Infection

Chapter 48 - Watched

Sorry the chapters a day late! I hope you enjoy, thank you for all the support and your comments and votes, I appreciate it a lot!
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Stepping past the threshold I waited for Jamie to join me, heading straight for the kitchen. Finding it with ease I tried the tap, but was met with a grinding clunk. Great, well it had been over a month since everything has 'stopped'. Looking down at my hands I could see the blood slowly drying, staining them black.

"Seth..."

Looking up I noticed Jamie offering me a kitchen knife.

"It's better then nothing," she continued.

I had to agree, taking it from her. Giving it a quick twirl I clothed it in a raggedy tea towel before pocketing it. "Now what?"

"Now we do our job."

She had already starting riffling through the shelfs, salvaging what she could and depositing it into her bag. Slinging my gas mask around my neck I followed suit, the gore of what happened merely minutes ago replaying in my mind.

*

"Seth..."

Drawn back to the confined quarters of the truck I elbowed Jamie in reply, before mumbling "I'm awake, what's up?"

"Where nearly there." She whispered.

Grumbling, I rubbed the sleep from my face, the lingering smell of blood staining them. No matter how hard I scrubbed I could not remove the black tinge it left, nor the staleness that went with it.

"You still got you knife?" She reminded.

Bringing my hands back down to my side, I could feel the blade sheaved in its towel. At least this time we where going in with a weapon. "Yes Mum." Looking around the shaded content of the vehicle I could already tell there was less of use, and we had only been out once! I'm sure they where trying to kill us off.

"You guys ready!" The driver shouted back.

Nobody replied, none was needed, we didn't what a repeat of yesterday! With my heart in my mouth and a comforting hand on my blade I waited impatiently as the vehicle slowed down coming to a full stop.

"GO!"

Jumping from my bench I joined the evacuation into the new world, guided by my sense of touch before my eyes adjusted. I could feel the dusty road meet my feet, the familiar foreboding stench of the infected caressing my nose, making me fiddle with the strap of my mask which now lived around my neck. When the town - or should I say city - finally came into focus I couldn't help but notice how fast nature was reclaiming it. The greenery was spilling out of the gardens and snaking it's way across the paths and road, shrouding houses and shops. The only problem was that it made the perfect hiding spots for our fond friends, and I couldn't quite shake the feeling that somebody or something was watching me...

"Quit your gorping we've got work to do!" Jamie hissed, her gaze darting around for infected. "And we need to get out of the open."

"Yeah yeah, just keep an eye on the bushes, I got a bad feeling," I added, breaking into a light jog heading deeper into the city. What troubled me the most was the fact there was no sign of infected what so ever, no bodies, no remains, nothing. Yeah there was an accessional blood stain but this was supposed to be a city, so where are all the inhabitants? Not only that I couldn't shake the feeling that I was being watched!

Now and then we would stop and look around, but there was rarely anything of use. It was one of these time when with out any warning I suddenly heard Jamie gag, making me jump. Rushing over, I found her leaning with her back against a railing forcing herself not to puke.

"What's... Oh." It was the concoction of hot sticky blood and rotting flesh that hit me first, before the concrete ravine came in sight, the river dyed red. Pushing the mask into place I managed to alleviate some of the smell, the full picture coming into view.

The channel was packed with the dead, the real dead, far too gone to be anything else but corpses, their meaty remains discarded like rubbish at a landfill sight, it was sickening! Who had done this... the government?

I could feel the hairs on my neck raising, warning me of something. Spinning on my heals I managed to catch something disappear into one of the buildings! "You see that!"

"See what?" Jamie huffed.

Ignoring instinct, I rushed towards the office block pulling out my knife, just incase.

"Seth, don't you even dare!" Jamie shouted after me.

I didn't care what she shot at me, I was fed up of continuity looking over my shoulder, it was driving me crazy! Diving into the dimly lit reception I spied one of the doors still swinging, and so the chase began. With a glee smile I followed its messy trail, through deserted corridors and up dark stairwells, never getting more then a glimpse of my prey.

Storming into room packet with desks I could tell the game was nearly over, there were few places left to hide. With ragged breathing obscuring my hearing, I didn't bother to keep silent, it knew I was coming what ever it was.

With a swift kick, I entered the private office homing in on a rattling coming from under the strategically placed desk. Hesitantly I brought myself around to the back, the noise suddenly stopping bring with it a dead silence. Suddenly it occurred to me that this may not of been a good idea... well I came this far.

Taking a deep breath I stooped down to take a look.