The Outbreak - Chapter 3

I raise my blood-soaked hand to brush the hair out of my face as the might of dusty wind fights against me; each step I take in this wind feels like a thousand steps on broken glass. As I lift my head up, I'm forced to wince when I'm met with the embrace of sand entwining itself around me. I can taste the gravel, like a childhood memory of falling off your bike into the sandpit face first. The whistle can be heard for miles over the vast emptiness of rural Arizona. I've lost track of how long we've been walking for, or even how far we've gone. It doesn't matter now.

At what seems like the speed of light, I hear a thud to my left, accompanied by the silhouette casting itself across the ground, disappearing once Jade replaces it. I look down to see her laying out on the sand; her hair, almost invisible with the sand coating it with what I can only describe as a camouflage. Her eyes are gaunt, skin pale, and her petite fingers writhing, filtering the orange dust through them.

"Throw me the flask!" my voice tries to battle the monstrous wind to as much prevail as a child surviving a backflip off the Empire State Building. "Throw me the fucking flask, Jordan!" Through the dust, I see the brown hair of another shift in a different direction, exposing his face. The shock stricken face shows that he can see me. "Throw it!" I shout once more, making a gesture of me drinking. He grabs the flask from the side pocket on his bag and sends it through the air, landing next to me. I drop to my knees, shielding my eyes with one hand whilst holding the flask between my knees and unscrewing the top with my other. At the risk of having a beach for eyes, I take down my protection hand and place it under Jade's head, lifting it to the flask and slowly pouring the water into her dry, parched mouth. The hand of another grasps my shoulder.

"What happened?" Jordan's voice is shaky and quiet under the stained white sheet around his head.

"I think she's dehydrated..." I pause for a moment, taking the flask away from her mouth and handing it to Jordan. "Jordan, she's not moving!" Suddenly the wind begins to blast like a firing squad, and we're the targets. My vision begins to dissipate as the sand and dirt cloud the air all around us. "We have to go!" I scream as loud as I can against the storm. A huge gust blows the sheet from Jordan's face, sending a blast of debris into his face.

"Shit!" he throws himself backward onto the ground, clenching his face with his hands. Sam sprints over and places an antibacterial cloth over his bloodshot eyes.

"This is all we have right now! Get up!" she demands, forcing him up by the arms before he throws the wipe to the wind. He stumbles over to me and Jade and grabs her feet.

"Grab her! We have to go, now!" As he shouts, he already begins lifting before I get her, supporting her back and covering her face with an old shirt from my bag.

We force our way through the shrouded nothingness with Jade in our arms. The orange haze grows larger and more dangerous by the minute and we make no haste to get somewhere safe. In the carnage there's another sound; not just the whistling of the storm or the scratching of debris against our skin. There's a growl, it's sound ascending more and more.

"Infected!" Sam screams in hysteria as the sound of bones crunching can be faintly heard as she caves in the skull of a monster. "We have to run!" Suddenly, a sharp pain sends me in agony to the ground; I drop Jade, sending her crashing. I turn onto my back to greet an infected, slashing and clawing at my face, missing by millimetres.

"SAM!" Without haste, I'm hit with a geyser of blood, covering almost every inch of my face as the bat eviscerates the Infected's face.

"Zack, keep your mouth shut! You don't want to swallow it!" The need for a witty sarcastic shot is needed now after Sam's more than obvious input, but I won't risk it. As I rise to my feet again, my face freezes, stiff with the new mask of dust grains sticking to the warm viscous blood; I grab the flask and transfer the last of the water to my face, rinsing the residue in some parts and smearing it in others.

"NO FUCKING SHIT?!" I manage to escape with my mouth now clear. With four piercing eyes fixed onto me I set to begin walking once more.

I can feel the blood ooze from the tiniest scratches covering every inch of my exposed skin; My eyes obscured in the storm apart from a faint red haze clouding the corners of my vision. My condition won't stop me from finding a safe place for my friends. As luck would have it, I hear a complain coming from in front of me following the sound of a metallic crash.

"Shit!" I hear. I stumble further onward until I stop at the sight of Sam, staring up at green sign. "Flagstaff," it reads.

"Flagstaff?" I ask, turning to Jordan in hopes of an explanation; to which he shrugs. Jade begins to reanimate, tossing and turning in our arms briefly, before going idle once more.

"Never heard of it!" Although his voice is mute against the battling winds, his lips still read clear. "It wouldn't hurt to find shelter though." He begins walking again, forcing me forward as well, Sam takes point.

The further we walk, the sand slowly materialises into concrete, it's easy to juxtapose. No longer in a vast emptiness, I feel dwarfed by the suburban houses with imported palm trees and shattered windows. Out of all of them, one stands out to me; It's brighter than the rest humming a harmonious tune that drowns out the deafening howl of the wind. The intact glass panes lure me in with a most infatuating sense of safety. "This one!" I scream, at the same time picking my pace up to almost a run, followed by Jordan and Sam. Jordan takes Jade from my grasp and holds her over his left shoulder with her head faced downwards to protect her from flying debris.

The front door is tall, towering over me like an outraged mother; It's a wooden design with two panes of long glass from top to bottom with a darkly beautiful black floral patter streaming down them. Sam shoots through one of them and the bullet ricochets through the entire house, echoing around before coming back to slap me in the face. As she opens the door, an unprecedented sense of trepidation courses through my body. I remain a statue staring in from the outside for what seems like hours; the whitewashed walls seem to sink into the red tiled floor while I watch on.

