the road. Then I heard Dan groan, he has been being rude all day with his little comments about Alex slowing us down. He is beginning to frustrate me.

"You are going to have to get over it and deal with the stopping and going. Alex is exhausted." I snapped.

"Oh just ignore him, June. Dad is just grouchy." Addison pointed out.

I turned my attention back to Alex, and put my hand on his head. He's burning up. I snatched my hand away and began frantically looking for bite's or scratches.

"June, what on earth are you doing?" he groaned.

"Looking for bites."

"Chill out, I'm not infected. I wasn't bit or scratched. I'm just sick from the rain." He pushed me away and I let out a sigh of relief.

We made it a few more miles down the road before we found a van in the ditch and decided to make camp for the night. Dan made sure the ban was empty and helped Alex into it. All of the seats in the van were taken out except the two front seats and the huge bucket seat in the back of the van. Alex laid on it and shivered, even under the blankets we found on the floor.

"I'll bring you something to drink in a minute." I said, leaving Alex in the van.

Dan was outside getting the fire going to heat up some beans we found on the front floorboard. "Is he feeling any better?"

"Nope."

Dan found some soup so I heated it up and brought a little bit of it, along with some water back to Alex. He was asleep so I just sat for a minute and watched his breathing. It was fast and shallow, pretty alarming to see actually. Even though he was sleeping I decided to wake him up to offer him the soup but make him drink some water. I don't want him getting dehydrated on me. He didn't want the soup, so I helped him drink some water then he fell right back to sleep.

After dark, we piled up in the van for the night. Dan sat in the driver seat, while Addie and I laid down on the floor. I laid awake next to Addie for a few hours, it's hard for me to fall asleep anymore thanks to the nightmares. I could hear Alex's raspy breath and decided to just get up. I checked on Alex, then joined Dan in the front seat.

"I can keep watch if you want to get some sleep." I offered.

He shook his head, "I'm not tired, we can just keep watch together."

We sat in comfortable silence for a while until Dan spoke first. "I've been thinking about what's wrong with Alex. I think it's pneumonia."

"Why do you think it's that?"