May 24, 2019 - 3:13 PM

Leo Kelly

It was like the whole week just disappeared from my mind, and all I could think about was the distorted, semi-human image of Teddy. It was practically seared into the back of my eyelids. Opening them made it easier in a way, but now my world was spinning off its axis. It was a goddamn miracle that my legs were somehow unconsciously stumbling forward. I felt like I was sleepwalking.

“Kelly! Are you okay?” I heard Eury say. Her voice was definitely registering, but it took a second for me to place her. “C’mon, you gotta be okay.” I looked around me, but she spoke again before I found her. “Please.”

I looked down and saw her struggling to hold me up.

Seeing her, a floodgate opened in my mind. The memories that the fear and concussion had momentarily suppressed returned in a confusing pile at a hundred-miles an hour. By the time I could fully understand what was happening we were more than a hundred feet down the highway from where the street met it. Alaska, Boyde and Davis were further ahead, batting down the few infected that stood between us and the bridge. I tried to dislodge my arm from Eury’s grip, but she held tightly.

“I’m… I’m okay. I’m okay.” I managed to slur out.

“No, you obviously are not,” Eury said, adjusting me like I was a backpack strap.

I tried weaselling my hand out of her grip, but she held me like a pair of cuffs. “Let go, I’m fine. I can walk, see?” I took a staggering step forward. Eury glared at me, clearly not convinced.

“You’ve got a concussion! You barely have the coordination of a baby.” To make her point, she let go of me for a moment, and I nearly crumbled onto the ground before she caught hold of me.

“Maybe you’ve got a point. But I’m still slowing you down.”

“Shut up, you stupid—” A blood clotting wail sapped the words from her mouth. It was the Banshee. Even my concussion-rattled brain could figure that out.

Eury turned to look behind. “Oh my god,” she said, her pace slowing down a gear.

That was when I had to turn as well. I didn’t know why. Probably thought I was prepared for whatever I would see. I’d been seeing all three of them every time I closed my eyes after all. I instantly recognized her standing on one of the abandoned cars on the highway. Even though she was far away, skin eaten black and blue from infection, Wren’s patchy platinum blonde hair was unmistakable. My stomach folded in, making bile scrape at my throat. I had to turn away. We had to keep moving. Wren’s wail had riled up the infected. Any that were wandering around aimlessly joined the shambling riot stumbling toward us. Growing in mass like a hungry tumour.

“I remember her,” Eury said, her voice cracking out between ragged breaths.

“What d’you mean?” I asked like I didn’t know.

That’s what you’re going with? Playing dumb?

I tried to blame it on the concussion. But I knew better.

“From high school. She was the one who spread all the rumours about me and Davis.” The path cut through the infected by the others was closing off, so I had to be the one to keep pushing us forward even despite my unsure legs. “You went to Sheridan High. You knew her too, don’t you?” I looked at her, my eyes moon-wide with worry.

“Eury it’s—”

“Yeah. I know.” And with those three ice-cold words, I realized that the game was up. I couldn’t help but believe her, she did know. She remembered exactly who I was, and some part of me knew that she even knew what I had done. Without another word, she returned to her quick pace.

Our path effectively closed, by the aimless wandering of the few truly destitute infected in front of us, we had to fight our way through. There was no way Eury could fight while holding me up at the same time.

“I can walk,” I said to her.

Whether she believed me or not, Eury didn’t fight me this time and let me go.

I stumbled a little but not enough to fall or catch her attention. Eury began swinging at the shamblers with her fire poker. They were slow and easy to deal with, but they were still more than she could handle alone. I unsheathed Sheila and got to work alongside her. It didn’t matter that every swing hurt, I needed to push through the pain. I could feel Eury’s frosty anger. She was something more than pissed off at me, and there wasn’t a second that I was going to be able to talk to her about it. There was no way that I could fix the mess that I had built up around me.

Alaska stopped, having finally noticed we’d fallen behind. “Eury!” she shouted, starting towards us when Eury waved her on.

“Keep going! We’re fine!” Eury told her.

I wouldn’t say we’re skipping through daisies or anything, but we didn’t even need to hit them more than once to knock any of them to the ground. Their flesh had the give of rotten fruit. I’d hack off a limb without meaning to. Regardless, Eury’s strikes were a lot more aggressive than usual. More than once, her fire poker would get stuck in one of their heads, forcing her to wrench it out.

