Affliction

by Amy Miles

  “It is hurting,” I whisper, feeling as if for the first time I am staring into a window that reveals its very soul. “I can feel its frustration. It needs me to know something, but his thoughts and emotions are too intense.”

  I cry out when the ape suddenly flails its arms and raises up, knocking me off my feet. It beats its chest and draws back its head to roar.

  “What is it doing?” Nox yells.

  Wave after paralyzing wave of fear hits me and I can’t move, can’t breathe. I struggle to roll over onto my back as a single image finally connects with me and my blood runs cold.

  Nox meets my gaze as I stretch out my hand to point behind him. “Run!”

  The soldiers look to each other but no one moves. At least not until the sound of pounding footsteps spills over the hilltop and carries down into the valley.

  “Flesh Bags!” Nox and his men turn and drop to their knees and open fire. The woods come alive with gunfire as the first line of Cable’s army finally arrives.

  “Avery, can you stand?” Nox calls over his shoulder. I fight to overcome the ape’s mental outpouring of emotions and rise to my knees. “You need to get the kids out of here. Can you do that?”

  “What about you?” I make it to my feet and focus with all of my mental power to block the silverback out completely.

  “If we get separated, meet me at the Safe Zone. I will find you.” I connect with his determined gaze for half a second before he turns and shoves Liam at me. “Now run!”

  NINETEEN

  Taking Liam by the hand, I yank him back away from Nox’s line of defense and race into the darkness of the trees. He stumbles and struggles as I urge him to run faster, but his legs can’t keep up with mine. As a roar that shakes the forest erupts behind me, I pause and pull Liam around to my back.

  “Hop on. I’ll carry you.”

  “Are you insane? There’s no way you can run with me on your back.”

  “Do you want to stand here and argue this while those zombies catch up to us or do you want to do as I say and live?”

  Liam bites down on his lower lip and I look to Flynn. “Sorry, dude.”

  He hoists Liam up and sets him down on my back. I tuck his legs under my arms and take off before he has a chance to secure his grip.

  Flynn and I run in sync with each other as gunfire drowns out screams of rage and pain from the ape. We take the hills at a near sprint, weaving, ducking and leaping over debris that rises up in our path. Liam holds on to me for dear life with his face pressed tightly into my neck so that he doesn’t have to look.

  Terror squeezes my chest as I strain to hear the battle behind. There is no way Nox and his men can survive that onslaught. There were hundreds pouring into the valley with countless more on their heels.

  “He will be fine,” Flynn says and I look over at him, wondering if he were somehow able to hear my thoughts. “He’s smart. He will make it.”

  I have to believe that, otherwise I would give up right now and turn back. Liam needs me and Flynn, though I am forced to restrain myself to keep from outpacing Flynn.

  Hot breath puffs from his lungs as we run through the night and well into the morning. Not knowing if Nox is alive or dead terrifies me, but I remain quiet, focused on running as we zigzag through the remains of the foothills. Towns lie spread out before us over miles and miles of land, dark and still in the new dawn. To our left, I spy the expansive glistening sparkle of a huge body of water and realize that we must have crossed into Georgia sometime during the night.

  I remember seeing Lake Sidney Lanier on Nox’s map. It was one of our final camping destinations before we made the push into Atlanta.

  “I have to stop,” Flynn pants and tumbles to the ground. He rolls onto his back and gasps for breath. I let Liam down onto the ground so that he can rest his arms and he too collapses in a heap.

  My own heart thuds in my chest from exertion but I feel none of Flynn’s exhaustion. Instead of being wearied by the run, I am invigorated as adrenaline courses through my body and I realize that it is the natural reaction to the scent of blood on the air.

  I turn and look back toward the hills.

  “What is it?” Liam tenses and searches the tree line for any signs of attack, but I know we have out distanced the Flesh Bags for now.

  Hanging my head, I recognize the scent but no longer feel the connection that existed only a couple short hours ago. “The gorilla.”

  “Is it dead?” Flynn sits up as I nod. “Is it weird that this news makes me sad even though it did attack us and nearly made me piss myself?”

  “No. It’s not weird at all.” I sink heavily onto the ground, feeling the weight of this loss in a profound way. Liam and Flynn crawl over and sit on either side, holding me as I cry.

  I cry for the damaged ape that gave its life for me so that we could escape. I cry for the unknown fate of the soldiers behind me. I cry for the people that have been lost and the countless more to come.

  And I cry for me.

  Large, heart breaking tears of remorse and anger finally spill free from my eyes as I allow myself to feel everything that was done to me. My life was taken from me for the sake of science, stripped and mutated for some ungodly reason and I know that I will never know the answer as to why someone was evil enough to unleash this virus on the world.

  If Nox were here, he would tell me that all of this has happened to me because I’m still meant to do great things. I wish that I could believe that, but as I stare out over the town in the distance, I wonder if there is anyone even still left alive to try to rescue.

  Too many have died. Too many will never be born. How can we possibly fight against such insurmountable odds?

  “This is all my fault,” I whisper.

  Flynn tightens his grip around my shoulders. “Now, that’s the worst possible thing you could be thinking right now.”

