Page 19 of Sick(ness)

Her throat burned. She swallowed hard, but it didn’t help. The image was seared into her mind: that thing stumbling out of the barn, skin slack and gray, eyes clouded over but still aware in some awful, half-living way. Up until now, the horror had been distant, something she could smell, something she could imagine behind sealed walls. But now she had seen it.

And it was worse than anything her mind could have invented.

Whatever the virus did, it didn’t just kill—it hollowed people out, leaving them moving, breathing, begging, long after life had already left them. It ate them from the inside out, and the thought made bile rise in her throat.

She pressed her hand to her mouth. “I’m—” Her voice cracked. “I’m going to puke.”

Sawyer didn’t hesitate. He swerved the truck onto the shoulder, the tires crunching over gravel and frost. Before the vehicle had even come to a full stop, Addy shoved the door open and stumbled out, barely making it a few feet before she fell to her knees and retched.

There was nothing left in her stomach; she hadn’t eaten since the morning before—but her body didn’t seem to care. Each dry heave wracked through her like a violent shudder, tearing at her ribs, her throat raw and burning. The cold air stung her eyes and made them water.

She felt a shadow fall beside her, Sawyer, his boots crunching softly on the frozen ground. He didn’t speak, just crouched down and held out a bottle of water.

“Here,” he said quietly. “Sip. Don’t chug it.”

Addy took it with shaking hands and rinsed her mouth, the cold water stinging as it hit her throat. She spat into the dirt, then took another small drink.

“Here,” Sawyer said again, offering her something else: an opened strip of beef jerky, rough and salty-smelling. “Eat a little. It’ll help your stomach settle.”

She hesitated, then tore off a small bite. The salt hit her tongue, sharp and grounding. Her mouth watered instantly, and for a second, she thought she might cry from the simple, stupid relief of flavor. She chewed slowly, forcing herself to swallow, and let out a small, shaky sound, half laugh, half groan.

It tasted so good.

Sawyer stood nearby, keeping watch while she ate, his gaze fixed on the road behind them. The early morning light caught on the edges of his dark hair, outlining his profile in a faint silver glow.

“Sorry,” Addy muttered after a moment, her voice hoarse. “I just… I didn’t think it would get to me like that.”

Sawyer didn’t look at her, but his voice was steady when he replied. “It gets to everyone. The first time you see what it really does to people… it’s not something you can just walk away from.”

He glanced down at her then, his expression unreadable but not unkind. “You did fine. You kept moving. That’s what matters.”

Addy nodded faintly, staring down at the dirt. The jerky sat heavy in her stomach, but it was better than the emptiness.

After a long moment, Sawyer tilted his head toward the truck. “Come on,” he said. “We’ve got daylight, and I don’t want to waste it. The longer we’re out here, the more we risk running into… whatever that was again.”

Addy stood slowly, brushing off her hands, her legs trembling but steady enough to carry her back to the truck. She climbed in, shut the door, and let out a shaky breath.

As Sawyer started the engine again, she kept her eyes forward. The world was still cold and broken, but for the first time, she felt the fragile thread of determination stir in her chest.

She wasn’t sure where they were going, or what they would find, but she knew one thing for certain.

They couldn’t go back.

* * *

“You said, the first time you see what it does.” Addy turned in her seat to look at him, her brows furrowed. “What did you mean by that? Have you… seen this before?”

Sawyer’s hands tightened slightly on the steering wheel. His gaze stayed locked on the cracked highway ahead, the lines of his face hardening in thought before he finally answered.

“Yeah,” he said quietly. “I’ve seen it.”

He paused, his jaw flexing as if he were deciding how much to tell her. “When it first started going down long before anyone in the states had heard anything about it, I was working on a government contract overseas. Nothing glamorous, mostly logistics, coordination work. But once the first cases started popping up, things went bad fast. We were told it was an outbreak, some kind of respiratory pathogen. People were collapsing, coughing up blood, their skin graying out. Then came the fevers, the confusion, the aggression.”

He glanced over at her briefly, then back to the road. “They pulled us out within a week. Said we were being redeployed to help contain it stateside. But when we got back…” He shook his head. “There wasn’t any plan. No coordination. No one even met us when we landed. Just… silence. We got one message saying to go home, stay put, and wait for further orders.”

“That’s it?” Addy asked, disbelief softening her voice.

“Yeah.” He gave a humorless laugh. “After ten years working with government ops, that was the first time I was ever told to just go home. Didn’t sit right with me, but I didn’t argue. I wanted to get back to Gaines—to check on my grandma. She raised me after my folks died. The only reason I ever came back to that little town.”