Sightless

Understanding

Wordlessly we buried her body in a shallow grave. "She had felt the crushing weight that I bore, and it broke her." I thought to myself as I helped the guys pack down the dirt. We had begun this journey with six and now we were whittled down to three. All of a sudden, the question that I had been trying to avoid all this time made an appearance. "Would any of us actually survive?" I pushed the thought away and focused on the job at hand.

When we finished we went back to bed. I only had a few hours of sleep, but I woke oddly refreshed. I had no idea why, but I rolled with it. We searched the house for useful items; not finding any tools, but the attic turned out to be stocked full of canned and dry food. We replenished our food supply, just in time too; we had been running low and I had been getting slightly worried. We left a little before nine and traveled for the better part of the day. I didn't want to stop until we reached the first waypoint on our map. I wanted to stay the night at a small town called Berryville, which wasn't too far from Mount Weather.

We entered a forest. I was on edge and kept a constant watch as we rode along the weed covered trail. At length, when nothing happened, I relaxed but remained wary. I glanced behind me at the other two. Evan was admiring the greenery around us; however, Kyle was grim faced. I turned back around and l kept my attention on the road ahead. We rounded a bend and reached the end of the forest. We were greeted by the Blue Ridge Mountains looming ahead of us; slightly purple in the distance.

Berryville spread out before us. It was small; in fact, it's only a square mile. The population used to be two thousand but now everyone had either evacuated or been infected. I dismounted my bike and walked it beside me; the others following suit. I wanted to make as little noise as possible so as not to draw any unwanted attention. We passed a library, what looked like a town hall, and a handful of houses, but I had a specific place in mind. After a few minutes of wandering and map checking I found it. The impressive figure of the Holy Cross Abbey towered over us. It was here I wanted to stay; it was strong and could be easily defended as well as possessing a sort of nostalgic air about it.

We lay our bikes on the lawn and traipsed over to the front door. The big birch giants were slightly ajar and we entered the Abbey with our weapons drawn. I held up my hand, motioning for Evan and Kyle to stand still. I listened carefully, waiting for a noise. I was rewarded with a faint sound coming from about three floors up. I quietly started up the stairs, but Kyle pulled me back. He stepped in front of me and led the way. We reached the third floor, which consisted of a long hallway with doors on either side. We moved quickly along the corridor, briefly listening at each door.

The sound proved to be coming from the last door on the right. It was much louder now and sounded like shuffling or stumbling. I tried the door; locked. Kyle pulled me out of the way for the second time in five minutes and took a few steps back. He ran forward, kicking the door in. We came face to face with not one, but three sightless. Their bloodied faces whipped around as if they could still see us. Evan brandished his katana and ran at one. It clawed at the air beside him, but he sliced through its neck before it could do any harm. Kyle took on the second, and I took the third. I fired at it and hit its arm, causing it to scream in pain. It was the most horrific, blood curdling sound that I had ever heard. It still gives me the shivers when I think about it.

I put it out of its misery with a bullet to the head. I joined the others back in the hall and found Evan holding the ring finger on his right hand. He looked up at me. "Give me a bullet." He said. I handed him the bullet and he put it in his mouth proceeding to bite it. I looked at him questioningly. Then it dawned on me. "Evan, you can't do this!" I panicked. He ignored me and pulled out a small tourniquet. He applied it to the finger and placed his hand on a table that was against the wall. He folded his other fingers under his palm and turned to Kyle, nodded and bit down on the bullet. Kyle's face darkened as he raised his Katana. I looked away. I didn't want to see, but I heard everything; the sickening thwack of steel cutting through flesh, Evan's agonized cry, the soft plunk of the digit hitting the floor.

I looked up. Evan reached a shaking hand into his bag and pulled out an object. I recognized it from my doctor's visits. It was a mini cauderizer. He flicked the 'on' switch and pressed it firmly to his finger. He yelled through the bullet. The rush of blood went from a stream to a trickle. He switched the tool off and took off the tourniquet. He pulled out a bandage and wrapped his hand. Tears of pain rolled down his cheeks. He replaced the bandage roll and pulled out a syringe, uncapped it, and plunged it through the bandages and into his hand. After a second, he relaxed. "Numbed my hand." He commented. "Why didn't you do that in the first place?" I asked, "I had to act fast." He answered simply.

He bent over and picked up his finger. This time I couldn't hold it in. I turned around and vomited against the wall. I stood up and wiped my mouth. "Weak stomach?" Kyle asked, chuckling. I nodded and took several deep breaths. "Kyle's sightless bugger caught my hand as he was killing it. Better to lose a finger than my life." Evan said shakily. I nodded and reentered the room where the dead sightless lay. Two were dressed as nuns; the third looked like a hospital patient. I theorized that while the other nuns had evacuated, these two stayed behind to care for the patient, not realizing that he was infected. Perhaps at one point they had been under attack and they had locked the door, only to find that one was already in the room with them.

We set up our stuff in one of the rooms and decided to explore the town a bit. We still had a few hours to kill before nightfall and we didn't have much to do here. We wandered the streets, keeping the Abbey's spire in sight at all times. We climbed up onto the roof of a building and jumped from rooftop to rooftop. We reached a spot where the alley below us was to wide to jump safely. I glanced down and did a double take. A sightless was standing below us, head raised in our direction. I wondered why it didn't leave and search for a way up. Then I noticed that the open end of the alley was blocked by rubble from a burnt building. Kyle was about to shoot it but I stopped him. I called down to it. "How did you get down there?" Its face contorted in rage. "Why would you care?" It said in a raspy voice. "You did this to us. This is all your fault." I shook my head, and then remembered that it couldn't see me. "No it isn't. We can find a cure. We can save you." It screamed at me. "No you can't! You are the monster, not us!" I offered my help one last time but it sent me a vulgar hand sign in response.

Kyle rolled his eyes and shot it.

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The sun was close to setting so we returned to the abbey. I slept soundly that night and awoke refreshed. We had made it to the home stretch to safety and I wanted to cross the finish line as soon as possible. We packed our things and left the abbey behind. I checked on Evan. He was frowning slightly; his injury probably hurt a lot and gripping the bicycle handle seemed to be agitating it. I wished that there was something that I could do, but nothing came to mind. However, I made sure that we made frequent stops to allow him to rest his hand.

We reached the beginning of the mountain range. I checked my map and continued my way through the valley. At last we reached Mount Weather. I hid my bike nearby. The mountain wasn't super steep and it was covered in trees and vegetation, but that didn't mean that it was going to be easy. We left the road at this point and began the trek up the side. It was tough. We were walking on a steep incline most of the way. I almost lost my footing several times but Evan was always there to steady me, despite his injury.

After nearly two hours of climbing, I wanted to give up, and after a brief conversation, I found that Evan was of the same mindset. It was Kyle that kept us going. He might as well have been physically carrying us; he kept encouraging us, raising our spirits. I don't know how we would have managed without him. At last, we reached it. The facility lay before us, shining in the sunset. I collapsed on the ground. Relief flooded through me. We made it. We actually made it. I knew we weren't safe just yet but I didn't care. We were here and right now, that's all that mattered.