Plagued (5 page)

Sarah reached the landing and looked around her.
There was a small hall ahead with a light shade of pink covering the walls. Framed
photographs of babies and children covered the largest wall. There were four
doors around the landing, all of them shut except the one directly across from the
stairs.

Sarah looked at Mark and nodded her head towards
the open door. The crying was coming from inside. They walked towards it
slowly, Mark holding the crowbar tightly, ready to attack if anything went
wrong.

As she reached out for the door, a loud crunching
noise came from beneath her feet. She’d stepped on a photo frame and it had cracked
beneath her feet, a couple’s smiling faces now marred by large, spider-web like
cracks in the glass. The man in the picture seemed familiar to Sarah, but she
couldn’t figure out where.

The crying stopped. For what seemed like forever,
they stood there in silence and just listened, unsure of what the woman inside
was going to do. The air seemed electric with tension.

After a while, Mark pushed passed Sarah and opened
the door slowly, crowbar at the ready in his other hand. He blocked the doorway
with his body so Sarah was directly behind him and out of the firing line if
anything was to happen.

“Please don’t hurt me!” a female voice cried
weakly from behind the door, making Sarah jump.

Mark pushed open the door — it was too late to
turn back now. A young woman sat on a bed in front of him, her arms covered in
purple lumps that oozed pus and blood. Her pink pyjamas were covered in brown
and yellow stains and her eyes were bloodshot and swollen. She was sweating
profusely.

“She’s infected,” Mark whispered to Sarah, “badly.”

“Please, just go away and leave me alone. I have
nothing here for you,” the woman whimpered.

She moved her short blonde hair behind her ears
and held her hands to her face, sobbing quietly. There were remnants of beauty in
her features — she had large brown eyes, a small, slightly up-turned nose and
very high cheek-bones which gave her an elfin beauty. But as her condition
worsened those eyes had become sunken, dark circles encompassed them and her
skin had turned pale and lifeless. Her lips were cracked and bloody and her
teeth were discoloured.

“We’re not here to hurt you. We heard you crying. We
came to help,” Sarah said with a small smile, stepping in front of Mark
cautiously.

The woman looked up and moved her hands away from
her face, studying her guests suspiciously. Mark placed the crowbar on the
floor slowly.

“You can’t help me now,” she sniffed. “It’s too
late.”

“You’re infected,” Mark said and the woman nodded
sombrely.

Sarah walked closer to her gingerly. “I’m Sarah,”
she said, “and this is Mark.”

“I’m Adrianne,” she said with a cough.

“We’re — we’re leaving the city,” Sarah stuttered
nervously, “maybe you could come with u—”

“I can’t. I’m as good as dead and you know it. If
you two don’t get out of here when I change, you know what will happen,” Adrianne
cried into her hands.

Sarah looked at Mark hopelessly, her tortured face
wrenching his heart. He couldn’t blame her — he had once felt compassion for a
stranger in need.

“You could come with us, you don’t have to d— to
stay here alone,” he said.

Adrianne shook her head and broke into a coughing
fit. “You can’t come anywhere near me, you might catch it.”

“It’s okay,” Mark said. “Sarah’s already had it and
I can look after myself.”

Adrianne looked at Sarah confused. “Then how is
she alive?”

“I don’t know,” Mark said, “but I don’t think she
can catch it again.”

Adrianne sank into her hands again. “It doesn’t
matter anyway, I’m okay with dying. My entire family is dead — my father ripped
my mother’s face off with his bare hands. The woman he loved,” she croaked, her
face wet with tears. “I heard what happened outside. What you did to Kev.”

Mark and Sarah exchanged a look of surprise and guilt.

“Don’t feel bad,” Adrianne said, seeing their
exchange, “you had no choice. It wasn’t the man I love out there. Love doesn’t
survive this, it doesn’t make a damn bit of difference and I can’t keep living
knowing they’re gone. That everyone I love is
gone
. You two are lucky to
have each other.”

Sarah’s face reddened when she realized Adrianne’s
assumption, but didn’t correct her. It didn’t seem important. She glanced at
Mark and he was already looking back at her, he pursed his lips in an almost
invisible smile, he also stayed silent.

“There must be something we can do to help you. We
can’t leave you here to suffer,” Sarah said miserably.

Adrianne shifted on the bed and looked up at Sarah,
her eyes wide and serious. “Yes, there is something you can do,” she said and
coughed up fresh blood into her palms. “Kill me.”

“No!” Sarah yelled, stunned at the request. “I
can’t do that! There must be something else we can do!”

Adrianne smiled warmly, her eyes showing her
appreciation. “There isn’t any other way. It’s been over an hour now and it
only took my Dad ten minutes to change. I can already feel it in my mind, my
thoughts are...
erratic
to say the least.” A troubled look fell on
Adrianne’s face and she looked down at the floor, a look of concentration on
her face.

