The Immune

5.A hunt of our own

The walking was terrible. Seemingly every rock or pebble was out to get me.
"How long now? " Brooke asked, her voice strained. Her limp had gotten worse, her face pale in the darkness, the crutch could only help so much, and now Jeremy could only carry her for so long. 
"We should be coming up along some properties in the next mile or so" replied Jax.
My own strengths were failing, the horrid pain was now returning after a few hours of medicated quiet. My eyes drooped with exhaustion and my stomach growled in hunger. I was seeing shadows in the forest, as I imagined zombies lying in wait.


It was only a few minutes later that Brooke sagged to the ground, unconscious, Jermey unable to support her weight, and his packs.
"Will, do you think you can carry her? It shouldn't be long now"
Will gritted his teeth, pulling the woman's dead weight over his shoulder.
The first house they came across had been burned to the ground.
The second, further up the road, had its door ripped off of its hinges, walls torn apart.
"Jax." Will heaved, " I can't do this much longer, and neither can they." he spared a look at the man with the broken arm, and gave me a longer look.
Jax gave us both a hard look.
" I'm doing my best. But maybe the next one"
As we turned to continue a shape drifted out from the front of the house.
It had been drawn by the sounds of our voices.
The female zombie snarled menacingly, leaping off the veranda.
Jax acted within the blink of an eye, raising the silenced pistol to the mutilated body.
It stopped suddenly when it saw the weapon.
It stood, barely the length of a car from us.
Recognition lit its eyes, a soft snarl pealed from it's lips. Its milky eyes, full of anger, watched.
Blisters marred what would have been a pretty face. What was left of it's hair was matted with grease and what could've only been fresh blood. The blood dripped from its mouth as the animal smiled in murderous glee.
It pounced. Claws reaching, eyes wild.

Jax shot once.

The body fell to the floor.
"The smell and our sound may attract others , we gotta move further. Just a reminder, keep conversation to a minimum. There will be more where that came from"
The animal's face relaxed, morphing into what one could almost say was human. It was so easy to hope that these creatures could still maintain a spark of humanity.
The only one that seemed remotely moved by the incident was Jeremy, his face green with sickness.
The houses began to grow closer together, we were entering suburbia.
"This one is our best shot" indicated Jax. The house was relatively untouched, minus the car wreck in the front garden.
The old weather board was classic and beautiful with it's windows intact and colour relatively bright. The picket fence had fallen down where the two vehicles had collided and crashed into the old oak tree. Our small group climbed the steps to the veranda, ready to check out the area.
Jax went in first, followed by Jeremy, then the guy with the broken arm. Will stood with me, glancing about nervously at the empty street.
It only took a few minutes for the soldiers to clear the site, with Jeremy motioning us forward.
The house was beautiful, the home completely untouched with family photos and sporting memorabilia decorating the walls.
These people were probably dead, any resemblance to their achievements, long forgotten.
Those happy and smiling faces reminded me of my family, back when things were, whole.
It was only the beginning of it all back then, what could have been about four years ago, the day that everything changed for my family.

 We were living in a big homestead, heavily defended, with supplies, surrounded by those we loved.
One day we heard screams and shouting nearby - Human shouting, pleading.
We left them, their unanswered call for help, and we payed dearly for it.
The couple were attacked by some ravaged, in their last moments they unpinned several grenades in their car. The explosions was huge, creating a fireball that lit the night sky. The Burning flames ignited the nearby grasses and trees, spreading the fire.
The ravaged were feeding on what was left of the humans and other ravaged. The fire was spreading, and we had to escape. The flames along the tall grass were eating their way up to our home, our simple wooden protection.
We ran, through burning fire and wild smoke, in the confusion  my mother and I ran hand in hand through the nightmare. She was there when I was grabbed by a cold arm, she fought the animal who tried to bite me. The sound of it's snarls, that was so close, still haunts me to this day.
The bright flash of her gun boomed in the night sky, revealing the zombie in its gruesomeness. Its grip fell, it's body sagging to the ground.
My mother saved me.
She pulled me to my feet, yanking me forward in the night. The zombies followed the sound, they were all around. Their rustling through the undergrowth was everywhere. My mom only had so many bullets. Each flash allowed a horrifying illumination of our surroundings then we would be swallowed in terrifying darkness, unable to see the monsters still approaching.
We didn't see the one that came from behind. It could have chosen either of us. But it chose the bigger meal.
It's teeth bit down into the exposed flesh of her arm.
My mother, too horrified to yell out, gasped. It meant death.
Not a moment later. My father stormed in with a group of warriors, fighting the scourge. He had had a reckless grin on his face, basking in the adrenaline of it all. I remembered being angry at him for that. So angry. The warriors wore suits of black, with superior blades and guns. Their force of three quickly cut through the herd.
Before anyone saw, I removed a handkerchief from my pocket, tying it around the bite mark on my mothers wrist.
She gripped me close, I was crying uncontrollably.
"Ash" she whispered in my ear," I want you to take care of your dad, and your brothers and sister. As the big sister, it is now your job to protect them, when I won't be there." I only nodded, I wanted to cherish this time with her.
My father refused to leave her, saying that we had to wait till she passed. He would kill her, after she turned. It was a tradition. The others in the group understood, leaving us to grieve.
Upwind of the fire, we found an abandoned building. We watched, waiting for her transformation. Hours passed, then days. She suffered a fever, with mild hallucinations. But within a day, it had passed. Her wound healed. She was normal. No cloudiness to her eyes, no mutation, and no hunger for flesh.
She was immune.
It was by chance, an absolute trick of fate, that we came across the same black clad group of people from the fire, men from a community called the compound. It was pure luck that we stumbled across them not days later. They knew she had been infected and they deduced she was immune. They needed her. So they took her. We could only follow. We thought we were blessed to still have her in our lives, we thought her immunity could only mean good things for us, and only good things for mankind,
The smiling faces in the framed portrait stared back at me. I wiped the layer of dust from the glass. How I wish I could have lived and died in that perfect pre outbreak world. How I wish I had this perfect family, again.  A perfect family it had been, now it seems there is only half of us left.
"Ashlyn?" the guy with the broken arm asked
" Coming," I ducked my head, refusing to let him see the single tear, and following him into the kitchen. These people were the same warriors, the same people who would sacrifice innocence, morality and all life, for  themselves. These are the same black clad, compound men, the ones that took my mother, that have now taken us. Who killed my mother,  and my father, and are responsible for my baby sisters death,and my brothers imprisonment.How I missed my once whole family.