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  FATAL REACTION

  The Beginning

  M.A. HOLLSTEIN

  Copyright © 2016 M. A. Hollstein

  All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopying, recording, or by any information storage and retrieval system, without permission in writing from the copyright owner. This is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places and incidents either are the product of the author's imagination or are used fictitiously, and any resemblance to any actual persons, living or dead, events, or locales is entirely coincidental.

  ISBN-13: 978-1537150581

  ISBN-10: 1537150588

  Book Cover Art by: SelfPubBookCovers.com/Fantasyart

  Editing by: Laura Martinez

  http://mtmc2editingandformattingnook.blogspot.com/

  Fatal Reaction

  The Beginning

  Survival

  Books written under the name

  Michelle Ann Hollstein

  A Lost Souls Novel

  Awakened Within

  Beautiful Beginnings

  Cheating Heart

  Ghostly Gig, A Lost Souls Short Story

  Ms. Aggie Underhill Mysteries

  Deadly Withdrawal

  Something’s Fishy in Palm Springs

  Maid in Heaven

  A Hardboiled Murder

  One Hell of a Cruise

  A Prickly Situation

  Vegas or Bust

  Dead Ringer

  The Haunted Address, An Aggie Underhill Short Story

  The Niberia Chronicles

  Niberia

  Ashes to Diamonds

  Hidden Identity

  Nonfiction

  Who Says you Can’t Paint?

  Night Crashes

  Joshua Tree

  Serenity

  Escape

  Chapter 1

  Freaking out, Ellie was eyeing her gas gauge, while watching the little red needle steadily drop. Never again would she listen to her stupid GPS. From now on, she’d research the best way to go before relying solely on her phone. She realized that making good time while cutting through the barren desert wasn’t worth her sanity. What if she were to break down? Then she’d really be screwed. Ellie glanced at her phone. The damn thing was barely getting any cell service, one bar at the most, and it was intermittent.

  After spending the weekend in Las Vegas with some old college friends, Ellie was venturing back home to Oceanside, in San Diego County. Friday, on her way to Vegas, she’d taken crowded, overly populated Southern California highways, and had spent the majority of the afternoon, and evening, sitting in traffic. Therefore, today, she’d programmed her GPS app to avoid highly traveled freeways. She didn’t want to sit in traffic with everyone leaving Las Vegas to return home for the work week. That was a big mistake! At first, she thought it was great, zipping through the open desert at high speeds with no signs of congestion. Now, she was practically hyperventilating, eyeing her gas gauge like a mad woman, staring at the warning light that’d popped on reminding her that she was running on fumes.

  No duh! she thought, tapping on the plastic console, as if that’d change the situation. Stop reminding me!

  And, as if that wasn’t bad enough, quite a ways back, in order to conserve on gas, she’d turned off

  her air conditioning. She was sweating to death in the 110 plus heat.

  “Oh, thank God,” Ellie sighed with relief when she noticed the run down gas station up ahead.

  Running on fumes, Ellie drifted into the dusty, sand covered asphalt lot and maneuvered her car in front of two ancient looking lonesome pumps. She switched off the ignition, swung open her door, and slithered off her sweat soaked seat. Standing in the brilliant sun baking her skin, she shielded her eyes and frowned at the barren building. She didn’t like the appearance. The ancient, sun-bleached plaster made it kind of eerie looking. It reminded her of the sort of place you’d see in a horror movie. If she hadn’t been in desperate need of gas, she’d never have stopped.

  For a moment, she stood there just staring at the building, contemplating on what to do. Not that she had much of a choice. She noticed that there was a vehicle parked on the right side of the building. It was an old, white, Ford pick-up truck that’d seen better days.

  Reaching into her car, Ellie grabbed her purse from the passenger seat. Even though the store looked a bit creepy, she was relieved to see the open sign in the window. Thirsty, and also in need of a restroom, she pushed her fears aside.

  Pushing open the dusty glass door, the hinges squeaked, announcing her arrival. Ellie sighed as she was greeted with a heavenly gust of cool air from an old swamp cooler. She made her way up to the counter, tugging at her wet tank top which was clinging to her skin. An older gentleman wearing an old faded denim baseball cap was sitting in a white plastic chair, watching television on a tiny box TV.

