Honeybee

Chapter 40

‘What were you thinking?’ Amanda screamed at him, as his eyes began to open.

Unknown to Jason, he had been unconscious for the past two and a half days, and Amanda and the Doc were more than worried. He could see stress lines on their faces and could tell neither of them had slept. He didn’t feel guilty for doing what he did. It had to be done. He was certain that given a few more hours the virus would have completely taken over his body, infecting his veins and ultimately, turning him into a hideous Screamer.

‘Sorry.’ He said. ‘I had no choice.’

‘What do you mean you had no choice?’ Amanda snapped. ‘Why didn’t you listen to Eric?’

He thought for a moment. He had got so used to calling him Doc, that he had momentarily forgot that his real name was Eric Stanton.

‘He would never have let me do it.’ He replied. ‘Anyway, I didn’t have much time left.

‘You looked okay to us.’ The Doc said.

‘I was putting on a brave face.’

He didn’t elaborate on that. He didn’t want to worry them any further.

‘Look, I’m okay now. Like I knew I would be. I have complete faith in you, Doc.’

‘You’re lucky it didn’t kill you. What if I had been wrong?’ The Doc said.

‘Like I said, I had no choice.’ Jason said.

‘How bad were you?’ The Doc asked.

‘Honestly…’ Jason said, ‘I felt like crap, I probably wouldn’t have lasted another hour.’

‘You are very lucky. We will have to monitor you, who knows what effect it will have. How do you feel?’

‘I feel great!’ Jason said. ‘Wide awake and ready to go.’

Springing up from the bed, Jason didn’t feel any of the aches and pains that he should have been feeling. His head was clear and his body was strong, the only thing that niggled at him was his hunger. His stomach rumbled and growled and he felt like he could eat a horse. Amanda and the Doc watched in amazement at how quick he had got up off the bed. Surely someone who had just woken up from unconsciousness couldn’t be up and about so quickly. But they went along with it, they were just happy to not have to worry about whether he would survive or not.

‘So, you feel ok?’ Amanda said.

‘Yes, I’m fine. Just hungry.’

The other two were hungry too, so they all walked the short distance to the restaurant building and the Doc rummaged through the stores for something decent to eat. This time he found tinned baked beans with pork sausages and a couple of tins of potatoes. Nothing fancy but satisfying none the less. After he had heated them up, they all sat down to eat. Jason wasted no time and tucked straight in, wolfing it down as quickly as he could.

After they had all finished, they went back to the laboratory building and checked on the Screamer. It was still unconscious but physically it still looked exactly the same. The Doc checked some results and then shook his head.

‘Nothing has changed. The cure doesn’t seem to be working.’ He said.

‘Maybe it’s a delayed effect.’ Amanda said.

‘It wasn’t with the monkeys. They were cured within twenty four hours. It’s been almost three days.’

‘It worked on me Doc.’ Jason said.

‘You weren’t fully turned.’ The Doc said. ‘We’ll keep watching him. In the meantime, I would like to take some blood samples from you.’

After taking the sample, the Doc took them away to test them while Amanda stayed with Jason. She looked at him curiously, as if studying him. There was something different about him but she couldn’t work out what it was. He was behaving differently, he even looked slightly different. His body was the same, but there was something in his eyes and the way he moved.

‘Why do you keep looking at me?’ Jason said, ‘Is something sprouting out my head?’

‘What? No.’ she laughed. ‘There just seems something different about you.’

‘Well I feel great and as long as I don’t look like one of them then I guess it’s all good.’

The Doc came rushing back into the room, ‘Quickly, you have to come now. He’s awake.’

The three of them rushed to the viewing window and could see the Screamer standing upright. Its movements were slow and subdued, and its face was calm but showed concern. It almost looked sorry for itself, like someone who had woken with a hangover after drinking too much the night before, holding off the sickness until there was no other option.

‘I’m going to speak to it.’ Jason said.

‘I don’t think you should.’ The Doc said.

‘Relax Doc. I’m not going in there with it. I’ll speak to it through the cage.’

The Doc nodded and unlocked the door. Jason entered and the Doc quickly shut the door after him. Walking slowly, Jason skirted the room, noticing that the Screamers eyes were locked on a spot on the floor.

‘So…’ Jason said, opening the conversation which he knew would be one sided. ‘How’s life as a Screamer?’

The Screamer just stared at floor.

‘It seems that you and all your friends have been having fun wreaking havoc with my country.’

No reaction.

‘We didn’t want any of this.’

Nothing.

‘We just wanted a normal, peaceful life. The way it’s always been.’

Its eyes darted up and stared hard at Jason.

‘What?’ Jason said. ‘Why the death stare?’

Its face became angry.

‘What’s wrong with a normal life?’

The Screamers mouth opened and it croaked and coughed and then it spoke.

‘NO PEACE.’ It said, its voice deep and hard, almost shouting.

Jason was amazed and shocked at the same time but he didn’t show it. He kept his face calm.

‘Why no peace?’ He enquired. ‘Isn’t that what we all want?’

‘NO PEACE.’ It said again, only this time more angrily.

‘Ok, Ok.’ Jason said, backing up. ‘So you don’t want peace. What do you want?’

Its voice box croaked again while it tried to utter the word. ‘Nature.’

‘Nature?’ Jason said.

‘NO… MORE… HUMANS.’ It lashed out sending a vine heading directly for Jason’s chest. Jason had seen it coming and had darted out of the way before he even heard the whipping sound it made. It lashed out again and Jason dodged it again. The Screamer become more and more angry, and unleashed two more vines from its body. None of them made contact with Jason, he was too fast. In a final attempt, the Screamer tried to slowly move a vine behind Jason’s back and thrust it into him. It went to plunge it into his flesh but Jason grabbed it with his hand and squeezed. The Screamer howled and tried to retract the vine but Jason had too strong a grip on it.

‘Try that again and I will kill you.’ Jason said as he threw the vine to the ground.

Jason knocked on the door and the Doc quickly opened it to let Jason out and then slammed it shut and locked it.

‘Well, that was exciting.’ Jason said. ‘What do you think that was all about?’

‘It seems they want nature to take over.’ The Doc said. ‘But what I’m more interested in… is how you moved so fast.’

‘I have no idea. You’re miracle cure is obviously having a good effect on me.’

‘I think it’s more than that.’ He said. ‘Much more.’