Free Contagion: The Rising by John Carter

him, almost mesmerized. “I think it likes me.”
    “Wonderful,”
she said as the Riser snarled at her.
    “Careful,
I don’t think he likes sarcasm.” Trevor turned to her, “Say you’re sorry.”
    Chloe
stood in shock, “What?”
    “Say
that you’re sorry.”
    “To
that thing?”
    Trevor
grimaced, “don’t call it a thing!” His anger seeped out and he quickly ruptured
a vessel in his right eye. “Shit, just say it!”
    “Sorry,”
she held her hands up and didn’t move.
    He
wiped his eye as it started to bleed, “Thank you.” He turned to the Riser, “She
said she was sorry.”
    The
Riser looked at Chloe and carried on with walking away from them. She waited
until the Riser was out of eyesight and heavily breathed. She nearly fainted
and vomited at the same time.
    Trevor
smiled at her, “See? All they want is respect.”

Chapter 10
     
    “So,
what are our next steps?” Mark sat down near Sarah as Tony and Kayla worked in
the nearby kitchen. “Are there any?”
    Tony
crossed his arms after flipping the leftover food on the pan. “I believe Paul
is still operating the outpost in Canada. The last I heard was that he’s
working on more solar powered generators and getting more food.”
    “That’s
one option,” Kayla added.
    Sarah
sighed, “We had planned to go to the coastline. I think we can still go but we
have to see how Emma is recovering.”
    “I’m
doing fine,” Emma walked in and sat near Mark and Sarah. She winced as she
attempted to relax in the sitting position. “I don’t think the coastline is
going to be a good idea after all though. At least for me.”
    Sarah
looked at Emma, “Well, we won’t go.”
    Tony
uncrossed his arms and pulled the pan from the flame, “We can do a recon
mission to the coast and make sure it’s feasible to go?”
    They
looked back and Emma answered, “Yeah, you can check it out. It might be doable
for you guys, but I won’t be mobile for a while. I might stay here and pull my
weight, so I can try to pay Tony and Kayla back.”
    Mark
played with his food as he listened, “Maybe you can still come with us, since
we have the truck.”
    “Yeah,
we can pull your ass along, like we usually do,” Sarah laughed.
    Rory
sat near Emma, “Who else is going to keep us in line?”
    “I
can’t even do that now, you guys are horrible.” She shook her head as Sarah
passed along her plate of extra bananas. “Now, if you bribe me with food, I
might think about going.”
    They
continued to laugh as Jeremiah walked in. Emma’s hand locked up and caused her
to drop the plate of bananas. “Shit,” she scrambled to pick up the plate.
    “Nice,”
Rory smiled at Emma who glared at him.
    Sarah
threw an apple slice at Rory, “Shut up, you!” He laughed as Jeremiah sat near
him at the large mess hall table.
    Dani
walked in and saw the plate of bananas on the floor as Emma struggled to pick
them up. “5 minute rule!” She grabbed two, dusted them off and ate them.
    “I
thought it was the five second rule,” Mark said as he looked at Dani.
    Dani
shrugged, “In my head, it’s five minutes. I’m pretty sure the germs don’t care
and aren’t counting to 5, so it doesn’t even matter how long you wait.”
    Emma
smiled, “Great logic.” She put the plate back on the table and grabbed the last
of the bananas from the floor. “Thanks,” she said to Dani who winked at her and
sat near Jeremiah. Tony and Kayla sat at the ends of each bench as they joined
in on the main course. They were able to find more vegetables and made a buffet
of corn, broccoli and green peas.
    “Remember
butter?” Kayla pointed to Mark. “Paul had a slab of it, literally a slab on our
first meal out.”
    “Where
did he find it?” Jeremiah laughed.
    Mark
shrugged and laughed, “Probably from the farm next door. Dairy cows and churned
butter.”
    “I miss
butter,” Tony said quietly, which caused everyone else to erupt in laughter.
    “Ouch,”
Emma said as she stopped laughing