The Diseased

C.18

Chapter Eighteen


"Beth!"
Too early...
"BETH! Wake up! Come on-hurry!"
Too tired...
"The doors!"
Too lazy...
"They...bomb! Knocked them down!"
I inhaled quickly, as if I was gasping for air as I sat up, baffled. "How..?"
"BOMBS!" He cried, tugging my wrist. "Beth, the cure is in the freaking building-hurry up!"
After finally hearing those words, I immediately found myself crawling out of the car and falling on my knees. The drop from the car to the ground wasn't very low at all, being that the car was extremely old and not meant for traveling long distances. It didn't have a leaking fuel tank in it, though, so it was preferable over the car we had started out with in the beginning of the trip.
I chased after Ben, spotting Greg just a few feet in front of us. My guess was that Ben had awoken him first, and he probably thought that he would have a difficult time dealing with the fact that Madeline wouldn't be here to experience finding the cure, and not being able to live to see the result of it. But maybe that was what kept him determined, what kept him going and what kept him devoted to keep trying to survive, though it was difficult, to make it to Massachusetts.
"Come on!" He cried, as I fought to keep up with him. My heart seemed to race faster than my feet, pounding against my chest. Even in the winter, it was still incredibly difficult to not start sweating when running to fast, and so hard. I was so curious as to how I hadn't caught up with Greg, but again, it was almost near impossible to be a fast runner-with my habit for my breath to quicken even when I wasn't exercising or anything like that relating to fitness.
Though soon after I had questioned this, Greg himself had seemed to slow down. When I looked at his face as we ran up next to him, he was sweating heavily and his face had seemed to fall hopelessly, and I could almost picture what he was thinking in his mind; 'I can't do this'. But whether he believed that he could or if he couldn't, I had high hopes that he would be able to make it, and find this cure for Madeline. It wouldn't bring her back to life, but I had hoped that it would restore some of his sanity.
My feet pounded against the ground, as a great flame grew in my chest, burning brighter and larger as if it was growing into an inferno with every step I took. And with every step I took the building with the crowds of people surrounding it, everyone trying to fit themselves in at once, seemed to grow larger and closer, while the crowds of people seemed to shrink smaller and smaller. Other people were running behind us, some falling behind and tripping over the smallest things, causing their group to either stop and help them up, or other groups to just ignore and abandon them all together, proving their loyalty or disloyalty.
After what felt like countless hours of my chest burning and my feet aching, we finally reached the crowd. We all tried to fit through the crowded entrance at once, shoving and pushing others to try and get some place that we were all eager to get to, and get there sooner than some other random, insignificant person that would have no real affect if he or she passed you or not.
For a split second, my heart beat quickened, as I couldn't find Ben. I looked around the herds of people frantically, not able to pick out the brown haired boy.
"Ben!" I shrieked, feeling as if I was lost at sea, of sorts. Lost and confused and dazed and exhausted from the constant, nonstop running and racing and moving, and I had just wanted to lie down in a real bed instead of a car seat.
"Beth!" I heard him respond, nervousness and worry flooded his tone. I followed his voice, leading myself deeper into the crowd, until I spotted the familiar dark hoodie he had always adorned. I grabbed a hold of his hand, which caused him to look to his right where I was standing. Relief had immediately shone through in his face. The fact that it was so obvious made my heart swell.
"Wait," he paused, looking around. "My dad. Where is he?"
People constantly shoved me, and I was puzzled as to how my whole body wasn't bloodied and bruised at the moment. I was shoved into Ben, and he wrapped his arms around me so that I could use him as some sort of human shield as we continued walking.
"My dad," he repeated, shouting in my ear. I didn't get angry at him for screaming so loudly directly in my ear-you could barely hear yourself think due to how hectic and loud it was. Everyone was screaming at one another, pushing and shoving and causing such a commotion.
"Maybe he already got in." I responded, hopefully loud enough so that he was able to hear me. "We'll find him, we'll catch up to him. I was able to catch up to you, so we'll find him. I know we will."
