Infection |Infected Book 1|

Chapter 19 (original version)

When you know you're going to die, something takes over you. Sometimes it's fear or acceptance. Mine was neither. I wasn't scared to die, but I was not going to accept it.

We whirled around and raced towards the body of trees in front of us. Wind picked up my hair as I ran and I could see the sun begin to blotch out as dark clouds rolled by. Our feet thudded through the grass as rain started to sprinkle onto our faces. I looked up as I ran and saw a streak of lightening spark across the sky.

"Figures," Durbin grunted after we heard a crash of thunder. We had made it all the way across the vast field and to the line of trees. Durbin stopped abruptly and turned to face the infected. Cody and I stopped with him, grabbing his arms. We tried to keep pulling him into the trees but he wouldn't budge. Somehow we had managed to get some distance between us and the infected who were still running at us. I saw the hunger and anger spread across their faces, even from a distance.

"Durbin!" I yelled slapping him upside the head. "Come on! What are you doing?!"

"Just go!" Durbin yelled back, shaking our arms off of him. "I'll lead them away and yall run back to the camp."

"What?" Cody's voice rang behind him. "You know that's suicide."

"Just go!" He spun around and pushed Cody sending him stumbling a few feet backwards.

Cody's eyes widened and then locked on me. "Let's go," He held out his hand for me.

My eyes flicked from Cody to the gaining group of infected to Durbin. "Thank you Durbin," I whispered, placing my hand on his shoulder. "I forgive you."

Without saying anything Durbin sprinted back into the open field and ran to the right. "HEY!" He waved his arms as he ran trying to grab all of their attention. "Come on you son's of bitches! Come and get me!" They all locked onto him and changed direction.

I grabbed onto Cody's hand and watched as the infected trailed after Durbin, snarling ferociously. Tears filled my eyes, knowing what would surely happen to him. He couldn't run forever. A loud crash of thunder shook my body making me pop out a scream. I whipped my hand over my mouth and whipped my head to look at Cody who had a look of terror plastered onto his face. We looked back towards the infected to see if they had heard me, but they were now chasing Durbin into the line of trees opposite of us.

"Thank God," Cody whispered, relief washing through his eyes. He reached up and clenched the hand that was covering my mouth bringing it down to our sides. "We're safe," He whispered and pulled me into his arms. I wrapped myself into him as the rain continued to fall on our bodies. I lifted my head up to look at Cody. His hair was drenched, dripping down onto my cheeks.

"I thought we were going to die," I said shakily. "For sure." I turned my head to look at the spot of trees Durbin had ran into and found it all empty of people. They must all be running through the woods now. "But Durbin..." I trailed off.

"There's a possibility he could survive," Cody said trying to be optimistic. "It's not very likely though." His head dropped in disappointment. I reached up and ran my fingers through his wet hair, brushing it out of his face. His eyes shined silver as they looked into mine. "I love you," He said for the first time to me.

My body trembled and my heart literally skipped a beat. I felt my face flush with color and I suddenly felt shy. "I love you too," I said sweetly, leaning up to kiss him.

Cody's body arched and he let out a painful scream. "Cody!" I yelled in panic looking around for what was wrong. I glanced behind him frantically and saw an infected woman with no legs, gnawing on Cody's calf.

In one swift motion, I grabbed the shotgun from the ground, cocked it, and aimed it at the woman. She saw me and tried to lunge for me. Her mouth wrapped around the barrel of the shotgun and I fired it through the back of her skull, splattering the trees behind her. I threw the gun on the ground and turned my attention back to Cody.

He dropped down to his knees, tears filling his eyes. "No.." He whispered to himself. "No..." Bringing his hands up to his face he let out a sob.

I dropped to my knees next to him, tears running down my face. I couldn't think of anything to say him. My mind went blank as I cried with him. Suddenly, Cody dropped his hands and looked at me. The rain poured down harder as we locked eyes.

"You have to kill me," He said, his voice sounding dead. "If you don't, I could kill you when I turn." The sorrow and fear for himself had left him and was replaced with a fear for me.

"I—I can't--" I tried to speak, but my sobs interrupted me. Cody's arms reached out, grabbing my shoulders, trying to keep me still.

"Then you have to run," He reached up and wiped my wet hair out of my face, so he could look at me clearly. "Please," He begged.

"No," I said firmly, controlling my sobs. "I'm not leaving you." I glared into his eyes.

"You have to!" Cody yelled, shaking me a little. "You can't be here when the infection takes over!"

"I'm. Not. Leaving. You." I said each word through my teeth.

"Please.." He begged again, tears re-filling his eyes.

"What if it was me?" I questioned. "Would you be able to leave me?"

"No," He said shaking his head. "But that's different."

"No it's not," I argued. "It's the same—"

I was cut off by Cody's scream, as he doubled over in pain. "RUN!" He yelled as loud as he could.

I told my body to get up and run, but I couldn't do it. I stayed paralyzed where I knelt. "Cody?" I whispered, placing my hand under his chin. He lifted his head slowly, his eyes fixing on mine.

His once silver eyes were now a midnight black, and blood streamed down his face. A low growl rumbled in his throat. I fell onto my back and scrambled to stand up. Cody didn't stand up to chase me, he just watched as I made my way onto my feet.

"Cody?" I asked when he didn't try to eat me right away. I took a step forward holding my hand out. "Cody, is it still you in there?" I asked hopefully.

Cody's answer was a snap of his jaw as he tried to bite at my hand. I dropped my arm and whirled around racing back out to the clearing. I heard Cody running behind me, snarling and snapping his jaw.

"Cody!" I yelled over my shoulder. "It's me! Desi!" I tried to get through to him. I'd seen infected who still had some willpower, so maybe Cody was still there.

But he kept coming. I started to run past the camp and saw the soldiers lined up along the inside with their guns ready to shoot Cody.

"Don't you dare shoot him!" I yelled at them with a snarl of my own. They lowered their guns frazzled as to why I didn't want them to shoot him.

I had barely gotten past the perimeter of the camp when Cody tackled me to the ground, mud splashing onto my face.  I rolled over so that I could look him in the eyes.

"Cody.." I whispered, as his infected eyes looked into mine. "It's me. Desi."

The growling and snarling stopped. A crease formed between his eyebrows as he glared down at me. His breathing slowed down and he cocked his head to the side as if in thought. My body shook with fear at the sudden silence from him. The foggy black eyes looked me over, trying to figure out who I was. But then something snapped in his head, making him start to snarl again.

Before I could even react, his teeth sunk into my neck and I let out an ear-piercing scream.