A Recipe for Daphne by Nektaria Anastasiadou (reading well .txt) 📕

I could hear the shouts from where I sat. The thought floated through my mind that perhaps I should have locked people in before I made this announcement, but I shook it off. Trapping people would only make the panic worse. We would have to rely on people’s trust. I didn’t exactly have a cache of it to bank on. As if on cue, I heard the whoosh of a door opening in the hallway behind me.

“Hey! Anybody! We need help in here!”

I was the only one around. It seemed like the rest of the shelter had taken my suggestion seriously. I radioed for anyone in the infirmary to join me and ran towards the person yelling. It was Asha, an older woman who I briefly met when I ended the simulation. Tears streaked her face and her eyes rolled in panic.

“It’s Tarik,” she gasped. “He won’t wake up.”

“Stay back.”

Even before I saw the body, I knew he was gone. The stench of death came from their bedroom, as strong as anything. I ran towards her husband’s still form, knowing full well that there was nothing I could do but hoping against hope that the man was still alive. I almost reached to check for a pulse out of habit, but drew my hand back at the last second. Bending over his body and saw a stain of spittle, mucus, and blood on the pillow underneath his head. He must have died during the night.

“Why aren’t you doing anything?” Asha cried out. She had discarded my instructions. Understandably. I backed away from the body, holding my hands wide.

“Asha, I'm so sorry.”

“What the fuck are you doing, Jacob? Start CPR, get him oxygen, do something!” I set my jaw at the look of hatred in her eyes. I couldn’t blame her. She knocked me aside to climb on top of her husband.

“No!” I swung out an arm but missed by an inch. “Don’t!”

It was too late. She rolled Tarik over and pressed her mouth to his. Rescue breathing. I heard running footsteps in the hall and raced to meet them. “Stay back!” I yelled. “Stay back, whoever you are!”

Asha continued her efforts to revive Tarik, and I felt Shannon’s hand on my shoulder. “Have you touched him?”

“No,” I breathed. The scene in front of me was out of my worst nightmare. I knew how Asha was feeling, the sheer terror of knowing that the other half of your soul was gone forever. I was suddenly transported back to my wife’s death, how I tried to revive her through tears and fear.

“Get her off of him.” The command shook me out of the flashback.

I stepped forward and pulled Asha off of Tarik. She screamed and fought, but I got my arms wrapped around her in a bear hug. She cursed and sobbed. I sent up a prayer asking for forgiveness from anyone who would listen. Shannon bent to examine the body-I had to think of it as the body now-and shook her head. When she saw that, a keening wail broke from Asha’s throat. It was a sound of raw anguish. The sound of knowing that your life as you knew it was over. I shut my eyes and held her still.

“Shannon, I need you to go outside. Keep everyone where they are. Go wake up Marcus. He and Fiona will help you.”

“Jacob-”

“Go. Now!” I snarled. She cast one last look at me and jogged from the room.

“Asha, I’m going to let you go in a minute, but you have to promise that you’re going to listen to me, okay?” She kicked and writhed, pleading with me to let her go, that she had to be with Tarik. “Asha there’s been an outbreak.” She stopped fighting me then. “That’s what my announcement was this morning.” As I felt her relax, I loosened my grip on her, but kept myself ready to grab her again if need be.

“And you think…? Oh god.” Her face went pale.

“That’s why I need to let you go. I need to get you cleaned up, okay?” I knew in my heart that there was little I could do for her now. It would be one thing if she had simply touched infected skin. There might be a chance for her to go through decontamination, then. The rescue breathing would be what killed her. Asha started to shake. She was an intelligent woman. I knew that she had just come to the same conclusion that I had.

“Am I going to die?”

“Let’s not get ahead of ourselves. I’m going to take you to the infirmary and have the doctors take a good look at you, okay?” She cast a frantic look at Tarik’s body. “Some of the men and I will prepare-we’ll take care of Tarik. If I can, I’ll let you say goodbye to him.” She nodded, numbly.

A young man in plain scrubs knocked gently at the door. Dr. Rickman had found some of the help she needed. The man nodded towards me.

“My name is Edward, Mr. Alvaro.”

“Hi, Edward. I need you to take Asha here down to the doctors. I expect they’ll want to examine her.”

“Of course, sir.”

As they left the room, I felt the urge to slam my fists into the wall. The only thing that stayed my hands was the sure and certain knowledge that if I touched anything in this place, I would expose myself to the virus. If I hadn’t been exposed already. The rest of the shelter was well awake now. I took one last look at Tarik.

“I’m sorry.”

When I emerged into the corridor, I found only a few people present. Through the quick work of my family and the few people who still trusted me, word had been spread about the outbreak. Before I could flag anyone down, Gabriel rounded the corner, his path on a collision course with mine. He stopped mere inches from me and leaned in, as if discussing something confidential.

“And