Soulless Corpses

Old Friends

Chapter 18

Carl's POV

Alyssa and Molly were dragged into Alyssa's house. Chris and I ran in after them and saw a guy standing there, about our age. He had long brown hair kinda like mine but was a lot taller than me. "I thought you were dead" Alyssa said in shock.

"Tyler" Molly said. They both walked up to him and Molly smacked him across the face, "YOU LEFT US" she yelled using a lot of her strength, "YOU FUCKING JACKASS" I was shocked, for some reason I wasn't expecting that. Tyler stepped back and rubbed his face where Molly slapped him. Matt and Hannah suddenly ran in and slammed the door behind them. The walkers banged at the door. "Everyone to the basement" Alyssa yelled. She lead the way dragging Molly with her as we all followed. Tyler was down last and locked the door shut behind him.

Chris laid Delanie down on a couch. She looked really pale but she was still conscious. Chris took Delanie's hands off her wound and Chris's sleeve was soaked in blood, there was so much. "Is there anything we can use that you have down here to stop the bleeding" Chris said. Alyssa sat Molly down and ran into the bathroom. She came back out with a shit load of stuff. She threw towels and bandages at Chris and kept some for herself to wrap Molly's arms up. Delanie reached her arm out to me and I walked over and grabbed her hand. I kneeled down next to her and kissed her hand. I took some bandages from Chris and wrapped her arms up. Chris took towels and held them to her stab wound. "Fuck that hurts" she said under her breath. She started breathing really heavy. I rubbed the back of my hand on her cheek, "Your gonna be ok" I said hoping that it was actually true.

"Shit, what the fuck Hannah" Matt said as he started backing away from her. She was holding her arm and there was blood dripping from it.

"It's nothing I swear, I'm ok, I'm fine" she said in a freaked out tone.

Alyssa walked up to her and grabbed her arm, revealing a bloody bite mark on her forearm, "You were bit..." Alyssa said dropping Hannah's arm.

"I'm fine, I promise it's ok" Hannah said as her eyes started to tear up.

I noticed that the Tyler guy had a gun. I stood up, pulled the gun out of his back pocket and pointed it right in Hannah's face. Everyone froze. "This is exactly like how we met" Hannah said as tears rolled down her face.

"STOP" Delanie screamed at me with all her strength, "Please don't, she's my friend, please" Delanie cried.

"She's bit, we don't have many other options" I snapped at her. She looked at me with disgust. I fucked up.

"Cut her arm off" Tyler said softly.

"What?" I asked

"Are you deaf? I said cut her arm off"

"How will that help?" I asked again

"Tyler actually said something smart for once in his fucking life," said Molly, "it should stop the virus from spreading, I saw it on a zombie tv show"

"Wait, wait, there's gonna be a lot of blood, I'm gonna bleed out" Hannah said, starting to freak out more.

"We have a gas stove down here, we can cauterize the wound" Alyssa said pointing to the mini kitchen they have in the basement.

"We can also cauterize Delanie's wound" Chris said.

"Woah, woah, woah, your gonna burn me!?" Hannah yelled.

"No, were gonna save your life" I said as I put the gun in my belt.

"Uh, that's actually my g--" Tyler started

"Shhh, who has a lighter?" I cut him off

"I do actually" Tyler said.

"Of course you have a fucking lighter" Matt said, "You bring your switch blades you ordered online too?" he said sarcastically.

"I did" Tyler said glaring at Matt. I ran over to the kitchen and looked through the drawers for a big knife and I found one. I signaled for Hannah to come over here and put her arm of the counter. "I'm not gonna lie, this is gonna hurt like hell" I said as I looked straight in her eyes.

"Great" she said sarcastically.

Alyssa grabbed a small towel and put it in Hannah's mouth, "Bite down on this" Alyssa said. Tyler came over and lit the gas stove.

"Are you ready?" I asked. Hannah nodded. "Ok, 1, 2, 3!" I chopped the knife down into her arm and it made one whole clean cut right below the elbow. Hannah's muffled scream rang throughout the whole basement. I pulled her over to the stove top and shoved her arm into the flames. She screamed again. "Am i doing this right?" I asked. Everyone shrugged. Multiple tears started running down Hannah's face as more muffled screams came out. I pulled her arm out of the flame, "Hey, it's working" I said then put her arm back in the fire. Hannah was struggling to stay conscious because of the immense pain. Her blood was all over the counter and all over the stove top, but it did seem to be working. I pulled her arm back out, "I think it's fully cauterized" I said. Alyssa threw me some bandages and I wrapped up Hannah's new nub. As soon as I was done Hannah pulled away from me and spit out the towel. She walked over to a wall and slid down to the floor, sitting against it. "Fuck, that hurt more then hell" She said weakly.

"Let's just hope we got to it before the virus spread too far" I said. I looked over to the couch, "Now Delanie"

Chris lifted her up and put her down on the floor next to the stove, kneeling down next to her. "How are we gonna do this?" I asked. I kneeled down too. I looked at her, her face was so pale and weak, yet beautiful at the same time. The whole time her shirt had been coving the wound and it was doused in blood. Chris lifted her shirt to reveal the wound and it gushed blood at us. I saw a few tears roll down Chris's face but he quickly wiped them away. More came down his face, then he was full on crying. I looked away from him because I didn't want to cry. Delanie grabbed his hand, "Don't cry, your gonna make me cry" she said weakly. I was shocked to see Chris completely break down. "Sorry, I love you Delanie, I just need you to know that" Chris said, wiping his tears away as fast as he could

"I love you too" she said.

I love you too, like...I'm in love with you, I thought. But I didn't say it, I couldn't. I just looked at her hoping she could see it in my eyes.

"Alyssa, can you give me a wooden spoon" Chris asked

"Uh sure" she went and got one and handed it to him. She also got another towel and put it in Delanie's mouth. Chris stuck the end of the spoon in the flames and it lit, "Are you ready?" he asked her. She nodded then looked up at the ceiling. Then she quickly felt around the floor for my hand. I grabbed her hand and we both squeezed tight. "Ok" Chris said, then he pushed the flame to her wound and out came her muffled screams. She squeezed my hand so tight that I almost screamed. Then my hand went numb, I couldn't feel it anymore.

The flame on the spoon kept going out and Chris had to keep relighting it and pushing it to her wound, and each time he did she would scream and squeeze my hand tighter. Then suddenly she squeezing stopped. I looked down at her and she had passed out. At least I hoped she passed out. I put my ear up to her mouth to try to hear and feel her breathing. She was breathing. I smiled and kissed her hand twice. Chris had finished cauterizing her wound and wrapped it up with bandages. Then he lifted her up and placed her back on the couch.

Time went by and from the windows we saw it had turned night time. I had been sitting next to Delanie and holding her hand for I don't know how long. She was still out. Everyone started to fall asleep. I yawned. It had been a very very long day for everyone. I was about to fall asleep, but before I did, I kissed Delanie on the forehead and whispered, "I love you Delanie"