Heading home to take a quick nap, I felt energized. Not knowing how I was going to go to sleep, I stopped off at the local drug store and got low-dose sleeping meds. On the way out, the cashier said “Jacob! Hey Jacob!”
“Yeah?” I said turning around. I noticed the cashier looked familiar, and realized she used to work next to me at the office. “Hey Alli! How you been?” I said.
“Not too bad, not sleeping well lately?” she said nodding to the sleep meds.
“Not really, between the dreams and the always gnawing hunger I can’t seem to catch a wink of good sleep.” I muttered.
“Dreams eh? Always dreaming about work if I remember you correctly. Can’t ever take a night off. Work work work. Though I guess that’s why you’re still working there and I’m not.” she said laughingly. “That’s okay though, I like it here. No bullshit to deal with, no boss breathing down my neck to get shit done. I just stand here and look pretty.”
She did that a little too well, as I found myself seeing her in a new light. I needed to get out of there in case I was starting to feel crazed. I didn’t want to hurt anyone, and she wasn’t like me. She was able to eat fast food, she was able to sit at a restaurant and not get gawked at like a mad man. I shook my head as resentment starting coursing through me, walking out the door.
“Bye Jacob! See you soon!” she yelled after me.
I sat out in the car and hit my fist against the steering wheel repeatedly. I started up the car and drove straight to the office instead of heading home. When I got to the office, I glanced at my hands and found my knuckles were bloody and raw. I gingerly touched them, and felt no pain there.
“Maybe this was what Emanuel was talking about. Not feeling pain could be a good thing in the end of things. If we’re going to be hunted, we won’t have to slow down due to fatigue, or due to small injuries.” I thought to myself.
I walked into the office and sat down at my desk. Reaching into the top drawer I pull out the first aid kit. I wrap up my hand and stand up to look for Jasmine. After standing up, I realized she probably wouldn’t be in for another 3 hours, like everyone else. I’m about to sit down when I realize there is someone else in the office. I see the glow of a computer monitor a few offices down, so I head that way to sneak a peak at who’s in there.
I look into the office and see my boss going through an employee’s computer. I step in to the office and knock on the door softly. He jumped out of the chair startled, and said, “OH! I was just uh. I was just making sure there were no personal files on her computer.”
“Sir…you’re looking pale today. Are you okay?” I asked, not caring about what he was doing.
“I’m feeling a bit under the weather; I think I caught that damned virus you people have. I ate dinner at a friend of mine’s house last week in Kentucky and when I came back I was in cold sweats, couldn’t eat anything, then someone told me that I could only eat raw meat. So I started out with cooked hamburger, trying to beat the system right? No go, I puked it all back up within the matter of hours. I knew then that I cannot beat the system, and that I had to deal with raw meat forever. I’m a fucking carnivore man…Now the city is out of meat, what am I supposed to do? I’m going through people’s computers at work to find out where they go every day so I can track them down if I need to, raid their house for meat or something. It’s so fucking weird man…this morning I sat down at this computer, and I saw pictures of this gal, and I’ll be the first to admit to you, she’s not attractive at all…she’s obese, she doesn’t take care of herself…in every way possible she’s ugly, but for some reason I can’t stop looking at her. When I see these pictures I feel an emptiness that only she can fill.” he said.
I shook my head…knowing he was going to be crazed very soon and most likely this girl was going to be his first kill. I say nothing though, because Jasmine made it clear that we can only be hidden if we let the others get caught first. So instead of warning him, I said “Maybe you should talk to her tonight after work. Give her the feeling she’s appreciated and see what you’re feelings are for her.”
He nodded, and I went back to my desk. A few hours later my boss walked past me and gave me thumbs up. I knew he took the bait, and I felt no remorse. This is a life or death situation, either he gets caught and not me, or he goes into hiding and may get us all caught. I had to get the message to Jasmine tonight about it. I sent her an e-mail telling her I needed to talk to her, and I’d meet her before work tomorrow morning at her house. She replied back with a confirmation, and told me that Emanuel and Susan would be there too.
I went through the rest of the work day without incident, and when I went home I took a couple of sleeping pills and dozed off to another horrific dream.
Even when I’m sleeping, there is no rest…