Chapter 25: Endemic: Part 3

Endemic: Part 3

“Ah... ah...”

“Hey, man, c-calm down. If you keep getting so agitated, they'll never leave.”

“S-Sorry.”

Inside a small vaccination clinic, a small group was taking cover behind furniture and utensils.

Each one carried a 'weapon' in their hand: a hypodermic needle, a pen, a silver tray, an otoscope... Everyone had something to use to defend themselves.

They were unaware of what they were up against, especially the 'newcomers' who, unlike Jevo and Earlene, had absolutely no knowledge of what was going on. Therefore, they began the conversation with it in hushed murmurs.

“They're zombies...”

“Zombies? You're crazy. Zombies are slow and stupid. T-Those things move like a soul carried by the devil.”

“Demons? I-I-Is it the end of the world?

“Some of them are wearing patient clothes, I highly doubt they’re demons... Unless they're possessed?”

“I swear one of them jumped two meters on an old man and bit him...”

“And they bit Tommy. He's definitely contaminated.”

“I told you I'm fine! They just scratched me. No bites.”

“Shut up, Tommy.”

Ten people had ended up in this place: six young people, two adults, and two of their children, minors.

Most of the lights had gone out in an instant. Visibility was lost inside the Saint Ivonne clinic, enough for chaos to break out.

They didn't know where they came from, how or when they entered the clinic. What they did know was that they were surrounded by an unknown number of 'Dreamers'.

"What time is it?" Earlene asked, squatting down.

The question lacked direction, so one of the boys answered by looking at the thin, transparent watch on his wrist.

“It'll be 11 pm soon. We've been here for hours...”

“I'm hungry...”

“...”

“I heard an epidemic was breaking out in some villages.”

“I knew it. They're zombies.”

“Man, we'll starve to death if we stay here. Any of you have any ideas for a way out?”

Jevo raised his hand and looked at them all uneasily.

“I hope I'm not mistaken, but they seem a bit clumsy when moving, and they don't have very good eyesight. Or they shouldn't.”

“How do you know? asked the father.

“We... found them a few days ago. We ran away from them immediately, and I noticed it at the time. Some of them were chasing us with their eyes closed.”

“...Really?”

“Yes, I remember perfectly. Their eyes were closed when we came into the daylight.”

"Dad... I'm tired..."

The man's son intervened with a whisper in his arms.

It was surprising how calmly children took a situation they didn't understand.

"There's no way we could sleep in a place like this. Please wait a little while."

"Mhm..."

He was right. They were hungry, sleepy, and the only thing that kept them alert was the latent danger waiting outside the office where they were hiding. Even so, they decided to wait a little longer.

The hours passed, and through the small window in the door, it was still possible to see the dark silhouettes of Dreamers, motionless or walking slowly back and forth in random directions.

The boy's mother seemed to be the most sensitive to the situation. Silently, she slowly closed her eyes.

She had fainted.

Her husband didn't notice until some time later, after calling her repeatedly, thinking she was asleep.

“S-She's not waking up...”

The rest of the group lost sleep upon hearing this. One of the young men, Tommy, quickly approached the fainting woman and checked her pulse and breathing. This boy had taken a first aid course years ago, though he hardly remembered it in a stressful moment like that.

“U-Uh... She fainted.”

“Is that true? Shit... I forgot she didn't even have lunch because of her doctor's appointment.”

“If that's why, she should be fine soon.”

Using a pamphlet as a fan, Tommy ventilated the woman who, with the help of her husband, was being laid on a stretcher inside the office.

“See what's happening?” one of the boys whispered. “We can't be locked up here forever… Wait...”

As they were getting the woman settled, Tommy exposed part of his arm under his sleeve. Intermittent lines of a deep reddish-purple color could be seen there.

"His arm... Look at his arm!"

The young man quickly hid his right shoulder, but it was too late.

"Y-Yes, you were bitten."

"It's not that deep," he defended himself uselessly. "I-I assure you, I feel perfectly fine."

The others looked at each other.

“You were bitten, and you didn't tell us...”

“You said it was just a scratch!”

“W-What are we going to do with him? If he turns into one of them in here...”

“...Man, you gotta get out.”

With extreme seriousness, the tallest and most heavily built young man spoke such words with a devoid of any feeling that would question his sanity. This boy's name was Malcolm, and he didn't look like a passive young man at all.