  “Have you seen the news?” he asked her, glancing over the thick lenses of his black plastic frames as she approached.

  “Um, no. No, I haven’t,” she said, a bit taken back by his question. “I’ve been traveling.”

  “Some sort of epidemic gone viral.” He shook his head. “That’s why I live here. Stuff like that never affects us desert folk like it does them city folks…”

  Not really knowing what the man was talking on about, or caring, Ellie cut him off mid-sentence. “Do you have a bathroom?”

  “Right over there,” he said, pointing to the other side of the room.

  “Oh, and um, I’d like to put this on pump one.” She slid two twenty dollar bills, more than half of her Las Vegas winnings, across the counter.

  “Sure enough. It’ll be ready for ya.”

  “Thanks,” Ellie said, eyeing the aisle of snacks, and then the refrigerator along the wall, filled with bottled sodas, juices, and water. She’d be sure to grab something on her way out.

  She then noticed the grungy door with a blue plastic plaque adhered to it showing that the restroom was for both genders.

  Oh, well, she thought. When you gotta go, you gotta go. She’d just be careful not to touch anything. Her biggest concern right now was trying to get her sweaty shorts down and then back up again. She tugged again at the back of her wet tank top that was glued to her skin before entering the small restroom. To her surprise, the bathroom wasn’t as bad as she’d expected. It was clean, just old.

  After washing her hands, and splashing cold water on her face, Ellie felt rejuvenated and reentered the little store. She went straight to the refrigerator section and grabbed the largest bottle of spring water she could find. She then made her way to the snack aisle. She grabbed a bag of potato chips and a couple of candy bars. She was debating on what flavor gum she wanted when the front door crashed open. She heard a woman weeping.

  “Are you alright, Miss?” the old man behind the counter asked.

  Ellie peeked over the candy aisle and glanced at the counter. A woman in denim cut-off shorts, and a pink T-shirt shuffled over to it, moaning.

  “You don’t look so well,” he said. “Need me to call an ambulance?”

  The woman let out a horrific moan and doubled over while clutching her stomach.

  “Miss?” he asked. “You okay? Miss?”

  Curious, Ellie walked over to the counter with her snacks and water in hand.

  “I’m gonna call for help,” the man said, picking up the receiver of an old rotary phone. Ellie didn’t even know that rotary phones still existed. “Mind you, it might take a while,” he explained while dialing. “Bein’ we’re out in…”

  “Aurghhh…” The woman collapsed to her knees.

  “Oh my God!” Ellie
shrieked. She set her purse and things on the counter and kneeled down next to the woman. She gently patted her back. Extreme heat radiated through the thin cotton fabric. The woman was burning up. “Are you okay? What happened?”

  “Uhhh…” the woman groaned. She lifted her head. Ellie gasped, quickly hopping to her feet. The woman’s face was puffy and swollen, covered in what resembled hives, distorting her facial features. What terrified Ellie the most were the woman’s eyes. They shined a bright golden yellow. Red, broken, blood vessels spider-webbed around a yellow center.

  “Maybe she’s having some sort of allergic reaction.” Ellie glanced at the old man, who was still fussing with the phone. She wasn’t a doctor, she was an administrative assistant, but she’d had several allergic reactions in her time. If that’s what was happening, the woman needed steroids and Benadryl.

  But her eyes… Ellie thought. What’d do that to her eyes?

  “Yes, okay,” the man hung up the phone. “Paramedics are on their way. Might take a while though.”

  “Benadryl,” Ellie said, in a rush. “Do you have any?”

  “Um, yes… I think so.” The man finished putting Ellie’s snacks in a bag and then shuffled around the counter. “It’s over here.”

  The woman clutched her stomach again, bellowed out in pain, and then buried her face in her hands.

