Free The Azrael: Surviving the Outbreak by Jesse Gagnon Page A

in one room, which may have meant a shower nearby.
    “Awesome, keep close to me Taliah.  We’re going to try to find a shower for you.” He found a dormitory nearby and had to break the lock that was chaining the doors shut.  Every survivalist needed a pair of bolt cutters on them at all times for just this instance.  The two entered cautiously and moved through clearing the rooms.  There were no Azrael inside and the place was remarkably well kept, which set off alarms in Mario’s mind.
    “Okay, this is the female dormitory.”  Mario said noticing the decorations and color schemes.  “There has to be one that has soap, shampoo and other girl toiletries that you can use.”  Mario continued and Taliah found a room that had everything she needed and she walked up to Mario on the outside of the room.
    “Found one, keep an eye out please.”  Taliah said shutting the door and skipped over to the bathroom.  She turned on the water on hot and held her hand out.  It took a bit, but she heard the pipes working.  Within moments water came out.  It was brown at first, but within a few seconds it cleared up and began to heat up.  She squealed.
    “Are you okay in there?”  Mario said almost opening the door.
    “I’m fine, the water works and it’s hot.  You’re next. God knows the last time you bathed.”  Taliah said and began taking her clothes off.  She forgot about the abuse she endured while taken hostage. Her body was disgusting.  She had bruises and crusted semen all over her body and seeing it brought back the horrible events along with the memories she struggled to forget.  She felt repulsed and tears began to fall before she could hold them back.  She cried silently succumbing to waves of emotions coming to the surface.  She slowed her tears and stepped into the shower, watched as the water turned a dark brown and she could see her dirty footprints on the tub floor.  Soon the water turned clear and she began to use soap on a luffa and shampoo to cleanse the disgusting off of her body.  She rubbed the footprints away with her feet and the water.  She picked this room because it was a black girl’s room.  The shampoo those white girls used wouldn’t work so well with her thicker curly hair.  She even found some facial exfoliating cream that she used to clean her face, just like what her mom used.
    As Taliah washed herself, images of her family and where she came from displayed in her mind.  She thought of her little brother Derron and his twin sister Sherron.  She thought about how she hated the fact that their names rhymed.  She thought of her daddy, working two jobs and how her mommy baked cookies and cakes all of the time.  Mommy kept daddy thick, she thought.  She wondered if her family was even alive anymore.  The men snatched her when she left school late working on that stupid science project.  If she didn’t stay extra to make sure her volcano worked properly, then she wouldn’t have been taken by those sick men.  She remembered how long the ride was to their house.  They took turns with her in the back of the van.  It was a long trip that she wished didn’t happen.  The urge to cry welled up inside of her but she stopped it as soon as it came.  Instead she squeezed her luffa with both hands fiercely as she dug her nails into it. 
    The outbreak didn’t hit Pinckneyville in southern Illinois as fast as it hit Chicago.  There were too many open plains and the wind carried scents long distances causing the Azrael to not get a good grasp on their whereabouts.  At least that’s what her daddy always said.  It was a good two and a half years into the outbreak before it came knocking on their doorstep.  Taliah shook her head and wondered what the people in charge were thinking.  Why was school still going on with this outbreak happening?  It’s like they were in denial that it even was true, still going about things like nothing was going on.  Of course, they