Infection |Infected Book 1|

Chapter 15 (original version)

 I woke up with my head bouncing against Cody's back. My eyes looked down at the moving ground, as he carried me. I lifted my head up.

“How long have I been out?” I asked aloud making Cody jump.

“About an hour or so,” He let me slide down onto my feet. “You just fainted in my arms.” My hair had came loose a little and he brushed a stray hair away from my face. “I wanted to wait until you woke up but Rich told me to just carry you.”

I glanced ahead of me and started walking beside Cody. Rich was walking alone in the front with the shotgun in his hands, turning his head side to side on the look-out. Durbin was behind him with Aundrea hanging onto his back.

“Why is Rich letting him carry her?” I asked Cody quietly.

“She can't walk as long as we can,” Cody said. “She needs to take breaks. Rich has to carry the shotgun and I had to carry you so it seemed the only option.”

“But Durbin?” I asked skeptically.

“She seems to like him,” Cody replied with disbelief. “He's real good to her, especially after Selma died. I guess he feels guilty.”

“I hear you talkin' bout me boy,” Durbin said over his shoulder. His usual arrogance didn't touch his voice and he sounded like he was making a joke.

Cody ignored him and turned to look at me. “Are you feeling okay? You gave us a scare back there.” He had been carrying both of our weapons in his right hand and handed mine to me.

“Yeah,” I said nodding my head. “I think I was just overwhelmed by everything that's happened.” My eyes shifted to the trees that surrounded the road we were walking on. “Where are we at?”

“Just outside of Avoca,” Cody said looking around with me.

Avoca was in our city-limits, just inside of the forest that surrounded our home town. I remember driving with my mother to Springfield for shopping trips; one of the pleasant memories I had of my mother.

"So how long til we're to Springfield do you think?” I asked, brushing my hair behind my ear.

"Well it's about a two-hour drive,” Cody replied. “Rich says about four days with rest stops and sleeping.”

“Where are we going to sleep?” I looked around at the wilderness around me as a chill swept up my spine.

“In the woods,” Cody replied. “You, Rich, and I will take shifts guarding. We can't trust Durbin enough to take on that kind of responsibility.”

“I wouldn't trust myself with my life either,” Durbin yelled over his shoulder, before breaking off into a scratchy laugh. Unfortunately, I thought it was funny too and I let out a chuckle before hanging my head in shame.

We walked for six more hours, stopping twice to eat a granola bar and fill up on water. Cody and I had talked the whole way and my throat was parched. He asked me about my friends and what I liked to do before the infection happened. He laughed when I told him about the time I forgot to put my car in park on the top of Knot's Hill. I had to run down the street chasing it, yelling for people to move out of the way.

I learned that Cody had graduated two years before me at my high school. He had been on the baseball team the year that they won the State Championship. Now I could see why he was so good with that bat of his.

“You know,” Cody said as we walked downhill towards a Camping Park. “I used to always see you at school when you were a Sophomore.”

“No way,” I said shaking my head. I slapped him on the arm. “Why didn't you ever say hi to me?”

“I told you that you make me nervous,” He laughed. “Plus you always had other guys following you around. I didn't think you'd be interested in me.”

“Oh whatever,” I said rolling my eyes. “I never paid attention to those guys. I would have gone out with you in an instant.”

“Who said I would have asked you out?” He asked looking away from me.

“Oh..” I trailed off not knowing what to say.

“I'm just kidding,” Cody laughed. “I almost asked you a couple of times I remember, now I'm gonna kick myself in the ass for not doing it.” He reached for my hand and kissed my cheek. I looked up and smiled at him.

We reached the bottom of the hill, when an overwhelming stench hit my nose.

“Oh my god,” I gagged. “What is that smell?”

“Rotting corpses,” Durbin said pointing to the camp grounds.

Tents lay torn to pieces across the site and camper doors had smears of blood running down them. I could see scraps of bodies covered in flies. I put my hand over my nose, trying to cover up the stench. We all searched around for infected that may be lingering around the bodies, but none were to be found. Where have they all gone?

“Can we go?” Aundrea whispered. “There's one over there looking at us.”

All of our heads turned in the direction of Aundrea's pointing finger. There stood a man by one of the campers; one of the biggest men I've ever seen. He had to be at least seven feet tall and his arms looked the size of the tree trunks next to him. His head was bald with bite marks covering it and dried blood caked all over his body.

Nobody moved. Nobody breathed. He stood there taking in deep breaths, his massive shoulders moving up and down. I've never seen an infected control himself like this and the tension was scary.

Without warning the man let out a wild scream and lunged towards us. A loud bang stopped him short; a spray of shotgun pellets burst into his chest, tearing the skin away. Blood instantly ran down his torn blue shirt. The man looked down at his shirt and looked back at us with a growl rising from his throat.

“Run!” Rich yelled turning around and sprinting down the road. Durbin threw Aundrea over his shoulder and took off with Cody and I following behind.

Our footsteps echoed off the pavement and I could hear the giant clomps of the big man behind us. The man was big but he sure wasn't slow. The snapping of his jaw made my feet swing faster and Cody kept up. I looked over my shoulder to see if we were out-running big man but instead he was getting closer.

“Faster!” I yelled to the group. “He's gaining on us--”

My voice was cut off when my hair was yanked from behind and I fell to the ground, my head bouncing hard off of the pavement. Cody stopped and turned around running at the man with the bat, but big man was already trying to crawl on top of me. I lifted my feet and kicked him in face, hearing his nose crack. He screamed until Cody's bat collided with the back of his head. The man fell to the side of me and Cody continued to pummel his head until it looked deformed. Grunts escaped from his mouth with every swing. Quickly, I stood up and went behind him.

“Cody..” I said putting my hand on his shoulder. “He's dead.” But Cody gave a couple more swings to his head before turning around to face me.

He had blood sprayed across his face and into his hair. His gray eyes looked frantically over my body trying to find something wrong. “You're fine,” He sighed and wrapped his arms around me. “Thank God, you're fine.” His hand wrapped into my hair pushing my head into his chest. I could hear his heartbeat start to slow down as he held me.

It was then that I realized I would do anything to keep his heartbeat going. Even if it meant stopping mine.