WorldLost- Week 1: An Infected Novel Read online

  WorldLost: Week 1

  An Infected Novel by John Rutherford

  Copyright © 2016 John Rutherford

  All Rights Reserved

  This is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places and incidents either are the products of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously. Any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, businesses, companies, events or locales is entirely coincidental.

  To my family and friends. You know who you are.

  Table of Contents

  Chapter 1- Day 1- The Beginning

  Chapter 2

  Chapter 3

  Chapter 4

  Chapter 5

  Chapter 6

  Chapter 7

  Chapter 8

  Chapter 9

  Chapter 10

  Chapter 11

  Chapter 12

  Chapter 13- Day 2

  Chapter 14

  Chapter 15

  Chapter 16- Day 3

  Chapter 17

  Chapter 18

  Chapter 19

  Chapter 20- Day 4

  Chapter 21

  Chapter 22

  Chapter 23

  Chapter 24

  Chapter 25- Day 5

  Chapter 26

  Chapter 27- The Torture of Jerry- Act 2

  Chapter 28- Day 6

  Chapter 29- Day 7

  Chapter 30

  Chapter 1- Day 1- The Beginning

  I woke to what had to be the worst hangover I’d ever had in my life. All I could think was “what the hell is going on?” My head was pounding like there was a crew of jackhammers working on the millimeter space between my eyes. My mouth felt like sandpaper, I literally had grit between my cheek and gum and all over my tongue. The simple act of opening my eyes was painful, god my eyes hurt. I really tied one on last night; I’m surprised I’m alive. What the hell was I thinking, what happened last night, how the heck did I get home? What the hell is all that noise? Are those sirens, gunshots? Really, screaming?

  What the hell is happening to my world!!!

  That’s what I was thinking and in my head, it seemed I was yelling it to myself as I lay in my bed with my pillow over my head. I was praying to every god out there to make my hungover mind relax, turn down the volume and be calm.

  I swear to you God, I will never drink that much again. I swear I swear, I swear. Please make the pain stop.

  What is all that noise?

  With all the strength I have, I peek out from under the pillow, opening my eyes to look around. Thank God I am in my apartment, for a minute there, I wasn’t sure. At least I could get up when I wanted, wonder to the bathroom to take a piss, get a drink of water and go back to bed without having to use my brain. There are some positives to being single and living alone.

  I slowly climb out of bed, having to sit on the edge for a minute to let the world stop spinning and slowly make my way to the bathroom. With one hand against the wall, I lean over the toilet and relieve myself. I reach over and grab the bottle of aspirin, struggle to open it….damn child proof locks. I finally get a couple out and wash them down with some water from the tap. Standing back up, I take a look at myself in the mirror and notice that I look like the living dead.

  My eyes were bloodshot, there were dark bags under my eyes, my cheek color was greenish and I was perspiring at my hairline. I was shaking, my hands, my body, I literally had the shakes. Jesus, I was really messed up. All of that is too much, my head began to spin and I threw up everything in my stomach from last night. The smell hit me right away, which made me continue to My aim at the toilet is poor and most of the vile liquid hits the side of the bathtub next to the toilet, the two aspirin sticking to the far wall of the tub like two little white eyes looking at me. God that is a disgusting mess of yellowish green chunky bile all over my bathroom floor and walls. What the hell did I eat last night?

  I rinse my mouth out with tap water, take another look in the mirror, seeing the same sick me looking back and shake my head. I get two more aspirin and then decide that sitting down would be a good idea.

  I don’t remember anything from last night after I had that last dance with Amy and Butch. I’m pretty sure another shot of Jack Daniels or two or ten was a part of the rest of the evening, but I couldn’t really remember for sure.

  How much did I spend last night on drinks to feel this shitty?

  I make my way back to my bed, sit down and then fall back with my legs hanging over the edge. I roll my head to the side and look at the clock on my nightstand. It’s 12:15 and if I had a job anymore, I would have been four hours late to get there. Unfortunately, I had been fired yesterday so being late today wasn’t a problem, but then again, getting fired wasn’t a good thing either.

  How funny is that? Get fired, and then decide it makes sense to go and celebrate being fired with money you don’t have. My credit card company was going to love me this month; spending money like I got it, but really not being able to pay the bill. What a fucking idiot I am sometimes. I really need to try and be a better person, do more for myself, think before doing…..Who am I kidding?

  I should reach out to Amy and Butch, I wonder if they still consider me a friend. I needed to make sure I didn’t do anything to run off the only family I had in this world. In order to do that, I had to find my phone.

  Where the hell is my phone? I sat up and started to look around, once I could focus my eyes. Five minutes later and the phone was located between the box springs and the mattress of my bed. What was I thinking last night that would make me think that this was a good place for my phone?

  I only had a quarter of a charge left, so a charge would be needed before I left for the day. I grabbed my charging cable and plugged my phone in. I punched in my code and opened the text message app.

  “Hey buddy, what’s going on?” I typed in and hit send to text Butch.

