Radiation Point

Twenty Four

I was moving before I fully processed what was happening. Miracle sat staring wide eyed at a contaminated that had shambled in from the woods. She didn't move-didn't run-instead, she simply screamed.

I reached her before anyone else. Wrapping my arms around her torso, I half carried, half dragged her away from the snarling contaminated. Miracle twisted and struggled against my grasp, fighting to free herself.
"Mommy," she wailed, wrenching herself out from my arms and lunging towards the contaminated.
"Stop!"
The scream was wrenched from my own lips, as I held out my arms, beckoning Miracle towards me. For an instant, she set her brown eyes on me, blinking up with dark lashes.
"Come back to me, honey. Hurry," I urged her. "That is not your Mommy! Not anymore."
She looked stricken. She looked at me, with wide eyes, apparently torn between obeying and torn between the sight of her mom. I didn't move, simply waited with my arms outstretched. She had to know better. She had to see. Although she was young and wanted her mommy, she had to see that that was no longer her. The contaminated was moving slowly, one of it's legs twisted the wrong way-a bone sticking just below the knee.
After what seemed like forever, Miracle turned and ran.
Right into her mom's arms. Her mom-the contaminated.
It felt like time slowed down, as I gaped in horror at the two of them. Her mom ripped into the side of Miracle's exposed flesh, revealing a gaping wound, blood seeping down Miracle's small frame.
An arrow whizzed by me, and with a sickening crack, struck Miracle's mom directly between the eyes. She let out a gurgle and her grip eased on Miracle, sending the wailing child to the ground.
I rushed to Miracle's side, kneeling beside her twitching body. Trying to stop the endless flow of blood, I pressed my hand over the wound in her neck. Jackson's words echoed in my head, "We put down everyone whose been bit". The thought was numbing. I quickly shook it away and focused on stopping the blood. Miracle gurgled and stared up at me with wide, scared eyes.
"But, Mommy," she whispered, trying to shift her eyes to her mom.
"I know," I replied, not loosing my grip on her neck.
"Move aside," Tyler ordered, moving to stand beside me. Although he looked pale, his mouth was set in a determined line, his eyes cold. He aimed his bow at directly at Miracle's head, the string pulled tautly back.
"No," I said, my mind racing. They couldn't kill a child. Killing a contaminated was different. But they didn't know she was going to turn. I hadn't turned yet. If there was hope for me, there had to be hope for her.
"I said move aside," he repeated, his voice dangerously low, barely veiling a threat. His tone sent a shock through me. I turned and looked into his eyes, questioningly. There was darkness in him that hadn't been there earlier that day.
"Tyler," I said, trying to keep my voice calm, reasonable. "She hasn't turned yet. You can't kill her until you're sure that she's going to change."
His eyes shifted from me to Miracle. He looked like a stranger. A dangerous stranger.
"I can and I will. She puts the camp in danger," he said, his voice a growl.
"She's a child!"
"She's a contaminated!"
"Not yet," I pleaded. I met his long gaze, searching for the man who I had spent the past few days with. The man who wouldn't leave the girl to die in the store.
For an instant, he seemed to wither against the intensity of my gaze. A storm of emotions passed across his face as he shifted his eyes from me to Miracle, whose breathing was loud and labored.
"You don't understand. You don't have people counting on you. I can't keep making mistakes because of you. Leaders don't do this," he said. He blinked hard and glanced away from me.
When he glanced back, his expression was unreadable.
"This is your last warning to move aside. I have to kill her."
"Why couldn't we wait to see if she does change though? How would that hurt anyone if we kept her strapped down. Just waited," I said, speaking quickly. "If she changes, of course, kill her. But what harm can there be in observing her?"
With our shared wounds, it was almost as if our fate were shared. If they killed her for being bit, what would stop them from shooting me? Would they listen long enough for me to explain that the wound was old? That even though I still felt the sting of it, I hadn't changed yet. That had to count for something. But if they shot a child with no regrets, what would that mean for me? Nothing good, I decided.
"She has a point," Jackson said, coming up beside us.
Tyler's head snapped up. He shot Jackson a confused look, but didn't reply.
"We are in a facility where we can observe the girl. We've never had that option before. We could use the information to find out how soon after people are bit that they change. And she will change," he said, directing the remark to me. "But, it wouldn't hurt to study how exactly the change occurs. Maybe we could come up with some information that will help us fight. Maybe we'll even learn earlier signs of being infected."
"Fine, but this is on the two of you. I won't have any more blood on my hands on this mission. Now, get her inside, and locked down before she changes right here." His words were directed at Jackson and for a moment, I thought Tyler wasn't going to look at me again. But before he turned away and headed into the camp, he shot me a look of such loathing that I found myself shrinking backwards.
"What did I do wrong?" I whispered.
Jackson glanced at me, his eyes pitying. "You made him weak."