It was kind of captivating to watch in a way. So much so that I didn’t notice the growl coming from the crowd we were wading through. I was taken completely by surprise when Teddy’s snarling face appeared in front of me. Instinctively, I swung Sheila down as hard as I could. Teddy dodged, but the blade still connected and sliced his left arm.

Teddy recovered and before I could hack his head off, he had me on the ground. Again, I was trying to keep his snapping jaws away from my throat. Sheila was knocked out of my hands during my fall, skittering toward Eury, who was busy with her own infected. I didn’t think she’d notice, but before Teddy could sink his disgusting teeth into my neck—

Bang!

The shot had clipped his shoulder. Teddy’s grip loosened for a moment, allowing me to throw him off like a bad one-night stand. I scrambled for Sheila but infected blocked the way. The mob of sick heads had shifted their focus from Teddy and me to Eury because of the gunshot.

Bang! Bang! Bang!

Three more infected dropped to the ground hard.

“Here!” Eury said. I heard her fire poker clatter down beside me.

It wasn’t exactly Sheila, but it would have to do. I felt my brain flip several times over when I sat up, but I managed to get it right as Teddy pushed his way through the other shamblers. I barely had the strength to stand, let alone fight, so Teddy mounted me once more in this comedy of errors, grappling while the infected mob slowly began to encircle me and Eury.

BANG! BANG!

I heard more gunshots go off. I was practically hiding beneath Teddy while some of the infected blindly tried to find me. When I looked over at Eury though, I noticed she was swaying from side to side as her legs started to give out from under her.

“Alaska!” I shouted. Half beg, half prayer, Eury needed help and there wasn’t anything that I could do. The strength in my arms was barely even enough to keep Teddy from getting to me.

“What’s wrong!” Alaska replied, sounding far away.

“She’s… I… I don’t know, I think she’s passing out!”

KABOOM!

A moment later, Alaska fired her shotgun. The sound hurt like I stuck my head in a ringing church bell. “Where are you? I’ll come get you too!”

My arms began to ache from holding off Teddy. With the concussion, it was like fighting through a fog, and Teddy’s weight pushing down on me didn’t help either. “Don’t worry about me. Just… just get Eury outta here!”

“Keep talking, I’ll get to you!”

KABOOM!

“Get out of here!”

“Kelly!” It was Eury. A small part of me was happy that she sounded worried for me. It felt like I was forgiven just a little bit.

I swallowed the knot that tied up my throat. “I’m fine! Just go! Get to your parent’s house!”

I doubted I was getting out of this mess with my ass intact. The more I yelled, the more aggressive the infected got. Even if Alaska blasted her way to me, there was no way she could get out with the mob closing in. I’d rather she save Eury than me. And besides, while I looked into the black hole that was Teddy’s gaping mouth, I thought maybe there was justice in this, having him to be the one to do me in. If I had treated him better, set him right and away from the drugs, he wouldn’t have been like this now. It was only right to die by my own mistakes.

Maybe it was the irony of the situation, or how much I really hated crying. Either way, it didn’t matter. I started to laugh while I cried. It could’ve been that I just didn’t expect to cry again so soon, or it could be that I was crying for the things I’d taken rather than lost. I didn’t know. It could be both.

Above me, a flash of lightning split the boiling sky. Seconds later, the rain followed in a torrential downpour.

That was when I heard Eury scream.

May 24, 2019 - 3:27 PM

Two minutes before - May 24, 2019 - O2 Remaining: 19.05 Hours / 0.79 Days - 3:25 PM

Eury Morrissey

One moment I was dancing around the reaching hands from the shamblers, and the next I was on the ground with Alaska picking me up.

“She’s… I… I don’t know, I think she’s passing out!”

It was pathetic how useless my lungs were. Failing me as I was trying to get back to Kelly, to save him from Teddy, but there were just too many of them. I had no chance.

Not with your body.

As Alaska hoisted me onto her shoulder, I tried to call out to Kelly. To say something, anything, but my throat was dry and my lungs burning.

KABOOM!

“Where are you? I’ll come get you too!” Alaska shouted into the crowd.

“Don’t worry about me. Just… just get Eury outta here.”

Go back for him! I wanted to say.

“Keep talking, I’ll get to you.” Thank you, Alaska. Thank you, thank you! I wanted to scream it out while she pushed back another of the horde.

KABOOM!

“Get out of here!” The infected around us had all but forgotten about us, as they began to swarm around Kelly.

I struggled in Alaska’s hold, like Kelly did before, trying to get to him. And like I did, she tightened her grip around me. “We have to go.” Alaska’s words were quiet and definitive.

