Water pooled on the floor, and ran in under the door from the hallway. Kevin shifted his weight on the mattress and his knee sank into it, splashing water into the air. He looked down, and was surprised to see that the mattress was full of liquid now.
The bed melted beneath them. Kevin and Lori fell into the water, still clinging to each other. Their kiss remained unbroken. They slipped beneath the surface, and it wasn’t until Kevin bumped against the table that housed his makeshift garden, that he opened his eyes and broke the embrace. His head broke the surface and he glanced around the hotel room. It was filling quickly. Small waves lapped at the furniture and walls. The couch floated by, and bumped into the door. Kevin stared up at his garden, and was amazed to see that the plants were liquefying.
He stood up. Water streamed from his shoulders and chest. Lori reached for him, but he gently brushed her aside. She floated away, dog-paddling across the room. Kevin strode closer to the garden table, studying the plants intently. As he watched, they broke down completely, reverting back to pure water.
“What the hell?”
The soil in the garden had turned to mud. Before they’d fled Baltimore, Kevin had buried his best friend’s head in the garden. He would have buried all of him there, but all that had been left of Jimmy was his head. Now, Jimmy’s bare skull poked through the mud. More and more of it was revealed as the mud receded. Kevin stared at the skull. The skull stared back. Then, water began gushing from its empty eye-sockets and from the gap between its yellow teeth.
Kevin realized that he was now treading water. Resisting the urge to hold his breath, he exhaled, and slipped beneath the surface again. He glanced around for Lori, but she was gone. Kevin surged through the water, desperately seeking her. When her arms closed around him from behind, Kevin relaxed. His body went limp in her embrace. He turned to greet her and his hands trailed down her hips.
He paused.
Lori’s legs were gone, replaced by the lower half of a fish.
He tried to pull away from her, but she clutched him tighter. Lori opened her mouth, revealing fangs. Then her head darted forward.
Gasping, Kevin opened his eyes. At first, he didn’t know where he was. He was lying in the darkness on a hard mattress, and somebody had taken his clothes off. Kevin thought perhaps this was still part of the dream. But then, as his heart-rate returned to normal and his chest stopped heaving, it all came back to him—escaping from Teddy’s house, their journey to Bald Knob, the worms, and finally, the forest ranger tower. This last part was disjointed. Dim. He barely remembered arriving, let alone how they’d gotten inside. He glanced around the dim room, trying to get his bearings, and wondered where Sarah was.
The last remnants of the dream faded, and Kevin was suddenly overwhelmed with a deep sense of sadness and loss. It had seemed so real—Lori, her kisses, the feel of her body against his.
His hand began to itch.
Kevin scratched it, casually glancing down as he did.
And then he screamed.
* **
Sarah started back down the staircase, gripping the cold handrail tightly and moving slowly, mindful of slipping on the wet metal. She’d been hesitant to come outside again so soon after finally getting dry, but Kevin was obviously sicker than she’d thought, and getting the electricity on would only improve their situation. She was fairly certain that the small power station would be beyond her capabilities, but she was hopeful that the utility shed or one of the other shacks might hold a generator.
She reached the bottom and turned on the flashlight that she’d found in a toolbox while exploring upstairs. The batteries were weak. The dim beam did little to dispel the darkness and gloom. The rain fell too thick, and swirling clouds of mist blanketed everything. Sarah started forward, moving slowly, listening for the slightest indication that the worms were present.
The power station was—as she had feared—far to complex for her technical capabilities. Her hopes completely died when she peeked inside the utility shed. It didn’t have a generator, but she did note the rest of its contents—a lawn tractor, wagon, cans of gasoline and kerosene, bits of lumber, rolls of fencing, metal posts, and various tools, including several hefty axes, shovels, and pick-axes.
Disappointed, she started back up the stairs. Thunder boomed overhead again, though distant this time. There was no lightening—or if there was, she couldn’t see it through the perpetual haze. When the thunder ended, the night seemed to quiet down again. Just the constant drone of the rain, and her plodding footsteps on the stairs. And then, surprisingly, an owl, somewhere in the night. It scared her so badly that she almost dropped the flashlight. Sarah couldn’t remember the last time she’d heard an owl. Just the whippoorwills back at Teddy’s house.
Steadying herself after the brief fright, Sarah started up the stairs again.
And then she heard a scream.
She didn’t recognize it at first, nor could she tell where it was coming from. It was only when a second scream followed it moments later that Sarah realized it was Kevin.
She ran up the stairs, heedless of the slippery conditions, or the unwanted attention her sudden noise might attract. She burst through the station’s door, rain streaming from her clothes, and glanced around the circular room in panic.
Kevin knelt on the floor, clad only in a pair of boxer shorts. In one hand, he clenched a long, metal file; he must have grabbed it from one of the toolboxes. He was using the tool to scrape away the flesh on the back of his other hand. His lips were drawn back in a terrible grimace, and he moaned through clenched teeth. Sweat dripped from his bare skin. Blood welled up from the ruined flesh as he dashed the file back and forth.
Kevin looked up and their eyes met in mid-shriek.
“What are you doing?” Sarah ran towards him.
“Get the fuck back,” he warned. “Stay over there!”
“Kevin, what is it? What’s wrong?”
“It’s just like back in Baltimore. Remember? We saw people infected with it?”
“With what? What are you talking about?”
“That white fuzz, Sarah. It’s growing on my hand…”
CHAPTER 9
Clenching his teeth, Kevin furiously worked the file back and forth, scraping more skin from his hand. Shreds of flesh peeled away and blood streamed from the wound, running down his wrist and forearm and splattering onto the floor in quarter-sized drops. He didn’t scream or wail. The only sound he made was a determined groan.
“Kevin, stop it!”
Shrugging out of her wet coat and tossing it onto the floor, Sarah ran towards him.
“Get back,” he warned. “Just stay over there.”
Sarah stopped in her tracks. The file slipped from Kevin’s fingers and clattered onto the floor. With his good hand, he gripped the wrist of his wounded hand and squeezed. The skin turned white.
“Look at your hand, Kevin. You’re sick. Not thinking straight. You—”
“I know I’m sick. That’s the fucking point, Sarah. I’ve got that white shit, just like the people back in Baltimore. You remember what happened to them? It grew over their entire bodies—turned them into drones. They ended up going down to the water and taking root.”
“But—”
“I’m not going out like that. It’s not going to happen to me. Not after everything that’s happened. I mean, what’s the fucking point? Jimmy is dead. Lori. Salty and Mindy and Juan. Taz and Ducky and all the others. Probably
