Still breathing | Original story

Chapter Twenty Seven: Mad

Word count: 1848

"That was a dick move Logan pulled," Archie spoke as he walked out of the barn and towards me
"No. No, it wasn't it's just... him and her together. It's all messed up!" I exclaimed. "Before it was supposed to be me and him, not that I want that now. Far from it but... but it just strengthens the fact that things aren't how they were," I explained to him and he nodded thoughtfully and rubbed my back.
"You shouldn't be out here you know," he finally replied.
"Why? Because I'll catch a chill?" I laughed humourlessly at my own joke. At that moment I didn't care, about anything.
"More like you'll catch a corpse," he replied, a smirk on his face but his eyes showed worry.
I turned to him, tear stains planted on my cheeks and I felt a few more follow. Archie wiped them away with his finger tip.
"Don't cry love," he spoke softly. "You'll make me cry and hell I'm an unattractive crier." He copied my facial expression and he made me giggle. I felt happier with him around. Everything seemed right. Maybe things had changed for the better.

Before I could comprehend the weight around me he had already pulled me into a tight hug. His arms a protective bubble around me, shielding me from the horrors of the real world. All too soon the warmth was gone and our faces were close, a comfortable distance apart.
I looked into his eyes, they twinkled lightly in the moonlight. Everything seemed so out of place, I almost forgot the world was full of monsters. It was the perfect night, the writings in all the books I had read were true. My breathing hitched as he leant in, my stomach filled with butterflies. They bit at me and pushed into my organs, fluttering around my heart. I felt the pressure of his lips on mine and my head went light. It was such a cliché start to a kiss.
The smell of mildew filled my nostrils, mixed with Archie's own body odour. It was sweet and almost grassy, like summer. His lips tasted slightly of dirt but they were still warm and soft. It was the best kiss, my first kiss actually. They say you never forget your first kiss and I guess they're right, I would never forget that. His lips left mine and we were left staring into each other's eyes, a stupid grin rose on both our faces. The butterflies in my stomach were running riot in my chest and pushing my heart up, holding it in place by fluttering their wings in order to make me feel weightless.
"Remi, before we get killed in this apocalypse." He took a pause. "Would you do me the honour of becoming my girlfriend? Or whatever you'd call a girlfriend in these times." He seemed nervous, his voice trembling as he said the words that stunned my body. I thought he was just going to tell me to get my ass inside before some infected ate it.
"Yes!" I felt a million emotions buzz through me, I was swimming in a pool of feelings that matched the colour of Archie's ocean blue eyes. I wasn't bothered about who could hear or how happy I sounded. I was on cloud nine and no infected could get me up there.
"Thank god," he breathed out a sigh of relief. "For a moment I thought you were going to say no." He pecked me on the lips quickly before interlocking our fingers together, they felt right. He was warm against my freezing hand.

