Disease
Chapter 17: He Has Changed

The next day the house is in chaos. I may just be stuck in my room but I can hear Logan along with the others outside talking as if they are all freaking out. I tried to peek outside to have an idea what was going on and I saw Jaden and Olivia running from inside of the house towards the garage. Erica and Elora were just there at the deck.

I opened the window to hear them talk but I couldn’t understand anything even if I tried to read their lips. They both looked like they were in a daze, unbelieving what was happening right now.

“Elora! Erica!” I shouted as both their heads turned up towards my direction, “What is happening?”

Just as they were about to reply I saw movement on my right and there was Natasha who has the room beside me also looking from her window.

“Yeah. What is happening? I heard you guys running around the place like there is a fire.”

The two eyed each other as if they were contemplating whether or not to say things to us. I mean I understand their hesitation. Everyone is already worried about their lives and their friends and family we can’t contact and we can’t even be there for each other to comfort one another since we are isolated but if we are all in this together they have to tell us things.

“It’s Theo.” Elora finally answered, biting her lower lip as if preventing the inevitable, “H-He... He finally changed.”

My eyes widened as my heart beat skyrocketed. So, what the others found out about yesterday were true. This wasn’t just some ordinary sickness, people get bitten and they turn into mindless sick cannibals just like the man we killed yesterday. Just like the people that Aspen and the others had to run over yesterday. And here I am acting all petty, ignoring him all because he did something he needed to do in order to survive the attack. I could’ve done the same if I was in his position and yet I let my judgments get the best of me.

“What happened? Is everyone okay?” Natasha shouted back just as I heard a masculine voice and I returned my gaze back outside and I saw Sebastian also peeking from his window.

“Everyone’s okay. He wasn’t able to attack anybody since he was chained.” Elora replied.

“Vince?”

Erica shook her head, “He doesn’t look good. He looks shaken up. He almost got bitten earlier because he fell asleep watching him.”

“Where is he?” Sebastian asked.

“In the lake. He said he needed to think so we just let him after all he won’t meet anybody there.”

“But isn’t that dangerous? There might be more of them out there.”

“Logan is with him.” my best friend said, looking all worried with sadness in her eyes.

We didn’t talk much after that. Looks like everyone was surprised with the information that they just found out so they just quietly closed their windows just like what I did and tried to entertain ourselves with what we have in our room.

A few moments later our breakfast was delivered to us but sadly I didn’t catch Aspen this time so I wasn’t able to talk to him.

Almost a week has finally passed and I’ve already read all the books that I have brought with me. I didn’t know what else to do during the rest of the day so Natasha and I just found ourselves chatting from our window. Sometimes Sebastian joins us. At first, we wanted to exchange books but then we realized it might’ve infected our stuff so we just disregarded the idea. At night I just cried myself to sleep praying for my family and the rest of the survivors for safety and then in the morning I just found myself waking from a nightmare. Now Logan is in front of my door explaining that we could finally go out tomorrow morning.

“How is everybody? Are they okay?” I asked him as he nodded.

“There were no signs of infection amongst the rest of all that have interacted with the people outside. Looks like the sickness can only be passed down through biting.”

“T-Theo?”

Logan bit his lower lip, “He is still chained downstairs.”

“Is Vince okay?”

He shook his head, “Theo tried to murder him not only once but twice the next following days since he changed, he was so afraid. He said that ‘creature’ wasn’t Theo because he wouldn’t do that to him; they are best friends. Theo was no longer Theo. He said he lost him because of the high fever and that the guy downstairs wasn’t him anymore.”

It pained me to see Vince heartbroken right now with the loss of his friend. He and I might not be close but I have a best friend of my own and if ever that happened to Elora I wouldn’t know what I would do. He is like a sister to me. And she is the only one I got now that I am not sure if my parents are still alive right now.

“Where is he?”

Logan sighed, “He’s been drinking a lot but he is fine. We relocated him to one of the rooms.”

“What happens now? Are you able to get a signal, maybe replace something online that can cure him?”

“No. Still no service.”

“Have you talked to Aspen already? He works for a pharmaceutical company, right? Maybe he knows something.”

“Tried to when Theo changed the other day. He said he doesn’t know anything that much since he is in the business department rather than the research part. And...”

“And?”

“I don’t know if I should tell you this. I didn’t tell anybody else besides Elora and Aspen since I am worried that they’d freak out and do something to Theo but I know you Myla and I can trust you.”

“What is it?”

“He hasn’t been eating nor drinking for days.” he said in a whisper, “But he has all this energy to try to attack us when we tried to leave him something to eat. It’s almost like the only thing that he is interested in is human flesh.”

I froze, not believing what he said. It’s like he is saying that we are stuck in a science fiction novel and we can’t escape. But this is our reality now. We’ll never know what will happen next.

“Did you try giving him something else?” I asked, shaking the thoughts in my head.

“Yes. We tried to give him raw meat that Jaden and I trapped from the forest but no, nothing.”

“What are your other observations?”

“His appearance is the same as the others. But I did notice something strange in his behavior. It’s as if he can’t see me but he can hear me.”

“Are you sure?”

He nodded, “Yeah. When I entered the room, he was attracted by the sound of the door but when I tried to move around his direction of sight was somewhere else until I put down his plate to the ground and he’d react to the sound again.”

“How about his other senses?”

“I don’t know, I’m not sure.” as he said that I heard another creaking sound and there I saw Aspen with his used plate and utensils. I was surprised to see him because these past few days despite being just a few feet from each other’s room I hadn’t had a glimpse of him. I feel guilty with the way I judged him before and I wanted to apologize even if I didn’t say anything. The idea that I thought of him badly was wrong. But I didn’t have a chance either.

“Okay, thanks Logan.”

“No problem.”

He walked to Aspen’s room taking his dishes as he muttered a thank you and made his way downstairs. Aspen and I locked eyes for a few seconds as he acknowledged me nodding before he closed the door but before he shut it I called his name.

“Yes?”

“I-I... I want to check up on you. I haven’t seen you in days. Are you okay?”

“I’m fine.”

“Ohh... O-Okay.”

He looked at me as if he was waiting for me to say more but a few seconds passed and I couldn’t replace the right words. He attempted to close the door again but I shook the feeling inside of me and finally told him what I wanted to say.

“Sorry for judging you for what you did the other day.”

He furrowed his brow as if confused with what I was saying. Of course, he wouldn’t know that I was already persecuting him in my mind despite not acting nor saying anything about it.

“Nothing. Good night.” I just closed the door and busied myself with arranging my things despite it being already in order because I don’t have anything to do.