.:::Chapter Two:::.
*Melony's Point of View*
Nick noticed the look on my face, I think, as I was thinking about how my life was probably over. He frowned down at me, and wrapped one arm around my shoulder. "Hey, don't lose hope yet. There's a chance that we can make it out," he said.
"I really don't think we can," I mumbled.
Nick didn't say anything. He just gave my shoulder a squeeze, and looked back at the dead body of the tank. "I think we should get to walking," he sighed.
I nodded, and we began to walk. Neither of us had any idea where we were going, or anything, really, we just knew we couldn't stop. I stared at my gun as we walked. I had killed people tonight. Well, they weren't people, but they were once people, which was probably equally as bad. I felt absolutely terrible. Why had this happened? At least I wasn't dead, yet. I guess I should be thankful of that, but I wasn't. I stopped walking when I heard what seemed like a deformed yell.
"Uhm, what was that?" I asked.
"Not sure," Nick answered.
I heard the scream again, closer this time. The next thing I knew, I hit the ground, hard, and claws dug into my chest. I opened my eyes to see a deformed creature, in a hoodie, with nails digging into my chest. The thing had a distorted smirk on it's rotting features. I yelped, and tried to push it off.
The thing dug its nails into my arm, and blood poured down my arm.
I screamed, and Nick pushed the creature away.
The creature backed up, breathing heavily, and grinning at us both.
Nick was about to pull me up, but the creature pounced again, and landed on Nick. The thing was like a hunter! It wasn't going to stop until it killed us.
Without getting to my feet, I grabbed my gun, and shot the thing in the back of the head, hoping not to miss and hit Nick.
The thing fell to the ground, and twitched a few times, before going completely still.
I slowly climbed to my feet, and Nick did as well.
I looked down at myself, and blushed. My shirt was ripped open, exposing my bra, which was also ripped in a few places. There was blood all over my upper body.
Nick wasn't as bad. He had a couple of rips in his shirt, and a few blood splotches.
I wrapped my arms over my chest, and walked over to him. "Are you okay?" I asked.
"I think. Are you?" Nick frowned.
"I'm pretty scratched up," I glanced down at myself. If my bra ripped anymore, I was pretty sure that Nick would see something.
Nick noticed what I was looking at, and he pulled his shirt off, exposing an undershirt. "If you don't mind wearing something that has my blood on it, you can take this," he offered.
I didn't like the thought of wearing blood covered clothing, but I also didn't like the thought of exposing myself to a guy that I had just met. I took the shirt, put it on, and buttoned it up. It was too big, but it would be fine.
"You need medical attention, I think," Nick noted.
"I think there's a small hospital not far from here. I bet they would have something," I said.
"Okay, I think we should go," Nick said, and we began to walk.
Pain set in not long after we started walking, and both my shoulder, and my chest started hurting. "Ow," I squeaked under my breath.
"Are you going to make it?" Nick asked, looking down at me.
I nodded.
We walked down the street of the town that I lived in, and I noticed that all of the houses had been broken into, and some of the paint was scratched off. It almost didn't look like the same town to me. It looked as if it had been abandoned for years, even though yesterday, we were all in school, and having fun. The thought made me frown, and brought tears to my eyes. As we passed my boyfriend's house, I couldn't help but slow down.
Nick slowed down as well. "What is it?" he asked.
"Do you think there's someone alive in there?" I asked.
Nick glanced at the house, and he frowned. "I highly doubt it. Does someone you know live there?" he asked.
"My boyfriend did," I mumbled.
"Oh. Do you want to go check?" Nick asked.
"Please?" I glanced up at him. I knew that it wasn't safe, but I needed closure. I needed to know that my boyfriend was dead. I didn't want him to be dead, but I needed to know that he was dead. Slowly, we walked up to the house, and pushed the door open.
