Brian Keene: Deluge: The Conqueror Worms II

Kevin scratched it, casually glancing down as he did.

And then he screamed.

* **

Sarah started back down the staircase, gripping the cold handrail tightly and moving slowly, mindful of slipping on the wet metal. She’d been hesitant to come outside again so soon after finally getting dry, but Kevin was obviously sicker than she’d thought, and getting the electricity on would only improve their situation. She was fairly certain that the small power station would be beyond her capabilities, but she was hopeful that the utility shed or one of the other shacks might hold a generator.

She reached the bottom and turned on the flashlight that she’d found in a toolbox while exploring upstairs. The batteries were weak. The dim beam did little to dispel the darkness and gloom. The rain fell too thick, and swirling clouds of mist blanketed everything. Sarah started forward, moving slowly, listening for the slightest indication that the worms were present.

The power station was—as she had feared—far to complex for her technical capabilities. Her hopes completely died when she peeked inside the utility shed. It didn’t have a generator, but she did note the rest of its contents—a lawn tractor, wagon, cans of gasoline and kerosene, bits of lumber, rolls of fencing, metal posts, and various tools, including several hefty axes, shovels, and pick-axes.

Disappointed, she started back up the stairs. Thunder boomed overhead again, though distant this time. There was no lightening—or if there was, she couldn’t see it through the perpetual haze. When the thunder ended, the night seemed to quiet down again. Just the constant drone of the rain, and her plodding footsteps on the stairs. And then, surprisingly, an owl, somewhere in the night. It scared her so badly that she almost dropped the flashlight. Sarah couldn’t remember the last time she’d heard an owl. Just the whippoorwills back at Teddy’s house.

Steadying herself after the brief fright, Sarah started up the stairs again.

And then she heard a scream.

She didn’t recognize it at first, nor could she tell where it was coming from. It was only when a second scream followed it moments later that Sarah realized it was Kevin.

She ran up the stairs, heedless of the slippery conditions, or the unwanted attention her sudden noise might attract. She burst through the station’s door, rain streaming from her clothes, and glanced around the circular room in panic.

Kevin knelt on the floor, clad only in a pair of boxer shorts. In one hand, he clenched a long, metal file; he must have grabbed it from one of the toolboxes. He was using the tool to scrape away the flesh on the back of his other hand. His lips were drawn back in a terrible grimace, and he moaned through clenched teeth. Sweat dripped from his bare skin. Blood welled up from the ruined flesh as he dashed the file back and forth.

Kevin looked up and their eyes met in mid-shriek.

“What are you doing?” Sarah ran towards him.

“Get the fuck back,” he warned. “Stay over there!”

“Kevin, what is it? What’s wrong?”

“It’s just like back in Baltimore. Remember? We saw people infected with it?”

“With what? What are you talking about?”

“That white fuzz, Sarah. It’s growing on my hand…”

CHAPTER 9

Clenching his teeth, Kevin furiously worked the file back and forth, scraping more skin from his hand. Shreds of flesh peeled away and blood streamed from the wound, running down his wrist and forearm and splattering onto the floor in quarter-sized drops. He didn’t scream or wail. The only sound he made was a determined groan.

“Kevin, stop it!”

Shrugging out of her wet coat and tossing it onto the floor, Sarah ran towards him.

“Get back,” he warned. “Just stay over there.”

Sarah stopped in her tracks. The file slipped from Kevin’s fingers and clattered onto the floor. With his good hand, he gripped the wrist of his wounded hand and squeezed. The skin turned white.

“Look at your hand, Kevin. You’re sick. Not thinking straight. You—”

“I know I’m sick. That’s the fucking point, Sarah. I’ve got that white shit, just like the people back in Baltimore. You remember what happened to them? It grew over their entire bodies—turned them into drones. They ended up going down to the water and taking root.”

“But—”

“I’m not going out like that. It’s not going to happen to me. Not after everything that’s happened. I mean, what’s the fucking point? Jimmy is dead. Lori. Salty and Mindy and Juan. Taz and Ducky and all the others. Probably Teddy and Carl, too. But we’re still alive, right? That means something. That counts. The world is flooding and there’s giant worms and vampire mermaids and weird cults and giant, squid-headed fucks that crawl out of the ocean—and we’ve survived them all! We’re alive. There has to be a point to that. There has to be a reason. It’s the end of the god-damned world but we’re still alive. I didn’t face all that shit just to die from some fucking fungus. That doesn’t make any sense.”

Tears streamed down Kevin’s cheeks. He took a deep breath and shuddered.

“It doesn’t make any sense,” he repeated. “It just doesn’t make sense. Why?”

“I know.” Sarah tiptoed towards him and tried to keep her voice calm and soothing. “But you’re not going to die. We caught it in time. All we have to do is—”

Sneering, Kevin snatched up the file and waved it at her. “I said to get back, Sarah. I’m not kidding. You get too close, you’ll get infected.”

She opened her mouth to argue, but then just shook her head. Her shoulders sank in defeat. Deep inside, Sarah knew that he was right. They didn’t know for sure how the white fuzz was transmitted, but they both suspected it was through physical contact. She remembered seeing the bruises on his hand when she’d changed him, and tried to remember if she’d actually touched them or not.

“Did you… did you get it all?” She nodded at his bleeding hand.

“I think so. Jesus, it’s really starting to fucking hurt. But it doesn’t itch anymore. I’m not thirsty. So yeah, I think I got it all.”

“We’ve got to get you bandaged up.”

“I’ll do it,” Kevin moaned. Clearly, the pain was getting stronger. “Find me the stuff and slide it over here. But don’t touch me.”

“I won’t.”

“How did I end up in a Forest Ranger’s uniform, anyway?”

“I changed you while you were unconscious.”

“Fuck! What the hell were you thinking, Sarah?”

“Well, I didn’t know then, did I?”

“You’re right. I’m sorry. I’m just freaked out, you know?”

Sarah nodded, biting her lip.

“We’ll need to disinfect everything in here,” Kevin said. “The bed, the floor—everything I’ve touched. We should burn my clothes and the mattress.”

With the initial shock fading, Sarah now felt numb. She searched through the station’s storage compartments until she found the first aid supplies. In addition to a bottle of Advil, she grabbed a roll of gauze, some bandages, medical tape, and a bottle of hydrogen peroxide and sat them down near Kevin, making sure they were within reach. She noticed that his entire hand was now red. She opened the Advil and shook out a handful of capsules. She sat those within his reach, as well.

“You won’t be able to touch this stuff when I’m done with it,” he warned.

“I know. That’s why I opened the painkillers for you. There’s more peroxide and stuff over there, so we won’t have to worry about that.”

While Kevin bandaged his wound, ripping the gauze and tape with his teeth, Sarah retrieved the station’s cleaning supplies. She found disinfectant cleaner, a mop and bucket, rags, rubber gloves, and a bottle of bleach. She also discovered a pack of disposable respirator masks—the kind people wore when they had the flu or used to avoid hazardous fumes. She took one out of the package and slid it onto her face. The rubber-band strap pulled her wet hair. She winced in pain, and then felt guilty about it. Her discomfort was nothing compared to the agony that Kevin was obviously feeling.