Pandemic

Chapter 6 - Trespassing

6

 ‘Wait! Wait,’ a boy’s voice gasps. John turns around first and stops. He recognizes this boy. He was the youngest of the men who had stolen their car. In a flash, John steps forward, keeping the three teens behind him. It’s a poor protection if this guy decides to shoot at them, but it’s something. 

 ‘What do you want?’ Matt asks and steps up next to John.

John is just about to push Matt back behind him, but the boy starts coughing. Then he says ‘don’t leave me, please! I got thrown out of the group.’ He coughs again. ‘I’m not like them, come on. I’ve never killed someone. Please let me come with you!’ He is nearly down on his knees, pleading for forgiveness and shelter.

 ‘Put down your weapon,’ John says. Without blinking, the boy does as told. ‘Jump three times,’ he commands. The boy jumps three times, leaving a little crater in the snow. ‘Now, turn around and pat your head.’ Not even hesitating for a second, he does as told. ‘Jump again.’ In the background he can hear the kids mumbling and laughing at a very low volume.

 ‘How high?’ The boy asks.

John smiles wryly. ‘Give me your weapon and you come with us. You’ll walk in the back,’ he says. The boy seems like he is used to get bossed around, and he certainly won’t be a problem as long as no one scares him. 

As they continue to walk, Claire seems magnetically drawn further and further back to the new boy. It’s a slow process, but every doctor knows how to notice details. When she gets to him, John decides to give her privacy until something else is necessary. He isn’t her father. His children are dead.

                                                                           ***

 ‘Look,’ Aria grins and points up at the sky. There’s smoke coming from a place in between the trees. It’s dark gray, which means the fire source is still burning. Even though her feet are numb by the cold, she speeds up. Converse sucks as winter shoes. Before all this, she made herself allowed to use Converse all year round because they were pretty. Now she even would have worn ugly yeti shoes if that meant she wouldn’t freeze. 

The group arrives a small cabin. It’s cozy, but it’s so coated in snow, that you can barely see its color. Just a little path towards the door is shoveled. There’s a road close by, but there is no awesome, black car to see, which is both good and sad. Aria is still grieving a little for the loss of their pimped ride, but she has come to terms with it. Or she will, at least… Someday.

Knock knock.

It takes half a minute before a man opens the door. They strategically placed the wimpy Gregory Heffley at the top of the staircase in case there were bad people in the lodge. Claire had protested, and John was holding her back from going up to him and start clinging on him like she had done since they met him. The stairs appear to be slippery, because Gregory all of a sudden falls backwards. When the man grabs Gregory’s bare hand, she opens her eyes for him.

Even though the man surely is in his thirties, Aria still has problems to breathe. He is completely, utterly hot. She can barely contain herself from running up to him and kiss him. Every man or boy she has ever seen is a faded, little mushroom compared to this handsome stranger. Perfectly shaved, brown beard, friendly, dark eyes… He is prettier than every photo she has ever seen of any male celebrity. He has to be the most beautiful man she has ever laid her eyes on. Nothing matters except touching him and having him. She has to… Touch him…

                                                                              *** 

Something weird is going on with Aria, so Matt decides to put his arm around her. She looks like she’s going to panic. His mom used to get panic attacks where she hyperventilated until she passed out. If no one caught her, she would fall. Once she had passed out on their bathroom floor and hit her head so hard that she got a serious concussion. He’s not letting Aria fall down and hit her head anywhere, especially not on the ice. 

The man lets them in after John has explained that they are lost.

Matt steps forward, supporting Aria’s weak body. She worries him. They both worry him, Claire and Aria.

As he steps over the threshold, the Gregory guy starts coughing harder than he has done during their trip. This time a red, clumpy fluid comes out, streaming down his chin. It’s blood. Claire starts screaming, howling like Matt has never heard anyone howl before. It’s so sharp that it feels like the noise cuts his ears open.

This, this he has only seen twice before.

The woman who got dragged behind the bus.

He is infected.

Quickly, Matt pushes the new guy in the chest so he falls down the stairs. Claire is crying, begging him to stay with her, but John manages to keep her from running down to him. Aria is reaching out towards their host, an old, greasy, fat man. She’s nearly drooling.

John, who probably has seen this a thousand times, closes the door and locks it behind him. ‘It’s the virus.’ He lets go of Claire, and she collapses in a sad, little heap on the floor. ‘No one touches Claire, okay? She has been all over this guy,’ he orders.

Matt holds on tightly to Aria who is struggling to get to the old man. What is she even doing?

 ‘John! Help me!’ Matt screams as Aria starts kicking to get lose. This isn’t her. 

 ‘I can’t! I’ve touched Claire! You two are the only one’s who are safe,’ John seems less calm than a doctor should be in situations like these.

‘You don’t even know how this shit spreads!’ Matt says. ‘Old man, go into the closest room and lock the doors, you hear me? Lock the door and stay there,’ he grits through his teeth whilst feeling the throbbing pain of Aria repeatedly elbowing him in the ribs.

 ‘It could be by breath, it could be by touch – I don’t know! For all I know, we could all be sick waiting for our cells to collapse,’ John’s voice is trembling.

After exchanging eye contact with Matt, the old man runs into what seems to be the bathroom. He is scared, and his beer stomach is forcing him to bend over when he runs. When he is out of sight, Aria stops fighting. It’s like she goes out of a trance – but only for a second.

Before anyone manages to stop her, she is off knocking on every door, running around like a mad. What does she want from him? Does she know him? 

Then he realizes it.

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