Author Note: Thanks for reading and reviewing guys. It's been great. I planned to have this chapter up sooner, but a death of a friend sidelined my writing so thanks for the patience. Hope you enjoy guys.

Carina awoke her entire stomach and chest were ablaze underneath the bandages that covered most of her upper half. Her cuts had become inflamed while she slept and now it was all the young woman could do to sit up.

"Cas….Casey?"

"CASEY!" Carina screamed as she looked around not finding her friend. Just as despair was beginning to take hold of her, the blonde girl saw something in the far dark corner move. There was a rustling sound and the witch poked her head out from under the tarp she had been hiding under.

"I'm…..I'm so sorry Carina." Casey said breaking down and crying. "If I could control myself I wouldn't…I wouldn't….."

The young college girl tried to scoot across the floor towards the witch, but her wounds protested sending a shockwave of pain that doubled Carina over onto her side.

"You wouldn't what?"

For several moments, the witch remained very still wrapping the tattered tarp around her. Then with a choking cry, Casey pointed toward her friend's left arm. "I wouldn't have….your arm."

Carina looked to where the infected girl was pointing and saw a poorly wrapped bandage around her left bicep. Looking at the wound, the blonde felt the pain for the first time. Whatever had happened to her arm the wound had been deep.

'It feels like something took a chunk out of my arm.' Carina thought as she slowly undid the bandage to inspect her injury. As her eyes fell upon the wound, Casey let out a sorrowful wail.

"I…I couldn't stop myself….I'm so sorry Carina…please forgive me."

Carina stared at her injured arm in stunned silence. There was a large gash where something had taken a good sized bite. Her arm might heal, but there would be scars if not permanent damage to the muscle. Carina looked up at the witch who was staring at her full of fear.

"You….you bit me? I mean you ate me?"

The witch nodded, "I tried to stop myself, please forgive me, please forgive me, please…." Casey pleaded as she stood and walked towards the injured college girl.

"NO! STAY AWAY!" Carina yelled trying to scoot away from the infected girl fear and anger fighting each other for dominance.

The words hit Casey like a train causing her knees to buckle. "But….I'm sorry….and we….we are friends…right?" The witch stammered as tears began to flow from her eyes.

"Friends….friends don't eat each other Casey. I thought you were better. I thought…I thought you could be trusted. I…" Carina's reply was cut off as she coughed hard spitting out some blood onto the ground.

"It was an accident." Casey whispered having no heart to argue when she knew Carina was right. She tried to walk towards Carina, but the injured girl whimpered in fear and tried to crawl away. There was only one thing that could be done now. The witch stopped moving forward her heart ripping to pieces.

"Goodbye Carina…I'm so sorry." Casey muttered as she wiped the tears from her eyes. The witch walked to the basement door and placed a clawed hand on the door knob. She spared one last glance at her former friend. "It was nice of you to try and save me….some things just can't be helped I guess." With that Casey opened the door and slipped out into the main part of the house.

Carina heard some loud bangs as Casey most likely placed a few pieces of furniture in front of the door to keep the common infected from tearing it down. Then there was a loud sorrowful wail that grew fainter every passing minute. Eventually there was no more sobbing outside the door and Carina knew that once again she was truly alone.

Tears running down her cheeks, Carina collapsed to the floor in exhaustion. She stared at the ceiling of the basement, remembering first finding Casey, getting her to talk with the adrenaline shots, and the joy when they had brought her back from the grave to find she had 'beaten' the infection.

"Damn it all." The injured girl muttered. "Damn it all."

Three days. It took three days for Carina to heal enough that she could move. Every moment of the last 72 hours had been spent reliving every moment since she had met Casey. Besides the few moments of dreamless sleep, her mind was constantly searching through every memory she had of the infected girl, painstakingly searching for something that would have been a clue that it would go so horribly wrong.

With a loud groan, the young blonde girl pushed herself to her feet. She had only one chance for survival. She had to make it back to the safe house. Odds were Danielle and Keith had moved on, but she had to know for sure. Casey was no longer an ally. Carina was once again alone.

"C'mon girl, you've come too far to give up now." She muttered to herself.

Grabbing a small axe from the basement, Carina hobbled her way towards the door. Her muscles were stiff and her stomach and chest still ached from where wounds were just beginning to stay closed. Opening the door inward, Carina was faced with a small pile of furniture.

Though Carina knew that the barricade before her was the witch's last attempt to protect her, the college girl let out a string of curses as she began to move the furniture. After half an hour, she had managed to move a desk and small book shelf to the side enough to provide a small gap to crawl her way to freedom.

What Carina saw when she stepped out surprised her. Scattered all about the house were the mutilated bodies of the common infected. Carina limped her way outside and stepped into the sun. After several minutes of blinking and squinting, her eyes adjusted to the bright mid-day sunlight. Scattered about the road were the remains of several common infected. Like those she had found inside the house, these had long slashes across their bodies.

'She lost it once she left. She's given completely over to the infection again.'

Carina started making her way towards the safe house that was several blocks away. Though it was a short walk, the injured girl's weakened body began to give out. As Carina neared the heavy red door with the barred window, the distinctive shriek of an infected human rang out. Carina turned to spot two common infected running down the street towards her.

"Damn it this door better open." Carina said reaching the door and giving it a hard tug. Nothing happened.

"Oh C'mon you piece of shit!" She yelled as the door barely budged with her next pull. Knowing that she didn't have the strength to fight off the two approaching infected Carina put all her strength into one final pull.

With a loud creak, the heavy steel door pulled open. Carina slipped inside dragging the heavy door behind her and barring the door shut. The blonde collapsed to the ground panting in exhaustion as the two infected slammed into the door with frustrated howls.

Pain shooting through her chest, Carina reached towards her bandages and found something sticky on her hands. Pulling her hand to her face she realized that at least one of her gashes had opened up again causing the white gauze to turn red with her blood.

Finding a fresh med pack and a bottle of pills, Carina went to work. The pills dulled the pain and allowed her to replace the old bandages. The bleeding slowed down and eventually came to a stop. Taking a quick swig of some water, Carina laid her head down on the cold concrete and stared at the wall. There she saw the message left for her and tears sprang to her eyes.

'Carina, Casey, we waited as long as we could. Radio said that the military is extracting survivors from the baseball stadium on the East side of town. We've headed for extraction. Good luck. –Keith and Danielle '

'Yep I'm alone.' Carina thought to herself as sleep gripped her body and dragged her out of consciousness.

Author Note: Thanks again to everyone for reading. Reviews are always appreciated. I've got the ending in mind, but there are most likely several more chapters before we get to that point so keep checking back, next chapter will hopefully be up within a week.