Virals

CHAPTER 42

Coop nipped my fingers, wanting to play. Not a good time. I’d just spilled my guts. About everything.

Well, almost.

“So that’s what happened. At least, that’s what I remember.”

“You could see patterns on the fly’s wings?” Shelton asked. “From across the house?”

“And a billion little lenses making up its eye.”

“That beats my attack.” Shelton’s sport coat rested on his lap. I’d been afraid of losing the boys if they went inside to change. “My vision blurred, so I took my glasses off. Whammo: 20/20. For a few seconds, anyway.”

“I felt normal until yesterday,” Ben said. “Then it hit me like a freight train. No sonic hearing or super-smells, just weird cravings. Impulses. And my mind scrambles.”

“Anything else?” I asked.

“At times, my limbs feel like they’re on fire. When the burning fades, I’m strong, like I could blast through walls.” He shook his head. “Then I throw up, pass out, it all goes bad.”

“I’ll take that over my symptoms,” Hi said. “I can’t leave the throne for more than a few minutes. And I must’ve fainted at least twenty times.” He pointed at me. “You talk about smells? I got slammed while eating cream cheese. I’ll never touch the stuff again.”

Without question, Hi had been the sickest. He’d suffered every misery imaginable.

“It’s like I was food-poisoned while suffering from malaria and poison ivy,” Hi grumbled. “And brain fever. And get this. From my roof deck, I watched a mouse creep through the grass on the common. I could see his earwax from fifty yards out. Worst part was, I wanted to eat the little bugger.” Hi rubbed his forehead. “Just for a second, though! I swear!”

“I understand. Raw hamburger, remember?” I shuddered. “And you saw me try to snatch Herbie.”

Hi nodded.

Though I kept a brave face, inside I shivered. Hi’s story reminded me of the one thing I hadn’t disclosed.

I wasn’t ready to talk about golden eyes.

“Sometimes I hear the smallest noises.” Shelton tugged one earlobe. “Yesterday morning, the freaking power lines woke me up. I could hear the electricity. And the fits burst on and off without warning. Just a pop in my head, then bang!” Pause. “I’m getting tired of blacking out.”

Silence crammed the bunker.

I pushed to my feet. Resolved to put it out there.

“We’ve caught a disease.”

Hi and Shelton slumped. Ben tensed, fingers curled into fists.

“There’s no point kidding ourselves,” I went on. “Each of us had different experiences, but our symptoms are too similar to ignore.”

I ticked off points by raising fingers. “Fatigue. Headache. Nausea. Fever. Congestion. Hot flashes. Cold sweats. Spiking pains.”

“Blackouts,” said Hi. “It all comes back to the blackouts.”

Ben and Shelton nodded.

“Blackouts,” I agreed, only one finger still curled to my palm. “And what they trigger. Our senses go into overdrive. It’s like our minds snap briefly, then get ... confused.”

Can’t say crazy. Or primal. Not yet.

“I’ve never heard of anything like this,” said Ben.

“And whatever it is, we can’t control it,” said Hi.

I hesitated. Once spoken, the next words could not be withdrawn.

“I think we caught something from Coop.”

Silence. Then, three voices at once.

“How is that possible?” Ben.

“You said we couldn’t catch parvo!” Shelton.

“We’re screwed!” Hi.

“I don’t know what happened. But Coop must be the vector; he’s our only common link.” I turned to Shelton. “Canine parvovirus can’t infect humans. I double-checked. It has to be something else.”

“What?’

“I don’t know. But we won’t panic.” I tried to sound confident. “It may not be serious.”

“Do you even have a guess?” Shelton asked.

“No,” I admitted. “I won’t lie. I’ve never heard of anything resembling our condition. Whatever we’ve caught must be extremely rare.”

“Great,” Hi said. “A magical mystery virus. Lucky us! The very first Virals.”

“Karsten’s experiment.” Ben frowned. “The secret tests. We don’t know what he was doing.”

I nodded. “But we’re going to find out.”

The boys stared.

I soldiered on. “We should lay low for a few more days, get stronger. And keep our condition secret. I don’t think we’re contagious.”

“Why not?” Shelton looked skeptical.

“No one else has gotten sick, at home or at school. But let’s keep to ourselves just in case. If this thing is contagious, we don’t want to spread it.”

“Keep it secret?” Shelton’s voice rose even higher. “We could be dying!”

Gulp. Here goes.

“Karsten knows we stole Coop.”

“What!?” In chorus.

I told them about my interview. All of it. Karsten’s accusations. Why he’d questioned our health.

Three shocked faces.

“So we can’t see a doctor,” I said. “Karsten will be looking for that.”

“Why didn’t you say anything?” Ben sounded angry.

“I’m sorry. I didn’t want to cause panic. Besides, Karsten has no evidence.” Lame. I knew it.

Hi dropped his head.

Shelton opened his mouth.

I cut him off.

“Just hold out a few more days. If we don’t improve, we’ll get medical help. Promise.”

Shelton flashed a peace sign. “Two days. That’s it. Then I’m telling my mom.”

“Good enough.”

“Say we do recover.” Hi was looking from me to Shelton to Ben. “What then?”

I spoke with grim determination.

“Then we find out what the hell Karsten is up to.”