Dry

by Devante’ Crowell

My head hurts. This isn’t a good thing. A headache leads to migraines and those lead to the sickness. This so isn’t what I need right now.

“Samantha!” Jeremy yells. He wants me to drink the Syrum again. Somehow people figured out a way to create artificial water. It’s disgusting.

“What!” I manage to croak. My throat is so dry. It feels like someone took a piece of sandpaper and scraped the sides raw.

“You already know what! Come on! It’s been three days!” he yells. I really don’t want to get up. I turn over in my bed, staring at the ceiling, and start to fade back off into sleep.

“Sam, wake up.”

And then the voice is gone.

There’s something wet on my face. And cold. Water! My eyes flash open and I see Jeremy standing beside me with a half empty bottle in his hand. As soon as I realize what the liquid is, my stomach turns.

“No! You need to drink it, Sam,” Jeremy says, holding me down.

“Just let her fucking die. More syrum for us,” Justin tells him. Jeremy hands me the bottle. I look, then put it to my lips and drink it. The cold liquid slides down my throat coating it with moisture and going into my stomach, making it feel like it’s full of Jell-O. I look up at Justin. He glares at me. His tall, bony figure isn’t as intimidating as he thinks. The green eyes sort of make me think of him as a snake, but the brown puppy dog hair takes away that affect.

“I wouldn’t give you the satisfaction.” I say.

He leaves the room. I give the bottle back to Jeremy.

“You can’t keep doing this, Sam,” he says as I get up.

“Doing what?” I say sarcastically and walk out of my room. I see Katie going down the stairs.

“Save me,” I mouth to her. She smiles and goes downstairs. I follow her, but before I get to the bottom Jeremy grabs my arm.

“I’m serious, Sam.” He looks me dead in the eyes. I look at him and then down at his hand. The scar on his hand makes his brown skin look a lot darker than it already is.

“Fine,” I say, pulling my arm away from him. I walk over to the kitchen and sit at the counter next to Katie. Everyone is here waiting to start the meeting.

“So, we’re almost out of food,” Justin says. “And on top of that we need more Syrum.”

That meant someone had to go out into the town.

“Who’s going?” Jeremy asks.

“I figured Stephanie and I could go. We could get it and get back home fast.”

Good. He won’t be here to bother me.

“I guess that’s fine. When are you going to leave?” Jeremy asks.

“Soon, I hope,” I say under my breath.

“Shut the fuck up, Sam!” Justin yells.

“Justin, calm down,” Jeremy tells him.

“No! I’m tired of her bullshit! Every single time we have to use Syrum to wake her up, we waste it! It’s killing us! We run out faster because of her!” he yells. I really don’t care what he thinks. He’s an asshole. He’s been like this since we brought him into the house. He doesn’t have the right to complain about anything. You would think that since we saved his life, he would be grateful. But I guess that’s not enough these days.

“She doesn’t do anything! She just sits in the house and bitches!”

“Well, what the hell do you want me to do, Justin?” I say.

“Help us out!” he says.

“Fine!” I yell, getting up and walking to the sliding doors that lead out to the backyard. I go outside and stand in the back yard under a tarp put up to block the sun. It’s so hot out. Part of what causes the sickness to get even worse. We’re not supposed to stay outside because of it. I hear the doors open.

“Sam.” It’s Katie.

“I know, Katie,” I say, assuming she’s going to take Justin’s side.

“You don’t have to do anything. Justin isn’t the boss of anyone. He doesn’t run anything.”

I’m getting dizzy.

“I know. He just annoys me. I want him to shut up about everything,” I tell her. I feel her hand on my shoulder.

“Come inside. It’s too hot out here,” she says.

“In a minute,” I tell her. She smiles. Her light blue eyes glitter at me, and if it weren’t for the sunburn she had on her face, she’d be perfectly beautiful.

“Don’t stay out for too long,” She says, and goes back inside. As soon as I hear the sliding doors close I start to walk forward, into the sun. During the flash this would have killed me, but right now it’s safe… ish. I feel the heat spill on to my face, then my arms, and then the rest of my body. The sunlight makes my head hurt. It’s as if the sun is sitting right in front of me, sending its heat and light toward me, smothering every part of my body with hot air.

