Bloodfire - A Different Virus Spinoff

Chapter 1

  I could see the hospital in the distance now. Multiple panicked families were flooding into the building, crying for others who had been injured or bitten. There was blood everywhere. A lot of it. Sirens from ambulances were blaring as they rushed to bring in patients. I pulled into the parking lot and drove around for a good ten minutes just trying to find a spot.

My mother rested her head in her hands and sighed. "Ivy," She said, looking up at me. "Unlock the door. I'm nauseous." Her eyes were red around the edges and irritated. She was nauseous and clearly had a headache. She was infected. Mom was infected.

"Mom I'm not doing that," I said.

She was going to be okay. She had to be okay.

She furrowed her eyebrows at me and tears ran down her cheeks. "As stupid and unreal as this all seems, I'm infected, Ivy. Let me go. Please." She paused. "I don't want to eat my own daughter..."

I could feel my face burning and my eyes stung from the tears welling up inside them. "Mom..." I trailed off. I had no argument. On the way here the news reporters had said someone could turn very quickly, the shortest incident so far being thirty minutes. We had been in the car to get here for 20 minutes. "Mom, you can move to the backseat and buckle yourself in tight. You can put on the child lock. And if you turn into one before I can park, I'll get out and run away. I promise."

She nodded sadly, agreeing. "Okay, but you promise to run the second I go into seizures, right?"

I crossed my heart and nodded reassuringly. She seemed to accept that as an answer and I stopped the car, she opened the door and got out, standing behind the open door. She hesitated, but closed the door, slid open the door to the back seat and hopped in, closing the door and shuffling to the row furthest back. She buckled up and locked the belt in place. I started talking with her, my heart slowly sinking into my stomach as I came to realize that this conversation with my mother could be my last. I frowned. "Mom, if you do turn, I just want you to know," I began. I was interrupted by her slumping over and shaking. I began to panic, it had only been twenty-four minutes. That meant she had now become the quickest to turn, and that was not the kind of record she would have wanted to hold.

"Mom I'm sorry! I love you! If you can hear me, please, die knowing that I love you!" I leaned over on the steering wheel and shook, trying not to cry. I glanced into the rear-view mirror to see her slowly look up. Her blood red eyes told of her sad fate.

I could feel the tears welling up in my eyes, burning them as pain and grief took over. All of the fond memories, the good times. None of it mattered to her anymore. The creature who had once been my beloved mother would gladly devour me if she could only lean far enough forward to do so. I sat up and leaned back in my seat, glad she had buckled in. I was so wracked with grief and hatred for life that I couldn't bring myself to run. She lunged at me when I leaned back, but couldn't reach me, the locked-in belt holding her at bay as she snarled and groaned. My mother was trying to eat me. I was glad she was in the back of my van, an extra row of seats between where I sat and where she did. I wouldn't have been able to run in time to get away because of my weeping. I leaned forward again and sighed, then turned to look back at my mother. My staring did me no good, as all I was able to gather from watching her was that she was now a mindless beast. My mother, a zombie. An undead freak of nature. I couldn't wrap my head around it.

My thoughts were interrupted by a loud slam against the front of the car. I whipped around to see that a zombie had worked its way onto the hood and was slamming against it viciously. A zombie shouldn't be hitting something with that much force, should it? I sat staring at it for a moment before realizing how much brighter its eyes seemed than any of the other zombie's I'd seen shuffling around. Its eyes captured me. The red was such a pure color, so glossy and captivating; I was at a loss for words. His entire eye was a bright, lustrous red. Everything but his ebony black pupil was almost glowing, staring back at me with intensity. I could feel myself being pulled forward and sinking into the deadly creature's world, almost agreeing with his desire to rip through my flesh. The world had stopped moving. Time had stopped ticking. I could feel myself leaning forward and reaching toward him, a desire for him building inside me as my hand touched the glass separating us just above his head. He seemed to be captivated as well, staring back at me and ceasing his pounding. He shook his head, his brown locks tumbling in front of his face from how hard he jerked it, and a low rumble reverberated from his chest. He was clumsy and disoriented but graceful to me. He was dangerous but gorgeous, like a tiger watching prey. He was beautiful...

A loud snarl from the creature snapped me back to reality. Somehow, while I was entranced, it had worked its way all the way up the hood and was pounding on the glass. I shook myself and yanked my hand away from the windshield, startled by its speed and strength. It slammed its bloody fist on the windshield again and a splotch of blood marked where the glass was stricken. I realized I was going to die if I didn't move. Out of pure impulse, I gripped the steering wheel and stomped on the gas pedal. The creature, unready for the sudden acceleration, was flung up on to the top of the car and then down the back. A wet thump resounded from behind my van as the beast was thrown to the asphalt. I didn't even slow down to watch its reaction. Now I knew I had to get out of this parking lot as quickly as possible.

I looked around me. In my moment of sorrow for my mother, somebody in the crowd of people headed for the hospital must have turned into a zombie and attacked people, or maybe a horde of them was attracted by all the commotion, but whatever the cause there was now dozens wandering around. I made a quick turn at the end of the parking rows and headed for the exit. I didn't stop for the crossguard; I simply drove right through it. The splintering sounds of the wooden plank caused my mother to snarl from the back seat. I felt my heart leap into my throat at the vicious noise, it told me her human mind truly was gone. A zombie stumbled into the street, and rage took over my consciousness and I sped toward it, the satisfying crunch of its bones cracking as it was forced under my van kissed my ears and made me feel a little better. Tears were streaming down my face from fury and hatred toward the new plague that had claimed my mother and taken her from me.

My heart dropped as I realized that the beast I'd just run over was once human. He hadn't meant to be that way. He was simply in the wrong place at the wrong time. I glanced into my rear-view mirror and saw as he tried to get to his feet, quickly realizing they weren't going to work and began to drag himself with the one arm uninjured by my van. He was once human. And I had just demonstrated to myself what humans do when they're scared, angry and hurt. I knew what they would do to my mom if she ever wandered into the street like that.

I swore that, from then on, I would protect my mother and keep her from eating human flesh, and humans from attacking her. I would find a cure and I would restore her to the amazing mother she once was.

I had to find my siblings and father first, though. I needed to make sure they weren't in the same condition as Mom.