Chapter 3

“Okay -- Runny nose, irritability, itchiness, excessive sweating, fever, cough,” I ramble them off quickly, already knowing that she’s exhibiting every single one of those and move on to the ones she is not, yet ... as far as I know. “Full body aches or pain, bloody stool, bleeding from the nose or eyes. Aggressiveness, agitation, unusual posture, confusion, vomiting. Death.” I take a deep breath before continuing. “Symptoms may take up to 48 hours to appear after a person becomes contagious. An infected person may display all, some, or none of these symptoms. Masks, gloves and self-quarantine are recommended for anyone who thinks they may have been exposed. People who die of the disease are still contagious for a short time after death.”

“My nose is bleeding.”

“Cast to me. They have photos on Google.” I hear a shuffle as she grabs her Cast from the end table next to where she was asleep just minutes earlier. Seconds later, my Cast buzzes and I swipe to move her broadcast to my smallish, but still larger than the cast device, tv. “Okay, show me the blood on the toilet paper.” it was just a small bright red blob, reminiscent of the nosebleeds I got as a child from allergies in the spring.

“Keep an eye on it, but it doesn’t look like it’s bleeding enough.” More for myself than her, I add “You’re going to be fine.”

But it’s not going to be fine. She is probably not fine, and I am probably not fine either. I flash back to the little boy who fainted at Pizza Hut the other day, and the bandage on his mother’s shoulder. His nose didn’t stop bleeding the entire time he was laying on the dining room floor, or while they were wheeling him away.

“Okay.” She says weakly on the other side of the door, not believing my assurance for a second. All of the fight in her body disappears as I watch her stare at the crumpled toilet paper in her hand, nose still slowing leaking one of the sure signs of impending death. I immediately walk directly into the bathroom and stare at myself in the mirror. I whisper each symptom to myself while checking the appropriate locations on my body. “Paleness? No more than usual. Fever?” I put my palm to my forehead since I already gave up my thermometer. “Doesn’t feel like it.” I stretch my muscles to test for pain. No aches ... no blood. “I’m more anxious than angry. No vomit. Still alive for now.” For now, I repeat in my head, staring into my own worried eyes. I try and rationalize any way that I could have remained uninfected. She never coughed in my direction, and was a perfect example of how a 5th grade health and fitness teacher told us to cough or sneeze to minimize spread. I wore a mask anytime we were in an enclosed space together – minus the night before while we slept. We slathered on hand sanitizer at any opportunity. Still, that might not be enough. I grab the Cast again and pull the web browser back up that explains how the parasite spreads.

‘A parasite’s life cycle has sexual and asexual phases. The sexual life cycle of the original three variations of TRIM71 only occurs in cats, which are therefore referred to as the ‘definitive’ hosts. In the cat gut, it differentiates into male and female gametocytes allowing sexual reproduction. The TRIM71 variant differs from its predecessors in that humans, not cats, are the definitive hosts. In addition, all variations can naturally infect a wide range of warm-blooded intermediate hosts, ranging from birds to rodents. In intermediate hosts, it undergoes asexual replication, meaning that parasites replicate their haploid genome and divide into two daughter cells. This process, known as endodyogeny, is slightly different from typical eukaryotic cell division. Humans were considered an intermediate host for the parasitic disease until TRIM71 was first discovered this month. Tachyzoites are haploids which spread quickly throughout the host, triggering an immune Response. In some tissues, those tachyzoites convert to bradyzoites, which are slow replicating but create cysts. Cysts that contain many bradyzoites appear to evade the immune response, which allows the parasite to establish a persistent infection for the life of the host. In humans, all variants encyst and persist in the brain and in cardiac and skeletal muscle. In both rodents and humans, the brain is the major organ for encystment, although in some cases it can be found in cardiac tissue. One difference observed in the TRIM71 variant is that it can also be spread through oocytes living in the saliva of an infected host. it is such a successful parasite because of its ability to ‘trick’ the immune system, while also infecting the brain and manipulating the host. Previous variations were linked to hyper aggressiveness in humans, but the variant infecting the population now is concerning because it appears to completely control its host.’

