A sharp pain went through me. I jolted awake and sat up as another flash of pain shot through me. I let go of Kyle's hand and stood up. I stumbled to the bathroom and flipped on the light to see that my face was red and I was sweating. I turned on the faucet and splashed water on my face. That felt a little better. There was just a dull throb now. I uncovered my wound. It was healing up great and was obviously not the source of the pain. Then another jolt of pain seared through me. I stumbled and fell against the wall. What was happening?
"Are you alright?" Miranda whispered walking through the door in the bathroom.
"Shouldn't you be asleep?" I asked. My voice sounded rough and weird.
"I'm not a heavy sleeper and when I hear you get up and stumble to the bathroom I get kind of worried. So what's up?" Miranda asked. I was still leaning against the wall heavily.
"I'm not sure. I just keep feeling these random jolts of pain go through me," I said. My head was throbbing and I felt exhausted.
"Maybe it's from the scratch. There is a good chance that something got into your system. Whether that be the common flu or even the zombie virus I'm not sure," Miranda said.
"So in other words there is a 50% chance of me dying?" I asked.
"I think by morning you should be fine. I'm gonna guess that the pain is from your body fighting off whatever it is. You're strong. You should be fine. Now try to go back to sleep. It's only one in the morning," Miranda said smiling. Then she turned and left. I was a little worried but I finally just walked back over to where I was lying and laid back down by Kyle. I flipped onto my right side so I was right up against Kyle. I grabbed his hand and sighed. I closed my eyes and was almost asleep when I felt Kyle squeeze my hand.
*
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I woke up to the sun coming up again. Kyle was still asleep and I was still pressed up against him. I was about to get up when I decided to just lay there for a while.
After about ten minutes I heard Cory get up off the couch. Oh no. Here comes the teasing.
"Miranda! Morgan! Look!" Cory said in a hushed yell.
"Grow up Cory," Miranda said yawning.
"Omg! They look so cute!" Morgan said. At least she wasn't bawling her eyes out anymore.
"I know you're awake," Kyle whispered to me. I smiled.
"You obviously are too," I said. I sat up slowly, unwinding my hand from his. Kyle also sat up.
"Morning love birds," Cory snickered. He had a mug of coffee in his hand.
"You jealous Cory? Cause you're kind of acting like it," Kyle said standing up and walking over to him.
"Pfft no!" Cory said rolling his eyes. I walked over and Miranda handed me a mug of coffee.
"Thanks," I said.
"No problem. You feeling better?" Miranda asked.
"A little bit of a headache but other then that I'm great," I said smiling.
"How did you get a boyfriend in two days? Teach me your ways!" Morgan said walking over to us.
"Chill, I wouldn't necessarily call him my boyfriend," I said.
"Oh come on Astrix! He's so into you and you are so into him! As of this morning I would call him your boyfriend," Morgan said looking over at the boys, who were arguing about something stupid.
"You guys are impossible. So what are we doing today?" I asked.
"Uh, Astrix? You and Kyle are kind of the leaders of us," Miranda said.
"What? As of when?" I asked. I couldn't lead people, I think I proved that yesterday at the hospital.
"You're the one that got us out of that classroom. So seeing as of how you took responsibility that means you are the leader," Morgan said.
"This can be Kyle's job," I grumbled taking a drink of coffee. My eyes felt like I had washed them with chlorine.
We all finished our coffee and then we settled into deciding what we were going to do and where we were going to go.
"I think we should all go west from here. Out in those states there aren't very many people and they're all spread apart, so less zombies," Kyle said. We were sitting on the sofa. Cory was sitting on the ground and Morgan and Miranda were sitting in two reclining chairs.
"Are you saying we should walk to California? Are you crazy? That's halfway across the country! We live in Illinois smart one!" Morgan said.
"No not California, too many people which means there are lots of zombies-" Kyle started.
"Haha clever! You must have gotten some of your girlfriend's brains last night!" Cory said. I leaned over and smacked him in the back of the head.
"Ow! Abuse!" Cory yelled
"Anyways I'm not saying we go to California. I think Oregon would be safer," Kyle said.
"I am not walking to Oregon, Kyle," I said.
"Nor do I expect you to. You and I both have learners permits, and so does Miranda. So all we have to do is find a functional car or truck," Kyle said.
"Well let's get looking! I wanna get out of this hell hole," I said quoting Miranda. She smiled at me. Maybe this wasn't going to be bad after all.
*
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"Alright this one is good to go!" Miranda called revving the engine of a 2010 Chevy truck. It was black and didn't reflect too much sunlight so it was easier to sneak past zombies.
