Devour: Death & Decay Book 1 (16 page)

Day 3
5:57 pm

Exhaustion made Liv’s eyes droop as she sat by Shawn’s bed. He was asleep for now. He didn’t look good. His breathing was quick and shallow. His heart raced as though he had been running a marathon. Sweat glistened on his skin, making his hair cling to the edges of his face. As good as he had seemed to be doing earlier, now he looked like he might succumb to the infection at any minute.

Liv had taken brief breaks from the bedside vigil to spend time with Elli. The little girl was blissfully unaware of the man dying in the next room. Her peals of laughter echoed throughout the otherwise silent house. A stark contrast to the melancholy in Shawn’s bedroom.

“What are we going to do?” Corey asked. He had never left his seat at Shawn’s bedside. He sat dutifully with his elbows resting on his knees, as much to keep the dying man company as to protect the others from the fiend he would turn into.

Liv rubbed her face wearily. “There isn’t anything we can do.” There was an edge to her voice. Not caused by anything Corey had said or done, but simply by her frustration at their helplessness. “I’m sure if there was any way to stop what he’s going through it would be splattered all over the news and radio.”

“I wasn’t talking about helping him.” Corey’s words were gentle and without malice. “I think it’s safe to assume that in the not-too-distant future, Shawn is going to change. When that happens, he is going to try to take a bite out of every one of us. We need to decide what we are going to do.”

“He’s handcuffed to the bed. Unless he rips his own arms off…” Her words trailed off. Would he do that? Could he do that? If the infected didn’t feel pain, would he just throw himself at them until his arms ripped straight from their sockets and he was free to latch on with his teeth?

“You just want to leave him here chained to the bed?” Liv’s stomach lurched. What would happen to him then? Would he just languish there for the rest of eternity? Or could the infected starve? What kind of a death would that be?

“Are you suggesting we kill him?”

“I don’t know that we have any other choice, really.” Corey pushed himself back to slouch in the chair. “I know it sounds gruesome, but once he changes he is just going to be like all the others. He is going to try to kill us. Or at least he’ll want to.”

Liv rubbed her face. She didn’t want to think about. Didn’t want to deal with it.

“I can do it.” His voice was tired but there was resolve in his face. “There is no need for you or Jen to have to deal with this. I just think we all need to be in agreement that it has to be done.”

Corey had placed a lot on his shoulders since the world had started to crumble. Though his insistence that he always take the lead might outwardly appear misogynistic, like a strong man helping the defenseless ladies, she could see in his eyes that he didn’t feel that way.

It was fear. More than anything, he was afraid that he might lose them. That if he failed, what was most important to him would be ripped away. It was his job to protect them. Any loss was his personal failure. If they died and he could have prevented it in any way, he wouldn’t be able to bear the guilt. And it would slowly destroy him.

Shawn’s eyes flickered a few times and then opened. Despite his appearance, his eyes were alert. Not sleepy or dazed.

Her heart still heavy from their conversation, Liv took his hand. She wanted him to feel connected. To know that even though he had asked them to stay that they were here because they wanted to be. Because they cared. Now, it was all she could offer him. “How do you feel?”

“The crow speaks to us all. We just pretend not to hear it.” His eyes grew wide. Liv could see the concentration on his face as he tried again. “The waves kiss the earth, but the earth does not return its delight.” His eyes became wild and fearful.

Liv’s breath hitched and she looked to Corey. He shrugged a bit and looked back to Shawn.

The words chilled Liv’s blood. They were ominous and dark. Almost as if he were speaking from somewhere else.

“Shawn,” Liv said, squeezing his hand, “is that what you meant to say?”

He concentrated for a couple seconds as his mouth opened and closed. Overcome by exhaustion, he relaxed back against the pillow and shook his head.

“It’s alright.” Liv was relieved her voice remained level. Thoughts swirled as she tried to find something, anything, she could do. She didn’t know him hardly at all. But as one person to another, she wanted to help him.

Before her, a man was dying. All she could do was sit and watch as everything was slowly taken from him. His loved ones. His memories. His ability to speak with others. Eventually, it would take his life. He wouldn’t stop breathing. His heart wouldn’t stop beating. But nothing would be left of who he once was.

In his place would be a vicious killing machine. Incapable of feeling pain. One that couldn’t be reasoned with.

This was his fate.