"Think about it for a damn moment," he said, commanding the others' attention with a wave of his hand. "No one knows we're here, and we can't live off of just candies for kids. Even if we hold out for a few days, we don't know if any of those things will walk through that door.”

"Actually, they're all gone," Freiner, a boy next to him, commented. "The candies... They're all gone."

"That doesn't matter, man. Someone has to go out, draw attention to those things so we can all get out."

"Do you understand what you're saying...?"

Jevo intervened in the discussion. He clearly knew what the reckless Malcolm was referring to.

"Are you suggesting we sacrifice any of us?”

"...Not just 'any of us.' Tommy. Specifically Tommy," he pointed at him. "He's beyond saving. He was bitten, understand that."

Everyone remained silent. Hearts were beginning to race, because deep down, they knew they had no other options. They didn't know when the Dreamers would enter the office, and without food or water, they couldn't last more than two days before ending up the same way as the fainted woman, or never waking up.

"M-Me? Why me? I haven't done anything wrong. I even helped that woman."

"...”

"C-Come on! We're classmates, aren't we? R-Right?"

"...You're talking too loud."

"D-Don't tell me to shut up!"

At such a point, frustration drove Tommy to cry incessantly. Because of this, he didn't notice Malcolm sneaking up behind him and grabbing him under his arms, holding him up to the back of his neck.

"W-W-What are you doing? Guh!”

"You idiot! I-If you keep screaming, they'll kill us all! You saw what happened to those who couldn't get into this office in time!" The father held his son, covering his eyes and ears to prevent him from witnessing Malcolm's desperate act of dragging his own friend to the door.

The latter raised his feet to prevent him from being pulled out.

"Hey, help me!" Malcolm turned around.

"Y-Yes!"

One of his classmates nervously approached to grab Tommy by the legs, and a second removed the door lock.

"N-No! Please!"

In a joint effort, they threw Tommy outside and immediately blocked the door again.

Breathing heavily, the group approached the door window, curious to know what was happening. They even forgot their initial plan to take advantage of the distraction.

Falling to the floor in the dark hallway, the panicked boy quickly stepped back and covered his mouth.

A Dreamer was right in front of him.

"Gh…!"

2 meters tall, the thin individual approached in an instant, stopping just inches away.

He was within reach of the group peering through the window. They were finally seeing a Dreamer up close, and for Jevo and Earlene, they were finally seeing one with his eyes open with such clarity.

He looked like… an ordinary person. The only visible physical differences compared to them were his torn office attire and his eyes; like an intense eclipse that combined the intense red of his sclera and the total black of his pupils.

A Dreamer behind them had dropped a vase on a piece of furniture a few feet away, causing the one in front of Tommy to become distracted for a moment. In the blink of an eye, he ran toward the broken glass and froze again.

"Now move..." Malcolm whispered to himself from inside the office.

He didn't need to say it twice, even though it wasn't directed at him. Tommy was getting back up with extreme caution, his legs shaking, never moving from the wall he was sliding against.

5, 10, 20... It was impossible to count the figures scattered along the hallways, and in the one he was walking through, there were at least four more presences.

"He's going to make it," Earlene said with hope in her eyes, watching the boy, along with the others, from the window.

"Don't get your hopes up. If he gets out, he won't call anyone to rescue us," Jevo commented.

Malcolm looked at him for a moment, then looked back outside.

"Maybe not at us, but at the others. This guy didn't take a first aid course because he had plenty of free time."

"So he would do it just because... of guilt?"

"Exactly, man."

“...”

Questioning Malcolm's dubious friendship with his peers, everyone turned their eyes to Tommy.

He walked through the long hallway with extreme slowness and caution, though he couldn't stop his body from trembling.

In the hallway were two Dreamers. The first was lying face up on the floor, breathing heavily, and the second was a small boy, roughly 10 years old at first glance. The latter was crouching down and holding the first's hand.

Tommy was able to slip past both of them. From his position, he could clearly see the streetlights at his feet.

“N-Nice.”

And with a final effort, he ran toward the sliding door, joy forming in his face.

His excitement caused him to ignore the sound his footsteps made.

The others, who were still waiting inside in the security of the office, were perplexed.

