Infection |Infected Book 1|

Chapter 17 (original version)

“She's a tough girl ain't she?” Durbin's scratchy voice broke me out of my dream of Selma. I had been in a deep sleep since Cody took shift watching. I cracked my eyes open and saw Cody's silhouette still sitting next to me with the shotgun in his hands. His body shifted as he turned to look at me and I quickly shut my eyes again, acting like I was still asleep.

“She is,” Cody said admiringly. I felt his hand stroke my face, brushing my hair away. It took everything inside of me to stay still as my nerves shivered from his touch. “I didn't know she had this much in her.”

“Did she not show it before?” Durbin asked curiously.

“Well,” Cody said dropping his hand back to the gun. “It was hard for her in the beginning, losing the people she cared about. But then something just clicked.” He chuckled. “It was like she had an epiphany or something.”

“Do you love her?” I could hear a smile spread through Durbin's voice.

“I mean, it hasn't been that long at all since all of this started,” Cody sighed next to me. “But so much has happened. I find myself wanting to protect her with everything I have in me. Every time there's trouble I worry about her, then I worry about myself. I've seen that she can take care of herself, but I can't help it. There's something inside me that has to see her live. She's an amazing and beautiful girl inside and out and I can't let the world exist without her in it.”

I felt a tear leak out of my closed lid and heard a tiny drip as it splattered onto the sleeping bag. Butterflies flew in my stomach and a stampede started in my heart.

“That's romantic and all but you didn't answer the question,” Durbin laughed. “Do you love her?”

I commanded myself to stay awake to hear the answer, but my body won the war and I fell back asleep.

“Desi!” Cody was shaking me awake. “They're coming! Get up!”

I jumped up off of my sleeping bag in a frenzy, reaching for my chair leg. I saw a group of infected running towards us through the trees. I glanced around for Rich, Aundrea, and Durbin and spotted them running the other way. I hauled my backpack over my shoulders, leaving the sleeping bag behind, and turned to run with Cody right beside me.

I could hear the snarls and the snapping jaws behind me. They weren't very coordinated because every now and then one of them would fall to the ground with a thud, but they wouldn't stop not matter how far we ran.

My legs started to weaken and burn the farther we ran, but my adrenaline kept me going. I could hear Cody next to me as he tried to take deep breaths through his nose to avoid cramping. I turned my head to look at him the same time he turned to look at me. We locked eyes and then pushed ourselves harder, wanting to be strong for one another.

We caught up with everyone else, but the infected were still running after us. Their snarls became deeper with anger and their jaws snapped more ferociously. It was like swinging a steak in front of a dog that can't reach it.

“Will they ever stop chasing us?” I managed to speak.

“I don't know,” Rich yelled back from in front of me. “But I ain't stoppin' to ask them!”

The forest floor started to go downhill and we had to slow our pace, so we didn't roll down. One infected tried to come at us full speed but tripped and fell down the hill, cracking his head on boulders and trees. When he got to the bottom we heard a splash.

“There's a river!” I yelled to everyone. “If they can't open doors, and they can't use judgment, surely they can't swim!” We reached the bottom of the hill and saw a slow moving river in front of us.