Chapter 10

Some sniffed at me curiously but dismissed me and at that moment I realised that the bites must have camouflaged me somehow. Maybe. I start to walk slowly, as slow as I would if I was a walker.

I didn't want to attract too much attention to me because maybe they'd start to realise how human I really was. Well, alive that is.

Carl left. He left without me, he left without thinking to grab me. Did he think I could make it on my own? Maybe I could but I was too shocked and tired. But I was glad he left, I can get bit many times without dying but he can't so it was a good decision for him to run, even though I still felt a slight pang of hurt by his decision.

I shuffled off to the side, and when I was a good couple of metres from the travelling herd, I jogged in the direction they went.

"Carl?" I called, making sure I didn't say it too loud. "Jet?"

I heard nothing so I sighed and kept walking, luckily I had a backpack with a bit of food and weapons. Who knows how long I'll be out here by myself. All I know is that if I don't find them by tonight, I won't be sleeping any time soon.

Night comes quicker than I thought it would and I realise how a lot scarier it is at night. No light, all alone, not a good feeling at all.

I open a packet of chips and snack on it, missing the home cooked, hot meals that my mom used to cook. Thinking about the way it used to be made me tear up but I fight it, blinking the tears away.

Back then I would have never thought to be the thing that would save humanity from walking, dead, human eating, monsters.

I wrap the chips up again and stuff them back in my bag and lean back on the tree I sat by, fighting away the sleepiness that tried to push through. Yes, I don't get infected from the bite so that should give me an excuse to sleep right? Wrong, there's no time to get that little sickness I do when I'm bit. The walkers might realise I'm human and eat ALL of me. That wouldn't be so good would it? Waking up to parts of my body strewn around, blood oozing out and my insides hanging out being eaten by dead people.

Yeah, that's sounds great.

I hear a twig snap under someone's foot and I whip my head around to face the direction of where the noise came from.
"Who's there?" I called. If it was a walker, all I have to do is stab it through the head. If it wasn't anyone from the group, I sure hope it's a walker.

"Are you armed?" the voice calls out and I don't recognise it at all.

"Of course I am you bloody idiot!" I shout back. Who would be so dumb to go out into the night and not carry a weapon.

"Oh right." The voice says as the person steps closer and I start to think it may be a man. I jump up and hold my dagger out and sling my bag onto my back.

"What do you want?"

"Don't worry, I'm not going to harm you. Is your name Maddy?"

I'm confused, how does he know my name?

"So what if I am?" I call back.

"Your friends Carl, Jet and uh –others are looking for you. They said you are immune to the bites." He says as he steps closer and I shine my torch onto him, his face is oldish. He had grey hair mixed in with blonde and a tired, exhausted face plastered on. "Hi, I'm Dr Mayford."

I nod my head slowly and he asks me to follow him, so I do. I stay a bit behind him because I still don't trust him fully. He leads me around trees for a while before I speak again.

"Where are my friends?"

"Back at my research lab, don't worry they're safe and well fed. Hot showers too."

That's why he looked so clean and didn't smell like the usual B.O

We reach a lab which was relatively small but not too small. We walk up to the gates and he taps his fists onto the boarded door a couple of times before a hole opens up in the door and a pair of eyes look through. I immediately recognise them as Carl's.

"Carl!" I shout and he quickly opens the door. I run into his arms and hug him, tightly. I forgot about him leaving me earlier and I honestly couldn't care, we were back together again and that's all that really mattered to me.

He grabs my shoulders and leans in close, "I am so, so, so sorry for leaving you! I thought I saw you run up ahead of me so I followed and got lost. Then I found the others and you weren't there so we circled back but instead found the lab. He offered to go look for you since he was excited to know that you were immune. I'm so, so-

"It's OK, really. I don't care, I'm just glad I'm back with you." I say before smashing my lips against his. His lips tasted like salt and soap, a weird combination but it didn't bother me. My lips must have tasted gross.

I pulled back and he looked as if he wanted more. "Sorry Carl, but I really want that hot shower,"

He laughs and Dr Mayford replies, "Well off you go, the showers are down your right. I've already put towels and a spare change of clothes, they might be too big but it's better than changing back into your old clothes."

