Infection- Book 2

Chapter 3- Refinery

Pony poked his head out from the tree he was hiding behind, looking up at the large
building in front of us. I jumped from one tree to the next to get closer to him. “So, this is where
they took Zizzy. Have you been here before?”

Pony shook his head, his eyes darting around the outside of the building. “No, I don’t recognize this place at all.” The place was completely enclosed in a wired gate. “Either way, we can do this. How are we supposed to get in, though?”

I continued hopping between trees to get a closer look around the building. The terrain raised up in the back, making the gate just short enough for us to climb over easily. I pointed it out to Pony and waved him over. He hooked a hand around my foot and lifted me up over the gate. My feet dug into the ground as I landed, nearly making me lose my balance. I turned back to Pony to see him swinging on a nearby tree branch. He released his hands and landed right next to me, holding his arms up to steady himself.

“I guess that works,” I shrugged. We carefully entered the building, hiding around the
corner from a nearby guard. It was a tiger with a black hat and uniform, holding a dagger in each
hand. He impatiently tapped his foot against the ground while leaning into the wall as if he had
been sitting there for days waiting for something to happen. I swatted Pony with the back of my
hand to get him to follow me around to the other side of the wall.

A clear hallway was presented when I poked my head out. I tiptoed down the hallway and up the stairs of the building as Pony trailed shortly behind me. We had made it up to the top
of the stairs before a low growling came from behind us. The fur on my neck stood straight up at the noise, making me jerk my head back. That damn tiger. He held his daggers up in the air and
prepared to charge at us before noticing Pony behind me. His face twisted in confusion as he
loosened the grip on his weapons.

There was my chance. I ducked below the tiger and planted a punch square in his stomach. He grunted, dropping the daggers. I dragged Pony out into the back of the top floor and slammed a nearby door shut.

“What are we-” I slapped a hand over his mouth before he could say another word.
Footsteps were right outside the door. Pony pulled away and rubbed his jaw, giving me the what the hell? look. I held a finger to my lips and glared at him. The footsteps faded shortly after, so I cracked the door open to peek out. I scanned the empty room, pulling Pony out. Another set of
stairs led back down to the ground level, strangely. We must’ve missed a room when we came in.

A whole new wing of rooms were around the section we missed. One looked like some
sort of office, and another looked like a storage room. Pony lifted his ear and tapped at my
shoulder, waving for me to follow him. We moved further down the hall before I picked up the
same sound he had. Loud knocking noises were heard, but they sounded more like punches.
Pony and I rushed further down the hall till the sound was right outside the door we stood in
front of.

Zizzy had been landing one final punch to an infected that had been locked in the room
with her when we stepped in. I slapped a hand over my mouth and gasped when I saw an LPD
badge pinned to the infected’s shirt. A dark purple bruise was on Poley’s cheek, and his nose was
bloody. He slammed into the wall and fell unconscious to the floor. I shrieked, muffling the noise with my hands the best I could. Zizzy looked up at the two of us, her eyes widening when she
saw me.

“Oh my God, this isn’t him, is it?!” she cried out, panicking. I shook my head and dropped my hands to my sides.

“No,” I whistled. Clearing my throat, I tried speaking again. “Not the one I told you about, at least.” Still not steady. The amount of panic in my voice was enough to make her rush over and hug me, shielding my eyes from the vision of the chief. She shifted around so my back was facing him.

“I’m so sorry. I had no choice.” I shook my head again, lifting it from Zizzy’s shoulder.

“He’s already gone,” I croaked. “There’s nothing we could’ve done, anyways.” I gave her a weak, half-honest smile. The look she gave was enough to tell me that she didn’t believe a word I just said. I pulled away from her and grabbed my upper arms, holding my head down.

“I’m glad to see you two here, you won’t believe the amount of infected I’ve taken out since you were gone. I even started to enjoy doing-” She paused and looked back at me. I waved the comment away, taking no offense to it.

“I’m just relieved you’re okay,” Pony chirped in. His cheeks grew bright red when Zizzy turned back to him.

I awkwardly raised my hand from behind Zizzy to grab their attention. “We should probably get out of here. They’ll find out something went wrong sooner or later.” Pony stepped out of the doorway for us to pass. We filed out before Zizzy grabbed her shoulder.

“Hang on, I think I pulled a muscle,” she said, examining her arm. She rotated it around before freezing. “Oh…” Three parallel scratches were present on the back of her arm.

"That’s not…” Pony stuttered. “That’s not from an infected, is it?” Zizzy looked up with the most fear in her eyes than I’d ever seen from her before.

“I-” She put her hands to her face and took a deep breath. “You two need to leave.”

“We’re not going anywhere without you,” Pony answered, way quicker than I expected
him to. “We can get you help.” She shook her head, laughing to herself.

“What help, Pony?” A tear slid down her cheek.

“We’ll find a cure, we can save you!” Zizzy continued laughing.

“If there was a cure,” she answered, “we wouldn’t even be here, Pony.” She wiped her face with the back of her hand and cleared her throat. “You don’t want to see me turn into one of them, so go.” Pony stood with his mouth held open, tears beading in his eyes. “I’ll create a distraction and sabotage as much as I can while you escape.”

Pony’s hands shook as he whispered, “Zizzy…” He choked out a sob as she pulled him into a hug. I leaned against the frame of the door and held back my own tears as the two said their goodbyes.

“You too, get in here.” Zizzy extended her arm and grabbed my hand, tugging me towards them. The three of us stood in a group hug for what felt like hours. When she released the two of us, she set her hat on my head and wiped my eyes. “It’ll be okay.”

“Take care, Zizzy,” I sniffed, stepping back out of the room. Zizzy grabbed Pony’s hand and planted a kiss on his cheek before swatting him out of the room.

“Good luck, you two. I’ll miss you.”

“Zizzy’s back!” Zuzy shouted, running up to me and Pony with her sister close behind.
The gate slid shut behind the two of us. “Where is she…?” Zizzy’s sisters looked back and forth
between me and Pony, confused. I gently shook my head, staring down at the ground. Pony
dropped to his knees, bending over into a heavy sob. I threw my arms around him as his
shoulders heaved.

“I know,” I squeaked. “I know.” The girls stood in front of us as Zuzy’s breathing started to stagger. I extended an arm and pulled them both in before they started crying, too. “I’m so sorry, girls.”

Mimi and Giraffy showed up a while after we hadn’t come in, and one glance at us was all they needed to know what happened. They looked at each other before breaking us apart, helping everybody inside.

The girls sat on my lap all curled up, still trying to wrap their minds around the fact that their older sister was gone. I removed Zizzy’s hat from my head and placed it in between the
girls, hugging them tight. Everyone was silent for the rest of the night at the loss of a member of
our family.