Dead Air (Book 1 of the Biohazard Saga)

Chapter 1: Begining Of The End

'Keith Lee...you ARE an idiot'.

I turned around to see Isabella Reyes glaring at me, her soul-piercing brown eyes staring daggers. Despite the anger and hostility, she still looked extremely attractive with her face flustered and a strand of loose copper hair falling over her face.

Of course, no one in their right minds would say that to her face. She grew up with seven brothers and was a tough cookie if there ever was one. The last guy who tried ended up with a bruised face, so the rumour went. 

We were all gathered in one of the waiting rooms at Kuala Lumpur International Airport, waiting for our flight which was to take us to the sunny-side beach paradise of Langkawi Island. With half my group still missing and our boarding time about to commence, I wasn't in the mood for any nonsense from Isabella.

'If you hadn't messed up on the flight bookings, I would be relaxing on the beach right about now. But no...you had one job and you made it your life's goal to make a shitstorm out of it,' said Isabella, her voice taking on a sharp edge.

At this point, I was getting irritated. My slight crush on her was slowly being overtaken by the urge to strangle her. Keeping my cool, I replied, 'Hey...don't pin the entire thing on me. My job was just to fill in the details and send it off to the travel agency. It ain't my fault the system messed it up. I mean...the agency even admitted to it when Miss Abberdy called...so lay off me will ya!'

'Do I look like I care about the details? It was your responsibility to double-check. That's what happens when they let a guy handle these sort of things. Thanks to you, our holiday plans have been cut short.'

Woah, woah, woah...insulting my "capabilities" so to speak was bad enough...but pinning the blame on the fact that I was a male was absolutely ridiculous. Blood boiling, I looked like a volcano about to erupt.

'You know, I can't decide if both of you are getting into a brawl or about to make out,' came a voice from behind us and we turned to see my sister, a playful smile on her face.

Immediately Isabella and I took on new shades of red and stammered in protest. She draped an arm around Isabella and made a face at me.

'Bella, as dim-witted as he is, and I say this with great regret seeing as he is my twin. He does have a point on the bookings part. I saw him packing like, literally a month ago...he wouldn't have messed this up on purpose. So let's just torture him once we are on the island, shall we? We are getting great seats as compensation anyways. It's just so anticlimactic if you guys get it going here,' said Olivia grinning.

Winking at me, she went arm-in-arm with Isabella over to the bags that were piled at the back of the classroom. I never told Olivia anything about my crush on Isabella, but I guess it's sort of a twin thing...the connection that we have that makes us understand what the other is thinking. 

Chuckling to myself, I watched as my sister and Isabella laughed in the corner. Olivia had a way of diffusing situations and getting people to see her way. Born just four minutes before me, she got the coveted title of "older sister" despite the fact we were practically twins.

In all honesty, besides our matching inky eyes and wavy hair, we were practically two different people. Breezing through exams, and being sought after to lead half the clubs on campus, she was the golden goose of the family. She had the natural air of authority, but one that made you want to follow her instead of being forced to do so.

I on the other hand...may have drawn the short straw. Not only was I always locked in mortal combat with anything remotely academic... I just had to be the one to be hit by that disease. My brain goes into a shutdown mode every time I think about it and though she doesn't outwardly show it, I could tell that Liv is still traumatised by the events.

Morbid thoughts aside, it seemed that the only thing I could ever one up Olivia was on the track. Nope, I may not be Usain Bolt but I can handle my own pretty well in the sports arena.

Sure, she annoyed the heck out of me and the number of fights we got into would've surely bumped us right to the top of Santa's naughty list. But she would always be my twin and I love her more than I care to admit (though as they say in movies, if it happens, it will be over my dead body).

Glancing at my watch, I pulled out my phone and sent off a dozen messages to James and Brandon. Admittedly it was the travel agency that messed up, but the dean felt that I was responsible in some way, leaving me to assemble our rag-tag group and get us aboard the plane while he settled things with the agency.

Maybe in some alternate dimension, I could use my charisma and charm to get everyone to actually be on time and not add on to my increasingly bad rep with the dean...but with 5 minutes left before our scheduled departure, and three students still MIA, I would gladly take any dimension that didn't involve me getting royally screwed!

Hearing my phone buzz and hoping it was one of the others, I swiped the 'answer' prompt and was surprised to see that it was my mom.

'Hey, Mom... what's up?'

'Keith! Honey! Are you alright?' came the frantic voice of my mom.

'Yeah mom, I'm fine. Me and Liv are about to board the plane. Did anything happen?'

Mom seemed to calm down a little when she heard my voice, but she sounded drained and I could detect exhaustion in her voice.

'Thank goodness! Apparently, there are riots breaking out everywhere. Hospitals are at full capacity and I've been on my toes for hours. I was worried that your van might have been caught up in all of that.'

Looking back, the traffic had been unusually bad, with us reaching the airport just under an hour before boarding.

'You know that you aren't like the others, what with your...'

"Mom...cut me some slack will you. I get it alright. I'll be careful. Jeez!' I interrupted. 'You've been bugging me about this ever since we told you about the trip. I'm twenty-four for God's sake.'

There was a pause, letting the tension in the air subside.

I could hear my mom's name being called as the sound of sirens filled my end of the receiver.

Mom's voice became faded and all I could hear was something about "rabies" and "sedated". I was just about to ask about it when my mom started speaking again.

'Alright hun, I gotta go. Things are getting busy here. Sorry if I'm sounding like one of those jailor-moms. Its been a rough day, and I'm just a little worried about you. Just be sure you stay alert and buzz me when you reach the island alright? Look out for your sister.'

Before I could even reply, the line went dead.

I've gotten used to mom cutting the line. A common occurrence ever since she was appointed Chief of Surgery at the city's General Hospital.

Staring at the blank phone screen however, I felt uneasy. You know, the feeling you get when your gut tells you that something was wrong.

Little did I know how right I was...