Roaming Of The Afterlife

God's Wrath

"The Christ will suffer and rise from the dead on the third day, and repentance and forgiveness of sins will be preached in his name."
         -Luke 24:46

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"You've been reading that for hours."

My younger sister's chipper voice causes my Bible study to come to a halt, my fingers graze over the text one last time. With a sigh, I close the bible softly. This was starting to worry her, ever since the power went out Monday I've been reading the bible without a good explanation.

My younger sister, Aurei, peers at me from the other side of the dining table. A single light hung above us as we stared at each other in awkward silence. There weren't many rooms in the apartment, just our mom's, the bathroom, the kitchen-dining room, and our own room.

Aurei anxiously taps her fingers along her own book along with the table. The blinds were closed, so the entire kitchen was dim.

I roll my lips into a straight line. "Just felt like it was appropriate, y'know?"

The entire country is under quarantine. People are required to stay indoors when they weren't out trying to buy essential things they needed for the house. The fever broke out earlier this month, August. This fever is pretty much a living hell for whoever has to endure it, no one knows how it really broke out in the first place.

People who catch this fever, die within forty-eight hours. During the time span, some victims get aggressive.

It's just Aurei, my mom, and myself living in this small three-bedroom apartment.

Ever since the blackout, Aurei had been finding things to do, like small crafts to make the quarantine seem less...well, like a quarantine.

I let my elbows rest on the table. "How about this? I'll fix you something to eat." I suggest with a subtle eyebrow raise.

Aurei beams a little. "You do know how to make ham and cheese sandwiches."

"You know how dad liked 'em, it's a mean ass recipe," I smirk as I rose from my wooden chair, causing it to screech along the white tiled floor. I shuffle my way around the table towards the sink, washing my hands thoroughly.

"Aurei, be a doting sister and lend me a towel."

Aurei does as she's asked, handing me the towel as she returns back to her chair.

"It's got to get better than this. I miss school." Aurei complains. "I miss Sawyer."

As I take the slices bread and prepared our lunch, I smirk and glance at her over my shoulder. "You mean your boyfriend?" I taunt. I reach over to grab the ingredients from the wooden cupboards above my head.

Our apartment wasn't that fancy, had a whole bunch of religious decorations, old certificates, even the photo of my dad in his militant uniform hung not so far behind my sister's chair. Everything was pretty much cluttered, from Aurei's previous drawings and our parent's wedding photos. It smelled of cinnamon candles all over the place.

Not too long ago, we moved in this apartment complex, we're on the second story, room two hundred and sixty six. Most of our neighbors had evacuated days ago, we chose to stay here and pray for our Mom's sake.

Aurei shyly smiles to herself. "It's not like that, he's not into girls like me."

I felt my eyebrows knit together, I turn around to come in eye contact with my sister. "And what the hell is that supposed to mean?"

Aurei is very pretty for a girl her age. She's a beautiful black girl, with kinky black hair that had always been tied back in a low ponytail, her light bronze-colored skin had no bruise nor blemish, her warm almond brown eyes resemble dark hot chocolate. Her upper lip was bigger than the bottom, like a faint pout....which I consider a unique type of beauty.

"I'm not his-"

A muffled belch coming from the other side of the wall interrupts Aurei. Aurei's calm and collected face slowly contorts into a face full of dread and fear. Aurei instinctively rises from the chair, with a plate of her sandwich in my hand, I used the other to stop her. "You haven't ate breakfast Aurei, and you're not skipping lunch," I speak in a stern tone.

Aurei slumps back into the chair. "It's been the sixth time today Avery."

"I'll take care of Mom. You need to eat something." I said as I shuffle my way around the small wooden dining table, and towards the other room.

Mom works as a nurse at the local hospital in Georgia, well, in this case, worked. She apparently quit, or as I put it, abandoned the job completely. She had been went home early recently after an altercation with one of her patients, the man got violent and had bit Mom in her forearm so deeply, it broke two layers of her skin. She was only checking his temperature. Ever since then, she's been really ill. The fever seems to be only passed by a patient's saliva in open wounds, her words, not mine.

She wants to spend this time at home with her daughters, praying and hoping that this plague will eventually blow over and everything will return back to normal...well that is until she got sick.

I chose not to let anyone know that she had been bitten by one of the patients, my best friend Nina had told me all about how patients were disappearing, I didn't want that to happen to my mother, so I chose to keep her indoors.

As I push the door open, I was welcomed by a foul smell of vomit and urine. With the back of my hand covering my nose, I saunter my way towards her bed. The entire room was dark, the only source of light came from the lamp on her nightstand. Mom had been losing weight for the past couple of hours, her body became frail by the second. I sit on the edge of the bed, reaching over to rest the back of my hand on her forehead.

"The fever isn't going down," I mutter to myself. Mom's eyes flew open as she saw me reaching towards the vomit-covered quilt, ready to pull it off.

"No," Mom whines, using every bit of her strength to maintain the grip on the blanket. Her voice was raspy and paper-thin as if it was on the verge of breaking. She was in the best condition hours ago, walking, talking normally and even cracking jokes.

I feel my heart wrench a little. "Mama, I have to, you need to fight this infection, you know that."

Mom tries to shake her head but cries out in pain. "Dammit child." She mumbles.

Her chapped lips part once more. "I'll be..fine, I can do it-"

I glare at her, long and hard. "You could barely stand on your legs this morning! Aurei and I had to carry you to bed!" I argue, fighting the tears that wanted to erupt. I blink them away as I narrow my eyes at her. "Must you be so stubborn?"

Mom's bloodshot eyes evades mine. Knowing she lost this argument instantly.

My hands proceed to pull the quilt down, and my eyes widen as they shot down to see the bite.