Dead Days

Chapter 18

     I ran and knelt beside him. He struggled to raise his own head, he was fading fast.

     "Terry, what happened?"

      "I tried... to be a h... hero." He says, he tries to laugh at the end but his body won't allow it, but that doesn't stop him from smiling.

     He coughed and blood spurted from his mouth. He put a hand to his stomach and sucked air through his teeth.

     I lifted his shirt, a grimace plastered on his face.

     When I seen the wound I knew that was it. He knew it too. There was a hole the size of a fist going all the way through his abdomen, I could see the tree he was leaning against through him. Blood and other bodily fluids covered his lower half.

     His breathing became shallow. "That's not it, Jack," he pointed to his shoulder.

    The shirt was ripped away, the skin was torn and jagged, the muscle was ravaged and even if we had a doctor, he would lose the arm.

     He nodded his head to the left of us. "Bastard tried to bite me when I was down. But he didn't know that I had such a great teacher." He coughed harshly, his entire body shaking violently as the fit took him over.

     He struggled to catch his breath. He whispered something but it was too faint to hear. I had to put my ear almost to his lips to understand.

     "Wa... tch out for... for D... Devin." He began coughing again, the fit racking his entire body, blood flecked the grass in front of him.

     For a brief second between his coughs he looked me in the eyes and I knew what he wanted. I unholstered the .45 and pointed it at him.

     "Do it." He whispered, through strangled breaths. I looked at him.

    "DO IT!" He screamed, the force tearing away what little life remained in him. His head fell forward and his body fell still. And I pulled the trigger.

    The gunshot rang out for miles. It echoed in my head for miles, also. Another good man lost to this damned virus.

    I was sad about Terry, but it strengthened the foundation of my resolve. My hate towards the Russian had grown exponentially.

     Terry's words remained on repeat in my head. Watch out for Devin. What did he mean? Did he want me to make sure he was safe? Was he in some type of danger?

     The woods were silent. So silent that it hurt, my ears strained to hear anything, even the slightest of sounds. But nothing went bump in the night. Nothing.

I walked for miles, the sun had already risen by the time I took my first break. My throat screamed in agony for water, my stomach cried out for sustenance. My mind was a broken mess. Inside the warrior and the civil part of me fought for who should be in control.

     Even with their war going on in my head, I stood and continued walking. I had to find Cassie and the rest, I had too. If another person died on my watch I don't think my fractured mind would be able to take it.

The silence of my walk was torn to shreds with a scream. One I've heard before, one that I've saved before.

Cassie.

I broke into a dead sprint, my body cursing me for it. I pumped my legs in the direction of her scream. Every possible scenario with a bad ending played through my head. And it ended up with either Cassie, one of the others, or me dying.

    My mind became cloudy. The warrior had won, he was taking over. He drooled, ready to get blood on his hands. He strived for it, killing was his art. He waited for long enough, sharpened his blades to that of razors.

     The scream came again, I stopped, straining to hear the remnants of the echo.

    I kicked it into overdrive and broke through the tree line, they were somewhere in here.

    Heavy clouds began to cover the sky, thunder clapped in the distance. Lighting split the sky. It was as if Mother Nature knew my intentions and was saddened at this loss of life.

     I didn't care, I was going to kill whoever made Cassie scream. No matter who it was.

The scream came again, this time worse. It was torn out of her, ripping her vocal cords bloody. I ran at the source of the scream with an anger so deep that I felt bits of my soul going dark.

I broke through a tree line and there she was laying on the ground with someone on top of her. Choking her. Strangling her. Killing her. She kicked but it didn't do much. I couldn't tell who her attacker was, he was hooded and in black fatigues.

I ran, throwing the bags and my fire arms to the ground. I didn't want anything weighing me down.

The warrior screamed and I screamed with him. The moment I made contact the skies burst, letting loose torrential downpour. We flew into the leaves, I got the jump on him and was up first.

I punched the hooded face so many times that I lost count. My knuckles rendered bloody, something didn't feel right in my wrist. I felt teeth break and bones collapse. I kept punching well beyond the point of irreparable brain damage.

I stood, the rain washing the blood from me, thunder and lighting tore through the sky. The warrior was still screaming. I walked over to Cassie, she was holding her throats and coughing, struggling to catch her breath.

She tried speaking but I interrupted her with a hug. "I'm so glad you're okay," I say.

She hugs me back, "I'm okay," she says, her voice crackling due to her screaming.

The storm rages on, rain falls to the earth nonstop, thunder booms and lighting tears through the sky.

"Well isn't that just heart warming." Says a familiar New York accent. I spin with a smile, happy to see another familiar face.

The smile quickly fades.

The accent came from a hooded mouth.

The hooded mouth I had just beaten to oblivion.

He removed the hood and under it was Devin. But he looked completely fine. All of his teeth her intact and his bone structure looked like it hadn't changed at all.

    "This, Jack, is the age of Ealim Jadid." He says, waving to his face. "The age of the new world."

    That's when he sprinted at me.