Darkness swirls around Ashleigh as she opens her eyes. Her chest feels like someone is sitting on it, making it hard for her to breathe.
How did it come to this?
God was supposed to take everyone who hadn't sinned before releasing the rapture. Why had he left her behind?
A garbled voice muffles her eardrums. "Lee?"
It comes back to her at once; her father, the fire, her friends. She opens her eyes fully, trying to adjust to the darkness.
"Thank God you're awake." That was Raya.
"We were so worried about you," Shannon murmurs.
Her vision is still blurry and her entire body screams as she sits up. How could she forget about the sacrifice her father tried to make?
"I'm alive?" she asks, her voice gravelly.
"Well, you're not going to believe this," Raya mutters. "But a Sarj pulled you out."
For a moment, she's confused until she remembers the demons her father tried to control. One bite from one of those demons would mean that you turn into one. Shannon believes that it's the final stage of the SARJ virus, the virus which ignited the apocalypse. Bite four Unbitten and three Bitten to reach... something. Her mind is too fuzzy to remember the finer details.
"How are you feeling, Lee?" Shannon asks her softly.
"Everything hurts, and I don't like how dark it is. How long was I asleep?"
The fuzzy blobs of her friends appear to look at each other, but she can't be sure.
"Lee, it's the middle of the day. The sun is out," Raya explains.
"No... everything is so dark. You're both fuzzy."
"Looks like the smoke damaged her eyesight," A male voice grunts.
Ashleigh knows it’s Dan, the extra member of their group they picked up on the way to the town. As he had shown numerous times in the past, he only cared about the safety of Raya rather than the whole group.
"It’s probably temporary," Raya snaps at him. "She's been through a lot."
"So have you."
"Enough. I'm not telling you again."
Even without her sight, Ashleigh can sense the tension in the air. She doesn’t understand why Dan is still here. Raya has made it clear over and over that he wasn't welcome.
Why did he keep coming back?
"Where are we?" Ashleigh asks, feeling wooden floorboards on her fingertips.
"The church," Raya explains. "It was close and kept everyone away from the smoke."
"Where's Lord Warren?"
"He ran off," Shannon explains simply.
A part of her feels disappointed that her father would leave like that, but the other half isn't surprised. He was willing to sacrifice her to appease his followers, after all.
"What's the plan now?" Dan jumps in.
"We need to go back to town," Raya says. "You can do whatever, as long as it's away from us."
"Yeah, we need to find Jen," Shannon adds.
Jenna is Shannon's ex-girlfriend, who disappeared before they were captured by Warren. The only reason they were wandering around was that they were looking for her. Despite not liking her much, Ashleigh did hope that she was safe.
"But we're back where we started," Dan whines.
"You don't have to come with us. In fact, just don't," Raya snaps.
Dan obviously pretends he hasn't heard her. "Maybe we could take one of the trucks? That will cut the journey down."
"We're going to town, not another country," Raya replies wryly. "We don't need a car."
"You will if you want to get there quickly," he mumbles.
"Maybe we should use a car," Shannon says softly. "Weren't you learning how to drive?"
"I had two lessons," Raya explains with a sigh. "If I drive, we're all going to end up at the bottom of a ditch."
"I bet we won't!" Dan announces, scrambling to his feet. "I'll find one for us!"
Little stomps on the church floor let Ashleigh know he is leaving. She can hear the light scratching of Raya's nail against the floorboard, an almost silent way of letting everyone know she's frustrated.
"We could sneak out while he's not looking," Raya suggests.
"That would be mean, Rai," Ashleigh counters.
"And the way he's treated you and Shan isn't mean?"
"I'm sure he'll make up for his past behaviour."
"More like his current behaviour," Shannon mutters.
"Maybe he'll get better in time. We owe him a chance."
"We owe him nothing,” Raya growls back.
Ashleigh decides it’s better to be quiet. God would want them to give Dan a chance to atone for his mistakes, and she would give him one, even if no one else would.
"I found keys!" Dan runs back into the room, metal jingling in his hands. "We can go now!"
Raya sighs irritably. "If we die because I can't drive, it’s your fault."
***
Jenna loses count of the hours she spent in the closet. Although from the noises outside, it’s clear that the Unbitten have either been infected or escaped, she didn't want to chance it. There's been a lot of panicked voices on the other side and the thrum of feet on the carpet.
I think most of the carnage is over.
Her breath catches in her throat as she reaches the doorknob, only to hear footsteps on the other side. Several people pause outside the door, their shadows creeping up the walls.
"Found anyone else?" a male voice thrums.
"No, I think everyone still in the building is downstairs. B is calling a meeting."
"Why?"
"I dunno. I guess we've got some changes to make around here."
