Dead End World

Chapter Eleven: Infected

     Theo stared at Anton for a few more seconds, blinking his eyes to make sure his brain wasn't just playing games. Once he still saw the figure of Anton Le Roux standing there, he looked to the others.
     "We're under attack!" he exclaimed. They were all helping Spencer to his feet. They looked to him with big, unexpected eyes. "It's Anton!" He looked back over to where Anton stood. Nothing was there other than the bushes and weeds.
     "Where?" Iris said, panic shaking her voice.
     Theo frantically turned his head in all directions, looking around him for Anton, his chest throbbing in apprehension. "Where did he go?!"
     "Theo, where was he?" Iris said toughly.
     "Right over there!" Theo pointed to the blank area where Anton and his van once stood.
     "Nothing's there," Iris uttered, assessing the place where Theo had pointed.
     "He was just there. I swear," said Theo. He looked to Eve. "Come with me to check it out." He looked to Iris. "Stay here with Spencer."
     Iris looked to Spencer, who was still coughing and struggling to stay standing. She looked back to Theo. "Why can't I be the one who comes with you?"
     "Because you said it yourself. You're a medic. So stay here with Spencer and make sure he's alright," Theo told her.
     Iris lowly growled as Theo and Eve made their way over to where Anton was.
     "Thanks for taking me with you instead of that lady, Theo," Eve said as they walked.
     "Yeah. No problem," said Theo.
     "I just get mad because we came up here as a team, so it's supposed to be me and you doing this, not her."
     Theo put his hands on his hips as he stood there and looked around at the vacant area. "I know."
     "Theo, look." Eve pointed at the ground to footprints in the dry dirt, as well as tire marks which led towards the road.
     "He was here," mumbled Theo, running his eyes along the tracks until they met the street. "I wasn't seeing things."
     "Why was he here?" Eve questioned, looking at the side of Theo's face.
     "He lit the house on fire," replied Theo, looking to Eve. Their eyes met. "He had a lighter in his hand."
     "Just him?"
     "As far as I'm aware."
     "Shoot.. Spencer's gonna be livid."
     "I know." Theo started walking back over to the others. They all looked to him, their eyes begging for the information he was about to deliver. "He left," announced Theo. "Anton set the house on fire."
     "That bastard!" angrily exclaimed Spencer before coughing. "I'll kill him!"
     "Calm down," Iris told him sternly. "We can't let our emotions control us right now. We have to use our brains."
     "She's right," said Theo, glancing to the burning house.
     "Anton is smart," said Iris. "He knows how to fight. He knows the best way to get what he wants."
     "How do you know this?" asked Spencer, placing his hat on top of his head. "Did you bang him like you banged every other guy in Aston?"
     "No," replied Iris. "You're disgusting."
     "Just assuming," said Spencer, shrugging.
     "I know because I used to know him. He'd come over to discuss things with me."
     "Discuss what? Which bed you'd bang him in that night?" Spencer said with a sneering smile.
     "No! Shut up!" Iris irritatedly told him.
     Spencer looked to Theo and chuckled.
     "Anyway," mumbled Iris, looking from Spencer to the others. "He's hard to beat. Like, super hard. He's always one step ahead of anyone, he's good at predicting your every move and he's even better at reacting."
     "Alright, well I'm always two steps ahead and I'm even better at reacting," said Spencer.
     "Then what's the next step, big guy?" Iris said tauntingly, looking to Spencer.
     "Hm.." Spencer looked around. "We should go camp out somewhere they'd never find us. Maybe some sort of store or something. Then, we can find an operating vehicle and use it to go to Aston and execute our plan."
     "Is everyone alright with that?" Theo asked, looking to everyone's faces.
     "Yeah," said Eve. "I'm fine with it."
     Westin nodded his head.
     Iris crossed her arms and exhaled. "Fine."
     "Alright, let's go, then," said Spencer.

They found a grocery store a little less than a mile from Spencer's house. By the time they found the store, it was 4:48 A.M., an hour and 46 minutes after the house first caught. They walked into the store, it was pitch black. Theo dug a flashlight out of his satchel and turned it on. He pointed it forwards. Shelves stood in front of them, almost empty but with a few cans of food remaining. Spencer found a few lanterns sitting on a shelf. He lit them with his lighter and then handed one to each person.
"We can just camp out here for a while and hope Aston doesn't know we're here," said Spencer.
Theo slowly walked between the shelving, holding up his lantern and letting the light from the flame reveal what was hidden in the darkness around him. He walked towards the back of the store and found a sleeping bag on the ground by a shelf it once sat on. He put the lantern down and picked up the sleeping bag. He unrolled the sleeping bag and laid it on the floor.
"Hey," a voice suddenly said. Theo flinched and looked towards the voice. Iris stood there, watching him. "Sorry I scared you."
"It's alright.." Theo looked back to the sleeping bag. Iris sat down on it, so Theo sat next to her. Both of their lanterns managed to illuminate the whole area.
"Are you scared?" Iris asked him, her voice low and smooth.
"I don't know," replied Theo, slightly shaking his head.
"It's alright to be afraid."
"I know." Theo ran his fingers through his hair. "I don't think I'm scared, I think I'm just worried I'm not ready."
"Yeah.." mumbled Iris. "Your partner, Eve, is scared."
"Yeah, I know. She was so tough at the beginning, but now she seems terrified."
"Some people just aren't meant for this type of stuff."
"I know."
"I'm not afraid. I feel like I'm ready for whatever comes our way."
Theo felt Iris' fingers lay on top of his. "I can tell." He looked to her.
Iris was looking directly at him. "I think me and you make a better team than you and her."
Theo didn't say anything, just kept his gaze steady on her face. After a few moments, he finally broke his eye contact with her when he looked to his forearm and slapped a mosquito away from it. The bug flew away. He laid down on the sleeping bag. "I'm tired."
"Me too," said Iris. "Can I sleep here?"
"I don't care," replied Theo.
Iris found her own sleeping bag and laid it next to Theo's. She laid down on her side, facing him. He laid on his side as well, facing her. They soon both fell asleep.

