Ah I shouldn’t be mad at him. I’m just cranky. Maybe if this gut ache subsides, we can go enjoy ourselves.
The next page was ominous.
Jamie brought back a newspaper when he came back from his walk with the dog this morning. What the heck is going on in the world? Crops failing, rioting all over... And this HAPS thing. Jamie wants to take me to the hospital. I don’t want to go anywhere. I don’t have the heart to tell him, but my stomach-ache is getting a lot worse.
The next page was a combination. Sam had written the first part and Jamie the second. Sam’s part was about forbidding Jamie to go outside anymore as he almost got himself mugged on that morning’s walk. Jamie’s portion was a listing of the different medicines he’d tried out on Sam.
Just then Dean popped his head into the office.
“So?”
Sophie shook her head.
“Nothing.” She flipped another page. More medicine trials. “Looks like Jamie tried all kinds of cures on Sam, but nothing worked...”
The next page confirmed the worst. Sophie read it out loud for Dean.
Sam. My loving wife of so many years. You died this morning. You died twice.
I’m sorry. I shot you.
I left you down there. I’m afraid to go down and see you like that. Maybe I will be brave enough to face you later.
Sophie put the diary down and blinked a few tears out of her eyes.
“Dean... I don’t want to turn into one of those things!” She broke down and wept.
Dean started to argue, then stopped. His watched his girlfriend crying with her hands covering her face. Dean’s usually cheerful face grew troubled.
He took a step closer, so he stood behind her and rested his hand on Sophie’s head.
“I’m sorry baby. I don’t know what to do...”
Sensing the weakness in her boyfriend, Sophie stopped crying. She turned in her seat and looked over her shoulder at Dean. She smiled weakly but sweetly and got up from the office chair.
They hugged. They stood like that, with their eyes closed, for a long time. It wasn’t until they felt Nuggets leaning into their legs that they broke their hug with a small laugh.
Instinctively, they both dropped to their knees and petted the dog. Nuggets loved the attention and let them know by licking their faces and generally slobbering all over them.
After several minutes, they stopped.
Sophie and Dean looked at each other.
Tears started forming in Sophie’s eyes again. “Dean, what are we going to do?”
“I really don’t know baby.” Dean said as he shook his head. “I was hoping we could find the cure here. But if Jamie couldn’t find it...”
Nuggets lay down and elicited a small whine. His tail wagged and made a ‘slap, slap, slap’ noise on the hardwood floor.
“Maybe we should just take the stuff that Jamie took...” Sophie’s eyes never left the dog as she said it.
Chapter Twenty-six
October 29, 8:00 a.m.
All was quiet at 423 River Oaks Road. The house stood near the back of a large plot. This is the house of Rafael and Amelia Munoz. Visitors walking through the front door would encounter an impressive wide-open foyer, flanked by stairs that lead to the second story. That second story had barely been used. It was reserved for the kids that Rafael and Amelia were planning to have.
Had planned to have...
Walk straight in and there are an open plan kitchen and living room. These rooms were dominated by stainless steel appliances, marble counter tops, and a massive flat screen tv. Turn left and there is a small hallway with a door. This leads to the master bedroom.
Amelia is standing on the other side of that door. Deadly still.
Behind her stands a bed, the sheets all awry and covered in blood.
That’s where the assault began.
A trail of blood led to the bathroom. There, lying half inside that bathroom, the man that had been the love of her life. Amelia did not remember him. Did not remember the marriage proposal at the family reunion, and all the tears of joy of that moment. She did not know the doting husband, the supportive mate, the gentle soul. She was not aware that he never, not once, tried to fight back.
The nanobots inside her brain have networked together to control her body. They use Amelia’s body as a tool to complete their programming, which is to find other entities, and to destroy any entity that is not transmitting.
Amelia lifted her arm slightly. Her hand touched the doorknob. The hive of nanobots controlling her do not notice that her pinky is hanging uselessly off the side of her hand, and that her ring finger is badly broken with the finger bone sticking through the skin.
She lifted her hand again. This time she hooked her thumb over the doorknob. She stood like that for several long moments. Then, her hand closed on the knob, the bone scratching the door slightly. Once again, Amelia’s body freezes. Until, slowly, her hand twisted. The doorknob turned. She pulled her hand towards herself, and the door opened.
She released the doorknob, stepped aside and shoved through the open door.
Chapter Twenty-seven
Shelley
October 29, 8:10 AM
Shelley awoke with a start. It was just getting light out, the sun not quite risen enough to brighten the room. Shelley lay in her cot and slowly started to stir when there was a ‘tap’ noise from Claire’s cot. This was the noise that had originally woken Shelley. She turned over in her cot and was about to speak when she saw Claire’s face.
Claire’s eyes were wide open, and she held a finger to her mouth to signal for silence. She then extended her arm and pointed up at the far window. Shelley’s eyes followed Claire’s finger. She