“Alana. Look at your messages. It’s the emergency broadcast,” April’s frail voice comes from the other side of the bedroom door, startling me out of my reading.

‘All civilian traffic in and out of the city is hereby suspended until further notice. No Exceptions.’

FEMA has sent buzz alerts to our phones before. Mostly just tests every couple of years, but this is not a test. The gunshots that began yesterday have been heard periodically throughout the morning and early afternoon now serve as a warning that this is not just a suggestion.

“Do you think that means they already stopped the train evacs?” I ask out loud, but then check the website myself, which is still up and running. Apparently, we just can’t drive ourselves out of here. That’s a setback, but we aren’t trapped. As long as we stay put and stay strong until Monday, we are all but guaranteed safety.

“Next week we are on the first train out.” I signed April up for the evacuation yesterday, after learning she didn’t do it herself. Her appointed time is actually in three weeks, but that’s just going to have to be something we overcome when we show up there. The optimism in my voice is a surprise even to me, since I don’t feel a single bit of it. Suddenly, both of our Casts buzz. Since mine has been pulled onto my TV, the faces of my friends pop up immediately but I could not open a broadcast myself because the flat screen does not have a webcam built in. I quickly grab the cast to reset the image back to the original device and select “Go live.” My face joins those of my friends, but April’s stays black, which I don’t blame her for at all.

“I guess you guys got the alert” I say, smirking.

“I was just about to head back home to Carlton. Was going to drop Bec off in Pine City on my way,” added Isaac, ignoring my comment and getting down to business. “I’m sure we could have waited a few more days, but look at this.” He flips his cast around to show the road in front of his tiny, two-bedroom apartment. They’re everywhere. Blood-stained, salivating monsters with no hint of the people they were before are banging together against the brick of the building across the street from his main level apartment. Some of them are huddled around a car, where a woman is screaming for help. Some are stumbling around confused, but they are all huddled on the same part of the block, as if some force is pulling them together.

Isaac lives closer to campus in a more expensive complex with Becca and Rayne. Based on the background, Becca’s in his apartment now, but Rayne is still upstairs in her third-floor accommodations. If it were me, I’d be hiding with Rayne, but there’s something to be said for the quick exit a first-floor hide-out provides if the building becomes infested. I haven’t been to his apartment many times – we do most of our hang out’s either over Cast, at a bar, or at the library for study sessions. From what I do remember, his roommate has the window in his room, and Isaac has the smaller, windowless room. The glass he is peeking through now, with his cast held out in front of him so we can all observe the scene, is the one in the modest living room. He is attempting not to open the blinds, and inches the device between the glass of the window and the blinds instead of opening them completely and exposing themselves. This situation is much, much scarier than what we witnessed yesterday – which until now, I didn’t think was possible. The road is congested with at least 100 people, some tripping over bodies lying dead in the road. Most of those who are still up walking have dried blood stemming from their nose or eyes. I think back to the blood I know is dripping from my best friend’s face.

The mass of bloodied and beaten figures all move together, like they’re connected, stalking the road. In a panic, I check again for a sign that any of them are outside my own apartment. Still nothing. For now.

The yell of a woman bursts through the crowd of infected on Isaac’s Cast. She’s running toward them, and appears to be running away from something else. When she sees what she is heading towards, her eyes go wide and she screams again, frantically trying to find another direction to go. Behind her a group of still-human men and women stop, also at a loss as to where to go or what to do. They eye the buildings around them and finally come to the conclusion that their only hope is to somehow make it inside of the nearest one. The mob has spotted them, and head towards them as one. The way that they move is bone-chilling. They do not shamble. They don’t crawl, or shuffle their feet. They sprint at the doomed survivors.

