Viral

2 - Keeping Secrets

The alarm was deafening and ominous with three loud buzzes followed by a moment of silence on repeat. 

"Does this happen often?" Maddy yelled over the wail of the alarm. At the sound of the alarm, we all slammed our palms over our ears to try and keep out the ear shattering screech, but the noise was deafening.

"No," I shouted back, "alarms only go off if there's an outbreak, but everyone here is already infected except the doctors. If a doctor had gotten infected, though, the alarm would go off in their ward, not ours!"

"So why's it blaring here?" Reed asked through hooded eyes. It was no secret Reed had a temper. If he was a trading card, he could probably glare his opponents to death.

By now, I was off my bed and on the ground with Reed. Maddy and Joe scrambled up from the bottom bunk and glanced around frantically. Reed opened his mouth, but closed it again, at a loss as to what to do. Then, a voice came over the loud speaker.

 "All Infected inhabitants of Zones 4A through 4F, 5C, 9A, 9B, and 10A report immediately to Dr. Sanders."

The wailing stopped.

"What was that all about?" Reed asked lowly.

"You expect us to know?" Joe shrilled, nearly in hysterics.

"Joe, you need to calm down," I said softly, my gaze darting nervously to Maddy who looked more than a little freaked out. Her round blue eyes widened even further and she didn't bother to push away the sweaty strands of chocolate hair plastered to her forehead.

Joe ignored me.

"IT'S THE ANTICHRIST!" he continued to shout.

"Joe–"

"That doesn't even make religious sense," Reed deadpanned.

After another twenty minutes of Joe screaming "BLASPHEMY" for no apparent reason and running around in circles, Reed finally managed to calm him down. Emphasis on the finally. It took a lot of coaxing and chocolate-based bribery, but eventually, he did it. 

"You're not even Christian," Reed muttered darkly every time a spastic limb had flown in his direction. Every time, Reed looked like he was about to bite Joe's head off. Every time, Joe sent a sheepish grin at my neighbour. Maddy found the whole thing very amusing.

Ten minutes after that, the alarm picked up again. The wailing burned our ears once again and this time, we weren't surprised to hear the announcement:

"All Infected inhabitants of Zones 5A, 5B, 5D, 5E, 6A through 6E, and 7C report immediately to Dr. Applebaum." 

When the alarm ceased and the announcement finished, we fell silent.

"What the hell is happening?" Joe whispered.

"Damned if I know," Reed grunted, peering through a gap in my plastic tarp. "The hallway's empty– wait, no. Look!"

We scurried to peer through the nooks between Reed's body and the tarp. It took a second, but we finally located what he saw. A little ways down the hall from Zone 7A - my zone - was Dr. Applebaum's office. One doctor was assigned to each Zone. Applebaum happened to be Zone 7s. The doctors hated getting Zone duty because it was a known fact that the doctors' ward was far more luxurious - well, as luxurious as a converted hospital could get. Doctors assigned to Zones had quarters just like the rest of us, which often left the ones like Applebaum and Sanders sour and snappy. Waverley was a rare exception, but unfortunately, she was Zone 5. I digress.

A small group of Infected were lined up outside Applebaum's quarters. One by one, they disappeared behind his tarp before coming out looking nauseous and dizzy. Then the next one in line would enter. The procession followed like clockwork. Rinse and repeat.