“Cammy, I got them.”
Nothing.
Silence was all I was greeted with and my heart jumped.
With the room being lit better than the one I had come out of, I could clearly see the now empty couch. Anger hit me first at the fact she wasn’t where I left her. If she went and did her own thing again, I was going to tie her to me so she would stop wandering off.
Crash.
I heard glass break in the kitchen. Grabbing the gun, I made my way over there. I found her facing away from me and looking at the corner of the room. Not seeing anything, my stomach dropped.
All of them had started to act weird as the boils formed and fevers spiked. If she had it, she was starting to show the signs.
Slowly, I walked to where she was and that was when I saw it. She wasn’t looking at nothing but at another person who had made it into the house we thought was so safe. I knew we had to speed up our escape. There were too many of them and it seemed word had gotten out this place was here and had company.
I watched Cammy for a second trying to decide the best way to help her. She had the gun against her throat, and she was shaking. I knew she couldn’t do what needed to be done. It was different that time. It seemed personal.
“Cammy?” I whispered.
“I knew her.” I could hear her fighting back tears and it ripped me apart.
I looked over her shoulder and around her to see the younger girl slouched over in the corner chewing on her arm. She might have been pretty at one time, but all I saw was her hair falling out in clumps, sores covering her skin, and the boils leaking the foamy pink and white pus. Half of her lower left cheek was gone as the virus spread and devoured her inch by inch. Not even noticing us standing there, she took another bite of the arm she had been chewing on and caught a boil. Pus flooded from it and filled her mouth along with her skin and muscle. The sound of the tendons snapping was sickening, but nothing was as bad as listening to her sloppily chewing on herself. Spit flew from the corners of her mouth and dripped down her chin.
“Cammy, let me.”
“No. I should do this for her.”
“It’s okay. You don’t always have to be so strong. Let me help you.”
I reached for the gun she held in her hand, turned her away, and shot the girl in the head. Cammy flinched when she heard the boom before her shoulders shook. For the first time in all of the mess we were in, I watched her break a little.
CHAPTER TWELVE
The idea of Izzy being dead wasn’t what bothered me. In all honesty, I didn’t like her much. She was annoying, liked to use her friends, and tried to play that pity shit too often. The thing that stayed in my mind was the way she looked and the fact she was like the others, eating her own flesh. She was proof. Proof we’d never outrun this thing. Proof everyone ended up the same way. Proof even Jake and I could end up tasting our own flesh at any moment. It pissed me off.
Jake knew I couldn’t dwell on Izzy’s death. Instead, he kept me moving. He placed me on the stairs where I could keep an eye on everything while he quickly loaded the car. He’d finally let go of the waiting until dark idea. That part made me happy as hell. I didn’t want to be in the house any longer. In the beginning, it felt like a refuge. It had become nothing more than a mecca for all those hungry, oozing bodies that wandered around.
“We’re loaded up.” He hurried around to the other side of the car and got my door opened for me. “Now we just need to load you.”
I rolled my eyes as I tried to use the crutches while still holding the shotgun. I couldn’t do it. If I was stuck with the crutches long, I would need to practice with that. The gun would be my only protection in the state I was in.
“I’ve got you,” he announced as he hurried over and without hesitation scooped me up and carried me around the back of the car. He settled me in my spot, then shut the door before he ran back around to his side, doing the same again.
“Jake,” I started the moment he closed the driver’s door. “What’s the likelihood there’s people out there like us? You don’t think we’re the last ones not infected, do you?”
“No. I think if we’re still okay, someone else is. They may not be in this area though.”
“That makes sense,” I told him as he cranked the car. I clicked the button on the garage door opener and waited. Nothing. I tried again. Still nothing. “Fuck me,” I snapped.
“I’ve got it. Stay here, don’t move. I’ll raise it then hurry back. Surely, I can move faster than anything that may be out there waiting.”
I nodded my head in agreement, but inside, that uneasy feeling had already come back. Izzy had somehow gotten in the house. The woman I fought when I messed up my leg had gotten in the garage. It was clear we were on the outside looking in. We didn’t know this house. We didn’t know enough about the people in the area. Hell, they could’ve all been great friends and knew everything about one another and each other’s homes. We had no idea what we were getting into holing up in there. It had been a mistake. The plan had been to rest; in all honesty, we didn’t get any of that.
Jake took a deep breath, then yanked open the car door. He left it open, which was smart. He needed to move quick. I pulled the gun up, holding on to it tight. I would struggle getting out of the car, but if he had trouble, I would do it. He still held his hammer, which would be great if something came close quarters to him and I couldn’t get a shot.
I held my breath as he opened the garage door. It was a slow process. The door moved and jerked with every few inches. It was half up when I spotted the first set of feet that wandered across the paved driveway leading to the garage. I didn’t call out to Jake. He didn’t need the freak out, and I hoped those wandering out there hadn’t noticed him yet. The feet meandered along, like nothing was happening at the garage door.
With one last push, Jake heaved it open the rest of the way, then froze for just a moment when he saw the infected wandering the area. We’d chosen an isolated house. It hadn’t mattered though. They had still found their way out there.
He rushed back to the car; the color having drained from his face. I knew exactly what he had been thinking. If they’d noticed him, he’d never have been able to fight all of them off. We would’ve become a snack for them. He pulled the car down into reverse and slowly started backing out of the garage, then down the driveway. That’s when I saw the blood stains on the garage floor and my mind realized what had happened. The woman, the one who attacked me, she’d been under the car the entire time.
“They are reacting to us,” Jake sighed as he pulled past a few of the infected on his way toward the main road. “I don’t get that.”
“Maybe they aren’t as far gone as the others?”
“I’m not buying that either,” he answered as he attempted to straighten the car up and pulled it into drive. “That woman was talking to you. She knew you were there. They aren’t completely gone yet. They can’t be.”
He’d barely spoken the words when a boy, maybe ten years old, glanced toward the car. The entire side of his face had been eaten away by the virus. The bone and tissue beneath the skin showed and the pus ran freely. He smiled at me and the half-eaten grin sent shivers down my spine.
“I’m hungry,” he called out then fist pumped the air. “You wanna play ball?”
“Jake, go, please.”
I felt the car lurch as he gave it gas. The sputter I heard brought back memories of the old beater I drove when I was sixteen. That piece of shit hadn’t made it long and I highly doubted this one would either. For the moment though, it would work. At least I hoped it would.