"Zack!" I'm snapped back to reality as Sam grabs me by the arms and pulls me in, slamming shut the door behind me and finally putting an end to the ferocious haze and whistling of the storm; I can finally see. "Get your head in the game, Z, we can grieve once Jade's okay..." Relentlessly she struts down the hallway and through a dark brown wooden arch into a room to the left; I follow behind, keeping one hand on the wall, smearing blood and dirt in a most abstract fashion.

I stumble through the arch where I can finally see the devastating aftermath. Jordan, his face cut and swollen, seeping blood; his eyes are glowing red like a strobing hazard light. His hair is split and ruffled, although I'm assuming that's the least of his worries.

Sam is scurrying around the primarily burgundy and gold room looking for anything that can help. Her soft olive skin is in almost pristine condition with the exception of a few grazes and sand burn.

"How is she!" I plea for an answer as Jordan has his ear to her chest and his hand in front of her mouth.

"She's not that cut up and she's breathing, so I think she'll be fine." He stops for a well deserved breath. "Just let her sleep, we'll just have to keep giving her water." As I turn to leave I'm stopped by a desperate voice. "Zack..." I turn to face him; It's hard seeing him look so beaten up. "We got a lot thrown at us out there, but you're holding on so well." He walks towards me and throws his arms around me. "I'm sorry." I wrap my left arm around him and hold his head with my right hand; he doesn't say why he's sorry, but I know. I step away and reach my hand out, to which he grabs it and gives it one firm shake.

"Well..." I release his hand and take a step back. "I've got a layer of Infectious blood on me, so..." Jordan laughs and nods.

"Yeah, go wash that shit," he adds, lowering himself onto the black leather couch.

The flying debris of sand and dirt from the storm has stopped dancing, replaced with a grey sky and a most peaceful rainfall; the droplets slide down the window as the piping steam escapes the vent beside it, leaking out into the world. My skin feels like it's melting as the shower pours down, encompassing me in it's mist. I look to the floor to see water and blood intertwine, playing around my feet before making an escape down the drain into nothingness. As I close my eyes I see sour memories on a replaying loop; all I can think about is my sister, how her body look as it was flown the through the air. The vivid memory of her bright blue eyes loosing their glow is enough to break me; how her body crunched as she landed. All the blood.

I reach out to the valve with my now clean right hand whilst pulling the curtain back with my left, stepping out onto the crystal white tiled floor, I curl my toes as the cold from the ground feels like little pins. I move my eyes upward toward the door and a jolt is sent through my body; there stands Jordan, his blood-soaked white shirt hangs just above the ground in the tight grasp of his hand. His slim-athletic body, riddled with tiny cuts and abrasions, still leaking small amounts of blood just stays like a statue as I let him notice I'm standing there. Before even a sound escapes either of our mouths I place my left hand in a place of privacy and reach out for the fluffy white towel with the other; he doesn't seem fazed in the slightest. He slowly walks towards me, releasing his grasp of the shirt allowing it to hit the ground. He reaches his arm out and places it around my waist, holding my back and with his other he places it on my left cheek, pulling me in closer and closer until our lips touch. The five seconds were mere bliss until I hastily push him away.; watching the smile fade from his face.

"Someone might come in," I whisper, keeping a tight grasp on the hand I have placed in front of my penis. "We talked about this." I turn my head to avoid his second attempt.

"Z, we need this. It's been a long few days," he exclaims, pulling my body closer. I grasp his arms with mine, now fully exposed, and push him away.

"This... is the last thing on my mind right now..." my voice quivers as I wrap the towel around my waist and make my way to the door, turning back for not even a second. He stands there and rests his face in his palms.

The slam of the bedroom door clashing with the dark wooden frame shatters the air around me. I tighten my grip of the towel as I move toward the bed where I park myself, wanting to lose myself in thought. I lay backward so my legs are hanging off the edge, hovering just above the polished wooden boards; the cream silk sheets give me a comfort I haven't felt in almost a week, as well as blending nicely with the mostly black décor of the room. I close my eyes shut and lose myself in the darkness, finding myself at an uneasy peace, however temporary it may be. My mind is a mist, and from it emerges Lucy, dancing in sync with my heartbeat; she looks happy and alive. She suddenly stops and lets out a horrifying wail, charging at me with her arm extended, reaching for my throat.

I release a scream and begin punching and kicking the air around me as I recollect myself; I try to get my bearings by looking around and I realise I'm back in the house, shrouded in darkness as day turned to night. I hear footsteps running towards the door so I stand on my feet with my towel still wrapped around me. Jordan bursts through the door.

"What happened!?" he shouts, armed and ready with Sam's bloodied bat. He drops it when his eyes meet mine; the tears act almost like a bait, drawing him in. He wraps his arms around me and squeezes me tightly. His lips are like clouds on my face.

"She's gone..." I cry into his shoulder. I lose all feeling in my legs and crash to the ground without him letting go; He sits beside me and pulls me into his chest where I lay on him, inconsolable. He runs his hand through my hair and kisses me on the head, shedding a tear as he lays his head on mine. We sit intertwined together, and I never want to move.