The Ravaging

Chapter Fifteen

Jerking awake, I look around the room, trying to find what had woken me up. It is still dark in the room, meaning that it has to be sometime in the middle of the night. The arm around my waist tightens when I try to move out of the bed, and turning, I see that Finn has me pulled as close to him as possible without squishing Viola.

A sound comes from downstairs, and I realize that the source of that sound must have been what woke me up in the first place. It sounds like footsteps, but those of a drunk person, since they seem to be stumbling a lot and knocking into things.

"Finn," I whisper, reaching a hand over to shake his shoulder. He doesn't stir at all, though, and I know he must be exhausted. I try again, shaking his shoulder a little bit harder, but he still doesn't move.

With a hard sigh, I slip out from under his arm, managing to get away before he pulls me back against him. Everyone on the bed is still fast asleep, not seeming disturbed in the least by the sounds downstairs or from the movement of me getting up.

As quietly as I can, I slip into my jeans, not wanting to be wandering around in just my underwear.

This isn't a cheap horror movie.

The soft carpet muffles my footsteps making it possible for me to make it to the top of the stairs without making a sound. Peeking over the edge of the stairs, I notice a shadow in the downstairs, before two figures make themselves visible in the open room that makes up the first floor. One of them is whispering to the other, while the second one is clutching at their shoulder, a low moan coming out of their mouth. The uninjured one seems to be trying to press a cloth- most likely a dish towel- against the injury, which causes the guy to let out an even louder moan.

"Mason, you have to be quiet," the uninjured figure whispers, and from the voice, I can tell that they are female.

"Why the fuck do I have to be quiet?" the guy says, his voice coming out rough. "We're in the middle of nowhere."

The girl scoots closer to the guy, ducking down to look at his arm. "We don't know who else may be in the house, and I don't really feel like being chased out of here right now. Not with the creatures wandering around outside."

My heart begins to pound at an alarming rate at her words. There are creatures outside? We have been here for almost two weeks and haven't seen anything that even remotely resembled a monster, human or infected.

So the mere idea of those creatures that we have been trying to escape since this whole outbreak started being outside makes fear start to course through me.

Quickly, I walk over to the closest window, the one that sits right outside the bedroom door and looks over the street. Sure enough, there are a few of the beasts wandering around, chattering their teeth and making quiet clicking sounds. They look like they are searching for something but can't seem to find it. The way they jerk around speaks of their agitation, but who knows, maybe they just have trouble controlling their limbs.

The house sits behind some trees but not enough to hide it completely from view. I just hope that they are not smart enough to know what a house it or the fact that there may be people hiding inside of it.

"Shit," I whisper, watching the beasts start walking down the road again. They are slowly getting closer to the house, and I have no idea what the hell we can do to defend ourselves.

The people downstairs continue to whisper to one another, but I ignore them, choosing instead to go back to my bedroom and force Finn to wake up.

When I close the bedroom door behind me and turn around, I see that everyone is still asleep, but Viola has migrated to Finn's chest. She is slightly bigger now, looking more like a human and less like an alien, but she still looks so tiny when held against Finn.