Page 17 of Afflicted

“So are you,” I reply, leaning my head against his shoulder. “I miss kissing.”

“Me too. I miss waking up with someone in my bed. Christ, I even miss cooking. Just putting music on and cooking together.”

I sigh, because I miss that too.Life. So much of it I didn't even get to experience, and being in Matt’s arms makes that all feel so much more unfair.

The drone of the siren sounds in the distance, and we’re both instantly on alert, Matt’s arms holding me tightly for a second as he looks down at me with pure panic etched in his eyes.

“Oh shit,” he mutters, and we both break into a run through the trees to head back to the garden.

Not again.

The feeders are ushering everyone back into the buildings, and I see Gina looking around wildly, her hands clutched to her mouth. She spots me running and raises a hand.

“Juliet!” She calls, even as a feeder shoves her forward to keep moving.

“I’m coming! It’s OK!”

Feeders sprint past the fence line, guns hanging at their sides. I see Silas with an enormous rifle in his hand, headed for the observation tower. His eyes move to me for a moment, and they’re bright red. His face softens for a split second, into something like relief, before hardening back into that mask as he keeps moving.

“Another attack already?” Matt says as we’re hurried back to the dorm.

I shake my head. “This hasn’t happened in years.” Fear freezes my veins. What could this mean? Are the Afflicted getting stronger? Are there just more of them now? I don’t know what to think.

The feeders are as anxious as we are, I can see the fear in their faces. Even though the virus isn’t deadly for them, they’ll still be fucked. The siren wails on and on overhead.

We’re almost at the dorm when an explosion tears through the fence at the western end of the compound. I cry out and grab on to Matt. Everyone around us is screaming, and we all watch in terror as a horde of Afflicted begin to flood through the fence. There must be at least 100 of them.

We’re fucked. We’re going to die now. I’m going to die just like Kaden did, just like my parents, like Matt’s wife. It’s all over now.

Gunfire erupts, and Matt and I sprint for the nearest building, one of the administration buildings I think. We try the door, but it’s locked.

“Fuck.” Matt pulls me along behind him as we run for the next building, which is the shower block. That door is locked too. “Goddammit!”

The dorm is too close to the advancing horde of Afflicted, so there’s no point trying for there. We can hear them now that the siren has been shut off, their sickening shrieks and groans getting closer, punctuated by gunfire.

“In here!” I pull him into an alcove between the shower block and a storage building. It’s hardly good cover, but we can at least attempt to hide and ride this out. I claw onto some tiny hint of optimism, even as dread fills me. We crawl to the very back of the space, behind some black plastic boxes and sit against the wall. Obviously I’m still breathing but my chest is so tight I just feel like I’m suffocating, like I’m drowning in dread that continues to build as gunfire erupts close by. I cover my ears with my hands, and Matt puts an arm around me, some small gesture of comfort even as it feels like death is crawling closer and closer. I bury my face in his shoulder to find he’s trembling just as much as I am.

Loud shouts pursue a figure that races past us, the high-pitched buzz of bullets whirring past it matching the sound the figure is making. I hold my breath, hoping it didn’t see us, didn’t smell us, but with a scream it pounces on the black boxes.

I’ve never seen one of the Afflicted up close like this before. Its skin is a weird ruddy color, like it has a fever. Blood runs from its eyes. It has no hair, not even any eyebrows. Its mouth hangs open as it looks around, sniffing for us. I clasp my hand to my mouth, stopping myself from crying out and burrowing further under Matt’s arm like he’s armor.

A bullet smashes into the side of its skull, sending blood and fragments of bone flying. It collapses out of view, but another one comes running from the other direction, sniffing and shrieking, smelling the blood of the one that just exploded in front of us. It has a better view of us, its bloody eyes spotting us immediately. It throws itself onto the black boxes with a shriek, and I scream as its hands flail towards us.

Matt tries to haul me away, but the Afflicted gets a hold of my ankle and starts pulling me towards it. I grab on to Matt’s hand, kicking out with my other foot, striking it in the face, but it keeps pulling. Its mottled teeth snap together loudly, its fangs inches from my leg.

I’m going to die, it’s going to bite me.

Suddenly there’s gunfire, right in front us, echoing off the tin roof above us. The Afflicted doesn’t even have time to screech, collapsing soundlessly on my legs, completely limp as its blood cascades over me. I lift my head to meet Silas’s blazing red eyes.

His gun remains aimed at the Afflicted for a moment, stepping forward cautiously.

“Don’t move.” His voice is so low I barely hear the words, but I see him mouth the words, and is he fucking crazy? I don’t think I can move. I’m frozen in place. He moves to my side, nudging the Afflicted with his foot. My heart is in my throat. But it doesn’t move. It’s very clearly dead.

Silas pushes his gun to the side, and hauls the dead creature off my legs like it’s nothing. He backs out of the alcove, looking left and right as he takes his weapon back in his hand, then gestures for me and Matt to follow him.

“Come on,” he says in a low voice.

I wobble to my feet holding on to Matt, and we stay ducked down as we run after Silas. He takes us to a small green wooden building, throwing open the door and standing aside, his eyes scanning the compound as we go through the door.

---