Omega Virus (Book 1): Beta Hour (8 page)

The
more time I spent with her, the more marbles I knew she'd lost, or never had.

As
we made our way through the darkened rooms, the smell of blood wafted in the
air. The power had failed through the entire building. Up the stairs we went,
and left no room unturned. Each room led to new disappointment. We didn't find
Dave. We didn't find Jeff. We didn't find Jessie. The building ended up being
void of life, and even death. Only the bodies of slaughtered dead Corpses
remained. The rest of the Gamer's Guilds were gone.

LEVEL 11 – THE VAULT

Hours passed
after we found our way back into Epic Impossibilities Games. After a thorough
search, we didn’t find a single hair of the Gamer’s Guild. Even though Wesley
said better nothing than undead, I felt a terrible pain in my being. If we had
found them as Corpses, I wouldn’t have been able to put them down, especially
Jessie. I could never kill Jessie. Kessa remained quiet during the search and
didn’t do much. I couldn’t blame
her,
she and Merlda
must've been close.

We
left without me ever having a sense of closure. It would stick with me forever;
the friends I could've had.

Wesley
insisted on burning down the building. I knew that would be his closure, so I
agreed.

Night
came, and we watched from a distance, sitting on the roof of the tallest
building in town, Milpeg National Bank.

A
strange feeling came over me; watching a building burn without any sirens, no
fire trucks to come to extinguish the flames.

Kessa
held my bandaged hand, as we sat in silence, our legs dangling over the edge of
the building. Wesley stood with his own kind of silence, his Zombie Killing Hat
held to his chest
;
dramatic as ever.

After
more than an hour of silence, Kessa spoke up. “What do we do now?”

I
looked into her eyes. They changed shades, it seemed, every other minute. At
that moment, they were a deep green.

I
squeezed her hand, although it hurt to do so, “I guess we just try to survive?”

“Is
there a point?” She asked, somberly.

Wesley
put his hat back on. “There's always a point.”

“Not
if ya can’t find one,” Kessa whispered as she stared at the fire below.

Wesley
replied, “You don’t need to find one. You need to make one.”

She
had doubt in her eyes, but for once, Wesley spoke words of wisdom. He gave
himself a reason to go on, whatever that reason could be. Perhaps we could
learn from him after all.

Deep
into the night we watched. At some point, after sitting back, by roof vent,
Kessa leaned over and laid her head in my lap. I stayed silent, and eventually,
she fell asleep, snoring lightly. Although she seemed to be holding up, it
terrified me to think what she'd been through.

That
fanatic freak, Bernard had sexually assaulted her. That alone would've been bad
enough, but adding the
ZPoc
on top? She had to be
tough.

I
put my hand on the side of her head and tucked a lock of hair behind her ear.
She mumbled something but had a smile on her face. I didn’t touch her again.
She seemed to be having happy dreams. There would barely be happiness left in
the world. She deserved all she could get.

A while later, Wesley spoke up.
“What about Jessie?”

“Huh?”

He
stared into the distance. “Did you love her?”

“Why
does it matter to you? I mean, if I loved someone or not?”

“It
matters because you have that girl on your lap, snoozing away.”

“I
don’t understand,” I said.

“Isn’t
it obvious? She has attachment issues. Some pretty serious ones, and you just
so happened to be her guardian ‘angel’.”

“Her
angel.” I sighed.

He
stared at me hard. “Doesn’t that mean something to you? That she thinks so much
of you?

“I
haven’t thought about it.” I looked at her, then back at him.

He
heaved a great sigh. “That’s the problem with kids. Y’all don’t think. You
never do.”

I
frowned. “That’s rude.”

He
chuckled with closed eyes. “Well, it seems your decision was made for you.”

“I
really don’t catch your meaning,” I said.

“Idiot.
You had three girls, and you coulda had any of them!”

“Not
true!”

Kessa
shifted in her sleep, and I sighed. I needed to keep my head cool, even though
the temperature had dropped drastically.

“Moron!
Jessie cared deeply about you! And what about Tiffany?”

“You
don't know anything,” I said, looking back at the burning building, which had
caught another beside it on fire.

He
hesitated and reached into his pocket. For a moment, I thought he would
retrieve something, but his hand came out empty. “Tiffany loved you, ya know.”

“You
have gotta be kidding me!”

He
shrugged, but anger lined his face. “You’re too young to understand any of
this, still. One day. One day.”

Wesley's
annoyance took me by surprise. I'd been frustrated with him on an hourly basis,
and now he had the nerve to be upset with me?

“What
do you know?” I whispered.

“Way
more than you, kid. Way more than you.” He turned to walk away.

“Where
are you going?” I asked.

He
stopped. “It's brick cold out here. You should wake up sleeping beauty. Gotta
sleep in the vault tonight!”

“How
will we get out?” I asked.

“It
opens automatically in the morning, power or not.” He explained. “So come on
already. Or do you want me to carry Kessa?”

I
shook my head. “I’ve got it covered.”

Wesley
disappeared inside the building, and I looked down at Kessa. Her lips were
puffy and swollen. She had been chewing on them all night. Her eyes looked
puffy too. Could I have had any of the three? Now, I'd been left with Kessa.
Would she have been my choice?

“Kessa?
We have to go inside.”

“Why?
I’m comfortable,” she mumbled.

“My
lap can’t be that comfortable,” I said.

She
jolted awake, sitting straight up. “Huh?
Your lap?
How
long have I been asleep?”

“Just
maybe twenty or thirty minutes.”

“Oh.”
She yawned, stretching her long arms and legs.