Day 3
6:47 pm

Liv cradled Elli in her arms. The little girl’s soft, warm body felt good against her chest. Feather-like wisps of her downy hair tickled Liv’s nose as she rested her chin on top of Elli’s head. The only sound was a quiet, rhythmic slurping as Elli sucked on her binky.

“Liv!” Jen entered quietly but there was an edge of desperation in her voice. Her eyes were wide and frightened. “Shawn and Corey need you right now.”

Jen stretched out her arms to take Elli. Sensing the distress, Elli arched and screamed her protest as she grabbed large wads of Liv’s shirt in her fist.

“I’m sorry, baby,” she whispered, planting a kiss on Elli’s forehead before disentangling herself from the enraged little being and handing her to Jen.

When Liv entered the room, she knew.

It was time.

Shawn’s eyes were closed as he tried to draw in breath with deep, rasping gasps. His entire body was rigid and tense. But he wasn’t sweating. Not anymore. Instead, his skin was dry and papery. That couldn’t be a good thing.

“Shawn!” She ran to the bed. “Shawn, can you hear me?” No response.

She reached over for his wrist and quickly found his pulse.

Bum. Bum. Bum. Bum. Bum. Bum. Bum. Bum. Bum. Bum. Bum. Bum. Bum. Bum.

It was racing so fast she couldn’t even begin to count the beats. Her fingers moved from his wrist and she reached for his neck, hoping to get a better count from the stronger beat of his carotid artery.

Bum. Bum. Bum. Bum. Bum. Bum. Bum. Bum. Bum. Bum. Bum. Bum. Bum. Bum.

“What happened?” she asked Corey.

“Nothing.” He shook his head, as if to reinforce the point. “I was just talking. Ya know, just trying to fill the silence and he started gasping like he couldn’t breathe.”

Bum. Bum. Bum. Bum. Bum. Bum. Bum. Bum. Bum. Bum. Bum. Bum. Bum. Bum.

“Shawn!” She briskly rubbed her knuckles on his sternum. It didn’t hurt, but it was a mildly unpleasant feeling meant to rouse someone. “Shawn, open your eyes. Look at me!”

Suddenly, Shawn let out a long ragged breath and the gasping stopped. He stilled. Liv stared at him for a moment, holding her own breath.

His chest didn’t rise again to drawn in another breath.

“Damn it! Shawn!” She rubbed his chest again harder, but just as before, there was no response. “Come on, Shawn. Open your eyes and look at me.”

“Be careful what you ask for, Liv.” Corey was directly opposite her on the other side of the bed. “I think you should leave.”

“No,” she growled. “Not yet.”

Her fingers fluttered to his neck. The same artery that had been thrumming out of control just seconds earlier was now silent and still.

“Shawn!” She patted his face, perhaps a little harder than she should have.

Suddenly, his eyes flew open. His bloodshot eyes darted towards Liv. A blood-curdling shriek ripped from his throat. His lips pulled back to bare his teeth, and he threw himself at her. There was a terrible crunch and his left arm twisted around and was pulled from its socket.

Liv threw herself back, slamming painfully against the wall. Corey lunged forward and wrestled Shawn back down to the bed.

With a new and closer target presented, Shawn’s attention shifted to Corey. It was already too late. Corey drew back the knife and punched it into Shawn’s eye. The room instantly fell silent, except for their heavy breathing.

“Are you alright?” Corey turned towards her, worry written plainly across his face.

Liv just nodded, still in shock. Corey walked around the bed and gently pulled Liv up.

“Come on,” he said gently. “We don’t need to stay here.”

“Wait!” Liv cried, suddenly panicked. “We can’t just leave him like this.”

Corey cut her off. “Don’t worry. I’ll take care of it. Just go tell Jen everything is alright, wash up, and hold Elli.” He gave her hand a gentle reassuring squeeze.

“He changed so fast,” Liv whispered.

“Go.” Corey gave her a gentle push towards the door.

Day 3
9:37 pm

They had decided not to stay in Shawn’s home that night. The house itself had been an enormous biohazard with blood and infectious material littered everywhere. They quickly packed up what few things had been unpacked and moved to a house a few streets over. This house had been thankfully bare of any occupants.

Now, they sat in the living room by the light of one small, dim lamp that created more shadows than light. Elli was already deep asleep on the couch, her tiny body taking up more space than what seemed possible. Liv sat on the floor, her back resting against the couch with her knees drawn up to her chest so her chin could rest on them. Jen had sprawled out on the floor while Corey sat perched on the edge of a reclining chair.

For a long time, no one said anything. As hard as the last few days had been, this one had exacted the worst toll.

