Wasting Away

The Tower

Parker, Alice and Liz ran through the woods as the hoard of blood thirsty infected chased in close pursuit. Lizzy gripped Parker's hand tightly as they attempted to flee their sickly pursuers. Lizzy's foot caught a rock and slipped, her hand slipping from Parker's grasp. He turned to rescue his sister, but an infected had already crawled into her and was opening it's jaws to bite her. With one fluent motion, Parker drew his tactical knife and shouldered the monster, knocking it off of her. "Run!" He yelled desperately. Lizzy scrambled to her feet and stood there in shock. "RUN!" He yelled louder. As she turned to escape, an infected lunged at knocking her to the ground once more. She screamed in a mixture of terror and pain, as the horrible abomination sunk it's teeth into her fleshy neck. Her yells of pain turned to ones of rage as the first infected crawled off of her. Parker looked in horror, as the young, and loving child that was his sister, turned into a blood hungry monster. She yelled in a pathological rage, as she barreled towards him. "IT'S OKAY!" "IT'S OKAY!" "IT'S OKAY!"

Parker's eyes flew open as Lizzy shook him awake. "It's okay." She repeated. Alice was standing next to the fire he made a few hours ago. After running through the woods for almost two hours, the small group had managed to loose the hoard, and better yet, stumbled across a cell tower that had a tall fence with barbed wire around the top. They decided to set up camp there, and after building a fire, Parker had decided to rest. He looked into Lizzy's crystal blue eyes. She looked concerned for him. He pulled her into a tight hug as he began to cry. "I- I'll protect you! Forever!" His tears dampening her shirt. "Okay." She nodded as she took began to cry. Alice walked over and sat next to the two of them. She rested her head on Parker's shoulder. "It's not just your job." She reassured him. "Th- thank you." Parker sniffled. "Okay, I think I'm better." He smiled weakly. Lizzy and Alice let go of him and he stood. He wiped his eyes to remove any tears from his face. "Well, I managed to get this little radio to work." Alice walked over to the small wind up radio she had found. She flipped through the channels, until she found one that was working. "This just in, the epidemic of Chronic Wasting Disease in St. Joseph Michigan has been contained. The Centers for Disease Control has set up a quarantine perimeter around the infected area and tomorrow, Special Forces will be deployed into the black zone to search for survivors. The World Health Organization has appealed to NATO to rally a military force to respond if the American military fails to contain the disease. So far, only two survivors managed to escape. They're placed under quarantine until further notice. Now, to your normal programing." The radio cut to a rock song. "Well, if two made it out, so can we." Alice sounded confident. "Hopefully we can." Liz chimed in. Alice yawned and stretched. "Do you want to go to bed?" Parker looked over at her. "I guess. You going to bed Liz?" "Nah, I'm not too tired right now." Lizzy shook her head. "Okay, that makes one of us, I'm wiped out." Alice said, as she walked off, leaving Parker and Lizzy alone by the warm glow of the fire. "Are you okay Parker?" Lizzy looked over at him. "What- oh, uhh yeah I'm fine." He smiled. Lizzy wasn't buying it. "Parker, if you need to just let it out. Please, it's not healthy to hold it in." She pleaded. "Bu-" Parker was about to speak. "Parker, if you're trying to make a point, we get it. It's tough, what we're going through right now. But we're in this together. It's not making you any stronger by just bottling it all up."Parker looked at her, he could tell she was genuinely concerned. Parker sighed. "You're right. It's just, I don't want to make you guys feel hopeless, or discouraged by seeing me cry." Parker looked at the ground. He felt a small hand touch his shoulder. "We're going to make it." Lizzy said. "This isn't the end..."