A loud crash woke everyone from their slumber. Joakim, who was on guard that night, leaped up as everyone else looked around.
"What was that?" Hannah asked.
"I think it came from upstairs." Joakim said. He held a piece of broken wood in his hand, and slowly crawled up the stairs. Every step creaked under the weight, making everyone flinch. As Joakim led the way, the others followed hesitantly.
A scream almost made Joakim fall down the stairs backwards. It sounded like the man, except it was filled with insanity and fear. Another crash, and the group ran the rest of the way up.
The upstairs was a complete disaster. The dresser in front of the closet was tipped over, the closet door opened and empty. There was a broken window, and the man stood before it. He looked over to the group with a crazy smile on his face. Then he took one step, and fell out the window.
The group, omit Liam, Ryder, Caleb and Chapin, ran over to the window and looked down. The man was laying on the ground, a smile on his face, and a pool of blood forming beneath his head.
"Holy sh*t...." Chris said.
"Holy sh*t indeed." Lewis agreed.
"Let's get back downstairs." Zoey said. They all nodded and headed back down the stairs.
"What happened?" Liam asked from his spot on a chair.
"It was the man. He jumped out the window." Lewis explained.
"Really?" Liam replied.
"Yeah." Zoey answered.
"Are you okay?" Caleb asked. Ryder got off his lap and walked over near the wall.
"Yeah, we're fine. Just a bit of a scare." Hannah said. Ryder bent down and picked something up.
Caleb looked over to his sister. "Ryder! What are you doing?"
Ryder turned around with a piece of paper in her hand. She ran back over to her brother and gave him the slip of paper.
"What is it?" Chapin asked from the couch.
"A picture," Caleb replied. He held it out for the others to see. "It has the man in it. And two others; a woman and a girl."
Lewis came over and took the picture. The others looked over his shoulders.
There was the man in it along with two others. He stood in the middle, with a woman on his right side, and a child on his left. The woman had long blonde hair and brown eyes, and the girl looked the same besides having the eye color of her dad. The picture was taken before the world ended. That was rare. And the man had no traces of insanity in his expression what-so-ever.
"It's the man's family." Zoey pointed out.
"Do you think," Chris started. "He may have gone insane because he lost his family?"
"It seems like it." Lewis agreed.
Liam suddenly took a quick intake of breath, and whimpered. Everyone looked over to him.
"Are you okay?" Hannah asked.
Liam bit his lip and shook his head. His hand was holding onto his other injured hand. Zoey and Hannah came over and unwrapped the bandages on his wounded hand. They both gasped.
On the edges of his cut, red lines slithered up his arm. They were barely noticeable, but it's lucky they did notice.
"What is it?" Liam asked. His eyes were squeezed shut.
"Uh," Hannah looked to the others behind her.
"It's blood poisoning." Zoey stated.
"What?!" Liam's eyes flew open and looked down at the cut.
"What if we don't have medicine?" Joakim asked.
"...I don't know." Hannah said after a moment. "But we have to do something before it reaches his brain or heart."
"Gee, thanks for the comfort." Liam said sarcastically.
"What should we do?" Lewis asked.
"Uh, this is just an idea," Chris spoke up. "But um, should we...... just, like....... cut his arm off....?"
"NO!" Liam said, standing up. He then flinched and sat back down.
"It was just an idea!" Chris said, putting his hands up.
"Actually," Lewis said. "That may be the best idea we got."
"What?!" Liam said.
"Yeah, it could be the best choice." Joakim agreed.
"Do I get any say in this?!" Liam said, anger seeping in his voice. "I mean, if it's rude to interrupt people deciding whether to CUT MY ARM OFF, then excuse me for speaking up!" You could practically feel the sarcasticness(it's a new word! XD) in that one sentence.
The group was silenced. They looked at eachother, then at Liam, then at the ground.
"Sorry, Nilesy." Joakim apologized. Then he realized what he said. "I mean, Liam."
Liam relaxed and smiled. "I guess I forgive you. And since when had I told you to stop calling me by my nickname?"
Joakim smiled back, and soon the rest of the group followed the action.
"So," Chapin interrupted. "What do we do?"
Everyone's smiles crumbled.
"We are not cutting off my arm." Liam ordered.
"Then what else can we do?" Lewis said. "It's either lose the arm or your life. That blood poisoning is not going to leave without medicine, and we don't have that."
Liam bit his lip and looked around. After a few minutes, he finally looked up.
"Fine." He closed his eyes.
"Your sure?" Zoey asked.
"What the h*ll does it matter anymore?!" Liam snapped. Zoey flinched. He sighed. "Sorry. This is tense."
"It's okay," Zoey said. "We'll make sure you'll live. Count on it."
About a half hour later, it was ready. They had Liam in a room upstairs, on top of an old bed. Caleb and Ryder were downstairs with Chapin and Chris. Everyone else was upstairs, all helping in mutilating their friend. They tied a piece of cloth on his arm, a few inches above the cut and the red lines. Another piece of cloth was tied in his mouth, incase he screams and attracts zombies. Joakim held the sharp kitchen knife, the one that caused the wound in the first place.
"Who's going to do it?" Zoey asked.
"It was Chris' idea, but he's downstairs." Lewis said.
Zoey handed the knife to him. "And you were the first to agree."
Lewis sighed in defeat and grabbed the knife. Hannah held down Liam's other arm, and Joakim and Zoey held down his legs.
"Ready, Nilesy?" Lewis said, using the nickname. Liam nodded.
Lewis dug the knife just below the cloth, immediately squirting blood everywhere. Liam screamed, which was muffled by the cloth, and squirmed on the bed. The other YouTubers struggled to hold down his good limbs.
The knife went deeper and deeper, and cut through the bone this time around. The bed sheets were soaked with fresh blood and remnants of bone. Joakim lost his hold on Liam's foot and earned a kick in the face.
Just as the knife went through, Liam passed out.
