One month after the Outbreak.
The sound of Jack's steps echoed into nothingness, like a moth who flapped inside a lamp. The ground was muddy and sticky. Droplets fell from the leaves of crooked trees. They had the taste of rancid oil. Among the branches, crows croaked. The birds appeared to lack feathers and skin.
In the middle of the rainforest, towered a willow tree. But instead of wood, it was made of flesh. Its veiny fruits beat and squished blood. Coiled around the willow, was a strangler fig. Its branches snaked around the willow and choked its fruits. They pressed until they blew into red particles. At each explosion, a scream resonated. Jack recognized them. Some belonged to Marian. Others were Ariel's. Rage took over him. He grabbed the strangler fig. Clasped his hands on it and tried to tear it. It would not nudge. Jack strengthened his grip. His sight was blurred by anger. When it got clearer, his hands froze. There was no strangler fig. No birds. No fruits. Just one familiar face between his hands.
Michael.
Jack opened his eyes. Cold hands were on him. The young man looked at who woke him up.
"Jack, are you okay? You were having a nightmare," said Michael with a tremulous voice.
Jack's eyes followed Michael, as the latter sat up on his bed and held himself against the wall.
"Yeah, I guess that all the stuff that has happened made them come back," said Jack.
A slight pout appeared on Michael's face.
"It's hard to explain, but nightmares come from your mind," said Michael. "They're a part of you, that want to talk to you but don't know how to do it. Once you understand this part of you. The nightmares will disappear."
Jack leaned toward Michael. "But, what if I disliked this part of me?"
Michael puts his left hand over Jack's right one. "There's not a single part of you that deserve to be hated," said Michael with a smile.
"I forgot how smart you were." Jack chuckled.
"Smart? I flunked vet school." Michael laughed before he stood up and walked toward the door.
"Michael," Jack paused. "I missed talking with you."
Michael stopped under the doorway, his back turned to Jack.
"You shouldn't," he said with a broken tone.
"Why?" Jack asked.
"David needs me," Michael said as he left.
In the basement of the hospital, whispers crawled on its walls. Amidst the white fog of the freezer, a thing trembled. Akin to a cloud of flies in the mist. A shadow in a deep corner.
"T-tell me... tell me what to do," said a woman.
Something scratched in her lungs. It starved. It wanted her to starve too. The woman tried to hush it. She thought of her garden where she used to go with a boy. She begged him to say something. To guide her. But the thing did not leave.
It urged her for flesh.
In the chief physician's office, David wrote in a book at a fast pace.
"Mikie, honey, how was your morning?" said David, still writing.
"Oh, just the usual." Michael looked around the room as he walked toward David.
David turned up his face. "Are you sure? You seem worried."
"Well, things weren't really easy recently," Michael said as he sat on David's desk.
"I can help you with that," David said as he put his right hand on Michael's left thigh.
Michael laid on the desk with a grin. Soon followed by David, who climbed on the piece of furniture. His legs placed on each side of Michael's. David removed his blue jacket and bent his upper body on Michael. Then, he placed his hands on the wooden surface, his lover's head between his arms.
David touched Michael's lips with his. "I think that I love you more than I should," he said with a husky voice.
"Or perhaps not enough?" Michael said as he slid his hands on David's torso.
David smirked. Under his red shirt, his pectoral muscles felt smooth and solid like the hood of a car. His sapphire eyes sparkled akin to fireworks in the grey puddles that were Michael's. The hulking blond man coiled his arms around Michael as he pecked his soft neck. His lips were as warm as the sun. When their chests impacted, Michael felt ecstatic. David's heart pounded like the vibrations of an engine. Michael wanted to stay here forever, between the arms of a man that loved him. A part of him wanted to die here. Because he feared the moments where David would not be next to him.
"Promise me that you will never leave me," Michael asked.
"Till death do us part," David replied.
In her room, Ariel had her whole body laid on a pile of papers. "Speed", "Sound", "Smell" and a bunch of other words were written on them. Her eyes were closed. Same with the curtains.
A slight push hit the door. It was enough. The colors of the ceiling started to undulate. Light handprints lined above Ariel. Veils of tentacles hung. There was a woman in the room. She did not know her name anymore. She was hungry. An amorphous and translucent arm moved around. The hand lifted to the right of Lily's face. The sharp nails pushed the eyelash. The fingers squeezed under the lids. The claws pressed on the nerve. It squished. It popped.
It bled.
The door closed with a loud thud. Ariel rose her head, turned on her desk lamp, and looked around. She saw nothing that could be unseen. Her gaze flung at the entry of the room. On the floor lay a circle. In a red pool, was a white sphere. It was an eyeball.
The form of the pupil was severely curious. Its shape was in a "W".
In David's office, the two men were on the floor, naked. Their arms around each other.
"Can I ask you a question?" Michael said, while his hand caressed David's chest.
"Of course," David said with a protective smile.
"Do you think that some people deserve to have no choice at all?" asked Michael.
David moved his hand up to Michael's hair. "And why?" he asked.