Mark watched her as she listened to something that
wasn’t there. In the corner of his eye, he could see Sarah looking at him
pleading him for a solution. He looked at Sarah without expression and then
returned his indifferent glare to Adrianne.

Adrianne, free from her thoughts, crawled to the
end of the bed and sat upright, facing the man in front of her. She looked at
him, studying him intently and then, as if reading his mind, she nodded
solemnly.

Sarah’s head shot from Adrianne’s to Mark’s and
back again, trying to understand the silent dialogue between them. They were
staring at each other with a dark look that Sarah couldn’t decode. When she saw
Mark’s eyes shoot to his crowbar on the floor, their silent decision dawned on
her. She shook her head, helplessly and panic surged through her chest. 

“No. No. You can’t,” she uttered in disbelief.

“This is what she wants Sarah, she doesn’t want to
suffer. We owe her that, at least,” Mark said, his voice stern.

Adrianne nodded her agreement. “It is,” she said,
turning to Sarah. “Thank you for coming here, Sarah, and for caring about me,
it warms my heart. But I’ve been waiting here alone for too long now, I want to
be with my family again. It’s okay, I
want
this.”

Tears fell from Sarah’s eyes. Her conscience ripped
in two.
This can’t be happening
. Her skin prickled as she watched Mark
pick up his crowbar from the floor and stood in front of Adrianne, his face
giving nothing away. Sarah wanted to run but her legs wouldn’t move.

“Are you ready for this, Adrianne?” Mark asked,
his voice wavering. His stony facade finally broke and his eyes filled with
compassion.

“Yes I am,” she smiled at him warmly and her brown
eyes shone, revealing a glimpse of her beauty. “It’s time to go home.”

“Don’t do this. Please,” Sarah muttered. As Mark
took a step towards the woman on the bed, Sarah could take it no more, the
horror was too much for her. Her legs gave way and she fell to the floor. She
turned away from Mark and sat with her knees up, covering her ears and eyes in
a desperate attempt to block out the inevitable. 

“Good luck out there,” Adrianne said to Mark and
closed her eyes.

“Thank you. Goodbye, Adrianne,” Mark said quietly,
he pursed his lips to stop them trembling.

A smile crept on Adrianne’s face and she sighed
peacefully, her shoulders relaxed and she placed her hands on her lap.

Mark raised the crowbar over his head swiftly,
trying not to think about what he was about to do. He had done this many times
since the outbreak started and he’d done it without sympathy — until today.
Nausea rose in his stomach and he listened to Sarah’s whimpering behind him,
causing a flicker of self-doubt in his mind. Clenching his jaw, he pushed his
surroundings out of his mind and tensed against the tremor that tried to take hold
of his arm. Then, he regained his nerve and swung the crowbar smoothly
downwards towards Adrianne’s head in an expert blow.

A sickening crack filled the room and Mark felt
the crunch of bone rise up his arm, nausea rising in his throat. Adrianne uttered
a small sigh as she flopped sideways onto the bed, blood poured from the wound
on the top of her head and soaked into the sheets. Her body twitched
uncontrollably for a second and Mark, fearing she was still alive, swung the
crowbar at her head for a second time. The second crunch was wetter than the
first and the impact had been soft — blood spattered around the room.
Adrianne’s muscle twitches finally stopped.

Mark stared at the body beneath him, his mind
blank. The crowbar slipped from his grasped and thumped onto the floor, leaving
a large red stain where it landed.

Sarah was still crying heavily on the floor with
her hands over her ears and didn’t hear Adrianne’s demise over the sound of her
own hysterical cries. She did, however, feel the crowbar hit the floor with a
‘thud’ and opened her eyes to see Mark covering Adrianne’s body with a sheet. White
speckles filled her vision as she saw the blood-soaked sheet, causing her to
fall onto her side on the floor. She pulled her knees up into the foetal
position as she tried to regain control of her breathing, desperately stopping
herself from passing out.

Mark saw her turmoil and knelt down on the floor
beside her, his eyes filling with tears. Sarah’s body shook beneath him and she
whimpered gently. He reached out and stroked her hair, unsure of how to comfort
her, or even if she wanted it.

Feeling his touch, Sarah turned to face him, her
eyes bright with fury and pain and she hated him in that moment. She punched
him in the chest, trying her hardest to hurt him but she couldn’t muster the
strength, her body was too weak.

Mark didn’t flinch — he took her fury without
trying to stop her, wanting nothing more than to ease her pain. Her fists
thudded onto his chest in rapid succession. Tears tried to leave his eyes but
he willed them away.

After a while, Sarah’s arms became too heavy to
lift and her anger quickly melted away. An overwhelming grief replaced her
hatred and, feeling defeated, she sank her head into Mark’s chest. He put his
arms around her and they laid side-by-side on the floor.

“Shhhh,” he whispered. “It’s okay. It’s over.”

After a while, her breathing relaxed and she fell
quiet but Mark still held her tight, his chest wet with her tears. Realising
she had cried herself to sleep he closed his eyes and let exhaustion take over.

Mark awoke from his sleep and looked around the
room, his neck aching as he moved it and the right side of his body was stiff
and cramped. The sun shining through the bedroom window was now high in the
sky, telling him it was at least noon — he’d slept for at least two hours! He
took his arm from around Sarah, trying not to wake her and wiggled his fingers
to get some circulation back.

He quietly rose to his feet, leaving Sarah still
curled up on the floor. Heaviness weighed on his heart as he remembered what
had happened hours before. He looked at the bed and saw the lump of Adrianne’s
body under the sheets, if it wasn’t for the tell-tale blood stains across the
sheets, she would look sound asleep under there. Only she wasn’t asleep — he
had killed her with his bare hands. He fought the sickness in his stomach.
We
can worry about that later.

He knew the memory would haunt him for a life-time
but right now, he had a job to do and that was to keep Sarah safe until she
gets back home. If he let doubt and guilt cripple him, he wouldn’t be able to
do that job properly. Sarah was too gentle and innocent to do what needed to be
done and every time she got a glimpse of the new world, she broke down.
He
would
have to be the one to make the tough decisions, that much was clear — and he
was okay with that.

He could tell from her reaction outside of the
house that she thought he was cold when it came to sympathising with others and
he’d have to be okay with that too. He wasn’t going to lose his head over a
woman who would risk her own life to chase after someone who probably was dead
anyway. He would have to keep his feelings hidden, not only to protect her, but
to protect himself.

He watched her lying there, fast asleep and looking
deceivingly peaceful and his irritation with her melted away. Yeah, she was a
pain in the arse and pretty useless in a survival situation but she did have
the balls to fight for something that she loved — and she’d had a pretty rough
start. He decided then that he would protect her. He had the same urge the
first time he had ever seen her, lying there in the road. She had looked so
helpless that day, he saw her face and in that instant he knew he would have to
take care of her, whatever the cost.

Sarah began to stir and a few moments later, she
awoke looking drained. Mark offered his hands to help her up, half expecting
her not to take them — but she did and gave him a tired smile. Her gaze fell on
to the figure on the bed and stayed there for a few seconds, a haunted
expression on her face. Then she looked away, the muscles in her jaw twitched
as she clenched it.

She pictured him killing Adrianne and winced as
she imagined the crowbar hitting her skull. She turned to him to see that he
was holding his crowbar again and watching her tentatively. His brow furrowed as
he searched her face, then when she looked at him, a stony expression returned
to his own. His hands shook nervously under her gaze and he clenched his fists
trying to stop them.

Sarah wondered what she should say to him. She
wondered how this man — who had killed a woman seemingly without feeling — could
be the same man who rescued her in the street, risking his own life for hers on
more than once occasion. How many people had he killed since the outbreak and
had he ever felt any kind of guilt at doing so? Should she hate him for what he
did?

She stared into his steel blue eyes and noticed
the anxiety in them, where she had only seen coldness before. How could she have
not seen past it? She wondered if that cold exterior was for her benefit and if
so, why?

She thought about the two different sides she’d
seen of him. Was he the cold-hearted guy that she had seen a glimpse of earlier?
Or was he the caring man that had saved her life and who had left the safety of
his own home, just to protect her?

Mark turned away from her then, as if reading her
mind and she puzzled over it. He had seen her cry so many times, why was it so
bad for her to see him feeling anxious? She sighed to herself — she didn’t have
the strength to find out and annoyance at him rose in her chest. She didn’t
have time for his multiple personalities. She rushed past him, brushing his arm
slightly and picked up her bat.

 Mark watched her helplessly as she stormed past —
frustrated that he could not find the words to say to make her understand what
he had done. Without thinking, he reached out for her arm and grasped it
gently. She spun around, her face so angry it startled him.

“I’m sorry,” he said, his voice quiet.

“What for?” Sarah tried to sound more annoyed than
she was.

“For earlier — what I did. I’m sorry but she was
suffering. I couldn’t leave her like that.”

“Look, Mark,” she said quietly, “I know you had to
do that. I do. Maybe if I was a stronger person I would have done the same
thing. It’s not that that’s pissing me off.”

Mark stared at her in stunned silence, it was the
first time he’d heard her swear.

“It’s
you
!” she said, exasperated. “I can’t
tell what you’re thinking. One minute you’re dead inside and the next you’re sweet
and lovely. How am I supposed to trust you when I don’t even know what you’re
really like?”

Mark let go of her arm. “You can trust me, Sarah.
I would never hurt you,” he said, breathing heavily, “I — I just wanted to
protect you.”

Sarah sighed, realising she was being too hard on
him. “You don’t have to apologize, Mark. But you don’t have to be all robotic with
me whenever you’re upset. I’d rather see your feelings than think that you
could do the things you’ve done and not feel anything at all. You don’t have to
worry about me, I’m not your problem,” she added softly.

 “I will always worry about you, Sarah,” he said gently,
“and I do feel it when bad things happen.” Feeling more relaxed now that Sarah
was calm, he added with a wink, “I feel a lot of stuff for certain people
actually.”

Sarah raised her eyebrow, ignoring the butterflies
that had taken hold of her stomach. “Are you
flirting
with me, Mr
England?” She said in mock disbelief.

Mark’s face reddened and he crossed his arms
defiantly. “Pfft! You wish.”

Their conversation was interrupted by a distant scream.
They spun around to the bedroom window and looked outside. The forest was close
by — they could see the path they needed and the treetops behind it. Then
another scream echoed through the woods, this one quieter than the last.

“Isn’t that the way we’re going?” Sarah asked,
nervously.

Mark laughed a little. “Yep,” he said, “unless you
want to change your mind?”

Sarah thought about it for a second and then
smiled determinedly, “No way.”

“Dammit,” Mark snorted. “Thought I’d try.”

~

They left after searching Adrianne’s house for
supplies, turning up nothing. Adrianne really had been starving.

The woods behind the bungalows were not that dense
so close to the city. The tall grass and small woodland that stood in front of
them was carved in two by a small cobble path that delved deep into the trees.
A small wooden sign on the left of the path read, “Witches Woods.”

“Don’t worry,” Mark said, eyeing the sign. “There
are no witches in here…I don’t think.”

Sarah smiled and shook her head at him. “Good, we
don’t need The Winding Witch on our backs as well as everything else.”

They followed the path slowly, crunching over
small stones and pebbles as quietly as they could, walking as close to each
other as possible. To them, it felt like each step further into the woods was a
gamble as the trees grew denser and light diminished.

Neither of them knew what would come for them
ahead and the further they walked, the more the path disappeared under the
grass. Small rays of light flickered through the trees like spotlights,
highlighting the small insects floating merrily in their beams. Birds tweeted as
they rustled through the trees — under normal circumstances, it would be a beautifully
peaceful sight.

They decided that when night fell, using the
flashlight would be a bad idea since they didn’t want to attract company, so if
it got dark before they came out the other end, they’d have to find shelter somewhere.
But they both agreed that their best option was to be out of there before daybreak.

Soon, the view of the houses behind them disappeared
— the trees swallowed them up and replaced them with more and more trees. Sarah
began to tremble, the heat from the sunshine was lost in the shade and a damp
chill grew in the air. She wasn’t at all sure if that’s why she was shaking.

A scream reverberated through the woods, chilling
the two listeners. Somewhere in front, they heard the sound of breaking
branches and rustling leaves. Sarah and Mark dropped to the floor at the same
time, holding each other’s hand tightly, listening to the sounds of the forest.

It had been eerily quiet since they left Albert’s
basement and that only enhanced the feeling between them that something
horrible lay ahead, waiting for them to stumble upon it.

Because of recent disuse, the path this far in was
barely noticeable. Even before the outbreak, people rarely used the woods
unless it was the middle of summer when the light shining through the trees was
at its strongest. There were no signs that anyone at all had passed through
here recently and that played on Sarah’s mind. She thought about Albert, he had
said it was too dangerous.
Have we made a mistake?

A pain shot up her ankle like lightning and she
fell to the ground, swearing under her breath. She looked behind her and saw a
rock lying where she had just stepped. She yelped in pain as she tried to stand
and fell back down. Mark hurried to help her to her feet.

“Are you okay?” he asked, holding her arm and
grabbing her around the waist.

“Yeah,” she winced. “I think it’s just a sprain. I
tripped over a bloody rock!”

“You mean that pebble?” Mark said, smirking. He lifted
her off the ground enough to let her hop forward on one leg. “Take some of the
weight off it for a while.”

“Thanks,” she said smiling. “It’s my own fault, I
was miles away.”

They carried on walking, slowly and steadily.

“What were you thinking about?” he whispered, as
he carefully checked their surroundings.

“Everything — Albert, my family...
Jack
,”
Sarah said, hesitating on the last word.

Mark fell silent as they walked, unsure of how to
respond. Something burned in his chest but he reassured her by squeezing her
arm and smiling. They fell silent again, no one wanting to talk about the
scream they had heard and what it meant. They instead concentrated on the
ever-darkening woods around them, inwardly conscious of their newest problem—
the path below their feet had vanished.