No! We can’t leave him! I tried my best to argue, to fight like I always had, but I couldn’t. I hung almost lifeless on Alaska’s shoulders weighing her down. If I wasn’t, then she would’ve been able to get to him. If I was stronger, I would have been able to save him. But instead, because of my weakness there was nothing that either of us could do.

“Kelly!” It was all that I could force out.

“I’m fine! Just go! Get to your parent’s house!”

Alaska turned on her heel, and made a beeline for Boyde and Davis. I tried to contort myself, to turn back and see him. But even that was too much.

BOOM!

Alaska blew a hole through the shamblers that stood between us and the open road. Safety was quickly approaching with every step away from Kelly.

Useless. Now, more than ever before in your entire pitiful life, you are useless. This is all your fault. Every single thing that happens will be your fault. Never, ever, forget that.

BOOM! CRACK!

“No!” I wanted to yell, mustering that burst of power I had a moment ago, but my throat was so arid. All I could manage was an unintelligible scream.

I needed water. I needed air. But more than anything, I needed Kelly.

Alaska pushed us through to the empty highway beyond, just as the sky above was lit up by a bolt of lightning. A waterfall worth of rain started to batter down. By the time that we made it to Davis and Boyde, we were all completely soaked.

“Where’s Kelly?” Davis asked while Boyde helped me to the ground. I let myself collapse as my mind raced. “Where is he?” Davis pressed again.

“Back there.” Alaska said as she reloaded her shotgun.

“I’m going back for him,” I huffed out.

I spun the regulator around, turning it up to give me an extra boost of O2. Whether or not it would help in the slightest I couldn’t be sure, but I needed to do something. Anything. I didn’t know if it was anger, the rain itself, or what, but it was like I tapped into this hidden store of power I needed to continue on.

“Are you an idiot!” Alaska snapped at me like an angry dog. “We can’t do anything for—”

I heard the Banshee alongside a clap of lightning. A screech like metal grinding metal. Inhuman, it almost bordered on mechanical. Her call was nothing like her mournful wails, nor did it sound like a human being at all. Screeching followed by a long note. If anything, she sounded more like an injured bird than a person.

“What the hell?” Boyde, who had been looking Alaska over for any cuts or scrapes, stopped to look towards the mob. Every single infected had paused to stare at the sky, mouths open.

All four of us were now on our feet, watching as the whole mob began opening and closing their mouths. “What are they—”

“No... No!” I withdrew my handgun and fired into the crowd. I needed to distract them. I couldn’t allow them to drink anymore when most were so close to dying. And there was still time. Maybe this was my last chance to get to Kelly before it was too late.

“Eury! Get back here!” Alaska’s screams were barely louder than the rain coming down around us.

Was it already too late?

Bang! Bang! Bang!

Ten feet, more or less. That was how far I got before I saw Kelly. Maybe it was a mirage, or a hallucination. Or an answer to all those prayers that had been flowing through my head. Whatever it was, as I got closer to the wall of infected, Kelly crawled out from between the standing shamblers.

“Kelly!”

Bang! Bang!

My vision was spinning. I was no doubt hypoxic, but I knew that moment was my only chance. I failed him once, I couldn’t fail him again.

Reaching the open highway, Kelly used his sword to slowly stand himself up. If his ribs weren’t broken before, they must’ve been now. He seemed to wince with every step he took.

He hadn’t been far from the front of the wall when Teddy emerged from the crowd. He was covered in blood with my firepoker sticking out of his stomach. Teddy wasn’t as vicious as he was before, but it barely mattered when Kelly stood in the way of a clean shot.

“Move!” I cried out, but my voice was drowned out by another explosion of thunder and lightning.

Teddy began to stumble forward faster, charging Kelly from behind. At the last second, Kelly turned around slashing his sword wide. The blade clipped Teddy’s limp arm, and knocked Kelly off balance.

There was no way he could survive a fight in his condition. I had to save him. He needed me.

Kelly stumbled, catching his balance, sword gripped in both hands, facing the imposing presence of Teddy, who approached him with nothing less than bloodlust in his bloodshot eyes. Teddy grabbed the metal handle from his stomach, ripped out the firepoker, then brandished it as he stared Kelly down.

Teddy screamed as I began running towards them. But, it wasn’t just Teddy charging at Kelly though. No. Some of the infected turned their attention away from the rain.

They sprinted at him, and I opened fire.

May 24, 2019 - O2 Remaining: 18.99 Hours / 0.79 Days - 3:28 PM