I
climbed to my feet and offered her my bandaged and useless hand. She smiled and
then stood up on her own.

“Can’t
have my patient reopening wounds.” She pouted like a duck.

I
grinned back, “You’re right. I’m useless.”

“I
bet you're useful in plenty of ways,” she said.

We
smiled at each other for a long time, which might've been sixty seconds max,
but still, it felt nice. She could easily have been a model, but I didn’t feel
anything, not like when I thought about Jessie. I had to hold back crying as we
walked down the stairs inside. In my mind, I kept repeating the words Wesley
had said.

My
choice had been made for me.

Kessa
squeezed my arm as we descended into the building. I wanted nothing more than
to feel something for her. She looked at me with eyes full of affection. Wesley
had been right again; I'd become her crutch.

My
mind started to drift into the future. Every day there would be fewer and fewer
living people, and eventually the human race would be extinct unless the
luckiest of us stayed alive and reproduced. I started blushing at the thought.

We
found the bank vault and teller stations on the third floor. It looked so
clean, chaos free, almost as if the
ZPoc
had never
happened. You’d expect to see shattered glass and dollar bills strewn about,
but no one had even had the chance to loot.

I
motioned to Kessa, and she kept her gun drawn as we stalked around to the
vault, but we found no sign of Wesley.

“Is
this really a bank?” I asked.

Kessa
said, “Doesn’t look like the hat guy is here.”

“Where’d
he go?” I wondered.

The
room began to vibrate, and I spotted the huge mechanical door of the vault,
wide open, but closing slowly.

“Come
on; Wesley must already be in there!” I said.

We
rushed behind the teller stations, and darted into the vault, barely making it.
The door closed with a huge slam, and I realized we were alone.

“Did
he trick us?” I asked. “Why the hell would he do that?”
  

“Would
your friend really do that?” Kessa asked.

I
sighed and began to open drawers. “Money.
All so useless.
I don’t know, honestly. He wasn't my friend.” I flipped through a bundle of
bills.

“Can
we get out?” she bounced on the balls of her feet.

A
small air vent rested in the corner, but we couldn't fit. Maybe Wesley would
meet us in the morning?

I
said, “All we can do is hope, but for now we’d better make the best of it.”

The
crisp bills smelled amazing. Just the morning before, I would've loved to start
shoving them in my pockets. Instead, I dumped them on the floor against the
wall. Kessa grabbed another and did the same. I sat down against the pile, took
the Smith & Wesson out of my belt and laid it next to me on the floor.
After breathing a sigh of relief, it dawned on me how tired I'd become. I
hadn’t even slept well the night before. I'd stayed up all night playing a new
game.

Kessa
scooted next to me and whispered into my ear. “Take off your shirt.”

“W-what?”
I gasped.

“I
need to see your wounds, silly,” She giggled.

“Right!
Ha
ha
ha
.” I reached for
the bottom rim of my shirt, but I couldn’t grab it properly.

“Here,
let me help.” she said and pulled it over my head.

I
sat there feeling vulnerable and cold. Kessa looked at my chest and leaned in,
gently putting her lips to a specifically bad cut and started blowing. I felt
tingles all over, and I had the sudden urge to grab her and pull her on top of
me. I fought those feelings as best I could and tried to think of something to
say.

“What
was your life like?” I asked. “Ya know like it was yesterday?”

“I
lived on the farm down on the 45.” She said. “I spent my days milking cows and
tending to the chickens.”

“Really?”
I asked.

She
rolled her eyes and slowly ran her fingertips down my stomach. “No, silly.”

“What
are you doing?” I asked as the hairs on my arms stood on end.

“You
have cuts all the way down.” She said. “Even some I see below your waistband.”

My
face scorched red.

“T-that’s
o-okay!” I pulled her hands up to my chest.

“Why
don’t you want me to look?” She asked, “Has no one ever seen you in your
boxers? Oh! Is it because you wear
tighty-whities
?”

“Let’s
not talk about my underwear!” I shook my head desperately.

“Embarrassing
boxers!” her eyes grew wide, “Lemme see!”

“No!”
I pleaded and grabbed her hands, which were fumbling with my belt buckle.

She
laughed and before I could stop her pulled open the button of my pants and revealed
the top part of my boxers.

She
fell into a giggle fit. “Scooby Doo boxers!
Ruh
Roh
!”

Right
about then, I felt like keeling over. “Stop it! I’m sure you like Scooby Doo!”

“Of
course, I do!” she smiled wide and started fingering the waistband of the
boxers.

“That’s
enough!” I pleaded, “Please.”

She
giggled and leaned against my chest, putting her head on my shoulder. She
unbuttoned her flannel, took off her boots and lowered the straps of her
overalls. Part of me wanted her to take off even more, but the other part of me
drowned in fear.

“You're
trembling, Mr. Angel.” she whispered into my ear.

“I’m
not an angel,” I said.

“You’re
an angel to me.” She said.

I
found myself wrapping my arm around her. More so I found my eyes trailing her
from her cute little toes to her perfectly shaped nose only inches from mine.

If
some force or another had chosen this cute, sexy, fun girl for me, then maybe
the apocalypse wouldn’t be so bad. I could see myself actually spending time
with her and maybe even loving her.

“Goodnight,
Zach.” She whispered.

“Goodnight
Kessa,” I said and kissed her forehead. Her hair smelled like fruit.

“
Ruh
roh
, I rink I'm
ralling
rasleep
.” She whispered,
but before I could answer she snored softly once again, an unbearably cute
smile on her face.