Lunar Virus ✔️

Chapter Nineteen: Elodie

I don’t think I knew the feeling of impatience until now. Sure, there was always that impatience in waiting for cookies to be done baking or waiting for the teacher to stop talking to sharpen a pencil. But all that dulls in comparison to the pure impatience I feel now. Because looking at Elie’s face, I can tell that whatever he’s seeing is interesting . . . maybe even a bit confusing.

It’s very funny actually. Elie looks like a bemused puppy. His eyebrows are pulled together, his lips set into a little frown. In fact, if he had been awake, I’m sure that his eyes would have been squinted and his head cocked slightly to the side. Again, like a puppy.

Sheila sighs, “Stop pacing. You’re making me dizzy.”

Realizing that I was pacing while staring at the clock, I force myself to sit. Naturally, as I sit, I watch the clock.

“Oh, come on. Don’t look so antsy. My little cousin looks less antsy while waiting for the bathroom after drinking two gallons of lemonade,” Sheila crows. Out of the corner of my eye, I see her reach for a chip-sized holoprojector. It bursts alive and automatically opens to a news channel.

A pink-haired weather lady clad in a pastel-blue dress stares grimly out from the screen. “--and just in a few of the Upper Valley high schools, over sixty adolescents have been reported dead--all of them are said to be accidental deaths. However, in the midst of the fluctuation of these so-called accidental deaths, the question arises--how many are really accidental?”

Both Sheila and I look at each other in shock and horror as we absorb the news. It should not come as a surprise, but it does anyway. The notion that this virus--a virus that doesn’t even have a proper name yet--could be so deadly had seemed so far-fetched at first, but now, the knowledge is quite suffocating.

Sheila looks awfully pale in the fluorescent lighting of the room. And Dev, who had yet to utter a word, is leaning against the wall in a dazed trance. Jayne, lost in the music coming from her earbuds, is blissfully unaware.

I turn to Elie. He still looks confused. Wonderful.

Feeling too fidgety to stay still, I start pacing again and decide to make a list to distract myself:

1) Sheila snores.

2) Do I snore?

3) Is it wrong to be slightly bored while people are dying?

4) What song is Jayne listen--did Elie’s eyelid just twitch?

Finally! Yes, he’s waking up. I start pacing again, anxious to hear what he saw. His face relaxes, and he goes from looking puzzled to looking like he’s just settled down for a nap.

From behind me, Sheila starts tapping her foot, signaling that she is getting just as impatient as me. And Jayne, sensing the flurry of activity, cranes her neck to see if Elie’s awake. When she sees that he’s in the process of waking up, she rolls her eyes and gestures for me to wake him up. In one swift motion, she rips her earbuds off and stomps to where Elie is sitting, asleep in the chair.

“He isn’t having a vision anymore . . . which means he’s taking a nap. So lazy.” She snaps her fingers a couple of times in his face. “Wake up. You aren’t doing this again. You know how long it took us to wake you up this morning?”

He cringes as he opens his eyes. “Why is it so bright in here?” he whines.

“Concentrate!” Jayne snaps, “What did you see?”

“What did I see?” he blinks a few times and starts talking really fast, “The dead guy Carl and his buddy Jim drove their truck into some pit. Except it isn’t just any pit. The pit had a fence around it with a sign telling people to stay away and, and inside the fence everything was dead but outside everything was alive. And that Jim dude was either insane or infected because he deliberately drove the truck into that pit saying that it was calling to him. So they drove in and it just went dark. They both should have died because that damned truck, from what I saw, never stopped falling. But, as we can see, Carl came out alive and later tried to kill me! Maybe he got infected in the pit? And--”

“Woah, wait. Slow down,” Sheila demands, “Can’t you only see visions through a virus that’s infected someone? That means you can only see this stuff after the person has been infected. Carl had to have been infected before they drove the car into the pit if you had a vision.”

Elie is silent for a while, with his eyes trained on the ceiling. After a minute, he nods, “Quentin says that it’s likely that Carl was infected before he went into the pit. However, the virus probably was just lying dormant, watching but not able to move. Falling into the pit activated the virus for Carl. Jim’s virus had been activated, causing him to drive into the pit.”

“Oh.”

We sit there processing for a while. Jayne looks slightly annoyed.

Sheila sniffs and I hesitantly look over, afraid to see if she’s crying or not. “It kinda smells in here.”

Elie absently nods in agreement and we all go back to pondering.

“Guys. Do you think we’re allowed to leave and go get ice cream?” Sheila asks.

Dev perks up, “Yes. Yes, I’ve been craving cilantro sorbet.”

Sheila kind of pulls back and wrinkles her nose and I decide to help her out, “First of all--no. And second, I’m pretty sure Sheila was thinking that if they allowed us to leave for ice cream, then we could use that time to investigate.”

Sheila nods gratefully at me and faces Elie. “Where is this pit, hmm?”

“Well, Carl didn’t really provide me with that information believe it or not.” Sheila scowls at the remark. “But,” Elie continues, “I did get the name of the pit.”

“And?” Sheila prompts.

“Lombard’s Pit.”

“Well, I guess that’s where we’re going next.”

***

Author's Note

So, I realized after writing this that a lot of this was kinda unnecessary except for the last part . . . also kinda boring. Also kinda confusing. I feel like I'm confusing everyone. Please tell me if you're confused. . . I'm pretty sure that if I was reading this, I would be confused.

Anyway, yes, there will be more action in the next chapter. They're gonna hunt for that pit! What do you think is in the pit?

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