Chapter 12

Author's note:

I was reviewing this chapter after the first time I wrote it, and I realized something.

I totally hate my writing style.

But I love keeping track of the stories I make up, so I guess you might have to suffer more.

Anyways, I still don't own anything, so don't sue.

"You know, I bet that the mud men are further down in the swamp." I said.

"No way," Josh said, "I can't believe we're turning to mud men for protection."

"Is now the best time?" Eric interrupted, "I personally want to get the hell out of here."

"Yeah, yeah," I said.

When we stepped out, there was mud all over the place. I stifled a laugh when Amanda made a face. Before she could make a comment, I took off and headed outward. Unfortunately, it was more difficult than I thought it would be. The mud would cling to my shoes and refuse to let go. We kept our slow moving until we came to a boat on the mud.

"Why is there a boat here?" Amanda asked.

"Why do you even wonder?" I responded.

"Look," Josh said, "It's guiding where we need to go!"

The nose of the boat was pointing towards a clearing hidden by the trees. We trudged further in mud until we got to a large field. I had to stop to catch my breath. I rested my hand on my knee as I waited for the others to show up. As I scanned the area, something caught my eye. I looked up to see an airplane flying overhead.

"Hey guys, look!" I said, waving them over.

Josh smiled, "More survivors!" he said.

"Plane and simple," I said.

Eric narrowed his eyes, but before he could respond, he looked up quickly. I followed his line of vision and stared in horror as the plane's nose tipped downwards and it started spiraling towards us. We ran out of the way as the ground was destroyed by the impact.

"Way to go!" Eric said, "Your pun killed a plane!"

"Ha ha," I said dryly.

"We don't have time for this!" Josh said.

"He's right," Amanda said.

"Fine," I said. It was strange to be corrected by Amanda, "Before we leave," I said, "can we at least check for survivors?"

"We can't," Josh said, "We have to get your arm fixed as soon as possible, as to avoid any permanent damage."

"Fine," I said.

We made our way further down along the path, the foliage increasing with each step. As we walked, there was a repeated appearance of burned house corpses strewn all over. I was starting to get creeped out more than usual, when finally, we found a house still intact. We ran inside and split up to search for supplies. I didn't find any in the front of the pantry, but before I could search any further, a familiar smell reached me.

"Anyone smell something burning?" I asked.

Eric sniffed the air, "You're right," he said.

As if to confirm his statement, a dark plume of smoke roamed in from the hallway. I followed it to find the kitchen engulfed in flame.

Suddenly, a glass cylinder crashed through the window and splashed this horrible smelling liquid on me. I made a move to wipe it off, but I was stopped by the cry of the horde.

"Oh no," I said as zombies began jumping through the window. As they made their way toward me, they would barely brush the growing fire and just burst into flames. It didn't make much sense, but why complain, especially when the zombies ran around and died instead of eating me.

I ran out of the house with the zombies following. Even though I had a head start, the zombies were slowly closing the gap between us. Josh, Amanda, and Eric ran after me, picking off some of the zombies behind me, but the zombies paid no mind to them and just kept chasing me.

"Why won't they leave me alone?" I yelled.

"You've got boomer puke on you!" Eric yelled back, "It attracts the zombies!"

"Puke?" I said, disgusted, "That's just gross."

I jumped in a nearby mud hole and rolled around. I looked up and saw the zombies turn around and run towards Eric and the others. The zombies were easier targets now that Eric and them weren't running, and they were taken out in no time.

We ran further down, killing the zombies we could, until we got to another clearing. We rested again and looked up for anymore survivors. This time a fighter plane flew over us. I tried to get their attention, but they kept flying. When they got over a certain point, they dropped several parachuted items. I couldn't tell what they were, but I was going to find out.

We started toward the landing area, but when we got to a certain point, Josh stopped us and signed for us to be quiet. I wasn't sure what was going on, but Josh looked really serious, so I complied. When he finally looked back at us, he nodded his head then pointed. I looked in the direction he pointed and saw a soldier parachute into a clearing. I made a move to get his attention, but Josh stopped me.

"What's the deal" I asked.

Josh responded by putting a finger to his lips. When the soldier walked away, Josh said, "That's not a rescue soldier."

"What?" I asked.

"CEDA has sent in these soldiers to kill everything." Josh said, "There's a really good chance that if they see us, they will shoot first and ask questions never."

"How the hell's that work?" Eric said, "I thought CEDA was supposed to be saving us!"

"I don't know," Josh said, "These guys were supposed to be let out when all of the survivors were saved."

"Crud," I said.

Suddenly there was a crash in the trees above us and I looked up to see a soldier whose parachute got stuck in the trees.

"Need help?" I yelled up at him.

He gave me a fearful look, "Shit, an infected already!" he said. He grabbed his gun and frantically began firing at us.

I jumped behind a tree, yelling, "We're not infected!"

"Carriers!" he yelled back.

"Let us just help you down," I said.

"Stay away from me!" he yelled, hysteria rising in his voice.

"Let's go!" Eric said.

"But…" I began to protest, but Eric pulled me away.

As we walked, the soldier's words kept replaying in my mind, so I decided to ask Josh about it, "He said something about carriers." I started, "What did he mean exactly?"

Josh sighed, "There two types of infected," he began, "There is the one that we have been fighting. Then, there are carriers. Carriers are those who are infected with the virus, but they show no signs of it. It does however affect non-infected when in contact."

"Yikes," I said, "so no one is immune?"

"Not exactly," he sighed, "Because CEDA made a cure, they made it also causes immunity, so it is possible to be immune, but we haven't found subjects who are immune before injection of the cure."

"So how do we stop zombies from getting into an evac center?" I asked.

"CEDA is supposed to be injecting the cure in every survivor that shows up." Josh said.

"Yeah, cause that worked SO well at the last Evac centers we were in," Eric said, his words dripping with sarcasm.

"It's true," Josh said, "I don't know what's happening."

"Has everyone gotten the cure?" I asked.

"Yup," Josh said, "we should probably move on now, though."

We walked further on until we came across a small house. Just as I got next to it, I heard what sounded like an angry cow, and I turned to see a charger bounding toward me. Before it could crash into me, I felt a force from the side as Josh pushed me out of the way.

I landed directly on my arm. I bit my lip as I slowly got up, trying not to increase the pain. My arm screamed as I finally got steady.

I was glad to see that Amanda and Eric gunned the charger down before it could do any real damage to Josh. All it did was smash him through the wall, so he just pushed the charger corpse off of him and dusted himself off.

Eric made a move toward the house, but I shot him a look. I had had enough with tiny houses. When we walked all the way around, my suspicions were confirmed by the giant gaping hole in the other side. As we walked up the nearby hill, the rain began pouring.

I didn't want a dislocated shoulder AND a cold, so I quickly made my way down the road. I went a ways before Josh put a hand up and stopped me. I was about to ask why when I was stopped by the bullet that whizzed past my foot.

"That was a warning shot," he said.

Suddenly, a young man popped his head over the blockade, "Sorry," he said, "I had to make sure you weren't running away from something."

"We are not!" I said, raising my hand.

He looked down at my arm, gasping, "Oh, injured!" he said, "Head around the side and we'll help you out!"

We complied.

After we passed the blockade, I was pleased to see the bright red door. We ran into the small room and Eric locked the safe house door behind us.

"Boo-yah!" I yelled.