It had been a couple of hours since me and Riley got bit, her symptoms were getting worse and worse every couple of minutes, but mine haven't even started. We were holed up in some mattress store that happened to be free of any infected, so we barricaded the door and made ourselves comfortable on one of the less rotted mattresses.
"Fuck, this hurts." Riley groaned, examining the horribly wrapped ace bandage on her hand.
"Tell me about it," Yeah, my bite hurt, but it was like getting in a fight or something, like a shallow stab would. The mattress made a loud popping noise as I plopped down onto it.
I looked over to Riley, she was unwrapping the bandage to look closer at her wound.
"What the fuck Riley, put that back on!" I sprung up so fucking fast to try and force her to put it back on, but she shooed me away. "It's getting worse." She began tracing the bite with her index and middle fingers, "I don't think I'll make it past 9:00, Heh, that's when I'm supposed to meet Marlene and the other Boston QT Fireflies."
"Don't talk like that." I told her, not that she'd listen. She never listens.
"Why not? It's the truth, accept it, Ellie." She's so blunt. I hate it when she's blunt. She wrapped her hand back up and lay down next to me, placing her head next to mine. She wasn't as warm as before, in fact, she was steadily getting colder. We stayed like that for a while, maybe half an hour.
"Hey, what was that one sappy love song you had on that shitty old cassette, Uh, 'want to hold your hand' or something?" Her voice sounded pained, almost scared. I've never seen her scared, like, ever.
"What about it?" My hand searched for hers in the mattress, eventually finding and intertwining it with hers.
"Sing it for me." Her breaths were getting shorter, like they would when you cry. She wasn't crying though, she's Riley, she never cries. Right?
I was on the verge of tears myself as I began to softly sing, "yeah, I'll tell you something, think you'll understand," I could hear Riley cry now, not in sobs, but real crying. Crying like you would when a loved one dies.
"When I'll say that something, I wanna hold your hand," I held back tears and continued the song, "I wanna hold your hand I wanna hold your hand"
She coughed, and I turned my head to a small stream of blood running from her mouth. I sat up to get a better look. "Fuck Riley, you're turning!" That broke me, it was like a dam broke, tears blurred the vision of my best friend-my soul mate- coughing up blood with a small smile showing in the corner of her mouth. "Keep going," she told me, "It's going to be fine." she pulled the pistol out of her pocket and put it in my hand. "Just in case." She whispered, more blood dripped down to her jawline.
I stayed quite for a minute or two, watching the light in her eyes burn out. "Oh please say to me, you'll let me be your girl," A low gurgling noise came from the back of her throat. "And please say to me, you'll let me hold your hand" Her eyes began to turn colors, from a warm brown to a bloodied color I couldn't quite describe.
"Now let me hold your hand," I cocked the pistol and placed it at her temple, tears falling down onto her blood stained shirt. "I wanna hold your hand" I smothered the gun and Riley's face with a pillow. "I wanna hold your hand"
The gunshot wasn't loud, hell, I could barely hear it over my sobbing, but it seemed to ring on in my head for hours, days, from leaving the mall, to Marlene, to Joel.
"Ellie," A deep voice brought me back to reality. Fuck.
"Huh?"
"The ladder."
"Oh, right."