Two Summers Ago, the World Went to Shit

Chapter 25: Earth Would Stop Spinning

Chapter 25: Earth Would Stop Spinning

     I remember one day at my brother's house I was sitting outside on his porch watching the sunrise over the trees when the sliding glass door opened behind me. It was Jackson. He said he wanted to make sure I was okay because if I wasn't, he said the sun wouldn't rise until I was. I asked him why, and his response was, "Because you are the sun, Sammi. Without you, the sun wouldn't rise and the earth would stop spinning." If I had known that those days would be the most special moments of our lives, I would've appreciated them and held on to them for as long as possible.
     I wouldn't have fallen victim to the personality that this new world was acclimating everyone with. I would have lived my life much more differently and cherished the love of my life. Now, I was grasping for even the possibility of one more chance. I changed my mind, okay? Please, give me one more chance.

"Sammi, you can't keep doing this shit," Sophie said as she saw the body collapse to the floor.
It was when she looked up at me that she realized I had been bitten. The two of us stood in shock unsure of how to react for what felt like an eternity. We'd never experienced anyone being bitten without being brutally attacked to the point of death, so did just being bit mean death too? Did it transmit something else into my body?
      Not long after, Jackson and Caleb rushed in severely panicked by the recent discovery of my letter in the room. Jackson had red, swollen eyes from crying and ruffled hair from running his hands through it while he paced back and forth before getting Caleb to help him find me before it was too late. But was it? What did getting bit mean? What did any of this mean?
     I could visibly see that his heart was ripped from his chest when he'd spotted the bite mark on my arm. His unborn child, his girlfriend, and his future were stripped from him in an instant. I'd never seen him look this defeated and empty inside. I was going to ruin this man. I was truly going to send him into the darkest hole to ever consume someone. That's when I realized he needed me almost as much as I needed him. I couldn't abandon him now. I had to find a way to live.
      Caleb froze in the doorway before carefully walking over to me, grabbing my wrist to turn my arm where the deep, bloody bite mark had been. I could feel his hand shaking as he held on to me. The imprint on my arm stung and throbbed beneath the surface of my skin as it sent my mind back and forth between real and dark worlds that I'd been playing limbo with for months. It was like a fuzzy television screen trying to find a channel in range. One minute I was there; the next I wasn't.
"Sammi," he said as his voice cracked, letting go of my arm while I tried to remain present long enough to talk to him.
"I'm sorry. I'm so sorry," I cried as I buried my face into his shoulder.
He wrapped his arms around me tightly, a sense of forgiveness in his touch.
Once we released our hold, Jackson looked at me, begging me with his eyes to be okay. He was a mess, completely.
"We-we've got to find Keith. We've got to fix this," he said sadly.
Sophie continued to stare blankly from across the room while Caleb walked over to Jackson.
"Let's see if we can find him," Caleb said rubbing him gently on his shoulder.
The two of them left to track down Keith while I hung back with Sophie who gave me this broken stare.
"Did you come here to die," she asked, unaware of the letter I'd left behind.
"Yes," I said honestly as I turned around to find my way to a chair.
She sighed as she paced around the clinic room.
"Don't you get it? Jackson needs you. Caleb needs you. Grace needs you. Fuck, Sammi, even I need you."
I looked up at her with guilty, glassy eyes while my mind allowed me to be here in this moment.
"There is something wrong with me," I cried.
"It's not your fault, Sammi. We are living in a deserted world. We have scraps for food, scarce supplies. We know you are going untreated. No one is disappointed or upset with you. We just want you to be okay because after all that you've been through you deserve to finally be okay. Don't you see that?"
"I've done horrible things, unforgivable things," I said.
"We all have. That doesn't mean you should have to die because of it. Look, Jackson doesn't know what happened, and I wasn't planning on telling him."
When she said this, Caleb and Jackson had returned with Keith. Jackson got this confused look on his face before painfully asking, "Tell me what, Sophie? What happened?"
"Nothing. It's not important," she said hoping he would move on, but he was persistent.
