Sickness

~Part 11~

"Vala we have to." Gale whispered quietly.

I wanted Gale to stop talking. To be QUIET. Even if the chick in the clinic had named the baby as his child... he had no idea what was running through my mind or what I was feeling. I was lost. It made no sense. I was SEVENTEEN. This was too much to handle. My heart was in my stomach and my stomach had dropped to my knees. It was the feeling when you find out you've lost someone. When your heart just drops right out of its spot in your chest. Sure, it was acceptable in this day and age... but it wasn't acceptable to me.

All those thoughts when through my mind at once in 2 seconds or less. We exited the large transparent dome into the open area. I saw everyone tense up once they exited the dome. Even 2 seconds in the real world something can happen. Everyone wanted back on that train and back to the save city. Accept me.

''What was that?" I hear a girl say looking off into the hot barren land.

"I heard it too." Gale confessed.

"What was it?" I ask nervously.

"It sounded like... deranged laughing." Vanessa said.

Everyone was turned around now looking out into the land. There was a tree or two sprouted here and there and sometimes a cactus or bush. "There!" the first girl shouted, pointing to a small patch of cacti. Everyone turned to it just in time to see it stop shaking. I stuck my hand in the air.

"It's not windy." I half whisper.

"Okay, everyone on the train." the guard said harshly.

Just then the laughing came louder and 3 sickly people shot out from behind the cacti. Their clothes were ripped and tattered and covered in blood. They had huge red boils everywhere on their face and arms, seeping disgusting yellow stuff. Two men and a... woman? I think. They came running at us with rusty screw drivers and hatchets screaming.

All the girls started screaming and running for the train, but I was too far back. "Get on the train!" Gale yelled.

"I can't! They're in my way!" The infected people were only about 50 yards away by now.

The girls were knocking each other on the ground frantically trying to get through the trains scanners. Gale jumped in front of me and got into fighting position. "Gale what are you doing! You can't take them all on!" I yelled.

I ran up next to him and got into the fighting stance that the female General Officer had taught us. Similar to the boys, but only one hand was in a fist. The boys had both hands in fists right in front of their faces, their legs were barely spread as they hardly bend their knees. I set my feet similar to his, crouched the same amount as him with one arm horizontal a foot or so from my chest ready to block and blow and my other hand in a fist ready to swing if needed.

I remembered what the girls General Officer said about people running at you. All my training came flooding back.

Within a few seconds my thoughts were interrupted as the woman peeled herself from the two mens side and started heading for me screaming something. Gale's eyes shifted to me and I saw a flash of emotion across his face. ''Go." he gestured to the train, where the doors were almost cleared.

"Never." I say intently. How could I leave Gale behind?

In the little amount of time it took for the crazy people to get 5 yards from us, I had prepared for the worst. Gale waited for the men to come at him, but my mind went to our defense training. I threw my arm up and ran the woman at the same speed knocking the screwdriver out of her hand, and hitting her at the waist so she did sort of a somersault over my back. She layed there for a second wiping the blood off her head from where she had hit a rock. It didn't take long for her to jump up and lunge at me again. And it didn't take long for me to remember my baby. Uh oh. When she was close enough for me to smell her stench I hit the ground holding the blow on my stomach by catching myself on my hands and elbows. She trips over me and falls head first onto her screw driver.

She rolled over and clutched her cheek as it bled profusely. I finally got a good look at her. She was about 40. Her matted reddish-brown hair was plastered to her head and coarse with blood. And honestly, if it wasn't for her disgusting disease, she was really pretty. She moved her hands just in time for me to see the deep gash from under her eye almost down to her chin from hitting the screw driver. Now I understood why mother said never run with scissors.

The woman didnt get up to attack again... which was weird. The sickly were supposed to be unmerciful killers. No matter their condition. It's rare pain stops them. This woman almost looked... sane. Her eyes pleaded for help, but I knew it wouldn't take much for her to snap back. The disease eats away at your brain cells that make you sane. Sometimes you come and go, until you're totally gone. Once your totally gone it goes for the rest of your brain until you can no longer humanly function and die.

She just layed there. It was odd. I heard screaming then remembered Gale. I whipped around fast to see the guard and Gale beating the snot out of the two men. I was just glad it was the sicklies screaming and not Gale. I watch him as the man finally either dies or goes unconscious. I look over and see the guard still hitting when he is obviously dead. Gale walks over and gently pulls the guard off the sickly man. Gale looks over at me with some emotion in his eyes. I don't know what, but real emotion.

I look down at the woman lying their on the ground in the pheetle position crying and rocking. "I hate this." she whimpered. "Why me?"

She was in a sane phase. "I want to go home. I want to see my babies." she cried.

I crouched down next to her and put a hand on her back at the same time that I pulled a switchblade out of my back pocket, keeping it behind my back. The woman looked at me with tear filled eyes. "Why did this have to happen?" she asked me.

"Why does anything happen." I whisper.

"My sons need me." she sobbed. "They just threw me out. As soon as I got sick... they.. they.." her voice began to fade.

I knew she was going back into her insane world all over again. "Dear?" her voice was less sincere and more crazed. "What is your name?" she said in a shaky voice.

"Uhm," I lifted my hand off her back and tightened my grip on my knife. "Vala."

She slowly looked up at me. "What pretty blue eyes you have. Vala." she said slowly as she put her head back on the ground. ''Bet lover boy can't get enough of you."

''How many of you are left?" I asked slowly bringing the knife around.

"Please kill me." she began crying in her stable voice. "Please. I can't take it. It hurts so bad."

She puts her head face down in the sand. I drop the knife and back up right as I hear a gunshot and blood starts oozing from the back of her head. "No!'' I screamed and whipped around as the guard put away a small handgun. "Are you crazy? She was still sane!" I screamed.

"Too far gone. Uncurable." he said heartlessly.

"She was still fading in and out! She was a salvagable human being! She has children!" I felt hot tears well up in my eyes. I ran back over to her and flipped her over.

I felt hands on my shoulders pulling me back. I tried to fight them through blurred vision, but I just gave in and collapsed in Gales arms crying. He picked me up and took me to the train headed back to the city.