  “But it’s the truth. I lead Cable here, Flynn. If Nox died back there...”

  “Nope,” he pokes me in the stomach. “You are not going to start that crap. Nox is fine. He made you a promise and you know that man well enough to know he would defy God himself to make sure that he keeps it. Isn’t that right?”

  I wipe at my eyes. “Has anyone ever told you that your undying optimism is really fucking annoying?”

  Liam bursts out laughing. Flynn follows right after and slowly a small smile stretches across my face.

  “There’s my girl,” Flynn nudges me. “Now how about we go kick some ass?”

  Later, as the day wears on and weariness starts to drag on all of us, I know that if Flynn had not been with me on that final hilltop, I would never have got up. The will to keep going, to keep fighting, just wasn’t strong enough, but Flynn doesn’t let me give up.

  As the miles pass by and the road signs begin to show our approach on Atlanta, I know that we could push through and reach the city before nightfall, but we are running on fumes. Turning off on an abandoned interstate exit ramp, I lead Flynn and Liam to a small gas station and try not to think about the last time I holed up in a gas station with friends. Within only a few hours, everyone was gone and I was all alone.

  We clear the building quickly and efficiently before shoving a tall freezer in front of the front door and a tool chest in front of the back. The shelves are predictably empty but food is the last thing on my mind as I stretch out onto the floor and wrap my arm under my head as a pillow. As I lay there, feeling an exhaustion behind anything I have ever felt before, I am unable to sleep.

  “Hey, Avery?”

  I roll my head to the side and see Flynn with his eyes wide open. Just beyond him, soft snores rise from Liam’s still form.

  “Yeah?”

  “Do you think anyone will still be alive when we arrive in Atlanta? At the Safe Zone I mean.”

  “I hope so.” But I have my doubts. After he
aring Flynn’s story about his friend’s father turning zombie while being locked up in the CDC and then trailing his kid all the way down to Charleston, my hopes for finding living people have dwindled into almost nothing.

  “You know,” he shifts onto his side. “I was thinking about our conversation earlier. About when I mentioned the pregnant girl.”

  “What about it?” I roll onto my side to face him.

  “Well, what if those doctors figured it out? What if they somehow discovered that something in that baby could, I don’t know, cure us or something?”

  “You’re not cured, Flynn. You’re just different.”

  “So do you think if I got bit I might still die?”

  I sigh and tuck both of my hands behind my head. “I honestly don’t know. What I do know is that there may be some answers in Charleston.”

  Flynn pushes up onto his elbow. “Does that mean you are thinking about heading down that way?”

  “Maybe. I guess it depends on it we live through the next day or two.”

  He slowly traces his finger along the crack in the square linoleum tile. “What about Nox? He will have to be getting back to the hotel, right? I mean, they will need their leader back once we take out Wiemann.”

  I stare up at the ceiling tiles, counting all of the yellowish water leak marks. This place is the sort of dump I would have avoided in my past life. I sure as heck wouldn’t have used the toilet unless it was a dire emergency, and even then, I would have coated the seat with half a roll of toilet paper first.

  “You should get some sleep. We still have another forty miles to cover tomorrow.”

  Flynn pushes up to a seated position. “You don’t think he made it out, do you?”

  “I don’t want to talk about it.” I roll away from him.

  “Nox never gave up believing that you were still alive. Everyone told him you had to be dead. There was no way Cable would let you leave but he had faith.” He sits in silence for several minutes before he speaks again. “The girl I knew wouldn’t have given up either.”

  “Yeah, well that girl died when she woke up from the coma that day.” I mutter.

  “Did she? Because I’m pretty sure that’s the only girl I’ve ever known.”

  I roll over to look at him.

  “Look, I know you’ve got tons of doubts and some serious issues with the whole blood and eating people thing, but that doesn’t give you a valid reason to become some bitter old witch. You still have a life to live, so stop being a pansy and live it.”

  I stare at him in disbelief. “Why don’t you tell me what you really think?”

  He ignores my growl. “Nox is coming for you, so you need to get your head out of your ass and decide if you want to be with him because I know he loves you. I can see it in the way he looks at you and I sure as hell saw it when he pushed us all to the breaking point to find you. That isn’t puppy love, Avery. That is the real deal.”

  I roll back over and stare at the shelf in front of me, feeling just as empty as it is. “What if I can’t accept that sort of love? What if I’ve been burned too bad in the past and can’t let him in?”

  “Then you’re an idiot.”

  I snort and close my eyes. “You and Liam really need to find a filter and use it when you speak.”

  “I’m serious. The guy adores you. What more could you ask for?”

  “How about not having fallen in love with his half-brother, who, by the way, is now hell bent on killing anything and everyone that I love just to get to me?”

  Flynn inches his way over to me until he is leaning over my shoulder. “As far as excuses go, it’s not terrible, but come on, the past is the past. Nox knows that. The only one hanging on to it is you.”

  “Um, hello. Psycho ex-boyfriend just attacked us last night!”

