Bite Me

Chapter Two

Chapter Two:  "Cue the sad violins."

Grace's POV

"You gonna explain this to me?" Zach said, wiping some blood that was on my face next to my bruised eye. We had run for about a mile from the mystery group and the herd of infected, and we'd finally stopped by a small town that had nothing more than a few shops, a gas station, and some houses. We were in a pharmacy that had, surprisingly, quite a few supplies.

"It was just some asshole that got the better hand," I muttered, wincing as he hit a sensitive spot. "I'm fine, okay?"

"Fine?" he exclaimed. "You could've died, Grace!"

I rolled my eyes, pushing his hand away from my face. "But I didn't. We just had to get out of there before they cornered us with infected."

"And before they raped my little sister," Zach said, turning away from me.

"Seriously, Zach? It didn't go down that way!"

"But it could have!" he argued. "Just a creepy dude, you said? People changed—there isn't a law anymore. What if he was like that? What if you didn't know how to defend yourself?"

"Enough with the what ifs! None of that happened, and none of it will change because it is over. God, you're taking it worse than I am." I hopped off the counter I was seated on and stalked off into the aisles to search for more supplies.

I'd admit, I was being a bit over-emotional with Zach, but he just needed to be able to let it go. We were safe now, weren't we?

"Grace." Zach approached me about ten minutes later, his voice much softer than before. "I uh, found one of these—" he held up a first-aid cold pack, "—it'll help your eye go down. Closest thing to ice we got." I took it gratefully, nodding in appreciation.

"Thanks," I said.

"Look, I'm sorry." He sighed, shifting uncomfortably. "Its just—stuff."

"Stuff?" I chuckled. "Its alright, I'm sorry, too." He nodded, and there was a brief awkward silence before I changed the subject. "Find anything else?"

"Just some energy bars, bandages, batteries," Zach replied. "You?"

"About the same," I said. "Do you still have that map? I was thinking we could try to siphon some gas and rally us up a car."

"Yeah, we could do that." He pulled out our map, spreading it over the top of the counter. "Put some more distance between us and that group—who knows if they're following us."

"So, where to?" I questioned, trying to figure out where we were.

"Chesterfield is where we're at, so Richmond isn't far." He pointed to the county on the map, which was farther from our original home than I'd expected. "We're trying to go toward the cities, right?"

"I still think its a stupid idea," I muttered. "But yes, we are."

Zach sighed. "Alright. We could try to make it towards 95 with a car—drive up closer to Richmond but stick to the outskirts and pray for no trouble."

"Why don't we try to the back roads? All those cars that were lined up the day everything happened on the highway—heaven forbid they're still there," I said.

"I guess we'll try that," he replied hesitantly. "I'm just not sure what route to take."

"Doesn't matter which one. Its not like we don't have time—in fact, these days, its what we have too much of."

"Okay." Zach nodded. "Now, should we go find a car?"

---

Trees blurred by in a mixture of brown and green as we drove down the road towards the city. There was thirty miles between us and the city, but the number was gradually decreasing as we continued. Zach had found a simple, silver Toyota Camry that was one of the few that had a running battery still, and after just a bit of gas draining and elbow grease, we were on our way.