Afflicted

"No one could hate you babe." Lacey threw a pillow at me and I caught it.

"This does leave us with a problem though," I said.

"What?" she asked.

"Now Demi's gunna want to meet him."

Lacey groaned in agreement and we both laughed as we lay back on the bed.

Chapter Ten

Kaitlyn

Lacey woke me by kicking me in the night. I mumbled some kind of curse at her as I sat up but her only response was a soft snore. I picked up my cellphone to check the time and saw a message from my mom.

Mom 23:46 - The queue for the cable cars was crazy so we decided to spend another night in the city. I'll be back in the morning no matter what and I promise to stock the cupboards. Be nice to your brother x x

It was half five and I wasn't sure that I'd be able to get back to sleep. With a sigh, I stood up and headed to the bathroom. I poured a cup of water into the toilet to flush it when I'd finished and washed my hands with the bottled water w

e'd collected from the park the day before. There was a message written on the label in large print saying 'emergency water for drinking or food preparation only'. What did they expect us to do though? Go without washing until they turned the mains back on?

When I returned to my room, I found Lacey spread out like a starfish across my bed. I rolled my eyes as I headed to my windowsill and hopped up to sit in my favourite spot. I pulled the curtains back so that I could peer out.

It was still dark outside but the sky held a faint blue tone that hinted of the dawn to come.

The street lights were still on and the orange glow emitted by the closest one lit up a portion of the street below.

As I sat watching the dawn approach, a large dog wandered into view. At first I presumed that someone was out giving it an early morning walk but the dog sat down and didn't move for several minutes.

No owner appeared and the big dog slowly stood again and started sniffing at the entrance to our front yard. It moved down the path and paused by the big tree which stood sentinel in front of our house to relieve itself.

The dog circled the tree with its nose to the ground before suddenly stopping and looking up. For several long seconds, the dog seemed to stare straight at me before giving up and wandering back out onto the street.

I considered heading out to see if it had a collar so that I could locate its owner but something about the dog made me pause. Although it's movements were slow and unhurried, something about them seemed almost... purposeful. For some reason I got the impression that the dog knew exactly what it was doing and wouldn't appreciate being interrupted.

As soon as the thought occurred to me I shook it off as ridiculous. I stood up to head out and find the dog but something else caught my attention outside.

A man came into view along the street. He had pale skin and dark red hair which was messed up and pointing in all directions. He seemed agitated and I shrank away from the window nervously, not wanting him to see me.

He didn't linger on the street but the way he was moving, staring at all of the houses as if waiting for someone to appear, made me uneasy.

I pulled my cellphone out again and moved onto the hall as I dialled nine one one. I couldn't remember the helpline number that they'd shown on the news but my gut told me that I'd just seen someone who had been contaminated by the tainted water. The phone rang once before connecting me.

"Nine one one, what is the nature of your emergency?" a man asked.

"I think I've just seen one of those violent people they're talking about on the news," I said, careful to keep my voice low so as not to wake Lacey or Reese.

"Okay ma'am, are you in a secure place? Is the individual trying to attack you or anyone else as we speak?" he asked.

"No, I saw him from my window and he didn't see me. I'm not sure he was one of those people but they said on the news it was better to be safe than sorry-"

"Okay ma'am, the Monitor is going to take over from here. The system has tracked your cellphone and will use local CCTV to track the suspect and call reinforcements if necessary. Please stay indoors and try not to panic. You will receive a text alert when the situation has been resolved."

"Oh, okay tha-

The line went dead and I stared at my cellphone in surprise. I had full bars so there was no doubt that the operator had hung up on me. I'd never needed to call nine one one before but I'd always thought that if I did I'd find it more reassuring.

I crept back into my bedroom and pulled the curtain aside to peek out again.