The Virus

Eight

The door is slightly barricaded when I get there but it's easy enough to pull down the various wooden boards that had been put up. I follow the usual protocol and bang against the glass and wait for a moment before entering.  I am careful to make sure there is nothing dangerous inside before finally having a look around. There was paint, carpet, curtains, blinds, drills, everything. It was anything you would ever need to decorate a house. 

I smile at the shelves, and with an idea brewing, I walk over to the truck and ask them to back it down the street to load some more things onto it. 

Noah is more than displeased, "Ophelia, we're pushing it, we can't be out here longer than we need to, we should go," he tells me. 

I pull him to the side away from Mark and Alex who are finishing up loading the truck. "I have an idea, there's paint, curtains, drills, we could make the school our home, we need this," I reason. 

Noah shakes his head, "it's unnecessary, we have to go, we're pushing our luck, come on," 

I shake my head and glare at Noah, "Just let me do this, why can't you trust me?"

"I do trust you, this is dangerous, though," he explains. 

I smile, "great, let's go," I reply with a bright smile. 

Noah is too confused to reply and I am already walking away. Mark backs the truck down the road while Alex and I load it up with paint and curtains and drills and anything we could want. Noah stays in the truck, sulking. 

Finally, when we are nearly done, I send Alex to pack the remaining things away while I search the office and the back room for anything useful. There is a hall connecting them and it is hard to see without an light. There were two doors, I squint and recognise one of them as a bathroom, while the other must be a stockroom of some sort. 

I open the door and something throws me backwards, knocking the wind out of me. I hit the back of my head on the floorboards beneath me and hear the familiar snarls. One was on top of me, biting at me, I steer their face away from me and plunge my knife into their temple. 

There was another three trying to get out of the room into the narrow hallway. I was out of my league, it was time to run. I squirm out from underneath the stinking corpse on top of me. They were already collapsing on top of me. I throw myself forward, runnig through the building. 

The daylight blinds me and i stumble for a moment. 

Mark and Alex turn to me in shock. 

"Get in the truck!" i shout, "Get in!" I scream, running toward them. 

Mark immediately turns and jumps into the driver's seat, slamming the door behind him. I throw myself into the back of the truck but pause when Alex does not follow. 

Jumping out, I see Alex grabbing the last few items he had piled next to the truck. Behind him, I see them spilling out, a few metres away. 

"What are you doing?" I demand, incredulously, "Get in the truck, Alex, let's go!"

"No, no, I got it, give me a second," he grunts in effort as he throws it over his shoulder. I push him towards the truck, grabbing what he left behind. He throws it in with force and I come up behind and begin to throw everything in the truck. 

I hear Mark shouting for us to move. I'm in the truck in a second and collapse backwards to a sitting position taking a moment to breathe. 

Suddenly, Alex screams and I jump up to see one of me grasping onto Alex's leg, trying to bite him. 

"Get it off me!" He screams, terrified. 

I pull his arms as hard as I can and yank him onto the truck, however it comes with him. Clawing and snarling at us, half on the truck half off. 

The truck is thrown into drive but still it clings onto the back, reaching for us. I swing my knife at it, missing a few times but finally striking its head. It goes still and I pull my knife from its skull before kicking it off the truck and onto the ground. I pull the screen down to stop anything from falling out as Mark drives like crazy back to the school. 

He swerves and speeds down the road and away. I fall onto the curtains, panting and coughing. Alex sits beside me, gasping for air. 

Finally, I hear the gate being opened and the shouts of Solomon. The truck pulls to an abrupt stop and a second later the screen is thrown open again, letting the light and the air in. Suddenly, Alex curses, stumbling out of the truck and vomits all over the ground. 

I crawl out behind him and hold his shoulder, rubbing his back gently. Mark and Noah climb from the front and circle the vehicle to us. 

Once Alex stops vomiting, Mark helps him to the bathroom to clean up. Meanwhile, Noah hangs behind to speak to me. 

"What the hell where you thinking, Ophelia? What the hell, we all could have been killed," he hisses at me, trying to keep is voice down. 

I look at him and sigh. "I just wanted to do something nice, it was a risk," I reply. 

Noah, still fuming, continues, "How could you? How could you put us in dangerous like that? How am I meant to trust you to help me and have mine and everyone else's back if you pull stuff like that?" He demands, incredulously. 

"We all did it! Just because I was the one that came up with the plan and you disagreed doesn't mean we weren't all involved. What do you want to me to say? You were right? I'll never do it again? God, just leave it. It was bad and it was dangerous, and it could have ended badly but it didn't, so leave it," I shout, feeling attacked. 

"You say I'm the leader, you say I'm in charge but yet you go and make your own decisions, you don't listen to me, you don't seem to care about my opinions. You do what you want." 

I shake my head. "Is this how we are going to be? Is this how it's going to work? You being too scared to do anything, too scared to take a risk. Is this how you expect us to live? How can anyone live like that?" 

"Ophelia, that is how we survive," he insists. 

I find myself laughing slightly, "I want to live. I'd rather live ten days and live them rather than ten years in fear and hiding," I say, before storming off. 

Noah calls after me but I ignore him. How could he blame me like that? 

I 

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