Apocalypse Wow, Pt. 08

Anyway, within the space of just a couple of minutes, first one, then a few and then all the men in the hospital had started to just... go crazy. The initial symptoms were like what Chloe described, a really sharp headache followed by a kind of delirium and then murderous rage and... red eyes. She'd been nearby when the first man changed and, with a couple of others, she tried to control him, get him on to a bed. They thought he was having a seizure or something or maybe a psychotic episode. And then one of the others helping out started having the same symptoms and then she became aware of commotion happening on the far side of the ER.

"It was... crazy...," she said, "I've never seen anything like it. It was like a war zone."

Now, I have to point out at this stage that this was the first time we'd heard that it was only men who changed. Only men had changed in the hospital. Over her weeks there, she'd been able to observe quite a few red-eyes on the streets around Durden and she'd seen only men. She was pretty confident in her conclusion that whatever caused people to change only affected men.

There were too many implications of it for me to grasp at the time, and she was on such a roll I didn't want to interrupt her too much but... well, yeah... that was a pretty big shock actually. Nothing like that had even occurred to us up to that point.

Anyway, if it hadn't been for her military training she didn't think she'd have survived. Her instincts led her to the hospital's security control room on the ground floor, not far from the lobby where we'd met her. She had to fight her way past the two security guards normally stationed there who had already changed before she was able to lock herself inside.

There was a pretty poignant moment when she described someone banging on the door, someone trying to get in, and she'd had to make the decision on whether or not to open it. There was a bank of CCTV screens on the wall in the security room and it took her a few seconds to find the image of the corridor outside the door so she could make certain it was someone safe, but by the time she had it was too late. She was glad, she said, it hadn't been someone she knew, but it wasn't much consolation.

And so for maybe two hours she watched as the hospital tore itself apart. She could see almost every corner of the building through the CCTV system and a little of the street outside. There was a TV in the room too and she was able to watch a lot of the same news footage we'd seen.

She tried her cellphone repeatedly, like we did. First 911, you know, and then her family I guess, but she couldn't get anyone. And then, after two hours, her phone rang.

"It was... Mark..." she said, "my... my ex-husband. We met in the service, well, he was a Marine. It was a bit of a whirlwind I guess. We were young and... we never really talked about the long term and... we just grew apart. Our divorce was finalized a year ago but I think we'll always... Anyway, I'd already tried him a few times, if there was anyone who could tell me something I knew it would be Mark, he was was posted to the Pentagon.

"So the... the line was bad and... there was a lot of... commotion in the background. He wanted to know if I was safe. I kept asking, what's going on? What's happening? I guess he must have moved somewhere, I don't know, but he was clearer all of a sudden."

She paused at this point and looked around at us, slowly.

"They didn't know what caused it," she said. "It didn't make any sense, it literally happened all over the world within an hour. It couldn't have been an airborne pathogen, it couldn't have spread that quickly and it moved so fast no one had been able to find out anything about or even study an infected person. And... I guess you saw the clouds... right? They... they activated a contingency plan......... New York, LA... Mark said fourteen cities but there could have been more......... My parents... My family... They used thermonuclear devices, you know, the big ones. There'd be nothing left."

I mean, I guess it fit pretty well with what we'd figured already, but... hearing it from a source like that... I think we were all pretty quiet for a while after that. I think Simone and I had already started coming to terms with the idea that our families were gone at that point but... it was still a hard thing to hear.

"He told me he loved me before the line went dead," she said, "but I could hear it... it was there, inside, where he was. They were changing."

"How long were you there?" Chloe asked. "In the security room?" I guess she was interested in the comparison between her own experience and Caroline's, you know?

"I couldn't see anybody moving on the monitors when Mark got cut off..." Caroline said, "I gave it another hour maybe. There were bodies everywhere. I checked them at first but, they weren't just dead, they were... brutalized, mutilated... I'm an ER doctor and I served with Marines for nearly 10 years and it made even me queasy. I went to the lobby, to try and leave but, I could see them... red-eyes I guess, there were still lots of them on the street so... I stayed. The power went out just as it got dark. That first night was pretty... pretty horrible."

