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

the gore coated claw hammer held in the grieving
woman’s right hand.

 
    Ava
continued to plead her case as she turned back to face her mother. “ Pleeease Mommy! The bus driver man looks lonely.”

 
    She
didn’t realize how transfixed she’d become until Ava interjected the second
request. Her mind was reeling over the events of this morning. They just passed
by a woman who had likely been forced to commit some abominable unknown horror.
Minutes before they witnessed a man get denied salvation from a church group
then hit a pinnacle of desperation before losing his will to continue. The
signs of the end have been all around them for a week but it wasn’t until now
that Jessica allowed herself to see them. One way or another, she knew that
they would not be returning from this retreat.

 
    “No. I’m
sorry baby girl but no.” All she wanted to do was curl into a ball and accept
whatever was coming towards them but because of what sat beside her strength
could be the only option. “There aren’t any seat belts up there. I don’t want
to take the chance of getting the bus driver in trouble.”

 
    Her
little shoulders rose with a quick and dramatic sigh. “Ok, Mommy. I understand.
Can we read my story together?”

 
    “Of
course we can. Let’s just wait until we reach the highway. We don’t want to
finish all of your books before we even cross the river!” She faked a smile.

 
    It didn’t
take long for Ava to become lost once again in her picture book. Jessica
attempted to get a read on the other passengers without coming across as overly
nosey. Some of them were just as lost in reading material as her daughter. Many
had headphones over their ears attempting to fill the soundproofed void with
distraction. Others were doing exactly what Jessica was – appeasing
curiosity while trying not to express their worry. They glanced out the windows
or at each other. From the rear of the bus she could hear a woman gasp loudly
at something she witnessed outside. Her gasp immediately turned into a panic
until the man sitting next to her shot his arm high above her shoulders and
pulled her away from the window. Sobs became the only sound in the bus for a
moment. Then they were replaced by the man talking as he soothed her with his
sheltering embrace. “It’s ok. It is going to be okay. He has them now. God has
them now.”

 
    The roads
were as eerie as they were hazardous. This was a lull in the storm. Jessica
remembered seeing local roadways like this once before when Richmond took a
decent hit from a hurricane. She was stuck at work but decided to risk the
drive home during a brief dissipation in the previously relentless rain bands.
During the drive she couldn’t help but feel like the world was in a
transitional calamity. Roads were littered with debris and the occasional
abandoned car. Any traffic came from random passing vehicles with people
frantic to get to safety.

 
    Pedestrian
traffic moved with a similar purpose. The atmosphere was one of panic and fear.
Even if people didn’t know where they were going they knew that the open
streets were the last place they should be. Jessica replayed her memories of
reaching home during that storm and shuddered thinking about how bad the things
got that day. The only light in the memory was that of safely holding Ava. She
knew the strength that came from being in the presence of her most precious
accomplishment propelled them through it; so it must do the same during this
new storm.

 
    Random
disabled cars transformed the road into an unpredictable maze. The bus hummed
along undisturbed just long enough for the retreat members to forget this was
not a typical church trip. That peace abruptly ended as the bus would jerk and
swerve out of the way of some unseen threat. The unnerving turbulence started
occurring so often that the passengers stopped looking to see what was causing
the trouble. They became forcefully apathetic so long as the trouble