Sam is asleep in the bed. I wake her up. She rolls over.
"How are you?" I ask.
"Not great. My leg is killing me," she says.
Sarah hands me a bottle of aspirin. I give one to Sam. Sarah calls me over. We step outside of the room. I shut the door.
"She's getting worse," Sarah says.
"Don't you think I know that?" I snap.
"We need to do something. I'm not saying leave her, but we need to do something," she says.
"What if we go back? It'd be easier then going forward. We can get her back to my camp," I say.
"We went through hell to get here. We could stay where we are for a while. Wait until she's healed," Sarah says.
I don't like that either. All of our options suck and there is nothing we can do about that.
"Just...let me think," I say.
I walk away. We need to go. The faster we get to that camp up north, the better off Sam will be. I remember seeing a wheel chair in the lobby. I grab it and bring it to her room.
"We're leaving," I say.
Sarah helps Sam into the wheel chair. We leave the hotel. I push Sam down the road. I look at the map. One day left until we arrive. After seven hours of walking all of us enter a house. Sam goes to bed early.
"I don't now how you did it today. If my sister was hurt like that, I wouldn't be able to think straight," Sarah says.
"You have a sister?" I ask.
"Had. She turned into one of those things," she says.
"It's hard...losing someone to the virus. One minute they are their normal selves and the next...they're gone. Dead inside and no matter how much you try they aren't going to come back," I say.
"Who did you lose?" she asks.
"My best friends. I was all alone after they died. They were like siblings to me. I grew up with them. They were all I had," I reply.
After our conversation ends, we go to sleep. I wake up earlier then the others. It's snowing outside. That's just what we need. A reason to go even slower. When Sam finally wakes up, I ask her how her ankle feels.
"It doesn't hurt anymore," Sam says. She stands up.
"Can you walk?" I ask.
She tests it out. She walks from the couch to the front door with no problem. We skip eating and just leave. Sarah unfolds a map.
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"There is a shortcut ahead. Might save us quite a bit of time," she says.
"Then let's take it," I say.
She leads us through a small cave. On the other side is a large camp. We made it. A frozen lake is the only thing that stands between us and the camp. I step onto the ice. The ice seems to hold our weight.
I hear a gunshot. Sam stops. She slowly turns around. Her hands are holding a bleeding bullet wound on her stomach. She falls over. I flip her onto her back. Two men and one woman run toward us from the camp. I pull out my gun.
"Back away!" I yell.
"We want to help her," one of them says.
"You are the ones who shot her," I yell.
The woman charges at me. She tackles me to the ground. The gun is just a few feet from my hand. I reach for it. The woman pushes the gun farther away. I punch and kick, but she still doesn't move.
The two men force Sarah and Sam inside. The woman starts strangling me. I pass out.
I wake up in a cabin. My backpack, gun, and jacket are gone. I still have my knife. I get out of bed.
Where is Sam and Sarah? I look out the window. In the cabin across from this one, I see Sarah speaking with the woman who strangled me.
I go to the front door. It's locked from the outside. I slide the window open. It's going to be tough to fit through. I climb out. I sneak over to the other cabin. The door is unlocked.
I go inside. Sam is lying in one of the beds. Sarah is standing by the bed. A man is with her. I reveal myself. The man draws his gun.
"Put it down, Jade," he says.
"Or else what? Are you going to shoot me like you shot Sam?" I say.
"Jade, it's okay. They helped her," Sarah says.
"I know that you three are here for help. We need help, too," the man says.
"I want my things back," I say.
He points to a locker.
I open it. Everything is here except my gun. He tells me his name is Derek.
"Where is my gun?" I ask.
"I don't want you to have it just yet. I can't trust you with a firearm," he says.
I don't like this guy. I can't do much with a knife. I'd feel safer with my gun.
"Look, I want to get as far away from this place as fast as possible. You give my group the help it needs and I help you. After that, we go our own ways," I say.
"Okay, I need you to scavenge a local hospital. Our doctors are running out of supplies," he says.
"Give me a car then."
He pulls a car around. He gives me my gun. I get in the driver's seat. I check the map. The hospital isn't that far. Even though I have the heat on, it's still freezing inside the car. I reach the hospital in twenty minutes. I walk up to the doors. I walk inside. I have to climb stairs.
I hear two car doors slam outside. There is an office behind the main desk. I get in the office and hide under the desk. The front door opens. I have my gun in my hands. I take a look at the two people inside. One has slightly enlarged pupils like me. The other looks normal. I hear the normal looking one call the other one Dave.
"Someone is here," Dave says as he walks into the office.
He is going to find me. He looks under the desk. I point my gun at him.
"Back off! I'm just here for supplies. I am going to get what I need and leave," I say.
"You are like me. I have a group. A place that you can be safe," he says.
"I have my own group," I say. "Now get out of my way."
He stays in the doorway blocking my path.
"Move!" I yell.
I get fed up and shoot him in the shoulder. He doesn't flinch or bleed. He grabs me by the throat, lifting me off the ground.
"Be careful about what you do next," he warns.
He throws me into the front desk. I struggle to get to my feet. When I do I run down the hall. He follows me. I push a cart in his path to hopefully slow him down. I start climbing the stairs. I stop at the third floor. I go into one of the rooms. I block the door with a hospital bed.
I grab an I.V. Pole. I use it to smash the window. I look outside. The window isn't that far from the ground. The door flies open. The hospital bed rolls right into me.
I jump out of the window. I hit the ground running. I pull out my car key. The buttons on it don't work, so I have to unlock it with the actual key. I unlock the door, get in, start it, and drive away.
"Jade?" I hear over the radio Derek gave me.
"Yeah?" I ask.
"Can you go into my house and grab some things for me?" he then tells me where his house is and what to grab.
I pull into the driveway.
The garage door has a gap between the floor and the door. I crawl into the garage. I hear something move around inside the house.
As I open the door to the house, I pull out my gun. A person tackles me as soon as I open the door. The person is wearing sunglasses and a hood. They have a knife.
"I'm not going back!" she yells trying to stab me.
I grab her hands and push them back. She's not very strong. I finally push her to the side. She pulls herself up and grabs a crowbar from the counter.
"Don't do this. I'm not here to hurt you," I say.
"You're from Dave's group, aren't you?" she asks.
"No, please put the weapon down," I say.
She places it on the counter.
"Who are you?" I ask.
She pulls her hood down. She is a teenager.
"I'm Clarissa. I was apart of Dave's group, until he went crazy. In the last few months, he's been acting strange. He used to be a good guy but now...he's insane. I think it's the virus that's making him go crazy. I'm one of the few who is...partially infected. I know you are, too," she says.
"Do you need a place to stay?" I ask.
"If you're okay with that," she says.
"Sure, there is a car out front. Go wait in there."
I get everything that Derek told me to get. I put it all in the trunk of the car.