Jenna frowns at the news. She hoped that B had been killed, or at least infected when she set Erice, B's daughter, loose on the Unbitten faction. They had kicked her out, so she got her revenge. A Bot she used to distract guards had killed a few people as well, which was the icing on the cake.
"Come on. Let's go before we get reprimanded."
The footsteps echo as the people disappear down the hallway. Jenna sucks in a breath and opens the door a crack. Light spills into the closet as she peeks her head out. Bloody handprints litter the walls, and there are a few stains on the floors. Apart from that, nothing has changed.
Gingerly, Jenna steps out and silently shuts the door behind her. She can hear the murmurs of people downstairs and inwardly curses at the fact that it's her only exit. Creeping across the floor like a cat, she makes her way to the stairs, the voices getting louder and angrier.
She can only catch snippets of the shouting. "Bitten... Gone... Need to..." After everything that's happened, they’re probably trying to form a plan.
I bet now they really regret letting me go!
The first step creaks under her weight, making her pull her foot back. Luckily as she's a few floors up and drowned out by shouting, she isn't heard as she continues to descend the stairwell.
There's more blood on the stairs, dripping from the rails onto the carpets below. Jenna wonders why there’s so much blood, seeing as it only takes a single bite to pass the infection on.
Maybe some people got bitten more than once?
Once she gets on the second floor, she has to stifle a gasp at the sight before her. A Halo-O Bot is in pieces, smashed syringes surrounding its white body. It’s covered in claw marks and dents of all sorts. There's more blood pooled around the Bot, and Jenna realises it must have killed more people than she initially thought.
The Bots attack the infected and killed by injecting them with some sort of liquid. But if an Unbitten gets in the way, they won't hesitate to kill them too.
Still, an injection doesn't cause that much blood...
Cheer from below brings her back to the stairs, ignoring the broken body of the Bot. Slowly, she heads down the creaky steps, trying not to get too close.
"...we are one and the same now, we shouldn't fight them any longer!"
"We shall not fight against them anymore! We are Bitten now, and we will continue to survive."
Shit.
She hadn't even thought of the possibility of so many Bitten being left behind. The Bot was supposed to kill them all, not leave several to add more infection to the world.
"Once the injured have recovered, I will apologise for the initial attacks. We only did what we thought was necessary to protect ourselves. Do not feel ashamed."
Jenna's mind flicks back to the amount of blood everywhere. They had attacked each other after all.
Someone shouts a question, but she can't really hear over the multitude of cheers.
This was supposed to tear them apart, not bring them together!
"If we see Jenna or her group again, we will kill them. I had initially hoped she would be an asset due to her experience with fighting Bitten, but now I see that she is just a murderer."
Murderer? More like a protector of Unbitten!
How dare he compare her to some low-life killer? Would he rather that a whole group of Bitten were just wandering the streets? He shared her view that the Bitten should be wiped out!
But now he is one of them...
She feels bile rise in her throat. He wouldn't hesitate to infect her now. No matter what, she couldn't allow herself to get infected. Using all her courage, she peers through the stair rails at the people below. There are at least twenty of them, several of his group are now missing.
Or dead.
"None of this would have happened if you hadn't brought your daughter here!" someone jeers at B.
She can just about see B from this angle, surrounded by the mob of people in the hallway. "My daughter is dead now. Haven't I been punished enough?"
"No!" someone else cries. "My children are infected because of you!"
"Enough, they may be infected, but your daughter can now walk! She couldn't do that before the infection!"
"It healed us!" another person hollers. "We should be thankful that we got infected in the first place and not killed!"
Several people agree, cheering along with the people standing up for B. Jenna bites back a scream of disapproval. How could they be grateful for being infected? This has ruined their lives!
While they're all distracted with fighting amongst themselves, Jenna makes a run for the door, letting it slam behind her. She doesn't even bother to look back as the screaming dies down.
Cold air buffets her face as she hares down the streets, taking as many shortcuts as possible so they won't be able to follow. She wasn't going to let them infect her now. Eventually, her legs scream out for her to stop, and she presses herself against a shop window, her chest and gills heaving with each breath. She recognises the orange pavement of Mood Street, feeling relieved that she's managed to get far away from the new Bitten group.
Her plan hadn't worked out as well as she'd hoped. The virus was supposed to drive them apart, not closer together. Had it all been for nothing?
No. The look on B's face was worth it.
Still, she was upset that she had managed to create more Bitten. She wanted to wipe the virus out, not let it grow. With one last look over her shoulder, she heads towards the path that would get her out of the city.
***
That’s it for chapter one! Keep an eye on my social media and blog so you know when Celestial Plague #2: Heaven is available for pre-order. That’s it for this week, next week I’ll be talking about a book award that Mute and Years have won. See you next week.
PS; don’t forget to check out these book bundles:
