1
This is incredibly stupid, I think to myself as I push open the apartment door. Infected are swarming Salem and if I’m to meet one of the creatures in a confined area, I’ll be dead within minutes. But if I don’t get any supplies, in a few days it won’t matter whether or not I meet up with an infected, I’ll be dead anyway. I look down at the threshold of the house, debating, then I walk in. I’m careful to keep my footsteps as light and soundless as possible.
I walk from the entrance of the house to the kitchen. A sudden pang hits me as I see that the kitchen with its white cupboards and black trim looks hauntingly like my parents kitchen where I was living before... I close my eyes instantly casting the thought aside as my stomach twists. I haven’t thought about that house in over a decade and with the memories of the house are thoughts of my family and things as they were 20 years ago, things that are better left alone.
Giving my head a slight shake I, as carefully and quietly as possible, begin opening cupboards with my left arm, unable to lift my right arm past my breast bone. I find a knife in one of the drawers and I stick the weapon in my belt. The rest of the cupboards are bare, not that I was expecting much.
Continuing quietly, I head into a bedroom. I’m opening the closet when I hear the demented clicking. I silently curse myself as I realize I must have left the door open. Then I remind myself that Clickers, which was undoubtedly the creature who had made that sickening sound, are blind. If I can remain silent, I can hopefully get out of the apartment and find safety somewhere else.
Forgetting supplies, I focus all my energy on making it out of the apartment without alerting the Clicker to my presence. I make it out of the bedroom but have to stop dead when I see that the infected is a few feet from me. I reach to pull my knife from my belt, preparing to have to sneak up behind the Clicker and kill it. However, the weapon becomes caught on my belt loop. I tug on the handle, trying to free it when it slips from my sweaty fingers, flies a few inches from me, and slams against the counter.
I freeze as the Clicker turns its head. It lets out a grinding click and walks toward me. I take a step to the side, hoping to side-step the creature, when of course, a floorboard creaks beneath my foot.
The Clicker turns and looks straight at me. For several moments, we simply stare at each other, then the infected takes several steps forward, clicking the entire time. The Clickers use that horrible sound as a sort of homing device and unfortunately, the sound bounces off the human body differently that an empty room.
As if realizing this, the infected lets out an enraged wail and runs at me. I manage to side-step the creature and move toward the far wall. I begin racking my brain, trying to think of a plan. Seeing a bat near where the two walls meet, I run towards it. As focused as I am on bat, I don’t notice that the Clicker has renewed its attack on me.
The infected collides with me and we both tumble to the ground. I roll a few inches away, and am trying to get to my feet when I realize that my ankle is being held taut. I look back and see the Clicker has my leg between its hands. Pulling my leg free, I manage to kick the infected once in the face. Not with enough force to break the skull, but hard enough to have done something because the Clicker retreats, letting out an angry wail. My leg hurts like someone just branded it, but I force myself to stand.
Taking the wooden bat from where it sits against the wall, I swing it at the Clicker’s head. It takes a few hard hits but finally there’s a crunch and blood and pus splatters the wall.
Breathing deeply, I slump against the wall allowing the bat to slip from my fingers. My leg still hurts like wildfire and its begun to itch. “Don’t look,” I tell myself. “It’d only make it worse.”
I lean my head back as exhaustion floods my body. My heart is still beating at a mile a minute and I can hear my blood pulsing. I can’t remember the last time I ate or slept. I allow my eyes to close and give into the numbing blackness.
“A toast,” Anna says lifting her glass and smiling down the table at me. “To Taysen for graduating Medical School.”
I smile gratefully at my best friend before swallowing my drink.
“We’re so proud of you,” my mother says giving my arm a gentle squeeze from where she sits to my right. My dad sits to the left of me while Anna and her husband Elliot sit at the other end of the table. The only seat that is empty is the seat beside my mom. The seat that should have been filled by my twin sister Tess.
“Thanks Mom,” I reply sincerely. “Thank you all of you, I couldn’t have made it through without you all.”
“So what will it be Tayse?” Elliot asks as he refills his glass. “Are you heading back to London or are you staying in the States?”
“I’m staying in Chicago,” I reveal grinning. “I got offered a job at the general hospital, so I can stay home.”
My family all express how delighted they are at this news, but suddenly it’s as if their voices are coming through a badly tuned radio.
