บท 8: Chapter 8
Paul, upon entering his bedroom, grasped the door handle, attempting to open it. Instead, he heard a loud snapping sound. The handle remained in his hand, and the door fell from its hinges, crashing to the ground.
His sisters, who were lounging inside, heard the commotion and saw the door splinter and collapse, striking the floor with a resounding thud.
"Shit," Paul cursed, staring blankly at the door handle in his hand and the shattered door on the floor.
Madison rushed in quickly to see what had happened. Alicia and Claire swiftly got up to check if their brother was hurt. Seeing it was Paul, they asked, "What happened?" all at once, their faces etched with worry as they looked at the door and then at him.
Seeing their concerned expressions, Paul quickly tried to defuse the situation. "I'm okay, I'm okay, don't worry. I don't know what happened. I just tried to open the door, and it ended up like this." He tried to reassure them, a confused look on his face.
"How is that even possible?" Claire asked, amazement in her voice and eyes wide open, looking at him and the door.
Madison looked at the door, worry etched on her face. She intuitively thought of the blood on his abdomen earlier. "Maybe the hinges were rusty and just gave way," Paul offered, trying to find a logical explanation, but he knew he was bullshitting his way out of the situation.
Alicia examined the hinges and the handle, seeing no rust. This made her more worried than alarmed at his strength. "Paul! Is something wrong with you?"
"Yeah, Paul, start explaining. Also, why are you only in your pants, with blood on them, and your pistol tucked in the back?" Claire observed him more carefully now, her voice laced with worry.
Paul sighed, realizing that talking shit wouldn't make them drop the subject easily. "I... I think I'm okay."
"What do you mean by that, Paul?" Madison asked, now worried and fearful that something had happened to him. Alicia and Claire remained silent but wore the same concerned expression as their mother, waiting for his answer.
"I'm not exactly sure how to answer that because I myself don't know the answer," Paul replied, only confusing them more than they already were.
"Look, this is the thing," Paul said, entering the room as he stepped over the door, and embraced his sisters close to his body before kissing them for a moment under their bewildered looks. "I was just not long ago, ball deep inside Mom's pussy." Madison's eyes widened, and she blushed a deep red.
"Alright... You fucked Mom again, congrats, but what does that have to do with this?" Alicia asked, pointing to the door, saying the obvious situation at hand.
"Well, it has something to do with that, I believe." Paul smiled, seeing their reactions. He rested his hands on their bubbly ass and squeezed, making them blush. "After I left you two to rest, I went out for water. After all, we fucked like animals back there," Paul said smugly, applying more pressure as he caressed their asses.
"Then here comes the trouble. I saw Mom going into the garage with a large bolt cutter and a worried look, so I decided to follow her, thinking something was wrong. I grabbed my pistol and followed her, wearing just my pants, as fast as I could." Paul gestured to his nearly naked state.
Madison, embarrassed, blushed more deeply as she explained. "I was trying to see what was happening outside. Chris saw something with the binoculars from the roof in the distance, and all this weird stuff in the safe zone and outside made me worried, so I wanted to investigate."
"Well, here's the thing. She fucked up doing that, and I'm glad I saw her just in time when she was leaving the house. I followed her as she bypassed a patrol, cut the fence, and ran into the city. I did the same, following closely behind her. The path was rocky and hurt like hell, cutting all my fucking feet, but I sucked it up and kept going.
"I lost sight of her but found her again on the main street, looking at bodies on the ground before hiding. I did the same, given her reaction. There was a death squad of soldiers checking the bodies in the streets. Luckily for us, the Humvee covering them moved in another direction.
"They were shooting and burning any suspicious body, but they weren't just taking care of the infected. They were after anyone outside the safe zone. Mom, hiding under a truck, almost got found by one of them. Having no choice, I just killed them all."
"After she got out from under the car, she saw blood on me. A little scared, I touched the spot and applied pressure, thinking I might be bleeding out but not feeling it because of the adrenaline. But I found no wound, so I thought it was the soldier's blood when I picked up his weapon," Paul recounted, still a bit shaken at the thought of having been shot and not feeling it. It was more worrisome than knowing; at least then you could try to stop the bleeding. Not knowing you were bleeding out was terrifying.