Miranda decided to drive first so after fighting over the passenger seat, Morgan finally got to sit up front. I sat at the left window in the back seat. Kyle was in the middle and Cory was on the other side of him.
Thirty minutes into the drive my eyes started to droop. I still had a small headache too. I let my head fall onto Kyle's shoulder, I didn't fall asleep though. As we drove farther my head started to pound more and more. It felt like someone was hitting my head with a hammer.
Finally I was able to doze for a little bit. But every time I shut my eyes I could see the zombie that was in the hospital the day before. It was like a replay of what had happened. Just the last time the zombie lunged, I didn't move fast enough and it's teeth sunk into my neck. I felt the pain and tried to wrench myself free but I couldn't. I fell to the ground, blood pouring from my neck. So much blood.
"Astrix? Astrix are you alright?" Kyle asked shaking me back to consciousness.
"Yeah, I'm fine. Just a really bad dream. I'm alright now though," I said. The sun was starting to go down over the plains now. So I had to have been asleep for a few hours.
"Hey Astrix or Kyle can we switch off now?" Miranda asked. I opened my mouth to say that I would drive but Kyle beat me to it.
Miranda and Kyle switched places. Cory was out cold with his face smashed against the window. Morgan was going in and out of sleep.
"You okay?" Miranda asked in a hushed voice so that Kyle wouldn't hear.
"Yeah it was really just a bad dream. Honestly," I said. It seemed like the pain of the zombie biting my neck was actually real. It didn't hurt now but it had.
We drove until it had to be at least midnight. Then we pulled over at a house that seemed to be empty. It was a two story house and was quite large. We all went inside.
"Alright so I'll see if there is anything we can make food out of. You guys check the rest of the house to see if there is anything we can use or if there is anyone here," Morgan said heading for the kitchen.
"Okay, so Miranda and I will go upstairs. Cory and Kyle you get downstairs," I said. They all nodded and I headed up the stairs with Miranda.
"So I was thinking, if any of us ever get separated or anything like that we should try and meet up somewhere," Miranda said as we went up the stairs.
"Like where? We don't even know where we are going at the moment. It would be kind of hard to decide on a meeting place don't you think?" I asked. We got to the top of the stairs. There was a hallway that led off into several rooms. One of the rooms was a large room with a Tv and a pool table. There was a couch against one of the walls.
"Well maybe we should decide where we are going and then figure out a rendezvous-" Miranda was cut off by something that swung out and nailed her in the nose. I turned to see what it was and felt my legs sweeped out from underneath me. I landed on the floor hard.
"Who are you and what are you doing in my house?!" a boy's voice rang out. My eyes fluttered open. My vision was a little blurred so I couldn't quite see straight. The pounding in my head had started again.
"Screw you," I mumbled. When it came to people I didn't know, I was extremely hard headed.
"Girl, I will kill you without a second thought," the boy said. I felt something cold and metal against my neck. Definitely a knife.
"Like she said. Screw you," I heard Miranda say. I knew we were friends for a reason.
"Is there anyone else with you?" the boy asked.
"What part of "Screw you" didn't you understand?" I asked. My vision cleared a little and I could make out details of the boy. He had jet black hair and green eyes. He looked 15 or 16. His eyes were squinted with anger and he definitely held a knife to my throat. His face was about 6 inches away from mine.
"You're about three seconds away from getting your neck slit open," he said. I could see Miranda out of the corner of my eye. She was laying face down, groaning, and holding her nose which was bleeding heavily.
"You bitch!" I yelled shoving the boy off of me. He was surprised by the sudden burst of energy that came from me. He slammed against the wall and I had my arm against his throat in a second restraining him against the wall.
"Who the hell are you? What makes you think that you can just come into my house and then attack me?" the boy asked. He was trying to struggle out of my grasp.
"What makes you think you can attack my best friend? Do you wanna die? Because the last few days have been living hell for me!" I yelled.
"I can see that Scarface," he said with an evil half grin. I had taken the bandage off of my scratch. It was healing surprisingly well.
I felt myself reach for my gun and put it against his head.
"Woah! Woah!" he yelled.
I felt hands wrap around my waist and pull me off of the boy.
"Woah, Astrix! Calm down!" Kyle said restraining me.
Miranda was off the ground. She had blood draining from her nose still. Cory gripped her shoulder in restraint. I could tell she was a second away from ripping the boys throat out.
Kyle let go of me when I finally stopped trying to fight him. He walked up to the boy.
