Burning Eden (3 page)

Chapter 6

             
I got to the hospital with no issues; it’s when I pulled into the parking lot of the hospital that things got strange. There were tons of police everywhere and they were checking everyone that was coming and going from the hospital. The weirdest part was that they were checking people’s skin, for what exactly I had no idea. Maybe there was a new skin disease going on or something, whatever it was I was sure I wanted no parts of it. I waited in the car as they looked over my mother thoroughly before letting her go. She finally made it to the car.

             
“What the hell is that all about?” I asked her while she buckled her seatbelt. She had a hard time with it since her hands were trembling so I leaned over and helped her.

             
“They are quarantining the hospital. They are checking everyone’s skin.”

             
“For what?” I asked and she looked over at me her eyes bloodshot from all the crying.

             
“For bite marks,” she said seriously sending shivers up and down my spine. That was what I was afraid she was going to say.

             
“What the hell is going on, mom? Why are they checking people for bite marks?

             
“Because of what happened to Phil, it’s happening all over I guess. If someone has been bitten they send them to a special part of the hospital with police escorts. Something tells me that anyone that has been bitten ends up just like Phil, dead.”

             
“What is this? Where did it even come from? Did they even explain about Phil?”

             
“They said it’s some kind of disease that is spread through saliva and blood and it makes people crazy. It makes them want to eat other people. That’s all they really told me, then I asked them if I could make funeral arrangements for Phil,” she stopped abruptly and started lightly sobbing again so I reached over and grabbed her hand.

             
“What is it mom? Just tell me,” I said softly.

             
“They said I couldn’t take Phil’s body anywhere. They said that they needed to do…some…experiments on his body.”

             
“Can they do that?” I asked in shock looking over at her.

             
“Apparently they can do whatever the hell they want. Edie look out!” she screamed.

             
I turned my eyes back to the road seeing a young naked woman kneeling down in the middle of the road over something. I stepped on the brake and thankfully stopped right before I hit her. She didn’t even move.

             
“What is she doing?”

             
“I think we should go around, Edie.”

             
“But what if she needs help?”

             
I then realized my mom was right as the young woman finally noticed that she was not alone. She stood up and looked directly at me, our eyes met and I gasped. She had obviously been eating whatever she had been kneeling over and whatever it was it was dead. From her mouth down to her chest was drenched in blood, yet that wasn’t the worst of it, the worst part of it was her eyes or the lack of her actual eyes. Where her eyes used to be there was nothing but white spaces. She stood there for a second like a deer caught in the headlights and then she hissed at us.

             
“Edie, drive…Edie, go,” my mom said nervously.

             
For some reason I couldn’t move. I guess I just couldn’t believe what I was seeing. I had only seen things like this in horror movies and those were fake, smoke and mirrors, yet this…this thing was real. It was right in front of me and it was real and it didn’t look too friendly. That was when my brain started functioning again as the girl thing began to run toward the car.

             
“Edie, go!” my mom screamed.

             
I hit the gas and tried to swerve around the thing but it was intent on coming after the car so I clipped it. It fell down, rolling across the pavement.

             
“Did I kill it?” I asked.

             
I hoped I had. I slowed down a bit and looked in the rearview mirror, what I saw scared the shit out of me, so much that I pushed hard down on the gas pedal. The thing had gotten back up even though one of its legs was clearly broken it was still trying to come after the car.

             
“No, I think it’s still alive or something like that,” my mom said her voice quivering with fear.

             
I stepped even harder on the gas. I just wanted to get the hell out of there. I looked back at the thing one more time and saw a cop car pull up behind it. The cop stepped out of his car, calmly shot it in the head, and then drove off.

             
“Oh my God, mom what are we going to do?”

             
“Try not to get bit,” she said as she stared out the window and we rode the rest of the way home in silence.

Chapter 7

Me: Are you there? I really need to talk to you.

Jesse: I’m here, love. What is going on?

Me: Some really weird shit, Phil is dead.

Jesse: What? I thought he just got bit by some crazy guy. How in the hell did he die?

Me: The police shot him in the head.

Jesse: WTF????

Me: I know, my mom said he flat-lined in the hospital but the police wouldn’t let the doctors or nurses in the room to help him. Then after he died, he sat up and lunged at my mom so the cops shot him in the head. They won’t even release his body to a funeral
home; they said they needed it for experiments.

Jesse: Oh my God! Weird shit is happening here too. I think this is going to get worse. I keep telling Carrie we should stock up on stuff and stay in the house as much as possible but she just laughs me off and tells me I’m crazy.

Me: You’re right, things are getting worse. When I went to pick my mom up from the hospital they were checking people coming in and out for bite marks.

Jesse: Holy shit! Bite marks, why?

Me: I guess it’s some kind of disease and it spreads through saliva. It makes people go crazy.

Jesse: Are you fucking serious?

Me: Unfortunately, this is some scary shit. My kids are freaking out. My mom is a mess because of Phil. Cain is well, I think he is like Carrie, he doesn’t think it’s a big deal.

Jesse: And you, my love? How are you?

Me: I’m scared, Jesse. I’m really scared. On the way home from the hospital I had to hit one of those crazy people. It was a younger girl, she was in the middle of the street eating something, when she saw the car she stopped and came running at the car. I tried to go around her but I clipped her.

Jesse: Oh honey, I’m so sorry.

Me: That’s not the worst part. After I hit her she got right back up and tried to run after the car on a broken leg. I sped off but when I looked back in my rearview mirror I saw a cop pull up, shoot her in the head, and then pull off again.

Jesse: Shit Eden, this is bad. This is real bad. What the fuck are we going to do?

