The Virus

Chapter 5

Belle's p.o.v.
I wake up from a fitful sleep. If it wasn't the cold air finding its way into my sleeping bag it was my nightmares jarring me awake. I poke my head out of the door and look at the sky. You can see the first rays of the sun but you can also see the stars. I tie my hair back into a low ponytail and slide on my boots. I walk over and stir the embers of the fire. I sit down beside it and warm my hands. A owl lands close by. I toss a log onto to the embers and get to work. In 15 minutes I have folded up my tent and cleaned up the campsite. Everything I own is packed up into my backpack.
       I grab the bucket and canteens and start the small hike to the stream. I'm thirsty and Dar will want some when he wakes up. On my way back I hear voices. "The humansss campssssite can't be to far from here", one voice says. It's voice is raspy in it's reptilian form.
      "You better be right", a female voice says. Her voice is soft but has an cold edge to it. It reminds me of a knife. Chills run up my spine. They are talking about us. I have to tell Dar. I quietly dump the water and run as quietly as possible. I don't dare talk until I'm in the clearing and only at a whisper.
      "Dar wake up we've got to go now", I whisper. I run to his tent and unzip the door. Dar is asleep. He is sprawled out with his foot hanging out of sleeping bag. He snores lightly. His face is peaceful his long eye lashes drape across his cheek. I shake my head get it together Belle. I kick him lightly in the ribs. He jumps up and grabs my leg about to twist it. He stops and glares up at me.
       "What's your deal", he yells at me.
      "Sssshhhhh, we have infected closing in on us. We need to get, like yesterday", I whisper. His jaw drops open but he starts gathering his things. He ties his boots, and slings his backpack over his shoulder. I start to help him take down the tent. We rush in silence hoping we can get away before they find our camp.
     "Ssssssssee I told you that there was a human campsite", the voice hisses behind me. We both whip around I pull out my knife from my belt. A woman in a grey business suit, and a infected man fully transformed stand across the clearing. The woman's blonde hair is cropped short in a long pixie cut. She is slender and place the exact opposite of what one expect to find in the woods. The lizard man towers over her standing at least eight feet tall. Only his pants survived the transformation. Their blue green eyes stand out even from this distance.
    "Good job. Kill them and we will be on our way", the woman says. Dar steps in front of me his sword drawn. All signs of the goofball from the last several days is gone. In his place is the stone cold man that saved my life. The woman smirks at us annoying me. My backpack is already on my back and Dar has everything packed except his tent. The lizard man charges. Dar and I split off into different directions. Dar charges the lizard man knowing he can handle himself I run up to the woman. My knife drawn and ready. Suddenly something grabs my backpack and throws me across the clearing. I roll on the ground covering my face with my forearms holding my knife tightly. I roll into the side of days tent sending it collapsing onto me.
       I claw my way out of the tent and look around. The woman is gone and the lizard man is fighting with Dar. I see Dar is having some trouble. This lizard is fast for his size. I run behind the lizard dodging his tail and stab up and in underneath his scales. The lizard screams in pain. I stab him again and back up out of his reach. He faces me and Dar decapitates him. The lizard mans head roles to my feet.  I gag trying to keep what little contents in my stomach where they belong. "That was easy", Dar says. He walks up to me blocking the view of the head. There are shouts from the same direction that the woman went. We turn around and run in the opposite direction knowing they are coming for us.
       We run through the woods covering our tracks as we go. We run till the sun is in the middle of the sky. "Dar we've gotta stop. I need to eat", I say stopping. My leg is on fire and I feel something wet oozing from my stitches. My stomach growls. I sit down under a tree and take a swig out of my canteen I hand Dar his. I open my backpack and dig out the bread and dried meat. I cut a slice for Dar and me and grab a slice of meat for both of us. He sits beside me and accepts the food.
"That was really close", he says taking a bite of his food. He's breathing heavy from running and a bead of sweat runs down the side of his face. He leans against the tree. I bite my food. The bread is dry and the meat has no flavor. I think back to when Dad use to make beef jerky. My mouth starts to water.
