Blu Blood

Chapter 1

Chapter 1
137 days after the infection

"Garrett, baby, you need to eat." I watch out of the corner of my eye as my five year old brother sucks his thumb, while holding his toy rabbit in his other hand. He's so small, too innocent for this world. I continue to play with the dying fire, my ears trained on any suspicious background noise, while I try to focus on Garrett's actions. He hasn't moved.

"My tummy hurts, Blue." He rubs his stomach, giving me a pained expression with big doe eyes and a frown.

My blood freezes. "When did it start hurting, baby?" I turn to him, locking my gaze with his.

"This morning."

I let out a breath. "Baby, your stomach probably hurts because you're hungry."

"I'm tired of squirrel. It doesn't taste good." He glares at the food I served on a thin piece of wood, but the expression just results in making him look cuter.

My heart skips a beat in my chest, which feels like it's ripping itself apart. "I'm sorry, baby. I would make you some eggs, but I can't. Eat the squirrel and I promise, I'll make you some of that chocolate cake you like."

"Really!" His face lights up. "Promise?"

It takes some energy to swallow. "I promise, baby."

As I watch him immediately dig in to the tough meat, I feel tears begin to form, stinging my dry eyes. Promises are not meant for this world. They're weak. It's stupid of me to even promise him something, especially when I ran out of the cake mix weeks ago, but seeing him look that sad is similar to kicking a puppy and expecting it to get right up.

I eat my portion, checking our supplies. It all seems good, except I realize that I need matches (not so important), batteries (also not so important), and bandages and ibuprofen (very important). I curse internally, closing my eyes as if the tighter they are, the more chance that these will appear.

They don't.

I suck in a breath, hold it until I feel light headed, then let it all out in a brief gasp. My gaze moves back to Garrett, who has moved back to playing with his stuffed rabbit.

He needs those bandages.

"Baby, do you think you can go for a long walk with me?" I bite my lip. He'll have to come even if he doesn't feel like it. "We need to get some things before tonight."

Night is when those things are at their best. They can see in the dark, and that's when they like to hunt. I have to make sure we're inside before the sun sets and night takes over.

"Can we go get a book?" Garrett puts his forefinger and middle finger into his mouth, sucking them instead of his thumb.

"I'm not sure, baby. Maybe tomorrow." I turn around and crouch low so that he can jump onto my back. He waits to put his rabbit into his backpack before he wraps he skinny arms around my neck and lanky legs around my waste. It takes some strength to lift myself up with the extra weight.

The closest town is three miles east. It will take a little over an hour to get there if I don't take too long of breaks, so that gives us more than enough time to find shelter before darkness takes over.

The town we head to I have not scavenged yet. I was going to wait until tomorrow to see what stores it contained, but the need for bandages and medicine has me acting early. The fear of no pharmacy or hospital nearby has me pulling myself into a faster pace.

Garrett hangs lazily on my back. His arms have loosened and his head turns from side to side as I take each step. I am the only thing holding him up now.

I don't know how long I have been walking for. I am at the point where my pace is slow and my feet ache from heel to toe. My tight knee has started to hurt, and my breathing comes out as wheezing gasps. I don't complain, though, because Garrett needs someone to he strong. I am all he has and he is all I have.

We both depend on each other. The only way I can explain is I am a floaty that needs air to float, my brother being the air. And at the same time, my brother needs me to stay afloat so he doesn't drown.

"Is that the place where we are going?" Garrett lifts a hand and waves slowly at something in the distance. I squint my eyes and realize that what he is seeing are rooftops of buildings. My breath catches in my throat as my heart leaps. Finally. We're there.

"Yes, baby. I'm gonna put you down, okay? Make sure you don't scratch yourself on any branches or anything, okay?"

I feel his slow nod against my neck. Setting him down, I take out my handgun from my thigh holster and turn the safety off.

"Ready, bubba?" Bubba was the nickname I gave him when he was still learning to talk and he kept saying the word. I'm sure he thought that was his name at the time.

He nods.

"Alright, let's get this done, yeah?"

A little preview of the book I've been thinking about after a while. :)