The Infected Mind

Chapter 1

The thick brambles made agile movement nearly impossible, not that I was agile at all compared to our assailant. The maze of trees was both a blessing and a curse, yes, it slowed me down, but it also slowed down our attacker.

I was running through a forest with my five friends I managed to stay with through the apocalypse, and we were running like our lives depended on it. Because they did. We were being chased by a Crawler and it was gaining fast. The former man had an unusually large build, he must've gone to the gym regularly before he turned. If he were to get a hold of one of us, we would only escape as another of his kind, if we got out at all. He was growling and snarling at us, sounds I wouldn't think could come from what used to be human vocal chords.

The six Crawler legs they used for running also made maneuvering around trees take way less time than it should, accompanied by four extra legs he was using to slash at us and attempt to grab us. It was almost as if they could hide limbs within their backs. I saw my friend Travis jump over part of a fallen tree just before a claw came and sliced the tree down the middle. The deafening crunch caused Daniel loose his footing in sudden shock, he started to stumble around trees, frantically trying to keep his footing and regain his balance, until he didn't move fast enough. He hit his head directly into a large pine tree and fell to the dirt.

I heard Jasmine yell for Daniel to get up, which only seemed to rattle his nerves further, as he tried to reboot his mind on the spot. I did the only thing I could think of to save my friend, who I had known for years. I altered my path so I was heading straight towards him, I grabbed his arm and pulled him up over my right shoulder, he was winded and seemed to be having trouble with remaining upright. I turned around and started running away from the snarling creature behind us, Travis had seemed to distract it so I could help Daniel, who's glasses had fallen into the dirt somewhere.

Running non stop from a Crawler was hard enough, with trees thrown in it was nearly impossible, now I had a practically limp body hanging from my side. I felt a sharp pain erupt through my left arm, the rest of the bushes around slapped and stabbed at us with sharp branches. We were slower than the others now, but I couldn't let one of my only remaining friends die when I could stop it.

I heard Jasmine yell out, "There's a cave over there!", I snapped my head up and looked to where she was running, there was indeed a cave with a small opening, large enough for us to get through, but too small for the Crawler, even if he didn't have the reaching limbs tearing through his back. I saw Jasmine and Megan hide in the stone safe space, followed soon after by David. I ran over and Travis helped me get Daniel inside before we squeezed into the cramped space ourselves. 

We all backed up to the far wall of the crevice as Crawler legs clawed and scratched at the entrance to get to the humans inside, white claws scraping at the stone and leaving deep slices in the rock. The next few minutes felt like an eternity with this bloodthirsty monster just a few feet from me. It eventually realized it couldn't get us and it left with an ear piercing screech of pure rage, and the sound of it running grew distant, we all breathed a sigh of relief, thinking it was over.

Travis was slim enough he didn't need to squeeze his way through the entrance like the rest of us. He surveyed the outside world, before waving us out. David slipped out, followed by Jasmine who was trying to calm herself by running her fingers through her pale blonde hair. Daniel was finally catching his breath, and turned to me with a grateful expression. At first. It quickly turned to horror.

He pointed at my arm silently, I hesitantly looked down. My hoodie sleeve had been ripped along my bicep, and my skin shared the same tear. My sleeve to just below my elbow was a deep crimson instead of the grey it used to be. It was only now that my adrenaline started to wear off and the pain began to grow and pulse outwards, growing worse and worse each second. That slash couldn't have been made by a branch. It looked like a knife wound, or a claw wound. I was slashed by the Crawler, that we had seen using its venom that came from those claws. I was infected.

I stared at my arm in shock, a faint pounding growing louder in my mind. I heard a faint click amongst the ringing in my ears. I looked up to see Travis from outside the cave with his handgun aimed at me. The others were either backing away or saying something. We're they talking to me or Travis? Jasmine and Megan were almost in tears as they seemed to yell at him, Daniel had to yank Megan off me as she latched onto my other arm. This wasn't really happening, right?

I looked up at my best friends, making eye contact with Travis, who still held his gun aimed at me. His expression seemed pained, but cold. He didn't break eye contact as he spoke quietly, ignoring the others pleas.

"I'm sorry." He pulled the trigger.

I jolted up in a cold sweat with a gasp. Another nightmare. I didn't dream like I used to now, instead my previous memories seemed to replay in my sleep, and this was the third time this week that I remembered that day. I felt my forehead out of habit, there was only a slight scar left from the bullet, back when one of my best friends shot me in the head. He had good reason though, I would soon turn into the same creature that had just chased us through the forest.

He was right, but not completely. I was a Crawler, but I retained my humanity somehow, and still physically changed. Having the Crawler legs tear through my spine and out my back was the most painful experience of my life, thankfully I don't feel any pain from using these legs anymore. The moon was beginning to rise, so I ventured out from my hiding space of the broken school and into the nearby town. I was running out of supplies, and needed to gather some more.