APOCALYPSE: The Monster They Made

CHAPTER ONE

I couldn't breathe.

Every time I tried to pull air into my lungs, my chest seized so hard that I thought my ribs would split. My throat burned, my stomach cramped, and pain twisted through my body until I couldn't tell what hurt the most.

I pressed my palm against the ground and tried to push myself up, but my arm gave out. My cheek hit the dusty concrete, and I lay there struggling to breathe.

The sky above me was gray through the broken roof, and bits of ash drifted through the open space. Most of the walls had collapsed, leaving the veranda completely exposed. We had been sleeping wherever we could find enough shelter to keep the wind off us.

A painful cough tore through me as I curled onto my side and spat onto the ground. There was blood in it. Damn it. I needed medication or I would not last the night.

My fingers shook as I wiped my mouth.

"Vanessa."

I turned my head. Matheo, my husband, stood behind me, staring at the blood with an expression that looked more irritated than worried.

"Can you stop coughing everywhere?"

I stared at him. "I'm trying."

"You need to control yourself. The air is already contaminated enough. My mother has been sick since yesterday, and Morgana started feeling ill this morning. You know she is my mother's favourite diatant niece. Do you have any idea what you're doing to them?"

Another cough clawed its way out of me. "I'm sorry."

He sighed. "You always say that, and yet here you are coughing and making the rest of us sicker."

I swallowed against the burning in my throat and forced myself to concentrate. I needed medicine. That was the most important thing, and thankfully,  I had saved some medicine for myself.

"There's medicine I saved somewhere.  Can you bring it to me, please. I cant walk or stand for too long."

His attention sharpened. "What medicine?"

"I buried some behind the house. If you go now, you'll see a patch of soil that looks different. There's a black container buried there."

"How deep did you bury it? I don’twant to use too much of my energy either."

"Its not very deep, I promise. But take the shovel."

He grabbed it from beside the collapsed kitchen wall. "Fine...stay here."

I let my head rest against the concrete, holding on to the hope that the medicine might save me. I had hidden it before the world collapsed because I knew there would come a time when finding medicine would be almost impossible.

I had been right, but I had also been stupid.

Before the apocalypse, I had spent my savings preparing. I bought food, water, medicine, batteries, and anything else I could afford. Then Matheo and his family needed money, and I gave them almost everything I had. They were my family, of course I could not say no to them.

But now I was lying in the ruins of a house, waiting for my husband to dig up the only medicine I had been smart enough to hide from them.

Still, I let myself imagine getting better. If the medicine worked, I could get back on my feet and search for more supplies. There had to be something left somewhere. I just needed a chance to find it.

Footsteps approached, and Matheo returned through the broken doorway carrying the black container. Relief washed over me, and I tried to push myself up.

"You found it."

Mattheo barely even looked at me. He walked straight past me and I watched him kneel beside Morgana and his mother, and my relief vanished.

"Is that medicine?" she asked. Her voice was weak, but she sounded much stronger than I did.

"Yes. I found some for you"

Matheo took a dose from the container and handed it to her. She swallowed it while I watched, too stunned to even speak. He gave another dose to his mother, who accepted it without hesitation, then took one for himself.

I stared at him, struggling to believe what I was seeing. "What...what did you just do? You're not even sick and you took the medicine too? What about me?"

"We don't know how this sickness works."

"You're not sick, Matheo.  I needed it... I...I how could you?"

"Oh stop acting like the victim here...I could become sick. I had to protect myself."

A weak, disbelieving laugh escaped me. "Of course."

Matheo frowned at me. "What is that supposed to mean?"

"You would rather take the medice that you dont need instead of giving it to ke? It is my medicine,  Matheo!! I fucking worked  hard for it! How could you?!"

His expression hardened. " Stop being selfish!! We still have some more left... we just have to ration it, thats all."

"Ration it? Its mine!!!" I coughed up more blood as my voice kept rising. "...you know what? Fine...give me what is left."

With all the pain in my heart, I watched as Matheo shook his head. "Vanessa..."

"Give me one, Matheo."

"Look...You've been poisoned already, and we dont even know if the medicine will work."

"Then let me find out.... give it to me...please."

He hesitated, and for a moment, I thought he might actually help me. Instead, he looked at the container and said, "What if you take it and still die? Then we have completely wasted it."

I stared at him, unable to believe what I was hearing. My husband was holding the medicine I needed to survive, and he had already decided I wasn't worth the risk.

"You're worried about wasting it? You didn'teven know it existed until 5 minutes ago!"

"Vanessa...we have to think practically," he replied.

I looked at Morgana, then Sylvia, his mother, before turning back to him. "You gave it to her."

"She's sick."

"She was walking around this morning."

"That doesn't mean she's fine."

I laughed bitterly through my tears. "Apparently, being able to walk is enough to make you worth saving."

Morgana looked away. That small movement hurt more than I expected. I had suspected something between her and Matheo for months. The secret conversations, the way he always seemed to know where she was, and how defensive he became whenever I asked questions had never made sense to me.

Now they did.

"Was it her?" I asked, looking at Matheo. "Is that why you're doing this?"

His face tightened. "Vanessa, this isn't the time."

"Then when?"

He said nothing. I turned to Morgana, but she wouldn't meet my eyes.

I laughed through my tears. "Right."

Matheo stepped toward me. "This has nothing to do with that."

"Then give me the medicine."

He stopped. "I...I can't."

"You can, Matheo. You gave it to Morgana, your mother, and yourself. All I'm asking for is one dose 9f my own damn medicine."

He didn't answer.

I looked down at my trembling hands, remembering how easily I had given him my savings, my supplies, and my trust. Whenever he needed something, I found a way to provide it. I had believed that was what marriage meant, that he would do the same for me when I needed him.

Now I was begging for one dose of medicine I had hidden for myself.

Another wave of pain tore through me. I curled forward, coughing until blood stained my lips again. I was dying... I could feel the darkness closing in on me.

When I finally managed to breathe, I looked up at Matheo, still standing there with the container in his hands.

"Please."

The word came out weakly. I hated having to beg him, but I wasn't ready to die.

"Just one. I don't need all of it. Give me one dose and let me try."

He shook his head at me.

My tears fell freely. "I am your wife, Matheo."

His jaw tightened. "I know."

"Then why are you letting me die?"

He looked away, then walked to Morgana, and dropped the entire bottle in her lap.

"Keep it safe, baby" Baby!? What a fucked up way to confirm he had been cheating on me all this time. With his mothers so called favorite distant niece.

I felt the last of my hope disappear. Whatever I had believed about our marriage, whatever excuses I had made for him, none of it mattered now. He could save me, but he had chosen not to.

I looked at the medicine container, then at Morgana and Sylvia, before turning back to him.

"I hope you remember this."

He looked at me, but I continued before he could speak. "I hope you remember that I begged you for help, and you stood there watching me die when you could have done something."

My breathing slowed, my fingers went numb, and the faces around me began to blur. I forced myself to keep looking at Matheo.

"If I get another chance, I won't give you anything," I whispered. "I won't give you my money, I won't give you my supplies, and I definitely won't give you my trust. I'll never sacrifice myself for you again."

"Vanessa," he said.

I ignored him. My chest tightened as I struggled to draw another breath, but I wasn't finished.

"And if I see you again, you'd better pray I don't remember you."

A bitter smile touched my lips as I stared at him through the blur. I tried to take another breath, but nothing came. My strength slipped away, and the last thing I felt was rage.

SO. MUCH. RAGE.