  Ellie followed the man. He stopped in front of a shelf with over-the counter products and scratched his head. “This might work,” she said, grabbing a box of generic antihistamines next to a bottle of aspirin. She also grabbed a dusty box containing a bottle of the children’s liquid allergy medicine in case the woman’s throat was too swollen to swallow pills. She prayed that this would help, or at least keep the woman stable until the paramedics arrived. She remembered when she had a near death experience due to an allergic reaction caused by Penicillin and how horrible it was. She’d been scared to death.

  Ripping open the box, Ellie thought she’d start with the liquid. The woman didn’t appear well enough to swallow pills. “Here,” she said, kneeling down next to the sobbing woman. “Try to drink some of this, okay? I think you’re having an allergic reaction.”

  The woman didn’t respond.

  Ellie pursed her lips. She gently patted the woman’s back, amazed by the amount of body heat she was generating, and held the open bottle in her other hand. She decided not to even bother measuring the liquid. Any amount of an antihistamine would be better than none. She just hoped the woman could swallow it.

  “This is just like on TV,” the old man said, standing behind her, watching. “Be careful. They say it’s contagious. Nothin’ like this ever happens out here…”

  Ellie had no clue what the man was going on about. “Please, try to take a sip. It’s okay. I’m trying to help you… please…”

  The woman lifted her head. A deep rumbling resonated from her chest.

  Ellie held the bottle to the woman’s white lips. “I think you’re having an allergic reaction,” she repeated. “It’s okay. This’ll help. I promise.”

  The woman lifted her hand. Ellie thought she was going to take the bottle from her, but instead she smacked the bottle out of her hand. Grape flavored syrup spilled onto the floor. Before Ellie could even comprehend what was happening, the woman shoved her. Caught off guard, Ellie toppled backwards and landed hard on her bottom. Scrambling to her feet, she couldn’t believe her eyes. She watched, horrified, as if in slow motion the young woman lunged at the old man. The woman’s shrieking was bloodcurdling. She, and the man, crashed down into a row of chips and crackers. Boxes and bags flew off the shelves, scattering all over the floor.

  It took Ellie a moment for her brain to register what she was witnessing. She wasn’t sure what to do. She grabbed the first thing she saw that could be used as a weapon, a bottle of cheap wine. The man screamed as the woman clawed at him, digging her nails deep into his flesh. Gripping the neck of the bottle with both hands, Ellie smashed it against the back of the woman’s blonde head. Glass crunched, shattering everywhere as it collided with the base of the woman’s skull.

  “Get off him!” Ellie screeched. “Get off him!”

  Dazed, the infected woman got to her feet and stumbled backwards, far enough away from the old man for Ellie to get a glimpse of what was left of him. Blood poured from his nose and he had deep gashes from the woman’s nails across his neck. His eyes were closed. Ellie couldn’t tell if he was still breathing. The crazed woman spun around and snarled. Her golden yellow eyes fixated on her new target.

  Shit! Ellie still clutched what was left of the wine bottle in her hand. The end was sharp and jagged. “Stay away from me!” she yelled jabbing the air with the bottle. “I mean it! I swear… don’t even come near me!”

  Tilting her blonde head to the side, her silky locks slid forward, covering half her face. The woman lifted her puffy upper lip and bared her blood stained teeth.

  Taking tiny backward steps, not daring to look behind her, Ellie’s back hit the counter, startling her. She jumped, dropping the bottle. The woman sneered, hunching her shoulders and bending her knees as if she were some wild animal ready to pounce.

  “I’m warning you!” Ellie’s voice squeaked, heart drumming in her ears.

  “Crrrrrlllaauhhh…” the woman gargled. A disgusting mixture of drool and blood dripped from her swollen mouth.

  “Run!” the old man yelled, staggering towards the infected woman.

  Ellie’s brown eyes grew large. She hadn’t even noticed the old man get up off the floor. He and the woman crashed into the opposite side of the aisle, taking down several shelves.

  What was he doing? She couldn’t just leave him.

  The old man screamed out in agony. The crazed woman was now on top of him, mauling him. Within seconds, the woman buried her teeth into the man’s neck, ripping out a chunk of his flesh. The man’s eyes rolled back in his head and he stopped squirming. Blood gushed from the wound and pooled on the floor. The woman continued to emit a series of guttural grunts as if she were some sort of wild animal, gnawing on her prey.