She'd heard the emergency broadcast message on the radio, same as we had. For a few days she kept checking the streets around the hospital but the red-eyes were still there.

"I knew if I was gonna stay," she said, "even for a while longer, I'd have to deal with the bodies. They were already starting to decompose and..."

"Oh my god..." Simone breathed. I think I sucked in a sharp breath too at the thought of it.

"What did you do?" Chloe asked.

"I put on a hazmat suit," she said. "It wasn't comfortable but, I was protected at least. I won't... I won't go into the details, it wasn't pretty but... after two more days I'd... I'd moved all the remains to the morgue. Obviously it wasn't made to hold that many but... well, the door has a hermetic seal. I sincerely hope no one opens that door ever again."

"Jesus Caroline..." I said, "I... I'm so sorry you had to go through that." Honestly, I didn't know what else to say. Compared to what we'd had to deal with, a couple of red-eye run-ins notwithstanding, Caroline's ordeal sounded like a total fucking nightmare. She pursed her lips, maybe nodded a little, I'm not sure. Chloe had gone even paler than normal and Simone had her elbows on the table and was resting her forehead in her hands.

"What did you do about food?" I asked.

"I was able to scrounge around the hospital," she said, "vending machines and stuff, and then there was plenty of protein pastes and things like that, stuff we use for patients who can't eat solids or need to put on weight, that kind of thing. They were fucking awful but, they kept me alive. It was into the second week when I went across the street. I spent the whole morning watching for red-eyes. There was this little convenience store right there, right opposite the lobby entrance, so I crept over to it. I knew it was dangerous every time but, jesus, I needed something, you know?

"And I thought about trying for my apartment, it wasn't that far, maybe a twenty minute walk normally but... it just didn't seem worth the risk. And I knew if there were other survivors I'd be much more likely to be found if I was at the hospital. I had plenty of water and, with rationing, I knew I could make the pastes last a few weeks and the convenience store had a decent supply of non-perishable stuff to supplement them. But... really, I was running pretty low by yesterday. I'd already starting planning widening by little scouting missions away from the hospital to find more sources of food and water."

"So we were just in time," Chloe observed.

"I guess so," Caroline said and there was another drawn out silence. I guess we'd get better at it but, well, hearing someone's First Day story was a pretty fucking harrowing experience for everyone involved, you know?

Anyway, something she'd said the previous day had been on my mind, so I asked her about it and she knew where I was going.

"I think they're dying," she said. "I've been watching them. The hospital has great views, all around. It's the tallest building in town. Every day there were fewer of them. At the start they were... wild, their movement was frantic, they ran everywhere all the time. But over the weeks they've slowed down, like they were losing energy. I tried to keep track of individuals, ones that had distinguishing features, weird clothes, stuff like that, but I couldn't really make it work. I couldn't see any pattern to their movement or anything but... I never saw any of them of them eat. I think, maybe, whatever happened to them, it messed up their... instincts, you know, their drives and if they stopped eating, they couldn't survive for long. I mean, I don't understand how they survived without water but, it's all I could think of.

"And on the First Day, it was obvious that they only attacked non-infected people and in all the time since I'd never seem them turn on each other until maybe two weeks ago. I figured maybe whatever was sustaining them was finally running out so they were finally starting to turn on each other."

"And the way they approached us yesterday," I said, "that was totally different to what we've seen before too... like, the other times we were attacked they were like you said, frantic, wild."

"Exactly," she said, "I'm not certain or anything but, I think maybe we might be able to... I don't know, wait them out. Especially in a place like this," she said, and smiled for the first time in quite a while. After what had been a pretty harrowing story, I think it was a welcome note of hope for all of us.

"And what about... me?" I said, "Why didn't I...?" I mean, it was the obvious question, right? We'd talked the day before at some length about the attack at Chloe's house and whatever it was that had happened to me afterwards. But even apart from that, something had caused... well, the end of the world, you know? Something had caused all men everywhere, or almost all anyway, to spontaneously lose their minds and turn into murderous, mindless killing machines and... why hadn't it happened to me? Was I the only one? The only man who'd been... spared?

