Eyes of the infected ✔ [COMPLETED]

Chapter sixteen

Just wanna say a quick thank you to the people who have voted, fanned, commented and messaged me. It's really nice to wake up to haha, thanks. :) x

Hope you enjoy.

 _______________________________________________________

I didn’t see my life flash before my eyes.
What would I have seen? My tiny self nestling into my father’s jumper on the first day of school, gripping tightly onto his huge hand? My mother handing me my Hello Kitty lunchbox with tears in her eyes, wishing me good luck? Maybe I would see my brother as I dove into his room, grabbing an xbox controller and shooting whatever we could on the screen, high fiving as we did. Maybe I’d see Alex Harvey as he asked me to the cinema, my first boyfriend. I didn’t love him, of course I didn’t. How could anyone know love until now, how could anything ever be as intense as it is now? It was different here, people didn’t just love each other, they needed each other, were anchors for each other. I needed my brother, he was the only person alive right now who I could remember when I was young, the only person I shared hundreds and hundreds of memory with, my family, my life.

I knew all this, but I saw Keith.
As those arms reached to grab me, I saw Keith making me laugh in the car when everybody else was asleep, I saw us shouting Radiohead songs as he drove, I saw him getting frustrated as I refused to believe the creatures were zombies, saw him sheepishly watching me undress, saw him kissing me with everything he had, saw me doing the exact same. Thing is, I felt it too. My heart swelled as it happened and I knew I couldn’t run anymore, I couldn’t hide from myself. I’d been so furious that in this disaster I’d been distracted by a beautiful boy who called me sunshine, who called me pretty, who made me feel when my heart should have been hollow. I wanted to tell him right now, before everything disappeared and slipped through my fingertips.

I couldn’t though. I couldn’t because it lunged straight for me, pinning me down to the ground with a thud and another twist of my already throbbing leg. It spat and growled at me, grazing it’s teeth against my cheek. I could feel liquid dripping all over me, my arms, legs, face. Desperately I tried to keep my mouth closed to avoid it but it was so difficult with the pain I was in; faces of the people I was missing kept me shoving furiously, trying to launch the skinny infected’s body away from mine. This didn’t last long before it let out an almighty screech and everything around us went silent for a moment. I knew they were coming, I knew it.
 With a new kind of frantic energy, I twisted my head away from its decomposed face where most of its skin had been ripped off, revealing the back of his jaw and lack of one eye. My hand reached out directly above me and clasped excruciatingly onto a thick branch of the thorn bush, letting the spikes sink into my hand.

‘Fuck…off!’ I panted the last word as my hand flew forward and snapped the branch, ramming it into the infected’s head. It wasn’t enough though because it only became dazed for a second before its biting got more furious, more hysterical. I didn’t need to think twice, once again I pulled back with effort and struck the back of its head, squeezing my eyes shut as blood showered everywhere, straight back onto my face, hair, clothes and hands. The body went limp and slumped heavily on top of me, blocking the view of the mass I could hear moving towards me. I'd managed to handle one, that didn’t mean I could handle a hundred more. I needed the boys, they needed me.

Soon I was scrambling to my feet, holding my hand over my mouth to ensure I didn’t cry out.
Fight the pain, fight the pain.
I was living on borrowed time at the moment and my god, would I use that time wisely. I did; I staggered forward, dodged an outstretched arm and made towards where the alley should have been. It was there, open for me to hobble into, panting heavily, loud enough I was sure everything within a mile radius would be able to hear.
‘Lucas’ I wheezed as I moved forward, eyes wearily looking down to my hand which was now pouring with blood, dripping down to the ground almost to leave a trail for anyone wanting to find me, ‘Keith, Percy… Mum, Joel…’
The alleyway seemed to get more and more narrow as my vision faded in an out, pain in my leg overwhelming. I was beginning to wonder if I’d broken it, if pure determination was keeping me walking. I would do anything, anything. Over ten minutes ago, this alleyway had been crawling with the walking dead but I didn’t care, I would only turn back around when I looked one in its empty eyes.
Brave. Was I being brave? I was being stupid, reckless.
Not brave.