  Frightened, not knowing what else to do, Ellie took this chance to escape. She ran towards the counter, near the door. With a one-armed swoop, she grabbed her purse. Heart racing, she ran straight for her car. Clutching the handle, she yanked open the door and jumped inside. With trembling fingers, she searched her purse for her car keys.

  “Come on, come on…” she fretted. She kept looking up and staring at the glass door while groping around in her purse. Frustrated, she dumped the contents on the passenger seat. Spotting the keys, she grabbed them and started up the car. She threw it in reverse when the engine sputtered.

  “Come on!” she yelled, staring at the red light of doom. Her gas tank was still empty.

  She glanced at the door. The rabid woman was still inside. She had two options; option one, she could make a run for it and follow the road. Eventually someone would find her. The paramedics had been called. Surely, they’d be there soon. Her second option would be to start pumping gas. After all, the pump was primed and ready for her.

  Not happy with either option, Ellie reached for her latch to open the tank. With a snap, she heard the little door pop open. Still staring at the glass door, heart racing, she took in a deep breath and prayed. Careful not to make too much noise, Ellie opened the car door and slid back out of the driver’s seat. Taking another deep breath, not even aware of the fact that she’d been holding it, she made a dash for the nozzle. She turned and stared again at the door.

  Still closed.

  So far, so good.

  Grabbing the nozzle, she shoved it into the gas tank. She pushed down the little latch on the handle to keep the gasoline flowing, but it was broken. She wanted to wait in the safety of her car while the pump did its thing. Unfortunately, she’d have to stand there, holding the trigger down.

  “Damn it!” she muttered, beneath her breath. “Come on! Come on!”

  She glanced at the door.
/>   Still nothing.

  She then glanced at the numbers slowly rolling on the pump. Tick, tick, tick… They seemed to be moving in slow motion as the gas trickled into the tank.

  “You’ve got to be kidding me.” Her heart thudded while her stomach rose into her throat. “Hurry up.” She tapped her foot impatiently. “Hurry!”

  Just then, a crash alerted her. Ellie looked up to see the woman stumbling out of the building. Blood drenched the front of her pink T-shirt and was smeared across her distorted face. For a second, Ellie froze. So did the woman. When the yellow eyes made contact with hers, Ellie let go of the nozzle and raced for the safety of her car. Her fingers fumbled with the handle.

  Once inside, she slammed the door shut and twisted her key in the ignition. Immediately, she tapped on the door lock button several times, praying that all the doors were secure. The woman lunged at the hood. Thump! Her body thudded against the windshield. Her face was pressed against the glass. The sight of the old man’s blood smearing across the windshield, made Ellie feel sick.

  Making a snap decision, Ellie threw the car into reverse. It hesitated for a second, as if something was holding it. Then there was a loud metallic clanging noise. Ellie realized it was the nozzle wrenching free from her gas tank. The snarling woman clung to her windshield. Ellie thrust the vehicle into drive, lurching forward, and then slammed on her brakes, hoping to dislodge the rabid woman. Unfortunately, she was still clinging to the windshield wipers, eyes locked onto Ellie’s. Determined to be rid of this woman, Ellie stomped on the gas. The woman’s body shifted, sliding sideways across the hood. Unable to see around her, Ellie swerved blindly onto the main road, praying there were no other vehicles. She couldn’t see what the hell she was doing and the last thing she needed was to be side swiped. She floored it. Frightened, tears escaped her eyes, rolling down her cheeks as the snarling woman lifted an arm to claw at the windshield with bloody fingertips.

  Fwop! Losing her grip on the wipers, the woman rolled and flew off the car. Ellie glanced in her rearview mirror at the crumpled body in the middle of the road. It wasn’t moving. She wasn’t sure if she should stop and wait for the paramedics to arrive or to keep driving. She began to slow down. Sirens sounded. An ambulance, followed by a sheriff’s car, was headed in her direction. Ellie slowed down, and then pulled over, relieved to see help. The sirens of the oncoming vehicles whirled in a blaring surreal sort of way as they passed by.