"We came back into the safe zone, and Mom pulled me into Susan's house where she checked me. We found nothing, no wound on my body. At the time, I didn't think about it, but my feet didn't hurt anymore. I was just concentrating on the situation with Mom being safe, and I got horny as Mom made a few moves on me. It all ended with me fucking her senseless."
"Then we came back, and now this happened." Paul shrugged, not really explaining what had occurred.
"Mom!!" Alicia and Claire exclaimed, terrified at the thought of Paul possibly getting shot and also nearly killed. They frantically examined his body for any signs of injury. Finding nothing, they left their brother's embrace and ran to their mother, scared that she too had almost been killed.
"Why are you so reckless, Mom?!" Alicia reproached loudly, scared at the thought of almost losing her mother.
"What a stupid thing to do, Mom. Alicia is right. You did that without thinking about what could happen. The first thing the soldiers said when they came was not to leave the safe zone, and you just went and did that," Claire chastised, her voice angry.
Madison couldn't say anything because her daughters were right, so instead, she started thinking about the situation at hand, still worried about Paul. She took his hand and made him sit on the bed, then started checking his feet. They were fine, with no scratches or cuts.
"There's nothing," Madison said, wonder in her voice.
"Yeah, I thought so. I have suspicions that it's the Wildfire Virus, that is latent in all of us doing something on me. We know, thanks to the World Health Organization, that it does something after its infected host dies ending in the body becoming those things. Maybe my body responds differently to the virus and it's doing something in my body, changing me while still alive." Paul looked with a wondering look, but inside he just kept bullshitting more and more with half-truths, trying to make something reasonable of what was happening.
Madison now looked more convinced that the blood before wasn't from the soldier's but his getting shot, after checking his feet, but somehow, he healed inhumanely fast. She was terrified at the thought of him being shot because of her and thankful that whatever was happening it saved him.
The sisters had a wondering look on their faces at this fantasy history that was happening in front of them, but also distressed at the events. "Maybe, fucking Mom gave you powers," Claire joked at the absurd situation.
"It could be," Paul smirked. Then he went to a nightstand and carefully pulled out a hunting knife. He tried not to use much force and scratched his hand, drawing a little blood before the wound closed as quickly as it had appeared. They all watched in amazement, wondering if they could be like him, but no one tried anything. They took his palm and touched it in wonder, looking at the blood on the knife.
"So weird. How are you feeling?" Alicia asked, seeing nothing out of the ordinary.
"I'm good, same as always. Well, maybe a little better. Just fucked, so more happy?" Paul replied after a moment of thought.
Then Paul picked a dumbbell and tried deforming it, easily it became a lump of scrap, to his amazement and theirs.
"We can't tell anybody about this. It's too dangerous. They're killing people, infected or not. What could they do to Paul if they knew this?" Madison said, worried, Daniel's warning and story still fresh in her mind.
"We're not stupid, Mom. We know this isn't normal, and we're not as reckless," Claire argued.
"Well, in any case, I'm good. So stop worrying. If I feel bad, you'll be the first to know. Let's drop it," Paul reassured them again. "And now, where is Nick?"
"I was about to look for him before this happened. Daniel's warning scared me a little. Baby, clean yourself up and try to repair that door. I'll go look for Nick."
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An hour later, after showering and changing the door hinges while carefully testing the amount of force he used, Paul thought that maybe unconsciously, his body was controlling his strength when he touched his girls, as he luckily hadn't harmed them.
Paul rested between his sisters on the bed as they embraced him tightly. They showed him Susan's suicide note, which they had taken from her house when they sneaked in at some point. It read:
"Patrick, if you find this, I'm sorry. If you find this, I love you. I saw something today, something that horrified me. At first, I thought it was unnatural. I thought it was an aberration. But I was wrong. What I saw was prophesied. What I saw was godly. And I think it's overdue. I wish you were here, but I will see you soon. And you will hold me. If you find this, I'm sorry. If you find this, I love you."
Paul read it and then said, "That's just the ravings of an old woman who can't comprehend what she saw. She's associating it with something more grand than it is. There's nothing to look into here—just someone dying and something else using the remains left behind. You know what happens when you see the eyes of a living being taking its last breath? The spark of life fades away, and the body shuts down. What we see nowadays is nothing more than a moving husk."