We never did find his dad again.
He simply nodded in response, though I knew that it would be awful for him to lose not just his mother, but his father, too, and it wouldn't have been anyone's fault. There would be no one to blame, no one to pay for the death of his loved ones.
He seemed to hold my hands tighter than he was before and shove people tougher than he was already, clearing an easier path and making it far more efficient to move and push past the multiple groups and crowds of people who were just as eager as we were to get inside and find the cure and no longer live in this apocalyptic wasteland of a world.
We finally made it inside the school, and believe it or not, the inside looked even worse than it did on the outside. There was blood spattered everywhere on the walls, so randomly yet so precise that it looked as if it was meant to be there specifically in that way, bright, dark, and all shades in the middle of red showing if it was fresh or old staining the walls.
We ran hand in hand down so many corridors and hallways that all looked the same. Others had ran with us, some following our exact footsteps, other ditching us the second we turned down the right hallway when they had shouted to turn left. Those who followed us, however, were the expecting parents Koran and Mae. She was clutching her stomach with one hand as she jogged at a semi-quick pace, while Koran would run much faster than her, but then he would remember his wife and jog at a much slower pace so that she could catch up with him, and he would place his hand on her back to keep them both jogging at a steady rate.
I didn't speak to them, even though the tension in the room was obviously awkward. But above the awkward tension, of course, was the anxiety and the nervous air in the room. What if risking all our lives, and losing Madeline's, to drive across the country was wasted because of some rumor? We had no solid proof that this was actually true, for all we knew it could be some ploy, a joke, or better yet, a prank. A stupid prank a twelve year old could pull, telling his or her friends that a prestigious college has the cure to the whole apocalypse, and some people actually fell for it, and word spread, until everyone wanted to come to Massachusetts.
No. We would find the cure. Life would go back to normal, and everyone would be happy again. It was bound to happen.
It made sense.
If smart, brilliant students who got accepted into this college were smart enough to lock themselves in with a plentiful supply of food, they would most likely spend their time trying to find a cure, an antidote to make life go back and reset, in a way, back to normal again.
It had to make sense.
I wanted it to make sense.

We had been running for what felt like over an hour. Eventually splitting up from the parents and gone our separate ways, and then we just gave up on running and turned to walking. There was no point in running-we were just trying to find something. We weren't exactly sure what, though. In my mind, it would be a door we would soon come across that was wide open, with bright neon sign with multiple arrows pointing inside, reading "Beth! Congratulations-You Have Just Found The Cure To The Apocalypse! Just Go Ahead And Step Inside To Claim Your Prize!" But it obviously wasn't going to be that obvious, sitting there in the middle of one of the many hallways, waiting for me to find.
On top of checking and looking inside every door we came across, which were mostly just empty classrooms that brought back horrible memories of my old abandoned safe haven, we were also looking for Greg. Every once in a while, Ben would call out for him, yelling his name and his voice would ring throughout the halls. He had expected him to come running down the halls after him, running wildly like a dog or something of that sort, being called back by their owner. But eventually, I think he came to terms with the fact that he wasn't going to see his father again. And just like that, another aspect of his life changed completely, and it was just one other thing that he would have to deal with after the apocalypse.
Every once in a while, I would look over at him to find his face just...sad. There was actually no better way to describe it than sad. Of course, in a thesaurus, there are over hundreds of words that our synonyms to the word sad itself, but no word described sad better than sad.
He would look over at me frequently, and his grip on my hand would tighten, and he would smile in a sort of way to tell me or let me know that he was okay, but I honestly knew he wasn't. But I knew that deep down, he would have no interest in speaking about how upset he felt, because his father might be dead or not and we would have no clue. At least with Madeline, in a way, he had received some closure, but with Greg-he would have no idea what ever happened to him. It was similar to what happened when I had left Aaron alone unintentionally when I thought he was following me. I had just automatically assumed the worst happened, and my mind, my raging paranoia had created such a horrible, vial death for my innocent brother that he never experienced. But it seemed so real, what I had created, I just instinctively believed it. And that was probably what Ben was doing right this moment-creating a heartbreaking death scene for his father, because he never did see his death. Or even if he didn't die-Ben still obviously didn't know. That was probably one of the worse things, though, not knowing their fate. You automatically expect the worse. However, if you see them die, it affects you differently than if you didn't watch it. You're stuck wondering if the worst scenario happened over the better one. But maybe they didn't die such a long, painful death. You would have no clue. It was up for your own imagination to decide.

