Blood Type Infected (Book 4): Betrayal of Hope
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Also available from Matthew Marchon
After Failure
Blood Type : Infected (Book One) – No Future For Man
Blood Type : Infected (Book Two) – Fallen To The Flame
Blood Type : Infected (Book Three) – Death Becomes Us
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A Wish Upon A Christmas Village
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The White Mountains You Haven’t Seen: Waterfall Edition (an off-trail hiking guide)
In The Desperation Of Darkness (poetry anthology)
FREE Spirit Trapped (poetry anthology)
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Copyright © 2019 by Matthew Marchon
All rights reserved, including the right of reproduction in whole or in part in any form without written permission, except in the case of brief quotations embodied in critical articles and reviews.
This book is a work of fiction. Any references to historical events, real people, or real locales are used fictitiously. Other names, characters, places, and incidents are the product of the author’s imagination, and any resemblance to actual events or locales or persons, living or dead, is entirely coincidental.
Designed by Matthew Marchon
The text of this book was set in Georgia
Contents
CHAPTER 1
CHAPTER 2
CHAPTER 3
CHAPTER 4
CHAPTER 5
CHAPTER 6
CHAPTER 7
CHAPTER 8
CHAPTER 9
CHAPTER 10
CHAPTER 11
CHAPTER 12
CHAPTER 13
CHAPTER 14
CHAPTER 15
CHAPTER 16
CHAPTER 17
CHAPTER 18
CHAPTER 19
CHAPTER 20
CHAPTER 21
CHAPTER 22
CHAPTER 23
CHAPTER 24
CHAPTER 25
CHAPTER 26
CHAPTER 27
CHAPTER 28
CHAPTER 29
CHAPTER 30
CHAPTER 31
CHAPTER 32
CHAPTER 33
CHAPTER 34
CHAPTER 35
CHAPTER 36
CHAPTER 1
“Noah.” The desperation in Felecia’s voice makes my heart sink into the pit of my stomach. “No, no, no,” she cries, choking on her words, kicking the infected child off her before falling into my arms.
What do I do? What the hell am I supposed to do? I can’t move. I’m stuck here. Trapped in a nightmare I can’t blink away. We were supposed to make it. Even if no one else did, it was supposed to be the two of us.
We should be in a car heading east right now. Just me and her, because that’s all we need. None of this should have happened. What am I supposed to do to change it? How can I fix this? Fix her? There has to be a way to make this right. Why can’t I think of anything?
If you’re up there, you twisted son of a bitch, do something! How could you let this happen? After everything! After everyone we’ve saved. You can’t let her go like this. What the fuck is wrong with you? Do something!
The little boy I thought I’d saved regains his footing and lunges for us. Do I let him get me?
It’s over. I can’t do this without Felecia. I don’t know what that says about me and I don’t give a shit. She’s the reason I fight. The only reason. If the end result isn’t us, together, I’m sorry, I am, I just don’t want any part of that future.
“Felecia, please, you can’t leave me. I can’t do this. We were… it was… you and me… you and me against the world.”
I’m trying to speak but it’s not working. I don’t want to do this anymore. I can’t, even if I wanted to, my heart isn’t beating. It stopped. I can feel it frozen in my chest, entombed in ice. It won’t beat. I can’t breathe. My lungs…
There’s nothing. It’s all darkness. I think my soul just left my body.
I swing the sword anyway. I don’t know which one, Felecia’s, Doug’s, the one Shane left in Doug’s leg, it doesn’t matter. I can’t even see what I’m swinging at, it’s all black. It must be out of instinct because I didn’t mean to. I don’t want to fight back.
The halfhearted blow to his neck isn’t even enough to sever it. I can feel the blade meet resistance halfway through and… I just don’t have the strength for this. I don’t care enough to finish the job. It doesn’t matter anymore.
He crashes onto the rocks but bounces back to his feet before he’s even completely landed. You win. Just do what you have to do. I don’t care anymore.
“Fucking do it!”
He snarls, spewing blood from the incision in his neck. It doesn’t reach his mouth, his throat is no longer connected. Blood dribbles down his chest as he hunches forward, poised to strike as if I actually give a damn. When did he turn? Was he already infected when I sent him to the boat? Was it his sister that infected him?
His head swivels awkwardly as he lunges again. The angle he’s striking from, I’d have to switch hands to swing at him and… I just don’t care. Let’s get this over with already. This is his revenge, for beheading his baby sister.
What the hell am I doing?
I stick my leg out, refusing to let go of Felecia. Why am I fighting? I don’t want to. I just want him to end it already. Put me out of my misery and let this be over. Let him kill you so you can die holding Felecia in your arms and be done with it. Be done with it all.
He crashes into my foot, stomach first. The impact sends him crashing onto a row of small boulders that border the shore. The brutal landing leaves him motionless.
That’s his head bobbing in the water. His neck was severed to the point that all it took was a fall to decapitate him the rest of the way.
