Danny awoke to crackling, warmth and orange flashing light. He tries to set up but he was rocked with pain that forced him back down with a groan. So instead he tried to remember.
"Easy-" came a voice from nowhere. It was vaguely female and sounded distant even though he could sense it was right there.
"ScarLo?" Danny whispered.
"No..." the voice said.
Where the fuck am I?
It came back together in his mind pretty quick what had happened and the last thing he could remember. The injuries he sustained before, coupled with the car accident and his run through the woods had made his body into a mass of beaten clay.
He was tired. He was over it. He just wanted it to end.
He sat up again and even though it hurt him so much he got all the way up.
"You shouldn't move yet" the voice said.
"I don't give a fuck" Danny replied, his voice hoarse, lips powder dry. "Just kill me and get this nightmare over with".
He felt the figure's shadow come upon him and braced to get his wish, but instead a cool and wet sensation hit his lips.
He wondered if it was poison. He hoped it was and so he drank.
He didn't taste like poison though. It tasted like water and although he had no desire to ingest anything that would keep him alive, he hungrily gobbled it down. It was the best water he'd ever had.
"Easy" the voice said, taking the water away. "I don't have much of it and I really don't want to go back to drinking my own pee".
Danny let out a renewed breath of life as he swallowed the last bit of water and licked his lips.
He didn't ask who she was. He didn't ask what her plans were for him. He didn't really care.
He just sat in silence for a moment, allowing his eyes to slowly bring things into focus, the crackling fire dancing shadows on the ground as they did.
After what must have been over an hour he spoke.
"What are your plans for me?"
"Plans?" the voice asked after a pause. "You're not important enough to have plans about. I found you and I saved you. You don't owe me. You can leave if you want, or you can stay here until you're in better shape. It's up to you. Any plans are your own. You don't have to stay here with me".
Danny didn't look up, only looked at the ground. He didn't trust anyone anymore.
"You're a woman, right?"
He could almost hear the frown on her face.
"Do I really sound that bad now?" she asked.
"Hoarse" Danny said. "Your voice is hoarse and raspy".
"Yeah" she said, not adding anything else.
Moments passed.
"How did you come to find me?" Danny asked.
"I literally stumbled right over you" she said, trying to clear her throat to make herself sound like a full female again. It didn't help and she frowned again and looked down in shame.
"I was just walking and I tripped and I had tripped on you. You were completely passed out. I thought you were just another one of the bodies, but they I noticed you were breathing and weren't decayed at all so--"
She trailed off. There was more silence. The girl dug a stick into the ground and turned the soil for fun.
Danny could smell it in the air as the slight breeze blew -- even though the smoke of the fire: sweet dead, rotting flesh. God. There must have been bodies everywhere.
"You kill them all?" he asked matter-of-a-factly.
"You really believe that?" she replied just as matter-of-a-factly.
He shook his head.
"I'm just trying to survive".
"You don't know how long I was out, do you?" he asked.
She shook her head.
"Doubt it was long, though. Things that don't keep moving... don't last long out here".
"What happened here?" Danny asked.
"What didn't happen here?" the girl replied, almost laughing. "There was a settlement... I was part of it... and, well, it just didn't make it. There was chaos. There was death..."
Danny knew there was suppose to be more, but she didn't finish her thought.
He looked up for the first time, his vision all but clear now.
The girl standing the opposite of the fire had a dirty face and short hair that had once been bangs but had grown out. She was young, early 20's maybe... she was also, Danny thought, pretty cute for someone who looked like they'd slept the last year in a ditch.
As the fire crackled it lit up slightly brighter and that's when he noticed it: a large, ugly wound across her throat.
She sank back into the shadows as he noticed him looking at it and popped the collar of her denim jacket.
The reason for her voice was revealed.
"How'd that happen?" he asked, trying to sound sympathetic. He was, but it was hard to show any emotion now.
She stayed silent.
"The Herd?" he asked.
No answer.
"Bandits?"
No answer.
"Accident?"
"It was the fucking military, ok?" she said, her voice extra loud and scratchy.
The anger and frustration was clear.
"Sorry" Danny said flatly. "I was just curious..."
"Well, now you know" she replied and then let out an audible sigh. Her sigh sounded surprisingly feminine unlike her voice.
"Sorry" she said after a moment. "I just... don't like talking about it".
"That's okay" Danny said.
