Catalyst (Book 1): Decay Chains (5 page)

CHAPTER SIX

DAYS UNTIL THE SUPERVIRUS GOES GLOBAL: 30:21:55

Stormy had to go slow this time, even though she didn’t want to. The nurse threatened to throw her back out into the smoky hallway if she puked up the water again. When the woman wasn’t looking, Stormy gulped down the water. But in plain sight, she took delicate sips.

The nurse’s name was Vicky, and her husband was Matt’s surgeon, Dr. Louboutin. He insisted everyone continue to use his formal title, even though the world was coming to an end. A med tech named Stan rounded out the group. He had been corralled in an elevator when the agent went off. It took him an hour to escape and stumble across the others.

Stormy owed the nurse her life. The woman had braved the hall in search of survivors, namely her, twice in the last hour. No easy task, even with soaking wet gauze over her nose and mouth.

She couldn’t bring Stormy back on her own, so she went for help. And she brought Matt back with her. Stormy gripped him tight and wouldn’t let go even though the virus had claimed him. Infected or not, Matt was alive and that was all that mattered.

It hurt to hear that there had never been a chance. Matt flatlined immediately after the agent filled his operating room. His anesthesiologist asphyxiated in under a minute and came back even faster. Next, he fed on his patient, who was a convenient meal since his insides were right there on the operating table. Dr. Louboutin dragged Vicky into the sterilization room, covered their faces with wet gauze and turned on all the water faucets. They watched in horror as the anesthesiologist went to town on Matt’s abdomen. The only time he had ever been defenseless was the one time Matt couldn’t afford to be.

The other supers were predators trapped in human bodies. Matt was the opposite. He was a super, not by nature, but by circumstance. The gentle way he held Stormy’s hand as they talked was proof enough for her that he hadn’t developed a taste for human flesh, yet.

Matt didn’t look exactly like the other supers either. His eyes weren’t brown anymore, but they weren’t rabid and hungry either. Jaundiced circles with tiny black dots in the center were there to stay. It was off-putting and Stormy’s inner actress sucked at hiding that her brain couldn’t fully distinguish him from the others yet. But when he held her close and she closed her eyes, nothing had changed at all.

The biggest adjustment was getting used to the burns that ran all along his exposed skin. He was charred up and down his arms and all over his face and neck. It looked like a fireball burst right above him, but he swore he wasn’t in pain. The only thing that seemed to bother him was being more than arm’s reach away from her.

“You have no idea how it felt to carry you in my arms again,” Matt said. “When I thought you were dead, it was like everything that wasn’t pain stopped existing.” Hard kisses crashed down on her head and she knew he would be tearing up if he still could.

She kept a stranglehold on the feelings that surged inside her because she knew they were going to expire. This couldn’t last. Time would pass and Matt would be gone or she would be dead, perhaps in a matter of hours. She needed these precious feelings to get through. To survive. To stop crying and fight her way out of this hellhole. She couldn’t bear the idea of the pain that lay in store, so she didn’t think about it. Instead, she braced herself with this moment and used it as a crutch to get to the next one.

“Do you feel different?” She asked him.

“Sort of. It’s hard to explain. I don’t feel anything. I’m not hungry or tired. The pain is gone, that’s one upside, I guess. But there are no sensations, good or bad. I keep biting my tongue because I don’t realize it’s there.”

Matt stuck his tongue out, pawed at it, and then laughed. “I really thought that stomach thing was going to take me out.” He got quiet for a moment. His eyes drifted down the devastated hall, and then refocused on her.

“How did this happen to you?” If she didn’t find out now, she probably never would. “Why aren’t you like the others?”

“My guess is that my insides being exposed caused a different reaction in me than it did everyone else. Dr. Louboutin thinks that it prolonged the usual symptoms of exposure. Any minute now I could go full-blown. That’s why he keeps trying to kill me, but I don’t blame him.”

“That’s not going to happen with me here.”

“On a serious note, I want you to do it, Stormy.”

“Do what?”

“Promise me that if I don’t off myself in time, you will. I need to know you’ll shoot me if I change.”

“Don’t talk like that.”

“I’m dead serious.”

“You’re dead all right.”

“Quit playing. Listen to me. If you don’t swear, I’ll do it right now.”

“Don’t you dare.”

“I can’t risk hurting you. Vicky already promised and I know the guys will do it. They have demonstrated that sufficiently. Now, swear that you’ll kill me if I start acting strange.”

This was too much for her to process at once. She wanted to think straight, but her mind couldn’t wrap itself around a thought long enough to decipher it. Her head swirled till she felt dizzy. She was thrilled to have Matt, but at the same time, felt like she didn’t have him at all. He was one of them, but then again he wasn’t. Part of her wanted to snatch him away and spend these last hours together before he completely turned. The rest of her was grateful others were nearby, and she hated herself for that.

If she did make it out of Reamer Towers, she would be alone. Everything caved in under that realization. Chasing that thought was premature grieving, which made her skin crawl. She fought to wake up from a nightmare that her coughing told her was real, but her mind second-guessed.

When she didn’t answer him, Matt yanked her up by her arm and pulled the gun out of the back of her jeans. He had the wicked speed thing going for him now. She didn’t mean to scream, but her pained cry led to her release. The others closed in around them, some shook in anger, others in fear. Matt put the gun to his temple and jutted his chin out.

“Back off,” Stormy said. “He’s fine.”

Stan drew nearer to them. “He doesn’t look fine.”

Matt didn’t flinch at the imposing threat, but no one besides Stormy seemed to notice.

He waved them off. “I’m fine.”

“Matt, put the gun down,” Stormy said.

He checked the safety and repositioned the weapon. “Say it.”

