Dead Days

Chapter 26

     The bite burned. It didn't tear away any flesh, it's teeth just sank deep into my shoulder. I could feel my blood running down my back.

     But I was calm.

    I thought of it as a snake bite. If I work myself up and increase my heart rate, the virus will spread through me faster. So I slowed my breathing and let peace fall over my body.

     Strangely enough, the moment I got bitten, the chorus of death stopped. There were no more moans or screeches of the undead. It's like they had all just disappeared.

     Deep in the back of my head I heard the Russian whisper, "it's only a matter of time now, Jack." And then, even he was gone. Not gone like before, even then, I could still tell he was there. Now there was nothing in my head besides the warrior.

     I scratched behind my right ear because it felt as if I had been stung by an insect but when my fingers came away, there was a tiny piece of blackened metal.

     "What the hell?" I say to myself.

I don't have time to ponder over it, so I throw it to the ground and begin walking. I call out for Cassie every 30 feet. 

     The sun is beginning to set when it feels like a fire is coursing through my veins. I put a hand to my forehead and it's extremely hot.

     Somewhere in the distance lights are shining into the sky. So I walk to them, hoping that it's Cassie trying to signal me.

     I shamble across the road, trying to ignore the stabbing pains of hunger in my stomach. With each twang of pain an image of gore flickers past my minds eye.

     The bite burns, but also is soothing, peaceful almost.

     "Get it, together, Jack." I say aloud. My voice raspy. I continue walking.

The lights grow brighter the further I walk. They're search lights. As soon as that thought left my brain, the sound of sirens started tearing through the air.

    Against all of my better judgement I started sprinting. I tired extremely fast, my stamina is no where near it should be.

     But I kept running.

     My heart raced.

     Sending the virus faster through my veins.

     But all I could think of was Cassie. I couldn't let her die. Even if it meant my death, I'd ensure that she'd live. My vision started to become yellow. Almost as if I was looking through a thin yellow piece of plastic.

My lungs screamed in agony and my legs begged me to quit, but I couldn't. The warrior sat by the fire, accepting his fate. He finally put down his weapons, and stared longingly into the fire.

     I cut through the woods and there, in the distance was a towering building behind a 20 foot high barbed and electrical fence.

My lungs felt as if they would burst any moment, but I continued on. The thoughts of Cassie propelling my legs.

I ran to the front of the fence, but the gate was closed. No one was in sight.

     But then she was there.

    She burst through the front doors, her hair knotted and tangled, her left pants leg ripped above the knee, with a gash running across her cheek.

     "CASSIE!" I screamed with the remnants of my strength.

     She ran faster as I dropped to my knees, my legs beginning to fail me. I struggled to keep my head.

    Someone came from the front doors behind her holding some type of gun. I tried to warn her but I couldn't even speak. And he fired.

     From the end of the gun a wire about six inches in length, with a metal ball at each end wrapped around Cassie's ankles and she fell to the ground.

    "JACK!" She yelled out. I stared into eyes. In the moment I hated myself. I couldn't do anything. Tears began to well behind my eyes.

     Two more people stepped out from behind the man with the gun. I recognized them both instantly. One was the Russian, and the other was... Lauren.

     My palpitating heart stopped right in its uneven beats. It felt like years for them to finally reach the fence.

     "The lions on his last live," said the Russian as the gate opened. But I didn't pay it any attention.

    I struggled to get to my feet.

    "Jack," Cassie said through relentless tears, "what happened?"

    "I... I was... bitten." I get out through struggles breaths.

    The tears come even harder, she fights the man holding her, but his grip doesn't falter.

     "Lauren... is that... really you?" I ask.

    "Yes, Jack, it's me."

     Cassie stops struggling, and looks right at me.

     "What? No, Jack, that's Alyx! She's a traitor!" She yells, but I don't pay it any mind.

     Lauren looks just as beautiful as the day I lost her. "I thought of you... everyday, Lauren. I hope... you know that."

     "I know, Jack," she walked to me and I embraced her, using her to hold me up, and she hugged back.

    That's the moment the tears broke the dams of my eyelids.

     "JACK, THAT'S NOT LAUREN!" Cassie screamed out.

    As soon as the words left her lips a fire exploded in my abdomen, followed by two more. I stepped back, realizing what had just happened.

     In Lauren's hands was a bloody knife. Wait... that's not Lauren.

    Her image began to fade. All that was left was a smiling Alyx.

     "NO!" Cassie broke the grasp of the man holding her and ran to me.

    I fell to the ground. Cassie put my head on her knees and looked at me.

     She was blurry, but I could tell she was crying. "Don't die, Jack, please." She said. Her tears dropping onto my cheek.

    "Hey, Cass... I missed you." I said holding a hand up to her face. Her cheeks were so warm compared to my ice cold hands.

    She leaned in and hugged me tighter than I've ever been hugged. The crying fit racking her entire body. I've never seen someone so upset over someone else's death. I guess this is what I was like when Lauren passed.

     I whispered in her ear, "don't stop fighting, kid..." I struggled to breathe. "I know you... have it in you... you're a leader." She told me to be quiet but I kept talking. "I love you, I'll always be... in here..." I pointed to her head and heart.

     I brushed her hair behind her ear with the last of my strength. Leaving a bloody smear running across her temple.

     "Goodbye..." that's when my vision went black. Death finally coming to take me home. Somewhere in the distance I heard Cassie scream, but I couldn't turn around. No matter how hard I wanted too.

     This was the end of me. The end of Jack Stanley.