Infected

Chapter 14

I stand in front of the door and try and control my breathing. Once I get it to almost normal, I knock.

There's no sound and then Te'Aysha calls out weakly, "who is it?"

I swallow and answer, "it's me."

"You can come in." She calls back softly. I take a look over my shoulder and everyone but Owen, who hasn't come back yet, is staring at me. Charlie walks up behind me and whispers, "what if she's sick. You need to stay away from her."

"I'm going to take that risk." I whisper back. I open the door slowly and Te'Aysha is curled in a ball in the middle of the bed. She's breathing heavily and her dark skin shines with perspiration. Her eyes are closed tightly and her forehead is creased.

She looks like she is on the brink of dying.

"Te'Aysha." I sigh sympathetically.

"Is it that bad?" She asked and squints up to look at me.

I know there's no use in lying to her, so I nod and try to swallow the lump in my throat.

"Just do it. It's for the good of all of y'all." She says lying her head back down and closing her eyes again.

"Do what?" I choke out. Please don't say it.

"Kill me. I know it's comin' on. You need to do it, and do it now." She sounds brave and like she has accepted her fate. However, her breath starts to shudder.

I shake my head and manage to get out, "I can't. I can't kill you."

"You have to. Do you want me to end up killing everyone? I'm not feelin' too good either, so you'd be doin' er'body a favor." She says. I know she's right. I just can't make myself even consider killing a live person. A friend.

"Maybe you'll get better, and you won't have to die."

She opens her eyes again and looks at me.

Her eyes are watery and bloodshot, "Neyomi, I'm not going to make it. The sooner I'm gone, the better."

I shook my head again, the tears really were rolling now, "how did you even get infected?" I ask frantically.

She showed me her arm and there was a bite taken out of her forearm. I gasped.

"When did you get bit?" I asked shocked.

She shrugged like it was no big deal, "I saved Penny."

"What? You mean from the infected in the trench?" I asked.

"Yeah. I pulled it off of her and it bit me." She said looking at the bite. " I've been fighting it off until I got alone with someone to tell him or her so they could kill me. Now do it. I can't fight it any longer." She says.

"You will have the best funeral." A tear rolled down my cheek. "You couldn't have died a more honorable death." I say with a sob. Her eyes have closed and she doesn't seem conscious any longer. With a shaky hand I reach down into my boot and pull my knife out of it. I hold her head down on the pillow to steady it. The infected Te'Aysha had already woke up. I felt her struggle against my hand.

I took a long breath and whispered to her, "thank you. For everything." I shoved the knife through her head.

I shovel the last but of dirt into Te'Aysha's grave. Charlie helped me bury her. I stare at the dirt, full of grief. Charlie comes to my side and puts his arm around me to comfort me. I turn to him and hug him tightly. We lost another person close to us. Owen still hasn't returned. We might have lost him too. I let a few tears fall. I'm allow to be weak right now, aren't I?