Immune-ish

Chapter Fourteen

XANDER:

I scream as loud as I possibly can and my throat feels like it's being shredded. The blood streams down my leg and pools on the ground below me. I begin the countdown to my death.

10. How could I have been such an idiot? Letting a zombie into my house? 9. I'm such an imbecile!

8. I stop insulting myself, good distracted by an immense pain that radiates from leg and through the rest of my body; the infection is spreading. I scream again. 7. This can't possibly be happening.

6. But it is and I can't do anything about it. 5. I try to move out from under her, but every little motion I make causes her to snarl at me with a beastly ferocity.

4. I'm going to die. I'M GOING TO DIE! 3. "Please," I say, to who I'm not sure. "Please don't let me die."

2. Eva looks at me with her glazed eyes. Something changes in her gaze and they're suddenly bright blue again. 1. She starts doing her tearless-cry-thing and says, "I'm sorry," over and over again.

0. I am too.

I go motionless, expecting my world to suddenly stop. For it to disappear forever, another being in control of what once was my body.

And nothing happens.

I look down at my left leg and the blood is red, not black, although it is hard to tell in the darkness. I stupidly try to stand up because my back is digging into the hardwood. MY LEG! I fall back down with a gasp. Corpses definitely don't feel pain like that. What is happening?

Eva makes eye contact with me and stops crying. My blood is on her face, and still she smiles. Her teeth are stained a bit red. She lunges at me and wraps me in a hug, smashing my leg in the process.

"Agh!" I shout. "Leg. Leg! Leg!"

She climbs off and says, "Sorry." She looks me in the eyes, searching for something that she can't find. "I'm so sorry! I'm so, so sorry, Xander!" Her crying starts back up.

"It's okay," I say. But it's not. She just tried to kill me. She could have killed me!

I attempt to stand up, and eventually I can by leaning on the counter and standing on one leg. I don't look at Eva again, pushing what little feelings I have for her deep down with the fact that she tried to kill me.

"Xander?" she whimpers.

I don't say anything, just hop down the hall to the bathroom. I hear Eva following me, but I don't acknowledge her. I flip on the light and give my eyes a moment to adjust. I grab a white hand towel, lift my leg onto the toilet. Then I wrap the towel tightly around my calf with little struggle, tying the ends together. I've done this many times, just never on myself. Hopefully I'm not going to bleed out here.

"Do you need any help?" she asks.

I turn and look at her. "No."

I spin back to my leg. The blood has already begun to seep through the towel. I don't know what to do. I can't think straight. None of the men on my patrol have ever had wounds this bad. At least none of the ones that survived the injury.