Before the Storm

The entire forty-five minute drive back to mine and Madisen's quiet little town was as silent as it had ever been. Normally, we'd be chatting about something or another, or at least listening to music and singing along horribly to whatever it was that came on the radio but this time; This time was different. The air was a bit thicker, the mood was a bit more tense, and truth be told, I don't think either of us knew what to say anyway.

I kept my gaze on the rear view mirror on my side of the car, replaying the scene over and over in my head of everybody that was surrounding the girl in the mall suddenly running out of the building so fast. It was almost like they were trying to escape from something, but what? What was it that they were suddenly so afraid of? I was glad that neither of us had stuck around long enough to find out.

I was completely terrified to say anything to Madisen about it. She was already completely on edge. Who knows what would have happened if I had told her about what I had saw when we were driving towards the exit of the parking lot. Or maybe she had seen it herself. Maybe she caught a glimpse of it through her own mirror and that's why she was driving so fast so that we could get away. I was completely rattled, but I was trying my best not to let it get the better of me.

"Mad?" My voice croaked, sounding hoarse from the lack of use. I glanced over at her through the corner of my eye and received no response. I turned my head to fully look at her and saw that she was practically in a trance. "Madisen?"

She blinked a couple of times, but still didn't give me a response. Her foot weighed down on the gas pedal, propelling her car faster and faster down the high way. It was beginning to get dark outside and she was beginning to near almost a hundred miles per hour. I felt the pressure from the speed begin to push me back slightly into my seat and I was starting to become afraid that she would end up crashing us.

"Madisen, you need to slow the hell down." I said, rather calmly considering the situation. She just kept looking forward and it was at this point in time that I began to think she was just flat out ignoring me on purpose. "Slow down the fucking car, now!" I yelled.

"Not until we're as far away as we can possibly get." She said back to me in a monotonous and deep voice.

"We're far enough away now, just please slow down! You're gonna end up getting us pulled over." I grabbed hold of the door handle and squeezed my hand around it so tight that my knuckles began to turn white. It was just a reflex of mine, due to a car accident that I had previously been in a good few years ago.

She looked over to me with a hard stare momentarily before sighing and pressing down on the break pedal to slow us down to a normal speed again. I instantly felt myself relax when I felt the jolt of the car slowing down, and my grip on the handle began to loosen.

"She had it, Jaycee. She had that damn virus and we were there right next to her!" Madisen said, her voice a little louder than before.

"The CDC and the police both said that it's not air born. Ya can only catch it if you come into contact with bodily fluids." I said quietly, a bit calmer now than a few seconds ago.

"What if it is air born and they just don't know it yet, huh? What if we come down with it because we were there?" She asked, a flood of questions beginning to pour out. She was beginning to lose it because of how terrified she was.

"Madisen, it's okay! I promise. Nothing is going to happen, we're safe." I said, remaining calm and trying to get her in the same state of mind. She was going to end up giving herself a heart attack if she didn't calm down.

She was silent then as she continued driving us home. Our town was just another couple miles ahead and I was clearly able to make out the few street lights that were up ahead of us in the distance. I couldn't wait to be home and away from Atlanta. My mind wandered to my parents, who had told me and Zack earlier today that they were going to be in the city tomorrow for a conference meeting that my dad needed to attend. My mom wanted to go with him, and they were going to possibly grab some lunch before heading home later on in the afternoon.

Truth be told, I was highly uncomfortable with the idea of my parents being in the same city that the sickness was in. It was getting bad. So bad that people were beginning to die from it. If the CDC and the local doctors couldn't get it under control, and soon, how many more people were going to die from it? How many more had to die before a cure was found?

"I think me and you both jus' need some time to rest for a bit." I began. "It's not exactly helping either of us right now that Tim has been workin' us into the ground at the diner recently. We're stressed, and we need time to cool down."

I saw her vigorously shaking her head out of the corner of my eye, as if she was trying whole heartedly to convince herself that everything was going to be okay instead of completely come crashing down to the ground around us. "Yeah. Yeah, you're totally right."

