Infection |Infected Book 1|

(4) Broken

I close my eyes as my body goes limp in my savior's arms. I can't take anymore. My body bounces on his shoulder as the sounds of growling, snarling, and flesh tearing fades away into the background.

I hear his footfalls on hollow wood and the click of a door opening and closing. The air changes as he steps inside wherever it is he took me. Thick hands reach up to grip my sides and I find myself sliding down his body, my feet coming to rest on the floor.

I open my eyes, keeping them pointed down, studying the lines on the wood floor under my shoes—Adriana's shoes.  My savior's feet are right in front of mine. He doesn't move away.

"Why didn't you save her?" I ask, my voice sounding so loud among the silence. I keep my eyes glued to the floor. "You had a bat, you could have done something to save her."

"There was nothing I could have done," he replies. His shifts his weight to one leg as he speaks. "You're lucky I was even able to get you out of there."

Slowly, I lift my head to look at him. A few splatters of blood line the fabric of his gray shirt.  The trail continues up his neck, leaving a few specks across his jaw. It takes a while for my eyes to reach his face—he towers over me. His hair is dark and messy, contrasting with his light blue eyes, which are wide and scared, just as I'm sure mine are. From the looks of him he isn't much older than me, maybe three, four years.

"I'm grateful that you saved me," I say, suddenly finding it hard to speak. "But you made me leave her. I could have saved her. We could have saved her together." My voice hitches, my breath halting in my chest.

"She was it," I continue. "She was all I had left. My mom, my dad, Adriana, even Mr. Johansen. Gone. They're all..." My legs give out underneath me and I fall to the floor, my knees knocking against the wood. "Gone."

The adrenaline fades fast. Tremors start in my hands as I cover my face, sending the rest of my body into a frenzy. My legs suddenly ache from the landing I had taken when jumping out of my window. The back of my head begins to burn from where I'm sure a chunk of my hair is missing. All of the pain I should have felt when my body was invincible, came to me.

The first tear falls down my face, opening the gates for an avalanche of emotions.

A loud, brutal sob escapes from me and I can't stop. I pull my hands away from my face and wrap my arms around my body trying to contain some of it. It is pointless. I continue to wail, my body rocking back and forth, my face wet with tears.

Visions swim through my mind, reminding me of all I have lost. Mom reading me bedtime stories, braiding my hair, and comforting me when I got my heart broken for the first time. Dad pushing me way too high in a swing, teaching me to play guitar, and threatening to get his shotgun and find that boy who broke my heart. Adriana punching Hannah Lee in the face for me in third grade, letting me comfort her when her Dad died of cancer, and punching that stupid boy in the face for breaking my heart—she was really good at punching people.

They were people that protected me, nurtured me. And I couldn't do anything to protect them, to save them. Why did my savior save someone as worthless as me?

Then he is next to me, his arm wrapping around my shoulders. Immediately, I jerk away, terror clenching my body. His touch makes me scream and I scuttle away from him into the wall behind me, holding out my hand to keep him away.

"Don't touch me!" I yell at him, spit flying from my mouth. "Don't touch me. Don't touch me."

He stumbles back, raising his arms out in front him. "I'm sorry. I just thought..."

I feel his eyes on me as I continue to sob, partially screaming. Then a new voice reaches my ears. "What the hell is going on?" the gruff voice asks.