Traumatized after witnessing the sudden death of his loving wife, emergency responder Travis Pates watches his life take a downward turn when he is suspended for drinking on the job. With no family, no job, and unable to sleep due to vivid and terri...
Zahra inhaled a deep, relieving sigh, but Travis could not stop shaking. They were there to protect each other, but in the last twenty four hours each of them had nearly killed each other and Travis saw now that they were more of a threat than the zombies.
"There could have been a better way. Christ, he could have a concussion now, or be hemorrhaging as we speak."
"I didn't hit him that hard. Besides, I didn't see you coming up with any better ideas."
Travis was certain there were better ideas, he just needed a moment longer to consider them. There could've been a sedative in one of the backpacks. He hadn't seen one, but he also hadn't been looking hard.
"Well, I didn't think so," replied Santiago.
Travis shuddered at Santiago's callousness. He nearly killed his teammate and there was still a chance he could die of the impact later, and still he showed no remorse.
When Travis had nearly let Jonah die, he had felt guilt for nearly betraying a teammate, but Santiago did not appear to feel that same remorse. That lack of humanity terrified Travis, for Santiago demonstrated the same indiscriminate behavior as the living dead. There could've been another reason, Travis figured. Perhaps it wasn't that he was callous, but couldn't emotionally handle knowing he might be responsible for the murder of a good friend and colleague. The mind had an unusual and spectacular power of defense when placed in a traumatic scenario.
Now that Jonah had been sedated, Travis was able to look at the rash closer. The goo had eaten its way through his flesh and was stuck to the muscles and tendons in his hand like glue, corroding them. If Jonah survived Santiago's blow, it would only be a matter of hours or maybe days that the goo would cover a critical mass of his body. When he inspected Jonah's veins, Travis noticed something even more peculiar.
Zahra leaned over Travis's shoulder.
"What is it?"
Travis pointed to the goo that snaked along the vessel up Jonah's arm. "It's in his bloodstream."
Zahra leaned closer to inspect while Santiago watched from over Travis's shoulder.
Travis pointed to the spot on Jonah's fingertips where he had first touched the goo, indicating how it had been corroded away, eating through muscle and dissolving bone. Then he pointed to the large vein where the goo had entered his bloodstream causing a hair-thin line of black to spread up his forearm.
"Look how quickly it ate away his skin. Now that it's in his bloodstream, it'll spread to his entire body."
"How do we stop it?" Zahra asked.
"We can't," replied Santiago. "It takes less than a minute for the blood to make a full circulation. It's been nearly twenty hours. If we removed his clothes, I'm sure we'll be able to see more forming in other parts of his body."
Zahra shook her head in disbelief.
Travis hesitated and, after a brief pause, he unbuttoned Jonah's shirt. The muscles in his chest and stomach were strong, he was a dedicated weight trainer, and without noticing the sinister details of his tattoos, their eyes fell upon the black tendrils of goo in his veins surrounding his naval and under each armpit. When Travis inspected Jonah's legs, he saw more hairlines of black snaking up his calves.
Zahra groaned.
"How much time does he have?"
Travis shrugged.
"I don't know. Ren had only a few hours. So I can only presume Jonah has maybe a half a day at most. I don't know how it works. I just don't know."
Then Travis noticed the tattoos. Tattoos he had seen in the showers after their shift but hadn't really stood close enough to really inspect—to really see the 88 on his chest, the eagle with splayed wings, the swastika, and tattooed in German across his heart, the words, die Juden.
—
Thank you for reading chapter 23 of my novel Evilution!
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-L.K. Scott
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