The Night that never Ends

Free

Ryan heard the gunshots and screams perfectly. Crystal clearly. It rang through his brain, and then his brain made his legs start to move like an automated machine. Lexi was right on his heels, panting and huffing as she sprinted. They both hopped over logs and befallen trees, over and under thickets, the pale sky started to become more and more visible. Ryan purged through, swatting away any branches opposing him.

He started to pray, he prayed for a hedge of protection around everyone, that we were safe, unharmed, just afraid. We were all afraid after all. Lexi was thinking the immediate opposite, she knew something happened, she was visualizing the worst, it just syphoned her anger to the point where she wanted to obliterate every walker, every crawler, every runner.

The last thickets were passed and they raced across the clearing where their shelter stood standing, multiple telephone poles ran in a line leading a direct passage.

The rest of the surviving group was also running, Eli and I had their arms around Emily who was struggling to limp for that matter. Jacob and Kayla brought up the back, pointing their weapons at the trees, like something was following them.

Everyone regrouped around the fire, panting and huffing, out of breath,

"What happened?" Ryan asked worriedly,

"Emily." Lexi exclaimed nervously,

Emily was in tears and held up her arm, it had already begun to turn a pale green color, the flesh around her forearm was peeling,

"Quickly; to the lab." Ryan motioned everyone forward.

Ryan opened the side door to the kitchen and ran to the hallway where all our rooms were located. He walked to the middle where a floorboard met him, the back edge slightly protruded from the ground, enough to where Ryan could get his finger under. As he did, the floorboard revealed itself to be a constituent of a panel that lifted ninety degrees. There was just darkness in the hole, but Ryan knew there was a staircase, a tiny steep one, that led to the cellar level.

Ryan immediately started pressing switches that turned-on ceiling lights and the whole cellar level was illuminated with a florescent glow. At the back behind the staircase was an examining table with a built-in heart monitor, an x-ray system, and beside it was two computer screens that could show vitals and statistics of the patient.

Eli and I helped Emily down, and we brought her to the table, she was quivering and shivering every second. It definitely was cold out, but not to that extreme.

Emily hopped up and laid down, closing her eyes as the light hit her eyes, she could also see drops of water leaking from the crevasses in the ceiling, one even dripped on her arm,

"This is nothing personal Em, I have to do this." Ryan put a clamp over her right wrist and left wrist, and then one on her left ankle and right ankle.

The cold metal against her skin sent a shiver down her spine, but while exhaling, Emily relaxed.

Immediately the scanners went up and Emily's pulse and other vitals popped up on the screen. The steady beep of a pulse accompanied the silent atmosphere.

Ryan took a deeper look at Emily's arm as well as I. Emily dared not to look, but took note of our remarks,

"Definitely infected." and "Rotting the flesh, mm hmm." and "Hydrogen Peroxide might help the swelling." and "It might agitate the infected cells."

Ryan looked to the x-ray monitor that showed the overall internal structure of Emily. The red represented her blood and red blood cells. The green represented the infected cells that were plowing its way into her vital organs. Fortunately, Emily couldn't see, if she could, nothing would be louder than her cries of worry.