"Who are you?" Kyle asked. The boy was still up against the wall.
"My name is Felix! Back off dude!" the boy yelled.
"Well Felix, we are sorry that we infiltrated your house. We thought there was nobody here. I'm Kyle," Kyle said.
"Keep that monster away from me," Felix said pointing to me. I narrowed my eyes and stepped towards him.
"What did you just call me? Do you want to die today?" I asked.
"Astrix! Quit it!" Kyle said.
"Astrix? What kind of person has a name like that?" Felix asked.
"The kind of person that is going to rip your throat out with her hands!" I yelled at him.
"Anyways. You've obviously met Astrix. That's Miranda and that's Cory," Kyle said pointing to us each in turn.
"Where's Morgan?" I asked.
"She's downstairs," Kyle answered not taking an eye off of Felix.
"There's more of you?" Felix asked with his eyes wide.
"Yeah. If you want we can leave and find somewhere else to stay tonight," Kyle said.
"No you guys can stay here. There is no point in going outside in the middle of the night. Too many undead out there," Felix said. He was looking straight at me though. His eyes hard.
"Fine. I'm going to help Morgan. Come on Miranda, let's get you fixed up," I said grabbing her hand and leading her downstairs.
I didn't trust Felix. There was something about him that made me uneasy. Something in those eyes that was evil.
"Miranda! Astrix! Are you guys alright?" Morgan said running over to us.
I nodded and walked Miranda to the bathroom. Her nose had finally stopped bleeding but her face was pale and she was a little tipsy from loss of blood.
"Alright you get cleaned up. I'm going to go talk to Morgan," I said. Miranda nodded. Unfortunately I couldn't find any clothing for her. I was still stuck in my bloody clothing from the hospital. I had ditched my sweatshirt so I wasn't too bad.
"What happened up there? I heard yelling and that's when Cory and Kyle ran up there," Morgan asked. She was cooking something in the oven that smelled like pizza.
I told Morgan about what had happened upstairs. When I had finished with the story I heard footsteps on the stairs. I turned and saw Kyle, Cory, and Felix come down the stairs.
"You must be Morgan, huh?" Felix asked walking over to me and Morgan.
"You must be Felix I'm guessing?" Morgan asked.
"Now that we have all been introduced maybe we should just try to relax," Kyle said. Felix was eyeing me suspiciously again. I stared back.
"Come on," Kyle said grabbing my shoulder and leading me over to the couch. He turned on the Tv. Of course there still wasn't any cable so Kyle turned on the DVD player.
"I get to choose the movie!" Cory said running over and sliding across the carpet. He searched through a pile of movies and finally found one and shoved it into the DVD player.
Cory jumped back up and went over and sat on the other side of Kyle.
"What did you choose?" Kyle asked raising an eyebrow.
"300. I thought it would be a good movie to stop you two from being romantic," Cory said smiling.
"Real mature Cory," Miranda said coming out of the bathroom and sitting on the floor by my legs. She leaned against the couch and rubbed her head.
"You alright?" I asked her.
"Yeah. I feel like I'm about to pass out but other then that I'm fine," Miranda said.
"Alright I get it! I'm sorry!" Felix said coming over and sitting in a recliner by Cory.
I saw Felix look at me and Kyle then he leaned over and whispered to Cory. Cory laughed and nodded.
"Wow guys," Kyle said shaking his head.
"What did they say?" I asked Kyle.
"Oh just about how Felix can't believe I'm so close to you and you haven't ripped my throat out," Kyle said putting his arm around my shoulders.
I sighed. I wasn't going to let Felix get to me. I mean it wasn't like he was going to come with us to Oregon. If he did I probably would rip his throat out for real.
About halfway through the movie Morgan brought the pizza over and set it on the coffee table. Everyone attacked it instantly. I grabbed a piece.
"How are you not starving?" Kyle asked. He was already on his second piece.
"I don't know. I'm just not," I said. I took a bite out of the piece of pizza.
When we were all done eating we watched more of the movie. I guess Cory was right. It wasn't quite the most romantic movie ever, it was kind of the opposite.
When the movie was over Cory, Miranda, Felix, and Morgan were asleep. Kyle and I were the only ones awake. I was starting to doze off. My head was on Kyle's shoulder. He must have thought that I was asleep because I felt him kiss me on the top of my head. He grabbed my hand.
"I won't let anything happen to you, Astrix," Kyle whispered. Then he sighed and his breathing became rhythmic.
Kyle's words stayed in my head as I fell asleep slowly. It was final. I was definitely in love with Kyle Weaver.