Virus

Chapter 6

Chapter 6

318 Days

31st August 2021

A month had passed since we left the motel and my symptoms had finally begun to show their ugly heads. It started a few weeks ago, I woke up gasping from the nightmare that had been haunting my sleep for the last week. I was trapped in a cold, dark metal room with no way of escaping. I woke up feeling horribly alone even though Alex was sleeping less than a foot away from me. Feeling like I’d had less than ten minutes of sleep, I made my way to the bathroom. When I looked in the mirror I couldn't stop the scream that escaped my throat; the whites of my eyes had turned blood red. My manic screams sent Alex running to see where the spider was this time, but when I saw him, well, I started screaming again, his eyes were worst than mine, the red against his green irises made them look like a Christmas wreaths. I didn’t know whether to scream more or start laughing.

So we are currently stuck in a hotel in Vancouver, which Xavier kindly paid for, as Alex and I aren’t allowed out of the hotel, because we can’t blame the daemon eyes on a hangover. At least this time we have a TV and room service, I’m eating as much food as I can until my next set of symptoms arrive (only fifteen days to go!), but Alex and I aren’t the only ones with new symptoms. Lisa has arrived at month eleven and she almost cried when she woke up with the alien looking lace rash covering her arms and Xavier finally slept the whole night for the first time in a month but now he's always under five layers of blankets and refuses to turn the heating down.

After a lot of deliberating, we decided that we need to have the identification tattoos removed because the foundation washed off too easily. The only problem was ever since the virus broke out all forms of tattoos and tattoo removal had been banned. Now you may ask, who would break the law to help us? Well, Xavier knows a guy. So on this one occasion we were allowed out of our hotel room, in the dead of night, Alex and I in sunglasses and Lisa not only wearing long sleeves but gloves as well to cover her arms. We didn’t do the usual laser removal because it would take too much time that we didn’t have, also the equipment was extremely difficult to get hold of. So we did something else, which wasn't pleasant at all.

We arrived at a normal looking apartment somewhere downtown and waited at the door. It cracked open for a few seconds and then flung open. A blonde man with a slight French accent greeted us. His face broke out into a massive as he shook Xavier’s hand and hurried us into the spacious white bathroom which had shelves that were stacked with hundreds of coloured bottles. He treated all of us, except Xavier, with the acid on the tattoo that felt like you were being attacked by a thousand bees. When it was my turn I caught sight of his eyes, the were a dark brown almost the same colour as his pupils so it took me a while to realise his pupils were extremely dilated, month five. That’s why he is helping us, I realised, I couldn't believe how many people infected with the virus weren't locked up. I flinched as the acid began to burn my skin, he looked up at me apologetically as bandaged my arm. Just before we left, Xavier shook his hand,

“Thank you for doing this Charlie.” He said

“Anything to make the government's life a little harder.” Charlie replied grinning.

Alex’s behaviour has been erratic recently. He’s constantly agitated and stares at the door as if the devil himself will come bursting in any minute. Not only that but he’s been getting calls at strange hours, I once heard him yelling at someone on the phone at three in the morning and when I asked him who it was, he just snapped at me and told me to go back to sleep. I suspect it has something to do with his brother, which is still a topic that is off limits, every time I ask he gets this angry glint in his eyes that never fails to make me shudder but there’s always a sadness and fear in them that makes my heart ache for whatever he’s hiding from me.

Today I was impressing Alex with my hacking skills by pulling up the hotel’s security cameras and laughing at peoples annoyed expressions when I froze the elevators or locked the automatic door and watched people walk into them.

“So you just taught yourself to do this?” He asked in disbelief watching I typed codes and algorithms at top speed. I nodded, I was so completely lost in my little world that I didn’t notice his roaming hands. He swept my hair out of my face and touched his lips to mine while his other hand slowly travelled down my waist.

“Wow Nat he must really like you if he can kiss you with your creepy daemon eyes.” Lisa said while stepping in from the adjoining room.

“Well Xavier must really like you if he can handle you ugly hands.” I huffed in frustration. “Honestly you look like you belong in an alien cult.” She narrowed her eyes and ran a rash covered hand through her new haircut.

You see when Lisa gets bored she changes her hair and she gets bored very easily. Her hair had grown longer so it was now cut into a long, sleek black bob with violet tips and a slashed fridge. “What? You think I can’t hear you guys?” I smirked as she retreated back to her room in defeat. What can I say? I get feisty when I’m annoyed. I promise I’m not always obnoxious, but this isn’t the first time she has ‘accidentally’ walked in without knocking.

So that’s pretty much it. That is this month's exciting events. Sorry to disappoint you, being on the run isn’t as fun as it sounds, the movies seriously over exaggerated.