Fever

"Against escapes?"

"Oh no," the doctor said. "No real point. Even if a patient somehow got out, there's millions more like them by now. A drop in the ocean."

"Then why-?"

"Some of the staff are frightened of becoming infected. That's nearly impossible with all the precautions we have in place, but even so, the security detail has instructions to...deal with...anyone who asks them to."

Before she could react the doctor ushered the secretary into the next room. The secretary had a queasy feeling in the pit of her stomach. She almost hesitated before heading into the dark place beyond the secure door. If the doctor noticed, he did not say anything.

***

Parvaneh slept most of the next day, and Evangeline did her best to look after her. Only when she nearly fainted did it occur to her that she should eat, and as an afterthought she made sure Parvaneh ate as well, though the girl could barely keep anything down. Finally, around sundown, Parvaneh awoke, and although her fever had not broken (if anything, it had grown worse) she seemed to think it had. Her face practically glowed with sweat and she was visibly trembling, but she showered and dressed, and when she was done she seemed to be waiting for something, although she could not say what. But Evangeline knew.

The call came around eleven. Seth's voice was faint: "Hey," he said. "I think...I think I should come over."

"Yes, you should."

"I've got some other guys with me."

"Good. Bring them."

"Is there, I mean, can you, with everyone..." It sounded mostly like gibberish when he talked, but Evangeline grasped his meaning.

"Parvaneh is here too," she said. "Bring as many as you can."

So they came, Seth and two others. Evangeline did not recognize them, but they had the sweats. Evangeline, Parvaneh, Seth, and the two strangers all went to Evangeline's bedroom. At her indication, the men undressed. Evangeline felt the fire burning right down the center of her body. Oh God, it was time. The fever inside of her was like an engine that powered her as long as it kept burning and burning. She stretched out on the bed, naked, sweating, moaning. Her back arched and her naked, glistening breasts pushed up into one of the men (she still did not know their names) sitting over her, kneading her breasts in his hands while another squatted between her legs, with his cock penetrating her again and again. It felt so hard that she imagined it must be painful for him, a swollen, constantly rigid thing. She couldn't imagine how he dealt with it.

How long had they been at it? It seemed like everyone had just arrived, but they must have been going for some time already, because the other stranger was lying exhausted nearby, seemingly spent for the time being. Evangeline had a vague shadow-memory of him grunting and exerting himself over here, although how long ago it had been she couldn't say. She leaned back and took his flaccid cock in one hand, lowering it to her mouth. He did not resist, although there was a look of cornered desperation on his face. She swallowed him in one go, sliding him to the back of her mouth and then applying all the pressure she could manage, milking him, swirling her hot tongue around and around. It twitched.

The room smelled like sweat. It was so hot that there were waves in the air. Outside it was freezing and the windows were limned with the fog of perspiration. There was not enough room on the bed, so Parvaneh and Seth were on the floor. Evangeline could just see them out of the corner of her eye. Seth had that look on his face, the one he used to get just for her. Parvaneh's gasping breaths were barely audible; she was moaning in a long constant warble. Seth's hands were all over her body. A memory tickled Evangeline's mind, a remembered conversation from months ago: "Are you seeing Seth behind my back?"

"Are you insane? I don't even date men."

"You used to."

"Not anymore."

"You had better not..."

What did it mean? She didn't know. Then the words were obliterated by the immediacy of the first strange man shaking and crying out as he emptied into her. It was warm on her insides, but she barely noticed. She kicked him out of the way with a bare foot and he slumped against the wall, panting, and then immediately began rubbing his cock in one hand, working to get it ready again. The second stranger was finally responding to her and he felt the full length of him in her mouth, ready to go. She popped him free and sat up, turning around and getting up on all fours, letting him take her from behind while she arched her head around, her mouth seeking the other man's cock.

Exhaustion was a distant memory now. Their bodies were automatic, movements calculated and executed by some other force, machines of flesh and blood and sweat and sex. When Evangeline's eyes were closed she saw a red-orange color and it throbbed, throbbed like the cocks of the men on either side of her, throbbed like the feeling between her legs. It was the fire, and they were feeding it.