I turn to look at the house. It’s two stories high with six bedrooms. Katie and Stephanie share a room. I love this house. Always have. Ever since my family moved out here from Berkeley, I never wanted to leave. Elk Grove was my home. The inside of the house looks like crap because of the after affects of the flash. We’re still trying to fix a lot of stuff up. Other than that, it’s beautiful.

The heat is coming in waves now. I walk over to the pool in the backyard.

“Water,” I say. “There’s water!” I try to yell, but my throat is dry again. I look up at the sun. I see the heat waves, flowing toward me as if they were hands coming to grab me. Everything starts to spin and I feel myself falling forward. I hit the bottom of the pool and a flash goes across my eyes as I feel the sharp pain of my head splitting open. My ears are ringing and I can’t move. As the flash clears from my vision, I see Eddie in the pool with me. He’s lying there staring at me. There’s blood coming out of my head forming a small puddle around my face and I feel it going into my mouth. My throat isn’t dry anymore. I lie in the pool tasting my own blood while the heat pushes down on me. Everything goes black.

My eyes open. I find myself in my room. I sit up, still dizzy, and put my hand on my head. There’s a bandage on the left side of my forehead. It’s damp with blood. I can hear voices downstairs so I get up. As I walk toward the door, I see bottles of Syrum on my dresser. I sigh. They keep giving me these as if I’m going to drink them. I walk out of the room and stumble down the stairs. Everyone is in the kitchen standing around the counter.

“Where’d you say you were from?” Justin asks. Who is he talking to? Katie sees me walking toward them and she comes over to me.

“They found a girl,” She tells me. This is a good thing. I think. The expression on her face is making me think otherwise.

“What?” I ask.

“She says her name is Emily. She’s been wandering around for a while.”

“Does she have the sickness?” I ask. Katie looks at me. I can see Jeremy motioning us to come over.

“We don’t know,” Katie says and we walk over to them.

“So you don’t remember how you got here?” Trevor asks. The girl shakes her head. I stare at her, studying her every move. Usually it’s easy to tell when someone had the sickness, but sometimes people can conceal it. If someone has the sickness their breathing is usually faster than usual. Hers are normal. Her eyes are what make me keep staring at her. They’re beautiful. Too beautiful. Unlike any other persons eyes I had ever seen. They’re a golden-brown color with a little green in them too, and it seems like they’re glazed over. Jeremy taps me. I realize the girl is looking back at me. My heart stops.

“Why are you staring at me?” she asks. Her voice is so soft. I look around and everyone is looking at me.

Break the silence, Sam.

“How did you survive out there? With the flash happening and everything.” I ask her. She looks down at the counter.

“I hid,” she says.

“Where?” Jeremy asks her. She says nothing. Everyone sits there and there’s an awkward silence in the room.

“We should finish this tomorrow. All of us need some sleep,” Stephanie says, breaking the silence.

“She’s right. We’ll figure everything out in the morning,” Jeremy says. “Emily, you can sleep in the extra room down here. I’ll bring you some blankets and extra clothes once everyone gets settled in.”

We all walk upstairs and go into Stephanie and Katie’s room. I sit next to Katie on one of the beds.

“I don’t trust her. She creeps me out,” Katie says as Jeremy closes the door.

“Yeah, same here,” Trevor agrees with Katie.

“We can’t really make any assumptions yet. She doesn’t show any signs of the sickness so we can’t just throw her out,” Jeremy tells us.

“He’s right. We’ll get her story and then figure out what to do with her,” Justin says.

“How much syrum do we have left?” Jeremy asks.

“Enough for at least two days,” Stephanie tells him.

“Okay. Tomorrow you, Sam, and Trevor will go out to the town and look for more.”

“Why do I have to go?” I yell, getting up. I never go out. The last time I did was when we found Justin and that was about a month ago.

“You said you would help,” Justin snickers. He’s enjoying this. I can see the grin he’s holding back.

“Whatever,” I snap at him, and then leave the room. I walk to my room and stop at the door. The girl is humming. I walk to the banister and listen. She’s humming ‘You Are My Sunshine’. Jeremy walks by me with the blankets. Why is he being so nice to her? He doesn’t even know her, but it seems like he cares about her. I walk into my room, closing the door and locking it behind me. I walk to the window and open it. The hot air blows through the curtains. Not as hot as daytime, but it still makes you sweat. I lie down and stare at the ceiling.

