Plague

Quinn’s closest friend. They were both part of some different class of person.
    Sam, a hero. A leader.
    Lana? She was grand and tragic. Like someone out of a play or a book.
    And Quinn was a fisherman.
    Unlike them, though, he was happy. He turned back to look at his crews, his fishermen. They were cleaning their nets, tending to their reels, cutting grass to make beds, complaining, joking, telling stories everyone had already heard, laughing.
    Quinn missed his parents. He missed Sam and Lana. But this was his family now.
    Roscoe had fallen asleep from sheer exhaustion. He awoke to find persistent itching on his stomach. He scratched it through his T-shirt.
    He went back to sleep. But dreams kept him from sleeping soundly. That and the itching.
    He woke again and felt the itchy spot. There was a lump there. Like a swelling. And when he held still and pressed his fingers against the spot he could feel something moving under the skin.
    The small room was suddenly very cold. Roscoe shivered.
    He went to the window hoping for light. There was a moon but the light was faint. Roscoe pulled his shirt over his head. He looked down at the spot on his stomach.
    It was moving. The flesh itself. He could feel it under his fingertips. Like something poking back at him. But he couldn’t feel it from the inside, couldn’t feel it in his stomach. And he realized that his entire body was numb. He could feel with his fingertips but not the skin of his stomach—
    The skin split!
    “Ahhhh!”
    He was touching it as it split, and he shrieked in terror and something pushed its way out through a bloodless hole.
    “Oh, God, oh, God, oh, no no no no!”
    Roscoe screamed and leaped for the door. His hand clawed at the knob as he babbled and wept and the door was locked, locked, oh, God, no, they had locked him in.
    He banged at the door, but it was the middle of the night. Who would hear him in the empty town hall?
    “Hey! Hey! Is anyone there? Help me. Help me. Please, please, someone help me!”
    He banged and the thing in his belly stuck out half an inch. He was scared to look at it. But he did and he screamed again because it was a mouth now, a gnashing insect mouth full of parts like no normal mouth. Hooked, wicked mandibles clicked. It was inside him, chewing its way out.
    Hatching from him.
    “Help me, help me, don’t leave me here like this!”
    But who would hear him? Sinder? No. Not anymore. That was over. All over. And he was alone and friendless. No one even to hear as he screamed and begged.
    The window. He grabbed the pillow from his bed and pushed it against the glass and then punched it hard. The pane shattered. He took off his shoe and smashed at the starred glass until most of it fell tinkling to the street below.
    Then he screamed for help. Screamed into the Perdido Beach night air.
    No answer.
    “Help me! Please, please, oh, God, please help me! You can’t just leave me locked up!”
    But still, no answer.
    Fear took hold of him, deep crazy-making fear.
    No. No. No no no no, this couldn’t be happening. He hadn’t done anything to hurt anyone, he hadn’t done anything awful. Why? Why was this happening to him?
    Roscoe fell to his knees and begged God. God, please, no, no, no, I didn’t do anything wrong. I wasn’t brave or strong but I wasn’t bad, either. Not like this, please, God, no no no, not like this.
    Roscoe felt an itching in the middle of his back.
    He sat down and cried.

Chapter Twenty
25 HOURS, 37 MINUTES

    DIANA FED PENNY a little late. But Penny didn’t complain. She was off in some dream that had her smiling to herself, smiling at her own illusions.
    The bathroom reeked of human waste. Penny was sitting on the tile floor, legs twisted in front of her, just sitting on a plastic exercise mat.
    “Hey, you want to take a shower?” Diana asked.
    Penny didn’t respond, just giggled at something Diana couldn’t see.
    Diana bent down and tapped her shoulder. She had to do it several times before Penny’s faraway eyes focused on Diana.
    Penny laughed. “Oh, that’s the real you, isn’t it?”
    “As real as I get,” Diana answered.
    “You come to feed the zoo animal?”
    “Here’s your food. But I thought you might want to take a shower or bath. I could help you.”
    “Is it because I smell like a sewer? Is that it?”
    “Yes,” Diana said bluntly. Without waiting for an answer, she went to the tub, a huge oval affair, all pink marble.
    How long the water would last, Diana didn’t