“So,” Corey started, careful to keep his voice low, “what happened? With Shawn, I mean?”

Liv looked up at him through the loose hair that had managed to free itself from her ponytail. “What happened was we watched someone die and there wasn’t a damn thing we could do about it,” she muttered darkly. “There is nothing we can do unless someone in a lab somewhere still has power and the proper equip and the right samples to figure something out.” Right then, the idea seemed like a long shot.

Jen sighed. Even her bright mood had been dampened. “I’m sure someone, maybe even a lot of someones, are working on it.” It didn’t sound like she really believed her words.

Liv shrugged.

“What I meant is, what happened to Shawn? He seemed fine, at first.” Corey thought before he continued. “Then he just kind of…fell apart.”

“Yeah.” Jen rolled over onto her stomach. “Why did he take so long to change?”

Liv quickly held up her hands. “Slow down. I really don’t know”—she shook her head dismally—“much of anything about what happened.”

“But weren’t you a nurse?” Corey asked.

“No. I was just in the nursing program—and the beginning of it, at that.” Liv sighed. Maybe if she had been a full-fledged nurse she could have done more. “I’ve learned a lot about how the body works, how diseases work, and how diseases interfere with how the body works. Still, the best I can do is make guesses.”

“Well then, what are your guesses?” Corey asked.

Liv rubbed her eyes wearily. “Obviously, this is some kind of infection. It’s not drugs or people just acting crazy or rioting. This is some kind of disease.” Jen and Corey nodded in agreement.

“That’s the only way that it could be transmissible, at least that I could think of,” Jen stated.

“Exactly.” Liv nodded. “I think, if I remember right, we all saw something like that, even before Shawn. What happened to him just confirmed what we already knew.”

Corey nodded slowly. “Why was he so slow to change? We saw a handful of people get attacked, but they were up in seconds. It didn’t take hours like it did with Shawn.”

“There are a lot of factors that affect how each person’s body reacts to disease and how well a disease can infect someone: age, health, how physically fit they are, even race sometimes. But I don’t think that’s what helped Shawn live for so long.”

“It was the bite location, wasn’t it?” Jen suddenly pushed herself up off the floor so she could sit.

Liv thought about it for a moment and nodded. “I think so. When I saw someone change quickly, they were bitten on the neck. So they probably died pretty fast. I think…” The thoughts were swirling around like a storm in Liv’s mind. “I think that the change can only occur when the body dies, even if it’s just for a second.”

“So they are zombies?” Jen seemed confused.

Liv shook her head. “Not like the ones in the movies. I don’t think they’re actually dead. But maybe when a person’s heart stops and they stop breathing, just for a second, it allows the virus or parasite or whatever to take control of the host.”

For a moment, the room fell silent. Jen’s voice was tentative when she finally spoke. “When Shawn was going through the change, why did those things happen? The memory loss? The way he talked towards the end?” She shuddered at the memory.

Liv couldn’t blame her. What Shawn had said, nonsensical though it was, had been creepy. Almost like a cryptic prediction.

“This is a little complicated, so stop me if I lose you.” Liv took a breath as she prepared to delve into the explanation. “You guys know what a brain looks like, right? A big snarled mass of wires.” Corey and Jen both nodded. “These twisted wires control almost everything, minus the necessary functions like breathing, which are controlled by a lower, more interior portion of the brain closer to the stem. Some of these knots control your arms and legs, but this portion”—she placed her palm over her forehead with her finger splayed back across her head—“is the frontal lobe. It controls behavior, rational thought, personality, and basically everything we think of as higher cognitive abilities. My guess is that the virus was destroying his frontal lobe along with a part of the brain called the hippocampus, which controls memory formation and recollection.”

Jen covered her mouth with her hands.

“It literally destroyed who he was,” Corey summarized grimly.

Liv nodded. “While leaving intact the portions of the brain that control motor functions and other things that are necessary. It’s just a theory and to be quite honest, it sounds absolutely crazy.”

“I don’t know if it sounds too crazy after watching it play out.” Corey ran his hands through his hair.

“So the virus destroys the host’s identity and turns it into a big meat suit that it can use.” Jen’s voice was a disbelieving whisper.

“Welcome to the zombie apocalypse, everyone.” Corey leaned back in the chair. “Courtesy of tiny tyrants you can’t even see.”

“Do you think this is funny?” Jen snapped.