How do we know she’s not sick? She could kill us all tonight and we wouldn’t be able to do anything about it. I shudder at the thought of her roaming the house and killing every one of us to quench her thirst. The thirst that the sickness gave her. The thirst for human blood. I turn over and face the window, watching the curtains move as the air blew through them.

I have to go out there tomorrow. I stare up at the ceiling and then fall asleep.

There’s banging on my door.

“Sammy, get up!” Trevor yells.

“Go away!” I groan, coughing right after. I feel sick.

“Samantha, don’t do this. Not today,” Stephanie complains. She never has a problem with me. She and Katie are the closest people to me in the house. I groan again, feeling the pain of my throat. It’s so dry.

“Sammy, please? We need to go before it gets too hot,” she says.

“Let me get dressed,” I struggle to say. I roll out of my bed. I’m caked in sweat. The thing I hate the most about the flash is that showers disappeared along with all the people. It’s disgusting. All the water on the surface of the earth, dried up. At one point we found an underground water source, but it’s too far away from the house to travel to all the time. Too much exposure to the sun would either give you the sickness, or kill you. I slip on my jeans and put on a thin long sleeved shirt. Sunburn could also kill you now a days.

I open the door and Stephanie is leaning against the wall waiting for me. She’s tall, and tan. Not really a surprise because of all the sun, but she was naturally tanned when we first met. We went to school together and didn’t really talk all that much. She was the popular volleyball girl and I was just a random face. I guess disaster can change people.

“Sorry Steph. Long night.”

“Tell me about it! Katie wouldn’t sleep. She just sat there staring at the door. She was freaking out for a while and she’s kinda pissed about having to stay in the house with that girl, but I told her it was safer here than it was outside.”

We go downstairs and into the garage. I feel the first bit of the heat wave coming through the garage door. Trevor is looking through the supplies. There aren’t that many, just a bat, a machete, a crow bar, a few jackets, and some sunglasses. He picks up the bat. You have to take a weapon when you went out to defend yourself against the sick. They’re people, but it’s like they’re rabid. The sun drives them crazy and dehydration makes it worse. I grab a pair of sunglasses, one of the jackets and the crow bar.

“Ready?” Trevor asks walking out of the garage toward the front door.

“Yeah,” Stephanie says. I look over toward the living room. Emily is standing at the sliding doors, staring outside. Trevor opens the front door.

“You ready Sam?” Stephanie asks me. I look at her.

“Yeah. Let’s go,” I croak and we walk out the door. Before she closes it, I look back inside and Emily is staring right at me.

“We’ll stop somewhere in town to rest. I don’t want anyone fainting,” Trevor says. I know he’s talking about me. Stephanie hands me a bottle of Syrum.

“Drink this,” she says. I push the bottle back.

“I’m fine, Steph.”

“Samantha. Listen to your voice. You can barely talk. Drink this or we’ll be waiting here until you do.”

I take the bottle and pour the Syrum into my mouth. The bitter liquid tastes like unsweetened chocolate. I finish the bottle as we walk through the neighborhood. We get to the edge and cross the street, going into a field that we call the hot bed. It’s a mile long field with no shade. I’m glad Stephanie made me drink that Syrum. We walk through the field in silence and make our way to the main street. Elk Grove-Florin Road, a long strip that goes through the whole town.

We pass abandoned houses that were burned down during the flash. I turn to look at Elk Grove Park. The lake that used to be full of water is now gone. The green grass and trees that used to be there are scorched. Burnt. Dead. Dry. I lick my lips, trying to wet them. We pass the high school, which is also partially burned down. It’s been two years since the flash, and every time I pass the school the same misery I felt the day my friends died comes back and eats away at me like the heat itself.

I’m starting to get light-headed again.

“Almost there.” Stephanie reassures me. She hands me another bottle of Syrum.

“I’m fine Steph, Really.” I tell her. I really don’t want to drink any more of it. We get to a couple of stores that are down the street from the high school.

“Okay, we’ll check them all, one by one. Stay together though. I don’t know if the stores are empty,” Trevor says. That’s the one thing I remember the most about being outside. Stay together. Pretty much rule number one. Being alone is the worse possible situation you can be in. You start to freak out and when you panic you start to lose it. Another thing I’ve learned is that humans will do anything to survive. Even kill. Hence, the sickness. We walk over to New York Pizza and go inside. I put my hand over my nose as a blanket of mildew smell falls over us.

