Disease

Elora’s POV

The only sound that I hear is the ringing in my ear as I watched the chaos unfold in front of me. Everything slows down as I watched my boyfriend tried to reload his gun and the rest of our friends run up the stairs while the others shoot at those that tried to attack us. My vision suddenly spins as I clutched my stomach where it ached. I closed my eyes for a minute and tried to fight it off as the motions and sound slowly return to normal.

“Shoot them in the head!” Natasha shouted, “The head. Shoot them in the head. It’s their weakness.”

And the shooting continues as the rest of the group did what Natasha told trying to change their tactics. Slowly I see the sickos each fall down one by one until finally they didn’t get back up this time when they were shot. I watched as Logan shoot the last one until I feel some sort of contraction in my chest and I had to move to the side and vomit. Olivia who was just beside me immediately came into aid. Caressing my back as she cooed me.

“What happened?” I heard Logan’s voice said as a shuffling sounded followed.

“Don’t.” it was Erica’s voice, “You came close contact with them. You and the others might be infected. Even if we know that the disease can only be passed down through bite we still have to be cautious.”

“I understand. But i-is she alright?” Logan’s voice sounded pained.

“She’s fine. She just vomited. Might be because of the tension with the incident earlier.”

“Okay.” even if I am not looking I know that Logan nodded before combing his hair with his fingers. He always does that when he is nervous, “Okay, group meeting. Those that came close contact will have to wear a suit from the garage and help get rid of the dead bodies before they infect the others further. The rest of you take a bath to make sure you guys aren’t contaminated. We’ll meet again here in the deck to talk about our next steps. Natasha, Erica you take the first watch. Vince come with me.”

Everyone did as was told as Olivia helped me get back to Logan and I’s room. I just took a bath feeling a bit better than earlier but it didn’t get rid of the squeezy feeling that I have in my chest.

I just took a pill and drank it before going back down where I can see the others already waiting for the rest of us. I joined the others as we went to the other side of the deck the ones that was in close contact on the other side creating distance. The scent of burning flesh wafted the air. I can see Logan and Vince downstairs just finishing up with their work. When they saw us they immediately went up but made a distance staying in the stairs. Logan and I locked eyes as he smiled at me.

“Are you okay?” he mouted as I nodded returning the gesture.

“Yeah.”

He then moved his attention to the rest of the group, “So, we all now know the importance of the fence that we are creating. Starting now we will double the working hours. The rest of the group will be training self-defense not only during break time but now it would be an assigned task while the others take care of the fence. It will be a rotation now. Even those that are assigned with taking care of the food and place have to help to finish this quickly. Same goes with the guards. The only rest that we’ll be having now is sleep. I know it is cruel but it’s just for a few days. Once the fences are done we don’t have to worry about that much anymore. Do you guys understand?”

Everyone muttered their agreement. I can see in their eyes how tired they already are without even starting with their tasks yet but we have to do this in order to survive. We can’t complain if our life is at stake. Logan is only doing what is best for us.

“Okay. Those that are in close contact will camp out in this deck for 24 hours to make sure that we won’t turn while the rest of you may take a break in the inside. Tomorrow we’ll start with our routine so get as much rest as needed. Sebastian and Jaden, we’ll be rotating in guarding us tonight.”

We all nodded before scurrying away to do our task. I stayed behind just standing there as Logan and I locked eyes.

“Will you be okay? It’s dangerous to stay outside. We don’t know if they’d come back.”

He smiled at me reaching for me but clenched his hands instead knowing that we aren’t allowed to come close, “We will be. The sickos might be attracted to the sound. We were working earlier so they must’ve heard. We would stay quiet so we’re safe for now.”

“Okay. But promise me that you won’t act like a hero when you need to. You made me so nervous earlier. Next time run the other way.”

Logan chuckled, “I can’t promise that. You know I won’t abandon someone when they need to.”

“I know that’s why I am worried.”

“Don’t be. I’ll be alright. I promised you that. Tomorrow we’d be together again before you even know it.”

“I’ll miss sleeping beside you.”

He smiled wiggling his brows as I giggled. He can make the most innocent things so dirty. I almost pushed him teasingly but I remembered that we can’t make physical contact.

“Get back inside now Elora. You can continue working again tomorrow. Aspen and Myla might be back any time now.”

I nodded, “Okay. Take care.”

I blow him a kiss which he pretended to catch it kissing his fist as I giggled before making my way inside swaying my hips purposely to tease him as I heard him groan.

For the rest of the afternoon we just got busy bringing some of the supplies and camping gear outside for the others. When it was almost dark we started preparing dinner however as I was busy cutting some of the ingredients while peering outside of the window to watch the driveway looking for any signs of Aspen and Myla since they still haven’t arrived yet.

“Olivia.” I called her, “What time is it?”

“It’s 5:47, why?”

“Aspen and Myla should be coming back now. Where are they?”

“Did they bring anything so that we could communicate with them?”

“I don’t think so.”

“Where could they be then? Do you think---”

I shook my head making her stop talking. I don’t want to think about what might happen to them. They might’ve just taken a longer route to get there to avoid the sickos. They’ll be fine.

“We’ll just continue with our tasks. I’m sure that they’d arrive soon.”

But a few hours later and we’ve finally finished eating and cleaning up the dishes of the rest of the group outside we still haven’t heard from Myla and Aspen.

“Logan.” I called him from the window. He was just talking with Vince starring at the dark forest. When he heard me call he immediately turned his attention to me.

“When will they back? There is still no sign of them. Are they okay?”

“I don’t know Elora but I know Aspen he would take care of Myla. They’ll be fine.”

“But it’s already late. They should be back right now.”

“We can’t do anything Elora but just hope that they’ll be okay.”

I chewed on my lip nodding despite the heavy feeling in my chest telling me there is something wrong.

I just left to go upstairs to prepare for the night when I bumped into Nikita who was also going to her room. She gave me a tight lip smile before approaching me.

“Elora. Do you still happen to have a tampon or pads? I run out already and earlier at the supplies room I noticed that they don’t have anything like that stocked there.”

I would be surprised if there were. Most of the children in Logan’s family are males so they didn’t have any use for it.

“I think I still have some with me.” I replied gesturing for her to follow me inside Logan and I’s bedroom. She just stayed there as I went inside the rest room to get her some of my pads but I stopped seeing that the pack is still untouched. Shouldn’t it be used by now? I’m pretty sure that I am due to have my period.

I just shook the thought in the back of my head thinking that it might be because of the stress that’s why I still haven’t had mine yet and took it and gave it to Nikita.

“Thank you.”

“No problem. But right now, we have to think of an alternative for this. We don’t know how this thing will last and we might run out of supplies.”

“We still have a lot of tissue paper in the storage. We can use that.”

I nodded, “Yes. But that would be wasteful. We still need tissue paper in other things. I think I read something about a cloth in one of the required reading materials back in history class maybe we can find a way and make some of those.”

“I’ll inform the others maybe they have an idea how.”

“Okay, thanks Nikita.”

I was about to bid her goodnight when I heard commotion from the outside. My eyes immediately shoot wide open as Nikita did the same. We quickly went downstairs bumping into Olivia who was also on her way out.

“What is happening?” I asked.

“We don’t know but we’re going to check it out.”

We all run up to the windows to take a peak with what is happening outside. I just hope that it won’t be something serious. We have enough of trouble for one day already.