Free Eaters by Michelle DePaepe

will make people uneasy.”
    Cheryl looked down at her skirt. The stain that she’d gotten from falling on the sidewalk seemed to have spread and looked highly obvious against the light blue cotton.
    “My name is Morena. I’m a parishioner here.” She fumbled in a duffel bag then pulled out a long skirt, a paisley quilted patchwork style that looked like it was homemade. “Put this on.”
    There was no sense in clinging to modesty or fashion snobbery, so Cheryl took the skirt and exchanged it for her dirty one.
    When she finished, Katherine asked, “So what’s it like here?”
    Morena hesitated then said, “We’ve got a few hundred packed inside here. There’s water, but very little food. You’re lucky that you came when you did, because I think they’re going to stop taking people after today. There’s just no more room.”
    “What about out there?” Cheryl asked. “Is there anyone starting to round up the Eaters?”
    “The what?”
    “The Eaters. That’s what my fiancé calls them.” She almost went into his story about the dogs and infected in Afghanistan, but stopped herself, thinking that it might not be wise to say too much.
    “We just call them, the Sick. Honestly, I don’t know what’s going on outside. Whatever is happening out there is God’s will.”
    The flap of the tent flipped up and the face of an older woman with short, cropped silver hair peeked in. “Tell them what I told you.”
    “No,” Morena said. “You’ve got no proof.”
    “I know what I heard, and I believe it. It makes sense.”
    “Fine, Gail, you tell them then. They aren’t going to believe you anyway.”
    Gail scooted under the sheet and crammed her way in. “There’s a rumor going around about how this all spread.”
    Cheryl and Katherine each held their breath.
    “It usually takes a while for viruses to proliferate with all the sneezing and skin contact and whatnot. This all happened so fast…some people are saying it’s spread by mosquitoes.”
    Cheryl felt an electric ripple of fear zip down her spine. Her mouth went dry, and she felt her face flush.
    “Mosquitoes?” Katherine said. “I’ve heard of them spreading malaria and West Nile virus, but never anything else.”
    “Think about it. Millions of people outside for Fourth of July. Then, wham bam! All of a sudden, everyone’s getting sick. I’m telling you, it’s no coincidence. I bet mosquitoes all over the country had a blood feast this past weekend, and a lot of them were carrying this disease.
    Cheryl started twisting her diamond engagement ring back and forth on her finger. How many times had she been bitten on the camping trip ? She hadn’t even thought about it until now. With all the adrenaline coursing through her for the past couple of days, she hadn’t noticed the bites. But now, she could feel the itchy welts all over her body. Thank goodness they were hidden by her long sleeved jacket and the long skirt. She realized that at some point, she was going to start feeling sick, and was going to die once, then a second time when she was shot in the head. Oh…what a horrible way to go. It was so unfair! She didn’t deserve it. She wanted this nightmare to end. She and Mark were going to be married next year, and take a cruise to Jamaica…and—
    Wait. The mosquitoes never touched him. If this epidemic ended and life returned to normal…he was going to survive…
    “Cheryl? You all right?”
    She looked over at Katherine in her ‘pretty as a picture’ sundress. Who was this woman, and why did she get to live? Why did any of them…and not her?
    “Yeah, I’m fine.” There was no sense in sounding an alarm to say, ‘Kill me now…I might be infected’. “I could really use some rest though. I’m tired.”
    Morena let her use the duffel bag as a pillow when she regretfully realized that she’d left her purse behind at the sandwich shop. Then Morena, Katherine and Gail left to see if they could bargain for some food or