Back to the silence. She dug her stick into the Earth once again, looking down. Danny looked at the small encampment. There wasn't much to it. Small tent made out of what looked like a sleeping back hung from trees and some blankets on the ground under it. A pit with the crude fire and what looked like a bag full of supplies and a plastic water bottle which Danny noted barely had anymore water left in it.
"They came out of no where..." she spoke in the darkness in a way that sent chills down his spine. The truth was she wanted to tell someone what happened... anyone at all.
"The military in their helicopters. I don't understand exactly why they came, but they did. We were all trying to flee and we thought we could get on the helicopters. There wasn't enough room for us all, but maybe some..."
She paused and sighed, composing herself.
"They screamed at us, demanded our Immunity Passes and then.... everything got crazy. I saw things... I... I don't even know what was real and what wasn't, but I know they opened fire on us with their guns and a bullet ripped my throat and did this...."
She leaned in towards the fire and Danny got a good look at it. It looked like the bullet and entered her throat just barely and came out the other side. The wound was nasty looking... and looked as if it might be festering. He wanted to say something, but decided not to... yet. Instead he went with the cliche response.
"That's awful" he said... but, the sympathy was back in his voice, and it was real.
She continued as if he hadn't heard him.
"I was travelling with.... my brother and my dad... and... they were...killed..."
She trailed off and started sobbing. Danny realized this was the first time she'd told anyone this story, but soon he would learn that wasn't quite true. But at that moment she put her knees against her chest and made herself into a little ball. Danny came over. She flinched at first out of caution and fear but he hugged her and she went limp and let him as he collapsed into hid arms.
"Why did this happen?" she sobbed, her voice becoming so scratchy it was almost impossible to understand her. "Everything was fine... I was going to college...and..."
She trailed off. Danny knew she realized it was like crying over spilled milk. None of that shit mattered anymore
"Drink some water" he said.
She shook her head.
"No, there isn't much left...."
"We'll find more" he said.
We'll. There was that word.
She drank the water from the bottle, but only a little.
"I'm Danny" he said.
She wiped tears from her eyes.
"Kinslee" she said.
They talked for a couple more hours and she opened up. They both did. He just told her the truth about everything. Why hide it?
After awhile, however, Danny began to feel extremely tired again. He'd remembered he had thought he might have a concussion and wondered if he should worry about that.
He decided not to.
About the same time Kinslee's voice was almost gone.
"This is the most I've talked in weeks..." she said. "My throat is really started to hurt".
"Rest it" Danny said, encouraging her to drink more water, which she did reluctantly. "We'll talk more in the morning"
Danny began to fall asleep.
"Danny?"
"Hmmm?"
"I'm really glad I tripped over you" she said.
"I'm glad you tripped over me too" Danny said. And he meant it.
"What are your plans now?" he asked, right before passing out.
"I'm going to try to head for Maine if you want to come..." she replied.
Danny fell asleep to a familiar voice in his head.
Maine Maine Maine...
-----------------------------------------------------
He awoke and it was light out. Late morning light. He tried to set up but although it seemed impossible his body hurt worse than it had the previous night.
He groaned in pain.
"Easy!" a voice came out of nowhere.
Kinslee.
Danny remembered the night before. He hadn't been a dream.
She was quickly by his side and helped him sit up.
He looked at her and she actually smiled at him. She looked even better in the day light.
"Hey, you look much better in the light" she said, as if reading his mind.
He chuckled and groaned.
"Here, drink this" she said. She tipped the very light water bottle to his lips and he drank.
But quickly she turned it back down.
"I tried to find some this morning" she said, frowning. "The water around is... contaminated. Too many infected got in it. The only good water is rain water but it hasn't rained in days..."
"I'm sure we'll find some" he tried to assure her.
He looked around and noticed she'd broken the camp down.
"Can't stay in one place to long around here" she reminded him.
He nodded again.
"Were you serious?" he asked. "Last night... about going to Maine?"
"Yeah" she said. "It's the only place I can think of that might be safe... I mean, that's where you were going anyway, right?"
She seemed nervous...like maybe he'd suddenly not want to come.
"Yeah... only for the wrong reasons" he said. Then he remembered that he'd pretty much told her everything the night before.
"Oh shit" he said, laughing to himself.
It was like she could his mind.
"Well, let's do it for the right reasons..." she said.
