Guilt (A Zero Spin-Off)

Six - Kyle

Six - Kyle 

Ella looked at me, her wide eyes filled with pain and her pink lips- the red had all faded away over the day - parted and I immediately wanted to snatch the words back and erase the horrified look on her face. A girl like her should only be smiles... and maybe pissed off occasionally because, yeah, it was kind of hot. But I hated that I was the one that put the horrified expression on her face. It was pointless to try to take back the words. I had only told her what I saw as the truth. 

Had Ella really never considered that Hudson wouldn't last forever? If so, she was more naive than I thought. With as many people as were constantly coming and going, it was only a matter of time before someone slipped up. It wasn't like people hadn't already been trying to sneak in infected people. They did it with families, hell, I had even seen runners trying to get someone through who had been bit. Their excuse had been that it was only a "small" bite, as if level of bite made a difference. It broke skin and broke skin meant infected. There was no getting out of it. At least not yet.

"Well, hopefully you can find a vaccine before that happens," I said.

She kicked the ground as we walked. "It won't be me. Dr. Summers lets me do more than Dr. Fairchild did, but I'm an assistant. I know enough about it, but I couldn't possibly create anything like that."

My eyebrows shot up. She was so willing to take responsibility for creating the virus, but didn't want any credit for a possible vaccine.

"You really blame yourself for this whole mess?"

A couple words from a stranger wasn't going to change her mind or make her feel less guilty, I knew that. And I didn't know enough about science or her skills to tell her she was capable of such an achievement, but I had to say something. The silence drug on for so long I was almost thankful when I heard a familiar low groaning of the living dead. Ella tensed up next to me while I pulled out my knife, relaxed. There was only one. Dangerous, sure, but easy enough to handle on my own. I'd learned a while ago not to underestimate them, something about crazed hunger for flesh gave them more strength than they should have had.

I took a step forward, ready for the kill, but Ella's feet were frozen to the dirt. I looked back at her, eyes wide and biting down on her bottom lip hard enough it might bleed. Her hands were clenched into tight fists and her whole body was shaking. I glanced back at the zombie, there were still five or six yards before he was a real problem, so instead of attacking him, I turned to face Ella.

"Wh-what are you doing? Kill it," she said managing to point with one shaky finger. Her voice was shrill and I somehow found the whole thing funny. She was pointing and squealing like a spider was crawling on her wall. She almost looked like she might throw a shoe if she could get hers off fast enough and even though I was right in front of her, she kept her gaze squarely on the zombie as if glancing away might make it move faster. "It's not funny!"

I did my best to stop smiling, I didn't need to go pissing her off even more. Especially with what I was about to suggest. "I'm thinking you should kill it."

"Excuse me?" Her eyes snapped to mine. Her head started shaking back and forth and her feet backpedaling as she said, "No, I-I can't do that."

I caught her wrist gently and pulled her back toward me. Waiting until her brown eyes met mine, I told her, "You can."

She didn't look convinced.

"The more you do it, the less scary they are." I pushed the grip of my knife into her hand and folded my hand over hers until her fingers curled around the rubbery grip. The blade shook back and forth in her unsteady hand and her wide, terrified eyes never left mine. I rested my hands on her shoulders, squeezing for reassurance. "I'll distract it, okay? The easiest way will be to approach from behind. Kick its calves out since it's bigger than you. They're clumsy so it'll lose balance and fall and then as hard as you can come down on it's head with that blade."