Dead Quarantine (7 page)

Ralph sighed in relief. He sat next to
Lauryn and held her hand. She smiled at him and he smiled back.
Finally. Something would be done. Maybe his worries were for
nothing and all would turn out all right. He certainly would miss
his parents and sister during the time they would be separated, but
he had found a new friend and that would ease the pain. And as she
was, she needed his help to get through this nastiness.

“I'm glad,” Lauryn said, “that you are here
with me, that I finally dared to speak to you.”

“You wanted to speak to me before?” She
nodded. “Why me?”

“Silly, is it not obvious?”

Could it be? Nah, it couldn't. It would be
too ironic and tragic at the same time.

“I like you and now that I know you better,
I know I was right in liking you.”

He turned away; he didn't want her to see
him blush. He hated compliments, though he liked it coming from
her. He still hated how they made him feel like an impostor. She
cupped her hand on his chin and turned his head to her. She really
lacked the strength to do so, though he caved in and let her do it.
He locked eyes with her feverish ones. What if it was all fever
delirium that made her feel and talk like this?

“I know you like that blond girl, but I had
to say something, to do something...”

She cut her eyes away from his to the
outside. He followed her stare. The soldier, accompanied by
another, came around the bus. They carried no stretcher with them
or any medical equipment or supplies. Were they intent on carrying
the boy like a sack of potatoes? The soldier aimed his rifle at the
door.

“Everybody, listen up. No one try to leave.
Don't be a hero and there will be no unnecessary blood shed.”

The other solder had a torch in his hand and
started welding the door shut. Sparks flew from the outside to the
inside. The few kids awake reeled back in their seats and uttered
protests. The driver looked shocked. The courage, the hope dropped
in Ralph. Lauryn started crying.

The door welded shut, the soldiers walked
back around the bus. The one with the welding torch got back in the
hummer; the other came around at the driver’s side.

“Keep them inside. Anyone trying to get out
the windows will be shot,” he said to the driver.

The soldier immediately turned and strode
back to the hummer, not waiting for comments or questions. They
drove back to where the came from.

The silence returned in the bus once it had
been settled that they were going nowhere. The silence was only
broken by the continuous coughs and the revving of the diesel
engine each time they had a gap in the line to fill. Ralph rocked
Lauryn in his arms. She smelled of illness, a pungent smell close
to puke. He felt sorry for her, worried about her state, and
guilty. He of all people had stayed healthy and this stuck out. The
sullen eyes of his companions weighed heavily on him. Not hers
though. Hers were caring in a way he so far had only seen in his
friend, Tom, and his family.

He wondered about her. What would happen
after this was over? How would he go about it? He hadn’t really
known her for long. He never knew she had a crush on him. The thing
was he had been so fixated on Sarah that he didn't, but Sarah was
with Jake. He wasn't even sure she had noticed him; he was at most
more like a friendly acquaintance. Lauryn liked him, she said so
herself, and so far she showed nothing to make him doubt her, but
was it fair to her that he had feelings for someone else? He wished
he could make up his mind.

“What are you thinking about? You look so
far off,” she said in a hoarse whisper.

“Nothing...no, not nothing. Lauryn, I like
you too. Sure I only got to know you today, but I feel there is
much to like about you.”

She managed a weak smile.

“I want to do right by you,” Ralph said.
“After this is over, we should go out on a date.”

A tear rolled from her right eye. He
followed it down her cheek until it formed a drop at her chin. Did
he say something wrong?

“There might not be an after this,” she
said.

“Don't say things like that. Sure there
will. This thing will blow over eventually.”

The tears streamed out of her eyes. He did
not want to think about the possibility that this was a more than
just an epidemic. What if very few people survived this infection?
What if only those few people who were immune survived it? That
meant they all could die, including her.

“No, Lauryn, don't cry.”

He brushed her tears away. “It's just like
the cold, the common flu.” He could feel the fever on her. It was
bad, but nothing some medicine couldn't alleviate.

She shivered. “I'm cold.”

This was wrong.

“I see the gates,” the driver yelled,
excited. “We are almost there.”

