Battle of Ash

Chapter 26

"There is no greater sorrow than to recall in
misery the time when we were happy."
Dante

2018.03.19 18:22
Days had passed.

It felt like lifetimes.

Her arm was burning, red, and tender. Every store she had happened upon was devoid of anything to kill the bacteria growing within the wound. Instead of relief she had found infected, hordes of people and children who had been trapped within, perhaps locking themselves away in an attempt to save themselves.

She shook her head as the chill within her bones intensified. How many poor souls hadn't been aware of the virus, of how it spread and contaminated? She resisted the urge to mess with her mask, itching her scalp instead. She closed her eyes, sighing heavily, almost instantly regretting the extra moisture gathering around the edges of her mask and chafing her skin.

Ash looked out the window. It was getting so dark. She had to find a safe place, a safer place than a gas station convenience store at least. Wearily she stood, looking at the red line stretching under her skin. The death line, she'd heard it called. She pulled her jacket on gingerly, hyper-aware of the pulsating ache. Nearly three days of fighting and running and searching. She was exhausted. She staggered from the weight of her bag, though its contents were pretty low considering all the ammo, food, and medicine she had been using.

It was almost too much. Doing all this again, running from place to place. She wanted to go back to the house, she wanted to write on her walls and cook stew and check her traps and... Her eyes snapped open.

"W-when did I...?" Her voice was small and tinny echoing off the nearly empty walls around her.

She had fallen asleep that quickly. She hadn't even noticed she was tired. Anxiously she went outside, the cold spring breeze slapping her awake a little. She hopped on the bent bike she had found on the back of one of the cars on the main road. It surprised her how much was still left to salvage. Then again when she reflected on the amount of hiding and killing she'd had to do to get the bike, maybe it wasn't as shocking as she originally thought.

Swiftly as she could, Ash pedaled back onto the road. Sure it was too clogged for other vehicles, but the bike weaved between the crashed cars and trucks almost effortlessly. In the fading sunlight she could just make out a large building ahead. A Wal-Mart by the looks of the sign. Hope flooded through her. If there was any store that had anything left, it would be a Wal-Mart. No one would have been stupid enough to raid a popular one-stop-shop like that right before the fall of civilization.

She hoped.

2018.03.20 01:22
"Ahhh!" Ash cried, swinging the metal bat as hard as she could into the infected's face.

Its skull collapsed in with a sickening crunch and spray of blood. Of course people had swarmed into the super center during the break out. Of course people had brought their children. Of course most of them ended up being sick.

Ash pivoted on her left foot, her momentum going into the bat as it swung around and clocked some infected with braces in the jaw. She raced past it as it stumbled, teeth falling to the floor with soft clatters. The stench of bad eggs and spoiled dairy products was overwhelming as she raced to the stairwell leading up to the staff room. Hopefully to the roof.

A yowl from behind made her blood stop. As if in slow motion Ash turned, catching the infected racing toward her in her peripheral gaze. A line of acid spit flew towards her, she dodged it with ease. Another yowl and hissing.

When her gaze landed on Socks everything resumed regular speed. The infected were upon her in no time, one of the infected with boils was racing towards her as fast as its swollen, discolored legs would let it. She squeezed her eyes shut for a moment before launching back towards the heart of the store. Socks was on top of the bread isle, surrounded by infected.