  “Hey girlfriend, how’s it hanging?” A text to Amy was on its way.

  I set the phone down on the nightstand and then I realized that the noise from outside was still there; the sirens, the occasional scream, the honking of a car. Why all the noise?

  I grabbed the tv remote and turned on my flat screen tv. Maybe the news has some information on what’s happening in the world that is causing so much of a ruckus outside. Maybe I should get off my lazy ass and take a look outside.

  Nope, that would mean standing up again and the last time I did that, it did not end up well. That reminds me, I need to clean my bathroom. That can wait, better to lie in bed, let the aspirin take a hold and zone out on some TV for now.

  Once the TV was on I notice that my normal channel is off the air, only the fuzzy screen of TV snow is on. I flip the channel to another favorite station, but it is only showing an empty news studio, there is no news anchor sitting in the chair, no sound, just an empty studio with a banner running across the bottom of the screen stating, “The government has declared a state of emergency for all states, all counties, and all cities. You are advised to stay IN your home. Martial Law is in effect. The military is working with other agencies, including local law enforcement, patrolling the city.” and then it was repeated. Over and over again with a blank news studio in the background.

  What the hell is happening? Is this a joke?

  I flip the channel to another local channel. This one has a woman sitting at the desk and she is looking around nervously. She gets the go-ahead from someone behind the camera. “What you just saw was live. I can’t begin to explain what is happening or why people are acting this way. Reports like the one you just saw are coming in from all over the city. We have not been able to get a hold of the police, the military or anyone with authority, so there has been
no official comment on this escalating problem.” She said.

  I’d really like to know what the old information was, how about repeating yourself, I think to myself.

  I decide to try other channels, but all I find are channels with off the air notices or snow or blank screens. So I muted the tv and turned the radio on next my bed. My normal rock station only had an emergency message stating to stay home and not to go out until further notice. I scrolled through the numerous AM/FM channels, but only got the same message.

  I checked my phone to see if Butch or Amy had replied, but there were no new texts or messages from them. Well, this is disturbing. I sent another text message to both of them. If they didn’t respond in a few minutes, I’d make a phone call.

  My headache was finally going away so I got up slowly and headed to the small kitchen to get a drink of water. Maybe I should eat something while I am at it. My apartment is basically one large room with a balcony and a bathroom. Nothing special, but it was on the 5th floor and had a pretty good view of the city street. I got to the sink and turned on the cold water to let it run a minute before getting a glass. As I was standing there, I looked outside and noticed that there was quite a bit of smoke in the sky, like a large fire was active in the area. Having lived part of my life in the forest, I’d seen numerous forest fires and the smoke and color in the sky today was very different. It must be due to the various building materials burning somewhere in the city and the smog that the city of Charleston always seems to have lingering overhead. This had to be a big fire to cause this much smoke. This wasn’t a good start to my day.

  After drinking a glass of water and watching the city from my kitchen window, I realized that I was continuing to hear the screaming, the sirens, and the occasional gunshot. From the kitchen window I couldn’t see down to the street, so I decided to move to the balcony door to see what was going on, it had a better view of the main street in front of my building.

  On the short way to the balcony door, I grabbed an apple out of my fruit basket and took a bite. The apple was sweet, almost too sweet for my stomach, so I dropped it on the coffee table next to my couch. I’m going to have to get some food, something hot and spicy to help get rid of this hangover. Maybe I should do the old hair of the dog trick, drink a beer and have a shot to help jump start my body today. Why not, I don’t have to go to work today.

  I turned around and opened the cabinet that I keep my liquor in. I pulled a bottle of Tequila out and set it down on the kitchen counter. I went to the refrigerator and grabbed a beer. A cold PBR; nothing better to help with a hangover. I opened the tequila bottle, took a pull and then chased it down with a swig of the beer. My body did the tequila shake causing me to grab the counter so I didn’t fall down. Damn, this might have been a bad idea. I stood up straight and took another drink of the PBR and waited for a few seconds. I picked up the tequila, took another pull and then another chaser of beer. I might have a drinking problem, I thought to myself, but then the throbbing in my head slowly started to go away and my somewhat blurry vision was clearing. Nope, no problem with drinking. It was one thing I was good at.

  Got to love the Hair of the dog.

  I walked over to balcony door and pulled the curtain to the side. Instantly I was blinded by the sun. It was summer and the middle of the day, so it made sense that the sun would be up, but damn, it was bright. Just another rude awakening to help make my day be so great.

  As my eyes adjusted to the light I looked across the street and noticed my cute neighbor standing in her balcony window. She was looking down at the street, standing in her underwear with no bra on. Chest bouncing against the glass door. Now that is a good way to help get my day turning to the positive. Should I open the door and go out on the balcony to see what she was looking at. She really seemed interested in something on the street. Going out on the balcony would risk being seen by her. Maybe I should stand here and soak in her beauty.

  Damned if I am going to ruin a good thing might as well enjoy the show.

