The Infection

We were rushing to the border and the bombs exploded behind us. My son, Jeremy, started to cry, “Mommy! What’s going on!? Where are we going?” His light blond hair was messy from being pulled out of bed so late at night. “Where is daddy?” He asked as we passed by a group of the infected.

I saw my husband on the dock. Surrounded by soldiers, he was checking people to see if they were infected. I ran to him with crying Jeremy in my arms. He saw me and immediately run to me, “Sonja! You need to get on the boat now!”

Jack took Jeremy from me and we ran to the almost full Swift Boat. A group of women with their children pushed themselves in front of me. I was separated from my family. I tried to push my way back towards them and got punched in the face by an elderly woman holding a chihuahua. “Jack!” I yelled. I jumped and continued yelling for him. “Please! Please, let me through! My family is up there!” nobody could hear me through the panicked civilians. The bells from the boat started ringing, signaling its departure. I ran around to the front of the crowd, just in time to see Jack standing on the boat with little Jeremy in his arms. “Jackson!” I yelled, “Jackson, I love you!”

He looked at me and began to yell, “Don’t die. I’ll see you again! I promise!” he began to cry and say something else, “I promise, whatever happens-” I couldn’t hear the rest, he was too far away. He looked at me with a shocked expression and screamed, “No!”

I woke up to Spyro licking my face. The snow white Pit Bull grabbed my blanket and pulled it off of me. I slowly stood up and stumbled over to the door. I pulled the large lock off its hinge and pushed open the steel doors. He ran out and I went to the kitchen. I grab a bowl of cereal and put in my Jeremy’s favorite movie. He would watch it every morning while eating his breakfast. The SpongeBob theme started playing as I poured the milk into my bowl. Spyro came back inside and laid down by my feet. The warm breeze blew across the house. What should I do today? There isn’t much to do when you’re the only one in town. Possibly the only one alive. “I’m gonna go get us some food in a little bit.” Spyro began to wag his tail and look at me with his dark brown eyes. “You don’t need to come this time, Bud. I don’t need you wondering off into a dark alley again.” He bowed his head, whined at me, then laid down.

Once breakfast was over I got dressed into my old white shirt, cargo pants, black leather jacket and a pistol on my side. I packed my bag with the required materials for fishing. I had only been fishing once in my life, before the outburst. Now fish is one of the only sources of meat I can get, that is, if they aren’t infected. It’s rare to find a fish that is infected though. The only way to get infected is to get injected or bitten.

The infection started nearly ten years ago when a science experiment went horribly wrong. Scientists were trying to find a cure for HIV and AIDS, while doing the experiments all of the mice they injected would get a fever and die. Or so they thought. The mice’s heart beats would go so low that they would be pronounced dead. The scientists would dispose of the mice by just throwing them out with the trash. After a few hours the heart rates would rise again to an extremely fast pace and they would begin to crave anything with a heartbeat, anything that had blood. The first victim was an older man who was taking out the trash.

I can’t imagine the pain they go through. I’ve seen it happen to friends of mine. Their screams, forever burned into my head. As the poison enters the body, a burning hotter than a flame starts to course through your veins. It starts at the bite and slowly spreads throughout the body. This continues until the brain overheats and shuts down. After that, well, you know.

Oh, right, I was talking about going fishing, sometimes I can get carried away like that. As I left the house I could almost feel the eyes piercing into me as a walked down the street, even though the infected aren’t supposed to be able to see during the daytime because when their brains shut down the pupils fully dilate, making daytime blinding for them. Maybe they can smell me. A shiver shoots down my spine. I don’t even want to think about that. Then I remembered, I have to turn down Blackness Blvd, the darkest, most known street for becoming infected since the whole incident happened, and its the only street I can take, hopefully it doesn't end up like last time.