The Immune

chapter 5 - Ash

The walking was terrible. Seemingly every rock or pebble was out to get me.
"how long now? " brooke asked, her voice strained. Her limp had gotten worse, her face pale in the darkness.
"We should be coming up along some properties in the next mile or so" replied Jax.
My own strengths were failing, the pain was returning. My eyes drooped with exhaustion and my stomach growled in hunger. I was seeing shadows in the forest, as I imagined zombies lying in wait.
Our small group moved quickly despite the injuries.
It was only a few minutes later that brooke sagged to the ground, unconscious.
"Will, do you think you can carry her? It shouldn't be long now"
Will gritted his teeth, pulling the womans dead weight over his shoulder.
The first house they came acoss had been burned to the ground.
The second, further up the road, had its door ripped off its hinges, walls torn apart.
"Jax" will heaved, " I cant do this much longer, and neither can they" he spared a look at the man with the broken arm, and gave me a longer look.
Jax gave us both a hard look.
" I'm doing my best. But maybe the next one"
As we turned to continue a shape drifted out from the front of the house.
It had been drawn by the sounds of our voices.
The female zombie snarled menacingly, leaping off the verandah.
Jax acted within the blink of an eye, raising the silenced pistol to the mutilated body.
It stopped suddenly when it saw the weapon.
It stood, barely the length of a car from us.
Recognition lit its eyes, a soft snarl pealed from its lips. Its milky eyes, full of anger, watched.
Blisters marred what would have been a pretty face. What was left of its hair was matted with grease and what could've only been fresh blood. It dripped from its mouth as the animal smiled in murderous glee.
It pounced. Claws reaching, eyes wild.

Jax shot once.

The body fell to the floor.
"The smell and sound may attract others , we gotta move further. Just a reminder, keep conversation to a minimum. There will be more where that came from"
The animals face relaxed, morphing into what one could almost say was human. It was so easy to hope that these creatures could still maintain a spark of humanity.
The only one that seemed remotely moved by the incident was jeremy, his face green with sickness.
The houses began to grow closer together, we were entering suburbia.
"this one is our best shot" indicated Jax. The house was relatively untouched, minus the car wreck in the front garden.
The old weather board was classic and beautiful with it's windows intact and colour relatively bright. The picket fence had fallen down where the two vehicles had collided and crashed into the old oak tree. Our small group climbed the steps to the verandah, ready to check out the area.
Jax went in first, followed by Jeremy, then the guy with the broken arm. Will stood with me, glancing about nervously at the empty street.
It only took a few minutes for the soldiers to clear the site, with jeremy motioning us forward.
The house was beautiful, the home completely untouched with family photos and sporting memorabilia decorating the walls.
These people were probably dead, any resemblance to their achievements, long forgotten.
Those happy and smiling faces. It reminded of my family, back when things were, whole.
It was only the beginning of it all back then. We were living in a big homestead, heavily defended, with supplies, surrounded by those we loved.
One day we heard screams and shouting nearby - Human shouting, pleading.
We left them, we payed dearly for it.
A vehicle ended up catching fire, whereby the fire quickly caught fire.
The zombies were there feeding on what was left of humans and zombies. The fire spread, we had to escape. The first had caught alright, the flames racing toward our wooden protection.
We ran through the dense forest, never had I seen so many zombies before. The zombies moans echoed alongside the crackle of the consuming flames.
We were running, but not together.
I was with my mom.
I didnt hear the rustling before I was next to it, by then it was too late.
A cold hand yanked my body backwards. My grip loosened, and my mothers hand fell away. The smell of decay was all around, the body gripped tight, knowing its next meal was there. The sound of its snarls, that was so close, still haunts me now.
The bright flash of a gun boomed in the night sky, revealing the zombie in its gruesomness. Its grip fell, its body sagging to the ground.
My mother saved me.
She pulled me to my feet, yanking me forward in the night. The zombies followed the sound, they were all around. Their rustling through the undergrowth was everywhere. My mom only had some many bullets. Each flash allowed a horrifying illumination of our surroundings. Then we would be swallowed in darkness, unable to see the monsters still approaching.
We didn't see the one that came from infront. It could have chosen either of us. But it chose the bigger meal.
It's teeth big down into the exposed flesh of her arm.
My mother, too horrified to yell out, gasped. It meant death.
Not a moment later. My father stormed in with a group of warriors, fighting the scourge. He had had a reckless grin on his face, basking in the adrenaline of it all. I remembered being angry at him for that. So angry. The warriors wore suits of black, with superior blades and guns. Their force of three quickly cut through the herd.
Before anyone saw, I removed a handkerchief from my pocket, tying it around the bite mark on my mothers wrist.
She gripped me close, I was crying uncontrollably.
"ash" she whispered in my ear," I want you to take care of your dad, and you brothers and sister" I only nodded, I wanted to cherish this time with her.
My father refused to leave her, saying that we had to wait till she passed. He would kill her, after she turned. It was a tradition. The others in the group understood, leaving us to grieve.
Upwind of the fire, we found an abandoned building. We watched, waiting for her transformation. Hours passed, then days. She suffered a fever, with mild hallucinations. But within a day, it had passed. Her wound healed. She was normal. No cloudiness to her eyes, no mutation, and no hunger for flesh.
She was immune.
It was by chance that we came across the same group of people from the fire. They knew she had been infected. They deduced she was immune. These warriors were part of a compound, a government of sorts. They needed her. So they took her. We could only follow.
The smiling faces in the framed portrait stared back at me. I wiped the layer of dust from the glass. How I wish I could have lived and died in that world. Why.
"Ashlyn?" the guy with the broken arm asked
" Coming" I ducked my head, refusing to let him see the single tear. These people were the same warriors. Now I saw them as only soldiers, mercenarys.