Sudden Lunacy

Speed Bumps

"Come on kid, stop crying like a baby. You're fine."

Conroy whimpered slightly as Marcus rubbed a wet rag across the in total, nineteen slices that the man had inflicted upon him. Not sure what to do next, Marcus had carried the boy to this trusty truck before returning to the main kiosk to attempt to find a first aid kit. The Funroe zoo may have been terrible, but were loaded in materials to treat their animals' injuries.

As Marcus applied the gauze and antibacterial ointment, happy the bleeding had finally stopped, he wondered if he had been right in deciding against going to the hospital. When he called the cops, he got a busy signal and was put on hold. That could not be a good sign. After about an hour on hold, he gave up completely and smashed his phone against the pavement.

The Funroe zoo was pretty isolated, the nearest town about half an hour away. After figuring out that everyone was either fleeing town or going to the major facilities such as the hospital and church for sanctuary, He was sure medical attention, which was nearly an hour away down the interstate, would come too late for Conroy. And besides, there was no guarantee that those places didn't have anyone infected with Rabies 2 yet.

Marcus really hated the lack of creativity that went into the name of the disease that was slowly sweeping across America.

As he worked on worked on wrapping the boy left arm, using butterfly bandages to close the slightly wider ones (As instructed by a sniffing Conroy who had sliced his hand on a can of soup earlier that year) Conroy used his right arm to hold up his own phone up as he read an emergency news report.

"First th-ou-gh-t, thought to be ordinary r-ra-rabies," He resumed, trying to read as well as his first grade education would allow. He actually was pretty good for his age, but his slow pace was frustrating Marcus. " Sev-ver-al peop-people were be-li-ev.. believed to have been treat-ed with do-ses of the ra-rabies v-v-vac... Marcus, what is this word?" He asked showing the phone to Marcus.

"Just let me read it Conroy." Marcus groaned, aggravated with the slow process.

"No you are already busy, and my teacher says I need to practice."

"Conroy....Your teacher is probably de-"

"Marcus..... the word please."

"Vaccination."

"Vaccination, but showed no.." He showed MArcus the phone again.

"Improvement."

"Improvement. They were held in the h-hos-spit-al, hospital for ob-ser--v-vation. No one knows how these people con-tra-c-t-ed the virus, but one thing's for c-c-cer-tain, they are high-ly dan-ger-ous. Rabies two can't be cured with the same an-t-t-ti-dote. Infec-tion at this point is f-t-tal." He paused biting his lip, a worried expression inching its way across his face. "What does that mean? We die if we get it?"

Marcus nodded, securing the gauze bandages around the boy's arm.

Conroy whimpered. "D-D-Do I have it now?"

Marcus took the phone, and continued to read. "All civilians are advised to stay... yadda, yadda, yadda.... safe houses in your area can be found at www. bla, bla bla..... Here it is: Incubation time is a period of twenty four hours, in which the victim will experience flu like symptoms before losing memory, and finally losing sanity. All people injured are infected..." He suddenly stopped.

"Wh-wh-what? T-that means.... I'm gonna die?" Conroy asked fearfully as tears started to flood his vision. His whole body started to tremble again and he felt as if the whole world just fell ontop of him.