Episode Sixteen

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"Dude, you okay?" Nico hollered from the woods

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"Dude, you okay?" Nico hollered from the woods.

"Yeah, I'm good." Eli gave me a wary grin as he slowly laced our fingers. "Lilly had my back."

"See? I told you she was the bomb." Nico let out a choked laugh. He was trying to lighten the mood, but it was impossible at a time like this.

The bonfire still burned bright, but it was no longer the active party scene. It had become a horrifying crime scene littered with the dead bodies of our friends.

I didn't have the heart to look at Jessica. It had all happened so fast, and saving Eli was always the priority. I couldn't lose him, and Jessica had the virus. I had no choice.

Jasmine wiped tears from her swollen eyes as she stood, knocking the dirt from her jeans. She was trying to pull herself together, and I was grateful for that. We would need Jasmine's help with the cleanup.

When Nico came into view, I noticed pink around his eyes. He'd been crying as well. That's probably what took him so long to get started and stay on task. I couldn't blame him. Having to shoot Jessica was a lot for me to handle. I couldn't imagine desecrating twelve of my friends while they were laughing and having a good time. Nico was having a hard time just like the rest of us.

Between plowing down a handful of infected on the road and having to slaughter countless others, the last twenty-four hours had been an exhausting whirlwind of shit.

Nico stopped next to Jasmine, checking her out from head to toe. "Hey, don't we know each other?"

Jasmine's eyes widened in recognition. "You were the shooter?"

Glancing around, Nico grimaced. "Yeah. I was."

"No." Jasmine's lips thinned before she stabbed her phone into her back pocket. "You don't know me, and I don't know you."

Nico didn't press the issue as his gaze landed on Todd. "You good, Dude?"

Huddled up in a ball on the ground, Todd was shaking. Was he crying? When he didn't answer, Nico raised his gun and approached him slowly. Todd suddenly looked up. His skin was shiny with sweat, and his eyes were bugging out of his head.

"He was scratched." Eli tugged me forward so we could get a better look.

As we neared Todd, I saw something terrible. His pupils were invading his irises. The scratches definitely passed on the virus, maybe not as quickly, but Todd was going downhill fast.

"Todd?" I wanted to know if he could still comprehend words. "How are you feeling?"

"Lilly? God, I'm so sorry for what I did." Todd shook his head as he gazed at me sadly.

Okay. Color me surprised. Why was he apologizing now? He'd had plenty of opportunities to apologize last year, but instead, he dated my best friend and made me believe a lie.

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