That wasn’t the sweet little boy his father died trying to save. It’s not. Just like that wasn’t his sister. And in a matter of minutes, this won’t be my Felecia. And not long after that, I won’t be Noah Britton. When she turns, when she becomes what we’ve been fighting for the past four days, she can have me. I won’t fight it.
Behind me, Doug starts to stir. Only, that’s not Doug either. I’m not spending my last few minutes with Felecia fighting you assholes. I’m not. You can all go to hell. I’ll meet you in the flames and we can continue it there, but not here! Not now. This is our time. I’m spending every last second with her. After that, you can do whatever you please.
I scoop Felecia up in my arms and run into the darkness. I just want to be alone with her. I want to hold her before she turns, kiss those perfect lips one more time, brush the beautiful blond hairs from her face and tell her how much I love her.
She’ll tell me to run before it’s too late, but in her heart she’ll understand, because if our roles were reversed, she wouldn’t leave me either. She didn’t. She stuck by me, even when we thought I was infected back in the science lab when this all began. She didn’t leave me. She never did. And neither will I.
Branches scrape my face as I make my way to the nearest house. Lights. There must be generators or powerlines that connect to the mainland. How long until the power is gone for good? How long does everything continue to run with no one to run it? I don’t get to find out. And, I’m okay with that. This world is screwed anyway, I don’t even know what possessed us to want to stay in it.
Which cabin did Scott take Neil into? There’s four right here and they all have lights on. Did this attack just happen? Were people safe on the island until tonight? They must have thought the water would protect them. Just like America thought the infected wouldn’t cross the Mississippi River. Who the hell expects zombies to swim? Or form giant human bridges that can span large bodies of water?
I kick open the door to the first cabin I come to. I call it a cabin because its log exterior makes it look like a cozy cottage but my god, this place is luxury glamping at its finest. Well, other than all the bloody handprints on the half open door, but I’m sure the groundskeeper would have had that cleaned up in no time.
I lay Felecia down on the couch and kneel beside her, stroking the wet hair from her face. She’s shivering, I don’t know if it’s because of her saturated clothes or if it’s the infection spreading through her veins. I would give absolutely anything for this not to be happening right now. Anything.
I don’t want to say goodbye. We just… time. We just need more time. Together. More than the minute or two before she turns. A minute’s not enough. A lifetime isn’t. If I’d known this was going to happen, I would have spent every second of every day with her, if she’d let me.
We’re seventeen. The world before us. We had so much life left. It was okay to be mad at her back then, we had all the time in the world to fix it. To make things right. To end up together. Junior prom, she would have shown up in her mermaid dress from the eighth grade dance and professed her love for me. Tonight. It would be happening right now.
And just like that, it’s gone. Every decision we’ve made, every path we’ve taken, they mean nothing. They all lead here. To this one moment. Nothing we did could have prevented this. All we’ve done is delay destiny.
She wraps her arms around me and holds on tight, trying to be strong but whimpers escape her trembling body with every breath.
“I don’t wanna die Noah. I’m not ready. I want to be with you. I want us. I’ve loved you since that day in gym. I want to go to the dance with you,” she cries, talking to the thirteen year old me, whose heart she broke three years ago. “I was so excited. I’d never been so excited in my whole life. My mom and sisters teased me so much, they wanted me to go with Neil. But they didn’t know you Noah. I know you. I’ve always loved you. I don’t want to leave. Please don’t leave me.”
“Never. I will never leave you Felecia. God, I love you. I won’t let you go. I’m right here. I’ll always be right here.”
“I should have told you back then. But I thought I had time,” she coughs, choking on her words, still barely able to talk after taking an oar to the stomach. “I am so thirsty. I can’t swallow. Water? It burns. Noah, it hurts so much. I don’t wanna go.”
I know what this means. That thirst, it comes before you... She’s about to become one of them. They all get thirsty before they turn. I think after they die, it’s blood they crave, they just want to drink. I know this is stupid but I want her to die peacefully, in my arms, and if making her comfortable means getting her something to drink, then I’m going to get it.
There’s a vase on the coffee table beside us. Fake flowers, really? You have a chandelier in a log cabin, you’re telling me you couldn’t spring for real roses? There’s no time to go rummaging through the kitchen, I’m not letting go. I’m holding her until the end, I don’t care how thirsty she is.
Fish tank. There’s a giant fish tank behind the couch. Wait, I take that back, it’s not behind the couch, it’s built into the freakin’ wall. This must be some foreign drug cartel’s cabin, where they go when they want to relax and stop murdering the guys that skimped on their last shipment.
Well, whatever, I’m sure it won’t taste the best but honestly, it’s not like it matters.
Without letting go of Felecia, still shivering in my arms, I dip the vase into the fish tank that might actually be bigger than my bedroom.
I hold the glass to her perfect lips, pouring it into her mouth, anything to make her feel better. That dry clicking in her throat, like she’s trying to swallow her own saliva but can’t, that sound is breaking my heart. Her body’s last cries of desperation.
“Ugh.” She tries to spit out the water after swallowing half the vase in two gulps, but it only trickles down between our faces. “Saltwater.”