We began to walk back when Logan appeared at the door, an expression on his face that in all the years I had known him I had never seen.
"Um... Remi can I talk to you?" He questioned as his gaze landed on Archie and then to our hands held tightly together.
"Sure," I replied a little unsure of what he wanted. His gaze turned into a glare that seemed to tear through Archie.
"Alone," he hissed. I looked at Archie before nodding and he released my hand.
"Don't go too far," he warned as we went our separate ways.
Logan led me to the small cluster of trees a few feet behind the barn. The moon gave little light onto the situation and all my senses were on high alert as I nervously watched the trees pass. Shadows played with my head.
He finally stopped when we were in the thick of the trees, out of sight of the others. I felt nerves race through my body, gracing every cell, but I couldn't force myself to leave without knowing what I was out there for.
"Are you and Archie a thing?" He asked without missing a beat.
"What's it to you?" I replied, staring him down even though he was about a head taller than me.
"You were meant to be with me," he growled. His sudden change in emotions made me step back and nearly loose my footing.
"You have Lily!" I replied confused as to what the hell had gotten into him. I didn't know what was wrong with him or how to make anything normal anymore.
"She never meant anything to me," he scoffed as if the idea was ridiculous. As if a minute ago he wasn't making out with her. "It was always you I wanted." His eyes lit up and he smiled darkly. That was when my mind registered the emotion I had never seen on him before, the pure reality came crashing down of my too quickly for me to handle. He was angry and irritable. Mentally unstable... he'd gone utterly mad.
"You're nuts if you think I'd go out with you. Sure I used to like you but that was different. You weren't like this before, you're too different now."
"Don't say that," his sad voice conflicted the grin on his face. It was like talking to two people at once. I felt my throat go dry and knew I had to leave soon. I slowly stepped back but Logan caught onto my plan. He gripped onto my forearm harshly.
"Where do you think you're going?" He said angrily, his eyes looked like they could be on fire.
"Away from you!" I yelled and tried to tug my arm away. His grip only seemed to get tighter and his nails penetrated my skin, making me cry out. I felt weak and couldn't move because of the pain. Logan took this to his advantage and threw me onto the ground. I landed in a heap of frost and snow. As I began to sit up, I felt cold hit my neck, but it didn't feel like the same as the snow all around me. It was sharp. He had a knife to my throat! He leant in to whisper softly.
"Away from me," he began sweetly, "just isn't an option!" He gripped the blade tighter until my head was spinning and I couldn't think straight. His words were a hum in the air as I tried to process the information. "You're going to be mine, yeah?" He asked, but I knew it wasn't actually a question I could give my own answer to. It was yes or death.
"Yeah, yeah of course." I gulped and Logan's grasp got looser." I... I wasn't thinking straight earlier. I was just upset because I saw you kiss Lily," I continued, hoping it would work.
"I knew that was it." He released the knife from my throat , it clattered to the ground, and before I could do anything he had a grasp on both my hands and he made me face him. "I knew you couldn't resist me."
As he spoke I saw a flicker of movement in the tree line, a twig snapped under someone's foot... or should I say somethings. It stumbled over at a slow pace, Logan was too caught up in me to notice. I just had to keep him talking.
"It-its always been you, Logan," my voice was wobbly from the fear. I saw more movement further back. "But we should go back and tell the others." We would die if we didn't leave, both of us.
"No, no, Lily would freak," he said in a rush and I felt his grip release my hand slightly. "We need to get away from here."
"Okay." I nodded quickly. "We can do that..." at my words his grip was gone completely and we both shared a smile.
The infected was right behind him, reaching out. More came out of the tree line and before I could think I lifted up my freezing foot and kicked Logan square in the stomach. He crashed into the infected. I gasped and covered my mouth as Logan squirmed out of its clutches. He swung at it with a bare first and it went down. He was worse than just mad, he was dangerous.
"You shouldn't have done that," he spoke as he stormed towards me, unaware of the infected coming out of the trees all around him. One grabbed his shoulder and tore the flesh from it, Logan screamed in agony and I took it as a signal to get up from the ground and run. As I did I felt something sharp at my ankle, I turned to see an infected on the floor where I had just been, trying to grab my foot. I stamped down hard and started running again, stumbling over misplaced logs and branches. Trying to ignore the cries and moans behind me.
"We have to leave now!" I yelled at the others as I made it into the barn. Archie picked up Caleb and Lily was screaming Logan's name at me.
"He's gone," I finally outburst after the fiftieth time she had asked, she stopped breathing for a moment. "He wouldn't want you to die so move it!" I told her desperately, not wanting to cry over him but feeling like I was going to burst at any second.
We ran and ran. I kept looking back at the tree line. The infected got into the barn but they hadn't seen us, they weren't coming after us, we'd be safe. Until the next time.

We found a house further down, a long way off from the barn. Archie checked it out whilst Caleb kept asking me things tiredly. Neither Lily nor I spoke the entire time. When Archie and Jasmine had done securing the building, I walked upstairs like a zombie myself and found the bathroom. I locked myself in and crashed onto the floor in a heap. Scorching hot pain ran along my ankle and up my leg, I was becoming hot and sweaty despite the winter temperature outside. I put my hand up to my forehead and flinched, I was burning up. It's just stress, I told myself, just stress.
After a moment, I clumsily lifted up my trouser leg and there lay four jagged lines and around the side a smaller one. Almost like fingernails had scratched me... but that couldn't be right.
I couldn't have been scratched. No! I wouldn't believe it. It couldn't have happened!