Chp. 39 “Deep Thought”
My phone alarm’s obnoxiously loud tone awoke me, bringing me to realization of last night. I could feel Avery’s naked skin against me, which never failed to send chills down my spine. The haunting thoughts from last night resurfaced then, consuming me once again as I forced myself up and out of Avery’s warmth.
I heard her stir as I walked slowly around the room, attempting to my travel bag for my day’s clothes. I found some jeans short and a flowy shirt which would allow me to dress for comfort today.
Then I turned to Avery who let out a stifled moan as she stretched. The morning sunlight danced on the smooth skin of her back while the white covers only covered her lower body. She was lying on her stomach, but this was the sexiest thing I’ve ever seen in my life.
Her reddish brown hair fell over her bare shoulders and onto the mattress and her hazel eyes bored into mine. She smiled, “Morning baby.”
I felt my heart flutter in my chest as I walked coolly over to her, kissing her right on the lips. I spoke, “Time to get up,” in all honesty I wasn’t in the lovey-dovey mood this morning, which was odd for me considering what went down last night.
She groaned, “Can we skip breakfast and just have morning sex instead?”
This comment only made me smile harder as I tilted my head, slipping on underwear and my jeans shorts. I knew I would need to play along with her to keep her suspicion as ease, so my smile faded into a slight playful smirk. I responded, “We don’t have enough time for the things I would like to do to you.”
This got her attention, but I pulled her up and out of the bed before she could respond. We didn’t have long, only about 45 minutes to get dressed and eat breakfast, then we would check out and hit to road.
So Avery and I got dressed, and then joined Max and Gage to go downstairs and eat breakfast in the breakfast hall.
I sipped on my coffee as I continued to eat the muffin I had picked out from the table. I was glad they had this because honestly, waking up this early without coffee would’ve killed me. After we finished eating I was ready to go, and I had even offered to drive for Gage since he was feeling a little under the weather.
Soon we all gathered in the Tahoe and typed in our next destination, allowing the pink trail to pop up on the GPS. Gage and Max made themselves comfortable in the back while Avery took my hand, and then we were off.
I squeezed Avery’s hand and pulled out of the parking lot, “West Virginia, here we come.”
~ ~ ~ ~
We had been on the road for almost three and a half hours, and the sun was almost directly above us. I checked my left rearview mirror, making sure switching lanes was safe and put on my blinker, merging into the other lane. We still had about an hour and a half to go but we were making great time. I was pretty sure we were going to get there slightly earlier than we had planned.
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?
I would be able to do nothing but watch them wither away.
At this moment I felt completely useless, because I was a Healer, yet I couldn’t heal anyone but my goddamn self. It wasn’t fair, it was selfish, and it was totally out of my control.
This feeling only furthered my motivation to do whatever it takes to find a cure for this disease, because I was needed somehow. I was the missing puzzle piece in this whole situation, and even though I couldn’t heal anyone by myself, the doctors at the Bureau could do more than I ever could.
They could cure thousands.
But I’ll be damned if I let even one of my friends contract and die from this disease, because I was going to do everything possible to prevent that.
~ ~ ~ ~
“Max you got to pick where we went eat last night!”
I rolled my eyes in annoyance as I waited at a stop light while Avery and Max went at it, yet again. I looked back at Gage, nodding at him to do something about his brother’s ill behavior. Gage shoved Max’s head and spoke, “Will you stop!”
Max threw up his hands, “You’re supposed to be on my side!”
“Not when you’re acting like a child.”
Max’s electric blue eyes rolled in annoyance, looking out the window and pouting in defeat. I smiled to myself as I looked at Avery, “Where too?”
“There,” I looked to where her finger was pointing to and saw a cute little café sitting there. It looked decent, but Max wanted to head to the steak house across the street. The light turned green and I made my way into the café’s parking lot, hearing Max get out of the back seat while mumbling unintelligent things.
He got so butt-hurt over food it was ridiculous.
I think Avery annoyed him on purpose though, which was also something I humored in a sense, but right now I wasn’t in the mood to deal with it.
Lately I haven’t been so tolerant like I used to be.
We made our way into the café and sat ourselves as I checked my phone for the time. It was currently 1:30. I knew we had plenty of time, but I was expecting a call from either Agent Roger Boyd or Doctor Henson himself. I didn’t know if he wanted to meet at the hotel or somewhere else considering he was giving my friends some sort of vaccination.
Which was something I prayed was good, and didn’t have possible negative side effects.
I ended up getting a simple Turkey Swiss club and picked at it, the thoughts consuming me completely. I was hoping no one would notice but I should’ve known better considering Avery watched me like a hawk sometimes.
She questioned, “You ok?”
I nodded stiffly, attempting to play it off, and smiled, “Yea? Why?”
“Well you’re just staring at your club like you’re made of concrete.”
I glanced at Max who was directly across from me, and I knew he understood exactly what I was thinking about. His sad and worried eyes searched mine, giving me a sympathetic “I understand what you’re thinking” look.
I shook my head, “Just second guessing my meal choice.”
Avery’s hand rubbed my inner thigh, making me jump as she spoke, “Oh it doesn’t look that bad.”
So I took a forced bite of my sandwich although I wasn’t hungry at all.
The further and deeper we got into this situation the more I was wondering how everything was going to pan out. And I couldn’t help but wonder if there were twists and turns around every corner.
And how many obstacles were we all going to have to overcome, together.