Plague

Pete.
    “Let’s get out of here before Drake comes back,” Jack said. He took Astrid’s arm. But she would not go with him. Not yet.
    “You killed him,” Brittney said. She spoke more in wonder than in accusation.
    Astrid heaved a shuddering sigh. Tears ran down her face. She had no words.
    Brittney was becoming angry. “He’ll get you for this, Astrid. His rage will find you. Sooner or later.”
    “Drake or the gaiaphage?” Jack asked.
    Brittney bared her braces in a feral grin. “We are the arm of the Darkness. He will send us to take you. Both of you.”
    “Let’s go, Astrid,” Jack said, without taking his eyes off Brittney. Astrid felt the strength of his grip on her arm. She yielded.
    She was almost blinded by her tears, her mind a confusion of emotions: self-loathing, disgust, anger.
    And worst of all: relief.
    He was gone. Little Pete was dead. And now it would end at last. The FAYZ wall would be gone. The madness would be over.
    Relief. And the sickening realization that she was glad she had done it.
    Jack led her down the stairs. He lifted a terribly injured, mangled Orc effortlessly. Orc was moaning in pain and crying that they should leave him to die.
    “No one is dying,” Jack said harshly. “We’ve had enough of that.”
    Astrid walked obediently behind Jack as he carried Orc down the hill toward town.
    And she wondered as she walked, how it could be that the FAYZ was ended and yet Jack was still so strong.
    Dahra Baidoo emerged from the so-called hospital for the first time in what felt like days.
    Virtue held her up, although he was shaking so badly he could barely walk himself.
    Both of them were covered in gore. The hospital was a slaughterhouse. The single bug that had made it inside had simply massacred kids too sick to stand, let alone run.
    Virtue told himself that most of those kids were too sick to survive anyway. But that knowledge would never wipe the horror from his memory.
    He had been wedged into a corner behind a cot, cowering and praying, and begging to be spared. He had thrown things at the bug, but bedpans and bottles were nothing to the monster.
    And then, in an instant, the creature was gone.
    Its bloody mandibles had been scraping the wall, trying to dislodge Virtue. Inches and milliseconds from gruesome death.
    And then . . . nothing.
    Gone.
    Virtue had heard nothing but the sound of his own sobbing.
    And then the sounds of others crying.
    And an insistent, mad howl of despair.
    Dahra was screaming as he drew her gently from beneath a body.
    “It’s gone,” he’d said.
    She couldn’t stop shaking. Couldn’t stop howling. And Virtue was suddenly back in that refugee camp in the Congo, remembering things he’d witnessed when he was still too young to understand.
    A terrible fury boiled up inside him. An uncontrollable rage against everyone and everything that made the world a hell of fear and pain and loss.
    He wanted to smash things. He wanted to bellow like a wild animal.
    But Dahra had ceased howling, and now just stared up at him, needing someone, someone to finally take care of her.
    Virtue took her hand and put his arm around her shoulder. “We’re getting you out of here,” he said gently.
    There were kids crying out in pain. But Virtue knew that Dahra could no longer respond. So he led her out into the cool, fresh air.
    The bodies of the bugs were all gone. The bodies of those they had killed were not.
    Virtue didn’t know where to take Dahra. After all, she was the one kids took other kids to. He didn’t know anyone to help her. Maybe no one could help her.
    He led Dahra to the ruined church. It was quiet inside, although it, too, had been a scene of battle. He cleared a space for her in a pew. He sat her down, sat beside her, so weary, and closed his eyes and prayed.
    “God in your heaven, look down and take pity on this girl. She has done enough.” He sighed and added a doubtful, “Amen.”
    Virtue did not stay long. There were still kids needing help.
    He ran into his brother heading toward the hospital. Sanjit hugged him tight and said, “They’re gone, Choo. They’re all gone.”
    Virtue nodded and patted Sanjit’s back reassuringly.
    Sanjit held him out and looked at his face. “Are you okay, brother?”
    “I’ve had better days,” Virtue said.
    “So, I guess the island’s looking even better now, huh?” Sanjit asked. “You were right, it’s one big open-air asylum.”
    Virtue nodded solemnly and glanced back at the