Theo was awoken by the clapping of hands. He slowly opened his eyes and sat up, looking over to the clapping. It was Spencer.
"I see you're feeling better," mumbled Theo.
"It's almost noon!" Spencer told him.
Theo looked around him and saw that Iris was gone.
"Everyone else is awake. You're the only one still sleeping, sleepy-head. Get up," said Spencer.
"Noon..? Crap." Theo stood up. "I must've been pretty tired after last night."
"You don't say. I get it, a pretty boy like you needs his beauty sleep." Spencer looked to Theo's arm. A huge, irritated red rash covered Theo's forearm. "Good God, Theo.. What is up with your arm?"
Theo lifted his arm and looked at the bright red rash. "What the hell?"
"Is it an allergic reaction?" Spencer asked in a slow utter.
"No.." Theo was taken back to the mosquito that bit him before he went to sleep. "It's a mosquito bite."
"Dang, that mosquito must've had some sort of disease," Spencer said, still looking at the rash.
"I'll be fine," said Theo, picking up his vest from the floor. "It's probably nothing."
"Alright, if you say so." Spencer looked towards the shelves. "I think we might be stayin' here for the day. We still need a way to get to Aston."
"Alright," replied Theo, putting on his boots. "I'll be over in a few."
Spencer nodded before walking through the shelving towards the front of the store. Theo was left alone, standing next to his sleeping bag. He combed through his hair with his fingers before tightening his vest until it was tug around his chest. He put on his belt and then his fingerless gloves. He walked over to the door next to his sleeping bag, it was the back door to the store. He stepped outside into the baking desert heat. He looked around, seeing no zombies, no animals, just buildings sitting among the sand. It suddenly hit him, like a train piercing through the air. His breathing became the only thing he could hear, and the world around him became a blue-color. He breathed heavily and slowly looked around. He bent over and puked into the sand, closing his eyes tightly. When he opened them, he could still see through his blue vision that what he puked was solid red blood. The blue world started to spin and he stumbled to the side. He laid on the ground, blood leaking from the corner of his mouth.

     "Hey, has anyone seen Theo?" Iris asked, sharpening her knife outside of the front doors of the store.
     "He was at the back of the store about thirty minutes ago. He said he was comin', though," replied Spencer, leaning against the outside wall, watching Iris. Eve leaned against the door and looked back and forth between Iris and Spencer as they spoke.
     "He slept in super late," said Iris. "I wonder if he's okay."
     "He had this huge rash on his arm. He said it was from a mosquito," Spencer said.
     Iris looked up from her knife to Spencer. "A mosquito?"
     "That's what he said."
     "No.." Iris put her knife into its holster and walked into the store. Both Eve and Spencer watched her in confusion.
     "Is it that serious?" Spencer questioned, beginning to follow Iris into the store. Eve gingerly shrugged and followed Spencer.
     Iris walked through the shelves and towards the back of the store. She came up on their sleeping bags, but no Theo. She pressed her lips together, scanning the floor. She then looked up to the back door, seeing it was open and letting in a streak of light that was painted across the tile flooring. She stepped over and walked out the door. At her feet was Theo's body, a small puddle of blood gathered in the dirt below his mouth. She gasped and immediately knelt down beside him.
     "Oh my God!" Eve exclaimed as she walked out the door, seeing Theo.
     Theo's skin was pale and below his eyes were turning purple. Iris lifted open his eyelid and saw the whites of his eyes turning a pale yellow.
     "He's infected," Iris stated harshly.
     "No!" cried Eve, getting on her knees next to him. "How?!"
     "It's rare, but it's possible that a mosquito can bite a zombie, and then bite a human and infect the human. I've seen it happen before, but only once," explained Iris, talking quickly in a panic. "This would make twice."
     "Crap.." Spencer mumbled, standing by the door, looking at the three on the ground. Westin stood behind him, peeking out past his dad towards Theo.
     "It's still the early stages. If we go to my house, I have a cure," said Iris, looking to Spencer.
     "A cure?!" exclaimed Spencer.
     "Yes," replied Iris. "But it only works if you can catch the infection as soon as it starts. In about an hour, it'll be too late and there will be nothing we can do to help him."
     "That's at your house! We don't have a vehicle! Even if we begin walking now, that's a good 2 hour walk!"
     "I know! We need to find a working vehicle before it's too late!"
     "And where would we find one of those?"
     Iris looked to the ground and thought, her mind racing.
     "The FBI vans," suddenly said Eve, looking from Theo to Spencer. "They're all over the place. We can hijack one and take it to Iris' house."
     Spencer looked to Iris, waiting for a response from her.
     Iris looked up from the ground to Eve, blinking her brown eyes. "Alright," she said. "But I'm gonna drive."
     Spencer sighed, but nodded his head in agreement.