The Time Traveller

Chapter Ten

Without hesitation, Rome grabbed Anna's right arm and threw her off of him. She slammed into a shelf, knocking it over. Anna fell to the ground as the supplies from the shelf fell on top of her. Rome brought the machete up and swung it down onto her head. Anna rolled over, the machete missing her head by inches.
"Stop!" she yelled. Rome swung the machete again. "Rome!"
She scrambled to her feet as Rome pried the machete out of the old floorboards.
"You're infected!" Rome yelled. "give me one good reason I shouldn't kill you right now!"
Rome swung his machete at Anna's head, and she ducked out of the way. "I was infected, Rome, please, just listen to me!"
She stood up straight, and for the first time Rome had seen her in the light. He froze. "The veins," he paused, looking at her neck. "there aren't any of those...those purple veins on your neck."
"Rome," Anna sighed, "please listen to me." her voice was shaking. "Before...before all this, before the end of the world, I was a molecular biology major. I worked with human cells, I specialized in immunology."
Rome put the machete down by his side.
"Our professor told us about the original outbreak," she continued, "the story that everyone's heard, about the man that caught the infection from South America. We did college studies on this man, and realized this infection was attacking his brain, something we had never seen before."
Rome narrowed his eyes. "What does this have to do with you?"
"I'd grown to actually like the man," Anna replied, "Mark was his name. This was before he turned, this was back when the infection took weeks, instead of days or hours, to progress. I liked his smile, his personality." she paused, smiling. Her face suddenly changed. "And when he turned, I was the one who killed him. I dissected his brain, trying to find out what the virus was, how I could stop it."
Rome put his machete on the ground. "And you caught the infection like that?"
"Yes," she replied, "and before perfecting my cure, I infected my sister. She progressed far faster than Mark did, and when I finally had a working cure, she was gone. I've been tracking her ever since."
"Anna," Rome sighed, "I don't know much about this infection, but it might be too late for your sister."
Anna glared at Rome, knowing in the back of her mind that he was right. She opened the door to the storage closet to see the infected woman crouched over James. He was bleeding from his head and nose. The infected woman turned around as Rome came out of the supply closet, and Anna saw the silhouette of the woman turn toward them and pick up James' machete.
"Drop your weapon, Rome," the woman ordered, "because, believe me, I've exerted enough of my energy on James, as you can see, but I certainly wouldn't mind killing him."
Rome slowly sat his weapon on the ground as the woman walked over to him. Flipping the machete around, the woman his Anna in the temple with the blunt handle.
"Anna!" Rome crouched down and held her head in his lap, still conscious but her body limp.
"Storytime," she said, crouching down to the ground. "now that you two can join us. Now," she cleared her throat, "I know the cat's out of the bag," the woman said. Rome hadn't seen her face yet, it was all in darkness. "Yep. I was the younger of the two of us, so I always looked up to Anna. When all hell broke loose and she got infected, she just couldn't stand to do it alone. So what does she do? She brings me with her. And now I'm this...this purple veined, hell-bent freak. I left a family behind. Well, a son. My husband ran out on me. Wonder why?"
She laughed. "Hey James," she said, pulling his limp but still conscious body up to her face by his hair. "How do you like being young again?" She asked. "Been a while since I've seen you like that." She let his hair go, letting the side of his face hit the ground. He let out a sigh of defeat. In the dim light, Rome saw he looked the same as he had a few days ago, almost like he had stopped his anti-aging.
"Let's go back further." She continued. "I was a wimp when I was younger. Had my car for about four years before anything happened to it. Then some idiot was on his phone when he pulled out and hit me. The two of us weren't hurt, so I just thought that insurance would cover it."
Wait, Rome thought.
"But apparently not," she sighed, "so I offered him to go out for drinks."
It can't be. Rome thought.
"I was so innocent back then. Considerate. Not anymore. Not after the day where I thought my husband of barely a year had left me. Middle of the night," she looked behind her, then back at the two of them, "gone. Left me to raise a son by myself."
No way, Rome's jaw dropped.
"Little did I know...he left me to meet me...like this!" She laughed.
"Julie," Rome looked up at the woman, tears in his eyes, "I'm so sorry."
"It's about 70 years too late for sorry, Rome!" She raised her voice. "Now here you are, trying to save the world, trying to save me, and for some reason I can't resist the urge to bash your skull in with my bare hands."
"Julie," Rome pleaded from the ground, "please."
"I called for you," she came into the light, so he could finally see her face, "just like that, every night. I pleaded for  you to come back. And you never did." Her face was just as he remembered it, just as he had left it days ago, but now it was caked in blood and dirt in the form of dust.
"Does that mean I die here?" Rome asked, wiping the tears from his eyes. "Here with this twisted version of my Julie?"
She answered simply, "God, I hope so."
"No," James protested, sitting up, noticeably in pain.
"Okay," Julie shifted her eyes to James. "Then I'll kill you first. But," she held her finger up, "before I do anything, you two need to meet." She paused, "...properly."
"We've already been introduced," Rome said sarcastically, "thanks."
"We'll see about that." She stood up.
"James," she looked at him, "meet Rome. And Rome," she smiled, "meet James Jonathan. Well, that's what's on his birth certificate. I think you know him by J.J."