I nod and thank Dr Mayford before practically running down the hall. I reach the bathroom and step inside, close and lock the door and then run over to the shower stall. I peelf off the greasy clothing I wore and smelt them, and almost puked. I was so happy, I never thought I could ever shower again!

I turn the water knobs on and warm water instantly spills out of the spout thing, creating a perfect waterfall which splashed over my grubby body. I took time washing the grease and dirt out of my hair, scrubbing it really hard.

Then I scrubbed my body down until my skin was almost red-raw, like I had peeled of all the dirty-grime-y skin. He had even placed a razor on top of my clothing so I snatched it off and started to shave.

Now I won't look, smell and feel like a dirty monkey from the wild.

For about 5 more minutes I stand under the water, letting it stream and splash down my back, feeling the warmness surround me. But my stomach growls so I turn the shower off, dry myself and get changed.

Dr Mayford was right, the clothes were a little big but that was easy to fix. The shirt was a dark red and the pants were black, loose, rip-styled jeans that I rolled up a little so it didn't go past my feet anymore. I pinned up my hair into a loose bun that didn't sit right on top of my head because it kept falling apart so I kept it down low.

When I walked out Carl saw me and stood up, hugged me and took me over to the circle they had created, including Dr Mayford.

"I just warmed up your dinner," he said, handing me a plate with potatoes and veggies, and a little bit of meat.

"Are you sure you want to give me all of this food?" I ask as my eyes widen, and my mouth almost froths at the smell. I could already taste it.

"Of course you can, I have plenty."

I mutter a thankyou and sit next to Carl. I tried to eat at a slow pace while they talked and I listened. The food tasted amazing, it was hot and actual prepared food. Not energy bars or packets of chips.

"So we will start the tests tomorrow Maddy," Dr Mayford says and I look up at him, horrified.

"Don't worry, they won't harm you in any way," and I ease up. Thank God, the sound of having 'tests' scared the heck outta me.

"For now, I'll leave you to rest up, chat and do whatever you want. Wake me up if there is any emergency. And the beds have been set up already in the other room." He says before leaving us.

I shovel the rest of my food won and set it over on a sink, rinse it and let it out to dry with the rest of the dishes.

We all walk into the room with the beds and each of us choose one out. Whoever set them out had set them in a circle, which was pretty cool. I chose one in between Sam and Carl, and Georgia and Jet were facing us.

"So…" I say but couldn't think of anything else to say.

"I still feel really bad for leaving you-

"No Carl, I'm fine. Everyone is fine. We are ALL fine so there is nothing to worry about, OK?" I reply.

"Ok…" He mumbles and pouts. "You smell so good,"

I laugh as the others go into discussion about something.

"I missed you man," I say and he smiles.

"I missed you too, I missed your lips as well."

"Well you can have them now, they're all squeaky clean." I say and lean into him and we kiss. It was a brief kiss but it was satisfying, and we smiled at each other for a while longer.

After a while we all say our goodnights and someone flicks the dim light off and I tuck myself under the sheets. A nice, clean bed. And a nice clean Maddy. It all felt too amazing.

I drift off to sleep for a while until I wake up again, Carl's arms wrap around my waist and I turn onto my opposite side to face him. We lay by each other really closely.

"Sorry," he whispers, "I didn't mean to wake you."

"It's OK, now I can kiss you longer without the others telling me off." And I brush my lips against his and his lips move against mine too. I rest my hand on his arm and then slowly trace it under his t-shirt. I feel his chest heave up and down and I apologise in between kisses for my hand being too cold.

He pulls me even closer so that our bodies are touching each other, nearly everywhere. I put a leg over him and push him down so I sit on top. Our kiss deepens, never breaking apart. His hand traces up my back and his lips let go of the kiss. He flips us over, almost causing us to fall off the bed but luckily he had dragged his mattress over close to mine before.

His lips kiss my jaw and then trace down to my neck and a sigh escapes my lips. I feel him kiss my collar bone and then he pulls away and looks to me with a big smile.

"Sorry Mads but I don't think we should go any further," he says, trying to hide his disappointment.

