Outbreak

Chapter 40

Chapter 40: Marlowe

I wake up again in the chair with a pounding headache. I sit across from a bruised, beaten woman.

She has mousy brown hair and sad doe eyes, brimming with tears.

"Ok sweetheart. Tell me the cure, and I won't shoot her." The southern guy stands behind her, with a gun pressed to her head.

"I don't know. I don't know!" I am choking back tears.

She sobs uncontrollably.

He shoots and I squeeze my eyes shut. I gasp at the carnage, unable to compute.

"Next!" He calls out.

Someone drags the woman away. In her place is a young boy, maybe 12.

This time southern guy pulls out a knife. The boy grits his teeth, and stares hard at me. His jaw tightens.

He slides the knife across the boys neck lightly at first, then presses, slowly. The boy just stares at me. Fear flickers in his brown eyes but disappears when his throat is slit.

"I don't know! I don't know!" I'm hysterical now.

Then they bring in an older man. He seems broken. He looks up at me, and then I see the recognition.

Reyes.

"Reyes. No. No! I don't know!"

He presses the gun to Reyes head. His once cheerful blue eyes are now shut. "Close your eyes, baby girl."

"Stop! I don't---"

Bang.

I scream as loud as I can. The same words repeat in my mind over and over.

My fault. My fault. They're dead. My fault. Reyes is dead. It's my fault.

Southern guy grabs my throat. Fear shines in his eyes.

"They'll hear you." There is groaning outside. "Shut up."

I wheeze, but he still holds my throat tightly. He looks intently out the window behind me.

My brain cries out for oxygen and my vision becomes blotched with black ink spots until I see nothing.