13th Day Everything Went Wrong

On the thirteenth day, everything went wrong. Well, at least, it went wrong for the first time. It would go wrong many times after this, but this was the first time that it happened, for on the thirteenth day, Jackson Nichols fell sick with the plague. Not to say that he hadn’t been expecting it, though; he had made direct contact with those sailors from Belgium, after all. He had suspected his infection for a while, but he refused to even think about it, let alone bring it up to any of the others. At first, it had only been a cough; nothing too major, right? Everyone got a small cough from time to time; he needn’t worry about it. Though, after that came the difficulty he had with breathing; it wasn’t much at first, but it was quickly
The other was taken aback for a moment, before responding to him with a voice that was steadily rising. “What were you supposed to do?” He repeated, shaking his head. “You were supposed to tell us, that’s what! Why wouldn’t you-” “Do you really think it’s that easy?” Jack’s voice interrupted the other’s, a slight shakiness to his tone. “Do you honestly think that it would have been easy for me to say? Do you really think I could do that? How do you think that would make everyone else feel, Bene?” Jack stood up slightly so that they were eye to eye, clenching his jaw as he felt his lower lip quivering. His teeth clenched themselves together for a moment before he said his final sentence, which wasn’t loud enough to be a yell, but it was louder than normal. “Do you really think it would be that easy for me to look them in the eyes and tell them that I’m dying? No! It’s not!” Without thinking, Jack’s hands came up to shove Benedetto away by the shoulders, causing him to stumble backwards before falling upon his rear. For a moment, the two stayed silent, before Jack’s eyes widened with fear as he looked at his hands, and then back to