Infected- Chapter 2

We trudged through the everlasting forest on the outskirts of the city trying to find something, anything to eat. We were starving. Quite literally. I know everyone used to throw that word around without even knowing what it really means to be starving. But now that the world had changed we were actually starving to death.

We hadn’t eaten in what felt like months and in reality, we really hadn’t eaten a decent meal in months.

“God can we just eat these mushrooms and get it over with?” I complained as I snapped a low hanging tree branch in half.

“You want to risk eating something poisonous and dying? Go right ahead. I’m not stopping you.” Eric replied as he kicked the mushrooms off of their stems in my direction.

I rolled my eyes. He had been really getting on my nerves lately.

“There are hoards of dead people walking around trying to eat us and you’re really worried about whether or not the mushrooms are safe to eat?”

“I guess you’re right. Either way we’re fucked so I suppose you get a choice on how you want to go, huh?” He replied.

“Someone’s sure grumpy today.” I replied, annoyed.

“Someone’s sure sick of roaming around out here for days, finding nothing.”

“Way to stay positive.”

He shot me a look as he stopped dead in his tracks.

“Positivity has got nothing to do with this. Not anymore.”

“It has everything to do with it!” I said as I raised my voice.

He shook his head. “Don’t give me that bullshit, Cassie.”

“What bullshit?”

“Since when are you so damn optimistic?”

“Since we have found ourselves in quite the s****y situation. Wouldn’t you agree? After all, this was your idea.” I snapped.

“Coming into the woods wasn’t just my idea!”

“No, but this whole thing was!”

“What are you getting at?” Eric asked his eyes dark and narrow as he towered above me.

“You’re the one who basically volunteered us! You didn’t even ask me how I felt about going on this mission. You just answered for me, like always!”

“It was your damn sister who asked us to go! You honestly mean to tell me you would have told her no?!” He half shouted, trying not to be too loud to draw attention to our location.

“Yes! No! Maybe! I don’t f*****g know! But I was never even given the chance to decide for myself! You just stepped in and opened your big mouth and told her we’d go and now here we are risking our lives for nothing!” I shouted.

“Cassie! Keep your voice down!” He growled at me.

“Why should I?! We’re dying anyways! We haven’t eaten in days! Give it up already! We’re going back empty handed if we even make it back!”

“Cass, I mean it!” He yelled again.

“I don’t give a f**k anymore!” I screamed. “I’m so sick and tired of this bull-“

“Shut up!” Eric yelled as he interrupted me mid rant.

“What?!” I snarled.

“Cassie, shut the hell up!” He whispered as he flung his hand over my mouth.

I was half tempted to bite him. I shoved my tongue through his fingers instead.

“Gross stop!” He said as he pulled his hand away from my mouth.

“You know I hate when you do that.”

“Shhh. I heard something.” He said as he scanned the forest.

“Cut it out, Eric. You made your point. I’ll stop arguing.”

“I’m being serious.”

“This is so stupid.” I said under my breath.

“Just listen.”

I stopped talking and began focusing on the noises around me.

My eyes widened. “I hear it too.”

“It sounds like….rustling.” Eric said.

“Oh s**t! Oh s**t!” I said as my heart dropped into my stomach.

“Run!” Eric yelled as he grabbed my wrist.

He drug me behind him as we ran through the forest. I could hear the distant sound of the undead echoing all around us. They screeched and moaned as they got closer and closer it us. They could smell our lively flesh, our scent lingering on the trees. My heart pounded so hard I thought it would burst right through my chest.

“Get your gun out!” Eric yelled as he let go of my hand.

“It’s in my backpack! I can’t…get it…while I’m running!” I said between ragged breaths.

“Stop! I’ll cover you!”

He stopped dead in his tracks and began firing shots behind us. I flung my backpack off of my back and threw it in front of me. I quickly unzipped the bag and pulled out my gun. I threw the bag back up on my shoulders and got the gun ready to shoot.

“Done!” I yelled. He fired one last shot and we began running again.

“We’re almost to the truck!” Eric yelled to me as he began to sprint.

I ran as fast as my legs would let me, but it was hard. I was so tired from not eating that my bones felt as though they were giving up on me, they were throwing in the towel.

“Eric, wait!” I begged as I tried to catch up to him. My tongue felt heavy in my mouth as I tried to yell to him again, the words not seeming to come out properly.

I let out a grunt as I heaved my legs into motion, praying that they didn’t give out on me as I heard the dead approaching fast.

Finally I could see him stopping up ahead where the forest cleared and met the road. The truck of safety wasn’t far.

“Oh f**k!” I heard him yell.

“What?!” I screamed as I reached him. Then I saw the horror that he had seen.

The U-Haul was surrounded. F*****g dead all around it.

My heart sunk and I felt as though I would throw up or pass out. Or throw up then pass out. Either scenario was not a good one.

“What the f**k do we do?” I asked trying to keep my voice down.

“Get your weapon ready. We have to make it back to the truck.”

“Eric, I-I can’t do this!” I said as I felt the color draining from my face.

“Yes you can! We have to! There’s no other way. If we keep running we may never get back to it.” He said as he grabbed my arms and stared hard into my eyes.

“I’m so done. I really can’t keep this going. I can’t.” I pleaded with him, feeling defeated.

“Cassie, we don’t have a choice!”

I frantically shook my head. “F**k. Okay.”

“We can do this.” Eric said as he kissed me. “Ready?”