“Hell no,” Corey snapped right back. “Everyone we knew and cared about is probably dead or a meat suit. Let’s be honest for a minute. What else would you call this? If it looks like a zombie, acts like a zombie, and smells like a zombie, then the damned thing is probably a zombie.”

Jen flopped back down on the floor. “I don’t like that word. Zombie. It sounds so fake. So cheesy. Like it’s not real.”

Liv nodded in agreement. “We have to call them something.”

“What about people? I mean they are people still, aren’t they?” Jen looked uncomfortable.

Liv shook her head slowly. “I really don’t think they are. They aren’t themselves anymore. And there won’t be any way to undo the damage. We can’t regrow brain cells. Chances are, even if we could cure the virus that’s causing this, they would probably just fall into a vegetative state or die from the wounds they’ve sustained.”

Jen shook her head. “What are you saying?” she asked accusingly. Liv leaned back, shocked by the suddenly outburst. “That we should just give up on them? Pretend that they aren’t someone’s mother or brother or child? Just turn our backs on them? Kill them all?” Her nostrils flared with each breath. “If we do that, then we are no better than the Nazis.”

“No.” Corey’s tone was hard. “Thinking of them as people could be dangerous. If we think of them like people, we might hesitate at a critical moment. It could get us changed or killed.” He looked to Jen, who only glowered back at him. “I know it sounds cold-hearted, but we have to keep in the mindset that it’s us or them. I don’t think we can do that if we keep thinking about them as people. And I think it will be easier not to think of them as people if we call them something else.”

“But they are people!” Jen insisted. “How can you not understand that?” Her eyes darted back and forth between Corey and Liv, hoping that one of them agreed with her. When neither spoke, her arms fell to her sides. Jen curled herself into a tight ball.

“I…” The war raging inside Jen’s mind was plainly written across her face. “We can’t lose ourselves to this.” Her voice was barely a whisper. “If we do, there isn’t any reason why we should be saved.”

“Jen, they are vicious. If they could get their hands on you, they’d rip you to shreds,” Corey said exasperatedly.

“We don’t know that they can’t be cured.” The hard edge was back in her voice. As crazy as Jen sounded being sympathetic toward the infected, Liv found herself impressed by Jen’s resolve. And frightened. “Liv said it herself, she isn’t sure she’s right. Maybe she’s wrong. Maybe the virus, or whatever it is, works differently. Maybe someday we’ll be able to cure everyone who was infected.” There were tears in her eyes now. “These are people with families. With people who love and miss them. We can’t just treat them like they are already dead.”

Suddenly, it dawned on Liv.

Someone she loves is infected
, Liv thought. It wasn’t a stretch. The disease was spreading quickly. Everyone was likely to have someone they loved infected or killed by it.

This brought Liv to an uncomfortable thought. Who of her loved ones was infected? She didn’t know that anyone close to her had become infected, but surely someone was. Then who could it be? Her younger sister lived with her boyfriend and his family. Her older sister lived about an hour away with her husband and their three children. Her parents’ house would be directly in their path to Slag Stead. Her grandmother lived a few hours away in Illinois. Colin was out there somewhere.

Who had fallen victim?

Liv quickly shook her head. She could worry about them once she and Elli reached Slag Stead.

“Jen, they are dangerous. You don’t think of a shark as a fish or a wolf as a puppy. If you are face to face with them, you think of them as threats and try to figure out how to keep from becoming a meal.” Liv pushed but didn’t want to push Jen too hard. “Maybe I am wrong. Maybe they can be saved. But until that happens, they are predators. If we want to survive, we need to acknowledge that.”

Jen nodded slowly. “Alright.” She relaxed as she moved to sit cross-legged on the floor.

Corey sighed, leaning back in the chair. “Back to the question to end all questions,” Corey continued. “What do we call them?”

Silence fell over the room as everyone mulled over it.

“What about the risen?” Liv asked.

Corey sneered. “That makes them sound…I don’t know…angelic. Those things are not angels, and even if they are, I think I’d rather stay in hell. Thank you very much.”

Silence once again enveloped the room.

“Shawn called them freaks.” Jen offered. “It’s a little tactless but…” She shrugged.

“I don’t think those things care about tact. All they seem to care about is killing.”

“Not killing,” Liv said slowly. “They don’t really die or kill. They transform those they feed on.”

“Ferals,” Jen said. “They act like animals. Biting and growling. We can call them ferals.”

Liv and Corey nodded.

“Ferals.” Liv rolled the word across her tongue. It sent a tingle down her spine as she said it.