It had to have been at least three hours of just roaming around the halls. I felt as if I were in some sort of maze, trying so desperately to find my way out, or find some clue to lead me out.
"How long are we going to do this?" Ben mumbled as we continued walking and dragging our feet, one step after the other. "I feel like we just keep going down the same halls."
I disregarded his question, and squeezed his hand. "Where's Koran and Mae? I feel like we haven't seen them." I asked, staring up at his weary brown eyes.
"I'm not sure. Koran had said to turn left the last time we were with them."
"I haven't seen anyone."
"I know."
"It's quiet. There used to be a lot of people yelling." I explained, furrowing my eyebrows in curiosity and in deep thought. "They aren't making very much noise anymore, Ben."
He stopped, causing me to skid to a halt due to the fact that his hand was still clenched in mine. He cocked his head to the side, frowned, and then continued walking beside me.
"I know. It's weird."
After that, we continued walking in silence. Ben had given up on calling Greg's name repeatedly-he had probably given up hope by now. I, however, had felt the great need to whine as loudly as I could about how much my feet had hurt and how they ached and I would constantly shake his arm and ask if we could sit down, and he would always refuse and say we needed to find the cure. Several more minutes of my begging, I suppose he had given up, because he slumped to the ground and patted the empty space next to him, giving me a 'well?' look.
I laughed and fell to my knees, far too tired to walk, and crawled to where he sat. His body was limp, almost as if he was asleep, so I lifted his arm and wrapped it around my shoulder so that he was embracing me tightly, protecting me.
I think that was the moment where we drifted off to sleep, without another word about the cure.

We had started moving again after we had realized we had slept for about two hours or so. It was actually quite amusing to me how we could fall asleep in the most awkward positions-but maybe that was just our sleep deprivation working on our sides instead of against us.
We walked hand in hand together, Ben using his free hand to tap his chin occasionally, wondering if we have or haven't gone down a specific hallway.
"We didn't go down this hallway, Beth." He stated, a mortified tone in his voice.
"How do you know-" I started, looking to where he was faced.
He was looking down one of the many hallways, however, he was right. We hadn't gone down this hallway, and in a way, I was glad we hadn't.
It was an ordinary hallway just like the others. This hallway, however, didn't lead to another one at the end. Down at the end was a large black door that looked as if it were made of steel or some sturdy metal. All across the hall, though, were scattered, bloody bodies. Some were just dead, lifeless corpses while others were Diseased creatures that were straining and stretching their arms, dragging themselves on the floor to try and reach for our us, drag us down and devour. Feast on our flesh.
My hand flew to my mouth as it muffled the gagging sounds I was suddenly making. I spun around to face Ben and I buried my face in his shoulder, my eyes watering at the sight.
"Beth...what if the cure-"
I pursed my lips and looked up at him, and then back at the corpses, the Diseased creatures that had an unquenchable thirst for blood on their lips doing just about anything to contort their bodies in the most painful ways that they probably didn't even feel, just to drag themselves over towards Ben and I.
And that was when I saw them.
Koran and Mae, as these pitiful Diseased monsters. Their eyes were pure milky white orbs, but that was the only thing that seemed partially clean about them. They looked exactly like the other creatures that were covered in blood and guts and gore, but the only thing that separated them from all the others was the fact that their hands were still somehow locked together.
Ben looked over at me, smiling widely. "The cure, Beth. It's going to be through those doors. I feel it." He grinned from ear to ear, and he instantly started running straight across the hallway, down through the doors.
