Infected

Chapter 15

*Neyomi's POV*

"Wake up, Owen! Wake up!" Charlie is shaking Owen's shoulders and Owen jolts awake. I stand by too scared to do or say anything.

"What? What the hell do you want?" Owen mumbles startled.

"What is that?" Charlie points at Owen's neck.

Owen's hand flies to his neck to cover it up, "It's nothing. Uh, a branch hit me when I was running through the woods." He stutters.

"Don't you lie to me." Charlie tells him sternly.

"Um. Okay, uh. I'll tell you, but she needs to go somewhere." Owen says and nodded his head to me. I look at him confused and he won't meet my gaze.

Charlie looks at me and I look to him confused. He nods his head and since I trust him, I left the room to give them privacy. I decide to go to the bathroom with Emma to see if I could be of any help.

She had already a good start on making a brace.

"Do you need any help?" I offered.

Her eyes didn't leave her project at hand. "Yeah, if you could go get two sticks that are about as wide as a quarter and a foot long and as straight and sturdy as possible, that would be great."

"Sure thing." I tell her. I walk through the living room to go outside and the boys stop talking and look up at me and watch me walk out. It looked like Charlie was... crying? Surely I just didn't see right. I got my knife ready and picked my way through every stick closest to the cabin. I really didn't want to have to go over the trench alone in the dark. Unfortunately, I didn't find any near the cabin that would do. I take a deep breath and step over the trench. I search quickly through the sticks on the ground. I find one that would do just fine when a hear it, an infected. Just my luck. I whip my flashlight out of my back pocket as swiftly as I can. ( I didn't have it out already because it drawls attention) I flash it toward the infected and gasp at the sight of it. I don't even know how this one was walking. It was practically skeleton. I got my knife and shoved it through its face right before it got a grip on my arm. It dropped to the ground. I let out a breath I had been holding.

"Good Lord." I murmured to myself. "Alright. Find one more and get the hell out of the woods." I whispered to myself. I found the second stick and started walking back to the cabin.

"Neyomi! Are you out there?" I hear Charlie yell. I roll my eyes and smile. So concerned. I come closer to him and flick my flashlight in his face.

"Yes, I am. Now be quiet before you have all the infected in the county over here." I chuckle.

"Oh, my bad." He says. "I was just worried."

"I know." I reply. " So, is he infected?" I asked.

"Uh, no. Don't worry. He's, uh, he's okay." He won't look at me. He's obviously not telling me something.

"What aren't you telling me?" I asked.

"I can't tell you." He tells me.

I nod my head, "alright." We left it at that.

We walk in the cabin. I only glance at Owen as I pass through the living room and make my way to the bathroom.

Emma has a hand out to grab the sticks as soon as I enter the room. I hand them to her.

"Thank you." She tells me and starts duck taping them the way she needs them.

"Thank you." I tell her. "You didn't even have to help Owen, but you are."

"Well, I'm not going to let him just hurt." She explains.

Not going to let him just hurt. Have I hurt him? Yes, I have. Am I doing anything to make things easier? No.

*Charlie's POV*

"Owen, please don't do this. I can't live without you, man." I beg him.

Owen stands in a tall tree, a rope tied around his neck, ready to jump.

"Not while you're with her. It hurts too much. I love her, and you knew that. This is your fault, Charlie." He jumps and I see his body jerking every which way.

"Nooo!" I scream at the top of my lungs.

"Charlie. Hey, are you alright?" Neyomi is waking me up. I realize that I have tears on my face. She can't see them in this dark so I wonder how she knew something was wrong.

"You were whimpering in your sleep like you were having a horrible nightmare." She tells me. She rubs my arm comfortingly.

"No, I'm alright." I lie.

"Alright, well lets go back to sleep, huh ?" She suggests.

"Yeah, let's sleep." I agree. She snuggles into my chest and I wrap my arm around her and bring her in close.

Owen was going to kill himself. That's why his throat looked messed up. He took his shoestring out of his shoe and was going to hang himself with it. Obviously, he didn't think it through. That's also how he hurt his ankle, when he fell out of the tree.

He said that he doesn't know why he even did it, that he doesn't want to die.

He said that this life isn't worth living, that's how he felt at that moment, but now he claims to believe that we can defeat this. That we can keep this from killing everyone. I can't help thinking in the back of my mind that he did it simply because he isn't with Neyomi. It's not my fault though, right? We can't help how she feels... Right?

*Owen's POV*

Life sucks then you die. Super.

Charlie thinks that he's gonna be my "buddy" again? Like he didn't just snatch up Neyomi when he knew how I felt about her? That bastard is gonna pay, sooner or later. He'd better kiss his sorry ass goodbye.