The Diseased

C.10

Chapter Ten

"Isn't the scenery just exquisite?" My father cried, throwing his hands out to emphasize his excitement for our current surroundings. At the moment, we were hiking through the Amazon in Brazil, because of some drama with his coworkers, something along the lines of that his friend had found his wife cheating on him, right when he was about to surprise her with tickets to Brazil. He had planned it out down to the last detail, from deciding what they would eat over the two weeks they were there, to the hours that they would go hiking.
When he found out that his wife had been sleeping with another man, he was completely inconsolable, and made some rash decisions. Including the fact that he had just given the tickets away to my father, instead of giving them to his newly engaged sister. Perhaps he was just jealous of the fact that she had what he didn't, but nonetheless, my parents had tickets to go to Brazil. The only thing was that my mother's parents weren't in any condition to care for Aaron and I, and my father's parents were on vacation themselves in the Everglades. Of course, my father had advised them not to travel so far out of state, but she had dismissed him. She knew he cared about her deeply, but she had said that some of her friends in her neighborhood had recommended it, because the beaches were just divine. And, whenever she would visit the doctor's, he would prescribe her loads and loads of sunshine. In other words, a vacation to somewhere sunny would be necessary.
But anyways, they weren't able to care for us either. So there was my father, about to return the tickets to his friend.
"It was so kind of you to offer, but I don't have anyone to take care of Aaron and Beth." He explained.
The man who had given him the tickets (his name was David Mills, by the way) didn't accept the tickets.

"I don't want those retched pieces of paper. They'll remind me of that filthy beast of a wife." He waved him away.
"I don't have anyone to take care of my kids," He repeated, with furrowed eyebrows. "And I'm not going to let the tickets go to waste. Why don't you just give them to your sister? Didn't she just get married?"
David Mills shook his head. "I'm not going to give those to my sister. You know what, Thomas? You deserve those tickets more than anything. With that big old family of yours?"
He scoffed, but then realized that he might have cine across rude, so he laughed it off.
"As I was saying, you need a getaway, and I will buy your children tickets so that they can accompany you and your wife."
"David, I cannot except that-"
"Simply knowing that there are some respectable wives in the world is gratitude enough. This is like a reward, you know, for having such a pleasant family."
David Mills wasn't usually so odd when he spoke, but after seeing his wife, it had changed him, in a way. My father didn't think that it changed him in a good way.
"Are you sure you'd want to give the tickets to me, David? And...and pay for my children's tickets?"
"That is what I said, and I don't go back on thing I say," He repeated, furrowing his eyebrows in frustration.
He nodded, smiling. "This is great! I can't wait to tell Amber and the kids, they'll be so happy."
Thus began the family trip to Brazil.
Aaron, who was eight at the time, complained about the heat twenty four-seven, though, making it a little less enjoyable for the rest of the family. Because of this, we had to interrupt one of our hikes to stop at a random, yet totally convenient souvenir shop where my father purchased him a mini fan that double as a water-sprayer. After the purchase was made, my mother had somehow noticed how unbelievably humid the weather was for her, too. So, we went back to the counter to buy another fan/sprayer for her, too. The process repeated for me, as well, and as he was paying for my fan/sprayer, he asked Aaron to go and pick one at for himself, as well.
So as we continued on with our hike, we all sprayed water in our faces and fanned ourselves off, too.

We had started walking again, after I had removed the bullet and bound Greg's shoulder. Madeline and Greg had been holding hands, walking behind Ben and I.
We had started talking again as we walked, looking in the distance if there were any incoming cars. Ben had also brought food, as a way to lure the drivers out of their cars so that Greg could shoot them from afar.
But for the longest time, we didn't see any cars, just our own, but as I kept looking back, Ben looking back after I would, it seemed further and further away every time.
Ben looked back at his parents, and then back at me. He walked closer to me, and hushed his voice to a whisper.
"Did I ever thank you? For...you know?"
I laughed slightly, nodding. "Many times, actually."
"I just want you to know that I really appreciate it."
I looked up at him, and he looked down at me, eyes gleaming.
"I should be thanking you, though."
He furrowed his eyebrows. "What for?"
"For giving me a reason to do it. If he...if he did something to you, I don't think I'd forgive myself."
He smiled, and tossed his arm over my shoulder.
"Thanks."

