The Infection

Chapter 9

John shut his eyes and waited for the pain to come. What would happen after he died? 'I guess I'll find out soon enough,' he thought. Suddenly, the sounds of knives slicing through decaying flesh came, a sound John knew all too well by now. Something wet splattered on John. He slowly opened his eyes to see even more blood on him then before. He looked up to see a man and two other people, slicing through the crowds of the undead. One man looked over and shouted,

"Come on! We have to go! Get up and grab your dog!" But that was a mistake on his part to be distracted. A blood covered teenage girl with long, black hair and nice clothes on walked up to the man, and bit into the back of his hand. He screamed in pain. John was horrified. What could he do? He had weapons, but he couldn't use them well. The only experience he had with guns were airsoft guns, and he hadn't even picked one up in years. And he was certain the next time he took out his long Bowie knife, he'd slice his hand off clean. Even Striker was still curled up next to John. 'He's only a puppy. And he's been through a lot already,' John thought. It wasn't surprising. The things that dog has done is catching up to him. Before, he wasn't thinking about it. Now, he must've realized this is serious. And dangerous. The man that looked like the leader of the group started shouting.

"Sherlock! Take care of Shawn!" he said, still shooting and slicing through the crowd. John stood up and picked Striker up, as Shawn, the man who just got bit, had told him to do. The man named Sherlock, as John just heard, ran up to Shawn and sliced his hand off with his knife. Shawn screamed as blood gushed from the wound. Sherlock began to wrap cloth around Sean's wound to stop the bleeding. But an undead woman came up from behind to bite into the back of Sherlock's head. Then another older looking man came and joined the woman. The crowd gathered around and started eating both Sherlock and Sean. The leader looked back to see what happened, and sighed sadly. He continued pushing through the undead.

"Come on let's go!" he shouted to John, who was staring horrifically at what had just happened. "There isn't anything we can do for them," the man continued. He ran up to John and pulled on his arm. "Come on!" he repeated. This time, John listened and began to run, still holding Striker, following the man who had just saved his life. They ran deep into the forest, away from the undead.

***********

The finally stopped to rest. Striker hopped from John's arms. He and the man walked for hours through the forest, with the occasional encounter of the undead, quickly cut down by the man. He finally introduced himself.

"Edward," he said coldly, extending his hand towards John.

"John," he replied, shaking his hand. Neither of them spoke another word. Edward lead them through the forest. The finally stopped at an old, run down house. Edward lead them inside, locked the door, and slid a couch in front of it.

"I was at the military base with my group in hope of protection and food. Then......well you saw what happened. Why are you alone?" The man said, breaking the silence.

"I got separated from my parents," John replied, still shocked. Striker was already curled up on the couch, fast asleep.

"I'm sorry to hear that," Ed said. "You hungry?" He asked.

"No thank you. I'm good," John replied.

"Well I know you must be tired. There's a bed in the back," Ed offered. John nodded and headed towards the bed, his legs dragging behind him. He dropped his backpack on the floor and plopped on the bed, not bothering to take his shoes off. It was a little odd to be sleeping in the house of a man he barely knew and had only said a few words to. How could he trust him? John didn't care right now. He was too tired. He drifted off almost immediately, thinking about his family and where they could be.

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Thanks for reading! Lately, I haven't really been getting any comments. I encourage you to comment on my material, especially if the comments are negative. I say this, because I am looking for ways and opportunities to improve my book in every way. You are the critics, and your opinion means a lot to me. Any suggestions you have, please tell me. If you have any thoughts, please share them. Anyway, I just wanted to put that out there. Stay tuned for chapter 10! I promise, it will be longer than the previous chapters I have been posting. Also, I'm tired of using a walking dead book cover. A lot of views I've been getting is probably because of the cover. So with that being said, I will give a shout out to anyone who makes fan art or a book cover for me. I've tried to make my own, but it didn't work out so well. It isn't one of my specialties. I'll pick my favorite book cover up and any extra fan art I'll put at the beginning of future chapters. I know that you probably don't wanna make anything for a book that is this unsuccessful and this bad, but I promise. It WILL get better. A lot better. Thanks again!