[ WP ] `` Are you okay ? '' `` Yeah . '' `` No . Are you OKAY ? '' `` ... No . ''

`` Are you okay?'' 
 
 It's Sandy. Oh god. Half the skin of her face has been ripped off, revealing the muscle underneath. Teeth, embedded in gums. She smiles, and the muscle tears a little more, bleeds a little more. I'm going to be sick. I look away, just to keep myself from gagging. 
 
 `` Yeah,'' i say. I'm pretty sure my leg is broken. That's okay though. That's okay. 
 
 I sit up and almost scream from the pain, my hip, something, not going to think about it right now. Just get into a sitting position. 
 
 `` C'mere,'' I say, and she moves in closer, and I give her a hug. When I pull back her face is stitched together, clear-skinned, beautiful as ever. 
 
 `` Help me up,'' I say. `` I need to get to the others.'' 
 
 She nods, does n't argue. Good girl. I lean on her heavily. Trying to avoid putting any weight on the leg. I'm going to pass out, there's so much pain. Got to keep going though. Need to... Need to fix people. 
 
 Bob, weaving towards us. Oh god, maggots. He's crawling with maggots. Eating their way in and out of him. 
 
 `` Hey!'' Sandy waves to him. 
 
 A maggot drips from Bob's nose, falls to the ground. His hands are coming apart like globs of cottage cheese as he waves back. 
 
 `` Andrew,'' he says. `` How am I doing?'' 
 
 `` Nothing I ca n't handle,'' i reassure him. I'm trying to sound unfazed but it's so hard, when the only thing keeping me from dry heaving the nonexistent contents of my stomach is reciting the multiplication tables backwards. 
 
 Every cell of my body cringing I reach out and touch him, and the maggots melt away, fading into flesh, normal, human. 
 
 Bob blinks. 
 
 `` Oh wow, that was amazing,'' he says. `` One day you need to explain to me how you can do that.'' 
 
 `` Sure, some day'' I say, which means never. 
 
 There's other people screaming though, so we're moving again, me hobbling along, Sandy supporting me. 
 
 Psych viruses, goddamn psych viruses driving people mad, and me the only one who can somehow see and remove the infection. So we're moving. Moving. I touch another person, and another person. The pain, from my hip, it's growing, it's radiating upwards. I'm on fire, I'm being eaten alive. Just a few more hours, though, then the proper CDC gets here. 
 
 `` Andrew,'' Sandy says, yanking me back from the daze I've drifted into. `` Andrew are you okay?'' 
 
 `` What?'' I say, blinking at her, stupefied. `` Yes, yes I'm okay. I'm... I'm okay.'' 
 
 But she's gently bending downwards, settling me down, propped up. 
 
 `` No,'' she says, `` are you OKAY?'' 
 
 I look down at my stomach. Bright green gas seeps from gaping open blue wounds. Infected. Oh god. Oh god. Oh god. 
 
 I stare up at her, desperate. Her eyes are filling with tears. So, I realize, are mine. 
 
 ``... No, `` I whisper. The world floods purple. 
 