God, it was about time, They had been going
at a snail’s pace for a few hours now. “You heard him; we are
almost there. Things will turn out all right.”

She didn't look convinced but at least she
stopped crying. He felt a part of the burden was alleviated from
his shoulders. Now, at least, they would soon find out what was
going on. He worried about the military presence, but they were
there to protect them, so whatever they did and would still do was
with their best interest in mind. Wasn’t it?

She raised a hand to his lips. “I have a
favor to ask.” He raised his brow. “Kiss me.”

He had never kissed a girl before. He didn't
count Mandy in kindergarten. He sure didn't liked being kissed as a
kindergartener. He felt ashamed not having kissed anyone at
eighteen. He didn't know how. It was embarrassing. No matter how
much he wanted to kiss her, he hesitated.

“Please, Ralph. I like you. I don't want to
lose this chance and die never having kissed a boy.”

He pressed his lips to hers and gave her a
dry kiss. She held her eyes closed. Her face looked so serene, and
then she coughed and spat blood on the floor.

“Lauryn!”

“I'm sorry...I held it in so
long...but…”

He kissed her again, tender, long. He had no
idea if he did it right, but it felt great. In that moment, he
didn't mind her germs. He didn't mind the taste of blood. He only
minded her and the miracle of meeting someone for the first time
and already feeling like this. He let go of her. She smiled at
him.

“Thank you.”

She rested her head against the window and
closed her eyes, falling asleep.

“Boy,” the driver called him over.

Up ahead the gates loomed tall. Above, the
sky went from orange to yellow. Something was burning. Would they
be stripped naked and anything on them burned down. How many people
had it taken to collect this much material to built this huge fire?
How long had this been going on? He had many questions and no
answers. It didn't help that he couldn't see beyond the wall.
Another yellow school bus was being led into some cradling device,
clamping down on the front and sides like a wrench on a bolt. The
bus was being tackled up the slope toward the tall, steel gate. It
must have been more than thirty feet high.

“Listen, kid, I can see you are not
infected. You're immune or something. I'll try convincing the
soldiers to let you go. You can come with me once I drive
back.”

Lauryn slept peaceful with a tiny smile
despite how awful she must have felt.

“No need to do that; eventually we all get
quarantined anyway.”

“Ralph is it? Listen, Ralph, girls come and
go. You better go stay with your parents instead of some girl you
may not be with tomorrow.”

An old man trying to give him advice. He
didn't get the notion that the man cared all that much about
others. The way he had been, not telling them anything, not
offering any comfort, was a sure sign of that. The driver had been
distant. Maybe he knew more than he let on. Ralph appreciated the
offer; it was a step in the right direction for the driver to be
less of a douchebag.

The gates opened and the bus in front of
them was led upward. They could see the back of the bus go up
higher through the door. Suddenly, a girl was beating on the rear
window. She was quickly pulled back and disappeared from view. The
bus started rocking and the gates closed, blotting the bus from
their view.

“What was that?” Ralph said.

“Just a kid that panicked.”

Ralph didn't believe the man; he was
sweating too much and gripping the steering wheel too tight.

A soldier signaled the driver to drive the
bus forward and take the spot of the previous bus. The clamping
device came back down.

“Maybe we should get out of here.”

“I don't think so. We are at our
destination; everything will be fine. And where do you plan to go,
just walk away, have you seen the amount of soldiers? You won't get
far.”

He was right. They had nowhere to go but up.
The clamping device attached itself, covering the front and the
exit door. Had the door not been welded shut, they wouldn't have
been able to leave through it. All of the buses he had seen were
old yellow school buses, the kind with only one door in the front.
Could it be the device’s other use was to make sure that the
passengers stayed in? This didn't feel right.

The unconscious kid lying on the bus floor
started convulsing. His body shook violently. Ralph tried to press
him down, but the force with which the boy thrashed was too much.
As suddenly as he started, he stopped.

“What's wrong with him?” the driver
said.

Ralph felt the pulse. “He's dead.”

He couldn't believe it. To be sure, he put
his ear to his chest. No heartbeat.

