Infection |Infected Book 1|

Chapter 18 (original version)

I stood with everyone else gaping at the camp. It's all over, I thought to myself. This is the end of the road. Cody's hand found mine and gripped it tightly. I turned my head and saw he had already been looking at me; a look of defeat wiped across his face.

His voice was solemn as he spoke, "What do we do now?" His eyes never left mine.

"Well," Rich's twang sounded with leadership. "They're not going to open the gates with all of those infected there. So I say we stage a decoy."

My head flicked over to look at Rich. "What kind of decoy?" I asked, narrowing my eyes. I knew someone would be leaving us.

"Someone's gotta get their attention," Rich explained. He motioned with his empty hand to the gate. "And run them out of there." A slight smile spread across his lips. "Kind of like reverse herding."

"And who do you expect to do this suicide mission?" I asked with a slight arrogance. Even though Rich's practicality kept us alive half of the time, I still didn't want anyone to have to die, and that is surely what will happen.

"Would anyone like to join me?" Rich raised his eyebrows.

"No," Cody said. "You can't outrun them with your leg, you would die for sure." He took a deep breath. "I'll go."

My heart stopped and I dropped my chair leg to grasp Cody's hand with both of mine. They trembled as they held on tightly. "No.." I said pleading with him. I shook his arm trying to get him to look at me, but he only looked out towards the camp.

"The second it's clear you need to book it to the gates," Cody demanded with a deeper tone to his voice. Cody looked over at me blankly, trying to hide all of the emotion behind his eyes.

I glanced over at Rich hoping that he would stop his son from doing something so drastic. Rich's face had turned pink and his eyebrows furrowed in frustration. He reached in his back pocket and pulled out his picture of Josie, his eyes sweeping across it.

"I'll go with him," Durbin said, grabbing all of our attention. "I need to stretch my legs anyways." He walked over to Cody and gave him a slap on the back. "I think I might be able to run a little faster than you." He winked at Cody and gave him a smile, which Cody did not return.

"You can't go," I said to Cody, panic filling my voice. "What am I supposed to do?" My voice cracked at the end and I bit the inside of my cheek to keep from bursting into tears.

My eyes flicked from the camp to Cody, weighing my options. Nerves built up in my stomach and I felt my face go cold. "I'm going too." I said quietly.

Anger flashed through Cody's eyes. "No!" He yelled. "You're not coming with us!" I could see him start to break down on the inside.

I took a step closer to him so that our faces were only inches apart and looked deeply into his eyes. "I'm not just going to waltz to safety while you're out there running for your life," I said through my teeth. "I would never really feel safe while worrying constantly if you were okay. I'm going with you."

Cody's gray eyes bore into mine with such intensity he might have burned holes through them. His jaw clenched and I could hear his teeth grinding together as he tried to control himself. I could feel his pulse beat hard through the veins in his hands; I gripped them tighter.

"I'm going with you," I whispered again. I reached up on my tip toes and kissed him gently on this lips. "You can't stop me."

The shotgun cocked behind me, stopping my breath. I turned over my shoulder to see who Rich could possibly be aiming the gun at. The barrel of the shotgun was pointing straight at me. I let go of Cody's hands and raised my arms in the air as a surrender. My heart thrummed hard in my chest and I took deep breaths trying to calm it down.