Plague (Gone 4)
The door rattled on its hinges. Jennifer B opened the door and stood with her machete at the ready. Jennifer L was right behind her, pipe clenched in nervous hand.
Jennifer H had always had a fear of the dark so she had a very small Sammy sun in one corner of the room, hovering beneath what had once been a hanging light fixture. The light was green and eerie, more creepy than illuminating. It showed Jennifer H. She wore a flower-print nightgown.
She was standing up in her bed. She clutched her throat with one hand and held her stomach with the other.
She looked like she’d seen death.
“Jen, you okay?” Jennifer L asked.
Jennifer H’s eyes bulged. She stared at her two roommates.
Her stomach convulsed. Her chest heaved. She squeezed her own throat like she was trying to choke herself. Her long, blond hair was wet, sweat-matted, plastered to her face and neck.
The cough was shockingly loud.
Kkkrrraaafff!
Jennifer B felt the explosion of air. And something wet slapped her face.
She reached her free hand and peeled a small shred of something wet from her cheek. She looked at it, unable to make sense of it. It looked like a piece of raw meat. It felt like chicken skin.
Kkkrrraaafff!
The power of the cough threw Jennifer back against the wall.
“Oh, God!” she moaned. “Oh . . .”
Kkkrrraaafff!
And this time Jennifer B saw it. Pieces of something wet and raw had flown from Jennifer H’s mouth. She was coughing up parts of her insides.
KKKRRRAAAAFFF!
Jennifer H’s entire body convulsed, twisted backward into a crazy C. She crashed into the windowpane. It shattered.
KKKRRRAAAAFFF!
The next spasm threw Jennifer H into the wall headfirst. There was a sickening crunch.
The other two stared at her in horror. She wasn’t moving.
“Jen?” Jennifer B called timidly. “Jen? Jen? Are you okay?” Jennifer L asked.
They crept closer, now holding hands, weapons still at the ready.
Jennifer H did not answer. Her neck was twisted at a comic angle. Her eyes were open and staring. Seeing nothing. Liquid, black in the eerie light, ran from her mouth and ears.
The two Jennifers fell back. Jennifer B sank to her knees. Her strength was gone. She let the machete fall from her hand.
“I . . . ,” she said, but had no second word. She tried to stand but couldn’t.
“We have to get help,” Jennifer L said. But she too had sunk to her knees.
Jennifer L tried to stand but sat down again. Jennifer B crawled back to her room. She wanted to help Jennifer L, she did. But she couldn’t even help herself.
Jennifer B struggled to push herself up and into her bed. Need help, she thought. Hospital. Lana.
Some still-functioning part of her delirious mind understood that the best she could hope to accomplish for now was to reach the sanctuary of her bed.