He smiled and nodded in agreement and suddenly she grabbed his hands and snatched him up.
He cried in pain, but it was like she'd done him a favor -- the equivalent of ripping off a band-aid fast.
"Sorry" she frowned. "Just figured it was better to get it over fast and by surprise"
"It's okay" he said and already he felt better standing than he had sitting.
He looked at the wound on her neck. She noticed him looking and tried to cover it self-conciously.
"What?" she asked, frowning.
"Since you helped me let me help you. I didn't wanna say anything last night... but well... that thing looks bad, Kinslee. Like on the verge of getting infected bad..."
She frowned harder.
"I know. I've been trying to keep it clean. I even have a little med kit, but it's hard to do it myself..."
"Then let me" Danny replied.
She retrieved the med kit from her bag and Danny was surprised that it was pretty comprehensive. She leaned against a tree as Danny cleaned the wound. She winched as he did.
"Sorry" he muttered, knowing it was painful.
"It's okay" she said, taking a deep breath.
"There's no peroxide or any sort of wound cleaner... there's only rubbing alcohol..."
"What does that mean?" she asked. Danny realized she hadn't been disinfecting it at all.
"It means it'll burn like hell, but it has to be done".
She took a deep breath.
"OK, do it" she said and so she did and she bit her tongue to keep from screaming and tears ran down her cheek as Danny rubbed her shoulder to comfort her. Soon it was over and her water filled eyes met Danny's and stood there and Danny leaned forward but a crack in the woods interrupted.
They both spun towards it and eyed the squirrel running across the ground.
They both laughed awkwardly at each other, smiling, but the smiles disappeared as they watched the squirrel climb on top of a near by dead body and stuff an acorn in its mouth for safe keeping.
"We should go" Kinslee said.
Danny finished bandaging the wound and Kinslee grabbed her bag and they left.
Danny looked at the bag. He could tell it had belonged to her before... everything.
It was covered in patches but one in particular caught his eye:
[ IMG] [https://i.pinimg.com/236x/b5/da/ab/b5daaba84f15204e39afbc3462c4004b--radiohead-tattoo-inspiration.jpg]
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"That...bear" Danny muttered. "Where have I...?"
"Oh?" Kinslee said looking down. "Oh yeah... that's a Radiohead symbol. You know the band?"
"Yeah, Radiohead..." Danny muttered, trailing off. That wasn't what it was, though.
He looked over at Kinslee and a flash of memory came to his mind. It was of a girl younger than her that wasn't her, but reminded him of her. They were playing D&D together...
The flash was gone and he shook it away to make it not come back.
"What's wrong?" Kinslee asked, genuinely concerned.
"Nothing" he said. "Just... thought I remembered something".
He didn't want to lie to her but didn't want to explain either. Explaining could equal remembering. But lying to her was off the table. He'd been lied to enough over the last... God, what had it been? Months.
"So you'd been trying to clean the wound yourself, huh?" he said, changing the subject.
"Yeah... well, not at first... There was this girl" she said.
"Girl?" Danny asked, curious.
"Mmm hmmm... Nice girl named Tabitha. She was a strange one, but kind. I actually found her the same way I found you... tripped right over her"
She said this with a laugh.
"I guess I'm clumsy. Well, anyway, she was hurt pretty bad and I had the med kit so I doctored her up... even stitched her up... That kit used to have a lot more in it. Trust me. I think it belonged to one of those military guys. But that's why there wasn't any disinfectant left in it. Once she was better she helped me with my wound too... but she kept telling me how she had to get to Maine. She wouldn't explain why... she just kept talking about this woman she was travelling with and her baby..."
"Woman and a baby?" Danny asked.
"Yeah... I don't know if the baby had a name but the woman's name was Carol..."
"Carol" Danny said outloud and stopped in his tracks, thinking hard.
It couldn't be.
"What's wrong?" Kinslee asked, putting a hand on his shoulder.
"This... Carol woman. Did she say what she looked like?"
Kinslee frowned and shrugged.
"Not really? Why?"
Danny shook his head.
Carol had been pregnant with a baby and was heading for Maine, right?
"What is it Danny?"
Before Danny could answer he felt his feet give out and he fell flat on the ground hard. He'd tripped on something.
Kinslee was immediately by his side and helped him back up.
He looked behind him and there was a dead, bloated corpse on the ground.
