CORONA

Day 7-8

Day 7

KIANA

Brandon and I walk silently down the corridor a few hours later, the smell of bleach lingering in the air.

All that was left of Nick.

I shut my eyes, the image of his blood ingrained into my head.

I pause as I step towards the direction of my room.

"Can I sleep in your room tonight?" My voice is low and raspy, the product of my tears.

"Of course."

He leads me down the other direction, past Charlie's room. His room is identical to mine; the en-suite directly across the entrance, the twin bed on the far left and a TV across from it, the white dresser next to the bed.

"I'll take the floor," I offer, hoping that he'd refuse it.

"No, it's fine."

"Okay."

He narrows his eyes at me. "You was waiting for me to say that, weren't you?"

"Maybe."

"Well jokes on you, I'd rather not sleep on the floor either. Doesn't have the same effect as a bed, you know."

"Hmm." I slump on the bed, my body drained from exhaustion.

He sits with his head against the wall. When the silence have dragged on long enough, I finally break it. "I can't believe Nick's dead," I mutter. "This whole thing hasn't really hit me until he..."

"Yeah, me too. We've gotta find a way out of here."

Brandon notices my eyes constantly flitting towards the door and back. "Everything's gonna be fine, Kiana."

I shake my head, fear tackling my exhaustion. I sit upright and lean on the wall adjacent to him. "Nothing's gonna be fine," I say quickly. "Don't delude yourself. I'm scared to sleep because the thought of Gwen still somehow missing despite the fact that eleven people went looking out for her... It's now ten because Nick wanted to help find her and now he's dead. How stupid could he be to get himself killed..." I inhale a shaky breath, feeling the urge to cry again. I wipe my eyes vigorously and lean my head back against the wall. Brandon regards me solemnly.

After Jared disappeared with Daniel, he came back a few minutes later and informed us that he locked him in the food pantry for now. We were supposed to come up with a plan tomorrow, though it was pretty obvious what the only choice to do was. If Daniel has to die so we can breathe a little easier, whether or not he actually remembers doing it, I was willing to let that happen. It's surprising how fast moralities can shift when survival is first priority. 

Brandon purses his lips. "Why don't you sleep? I'll stay up."

"No, that wouldn't be fair. I'm not even tired anymore. Why don't you sleep?"

"We'll take turns, then. Do you mind if I turn on the TV? The silence is creeping me out."

I nod and lay down on a pillow, shutting my eyes and willing my body to sleep.

After half an hour must've passed and my thoughts have wandered enough to terrify me, I sit up. Brandon flinches, startled.

"Sorry," I mumble. "I just... I have to tell you something."

Brandon mutes the TV with the remote and turns to me. "What is it?"

"I think... I have the virus."

His eyes widen. His brows furrows, releases, then furrows again, and then finally he bites down on his lip. He opens his mouth and closes it, and I decide to put him out of his misery by explaining.

"I was in the pantry when I hallucinated. I thought I saw Anna and Gwen attacking me, it felt so real. Then we were leaving and Gwen also saw something and started screaming and now she has this virus so it must mean I have it too and now she's missing so what the fuck does that even-"

"Wait, wait. That doesn't mean much."

I frown. "What do you mean?"

"I mean that you've been paranoid ever since the first murder, so I'm actually not surprised that you're experiencing one of the symptoms. Placebo effect works like that. If I say I have a headache, suddenly everyone thinks they have one too."

"You're saying it's placebo and not the actual virus?"

"Have you been experiencing other symptoms?"

I think about it for a moment. "No... I haven't."

"Then, that's that. Just your mind thinking that it has the virus. Try not to think too much in the negative. Convince your mind you don't have it, and you won't hallucinate again."

I release a deep breath. "How can you be so sure?"

His mouth tightens. "Because you just can't."

I stare at him for a second and sigh again. "There's also something else."

"You're scaring me."

"Jared and I knew that Tiana wasn't the only one with the virus."

He leans forward. "What?"

"He knew what double-blind study meant," I try to explain quickly. "Neither the scientists or the patients know who has the virus, which means that the five could've all been placebos and were just killed for a different reason."

He looks bewildered. "Tiana, Gwen, and Daniel. You're saying there's at most two people left?"

"Yeah, that's exactly what I'm saying."

"Holy shit. Why'd you two keep us in the dark?"

"We didn't want to cause panic. Everyone will turn against each other to protect themselves."

He looks angry, his brows curving deep down. "But at least we'd be protecting ourselves."

I pause. "Do you think it's our fault?"

Brandon shrugs helplessly. "I mean, the killer would've found a way. We're not all sleeping in the common area, and all the doors of the rooms are open."

His response does nothing to qualm the queasiness in my stomach. "I'm sorry."

He rubs a hand down his face. "It would've been nice to know. We could've-"

"What?"

"The room on the fourth floor. I think it's about time we check it out. Who knows how long we'll actually be here? Waiting longer means that there'll be less of us alive. I say we-"

"Are you forgetting there's an infected person in there? We don't know why he's locked in there, what he's capable of, we don't know anything. Are you willing to risk it?"

He thinks about it for a moment and nods. "Yeah, I think so."

"We can't even get in even if we wanted to," I try to reason with him. "There's an access code. Tiana would've known how to get us in." She had first offered to crack the code before everyone decided to wait it out. Since it's only been a week and three of us are dead, it does make sense why Brandon doesn't want to waste any more time.

"I think I can get us in."

My eyebrows shoots up. "Really? You can?"

He nods eagerly. I think about it for a moment and sigh. Without any further communication, we rise to our feet and step out into the corridor.

A muffled sound and a door slamming shut freezes us in our tracks.

We look at each other and turn back.

"I'm sleeping in the bathroom," I hiss when we're back in his room.

"Don't be ridiculous," he whispers back. "I'll take first shift. Go to sleep." He looks just as disturbed as I am.

I sit beside him and try to watch TV together for a while, each of us glancing at the door every few seconds.

Nothing comes after that and eventually, the low soothing sound of a cartoon playing in the background finally lulls me into deep sleep.