Infection |Infected Book 1|

(2) Murderer

My hand covers my mouth, holding in a scream that threatens to escape. My foot slams on the brake, stopping the car entirely. Cars in the street are wrecked and abandoned, a couple of them on fire, all looking like the people who were driving them were trying to escape like me. Dead bodies are littered on the streets and yards, some of them still moving even though it is impossible for them to be alive.

The ground is painted red.

Suddenly, a fierce knocking on my passenger window has me screaming. I glance over, my foot loose on the brake, ready to put the pedal to metal if need be. The girl standing at the window is banging against the glass with tears streaming down her face.

"Please!" she shrieks, trying for the door handle to see if my car is unlocked. "Let me in! Help me!"

I debate what to do for a second too long as an elderly woman appears behind the girl and bites into her shoulder, dragging her away from my car. I fumble with my door handle, ready to go help the girl when my phone starts to ring on the passenger seat.

I dive for the phone, seeing my friend Adriana's name and picture light up the screen. I breathe a small sigh of relief and drag my finger across the screen.

"Adriana!" I yell. "Thank God!"

"Desi?" Adriana whispers, her voice barely audible. I turn the volume up on my phone to hear her better. "What the hell is going on?"

"I-I don't know," I reply, starting to drive again. "Where are you at?"

"I'm at my house." I can tell Adriana was whimpering now. Why am I not whimpering? Because of all the adrenaline? What will happen to me when it faded?

"I'm holed up in my bathroom," Adriana says. "Everyone's trying to kill me."

"Don't worry," I tell her, taking a right turn, trying to avoid the people running towards my car, either hoping to get a ride or get me. "I'm on my way to you."

"Hurry." Adriana's voice is shaking, even as she whispers. "My little brother is clawing at the door."

~~~

Pulling my car into Adriana's driveway, my eyes scan out the windows, checking to see if the coast is clear. The sun is drying the dew that covers the grass and the leaves on the trees--the only normal thing about this morning. I see people running in the distance. I hear their screams through the closed windows of my car. Taking a deep breath, I look towards the wide open front door to Adriana's house and reach for the car door handle.

As soon as I step out of the car and close the door, a growl sounds from behind me. Scared to move too fast, I turn around slowly and recognize Tristan, Adriana's boyfriend, standing a few yards away from me. Only it isn't really him anymore. This definitely is not the Tristan that I had hung out with many times before.

Tristan glares at me from underneath his dark hair, his eyes black like Mom and Dad's were. He is breathing through clenched teeth, his chest rising up and down intensely. I lift my foot and step around the car very timidly. Tristan watches me, a snarl starting to rise in his throat.

"Tristan," I say, trying to keep my voice from shaking. "It's me. It's Desi." I keep stepping, very slowly, around the front of my car, increasing the distance between us.

Tristan's head eerily follows me, the rest of his body going completely still. His breathing stops. I can tell he is about to attack from his stance and I glance to the open door wondering how quickly I can get there.

Before I let Tristan's growling get any louder, I dig my toes into the pavement and bolt around the front of my car. I sprint to the front steps of Adriana's house, the sound of Tristan clomping after me making me run faster. Doing what you should never do when you're running from something, I glance over my shoulder. In that one moment that I look behind me, seeing how terrifyingly close Tristan was, I ironically trip over the last step and fall through the wide open front door.

My hands slap down hard against the wood floor. I quickly roll over onto my back and kick the front door closed, leaving Tristan trapped outside. I wince as he scratches the door and pounds against it, screaming with fury. I try to gasp for air as I look around the inside of Adriana's house.

I glance around the living room, seeing papers strewn all over the rug. The coffee table lays on its side, blood smeared across the wood. The dining room chairs are all turned over, drinking glasses shattered to bits on the wood floor. I stand up on my feet, still hearing Tristan attack the front door, desperately trying to get to me. My eyes fall on the staircase, seeing the bloody trail that scales the steps. I need to protect myself.

I walk through the destroyed dining room, careful not to step onto the glass with my bare feet. If Adriana's brother is in the house and is trying to attack her like everyone else I came into contact with, then her mom was either dead or just like them. As if on cue, I hear footsteps.

I don't care about being quiet any longer as I imagine the owner of the footsteps snarling and covered in blood. A piece of glass crackles under my foot and I bite my lip to hold in a scream of pain. I quickly limp around the dining room table and through the archway to the kitchen. I stand in the middle with my head frantically turning side to side, trying to remember where Adriana's mom kept the knives.

The footsteps near the kitchen. I somehow control my panic and the fragmented thoughts in my mind click together. I run to the side of the stove, wincing with every step, and grab the top knife out of the large wooden block, hoping it will be the biggest one. I nearly kiss the blade when I see it is a large butcher knife.

From behind me a woman screams, making me drop the knife. Time flies in slow motion as I watch my weapon clatter to the floor, the silver of the blade glinting in the light as it bounces back and forth on the tile. My eyes travel up to see Adriana's mom, Julie, in the archway of the kitchen with what looks like bite-marks covering her arms. Blood stained her skin. Her curly black hair is wild around her face which is filled with frightening rage.

Without warning, Julie lunges toward me, closing the small gap between us. Her teeth bare at me as I throw myself to the ground, gripping the knife in my hand. I close my eyes and hold my sharp weapon out in front of me, cringing as she runs into the blade.

A sharp breath leaves Julie, but she doesn't fall over like I assumed she would. Instead she keeps snapping her jaw at me as I lock my arms, holding her back while I still grip the knife. Placing one hand against her chest, I yank the knife out of her with all of my strength. My cowardice takes over as I close my eyes again, slamming the knife down into her.

Julie's snarling stops, her weight leaning away from me. I crack open an eye and yelp when I see my knife sticking out of her right eye. Blood flows like a river down her cheek, dripping onto my arm and hand that is holding her back. Julie's legs give out underneath her and she falls to the ground, the knife still sticking out of her face.

I lean back against the cabinet, my legs curling around me as I struggle to breathe.

The tremors in my hands begin to move throughout my arms and my teeth chatter as if I am cold. I can't take my eyes off of Julie's lifeless body and the blood that pools around her on the tiled floor. I wait for her to move, for her to not really be dead, but the only movement is the growing scarlet puddle. I know I need to move, that I need to find Adriana, but I can't.

Nothing makes sense, but there was one thought that keeps me pinned to the ground.

I killed someone. I killed someone. I killed someone.

***

Question time!

Would you have left your parents behind as Desi did? Is there something she should have done differently? Do you think Adriana is still alive?