“Fuck me much!” The driver pointed to the
back.

A few kids were staring at Ralph, but most
had their eyes closed. It gave him a chill at the thought they
might be dead.

“Look outside,” the driver yelled.

The bus behind them rocked violently. The
driver of that bus was fighting kids who were swarming over him.
They tore at him; blood swept over the windshield. The driver went
down.

The boy stirred. Ralph recoiled, falling on
his behind. The bus started being pulled up. He kicked away from
the body. It must have been him imagining things. The boy lay
motionless on his back.

“We need to get out,” Ralph yelled.

He got up and went to Lauryn and shook her
awake. She moaned; her eyes stayed closed. He shook her more. Her
eyes fluttered open. They seemed a bit clearer than before.

“Wha...what's going on?” She looked around,
bewildered. “You, you are still here?”

She smiled. Sweet as he thought it was, now
was not the time. Things were getting weirder by the minute. They
had to get out of here.

“Oh my God,” the driver exclaimed as he
stood up behind the steering wheel. Ahead of them, at the top of
the hill, a pit went down. In it, thousands of torn and melting
buses lay in an inferno of fire that sucked the oxygen from you if
you stood too close, as they soon would be.

“I didn't sign on for this,” the driver
muttered.

Ralph dragged Lauryn up. “Help me with
her.”

The driver instead got up and ran to a
window, opened it, and started pushing himself out. Ralph was about
to yell for him to come back when he saw the dead boy sit back up.
His glazed eyes turned on the driver. It wasn’t a boy anymore. It
was a dead thing. Ralph had felt the pulse and there had been none.
The way the tongue lulled out, the eyes set on infinity, were
telltale signs that he was dead.

Ralph grabbed Lauryn and urged her to stand.
Slowly, the dead boy stood up. He shuffled to the driver who was
stuck in the window and grabbed onto him, pulling him back. The
strength it used was not normal. It ripped the man away from the
window, jumped on him, and attacked. The driver tried to keep the
biting boy at bay, but his teeth came closer with snap of his
jaw.

Ralph couldn't help the driver and he didn't
want to help him after the man had been willing to leave them to
die. He helped Lauryn to the same window the driver had tried to
climb out of a second ago.

“Go!” She shook her head. He had no time for
this. He pushed her forcibly out the window. “Hold onto me and turn
around.”

She did as he asked but slowly. The driver
screamed. In the back of the bus, more bodies stirred.

“Let go of my hands.”

Bungling from the window, she looked up
scared.

“Do it.”

She let go and fell on her back in the dirt
ground.

The driver's screams stopped with a dead
gurgle. Ralph did not have much time left. He quickly climbed out
the window. Before dropping down, he glanced back in the bus. The
jocks were shuffling forward, intent in death to do what they had
promised in life. The kids who were still awake were crawling away,
too weak to scream. He couldn't help them. He let go and dropped
next to Lauryn.

They were beating against the windows. Their
death stares fixed on them. It wouldn't take long before they found
a way out. Ralph crawled and pulled a dazed and groggy Lauryn
up.

“We need to move.”

The scare and the horror around them had put
some color back in her face. She nodded. Supporting her, he walked
as fast as he could. The steel doors were closing on them. They had
about a hundred feet to go. He heard a thud behind him. He had no
need to watch to know what it was. One of the things found its way
out.

“We are not going to make it,” Lauryn
whimpered.

He pushed on, almost dragging her.

“Leave me, save yourself,” she cried.

Screw that, he was not going to leave her
behind to die a gruesome dead. He saw what had happened to the
driver. He couldn't allow that. He pushed on. Ten feet to go. He
heard heavy footfalls behind him, more than one now, and they were
closing in rapidly. The moans and growls were right behind them.
Their teeth were inches away. The gate was about to close; he
pushed her through and jumped after her. With a clang and squish,
it shut. Something heavy and wet fell on his back. He grabbed
behind his back. He held a severed arm, a sport jacket sleeve still
on it. He gulped the bile back and threw it away before Lauryn saw
it.