8.

Posted by Jack Vital.


That's it. I'm dead. I'm dying. I'm infected. Cursed. Bound for the unholy undead virus that claimed my roommate before he was re-killed.
The stench that was coming from Trevor and all that black ungodly vomit he spewed all over the apartment is crawling inside me. I can feel the blackness. I'm just waiting. Looking at my veins until I can feel the darkness grip me. I have it. Or I guess... it has me.


First Trevor came home, then he died, then he was awakened, then he came after me, and now he has been delivered from whatever horrible thing took him over. But now my fate is left in the same black wake and that ungodly stink is crawling up my lungs and with each breath further fowling up this tiny bathroom in which I've once again barricaded myself. The only difference now is the bullet holes in the door and my unholy sentencing.
I'm shaking so badly I can barely type the words on this little phone's touch screen.


Help me, please. I'm going to die. Where is help?
No one is coming, Jack. It's over. You're pathetic.
That man, he kicked the door in. I pressed my head against the bathroom door. Then I pressed harder because I heard nothing. He must have turned the corner and saw Trevor. He called out.
You! Speak or you get a fucking a bullet.


Silence. Footsteps.


Then three shots went out. I felt a sting in my arm and the noise was so piercingly loud all my senses went into to shock. The bite in my arm, the noise from the gun, the stink from Trevor, and I reeled backwards falling into the bathtub pulling the shower curtain down with me.
Stupid awkward loser.


The guy must have heard me. He came over the the bathroom door.
Anyone in there? I'm not in the mood to waste rounds but I will plug that bathroom full of hell if you don't answer me.
Pause.
Hello?
My mouth is open but I can't speak. I start to feel liquid sliding down my arm.
The door gets kicked in. I start crying. Out loud.
He looks down at me.
Get up. Get up. C'mon. 
I can't. I fucking can't. I think I'm injured. I'm scared.
He grabbed me and pulled me. He looked at my arm. I looked, too. I couldn't believe it. I'd been shot. Blood was slowly sticking my shirt to my skin.
Sorry kid, we'll fix you up later. We gotta go. No time.


I'm crying uncontrollably. 
Weak.
He laughs.
I can't believe it. I put three bullets you're friend's head, there. How did on of them end up in your arm.
What? What do you mean?
Listen, I'll explain later. We HAVE to go.


No. No. No. No. You think that black shit from the bullet that went through him is in me now? What if...


I couldn't bare the thought.


What if I have what he has. I mean he was bitten. Maybe it spread to him and now it will spread to me.
Kid, you have a bulltet inside you. Nothing else. You want to stay here and die or you want to get the hell out of here?


Oh God. OH GOD! I can feel it. I can feel that black sickness. I'm going to die. Help me. HELP ME!


That's the last thing I remember, was saying that. 


I woke up a few minutes ago. My bullet wound stitched up and a note.


Kill the brain and you kill them. Stay alive, kid.
Signed Mortey


I'm dead. 
Just get it over with. Do it. You want to be one of those?
I'm on the ground now. Curled up with my back to the door. My last ditch effort to survive is just using my body to prevent anything from coming in this tiny bathroom.
Give up. You could have prevented this.


A text comes in on my phone. Dee is dead. My girl friend is dead. I'm dead. Oh God. That black stink is crawling inside me. I can feel it like an army of tapeworms taking me over vein by vein. It will reach by brain.
I'm crying. Calling for help. Quivering. Dee. Dee? Mommy... Mommy?


********


I just woke up again. I must have passed out. I had a dream.


Before that man came and shot Trevor... and me. In the dream I walked out the bathroom door and there was Trevor. It was freezing cold and the stink was worse than ever. He was down a long hallway. He was dressed like the Grim Reaper. Dee was standing next to him and she was one of them. Like Trevor. It looked like she was obeying him.


He didn't have scythe, though. He had my long black winter coat and he was holding it for me. Waiting for me to go over there and stretch my arms into those warm inviting sleeves. 


Instinctively, I turned my back to walk away. When I went to look over my shoulder back at them Trevor had taken his hood off. Then he came after me. Fast as anything I'd ever seen. Coming on at me in a flash with out time for me react. I froze. And just as he came upon me. I woke up.


When I did I remembered watching Trevor die as he said They're coming. 


-Jack Vital