“This is disgusting,” I say. Stephanie looks over the counter.

“Oh god,” I hear her say softly.

Don’t look at it Sam. Do not look! I feel myself walking around the counter. The smell gets worse and as I get around it I feel my stomach lurch. A body lies in front of me. Its stomach is torn open and whatever used to be inside of it is gone now. There’re bite marks all over its body and chunks are missing from its arm. Its face is so badly misshapen that I can’t tell whether it’s a boy or a girl. I turn and run out of the front door, getting on my hands and knees and coughing.

My throat fills with bile and everything in my stomach comes out. At first it’s just syrum. And then blood. I cough again and then wipe my mouth. My head is spinning.

“Pull it together, Sam,” I say. I look up and there’s a girl across the street. She’s staring at me. I look down and pick up the crow bar and when I look back up she’s gone. Stephanie comes outside.

“You okay?” she asks. I’m still staring at where the girl was.

It’s the sun playing with your head, Sam. Just another mirage.

“Sam,” Stephanie says making me jump. I look at her.

“I’m fine. The smell just got to me,” I say, looking back across the street. I swear there was a girl there.

“We’re going across the street. Trevor says that ACE is bound to have stuff we can use,” she says. Trevor comes out.

“Okay let’s go,” he says. I get up and follow them into the street. We walk over to ACE Hardware. Most of the stuff inside is thrown everywhere. We walk through the aisles, scanning them for any movement.

“So the Syrum would probably be in one of the back rooms,” Trevor tells us as we follow him. Stephanie stops and looks at some tools on the floor.

“We could definitely use these at the house,” she says, picking them up. I watch as she does this and then I hear something move. There’s a low growling sound and then a scream. I turn around to see Trevor down the aisle with a girl on top of his shoulders, stabbing him in the side with a screwdriver and biting his neck. He falls to the ground, letting out a scream, which is cut off as the girl digs her teeth into his throat. Stephanie moves quickly, picking up her machete and running over to Trevor. She swings the machete down at the girl, severing her arm off, making her roll off of Trevor.

The girl stands in the aisle, glaring at Stephanie. I feel my heart hammering against my chest. The girl turns and looks at me as if my heartbeat attracts her attention. Her eyes are the same color as Emily’s. She screams and runs toward me. I pick up my crow bar and she tackles me. I feel blood fly from her mouth to my face as the crow bar stabs her in the chest and I fall back, hitting my head. I black out.

“Samantha! Come on wake up!” Stephanie says. She’s carrying me.

“Where’s Trevor?” I ask.

“He’s dead. That bitch killed him.”

I touch my lip and there’s blood on it.

“Am I bleeding?” I ask.

“It’s not your blood.” Stephanie tells me. I lick my lips. “Can you walk on your own? We’re almost home.”

She puts me down. I stumble at first and then start to walk. We’re at the hot bed.

“Justin’s not going to be happy about the Syrum,” Stephanie says. I look at her.

“Forget the Syrum! Trevor’s dead!”

We walk the rest of the way in silence. We get to the house and Stephanie knocks on the door. We wait and then the door opens. Emily is standing there.

“Two,” She mumbles, her eyes glued to mine.

“Where’s Jeremy?” Stephanie asks. Emily moves to the side, still staring at me. We walk in and she closes the door. Justin comes down the stairs.

“Where’s Trevor?” he says walking up to us. We stand there in silence. I can see the fear forming in his eyes. And then anger.

“He’s dead, Justin,” Stephanie tells him. The words make something inside of him explode. He lunges at me, but Stephanie tackles him to the floor before he can get to me. Katie is up on the banister.

“Stop it!” she screams. Justin throws Stephanie off of him. She gets up quickly and gets between us, pulling out her machete.

“I’ll kill you!” he yells.

“It wasn’t her fault, Justin!” Stephanie says.

“All of this is her fault. She’s the reason we had to go out in the first place! I’ll fucking kill her!” he yells, and runs toward me. He knocks Stephanie down. I step back, trying to move out of the way, but he grabs me and tackles me to the floor. I feel his hands around my throat, crushing my wind- pipe. I dig my nails into his arms but his grip doesn’t loosen. I start to fade from consciousness and then I can suddenly breathe again. Justin rolls off of me and is unconscious on the floor. Jeremy is standing over me with a crow bar in his hands. He helps me up.

