Infection

3. Believe In Yourself

**** DALE'S POV****

When I woke up in the morning, I immediately looked at Wendy to see if there was anything different.

She looked the same.

Her pulse was still steady.

I was relieved, yet I didn't know how long that peace would last.

I wanted to cry but I know Wendy wants me to leave for my own good. She doesn't want to risk getting me infected.

I thought about staying and maybe hiding or living behind the shack to keep an eye on Wendy, but I'd probably get infected or something. Honestly, I should've asked her about that last night because I didn't really know.

Before I left, I looked at a desk beside Wendy and it had stacks of paper and a small journal on top of it.

Dozens of yellow sticky notes fell from the journal, it was notes taken from the disease.

Note #1: Family abandon family

Note #2: The infected can infect someone by air not by touch

How did she figure that out?

Note #3: I miss Felix

Felix? Maybe it's a boy she knew before the falling? She probably wrote about him in her diary.

I knew it was wrong but I flipped through the pages of her diary and there it was.

Apparently she's a good friend of his but fled faraway with his family.

I wonder where, exactly. Maybe mom and dad left for there too.

Wendy turned in her sleep, and I quickly shut the diary and darted out of the shack.

I'm afraid she's going to go through the change and that I might witness it.

I don't wanna see it happen to her.

This backpack is heavy.

I sighed, playing the with compass necklace around my neck.

All I know is that we're in a small deserted town in Texas.

Maybe I'll head East, and just hope for the best?

And this marks the beginning of my journey.