Surviving Day By Day (Book 1): So it Begins by Audra Allensworth

bags and headed in the house. “HONEY, those people were nuts! Do you know everyone is fr eaking out over all this crap?”
    J essica called for him to come in the living room; he set the bags on the table then went to join her. “What’s…”
    She waved her hand to quiet him, and then motioned for him to join her on the couch. The news was running a special report, “Damn it Jessica , they are causing mass hysteria! You should have seen the store, they were almost at blows to get Spam for God’s sake!”
    Jessica bit her lip, “I don’t think this is hysteria, they just showed a man that was in the hospital. Colt they had him strapped down to the bed and he was trying to bite anyone that came close. They were standing by him doing the report and the reporter got to close, the man bit her.” She really looked scared .
    “Jessica, honey you have to know that was for the TV rat ing, you know it’s sweeps week”
    She didn’t appreciate his lack of belief, “Colt that wasn’t for show, as soon as she was bit men came rushing in, they were wearing hazmat suits, they grabbed her and the camera hit the floor. When they went back to the studio the other reports were in shock, I don’t think they understood what happened any more than we did.”
    Colt grabbed the remote, “Is this still the same channel?”
    She nodded and he hit rewind on the dvr till he got back to the report and watched it, she was right he didn’t think it was for show .
    “Well that explains why everyone is freaking out. Did they say what to do if you get sick, or how you get it?”
    Jessica sat twirling her hair, a habit she did when she was nervous or scared, “They said that they only have reports of people that are bit seem to die but they don’t, they wake back up and start biting other people. They said that it is already spreading across America, it isn’t just Memphis, it’s everywhere!”
    Colt pulled her into a hug , stroking her hair, “Shhhh we will be ok, and everyone in our little neighborhood looked just fine. We will get everyone together and pool all our resources to get through this. How does that sound?”
    Jessica smiled, “There is the man I love, that is a wonderful idea.”
The next few days had been spent setting up a type of a neighborhood watch, but they were watching each other. They made sure everyone had food and water, and everyone met every day at noon to know each one was okay. Then the day came when they realized that they weren’t as safe as they were thinking, it wasn’t all about having supplies. They had forgotten that other neighborhoods would not be doing the same thing and their sick wouldn’t stay in their own areas.
    Jessica had gone to check on Jim Morris, he hadn’t made it to the noon meeting and Colt had to help Mr. Kulwaski fix his back fence.
An hour later Colt looked around wondering where Jessica was, he told Mr. Kulwaski’s he would be back and started home. Jessica was sitting on their couch staring at a blank tv rocking back and forth. When Colt walked around the couch he saw the tears streaming down her face, he quickly knelt in front of her, “Honey what happen is Jim ok? Do we need to….”
    He trailed off as Jessica pulled the shoulder of her shirt to reveal a bite. “Colt I am going to be one of those monsters, you have to kill me, please don’t let me be like those things.”
    She was close to hysterics and Colt couldn’t stop looking at the bite. If the news reports were right she had less than thirty six hours. “No, we are not going to give up. The CDC is working on a cure! How did you, who did, where…”
    Jessica pushed him away screaming, “WHAT DOES THAT MATTER? YOU CAN’T LET ME BE ONE OF THOSE!! I’LL KILL YOU, YOU FUCKING DUMB ASS!! IF YOU LOVE , ME KILL ME!!”
    She turned to storm out and saw Mrs. Kulwaski standing there. She had a look of pity mixed with horror. Jessica looked back to Colt then to Mrs. Kulwaski, “I’m sorry” Jessica ran to her