To Be A Killer

Chapter 26: Carry Me Home

"Okay. Okay, I'm back," Sam says, and I groan as I open my eyes. How long have I been out? "Sorry. Took a bit longer than expected. Got a bit complicated... wait, no. That sounds wrong. It was-it was just complicated because Janine wanted help carrying concrete slates for some reason, not because I had complicated toilet requirements."

I giggle as he audibly winces. My head is still spinning, but I push myself up into standing.

"Oh, God," He groans. "I sound exactly as confused as I was back then. Like, talking about it has brought that old Sam back to mind; It's weird. But in fact, I am a little bit less confused then that I was now... Now than I was then. Damn it..."

I giggle again. "Yeah, sure you are."

"Hey... have you-have you moved at all since I left?"

"No, I uh, I was feelin' kinda drained so I decided to rest for a minute."

There's a long moment of silence. "Five, are you okay? Your speech is slurred."

"It's just my accent."

"No, it's not."

"I'm fine," I lie, forcing myself to start running.

"You're lying."

"I'm not."

"You are." His words are low, threatening almost. He's irritated, that's for sure. "What's wrong?"

"I'm just... not feeling well."

"Were... you weren't bitten while I was gone, were you?" He asks, voice trembling. "Please tell me you weren't..."

"If I was bitten, I would've killed myself before you came back here," I reply, and give a half smile when he sighs with relief. "I'm just feeling a bit under the weather. Probably from lack of sleep. Can you get back the story? I want to know how it ends."

"I... yeah," He says skeptically. "Are you sure you're-"

"Sam."

"Okay. Okay. Um, where were we?" He hums for a second. "Oh, yeah, facing certain death, someone going gray inside the barn, crowd of zombies outside the barn. Okay, here we go. Rest of the story."

I'm falling. I'm expecting it this time though, so I don't slam into the ground when I suddenly become Sargent Ellis. Instead I'm standing here with a ton of panicking people, feeling much better than I was a few moments ago when I was in my own body.

"Everyone, back away from that woman," The Major commands as the infected lady bends over, coughing violently.

"It was only a graze," A man says tearfully. "I thought maybe she'd-maybe they could cure her in New Canton."

The older woman scoffs. "No one is getting cured; There is no cure."

"We don't know that." He pulls the hacking woman into his arms, tears starting to run down his face.

"Back away from her," I command. I send the man a glare when he shakes his head.

"I-I won't leave her."

"Reckley, if he doesn't move, shoot him," Major De Santa says.

"Yes, Ma'am."

"The zombies have heard you," Janine says over coms. "They know something is going on. They're outside, all around."

I sigh, almost rolling my eyes at her stating the obvious. It's not exactly like we don't know that, seeing as we can hear the zoms outside, growling, groaning. Some of them are even scratching and clawing at the outside walls of the barn, trying to get in.