It's Not Our Fault

Chapter 9

Frankie held Ava's hand, ignoring Sam and Claire's confused stares. She glanced at the young human, seeing the innocent human skipping and jumping over small rocks on the dirt road. Frankie smiled at this, but became distracted by Sam's giggles. She turned around and glared at Sam, but was met by Sam grinning widely. Rolling her eyes, she looked back ahead, and saw human soldiers carrying a gurney with a human man strapped to it.

The human had bite marks all over him, and his left hand was completely torn off. He was screaming, with an animistic sound behind his pained screams. Upon closer inspection, Frankie saw that the straps holding him to the gurney weren't just for stopping him from falling to the ground. He was convulsing, his bound arms attempting to hit his squad members, and his mouth was frothing, with blood turning it red.

Ava gasped, and covered her eyes. Frankie crouched down and  held her gently, turning her away. A woman approached Frankie seemingly focused on helping Ava. Frankie opened her mouth to tell the human what happened, but as soon as she opened her mouth the woman screamed and fell back.

Frankie tilted her head in confusion, but when she tried to approach the human she began muttering in another language and crawling backwards. The human's unnecessary panic not only alerted some nearby security guards,  but scared Ava. She cursed under her breath, but when she turned to comfort Ava she was greeted by the glinting barrel of a gun in her face.

"Put your hands above your head and back away from the child! All zombies are to be tagged and brought to the detainment center!"

"Jesus, chill dude. I've eaten already. No need to get violent." Frankie slowly, slowly, stood up,  staring the soldier in the eyes, stance tense.

"I said, hands above your head and back away from the child!"

Frankie raised her eyebrows at his outburst, and carefully dropped Ava's hand and walked backwards, keeping her hands above her head. As soon as she dropped Ava's hand, Ava ran into the arms of a soldier. It was the same woman who was with her when Frankie first saw her. She hugged her, and glanced back at Frankie with tears in her eyes.

The leader of the soldiers immediately rushed forwards and cuffed Frankie. She was stoic while they walked towards what appeared to be a warehouse. Just as she entered, a human wearing a hazmat suit walked hurriedly towards them with an object in their hand that made Frankie freeze.

"Leash...oh fuck oh fuck oh fucking shit-balls. Fuckity fuck snickety snack what the fuck is that?!"

 She broke out in a cold sweat, and laughed nervously.

"Ha...ha. That's...not what I think it is. R-right?"

The human in the hazmat suit only nodded. Frankie immediately panicked, snarling, and kicking at the human who held her. One solid kick to his stomach, and he fell to the ground. Frankie then pulled her hands away from each other, using her immense strength to break the cuffs. As soon as she was free, she grabbed at the leash and threw it as far as she could.

The doors slammed open, revealing Claire. She looked pissed, and had a pistol in her hand.

"Zaid! What the hell are you doing? Frankie needs her weapons, not the leash!"

'Zaid' looked up at Claire from his place on the floor and glared at her.  Frankie growled at Claire, her need to get away from that wretched device stronger than her logic. Frankie sunk into a defensive position, and raised her fists. Her sharp teeth glinted in the dim light, and Claire sighed.

"Scratch that. do your thing, buddy."

If Frankie was capable of coherent speech, she would have tried to apologize, but all she could do was turn tail and run away from the human with the leash. She ran for a few seconds, but was tackled by one of the humans in the hazmat suits. The human called its comrades over and held her down. 

Frankie screamed as they forced the horrifying device onto her. The spikes jutted out, and pierced her skin. Her screams were muffled, and the poison started to drag the ghosts that haunted her to the forefront of her brain.