"This is bullshit!" Vanna stops walking. "It's turning dark and we haven't had a break all day! Nik is about to pass out, Mills and MJ are fucking high, and Ade is being wagoned around like a goddamn baby!"
We all stop walking. I'm still carrying Lance, but my arms feel weak and I'm about to drop them. They know this, but they also know that I won't let them go. Tough life I guess.
"Well, then let's make camp here." Mera slides off Lucen, not gracefully, but she gets down. "Sleeping in trees is useless because there's a climbing mutation, so we'll just sleep on the ground. We have to assign two people to keep watch. Nik and Ade can't because Ade is injured and Nik looks half dead-"
"For fuck sakes, put Lance down." Vanna crosses her arms and Lance pushes their way out of mine. "Me and Issac will take the first watch."
No one dares argue with her. 1. Because we're all exhausted and 2. She is pissed off. Issac gracefully gets off of Lucen (literally, watching it was the most graceful thing I've seen in years), ties him to a tree and feeds him for the night. We all lay on the ground in a group, not dogpile style, but just laying next to each other in a line. We had small snacks while walking so none of us were really hungry at this time.
As soon as I lay down I fall into a dreamless sleep almost immediately.
A hand flies over my mouth and I jolt awake, terrified.
"Shhhhhh!" The person hisses at me. It's too dark to see but I know what's going on. Everyone is huddled together and silent.
Gurgle.
I reach for my bow out of instinct. When I can't find it I start to freak out. I don't remember taking it off my person or putting it anywhere. The best thing to do is stay silent, maybe it can't see. I hear it walking in front of us, and I smell the disgusting smell of rotting flesh mixed with mushrooms...
It's standing right over me. And it knows I'm here.
Before it can react I hear something thud against it and feel the cold sticky blood of the infected drip on my face. Then it falls on me and the hand that was covering my mouth removes itself. And I scream. I don't stop until I run out of air and my throat sears in pain. At some point someone removed the body from me and I curled up in a tight ball, covered in slimy, sticky, cold infected blood.
"Alright, pussy, get up." Mills pulls me up. My legs are shaking so badly I almost fall over and Mills has to help me hold myself up. "C'mon, Mera said that she saw a lake on the map ten minutes east from here. Let's go bitch."
Mills drags me, and I'm not mentally present enough to argue.
"I'm not going to lie to you," Mills says, "but I thought you were done for! Whoever threw that fucking knife knew what the fuck they were doing."
Now I'm going to be honest. I heard the words, but I just couldn't mentally process them anymore. It's like someone switched my brain off. Mills must get the idea because they get quiet really fast, knowing that there's no reason to waste words on someone who's not going to hear them.
"There's the lake, let's get you clean." They shove me in the lake.
That does it. I snap out of whatever trance I was in and start flailing, because the water is freezing. Mills starts laughing at my thrashing to get out of the cold lake. Just when I got to shore, standing there soaked and cold, Mills shoved me back in. But I'm smart, you see. Mills is about three inches shorter than me, and weighs a lot less, so I grab their arm and they fall into the lake with me.
"You bitch!" I yell at them in the joking way we used to before the apocalypse started.
"Fucking asshole!" Mills yells and splashes me. And the splash war has started.
With each splash that hits me blood washes off. We're careful to keep our mouths shut once an unsafe amount of infected blood washes off me and is staining the water red. At some point we get out and find a new, clean spot. We end up doing that three more times. But once we get out we're both clean, soaked, shivering, and for once, laughing.
"We should head back now man." Mills smiles.
"Yeah, you two should." We look up to see Ebie standing at the edge of the woods with her arms crossed. "I was sent to come and get you, in case you drowned or something."
"Nah, we're good!" Mills says.
"Let's go back guys." I start walking, still laughing and forgetting, even just for a moment, what had happened before the lake.
YOU ARE READING
Rotting Bodies
HorrorBook One in the Rotting World Series "We need to run!" I yell, looking at my friends as the door splinters, but there is nowhere to run. Hoards of infected had found us, and were cornered. The only way out is through the windows. I run over and look...
