Deadly Silence

Bitten

The group trudged on. Cold, ferocious winds clawed at their clothes. Winter was coming, what were they to do? None of them had coats, only small, worn-out jackets. A couple of crows cawed as the group walked on. Carter had always thought of crows as evil birds who cawed when death was near, or perhaps that was a Raven? She was caught up in her own thoughts as she walked on.

"Carter!" Sam said loudly. Carter jumped with surprise and looked around frightfully. "There is a river up ahead," a sudden sound of rushing water penetrated Carter's ears. There was a river, or some type of raging water at least. "We are almost there." Sam finished. The group walked on not knowing exactly where the water source was located.

Eventually, the group found the water source, it was indeed a river. Once arriving, Sam set his bags down by the river, as well as Ethan and Sarah, who had bags full of supplies. "How about we go wash off." he said glancing at Carter and Emily who were covered in blood. Emily nodded and headed toward the river with her knife. Carter went towards the river, but further away. She also brought a gun and her hammer.

Carefully, she took her blood covered jacket off and dipped it into the river. Blood spilled off the jacket and into the river quickly. Taking the jacket out of the water, she placed it on a tree branch to hang and dry. Next, she pulled up her sleeves and cupped her hands into the water. She brung her hands up and splashed her face with the cool liquid. Carter shoved her arms into the water, but quickly withdrew her right arm with a groan of pain. She examined the place where the pain had struck.

"What is this?" She paused "No, no, it can't be, please no!" She cried softly. Carter held her arm up to her eye level... A bite mark... Carter fell to her knees in shock and held her breath. Her vision began to get blurry, then she realized she was crying. "But, no! Please god! Don't do this to me!" She cried with a sob.

"Carter?" A voice came from the woods behind her, she looked back and saw Ethan. Should she tell him? No, what if the bite didn't mean anything? What if she was overreacting? Without hesitation, she pulled her sleeves down and splashed more water on her face trying to make it not so obvious she had been crying.

"Everything alright?" He asked sitting next to Carter. Carter gulped and nodded "Y-yeah f-fine..." She stuttered. Not willing to lie to his face, she kept her eyes on the river. Ethan raised an eyebrow knowing she was lying. "Okay, anyway, I wanted to apologize," Ethan said looking at the river. Carter glanced at him them back toward the river "Apologize for what?" She asked. Ethan raked his fingers through his hair "For telling you our parents and friends are dead. I just wanted to get away from the school, I thought if I told you that you wouldn't look back and maybe you would want to get away from the school too." He said. Carter stared at her reflection in the water in utter silence. Ethan shook his head "Well, I'll let you wash up now." He said turning around and retreated into the woods.

Carter sighed and pulled her sleeves up again to examine the wound. There were obvious teeth marks in her wrist. It was already bleeding again. She held her breath and closed her eyes putting her wrist in the water. A burning sensation filled her with pain and she bit her lip trying not to scream. She needed to find something to stop the bite from bleeding out. Carter looked around for anything to put on her bloody wound. She found nothing and came to the conclusion to ask Sarah if she had any bandages. Carter grabbed her soaked jacket from the branch then stood up, and started to walk back to the others. Her sleeves had been pulled down and she put on a fake smile as she stopped in front of Sarah.

"Ready to keep moving?" Sam asked when he saw Carter. She nodded "But uh, do we have any bandages? A shrieker plowed into me when we were at the cabin and knocked me down. My elbows are pretty skinned up and bloody." She said. Usually Carter was a good liar, and fooled everyone. Besides Ethan that was. "Sure hun," Sarah said with a smile. Sarah kneeled down and searched one of the bags, eventually pulling out a roll of bandages. She smiled and handed them to Carter "There ya go." Sarah said. "Thanks." Carter replied politely. "Oh and what about peroxide?" Carter added. Sarah fetched her hand into the bag pulling out a bottle of peroxide. "Thanks again." Carter said smiling.

Carter walked into the forest and hid behind a tree. Lifting her sleeves up, she examined the bloody wound. She slid her back down the rough bark of the tree and sat down. "This is going to burn." She said taking a big breath. She unscrewed the top and poured it on the bite. Carter whimpered as she bit her lip holding the pain filled scream in. This had to be the most painful she had experienced. She let out her breath and started to wrap her wrist in a bandage. Once she finished she stood up and took the supplies back to Sarah. "Thank you for letting me use those." Carter said softly. Sarah nodded.

"Alright crew, ready to cross the river?" Sam said with a big grin on his face. Everyone exchanged glances. Sam started to laugh "I mean cross the bridge, this river has big rapids, and if anyone fell, they probably wouldn't come back up." He said as the smile disappeared. The river was large in width but Carter remembered the bridge from when she was younger. She knew this town like the back of her hand, after all it was pretty small.

The group headed upward alongside the river till they came to an rickety, old bridge. Sam led the way and stopped the group. "I will go across first to make sure it's sturdy." Sam said staring at the old bridge. He started to cross, one foot after the other slowly. Once he was halfway across, Sarah placed her foot on the bridge but instead of a creak, came a groaning sound. Carter looked into the dim woods. When her eyes adjusted, she recognized about a dozen stalkers walking toward the group. "Quickly! Go!" Carter shouted and pulled out her hammer. Ethan looked at Carter as well as Emily. "Just go! I'll be fine!" Carter yelled. Ethan and Emily started to run onto the bridge, but the weight was to much and then a loud snap came from the bridge. Carter looked back to see part of  bridge had collapsed and Ethan and Emily holding on tightly. "No!" She shouted. Louder groaning came from ahead and more stalkers appeared. "Sam! Help them! Don't let them fall!" Carter screamed in fear over the loud groaning noises. She swung her hammer at a stalker who was nearest to her, and a crack of the skull was heard "One down, lot more to go..." She whispered to herself.