The Virus

Twenty Four

"So, what have you been doing since everything went to shit?" I ask lightly. 

She turns to me. "Well, I lived alone anyway. Sort of survived. Joined a few groups, none of them worked out. Now, I'm jumping place to place. Sleeping anywhere safe enough. I was running from a few of them. I didn't do a proper sweep. I hadn't slept for over forty hours. That's when you hit me. You?" She asks. 

"I've been with a group from the beginning. We got somewhere safe. Been there ever since. There are nin- eight of us.". I say. She raises an eyebrow. "Uh stuff happened a few days ago. He killed himself." I say, sadly.

"Why only now? Most of them did it as soon as it started." She says. 

"It wasn't because of outside. It was because of me." I lower my head as I say this. 

"Why?" She asks again. 

"Well, even before everything happened to the world. He-he uhm, he would touch me. One day, one day he." 

She stops me. "It's okay. And that's not your fault. If he can't live with the things he's done then obviously what he did was wrong. Which it was by the way." She says reassuringly. 

"That's what Noah would say." I say, smiling.

"Wait, who's Noah?" She asks. 

"Oh, he's my boyfriend." I reply. She smiles and I laugh. "What's the dogs name?" I ask. 

She glances at the dog lovingly for a second then turns back to me. "Her name is Kayla. But Kay for short. She's more responsive to Kay." she says. 

"Why such a human name?" I ask. 

She turns to the dog and smiles again. "She's named after my mother. She died a long time ago." She replies. 

"That's nice." I say.

"If you're hungry there's some chocolate and also some water in the bag." I say. Claire digs through the bag and begins sharing with Kay. I turn and try the engine again. Nothing. 

"What's the time?" Claire asks. 

I glance at my watch. "Ten to eleven." I say. I turn to Claire. "Right it doesn't look like we're getting out of here anytime soon. It's good you're awake, that means you shouldn't have a concussion or anything. We might as well settle for the night. And we'll figure it out in the morning." I say. 

She nods and continues eating. And I curl up and attempt to sleep again.

Laurence's P.O.V.

At eleven we met back up and no one had found her and the same at twelve. When everyone returned at one in the morning, they all decided to go to bed and keep watch on the tower. I refused. So, on my own, I kept looking. As the night progressed I became so tired, I knew I needed sleep but I couldn't give in.

I drive around endless roads, constantly looking for something, anything. An hour later, I give up. I drive back to the school and don't even bother going upstairs. That night, I slept in the car.

I woke early, the sun was barely in the sky. I run to the bathroom to shave and brush my teeth and then immediately go back to searching. This time, I go further out, miles out. And she's still nowhere to be seen. A few hours later, I return back for something to eat. When I enter, the group give me concerned glances.

"How long were you out there?" Alex asks. 

"I stayed out until four. I came back and slept for a bit. Left at six." I say. 

Stella gives me a sigh. "Noah. Eat something. Now." She says. I take the plate and eat the food as quickly as possible. The others will be following behind me soon, to carry on looking.

Ophelia's P.O.V.

I woke relatively late, nearly eight. Claire and Kay were still fast asleep. I nibbled on chocolate and grabbed a spare pen and began doodling on the back of the car leaflet thing. I was always good at drawing. I draw Noah. Asleep, how I remember him. He looks peaceful and I prefer to picture him like that instead of being frantic.

At around nine Claire woke up and we began talking about getting back to the school. She agreed to come to get medical help but said she couldn't promise anything about staying. That was good enough for me. I owed it to her to help her.

In the end, I push the car forward slightly with the brakes off and jump in the car. Luckily the road is downhill so we don't need to the engine quite yet. I want to get as far as possible in the car since Claire can barely walk and we'd be severely exposed. I deduce a route in my head that I hope is correct although my memory of this area is vague and for the most part unreliable.

We get nearly two miles on the push start. We stop at the side of the road, on a dual carriageway. The roads around here are deserted from both Roamers and empty cars luckily. If there were too many cars, all the weaving would cause the car to lose momentum from the push start. I guess we're about twelve miles from the school. We definitely can't walk twelve miles. And, if we were to get closer, and we ran into the herd we'd be dead.

I attempt another push start and we crawl along another mile or so. For the next two hours I push and drive constantly. And we crawl along nearly eight miles. I'm optimistic that we'll make it back by sunset which is in a few hours. To pass the time while driving, I tell Claire all about the school and the people and everything about them. She listens intently. I find out she's actually twenty one. She was studying engineering when everything went bad.

By one, we're barely five miles away. But now we're not going downhill, so we can't do anymore push starts. Claire is convinced she can make it, but I know she can't. She's small, but so am I. I wouldn't be able to carry her very far. If anything happened, we'd be screwed.

For a while we just sit there trying to think of something we can do.