"I want to know," he said sternly.
"Later," Sophie said insistently.
"Sophie," he started before I interrupted.
"I slept with Gage," I admitted shamefully.
"What," he asked with a broken tone as I watched the light leave his eyes for the very first time.
"I'm so sorry Jackson," I cried as he stormed out of the clinic room.
     Caleb looked as if he wasn't sure what to do. On one hand, his best friend just found out he'd been cheated on, and on the other hand, his sister who did the cheating had been bitten by a zombie. Did he go after Jackson or did he beg Keith to somehow fix this? Was there anything to fix?
     Keith just stood there shocked, especially after seeing Gage's lifeless body on the floor near me. He seemed saddened by the discovery, but I couldn't help but think he was only upset because his lock and key was no longer of service to him. The secrets Gage kept for him were unmatched. There was still so much to uncover about Keith, but for now, he was the prize pony at the fair. He was my red slippers to click together. He was my one chance to undo my tragic fate. He could find a cure. I needed him to. I needed him.
I stood up from the chair to go after Jackson, but Caleb stopped me.
"I have to go after him," I begged with heavy tears rolling down my flushed cheeks.
"Not now. For once can you just do what I'm asking you to do," he said in frustration.
      My heart was beating at a rapid rate as I panicked about losing Jackson forever. He meant so much to me it hurt. I couldn't just stand to let him walk away without giving him an explanation or begging for his forgiveness.
"Caleb, please," I pleaded.
"Sophie, can you make sure Jackson's okay," he asked hoping that would be sufficient enough for me to let it go for now.
She nodded and slipped out of the room to find Jackson while Caleb and I stood with Keith in silence.
"He-he was dead when I came by the clinic. He'd turned. He bit me before I killed him," I said.
"What does this mean," Caleb asked once Keith stepped over to me to take a closer look.
      I held out my arm for him to examine. It looked noticeably worse than it had several minutes prior which made me extremely nervous. There were so many unknowns with this virus infection thing, and I was afraid to be a guinea pig for some experimental treatment, but what options did I have?
     My mind had finally parked itself into the real world for several minutes before I had fallen into the zombie world again. I couldn't help but think I was dead for good this time, a zombie. I felt like I'd used up my last chance at living and now, for all I knew, I was another thoughtless body roaming around getting ready. Keith and Caleb vanished, poof, just like that. What if I was dead? What if I didn't get the chance to say goodbye? What is Jackson's last memory of me is finding out I'd cheated on him? He would be destroyed indefinitely.
While I'd been a ghost to the real world, Sophie had finally caught up to Jackson outside.
"Jackson! Jackson," Sophie called out as he was walking up the stairs towards the dormitory.
"I just want to be alone right now," he called out with his back still turned to her.
"Just listen to me," she begged.
He spun around angrily with tears forming in his eyes.
"There's nothing you can say that will make this okay," he said, his voice shaky.
"Jackson, she-she was in the middle of a manic episode. You know she's not fully aware of her decisions when she's like that. You know this infection is only making it worse. I don't think she fully understood what she was getting into," she explained.
"I don't know what to do Sophie. She cheated on me. My heart is broken," he said sadly.
"She's not me, Jackson. She didn't cheat for the same selfish reasons I did, and it wasn't anything you did. You're perfect, Jackson. She knows that, and she's going to punish herself forever for what she's done to you."
"Do you think that's why she wanted to die? Is that why she got bit," he asked, losing his ability to control his heartbroken emotions.
"I think that was her initial plan. I saw her leave the dorm, so I followed her. She was trying to go into the clinic. I realized Gage was in there as a zombie, so I tried to stop her. I went in hoping I could keep her from doing something she would regret. While we were in there, I think she realized dying wasn't the answer, so she stabbed him in the head. It was when she was trying to kill him that he bit her. I don't think she meant for it to happen."
"None of this was meant to happen," he cried before hopelessly sitting down on the steps below him.
"I know," Sophie said as she joined in an attempt to comfort him.