The florescent lights poured down on the sterile white walls and the tile floors reeked of bleach. The barks of the golden lab in the kennel filled the hospital. Even though they were in a small town in Maine, business never seemed to slow down for Dr. Geary. The town of Kitsch Falls was an hour’s ride north from the outlets in Kittery and an hour and a half from Portsmith, New Hampshire. The slow, quiet atmosphere of a secluded small town was perfect for Dr. Robert Geary, owner and resident doctor of the Kitsch Falls Veterinary Hospital.
A small chirping noise signaled that the back door was opened. A short, chubby woman, with mud covered jeans and a maroon hoodie that said Maine in big white letters across her chest walked in. She was holding a tan animal carrier. She struggled holding the large box and closing the door behind her.
“Hey Sherry, what do you have for me today?” Dr. Geary asked. Sherry was the local wildlife rehabilitator. She was the only who could handle a wild animal legally in this county, but she came to Dr. Geary’s office for help. She set the carrier down on the ground beside the freezer that was right next to the back door. Whatever was inside the carrier, shifted it’s weight.
“It’s a raccoon I found not too far from my house. I swear, ever since that plane crashed a few miles from here in Dawson Forrest, I’ve been getting some odd cases. It’s like all of the animals are going crazy.”
Dr. Geary took his glasses out of the front pocket of his scrub and put them on his face. “Let’s have a look at this fella.” Sherry carefully opened the cage door, pried the raccoon out , and placed it on the examining table. The young raccoon tried to wiggle it’s way out of Sherry’s grip, but it’s attempts were useless. The small animal was covered in cuts, like it had been the victim in a fight, but the biggest injury was a large gash on the raccoon’s right shoulder blade. It looked as if a large animal had taken a chunk out of the raccoon. The gash was not the normal glossy red of raw skin, but a dark black. “Do you have any idea what attacked it?”
Sherry shrugged. “No clue. But whatever it was, it sure wasn’t friendly. I’ve been watching this little guy for awhile. That bite mark wasn’t as bad as it is now. It turned black over night, and I think it’s spreading.”
Dr. Geary had a quizzical look on his face. “I have no idea what this is, but I’ll tell you what. How about I keep him here and keep an eye on him? I’ll do a couple of tests and try to find out what’s wrong with him.”
Sherry nodded. “Try to do what you can. I have to get back; I’ve got a swan with a broken wing I need to put down. Call me if you find out what’s wrong with that raccoon.” Sherry gave a wave and left the same way she came in.
Dr. Geary carefully put the raccoon in one of the observation cages that were next to the back counter. He watched as the wild creature stumbled around a bit and then curled up in the pink towel that was laid in the cage. The black wound confused him, but he was sure he would find out what it was.
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It wasn’t until around 4 p.m. that Dr. Geary heard the alarm on the back door chirp. Dr. Geary was washing his hands from the exam he just had when he noticed his son, Jason, throw his backpack on the freezer near the back door. “You’re here early,” Dr. Geary stated.
The lanky teenager jumped up on the counter next to the sink. “Yeah, I left early from track. It’s not like they will notice.” Jason wasn’t the most motivated person in the world, in fact he was one of the laziest, and if he didn’t have to do something, he wouldn’t.
“Do you have any homework?”
“Yeah, but I’ll do it later. I’ve got loads of time.” He pushed his shaggy, chestnut brown hair out of his eyes. Jay jumped off the counter and walked over to the observation cages.
He saw the raccoon crouched in the corner huddled in the pink towel. “Hey dad, what’s wrong with the raccoon?”
Dr. Geary stood next to Jay. “To be honest, I really don’t know. Sherry brought him in this morning. Apparently he was attacked by something and got a nasty gash that is now infected.”
Jay turned to his father. “Do you think this has anything to do with the plane crash in Dawson Forest? They say they can’t identify the chemical it was carrying, or even where it came from.”
Dr. Geary shook his head. “ I don’t think that has anything to do with it. It’s probably just some kind of rare infection that I haven’t seen before. Now…I have another patient I need to attend to. I want you to do your homework for once, okay?”
Jay rolled his eyes. He waited until his father disappeared into the exam room before opening the raccoon’s cage. He reached in to pet the creature that was huddled in the corner. It started to hiss, so Jason pulled his hand out of the cage. He may not have the best grades, but he wasn’t that stupid. “Silly raccoon,” Jay said under his breath. That’s when the once docile raccoon attacked the cage door. It’s eyes widened and blazed yellow. The raccoon’s teeth glistened sending saliva flying everywhere. He managed to bite the hand Jay was closing the cage door with. He hissed and clutched it close to his body. The sucker bit the flesh in-between his thumb and his pointer finger. He could see the bone glisten under the florescent light. “Shit,” he muttered under his breathe. He frantically looked around for something to clean it with. While clenching his teeth he dabbed the wound with alcohol and then covered it with gauze and a bandage. The raccoon was still wildly attacking the cage door.
