I ran. Running with the little girl clutched in my arms, her crying into my torn grey shirt. She told me her name. Lilly. Flower names had become exceedingly popular when they were near extinction a few years ago.
I have a really weird train of thought. You have been forewarned. I blame it on the tiny little bit of ADHD. I can make myself sit still, but I can't really focus.
I panted as I clutched her head to my chest, to try and keep her from seeing the horrors I knew were chasing us. I could hear them, their moaning and groaning of hunger. Though the stench could have given them away from a mile off. The disgusting odor of rotten, sunbaked flesh.
Eventually, my legs would no longer go as fast as my brain was telling them to and I stumbled. I wasn't going to let this little girl, who had trusted me, the one in my arms get hurt, so I tried to twist so that I took the impact, not her. Unfortunately for me, it worked. I felt skin all the way up my arm get torn apart by the cracked asphalt, barbed wire, thorns and gravel, but I made no noise to indicate that I was in pain. I had to stay strong. I had to stay strong and brave for the little girl in my arms.
Lilly.
Then I heard voices through the trees of the overgrown park. Human voices, the only ones that I had heard all day.
Ivy and other varieties of overgrowth entangled me as I forced myself to stand up, keep holding Lilly and keep following the once-paved path to get to the Clean Zone.
"Gracie!" I heard someone yelling, someone with a deep male voice that I could have recognized anywhere. Dylan? A strange train of thought went through my head as I continued to run to the base. The safe zone. Why was he looking for me? Did he have a gun to deal with all of the Infected behind me? Was the wall up? My arms are tired. I set the girl on the ground and held her hand as we continued to run to the place I called home.
Is that my blood?
The dizziness weighed on me. Red covered my arms and clothes. I was disoriented as I ran face first into the invisible energy wall that surrounded the Clean Zone.
"Open the gate, idiot!" From the man's mouth, following that command, escaped the most colorful and creative swearing I had heard in awhile. Yup, definitely Dylan.
"Language, there is a child present," I muttered. I was still on the ground, finding myself able to mutter sarcastic comments, but unable to get up.
"Yes, Mother Goose," he responded, though whether he was being humorous or not I couldn't quite tell. The energy field turned off as he rushed forward, grabbed me and the child up in his arms and pulled us across into the Clean Zone. I guess everything was clean here but Dylan's mouth. He pulled Lilly inside and yelled at Moki to turn the energy field back on already as I heard the Infected approach.
The buzzing sound of static filled the air as the field went up just in time… for me to pass out.
XOXOXOX
I don't remember much from passing out, but I think that's how it is supposed to be. I wouldn't know, I don't just pass out much. Though there is a bit I do remember. Mostly everyone's voices got softer and softer until everything faded to black, like the movies I would watch with my parents as a kid. At one point there was a sound louder than the others, it must have been a yell or scream or something because even as it ensued, it too, got softer and softer…
I woke up with a searing pain in my arm, it felt like a fire caused by a cool liquid. Disinfectant. I didn't dare move. I felt the bright light. I was in the Infirmary.
Then there were the tweezers, digging around until they found something that wasn't supposed to be there and I couldn't take it any longer. I cried out in pain. I opened my eyes a bit more to see the surprised expression of Evelyn, but everyone called her Doc.
Before the unleashing of the sickness, Doc was a trainee in the med school in the old Ishi district, working on her last year, in fact, and was about to graduate and be on her way to be a pediatric surgeon. To celebrate, she and a few of her friends, who were nurses already, went out, rented a cabin in the middle of nowhere and were planning on spending a few days away from human beings, with their wine and sappy movies. This saved them when the Virus started, but slowly they were all picked off by the Infected… except Doc, who has revealed nothing about her past besides that.
Right now, her curly black hair was pulled back in a ponytail and she wore a surgical mask, and her scrubs hiding most of her dark brown skin. I could hear her breath against it, and could see it fog up her glasses, hiding her bright blue eyes. How did that not drive her crazy?
"You're up," she said, puzzled.
"And you're surprised," I retorted. She shook her head. In all honesty, she looked kinda panicked.
"No, this isn't right. I gave you enough sedative to knock out a full grown man so you wouldn't wake up during the procedure. That was 15 minutes ago."
I shrugged. "I guess I forgot to tell you. Knockout meds don't work on me. None of my doctors growing up knew why. Not even simple sleeping pills." Oh, did I mention that I have terrible insomnia? Guess not. That's why I needed sleeping meds in the first place.
"That's weird…" Doc's words drifted off. She shook off the shock. "Oh well, I guess you will just have to deal with the pain. We ran out of serious pain killers a few weeks ago. Used the last of the morphine on Kate's broken hand when she punched a wall."
"That's what broke her hand?!" Doc nodded.
"She was embarrassed about it, so I didn't say anything." I nodded as well. If everyone was as tight-lipped as Doc, my life would be a lot easier.
As I thought that, Willow burst into the room with her slaves… Sorry, I mean… uh… friends in tow. They were four blonde girls in their early teens who would do anything to please their queen. I didn't know them very well, I just know that they practically worshipped Willow and swooned over basically every single guy they came across, which makes sense considering that there were few left. She was the fiancé of Dylan and a major pain in my arse. Partly because I like Dylan. Partly because she is fake as hell. Mostly because she and her little popular group didn't contribute to the shelter, at all, and got on my ever-loving nerves.