It had felt like hours of small talk, until a car that appeared to be almost out of gas came driving slowly down the road. Ben and I stopped walking, our eyes widened. I quickly looked behind, to see Greg and Madeline a bit far behind, but they were obviously aware of the car, I noted, as Greg had reached for his gun, Madeline creeping behind him.
The car drove up to Ben and I, lowering their window, revealing a thirty or so year old man with a face that looked like he smoked all his life. He wore an army jacket, and thick gloves with the fingers cut off.
"Wow, haven't seen kids 'round here in a while," He spoke with an accent, one I couldn't really identify.
I could tell that that had pissed Ben off, because I knew that he hated being called a kid, or told what to do, that sort of thing. It was a stereotypical teenager thing, due to the fact that I was like that, too.
But I sucked it up instead of telling the man off, and I bit my lip, pulling a worried look on my face.
"We haven't either," Ben mentioned with a frown.
"It's really depressing."
"Well, isn't everything in this world despressin', now?" He said with a chuckle, which was completely disgusting in my opinion.
Ben stood in front of me, raising the food in front of him.
"Sir, if you would be kind enough to point us in the direction of-" Ben stopped, eyes wide.
"East?" I mumbled to him.
"East, yeah, if you could point us in the direction of east, that would be great."
The smoker raised an eyebrow, uncertain.
"We'll give you some food, as gratitude. We'd really appreciate it."
The man sighed, and pointed to his right. "Isn't that east over there?"
It was obvious he wasn't going to exit his car, but I had thought of a backup plan.
"Benjamin...is he pointing? I...I don't see him," I explained, frowning, holding my arms out in front of me.
"Wha...what's she doin'?" The smoker questioned, making Ben glare at him.
"She's blind!" He exclaimed, then turned to me again.
"Don't you worry, Bethany, we'll...we'll figure it out. Thank you for your help, sir." Ben hissed, and we started to walk away, but the man almost lept out of the car, opening the door with a creak and it shut.
"Hey, kids, wait up!" He cried, running up to us.
"I-I'm sorry, I didn't know..." He spoke, out of breath.
As he caught his breath, he stood up straight, and looked to his left. "That way is-"
He did not finish his sentence.
The bullet was fired, and the man was shot. He collapsed to the floor, blood seeping from his cranium.
And he was dead.
As odd as the thought sounded, I didn't think I would ever be so happy to see someone die.
Greg and Madeline rushed over to Ben and I, just surrounding the body and the pool of blood that surrounded it.

Aaron had grown far too tired to walk, so my father had decided to carry him on his shoulders, which left my mother and I together, smiling at the flowers and the butterflies, holding hands and enjoying the beauty of nature.
"Look, Bethie! Isn't that butterfly pretty?"
I giggled and nodded, squeezing my mother's hand. "I think that one's called a Swallowtail or something."
"Ooh, isn't my Bethie Boo smart?" She cooed, and planted a kiss on my cheek, causing me to laugh even more.
We continued to converse about nature, trying to remember the names of specific flowers and butterflies, until my father started to overhear our conversations and started calling them out himself.
"What about that orange and black one?"
"Those are Halloween colors, mommy."
"Do you know that name?"
"Um...maybe it's something Halloween-y."
"I believe that is called the Monarch butterfly. It's actually the most common, Amber." My father informed.
My mother rolled her eyes with a wide smile. "It's actually the most common," she mimicked with a funny voice, causing me to crack a smile.
"I heard that." He announced, not turning around to look at her.
"I heard that," She repeated with a nasally voice.
Eventually, he started laughing, too.

Greg had brought the jugs of gasoline over to the car, and started refueling the vehicle. As he did so, Ben and I sat in the back seat of the car, while Madeline sat in the passenger seat.
It smelt of horrible liquids and gases like smoke and vodka and whiskey, and when the smells combined, it created a strong, foul odor that made me pinch my nose and crack the window down to air out the smell, even though at this point it would be impossible to, just because of how strong the scent was.
Ben was doing the same, and pulled the collar of his shirt over his nose so that he could block out the smell in the least. He had lowered his window down, as well.
"Woo, it sure does smell bad, hm?" Madeline coughed, fanning herself with her hand.
We didn't say anything, just nodded in agreement.
She tried to start another conversation.
"Beth, you don't think any of those crates has a bottle of air freshener, right?"
"I'm not sure, Madeline, I would check-"
"Don't wear yourself out, honey, it was a joke!"
And that was the last we spoke for a while.
Greg finished pouring the gasoline in the tanks, then started working on bringing the crates to the trunk of the new car.
After mere minutes, he was able to complete his tasks and slide into the driver's seat of the car.
"So, after that minor detour, I think we're finally on our way to Cambridge." Greg announced, with a pleased tone in his voice.
Madeline immediately started clapping her hands and making 'woo!' sounds, which caused Ben and I to erupt in a fit of laughter and repeat her actions. Soon after, Greg did the same.
And then we started driving to our destination of Cambridge, Massachusetts.

"Tired," I mumbled, leaning against my weary mother, using her as support to finish walking to our hotel room as we dragged our feet, which was not so conveniently located about two miles away from we were hiking. The hike was about five miles long, too, so my feet were aching by the time we entered the hotel, climbed up six flights of stairs (my mother had a deathly paranoia of elevators) and walked down two hallways until we finally reached the room.
I knew I had a long list of things to do, though, before bed, like the fact that I needed to shower, brush my teeth, change my clothes into pajamas, find something simple enough to eat, and then get in bed and fall asleep, but until then, Aaron needed to do the following before me, and so did my parents. So I had time to relax and rest my aching feet before I had to go through my nightly routine.
And to be honest, I was perfectly content with that idea.
I apologize in advance if you're looking for a Walking Dead fanfic. Just so you know, I adore theWalking Dead, but none of the characters are in my novel. thank you for understanding & enjoy!x