The Infection

One Way

They were rushing at me at a speed that I didn’t know was physically possible, and my heart was beating at a similar pace. They were about twenty feet from me, and he was unconscious on the ground. All I had was a hatchet that I could barely hold with these shaking hands. Jack was growling and I had to hold him back with my foot to keep him from charging them and inevitably killing himself.
        The closest one came about five feet from me and jumped. I raised the hatchet, but it was too late. His hand touched my face when in a single, jerking, motion his body flew to the left and landed on the ground, lifeless. I stood in shock in the same position as the same thing happened to the other two. I stood frozen in the same spot for what seemed like several minutes; my mind frozen in time and lost in thoughts of the horrific event I just encountered.
        The next thing I knew, I was being shaken back into consciousness. I blinked and dropped the hatchet, but I didn’t hear it clink against the ground. I was still in shock. I heard a voice talking to me. I couldn’t make any sense out of the words, but they were words nonetheless. Slowly my vision was focusing again and I began making sense out of the words.
        “Ma’am? Are you…” The words echoed in my mind, and I shook my head and looked at the man. “Ma’am, were you hurt or bitten?”
        I stared at him for a second as though my mind had trouble understanding what was being said to me. Then I slowly looked down and examined myself. I looked back up at him and shook my head. “No, I don’t think so.”
        “What about your friend here?”
        I suddenly snapped into full consciousness. “No, he was not. I don’t think, anyway.” I almost forgot what had happened to him. I looked down at him; jack was whimpering next to him, licking his face. He laid there motionless. I kneeled next to him and held his head in my hands, my eyes getting watery again.
        “He’s still breathing, so that’s good. What happened to him?”
        “I don’t know. He killed four of those things that were at the end of the street. Then, his eyes just went blank and he went into some kind of shock. I don’t think I’ve ever seen this happen before to him.” I was trying to fight the tears.
        “It’s okay, we’ll take you and your friend back to our safe house until he recovers. Do you guys have a home?”
        “Yeah, we came into town to get supplies. We live back…” I stopped there because I didn’t know who these people were. They could have been some kind of gang for all I knew.
        “Where?”
        “Oh, uh. I just realized I don’t know. I followed him, so until he wakes up, I can’t find my way back.” That was a lie.
        “Oh, well okay.” He turned and whistled behind him. Suddenly there emerged three more men. One was a tall bald man, heavily built and about in his thirties. Another was scrawny looking with thick brown hair. He didn’t even have a mature beard; he was just boy, maybe eighteen. The third man was tall and muscular. He had broad arms and legs to match. He was maybe in his forties and had a receding hair line. The man I was talking to looked like he had a knack for keeping his completion. He looked a lot like a “pretty boy” to me.
        “Look ma’am, we’re taking you and your friend back to our safe house until he gets revived. We have food and protection. That alright?” He looked at me with an almost twisted look that made me feel uneasy.
        “Uh, yeah, but only until he’s awake. Then we’ll be on our way.”
        “Well, I’m Dale. The big one over there, just call him Squeaks.”
        “Why squeaks?” I asked with a slight chuckle.
        “From the noise his victims make when he gets a hold of them.”
        I swallowed hard and felt sick to my stomach. “What about the other two?” almost scared to ask.
        He looked back at them. “The bald one, we call shiny, and the small one, we call longshot.”
        Both of them looked up and waved at me. I nodded, and then looked down and remembered what had just happened. “I’m Atris. My friend here is…” Just then, I realized that I didn’t know his name. I lived with him for a few days now and never once did I bother to get his name. A wave of sadness hit me at that moment, for I knew that he could very well die without me ever even know what his name is. This brought a tear to my eye, and Dale seemed to notice. He walked up to me and put his hand on my shoulder. I flinched slightly and tensed up.
        “It’s alright; you don’t have to tell us. Let’s just get you guys off the streets. It will be dark soon and those things will be rummaging about.”
        I looked up to him and nodded, and knelt down to hold his head in my lap. The thought of him dying and leaving me in the world without ever knowing his name kept striking me with grief. I leaned over slowly, tears dripping from my face. How could I have been so stupid for now getting his name? My lips touched his, and I lightly kissed his lips. Life was not going to steal that from me at least.
        Dale coughed and spoke up finally. “Alright, we need to get out of here.” The bigger one, Squeaks, came over and took him from me and picked him up. I hesitantly released him after some struggle to let him go.
Following Dale, we proceeded down various alleys, streets and yards to reach a makeshift fortified house at the end of one of the streets. Jack kept up, staying close to me. I made sure to try and remember the way back, just in case. The small barrier around the house was a number of posts in the ground holding up barbed wire. Two women were sitting on the porch, each with a child, probably theirs, sitting there with them.
We walked up to the gate that had a sign on it, and I took a hard gulp. It read, “ONE WAY”.