Honeybee

Chapter 38

Jason could hear voices in the depths of his mind and tried as hard as he could to focus on them. It sounded like a male and female voice, very distant, but in heated discussion. Then he recognised the voices, it was Amanda and The Doc. He couldn’t understand what they were saying, the voices were echoey and muffled and his head whirled, but he suspected it was not good. Still suffering from the effects of the attack, his body was mostly numb, but he could feel a throbbing in his chest. He was in a place between unconscious and conscious, light headed but becoming aware of his surroundings.

Trying to shout out to the voices, he managed a quiet grunt.

‘He’s awake!’ Amanda said, running over to the bed he was strapped to.

‘Easy.’ The Doc said, ‘He needs to sleep this off. The effects of the tranquiliser will take a few more hours to wear off.’

The words went through Jason’s mind and he tried to work out how he had been tranquilised. And then it all came back to him. Injecting the Screamer. The attack. The vine through the chest.

His heart pounded as adrenaline pumped through his body, pushing away the numbness, and then he came awake. Quick. Fast. His muscles were pumped and ready to fight but restricted by the straps holding him to the bed. His eyes opened, quickly darting around the room and then they locked onto Amanda’s face.

‘Easy.’ She said. ‘It’s okay, you’re safe.’

Breathing heavily, he relaxed. His chest throbbed below his shoulder and he began to cough hard, and then managed to speak.

‘What happened?’

‘You were attacked.’ Amanda said.

‘I remember.’ Jason said, coughing and then wincing at the pain in his chest. ‘How’s my friend Myles?’

Amanda and the Doc exchanged looks, wondering if Jason was suffering some sort of brain disorder. They had heard stories of people who had fallen into a coma and then woken up with a different memory or sometimes speaking a different language.

‘Who?’ Amanda finally said.

‘Myles.’ Jason said, ‘The monkey.’

‘You named the monkey?’ Amanda asked.

‘Yeah, you were there when I named him.’ Jason said.

Amanda thought back to any possible time that he could have named the monkey but she couldn’t recollect anything. Shrugging her shoulders, she assumed he had dreamt the whole thing and went along with it.

‘Myles is fine. He’s playing with the other monkeys again.’

Resting his head back down onto the pillow, Jason smiled, happy that his friend was safe and sound after the ordeal they had been through. And then his face turned serious.

‘Do we have him? The Screamer?’ He said, his voice hard.

‘Yes. He is safely locked away.’ She said. ‘And awake.’

‘I need to see him.’ Jason said as he tried to get up.

‘No, no, no.’ The Doc said. ‘You mustn’t move until we can figure all of this out.’

‘Figure what out?’ Jason asked, suspiciously.

‘Well…’ The Doc said, ‘Somehow, to a small degree, you became infected.’

‘What?’ Jason said, his eyes opening wide.

‘Yes, although you are immune to the airborne virus, it seems the Screamer injected something into you with the vine.’

‘So…What? You’re saying I’m going to turn into one of them?’

‘No. Well not yet, at least. It seems your body is fighting the virus. For how long, I don’t know.’ The Doc replied.

‘So eventually I could turn into a Screamer.’ Jason said.

‘Maybe. I’m just guessing at the moment.’ The Doc said to soften the blow.

‘What about the cure?’ Jason said.

‘It’s not been tested on humans. At the moment, it’s a last resort.’

‘Just do it Doc. Test it on me.’

‘Right now, you need to rest.’ He said, skirting around Jason’s last comment.

‘Right now,’ Jason said, ‘I need to get up and kick that Screamers ass. Have you injected him?’

‘No. He woke up as soon as we got back here. We can’t get near him.’ Amanda said.

Jason looked down at his body, noticing that the veins in his arms had a greenish tint to them and he had small ringspot rashes all over his body. His chest was stitched up and the wound had scabbed over and looked to be healing well. More like a wound that had been healing for a week than one that had just happened a few hours ago.

‘Get these straps off me.’ Jason demanded.

‘You’ve got to rest.’ The Doc said.

‘I feel fine.’ He said, his voice hard. ‘I need to visit our guest.’

The Doc shrugged his shoulders and reluctantly removed the straps holding Jason down to the bed. Sitting up, Jason felt light headed as the blood rushed from his head down into his body. He turned and dropped his legs over the side of the bed and stood up slowly. His legs felt weak but he forced himself to walk, first one step and then another. The stiffness eased and he made it to the door without any assistance.

Reaching for the door handle, he turned to the others. ‘Let’s go.’