“Matt,” Vicky yelled.

He paid her no attention.

Tears bled over Stormy’s eyelashes. “I can’t.”

Matt squeezed the trigger harder. She fought the urge to go after her gun, because she knew better. She couldn’t say the words. She couldn’t complete a thought. Her entire body quaked and she did nothing to hide it.
Don’t. Please. Please, don’t.

“I love you,” Matt said. “Always have.”

She reached out for him. “Please.”

“Do this for me. Buy us some time.”

She didn’t want to say it, but did anyhow. “I promise.”

Matt pressed the gun against his temple so hard, the tip made a mark in his skin. “Promise what?”

“I’ll do it. I’ll shoot you myself if you go full-blown.”

Matt was cautious as he lowered the gun. He handed it back to Stormy, put his hands up, and didn’t move a muscle until Dr. Louboutin gave the word.

“Check him, darling,” Vicky said.

“What would be the point?” Dr. Louboutin asked.

“For my peace of mind. His well-being dictates mine. The Lord made us his caregivers. Blessed be His holy name.”

Dr. Louboutin looked through Vicky for a thick minute before redirecting his gaze at Matt. His entire demeanor changed like an actor with multiple parts. “State your name.”

Matt played along with an eagerness Stormy couldn’t place. Self-preservation? Her preservation?

“Matthew Trey King.”

“Your age upon death?”

“Twenty-five.”

“And are you dead or alive now?”

“Dead.”

“How long have you been dead, Matthew?”

“Two and a half hours, give or take.”

“Can you name the people in this hall?”             

“You are Dr. Louboutin. They are Vicky, Stan, and my girlfriend, Stormy.”

“And you remember Stormy from when you were alive?”

“I remember everything about her.”

“Do you feel any sensations?”

“No.”

“Are you hungry or thirsty?”

“No.”

“Nothing’s different since the last time I examined you?”

“No.”

“I think he’s fine for now,” Dr. Louboutin said. “To be on the safe side, I want everyone to give him some distance. Especially you Stormy, since you set him off.”

The doctor gestured across the room at Stan, but his eyes gave away who he was motioning about. Stormy possessed the only gun, but she didn’t know how many bullets were left or how many she would need to restore order. When she looked back up from her weapon, Stan and the doctor were gone and Vicky was staring her down.

“He doesn’t believe you,” she said. “I don’t either.”

“Why don’t you take me at my word? I said I’d do it. I will if I have to.” She wasn’t sure if she meant anything she said either. It didn’t matter because she would never have to make that choice.
For God’s sake, don’t let it come to that.

Vicky shook her head at the thought. “No, you won’t. I’ll work with you though, for all our sakes. If he starts to go and you notice it first, signal me. I’ll do it for you.”

“Deal.”

On her way out of the room, Vicky clasped her worn hand around Stormy’s and squeezed tight. “Young lovers should never be put in this situation. I pity you.”

After ten minutes, Stormy couldn’t take it anymore and hunted down Matt. He gave her space she didn’t need or want as they searched the rubble for weapons. 

“Stay out of that operating room.” Matt pointed at a beat to hell door. “That’s where we dumped the corpses. We barricaded it in case they aren’t really dead this time either.”

“I said no!” Vicky screamed as she raced down the hall and threw herself in front of the couple.

Stan and Dr. Louboutin barreled toward their target. Matt’s hands rocketed into the air above him as he backed away from Vicky. The women closed ranks in front of him.

“What the hell?” Stormy said.

“I see goodness in him,” Vicky said. “He hasn’t turned.”

“My love, stop this please,” Dr. Louboutin said.

“This again?” Matt asked. “Come on, have I tried to eat any of you?”

Stan stepped into Stormy’s space. “Move.”

Stormy got right in his face. “Back the fuck up.”

When he didn’t move, she wound her fingers around her gun. Stan stepped backward, but refused to break eye contact.
Smart man.

“I’ll kill him myself if he turns,” Vicky said.

“Don’t make promises you won’t keep, my love. God can hear you.”

“God hears you too when you plot the deaths of others.”

“He already turned,” Dr. Louboutin said. “Alive people don’t look like that, dear. You know this.”

“He’s not like the others,” Vicky said. “Listen to him. He talks.”

“He could start chewing on you at any moment. It’s a liability having him around. You take your patients too seriously.”

“Maybe you don’t take your patients seriously enough. He saved us and would do it again, even though you keep trying to cut off his head.”

“They are no longer my patients once they expire.”

Stan nudged Dr. Louboutin. “Our chance will come. This ain’t it, Doc.”

“Vicky, please get away from him,” Dr. Louboutin said. “Do it for me, dear.”

“You back up first. I cannot trust you right now.”

“I just hope that when he snaps, he eats you and not me,” Stan said.

Matt folded his arms and spoke slowly through clenched teeth. “Can you please stop talking about me like I’m not here?”

“Make the call,” Stormy said. “Either we are getting out of here as a group or we part ways now. It’s up to you, Doc.”

Dr. Louboutin backed away. Vicky mouthed, “thank you.”

“Good call, Doc,” Stormy said. “If you’re done with this nonsense, I’d like to plan our next move. I’m ready to get the hell out of here. I think we all are.”

She looked back at Matt. He gave her one of his penetrating looks, the kind he used to chase with a wink or a soft kiss. He mouthed the words,
I love you,
and a cavern broke open inside her chest. She looked away because it hurt too much to see him like this.

“I don’t think we should look for survivors anymore,” Vicky said. “It’s getting too dangerous out there.”

“You should’ve set the fire farther back,” Stan said.

“It would’ve found its way to us, no matter where I set it,” Dr. Louboutin said.