Patient Zero

All was silent in the town of StoneHollow. The death of the mayor’s wife, Marie Taylor has crippled the town. Marie was known for being the nicest lady in StoneHollow. She was more liked than her husband. An unfortunate accident happened out in the woods that caused her death. She died from a severe head injury. Nobody knew why she was in the woods except for the town’s sheriff.

Sheriff John Hansley kept his mouth close about what happened to Marie in those woods, but his guilt was eating at him. He headed over to the mortuary to see Marie’s body. He slowly opened the door to see her lying on the table and Dr. Kingsley standing over her writing stuff down. The smell of lemon-scented disinfectant spray strongly hit his nose.

“Jason”

“John, what brings you by?”

“I just wanted to pay my respects again.” he pointed at Marie “She was a close friend of mine.”

“Yea, she was a saint to everybody.”

Sheriff John took off his hat.

Dr. Kingsley put his clipboard on the nearby table and put on gloves.

“I found something interesting.”

“Like what?”

“She was with someone when she died. I found saliva around her neck and ears.”

“You sure?”

“Yes.”

Sheriff John became anxious. He tugged at his collar.

“Did you find out who it belongs to?”

“Yes.”

Sheriff John's heart skipped a beat. While Dr. Kingsley turned around to grab the paperwork and Sheriff John reached for his gun.

He pointed it directly at Dr. Kingsley.

“I was actually coming to get you because-”

Dr. Kingsley turned around to be staring down the barrel of a gun.

“Okay, John look… I wasn’t accusing you but it’s your DNA on her neck and ear lobes.”

“Wasn’t accusing me my ass, Jason! I know exactly what you were implying. I didn’t kill her, I would never!”

Tears formed in John’s eyes.

“Okay okay, I believe you just put the gun down… please.”

John’s hands trembled.

Jason stared at John. He gestured his hands for John to come down. He knew John didn’t want to shoot him.

Suddenly a huge gasp for air came from Marie’s mouth. They both looked at her body in confusion.

“Was that you?” Jason asked.

“No!”

Jason looked at Marie’s body closer but she didn’t move.

“I heard it… I know I did.”

John was still pointing the gun at Jason.

“Okay look, say you didn’t kill her… what happened?”

Tears left the sheriff’s eyes.

“We were in love.”

“What!”

“Yes… we would meet up every morning in the woods by the rocks and we would make love.”

“You two were having an affair? What about Eric?”

John pointed the gun down and began to sob.

“I loved her! He couldn’t love her like me! She wanted me!”

John wiped his tears with his sleeve. His voice softened.

“We were just kissing near the waterfall and we got too close to the edge she slid and before I could grab her she fell. I called it in because I was already there. I-I should’ve been faster, grabbed for her. She-she’s dead and it’s all my fault.”

John leaned against the wall and slid down crying into his knees.

Jason couldn’t believe what he heard. It was an accident but she was still cheating on her husband. Jason didn’t tolerate adultery; he was raised Catholic. However, John was his oldest friend.

“It’s okay John.”

Jason ripped up the test result paper and walked over to his desk to delete it from the computer. He heard a moaning noise and assumed it was John.

“It’s okay I’m deleting it, I won't tell anybody. It was an accident, relax.”

Jason turned around to see Marie standing in front of him. He was in shock, he stood there frozen. Marie’s head was cracked open on the right side, her eyes were red, and when he examined her earlier her back was broken. She shouldn’t be able to stand.

“How is this possible? Marie, are you okay?”

She didn’t answer him. She stood there mindlessly. Jason looked over at John who was also in shock. His eyes were wide and his mouth opened. Time felt like it stood still until Marie made a loud groaning noise and then charged towards Jason. He fell against the desk knocking over everything then Marie took a huge bite out of his neck. Jason screamed in pain for John to help him. John quickly snapped out of it and began shooting at Marie. All six shots went into her body but it didn’t stop her. She kept trying to bite Jason.

“John!”

“Just knock her off!”

“She is incredibly strong! Do something!”

John reloaded quickly and shot Marie in the back of the head. She collapsed on top of Jason. He pushed her off but he couldn’t get enough strength to stand up. John walked over to lift Jason. With one lift he managed to pick Jason up.

“What the fuck was that?”

“I don’t know,” said Jason

John carried Jason to his car. He gently placed him in the back seat and closed the door. He got into the car and turned the siren on.

“Just hold on!”

Jason was starting to feel dizzy and the pain was excruciating but for some reason, he couldn’t scream. The only clear thing was hunger.

“Hey, can we maybe stop at the diner first? I'm starving.”

John looked at Jason through the mirror confused.

“What! Hungry! Jason what the fuck!”

“I’m soooo hungry. It’s growling don’t you hear it.”

His stomach began to rumble and grumble loudly.

“I’ll get you some food when they clean up your wound. Okay?”

Jason groaned.

“Please hurry!”

Jason started groaning louder and louder until he became completely silent. John looked in the mirror.

“Jason… buddy you alright?”

Jason didn’t respond after a few minutes, John pulled over the car. While unbuckling his seatbelt he felt something breathing on the back of his neck. He turned around quickly to Jason looking sick. His face was pale and his eyes red and the same as Marie. John quickly jumped out of the car into the road with his gun ready.

“Stay back!”

Jason ran full speed at John so John didn’t have a choice but to shoot him.

He took two bullets to the head and fell over. Nearby people saw the altercation and began to panic.

“What is going on?” A woman asked.

“What happened to Dr. Kingsley?” A man asked.

John hated being the sheriff sometimes because people always made him answer questions he didn’t have the answers to. Not like they would be satisfied anyways.

“Everything is under control.” That was always his go-to response when he didn’t know what to say.

The people started to mutter and whisper to each other. John sighed. He was about to put his gun back in its holster when he heard a little girl scream. She was pointing at Jason, who was getting back up.

“How?”

How did a headshot not work and he shot him twice. John turned to the town’s people…

“Run!”

Everyone went running and somebody sounded the town’s alarm. The ear-piercing alarm seemed fitting for the situation. Jason chased after some people trying to bite them. John shot him twice again to get his attention.

“Come on…”

Jason slowed down but once again the bullets didn’t stop him completely. He started to chase after John while everyone else ran and hid.

“That’s right, this way.”