I pulled out the map that was safely tucked in my pants pocket and looked it over. I sSirened from the map to the surrounding area and back again. Ok, so I haven't had the slightest idea of where we were or how close we were. We had walked too far to go back, so I guess the only option now was to keep moving forward.
Huffing, I folded the paper back up and shoved back in my pocket. My feet hurt, and it hit me how much I missed the truck. I was given the luxury of mobile transportation and now I was back to walking on foot. The good things never last, do they? I always end up jinxing it.
"Listen, sorry about earlier…" I trailed off. Yeah, my apology was landing on deaf ears, but it made me feel a little less guilty saying it out loud. "You forgive me, right?" I chuckled, joking.
Aaron hesitated, then gave a halfhearted shrug. Pausing, I stared at the front of his hood. Maybe it didn't fall on deaf ears after all.
I gulped down any questions running through my mind. Now was not the time to ask them. Besides, I'm sure it was just a blind answer anyway. A coincidence.
"Alright…" I sighed. We walked in silence, comfortable with the fresh air. We were calm and collected, or at least I was until Aaron suddenly lept from the ground and into the branches, leaving me below. I raised a brow. What? Did I say something?
Something peeked through the trees as we walked, and with alarming realization, it was human.
I quickly crouched to the ground, trying my best to blend with the leaves and stay hidden. But that's extremely hard to do when you're wearing a red sweater and a baby blue kid's backpack. Somehow, the figure walked by without noticing. There was a decent amount of distance between us, but they swirled around and were walking the other direction, closer to my location.
Something glinted in their hand. I squinted to get a better look. With horror, I discovered it was a gun. Not a petty handgun, either. No, it was a badass assault rifle, and judging by the amount of ammo clips they had strapped to their belt, they were not afraid to use it.
Behind them was a fence. A metal, barbed wire, human placed fence that seemed to stretch downwards for miles. Beyond it was a clearing, and even further I saw colors that didn't belong in the forest. It wasn't the green of the trees or brown of bark, but the silver of steel and red of rust. From here, I was able to make out a radio tower.
I needed to get closer. As stealthy as I could, I did my best to crawl forward. They wore a gas mask, and was suited up in the same gear Theron had been in. Whoever they are, they're most likely female, judging by the long dark hair pulled up in a ponytail much like mine.
I felt the back of my head, and held back a sigh. Scratch that last thought, Aaron stole my hair band.
No matter how slight my movement, I make a little noise. The woman snapped to attention and I mouthed a curse. She raised her gun, slowly stalking over to where I was hiding. "Who's there?" She shouted in a demanding tone. I bit my cheek.
Do I run, or do I stay put. I get up and bolt, a wall of bullets will follow and I'll be gunned down. But if I stay put, there's a chance that she might not find me. However small that chance may be, it was becoming my only option, as she was only a few yards from me. I crossed my fingers and wished for the best.
But like all things I wish for, it jinxed. "You on the ground, stand up!" She ordered, and my heart lept to my throat. Fear filled my chest and for a moment I was frozen. Then I heard the click of something metallic and I stood to my feet, both guns in the air.
"Put down your weapons!" She yelled, her own pointed clearly at me. I did as I was told, keeping an eye on the gun positions at her waist while I crouched to the ground. Both guns left my hands, and I opened my mouth to speak to her when she raised her weapon to aim and fired.
There was a dark blur and Aaron came crashing in from above. I fell to the ground, unharmed, but in shock and relief. I have no idea where the bullet went, but Aaron arrived just in time to throw her aim off.
He was on top of her in half a second and her gun flew from her hands. There was no screech, no warning and no call of attack. He simply drove his claws for the only unprotected part of the body he saw: the neck.
The scream she was about to emit was cut short and drowned in gurgles and sputters as her blood flowed freely from her split skin. Aaron gave another gash and the tear was even deeper now, gnawing halfway through her neck. He was getting close to decapitating her.
