The Catalyst (GirlXGirl)

Chp. 39 "Deep Thought"

Max wasn’t sleeping at the moment but Gage was, along with Avery, and I was surprised Max hadn’t complained about being hungry yet.

Considering it was almost lunch time and he always seemed to be hungry.

I passed the car on my right, checking the GPS and seeing we still had quite a ways to go before getting into West Virginia.

Then I heard Max shift in his seat behind me, “Dude, are you hungry?”

I laughed to myself, remembering the recent thought I had about Max and his stomach that never seemed to be satisfied. I shrugged, “Eh, I can wait another hour.”

He groaned slightly, “I don’t know if I can, my stomach is literally talking to me.”

Suddenly I heard what he was talking about while his stomach contracted, making a gurgling sound. This caused me to laugh a little louder because of the volume, he really was hungry.

“Andy?”

I felt my heart jump in my chest at the sound of Max’s deep voice, realizing there was something off about his tone. I glanced back at him, seeing a worried expression on his face. I responded quickly with curiosity, “What?”

“Excessive hunger… that’s not one of the symptoms of the… you know…?”

Horrible thoughts raced through my brain like a freight train, causing sweat to threaten my forehead. Was it? I didn’t remember hearing that in the video we watched months before… Maybe Max and I were just paranoid considering where we were heading, and there was really nothing wrong with him.

I looked at him again, shaking my head, “No Max, it’s not, but if you start feeling weird or anything out of the norm… let us know.”

I feared for my friends and their safety, and I was terrified of traveling any farther than West Virginia. We were heading to a very populated area, and this opened multiple windows of infection for Max, Avery, and Gage.

And if one got sick, it was possible that they would all contract the disease.

“Are you worried?”

I was worried, but I could tell by Max’s tone that he was worried a lot more than I was, and I was extremely worried. I sighed heavily, feeling a big burden on my shoulders from this situation. I nodded, “I’m very worried Max.”

I looked at Avery, her sleeping figure mesmerized me as her head rested gently on the middle console of the Tahoe. I was worried about all of them, and if I had to see even one of them suffer… it would kill me.

I remembered the last thought that had consumed me last night after Avery and I had finished making love, and how it had kept me awake for nearly two hours. Was I going to have to watch all of my friends grow old and die? Or what would happen if one of them contracted the BD3 and we couldn’t find a cure in time?