I grabbed my long sword tucked into the side pocket of my backpack. “Ready.”

And then it happened.

It was as if it was all going in slow motion. Everything slowed down. I heard him yell out, the loudest scream humanly possible. It pierced my ears and I instantly knew. I turned towards his direction and saw the monster clinging onto his back, his teeth ripping into his shoulder, through his favorite The Strokes t-shirt and into his soft, warm flesh.

I froze.

Dead all around me, making their way over to me so that they could make me their lunch and I didn’t care. I couldn’t look away. I could hear him faintly yelling out my name to warn me of the approaching dead, but I couldn’t snap back to reality.

“CASSIE!” His voice finally coming back to full boom.

Finally I realized that I needed to focus to get to him. My adrenaline now kicking in full speed. I instantly rose up my sword and began slicing my way over to him, stabbing each living dead person in the head as I ran to get to him.

I killed all of them that surrounded him. And then I saw the blood pouring out of his right shoulder and onto the ground.

“Get me to the truck!” He screamed. I flung his arm around my shoulders and we hobbled as fast as we could towards our U-Haul truck, my legs threatening to buckle underneath of me. I propped him up against the truck as

I quickly unlocked the back loading deck. The door flew up and I helped him heave himself into it, his hand grasping his fresh wound.

I stabbed one more dead person before climbing up into the back with him and slamming the door down, locking it securely.

Then I looked at him. Tears finally steaming down my face. I ran over to the back and grabbed a shirt lying on the floor. I crawled back over to him and pressed the shirt into his wound.

“Oh god oh god!” I cried as blood poured from him and stained the wooden floor beneath us.

“Cassie.” He sputtered.

“Shh! It’s okay! It’s okay! You’re okay!” I managed to say between sobs.

“Have…to...leave.” His breath ragged and uneven.

“Not until it’s stopped bleeding!”

“Cass.”

“We’re not leaving until you’re okay!”

“Drive.” He managed to say before he passed out.

“Eric?! ERIC!” I screamed. I shook him frantically, but he was out cold. “Oh s**t! Oh god!”

I got up and climbed through our makeshift hole that led into the driver’s seat. I grabbed some rope that lied on the floor. I then crawled back over to him and began to wrap the rope around him and the shirt, making sure it was tight enough to put pressure on the bite.

I screamed as I heard the dead pound on the outside of the U-Haul. I wiped my face, wet with tears and snot and leaned down to check for a heartbeat.

All I could hear was the pounding from the dead outside. I tried to tune it out, but it got louder and louder as more dead came. I couldn’t hear a thing.

“SHUT THE F**K UP!” I screamed as I banged on the walls of the truck.

Suddenly Eric lunged up, coughing and gasping for air.

“I’m getting you out of here!” I cried. He nodded his head, his eyes wide and stricken with fear. “Okay?”

I kissed his cheek and made my way up to the driver’s seat.  

They were piling up in front of the truck and I knew I’d have to floor it to get through them all. I prayed that the truck would withstand the amount of force being put on it. I started the truck up, took a deep breath and pushed the gas pedal down. The U-Haul jolted forward jerking me with it as it began to run over the dead in front.

Blood and guts splattered upward as I made my way over them, only thinking of my one goal- to get the f**k out of Charlotte.

Boy did that seem all but too familiar.

Author's Note

ignore grammar problems

Reviews

[Ryan Yates]

This is a really awesome chapter and i think it should be your chapter 1. The dialogue is good and the pacing of the scene works really well. you get the sense of despair then urgency and it all comes across well. couple of things.

1. You wrote the following

"""""""""And then it happened.

It was as if it was all going in slow motion. Everything slowed down. I heard him yell out, the loudest scream humanly possible. It pierced my ears and I instantly knew. I turned towards his direction and saw the monster clinging onto his back, his teeth ripping into his shoulder, through his favourite The Strokes t-shirt and into his soft, warm flesh.""""""""

I would totally reorder this paragraph and lose then line "And then it happened." Horror needs suspense and this line kinda cuts the suspense.

for example - (please dont be offended i'm not trying to rewrite your story it is just a suggestion)

""""""“We can do this.” Eric said as he kissed me. “Ready?”

I grabbed my long sword tucked into the side pocket of my backpack. “Ready.”

A piercing scream hit my ears. The loudest scream humanly possible. It was his scream. Everything seemed to be happening in slow motion as I turned towards his direction. The monster was clinging onto his back, teeth ripping into his shoulder, through his favorite Strokes t-shirt and into his soft, warm flesh.

I froze. """

I think something along those lines would give a better sense of suspense.

2.before he is bitten he had just kissed her then after he is bitten she has to make her way back to him. what happened there. maybe they took up positions to flank the zombies? or one will draw them away while the other goes to the truck.

3. When she attacks the zombies i would like more visualisation. you say stabbed a lot try and thing of some different words to use. Describe a zombie or two in minor details maybe. just add a bit of meat to that section. how does she move, does she cut an arm off a zombie in haste, does one take more than one blow. is she clinical in her execution of the undead. every zombie is a barrier to him and she should be frustrated in not being able to get to him immediately.

really good though, i want to hear more of the story for sure.

[DreamCatcher]

You give some awesome reviews. I really appreciate it.
And I'm not at all offended. Feedback is always a good thing. It's nice to know other people's thoughts on writing.

But I see what you mean. And I agree.
This will probably be my first chapter to have some suspense.
This is my first horror type of novel, so all of your suggestions are very helpful.

Thanks again!