Immune-ish

Chapter Thirty-Six

XANDER:

I try to get my breathing in order as fast as possible so that we can get going before there are too many more corpses, but Eva insists that I must stop sweating and breathing so hard before we can even move.

"Eva," I say, despite my heart still pounding, "we need to go. Now." The moans have been getting louder, which means there are even more, even closer.

She looks at me for a minute, as though she is listening. "Fine."

She stands up and reaches out a hand. I take it and she helps me up. My legs burn, but I can rest as long as I want once we are in the tower.

We walk to the edge of the roof furthest from the burning houses, and closest to the tower. This yard is fenced in and devoid of the creatures for now, but the wooden fence has a few holes in it from the constant attempts to break it. Eva jumps down with ease, and lands in the dead grass with no effort at all.

I want to be prideful, but I accept her help anyway and grab her hand so she can guide me down. I land and pain shoots up my leg, but I don't dare say anything. We don't need to be held up anymore by my weakness.

"I'm going to open the gate," she says, pointing at the arced wooden gate locked in place. "Then we run as fast as you can go."

"Okay," I whisper. "I'm ready."

We both walk up to the gate where corpses pound against it, but haven't broken through for the draw of food has not yet been strong enough. Eva rests her hand on the gate latch and holds the knife in her other hand. She hasn't been quite right since she had to kill a corpse, but now is not the time to worry about it. As long as it doesn't put her life in danger, I don't need to be too concerned.

"You ready?" she asks.

I nod and she opens the gate, grabbing me and pushing me. I hold up my rifle and run forward almost blindly. The light from the fires is being blocked out and it isn't quite time for the sun to rise. I can hear Eva behind me, although it is harder now that we are running on grass instead of pavement.

I reach the bottom of the rope ladder and put my foot on the first rung. The ladder sways even worse with the dead grabbing at it around me. I try to put my foot on the second rung, but it hurts my leg too much to raise it so high. Instead, I sling the rifle over my back. I put my arms as high as I can on the rope and pull my body up. My arms hurt from fighting Chloe, but adrenaline and fear keep me going. The faster I get up the ladder, the faster Eva will be safe.

I am reaching up for the next rung, when Eva suddenly screams.

My heart starts racing as I jump down and rush to her, the first rays of sunlight are just showing and I can't see where she is. Instead I must follow the sounds of her screams, and her shouts of, "XANDER!"

"EVA!" I shout. The moans almost drown out her screams.

"XANDER!" she yells again. Her voice sounds like it's right in front me . . . under a mess of corpses biting and scratching.

I use all the strength I have left to grab the corpses by the shoulders where they can't bite me and pull them off of her. All of them fight back, but I have to do hard things for those I love.

I pick her up and start running back to the ladder. She has scratches all over her arms and legs that drip violet blood, but doesn't seem to have been bitten. That's good, scratches will heal.

I set her on the ground and yell, "Climb! CLIMB!"

She scrambles up the ladder. "Thank you," she shouts down.

I don't answer and try to climb up, using my previous strategy of pulling myself up mostly with my arms.

I get distracted by watching Eva climb and stop watching where I am placing my hands. Pain suddenly flashes in my hand and I can't breathe. Hot blood drips down my arm. I've been bitten.

I hurry up the ladder, ignoring all the pains in my body, just hoping for my last ten seconds to be spent with the last of my family. I reach the top and roll up the ladder far enough that the corpses can't reach it in four seconds flat, though it feels like it takes hours.

With five seconds left, I wrap my arm around her and kiss her. A short peck and I feel sparks fly when she kisses me back. She is shaking with fear, but it is still the best moment of my life.

"I love you," I whisper.

"I love you, too," she says and I breathe a sigh of relief at her words.

Two seconds left and the pain floods my whole being. I'm just glad that I got to kiss her and spend my last seconds with her. I'm glad I got to feel again before the nothingness consumes me.

One second left of life . . .

From above the forest, we watch the sun rise.

[END OF BOOK 1]