My vision darkens before focusing on my surroundings. My eyes first fall on the corpse of the Clicker at my feet, then on the decrepit apartment room.
I don’t know how long I was out but the sun that had been seeping into the apartment is now gone.
My heart sinks as I remember that I am no longer in my home city of Chicago, and that everyone I had celebrated with that night all those years ago, is dead.
Thankfully my parents died before the Cordyceps outbreak, dying within days of each other. Anna and Elliot on the other hand, they had been with me in Chicago when we entered the Quarantine Zone.
How far away that all seems now.
In an effort to turn my thoughts away from my dead friends, I attempt to push myself into a more comfortable position when my right leg and shoulder scream in protest.
I almost scream myself but I manage to stifle the noise before it escapes my lips. With shaking fingers, I roll up the sleeve of my shirt until I can see my shoulder. There is a small bullet wound that mars the smooth skin of my shoulder and I grit my teeth as I remember the absolute agony as the bullet entered my shoulder.
My thoughts begin to wander and suddenly, I’m standing on the state line between Massachusetts and New Hampshire. Marlene has her gun pointed at me and behind her are at least a half dozen Fireflies.
“Don’t do this Marlene,” I say raising my hands in a calming gesture.
“You betrayed us,” the Fireflies leader replies her voice as hard and cold as it always is when she addresses me. “You haven’t really give me a choice Taysen. I mean stealing food? Did you really think you wouldn’t get caught?”
“I guess old habits die hard,” I reply flatly taking a small step forward. Pulling my necklace from beneath my shirt I say calmly, “Look you can have my pendant, I don’t want to be a Firefly just don’t, don’t make me leave Boston.”
Marlene lowers her gun and gives me a look of exasperation. “One little girl is more important to you than a rebellion? Than a chance to set the world right?”
Taking quick steps, I come face to face with the Fireflies Leader. “That little girl is more important than anything,” I whisper this so only she will hear.
“I care about her too you know,” Marlene whispers back.
“You’ve got a funny way of showing it,” I growl fighting to keep my anger in check. “She’s Anna’s girl Marlene. Anna’s!”
“And what have you done for her? Huh? I am trying to make her world a better place to live. Do you really want her to grow up in a world where the Military is still in control?”
“Oh yeah her life is so much better now,” I say sarcastically. “Since you put her in that Boarding School. Sent her away like she was nothing.”
“I was trying to protect her!” Marlene shouts her face now inches from mine.
“No,” I reply allowing my anger to boil over. “You were only trying to protect yourself-”
I’m cut off by Marlene kicking me hard in the stomach. As I’m trying to regain my breath, there’s the sound of a gunshot and then my shoulder is on fire. I look up at Marlene in shock but her eyes are as cold and hard as ice.
“Make sure she doesn’t come back to Boston,” Marlene tells her cronies.
Then she’s gone and the six Fireflies converge on me. I quickly get to my feet and turning my back, I begin to run.
I didn’t have to go very far before Marlene’s lackeys stopped following me. I hadn’t been able to stop then, I had to get somewhere safe where I could cut out the bullet and rest before planning my next move.
I remember walking for what seemed like hours before coming upon a broken down shack and thankfully finding a hunting knife on the corner of a table. It had taken me 3 hours to get the bullet out of my skin. 2 hours to convince myself to cut my skin open and then 1 hour to dig the metal object out.
I had then torn up a dusty shirt I found in a corner of a dresser drawer and used it as a bandage. I only stayed in that shack until I stopped bleeding before heading towards Salem.
Stop it, I think to myself snapping my thoughts away from the past. I have to keep my head if I am going to get out of this. I look around and see the baseball bat I used to kill the Clicker only a few inches away. Gripping the end of it, I push myself to my feet.
My right ankle still feels unstable but I convince myself that if I can stand, I can walk. Steadying myself with the bat I take a step forward. When I manage to stay on my feet, I take another but it’s on my third step that I crash to the floor.
My vision flashes as my wounded shoulder makes contact with the floor. I lay there for several moments as the burning sensation fades. I push myself onto my back and look down at my right ankle. That’s when I see that my pant leg is soaked with blood.
Terror and dread curdle in my chest and settle into the bottom of my stomach. No, no, no. Feeling sick but unable to purge my empty stomach, I lean forward and tug my pant leg up a few inches above my ankle.
That’s when I see it. My blood is leaking from a shallow bite mark just above my ankle bone.
