Wide-Awake - Mercades Licht (books for 8th graders .TXT) 📗

“At times of extreme pain or mortal peril we discover

gifts we didn’t know we had.”

 "So have you told your parents about it yet?" Asks Emily. I shoot her a death glare.

"For your information, I did not. And I don't think I will until I know for sure that I'm getting it."

"Come on Griff! This is like your dream job. You have to tell them that you have a possible chance of an apprenticeship at the Lenten Science Lab. It's their first time taking on students who are interested in experimental vaccines and viruses. Or experimental anything really. And you're too smart for your own good. The only reason I have a C in Mr. Phillips class is because I copy your homework answers. Well, some of them. I can't seem smarter than what I actually am." As she says this last part she glances over at me and gives me a smile.

I smile back.

"Anyways, I'm sure you'll get in. They're picking at least three students so you have a chance."

"Thanks for reminding me! Three empty slots and none of those slots will have me in it."

Rolling to a stop at a red light, Emily turns to face me. "You need to stop with all this negativity! Being a pessimist certainly won't help you get this chance. Stop doubting yourself. Your into the whole sciency thing and the doctor thing. Whichever one you actually end up doing, I'm positively certain that you'll excel at it! Now I don't want to hear you say one more negative thing in this car." With that her attention goes back to the road and takes a right when the light turns green.

" Okay. No more negative talk." I sigh and look out the window and watch as the cars go by us in the other lane, headed in the opposite direction.

"BEEP! BEEP!"

I don't even get the chance to look and see what's going on in front of me before we're hit. Emily screams from pain or fear, I don't know. Everything's moving so fast that all I get the chance to see is the airbag exploding in my face and a glimpse of orange. The car finally comes to a stop and it takes me several moments to even realize that the car has flipped and I'm hanging upside down. I try to move and feel pain ricochet throughout my whole body and groan.

"Em-Emily? Y-you okay?" I call out as I try to turn my head in the direction that I last saw her. Pain lances through my neck and I stop trying to move it. "E-emily!"

"Ugh..." I hear a groan and sigh in relief.

"You o-okay?" I ask. I just get another groan in response. "Don't wo-worry. Somebody will come and help us." I call out to her. This time I don't hear so much as a groan in response.

"Emily! Stay awake! Stay awake Emily!" I yell. Without thinking I undo my seatbelt and slam hard into the hood of the car. When I hit the roof I cry out in pain as a burning sensation takes place in my left calf.

Suddenly I'm in the hallway of what appears to be Saint Browns University. I'm crouched in a corner by a trash can. The once light gray carpet is now stained almost black from the blood of the few bodies that lay on the ground. Every few seconds a squeak sounds from the broken light that slowly swings back and forth. I hear screams somewhere nearby, and involuntarily my legs start to move. It was as if I was possessed. I ran and ran when suddenly I began to hear other voices. My brain was registering all of the sounds and feelings but it felt so strange, like I was losing reception.

"Miss! Miss! Are you alright? Miss! Can you hear me? Miss!" I try to stop to turn around, but I can't. All I can do is run, faster and faster. I trip and a squeal escapes my lips and it doesn't even sound like it belongs to me. Rolling onto my back I crab walk until my back hits a wall. My eyes jump over everything in the hallway like I'm waiting for something to happen. I hear screams in the distance.

'Wait. Why am I  at SBU?'  I think to myself in a panic. I try to get up, but my body just won't have it. I just sit here in the corner. My body starts shaking and sharp pain on my arm catches my attention. Very slowly my head turns to look down at my right side. What looks to be a bite mark mares the lower half of my arm. The flesh around it looks like a mixture of gray and yellow and what looks to be black pus spills out of it along with my own blood.

"NO! NO! NO!" Escapes my lips and I can't stop the words.

"NO!"

'This isn't my arm.' I think to myself.

"NO!"

'This isn't my voice.'

"NO!"

'I'm not actually here.'

"NO!"

'This isn't me.'

"BOOM!" Something crashes into a wall a bit ahead of me and my hand automatically slams over my mouth and a small whimper escapes me.

'This isn't me. This isn't me. This isn't me.'

I try to get up and nothing happens.

Because this isn't your body. You can't do anything.' I think to myself.

Another crash sounds and this person is all of sudden on their feet and running again. Some force from behind hits her and she's knocked into a side door. Looking up the last thing we both see is a creature with no eyes and sharp teeth before it lunges at us and bites into our neck.  