I nod and say, "It's OK," and give him a quick kiss before he gets off and lays by my side. I turn to face him and lean my head onto his chest, listening to the steady breathing and feeling the rise and fall of his chest.

Ten minutes later I feel Carl lean over to me and I pretend I'm asleep. I don't know why, but it's what I usually do if someone checks.

"Maddy?" he whispers softly. I have the urge and curiosity to answer him but no matter how hard I try to, I just don't.

"I just wanted to say that I love you, very much." And then he rests his head back down onto the pillow, and he breathes steadily again.

I love him too. But would he have told me that if I was awake?

I fall asleep and dreams of Carl and I leak in, making me happier than ever but making me depressed to wake up.

We eat our breakfast happily and Carl kisses me with every chance he gets. I liked it, me being lost made him cuter and more intimate.

Around lunch time Dr Mayford calls me in and everyone decides to watch, I mean who wouldn't? He first takes a blood test which practically kills my arm and then he puts me into this brain scanner thing which was highly radioactive so everyone had to wait outside. He asks me to step on scales, he asks me to do all these things. A simple check up and more tests.

Finally he finishes and tells me I can go, and that it will take a day or two for him to come up with something that can help. So in the mean time we all decide to go down to the lake that was nearby. We followed to path down to the lake and took our clothes off so we were all in our undies.

No one seemed to care because all we wanted was just to feel like carefree teenagers again doing wild things.

Although we played a lot we all still kept our eyes open for walkers. Of course we could never really go back to the way it was, carefree and wild.

Carl swims up over to me and kisses me quickly before dunking under the water. I am confused for a second until I feel his arms wrap around my legs, lifting me up out of the water. I scream as I'm chucked into the air and smack back down, splashing into the water. I feel it surround me, enclose me and for once in a while it's completely silent.

The water swishes me around before I decide I should probably take a breath because you know, we need air.

I push my head through the surface and see Carl's laughing face and I laugh back at him. I lunge towards him, groping at his waist and pull him down with me. He smiles underneath the water and I push him down further. He twists out of my grip and jumps back out of the water, sucking in a breath.

I peep my head out of the water and he sees it, comes over to me and pulls the rest of me out of the water. I wrap my legs around his waist and kiss him again.

I loved kissing him.

"Carl?" I ask as I unwrap myself from him and stand back in the water.

"Yeah?"

"How do you think your dad and the rest of the group are going?" It felt like ages since I last saw them.

He looked at the water for a moment before replying, "I don't know. Hopefully everything is OK."

"Yeah, I hope they didn't try to look for us."

We splash each other for a couple of minutes before someone screams, "WALKER!"

As if it was by instinct I rush out of the water and pick up my dagger. I jog around the lake to where it shuffled and before it's limp, dead feet touched the water I slammed it down so it fell on its back. And then I drive the dagger deep into its skull, black, dark zombie blood spewed out and dripped down its rotten face.

"All good!" I shout back and tug at the dagger, but my hands slip off from being to wet with blood. I try one more time and the dagger comes out easily, and I walk over to a grassy area to wipe of the blood. I see the others get out of the water so I quickly wash my hands in the lake water and walk over to them.

We walk back together, chatting and laughing. Everything was fine, fine for now but little did I know what was going to happen next. And I sure wish I knew so I could redo everything.

We walk up to the lab and do that weird knock that I still haven't learnt. Dr Mayford ushers us in quickly and tells us to go to the research room. We all file in silently and watch as he scurries around grabbing papers, pens and tools that I didn't know of.

"Alright, I've reached an answer on how to create the cure." He says and we all cheer but he doesn't smile, nor does he cheer.

I look over to Carl and he as confused as I am.

Dr Mayford holds up an X-ray of my brain. "This," he points to a circled part, "Is what is in all of our brains. The disease. The thing that makes us turn into those people eating machines." And then he traces his finger over the top of it, "And this is something that none of us have in our brain except Maddy." He sets the x-ray down.

"What we need to do to make the cure is…" he looks around worriedly, "Cut out the cure that has grown over Maddy's disease. This will of course –kill her."

I hope you... liked it... ? PLEASE DON'T HATE ME.. There are a couple of chapters left... :'(