The Reaper Virus (Novella): Sarcophagus Read Free Page A

look at the sick man anymore. He’s a grown man… I’m sure he can
take care of himself. Read your book or talk to me. We’ll be there before you
know it.” The dazed beauty smiled and kissed her mommy on the cheek. Soon she
was lost in her book about ponies with neon hair.

 
    Chapter Four

 
    Their bus
eased out its way towards the parking lot entrance. From there they would take
a right-hand turn onto Woodlawn Avenue then another right onto Patterson
Avenue. After that the two vehicular mammoths will need to cut northbound on
one of the neighborhood streets to reach Monument Avenue. Once they make it
this far it will only be a few blocks before they can get on the Downtown
Expressway, head south across the James River then continue away from this
awful city. Most of the retreat members breathed a sigh of relief now that they
had begun moving. Movement was, in their minds, a sign that salvation was near.
They would be safe from the raging R33PR pandemic and the monsters it created.
At the retreat they would be able to enjoy a reprieve from news broadcasts
talking about the dead walking. Pastor Doug reassured them all that the spread
of such stories was more dangerous than the virus itself.

 
    Jessica
glanced at the little one to ensure that she was properly distracted. Her
daughter was blissfully lost in fluffy tales. The exhausted mother’s face
transformed then from masqueraded hope into its truthful verge of tears. She
peered over Ava’s head to see out the window as the bus made its turn onto
Woodlawn. The infected man wasn’t far from where she last saw him. He shuffled
along like a soldier marching towards surrender. In the last seconds before
view of him was blocked by the turn, Jess saw him stop. She imagined the sound
of his face-first plunge was loud enough to echo. A nearby bird was startled
from its perch by the quick slap of bloodied clothing punctuated by the
sickening crack of his sorrowed eyes meeting the pavement.

 
    “Hey
Mommy…” said Ava from behind the wall created by her storybook.

 
    A scowl
inevitably formed from hearing the girl’s tone of voice. “Baby please don’t tell me you need to use the
potty already. I asked you to go before we left the apartment.” Immediately she
felt bad for being so cross with the little one but those words said in such a
way almost always means ‘ I have to pee! ’.

 
    The
unprovoked impatience shown by the young mother was countered with a fat lip
that would melt the heart of Satan himself. “ Mom- mee ! I went at home when you asked me
to and I WASN’T going to say that.
Can you…” She became sheepish then. Her eyes found their way out the window and
saw a woman sitting on a porch as the charter buses passed. The lonely-looking
lady wore a funny looking white dress with red polka dots and no jacket in the
cool morning air. Her silly dress made Ava smile but the woman on the porch
looked so sad. Her head followed the pair of giant vehicles as they went by.
“Can you please ask the driver if I can stand up by him to look out the front?
The bus is really high up and I was thinking it would be a good idea to see
from there.”

 
    Jess
followed the girl’s eyes as her attention drifted outside their bubble of
safety. She too noticed the woman sitting on the porch. Even a momentary glance
from a moving vehicle painted enough of a picture of this woman to see that
she’d been through hell. Dim morning light reflected off of a tearful sheen
that dripped down her face. She sat three steps down from the top of a brick
staircase leading to an old house with its door opened. Her posture indicted a
person who suffered under the weight of defeat. A once snow-white dress was
stained with crimson spatter. These tainted polka dots irregularly painted a
grisly origin; their directionality showed flight from the area of the woman’s
right side. The buses had almost entirely passed by the time Jessica put the
pieces together and recognized