Me: We are leaving in the morning. We are heading out to my aunt’s farm. It’s out in the middle of nowhere. They have their own well for clean water and a pantry full of food that will last a long time. Oh, most importantly, they have a lot of guns. Do you all have some place like that you could go to? I think it’s best to get as far from the cities as possible. I think this stuff is going to spread really fast.

Jesse: No, I don’t have any family that lives outside of the city! Fuck!

Me: Come down here. Come be with my family. If you all make it here we will welcome you with open arms.

Jesse: Do you really think that is a good idea? I mean, I want nothing more than to be with you but what about Cain…and Carrie?

Me: Cain knows we are friends, doesn’t Carrie know that as well?

Jesse: Yeah but would we be able to maintain that “just friends” mentality being so close together?

Me: We would have to; this is about survival, my dear. You do want your family to survive, right?

Jesse: Of course I do. You know, I never thought we would be meeting like this
.


Me: Me either. Please, just make it here. Promise me you will.

Jesse: I promised you before that I would see you, no matter what. That promise still stands.

Me: Ok, the place is about an hour from my house but since we are leaving in the morning and I have no idea when the internet is going to go out for good I should give you the address now.

Jesse: Go for it!

Me: It’s 173

Jesse: 173 what, love?

             
Love?

             
Are you still there? Shit!

Me: I’m here. The electric went out for a second and I’m sure it will again so I better hurry. It’s 173 Lauren Ave. Geneva, FL. Did you get it?
Please tell me you got it.

Jesse: I got it, baby. I’ve already started loading up things for the van. I told Carrie your story and she finally agreed that we should leave as soon as possible before things get worse and everyone else decides to do the same thing. Figures it would take the zombie apocalypse to get her to finally agree with me.

Me: Good, leave as soon as you can. We are heading out in the morning but we are a lot closer than you guys so I guess we should say good bye now, so we can get things together and be on our way.

Jesse: No, not good bye, never good bye. How about I’ll see you soon?

Me: Ok, that sounds better
.
I love you, Jesse. Please stay safe and remember your promise.

Jesse: I could never forget my promise and I will keep it. I love you, Eden. I’ll see you soon.

Chapter 8

              “I’m scared, mom,” Maddie said looking at me with wide eyes. I felt so bad for her because I knew life as we once knew it was about to change. The electricity continued to flicker on and off so I quickly ran into the kitchen to get flashlights and batteries knowing eventually it wouldn’t flicker anymore and stay off. Maddie followed closely behind me with Wiley at our heels, ever the protector.

             
“It will be ok, Maddie. We’ll be out of here in the morning. Right now though, I need you to help me find all the flashlights and batteries so we can see to gather up what we need to take with us if the lights go out for good. Can you help me with that?” I asked her hoping that giving her something to do would take her mind off of being scared.

             
“Ok, mom,” she said as she started rummaging through the cabinet drawers. “What about candles?” she asked holding up an old box of candles.

             
“Yeah, those will work as well as matches and lighters or anything like that,” I answered as I began to gather all the canned goods we had in the pantry. “I’ll be right back I need to find something to put all this food in, keep Wiley here with you.”

             
“Ok,” she said completely engrossed in her task of finding candles and flashlights. I ran out into the living room to see Kairo watching the news and my mother staring off into space, still in shock.

             
“Kairo, where is your dad? And why aren’t you getting stuff together?”

             
“Dad’s getting his guns ready and I’m already packed,” he said patting a large backpack that was sitting beside him on the couch. “I figured I should keep an eye on grandma.”

             
“Good idea, Kai. Thank you,” I said feeling rather proud of him for holding his shit together and looking out for my mom. “Know where any empty bags are that I could fill with groceries?”

             
“Um…in the kitchen,” he said with a smirk. Of course he was right and of course if there weren’t a bunch of diseased people running around out in the streets I would have remembered that we kept all the plastic bags from the grocery store in the bottom drawer of the cabinet Maddie was going through.

             
“Right,” I said turning back to go into the kitchen when I heard the sound of breaking glass and then heard Maddie scream. “Maddie,” I yelled out as Kairo jumped off the couch and got to the kitchen way faster than I would be able to.

             
Our neighbor, Fred, had apparently been bitten and was now trying to break into our house. He had busted out one of the glass panels out of the back door and was trying to reach the lock. I guess no matter how sick they were they still had a bit of common sense left somewhere in them but not much since Fred had busted out the middle panel and not the one closest to the lock. He was cutting up his arm and wrist pretty bad as he continued to try and reach for the lock. Wiley was standing in front of us all growling deep in his throat waiting to pounce if Fred did eventually make it inside.

             
“Is that the neighbor?” Kairo asked. “Man, is he fucked.”

             
“Kill it! Kill it!” Maddie screamed. “Mom, don’t let him get inside!”

             
I wasn’t sure what I should do so I grabbed the biggest butcher’s knife I could find, before I could do anything in walked Cain, cool and calm, gun in hand.

             
“I got this,” he said coolly. He lifted the gun and shot Fred right through the head busting out another panel of the glass. Fred dropped instantly and didn’t get back up. Cain handed the gun to Kairo. “You gotta shoot them in the head.”

             
“Cool,” Kairo said placing the gun in the waistband of his pants.

             
“Not cool, Kai. And be careful with that gun,” I said.

             
“And watch your mouth in front of your mother. Help me move the fridge in front of the door so we don’t have any more incidents tonight,” Cain said calmly.

             
“All right,” Kairo said softly.

             
“Maddie, will you help me put this food in the bags?” I asked trying once again to take her mind off of what she had just witnessed even though something told me she would be seeing a lot more in the next few days. She turned back to the cabinet to open the bottom drawer and then grabbed a large handful of empty bags.