When Tommy realized what was happening, his face was already slammed against the glass of the sliding door. The blow was so strong that it immediately made him lose consciousness, and he fell to the hallway floor.

No bites. No scratches… Just blows over and over again until his head became a shapeless pool of blood, bones, and flesh.

It was the first Dreamer he encountered upon leaving the office.

He grabbed the boy’s disfigured head and held him against the wall, in exactly the same position he had first seen him. In the same way, the Dreamer froze, staring at him.

Inside the office, panic spread, and no one was supposed to scream.

Malcolm turned away from the window, covering his mouth with sweat pouring down his forehead.

“F-Fuck...”

Jevo and Earlene were probably the only spectators who didn't feel guilty about what had happened by not intervening in his expulsion, but it didn't change the shocking and horrifying scene they witnessed.

They gave up.

There was no way out.

-Ø-

The soft creaking of plastic filled the air.

Among the cold, damp alleys, a strange silence and stillness were audible only to mice in the garbage.

The silence was cloudy and intermittent. In reality, she was the only one who perceived it that way.

A murky view that fixed itself high above, on the roof.

This was the astonishing altitude at which her body experienced a free fall.

Orange curls unfurled from the ground, but quickly plummeted back down.

It was her arm that was keeping her from standing and making her falter.

Her mind remained lost in the twilight. Seeing her arm, with a section of it in an unusual position and marked by a purple tinge, her first impression was nothing more than contemplation.

A light shone on her behind and caught her attention.

She heard a voice.

It was a sturdy figure quickly getting out of a large black car.

She heard a voice.

This time, a scream coming from above. A figure jumping from one building to another, unsuccessfully, falling on multiple power lines until it became entangled in them.

"S-Shit! What stupid thing have you done?!"

"Gah... ah... Shit..."

The sturdy figure was helping untangle the second one, who was clutching his chest with pained expressions.

"Move it, here they come!"

When Rousset realized it, she'd been dragged into the large car as well, a black car waiting outside the walkway.

From the window, her gaze shifted to the outside for the last time.

She saw a considerable number of silhouettes lined up on the edges of the building's roof. One by one, they threw themselves against the ground, causing the loud crunching of bones and flesh.

"W-W-What's going on?! Ah!"

"..."

Still silent, she didn't understand what was happening around her. Her head had probably also been injured at some point.

By the time she regained her senses, the quaint settlements were nowhere to be seen; they were no longer in that gigantic amusement park, but in a simple housing development.

"This is it, right?!"

"..."

"Come on, Chase, tell me! There's no time!"

"Yes... Yes... Ivonne... The clinic"

Two more silhouettes were staring at him, stupefied.

Dawn was rising on the horizon, a sign that the day was just about to begin, but Rousset Onslow couldn't feel more exhausted.

-Ø-

“(...Is it daytime?)”

Her blue eyes peered through her blond hair.

Earlene Gresham, along with Jevo, was one of the only people who could fall asleep.

The others lay sprawled on the floor or against the walls of the doctor's office, trying not to sleep.

They couldn't, and they shouldn't. The horrific scene they had seen hours before left them in a state of perpetual alert. For them, it was the first time they had witnessed a life vanish before their eyes, and with such brutality.

The young woman calmly approached the door.

Perhaps it was just exhaustion.

Carefully, she stood on tiptoe and peered through the window.

"What are you doing?" Jevo asked, quickly approaching behind her.

"Someone's is coming..."

"...”

He could also hear footsteps coming from outside. They were faint, and at times shuffled, as if someone were slipping away.

Indeed, that was the case. Through the window, they both saw a trio of people crossing the halls with exaggerated caution.

Most of the Dreamers in the vicinity had positioned themselves away from their door, closer to the exit. If they were cautious, they might be able to explore some of the back areas of the clinic safely.

If it weren't for a single Dreamer who positioned himself between them and that trio.

"It's Sopa and Edher..."

"Yes (And the man from last time)."

The man following them turned out to be the same one who attacked the nurse hours earlier. Though his rage had been replaced by a silent fear on his face.

"I think they noticed too," Earlene murmured.

"What do you mean?"

"They can't see during the day, right?" The young blonde turned to see her friend and returned her gaze to the window.