“Put him in the garage,” he tells Stephanie and Katie. They both grab Justin by his legs and pull him toward the garage. “You okay?”

“Yeah,” I say, rubbing my neck. “Thank you.” I walk to the stairs and then stop. Emily’s humming again. I feel a shiver go up my spine and then I go upstairs to my room, closing my door and collapsing onto my bed.

I can’t do this. I dose off into sleep.

I stare up at the blue sky. Eddie, Jacob, and Marcela are lying next to me.

“We need to go back to your house and swim,” Eddie says to me. Summer couldn’t be anymore amazing.

“Why can’t we just lay in the sun?” I ask, staring at the huge ball of light sitting in the sky.

“We can still do that. But let’s do it at your house,” he says, lifting me to my feet.

“Yeah we should. I’m kinda hungry,” Jacob says, sitting up.

“You’re always hungry,” Marcela says. We all laugh. Eddie holds me as we all stare up at the sun. Summer couldn’t be any more amazing.

I wake up coughing. It feels like someone’s digging their nails into the sides of my throat. I roll out of my bed and hit the floor hard, throwing up blood. It burns my throat. I pick myself up and walk over to my door. I stumble downstairs and walk over to the kitchen where everyone except Justin and Jeremy are standing at the counter.

“Jeremy went out,” Katie says. “He told us he was going to find more Syrum.”

Why would he go out by his self? The key to surviving this whole thing is sticking together. There’s banging on the garage door.

“Let me out!” Justin yells. I look at Stephanie.

“Don’t worry. He can’t get out. Jeremy says he might have the sickness.”

“And we’re keeping him here? Alive?” I yell.

“Calm down Samantha. Katie and I made sure that he wouldn’t be able to get out.”

I look over at the garage door. Hopefully she was right. Without Jeremy here I don’t think anyone would be able to control Justin. I walk over to the sliding doors. Emily is sitting on the couch humming. I look out at the backyard. The memory of my last summer with Eddie comes back and a tear begins to roll down my cheek. I feel a finger wipe the tear away and as I look it’s Emily.

“Water,” She says. I freeze as our eyes meet. She puts her finger to her lips, tasting the tear and stares at me as she does this. “Dry.” She says showing me her finger and then walks back to the couch, humming again. Stephanie stares at me.

“What was that all about?” she asks. I’m silent.

“She’s really starting to freak me out,” Katie says.

“She’s not a threat, Katie,” Stephanie tells her. She does this all the time. Tries to reassure us, knowing that we’re terrified.

“Not a threat? I’m pretty sure everyone in this house is a threat! I don’t even know if you’re not a threat!” Katie screams backing away.

“Katie. You know I would never hurt you.”

“Really? Then what happened to Trevor?” Katie yells. Stephanie stands there silent. “As far as I know, all of you are a threat!”

“Katie,” Stephanie mumbles. Katie glares at her and then goes up stairs. The door to her room slams and everything is silent. Emily’s humming and Justin is banging on the garage door.

“Let me out!” he begs. We all stand there. Silent. Emily hums. Justin begs. Nothing in the house is the same. Trevor’s dead, Jeremy’s gone, and Justin has the sickness. The house feels emptier than it’s ever been. I walk to Stephanie.

“Steph,” I say.

“She’s right. We don’t know what’s going to happen. Jeremy might not come back and we won’t have the Syrum. We’ll die,” she says.

“Don’t say that. We’ll get through this. We’ve made it this far.”

“But to what point will we keep surviving?” She asks opening the sliding doors and going outside. I walk up the stairs and go Katie’s room.

“Katie?” I say. Nothing. I know she’s in there. I put my ear up to the door. There’s a scratching noise on the door. “Katie?” I say again and then there’s a loud bump on the door. I jump back. What the hell is she doing? I go back to the door and there’s the scratching sound again. I walk to my room and sit on my bed.

“How can things be this messed up?” I say out loud.

“It’s his way,” Emily says. She’s standing in the doorway. I look up and even though I know she’s there my heart jumps.

“He made it dry. He wanted to show us something.” She says, looking at my window. She walks into my room and over to my closet, looking at the door and then me. “He made it dry,” She says and then leaves the room. I lie in my bed staring at the door. What did she mean by He made it dry? I get up and grab a bottle of Syrum from my dresser.