"Guess I'm not the only one clumsy and tripping over bodies" she said, trying to make light of the situation.
"Glad the ones you've been tripping over were alive" he replied. "Especially mine"
Danny looked around. There were bodies everywhere.
"It gets better" she assured him. They kept walking and Danny eventually shook off the thoughts of Carol.
Couldn't be.
---------------------------------------------------
Four days passed. They walked and camped for four days and had been without water for two.
It was beginning to take its toll. They had to find water soon but so far it had all been contaminated. It looked like bodies had floated down stream, collecting everywhere in every source of water against rocks and trees and for the past day they hadn't even found contaminated water sources having strayed away from a creek they'd deemed hopeless.
To make matters worse Kinslee had dropped the water bottle down a steep revine full of briers. It was empty by that point anyway so they thought it wouldn't matter but turned out it would.
On the plus side, Kinslee's wound was really healing and her voice was improving. When he told her this her smile was as wide as he'd ever seen it.
"Looks like we want have to amputate your neck afterall" Danny joked.
On the fifth day they could barely speak and were both feeling dehydrated.
"Danny, we have to" she said. "I've done it before. It's not that bad"
She'd suggested drinking their pee twice now. He'd rejected the idea but she'd at least persuaded him to hold it in when he told her he had to.
"Once you're out of pee and haven't drank anything... that's no longer an option" she said.
Danny stopped and looked at her.
"OK" he relented. "But how? What do we put it in? The bottle's gone..."
Realization came over her face. She hadn't even considered this.
"I mean.... I think it'll be hard to piss in my own mouth" Danny said, laughing weakly. "And it'll be worse for you..."
There was a pause.
"We can drink each other's pee" she said finally.
"What?" Danny said. "What do you mean?"
"You know what I mean" she said.
Danny shook his head rapidly and kept moving.
"Danny, wait...." she protested, but was forced to continue along with him.
An hour passed and then another and Danny laid a hand against a tree. He really had to pee bad... and he also thought he was going to die of dehydration. He knew if he did just pee on the ground she'd die.
"Danny..." she said, putting a hand on his shoulder.
"OK" he whispered, relenting.
They took turns. She pulled down her worn jeans and underwear and spread her legs. It was the most awkward thing he thought he'd ever done. He put his mouth up to her vagina.
"I'll go as slow as I can" she said and then it started.
At first it got on his face and he had to lean in closer and press his mouth right up against her. Danny was reminded of being back in school and drinking a Capri Sun after losing the straw. Only this didn't taste like Capri Sun, it tasted like piss and it burned going down.
After a moment she stopped.
"Do you need more?" she asked, shyly.
"Ummm..... Maybe...?"
"Well, let me drink first..."
Danny sighed and pulled down his pants and pulled out his dick reluctantly and looked away.
She looked at it hesitantly and unsure.
"Danny... uh... I've never... I don't..."
"Well, I just did" he protested.
"No I mean... the skin...."
"Oh" Danny said, embarrassed and he rolled up his foreskin and he felt her placed the tip of her mouth on the top of his dick with her eyes closed.
Danny had a shy bladder so he really had to force out his pee but after awhile he did and she drank. He imagine it must have burned her throat so bad. He felt terrible.
She pulled away after a few seconds, gasping and nodding. He splashed a little in her face, not able to stop in time but she didn't say anything.
"OK, switch" she said, voice hoarse
They went back and forth until they were both empty...
But they were rehydrated and they walked from there in embarrassed silence and eventually stopped to make camp.
They sat by a low, hidden fire not speaking until finally Kinslee spoke.
"Did we just... drink each other's pee?" she asked
They both busted out laughing.
"That's the kinda bond that can never be broken" Danny laughed and shook his head.
After that, everything was normal again until the next morning.
---------------------------------------------------------
The next morning Danny awoke to Kinslee pulling him up.
"Danny, get up. We have to move. Now".
He could already hear them in the background. Some of the infected were heading in their direction. They gathered their things and moved quickly.
They slowed their pace and looked back.
"I think we lost them" she said.
Danny had noticed the tree stand out of the corner of his eye but had disregarded it. That was a mistake. A bullet whizzed by his head and exploded against the tree beside them.
"Oh my God!" Kinslee screamed. "It's him! Run!"
She pulled on a confused Danny and they ran through the woods. A bullet soared past their head and then another. Neither found their mark.
