Dead Bite

chapter 20

We pack up all of our equipment and begin our journey to a camp called, Camp Haven. George says that Camp Haven is where only a few people reach. Many people die on the way there from infected and bandits. The people that do make it, live happily along side the people who run the camp. It will be a wonderful camp to start a family; however, it will take months to reach the camp. Since it is going to be a long trip, we need to find a place to rest every evening. Our first stop... Saint Cody's Hospital.
"How far is this hospital?" I ask curiously. We have already been walking for three miles. Recently, I have felt extremely tired with no energy.
"Five more miles," George answers. He is our guide to Camp Haven. There are three places we are going to stop each while; Saint Cody's Hospital, Louise Bar, and a pillow factory. I groan and slow down a bit. Once this baby begins feeding on the nutrition from my food I'm gonna be even more exhausted. I see Damien hand his bag to Jacob and come in front of me.
"Hop on," he smiles. I hop up on his back and lean the side of my head against his back. "Are you tired already?"
"Yeah," I answer sleepily. "You don't have to carry me you know."
"I know, but you are going to be even more sleepy once the baby starts to grow."
"Yep. So do you think we will run into any infected or bandits?"
"No, but we will probably run into some. Hopefully, not anytime soon," he answers. We go another two miles while I stayed on Damien's back. When I finally look up, I see we are approaching a forest. It is a dense forest.
"Everyone stay close," Jacob announces. I jump back off of Damien's back.
Damien turns around," you okay to walk?" I nod to him and walk behind him a bit. Everyone else is in front of us since I am walking slower. The forest swallows us whole. It surrounds us on all sides and thorns prick our tender legs. Birds, squirrels, and other miscellaneous forest creatures create a turbulence of noise. There is a loud, deafening squeal then instantly Damien is off the ground. I hear Damien cursing above me. Damien is trapped in a net suspended above the ground.
"I'm fine, guys," he yells down to us.
"Don't worry, I'll get you down!" I call back. I find the tree that the net is tied to and begin climbing it. Halfway up, George and Jacob begin talking up to me to get down before I get hurt. I will be fine; I have been climbing trees since I was little. I get to where the net is leveled to a tree branch.
"Kaylee! What are you doing? What if you fall?" Damien exclaims. I hold my hand out towards him.
"Reach for my hand so I can pull you towards the tree before I cut the rope. Unless you want to land on the ground," I shrug jokingly. He grasp my hand and I pull him towards me. I take my knife out and cut the rope. The net falls and I hold on as tight as I can to Damien. I strain to keep him from falling.
"Kaylee, let go of me or we will both fall," Damien begs.
"Nope, I got you." I pull him as hard as I can to get him up. He lands on the branch with me. "See, I told you I could get you." We climb down the tree and George and Elizabeth are all around me asking me if I am okay.
"Guys, I'm fine. I'm just a bit tired. Let's hurry up and get to Saint Cody's Hospital so I can sleep." We continue walking until we come up to a small, tall building with many windows. We do not run into any more problems, luckily. By this time the sun is beginning to set into the horizon, making the scenery beautiful.
"We will stay here for the night then we will set out in the early morning. It will take us about a month to get to Louise Bar then about three months to get to the pillow factory. This will be the only big place we will stay until then. Get comfy and some sleep," George yells over people talking. Everyone disperses into different parts of the first floor of the building. I follow Damien to one of the corners of the hospital.
"This is a nice, quiet place to rest," Damien concludes. He lays down his bag and lays his head on it. He pats the bag and I sit down next to him. "Why don't you lay down and get some rest?"
"I'm not tired. You go ahead and get some sleep."
"You need to get some sleep. You have been complaining all day about how tired you are."
"I'll be fine. I just want to make sure you don't get hurt," I smile then I frown.
"What's the matter?" He asks running his hands across my cheek.
"Nothing, just get some sleep. I'm gonna stay awake for a while." He pulls me down so I am laying down. He places his head on my stomach and his arms around it. He is pinning me down so I can not get up and wonder around.
"I know you. When you don't want to go to sleep you wonder around. You need to sleep," he commands in his deep voice.
"Fine I'll go to sleep, but don't use that voice," I giggle kissing his head. In the distance, we heard someone yell at us "lovebirds" to go to sleep. Damien and I laugh to ourselves.
"Good night Kaylee. I love you," Damien coos. He begins humming. Recently, his humming and singing had been lulling me to sleep quickly.
I yawn," good night Damien. I love you too." I close my eyes and fall asleep.

