Infection

Chapter Fifteen

Chapter Fifteen

Gwen hid on the second floor of an apartment building, and observed the men chasing after her. Being a sprinter certainly had benefits. She had no weapon but had managed to avoid the infected and outran the men, and had dashed up a flight of stairs in an apartment building which was surprisingly clear, except for some blood and smashed glass.

It took quite a while for the men to reach where she was, and she was fairly sure they didn’t know which building she was in. The zig-zagging around the alleys and in and out of buildings surely had helped her lose her pursuers.

She was now in an old apartment, which had some electricity still running somehow. Perhaps not all the generators in the city had been damaged. Upon entry into an unlocked house, she noticed that the ceiling fan was still slowly rotating. The owners may have dashed out in a hurry, though she couldn’t comprehend why they chose to run out into the dangerous streets instead of remaining locked indoors. Perhaps the owners had also heard the radio broadcast and in a panic had decided to make the trip north, rather than remain in the growing infected districts here.

The house was not all that huge. It was a simple apartment with two bedrooms and a small kitchen. Photos on one of the tables showed that a family of three had stayed here.

Gwen was securing the door by pushing the couch to block it despite there already being a steady lock, and had heard the commotion right below. A quick peek and she had saw that the men had reached where she was, but were glancing around in all directions and swearing, adding to her confidence that they had lost her.

She couldn’t stay for long. There was an urgent need to get to the north.

Ralph…

She tried not to think about what had happened earlier, but couldn’t help but feel scared for Ralph. What would they do to him, and what had they done to him?

As they were trying to make their way back to Gwen’s home, a truck had suddenly stopped and three armed men had tried to capture them. Ralph held them back as best as he could which gave her time to escape into an alley, but in the end the two of them got caught and were driven a short distance to the burger joint where she had met Jake and Ashlyn.

In the burger joint, several survivors were all held captive by some hooligans, the same men chasing after her, and had chased after Jake and Ashlyn. For what reason, she didn’t know. Ralph had been heavily injured and had been injected with some sort of chemical by a man in riot gear, right in front of her. They were just about to do the same to her when Jake and Ashlyn had showed up outside, which caused the commotion. And thankfully because of that, she had the opportunity to escape outside. The men had probably planned to throw her to the horde as a distraction, then realised she knew Jake and Ashlyn and then tried to get them to follow the group. She had known that if they simply ran off, the men could’ve caught them right away…

Gwen walked over to the kitchen and opened the fridge. It was almost empty, but had some bottles of water and soft drinks, as well as cheese and some fruits. It was surprising that this household had electricity, and the food in the fridge was still well preserved and fresh.

A rummage through the cabinets gave her several cans of food. Canned tuna, canned sardines, canned corn and even some canned cocktail. It was a great find.

But she didn’t have much time to hang around. She needed to try to get Ralph out. But it was going to be nearly impossible to do it alone. It was sheer madness to go up against the whole group of maniacal men, and the infected only exacerbated the issue.

Is Ralph even still alive…?

No. She couldn’t, wouldn’t think anything otherwise. But the men had injected him with something, and it couldn’t have been anything good. She recalled the brief time she had been stuck in the burger joint.