The Unknown Virus

Chapter 6

"Hot, but not burning." Anne murmured. "I've read about immunity, but it's not possible. Especially for you. You get sick almost every spring." She sat there, hand still on my forehead, and still straddling my waist, to make sure I didn't run. I wouldn't have run anyways. She's very skilled with those knives. She never misses.

"I'm hot because you freaking attacked me!" I growled, seriously pissed off.

"Shut up Raven! Let me think!" Anne snapped. I stayed silent, but continued glaring. After several uncomfortable minutes of staying in that position, Anne nodded and got up.

"Guess you get your wish Rave. We're staying after all."

"Wait, what? I thought you wanted to leave as soon as possible."

"That was before this new change of events. I can't take the risk of you turning while we are traveling."

"Anne, I can't believe I'm saying this, but we need to go. Don't you want to see Alice's grave? Or see if anyone else is still alive? You said it yourself, the streets will be flooding with zombies soon. We can't get stuck here. And my house's food supply is down. So we need to go get some food, and toilet paper or whatever, and go. We need to now." So we can go look for Salem and Ash, too, I added to myself silently.

Anne stayed quiet for a few minutes. She knew we couldn't stay here. She was right. Zombie would soon take over the entire city, and when they did, we would have no way out.

"Fine." Anne sighed. "We'll leave, but only because we have to. I'd stay and make sure you didn't turn on me if we had the choice." She picked up the bag she had dropped at the doorway. "Hurry up and finish packing. We need to go and find food before we leave." I nodded. I picked up my backpack and finished getting clothes, and even put two bars of soap in it, just in case we had a chance to shower again.

I went outside to find Anne surveying the street. No monsters were out, but they would be soon.

"Okay, we need to find canned good, ramen noodles, toilet paper, bottled water, and if you can, a survival guide to living in the wild, because I am a little rusty with starting fires and skinning animals." Anne explained. I looked at her, surprised.

"When did you learn to start fires and skin animals?"

"Don't worry about it. Now, stay close to me." I kind of didn't want to. Anne just got a lot more creepy. But, I stayed close to her nonetheless. I wasn't as skilled as she was with fighting. At least not anymore. I used to be a fighter, but I try to solve things with words now. Just like my therapist said.

We walked into my neighbors house, the Miller house. They were nice people, used to always give me little chocolate bars whenever I'd walk by. But that stopped when Mrs. Miller got sick and couldn't get out of bed, and Mr. Miller had to stay with her all the time.

Anne went straight to the kitchen, and pulled out a kitchen knife from a drawer. She ran he thumb along the sharp edge, then turned to me.

"If I teach you how to strike, will you use this?" She asked me. I just stared at her.

Uh, what? No, no. I couldn't kill anyone. I can't kill anyone! I know these people! And all the monsters roaming around were once people too. It was inhumane.

Anne huffed and rolled her eyes, grabbing my hand and forcing me to take the hilt.

"You will learn Raven. You have to. This isn't a world where the living dominate. This is a world where the dead dominate. You need to get that through your head. They were people, but they are now the dead, the enemy, and while you will think twice in shoving this between their eyes, they will not think twice in taking a chunk out of you arm. Do you understand?" I began shaking. Why did she have to be so blunt? Yea, I get it, it's an apocalypse, but come on, sugarcoat it a little! But, I tightened my grip on the knife, and nodded. She nodded back, letting go of the blade, and started toward the cupboards, looking for canned goods. I looked down at the murder weapon in my hand. It was just like the one of those creepy pasta story characters used. A killer. I suppose it fit. I was about to become a killer too. No way around it.

I heard a bang. I jumped, and looked over at Anne. She was looking behind her, down the hall. She dropped from the counter, which she had climbed on to reach a can of peaches on the top shelf. She drew her knives from their sheaths, which hung from her belt. A hunter about to take care of a problem. I followed her, not wanting to stay in the kitchen without her protection.

She stopped at a closed door, pressing her ear to it.

"What do you hear?" I whispered, only to get a slap to the arm. Quiet. Got it. She motioned for me to get on the other side of her. I did as I was told, tightening my grip on the knife, making my knuckles white. She lightly tapped her knife against the door, and then listened. Suddenly there was a moaning, and a scratching towards the bottom of the door. She withdrew from the door, shaking her head.

"It's just a crawler. Let's finish looting." She said, and started back to the kitchen.

"What's a crawler?" I asked slowly backing away from the door.

"It's a zombie that can't walk, and can only crawl. There are four kinds of zombies I've read about. Ones that walk. Ones that crawl. Ones that run, somehow. And ones that can't do anything. So, there are walkers, crawlers, runners, and the Useless. Since this is the first ever apocalypse, we may or may not see such zombies. The last two at least. Walkers were the first to rise. That one in there is a crawler, from all that scratching at the bottom." I stopped. Crawlers were zombies that couldn't walk. So, that meant that zombie in the other room was...