“He didn’t make you. So what’s He trying to say?” I say and put the bottle back on my dresser. I close my door and then lie down. Sleep is the only escape from the world now and it’s all I can do. Sleep. Sleep and death. They’re the only escape. I stare at the ceiling and then dose off.

“Samantha!” Eddie yells. The sun is getting brighter and brighter. Everyone is inside watching the news. I look up at the sky. The few clouds in the sky are spreading apart. Away from the sun.

“Sam! Come look at this!” Marcela says. I go inside, still looking up at the sky.

“The sun is breaking through the ozone layer. Scientists say that this is just the beginning to what they think might be the prediction of the Aztecs,” the news reporter says.

“What does she mean?” Marcela asks. Eddie shushes her.

“I’m getting a call in right now. The sun is rupturing.” She pauses. Everyone is silent. The screen flips off. A blinding light fills the whole house. The windows shatter. Marcela screams. Eddie grabs my arm. We’re running through the blinding light. Heat. It’s getting hotter. And hotter. We run into a room and shut the door. The light gets brighter and I can’t see. Eddie screams.

I wake up screaming. It’s dark. My door is open again. I look around my room. Empty. I hear someone in the hall.

“Who’s there?” I say. My door moves and then slams shut. Someone runs through the hall way and another door slams. My heart is hammering against my chest. I run to my door and lock it. There’s a bang on my door that makes me fall backwards. It keeps going and then suddenly stops. There’s just silence. I sit on the floor waiting for another bang. The doorknob jiggles and then clicks. My heart stops and I’m not breathing. The door slowly opens. No one’s there.

“Who’s out there?” I whisper. No one answers. Jeremy is the only one with keys to all the rooms. He probably gave the keys to Stephanie since she had to lock Justin up.

“Steph?” I say. I get up and go to the door. I grab it and look out, but no one’s there.

“Stephanie, this isn’t funny!” I yell. I look down over the banister and Emily is looking up at me. I freeze as her eyes are glued to mine and back away from the banister and run into my room, locking the door behind me. It’s her. She’s trying to scare me. It’s working. I cry into my pillow. Everything is so messed up. I should have died with Eddie. I shouldn’t have survived. Now I’m here. Alone. I sit on the floor crying until I fall back to sleep.

There’s a scream. I open my eyes. My door is open again. Stephanie is screaming. I get up and go out to the banister. Justin is lying by the door facedown. He’s dead.

“Oh my god. How did this happen? He wasn’t supposed to get out! He couldn’t get out!” Stephanie yells. She looks around. I walk down to her and stare at the body. There’s a puddle of blood on the floor around him.

“He wasn’t supposed to get out. He was locked in the garage,” Stephanie says. I bend down and flip his body over. His chest is ripped open and his heart is gone. I stand up.

“Three or four, minus one more,” Emily says. She’s standing right next to us. I look at her.

“You did this didn’t you? You killed him!” I yell. She’s staring at the body. “Answer me!” she looks at me.

“It’s His way. He made it dry. He wanted to show us something,” She says. I lunge at her. We both fall to the ground. I punch her, hitting her in the face. Pounding, pounding, pounding. Stephanie pulls me off of her.

“Let me go! It’s her. We have to kill her! She has the sickness!” I yell. Stephanie holds me too tight for me to move. She throws me down and I hit my head on the edge of the wall. I black out.

The light. It’s not bright anymore. Eddie! Where’s Eddie? The house is burning. Where is Eddie? He was right here. He was holding me. The light. It took him. Just like Marcela. Just like Jacob. It took them.

I open my eyes. It’s so hot. This isn’t my room. The ground is hot. I turn and Justin’s body is next to me. I jump backwards. I’m in the garage. How did I get in here? I go to the door.

“Stephanie! Let me out!” I yell. I bang on the door. No one answers. It’s dark. I can smell Justin’s body. I bang on the door again.

“Please!” I say. Again, no one answers. I sit by the door. I can’t see anything. I’m starting to get light-headed. I feel a tear go down my cheek. Why? Why am I here? I fall asleep.

There’s a noise on the door. I try to get up, but my head is spinning. The smell makes me dizzy.

“Stephanie,” I croak. My throat is so dry. The heat is getting worse. I have to get out of here. Emily is still in the house with them. She could kill them. I struggle to get up, swaying from the dizziness. I hit the door as hard as I can.