I’d forgotten that they were running away from something for just a moment, but suddenly an even larger group of speeding demons come surging from behind them. Both mobs collide as they tackle, bite, and tear at the exhausted men, women, and children who truly did not stand a chance. One man stabbed a single infected as he or she lunged for his throat, but got tackled by another before he could get the blade out of the first one’s neck. A women pushed two away from herself just to be mounted by five more. Another lady pushed her children behind her, just to get taken down in seconds and leaving her crying kids to fend for themselves anyways. They didn’t fall one by one; they fell by threes or fours until there wasn’t a single person left standing. One or two of the fallen stay down for the count, but when the gang of attackers began to drift off in search of new prey, most of the people who were screaming for their lives only seconds ago are among them. Without anyone in sight to infect, their energy seems zapped. They pace around slowly and without aim. I stare at the now massive mob. We are mesmerized by the way they sway in the wind. The way that they form an impassable line, as if they are soldiers and not nearly-brain-dead beasts. They are as fascinating as they are frightening.

“We have to leave the city.” Becca whispered to Isaac, not for the first time. And she’s right. The moment the animalistic pack heard or saw any evidence of life inside a car or building, they attacked it until they got to the source of the stimuli, and it’s only a matter of time before one of us makes the wrong noise at the wrong time.

“How did it spread so fast?” I asked myself in astonishment. This should be impossible. They all caught it and turned into these monstrosities within the five days the news reported that the disease has made it to north America. How? I guess right now the how isn’t as important as the what-are-we-going-to-do, or the ohmygod-am-I-going-to-end-up-like-that? I stare into the screen with my mouth hanging open until Issac silently pulls the cast away from the window and flips it to himself. His deep complexion looks paler than normal. Not in the sickly way that a person who is infected goes pale, but in the so-scared-you-turn-white way. He looks as horrified as I feel.

Rayne has her cast laying on some surface pointing up at the ceiling while she packs a large travel bag. Brody’s eyes are glossed over, full of confusion. His brain can’t handle all of the improbable things that had to have happened at once for this situation to occur. I decide he deserves his moment of bliss before his mind can no longer keep him in a state of denial, and he fully comprehends the actual city, and probably the whole country – maybe even the world - is falling apart before our eyes. He’ll get there.

There’s a click on the device showing that another user has joined, and I am beyond overjoyed to see Kat’s beautiful, caramel colored and perfectly healthy-looking face pop up a second later. She doesn’t look her best, with her tangled hair thrown into a messy bun, but she does look alive.

“Where have you been?” I whisper – because we have all taken to only speaking in hushed voices.

“Dead,” she responds. Not quite in a whisper herself, but quiet enough. Kat lives with her parents on the other side of Minneapolis. It’s not really far in distance, but the traffic makes it feel that way. “I had the worst flu of my life. Had it coming from both sides. It was disgusting.” She made a face to accentuate her point. “The fever broke this morning though. Just in time for the whole damn city to get quarantined.”

“Did your nose bleed at all?” April interjected, for obvious reasons to me, but the rest of the group was oblivious. Since we all saw the massive numbers of blood stains on those who are stalking the roads, it seemed an innocent enough question to those who don’t know.

“Nah. No nosebleed. No bleeding from the eyes,” She responded, clearly understanding the accusation. “Just a fever, puking, diarrhea. Ya know, the gross stuff. My body is still recovering. I swear my muscles have never ached so much in my life. Why, do you think you caught the bug from me the other day?”

“Uh, I don’t know. I feel a little under the weather but I think it’s just allergies.” I could hear the strain in her voice, and now the others have picked up on it too. Except Brody, who is still in his own world over there, staring at a wall and looking as if he doesn’t know what to do with himself.

“Hey, April. Why isn’t your cam on, girl?” Damn. Nobody could miss the suspicion in Isaac’s tone. “Isn’t she at your place, Alana? What’s she doing?”

“Right now? Taking a piss, you perv.” I don’t exactly know why I don’t want them to know that she is probably infected, but the return of Kat has given me some hope that there’s another, non-zombifying disease going around out there that April probably also has. She and Kat went shopping Wednesday for graduation dresses. They do all of their shopping together. The rest of us just bought ours online, like normal people. The two of them insist that they need to see it on themselves before committing. In their defense, they always look beautiful, so their process works out for them.

My graduation dress is long and navy, Becca’s is Satin, sexy, and white. Rayne nabbed a short backless ivy dress that looks remarkable against her deep brown skin. Kat and April are dramatic and want to “debut” their garments after we walk on graduation day. We have all learned to humor them, even the boys. Now though, it doesn’t look like there will even be a ceremony.