Infection |Infected Book 1|

Chapter 8 (original version)

I let go of Cody and started to feel lightheaded. I rubbed my head with my hand and sat down on the couch.

Then the pain began.

 Horrible pain started to pulse in the back of my head where Jason had been hitting me. I could feel separate knots covering the back of my head.

 I doubled over and clutched my hair at the roots trying to hold in a scream. No one came to check on me. One, there were two dead bodies laying on the floor; and two, I was completely silent.

 I'm glad they left me alone. I had some time to myself to think. I realized I'm not just hurt.

 I'm angry.

 Just a couple of days ago I was living a normal life and I was happy. Now the devil has risen, grabbed Earth in his hands and shook it like a snow globe, changing everything. That pissed me off.

 I'm angry that I had to lose people that I loved and cared about. I'm angry that a normal human had tried to kill me. I'm angry at myself too.

 I'm tired of being so scared all the time. So much of my energy has been drained from looking over my shoulder every second that I get. It was time to change that. Yeah, this is a scary situation, but to live I need to suck it up and fight.

 Slowly, I pulled my hands away from my head and sat up straight. I wiped my eyes of tears for the last time, I promised myself. The pain in my head weakened a little and my eyes skirted across the room analyzing the scene.

 Sheridan laid a couple of feet away from me on her stomach with a pool of blood around her. Jason was closer to the hallway with a knife sticking out of his back. I saw Rich walk over and pull the knife out, wiping the blood off onto his shirt.

 "We might be needin' this later," He said and tucked the knife into his belt.

 Cody turned his head to look at me. His eyes were sad and I thought I almost heard him sigh. Without saying a word he walked into the hallway. I knew he was in the bathroom when I heard the shower turn on. 

"I think he's real shook up about what happened," Rich said, plopping into the recliner. He reached up and wiped the sweat away from his forehead.

 "And you aren't?" I asked, my voice raising an octav.e.

 "Well," Rich shrugged his shoulders. "I've seen a lot of death." His voice turned glum. "I was in Iraq in 2003."

 "Oh," I said understandingly. Our country has been fighting in Iraq for over seven years and a lot of our soldiers have died.

 "Yes mam," Rich pointed to his right leg and pulled up the bottom of his pants showing me a prosthetic leg. "Lost this leg cause of a damn car bomb in the street." He let go of the hem of his jeans and let it fall to the floor. "So to answer your question; no, I didn't get all spooked at what happened. I still don't understand why Sheridan left."

 "What happened exactly?" I leaned back onto the couch trying to ignore the bodies laying in the room.

 "Well, I woke up and heard them two arguing." His eyes squinted while trying to remember. "I couldn't really hear what they were saying, but I know that it didn't turn out so well because the next thing I know, here comes Sheridan running around the corner and burstin' out that damn door." Irritation crept up in his southern accent. "Jason came barrelin' after her screamin' her name and I ran after him."

 "Then the infected came.." My voice trailed off picturing the scene in my mind. I can only imagine the ache in Jason's heart when he saw Sheridan getting bitten over and over. My eyes darted to the two of them laying on the ground. I almost broke my promise to myself when tears formed in the corner of my eyes. Then Cody walked in and I blinked them away, regaining my composure.

 Cody's hair was still wet from the shower and I could smell the shampoo as he flicked his hair away from his face.

 "How you feelin'?" Rich asked, looking at his son.

 "Better," Cody said, then he looked down at the floor. "So what should we do with them?" He glanced from Jason to Sheridan and I could tell that he was replaying what happened in his mind.

 "Well," Rich took a deep breath. "There's not much we can do, except put them in the room they were using."

 "So they're just going to rot in there? While we just avoid that room?" Disgust overwhelmed my voice. This was different from my scared shaky voice I'd had yesterday and it took Rich by surprise. He raised his eyebrows.

 "It's not like we can stay here much longer anyways," Rich said locking eyes with Cody. "We have to get food. We have to find some kind of civilization."

 "We see if we can pick up any news," Cody said looking from Rich to me. "Then we go."

 Chills ran through my body and goosebumps prickled on my skin. We wouldn't be safe anymore. We would have to fight our way to wherever we were going.

 "I'll go let Selma know," Rich said firmly, standing out of his chair. "She's probably wondering what's going on anyways. She's probably still holed up in the closet." A chuckle escaped from his lips as he turned down the corner of the hall.

 Cody watched his dad leave and stood idle for a second in silence.

"We can do this," He said turning to look at me. Taking a step towards me, he kneeled down in front of me so that he was at eye level. "It's now or never."

 "Now," I said, taking his hands in mine. "It's now."