The house was dark, not bright and lively like it had been the last time I visited. There was blood on the kitchen walls, and the fridge was open. Nothing other than the meat was missing, but there was blood all over the other foods. I winced. I led Nick to the living room. There was blood, a lot of blood on one of the sofas, and it was ripped up. Beside the sofa was something a recognized. It was one of my boyfriend's little sister's shoes. There was a few drops of blood on the shoe. I walked over to the sofa, and stared down at the shoe.
"I bet she's dead. Little Emily is dead," I mumbled. Ryan was my boyfriend's name by the way. Emily was his sister.
"I'm sorry. Do you want to leave?" Nick asked, walking over to my side. He had a flashlight in his hand now, and I gave him a questioning look.
He noticed, and he handed me a small flashlight.
"I don't want to leave," I shook my head. I walked towards the hall, trying to ignore the blood that was all over the house. My boyfriend, my sweet, sweet Ryan was probably dead. It hurt me so bad to know this. I walked to his room, and cautiously opened the door.
The window was shattered, his computer was knocked over, and there was blood all over the unmade bed. I bit my lip. He really was gone. He was dead. I walked over to his nightstand, and picked up the picture. It was of me and him, hugging. I felt a tear roll down my cheek.
I dropped the picture and it shattered, when the closet door swung open. I jumped back, and Nick was at my side now. I shined the light, to see Ryan, only, he was different.
He had his pajamas on still, but he was crouched. His face was starting to rot, only a little, and his light olive colored eyes were framed by dark circles. He had a distorted smirk on his face, showing really pointed, yellow teeth. His nails were longer, and caked with blood. He was one of the creatures that we'd encountered not long ago.
"Ry?" I stepped back, readying my gun.
Ryan stood up. He tilted his head. He seemed to recognize me. He sniffed, and then twitched. He fell into a crouched position. "Go!!!" he hissed. His voice wasn't the sweet, soft, musical tone that I remembered. It was raspy, and growly, and inhuman.
"Ryan? Please don't attack me," I whimpered.
"Go!!!!" he hissed again.
"I think we should listen," Nick mumbled.
"He's still my Ryan," I mumbled. I could see such a resemblance. I wanted to touch him one last time, before the infection completely consumed him. Still holding my gun at a ready position, I approached him.
Ryan hissed, and then stood up, and approached me at a very quick speed. His eyes held pain, with a hint of insanity. "I'm not the Ryan you know," he said. It came out in a screechy, wheezy voice. He placed a hand on my cheek. He was deathly cold, and there was no pulse. "I'm dead. They got me," he mumbled.
"But, can't you fight it?" I whimpered.
Ryan shook his head, and his neck cracked open in one spot. "They got me," he repeated. "I'm gone. Please, leave," he said.
"I don't want to," I whimpered. Ryan had been my boyfriend for almost two years. He was my world sometimes, and I couldn't just leave him.
"You don't know how bad I want to kill you right now. I know it's not right, but that's all my mind tells me to do now," Ryan said, looking down. "Pull the trigger," he mumbled.
I realized that my gun was pressing into his stomach, and I moved the gun. "No," I said flatly.
"Please, Mel, I don't want to be this... Kill me, before I attack. Please, just shoot me," he pleaded.
I looked up at him.
He pressed his lips to mine, and his teeth pierced my lip. Once my blood landed in his mouth, he dug his claws into the back of my head, making me whimper, and proceeded to bite my lips again, on purpose.
I pushed him away, and he fell into a crouched position.
He had an insane look in his eyes, and he was smirking. "Please, kill me," he said, as he pounced on me, and then ripped my shirt up, and clawed my chest.
I didn't want to scream. I knew Nick would shoot him. I didn't want him to die. As the pain got worse, I had no choice though. I grabbed the gun that had fallen out of my hand, and shot Ryan, knocking him off of me.
He was still standing, but he was breathing extremely hard. "Thanks," he wheezed. He fell into a crouched position, and I thought he was going to attack again, but instead, he fell over, and stopped moving.
I stared, and didn't move. Ryan was gone. I had killed the love of my life. He still had some of his mind, too. I felt the tears rolling down my cheeks, and I couldn't help it. I cried out in both sorrow, and pain.
