What We Become | Book Two

45. The Start of The End

I moved to stand in front of Ben, shielding his weak form with my body.

My stare locked on Zach's, and his on mine. They widened, flashing fear and hatred before he straightened himself and tightened his grip around the weapon he held. His dirt-covered fingers clenched as his index twitched against the trigger.

"They did it..." he scowled in disgust, dark pupils wandering my face. "You're one of them... You're..." He pulled his mask down to his neck and his lip curled in distaste.

"Cured?"

"No," he shook his head. "Much worse than that... Do you realise what this means? What will happen now because of you?" He took a step forward, pushing my body out of his path to Ben. "You did this?" he pressed, his face becoming redder with each word.

I turned to see the flicker of a smirk against Ben's lips. His mood had changed and he was somehow enjoying finally having the upper hand. "Guilty as charged."

His dark eyes narrowed like the slits of a viper.  "You did exactly what she told you not to do," he spat. "She warned you about this, about what would happen next."

"I didn't expect you to be so disappointed," Ben pouted. "I thought you'd at least be impressed."

Zach's head shook and his voice got louder as the numbers of Infected began to decrease around us, each of them dropping to the ground with heavy shots.

"This is the start of the end," he barely muttered. "I tried to reason with you."

The shotgun lifted and Ben flinched as he aimed at an Infected that was getting too close. Zach's shoulder recoiled as the shot rang out and I couldn't help but flinch as my ears began to ring a sharp echo.

"Do you not think about the reason Liz was against this? Against the Infected becoming like her?" Zach continued, unfazed by the lifeless Infected now metres from his position. "You try and create a brand-new world with things like her and it won't work." I felt the sharp tone of his voice, the harshness that I couldn't ignore. It was a deep-rooted hatred that he spat at Ben who still held his ground.

"Things?" Ben muttered. Zach had hit a nerve and he knew it when Ben stood taller.

"She's not human!" Zach shouted, waving a hand at me.

"She's not Infected."

Zach cocked his head. "Then what is she?"

There was a pause in the air. A jolt in the noise like a video buffering for a second too long. The words had spoken truth to Ben but he did his best not to show it.

"It'll work," he said, answering his previous statement.

Ben too had noticed that neither of us had a weapon and Zach knew it. We were on losing ground and there was no way out of it.

"Why now?" I jumped in, stalling for time before Zach could take another step forward. Ben was visibly exhausted and there was only so long before he couldn't hold himself together any longer.

His head snapped to me and my white eyes widened in shock. With every look, there was greater anger, a deeper hatred at who I was, who I'd become. His upper lip curled in disgust and it took everything in me not to turn and run from the gun he lifted.

"Why now?" he almost laughed, pushing the shotgun against my chest. "Do you not think it would've taken us some time to recover from what you lot did? After who you took from us?"

"Don't act like Liz was trying to do something good, Zach," Ben said. "She was working off her own agenda. She had you and everyone else wrapped around her little finger."