She was already dead, but her body was still coming to terms with that. Her arms tSirened furiously and I found myself resorting to deep breaths to help deal with the scene of death. Although she would have killed me, it's different watching a survivor die than it is an infected. When an infected dies, they fall and don't get up again. But when a human dies, their bodies still fight and you literally watch as the life leaves them.
Aaron climbed off when she stopped moving. I glimpsed at her hand. Halfway covered up by her jacket, the word CLEAN was tattooed, just like I expected. "Aaron" I whispered, my breathing normal now. "I think we've found what we're looking for."
There was a clang of metal and the sound of leaves crunching underneath someone's footsteps. Another human appeared from the forest and stopped dead in their tracks. From how bulky the body was, it was a male. He didn't seem to notice me, or just didn't care. He only spotted a Leaper nearby the woman's dead body and with an outraged cry; opened fire.
Aaron dodged the bullets with eased, and landed on top of the man in one swift jump. With his assault rifle held tightly in both hands, he tried to shove him off, but the Leaper gripped the side of the gun and over powered him, throwing it to the side. It landed nearby me, and I watched as the man threw up his arms too late to block the talons as they dug into his jugular.
This time, I looked away as Aaron had his kill. Instead, I picked up both my pistols again, grasping them firmly and hoping no one else heard the massacre. When I was sure it was just us and the corpses, I placed one in the back of my jeans, and the other in my backpack's side pocket. With hesitation, I managed to crawl up to the woman's body without gagging.
Aaron really did a number on her, though she wasn't as bad as Tanya was. Tanya lasted longer too, she suffered much worse than a mere throat slash, but then again, he didn't attempt to behead her. In fact, her head and her body were connected by a flimsy piece of skin. The grass was stained by her blood.
Both of their faces were completely covered by their gas mask, and with this observation came an idea. An extremely risky, stupid, and insane idea. But it was a better one than just walking in out of the blue. Maybe, just maybe I could pull off a decent enough disguise.
I reached out and placed the assault rifle beside me, checking if it was loaded. Just in case any more surprises decided to emerge from the woods. Being as careful as I could manage, I tried to steady the trembling in my hands as I pulled the mask off of the woman's face. It was halfway off and I could see her mouth and nose when I noticed the sudden presence beside me.
Aaron's quick movement startled me, and I made the mistake of letting my hands jerk slightly. Since it was still partly strapped around her, the mask moved along with the head and finally tore the last of the skin that was holding the two body pieces together.
When I realized I was holding a decapitated head, I bit back a yelp and shook it out of the mask. It rolled a foot away and swiveled to stare at me in blank, lifeless eyes. "Sorry…" I whispered. No matter how much disaster I see, it'll never get old.
Aaron leaned back against a tree while I whimpered in my pathetic state. Get a hold of yourself, Sara. How in the hell can you save your friends when you're too busy whining over someone who you didn't know and could of even killed you. Look at Aaron, do you see him sobbing? No, he's waiting for you to suck it up and keep moving. Why can't you be strong like him?
You've killed people, tons of them. But that was different, right? They were infected, so really, they didn't count. They didn't matter. They didn't have feelings or emotions or families or any quality that
made them human. In your mind, they were already dead. Zombies, mindless animals whose only desire is to see you die. So why is it any different with survivors?
Nothing like this happened when I was with Steve and the others.
Well, you're not with them right now, are you? No, they left you. You were all alone, and the only company you seemed to have attracted was of a special infected you've made a foolish decision to save from starvation. Not to mention the only other friends you had were an innocent old couple whom are in a lot of shit now because of you.
Who knows what could be happening to them right now. They could already be dead, but you don't know that. So you keep pressing on, even if the chances of them being alive are highly unlikely. What about Steve? Markus? Aiden? They forgot about you, they're somewhere safe and sound, cooped up in some tent playing cards and drinking whisky while you're out in the cold running around with a Leaper who's getting real tired of your shit, Sara.
