Free WorldLost- Week 1: An Infected Novel by Unknown Page A

work. We
were all going out today to celebrate Cindy’s birthday, so slim picking's.”
    “What happened at work today? Was it bad?” I asked, generally
interested in what his day was like. Of course, I winked and smiled at him.
    He smirked and began to tell me what happened to him since we
had parted ways last night.
    “I got up at my usual time this morning. I wasn’t feeling too
bad, I mean, since I only drank one drink for every two you had. Dude, you were
wasted.”
    “Yea, and who was responsible for me getting that drunk? From
what little I remember, there was always a drink in my hand and I remember that
you said you were buying.” I said to him, remembering that my credit card
balance was fucked.
    “Oh, yeah, about that….” He smiled and winked at me. “If we
ever get back to normal, if things go back to normal, you might notice a slight
increase on your credit card balance. Just saying.”
    “Might be the only good thing about what’s happening right now.
No more bills to worry about, I don’t have to look for a job and I don’t have
to answer to anyone but myself.” I laughed. It felt good to laugh a little
considering what was going on.
    “So, what happened?” I asked.
    “My walk to work wasn’t anything unusual. A few bizarre things
I saw on the street, but nothing that made me do a double take. I went to the
corner coffee shop, as usual, and got my daily caffeine shot. I grabbed a Twix
bar at the store in the lobby of the Blake Building and took the elevator up to
my floor. Just like every other day. I might have still been a little hung
over.”
    “I knew it! It wasn’t just me.” I laughed, turning on the
oven.
    “Nothing too weird happened the whole time, I mean now that I can reflect on it,
maybe I should have noticed something, but, dude, I was focused on getting to
work.”
    He looked at me and asked, “Can you hand me the bottle of
Jack in the cabinet there on you left?”
    I opened the cabinet door and grabbed a half-full bottle of
Jack, sliding it across the counter.
    “Since she’s passed out, might as well drink her booze.” He
smiled and winked at me.
    I put the steaks on a baking sheet and then into the oven,
turned the timer on and grabbed two shot glasses from Amy’s glass cabinet. “Just
a couple shots, we don’t want to get drunk.”
    “Fuck that. Just pour me a shot.” Butch said, so I poured the
drinks.
    “So anyway, I was at work. We had three staff members call in
sick this morning. Kind of odd to have so many out sick, but the bigger problem
was that it meant that I would have to pick up their workload. That was not a
good thing. I wasn’t happy about that, I had a full load of blood draws and
having to help with the front desk wasn’t on my to-do list today.” Butch said.
    “Our waiting room had three women waiting by the time we were
ready to take our first appointment. Then this lady shows up in the blood lab, she
was pregnant and I’m sure she was ready to pop any minute. Dude, she looked
sick, her skin tone was ashen and that is never a good thing. Her eyes were bloodshot.
She just looked like shit. I asked her how she was doing and she just said she
felt bad, that she must have caught the flu.”
    “So I get her situated in the blood draw chair and rolled up
her sleeve. She had a bandage on her arm and it was a little bloody. I ask her,
‘what happened?’.” Butch drank his shot I had placed in front of him and he set
the glass down on the counter. He pointed to the shot glass, the universal sign
for another.
    I drank my shot and poured us both another shot.
    “She says to me that her husband got a little physical with
her this morning…wink..wink, before she was able to make it out the door to her
appointment. I’m not sure what shit they are into, but, dude, I like the freaky
stuff, but biting? Biting that draws blood? Kind of too freaky for me. ”
    “Did you call the police, I mean isn’t that considered
abuse?” I asked.
    “She