"Honestly Jim," she said, "I have to idea. If we had access to a lab... but, I don't know. If it's OK with you, I thought maybe you and I could talk, maybe later? I'd like to go through your medical history, see if I can at least start to figure it out. It could be as simple as geography, the isolation of this place but... something tells me there's more to it than that."

I agreed immediately, enthusiastically even. You can imagine how eager I was to figure this out. Could I really be that last fucking man alive?

Anyway, we'd been talking most of the morning and I think everybody was up for a little break. Simone suggested a walk and as soon as Jerry heard about this it was no longer optional. Caroline tagged along but Chloe said she'd stay behind, she wanted to check in on the turbine and the other equipment.

But... yeah... there was... a look.

So, Simone, Caroline and Jerry headed off on their walk and Chloe went out to the turbine shack... for like three minutes.

"So," she said when she came back in, "you wanna do this here or upstairs?" She was literally pulling her top over her head as soon as she walked in the door.

"Wha..." was all I managed in response.

"Jim..." she said, "we don't know how long we're gonna have to be, like, discreet or whatever about things for Caroline's sake. So I'm gonna have to take every chance I can get. Now what'll it be? We've never done it in the kitchen before."

Listening to Caroline's story had been... hard. So, I can't say I was 100% in the mood, you know? But as it so often did, Chloe's forthrightness had a way of breaking down barriers I guess.

Anyway, I didn't think the kitchen was a great idea, who knew when the others would be back but Chloe seemed to have her mind made up because while I'd been having these thoughts, she'd been shimmying out of her shorts and propping herself up on the table.

"Let's go Jim, time's a-wastin'," she said. She was beckoning me with one hand while the other started to work on her pussy.

I guess I kind of chuckled a little while I walked over to her. Her legs were swinging off the edge of the table and I moved in between them.

She started to say something else but I stopped her with a hard, deep kiss and I held her face gently in my hands. I felt her moan into my mouth and her arms reach around my body.

I lowered us down to the table gently, so her back was against it and then lifted myself back up. She was grinning at me.

"So I guess we're in kind of a rush, huh?" I said, and I was grinning back at her and moving my hand to replace the one she'd been using to rub her pussy.

"Uh-huh," she said, "you got your work cut out for you." And she was giggling.

"I love a challenge," I said. I lifted her hips to the edge of the table, which happened to be the perfect height for my head to be at just the right level when I was on my knees between her legs.

So given that we were in a bit of a hurry, I didn't wait around. She was already on the road a little when I got started but, even for someone as... eager as Chloe, she was moaning and squirming and really wet in record time.

"Fuck Jim..." she said, "that's it, right there." And she growled when I focused in on her clit. I wrapped my hands around her hips, holding her really tightly and really pressing my mouth against her, my tongue on her clit, and then I clamped down on her. Her hips pressed up into my face and she wailed when she came and her hands were grasping wildly at the table and all.

So I held on to her and kept sucking as these waves of orgasmic bliss washed over her until I finally felt she couldn't take anymore and then I slowly released her, easing her hips back down to the table.

Now, in the act of keeping my hold on her when she came, I'd gotten up from my knees and I kept moving. I was totally hard and there was palpable relief when I pulled open my shorts and slid them down far enough to free my cock. I could see Chloe eyeing it, laying back on the table, breathing heavily.

I moved her hips again with my hands, lining us up, and then I took my cock in my hand and rubbed it up and down against her pussy and she moaned again. I could feel how slick she was.

"Hhmmm... yeah..." she said, breathed really, "fuck me Jim... come on..."

So I slowly pressed forward into her... she was so tight... and she groaned and her hips rolled and shifted against me until I was buried. There were some slow strokes then, easing in and out while she pressed her hips back against me but, I guess our mutual eagerness quickly got the better of us and the pace moved up pretty quickly.

I shifted my grip a little to raise her legs so they were at, like, ninety degrees to her body, you know, resting up along my torso so I could grip her thighs to pull her back against me with each thrust.