I reached the spot where Keith and Percy had fallen – empty. Relief was the emotion which took over as I noted their lack of presence, quickly followed by worry. They were moving, able to move, that much kept me hopeful. But where had they gone with the whole crowd of dead?
Keep going.
I moved as fast as I could, biting the sides of my mouth to keep from shouting. I was well aware I had very little hope if I came face to face with one of them, I was being followed down the alleyway and there was no way I could scale the wall without help.
Help. Had it been only minutes ago we’d all been together, holding hope in our worn hands? Had it been a week ago that I was making plans for the future with my family, my friends, trips for when we turned eighteen, wishing time would hurry up?
Gone.
It still wouldn’t sink in, even when I was dragging myself through an alleyway, fighting for my life. What if I never found my brother again, what if I never found the boys? I’d die – but I’d rather die without them then walk out of this mess without them. Life after this, alone. Could I ever live a normal life again? Could I ever find jokes funny again, ever walk out of a house without checking every corner? Would I ever fall in love with somebody, go get married despite the fact they would never fully understand me, never fully know the hardest times of my life.
Keith knew. Keith had been there the whole time, Keith watched it all happen, he held my hand as it happened.
Not now, not now, just move.

‘Lucas!’ my voice screamed further than I ever could have intended it to, sounding desperate and pained. It sounded as though I was being attacked; I hadn’t wanted that, had I? What if they ran back to find me and got in trouble?
Move.
The end of the alley was coming up and I doubted I could make it. The pain was like nothing I had ever experienced  before, it was relentless.

Something stopped me dead in my tracks though, when I moved a hand up to my face to remove the sweat which was threatening to drip into my eyes. When I withdrew my hand, it was covered in deep red blood, almost black – it wasn’t my blood. That was the other hand which was pouring with liquid and my blood was not that dark, it was inhuman.
Oh shit, no, no... did that mean..?
 I tentatively moved a finer round my face after wiping the blood on my jeans, ignoring the descending infected behind me. I touched my eyelids, my cheeks, nose, above my lips, chin, eyelashes… it was everywhere.
I was infected, I had to be. It would have touched my eyes, probably been on my lips, in my mouth. I had a headache, an awful one but I thought it was because of my leg, I thought it was all somehow linked to my stupid fall. I had thought I was infected once before though hadn’t I? when I was lying on the ground and Keith pulled me away from the infected man, he’d dripped blood all over me and I’d been fine.
He didn’t drip it onto my eyes though.
Oh no.

No.
We’d survive this fucking bombing, we’d come so far, so far. So had I, hadn’t I? I’d never felt so strong yet so weak, so independent yet so vulnerable. Everything was in perspective now. I could do things, I could. I could survive this but I couldn’t survive without these people around me.
‘Harley!’
Yes! It was a voice at the end of the alleyway, cautiously calling my name. Who was it? It had been too quick to distinguish one of the boys from another but one of them was calling to me, pulling me forward so quickly that I could see a silhouette at the mouth of the alleyway.
Percy.
‘Percy!’ I called, grinning in relief when he turned round and his mouth dropped open at my appearance. He moved quickly towards me, eyes wide as saucers.
‘Oh my god, what happened to you?’ He asked, looking me up and down as though his head was in a frenzy.
‘Doesn’t matter, where are they?’
‘We, uh…’ he couldn’t look me in the eyes but rather focused on something on the floor. I refused to worry until he explained.
‘Percy’ I pushed him, my voice rising an octave.
‘We got split up, all of us’ he said,raising his head, ‘They were everywhere, we thought if we split that they’d only follow one of us and well, it worked’.

By the emptiness of the opening which led to rows of houses, I knew they hadn’t followed Percy.. Which meant nothing I heard next could be good.
‘Who?’
‘Keith’ he said, eyes focusing to our left where a long winding road moved for as far as I could see. My heart sunk at his words, of course it was Keith. That boy was a danger zone, he should come with a yellow sign on his head. I knew he could lok after himself but I still panicked, wishing I was there so maybe I could try and help.
‘They didn’t follow Lucas?’ I prayed they hadn’t, I loved my brother but he worked best in a  team, I wasn’t sure how he would fare alone.
‘A couple but nothing threatening’.
‘They’re all threatening’ I countered, wiping the slowly drying blood from my forehead, ‘We need to find them’.
‘We’re supposed to meet back here in that shop when we find you, the only thing we can do is wait for them. What happened with you, Harley? They were going crazy, both of them but there were too many to climb back over the wall. I knew you’d be fine’ he sent a small smile my way and I felt a little better that I had him here with me. I knew he wanted me to explain but I took the breathing time to glance down at my leg, wincing when I saw it was actually visibly bent out of shape.
‘Woah’ Percy’s face paled, ‘I’m no doctor but…’
‘Broken?’ I grimaced.
‘I’d say so. How the hell did you walk on that?’
‘Ran’ I corrected him and I wondered why the infected behind me had stopped. I knew they didn’t stray away from a meal so something must have distracted them.
Lucas. Keith. Some other poor survivor although I’d see virtually none so far, they’d all died in what they thought was an evacuation. Poor, poor people.