The Scourge System

CHAPTER II

Chapter II

It's been hours travelling in the river, still waiting for rescue and looking for other people to rescue. Many helicopters flew pass by them but not one of them dared to come rescue them. Certainly they'll collecting those wealthy, important people on a save seat first before the community. Many of the authorities tried to keep the people as human but mostly... they failed.

Some of the student that was saved earlier and been evacuated with the three men, slept in the rooms available in the yacht. The three men calls it a small yacht, but it has more than 10 rooms though it's not that big but it's enough to give them privacy and some time to rest.

But instead of resting, Clarissa stayed out, looking out from the window, wondering what just happened, why does this happening, how did this start... her mom, the people they lost in that tour, her classmates, her professors... those things.

She's asking herself, is this really happening? Why? How?

Everything feels like a dream, and she wishes to wake up. She feels like she's in some kind of a movie, but the difference is that, she's living in reality. It's real, and if it is real, she worries about her mother.

"Don't you want to rest? The other are still sound asleep I guess." Gavin asked her, offering a box of strawberry milk.

"Thank you." She accepted the milk and put a straw in it. "I can't sleep." She honestly told him and sigh. "Everytime I close my eyes, I see their faces, the violence, that terrifying things. I can't seem to erase that easy." She added before taking a long sip of the milk.

"I understand that." He sat at the chair adjacent to her, leajing forward to place both of his elbow on his knees. "I was on a party last night with my friends, hot drunk and then I woke up with those explosions happening." He chuckled and shook his head. "I actually can't think of anything earlier."

"Is this your-- what do you call it? Yacht?"

"Yacht and no, it's Amando's uncle who owns this yacht."

"You three must be wealthy, you work in a mafia business or something?" She asked that made him laugh out loud.

"No, no, I manage my own restaurant in Makati and being a 25 year man who has a lot of job to do in the kitchen, I don't have time for myself or to enjoy, that's why Jeiger had this idea to drag me out of my restaurant and put me in a party last night. And then here I am, talking to you... and in the middle of this confusing situation we have right now." He explained and starts to gnaw his bottom lip.

"You're too young to get stressed, you're lucky that your forehead doesn't have any wrinkles yet." She teased him and he instantly caress his forehead out of consciousness.

"Yeah you're right." He muttered and chuckled.

"Thank you." Clarissa sincerely said to him with that polite smile.

"Don't thank me, it was Amando's call. He's that tall hulky man you saw earlier but he's a real softie gummy bear. He loves helping people. He told me to call for you, I'm still half asleep while I'm doing that." He told her that made her let out a low laugh. "What about you guys? I noticed that all of you are teens, students?."

"We were on our tour actually, we, I mean us members of the science club, were supposed to head on the science exhibition before we proceed on science competition... three of my professor was with us... there were twenty of us inside that bus. Now we're only eight." She speaks low, sign of sadness and trauma plays within the rhythm of her voice.

Gavin can see it, he can hear it but he doesn't pity her, instead he's proud of her. She's young but she managed to face it without getting hurt.

"I saw how they died, how they turned into those things and-- and Clive, that poor kid, he saved me."

"What do you mean?"

She found his eyes that's full of confusion and worry. "Those things, they attack people and bite them like some kind of an animal showed in the movies and... blood, too much coming out from their mouth. Those people they bite, they turn into those things." She explained for as far as to what she witnessed... to all she saw.

"I saw how they look like, but the way you told me that story, it sounds even more terrifying." He muttered and washes his face with his hands. "Are you hungry? I believe there's food left in the fridge." He asked her but she shook her head.

"No, I'm fine. I really don't have the appetite to eat right now. Thank you." She smiled at him.

"Okay, so... you sure you're not going to take a rest even just for a minute?" He stood up, wiping his hands at the back of his thighs that's covered by his white pants.

"Maybe later, thank you."

"You thank me too much, I haven't done anything good on you." He turned and gave her a glance. "I should get going, I better check Amando on the too deck, he must be crispy from getting fried from the sun."

Up in the deck, there's Amando holding the wheel and Jeiger who's running his mouth, complaining. And that's what welcomed Gavin.

"What if one of them is actually one of those things? Amando, I don't want to be like those cannibal, monster, psycho being we just saw!" Jeiger bellyached to Amando.

"Lower your voice down or I'll throw you out of this yacht." Amando monotonously replied to him.

"You're being too mean about it, I'm just being careful and you know that."

"All you need is rest, Jeiger. You've been working that mouth of yours since this morning, I still have my headache so can you please be quiet?" Amando asked him kindly.

"If I may remind you, you are us 50p peso bill, Jeigs." Gavin told him before sitting at one of the white chairs on the deck.

"Shut up, man." Jeiger walked out.

"Hey! Stop running away from your responsibility!" Gavin shouted at him and he received a middle finger for that.

"This is you, assh*le!"

"That jerk." Gavin mumbled, making Amando laugh. "Where are we going now?"

"I'm looking for a place to dock the yacht, there's a pier near here, we're running out of fuel, I forgot to store a drum of gasoline the day Uncle told me so. And now that we need if the most, we're out of it." Amando points at the fuel meter.