You just keep on dragging people down, don't you? Where ever you go, some crazy shit always happens and you're in the center of it. Why can't you just mind your own business? You should have never scouted around the cabin and left Doug and Olive alone. Maybe you should have never gone with Doug in the first place. Maybe you should have never saved that Leaper from the bear trap. Maybe you should have died in the house back in the woods.
I felt a tap on my shoulder and a shudder ran up my spine. Aaron knelt beside me, glaring at the liquid running down my cheeks. I brushed them off, wondering how long have I just been sitting there. "It's cool." I convinced myself. "C'mon, we gotta save them."
The inside of the mask had blood around the mouth part, which I tried my best to wipe off with my sleeve. The sweater was already stained, and another one wouldn't show on the red fabric anyway. Placing to the side, I worked with her jacket.
Peeling it off of her as best as I could, I was able to unzip and unstrap the complex vest and over shirt, leaving the body in a white t-shirt. She was wearing jeans, and since all jeans mostly look alike I decided that I wasn't going to try and take those as well. Not to mention I wanted to leave her with some dignity.
The shirt collar was slightly stained with fresh blood, but I rubbed it into some clean grass and it wiped away where it's hardly noticeable against the dark color of the outfit. Tossing my backpack off, I pulled it around myself, and was enveloped with the warmth that came with it. Zipped up, it completely covered my sweater.
Strapping on the vest took less than a minute. The only thing I needed now was her boots. They were dark brown combat boots with sides that came up slightly above the ankle, There was gunk and mud caked on the bottom of them. I carefully unlaced the shoes and slipped them off of her. With a sad sigh, I said goodbye to my beloved sneakers and tossed them to the side as I hoped the boots would fit.
Luckily for me, they did. In fact, they were comfy as hell. But that didn't excuse the fact that I had just stolen them off a dead person. Standing up, I walked around in a circle, testing them out. Mid walk I stopped and noticed the other body a couple feet away. The second gunner that had come from the woods.
Looking down at myself, I took in my appearance. If I had my hair up, and the mask on, I would of looked like the dead woman. Although she was slightly larger than me, the jacket was so baggy that it wasn't even noticeable. If I could pull it off, there's a chance that Aaron could too. If only I could get him to behave.
Speaking of the special infected, Aaron was sitting a distance away. Watching me carefully. Part of me said he was silently judging me, but I know he's done much worse. "You can walk on both legs, right?" I asked him. He continued to glare. The lack of eye contact for this long amount of time was disturbing.
I walked over to the man's body and removed his mask as well. He looked old, somewhere around his fifty's I suppose. So at least he lived a life. He wasn't as badly scarred as the woman, so It was easier to remove the mask and outer upper clothing. I didn't even think about the pants. It just wasn't something I could do. He wasn't wearing combat boots like the woman, but some shoes brand I didn't know the name of.
Their shoes didn't look exact, but it was close enough. I dragged the clothes over to Aaron, who hissed at them like a god displeased at a peasant's offering. I frowned. "Just bare with me here, ok? It the best option we have at the moment." I explained. "Just behave, please?"
Aaron hissed again, obviously not liking the idea of changing out of his filthy duct taped hoodie and into something new. I take it he saw me dressing the part and bringing the clothes over, he put tow an d two together. Clever.
"You'll have to take that duct tape off, Aaron." I said, eyeing the grey tape. "And a change of clothes isn't so bad. You smell horrible anyway." He still refused. That hoodie was his safety blanket, wasn't it?
I rolled my eyes, both hands on my hips now. "Ok, you wait back at the truck then." His growls ceased, but he still had an unhappy look him, lips curled back and claws shoved into his pockets with a little too much force.
I could tell that he wasn't going to give up on his favorite hoodie without a fight. The cookie monster backpack caught my eye. "I'll give you all the fish you want, and whatever else you'll eat." There was not reaction, as he was a statue. I was becoming more impatient.
"Don't make me baby you." I warned, taking a step closer. A grumble arose from his throat but ignored it. He's harmless. Well, most of the time. To me, at least.