We get up the next morning and the guys search the building for anything that we might need. Elizabeth will not let me do anything anymore. It's always "sit down Kaylee. You need to relax Kaylee. You can't do that anymore Kaylee," all this nagging bothers me. Damien also agrees with Elizabeth and that's what bothers me the most. I am perfectly capable of taking care of myself. Our next destination... Louise Bar. Louise Bar is about a month away if we are walking; second longest journey that we will take. The longest journey we will take is to the pillow factory, which is about three months away. Then our last stop, Camp Haven. Hopefully we do not run into any trouble that might cause our trip to be even longer. It will probably already be hard enough to carry the baby for five to six months, but if we have to go longer... man, I would die.

We begin our long walk to Louise Bar. It has been more than a week since we began from Saint Cody's Hospital. We have run into quite a few problems; sickness, wariness, and infected. We are behind by two weeks. We have been cut off by five, large, different groups of infected. It is hard for the guys to kill them all, for I am on the sidelines not doing anything, but getting myself into trouble as usual. Jacob, Elizabeth, and George have all scolded me for trying to help them kill the infected. It pisses me off when people scold me. It's not like they are my parents or anything; anyways, I am immune to an infected's bite. So it does not matter if I am bit, but they still seem to care.
Tonight, we are stopping at a small inn we spotted. A comfortable bed to sleep on is the only thing I can think of. I run in front of the whole group towards the inn. When I get inside, I find the first room I see and fling the door open. I take off my shirt and bottoms and throw myself onto the bed. The bed is so comfortable. I hear the door creak open. Two, strong hands grab my shoulders and begin massaging my back.
"It's been four or five weeks," I smile.
"I know." I look back to see him smiling. He has that look in his eyes and I can tell he is restraining himself.
"You're so cute when you restrain yourself," I giggle. He rubs his thumbs down my back.
"Have I ever told you that you have adorable back dimples?"
"Yes, many times before." I feel him rub his fingers on my back dimples. "Mmm," I moan softly.
"Do you like it there?" He asks chuckling. I nod my head in response.
"I miss laying in an actual bed. I could sleep like this forever," I yawn. "If we keep being behind schedule then I might end up having the baby outside the safety of the camp." Damien runs his hands back up my back.
"Don't you worry. We will make it to the camp safely and you will have the baby inside a camp," he coos. I roll over and prop myself up on my elbow. I kiss his soft, tender lips and pull him down with me.
"We can finally sleep in an actual bed."
"The pillow factory will be fun," Damien exclaims. 
"It will," I fall asleep in his arms in a nice, comfortable bed.
The next day, I wake back up in Damien's arms.
"Damien, what is going on?"
"It is about five in the afternoon. You have been sleeping all night and we had to get going so that we do not get even more behind schedule. I decided to let you sleep," he answers.
"That bed was so comfortable. Too bad we won't be able to sleep in one until we get to Louise Bar. Even then there might not be any beds."
The rest of the way to Louise Bar is long and tiring. Damien carried me most of the way for I am always tired. Normally I would sleep through the day and be awake for a few hours before falling back to sleep. George told Damien that he needed to wake me up at meal times to eat; however, he did not. He thought that I needed sleep more than food. I thought differently. I needed to be awake to eat or the baby will not get enough nutrients to survive. I began staying awake for days just so that I would eat enough for the baby. We, luckily, did not run into any problems besides the cold. We stopped at many houses along the way looking for more supplies. It was a long, tiring few weeks. We made it to Louise Bar around mid-fall, eight weeks after we set out from Saint Cody's Hospital. The baby is now showing a bit which is a good sign. George said the baby is growing and that means the baby is still alive. Now that it is fall, the wind was becoming fiercer and colder. Louise Bar kept us warm from the blistering wind, but not for long. We are leaving in the morning for the pillow factory which will take a few months. We will be well into the winter months by then. Jacob says we have to take as many blankets, coats, and clothes as we can for our next trip. We have to stay warm for the winter months. Hopefully we do not run into any more trouble so that we make it to Camp Haven on time. I hope the baby survives the cold, blistering winter ahead of us.

Sorry for not posting for so long. I have been busy with my relationship with my girlfriend, which it had been a year :) only one or two more chapters until this book is over, unless I decide to make a second book. Hehe, love you guys.