Another moan, another shuddering body, another spasm inside of her. She pulled him out and then climbed off the bed, falling to the floor because she couldn't stand. Seth and Parvaneh were lying side by side, wasting time in inaction, so Evangeline picked Parvenah up and transferred her to the bed, where both men converged on her despite their pained expressions. Then she rolled Seth over with her bare foot and climbed on top of him. He reached out to touch her face, the way a blind man would. She rubbed herself against his cock, working at it until it began to harden again. It was slow going, but she was dedicated.

She pinned his wrists to the floor, leaning on him with all the force she could muster. It was something he used to like, back when they were dating, though for some reason he seemed embarrassed about it and would never discuss it outside the heat of the moment. It seemed to work now, though, as he twisted underneath her in that particular way, and eventually she felt him go hard again; it wasn't his most enthusiastic display, but considering how long they'd been going it bordered on heroic. She slid down on him, fitting him inside, and then she rocked back and forth, still holding him down. The way he moved made her think of a butterfly in the killing jar, twitching and jerking but still, somehow, already resigned to what was happening even before it began.

The two nameless men trapped Parvaneh between them, almost limp as they held her and took turns. Seth seemed to be losing steam as well, but he was still at least in good enough condition for her to finish. So she kept going, pumping up and down until her legs were ready to collapse but not willing to stop or even slow until the moment finally came...and when it did she fell back and all she could see was the hot, red-orange center of the fire inside of her, growing and spreading, a wildfire that would spread over the entire world, over everyone and everything and turn it all into spectacular, all-consuming heat.

Dimly, she was aware of more people in the room, strange people with guns and gasmasks who were taking the others away, hauling their limp, unconscious bodies along. But even when they put hands on her she was not really paying attention to them. She'd felt the shift, deep down inside of her. It had started. When they picked her up, she let blessed sleep finally take her. She dreamed of fire.

***

Two patients were here, both young women, both sedated. The secretary of defense almost recoiled from them, but seeing the casual way the doctor approached their bedsides she chastised herself and went in for a closer look. "What's so important about them?"

"We caught them with Younger and two others. They'd locked themselves in an apartment and had been going at it for probably days. Nearly killed themselves from dehydration."

"Why locked in? I thought you said this thing wants to spread."

"It does, but that's not what was going on here. Our guess is that all five were already infected before they even showed up."

One of the women stirred in her sleep, murmuring something the secretary of defense could not hear. The secretary of defense frowned. Aquestion had formed in her mind, but she was afraid she already knew the answer:

"Why would the infected have sex with other infected?"

The doctor wiped his forehead with his sleeve. "To reproduce" He sighed. "They're both pregnant."

The secretary of defense kneeled by young women's bedsides, watching them sleep, trying to imagine what was going on beneath the surface of their skin, and in their blood, and inside their cells.

"The resulting children will have been infected since the moment of their conception. The microorganism was part of the very first cells that formed the embryos."

"What does it mean?"

"My theory?" He paused. "They'll constitute a completely new organism, a blend of humanity and the infection. This is what it wanted all along."

The secretary of defense rounded and almost backed the doctor into a corner. "Why haven't you terminated these pregnancies?" she said.

"There's no point. There are thousands more out there by now, Soon there'll be millions. At least if we keep these ones we can study them. And we think they're probably some of the first, which means we'll have some time, a few weeks or even a few months, to study the newborns before, well..."

"Before the rest of them are born. Before they start to populate the planet."

The doctor nodded. His face was ashen. The secretary of defense looked at the sleeping women. Her mind reeled. "This is it," she said. "This is how the world ends."

"Maybe not," the doctor said, though his voice cracked. "We don't know what it intends. Maybe we can coexist."

"Coexistence is not my field, doctor. It's like you said: I know an invasion when I see one." She looked him in the eye. "You're sweating."

"It's hot."

"Not it's not. It's quite cool, actually."

"Then why are you sweating?"

The secretary of defense started. She had not realized that she was. She touched herself; there was a warmth there, just under the surface.

"Maybe it's the stress," she said, whispering.

"Yes," the doctor said. "Maybe."

Somewhere, a fly buzzed.