This Dark, Dark World

Chapter 3

"What does that mean?" I asked. Lewis and Gus looked horrified. Suddenly, Joey came up behind them.

"What's up?" he asked Gus, looking at his pale face.

"She doesn't know what happens when you get bit," Gus explained, his eyes wide.

"What!?" Joey bellowed, "are you fucking kidding? Right Lewis, move!"

"What are you gonna do?" Lewis asked, not moving. Joey sighed and knocked him to the side. He bent down in front of me, and I felt the urge to wriggle away from his intense glare, but he had gripped my shoulders in his large hands.

"Joey," Gus said, sounding uncertain.

"Gus, shut up. She's not in a world to be babied any more!" Joey hissed, and then looked me right in the eye, "now you listen up kid, 'cause I'm only gonna say it once. You get bit, scratched or get any of these fuckers inside you, you die and become one of them. It's gonna happen to all of us one day. They can see you, hear you and they go crazy for the smell of blood. They are out to eat us alive and anything else that is living. The only way to stop them is to destroy the brain, which I think is the only part of them which is 'alive', though they don't have any thoughts or feelings since they are not even human any more. Once you get bitten, that's it. We can do nothing to save you once you're bit, do you hear me? We don't know how long it takes you to die from just one bite, so we'll have to wait it out, geddit?"

I was horrified. Amelia became one of them, was all I could think as I tried to process this information. I wanted to cry, cry for Amelia, cry for the girl who was bitten, cry for myself, cry for everyone who was already one of those things, destined to wander around in search of live flesh until someone finally put them out of their misery. But, I couldn't show that to Joey. I couldn't let him have the satisfaction of knowing that this information terrified me. I looked up boldly and stared him right in the eye, as he was doing to me.

"So they're basically zombies, am I right?" I said coldly. Joey let go of my shoulders, shock clear on his face, though he tried to hide it by turning away.

"Yeah, I guess that name could stick," he mumbled. He quickly got up and left, but not before calling over his shoulder, "we need to sort out what to do with the bitten girl so come out soon, all of you!"

I shakily got up off of the ground, Lewis helping me with a reassuring hand on my elbow.

"How often does that happen to you, Sunshine?" he asked gently, as if he feared someone would hear him.

"Does what happen?" I asked, confused, trying to blink away the black dots that danced across my vision because I got up too quickly.

"Y'know..." he whispered, looking around nervously, "passing out."

"That was my first time passing out," I said quickly, now knowing why he was so frightened of saying it. He didn't want Joey to find another reason to shoot me as much as I did.

Lewis gave me a sympathetic look, "don't lie to me, Sunshine."

"How do you know that it's happened to me often?" I said, trying to sound outraged, but failing miserably.

"You said 'not again' just before you went out," Gus explained, coming to stand next to us.

"Oh," I mumbled, looking down and nudging a nail with my trainers, "only a few times... a day."

"How long were you in that closet?" Lewis asked, sounding shocked. I still didn't want to look at his face.

"I dunno... two days, I think," I said, trying to concentrate hard on pushing the nail back between the wooden boards on the floor.