Infinite 01 - Infinite Sacrifice

the bedroom where I had found their mother and see a half-dead man in her place. He’s struggling to breathe between harsh, hacking sounds and violent spasms of endless coughing. There’s a thick red pool of blood on the dingy sheets around his head. The most dreaded form of plague. I’m already in danger simply by sharing the same air as him.
    I go to his side.
    “Water”—he coughs—“water.”
    I reach for the bucket by the bed and see stagnant water.
    “I will be right back.” I take the bucket to the well out back and pull up a fresh bucket. He thanks me after he has a few gulps but soon erupts in more coughing and blood spittle. There is a terrible gangrenous smell coming from inside him.
    “Oliver! Rowan! Christiana!” he moans.
    “The children are safe.”
    He stirs. “You have seen them?”
    “Yes, and they are free from plague, happy, and being cared for at the abbey.”
    He relaxes and whispers, “I searched everywhere for them.” He coughs again for minutes. “Tell them that I am sorry.”
    I nod and administer last rites. When I offer him the sacramental bread, he shakes his head, unable to swallow, and convulses again.
    He dies before dawn. Covering him with a shroud, I tuck a coin in his hand for burial. I take a black flag from a vacant house to signal Ulric. Instead of returning to the abbey, I walk down to the river to watch the sunrise. A cold breeze blows, and I pull my hands within the fluted sleeves of my cloak. The giant sun breaks the horizon with an ember glow, causing everything around me to burn red. Even the river shimmers crimson. Something catches my eye—objects drifting on the surface, breaking the reflection of the water in flashes. I bring my hand up to shield the glare, and I’m horrified to see dozens of naked, bloated, blue bodies floating down the Thames.
    I turn to walk home as someone screams out, shattering the silence of the city, “The Apocalypse is here!”
    He might just be right.

Chapter 11
    I have a fever by the time I return to the abbey. Emeline makes sure I am comfortable.
    “Keep the children away from me.”
    She nods. By the middle of the night, the coughing begins. The other sick shush me as I cough uncontrollably. Feeling embarrassed of the terrible hacking, I pull myself up, walk out the back, and cough, hunched over in the entranceway. By morning, I’m coughing up blood. I’m so tired I begin to sleep through my coughing. When I open my eyes again, I’m shocked to see a familiar form kneeling on my makeshift bed.
    “Hadrian?”
    He reaches into his bag for something. “Lucky for you, I came when I did.”
    He holds his apple up by his mouth. I laugh weakly, thinking about how silly I must have looked to those dying with that apple up my nose, but end in a coughing fit that shakes my whole body.
    “Here, take this.” He holds out the green, sparkling vial.
    “You are going to waste that on me?”
    “Waste it? Do not be foolish, Elizabeth.”
    Daniel comes burning a bunch of juniper and rosemary over my head, and when Hadrian sees his Jewish hat, he barks, “Get away from her!”
    I put my hand up for him to stop as I cough up in my rag. He bends down and pours the vial in my mouth. As I swallow, it feels like I’m gulping down sand.
    “Water,” I croak.
    Emeline is right there to give me some. She looks distrustful of having Hadrian there.
    “What is a Jew doing in a house of God?” Hadrian demands.
    “Saving lives,” Emeline answers. “He is a surgeon.”
    “A barber surgeon is not the same as a surgeon. They cut hair and pull teeth, for Christ’s sake.”
    Emeline steps forward authoritatively in response to Hadrian’s cursing.
    “Daniel has been very helpful,” I try but cough yet again.
    “I see those children survived after all.” He settles back down.
    I nod thinking , with no help from you .
    “When you get better, we will take them back with us to Windsor. Your mother is sick with worry. Your place is with us.”
    I suddenly feel worried that I will survive. I don’t want to go anywhere. This is our home now. I ask Hadrian to go and fetch me clean rags and hand him the bloodied ones for cleaning. He holds them far away as he takes them outside.
    “Emeline!”
    She’s at my side. “Yes.”
    “You must promise me something very important.”
    “I will see if I can, after you tell me what it is.” She smiles a little smile.
    “Hadrian cannot take the children if something happens to me.”
    She agrees