“Let me out,” I say. My voice is gone. Right now it feels like there’s glass sliding down my throat. I look around the garage. There’s a door that leads to the back yard. I walk over to it and move the boxes and rubble that were covering it and go out. The heat hits me and I almost fall. I walk around the back of the house and go to the sliding doors. I pull at them and they open. I go into the house. It’s quiet. I walk over to the stairs and go up. Katie’s door is still closed. I go to it and knock.

“Katie. Please let me in,” I struggle to say.

“Go away! All of you!” Katie yells. I go to my room. The heat is getting worse. I pick up the bottle of Syrum on my dresser and chug the last of it. The liquid coats my throat with moisture. I feel the headache beginning to go away. I look around my room and the closet door is slightly open. I go over to it and try to close it but something is in the way of the door. I look down and a hand is hanging out of the door. I scream and jump back. I close my eyes and take a deep breath and then open the closet door. Emily’s body falls out of the closet.

“Oh my god,” I say to myself. She’s missing an arm and there’re chunks missing from her rib. Her face is bruised and beaten and the eyes, which once were a glowing golden-brown color, are now a lifeless grey. One of them is missing. I leave my room. Stephanie. It has to be her doing this. I remember how she killed the girl who attacked Trevor. She has the machete and the key to all the rooms. It’s her who has the sickness. She’s killing everyone. I go down stairs to the garage and get the crow bar. I’ll end this now. I walk up the stairs and go to Jeremy’s old room. That’s where Stephanie is. I knock on the door.

“What do you want Emily?” she says. She sounds tired. That means she won’t be at her full strength. I knock again. This time louder. The door swings open.
“What!” she yells. I swing the crow bar and hit her in the face. She falls to the floor. I drag her body into the room. She groans.

“Sam…” She says. I look down at her.

“Steph, it’s you. You’re the one killing everyone. You killed Justin and now you’ve killed Emily. Katie was right,” I tell her.

“Sam… No. It’s…” I hit her with the crow bar. Once. Twice. And then a third time until she doesn’t move. I look at her and her face is caved in and bloodied.

“I’m sorry Steph.” I say and then something hits me in the head. I black out.

They don’t know. They’ve been so caught up in turning on each other that they didn’t even realize how fucked up the situation really is. Blood. I have blood. My throat isn’t dry anymore. “You made this easier Sammy,” I say. She’s still alive, just out of it. “It woulda been hard to kill Stephanie. Thanks.” I stroke her hair with my knife and then slide it into her neck. Her eyes flash open as she gasps for air. I watch the color fade from them as she dies. I pull the knife out of her neck and put my lips to the wound. I slurp the blood. It’s warm. I lick my lips and then get up. Katie. I walk to her room and knock on the door.

“Go away!” she says. I can tell her throat is dry because she’s trying to yell. Shame. I put my ear to the door. I swear I can hear her heart beating.

“Katie, it’s Jeremy. I’m back,” I say sounding panicked. There’s movement and then the door flies open. She hugs me and holds me there.

“Jeremy! Thank God you’re back. Everything was so crazy when you were gone.”

“Where is everyone?” I ask. She looks over the banister.

“Justin’s dead. Someone killed him,” she says. I feel myself beginning to smile but I hold it back. He was a challenge. Put up a little fight. That got his blood pumping. It was so good.

“Where are the others?” I ask her. She looks around.

“Stephanie is in your room, I think,” she says, walking down the hall. I wait there and start counting to five. Katie screams. Right on cue. I walk to the door and she’s standing over Sammy’s body. I look down at it. Shame. I liked her.

“No. No, no, no. Stephanie, no!” Katie screams. I walk up to her and wrap my arms around her. She’s crying.

“We were all going crazy. It… It was Emily. She did it.”

“Katie,” I say.

“I told her that she was a threat. I told her. She didn’t listen to me. She didn’t listen.” She cries. I wish she’d shut up. She’s still staring at Stephanie’s body.

“Katie,” I say. “My throat isn’t dry anymore.”

She looks at me. I smile and then put her in a headlock. I hold her there as she struggles and then I twist. Her neck snaps. Her body falls to the ground. They didn’t know. Now they’re dead. I take my knife out and stab her in the stomach. I rip it open and dig my hands in. It’s warm. Not like the sun. I slurp the blood from my hands. I smile from the warmth of the blood slowly sliding into my mouth. I take a deep breath. My throat isn’t dry anymore.