Fever (Flu) Read Online Free PDF

Sophisticated. Elegant...” He raised an eyebrow. “All the things you aren’t, dear child.”
    Ellis grabbed the door handle angrily, intent on leaving before she did rip the old codger’s head off. But the door held firm. She tugged it again to no avail.
    She looked to Johnson quizzically.
    He pushed past her, tried the door, pulling it hard. But still it held. They were both somehow locked in.
    Johnson returned to his computer. He swore and then began feverishly punching at the keys, all the while looking nervously to the screen.
    “What’s happening?” Ellis asked.
    He ignored her.
    She drew closer to him, standing by his side as he continued to bang the keyboard. The company logo receded from the screen, basic white lettering taking its place, reading: QT SHUTDOWN.
    “What is this?” Ellis pressed.
    But Johnson didn’t look at her, still hammering the keys uselessly. “This isn’t right,” he said, more to himself than to Ellis. “This shouldn’t be happening without my authorisation.” He pulled away from the computer. “It’s Farrow,” he said. “It must be. He’s shutting us down!”
    “What!” Ellis cried.
    She ran back to the door, tried her card. It was useless, not even registering. She tried the handle, desperately trying to pull it open. Beat her hands upon the glass, calling Blake’s name.
    The lights went down.
    Ellis startled, feeling around in the dark, finding the edge of a desk. She clutched it as if expecting the floor to give way next.

CHAPTER EIGHT
    Like a dream. Like a nightmare. Like some sort of hallucination. That’s how Ellis saw the world now, her mind’s eye filling the dark with its own creations, dancing to the steady beat of Johnson’s fevered breathing.
    Time passed. She didn’t know how long. Hours? Days? A week?
    She found a torch, clicking it on and off to save the batteries. Darkness or partial darkness.
    She huddled in the corner.
    Johnson remained on the other side of the room.
    He’d been coughing, wheezing. Crying out for help.
    The storeroom door hung open nearby, its contents strewn across the floor, Johnson no doubt trying to find something that would help him escape.
    But there was no escape, their only exit still locked tight.
    Ellis would have called for help, phoned someone, but everything was dead. The power was gone, the phones cut off. Their access cards were useless. No computer or internet. She’d left her mobile phone in her car. Not that it mattered: she couldn’t get a signal down here even at the best of times.
    Sleep finally came. And with sleep came dreams. Ellis dreamed of monsters. She dreamed of Jenkins. She dreamed of her school days, of exams she hadn’t worked for, formulas she couldn’t understand, biology terms she no longer remembered.
    But then the lights came back on.
    The air was misty around her, but she could see.
    Ellis looked over to Johnson, but he wasn’t on the floor. Instead, she found him floating in the air, his nails scratching into the wall, blood flowing down like thick red paint.
    He turned to look at her, and his eyes were hollowed out, worms crawling through.
    And then he said her name.
    ***
    Ellis woke with a start, eyes flicking open to find darkness again. Her hands fumbled along the floor for the torch. Ellis switched it on, gripping the damn thing tightly, searching the room with its narrow beam. She aimed at each wall, then towards the door.
    She reached her free hand to her mouth, gasping. The door was open.
    Johnson?!
    She shone the torch around the room again, finding him on his chair by the computer. His body was still. His hands were hanging off his gold chain. Scratch marks ran up his neck. His eyes rolled back into his head. Ellis knew that he was dead. She didn’t have to examine the body to know that.
    But dead men sometimes move again...
    Ellis slid up against the nearest wall. She shifted away, still keeping her back against the wall, torch fixed firmly on Johnson’s body. She inched