The Sickness

Chapter Two

I opened my eyes to a dark sky. It had only been a few minutes since the parasite infected me. I blinked a few times, clearing the thick liquid from my eyes. My body felt bloated and itchy, and there was a faint sting radiating from inside me. If I held still, I noticed that I could feel the beetle scurrying around inside my blood.
I slowly stood up, my throat tickling. I coughed a couple times, and some more of the liquid sprayed from my throat and onto the ground. I felt weak, and stumbled. Then I looked around.
The people that remained were staggering around like zombies. I noticed that the liquid was dripping out less frequently in them - and me, too. I cleared my throat once more.
Suddenly, I felt a hand on my shoulder. I whirled around to see Adriana.
Although she didn't look like she used to.
She was swollen and pale, and had to periodically clear the liquid from her throat and eyes - just like me. She looked nothing like the tall, slender, freckled cheerleader I used to know.
"Kaylee?" she said. Her voice was raspy, with only a hint of wetness. She cleared it. "It's me. Adri-"
I cut her off. "Yeah, I know. Adriana." My voice sounded strange, too - kind of like it sounds when you have a cold. "What's up?"
She bit her lip. "I thought you should come see this." She led me to a huddled shape on the ground. We turned it over and I gasped.
"Mom?" I whispered, bending down to get a close look at her, and gagging when I did. Patches of skin had fallen off, and she had no teeth left. I grabbed her hand, but her fingers came off easily. Feeling around, I noticed that all of her tendons, cartilage, and ligaments were gone, and her remaining skin and bones were very weak. She wasn't breathing.
"It ate her alive." Ana's voice made me jump, and I looked back at her.
"Why isn't it eating us?" I asked.
She looked off into the distance. "I'm guessing it's because we're young, and our immune systems are too strong for it to do this to us yet. We'll probably start feeling its effects when we're around 20 or so."
I gulped. "Oh." We stood in silence for a moment before Ana cleared her throat and began to speak.
"Um, I should probably go-" But she froze in the middle of her sentence. After a few moments, she blinked, and stared at me, eyes wide.
"Kay, it... it talked to me," she whispered.
My mouth fell open. "What did it say?"
She licked her lips. " 'Beware of the hissing rocks, avoid the silent trees; watch out for the chipmunks and ants, and the lakes that don't ripple in the breeze. Take care when you trek through the world, as this Earth has now been baited; hundreds of things you used to love have now changed - they've mutated.' "