  “Avery!” He hisses but goes silent when Liam stirs. He waits until Liam settles back down before shaking his finger in front of my face. “You’re not a monster and you’re not damaged so stop seeing yourself as that because he doesn’t. Maybe you are a little different and yeah we seriously need to work on that whole snacking issue but you’re still the same girl he fell in love with. Let him love you.”

  “If I say I’ll think about it will you shut up and go to sleep?”

  He grins and hugs me tight. “You know this isn’t over right? I’m just letting you off the hook because I’m about ready to pass out on your shoulder and that will be totally awkward when I wake up drooling on you.”

  I shove him back. “Drool is definitely a deal breaker for me.”

  “Noted.” He yawns and then stretches out. For the next several hours I don’t hear a peep out of him.

  When the sun rises the next morning, I wake to find the two boys rummaging through the shop.

  “Well, breakfast this morning will be a package of mint flavored gum, an old starburst that I’m pretty sure got stepped on and kicked under the counter about ten years ago, and a can of Spam that went out of date a year ago.” Flynn lifts the can to read the date again. “Huh. I didn’t even know this stuff could actually go bad.”

  “You guys split the feast. I’m not hungry.”

  I ignore Flynn’s glare of daggers and make my way to the toilet. When I emerge I find both boys standing by the front door ready to leave.

  “We found you a gift,” Liam grins.

  I eye them up with suspicion, but they motion for me to turn around. I do so only so that we can get this over with and hit the road. The closer I get to Atlanta the more desperate I am to find the Safe Zone and see just what we are up against.

  Three people against a whole army of Withered isn’t really my idea of a successful plan but until, we arrive it’s all we’ve got.

  Something plops down onto my head and smashes my hair into my eyes. I turn around in surprise.

  “It’s a trucker’s hat,” Liam grins when I part my hair to look at him. “And don’t worry, I’m pretty sure it’s new. I looked for stains and stuff and sniffed it. I think it passes the test.”

  Tugging the hat off my head, I stare at the red and white design. There is a stinging in my eyes and I know that this thoughtful gift might just make me start crying all over again.

  “It’s to help with the sun,” Liam adds, glancing at Flynn with some hesitation.

  “It’s perfect,” I whisper and pull Liam into a hug, then I open my other arm to Flynn. We stand in a group hug long enough for it to become awkward.

  “And that’s about the extent of the mushy emotional bonding that I can handle for one day,” I say and push back. “You guys ready to go?”

  For the next couple of hours, we make our way toward the heart of Atlanta in a mess of traffic jams that force us to backtrack four times before we finally find a decent way through. Miles and miles of abandoned cars stretch out before us as the high rises tower overhead. For the entire jog into Atlanta, we kept our eyes open for the Safe Zone, but as the sun trails across the sky, forcing me to hide in the shade of buildings when it bounces off the glass towers, I start to lose hope of finding it before dark.

  “Maybe we should try to get somewhere high so we can look out instead of running all over the place. I’m starting to get the heebie jeebies about the sun setting.” Flynn glances around at the vacant street.

  “He’s right. We need to hole up somewhere,” Liam agrees, pressing a hand to his chest as he struggles to gasp for air.

  After my run yesterday with him on my back, he protested a lot more today, claiming that I needed to reserve my strength but I think his pride may have been a bit wounded. Flynn could have carried him a bit, and offered to do just that on multiple occasions but that would have slowed us down.

  I lift a hand and point down the street. “Pick a building. Any building.”

  Flynn taps his finger against his lips as he looks from building to building. Some
are higher than others but show more signs of damage which he theorizes could mean they are unstable. Others are squat and run the chance of being dwarfed by those building father in the distance and would prove to be a waste of valuable time and energy.

  “Want to do eenie meenie miney mo while you are at it?” I chuckle from behind him.

  “There is a method to my madness,” Flynn says as he continues to point. Then finally he smiles. “There. That’s the one I want.”

  I look at the tall skinny building that seems no better or worse than any of the others. “Care to share with the class how you came by this decision?”

  Flynn grins as he tugs his bag over his shoulder and starts walking backwards down the road. “It’s got a coffee shop. Who doesn’t love one of those?”

  Too tired to try to even attempt to understand that sort of madness, I just follow behind the two boys, focusing only on keeping one foot in the front of the other. We clamber over overturned tables and chairs and do a quick sweep of the coffee shop. We scope out a handful of creamers, some sugar packets and a bottle of water to share and head for the stairs. After we climb ten flights up and the stairs continue to spiral high above us, I start to realize that I should have bucked this building choice.

  By the time we hit the twentieth floor, I am carrying Liam on my back and cursing up a storm. Flynn doesn’t seem to be doing much better than Liam, but at least has the decency to keep his mouth shut in the face of my foul mood since this was his choice after all.

  “I think this is high enough,” Flynn gasps and slams through the stairwell door. He falls onto the carpet and rolls onto his back, shifting his arms and legs out in motions that make me think of a child creating angles in the snow.

  I practically drop Liam when I walk past Flynn and move into an office. I crack my hip on the edge of the desk but I keep going until I have my nose pressed against the glass and look out across the city. The fading sunlight glistens off rooftops and miles upon miles of vehicles. In every direction I look I see concrete but no lights, tents or any sign of a military base.