Sunkissed: A Zombie Novel

Part Two: Chapter Eleven

"I have to study you," Oliver says immediately.

Sam looks at my raised hand with surprise, and a little betrayal. "You said that was from the car accident earlier."

"I lied. I didn't know how you'd react if I'd told you that I'd been bitten. I didn't want to, say, get shot in the head with an arrow."

Despite my explanation, Sam steps back wearily; meanwhile, Oliver steps forward. "How long ago?"

I pause for a moment to think. "Nearly a whole day."

"She's definitely not infected, and the infection doesn't even look present," Oliver muses, taking my hand in his to start unwrapping the bandages. "I have to look at the bite. There's still a chance you could change at any minute—," Everyone in the room stiffens, including myself. Chloe gives out a wary cry. "—but the chance of that is slim. Transformation always occurs immediately after the bite. Perhaps the bite was not deep enough, and the virus didn't transmit?"

I'm alarmed at how easily he holds my hand, at how gentle his touch is. Before long, my wrist was unwrapped, and I see again the deep indents in my skin, the notches where Danny's father bit me. It no longer bled, but had begun to scab over. "What happened immediately after the bite?"

"I don't like that you lied to me," Sam states dejectedly, her voice threatening. "To all of us."

I give her a sympathetic glance. Duke's bellowing voice responds, "She had to save her own skin. She was right, you know; if she had opened with, 'I've been bitten,' no doubt you would've slammed the door in her face immediately. She had to show you that she was safe to be around." He winks at me. "Right?"

I smile, encouraged by his support. "That's right."

Oliver's face scrunches up in concentration as he turns my wrist every which way, trying to get a full view of the bite. I wince slightly when he starts to poke at it. "It certainly is deep enough; some bone is almost showing through. I just don't get it."

"When I was bitten," I start, reclaiming my hand to examine the bite myself, "it was a few minutes or so until I started to feel really tired. I just started talking—I was with my friend at the time—oh!" I look up eagerly. "Have any of you come across a girl named Danny? Around my age? Big eyes? Short, dark brown hair? Long legs?"

A cloud of murmured no's makes my shoulders droop, a defeated sigh leaving my lips. "That's my roommate. The girl I was with when I was bitten. I thought I was dying, and—"

"Was it painful?" Oliver interjects.

"The initial act stung, I guess...then my heartbeat began to slow, I knew I must be dying, and then..." I shrug. "I blacked out. Woke up probably ten hours or so later. Danny was gone, I slept until daylight, and then I headed here. I thought she might be on her way here, too, because she used to spend some time down here as a little girl..." My voice trails off.

"You'll find her," Belle encourages with a smile.

"I'm going to have to do some tests," Oliver mumbles, seemingly mostly to himself, his eyes never leaving me. It's strange the way he's looking at me; like a science experiment. He seems totally fascinated. "I wonder where I can get lab equipment..."

"The high school," Ace suggests. "There's tons of equipment there. Maybe not all that high-tech, but test tubes, microscopes and slides, and the like."

"You used to go there, right?" Chloe asks. "You should lead an outing tomorrow to get what Oliver needs."

"Not so fast." Sam raises her hands. "We don't even know if Hayden's staying or not." Sam turns to me, crossing her arms. "So, are you?"