The Infected

Five

I woke up with Cassie vigorously shaking me and saying me name.

"Rebecca, wake up. Common, we have to go soon."

I groaned and pulled myself out of the bed, pushing my hair out of my face. My limbs were stiff from sleeping on the old bed and the chilly room didn't help. Nicole was sitting at the table eating a protein bar.

"Your finally awake. Took you long enough. It's almost 9:00, we have to get moving." Nicole said as she turned to face me.

"Fine." I groaned. I desperately wanted to sleep but that wasn't an option. I grabbed a granola bar from my backpack and headed over to the table.

"Great, lets go." and with that we grabbed our bags and went back out into the dangerous world.

The sun was beating down, baking the earth. We walked in silence for hours before we reached the highway. Abandoned cars covered the highway. We carefully weaved around the cars, trying not to make too much noise in case we weren't alone.

"Shouldn't we like search the cars or something?" I asked Nicole.

"Yeah sure, why not. Just be carful and try not to get killed."

"I'll do my best."

Overturned cars were to hard to get into so I avoided them. A large grey mini van seemed like it could contain some supplies. I looked back at Cassie and she was sitting on grass, talking to Mr. Unicorn.

"Cassie, go help Nicole and stop talking to your stuffed animal."

"Mr. Unicorn isn't just I stuffed animal! We don't like you anymore." she replied with a huff and turned her back to me.

"Whatever. I bet Nicole doesn't need your help anyway and I don't like you either!" I said just to get the final word in. I knew I was acting like a child but I didn't care. Cassie and I always had stupid little fights but they were always resolved within 10 minutes and were forgotten about but I had a weird feeling that this was different.

I shook off the feeling an climbed into the front seat and glanced around. Nothing caught my eye until something moved in the back seat. I slowly pulled my knife out of my backpack and gripped it firmly in my hand. Trembling, I faced the back seat and stuck my head back there, ready to defend myself. I screamed and fell back as a bird came flying at my face. My hand flailed around as I tried to get the bird away from me. Nicole came sprinting towards the car armed with a gun. She saw the bird and shoved we back into the floor of the car.. She took the knife that I had dropped on the floor and pinned the bird through the chest.

Breathing heavily, I sat up and pulled myself out of the car.

"Didn't I say try not to get killed?"

"I'm not dead."

"You could have been. This isn't just a normal bird." She held its lifeless body in her hand. Its flesh was falling of it bones and it had blood surrounding its beak.

"Is..is it infected?"

"Looks like it. I didn't even think that animals could become infected.

Suddenly our conversation was interrupted by a blood-curdling scream. I immediately snapped my head towards Cassie.

"Cassie run!" I screamed while stumbling around cars to reach my sister but it was too late. The infected had already sunken it filthy teach into her neck. Her screams were muffled as blood filled her throat. Her fear filled eyes focused on my face before her body fell to the ground. I hurled myself at the infected, knocking it to the ground. Nicole pulled my off of it and held the knife, stabbing it through the infecteds forehead. I was sobbing over my sister, holding her in my arms, and replayed our last conversation in my head. "I don't like you either!" was the last thing I ever said to her and that would haunt me for the rest of my life.