—Ever—
I woke up from the nightmare with a start. The night was cold, freezing the already cold sweat that drenched my clothes. It was just a dream, I told myself. I stared up into the night sky, watching the little white dots in the sky twinkle as a gasped in frigid breaths. My chest hurt like crazy, but I ignored it.
Stupid mind. I buried my face into my hands for a second. The sound of groaning could be heard a couple hundred yards away. I stood up shakily, not sure if I was ready to move again. I stumbled down the railroad tracks. I was unfamiliar with where I was, but I was positive I was still in Georgia.
It couldn't see 20 feet in front of me, so I had to squint slightly.
That was my first mistake.
The groans, I realized, were much louder then I had thought. One rotting hand lunged out of the darkness and grabbed my arm. I yanked me arm out of the way, but the teeth scraped me, luckily not breaking the skin. Another one grabbed me from behind, sinking its teeth into my side. I already had the knife in its skull. I quickly sliced the chunk of flesh off my side, hoping the infection hadn't spread already.
Mistake number two was when I let my guard down. The pain the shot through my side made me lightheaded. I fell to the floor with a thud and a crunch, and suddenly my hip hurt too. The zombie that had attempted to bite my arm jumped on top of me. I used my remaining strength to keep it an arms length away from my face. Suddenly, a gunshot whizzed through the air, landing in the corpse head.
Then everything went dark.