He continued, "I will never let anything like that happen to any of you, Mom, or even Nick while I still breathe."
Then he tried to change the heavy topic and make small talk. "You know, unfortunately, our bad luck struck at the worst time. You know I started working from home a few months ago, right? That's because I no longer needed to go out to work the jobs I was doing before. Can you believe it? I—and all of us, for that matter—were already rich. Since last week, my investments have been worth over 15 million dollars. In fact, we've been rich since last year, but I kept investing the money and only took what we needed for the household, your college tuition, and to help Mom with anything she required."
"We're rich, yet we haven't been able to enjoy a moment of that fortune because of this damn apocalypse. I had everything planned for us: a luxurious life where we could have anything we wanted. This money was just the start. In the next few years, I could have accumulated enough wealth for ten lifetimes for all of us, so that none of us would ever have to work again."
"Now, everything is gone. We face a hard world and a hard life ahead. But I believe it won't be like this forever. At some point, we must believe that things will get better. And if they don't, I will pave the way for it to get better—even if it's just for our family."
Paul kept chatting with his sisters as they cuddled and rested for a while. They showed him the cute tattoos they made of a 'P' inside a heart on their forearms, making him horny seeing them marked with his initial. They did the same to him, tattooing their initials on each of his arms. After that, they continued chatting casually until dinner. At some point, Alicia left for the bathroom, and they heard Nick and Alicia talking loudly outside the bedroom.
"Go away. Go away," Nick said, his voice distressed.
"What happened to your face?" Alicia asked, trying to enter the bathroom.
"Knock, for Christ's sake! Go away!" Nick said angrily.
"Nick! Let me in!" Alicia insisted.
"What's going on?" Travis appeared, wondering about the noise.
"Nick! What happened?" Travis asked from behind the door.
"Travis, stop. Let me handle this," Alicia said, knowing Nick wouldn't let them in, especially with Travis asking. He was, after all, just a friend of the family.
"Let me just... I've got it, okay?" Alicia said, sending Travis away.
"Okay," Travis resigned.
"Nick? He's gone. Come on. Let me in. Do you want me to get Mom?" Alicia said, knowing what to say to make Nick open the door. He hastily opened it for her and Claire.
"Who did that to you? Are you okay? Do you want to talk about it?" Alicia asked after seeing his face.
But Nick just crumbled a little and didn't say anything. "Hey, hey, it's okay. It's okay," Alicia said, supporting her brother.
Not long after, a group of soldiers arrived in trucks and Humvees with .50 cal machine guns pointed at the house. Liza and Dr. Bethany Exner were with them. Inside the bedroom, Paul quickly dressed when he heard the commotion outside. He saw soldiers carrying Daniel's wife, Griselda, on a stretcher, with Liza at her side.
"This is good. This is good," Liza said.
"Okay, come on. Alright," she said after checking Griselda's condition. "Careful." Liza continued as the soldiers carried her outside the house.
"I don't know how long we will be out," Daniel said to his daughter, Ofelia, as he prepared to go with the soldiers and his wife.
"What the hell is going on?" Travis asked, confused about what was happening and grumpy because of his finished relationship.
Madison also appeared from another side, disconcerted by the situation. "Hey! Whoa! Hey, hey. What's all this?" Travis asked after a soldier pointed a gun at him.
Paul was with his sisters and Nick in the hallway. "Hey, what's the need to point guns at us? We're unarmed and not hostile," Paul said to the group's leader.
"Don't disturb our work and incite the people, young man. We're just following protocol. Step aside and let us do our job. The quicker we do it, the faster we'll leave," the sergeant said, with soldiers inside pointing their guns at him.
Paul saw the risky situation and didn't say anything more, especially with the menacing machine guns pointed at the house in their front yard.
"If we don't get Griselda to the base hospital where she can receive better treatment and be monitored at all times, she'll lose a foot. You're in the way," Liza said to Travis, trying to de-escalate the situation.
"Alright. Okay," Travis stepped aside.
