The Mistake [Norman Reedus] Book One {{COMPLETED}}

Chapter 34

It was when I tripped over a large vine that I finally looked at my surroundings.  Everything was white with fog and snow, and my nose was numb as well as my fingers and feet.  Nothing seemed familiar, yet everything looked the same.  Through the bare trees I could see peeks of mountains, and then more trees.  All I could think of doing was running some more.

I don't think being scared helped either.  It seemed as if, at this moment, that everything scary and bad flashed my mind.  My mom, Sean awakening in the hospital, Austin kissing me, seeing Norman being lifted into the ambulance, choking on my blood, being lost in a crowd, and so on.

 I couldn't take the stress and at last, I caused my knees to buckle and I fell to the ground beside a wet log.  Staring up at the gray sky, I felt a small, wet drop land on my cheek, followed by many more all over.  It was starting to snow and I was all alone and lost in the enormous woods of Montana.

What kept running through my mind was when Sean woke up in the hospital.  His skin, his eyes, and what I heard.  What did I hear?  I asked myself.  

A heart monitor.  A flat heart monitor.  No beep, no bump, no life.  A dead Sean woke up.  And that reveals Demoxim is deadly.  But is it more than that?

"Grace!" A faint voice yelled for me, cutting into my thoughts.

I ignored it and kept my eyes open until a snowflake landed in one.  Then I shut them.

The voice kept getting closer until it was a couple hundred yards away.  I could tell it was Norman's; that he had come looking.  But when another voice began telling me to come toward their voice, I scrambled to my feet.  Austin had come, too, and now I didn't want to have anything to do with either of them.  

Facing both of them together would mean I would have to either tell about the kiss or avoid eye contact with Austin completely.  I didn't want to make it awkward, and I figured it was already awkward enough since they were alone together in the woods and Norman wasn't very fond of Austin.

"It's cold!  And my feet hurt!" Austin complained.

"It's freezin'!" Norman said, a bit quieter, more towards Austin.

I made up my mind to push away from Norman and Austin, so I spun around and began running again.  

The snowfall had become a thin flurry that came in waves and pulsed with the wind.  But with every minute, the flurry produced more and more snow, making everything a thick blur.  Passing trees looked like people, and logs on the ground came out of nowhere.  I tripped and stumbled over things until I couldn't hear their voices anymore.  

What am I doing?!  I asked myself finally realizing how stupid and selfish I'd been acting.

I composed myself to go and then listened for their calls and pleads.  But I heard nothing.  Could they have given up?  Or was I just too far away to hear them?

I brought my feet to a jog which transferred to a run, and there I was again, squinting to see the two images of Norman and Austin.

"Norman?!" I called out, still running when I saw a slow figure stumbling towards me.  The figure that I thought was Norman made a low noise that I blew over like was nothing.  I ran into the arms of the black shadow, but as soon as I felt how cold it was, I looked up.

Staring back down at me were a pair of eyes that looked like someone went blind and then put red contacts in.  The eye sockets were deep and shadowy, and the whole face looked like a gray color. Everything happened so fast as the creature I was not hugging anymore reached his arms out towards me.  And that's when I notice the big, red, oozy indent in his forearm.  It looked like a bite mark, but more like someone had eaten that part of his arm.  I gagged at the sight, but when I realized it was trying to push me down with gnashing teeth, I began running.  

"NORMAN!" I screamed through the flurry.

The creature was fast and he never seemed to get tired.

No response from Norman.

I flitted my eyes around the white woods, my legs flying under me, and when I spotted another figure, I let out a loud scream.  I was too close and going to fast to slow down and I ran full force into the shadow, knocking me and the thing down.

"No, no, no!" I screamed, my breathes loud and forced.  My heart beat faster than a train, and I kept pushing the thing away.

It rolled over so it's head was leaning over mine, and it's hand tried to calm my arms down.

"Shh, shh, calm down!  What's wrong?" It said.

When it's face came in focus, I got upset.

"God Norman!  You scared the life out of me!" I yelled, shoving him away and standing to my feet.

He looked confused and got up, brushing the snow off him.  "What were you scared of?" He asked, shrugging his shoulders.

"That!" I screamed, gesturing at the crazy thing that had been chasing me.  "It tried to, like, eat me or something!" I explained, calming my voice a little.

"We saw one of those.  It almost got Austin and he yelled at me to hit it in the head.  After all the blood, it fell to the ground.  Dead.  But Austin asked me if I had watched the news.  I said that I was flying from Georgia to here and he told me that they were bombing most places in Georgia to get rid of these things.  That they were already dead.  He told me a lot managed to get out of Georgia and it just kept spreading." Norman said, all really fast before grabbing a rock and lunging it at the creatures head.  I landed on it's forehead and the thing fell to the ground as  pool of blood formed around it.

"NORMAN!" I gasped.  "You can't just kill a man!" I shrieked.

"That won't no man!  He had Demoxim!" Norman explained, turning to me and pointing at the bloody creature.

"But I had Demoxim!" I pleaded.

"Yeah, but you got the shot.  The medicine that cured it.  Grace, they only had so many of those!  People are dying and coming back.  That's what this cough does to you!" Norman said.

"Where's Austin?" I asked after a long silence.

"He went back to the house.  And we should go back to watch the news.  I need to see what's going on." Norman said.

When we got back to the house, we sat on the couch and switched on the news.  Reports of cannibals and walking creatures that were once dead flashed across the screen and made me tremble.  The clips they got from these things were horrifying.  

But there was one thing I kept noticing.  On every one of these dead walking things was a large bite somewhere on them.  Usually on their neck or arm.  But no matter how hard I thought about it, I just couldn't figure out what they were or what they did.

Just then, the sound of a loud thump made both me and Norman jump and look at the window.  And to our surprise, about four or five of those creatures were pressed up against the window, growling and scratching to get inside.

My body shook and I quickly hid my face in the blanket, tightly gripping my arm around Norman.  The sound of the television ordering everyone to stay away from them and how deadly they are made the growling even more magnified.  I scratched at my ears and plugged them so I could only hear the faint scratching.

"What's happening?" I asked myself, shutting my eyes with fear.