Page 4 of Outbreak

“I went by his dorm earlier, and he wasn’t there. You know if there's a party, his ass ain’t missing it.” I spot Mallory with a drink in her hand talking to some of her cheer girls, but no Josh. “I don’t see him down there. I’m going to check the rooms up here.”

Pushing off the balcony, I spin and head down the hall. I know I’ll probably see more than I bargained for up here, but trust me, I’ve seen worse in my life. Most of the doors are opened at least half way, making it easy to scan them and ignore the various stages of fucking going on inside them. The first door we pass, a redhead is riding some guy's face while another girl sucks his cock like her life depends on it. The next has two guys fucking like rabbits against the window.

“Well, if I didn’t need dick before coming up here, I sure as fuck do now,” Noah says, adjusting himself not so discreetly.

“Well, that’s because your voyeuristic ass likes to watch, bitch,” I laugh, moving past the next door after checking for Josh and not finding him. The last door left to check is shut. If he’s not here, I’m leaving. I could be in my comfy bed right now.

Trepidation fills my gut as I twist the handle and push the door open. I’m not ready for what I find.

“Oh, hell no!” Noah pushes me behind him, trying and failing to spare me the view of Josh’s very naked ass as he thrusts his dick into the knock-off Barbie bimbo spread out beneath him. He doesn’t even notice the audience he has, and it takes my brain about ten seconds to register what the fuck is going on before I let my calm rage wash over me, settling into my bones, and the familiar numb blocks out any emotions I might try to feel.This motherfucker!

“Well, ain’t this cozy?” I say, sauntering past Noah and approaching the bed. As soon as the blonde bitch’s face comes into view, I know something is well and truly wrong. “What the fuck, Josh. Stop–” My words are cut off when my eyes move to his face.

It’s like ice water rushes through my veins, and I can’t comprehend exactly what I’m seeing. Blood streams from his eyes, dripping from his chin and onto the very limp, very blue girl beneath him. “Josh! Stop!” I try to shove him aside, but the big fucker doesn’t budge or slow his thrusts into the dead girl as he growls at me like a rabid animal, spittle spraying from his mouth.

Noah rushes to my side, his hands flying into the air as he skids to a stop when he sees the blood. “What in the fuck balls is happening right now?! Is she—she’s dead?”

“Noah! Help me get him off her,” I snap.

I don’t know what’s going on, but this is just sick. Before I can touch him again to shove him off, a figure steps out of the shadows in the corner. He’s tall—like really tall, with shoulders wide enough to sit on. I can’t tell much else about him, but his aura feels dangerous—in a protective and slightly familiar way. Don’t get me wrong, the red flags are flying high, but my traitorous pussy chooses to ignore them. His hood is pulled low, and the only portion of his face that’s visible reveals the bottom half of a black and white skull mask protruding from his mouth.

“Back. Up,” a low growl vibrates from the big fucker, making my thighs clench together. I’m a seriously fucked up bitch because now is definitely not the fucking time for this. My body responds to his command on its own, and I nearly trip over Noah as I step back from my piece of shit trifling boyfriend and the dead bitch beneath him.

“I don’t know who the fuck this ‘daddy’ is, but yes, please,” Noah whispers, grabbing my shoulders and backing us up to the doorway, one slow step at a time.

“Go. Get back to the dorms… Now!” His commanding tone slithers deep into my veins, igniting a sense of familiarity that I can’t place.

Do I know him?

Noah doesn’t give me a chance to figure it out before he snatches me outside the door and practically shoves me down the stairs and into the chaos happening down here. For a moment, I wonder if I’m drunk or high, because the crowded space seems to move in slow motion and sound is distorted as I try to take in what’s happening.

The screams—the panic—all of it swirls around me, wrapping me in its frigid embrace like a cloak of icy darkness. Noah's grip on my arm never waivers, pulling me through the throngs of people, letting their faces blur as we dart outside and into the night.

CHAPTER 3

Ghost

Screams begin to penetrate through the floor from the lower level of the house, the party no doubt turning into a panic-fueled frenzy of panic and impending death. I want nothing more than to slip back outside and find my girl to get the fuck out of here before the shit gets out of hand.

First though, I have to deal with the human shit stain for thinking he could hurt my girl and get away with it. I mean, technically, the fucker is already dead. His symptoms confirm what I already knew—he’s infected. His brain and pea-sized cock are barely hanging on as he mindlessly ruts into the dead girl beneath him. His brain has already started hemorrhaging, blood pouring from his eyes, ears, and mouth—same as I just saw in New Orleans.

In other circumstances, I would drag this out and make the fucker suffer, but I can’t risk losing Death in this mess. This asshole’s death warrant was already signed when I saw him in Rue’s dorm on the camera’s I hid. I just haven’t had a chance to come down here again to handle it. Oh well. Doesn’t matter now. Pulling out my knife, I drag quickly across his throat. Blood sprays and gushes out of the gaping slit, until the steady streamof crimson slows as he slumps onto the lifeless blonde beneath him.

The things I’ve seen this week are unreal. If I hadn’t seen it with my own eyes and witnessed the crazy shit myself, I wouldn’t believe it. I still don’t know what to believe or what’s really happening. And I can tell by my girl's reaction that she has no fucking idea what was going on either. As much as I want to punish her still for what she did four years ago, I can’t leave her here to figure it out on her own. But when I’m done with her, she’s going to wish I’d left her to die in this fucking place with the rest of them.

The screams from downstairs still permeate the space as I pull my zippo lighter from my pocket, lighting a cigarette and pulling in a heavy drag. Exhaling slowly, smoke coils around the room as I extend the flame to the curtains over the window. Orange and red flames crawl up the fabric towards the ceiling, growing larger as the fire catches and dances along the edge of the room.

I don’t wait around for the bodies to burn. The open window on the other wall leads out to the roof, and my boots are heavy on the shingles when I step out onto it and slide down the drainage gutter attached to the side of the old house. It groans and creaks under my heavy weight, but I make it to the ground with a thud. There’s no one back here on this side of the property, but their screams follow me as I skirt around and head back towards campus, with only one goal in mind.

Find Death and get the fuck out of here.

CHAPTER 4

Rue

There is no way in hell this is happening. This isn’t real. I must be dreaming. There’s no way I saw what I know I saw. My fucking boyfriend was fucking a dead girl. And the blood. Why were they bleeding?

Sticks and dead leaves crunch beneath my boots as I push through the crowd. I’m no stranger to fight or flight. Growing up in foster care, you learn to be quick on your feet when your life is in danger. You fight or you run—there is no in between. I’ve done my fair share of both.

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