A final glance at the boy’s picture suffocated Nick’s reverie. The hero flying through the sky wore all black with inky streaks of tattoo lines decorating his arms.
Everyone thinks you’re some hero, but you’re nothing but a coward.
His father’s callous words smeared the walls of his mind like vomit, coating him in doubt. Nick thanked the doctor and sawhimself out of the room. Down the hall, Nick lowered himself to the floor in a dizzy trance.
Nothing but a coward, Nick. Nothing but a coward… nothing but a coward.
He pressed his palms to his forehead and took deep breaths while he worked to unclench his jaw. All of the failures threatened to burst through the barricade Nick had built.
“I’m a good man,” Nick whispered Kate’s words to himself.
“Who are you talking to?”
Nick’s head shot up at the sound of the small voice. Dr. Chamberlain’s son stood in front of him holding that damned picture with his head tilted curiously to one side.
“I just…”
“I drew this for you.” The boy held out the drawing. The gory pile of bodies. The fluttering cape, full of holes that only Nick could see. With a quivering hand, Nick accepted the piece of paper. The boy smiled at him: full of hope, longing, and expectation; it made Nick nauseous.
“Thank you. I really like the… blood.” Nick’s gaze poured over the paper as though he were intently interested in the artwork. In truth, he had pinpointed a blank space on the page and was focusing on it to fight back the tears threatening to expose his weakness. He had seen all he needed of the drawing.
“My name is Adam. My dad says we’re the same. Were you really infected? I don’t remember being infected. Do you?”
As guilt set in, Nick pulled his gaze away from the boy’s picture and met his doey, youthful eyes. Nick had little experience with children. Without siblings, he had no nieces or nephews to spoil, no young cousins in his family.
What untroubled things could Nick say to a boy whose life had been ripped away, who had become a monster and recovered only to live underground with adults who had no time for him?
Nick could tell Adam that he had been overtaken by a hungry anger—a rage so entrenched in his DNA that he itched to tear everyone apart. He could describe the way it felt to watch Kate stand there and witness him passing away. The hopelessness. The helplessness. The way he had never wanted anything more than to halt the changes in his body so that he could be with her.
Those were not things a hero would say.
“I don’t remember either but I hear we are stronger and faster. We still have all the good parts of the disease in us. We’re superheroes.” Nick forced his lips into a sly smile as he watched Adam’s eyes widen.
“You mean I could be a superhero, too?” Adam’s eyes widened with the delight only a child could manage. It ripped through Nick, the fact that the boy could maintain such sweet, naive innocence.
“You already are, buddy.”
Chapter 4
The streets outside the hospital were just as quiet as before, like stepping into an abyssal cave home to something insidious. The silence had transmuted into a tangible thing. A hungry thing. And any sound would wake the beast. A lack of noise used to accompany restfulness. Now, the silence was merely an intermission between nightmares.
The road from the hospital led to establishments like any other city the couple had traveled to: storefronts, gas stations, hotels, and restaurants. At the end of the street, a T-intersection displayed more businesses on either side and a shopping center in front of them.
As they suspected, a pharmacy sat amid the parking lot: lights extinguished, windows shattered, doors ripped open, and every drug picked clean from the shelves.
When they approached the inoperative front doors, an Infected lumbered through the opening. Its lurching gait carried it across the sidewalk out front, passing Nick without a second glance. Then, it paused. Black, searching eyes danced around asit seemed to smell fresh blood nearby. Nick quietly unsheathed his knife.
“Wait,” Kate whispered. The Infected’s eyes darted in her direction and widened the moment it heard her voice. “Shouldn’t we cure it?”
When the creature moved toward Kate, Nick placed a palm on its chest to halt its approach.
Nick looked the Infected over. One arm was torn at the elbow, connected only by rotten tendons and stringy muscle. The stomach of the monster was caved in, and its ribs poked through a shredded shirt. The Infected was shriveled with decay.
“Uh, sure,” Nick replied. Kate ignored the way his eyes squinted with uncertainty, and she opened his pack. She retrieved a needle and vial they had packed for the trip. After the syringe was filled, Nick held the Infected by its shoulders while Kate injected the antidote.
Once the syringe was emptied into its veins, they stood for a while, waiting to witness the transformation occur. It never came. Instead, the rotten creature gurgled with laughter. Kate threw the needle to the ground in frustration.
“Maybe it’s too far gone?” Nick suggested. Kate huffed in agreement and made a mental note to discuss the phenomenon with Dr. Chamberlain the moment they returned.