It was just as Jevo had suspected. The Dreamers had poor vision, and the fact that they had moved away from their door was likely a result of the light shining through the hallway windows.

Earlene made all sorts of gestures with her hands in an attempt to be seen by the trio.

Sopa caught a glimpse of them, but, trembling, quickly turned back and disappeared into the hallways.

"Didn't they see us...?"

"Can we leave now?" a voice chimed in from behind the duo.

It was the man with his son and wife. The latter had managed to regain consciousness after a while, but her skin looked pale.

The rest of the young men also approached, except for Malcolm, who remained in a corner of the office.

"...It might be possible to cross now, maybe," Jevo clarified.

"M-Maybe? Is it possible or not?" the man demanded.

"We can give it a try."

"The hell are you saying..."

"Step back a bit. I'll open the door. If we leave one by one..."

The man was annoyed by the boy's hesitation, but that didn't stop Jevo from doing what he had planned.

The entire group took their distance and prepared.

However, the creaking of the door was louder than they expected.

"Uuuuuuhm..."

"Gh..."

When they realized it, the door had been violently pushed open by a Dreamer from the hallway; fat and tall, it entered the office with inexplicable speed and stood right in the middle of everyone.

Jevo barely had enough time to move aside.

In this small doctor's office, the only safe place they had, everyone froze at the sight of the individual in front of them.

“...”

Despite that, Jevo made an effort to tear his gaze away from him and turn his eyes towards outside.

It had been a stroke of fate that the noise had only attracted one Dreamer.

“(In that... In that room she is...)” he thought.

“...Uhm uuuuuhm.”

The Dreamer continued his delirium amid incoherent murmurs, his eyes closed, while his hand extended as if holding a balloon in front.

The strange behavior nearly exhausted the group mind's tolerance, but a signal from Jevo kept them from losing control.

After all, dawn had arrived, the door was open, and there was only that single Dreamer nearby.

Careful to avoid making any kind of noise, Jevo slipped through the door and made it out into the main hall.

He had succeeded, and, at least for the moment, he hadn't been attacked.

Earlene followed closely behind him.

This inspired the other stragglers. They swallowed, exchanged glances, and one by one took the same route as the boy to leave the office unnoticed.

Malcolm, still in the corner of the room, watched them wordlessly. His unspoken thoughts were clearly, "You're crazy if you think no one will see you."

But none of this stopped Jevo. He continued silently through the room until he reached one of the other patient’s rooms.

Earlene followed him, but didn't know why he had wandered off. Upon entering the bright room, she realized.

Among the four stretchers, one wasn't empty. Asleep in her white dress was Cadie Saggiatore.

Jevo paused for a moment to think, and then approached her to try to wake her. Considering the discomfort she'd been experiencing hours earlier, she'd probably been anesthetized in some way.

They were acting very differently than usual; as if they were other people, as if they knew exactly what to do, and at the same time, that fact didn't bother them anymore.

It was then that he took a pair of scissors from the table next to him and began cutting the lady's skirt down the middle.

Of course, this wasn't something an innocent girl like Earlene would interpret well. She quickly placed a hand on her companion's shoulder and glared at him.

But Jevo's expression didn't change. His serious face remained the same.

His real intention was to carry her on his back, and a long dress like hers would get in the way.

He took the lady in white by the arms and gestured for Earlene to help him put her on.

"Why is she so light?" Jevo wondered, placing her on his back.

They both left the room and went back to the main hall. Most of the group members had left the office. Some were heading for the exit, while others were waiting for them.

Only two people remained in the office: one of the young men from the group, Freiner, and Malcolm.

“...”

The young man was tired of being on Malcolm's side, who clearly didn't want to be the only one in there alone.

Both he and Malcolm were Tommy's best friends, or so they thought.

Leaving Malcolm behind, the boy left the office without first giving him the mid-finger treatment as a gesture of disgust and hatred towards him.

Malcolm's pulse immediately quickened with anger.

"F-Fuck you! Sons of bitches! All of you!"

His curses echoed through the Saint Ivonne Clinic. Such a stupid act was exactly what they were trying to avoid.

"AAAAAAHH! Ugh!"

His screams were muffled.

From the main hall, it was the only and last thing the rest of the group heard from him on that room.

And in exchange, the shrill screams of the Dreamers echoed in every corner of the clinic.

To be continued…