His sudden movements caught me off guard, though. My heart started racing and my breathing quickened and I couldn't react fast enough as my hand slipped from his and I tripped over my own feet, falling, crashing to the ground. My ankle had an incredible amount of pain suddenly surging through it, and my eyes watered, threatening to spill tears, but I pursed my lips and seethed through the pain. From what I could tell-I had twisted my ankle.
I only knew this because back when I was a much younger child, I had a faint memory of my father hanging up Christmas lights around our trees to celebrate the joyous occasion of family, and well, presents. He was standing from a ladder, not to high but not a step stool, either. He was about four, five steps up when he had fallen and twisted his ankle. He seemed to have the exact same reaction as I did. I had more things to worry, to focus on, though.
I had so eagerly wanted to see what it would be like to find the cure, but that opportunity had just slipped through my finger tips. The thought was so incredibly displeasing, and I so desperately wanted to experience the sensation of pure happiness, and pure joy.
But at least Ben would be able to experience it.
I had just wanted to experience it with him. I wasn't sure if he felt the same way, though. I hoped he did. Just like I hoped he wasn't lying when he told me he loved me, and that I needed to survive because I truly did matter.
I sighed, and glanced down at my ankle. As I did, I noticed the whole form my body was in, and a truly looked like one of the Diseased. My body not completely but almost appearing twisted and mangled. The only thing I was really missing was the blood, doused in it from head to toe, and a few major injuries across my body like humungous gashes and tears in my skin.
I looked forward, staring at the door, eagerly waiting for Ben to come racing out, until I gasped loudly and realized I didn't see it-I was too late. All I felt was the searing pain in my leg, from extreme pain to immediate numbness.
I hadn't seen the foul, wretched Diseased beast attempting to claw at me, attempting and succeeding with trying to bite my leg when I had just focused on my ankle. But the sinister thing got away with it, got away with taking one more life. It's teeth sunk into my thigh, and once it lifted up off of me for seconds, coming for another bite, did I see the extremely large, bloody mark on my leg that was in an almost picture perfect shape of two rows of teeth. It was exactly what it sounded like-a bite mark from a venomous, creature. A Diseased creature.
My heart started to race faster and my insides felt like they were all being ripped in half. The pain was almost unbearable, causing me to yell and screech in pain and agony. I hadn't wanted to cause so much noise, but it had just happened in that way. My yelling and screaming would distract him from getting what he needed to get, achieving what he needed to achieve.
Just find the cure. Don't worry about me. Get the cure. I silently thought, hoping it would somehow telepathically send a message to him. But that was only for a moment, when I could actually analyze what I was thinking. After that, I wouldn't be able to form sentences, or even think them. My breathing was heavy and I thought my lungs would burst at how much pressure I felt on them.
I couldn't think straight. My head was burning and everything ached, and I was feeling faint, and I was just so tired, and my eyelids were so, so heavy but I fought to keep them open. I finally couldn't stand the weight of my eyelids, so I had given up, and let them fall. I had given up.
But I was so proud of what I had done. I had come so close to finding the cure, and I had helped a boy and pushed him farther and enabled him to find it, so that he could avenge the death of his family. Ben found the cure. Ben found the cure. I would die perfectly happy knowing that he had found it, and he would spread it so that now this whole apocalypse would be over, and he could help everyone get their lives back to normal, or at least try to. But everyone would merge together and help one another to build a bridge back to happiness, and history would find that this lasted much more shortly than it probably should have, and it wouldn't even need to go down in the books, and that was how I wanted it to be. I desperately needed the next generation of children to not worry about these creatures, or have nightmares about them. They wouldn't need to have any fear of the imaginary monsters under their beds because Ben had conquered them, he had destroyed them and killed them all.
Ben did it.
The last thing I saw was Ben, racing towards me with an expression on his face that read pure terror, and absolute defeat.
The last thing I head was him screaming my name.
And then, I felt nothing.
I ceased to exist.
I apologize in advance if you're looking for a Walking Dead fanfic. Just so you know, I adore theWalking Dead, but none of the characters are in my novel. thank you for understanding & enjoy!x