"My feet hurt! We've been walking all day!" Van complained.
"How old are you?" Ashley asked, raising an eyebrow.
"Haha very funny," Van said and rolled his eyes.
"Haha very funny," Ashley mocked in a low voice. I shook my head and laughed quietly.
"Ash, guys don't sound like that," Trent sighed. He was lagging at the back of the group with Van.
"Oh, yeah, you're right. I guess they sound more high pitched and bitchy, huh?" Ashley said, half joking.
"You're the one to talk," Van mumbled. Ashley gave him a dirty look and caught up to me and Nile, who hadn't spoken since our run in with Beige which was almost five hours ago.
"I'm starving. Since we are in a town we should try to find a place to stay for the night," Ashley said, very nonchalant.
"Yeah, good idea," I said. My mind had started to wander again, for the billionth time that day.
"Fine, I'll make Van and Trent do the work," Ash joked. I didn't show any emotion so she just sighed and trotted back to Van and Trent. She had been trying too hard all week to keep us all entertained and happy but none of us had made an effort to support her efforts.
Nile and I stopped and waited for Ashley and the boys to come back. There was an expression on Nile's face that I couldn't read. Sadness? Longing?
I sighed and rubbed my eyes. I was exhausted. I hadn't slept for almost three days and the hunger didn't help. Not that I was going to admit anything though.
I looked at Nile and saw his eyes shut and his head against the building we were waiting by. There was dried blood on the side of his head and he had his arms crossed. His normal tidy brown hair was ruffled and looked darker in the fading light. He also hadn't gotten any sleep for a few days.
"Nile, are you alright?" I asked. I couldn't stop the question from coming out. Nile opened his eyes but other than that didn't move. His brown eyes were a cloudy color.
"Yeah, I'm fine," Nile said with a sigh. Let's just say, within that short sigh, I knew he wasn't fine.
I didn't even say anything back. I just leaned against the wall and twirled and fiddled with my knife, which was becoming a really bad habit that resulted in some injury.
"Why do you do that?" Nile asked. I snapped my head up, not expecting Nile to say anything.
"I feel like I need to be kept doing something at all times or else I will go insane," I said simply. In that moment that I responded I had lost my concentration and sliced my palm.
"Shit," I mumbled. I squeezed together my hand quickly, hoping Nile didn't see it.
"You need some help there, Little Miss Muffet?" Nile asked. I squinted at him.
"No I'll be fine," I half growled. Nile laughed in a sarcastic way and grabbed my hand. I tried to draw back but he wouldn't let go.
Nile took out a roll of bandages from his back pack and wrapped my hand in two small layers. Leave it up to Nile to have everything you could possibly need in an apocalyptic event.
"Thanks," I mumbled and crossed my arms. Where was Trent, Van, and Ashley?
"Why do you hate me?" Nile asked. I snapped out of my moment of thought immediately.
"I don't hate you," I stated.
"Then why have you been avoiding me?" Nile asked. I could detect a note of desperation.
"Because I-,"
"You're doing that no attachment thing aren't you? You're going to ditch us," Nile whispered, barely loud enough for me to hear.
Nile could read me like an open book. I didn't understand how though. I never understood what I was going to do until I did it. Nile was refusing to look at me.
"I have stuff that I need to do. I have stuff that I need to figure out. I need to do stuff and I don't want to risk your guy's lives when I do them," I said. I had been keeping something from everyone for a long time. I had been keeping stuff from myself.
"What? What do you possibly have to do?" Nile asked. He was finally looking at me. There was an almost desperation in his eyes.
Well for starters I had to find a way to actually confirm my theory on how everything had started.
But I had almost been killed by people that had shot me and my friends with sleeping darts. I still don't know how they knew that I knew something, but I wasn't ready to risk more lives. I had a girl that worked for the government and knew my name after me. There was definitely something going on.
"I just have to do stuff, Nile. I would tell you but that would be endangering all of you and I can't do that," I whispered. I felt guilty. Like I had just murdered someone and had gotten away with it and now there was someone that was catching on.
"I don't care if my life is endangered. I just want to make sure that whatever you are doing, you aren't alone in it," Nile said.
I opened my mouth to say something but was cut off when I heard Ashley arguing with Trent. Extremely loud...
"Ashley, Trent! Zombies!" I yelled and was off of the building and running towards them as fast as I could.
Ashley and Trent heard the moaning that was right behind them and booked it out of there. These zombies were both the fast and slow, and I was running straight towards them.
"Astrix stop!" Nile yelled after me. I didn't care if I would die or not. In the fading light the zombies looked twice as menacing and deadly. I reached the first two and stabbed my knife into one of the heads of the beasts. The second one was on me in a matter of seconds. I didn't expect the quick attack so I was thrown to the ground with the zombie on top of me. I saw four shadows race towards the onrushing mob of beasts.
I tried to shove the thing off of me but apparently the fast zombies are also extremely strong. I felt the hot air from the beast against my face. This zombie was extremely strong compared to when I was in good health, but considering I hadn't eaten a good meal in a week or slept for a few days, I could see my life flash before my eyes.
I could hear my friends struggling with the zombies they were fighting so I realized I was on my own in this one. With my last amount of strength, I kicked the zombie as hard as I could and it rolled off of me for a second. In that second I was able to slit it's throat and get back into helping my friends.
I stabbed my knife into the back of the head of the zombie who had an advantage on Van. Van sighed and gave me a fist bump before slaying another zombie that was making it's way towards Ashley, who was cussing rather loudly while stabbing a zombie in the head repeatedly.
After I had killed another zombie and was able to get my knife out of it's head, we were all able to head to the small warehouse that Ashley, Trent, and Van had found.
When we got there, the door was unlocked and we walked inside. It was a warehouse that looked exactly like a house. There were no windows and there was carpet and furniture.
I sighed and slid to the floor. I leaned my head back and closed my eyes. That didn't last long though because conversation started immediately.
"What the hell kinds of zombies were those? Those aren't normal zombies! Those things are too fast and strong!" Trent asked. I opened my eyes and watched him pace around the room. There was some anger in his voice and he kicked the sofa angrily.
"They were bigger too! This makes no sense!" Ash said. She was sitting on the sofa and her eyes were wide.
I stayed silent. This was just proving my point that something was wrong. Very wrong.
Trent, Van, and Ashley got into a heated argument and Nile wandered the warehouse.
"Dudes, we need food or else we are all going to die," Nile complained.
"We'll get food tomorrow," I said. Everyone looked at me like they had forgotten I was there, which I honestly didn't blame them.
"For tonight we just need to all sit down and get some rest. Van sighed and flopped onto his back on the floor immediately. Ashley spread out on the couch and Trent locked the door and barricaded it with a book shelf before flopping next to Van. I laid on my stomach and shut my eyes. I felt the floor creak and knew Nile was laying by me.
"Try to get some sleep, alright?" Nile asked. I sighed and turned my head to see him.
"You too," I said. Nile smiled a half smile and shut his eyes. I buried my head in my arms but didn't fall asleep. Instead I lay awake, thinking about things that I shouldn't have been.
I need to get away from these people. Every moment I'm with them I could be endangering them. But how to get away from them? I need to figure out what to tell everyone about the zombies and how this started. Food poisoning can't be my excuse forever.
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A/N
Everything is starting to pick up the pace. I actually have ideas for what to do! I'm so proud of myself! Also thank you to everyone that is still reading!!
Okay you know the drill! Read on, Comment on, Vote on, Fan on, and Feedback on!! Love ya :)