Dead or Alive

Chapter 21

All of us ended up bottling the cure in some indestructible vials that Gary had invented. We ended up being ready to leave at three o'clock in the morning the next day.

"Alright, is everyone ready to go?" I asked.

"Yeah. Let's get out of here," Aaron said.

We all walked out of the house and towards the wall. The sky was dark and clouds began filling the night sky, blocking out the millions of stars that scattered the darkness. The wind whipped through the trees, the frigid air causing all of us to shiver. We reached the wall and looked upwards at the rope which was whipping around wildly in the wind.

"Okay, so everyone be careful climbing up the rope. We don't want anyone falling off," I said.

Slowly, everyone began climbing up the rope. When we reached the top of the wall, we heard Gary calling out in anger from his house. We all stood shocked for a moment as we saw him burst out of his house and run toward the wall, filled with rage.

"You all took the cure! I'll kill all of you!" Gary screamed as he ran closer.

"Aaron! Untie the rope!" I called.

Aaron began quickly trying to untie the rather sturdy knot that held the rope in place. As Gary grew closer, I realized that Aaron wouldn't be able to untie the knot in time. I bent down, grabbed a lower part of the rope, and cut the rope above where I was holding it. I quickly pulled the rope up before Gary could grab it. Suddenly, Gary pulled out a gun. My eyes widened and I quickly got in front of Aaron and pushed him onto the tree limb behind us. Just as I did that, Gary fired the gun. The bullet grazed my arm, making a deep gash in the process. I screamed out in pain and quickly began climbing down the tree. As soon as my feet touched the ground, Aaron, who got down a few seconds before I did, gently grabbed my forearm and gazed and the gash on my right arm.

"This is going to need stitches. You shouldn't have pushed me out of the way," he said.

"If I didn't, then you would've gotten hit much worse," I explained.

"Are you okay, Amala?! What did he do to you?!" Scarlett asked.

"He tried to shoot Aaron. I pushed him out of the way and the bullet gave me this cut," I explained.

"Want me to kill him?" Lyndsey asked.

"No don't bother. His instability will kill him eventually," I said.

"We need to get somewhere safe. We shouldn't be standing out on the road, especially right next to the wall," Aaron said.

"You're right. We need to get moving," I agreed.

"Amala, you need to get that stitched before we do anything. You can't travel with a gash on your arm, plus if there are any Lurkers nearby they will smell your blood," Lyndsey said.

"We can't stitch it here, can we? If Gary comes over that wall while I'm getting stitches, he will take advantage of that and kill us," I explained.

"Fine. But as soon as we get far enough away, we are stitching you up," Scarlett added.

"Deal. Now, let's get moving," I said.

We began walking North, away from the residential district. We walked for about two hours when I suddenly got a little dizzy. I leaned on Aaron a bit to help me stabilize myself.

"Are you okay, Amala?" He asked, concern evident in his voice as he wrapped an arm around my shoulder.

"Yeah, I'm fine. Just tired is all. I don't like waking up that early," I said, lying through my teeth.

"If you're sure. Let me know if anything's wrong and we'll stop," He said.

We kept walking for about fifteen minutes when my vision started swimming, and I got even dizzier. I ended up falling on the ground because I was so dizzy.

"Amala? Amala! Are you okay?" I could hear Aaron asking.

"Shit! She's losing a lot of blood! Amala?! Can you hear me?! Say something!!!" Scarlett cried.

Everyone's voices grew fainter and fainter, and my vision became darker and darker. I ended up giving in to the darkness and closed my eyes, feeling a wave of weightlessness take over.