Sweet Dreams
"Look out!"
"The safe room's right there! Just make a run for it!"
Six survivors all made a mad dash for the door. All made it in. All except for the one girl on death row.
"We can't just leave her right there. She's just outside the frame..!"
"Come on, then..." Two of the survivors dragged her inside and propped her up against the wall while the rest defended. Thank god the Tank can't get into safe rooms.
The girl wouldn't move, but she wasn't unconscious. Her breaths were short and shallow. Her heart rate might as well have been the same.
Barricading the room was simple. It was finished within seconds. All that was left was to heal the sick. Or wait for death.
The dying girl's friend has been there for her through everything. They were practically inseparable. She couldn't bear to see the other in such a condition as this. She went numb every time she managed a glance.
She really was a sight for sore eyes. Half of her body was seared off from the flames of the infected. She had a giant welt on her head and across her forehead from striking the wall. Her shoulder looked to have been dislocated. She had had a limp for the past couple of runs.
Everyone knew it-she was beyond healing.
No one dared to say it. They didn't want her to snap right before she went. She hadn't been anything less than strong the entire way.
She was younger, so she was a bit weaker. This was realized, but still, not a single tear was shed from her behalf.
The five had been at the small table, restocking ammunition, grabbing Molotov cocktails and pipe bombs, and taking the rest of the adrenaline and pills to divide amongst themselves. Each exchanged glances of worry every so often towards the girl.
The room stayed eerily quiet. No one seemed to want to take in the gloomy atmosphere. It was easily ignored until the pain caught up with her.
Her eyes started watering, pooling over with tears. It went unnoticed until she suddenly jerked her arm over her mouth to choke back a sob.
Her friend, who had been avoiding any interaction, suddenly jumped from the sudden flash of red from the corner of her eye. In truth, she was terrified for her. She didn't want to accept what was happening to her friend.
The four others looked over. None of them dared to walk over and comfort her, but there was always one exception. The rest kept reloading their weapons and acting as if nothing happened.
The young man had set his gun down and kneeled down next to her.
"You're okay..." He ruffled her hair, careful not to touch the contusion.
She shook her head barely. Her neck was stiff from all of the draining blood.
"Whoa, whoa, whoa. Don't move so much," he held her head in place, "Don't wanna get all dizzy now."
She coughed and retched in response. The internal bleeding from her lungs spilt out, making it impossible for her to speak.
She tried avoiding his eyes. She didn't need sympathy. She knew she was going to be alright.
He, in turn, used the sleeve from his overalls to clean the excess blood from her face. "Looking better already!" he managed a slight smile.
The corners of her mouth twitched upwards. He accepted this as something close to a smile. She had enough sense of humor left in her for that.
He pushed a lock of her hair back behind her ear. "We're going to go get ya' some help. You'll just have to hold out here, got it?" He forced her to look him straight in the eyes. This was all enough to keep her mind off of the numbing pain.
She nodded ever so slightly, and leaned her head into his shoulder. She only managed to mumble out a couple of words, "Don't leave..." Her willpower had dwindled significantly. She grabbed onto his shirt as if that could make him sit there with her forever.
He let her have what would have been her last wish. She was thankful for this and just cried into his shoulder because she didn't receive an answer.
Her friend wasn't completely out of it all. She had watched her friend slip away in the beginning. Her sanity was severely dropping as well. There was no way she could have blocked out an entire conversation about all of that. At one point during the entire scene, she slipped into a corner of the room and covered her ears, trying to get rid of everything that was going on.
Rochelle, the older woman of the group, was trying to comfort the girl silently. She didn't want to startle Ellis and the girl. If she were to see the last of her friends die along with them all...
The two other men, Nick and Coach, were leaning against the table. They looked at the ground and stayed silent, mourning what was inevitable. They both knew the sobbing wasn't going to be the worst of it, and, of course, they were right.
The girl started whimpering. It sounded as if a young puppy had just been hit by a car and could no longer defend itself, like it was too incapacitated to move on. It was a small noise, only being able to be heard by Ellis at first, but grew louder as the pain spread throughout her entire body.
First is always the uncomfortable, numb sensation. Next is always the agony of the body literally tearing itself apart at the seams.
It was truly a pitiful noise. One that a human should never be able to make.
Ellis was able to calm her down enough so that she would listen again, "Hey now. Don't be like that. You'll be fine!" He forced a melancholy smile, "How 'bout this, you go to sleep and when you wake up, we'll be right here with help, alright?"
Her vision was almost completely blurred out and there were now three of him in view. She had to close her eyes anyways. She nodded and he let her lay her head in his lap. They were going to come back. She was going to be perfectly fine.
She had believed in this one little lie up until the very last second. It carried her the entire way.
As soon as she slipped out of consciousness into a world much better than this, Ellis stood up and found a spare fire blanket. He wrapped her up in it, no wounds could be seen, and kissed her forehead.
"Sweet dreams."