Chapter 6: It Isn't A Virus, Part 2

The hospital people shoved her into a room with an IV and an oxygen mask. Pranthi half hoped she'd burst into flames from the fever, but decided it was unlikely with the sweat covering her body. People in green came in and took blood. Others put medicine into the IV. Nothing made a difference to the raging thirst. She needed water, but they refused to let her drink anything.

The memory of the man at the park flashed into her mind again. If he felt this thirst, no wonder he went crazy. She bared her teeth and imagined biting someone and drinking them dry. She licked her lips even as her stomach tried to rebel at the idea.

At first the screams in the hall meshed with the screams of the other zombies at the park. Then the crashes of carts and stretchers told her they were here at the hospital. Her thirst and memories merged. Pranthi tried to summon the strength to climb out of her bed. She didn't even have her camera with her. The shouts and screams continued, becoming more frantic.

The door of her room burst open and Kevin shuffled in. His skin flushed bright red and blood trickled from his eyes and mouth. Red covered his t-shirt. He made a low growling sound as he snatched the IV bag and bit into it. Hospital staff poured through the door and tackled him pulling the needle from Pranthi's arm. Blood flowed out onto the white sheets and dripped to the floor. A nurse sidled around the struggle on the floor and put pressure on the arm.

They dragged Kevin away. Then the nurse hooked up the IV on the other arm after putting a bandage over where the first needle had torn a wound.

Pranthi had trouble seeing now. The world looked underexposed, like it had been shot through a dirty filter. She'd had a lens she bought secondhand that took pictures like this. It had been filled with mildew.

A shadow came in and talked about putting in a breathing tube.

"Don't worry," the nurse said, "we'll figure out what virus you have and you'll be just fine. We're just waiting on some tests."

The conversation in the coffee shop floated to the surface of Pranthi's consciousness, like a soap bubble full of white.

"It isn't a virus," Pranthi said just before the bubble burst. "It's a fungus."