Aaron's still statue face fell, and with dread realized I was serious. Without second thought, I sat on my knees near him, half expecting him to leap away into trees, but he only snarled at my close proximity. I sighed at his dramatics. It was getting boring. "Shut up…" I moaned, resisting the urge to smack him. "You didn't seem to have a problem with me in the truck!" My voice was a little louder than I intended, but it didn't matter.
I made a grab for the closest patch of duct tape on his left leg, but my hand was swatted away. I pulled them back just in time to avoid the claws. He glared at me from beneath his hood. "Fine, you do it." I shrugged.
The Leaper continued his long, eyeless glare, and it wasn't until I equally matched it did he show some sign of defeat. He began to pull off the tape, one patch at a time till they were all in a pile next to us. I smiled. "Good." I pointed at his hoodie zipper. "Now the hoodie-"
Aaron gave me a deep, angry growl, cutting me off. Usually that would have scared the shit out of me, and it still did, but I wasn't going to let him know that. "Get over it, Aaron!" I ordered, making a grab for the zipper.
The moment I touched the metal his claws were around my wrist and holding tightly. No, it didn't hurt, but the grip was much tighter than it had been back at the bakery. I gave a light tug, but neither of us budged. But this wasn't a stalemate. I still had my other hand.
"Damn it, Aaron…"
Without thinking, I mustered up the most energy I had in me and used my other hand to grab for the front of his hood as fast as I could. Aaron failed to notice my actual intention. It was already too late when he made move to subdue my other limb.
If I haven't experienced true fear yet, than this was it. His hood fell softly around his neck and his full face had been exposed to me. I wanted to leap back. He wasn't horribly deformed, and the tint of his skin had really been the only indicator of the infection, aside from the obvious claws and superhuman abilities. But that was before.
My chest hammered and I wanted to pull away, away from him and the furious glare he was giving me. Before, emotion was difficult to say with him and had only gotten easier with time. Now, it was carved clearly in his features, feral and angry, and all negative emotions were directed at me. Fear covered my own face and pulled away, but he anchored me down and kept me in place.
It was an agonizingly long five seconds, then I was suddenly let go. I pulled my wrists to my chest, rubbing them. His hold had tensed when the hood left was uncovered, and there were pink, hand prints on my skin now.
He covered his fac
e with his hands, shielding them away from me and the light. I didn't move. I didn't know what to do. "A-Aaron…" I stammered. "I'm sorry…I shouldn't-" He emitted a low growl, soft but deep. It was terrifying. Sometimes, I forget that Aaron's not a harmless puppy. He's an uncontrollable virus trapped inside a human's body. I should choose my action's carefully.
The sun was at the highest point in the sky. It was mid-day, and no doubt that all the light wouldn't be good for someone whose eyes have been in nothing but darkness for who knows how long. I was trembling, we both were. I don't know if there's a way to stop my heart from pounding, but I could at least try to ease him a bit.
"Aaron…" I began, my voice so quietly whispering I could hardly hear it myself. "You don't…There's nothing wrong with you…" I stuttered. Aaron still shielded his eyes. I don't think he's realizes that he could pull his hoodie back up. I gulped, feeling extremely guilty. There was nothing that could make this situation worse.
"I like your eyes." I whispered. "I really do."
I wasn't lying. They were the only sign of infection that showed in his face. He moved, and I stiffened. His hands dragged down a bit, revealing his eyebrows and eyes.
It was like the virus had reversed them. The white of his eyes were dark and the iris was extremely pale, almost white. There's no telling of what color they were before he came to be infected. The contrast was so great that with the dark surrounding the light, it seemed to have a similar effect to glowing.
I shuddered underneath his stare, and quickly grabbed the nearest gas mask I had set aside. I held it up in front of him. "Um…this can cover your face. It can act just like your hoodie." My voice had gone several pitches higher, and the chance of it breaking mid-sentence was very likely.
Walking Bodies Page 16