“Shit, I’m sorry, I didn’t even think about that.” I wipe the string of drool from her chin while pulling the vase away.
“It’s okay.” She puts her lips to the edge and motions for me to pour more into her mouth. “I’m so thirsty, I don’t even care. It hurts so much. Where he bit me. Like my skin is on fire. I think I’m on fire Noah. Can you put it out? Please? It burns.”
I can’t let her die in pain. Not like this, with a chunk taken out of her arm. His little teeth must not have been powerful enough, the mangled flap of bloody skin is still attached. Is that bone? Did he bite all the way down to her bone? Oh god, no wonder she’s in so much pain.
I pull the vase away when she’s clearly chugged every last ounce of water. But she keeps trying to slurp up more, an alcoholic sucking the last drops of beer from the lip around the top of the can. I have to yank it away from her in order to fill it again. How is she even drinking this much? It’s from a saltwater aquarium. How much ocean water can a person consume? She drank a vase full, it’s a small vase, but still.
“Put out the fire.” She burps, or pukes, I don’t even know. Water bubbles from her mouth like her throat is a fountain. She bumps the vase away from her face, eyeing it like she’s going to steal it from me at any second and drink it all.
I don’t think she realizes how much this is going to hurt. I understand, the bite burns like hell but pouring saltwater on it is only going to make it hurt more. I don’t know how much good it’ll do but I douse the wound anyway.
There’s a tooth in her arm.
That wasn’t bone I was seeing beneath her shredded flesh. The kid must have had a loose tooth, it’s still lodged in her tricep.
I pluck it out as she writhes in pain, pressing her body as tightly against mine as humanly possible. The skin around the bite mark is burning up. The infection must be taking over her bloodstream. Steam rises from the blood oozing out of the wound. We should have just left it. I don’t want her to die in pain.
Her cries have gone silent. I know she’s still with me, her hand is gripping my back so hard that her fingers are going to break through my skin at any second. And I’m not going to stop her.
I pull her closer and press my lips against hers, hoping to make her forget how much it hurts. Foolishly hoping my kiss can take away the pain, like hers does for me.
“You gotta get away from me,” she says, finally pushing me back. “I don’t wanna hurt you. I can’t.”
“I’m not leaving you Felecia. I’ll be here with you until the end. We’ll go together.”
“Noah no. Please, run,” she cries through raspy breaths. “It’s happening. I’m so sorry. I love you.”
“I love you too Felecia Harmon.”
She melts into me, shaking from the pain.
Her breathing becomes erratic. Her eyes roll back. She’s turning. There’s nothing I can do to save her. All I can do is sit here and hold her until it’s over because I’m not letting her go. She will not die alone.
I’m not going to stop her. When she turns, I’m letting her bite me. By now, she knows it too. As long as her face is the last thing I see, I’ll be okay.
Her body convulses one final time. Her head tilts back and although her lips move, no sound comes out. She’s telling me to run. But I don’t. I sit here and hold her, waiting. It’s finally over.
Her neck arches.
She jerks forward.
I close my eyes.
CHAPTER 2
Her bite doesn’t hurt. It feels… incredible, like I’ve waited my entire life for this. I don’t feel her teeth, only her lips. Her lips pressed against mine. This must be heaven.
I go along with it and kiss back. She tastes like a saltlick saturated in blood but I don’t care. I’m kissing Felecia freakin’ Harmon. If this is what it’s like being dead then I don’t know why I waited so long. Her tongue rubs against mine. She’s eating my mouth.
This is the way to go. Making out with the hottest girl in school. This was going to happen tonight, no matter what. She would have made sure of that. This is Felecia so she would have popped a mint first and probably skipped the bloody ocean cocktail, but this is the girl I’ve been wanting to kiss since our first encounter on the bleachers three years ago.
She’s just as beautiful today as she was then, as she was at the dance, as she would have been tonight in her gown. None of the dirt or blood or saltwater bile makes a bit of difference because she’s more than physically beautiful, it’s the very essence of her being. Her pouty lips are devouring mine, I swear it’s her soul that’s kissing me.
Her teeth bite down on my lower lip, holding me in place as she catches her breath. They dig into me a bit harder as she brings me closer and kisses me again. Her arms wrap around me tighter, keeping me in place while her tongue grinds against mine.
We should be leaving the dancefloor together, holding hands. Like we should have back then. Like we should be tonight. I wouldn’t want to hurt Caylee but she would have told me to go, just like she did a couple nights ago when she gave us her blessing. I hope she makes it. I hope she finds some way out of this. Marty will look after her. And Norwood, he’ll get them to safety. He has to. Someone has to survive. This can’t all have been in vain. This is the end of our story, but it doesn’t have to be the end of theirs.
Felecia’s tongue leaves my mouth. Her lips pull away from mine. Her kisses stop.
This is it. Her warm breath caresses my face in an exhaustive gasp for air. I can’t open my eyes. I don’t want to see. This is how I want to leave. Picturing her, remembering her kiss, for that moment when everything was perfect. I don’t want to see this new version of her.