They stopped finally and collapsed on the ground, out of breath. They were at the edge of a clearing.
They listened. Nothing.
"Who was that?" Danny asked.
"Tabitha called him Bambi" Kinslee said. "I only knew what she told me about him. He's some sort of infected... but different. He hunts... people. I never saw him and I thought he must have been killed by the military but I guess not..."
Danny took all this in and then decided they should keep moving so they did.
It was late afternoon soon. They stopped once to give each other drinks and then moved again until it was nearing unset. They reached another clearing. Danny felt they were safe.
They rested, happy to be alive. Happy to be together.
As the sky turned orange it cast a glow on Kinslee through the trees and she smiled.
"I'm so glad I tripped over you" she said.
"I'm glad you tripped over me too" Danny replied.
Her bandage had fallen away from her beck and revealed an almost completely healed wound. He noticed her voice sounded normal as ever. He was hearing her for the first time.
"You're almost healed" he said. "You should great"
"Really!?" she said excitedly, smiling, trying to look at her neck and realizing it was possible and laughing at herself.
She looked back up and met Danny's gaze and they leaned towards each other.
Danny tilted his head just as the wound in her neck opened up and exploded, the bullet ricocheting up her skull and existing through her pursed lips, blowing them up.
The bullet, grazed Danny's head but he didn't even feel it as the warm splatter of blood and bone and flesh smacked his face.
He let out a pained scream and she fell limp in his arms.
He opened his eyes and the blood dropped from his eye lids just in time to see him. The one she had called Bambi.
He was reloaded his gun but wasn't high in the air like a sniper, but was only feet away.
Danny didn't think. It a primal rage and pain he let Kinslee's body slump to the ground and charged at Bambi.
Bambi's eyes widened in surprise and... even fear.
Danny knocked Bambi to the ground and jammed his thumbs into his eyes, gauging them out as he flailed wildly. He struck Danny, wounded him, but Danny felt none of it.
His thumbs went all the way into Bambi's eyes and he picked up a nearby stick and forced it over and over into Bambi's face until Bambi stopped moving and went limp.
Danny rolled over on his back and screamed in agony and sobbed.
The infected had caught up and they heard him and they turned and were headed towards him.
Danny knew it too. He could hear them. He didn't care.
Let them rip me apart. Let them end this hell.
He heard a voice from somewhere. He didn't recognize it.
Maine! Maine! Maine!
"No!" Danny screamed. "Fuck you! Fuck Maine!"
MAINE! MAINE! MAINE!
Danny screamed as loud as he could.
"Hurry up you fuckers! Hurry up and get here and EAT ME!" he screamed at the infected that were almost upon him.
Then a different voice.
"Danny, run!" it said.
"Kinslee!?" he shot up in surprise, but her corpse lay on the ground.
Beside it he saw the bag and the bear patch looked at him and appeared to be searing into his soul.
MAINE! MAINE! MAINE!
It seemed to shout at him. He scrambled to his feet.
He could see the infected now, crashing through trees and brush carelessly...and then, he thought he saw the bear patch start to come for him... but as an actual bear.
Am I hallucinating!?
He blinked hard, blood flying off his eyelids as he did.
The bear was gone, but the infected were there.
He looked back at Kinslee's body. He wanted to grab it. To take it with him. To at least give it a proper burial and not let it just be another corpse in the forest to contaminate water and for future victims of this hellscape to trip on.
But he knew it was a lost cause and he just started running... and as the infected arrived as if it was one last gesture of sacrifice and love for Danny they descended on what remained of Kinslee and began to rip her apart, giving Danny time to escape.
He ran helplessly through the woods.
I can forget this. I can forget this. Just like everything else. I can take this out of my mind.
Memories of Kinslee and their brief time together came crashing in, dispelling this delusion. He cried in anguish but kept running as if he could escape his mind.
Flashes of the younger girl again... She rolled a 20 sided dice across a map drawn with colored pencils.
Danny came back to reality, just missing slamming into a tree and soon he realized the ground had changed and he looked down and his feet were on pavement.
A car flew towards him and hit the breaks hard, sliding. It was compact car of some kind. The window rolled down.
"Tyrone?" he asked, breathlessly, sure he was hallucinating.
"I'll leave it up to you, Danny" he said. "Either get in, or don't".
For reasons he would never understand, he climbed in the back seat and the car sped off.