I sighed, leaning my head back against the head rest and brushing a few stray hairs out of my face and behind my ears. I pulled my cell phone out from my pocket and unlocked it, not even really knowing what it is that I was going to do. I didn't have any text messages and there was nobody really that I wanted to talk to. I swiped along the touch screen and opened up the internet, deciding that I would just check my Facebook. Anything at all to keep my mind occupied as we entered into the sleepy town.



I tossed and I turned in my bed, not being able to get to sleep even if my life depended on it. I looked over at the digital clock on my night stand and saw that it was already 1:30 in the morning. Sighing, I ripped the covers off of me and I got out of my bed, my bare feet coming into contact with my carpeted floor.

The only light that was coming into my room was from the moon high above, but even that was scarce because of the thick, wooded area that surrounded my house. I walked over to my window and looked outside, just thinking to myself. Sometimes it truly scared me living so far out of the town. Especially at night time. There was nobody around to go to if we needed help with anything, and it was a good fifteen minutes by car to get into town.

The only neighbor that we had for miles was a rather nice couple that owned a farm, but they were about a quarter mile away from our house. There was a decent sized river that flowed right down the center of the property line that divided the two. It wasn't small enough to be considered a stream, but not big enough to where I couldn't just walk across it if I wanted to. They stuck to their side, and we stuck to ours. It had been that way for as long as I could remember, and it always worked out just fine, leaving the two of our families with little problems. They owned a bunch of cattle that sat directly on the other side of the river, and the worst thing that would happen is one of them accidentally getting loose and wandering onto our property.

I grabbed an afghan off of the back of my desk chair and wrapped it around me as I stared out the window, probably letting my thoughts get too wild and out of control. I couldn't help but wonder about my parents and if they were going to be okay going into Atlanta tomorrow. I didn't even tell them that I had actually saw, in person, a dead body at the mall today, which was probably a mistake.

I just couldn't bring myself to speak up about what had happened today. I knew that Zack knew something was up, because during dinner tonight I just so happened to catch him a couple of times eyeing me down, trying to seem inconspicuous but failing miserably. I didn't really talk at dinner and barely ate anything off my plate, even though Mom had made my favorite; Beef Lasagna with Marinara sauce and a side of homemade garlic bread. Dad had asked me what was wrong once when he saw me just picking at my food, but I told him that it was a long day and I just wasn't feeling that well.

I could tell them not to go in the morning before they left. Tell them exactly what I had saw and say that I didn't feel comfortable with them going with the virus getting as bad as it was. Maybe they would listen, or maybe my dad would just say I was overreacting and that everything would be fine. The conference he had to go to was mandatory, and it probably wouldn't look too professional if the owner of the establishment, who had ordered the conference in the first place, didn't show up.

However, it wouldn't hurt to just give it a try. If they did actually end up staying then everything would be fine and I wouldn't have to worry about it. I'd probably end up skipping Madisen's party in the evening as well. But then again, she'd probably understand with how upset she was earlier. It wouldn't have even come as a surprise to me if she just cancelled it all together.

As I glanced down, I saw a few bushes around the fence line on the other side of the river begin to rustle back and forth. I got my face closer to the window and strained my eyes to try and see what it was through the darkness, but to no avail. I just figured it was an animal of some sort, seeing as how with living in the woods, we got that a lot around here with the nocturnal animals.

I turned around and left it at that, walking back over to my bed and curling up into the fetal position with the afghan still wrapped tightly around me. I wasn't even that cold, to be honest. It was the beginning of Summer here in Georgia and it was by no means cold outside. In fact, I'm pretty sure that it was so warm, even being after midnight, that I could go outside right now and have the air still be perfectly warm.

It was mainly just a comfort thing; A safety blanket, sorta speak. Whenever I was feeling vulnerable and like things were out of my control, I'd wrap myself up in a blanket and everything would feel fine again. According to my parents, I've done this ever since I was a small child, and it just sort of carried into adulthood.

I forced my eyes shut and willed my mind to shut down enough so that I could finally go to sleep. I was beyond thinking so much about this one topic and it was beginning to give me a pounding headache on the top of my head. Soon enough, my body was relaxing, and I was drifting off into a rather restless slumber.