"Maybe some people keep making bad choices," said Michael.
"And are you one of them?" David tilted his head a bit.
"..." Michael lost his smile. "You know, when people are angry at me, I just act as if I was just a kid. It's nice. It's very nice because people are never angry with kids. Only the bad people are..." he said.
David wrapped his arm firmer. "And isn't this who you are? My small and innocent Mikie. Scared of the big dangerous world."
The woman stumbled and crawled back to the basement. A wilted hole poured blood. She contained her screams and joy. The pain made her remember her past life. The boy and her garden. But it was there.
The snake in her garden.
Should she kill him? No. She had to give him the same pain back. An eye for an eye.
She had to take someone away from him too.
In the children's ward, Michael gave one more pat to a dog before he left. As he walked by a hallway intersection, Ariel arrived.
"Michael!" she shouted.
"Oh Ariel, you're not busy saving the world anymore?" Michael said as he turned his back at her.
Ariel puts one of her hands on his left shoulder to stop him. However, it made him shudder, so she removed it away.
"Michael, I-"
"Just ask what you need from me," Michael cut her.
"What makes you think that I need something from you?"
"Well, obviously, you're not here to sing Kumbaya My Lord," said Michael.
Ariel sighed, "Ok... Do you know anything about pupils shaped like a 'W'?"
Michael closed his eyes and exhaled. "I know nothing about that."
"And what about the infected child? Did he have a mother or-"
"Shh!" Michael hissed. "We cannot talk about this here," his voice got lower as he looked at their surroundings. "Meet me later on the roof of the hospital."
Outside of the hospital, between the barricades and the walls, Jack played baseball with a group of children. He was not aware, but someone watched him. From the roof of Eden. Among the clouds. Michael observed him.
The roof of the hospital was the beacon for every survivor of Little Brook. Made of mercury-gray concrete tiles. Arches, trees, and shrubs were dispatched around. Hence, the artificial pathways seemed to slither between the greenery. The vegetation withered, yet still alive, as the inhabitants of the hospital tried to take care of it. Michael threw breadcrumbs for the birds before Ariel arrived.
In the basement of the hospital, David checked the boiler room. The pipes would regularly squall burning smoke. The particles on the floor moved. Shook by the tremors of the machines.
"I wonder if Michael would be scared here," David said with a chuckle.
The boiler room of the hospital had its walls covered with plumbing. As if it was a greenhouse with tubes and valves for vines and leaves. A complex system of pipes controlled the place and restricted the movement. The ceiling appeared low. The paths were narrows. The air reeked of a Stygian heat. The one that comes out of the fire. The one that went into your nostrils. Into your throat. Into your eyes, to stuff them with fumy coal.
A creak alerted David. He stared at the source of the noise. It was a dark gap between the pipes.
"Someone's there?" he asked.
David peeked closer to the gap. His left eye in front of it. The steam of machinery sizzled. In the obscurity, a faint light passed. From behind the machine, a shriek exploded. It sounded like two mouths moaning together, attached to the same body. David lunged to the back. Hitting himself against a boiler. A hand pounded from under the pipes. Its nails dug into the floor and pulled its owner out. It was a woman. Her long and tentacular hair covered her face. The flowers on her dress were gray and torn. A hole slit in her neck showed her larynx. It opened each time she breathed, leaking droplets of blood out.
Her heels rose. Her fingers turned toward David. She pounced. David extended his left arm. Her head rolled backward.
He caught her.
Held by the neck. Lily was lifted, her hands on David's left wrist. She clawed it. She scratched until the skin turned red. Until the meat ripped open. She could feel his veins between her nails.
But David did not release her. He did not express any pain. Lily watched his wrist. Progressively, the tissues grew back and tendons reattached themselves. As if an invisible spider weaved on him.
The wound healed by itself.
David smirked. "Nothing like regeneration."
With his free hand, he grabbed a roll of cables. Spread it out. Before he twisted it around her neck. Lily pressed her hands against his face. He did not let go. His right hand had the other end of the cable. It wrapped the cable and tied it on an upper pipe. Then, he pulled. And pulled. David released her.
But Lily's feet did not touch the ground.
She felt a compression against her throat. She could not talk or breathe. She shook her legs. She tried to rip the cables with her nails. Her body flailed in the air. The pressure of the noose cut her whole. Her chest melted on her breastbone. The oxygen darted out of her face. It pushed her remaining eye against the lids. Her brain started to split in half.
Lily felt that every fluid in her body flowed out. Saliva dripped from her lips. The bone in her neck broke. It exploded into needles all inside her trachea. Blood joined the foam. From her mouth. Her nose. Her ears. Her eyes.
Lily could not feel her legs anymore. Then, she could not see. Fine shards of light pierced her vision. A buzzing deafened her. Darkness began to swallow her up.
"... Pharaoh will lift up your head from you and will hang you on a tree," David said.
Lily had stopped to move. Her face looked alive, but her body was cold. Her heart did not beat.
"... and the birds will eat your flesh off you."