"Darn, I checked the fridge too, the food's not enough for all of us. Do you think it would safe for us to go there? I mean, those things, they aren't in some place right?"

Amando shook his head negatively. "I'm afraid we have no where else safe to go, Gavin. The radio stations are saying the same over and over again. They're putting every town in lock down and everyone needs to be quarantined."

"What?! What do you mean?"

"They happen to mention the word Zombie. And the incident is not just happening here." Amando faced him. "It's worldwide."

~ ● ~

"Hey Clarissa, do you know which room Grae is?" Harvey, that famous guy that has the looks and the brain but often called weird because of his habit of spacing out.

"Oh, I don't know Harvey but I think I saw him at the left hallway. Leo took the far left room, maybe you should ask him." Clarissa replied to him.

"Thanks."

Clarissa stood up from the chair and headed outside. There she saw the open roads, full of stranded vehicles, fire and smokes. No people to see walking around like the busy city before.

Her frown doesn't leave as her questions starts to pile up higher and higher and the answers are completely blank.

Feeling the biting hot air of the noon, this should be a normal day for her, attending the tour with her friends, have fun and enjoying the science life. But fate isn't stays in the pattern, it always changes into an unexpected way.

But out of all the things that rumbles up in her mind, what she worries of the most is her mother. She can't contact her. Amando let them use his phone earlier but none of them got any answers except for Jessa's family who's safe in their private plane.

Yet her mom, Renai stayed unreachable. She prays for the safety of her mother, she loves Renai more than herself actually. She's the only family she have left ever since her father left them.

Her father that doesn't make time for anything else but his work. She understands him, but what she doesn't is that he never had time to come visit her like he promised.

Although that reason is enough for her to get closer to Renai. Everything can get lost but not her mother.

"Looking lost in your thought, hope your brains finds a way back to your head." That kind of talking, Rohana.

Clarissa let out a low laugh before turning to where the voice came from. "Hey."

"Aunt Renai will be fine."

She frowns. "Are you some kind of a psychic or a mind reader or something?" She asked her bestfriend.

"From that kind of face you're giving? I know what's running in your mind, Clarissa." Rohana replied to her before joining her leajing at the grills of the yacht. "Even I'm thinking about my drunkard father and my nagger mother, add that lazy ass brother of mine." She admitted before giving her a small smile.

Clarissa knows how a mess Rohana's family is, they've been friends ever since grade school and she knows who Rohana is. Displaying that rock hard visage of hers, strong and brave... but deep inside, she's full of care with the people around her.

"Stop looking at me like that, I know I have a pimple on my cheek." Rohana rolls her eyes and nudges her by her shoulder.

"What do you think they are, Rohana? I've never seen anything like that before." Clarissa asked her, tucking her short, dark curly hair behind her ear.

"You're smarter than I am, Clarissa, if you don't know what it is, what makes you think that I will?" She has a point, Rohana is indeed a member of the science club but that doesn't mean she's smart, she only got herself a part of the club because Clarissa asked her to and also to escape the boring history lecture and get exempted.

Clarissa chewed her cheek inside and sighed deeply enough to make Rohana know how deep she's thinking.

"You think too much, Clarissa. Did you even rest?" She asked and got no answer. "I think I already know the answer and don't bother explaining. But you know what? We're safe, although I still don't trust the faces of those three guys we're with but... why don't you take a rest from thinking? I don't want you to miss your head."

"Did you catch your sleep?"

"A bit yeah, but it's not helping though. Have you got a chance to talk to them? Do you know who they are?"

"Well, the two of them yeah. They seem nice, they lend us clothes and feed us." Clarissa shrugs.

Rohana nods her head. "Those three eggs are already awake, they're actually at the front. Why don't we join them?"

When they reached the front part of the yacht, there's Gavin with them and as expected, Jonixa is drooling over him.

"Could please stop staring at him? I'm sure he's getting goosebumps from you eye raping him." Rohana kicked the chair Jonixa's sitting on.

"He's hopeless, don't mind him." Brenda commented with that casual groggy face of hers that's sprinkled with a bit of bafflement and lost.

"We'll be docking at a pier, we need to get some food supplies and fuel." Gavin announced to them.

"Dock? We're going to go there? What if those things are still around? What are we going to do?" Jonixa freaked out immediately.

"You don't have to worry about anything, only three will be needing to get off the yacht, the rest will stay here." Gavin offered them a smile, a smile that doesn't reach his eyes.

"Hey Gavin! Ready the rope! I'm going down there!" Amando shouted to him as soon as they reached the pier. That empty pier.

"Where is everyone?" Jessa mumbled to her breath while looking at the pier that's supposed to be filled with a lot of people. Beside them are the cruises and boats but none of them has a people in it.

"Will all of you would be fine if we come out of a second?" Gavin asked them but most specifically, his eyes are on Clarissa.

"Well I guess, we have be fine with that." She replied, unsure.

"Don't worry, we'll be back as soon as--"

"Run! Run! Run! Ack!" Leo shouted that alarmed them. Their eyes found Leo getting bitten by... Grae.