  I’ve always wanted to meet her, but I could never get the nerve up. I’ve watched her go through three boyfriends, and most of what I’ve seen is that it was the boyfriend's loss and not hers. She was banging hot and based on the sex shows she put on with the boyfriends, she was experienced in the art of seduction and liked to control the activity in the bedroom. I would have given my left nut to spend fifteen minutes with that goddess.

  Once, Butch and I were in a competition to see who would get the nerve up first to find out what her name was and try to score with her. We discussed all the different ways we could meet her. Accidently bump into her at the corner store. Wait for her outside of her apartment building and strike up a conversation. We came up a lot of different ways over time, but never got the balls to actually do any of them.

  One night, Amy came over to my apartment as Butch and I were camped out on the balcony watching the women across the street entertain her current boyfriend. She was putting on a quite a show and we were so involved watching and talking quietly about how we could end up being the next boyfriend that we didn’t hear Amy come in the front door. She had a key in case I didn’t answer or for an emergency. We’re not even sure how long Amy stood behind us and watched the show or what she heard us saying. When Amy finally spoke, all she said was “Neither of you has the balls to meet someone like her…... but I do. I’ll have her name and horoscope sign before the day is over. Mark my words.” and Amy promptly turned and left the apartment. The next day, she informed Butch and me that the woman’s name was Carrie, she was a Scorpio and that Carrie was bisexual. I’m not sure how she knew this as Amy wouldn’t give us any details, but the smile on her face when she made this statement pretty much explained how she knew. Amy was a go-getter, I’ll give her that.

  As I was standing there, remembering that interesting tidbit from the past and basically being a peeping Tom, I noticed that my secret girlfriend, Carrie, was banging her head on the window. Not just a slight rhythmic banging, like you might do to a favorite tune you were listening to, but out right head banging on the glass balcony door. She was at a Six Feet Under heavy metal concert and was head banging with the best of them. She was banging her head so hard I started to see a dark liquid spread and stick to the glass of the sliding glass door. She was being so violent that the door was beginning to crack. It finally gave way and Carrie stumbled out the broken glass door, bare feet getting cut to shreds from the glass on the ground as she bumped into the balcony railing. She continued to move forward against the rail and fell right over the balcony rail, falling to the street below.

  I rushed out onto my balcony and looked over the railing to see where she ended up. Carrie was on the sidewalk below but was slowly standing up. She looked from side to side, lifted her nose like she smelled the air and then started to walk, with a slight lean to the left, away from the apartment building. As she moved into the street, a car swerved to miss her and sped down the road with the horn blaring instead of stopping to see why this person was on the street. She stopped and looked around again, raised her arms at the car and started walking to the car, a slow motion car chase scene was happening right in front of me. How she had survived the fall from her 3rd story balcony was hard to believe. This had to be a bad dream, I must have been asleep, this couldn’t really be happening.

  Another loud sound that must have been a gunshot made me turn to the other direction and I saw a guy walking towards a car stopped in the road holding a gun out, pointed at the driver of the car. A woman was in the car trying to climb out her opened window which had just been destroyed by the guy’s gunshot. The guy started yelling at the women, “Die you God forsaken demon, DIE!!!” He continued to point the gun, point blank at the woman's head and pulled the trigger. Blood and brain matter went all over the inside of the car and the passenger side window exploded as the bulleted exited the woman's head. The guy yanks open the door and violently pulls the body of the women from the car, leaving her lying on the street. He
jumps into the car and peels out as he shoots down the street with the stolen car. I’ve seen some gory things in movies and pretty weird things in my time in the city, but this was a new level.

  “Holy shit! Do you believe that?” my hippy next door neighbor says to me from the side of his balcony. “Holy Shit, that’s like totally wrong, totally like in the movies.” I turn and look at Brad standing on his balcony smoking a joint and pointing at the disturbing screen we both just witnessed. “Dude, that’s a problem. You should totally call the police. Did you get the license plate number of the car he stole?”

  “Why should I call the police, you saw it too,” I said back to him, in shock from what was happening around me.

  “I can’t talk to the cops right now dude. I’m totally high and that would be way too much for my fragile mind to handle.” Brad replies laughing and handing the joint across the railing to me.

  Ignoring the joint, I turned around and walked into my apartment to grab my phone. I noticed that the charge was about half done, as I get back to the balcony and look at Brad who was still holding the joint out towards me. I dialed 911 and put the phone on speaker so we both could listen, but all we hear is a busy signal. What the hell was going on; how was it possible that 911 would be busy?

  Brad looked at me and laughed as he turned around and headed back into his apartment. Our apartments were right next to each other and you could easily jump the rail to get to the apartment next to mine. My other neighbor was a stewardess that was always gone and rarely home, which is nice as it mad so I didn’t have to worry about the noise I made or running into her when I was out on the balcony hanging out. I wondered if she was home.

  I walked over to the other side of my balcony and leaned over to look through her sliding glass door, but I couldn’t tell if she was home or not, so I climbed over the rail, onto her side of the balcony and took a closer through her sliding glass window. I knocked on the sliding glass door, but nothing happened, so I was pretty sure she was gone.