Page 6 of Chaos Destiny
The world fellin less than twelve months.
Yet, I would be a lying man if I said I was surprised. There was no preparing for something like this. Ari and I barely made it out of the hospital, never mind the U.S. capital.
The pediatric nurse wasn’t the first man I’d ever killed, but he was the first “Infected” I’d offed while the woman who grew up like a sister to me gave birth yards away in a crumbling world.
Once my niece, Thandie, was born, we holed up at Ari and Julien’s house in Alexandria for a while, trying to find a way to reach him and Mo. But impromptu mandatory quarantine orders forced us out. We were screened and sent to a military camp in Richmond, but on the way, our bus was overrun. Then, I watched human beings take bites out of others as if mind-controlled by the devil or some darker, more nebulous entity. I had no clue if anyone but the three of us made it away from the wreck in one piece.
Literally.
We’d continued on foot only to arrive at a decimated camp. Had I been alone, I probably would have been less concerned, but I’d had an infant to worry about and a younger sister not built for this life.
That was three months after escaping the hospital.
Since then, we’d met and lost people along the way, whether through a bite from the creatures now roaming, starvation, separation from the larger group, or despair. So, for the last several weeks, it had been just the three of us, but I didn’t know how much longer that would be the case.
I stared at the thermometer I’d picked up miles back from an overrun pharmacy and prayed it was inaccurate. Yet, all I had to do was sit near Ari to feel the waves of heat emanating from her body.
“Gage,” she gripped my wrist and tried to pull it away from her forehead, “focus on Thandie.”
I ignored her and continued to pass the wet cloth over her hot skin, but she needed fluids, medicine, and antibiotics. While the “bite” did cause a fever, I’d checked every inch of her body. This was simply a good old-fashioned infection she’d picked up somewhere on our journey.
“Gage, I don’t care about dying as long as my baby lives. She’ll be okay with you. Look how far you’ve gotten us already.”
For the first time in a long time, my eyes stung.
I turned away to check on Thandie, who was asleep on a semi-clean blanket inside a plastic baby bathtub. Luck, if it existed any longer, had brought us to this empty camper. I’d had Ari stay behind with Thandie while I checked the surrounding terrain, and “luckily,” there’d been only three Infected to clear out. After checking all the trailers, this one was the “cleanest” of the bunch. Every other day, I canvassed the area to familiarize myself with the layout. If enough resources were nearby, wecould hunker down here for a while. Maybe until Thandie could walk.
Ari went silent.
Panic and dread congealed in my stomach.
I hurried back, placed my hand on her stomach, and when I felt that she was still breathing, I hung my head. Apparently, to Ari, I was just another guy. Perhaps the fever made her forget how close we were.
It didn’t matter that we had different parents and looked nothing alike; we would only be closer if we shared DNA. She and Mo gave me hell as a kid, the twin terrors. Our folks used to watch, amused, as I tried to exert power using my “maleness,” only for them to beat me into the ground.
Did Ari honestly think it would be easy to let her go? I’d lost my entire family, my brothers and parents, in an accident back when I was in my early twenties.
She, Mo, and Thandie were all I had.
I refused to let her die, and there was no way a pandemic like this one had taken Mo out. Despite them coming from the same egg, Mo was born to thrive in situations where the only way out was to kick ass and take names.
“Ari, I’m going to have to leave,” I told her. “I need to find out whether there’s somewhere around here that I can get you some medicine.”
She slowly shook her head. “Gage, it’s no use.”
“Ari, don’t do that. Don’t do that whole ‘let me go’ bullshit. You’re my sister. I love you, sweetheart. I can save you, and I will.”
Tears dripped from the corners of her eyes, and she bent her head, coughing into her elbow. All that had transpired, and she still covered her coughs.
“Then take Thandie with you, and don’t argue with me. She can’t stay here. If someone…or something shows up, I can’t defend myself, never mind her. She has to go with you.”
“Ari—”
“You can secure the trailer, right?” She motioned around, her arms moving as if tied to boat anchors. “Secure it as best as you can, but please, Gagey, take the baby with you.”
I hated this.
Fucking hated it.