"AAAHHH!" I sit up straight as pances lances throughout my whole leg and I notice I'm surrounded by a crowd of people and one of them was trying to examine my leg. Glancing around I see five totalled cars counting Emily's. Emily.

"Where's Emily?" I ask the woman next to me. Before she can even answer I'm scrambling to my feet. Pain shoots through me and I'm at SBU again. I’m in pain, so much pain. Even breathing is hard. I know I’m infected and I’ve accepted it. I’ve accepted that I can’t be saved and that I will die. I won’t die however, without taking some of those dead bastards out with me. I can feel the virus burning me from the inside, but I’m not going to turn into one of those things if I have a say in it. Taking a deep breath, I brace myself, and then I open the classroom door and scream.

I scream as loud as I can. I pause to breath and listen to my surroundings. I hear a groan followed soon by a crash.

“Shit!” I scream as I turn on my heel and sprint towards the stairs. More crashing sounds behind me and not just from the fast dead guy, but also from the slow ones.

“Shit. Shit. Shit. Shit.” I chant to myself as I run up the stairs taking the steps two at a time. I reach the door that leads to the roof and ignoring the sign that tells me an alarm will go off, I shove it open. The alarm does indeed go off as I race towards the edge of the roof. I stop a couple of pace away from the ledge and turn around and face the door.

I can feel the virus eating away at my body and know if I don’t do this now, then I’ll become one of them. I cough up blood and grimace when I notice it’s black. I look towards the door as it crashes open and about five or more no eyed dead freaks come at me running. These ones seem to be able to move faster than the others but can’t stop without crashing. As they get closer I see torn flesh where their eyes should be.

I take off towards the ledge and without second guessing myself, I jump. I’m hoping this fall will kill me so I don’t awaken like one of them. As I’m falling I see my reflection in the windows. Brown hair? Green eyes? ‘This isn’t me. This isn’t my body. Oh my god! I’m falling!’ I think to myself. I look dow- I mean she looks down as the ground rushes up to meet us and I cry out as I hit the asphalt of Highway 47.

I hear sirens wail in the distance and my vision goes a little blurry. Looking over at the car and at the flames, I know it's about to explode, but I try to stand up anyway to get to Emily. As I try to get up, I feel hands grasp at my sides and lift me up. My vision slowly starts to fade to black and even though I know I'm about to blackout, I shove against the person carrying me, trying desperately to go back. To get to Emily. A part of me knows she's already gone, but the other part of me desperately wants to believe that she's okay. I try to call out to her, but nothing comes out. I know I'm now in my own body, but now even my body is betraying me. The last thing I hear is a loud boom and then nothing.

* * *

I open my eyes and the first thing I see is a white ceiling. My whole body is sore and my left calf is wrapped several times over. It takes a couple of minutes for everything to come back to me. How I got here and what happened. When it all finally rushes back to me I feel myself start to break. I lost my best friend and there was nothing I could do to save her.

I close my eyes to hold back tears. As I lay here I take deep breaths, then the memories of running through the hallways at SBU enter my mind. Opening my eyes I stare at the ceiling again. 'How is that possible? I was in the car and then running through a hallway at the university.'We were hit and then when I fell hard trying to get to Emily, the next thing I knew I was running. Well, I wasn't running, but somebody was running. This is so confusing! What's going on?'  I rub at my temples as a small headache starts to form.

"Your awake!" Somebody screeches to my left and I grimace as it pierces my ears. I look over and see my cousin Tina running toward me. Before I can tell her not to jump on me she does and pain pierces through my abdomen.

I turn to look at her and tell her to get off but as my head turns to look at her I see a giant wall there instead. I feel like I can't breath and I keep gasping for air. A series of coughs hit me and then I drop to my knees as I start to vomit up blood. My whole body starts to shake and the sounds of gunshots makes me jump.

"HELP!!! HELP ME!!!" I scream at the top of my lungs. 'That's not my voice.'  The person looks down at the puddle of blood she vomited. 'It's black. The blood she vomited is black.' I think to myself. 'Why does this keep happening? Why? Why?'

Getting up off the ground I ru- I mean she runs in the direction of the giant wall that seems to be surrounding the whole place. I hear more gunshots near by and then screams. The adrenaline is running so heavy right now that I can't feel if I am or if she is injured. 'She threw up blood that looked black. I think she's injured.' I think to myself as we run past ruined cars.