"Alright, step..." Liza instructed the soldier carrying Griselda.
"Sir, I'll need you to wait," a sergeant stopped Daniel as he tried to follow his wife.
"No, that's okay. That's his wife," Madison spoke up for Daniel.
"I have two names," the sergeant said.
"Griselda Salazar, Daniel Salazar," Daniel tried to explain.
"No, not you. Nicholas Clark," the sergeant said after checking a clipboard.
"What?" Madison said, bewildered.
"Come on, man, free medical care from the U.S. military," a soldier said, pointing at Nick. Before they could grab him, Paul knocked the soldier out with an elbow.
"Run," Alicia said.
A few other soldiers ran after Nick while others stayed to pin down Paul, also hitting him in retaliation. Claire and Alicia tried to push them away.
"Alicia, Claire, stop. Let them do it. Just stay at the side," Paul said, not daring to make any wrong moves with the soldiers pointing their guns at everyone.
"That's a mistake. That's a mistake," Madison hysterically yelled at the soldiers as they grabbed Nick.
"Nick!" Claire and Alicia screamed.
"Wait, wait! Hey!" Madison tried to stop them but was also met with guns pointed at her.
"No, no!" Madison cried out.
"Take it easy! Take it easy!" Travis said, also with a gun pointed at him.
"No, don't you hurt him! Nick!" Madison saw the soldiers hit Nick.
"Back off. Back off, ma'am," a soldier blocked her way as two others carried Nick out.
"No! He's not sick." Madison desperately told them.
"What's going on?" Chris asked, appearing and seeing the situation.
"Hey, hey, hey!" Ofelia said, seeing a soldier push Daniel to the ground after he tried to get past them to go to his wife.
"Whoa! Easy! Take it easy," Travis said, putting himself between a soldier pointing at Chris.
"Step back!" the soldier ordered Travis.
"What are you doing?" Travis yelled, seeing the soldier point at his son.
"Take it easy, man, he's a kid. It's an old man and a kid. What are you doing? This is our home," Travis said.
"What are you doing, man?" Meanwhile, Nick tried to reason with the soldiers outside the house as they forcefully pulled him away.
"I didn't do anything," Nick said, confused, still trying to free himself.
"Get him in," the sergeant ordered, not answering anything.
"Let Nick stay. He's not a risk. I'll look after him, please," Liza said to Dr. Bethany Exner as she saw them detaining Nick as well.
"You said you wanted to help," Bethany said, diverting the conversation.
"Yeah, I do, yes, but..." Liza hesitated.
"Then get in the truck. We could use you at the hospital," Bethany said plainly.
"He knows me. Let me talk to Moyers," Travis still tried to reason with the soldiers.
"It doesn't matter," the sergeant dismissed him.
"Just let me talk to Moyers," Travis pleaded.
"No! No, Nick!" Madison was hysterical as they loaded Nick into the truck and were about to depart.
"I have a son. He needs me," Liza said to Bethany, who was already sitting in the truck with the soldiers.
"We'll come back for your son," Bethany misled her with false words.
"He's safe here for now. But Griselda, the others..." Bethany tried to appeal to her desire to be more than just a nurse. "They need you. I need you. Are you coming? Liza?"
"Mom?" Chris asked, confused about what his mother was doing with the doctor and the soldiers.
"Alright, clear out," the sergeant said after finishing their task.
"Mom?" Chris asked, doubting his eyes as Liza willingly got into the truck with the doctor and the soldiers.
"Where is he? Where did you take him? Where is he? No! Nick!" Madison asked the soldiers despairingly as they left.
"Fucking Liza and that cock-sucking doctor. See where it got us with her making herself look like a saint, helping the needy, doing shit in the house, and bringing only trouble," Paul said angrily to no one in particular before embracing his sisters to calm them down.
"Liza, she did this," Madison said, mad at Travis.
Travis was exhausted after the situation and the people blaming Liza for the troubles. "Chris?" he looked at his son, who had an angry face and silently left the living room.
"What are we gonna do now, Paul?" Claire asked.
"We need to do something, get Nick back," Alicia said.
Paul sighed and took a breath. "Calm down, both of you. Now we can't do anything, but I will get Nick back. I promise."
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