"No kidding, sorry about your tent", I mumble through a mouth food full of food. I look at my stitches through the hole in my pants. Blood and puss ooze from them but they didn't tear. My leg throbs. I lean back and look at the sky from in between the leaves. Some of the leaves have changed colors and are a stark contrast against the grey sky.
"Don't worry about it we can share if that's okay with you. It will be warmer that's for sure", he says. I watch him from the corner of my eye. He doesn't look at me he just stares into the distance eating.
"That's what I expected that's what we were gonna have to do", I say. I may be abstinent but doesn't mean I'm heartless. I finish my meager meal and stand up. Dar does the same. We head off hiking through the trees, it's best to stay off the road for awhile. We walk in silence the crunch of leaves accompany us.
"Who do you think that woman was", Dar asks after awhile of silence. I look up at the back of his head.
"No clue. It's weird how she didn't change and she seemed so cold", I say with a shiver. The infected never act like she did. They are always fast to change and attack humans, and they are always full of themselves.
"I heard that some of them are like that. That they are the original infected. Some of them are even scientists. There are tons of horror stories from human refugees", Dar says. A shiver runs down my spine. In the refugee camps those stories of the infected labs are told around the campfire to scare people into staying. Those are just scary stories they have to be.
We stop talking and walk in silence each lost in their own thoughts. After awhile twilight sets in. We find a small clearing. We clear the area, nothing's worse than sleeping on a rock, and set up the tent without word. We don't bother to light a fire and settle for another meal of bread and meat. I unroll my sleeping bag pray and go to bed. There isn't enough light to read tonight.
Dar's p.o.v.
I watch Belle's side rise and fall marking when she falls asleep. I crawl into my sleeping bag but can't go to sleep. That woman still bothers me, what if she was one of the original. I turn on my side and watch Belle's sleeping form. I'm such a creep I think to myself. I've only known Belle for four days but here I am watching her sleep. A cold breeze finds its way into the tent. She curls up into a ball in an effort to stay warm. I'm tempted to go over to her side of the tent but I stop myself. Frustrated I turn over and face the wall. The breeze whips the fabric of the tent.
I wake up to Belle moaning in her sleep. I glance over at her and see her face highlighted by the light of the moon. Since the moon is shining through the top of the tent it's about midnight. Her eyebrows scrunch together and she moans again. The moan sounds scared. "Belle wake up", I mumble to her. She doesn't move but her breathing speeds up. Her face looks scared and pained.
"I'm sorry", she whispers. She mumbles something else but I can't hear her. I crawl out of my sleeping bag over to hers shivering in the cold night air. Winter is almost here.
"Belle wake up. It's just a nightmare", I say. I gently grab her shoulder and shake. She jumps awake. She sits up so fast we bump heads. I fall back and hold my head. "Damn girl you have a hard head", I say. I look at her and see she's doing the same thing.
"Why did you wake me up", she groans. She runs her hand through her hair and sleepily glares at me. She looks kinda cute.
"You were having a nightmare", I say. I sit down cross cross apple sauce and smile at her.
"Oh, thanks for waking me up I guess", she looks at me weirdly. Like she wasn't expecting me to do something that shows any kind of concern. "If I don't keep you up let me sleep. Nightmares are common for me and if I woke up every time I would never get any sleep". She curls up in her sleeping bag again and faces the wall marking the end of our conversation. I sigh and go back to my side of the tent. I know it's a hard world out there but she must have been through hell to be used to nightmares every night. I slip into my sleeping bag and fall asleep.
I wake up to the sun shining through the walls of the tent. Belle opens the tent and hands me a chunk of freshly cooked meat between two slices of bread. The smell of a campfire follows her into the tent. "How long have you been up", I ask accepting the sandwich.
"Since dawn. I like to watch the sun rise", she says nonchalantly. I look over to her side and see all her stuff is gathered up. "When your done eating do you wanna head out"? She looks at me expectantly.
I nob my head and scarf down the sandwich. She turns to leave her ponytail swinging behind her.
I didn't realize how warm the tent was until I walked outside. Frost covers the ground and you can tell where Belles been walking around. I hope it melts as the day goes on. The frost will make it easier to track us. My breath comes out in white clouds. I walk to the campfire and help her put it out. She had built it down wind of the tent explaining why I couldn't smell it before.