Dr. Geary appeared from the exam room. “What the hell is going on here,” he asked over the racket that the raccoon was making.
“I’m not sure. It just started going mad.”
Dr. Geary noticed the bandage that was now on his son’s right hand. “What happened, you didn’t have that before.”
“The damn thing bit me when it went spastic.”
Dr. Geary carefully pulled the bandage off revealing the open wound. “I think you should go home and rest. I don’t know what that raccoon has so I don’t know if is contagious.”
“But it’s just bite. I’ll be fine.”
“Jay,” Dr. Geary said frustrated. “Just do what I say for once.”
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When Dr. Geary was closing up the hospital that night he checked the raccoon one more time before he left. The raccoon wasn‘t moving. He was frozen in place toward the corner of the cage. Dr. Geary carefully opened the cage and reached in. The creature was cold and stiff. He took the raccoon out of the cage and put it in a black garbage bag. After putting the carcass in the freezer, he left a message on Sherry’s answering machine. “Hello, it’s Dr. Geary. I just wanted to let you know that the raccoon died before I could diagnose it. You can pick the body up tomorrow, and hopefully get an autopsy at the state wildlife facilities. I’ll see tomorrow.”
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Jason woke up the next morning feeling half dead. He really didn’t want to get up, but his father would kill him if he found out that he had skipped school. He pulled off the bandage to check his wound. A black crust had grown over the wound, covering the whole area between his thumb and pointer finger. It didn’t look too good ,but Jay just shrugged it off.
Jay was starving. He scoured the kitchen for something to fill his stomach, but nothing excited him. In the end he grabbed a pack of pop tarts, and left for school.
Jason sat down in the back row of his algebra class. He loved sitting next to the window because it was easy to stare off into space. His stomach was still growling for food. Nothing could seem to satisfy his hunger.
Jason’s best friend Ted sat down in the seat neck to him. He wasn’t very popular, although Jason wasn’t either. Ted had untidy dirty blond hair that hung in his face obscuring his vision. He was wearing a pair of ripped light blue jeans, a white tee and a flannel shirt on top. Ted turned to Jason. “Dude, did you do the homework last night?”
Jay shook his head. “No, I didn’t feel too goo
d last night. I went home from the vet and passed out in my room.”
Ted sighed. “Damn, I has hoping you did it so I could copy it.” He noticed how Jason had his head down on the desk. “Hey, are you okay Jay? You look a little sick.”
“I’m fine,” Jay mumbled from under his arms. “I’m just…really hungry.”
“Did you eat breakfast?”
“Of course I did,” Jay spat agitatedly.. “I had a pop tart and one of those egg sandwiches in the cafeteria.”
“Here,” Ted reached into his pocket. “You can have my Twinkie. I was going to save it for lunch, but I think you need it more.” Jason snatched it out of his hand. He ripped the plastic off lightning fast and scoffed it down. “Damn, you really are hungry!”
“I’m still hungry,” Jason complained.
“Are you sure you are alright?”
“I’m not sure.”
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Sherry picked up the dead raccoon, early that morning. She said she was going straight to the state wildlife facilities for the autopsy. Dr. Geary asked for her to call him back if they found out what was wrong with the raccoon. He failed to tell her that it had bitten Jason, instead he told her that he was just curious to what the raccoon had. She smiled and said that she would give him a call if they found out what it was. Dr. Geary was on edge, waiting by the phone most of the day.
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The clock seemed to tick by slowly. Jason could barely pay attention to the lesson. All he cared about was food. He needed to eat. He still had twenty minutes left to class, but he couldn’t stand it. Ted leaned over to Jason’s desk. “Hey, could I borrow a pencil. Mine just broke.” Jay took the pencil that was sitting on his desk untouched and reached to hand it to Ted. Ted’s hand was so close to him. He could smell his skin and the blood that was pulsing underneath. Jason could no longer contain himself. He didn’t know why, or what drove him to do it, but instead of handing the pencil to Ted he grabbed Ted’s hand and bit into it. Ted screamed out in pain, his face contorting into a disgusting cry of pain. People in the class turned and stared at the spectacle, looks of shock plastered on their face.
The taste of flesh over whelmed Jason. The blood drove him into a frenzy. Ted tried helplessly to pull his hand out of Jay’s mouth. He managed to get his hand lose, but Jay ended up with of chunk of flesh that was hanging out of his mouth. This is what Jay needed.
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Dr. Geary was in the middle spaying a cat, when his secretary Jessica popped into the surgery room. “Sherry is on the phone. She said you wanted her to call. Do you want me to tell her to call you back or…”
“Tell her that I will be there in a second. I just need to finish a couple more stitches.” Jessica nodded her head and left to relay the message.
