Rise of the Plague (Book 0): The Sickness (Monte's Story) by Jeannie Rae Page B

to understand that my rebellious streak might work against me in this situation.
    “Right there,” he says to Annabelle as she approaches, pointing the empty seat behind me.
    Annabelle quietly takes her seat, looking at me with enormous eyes.
    “Sir,” I say wanting to vomit, but to get what I want—I guess I got to kiss a little tail. “May I sit next to her?”
    He looks up from his clipboard with a smirk. He sees right through my phoniness. “If there’s any trouble from you—”
    “There won’t be,” I say moving quickly to the seat behind.
    I am still behind Lieutenant Lunatic, but at least I’m not sitting next to him.
    “Where were you?” Annabelle whispers.
    “Long line at the restroom. I’m here now,” I say.
    The soldier tosses the clipboard onto the seat and smacks the driver on the shoulder, then takes his seat, in front of us.
    “Next stop, Blue Falls,” the driver announces, starting the bus. “Settle in kiddies, we should be there in about two and a half hours.”  
    We are about twenty minutes into the bus ride to Blue Falls, and my wrist is killing me. It feels even worse than it did after the bite. I know that Annabelle can sense my discomfort—she keeps asking me if I’m okay. I can’t look at it with her right here and Lieutenant Lunatic right in front of us. The last time she asked, he turned around and gave me a death stare. I lied to them both telling them that I sometimes get a little car sick. They seem to have bought it. I don’t know how much longer I can keep it up though.
    “Hey, I’m going to use the restroom, okay,” I tell Annabelle.
    She gives me a weak smile and a nod as I get up. I head to the back and see that there are about twenty other kids of all ages in the seats on my way to the restroom. There are a few toddlers, and some of the older kids are seated alone, while others are sitting close together. Many of them are chatting quietly with each other and a few are even playing the alphabet road sign game.
    That game made me think of my little brother Sammy—we used to play that game all the time. Sometimes we’d go down to Andre Street and play it watching the license plates of all the cars passing by. I really miss that little pain in my butt. I can’t believe that he got the sickness and my parents too. It’s not like I had a lot—but everything in my whole life except me—is only a memory now.
    I would have never imagined when I woke up this morning that this is where I end up right now. I’m still not sure about this whole bus to Blue Falls, but I don’t have any options right now but to stick it out and hope that I’m wrong.

THE SICKNESS
    I duck into the tiny restroom. After locking the door behind me, I roll up my sleeve. My wrist is infected again. The scab is soaked in the fluids leaking from the wound. A ring of redness surrounding the wound stretches up my arm. It looks grotesque and the smell is disgusting. I touch the scab with my index finger and slightly press down. Greenish puss oozes out of it the on the other side of the soft scab. I begin to choke, coughing and gagging at the same time.
    I shove my arm—up to the elbow—in the tiny sink and turn on the cold water and let it flow over the wound. The water stings a little at first, but then starts to feel soothing on my arm. I stand there for what feels like the longest time, savoring the relief that the water is giving me.
    Whatever Haley gave me, helped for a while, but it looks like nothing can beat the sickness. I think about telling someone, but I push that thought out of my head. Lieutenant Lunatic runs this bus like we’re all prisoners. He’ll kill me for the safety of the others and he’ll like it—because he is a psycho. No, I can’t think that way. This is just a little setback—I’ll be fine. Now that I’m washing my wrist, it will get better again. It has to.
    I worry that I’m taking too long and Lieutenant Lunatic will come bursting in like a SWAT team, so