Virus

Chapter 5

Chapter 5

348 Days

1st August 2021

I haven't slept in the last two days, I blame it on Lisa's spastic foot kicking me throughout the night, but actually I'm trying to get to grips with what we were about to do today. Today is the day we are going to leave the motel, until now we were in our little secret and relatively safe bubble and I hadn't really come to terms with the fact that what we were doing isn’t just illegal, it’s a federal crime. I glanced over at the alarm clock next to the bed it was five a.m. I groaned trying to think of way on how to pass the time.

"You awake Blondie?" A mischievous voice asked, I sat up to see Xavier leaning casually against the wall with his usual mischievous smirk on his face. I nodded. "Freaking out yet?" He asked almost like he could read my mind. "You're not the only one who can't sleep love." He said, pointing out the darkening bruises under his eyes. "Come on get dressed, you need a break from this crappy room." I was about to ask where we were going but I didn't care I just needed some air, desperately. I grabbed the first pieces of clothing I saw and put in my contact lenses. I picked up my coat from the floor and scribbled a note telling Lisa we were going out before I followed Xavier out the door, closing it carefully behind me.

We walked out the motel towards a... Ferrari? Wow this guy was loaded. We drove for a while in awkward silence. I fiddling with anything I could get my hands on, while questioning why I was in a car with a complete stranger and Xavier just smirked away. "Tell me something." Xavier said finally breaking the silence. I glanced over at him, his signature smirk still plastered on his face; does he not have any other facial expression?

"Only if you tell me something." I replied, his smirk grew wider.

"Alright, lets play twenty questions. Why are you so worried?" Was he being serious?

"Well let's see, first of all I have illegally run away with two men I barely know, my best friend has three months to live, God knows what the FBI are telling my family, we are going to break into a top security government building and if we get caught... well I don't even want to think about that. Oh and to top it all off, we all have an expiration date. Good enough reason for you?" 

"We all have an expiration date, we just happen to be lucky enough to know ours.” He replied keeping his gaze on the road but his eyes were distant as if his mind was somewhere else. “But fair enough, your turn.”

"How did you get away with it?" He smiled; he knew exactly what I was talking about. 

"My symptoms started at home, I came home late from a party and completely off my face, I couldn’t remember who I was with or what I had been doing. I was visiting my parents at the time and they refused to take me to hospital; they didn't want me to be to become a prisoner. So I took a year sabbatical at school for travelling so no one would be suspicious of my absence. I knew Alex had some ideas on a cure and when I called to tell him what had happened, he put all his focus into figuring it out. He’s not just smart, he’s bloody brilliant. I still think the only reason he became a doctor is because of his constant fixation with helping people.” He paused for a moment, a fond smile appeared on his lips. “About a month ago he told me what he overheard at school. We began to plan a way to try and steal the cure and it was going well until, he was infected as well but he was in the hospital when it happened, so he was locked up. It wasn’t a massive problem though, we had a back up plan if either of us was locked up in quarantine so we panned to meet here but then I found out we have an extra two stragglers." I rolled my eyes at him. "Yeah Alex said you like doing that." He said referring to my eye rolling. "So, about Lisa..." I burst out laughing; no one did stand a chance against her.