It didn’t take Dr. Geary more than five minutes finish stitching up the cat. He took the cat off of anesthesia and then quickly picked up the phone in his office. “Hello?”
“Dr. Geary, you wanted me to call if I got any information on the raccoon?”
“Yes I did. Did you find anything out?”
“Yes I did. Quite interesting too. Turns out the raccoon had some contagious virus. It’s quite rare and only two other cases have been reported in the United States. It’s called Romero virus, and causes the infected host to become extremely violent. They end up killing other animals, eating their flesh. It basically turns the infected into a walking zombie, craving flesh. Hopefully, the raccoon didn’t bite any other animals before I caught it.”
“Why, is that.”
“Because the virus is contagious through bites like rabies.” Dr. Geary went speechless. Jason was bitten by this infected raccoon. “Are you still there Dr. Geary?”
“Umm…yeah. Is there any cure for this Romero virus?”
“Not that anyone has found. The only way to stop the spread is to kill the infected animal.”
“Then how did the raccoon die then?”
“It starved to death. Apparently if the infected can’t gorge itself on flesh then it starves itself.”
“There is still time,” Dr. Geary said under his breath.
“Time for what? What is wrong Robert?”
“I have to go Sherry. I’ll call you back later.”
“Wai-,” but Dr. Geary hung up the phone before she could finish. He took his coat off of the coat rack and left his office. He managed to tell his secretary Jessica to cancel the rest of his appointments and schedule them for another day. He needed to take care of some family business.
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Ted was freaking out. He looked at the open wound with wide eyes. The other students stared in shock. But all Jason could think of was how good that tasted, and he wanted more. As a slew of expletives streamed from Ted’s mouth, Jay grabbed him by his dirty blond locks and bit into his jugular. Ted’s screams filled Jason’s ears, ringing like a bell. But as quickly as the blood was pumping into Jay’s mouth, Ted’s life was slipping away. Jay threw Ted’s limp body at the chalk board. A trail of blood was left behind on the chalk board. That’s when all of the students ran from the class room screaming.
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The school was in a uproar. Jason was chasing the students around, and throwing teachers against the lockers, and gnawing off limbs. Chaos ensued as students ran towards the exits. They fought each other to reach the door.
Jason was living it up, picking off the weaker ones, their screams music to his ears as he ripped the arm a fellow students out of it’s socket. Blood spewed out of the wound, putting a new layer of blood on Jay’s t-shirt. He tossed the body away once he grew tired of him and went to grab another
.
Jason was gorging himself on a small blonde girl when he heard someone scream his name. “Jason!” He looked up from the bloody carcass to see his father, standing on the other side of the blood spattered hallway holding his hunting rifle. “Jason put down the body.” He stood up from his crouched position on the floor and tossed the body away with ease. He let out a demonic growl. Dr. Geary held up the rifle and readied a shot. “I’d hate to put you down Jay, but I can’t let you go around killing everything in sight.”
Jason started to charge down the hallway, reaching for his father. Before Dr. Geary could fire a shot Jason grabbed him and tried to bite his neck. Dr. Geary was holding him off with the gun. Dr. Geary could smell his son’s wretched breath on his face as his blood coated teeth tried to tear into his jugular. Jason managed to throw his father against one of the walls. It knocked the wind out of Dr. Geary but he managed to snap back to reality. Fear got to him as he saw his son before him, with a demonic grin on his face. He walked toward him slowly, blood dripping from his lips. Dr. Geary almost didn’t have enough time to ready his gun before Jay could feast upon his flesh, but right before Jay could reach him Dr. Geary fired a shot into his chest. Jason stumbled back a bit. Then Dr. Geary fired the killing shot into his head. Brain matter was spattered all over the yellow lockers behind him. Dr. Geary couldn’t look at the sight. He quickly grabbed his rifle and left the war zone.
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Dr. Geary stumbled out of the high school, his rifle hanging loosely from his hand, dragging on the ground. An ambulance was already on the sight, treating the horrified teenagers and teachers. Everyone stared at Dr. Geary not sure of what went on in there. A firefighter ran over to him, assisting him to the near by ambulance. He turned to the firefighter. “Don’t worry, he’s dead. It’s safe to go in now.”
He sat in the back of the ambulance, trying to convince the paramedic that nothing was wrong with him. “I swear, I didn’t hurt anything in there. A couple of bruises, but nothing serious.”
“Sir, you don’t know until I have checked.”
“Look, what you can do is make sure no one got bit. We don’t want an epidemic on our hands.”
With that Dr. Geary left the ambulance, ignoring the paramedics pleas. No one saw the doctor after that day. He just walked out of Kitsch Falls never to return.