"Fuck yes Jim..." she said, "that's so good!" And she was whimpering and moaning with each thrust, faster and faster until I felt her body clench and spasm when she came around me again. I pressed hard against her while she rode it out but pretty soon I was moving hard again, bouncing my hips off her and pulling her back onto me, over and over.

When I felt myself coming close to the end, there was kind of an automatic movement I guess, my hands sort of loosened from her thighs and planted themselves on the table next to her. I mean, I guess I was kind of desperately pushing myself deeper into her, instinctively. My upper body leaned forward when I did this, taking her legs with me, until they went through another forty-five degrees. Honestly, I wasn't conscious of it, it kind of just happened.

And then she was really wailing. "Oh my god! Shit!" And I came in long, hard thrusts, sweating and breathing really heavily and then, really suddenly I became acutely conscious of how totally uncomfortable she must be, I mean with with her legs bent back over her body like that.

"Shit... sorry Chlo..." I said. "Are you OK?" I moved back quickly and eased her legs down.

"Fuck... are you kidding?" she said. "That was fucking awesome Jim... I've never done it like that before... fuck." She had this wide grin and her breathing was slowly getting back to normal. She pulled me to her and kissed me pretty hard and I kind of breathed a sigh of relief.

"Now come on," she said again, "we better get this place cleaned up before they come back."

And hope Caroline doesn't get the obvious odor of sex when they do I thought to myself, but didn't say.

Anyway, as it turned out we had plenty of time. It was nearly two more hours before Simone and Caroline came back with Jerry.

And I could tell as soon as they came in that Simone knew what had happened. She had this mischievous grin, you know. And she says, "So, you guys do anything fun while we were gone?" I swear to god, that's what she said.

And Chloe says "Nothin' much," like, totally nonchalant, butter wouldn't fucking melt, you know, while I tried to cover my face in a way that wouldn't make it obvious to Caroline that I was trying to hide my blushing.

Anyway, after lunch Caroline and I sat down to talk. It was a little weird, it felt like an actual visit to the doctor. I guess that was one more thing I'd figured I'd never have to do again.

And a lot of what she wanted to know was basic medical history, you know? I was probably a little boring in that respect, never had any major illnesses, never broke a bone, was never hospitalized or anything, no major allergies, that I knew about anyway.

"So... ah, OK," she said eventually, "I guess we should move on. Listen Jim, these next set of questions might seem... a little personal..."

Now, I had an idea where she was going, I'd had to talk to doctors about my sexual history before and the conversation so far had made me feel really comfortable with Caroline, you know, as a doctor I mean. Still, I was a little nervous about... well... I knew I needed to be totally honest with Caroline for this conversation to have any value, right? So I guess I wondered just how much I'd have to reveal.

"That's OK Caroline," I said, "I know the drill, go ahead," and she nodded and smiled a little, happy I guess that I didn't seem too uncomfortable with the direction the conversation had to take.

Anyway, thankfully there was nothing that required me to divulge anything about... the current arrangement I guess... and she kind of confined the questions to my life before the First Day. I think she looked a little disappointed when we were done.

"Everything OK?" I asked.

"Yeah... sorry Jim," she said, "everything seems fine. I mean, your history is... well, I can't see anything out of the ordinary here."

"So, no help then?" I said. "Sorry, I guess."

"Hmph, don't be silly Jim," she said, "it's not your fault you've led a completely healthy life!" And her smile returned. "I guess we'll have to think of something else to try and figure this out."

"Well," I said, an idea forming, "what about the hospital? You mentioned tests and labs and stuff earlier. Is there anything we could use there? I mean, stuff we could transport, bring back here?"

"I've been thinking about that," she said. "I think so. Some of the machinery would be just too big to move but... there is definitely plenty of equipment that we could bring back here that I could do some meaningful tests with but..."

"What is it?" I said.

"Well..." she said, "if I was to do some tests with you, in order for me to find out if there's something different about you, I'd need..."

"You'd need to run the same tests on..." I said.