Nick was at my side, and he pulled me up onto my feet. "Please, Melony, don't lose it. We've got to move on," he said.
"But, Ryan, he's gone!" I pointed to the dead body.
"I know. It was for the best. He was changing," Nick said.
I wrapped my arms around my bleeding chest, and then whimpered. "Please, Nick.... I don't want him to be dead," I cried.
Nick sighed, and then hugged me, pulling me into a warm embrace. "It's gonna be okay," he spoke softly.
My crying turned to weeping, and then I heard the moaning. I looked up at Nick, who let me go and walked over to the window.
He then turned around, grabbed me, and tugged me towards the door. "They're coming. We have got to run," he said.
I whimpered. My chest hurt so bad. I could feel the blood running down my stomach. I held my gun though, and I ran along side Nick. I only glanced back behind us once, and I saw a bunch of infected staggering towards us.
"I see a house!" Nick exclaimed.
"Uhm," I didn't know why Nick was pointing this out. There were houses everywhere, so why was he going to point this out. I looked to see what he was running towards, and I noticed that the building had barred windows, and an iron door. The infected couldn't get us.
We were almost to the building, when something slimy wrapped around my neck, and pulled me. I screamed.
Nick turned and aimed, when the same thing happened to him. Something long and slimy wrapped around his neck, and pulled him in a different direction.
We both screamed, until we started choking.
I thought I was a goner when the creature pulled me up close to him, and began to scratch me, but then I heard the firing of a shotgun.
Smoke surrounded me, and I fell to the ground, coughing.
I felt a hand grab me, and pull me up. "C'mon, sugar," a female's voice said, as she ran towards the building.
Once the smoke had cleared, I saw that I was with a pretty woman, with blonde hair, and a cigarette in her mouth. She reminded me of a runway model.
I saw Nick running with an older man, who had a beer gut, and a cigar in his mouth.
They led us to the house, and closed the door, placing an iron bar in front of it.
"You two kids okay?" the man asked.
I curled on the floor. "I dunno," I said, honestly.
Nick leaned against the wall, and sunk to the floor.
"How about we give these two some more clothes, and some bandaging?" the girl asked. "Oh, and my name is Janelle by the way," she smiled at both of us.
"I'm Samuel. I don't like being called Sam or Sammy, either," the man said.
"Nick," I heard Nick sigh.
"I'm Melony," I smiled.
The two disappeared for awhile, and came back with some clothes, even shoes, and some first aid kits.
The girl picked me up, and took me to a different room. "Almost everything is showing, but I didn't want to take your top completely off in front of the boys," she said.
I nodded.
She took my shirt, and bra off, and bandaged me up. She also bandaged my shoulder up, and then stood. "I think you can handle the rest. Change into those clothes as well," She pointed to the clothes that she'd brought with her.
I finished patching myself up, and then changed into the v-neck white blouse, dark blue zip-up hoodie, faded hip-huggers, and white sneakers.
I exited the room, to see that Nick was fixed up as well. He looked different, as he was in country boy clothes. He wore a red flannel, long sleeved button up shirt, blue jeans, and brown boots.
"So, where did you two come from?" Samuel asked, once everyone was seated in the floor of the room.
"I came from the town next to this town. I was traveling on a motorcycle, till a really large infected destroyed it," Nick said.
"I'm from this town. He rescued me," I said, nodding at Nick.
"So you two aren't a couple or anything?" Janelle asked.
I frowned at the thought of couples. "No..." I winced.
"What about you two?" Nick asked.
"Oh, I've been around. My shop got taken over by zombies, so I traveled with my shot gun until I found her, hiding in an alley outside a club. We traveled together, and found this place about two days ago," Samuel said.
"I guess you can say he helped me as well," Janelle smiled.
I nodded. "So, are we going to stay together and fight these infected bastards?" I asked.
Nick grinned. "I think it would be best," he said.
"I do as well," Janelle nodded.
"Awrighty, I guess we're a team now," Samuel grinned.