Infected

Chapter 6

A white-hot pain was coursing through my veins, tearing me apart from the inside. I wanted to scream but no sound came out. Is this what dying felt like? I don't think I was ready to die just yet. I wanted to survive through this with them. I wanted to overcome the apocalypse with them, but it hurt too much. I wished I would hurry up and die. The pain was too much for me to handle.

    Someone else was transforming too. The sound of them thrashing around in pain was unbearable. I knew what they were going through and I wouldn't wish it upon anyone else. Something hit the floor with a thud. Maybe their pillow. I wished I could move. Maybe moving around would have helped relieve the pain instead of being stuck in place almost like my joints had locked up.

    It was nighttime and I couldn't see, but I was very sure that the stitches on my wound were burning into my skin. I couldn't breathe. My lungs were being taken by the infection, eating away at them until there was nothing left. I leaned over the side of the bed, the most I could move my body, and threw up. When would this end?

    I heard Changbin sit up in bed. That was the most he had moved since we got here. I could see his arm reach out to me, a word forming on his lips but dying before they could escape. I heard him take a final, shaky breath before slumping lifelessly over the side of the bed. Changbin was dead and yet I felt nothing.

    The smell of flesh was tantalizing. The copper smell of blood was driving me insane. I needed to eat him before he rotted. No, he's my friend! I can't. Yes. Devour him. A fresh wave of burning pain tore through my body. Funny. Your life really does flash before your eyes before you die.
   
    On a late summer afternoon, I was alone on the beach. I can't remember why I was there, all I know is that I wanted to get away from the struggles of life for just a moment. The tide washed up a beautiful shell, completely intact. I picked it up, turning it in my hands, my fingers gliding over the smooth, white surface.

    "That's a nice shell you've got there," A stranger said from beside me. I snapped my head around to see an orange-haired boy maybe a few years younger than me, crouching next to me.

    "What did I tell you about bothering strangers?" Someone else said, sounding annoyed.

    "I don't mind," I said, standing up. I was shocked to see not two, but seven people now crowding around me.

    "Well, since Jisung's already bothered you, we might as well introduce ourselves," Said a brown-haired boy who looked like a puppy. "You first."

    "Oh, right. My name is Chan."

    That day, they unknowingly saved me from the loneliness I had been experiencing for god knows how long. My friendship with them grew so strong that I never wanted to leave their sides. They were my friends through thick and thin. They meant the world to me, and I wasn't about to let an infection tear me away from them.

    I really didn't want to die yet. Most of all, I didn't want any of my closest...well only... friends to be hurt by my hands. I would have put an end to it right then, but my body wouldn't allow it. It was almost like it had its own consciousness and knew what I wanted to do.

    There were so many more things I wanted to do with them. So many more memories I wanted to share. This is not how it should have ended.

    Then, it was almost like a switch in my brain turned off. The faces of those I held dear were gone in an instant. One stayed, but I could no longer remember his features. I could only remember the sound of his voice, low and soothing. My friends' features were blurred together, oddly familiar but foreign.

    The delicious smell of flesh was all that was on my mind. There was one final wave of pain as my heart gave out, allowing the infection to take over my body.

    I was truly a dead man walking.