Sick

I stared silently down at my dirty palms, wondering how things had ever gotten this bad.
The back of my neck prickled, alerting me to one of the immune, coming closer and closer.
I curled myself tighter into a ball, wrapping my arms around my legs and trying not to notice how much my stomach was growling.
Outside the closet I heard a familiar voice say “Boy, look at all the sickies. Poor saps are probably gonna die soon.”
And another, even more painfully familiar voice said “Shut up and keep looking for the thing, dude.”
“Look for it where? All these rooms are just full of soon-to-be-dead people, Ave.”
I clenched my jaw and pressed my face into my knees. No. No. It wasn’t him. It couldn’t be. He’d died. I saw him die.
The closet door let out an ugly creaking sound as it opened, and all of my fellow sickies that the scientists had managed to fit in here lurched forward excitedly, their noses twitching slightly, like demonic bunnies.
The only thing keeping me from following suit was my barely-intact dignity.
A beam of light shone into the tiny, dank space, briefly, lingering on the corners and the shelves above us, before the door closed the footsteps began to recede and that was it.
Until he went, “Wait a minute” and they returned and the light shone on the top of my head. “You there. Pick your head up.”
My arms tightened around my legs. No.
“Pick… your… head… up…” I felt his hand grab my hair as he roughly pulled my face up, his mere presence driving the other sickies crazy.
“Emily.” Avian whispered, his hazel eyes widening in surprise as he released me.
I slumped back onto the floor, my face crumpled, eyes filled with tears.
I was a monster. I was dead; I had died of the illness.
And then I came back.
He hauled me to my feet. “Where’ve you been? Why didn’t you come to find us? We haven’t left the bunker, you could’ve looked there… How is this even possible?”
I stared fixedly at a point on his chin, my throat tight.
He then proceeded to attempt to take me out into the main room.
My ankle cuff buzzed angrily, burning me, causing my knee to collapse from sheer pain.
“Woah!” He yelped in surprise, letting go of me. “What the heck?”
“I’m sick.” I whispered. “They won’t let me leave.” I won’t let me leave.
He blinked, then let me go, and silently left the room to go get Matthew, or one of scientists, either way, he left me all alone.
Well, I wasn’t completely alone, but I don’t tend to count the other sickies as companions.
The others grabbed me, and tugged at my clothes, the smell of Avian’s health still lingering over me.