After about fifteen minutes we are back on the road. Well kinda we are staying in the trees just in case they are following us. Belle is in front she has a small limp that gradually gets worse as the day goes on. Surprisingly she never complains about it, in fact I've never heard her complain about anything. We walk in silence until about noon. The day has gotten colder and the clouds have covered the sun.
"Winter's coming early this year", I state. She stops and looks up.
"Looks like it might spit today", she says.
"What does spit mean", I ask.
"It means that it will rain on and off today. The cloudscape are heavy but aren't storm heavy", she says. She starts walking again.
Belle's p.o.v.
     We sit around the fire in silence. It's strange. Our silences used to be awkward now it's comfortable. I don't like to admit it but I like having Dar around. Just his presence is comforting. I study Dar as he pokes the fire. The wind has a sharp edge so the heat feels nice. The fire pops sending sparks into the air. Dar looks at me and I quickly look up at the sky. I feel my face turn red and hope he can't see it in the bad light. The sky is boring with the clouds covering the stars.      
      "I used to watch the stars all the time", h says startling me. I meet his gaze a small gasp escapes my lips. The fire dances in his grey eyes making them look like small storms. I'm unable to look away. He continues his story never looking away from me either. "I lived in the city though so when I started running the stars alway take my breath away. I still remember the first night that I camped outside and saw the stars. I felt like everything that's happened is insignificant."
      "We had a trampoline, and I would sit outside and watch the stars for hours. I lived in the country's though so there wasn't allot of light pollution. Sometimes I would fall asleep outside", I say. I stare into his eyes as he does mine. Even though he's sitting across the fire I feel like there is nothing else in the world but us. The fire pops making us both jump. I look down into my lap and blush.
      Dar clears his throat and stands up, "I'm gonna use the john." He quickly walks away. The trees and darkness quickly swallow him up.
      "What's going on with you Belle. He's cute but he won't be able to stay forever", I say to myself. I stand up and walk around the fire. A cold wind blue around me making me shiver and clearing my head a little. I look around as another shiver runs down my spine. I feel somethings watching me. Since the moon is covered the only light is from the fire. I turn in a circle looking into the darkness trying to find the eyes that I can feel on me. A bush rustles to my right and I turn around  knife drawn ready to protect myself. Nothing moves maybe it was the breeze that moved the bush. The bush moves again, something emerges.  My heart jumps into my throat. I take a deep breath ready to yell Dar's name.
Dar's p.o.v.
       I walk away  in a attempt to calm myself down. Her eyes are burned into my brain I can't close my eyes without seeing hers. Every time her eyes meet mine it feels like she can see into my soul. A cold wind blows around me making me shiver or is it her and those warm brown eyes. It's dark so I trip on a fallen limb. Cursing I stand up and find a tree to piss on.
     I finish and zip up my pants. "DAR", Belle's scream echoes through the trees. I don't think All I do is turn and run back to camp. The thought of Belle in danger makes me sick to my stomach.
     I burst into the clearing sword drawn ready for trouble. I see Belle hunched over and making cooing noises to something. "Belle what is it", I say running to her.
     "Slow down, you'll scare it away", she says holding her hand up. I slow to a walk. I peek over her shoulder and see a mop sniffing at a piece of dried meat. It takes the meat from her and lays down to gnaw on the meat.
     "What is it", I ask. I bend down onto my hunches. It's tail is wagging, it can't be more that eight pounds.
     "It's a dog. It looks like a Pomeranian. Isn't it cute", she says excitedly. The dog finishes and stands up looking at us. Twigs and leaves are trapped in its fur. It's large almond eyes stare at us. It's small brown nose twitches with the smells.
     "When you screamed I thought you were in trouble", I say accusingly. She ignores me and picks up the dog sitting by the fire she starts to clean it's fur.
    "Sorry about that. I thought I was," she says. Her eyes sparkle with excitement. The dog seemed to love the attention it was getting from her.
    I sit down beside her and pet the dog under the chin. It licks my fingers. "It is cute", I admit. Belle looks at me and smiles. My heart melts at seeing her so happy.