The last thing he heard before Ethel’s screams pierced the air was the old lady shouting at Jake, “I’ve taken shits harder than you, you *.”
Nick couldn’t help but chuckle as he and the others passed into the shadows of the treeline. The only thing that wiped the smile from his face was when he looked back and saw the feisty old dame being ripped apart like a tough old steak. Jake’s yellow coat had suddenly become very red.
chapter seven
Nick and the others eventually came to a stop in a clearing about half a mile into the woods. Everyone was sweating, having run uphill most of the way. At least they had managed to leave Jake behind as he chowed down on poor old Ethel. Nick could still hear the infected teenager’s animalistic shrieks sounding off in the distance.
Dave slumped up against a gnarled oak tree. Perspiration soaked his dirty brown and grey hair and matted it against his forehead. “I pray we never have to do that again,” he said, panting. “I think I left one of my lungs back there.”
“Tell me about it,” said Nick. He knelt down on the floor and tried to catch his breath. “Has anyone else been bitten since this morning?”
“Why?” Cassie asked.
“Because that’s what happened to Jake. That little girl bit him on the hand. Now he’s infected. That’s how this thing is spreading. One infected person bites a healthy person and that person becomes infected, bites the next person and repeats the cycle. I feel dumb for not understanding it until now, but it makes sense. I just can’t believe how quick it happens.”
Carl spat a wad of saliva into the mud and wiped the moisture from his face. “So we could all end up like one of those things?”
“If you get bitten, yes,” said Nick. “Has anybody been bitten?”
Everyone shook their head.
“Okay,” said Dave, seeming to relax a little. “We all better be real careful from now on. We come across someone infected and we do our best to run for it. No trying to fight with them like we did that little girl.”
“That was unavoidable,” said Nick, feeling bad about Jake’s fate and how it had involved him trying to help with the little girl.
“Unavoidable or not,” said Eve. “We have to be more careful. I’m not ending up like one of those monsters.”
“They’re still people,” Nick shouted. “My wife and son were infected, and I’ll be damned if I’m going to let you keep calling them monsters.”
“I’m sorry,” Eve said, folding her arms, “but as nice as people might once have been, if they’ve caught whatever this thing is then they’re monsters now – plain and simple.”
Nick clenched his fists.
Before anything else was said, Dave shushed the both of them. “There’s no point arguing over it. I think we all know, deep down, that these people are sick – infected – or whatever. But they’re also dangerous and we cannot forget that.”
“I think some of them are dead,” said Cassie.
The group went silent.
“This nonsense again,” Carl muttered.
“I think she’s right,” said Eve. “Nick killed an infected old man back at the garden centre where he rescued me. The guy came right back to life and came after us again. He was all messed up and slow and everything, but he was still moving around, even with most of his neck missing.”
Nick shook his head. He couldn’t contain his grief any longer. It had been building in the pit of his stomach like an ulcer and now felt like a leaden weight in his guts. He had to let it out. “I…I killed my son. He was infected, too, but he didn’t come back to life after I killed him. He stayed dead. He is dead.”
“Well, that shoots Cassie’s theory right out of the water,” said Carl. “The dead are not getting up and walking around.”