Rotting Bodies

Chapter Seven: Boom

You know what? Fuck this trip. It's hot, I'm tired, and hungry. Maybe I'm just complaining too much, at this point, I don't care. We've been walking through the forest for hours. Issac and Mera are leading us on Lucen, though it took some convincing to get Mera up on Lucen. Mera is the best with navigation because she has a map. Lucen is walking at a nice pace that's easy for us to keep up.

It's hot outside. We try to walk in the little shade that the trees provide, but even still the sun is determined to melt our skin off. Like dude. If we wanted to melt and decay we would just let the infection fill us with their fungus.

Mills and MJ are laughing together. I see Mills bring out a little plastic bag that looks like it's filled with dried herbs, but I know better. And MJ pulls a half full bottle of vodka out of god knows where. You can see why they wanted to secure the liquor store now. Mills loves the electric lettuce and MJ loves the liquor. Good thing we're all of age now. Not that it really matters in this zombie filled world.

"I'm tired," Lance complains, "how long do we have to walk?"

I shrug and kneel down for them to get on my back. I know that they'll try to make an excuse for me to not carry them, but I could care less.

"You don't have to carry me, you'll be really hot and have an asthma attack." They hesitate. There's the excuse. It's weak too.

"Shut up and hop on."

They hop onto my back and I continue walking. They're right, I'm definitely a lot warmer now. It's worth it though, I didn't want him to be too uncomfortable while walking.

Ebie is walking in front of us, just behind Ade and Reyna. Reyna managed to find this old little faded red kiddie wagon and is pulling the injured Ade around in it. It's quite hilarious to watch. We had to oil up the joints that make the tires spin, and get rid of the two doors on the side, but other than that, the wagon was in pretty good shape.

Ade is laughing and Reyna is smiling softly. Their relationship is so wholesome.

Vanna is walking next to Lucen talking to Issac.

Overall everyone seems fine.

Gurgle.

I take it back.

Gurgle.

Fuck my life.

A couple infected walk out of the trees and I drop Lance. I grab an arrow and pull it back, breathe in, release the arrow, breathe out. Thud. I hit it before it even knew what had happened. At least I don't recognize them. The other infected is a mutation. It has milky eyes and little bulbs growing off of its body.

When I kill it, we have to run.

"Everyone, it's an exploder!" I call, "be ready to run on three! One!" Breathe in pulling an arrow back, "two!" I release the arrow and breathe out as the thing starts running towards us, "three! Run!" Thud.

We start running. I heard the sickening explosion, but we ran far enough to not get caught in the infectious spores. We stop for a moment to catch our breath. I'm lucky that I have my bow, because killing the exploders is better from a distance, because as soon as they hit the ground, all those infectious bulbs burst, sending spores everywhere. We're going to have to wait a couple of weeks to go back through there to be sure that all the spores have blown away.

Lance's hands are shaking as they walk and I pick them back up. That was their first time actually seeing the infected, and having your first introduction with the infected is never easy. Even I find it hard now, with all the new mutations coming out. I wish I could make it all go away, but I can't.

"Don't lose your focus now Nik." Vanna slows down to walk next to me. "We were lucky that you managed to see them. I couldn't have gone near that exploder with my machete."

She's right. If she were to kill an exploder that close, she wouldn't have enough time to run out of the danger zone. I do have to stay focused. I can't be caught off guard and let my friends take risks because of my stupidity. I won't let them die.

"I'll stay focused, don't worry about me." I tightened my hold on Lance.

"You fucking better. This is going to be a long ass trip." Vanna walks back up to continue her conversation with Issac.

For fuck sakes. How long is this trip going to be? I just want to get there, grab the cure and leave. But for now I have other things to worry about. Lance is trembling.

"Are you okay?" I whisper to Lance.

"I don't know." They close their eyes tightly. "That was disgusting and I never want to see that again."

I can't reassure them that they won't because I know they will. This world is filled with horrors waiting for us. It's only a matter of time before more infected finds us.